Archive for
September 1st, 2006


Stories

Russia: Beslan Anniversary; Day of Knowledge 

a small portrait of this author Veronica Khokhlova · 19:06

For LJ user yume_yami, a 14-year-old high school student from St. Petersburg, September 1 is, above all, the first day of classes; she posts a picture of herself at today's Day of Knowledge ceremony at her school and writes (RUS):

Tada-datam) It's happened) I did survive it.

Everything went as usual, we sung the anthem, we remembered Beslan, and despite small troubles such as tight shoes, it didn't cause much disgust. My tights got ripped, though, bastards, at the same time and at the same spot as Victoria's. We made a wish)

A couple of newbies didn't get her Majesty's attention, as they had nothing interesting about them. I was told that I looked like an angel. Cuttttie)

[photo omitted]

***

For 41-year-old Rimma Polyak - LJ user rimona, Moscow - September 1 will never be the same again, after what happened in Beslan two years ago (RUS):

[…] Two years ago, at one wonderful forum (which no longer exists) one wonderful person proposed this: each of us should write a post for September 1. I liked the idea and wrote this text, which fit my mood then.

[…] September 1 isn't just one day of the calendar, it's a special date, it's the day on which the new school year begins. And if the real New Year is a holiday night, a joyful anticipation of the [New Year's] eve, a hope for pleasant changes - the school year's first day is the morning that is followed by a long row of work days, it's the end of the vacation carelessness and the beginning of the responsible and orderly labor.

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Indonesian Blogger Confronts US Media View on Indonesian Muslims 

a small portrait of this author A. Fatih Syuhud · 14:57

Here is a stark example on how people from different cultures see the same thing differently. And how bias and pre-occupied notion on certain issue and on certain people or community can lead you to see thing only from the negative side of the picture.

Rasyad A. Parinduri at Sarapan Ekonomi - Indonesia's Economy criticises strongly the editorial view of Washington Times (WT) on the result of LSI survey where. WT said (emphasis is mine):

More than two-thirds of Indonesians favor the country's current secular system of law, according to a privately funded nationwide survey by the Indonesian Survey Circle, a pollster. If that seems like good news, read it this way: This means there are “only” about 82 million Indonesians who favor Shariah. Approximately 216 million out of Indonesia's approximately 246 million inhabitants, or nearly nine-tenths of the population, are Muslims. And while Indonesia's religious and cultural climate is justifiably regarded as moderate in comparison to much of the rest of the Muslim world — and its government is a very useful ally against terrorism — the numbers still leave plenty of room for concern.

… When the aggregate numbers of people are factored in, the study looks considerably more disturbing. If one-quarter of Indonesians favor cutting off the hands of thieves, it suggests that upwards of 60 million Indonesians favor the practice. If roughly 164 million Indonesians oppose stoning adulterers, it means that more than 80 million favor doing so.

Parinduri thinks that such kind of logic–making good thing from “others” look ugly and bad thing uglier– is misleading and by no means it would help people across cultural boundaries getting closer understanding. He asks the WT editor to think at the same token for themselves:

I guess, by similar token, since about 45 millions Americans (15 percent)1 do not think that “democracy is better than any other form of government”, the future of democracy in US is, really, considerably worrisome.

This kind of analysis — it's just beautiful, isn't it?

He explains further trying to put thing in right perspective:

LSI reports that 69.6 percent of Indonesians favor Pancasila, 11.5 percent favor Islamic country like those in the the Middle East, 3.5 percent favor Western style system of law, and the rest, about 15 percent of them, do not respond or do not have any preference.

The Times's editor should have written that “there are about 28 millions Indonesians (out of 246 millions) who favor Shariah”.

By the way, the survey's finding that “more than two-thirds of Indonesians favor the country's current secular system of law” does not mean that “there are ‘only' about 82 million Indonesians who favor Shariah”. The Washington Times editors are simply wrong.

He advises the WT's editor to write his op-ed in more prudent way in the future for the benefit of peaceful co-existence and greater understanding:

The Times's editor should have written that “there are about 28 millions Indonesians (out of 246 millions) who favor Shariah”.

Commenting on the above post, Calson said:

And even among those 28 million who favor Sharia a considerable number of people will not be in favor of the harsh Saudi interpretation.

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1 comment · »»

China: Lists 

a small portrait of this author John Kennedy · 14:57

Blogger's block, we all get it sometimes. Ruthless readers, our editors, don't have time for excuses. So what's a blogger to do? Lists! Here are few from the last few days of the Chinese blogsphere, ordered with a certain amount of thematic continuity:

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4 comments · »»

The state of the argentinean blogosphere: Entre Rios 

a small portrait of this author Jorge Gobbi · 14:17

Fourth delivery of entries dedicated to argentinean provinces blogosphere. This time it's turn of Entre Rios, a neighbor of Buenos Aires province. One of the topics we board the most in these reports is knowing if there is a perception of “community” among bloggers that are located within a determined geographic space. Such impression doesn't seem to be too present in the entrerriana blogosphere. As Victor Bracco, from vbracco, says: “unfortunately, I don't know or haven't had any meetings with other bloggers; I did get to meet people closer to the programming and development environment, but no bloggers at all”. Victor is probably one of the most outstading representatives of entrerrianos blogs, and he states “honestly, I started a blog without much knowing it. I'm an informatics students and I've been a programmer for a few years, and one day a couple of years ago I heard something about Wordpress. Because of my curious nature I downloaded and investigated it to find out what it was all about. I uploaded it to my website, installed it and started playing with it. From those first notes, there are very few registers (I guess only Google knows what I wrote) but soon afterwards I was writing more formal stuff, always within the informatics environment. Besides keeping a blog, he collaborates with the Sabros.us project, an interesting application that allows us to install a favorites manager, kind of a Del.icio.us, but directly to our own server or hosting space.

Another interesting example is Blogsfera, developed by Javier and which focuses in topics more related to technology. Javier is quite prolific and keeps other sites, such as Maten a mi suegra (”kill my moher in law”), more freestyle and humoristic, and Periodista Ciudadano (”citizen journalist”). Another blog linked to technology topics is FX Designs, mostly oriented to Internet issues.

Australia no Aparece is, on the other side, a blog of music we usually don't find in the radio. There are short reviews of albums and many references to new artists and trends.
Diego Efe's La Puñalada takes a wide variety of topics: music, technology, literature, among others. And Another Blog in the Wall is a blog of girls photos, usually from Argentina, and published in magazines.

To build this entry, I used the public register of blogs by provinces available at wiki de Blog Argentinos and in the Argenblogs directory.

2 comments · »»

Election and Censorship Dialectics in the Brazilian Blogosphere 

a small portrait of this author Jose Murilo Junior · 14:12

The first Brazilian electoral process witnessed by an active blogosphere is starting to show its unique role. As campaigns intensify throughout the country in the last month before election day, cases involving blog censorship have emerged. It seems that politicians are having a hard time understanding why they can't control information as they did previously. In a country where the historical alliance between media ownership and political influence has always managed to shape the narratives, blogs are starting to experience some success in giving visibility to alternative views.

xo sarneyAs reported here during the week, the picture of a painting on a wall in Macapá city, Amapá state, was enough to bring down the blog of Alcilene Cavalcante. The senate candidate José Sarney (a former Brazilian president) won in the Electoral Court on his first attempt against Alcilene. Her blog was brought down by its ISP [uol.com.br] even after complying and removing the picture. After accepting Sarney's lawyers first complaint against Alcilene's blog, the Electoral Court has denied a series of petitions aimed at putting down posts from Alcilene's sister Alcineia in her own blog which has been narrating the struggle. The whole story is putting the Brazilian blogosphere on fire, and is probably driving Sarney's lawyers crazy.

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13 comments · »»
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