Archive for
October 12th, 2005

   

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The Week That Was - Bolivian Blogs

A small portrait of the translator Eduardo Avila · 13:23 · Americas

Elections scheduled for December 4th are far from certain of taking place. What has been for certain over the past week in La Paz and El Alto has been the scarcity of liquid gas used for cooking. MABB displays some pictures of long lines of Paceños and their justifiable frustration. Alexey believes that some irregular transactions involving the gas canisters, aka “contrabando hormiga” (ant smuggling) may be taking place along the porous Bolivian-Peruvian border near the town of Desaguadero.

Even without a guarantee of elections, politics still continue to be discussed on Bolivian blogs. Alvaro Ruiz-Navajas comments on an unusual poll that found that both Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, if on the ballot in Bolivia, would draw in considerable support. Miguel Centellas wonders whether the political party, Unidad Nacional would not be better off with its Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Carlos Dabdoub as their Presidential candidate due to his high popularity in Santa Cruz. Daniel Bustillos, after a long absence, announced his return to blogging at his site Kaiki. Meanwhile, Javier urges the creation of a webpage to collect signatures of Bolivians abroad demanding the right to vote for those living outside of the country.

Nick at Open Veins profiles the journey of one brother's search for justice in the death of his brother during the crisis of October 2003.

On a less serious note, Andrew Glazer found himself in the middle of a crowd of teenyboppers hoping to get a glimpse of their hero, Floricienta, in a Santa Cruz hotel. Meanwhile in La Paz, a popular and successful music festival featuring such groups like Molotov and Attaque 77 was deemed the best festival of Marcelita's life.

In a very personal entry, Wendell reflected on the very real possibility of adopting a Bolivian child, which ended up not happening leaving him wondering what could have been.

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Travels in the Kurdish Blogosphere

A small portrait of the translator Deborah Ann Dilley · 12:44 · Middle East & North Africa

For Iraqis, October 15th is the big day… the day of Iraqi Constitution Referendum. The vote is a simple yes or no in favor of the Iraqi Constitution. All Iraqis are eligible to vote, even former dictator Sadaam Hussein. The Kurdish people of Iraq are abuzz with these events. Sami from Iraqi Thoughts takes a look at the new constitution through A Sunni Iraqi eye's, and finds justification in opposing it, but also finds that through his own Kurdish viewpoint that he must vote for it. Hiwa from Hiwa's Hopes questions his own vote on the referendum:

I dont know what to say,
I voted in the elections, I am not sure if I did the right thing? do you think my successors won't accuse us of being coward enough to ask for our full self-determination?

Ultimately, Hiwa adopts a wait and see attitude about the referendum, which seems to be a common view on the subject.

Moving north in Kurdistan, Delal from The Kurdistan Bloggers Union addresses some of the major news items about the Kurds within the borders of Turkey and Syria; most notably the closure of Kurdish Language schools in Turkey. Incidently, if you are looking for an introduction to the Kurdish language, the group blog Learn Kurdish is an excellent starting point.

And then moving in the Eastern regions of Kurdistan, Medya from Medya Daily discusses the pressures of blogging in a country that is unreceptive to alternative points of view. He feels that sometimes blogging is opening himself up to threats from others, be it the students in his university classroom to the Iranian government itself. We hope that he continues to blog and stays safe.
A new blog dedicated to Eastern Kurdistan was begun recently entitled Land of the Sun: Kurdistan. While currently it is just getting off the ground, this should be a great blog to keep an eye out for.

There is a subseries of pro-Kurdish blogs that are in French (with occasional English postings). The authors are not Kurdish themselves but have either lived or worked in or with Kurdish regions and Kurdish people. If you are able to read French, I do recommend that you visit them, as they provide an objective and supportive viewpoint of the Kurdish people. They are Incoherent Thoughts from the Librarian at the Kurdish Institute of Paris, OFK a travel-log of the Kurdistan region, Bienvenue à Van which chronicles the Van region of Turkey/Northern Kurdistan, and Chroniques de Beyoglu from a French man currently working in Turkey.

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