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On Peru's Election

David Sasaki · 23:10 · Americas

Another week, another important election in Latin America. This time we turn towards Peru where former president (1985 - 1990), Alan García will lead his country once again after defeating controversial nationalist, Ollanta Humala. Both men are widely considered leftists, but in a region increasingly depicted as split between “pro-market socialism” and “nationalist populism,” Garcia's victory has been heralded as a boon to free-market supporters and a rejection of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' regional, revolutionary aspirations.

But, apart from the international business community and political ideologues, what does Garcia's victory mean for Peruvians? How has his approach to governance changed since his leadership during the late 1980's, characterized by national bankruptcy and political ineptitude?

Jomra, like many, notes that while Garcia's second round vote tally nearly doubled that of the first round, it would be unwise to ignore the message underlined by Humala's popularity amongst Peru's poor.

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Belarus: Memories of the Soviet Past

Veronica Khokhlova · 19:46 · Eastern & Central Europe

LJ user aneta_spb, a St. Petersburg journalist, is posting vignettes with her memories of the Soviet years (RUS). Here's why:

As a result of heated discussions…

… on whether life in the USSR was good or bad…

I've decided to reminisce for myself. This will include memories about myself, my way of thinking and my perceptions - from that time.

In the USSR, I've spent my whole childhood, my whole youth and part of my maturity.

Additionally, I come from a family that has barely benefited from socialism - no free apartment (not even today), not even a motorcycle - and I'm not even talking about a car. I wasn't born in one of the capital cities - but 20 km from a regional center. My parents are from peasants, they are teachers. Didn't drink, didn't smoke. […]

aneta_spb spent her childhood in the westernmost corner of the Soviet Union, at the Polish-Soviet border in western Belarus. Below is some of what she remembers of religion, Soviet rituals - such as the Little Octobrist and the Young Pioneer Organizations - and of everyday life (RUS):

Easter was always beautiful, and it [contributed to my multiple personality]. Also, there were two Easters, and people celebrated both - the “Russian” [Orthodox] Easter and the “Polish” [Catholic] one. For the Willow [Palm] Sundays people carried willow branches decorated with paper flowers. The flowers were homemade, of goffered paper, and I really wanted to learn how to make them, and I did learn it.

When bread vanished from the stores, people began to bake it by themselves. And for Easter, they invited you to their homes and treated you to this bread and white buns with poppy seed. We didn't have that at home. Mama used to always yell at father: “They all know how to steal, and you don't!”

And I used to really like the Polish girls. Even for school holidays (in elementary school only; they weren't allowed to later), they weren't wearing the octobrist-pioneer uniform, “white top-black bottom” - but had those amazing colorful outfits on, embroidered with sparkles and beads, or simply embroidered… I learned later that when papa had just begun teaching at school and the children had been sworn in as pioneers - they came without their [red] ties the following day. “But you are the Soviet children!” - “We aren't Soviet children, we are Polish children.” But I don't remember any of it. Everyone wore ties and starlets.

Those starlets. For a long time, I thought that the octobrist star featured … [poet Aleksandr] Pushkin as a child. Because [Vladimir] Lenin was bold…

Accidentally, I learned that they meant Volodya Ulyanov [Lenin].

Stars were of two types: made of aluminum and painted over - and the cooler ones, made of transparent red plastic with a built-in tiny photo of a boy with curly hair. […]

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Global Food Blog Report # 20

Melissa De Leòn Douglass · 14:17 · Middle East & North Africa , East Asia

We keep a database of delicious food blogs from all over the world, and make sure to follow their creations and stories every week. Being the blogoholic I am, I spend endless hours searching and blog-hopping trying to find new and interesting blogs to feature. We love to learn about your country, your culture through your culinary traditions…, so if you know of a great food blog that we have not featured yet, please post a comment and we will visit it asap! You've got my girl scout's word :)

#1: Rani and Raja: Hot Tamales and they are Red Hot!

We made another batch of tamales. They are not a particular style of tamales. I used techniques and styles from the all over the tamal diaspora. My tamales are by no way traditional but they honor the ingredients and respect the methods of preparation that have been developed over the centuries in Latin American kitchens. I used maseca that I bought from my local tamal parlor. They make it right here in the Mission district of San Francisco. But I plan to make the masa from scratch some day with some tips from El Amor por la Cocina. Check out her real deal Tamales Panameños with a great step by step recipe en español. Also, get hip to the Food Diva, and check out her authentic Mexican tamales. READ THE COMPLETE POST HERE!

#2: Obachan's Kitchen: Konnyaku Day!

Jason of Pursuing my passions kindly invited me to join a blog event, “Konnyaku Day” which falls on May 29th. To celebrate this day and bring the lovely gray food into the spotlight, participants post about johnnycake dish on his/her own blog and send URL to Jason so that he can do a roundup. OK. Here’s my johnnycake post :)

If you are not familiar with konnyaku, wikipedia tells you what it is. It certainly is considered as a diet food today, but when I was a child, it was known for a different health benefit; it was said to prevent urethral calculus. I heard this from our elementary school teacher, and I’ve met several people who said, “Oh, yeah! I’ve heard of that, too!” And none of them knew why and how konnyaku could prevent that disease. I don’t, either. :P

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This week in Israel: what goin' on?

Lisa N. Goldman · 02:06 · Middle East & North Africa

Well, it seems that not a lot of note is going on in Israel these days. That, at least, appears to be the tacit consensus of the Israeli blogosphere. In the absence of major events like elections, suicide bombings and important holidays, local bloggers are turning to more prosaic issues. There are many interesting posts to mention, but no one clear issue upon which various bloggers offer differing opinions.

Before launching into my roundup, I'd like to introduce - ta da! - the first site to aggregate Israeli blogs in both English and Hebrew. Click here to view. At the top you will find a tab that links to blogs in Hebrew, as well as a tab called “Our Neighbours,” which links to Toot, the site that aggregates Arab blogs in Arabic and English. The Israeli aggregate site was created by Hanan Cohen, an Israeli blogger and Internet columnist.

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Afghan Whispers: Crash & Riots

Farid Pouya · 00:51 · Central Asia & Caucasus

According to media about one week ago violent anti-foreigner protests raged across the capital Monday after a U.S. military truck crashed into traffic. Let's see what Afghan bloggers have to say about this event.

What Happened & Why

Afghan Warrior shares his point of view with us:

“Most Afghans complain about the aggressive driving of the US military convoys. Coalition military convoys often pass through the crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard traffic rules. We know such driving tactics are necessary to protect the convoys from attack but they should also remember that it's also dangerous for people and civilian cars. I hope our police should seek better ways to handle the protesters and instead of killing them with bullets they must use tear gas and other equipment to separate the protesters. This one accident will not affect anything bad in our relationship with the United States of America and our friendship will continue. The Afghan people need the presence and support of the United States in order to defeat the terrorists and make a peaceful and safer world.”

Gossip in the Air

Dialogue 3 says there is a lot of gossip in the air (Persian). According to the blogger, some say American driver was drunk. The blogger explains that these people do not know that Westerners don’t drink alcohol in morning. Other people say Tajik ethnic was involved in this event to impose their will to government. Finally some say most of this event was launched by thieves to take advantage of the chaos. The blogger thinks this final thought is a more rational one. He adds it shows Afghan people have not learned how to protest and everything leads to violence.

Hungry & Furious

Faraye Niko bad says people are right. Most are hungry, jobless and do not have bread on their table. The blogger adds that Americans do not have the right to crash into Afghan vehicles and shoot people who came to help them (Persian).

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Global Voices, Caribbean Accents: report on Caribbean blogging roundtable

Nicholas Laughlin · 00:15 · Americas

THE CARIBBEAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION (CSA), one of the major assemblies of scholars of the history, culture, and society of the Caribbean region, held its annual conference in Port of Spain, Trinidad, last week, with the theme “The Caribbean in the Age of Modernity: the Role of the Academy in Responding to the Challenges of the Region”. A few months ago, Global Voices Francophonia editor Alice Backer suggested to Caribbean editor Georgia Popplewell and myself (a sometime Global Voices author) that we organise a panel on Caribbean blogging and other participatory web media as part of the CSA programme. We duly submitted an “abstract” for a “roundtable” discussion called “Global Voices, Caribbean Accents”, with the idea that Alice would talk about online manifestations of “Haitianity”, Georgia would advocate for “a Caribbean multimedia Internet” which harnessed the potential of audio and video, and I would muse over the role of the Internet in defining “Caribbeanness”. In the event, another commitment prevented Alice from making it to Trinidad for the conference, and Trinidadian journalist, blogger, and activist Attillah Springer agreed, at very short notice, to take her place. (Alice did, however, write a blog post titled “Four reasons Caribbean scholars could benefit from blogging”, directly addressed to CSA conference attendees, thereby participating in the discussion despite her physical absence.) The roundtable took place at 11.30 on the morning of Wednesday 31 May, at the National Library in downtown Port of Spain.

(L to R) Attillah Springer (standing), Georgia Popplewell and Nicholas Laughlin (sitting) before the roundtable. In the background are the Trinidad & Tobago National Library's super-helpful IT guys.

Though most other events on the CSA programme were aimed at specialist audiences, we decided early on that our “roundtable” would be distinctly unacademic in format. After brief introductions by Dr. Bruce Paddington of the University of the West Indies, our nominal moderator (who came armed with newspaper and magazine clippings demonstrating the ascendancy of citizen media, including one from a Trinidad and Tobago daily on the Alaa detention), we opened by playing a podcast recorded the previous day, in which Georgia and I asked a series of CSA delegates a not-so-straightforward question: “What does ‘Caribbean' mean to you?” You can listen to the resulting presentation here:

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