Global Voices » Sweden

Video Highlights: Activism, Freedom of Speech, Identity and Culture

Juliana Rincón Parra — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:57:18 +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.

Middle East North Africa:

Yemen: The Amazing Life March Arrives in Sanaa
From Yemen we have the amazing story of the historic 264km Life March, which is the longest since Mahatma Gandhi's 390km long Salt March in 1930. During the Life March, villages and towns came together to give food and drink to the thousands of people who marched for four days straight through winding mountain passes protesting the immunity that outgoing President Saleh asked for himself and his aides and family for the killing of protesters in the Yemen uprisings.

However, the march didn't seem to sway the newly formed cabinet members who approved the bill: it will now go on to parliament for it to become a law.
Yemen: Saleh Gets Away With Murder…He Gets Immunity

It is those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the rest of Yemen to live a life of freedom and democracy, whom Yemenis feel they must never be forgotten nor should their blood go in vain.

This next video is a silent remembrance for those who died during the peaceful uprising:

Some online activists are also promoting an online campaign against a stimulating herb chewed by many Yemeni men and women for hours on end, sometimes daily. The campaign is for a day without using the leafy green plant, Qat:
Yemen: January 12, a Day Without Qat

As blogger @Afrahnasser, proposed on Twitter:

An average citizen in Yemen wastes 8 hrs in searching money for qat, another 8 hrs in chewing qat & the rest 8 hrs in sleeping @NoonArabia

The idea of the campaign is to turn those hours spent on qat into active endeavors which build up Yemen.

Sub-Saharan Africa:

Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges
Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson crossed from Somalia to Ethiopia illegally which caused the Ethiopian authorities to detain and put them on trial for supporting terrorist activities and crossing illegally into the territory, although the defense claims that they were performing their duty as journalists to report both sides of the conflict. This next video was used as evidence during the trial, where the journalists are seen planning their journey as journalists

Western Europe:

Spain: Fighting for the Right to a Home

Families who got into debt to buy a home and ended without jobs or income to pay for them are being helped by an organization aiming to stop families from being evicted and to give them temporary homes in foreclosed and empty houses when they aren't able to stop the banks. The video on this post shows their success in avoiding an eviction and keeping a man and his 13 year old son off the streets.

Eastern and Central Europe:

Hungary: Memories of Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp
Growing up Roma in Europe can make children feel stigmatized and rejected by their peers, causing them to hide their origins and feel ashamed of their heritage. The Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp aimed to give Roma youth a chance to discover their roots by learning the language, history and cuisine of the Roma people.

East Asia:

Hong Kong: Protest Against Luxury Brand to Defend Local Identity
A luxury brand which doesn't allow for photographs to be taken of its store is not news, but when they stated that the rule only applied for local residents of Hong Kong and not tourists from Mainland China, the people of Hong Kong made their anger known through a flashmob outside the store.

Latin America:

Chile: Wildfire in Torres del Paine Shocks Netizens
The wildfire in one of Chile's top touristic spots, National Park Torres del Paine had netizens blogging and tweeting about the fire, both as experienced by those inside the park at the time of the evacuation and recorded it on video as well as from concerned people following the news and updates.

Central America: LibreBus Project Presents its Documentary
The documentary follows the activists who climbed on board a bus driving through 5 different Central American countries to spread the message of free software, the defense of freedom of speech and content sharing.

Colombia: Salsa Song Criticizes Bus Rapid Transport System
Public transportation makes it easier for people to get from one location to another without having to use their own vehicle, however, when that public transportation system is overcrowded, it can become a torture instead of a relief. The salsa song (with translated captions) shows what it is like for people to use the popular Transmilenio System in the capital city of Bogota.

Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Handed 11-Year Prison Sentence

Sven Hultberg Carlsson — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:07:53 +0000

An Ethiopian court handed prison sentences of 11 years on Tuesday 27 December, 2011 to Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, two Swedish journalists on trial for supporting rebel forces in the country. The sentences are shorter than the minimum of 15 years the judge Shemsu Sirgaga had previously called for on 21 December.

No relatives were present in the courtroom when the sentences were handed down. The announcement caused a small crowd of protesters to gather outside the Ethiopian embassy in Stockholm [sv].

Neither the Swedish prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, nor the foreign minister, Carl Bildt, commented the sentence on Tuesday, but many others spoke out on Twitter.

Johan Persson (left) and Martin Schibbye. Images © Kontinent Agency AB, used with permission.

Jonas Nordling, chair of the Swedish Union of Journalists, commented:

@jonasnordling: The Swedish government now has something to prove. Will they stand up for journalism today? #EthiopiaSwedes

Josefin Hammarstedt demanded a ministerial statement:

@Klockarbarbro: Sorry. But are the prime minister and the foreign minister are declining to comment the sentence? DECLINING? Why? #EthiopiaSwedes

Anders Jorle, spokesman for the Swedish foreign ministry, commented:

[The sentence] is regrettable in light of their journalistic assignment. The Swedish government's view is known, among other things through the prime minister's statement last week.

Schibbye and Persson's defence team, which consists of one Swedish and two Ethiopian lawyers, now has until 10 January to appeal the decision. An alternate route is to plead for clemency with the Ethiopian state.

Kjetil Tronvoll, a professor at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights who specializes in Ethiopia, told [sv] Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter about the journalists' chances of pleading for clemency:

A clemency process is an informal political negotiation once the verdict has been handed down. That would be the easy way out.

It is relatively unthinkable that the Supreme Court, which is even closer to the government and more political in its judgements, would acquit Schibbye and Persson.

A plea for clemency would mean Schibbye and Persson recognize their guilt in supporting terrorism, a charge they denied during the trial.

Schibbye and Persson were found guilty of entering Ethiopia illegally and of supporting terrorism in the country. The pair had entered Ethiopia from Somalia embedded with Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) forces on 1 July. The Ogaden province has long been the scene of a bloody conflict between the ONLF and the Ethiopian government.

The Ethiopian government, headed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has been criticized for of its recently-adopted “deeply flawed anti-terorrism act”. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have claimed the law is used for “stifling peaceful dissent”.

Over 100 journalists and opposition leaders are currently awaiting trial under the new law. Among them are Reeyot Alemu and Woubshet Taye, who were detained six months ago.

Karin Schibbye, the mother of Martin, told Swedish public television SVT [sv] that it is now down to the Swedish and Ethiopian governments to find common ground in the case of Schibbye and Persson:

The government has the solution. A negotiation process has to start. I think that the issue Johan and Martin have been caught in is much larger than just them, that it's a game being played by our two governments. How the government acts going forward will be decisive in the outcome of this issue.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ethiopia trails only Eritrea among Africa's worst jailers of journalists.

Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges

Sven Hultberg Carlsson — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:57:56 +0000

Two Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, were found guilty on Wednesday 21 December, 2011, of supporting terrorism in Ethiopia and entering the country illegally.

The pair entered Ethiopia embedded with forces of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on 1 July this year and were detained by the Ethiopian military shortly afterwards. Schibbye and Persson had traveled as freelance journalists aiming to report from the Ogaden province, the scene of a brutal conflict between Ethiopian armed forces and the ONLF.

Jesper Bengtsson, chair of the Swedish section of Reporters Without Borders, commented on the verdict on Swedish Public Radio:

I had hoped, and I think everyone had hoped, that the Ethiopian authorities had already made an example of Persson and Schibbye by starting the trial process and jailing them for six months. Obviously that wasn't enough of an example.

Journalist Martin Schibbye (right) ©Kontinent Agency AB, used with permission.

Early on Wednesday morning, Judge Shemsu Sirgaga denied the defense's main argument, which held that Schibbye and Persson travelled professionally and had a journalistic duty to report on the conflict from the side of the rebel forces as well as that of Ethiopia's military, and sided with the prosecution.

Sirgaga commented that the Swedes had “used their profession as a cover for terrorist activities” and called for an 18-year prison sentence to be handed down on 27 December, despite Schibbye and Persson's background in reporting from dangerous parts of the world and the testimony by two of Schibbye's and Persson's colleagues, freelance journalists Adrian Blomfield and Phillip Ittner, who had been flown into the capital Addis Ababa to take part in the court proceedings.

The video below shows Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, filmed by Ethiopian authorities after being detained, uploaded to YouTube by user rug571 on December 16.

During the trial, Schibbye and Persson admitted to entering Ethiopia illegally embedded with the rebels, but denied any charges of supporting terrorism. In November, the pair were acquitted of the third charge against them, of being “members of a terrorist group”.

“Political prisoners”

Mattias Göransson, the editor-in-chief of Filter magazine - the only client of Schibbye and Persson's to publicly acknowledge it had been in touch with the pair before their African trip - was called as a witness during the trial, and expressed disappointment with the verdict when interviewed by Reuters in Sweden:

When the judge read out the grounds it sounded positive, he had virtually nothing against them. Everything he said was speaking for an acquittal, and then he found them guilty anyway. This indicates they are political prisoners and nothing else.

The case against Schibbye and Persson has brought further attention to Ethiopia's vague anti-terrorist legislation, under which over 100 opposition leaders and journalists have been jailed up to 20 years. Three Ethiopian journalists are currently on trial for terrorism charges.

The Swedish section of Amnesty International said it is critical of Ethiopia's arbitrary interpretation of the anti-terror legislation. Lise Bergh, the General Secretary, said she is convinced of Schibbye and Persson's innocence [sv]:

Amnesty International does not believe there is any evidence of the men supporting the ONLF or its operations, nor that they are guilty of any criminal act. We regard Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye as prisoners of conscience, as they have been prosecuted due to their legitimate work as journalists.

Until the day of the verdict's announcement, the Swedish government had been fairly silent on the case. Carl Bildt, the foreign minister, had referred to methods of quiet diplomacy when asked about how the Swedish Foreign Ministry were working for the release of the journalists.

The situation has been further complicated by Bildt's personal history. Until 2006, when Bildt was appointed foreign minister, he served as a board member of Lundin Petroleum, the Swedish oil company whose activities Schibbye and Persson were intending to investigate in the Ogaden province.

Johan Persson prior to his and Martin Schibbye's detainment ©Kontinent Agency AB, used with permission.

After the verdict was announced, Bildt commented on the case on Twitter:

@carlbildt: Sweden expresses grave concern over hard sentence against Swedish journalists in Ethiopia. We will continue to work to set them free.

Bildt's comment was followed by a statement from Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister:

Our position is and continues to be that they were in the country on a journalistic assignment. They must be released as soon as possible in order to be reunited with their families in Sweden.

At an afternoon press conference [sv], Bildt stated that high-level diplomacy was now the prioritized course of action:

We are now making sure that the prime minister's strong message gets through to the Ethiopian government. We will then reason with the parties involved over the formal steps to be taken in this process.

A mellow reception awaited the official statements in social media. Under the hashtag #EthiopiaSwedes, tweets were sent out blaming the Swedish authorities for what is perceived as several months of perceived inertia regarding the case. Twitter user @tommyskot asked:

@tommyskot: When will @sweden and @carlbildt do something to get our journalists home? #EthiopiaSwedes

Below is a sample of reactions from Twitter:

@annalindberg: Now we begin to understand what conditions African journalists are working under. #ethiopiaswedes

@sweden: I'm shocked and appalled by the verdict against #ethiopiaswedes

@hurriya: spread this initiative to build solidarity for #ethiopiaswedes http://www.facebook.com/freejohanandmartin #svpol

Seleshi Ketsela, one of Schibbye and Persson's lawyers, said that his clients would now consider whether to appeal. An alternative route may be to seek a pardon from the Ethiopian state.

Ethiopia: Netizens Shine Spotlight on Trial of Swedish Journalists

Endalk — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:18:39 +0000

The trial of two Swedish journalists accused of terrorism in Ethiopia after being detained during a battle between government troops and rebels started on Tuesday 18 October, 2011. The story has become a hot topic of discussion in both traditional media and online communities worldwide.

According to the ‘Free the Swedish Journalists Johan Persson & Martin Schibbye' Facebook page:

The two Swedish journalists Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye were arrested by Ethiopian forces on July 1, 2011 when entering the Ogaden region in Ethiopia as embedded journalists with the ONLF guerrilla. This region is closed for journalists and aid organizations, but Johan and Martin wanted access in order to interview the local population about alleged violation of human rights in the area on a… daily basis. Travelling with the guerrilla was the only way to enter.

In his weekly Amharic feature article titled “Ethiopia – a country that permits public demonstration for animal rights but not for human rights”, Dawit Kebede, managing editor of Awramba Times (one of the few remaining private Amharic weeklies) satirizes the latest interview of Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi with Aftenposten as a buy and sell business, since Awramba Times imported the interview and translated it for Amharic readers like an Ethiopian import of a foreign currency.

The two Swedish journalists who are facing terrorism charges in Ethiopia.

With this claim he showed how journalists from the private press have been methodically barred from meeting or interviewing Prime Minster Meles Zenawi for his entire time in power.

In its weekend editorial, Awramba Times appealed for comparable opportunity with state media journalists regarding access to information of government activities. Along with Prime Minster Meles Zenawi’s interview with Aftenposten, Awramba Times has translated an article written by Caelainn Barr and tried to draw attention to current status of journalists and press freedom in Ethiopia with specific reference to the Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye case.

More than 100 opposition activists, journalists and others have been detained under Ethiopia’s broad anti-terror law that can punish someone up to 20 years in prison for simply publishing statements that could indirectly encourage terrorism. The Columbia Journalism Review has reviewed the coverage of Swedish media:

The Swedish press later revealed that Persson and Schibbye were specifically reporting on potential human rights violations committed by Lundin Petroleum, a Swedish-owned energy company with natural-gas operations in Ogaden

BAOBAB has highlighted the status of press freedom in Ethiopia by epitomizing the case of Eskinder Nega, another prominent Ethiopian journalist who has been imprisoned on similar accusations for his criticism of the government following the Arab uprisings.

But this did not go down well with Ethiopian blogger Daniel Berhane:

Criticizing Press Freedom in Ethiopia is a good thing. Promoting Eskinder Nega is a disgrace on the Economist. Let quote from my recent article: ‘Terrifying the Press signals Defeatism'

ZenaEthiopia.com reported that Ethiopia does not want the Swedish journalists involved in a sensitive trial and pointed out that Swedish journalists were denied visas to Ethiopia to cover the trial of imprisoned colleagues.

Lawyers representing the Swedish journalists outside the court in Addis Ababa. Photo taken by Endalk.

Mohammed Keita of The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that several members of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights raised concerns about Ethiopia's detention of journalists:

The government's high-profile imprisonment of Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, two Swedish journalists arrested in eastern Ethiopia while covering the activities of the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front, which the government designated as a terrorist group, drew a lot of questions, particularly from committee member Krister Thelin. After being repeatedly pressed about the fate of the journalists and details of the legal procedures following their arrests, a flustered Ambassador Fisseha Yimer Aboye, head of the Ethiopian delegation, told the committee that no further information would be provided. Rodley pressed the delegation to explain the legal procedures surrounding the arrests of two other journalists, Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu, on suspicions of terrorism.

A Facebook page dedicated to raising awareness and funds for legal support has received more than 2,775 likes. Many participants of the page are focusing on their solidarity with Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson as the government attempts influence the trail process.

On a Facebook page created by Swedish European Member of Parliament, Cecilia Wikström, she has voiced concern that:

Cecilia Wikstrom asked yesterday two written questions to the EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton on how the EU can ensure that John and Martin's trial is true, and follows international standards and what it does to protect journalists from being accused of crimes while carrying out their job. We hope that this can be of any help and send our thoughts to John and Martin families.

An online petition has also been created with over 2,741 signatures. Most people on the page demanded the government of Ethiopia to release the journalists quickly. Lotta Westerberg, a supporter of the cause, is more vocal of all. She urged the online community to sign on the page:

Please sign the petition. Part of the story is that the journalists were investigating Lundin Petroleum, charged with being involved with war crimes in Sudan. Mr. Carl Bildt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is a former board member

Endalk looked at how the local press in Ethiopia has been covering the issues just before the beginning of the trial:

A week before the commencement of the trial of the two Swedish journalists- Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye- charged with terrorism much of the global press was already reporting the case following Prime Minster Meles Zenawi’s interview with the Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten. Now, primer’s public allegations against two imprisoned journalists have become a dominant theme on pro-government media of Ethiopia. Interestingly enough, Walta Information Center, a pro-government private news and information service, that had been reporting about the Swedish-Eritrean journalist, Dawit Isaak and its subsequent concern of the Swedish authorities as Dawit remains jailed in the neighboring, Eretria kept shtoom about Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye

The trial of Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye will continue on November 1, 2011.

Baltics-Sweden: Twenty Years of Independence

Vilhelm Konnander — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:13:11 +0000

Albatros of Litauen blog reports about [ger] Swedish celebrations of 20 years of independence for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and how Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, apologised to his Baltic colleagues for recognizing soviet annexation during World War II.

Europe: EU and LGBT Rights

Filip Stojanovski — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:14:15 +0000

Katerina Todorovska wrote [MKD] on the Macedonia in the European Union blog about EU's imperfect record on LGBT rights and its positive influence in relation to starting the debate and improving tolerance in the Western Balkans, as Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia strive to join this supranational structure.

Azerbaijan: Journalists to visit Sweden ahead of November vote

Aygun Janmammadova — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:59:51 +0000

Gulara Azimzadeh's blog reports that seven journalists from Azerbaijan will visit Stockholm to see how the media covered the 2010 elections in Sweden. The journalists were selected after a competition held by the Azerbaijan Media Center as the country prepares for its own parliamentary vote this November and recounts the reaction from one of the fortunate winners.

Global: If there is no water, there is no life

Victor Kaonga — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:10:44 +0000

The Twentieth gathering for the World Water Week (WWW) took place in Sweden's capital Stockholm from the 5th to the 11th of September 2010 with the theme The Water Quality Challenge-Prevention, Wise Use and Abatement. According to the organisers, “urbanisation, agriculture, industry and climate change exert mounting pressure on both the quantity and quality of our water resources.” The week was therefore organised to “deepen the understanding of, stimulate ideas on, and engage the water community around the challenges related to water quality.”

At the end, delegates came up with the Stockholm Statement which noted that the the Millennium Development Goals will only be achieved by wise management of water resources and secure and equitable access to safe water and adequate sanitation. Inadequate access to water and sanitation deprives billions of people, especially women and girls, of opportunities, dignity, safety and well-being.

Bloggers who attended World Water Week have shared their notes and opinions online. Duncan Mara shares his World Water Week diary.
Sunday sessions:

The early evening session was the launch of the Second Information Kit on the 2006 WHO Wastewater Use Guidelines – not yet online (but my part is here). My presentation was on choosing a sensible value for the maximum tolerable additional burden of disease – i.e., the maximum DALY loss per person per year (pppy). The default value used for this in the 2006 WHO Guidelines is 10−6 pppy for this, but this is very ‘extravagant’ and I recommended a value of 10−4 DALY loss pppy as it reflects epidemiological reality in developing countries and some industrialized countries (e.g., Australia and the USA) much more closely. [Actually this also applies to Drinking-water Quality Guidelines, but that’s a real can of worms – for WHO, US EPA and the EU, amongst others − waiting to be opened…]

Tuesday:

I attended the lunchtime side event on “What knowledge do we need to do better on Sanitation?” This was basically how the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and its partners see how their ‘Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity’ (SHARE) research consortium, funded by DFID, will progress. Check out the SHARE website when it gets going by the end of the month (in the meantime there are some details here).

Then I went to the afternoon seminar on “Water quality issues and new approaches in Latin America”. Interesting couple of papers – one on water and wastewater problems in Mexico City by Dr Blanca Jiménez (UNAM). The other was by Professor Eduardo Jordão (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) on the use in Brazil of UASBs + some form of secondary treatment serving populations of 20,000−1,500,000 – but little mention of costs or cost-effectiveness, and no mention of high-rate anaerobic ponds.

As I was rushing from the lunchtime session to the afternoon session my colleague Dr Jan-Olof Drangert (University of Linköping, Sweden) shoved a leaflet into my hand – all about his new website Sustainable Sanitation for the 21st Century, which comprises a free e-book and a set of PowerPoint presentations for training professionals in the sanitation and water sector. There’s a certain EcoSan emphasis, but it’s certainly very well worth taking a look. You can download the PowerPoints as ppt files, so you can use them as they are or select which slides you want to use in your own presentations. Excellent idea!

Wednesday:

I went to the workshop on “Improved water use efficiency through recycling and reuse” and gave a presentation on Natural wastewater treatment and carbon capture. Professor Emeritus Takashi Asano (UC Davis), in a keynote presentation, told us all about water demand and wastewater recycling and reuse in California – a complex system necessitated by building a megacity (Los Angeles) in a desert and by California being the nation’s major table-food (vegetables, fruits) producer. Then Dr Ashley Murray (UC Berkeley) gave a really interesting paper on wastewater-fed aquaculture: set up a local business to grow fish in maturation ponds and the business returns half its net profit to the wastewater treatment works (waste stabilization ponds) to help pay for O&M – a very neat concept which she developed in Ghana.

But what is the impact of water shortage in the developing world? A special post in Ethiopian Review features a post about the challenges facing women in Afgooye, Somalia, where many families have no access to clean water or sanitation. The title of of the post reads “World Water Week in Somalia: “If there is no water, there is no life”:

There are no schools, latrines or reasonable toilets in the camp, besides some old toilets in the old building. We face a shortage of water here. We have to buy one barrel of water for 15,000 shillings (just under $10 [US dollars]) that is brought by a donkey cart as there is no running water pipe in the camp.

Global Voices Author Victor Kaonga was part of the media team at the World Water Week. In a post about Sick Water he emphasises the need for both the government and citizens in Malawi to address what is known as Sick Water:

In Malawi water is all things-political, health, economic, social, rights, an MDG, gender, spiritual, academic issue, etc. Dealing with water challenges needs a multi-faceted approach.

Statistics-good as they look do not speak everything in Malawi. Water Aid Country Representative Robert Kampala noted that Malawi noted that while some strides have been made in ensuring that at least about 70 percent of the population has access to safe water, Malawi still needs more work in improving the quality of water. Imagine we hear that Water supply coverage is at 65% country wide while Basic Sanitation 86% country wide. Interestingly I learn that in urban and rural areas, improved sanitation (basically latrines with slabs and flush toilets) are only at 65% and 46% respectively! This is sad. Where do the rest go if there are no toilets? And how then is our water affected?

And in a separate post, he asks, “Did you know the most scarce sanitary facility?”:

Toilets are a scarce facility the world over. About 2.6 billion don’t have the toilet. The problem is worse in developing countries which apparently also have serious effects of poor sanitation. But let me be quick to think aloud about toilets in developing countries. There appears to be too much bush to hide and use as toilets. You cannot do in a well-built urban area. Lack of planning in some cities creates poor sanitary situation. Personally I don't like slums. Additionally some cultures seem not to be toilet-unfriendly. At a corporate level, there are some institutions too that do not have a culture for toilets.

World Water Week 2010 left Timothy Karpouzoglou with a lot of questions:

World Water Week (WWW) 2010 is over, leaving me with some questions. Is WWW really about “opening up” or about “closing down” the debate on water resource management?

The overall theme for this year WWW has been water quality. WWW aims “to highlight positive action and new thinking towards water related challenges and their impact on the world’s environment” and also to “deepen the understanding of, stimulate ideas, and engage the water and development community around the challenges related to water quality”. These are all valid and urgent concerns in moving the debate forward.

So what is this new thinking? Some of it can be seen as more of the old thinking restated with today’s policy buzzwords. “Water quality” is still decided by scientists, talking to scientists about the science behind the solutions. The framing of the problem was often about the right technology. Common effluent treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants are commonly-suggested solutions, even if the costs associated are too high and unaffordable in many parts of the developing world.

Jeremy Allouche notes that World Water Week is an elitist club:

Here’s our first blog from World Water Week - some call it ‘the pilgrimage of water’. Well… the price of the pilgrimage (about £650) makes it difficult to attend and it remains very much an elitist club. In this regard, one always wonders how useful these high-level international events are and whether we are not repeating the same stuff again and again.

The disconnect between the conference and the world outside is sometimes too evident: while the international media reports on the floods in Pakistan and the droughts and floods in Niger, here the focus of the conference is on partnerships between water professionals and projects around new sexy ideas on water. Although water quality is the focus of the conference, climate change is another hot topic here: mainstreaming water and climate change, governance and capacity building for water and climate change, etc…
Still, the big highlight of this morning was the session on “Revisiting the Large Dam Controversy”. Although the World Commission on Dams (WCD) report has been criticised (especially around implementation guidelines), there has been some consensus around the principles and values it articulated. But now, with the development of climate change adaptation strategies and the arrival of new financiers, some fear that the new context (WCD+10) may end this fragile consensus.

Lyla Mehta discusses controversy at the conference:

It’s my fourth day at World Water Week, the annual mecca for policy-makers and players from the World Water Council, the Water and Sanitation Programmes (WSP), Stockholm Water Institute, WaterAid, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), as well as several UN and bilateral agencies such as DFID and others who can afford to pay the entry fee. Most people seem to come for networking, meetings, dinners and drinks, to launch new initiatives and reports… and occasionally even to attend the odd session.

I've been doing the same, though I had hoped to be more excited by some of the sessions and workshops. Most of them have been highly technical, with many of the same global perspectives and declarations that we have been hearing for a long time. But this is probably a reflection of how mainstream most talk about water is, be it in the media, policy or research realms…
For me, the highlight of the conference was the session on “Revisiting the Large Dam Controversy” hosted by the very exciting online journal Water Alternatives. It’s been 10 years since the World Commision on Dams published its landmark report, which provided guidelines for dam-building, covering social, environmental, economic and institutional aspects. This was the only session I attended where there was passion and debate, not surprising due to the topic even though a few were hoping for more blood-letting! Ten years on, there has been much progress. WCD guidelines are now mainstreamed in many new and ongoing projects all around the world. The WCD principle on the “right to consent” is also gaining acceptance in many global organisations and institutions.

Still, there are many ideological rifts and no clear consensus on ways forward, with early opponents still openly rejecting the WCD process and conclusions. This was exemplified by the words of ex-World Bank official John Briscoe, who proudly stated that the WCD and similar commissions should pack up since they are often rejected by dam-building nations who reject their guidelines. But Briscoe didn’t seem to do himself or his former institution any favours by continuing to ignore the fact that water resources development remains a highly contested process, often shaped by forces in the wider political economy. Moreover, southern governments who claim to be ‘democratic’ may not necessarily be representing the interests of the poor and marginalised through dam-based development.

In the end the Stockholm World Water Week 2010 revealed broad consensus on many water-related issues as Alex McIntosh reports:

By Day Four of the 2,500-attendee conference, a few overarching themes have begun to emerge. First, in the majority of the watersheds across the globe, we know too little about the amount of water available, the amount extracted in aggregate for human use, or the quality of the watershed. For this reason, in the seminar On the Road the Corporate Water Reporting, panelists from Nature Conservancy, CERES, Quantis, PepsiCo, CH2M HILL, Unilever, Borealis and other organizations all agreed that the trend towards greater water reporting transparency would continue, primarily driven by businesses’ need to obtain and manage their supply chain water resources, and in response to consumer/customer/investor stakeholder pressure.

A second theme emerging from World Water Week is there is general consensus among the world’s water experts and advocates that humanity already has passed the “safety point” with respect to sustainable use. In the seminar The Future of Global Water Technologies, panelists from McKinsey & Co, ITT, Black & Veatch and more framed the discussion by agreeing on four points:

* The world faces significant water resource challenges today, which will worsen in the coming years.
* Business as usual practices will not close the “water gap”.
* Cost effective, sustainable solutions are possible, but will require an economy-wide approach.
* A pathway towards water sector transformation does exist.

Worldwide: Demonstrations for Palestine

Eman AbdElRahman — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:32:58 +0000

Roba from Jordan published pictures from different demonstrations world wide against Israel's last attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in Holland, Greece, Egypt, United Kingdom, Lebanon, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sweden, France, Turkey, India, Italy, Canada, Spain, Belgium, United States, Bulgaria and Austria.

Baltics: Any need for Baltic Sea cooperation

Vilhelm Konnander — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:14:32 +0000

Litauen writes about [GER] the Council of the Baltic Sea states and how this organization is becoming increasingly superfluous as basis for Baltic Sea cooperation.

Sweden: Parliament Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:04:07 +0000

With a vote of 131 against 130, the Swedish Parliament recognized as genocide the massacres that took place within the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1920 against the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek population - an episode that is also referred to as “Seyfo” by the Assyrian Diaspora.

Up to 1.5 million Armenians, 250,000 Pontic Greeks and 250,000 Assyrians were killed between 1913 and 1920, and a few other millions had to flee from what is now Turkey, in order to survive. Other sources claim the real number of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks murdered reach up to 750,000 and 500,000 respectively.

Phillip Ohlund, in the New Testament News blog, comments saying:

We should of course always condemn genocides of millions of innocent persons.
The holocaust of the Jews was a terrible thing, and so was the genocide of the Armenians back in 1915.
It is impossible to understand why anyone would raise objections against condemning a genocide.
The resolution was eventually passed by one single vote, thanks to four conservative politicians who voted with the socialist opposition.
[…]
No one blames Turkey of today for what happened in 1915.
But the genocide of most of the Armenians in Turkey in 1915 is an undeniable historical fact.
It would be sensible of Turkey to officially understand how traumatized the Armenians still are today by the 1915 genocide.

The Assyrian Genocide Center issued a statement addressing the decision votes, noting that the decision, in this particular case, was more political than anything else and that the politicians were all convinced the the massacres were a genocide:

Yes, the decision was taken with 131 votes against 130. However, the one vote majority does not reflect the reality and it may be misleading. The fact is all those who voted against the motion did not claim nor say that the genocide did not happen. All of them were saying yes the genocide took place, however a majority of them said we need to be loyal to the Coalition Government's decision and others were fearing a yes vote would jeopardize the relations with Turkey.

Volkan Kemal, in the Adsiz Vesaire blog, tells us that the result caused distress over the Turkish government and even among some Swedish ministers:

The Turkish Ambassador to Sweden was immediately ordered to leave the country and Turkish prime minister Erdogan announced the cancellation of his planned visit to Sweden the coming week.
Sweden's pro-Turkish foreign minister, Carl Bildt was very upset by the decision of the parliament and warned it will harm Swedish-Turkish relations and Turkish-Armenian relations as the resolution called for the recognition of not only the Turkish genocide on Assyrians but also the genocides on Armenians and Pontic Greeks.

However, Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt disagrees with the resolution. He says in his blog [machine translation]:

Vi anser att det är fel att politisera historien
[…]
Det skall noteras att beslutet gick emot utrikesutskottets betänkande, liksom att riksdagen inte var enig eftersom utfallet baserades på en enda rösts majoritet.
Riksdagens beslut kommer tyvärr inte att bidra positivt till den pågående normaliseringsprocessen mellan Turkiet och Armenien, inte minst upprättandet av en kommission med uppgift att bland annat utreda händelserna 1915.

“We think it is wrong to politicize history”
[…]
It should be noted that the decision went against the Foreign Affairs Committee report, and that parliament was no consensus because the outcome was based on a single vote majority.
The Parliamentary decision will unfortunately not make a positive contribution to the ongoing normalization process between Turkey and Armenia, not least the establishment of a commission to investigate the events of 1915.

Ramsen's Rambling sums up some of the feelings shared by the Assyrian people:

AMAZING NEWS.

The Assyrian Genocide is officially recognized by my new favorite country, Sweden. Sweden is the first country to accept the Genocide of the Assyrians, but also has accepted the Genocide of the Pontic-Greeks and Armenians perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks. This is a great day for Assyrians. Not only will the souls of those that were wrongly and innocently butchered like cattle be rested, the world will be enlightened of the first genocide of the 20th Century.

This recognition comes shortly after the one passed by the US congressional Foreign Affairs Committee, as a non-biding resolution which acknowledges the 1915 mass killings as the “Armenian Genocide” with the votes of 23 against 22.

Following the recognition, Móndivers [cat] show us the position of the Turkish government:

El primer ministre turc, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, va advertir ahir en una entrevista al servei turc de la BBC que podria decidir deportar els 100.000 armenis que, segons ell, resideixen il·legalment a Turquia. Erdoğan va fer aquesta amenaça després de ser preguntat sobre la seva opinió al voltant de les recents votacions als Estats Units i a Suècia sobre el reconeixement dels genocidis d’armenis, assiris i grecs durant l’època final de l’Imperi otomà. El primer ministre turc va culpar la diàspora armènia als països occidentals del fet que s’estiguin produint votacions sobre el reconeixement d’aquest genocidi.

The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned yesterday in an interview with the BBC Turkish Service that he could decide to deport the 100,000 Armenians who, he claims, reside illegally in Turkey. Erdoğan made this threat after being asked about his opinion about the recent votes in the U.S. and Sweden on the recognition of the Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish prime minister blamed the Armenian diaspora in western countries from which votes on the ongoing recognition of the genocide are been produced.

And now, the Turkish Forum announces that Bulgaria may be the next country to recognize the massacre as a genocide:

Based on the mentioned facts, National Assembly of the Republic of
Bulgaria, admitting the cogency of the facts proving the committed
extermination of 1.500.000 Armenians by Ottoman Empire authorities in
1915-17, considering the violence against Armenians during the World
War I is recognized by the European Parliament and a number of EU
members-Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland,
Slovakia, France as genocide, condemning the genocide of the Armenian
population,

Declares:

1. Expresses its dissent with official position of Turkish Government,
directed towards the negation of the purposive violence against
Armenian nation committed in 1915-1917.

2. Urges the Republic of Turkey to review its stance on the historic
reality during the World War I

3. Term the forcible displacement-

the extermination of the Armenian
people under Ottoman Empire as Genocide

4. Announces the necessity of mandatory unbiased reporting of the
historical events indicated in the documents, publications, public
addresses of all state institutions, political organizations, mass
media of the Republic of Bulgaria.

5. Admits that protection of monuments of Bulgarian and Armenian
architectural-religious heritage on the territory of Turkey should be
considered as part of a broader policy of preservation of cultural
heritage of European civilization.

6. Demands that in the course of the talks on Turkey’s membership to
EU, the stance of Bulgarian Government be conditioned by the
recognition of Armenian Genocide by Turkey.

The final question is whether the door has been finally opened.

Video: Impressions from the Climate Change Conference

Juliana Rincón Parra — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:34:37 +0000

Image by UN Climate Change http://www.flickr.com/photos/45289935@N08

We bring you some video impressions from people at the Climate Change Conference that took place during the first weeks of December in Copenhagen, Denmark. From protests, to dances, arts and presentations, a small sample of COP15.

Through our special coverage page you were able to see live video from the conference and video blogs via TheUptake.org and OneClimate.net as well as follow the Global Voices Team at the conference through their blogs, twitter and other online media accounts.

Following some other videos showing different experiences people had at the Climate Change Conference:

Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, sent a delegation to the conference, and here is a video of their cultural presentation:

The delegation from the Republic of Kiribati held a side event on the 9th of December 2009 at the UNFCCC COP15 meeting in Copenhagen, where they presented how they experience climate change in their daily lives, what they are doing to combat it, and their ambitions from the COP15 meeting. Here is a cultural item, a traditional dance, performed by I-Kiribati dancer Maria Timon.

A 14 year old from Sweden named Tora Gimre, gave a speech about where the money to help stop climate change can be found:

Ecologists from Aragon, Spain get excited about heading out to the Forum from their hotel, and they recorded a short video out in the hotel's lobby:

At the conference itself, outside the Bella Center, there was a protest done by the 350 initiative protesting against carbon emissions. With half their clothes off, they cried that Carbon was not negotiable:

350 also staged a freeze action presentation, where youth froze last Friday at 3:50 pm for 350 seconds to ask climate leaders to keep island nations in existence by controlling global warming.

What was your favorite action on video from the Climate Change Conference? Please share it with us!

Young Leaders from Sweden and Middle East in Dialogue

Suzanne Lehn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:29:34 +0000

On November 16-18, the Young Leaders Visitors Programme of the Swedish Institute hosted a meeting in Paris of 26 opinion leaders from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Sweden to mark the conclusion of a 3-week workshop to improve dialogue between Sweden, the Middle East and North Africa.

Global Voices in French attended the meeting, and below are links to some of the reflections of participants during and after the eventful meeting. There is also a YLVP Flickr photostream, several videos on YouTube. And a #YLVP hashtag on Twitter on twitter.

Stockholm-based journalist and media researcher from Jordan, Rami Abdelrahman, reflects on the program on a series of videos he uploaded on his blog Rami's Wall:

Another Jordanian blogger who participated, was Mohammad Azraq who in August summed up the first part of the program in Sweden in a post on Global Voices. The focus was largely leadership and teamwork with a component of training in social media tools.

In addition to the Arab participants, five Swedish journalists took part in the program. Among them, was Alexandra Sandels who described in an article on Lebanon news website, Menassat, how participants were divided into small groups and given the task to develop an idea for an innovative project using social media tools. Ideas ranged from web portals for alternative musicians in the Middle East, to an online graffiti network, and a web-based recruitment agency for volunteers interested in working with human rights organizations in the Arab world.

Panel Discussion: Europe and MENA - Connected or not ?

Global Voices in French participated in a panel discussion in the closing seminar for the program “EU-MENA, Connected or not?” hosted by Javeria Rizvi Kabani, Project Manager of YLVP, and Mikael Jönsson, Director of the Swedish Institute in Paris. The debates were streamed live, and are now archived on bambuser.com. Alice Petrén, from the Swedish Public radio moderated the discussion.

- Ozan Sunar, founder of the Re-Orient Festival in Sweden who migrated from Turkey to Sweden at age 6: “We are well-connected, not only by curiosity, also by fear.”

- Jan Henningsson, Senior Advisor to the MENA department, Swedish ministry of Foreign Affairs. As tweeted by @ahmal: “There must be a way out! an amazing story about Saudi and Swedish poets! As a poet and a writer I am speechless!!!”

- Claire Ulrich, editor of Global Voices in French, introduced Global Voices Online and its mission of translating the words of global bloggers, not just related to news, conflicts, but also many glimpses of daily life: such as the cup cake rage in the Middle East, or a high-society murder in Egypt. Middle East and North Africa stories are particularly well-represented on the Global Voices in French website, with over 100 posts translated in September and October 2009.

MENA countries featured in 100 GV in French posts over 2 months

- Lucas Welsh, Director of Soliya.net, explained how his non-profit is developing media and communication tools and skills to enable students to share and distribute perspectives from around the world.

The contributions from the room steered the panel's conclusions to the issue of identity, or identities. What about Westerners accepting their Muslim fellow-citizens' culture beneath their own varnish of human rights, asked a young Swedish-Palestinian journalist. No doubt guidelines for further discussions on this topic will be useful to politicians of the European Union. The topic of the second panel discussion was: “How can leaders of tomorrow capture the opportunities provided by new technology to create a more open, connected and equitable word.”

Finland: The Language Issue

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:07:33 +0000

Nordic Voices writes about Finland's “language issue.”

Egypt: Another journalist to be deported

Eman AbdElRahman — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:35:23 +0000

To continue the series of harassing or deporting journalists in Egypt, like Travis Randall, Philip Rizk and Wael Abbas; Per Bjorklund, a Swedish journalist and blogger has been detained in Cairo airport upon his arrival. He’s been stopped by security and is to be deported back to Prague without an explanation; he was only told “your name [was] on the computer.”

Per is regarded as one of the most active foreign journalists covering the Egyptian labor strike wave and human rights abuses for a number of Swedish publications as well as activist websites like Electronic Intifada. He also writes in his blog Egypt and Beyond, where he identifies himself as:

A freelance journalist currently based in Cairo. Covering the daily struggles for a another Egypt and another Middle East, that are too often made invisible in the narratives of mainstream media.

Egyptian Leftist was the first to publish "Free Per" banners on his blog.” width=”418″ height=”107″ />

As usual, Egyptian Leftist was the first to publish "Free Per" banners on his blog.

Hossam El Hamalawy was one of the first to break the news:

Swedish journalist and blogger Per Bjorklund has been stopped around half an hour ago at the Cairo Airport. An Immigration Police Officer told him his “name [was] on the computer,” according to Per with whom I spoke on the phone few mins ago.

Per is in some room at the airport, where there are other people, and he awaits an explanation from the police.

Another foreign journalist, James Buck commented on his blog Journalism not a crime:

Per is a great journalist who helped me get connected when I was in Egypt. Looks like Cairo has decided to keep dissenting journalists out of the country. This is a big step backward for press freedom.

On a different note, Egyptian journalist and blogger, Scarr, published a touching post tackling the other side of the story.

Per was one of the people involved in the To Gaza march – as was Travis Randall – but other foreigners on that march have been in and out of Egypt since then without problems. No, there’s no great plan. This (“your name is in our computer”) is just yet another instance of what they do best: bullying disguised as bureaucratic procedure, as thought-out policy.

Talking about Per's girlfriend she said:

The last call I got in this whole sorry saga was an hour ago, when A rang me, still at the airport. No-one had bothered to tell her that Per had been deported (or at least told that he was going to be deported. His phone was switched off after Hamalawy spoke to him). She had been waiting there, alone, all that time. She broke down in tears.

First tweets about Per's detention.

Egyptian blogger, Mostafa, questioned if the repetitive incidents was a sign for new measures taken by the government against journalists:

Per is a brave journalist and his writing is almost always highly informative. He is a nice guy. This is both outrageous and depressing. I wonder if this stupid government is trying to reduce the number of foreign journalists in anticipation of the next two politically intense years.

More details can be found in a post by Joseph Mayton at Bikya Masr and Zeinobia at Egyptian Chronicles.