Global Voices » Czech Republic

Macedonia: British MEP Tweets His Emergency Landing at Skopje Airport

Filip Stojanovski — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:03:21 +0000

A drama in the air over the Skopje airport received an immediate reflection via Twitter, after a successful emergency landing.

On the night between February 10 and 11, an airplane of the Czech airline CSA first circled for 40 minutes trying to get the dysfunctional flaps to work, and then performed an emergency landing. The pilot managed to stop the plane at the end of the recently extended runway.

Among the passengers were the British Member of the European Parliament Richard Howitt, and the Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Popovski. Within the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Howitt serves as the Rapporteur on Macedonia - and he is also an avid Twitterer. He tweeted immediately after the incident:

All now fine but just had emergency landing at Skopje on aircraft whose flaps failed. Told take brace position. Thought could be the end.

Richard Howitt MEP tweeted immediately after touching ground.

…and added some more details:

Emergency landing. Snow on runway. Fire engines lined up. Stewardess said: “pray, pray, pray.” #Czech Airline staff heroes. All OK now.

A report by MIA (a Macedonian state news agency) provided more details:

As the plane was landing, smoke appeared from the tires and the captain managed to stop the aircraft right at the end of the runway.

Howitt later commented:

…I didn't know at time about smoke. Told Foreign Minister: give pilot medal for stopping plane

Quite a few people re-tweeted Howitt's info and wrote to express support and relief. Mallen Baker wrote:

Glad it ended well - nightmare situation that anyone flying would prefer to avoid! Great that everyone safe

Extension of the runway was a part of the deal with the Turkish company TAV, which renovated and manages the airports in Macedonia through a 20-year lease contract.

While the cited flaps malfunction might have nothing to do with the weather, the ongoing Balkan snow storm does affect the air traffic in the region. A few days ago, the Macedonian Army helicopters that were supposed to carry supplies to the cut-off mountain villages could not take off [mk] due to continuous snowfall.

Slovakia: Stop ACTA Protest

Tibor Blazko — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:07:22 +0000

An anti-ACTA rally took place in Bratislava on Feb. 4. On the protest's Facebook page [sk], nearly 7,500 people wrote they would attend, and over 3,800 wrote they'd “maybe” attend. The weather was cold and windy; the recent news from Poland, which has postponed the ratification of ACTA, was good; and it's unlikely that anything will be approved before the Slovak early elections in March. As a result, only 500 people or so showed up for the rally [sk; photos; video]. This week, a number of Slovak and Czech politicians announced they were in favor of postponing the ratification of the controversial treaty.

Video Highlights: Music, Indigenous Initiatives, Indignation and Wonder

Juliana Rincón Parra — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:44:07 +0000

This section aims to showcase interesting and recent posts in Global Voices that show the many ways in which videos are helping people tell stories all around the world. You can follow the activity by regions in our YouTube channel or by clicking on the regional header links.

Music and Indigenous Initiatives

Latin America

Brazil: Cultural Debate as ‘Oh if I Catch You' Song Goes Global

Music has spurred an ongoing debate in Brazil, as netizens realize they have a new cultural ambassador which they may not have chosen themselves. In this case, it is Michel Teló's song ‘Ai se eu te pego‘ which not only became the rhythm played over and over during the end of the year festivities, but has also crossed borders, even getting its own versions in English, Polish and Dutch.

Peru: Cápac Raymi, The Andean Christmas

In Peru, the Incan culture is still alive in most of the Andean region, and Christmas is a time when they have united their pre-Columbian traditions with the later Christian festivities. The festival of Capac Raymi takes place in December coinciding with the Winter Solstice and honors the Sun. Although the holiday is no longer observed as it was during the reign of the Incas, it has transformed into an Andean Christmas, where Christmas choirs sing in Quechua with Andean musical instruments and dances:

Another strong cultural group in Peru is the Afro-Peruvian community and they have also left their mark in how Peruvians celebrate Christmas:

Peru: Afro-Peruvian Christmas Music

The song “Black Christmas” by Cesar Calvo is a lament, where they sing to Baby Jesus who was born in a manger, but with a slight difference, he is black as the people surrounding him:

Washed by the night
Just like you and me
Born among blacks
the Baby Jesus.

Don't come down, Baby,
from your altar,
lest the master
has you whipped.

Venezuela: The Essence of African Music in Videos

African heritage in Venezuela has also strongly influenced the music, and online video is being used to spread the knowledge of the African Diaspora and Afro-Venezuelan Caribbean culture.

From Canada comes a video journalist with a project: To visit one country per week and to record the stories of under-reported minorities.

Video: One Year, One World and 52 Different Stories

So far she is still raising funds for this one year journey where she would be recording, editing and producing short documentaries from the road. A short video of her visit with the Embera indigenous communities in Panama gives us a promising look into the type of content she'd be delivering once her project takes off:

Video: Online Media by and for Indigenous People

Check out the list of 12 recommended films on indigenous issues that Indigenous Cry shared.

Indignation

In Guatemala, indignation has overwhelmed citizens after investigative journalism uncovered that the President of the Chamber of Agriculture of that country had children under 14 years of age working in his sugar cane fields. Cane cutting is considered very physically demanding even for adults, and the conditions under which the cane cutters work contrast with the growth of the sugar industry.

Guatemala: Child Labor in the Sugar Cane Fields

The video, made under the guise of a photographic project to make portraits using an old fashioned camera shows the workers, including children who work long days without even making minimum wage:

In Brazil, the indignation has been caused by the violent forced evictions in what is being called a massacre:

Brazil: “Massacre of Pinheirinho” Causes an Uproar

Urbanist and UN Special Rapporteur Raquel Rolnik reported:

Thousands of men, women, children and elderly residents of the Pinheirinho occupation are surprised by a siege consisting of helicopters, armored vehicles and more than 1,800 armed men of the military police. In addition to the exits of the occupation being blocked, the water, electricity and telephone were cut, and the order was for families to gather to begin the process of retreat. Determined to resist - as the repossession had been suspended on Friday - the residents did not accept the command, initiating a dramatically violent situation that lasted all day and that has resulted in homeless families, people injured, arrests and rumors, including of the existence of fatalities.

East Asia

Hong Kong residents are becoming outraged: the cultural clashes have citizens and bloggers in a tense situation where any event is cause for fury:

China and Hong Kong: Train Scuffle Ignites Cross-Border Fury

Hong Kong Rethinks its Relationship with Mainland China

While bloggers in Hong Kong complain about their stretched resources and bubble economy, seeing the mainlanders as the intruders and sharing music videos where Mainland Chinese are compared to locusts, others such as Grey Reporter see both parties as victims of the system:

Actually, Hong Kongers and mainlanders share the same destiny – to end the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party and the collusion between the rich and the powerful.

Wonder

Middle East & North Africa

Jordan: Let it Snow

Snow in Jordan had people whipping out their mobile phones and documenting the long awaited snow fall, even if it didn't stick.

But in case you are in a place where the snow does stick, what about checking out the video tutorial on how to build an igloo with just snow and a knife?

Eastern and Central Europe

CEE: A “Safe House” and an Igloo

Slovakia: 25,000 Euro for National Gallery's Website?

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:07:48 +0000

Slovak netizens are discussing the overpriced new website of the Slovak National Gallery [sk, en]: SME.sk reports [sk] that the “minimally designed” [en] site cost Slovak taxpayers some 25,000 euro (allegedly, 20 times the price of the website of the Czech National Gallery in Prague [cz]); SME.sk blogger Martin Palšovič has already sent an inquiry to the Slovak audit/control office [sk] (links via Tibor Blazko).

CEE: A Roundup on the Roma Issues

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:51:27 +0000

An anti-discrimination Roma flash mob/dance duel in Bucharest (video - here), and a report by Bulgarian Roma students on media coverage of Roma-related issues - at TOL's Roma Transitions blog. Education for the Roma children in the UK, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - at the Economist's Eastern Approaches blog. (Update: TOL's East of Center also has a post on “the Czech Republic’s segregated education policy” for the Roma students.)

CEE: “Spotted by Locals”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:08:32 +0000

Spotted by Locals: Experience cities like a local features a few dozen locations, including CEE cities of Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Krakow, Ljubljana, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. A random sample post from Zagreb, Croatia: Hrelić Flea Market – The Aleph of Zagreb; from Bucharest, Romania: The Haunted House – Armenian Neighbourhood; from Sofia, Bulgaria: Nissim – A True Old-School Bookstore.

CEE: Getting “Abnormal For A Change”

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:57:35 +0000

East of Center writes about “Eastern Europe’s ‘obsession with normality'” and suggests this New Year’s resolution: “In the true spirit of Václav Havel, why don’t we get abnormal for a change?”

The World is Talking… We Translate

Gabriela García Calderón — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:49:11 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

Every time a year comes to an end, evaluations of it are made. Sometimes we tend to be very objective and other times, subjectivities float to the surface. Most of the time, these assessments, recollections and lists of the ‘best of the year' do not satisfy everybody.

Some members of the team of translators at Global Voices in Spanish [es], who during the past twelve months have worked behind the scenes to translate the best of what Global Voices Online publishes in English on a daily basis, decided to briefly express what we liked the most or what impacted us the most of what we have translated or seen posted. And as we say colloquially, let's put the ‘floro‘ (palaver) aside and get to the point:

Elisa López tells us about the post she enjoyed translating the most, and adds a note of personal information:

I really enjoyed translating Estados Unidos: ¿La NASA ha descubierto un planeta habitable? [es] (Has NASA Discovered a Life-Friendly Planet? [en])

I found the topic appealing. My husband and I are always discussing science-related events, and we had been discussing that particular topic a couple of days ago. And when I started working on the translation, I found the article well-written: clear, concise, and showing different points of view. Interesting information and good writing, a great combination!

Natán Calzolari shares his feelings and sentiments about Global Voices' involvement with world events:

This is one of the posts that I most enjoyed translating: Egipto: Los internautas se levantaron en apoyo a los egipcios en su Día de la Rabia [es] (Egypt: Netizens Rise for the Support of Egyptians on their Day of Rage [en])

While I was translating it I found myself really moved by how the whole world was helping the Egyptians to put their word out there. Needless to say, Global Voices did an incredible job amplifying their voices, and it was really exciting to be a part of it.

Isabel Guerra shows her amazement about a fact she wasn't aware of:

I enjoyed translating this one Filipinas: Debate sobre proyecto de Ley de Divorcio [es] (Phillipines: Debate on Divorce Bill [en]) because I wasn't aware that there was still a country that does not allow divorce!

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Rivera tells about her sadness while translating a post from Libya:

For me, Libia: De duelo por la muerte de Mohammed Nabbous [es] (Libya: Mourning Mohammed Nabbous [es]) was a very special and sad post to translate. Since Libya's revolution started, I followed ‘Mo's' reports and even watched his live feed. I just couldn't believe it when the news broke on Twitter that he had died. I knew, right away, I wanted to translate the post related to his death as soon as it was published as a tribute to a man I consider a hero and an inspiring citizen journalist. The post did him justice. It was sensitive, complete and very well phrased. Needless to say, I shed some tears while writing it and felt very connected - by heart - to the Libyan people and their struggle.

Although she didn't translated the post, Catalina Restrepo comments she was impressed with the situation women face in many countries:

It's no translated for me but was wonderful when I saw this article in Spanish: Arabia Saudita: Condenada a 10 latigazos por conducir un automóvil [es] (Saudi Arabia: Outrage Over 10 Lashes for Female Driver [en])

Generally Women here [Colombia] are not worried about their role in the society but about the fashion or beauty. When I read this story, I discover again that it's necessary for women [around the world] reflect on the importance of being a woman in honor of others who do not have the same “freedoms”.

Gabriela García Calderón shares her sentiment about the first news of what later would be known as the Arab Spring:

Even though it is actually a post published on late 2010, I think the most important post I've translated is Túnez: El intento de suicidio de un desempleado provoca disturbios [es] (Tunisia: Unemployed Man's Suicide Attempt Sparks Riots [en]).

This post tells us the plight of 26-year old Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire out of desperation for not being able to earn a living for himself and his family.

This at first isolated and individual action was the spark of was later known as the Arab Spring, a series of events that set the standard for the whole year. As usual, Global Voices was there to inform its reader about important events, almost while they are still happening.

Adriana Gutierrez tells us about her chosen post, also related to the Arab Spring:

It's kind of hard to pick just one memorable post for me (every single entry is special, one way or another), but I enjoyed translating this one: Egipto: Graffiti - Por una revolución colorida y un recuerdo inmortal [es] (Egypt: Graffiti - For a Colorful Revolution and an Undying Memory [en]).

I found very moving and creative the way egyptians took a very “simple” and ordinary thing as a street wall and converted it in a canvas to express their thoughts about revolution and to pay tribute to the martyrs, claming the street as theirs.

Indira Cornelio was also impressed by the circumstances some women have to live with:

I enjoyed translating this one Global: Bloggers debaten opiniones contra el nicab [es] (Global: Bloggers Take Issue With Anti-Niqab Punditry [en]) because it really got me thinking about the importance of tolerance as sometimes I find hard to understand how women in other countries live, and the laws or practices they have.

And said:

As a fan of hyperlinks, I like texts that starting off with just two or three lines can take you to new and various texts that may, sometimes, represent a lot of reading. It's just like opening a little wormhole on the generated mental image and taking to another dimension, just to come back to take off once again. That's why, I love posts just as CEE: More on Václav Havel and His Legacy, due to their concentrated richness.

With this small and humble sample we, the Global Voices Spanish team, wish to encourage authors all over the world to write their articles and to go on doing so. We want them to know that their texts not only inform, but also generate sentiments, discoveries and awareness in all the readers.

Thank you, and a happy 2012.

This post is part of our special coverage Global Voices in 2011.

CEE: More on Václav Havel and His Legacy

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:07:10 +0000

More posts on Václav Havel and his legacy from around the region's Anglophone blogosphere: Richard Byrne of Balkans via Bohemia; CzechFolks.com; Petr Bokuvka of The Czech Daily Word - here and here; Jeremy Druker of TOL's East of Center; Tjebbe van Tijen and Mary Kaldor for OpenDemocracy.net; Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa; Chris Johnstone of CzechPosition.com; Gray Falcon.

Czech Republic: A Tribute to Václav Havel

Veronica Khokhlova — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:21:56 +0000

A tribute to Václav Havel, by Luboš Motl of The Reference Frame: “[…] Havel has been an unusually strong moral autority that has influenced even people such as me who ultimately found out that they disagree with him about many pretty fundamental things. He's been proposed for a peace Nobel prize many times; he has never won it even though he deserved it much more than many other folks who did win it. He actually helped to achieve something good and did so very peacefully, too.”

Slovakia: Visualising Business Registry Data with Vorsr.sk

Jakub Górnicki — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:42:28 +0000

Vorsr.sk [sk] is a tool for visual exploration of Slovakia's business registry. It treats the information as one big social network, grabbing the newest data live from the current registry database and delivering up-to-date connections of searched for individuals. The business registry contains information about all Slovak people who own a business, own part of one or are board members.

Following is an interview with Slovakian Michal Habala, who together with a colleague came up with the idea for Vorsr.sk in August 2008, using JUNG, an open-source Java project by a couple of students from the University of California.

Sample data visualisation from Vorsr.sk

Global Voices (GV): How much time did it take to launch Vorsr.sk before it went live? What were people's first reactions?

Michal Habala (MH): At the beginning we thought that it would be ready in a few weeks/months but when we saw the data quality in the business registry we decided to go deeper and implement data cleansing algorithms and other functionality. This and the fact that it is not a commercial project (it was always balanced between all our free time activities) meant that the beta version for public testing was released 18 months after we started. But I think it was worth it; the reactions are always very good, as we can present some results, which you would never be able to see in any other relevant project or tool.

GV: How did the idea change from day one? What are your users saying and how are you adapting to their needs?

MH: This tool is in never-ending development driven basically by our users. Every time we get an impulse from our users to add some functionality, we begin to analyze this request and try to make it happen.

GV: What are your plans for the near and distant future?

MH: The tool is evolving in time and now we are introducing a Czech version (beta version here) and probably in two months we are looking to introduce a Czechoslovak version (from both countries). This could be the first European project which provides information from joint business registries to the public (and it’s completely free).

GV: What is/was your main obstacle while developing and running the project?

MH: Probably poor data quality in the business registry. We tried to make this tool without downloading the data to our databases, so in Slovak it runs as an online wrapper of the business registry. This approach has its positives (like no problem with request limits and always up to date data) but recently we discovered that this approach has some limitations, which we want to overcome. This is mainly the data loading time and stability of the business registry, which is continuously getting worse. Even though we like the concept of using government services as data sources for our tool, we have to face the fact that these services have a long way to go before they can be used in such way.

GV: Was there anyone angry at you after you launched this project?

MH: I think that people still don’t get it what they can do with this tool. Most of our users just look at their own business and do not go deeper. Partly it’s our fault because we don’t pay much attention to the promotion of results yet. But we are going to change that and embed some introductory (tutorial) videos and results-showing videos in our home page. Then I can imagine that some business people would be annoyed that we used their case to present our tool. But in general I think there’s nothing to be worried about, it’s all public data already accessible through the public business registry.

GV: What will be new in the beta version?

MH: The beta version is completely new inside. There was some major object and internal structure redesign, which will improve stability, the speed of the applet and will allow us to easily integrate other countries and add other sources of information. Also some GUI [Graphical User Interface] redesign and new graph analyzing algorithms. So it will be quite new in the end, but we are talking about a wait of probably one year.

GV: I find this tool currently hard to use - there is lots of Java, it's quite slow in my browser. Don’t you lose some of your audience because of these issues?

MH: I know that Java is source consuming and therefore the whole tool is slower in browsers with large amounts of data loaded, but this tool was never meant to be used this way. It was designed to be a small applet for visualizing small graphs online loaded from the business registry. When we saw that big business cases are really big and you have to load very large graphs to see the context, we decided to make a real tool from it. The first step to overcome the speed issue was enabling the install of it as a desktop application, which runs faster. Another step is to release a new version with optimized algorithms (i.e. the beta version mentioned earlier). But at the end, it will never be a click-and-see component for everyone, it’s a tool and when a user wants to use it he/she has to accept its demands.

GV: What are the promotional plans? Do media and journalists use it?

MH: We don’t have information as to whether any media use it. I think that there are some media people among our users but that’s all. I have to say that we underestimated the value of promotion. We are mainly programmers but we have to face the fact that every project needs a promotion plan.

GV: Is there any business person who wants to sponsor you?

MH: This goes hand in hand with the question before I think. No promotion means no sponsor. On the other hand we are getting promo support from the Fair-play Alliance in Slovak Republic and now also from people of the Kohovolit.eu portal in the Czech Republic for which we are very thankful.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview.

Czech Republic: Open Source Initiative to Visualize State Budget

Jakub Górnicki — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:47:47 +0000

KohoVolit's Michal Škop and Centrum Cyfrowe [pl] from Poland announced that the open source application Raw Salad [pl] used to hack the Polish state budget will also be used in the Czech Republic. Besides publishing the budget data using this new way, Czechs will also create a dedicated portal with visualisations of the selected data.

Czech Republic: Reactions to Qaddafi's Death; Trade Relations With Libya

Veronica Khokhlova — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:34:42 +0000

Petr Bokuvka of The Czech Daily Word writes about the potential of the foreign trade relations between the Czech Republic and Libya, and reports on the Czech Foreign Ministry's reaction to the death of Qaddafi.

Czech Republic: Milan Kundera and Privacy Issues

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:07:08 +0000

At OpenDemocracy.net, James Warner writes about Milan Kundera's work and the issues of privacy in the age of totalitarianism and now, in the age of new technologies and the internet.

Czech Republic: Gay Pride in Prague and Politics

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:32:35 +0000

The Reference Frame comments on the politics surrounding Prague's first gay pride parade.