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Afghan Whispers: Civil Society, Corruption & Secularism

Farid Pouya · 19:16 · Eastern & Central Europe

Safrang writes about civil society in Afghanistan :

“As the world is becoming a small but global village such proceedings not only entails scattering within the human family but also undermines the efforts for peace and solidarity around the globe.

The civil society of Afghanistan, likewise, does not consider resorting to violence a rational solution to religious, social, cultural and political problems.

Therefore, we urge that people from all cultures, civilizations and religions, pave better grounds of dialogues with respect to and acceptance of one another. Realization of such a vision can liberate the human race from all forms of torture, contempt and humiliation as well as facilitates to have a beatific and immune life which every human being deserves in our common home, the earth.”

Sohrab Kabuli writes about overwhelming corruption in country and in government. He is also not optimistic about the London conference outcome. He says violence and drug smuggling is present everywhere.(Link in Persian)

Gap az Gap says in Afghanistan any secular and non-fundamentalist political conditions are steps towards freedom and better conditions for Afghan women and different oppressed ethnic groups. (Link in Persian)

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Pakistan: Blog-o-tracking

Omer Alvie · 16:17 · South Asia

It is bad enough having my blog routinely reviewed by dot gov and dot mil domains but now I think I am also being followed by some rather unsavory net characters while cruising the internet highway searching for interesting blog posts for GV. I have to publicly declare here, that my critique is not specifically targeting the Bush Administration, as I am an equal opportunity satirist and consider any government fair game but I have to admit that residents of 1600 Pennsylvania provide the most material for banter, burlesque, caricature, causticity, chaffing, irony, lampoonery, mockery, parody, pasquinade, persiflage, play on, put-on, raillery, sarcasm, send-up, skit, spoof, squib, takeoff, travesty, and wit.

As this post is being monitored by suspicious GPS satellites, I shall quickly present my selection of this week's Pakistani blog posts.

Suspect Paki writes a rather eloquent commentary on Evil Ideology; Glasshouse comments on the continuing cartoon protests; Me Here also rants about the protests turning into riots; Organic Brew also takes a stab at the unrelenting protests; Fountainhead explains the state of the earth; and finally, I lighten things up with my Oscar preview.

Well, I better be off, as I am still being watched. I shall return next week, disguised as a hunter who shoots millionaire lawyers for sport.

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African women blogging this week

Nish Matenjwa · 13:38 · Sub-Saharan Africa

As per usual, African women have blogged about a variety of issues over the last week.

Incidences of violence are rising in Uganda as the country prepares to hold general elections next week. Black Looks writes about the volatile situation in the country and highlights the violations of human rights perpetrated by the current government.

President Museveni has now been in power 20 years and like most leaders who over stay their welcome he is fast moving towards becoming a despot. One of the essential tenants of a democracy must be to limit the number of years any one person can serve as leader of the country to not more than 10 years.

‘Why can’t democracy just grow up and be a woman?’ asks Rombo in an article where she writes ‘what nobody warned us is that when democracy is a baby, it cries a lot, it poops a lot, it cannot feed itself, and it demands round the clock attention’. She also says: ’But it’s our baby, and no one else’s. And no one else is going to grow it up but us’.

Molara Wood has posted a (very) short story and fascinating by a talented writer - Crispin Oduobuk who is based in Nigeria. On her blog, you can also see photographs of ’stupendous Nigerian females working their ‘geles’ (headties)’.

Ore writes about the trials and tribulations of going back home, the longing for the familiar and the difficulties in dealing with the ‘inefficiencies’ she sees every day
’causing so many resources (people’s mind and talents included) to go to waste’. She says: ‘On some days, I remember all the reasons I wanted to move back home. And on others, I’m just spilling over with impatience and rage. Life goes on nonetheless’.

’I live history all day everyday and every night while I sleep’ writes L.W. about Black History Month, currently taking place in the US. She therefore does not consider the day something to be relegated to ‘the shortest month of the year’.

Pilgrimage to self writes about her search for an ‘ethnic version’ of a Barbie Girl styling head as a present for her daughter which is fruitless as all she can find are ’blue eyed, blond haired and white skinned’ styling heads.

Although I grew up playing with predominantly white dolls, it didn't have any sort of profound effect on me growing up. However, I think the fundamental difference was that I was surrounded by black people - my people - all my friends where black (or mixed race), and that kept me grounded and proud to be who I was. So I had my white dolls yes, but then I also had my cousins, friends, teachers who told me ‘Tales by moonlight' about my heritage, my people, my world.

My daughter doesn't have this here - one of the problems children living in the Diaspora (how I detest that word) face. It is up to me to teach her about her roots and keep her proud of her heritage.

Finally, Prousette tells a story regarding a lucky escape from a conman and writes ‘if something does not feel right, it probably is not'.

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Bahrain: another eventful week in review

Mahmood Al-Yousif · 12:58 · Middle East & North Africa

$clowns at the Parishiners\' Family Day in Bahrain$
From time to time, churches and Christian communities in Bahrain organise excellent Parish Family Days where a plethora of backgrounds mix and mingle, and raise money for charity too. Monu brings us a picture of one of these days, with plenty of multicultural stalls selling food and lucky dips with excellent prizes to bring the punters in to part with their money for good causes. Present on the day was a good contingent from the Far East all the way to Europe with more than 60 stalls to experience. Of course these days are not limited to just Christians, but the whole community joins in, demonstrating Bahrain's religious tolerance; which is much in need especially at this difficult time with the continuing turmoil and violence produced by politicising “the cartoons“, Abdulhadi Khalaf urges us to sign a letter which plots a way to solving this problem by more tolerance, dialogue and understanding. A declaration is English, Arabic and Danish is Available for those interested, as well as another one in Arabic^pdf by Arab intellectuals.

On the other side of the spectrum, Haitham Sabbah brings us news that an Israeli News Agency has hijacked Google to try to suppress Iran's attempt to discredit the Holocaust. More importantly; however, he raises the question that there is “No denial of Holocaust, yet you deny Palestinians rights, and the massacres of Palestinians and other Arabs. I don’t want to compare, but let me remind you of some: and goes on to list tens of what he considers massacres which should be recognised by the world community.

Mohammed Ni'mah, a new blogger on the scene who blogs in Arabic, believes that the “winner” of anti-semitism this week is one of Bahrain's leading artists - and one who has contributed daily political cartoons for over 30 years to Ahbar Al-Khaleej, a daily Arabic newspaper in Bahrain - Mr. Muharraqi, as documented by the Anti-Defamaation League.

after the break: a reward for a killing, Bahraini parliamentarian encourage the Danes to research non-fossil fuels, customer service evaluations, Religious Policeman's interview, a Bahraini proves that there is water on Mars, language bastardisation, and more! (more…)

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All Quiet on The Chinese Front

Tian Yi · 04:27 · East Asia

The topic of Internet and press censorship in China continued to draw heated debate after the US congressional hearing on this issue last week. Rebecca MacKinnon wrote a comprehensive review of discussions among the English-language blogs on China. She also quoted from two well-known Chinese-language bloggers - Anti and Keso.

These two bloggers shared similar views as expressed by Anti and translated by ESWN:

The freedom and rights of the Chinese people can only be won by the Chinese people themselves. When the US Congress proposes Internet freedom of information legislation, this is truly treating the freedom of the Chinese netizens as maids that they can dress up as they see fit.

(Anti’s old blog was removed by MSN Spaces due to censorship. His new blog on blog-city is not available in China.)

Other than Keso and Anti, the rest of the Chinese bloggers seem pretty quiet on this issue. Searches in Chinese on Sina and Bokee, two major Chinese BSPs, , and MSN Spaces, the only international BSP available in China, yielded the following results:

-“US Congress” And “Freedom” didn’t return any result.
-“US Congress” returned many results, most of which did not mention the congressional hearing last week. Only one blog reposted Anti’s article cited above.
-“Press freedom” returned many results, most of which are on the Reporters Without Borders's 2005 ranking of China as the 159th on the index of press freedom, like this blog.

The Chinese government has suppressed reporting on this US congressional hearing in the mainstream media in China, which must have contributed to the relative silence on this issue in the Chinese-language blogosphere. Meanwhile, there is indication that the Chinese netizens are not as excited by this issue as their foreign counterparts. Mercury News, a US newspaper, included the following interviews in a recent article:

“I can find all that I want,” said Chen Zhao, 24, a Tsinghua University doctoral student. “I seldom find pages I can't open.”

Another student, Wang Jinlin, supported the censorship. “Some things are not good for people to read,” she said.

Some of the search results from “Press Freedom” did discuss the censorship issue head-on. One such blog lamented the sorry state of Beijing News under government crackdown, the event of which was detailed by the English-language blog Danwei. In the comment section, one reader wrote:

[translated] Did you (the blogger) study journalism? I did. From my class not many stayed in the profession after graduation. Now it's more than one year after graduation, the few who are still in journalism are trying their best to get out. I can't speak too much for others, but at least I'm one such deserter. Those who study journalism for their ideals are suffering greatly.

In contrast, the Chinese-language blogosphere is witnessing escalating discussions on The Steamed Bun Lawsuit. The case, explained by ESWN, was filed by the prominent film director of the Farewell My Concubine fame, Chen Kaige, against the author of a 20-minute video clip spoofing Chen's latest martial arts fantasy, The Promise (known in the West as the Master of the Crimson Armor). This topic is prominently featured on Sina’s blog home page .

The fact that a film-industry law suit beat the important topic of media censorship in the Chinese-language blogosphere could be read two ways – that China’s media is depressingly suppressed; or, that Chinese netizens are using this law suit to vent their anger at the establishment. Massage Milk, a well-known Chinese-language blog, said the following about the 20-min video clip, as translated by ESWN:

The emergence of parodies tells something — that people are skeptical of and disgusted with mainstream culture. They have no choice about the things that are forced upon them. The Chinese people are pitiful because they only see just a few Chinese-made movies each year without any choice. They are disgusted with the sham that is mainstream culture but they have no choice. But they don't have the right to speak out, so the consequence of this disgust is to deconstructive methods to “bring down” the manufactured products.

If only we could say the same about people's anger with press freedom in China.

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Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes

Zimpundit · 04:11 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Zimbabwe: Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), a civic action group looking out for the welfare of Zimbabwean women, held their third annual valentine's day protest march. This is Zimbabwe blogged that flyers promoting the march brought Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, to a standstill days before the event.

This is Zimbabwe's continued coverage of the march reveals that several hundreds of the protestors, including babies and men, were unjustly arrested and held by Zimbabwe's paranoid police.

Burundi:Agathon Rwasa reports that the UN is compelling the FNL to disarm unconditionally. The post also notes that,

Predictably, FNL apologists have attacked the UN for it's new-found resolve, even as the FNL murdered another four people, including a Catholic priest.

The anonymous author of an article on the “African News Dimension” website claims that “many Burundi analysts” believe the UN's comments are “ill advised”, but says nothing about who these analysts are, or what the basis is of their alleged expertise.

The article makes no mention of the August 2004 Gatumba massacre, which is widely believed to have been a joint attack by the FNL and its Congolese and Rwandan Hutu-extremist allies, or of the longstanding evidence offered by Human Rights Watch and other groups of links between the FNL and former members of the Rwandan army implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The article appears to suggest that such claims have been fabricated by the Burundian government for the sake of convenience.

D.R.C: Sahara Sarah sattirically describes what she calls “the Nescafe Model of Development,”

Rather than real coffee, most establishments, office coffee areas (if you are lucky enough to have one), etc. have Nescafe - instant coffee. It's just not that great. And rather than just recognize it's inadequacies and replacing it, it's just modified and jazzed up to appear better than it is. This is a nice metaphor for governments and development in many third world countries. Say you have a bad road maintenance system (or a “Nescafe” road system)

Congo Watch's Ingrid has an intriguing report on the possibility that UN peacekeepers will stop fighting alongside government troops if they continue to commit human rights violations .

Malawi: Blogger Mike of Hacktivate highlights rockstar Bono's recent remarks at the prayer breakfast held in Washington responding that,

After reading the transcript from his talk, I am convinced that Bono has a God given role to play. It is a must read for people tired of Christian hypocrisy, for people interested in Africa, for Christians themselves, and for people who love to see George Bush challenged (he was there) on issues of social justice.

“God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house? God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives? God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war? God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”

Mike is also challenging Malawi's open source developers to work on a project for cash.

Rwanda: On the occasion of Heroes day in Rwanda earlier this month, George Conard contemplates the apparent contempt displayed by many in Rwanda towards Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whose life Hotel Rwanda was based.

One of the interesting things that has stood out for me in this coverage has been the number of articles and references to Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed by Don Cheadle in the movie Hotel Rwanda as the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali. There is a lot of bitterness and anger toward Rusesabagina, with many writers arguing that he has exaggerated his role and acts during the genocide, that he only really saved a few people, and that he has downplayed the role of others at the time…

I was talking with a friend here in Kigali about this over dinner tonight, and we both agreed that the film was clearly a Hollywood production; more specifically, it wasn't a documentary and didn't try to be, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. While I can understand the desire to educate people about all of the heroic acts during 1994, the fact remains that Hotel Rwanda probably did more to raise awareness in the West, and especially in the US, about what happened here than everything else that was made, shown, or published in the ten years prior to its release, and I can't help but think that's a good thing.