Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

English

Elie Smith sums up voters' expectations in the presidential elections in the Republic of Congo: “Most voters today said, their main motivation to vote was to consolidate peace and stability and these two aspects, are the greatest achievements of incumbent President Denis Sassou Nguesso.”

Updates

Congopage [Fr] announces Dennis Sassou Nguesso's reelection campaign team.  Nguesso has been president of the Republic of Congo (more or less) since 1979.  Readers lament another sham election.

English

The first BarCamp in Central Africa will take place in Brazzaville on December 23, 2008: “BarCamp Congo is organized by the Committee for the Promotion of Information Technology in Congo (COPTIC), of which I am a member. The committee comprises officials and enterprises of the ICT sector.”

French

Africa 2.0 [Fr] reports on the launch last week of Akouaba, a news aggregator created by 22 year old Congolese blogger from Verone Mankou from Brazzaville, including an interview with him. Mankou is also the organizer of Barcamp Congo, the first Barcamp in Central Africa that will take place in Brazzaville on December 23rd, and the Barcamp Africa blog has another interview with him about it.

French

Cellule Francafrique [Fr] reports on a new lawsuit filed against the presidents of Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of the Congo in a court in Paris last week.  The suit, brought by Transparency International and a Gabonese taxpayer, accuses the three heads of state of “concealing misappropriated public funds”.

French

Congopages announces the death of Ernest Kombo.  Kombo was Bishop of Owando.  He died in France, where he was being treated for cancer.

French

Blogger Hiromitsu Takagi [高木浩光] takes up the story [ja] of Google vice president Kent Walker's Q&A at a press conference in Tokyo on Sept. 29th, highlighting statements [ja] by Google Japan director Kōichirō Tsujino [辻野晃一郎] claiming that people who would like images from the company's Street View service to be taken down can contact their regional administrative offices or consumer centers. Takagi has his doubts and calls Google directly, then calls his local consumer center, and in the end confirms that no provisions are in place for takedown requests. Listen to his phone conversation with Google (in Japanese). (Thanks to Gen Kanai for the link.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

French

Congopages writes about local efforts to protect endangered sea turtles [Fr].

Updates

Campaigning for health rights in the Republic of Congo: “Indigenous people in all areas of Congo Brazzaville live in precarious conditions and are subjected to discrimination and marginalisation, which prevents them from benefiting from all the rights recognised by international human rights instruments, particularly the right to health care and other interdependent rights.”

French

Réseau sida Afrique shares the story of a 22 year-old woman [Fr] in Congo-Brazzaville, dying of AIDS in the town of Makoua, 800km from the capital and the free medicine that could save her life. (more…)