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The Week that Was - Bolivian Blogs

An isolated mining town called Huanuni, located in the Department of Oruro, was the center of attention in Bolivia after violent clashes between groups of miners. In question were the rights to exploit the mine, as both the state-employed miners (asalariados) and independent contractors (cooperativistas) both laid claim to the minerals. At the end of the day, approximately 16-21 were left dead and close to 60 injured. Hugo Mirando aka Angel Caido, who hails from the city of Oruro, the capital of that department, collects various links, photos, videos from various media sources. However, he is saddened by “the poor killing the poor.”

In midst of all of the details, one Bolivian blogger looked at the human face of the casualities. “Everyone is talking about this tragedy, looking for someone to blame or those responsible. It makes me very sad because they aren’t numbers! They are people, children that have been left without a mother, brother or a father,” writes Joup, who blogs at Este Arcoiris se Llama Joup (ES).

However, there was a history befote the turn of events. Mario Ronald Duran Chuquimia delves into some of the antecedents that led to the two groups squaring off. As he writes in his blog Palabras Libres (ES) and criticizes corporatism:

El contexto del conflicto de Huanuni, según las denuncias de la histórica Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia (FSTMB), se ha originado por cierto favoritismo gubernamental hacia el sector de los cooperativistas, sector que mediante un poder obtenido de la trasnacional Allied Deals asumía que la administración de la mina de Huanuni les correspondía, pese a que la ley impide la privatización de minas estatales. En síntesis, el problema medular de la gestión de Evo Morales es que la dirigencia de los movimientos sociales hechas cabeza de ministerio, otorga prerrogativas a la satisfacción de las demandas de su sector antes que dar soluciones a los problemas del conjunto de la sociedad..

The context of the conflict of Huanuni, according to the complaints by Bolivian Miners Federation Union (FSTMB) originated due to governmental favoritism towards the cooperatives, which is a sector that gained power from the multinational company Allied Deals, which administered the Huanuni Mine, even though the prohibition of privatization of state mines. In summary, the chief problem in Evo Morales’ administration is that the social movement leaders were made heads of the Ministry, making decisions to the satisfaction of their own sectors, instead of providing solutions to the problems of society as a whole.

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China: Youth, too much free time

John Kennedy · 17:54 · East Asia

Obscurity is here to stay for the residents of a distant northern Chinese town, it seems, judging from a post this week from Chongqing-based blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei.

中国的县之多，从未听说过某一县，当然不足为奇。比如山西的方山县，我就从未听说过。但最近这个县的县委书记张国彪来了个铁腕政策，打着为保护未成年学生的幌子，关掉该县县城所有网吧，干涉商人经商之自由，以及人们了解信息之自由。还被许多人赞美，这真是滑天下之大稽。

There are many counties in China. To have never heard of a certain country is of course nothing strange. Shanxi's Fangshan county, for example, which I've never heard of. But recently this county's Party Committee Secretary Zhang Guobiao has come up with a new iron ricebowl-type policy which, under the camouflage of protecting minors and students will close all internet bars in the entire county, interfering with business people's freedom to do business as well as people's freedom to understand information. This is even being praised by many people, the biggest joke ever.

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Russia: Journalist's Death and the Country's Future

Veronica Khokhlova · 17:43 · Eastern & Central Europe

President Vladimir Putin said this (RUS) about Anna Politkovskaya's murder in an interview with Suddeutsche Zeitung Tuesday:

I have to say that her political influence (and I think that the experts will agree with me) was insignificant inside the country, and, most likely, she was more noticeable in the human rights and mass media circles in the West. Hence, I think - and one of our newspapers has stated this correctly today - that to the current government in general and to the Chechen authorities in particular, Politkovskaya's murder has done much more harm than her publications.

The president's comments have added a new direction to the Russian-language blogosphere's already charged discussion of the journalist's legacy and death.

LJ user object (Vagif Abilov) writes:

When journalists, in a choir, interrupting one another, insist that the work of their slain colleague was of no use to anyone (and hence, the most likely explanation for the crime is provocation), their motivation is transparent, but it's still not enough to evaluate the significance of the deceased. But when the President joins them, it not only reveals all the significance of her cause, it also bares him ruthlessly.

Some comments to this post provide a glimpse into how divided bloggers are on the issue:

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Ethiopia's bloggers emerge refreshed after rainy season

Andrew Heavens · 12:37 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia's bloggers emerged refreshed from their long rainy season with a series of dazzling posts on everything from Somalia to stolen secondhand books.

For once there was no unifying theme – because there was just so much to catch up on as the sun came up after four months of torrential rain and dark grey skies.

Coffeechillisun got in early with a description of the new season's new police recruits, parading up and down the streets of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa in their new uniforms. In From zero to hero she wrote:

The fresh batch of graduates of the new Federal Police officers are out and about in dapper fresh khaki; the joke being that they are so young and skinny they have to sling their belts twice around their waists and get a muscle strain from having to lift their boots.

Seattle teen's opinion on Ethiopia, a welcome newcomer to the scene, gave us a rundown on the history of the sacred Ethiopian festival of Meskel, a celebration of the discovery of the true cross involving lots of daisies and bonfires which roughly coincides with the end of the rainy season.
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Kurdistance

Deborah Ann Dilley · 05:00 · Middle East & North Africa

I choose to begin this week's article with a disclaimer which is spawned in response to comments I received on last week's edition of Kurdistance: the contents of my articles are not of my own opinion, but rather the opinions of the bloggers that I cover. I try to remain neutral and objective in my article reporting: I take no sides, I will not withhold information and I will not skew what was said by someone else. The bloggers that I cover are not objective and it is my job to show you what their point of view on current events is.

Now with that out of the way, let's get down to business.

Both From Holland to Kurdistan and Rasti discuss this week the increase of political activism that can be found on YouTube. The debate has begun in response to an audio file posted of comedian/activist Mark Thomas talking about stories of Turkish torture against the Kurds of Turkey. As later explained by the fellow who originally posted the file on YouTube, his posting of this information was an attempt to bring the ideals of pacisim and political activism to a larger audience. Based on the amount of comments that this posting has resulted in, the young gentleman deemed this a good start for promoting the protection of human rights by increasing the scope of exposure.

Rasti had this to say about Mark Thomas's work:

There's more on all this in an interview with Mark Thomas. Although there is no date on the interview, it is in reference to the campaign. If you read the interview, you will get a frame of reference for the audio, and an idea of what life has been like for Kurds under Turkish occupation–the same thing that makes self-confessed pacifist, Mark Thomas, “enraged.”

I don't suffer from the disease of pacifism, and the reality always enrages me. For Thomas to admit that he could have killed the “golfers” (his term for the Turkish security forces), then he was seriously affected by the reality of the people of Turkish-occupied Kurdistan.

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