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The Caribbean blogosphere does Phagwah

A chowtal group performs at the Phagwah celebrations in Trinidad. By Nicholas Laughlin

In the Caribbean, the Hindu spring festival of Holi is more commonly known by its Bhojpuri name of Phagwah. This past week, Hindus in the Caribbean celebrated Phagwah, with non-Hindus like Caribbean Free Radio also taking part in the festivities. Complementing CFR's rather secular take on the colorful scenes in one part of Trinidad are Flickr photos from Nicholas Laughlin and Tillahwillah.

Phagwah revellers covered in abeer dye and other colourful substances. By Nicholas Laughlin

Lee Ann, visiting Guyana from Canada, rhapsodizes about the celebrations in Guyana's capital city of Georgetown, and New York Friend posts a report with photos on the festivities in the heavily West Indian district of Richmond Hill, in Queens, New York, where temperatures were considerably lower. KDunk and arZan posted reports and photos from Richmond Hill as well.

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Thailand: BlogconThai 2006

Enda Nasution · 22:57 · East Asia

BlogCon Thailand 2006

BlogCon Thailand 2006, the first blogger meeting that discuss Weblogs, Online Information and Collaboration Thailand was successfully held on Sunday, 19 March 2006 with about 25 participants that came not only from Bangkok, but also from Phuket, Chiang Mai and even Bali.

Took place at Thammasat University Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication in Bangkok, the event will not be as successful without the kind support of the university and faculty that lend us the place (and provided refreshments!), but the highest credit has to go to Paola Di Maio that initiated the WOICT Groups that planned and organized the meeting with the generous help from two outstanding Thai bloggers, Jim Puntasen and Chinarut Ruangchotvit.

Several discussion and interesting information came up from speakers at the conference.

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What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — post-election edition

Tim Muth · 18:26 · Americas

El Salvador held elections on Sunday, March 12, and almost every Salvadoran blogger has had something to say about the process. The elections saw ARENA make gains in the national legislature while the FMLN held its own. ARENA also made gains in controlling the mayor's office in many cities. But the highest profile race was for mayor of San Salvador, which FMLN candidate Violeta Menjivar won by only 44 votes. Both Menjivar and ARENA candidate Rodrigo Samayoa initially “self-proclaimed” themselves winners, and FMLN demonstrators clashed with police around the hotel where ballots were being scrutinized.

Jjmar at the Hunnapuh blog, as translated on Global Voices, offered post-election analysis. There were positives and negatives for both of the major parties, but on balance ARENA showed itself best able to play the politics of polarization. The FMLN finds itself a minority party in the legislature again, with only the “right of the pig,” to scream as it is being lead to the slaughter house. Its power will be limited to attempting to block government requests for borrowing authority.

Author Rafael Menjivar Ochoa, who recently wrote a book on the turbulent years 1979-1981 in El Salvador, reflects in his blog on what the close election in San Salvador means for the FMLN. He finds that this election can only be seen as a bad sign for the FMLN, and this is due mostly to that party's own failings. He points to the fact that Violeta Menjivar was a political protege of Schafik Handal and that in previous elections, the FMLN received its lowest vote totals when it was farthest to the ideological left represented by Handal. The party's expulsion of more moderate members and its insistence on far left orthodoxy weakened its appeal to the populace. He notes that the demonstrations of the FMLN as votes were slowly reviewed in San Salvador were misplaced, since a careful review of votes is necessary in any democratic country where an election is so close.

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Free Hao Wu!

Rebecca MacKinnon · 12:15 · East Asia

lingua → zht · zhs

On March 22nd it will be one month since filmmaker and Global Voices Northeast Asia Editor Hao Wu was detained without charge. We appeal to the Chinese government for Hao Wu's immediate release!

What happened to Hao?

Hao Wu (Chinese name: 吴皓), a Chinese documentary filmmaker who lived in the U.S. between 1992 and 2004, was detained by the Beijing division of China’s State Security Bureau on the afternoon of Wednesday, Febuary 22, 2006. On that afternoon, Hao had met in Beijing with a congregation of a Christian church not recognized by the Chinese government, as part of the filming of his next documentary.

Hao had also been in phone contact with Gao Zhisheng, a lawyer specializing in human rights cases. Gao confirmed to one of Hao’s friends that the two had been in phone contact and planned to meet on Feb. 22, but that their meeting never took place after Gao advised against it. On Friday, Feb. 24, Hao’s editing equipment and several videotapes were removed from the apartment where he had been staying. Hao has been in touch his family since Feb. 22, but judging from the tone of the conversations, he wasn’t able to speak freely. One of Hao’s friends has been interrogated twice since his detention. Beijing's Public Security Bureau (the police) has confirmed that Hao has been detained, but have declined to specify the charges against him.

The reason for Hao’s detention is unknown. One of the possibilities is that the authorities who detained Hao want to use him and his video footage to prosecute members of China’s underground Churches. Hao is an extremely principled individual, who his friends and family believe will resist such a plan. Therefore, we are very concerned about his mental and physical well-being.

More about Hao: From Scientist to Computer Guy to Filmmaker.

Hao began his filmmaking career in 2004, when he gave up his job as a senior product manager at Atlanta-based Earthlink Inc. and returned to China to film Beijing or Bust, a collage of interviews with U.S.-born ethnic Chinese who now live in China's capital city. Before working for Earthlink, Hao worked as a product manager for Internet portal Excite from 2000 to 2001 in Redwood City, CA Before that, Hao had also worked as a strategic planning and product development director for Merchant Internet Group, an intern for American Express Co. and a molecular biologist with UCB Research Inc.

Hao earned an MBA degree from University of Michigan Business School in May 2000 and a Master of Science in molecular and cell biology in July, 1995 from Brandeis University, where he was awarded a full merit-based scholarship. Before studying in the U.S., Hao earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the China University of Science and Technology in Hefei, Anhui province in June, 1992.

Hao the Blogger.

Hao has also been an active blogger, writing as "Beijing Loafer" on his personal blog, Beijing or Bust, named after his film. Due to Chinese government internet blocking of his blog hosting service Blogger.com, he also has a mirror version of the site on MSN Spaces. In early February Hao began contributing as Northast Asia Editor to Global Voices Online, an international bloggers' network hosted at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Writing under the pen name Tian Yi, Hao's contributions aimed to bring citizens' online voices from China and the rest of North East Asia to readers in the English-speaking world.

Why didn't we speak out about his detention earlier?

Hao’s family and friends in China have deflected questions about his detention for the past month, as authorities in contact with people close to Hao have urged them not to publicize the case. There had been hope that his detention was only for a short period of time, in which case publicity would not have been helpful.

For more information…

Hao's family and friends inside China do not want to be interviewed directly by the media at this time, and thus we will not provide journalists with their contact information. We have set up a website dedicated to Hao's release at: www.freehaowu.org. It will be updated regularly with new information that emerges about Hao's situation.

All further queries can be e-mailed to: freehaowu@gmail.com.

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This week in Israel: elections, a prison siege and bird flu

Lisa N. Goldman · 11:58 · Middle East & North Africa

Israel’s national elections are just over a week away and Israeli bloggers are finally (finally!) showing some interest in the subject – sort of. The thing is, though, that most are just writing about why they are unable to muster enthusiasm for any of the parties and why they are totally burned out by politics in general.

Shai Tsur of Shaister, a confessed politics junkie, has been the most prolific elections blogger.

In this post, he summarizes the ad campaigns of each of the major parties and offers a brief analysis of each. He explains that “According to Israeli law, political parties cannot just buy ad time willy nilly. Instead, the three broadcast stations are required to air a daily block (usually 45 minutes long) of political ads during prime time. The parties are awarded broadcast time based on the number of Knesset seats they have, with space reserved for parties that are not currently in the Knesset.”

Shai and I were also asked to write a series of posts for the Guardian’s newsblog. In his first post, The Promise of Kadima, Shai explains why he, a former Labor supporter, plans to vote for Kadima.

“I come from a long-time Labor family. During the '90s I supported the Oslo accords and the peace process with the Palestinians. Then came September 2000 and the second intifada. Like many Israelis who once identified with the left, I became disillusioned with Oslo. My politics shifted rightward with every Palestinian suicide bombing. But I have never been an advocate of the Greater Land of Israel approach. I favour a two-state solution, but one that ensures Israel's security.
In short, I am the classic Kadima voter.”

In his second post for the Guardian, called “The invisible election,” Shai offers an explanation as to why Israelis are so unenthusiastic about the elections.

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African women blogging this week

Nish Matenjwa · 07:52 · Sub-Saharan Africa

As usual, African women have been blogging about a variety issues.

Black Looks has recorded a moving audio post honouring the brilliant African-American science fiction writer who recently passed away, Octavia E. Butler. Black Looks has also posted information regarding the The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship which is aimed at enabling writers of colour to attend a Clarion writing workshop where Octavia got her start.

Kenyan Pundit writes about Kenyans' political amnesia which shows how Kenyans easily forget the crimes and misdemeanours of government. She also highlights how easy it is to complain and yet do nothing and says ‘we’ll spend another five years complaining about how nothing has changed’.

Discarding the argument that is often used to attempt to show that Africans do not need computers as their needs are more focused on bread and butter issues which she says is a fallacy, Afromusing has written and posted an image of the solar powered solo computer and states that solar power offers a reliable power solution.

Rombo has written what appears to be a tongue-in-cheek on the surface but what in fact is an absolutely vital and necessary guide to people who she says want their ‘wealth to make the world a better place for folk less fortunate (term used loosely) than yourself’. She begins by asking these people to do things such as ’let the ‘less fortunate’ speak’, ‘listen’, ‘really listen’ and other nuggets of information.

Pilgrimage to Self’s latest post carries a list of ’25 things a sista should never apologise for’. My personal favourite is number 25: ‘Never apologise for being you’.

The Mad Kenyan Woman writes a heartfelt post on Kenyans and homosexuality and how gay men and women are unable to talk openly their sexuality because of the stigma. ‘Your sisters, your brothers, your friends, your colleagues, your cousins, your nephews, your nieces, even your parents, are trapped in a prison more violent and restrictive than any physical restraint’, she writes.

Ore writes about BAWo (Blogs for African Women), a project for African women whose objectives include encouraging African women who want to start blogging and support those who recently started blogging and to encourage African women to report their own stories as an alternative to mainstream media. The project is currently seeking mentors and Ore has provided contact information for people wishing to get involved.

‘I've just listened to truly the best speech since Barrack Oboma's keynote speech at the Democratic Convention’, Strawberries writes after listening to Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s recent speech to the American Congress which was interrupted several times by standing ovations. ’I have goose bums and am so proud’, Strawberries says and concludes ‘to all the doubting Thomases, yes a woman can. A woman will’.

There are two Nigerian writers on the long list of Million Writers Award of the best online stories of 2005, writesMolara Wood. The list will be cut down to 10 stories on April 1 and then the public vote for the top places will begin.

Adefunke writes amusingly about an all too familiar situation in Africa where one does not know whether they will have electricity from one day to the next. ‘Lord let the power situation on my street be sorted’ she prays and this time, her prayer is answered although her wallet is just that little lighter.

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