Archive for
December 5th, 2006

   

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Tranquility and Justice in Caracas

A small portrait of the translator David Sasaki · 22:40 · Americas
lingua → zht · zhs

Of course the big story around the continent has been Hugo Chávez's reelection in Venezuela with about 60% of the popular vote.

Writes “La Maga,” a journalist from Caracas:

el día después

hay poca gente en el metro. muchos se tomaron el día libre hoy tras una noche de celebración o de luto. la ciudad está tranquila, no puedo decir si triste y alegre, tranquila, con esa tranquilidad del día después, con esa calma de primero de enero. los niños no tienen clases. caracas está sucia, eso sí, (aunque siempre está sucia), hay restos de cohetones y de propaganda electoral rota, pero está tranquila, sin alboroto. menos mal.
anoche no vi los resultados. tenía demasiado sueño y me quedé dormida sin querer.
ayer trabajé en vano. hoy vi que en la segunda edición por un error técnico no salió lo que escribí -ni lo que escribieron otras compañeras- en el periódico. pido disculpas al elector al que molesté todo el día.
ojalá haya luz en la ruta que viene en 2007. ojalá haya entendimiento y camino. y ojalá por fin haya gobierno que no necesite estar haciéndose propaganda todo el tiempo y haya una oposición que se oponga con estilo y credibilidad. ojalá organicemos un país.

The Day After

There are few people in the metro. Many took the day off after a night of celebration, or of mourning. The city is calm. I can't say if it's sad or happy, just calm, with that tranquility of the day after, with the calmness of the first of January. Kids don't have classes. Caracas is dirty, that is true (although it is always dirty), there are firework scraps and damaged electoral propaganda, but it's calm, without uproar. A good thing.

Last night I didn't see the results. I was very tired and accidentally fell asleep.

Yesterday I worked in vain. Today I saw that in the second edition, because of a technical error, what I wrote didn't get printed - nor did what my colleagues write get in the newspaper. I apologize to the electoral official who I bothered all day. Hopefully there is light in the route to come in 2007. Hopefully there is understanding and a path. And hopefully, finally, the government won't need to be making so much propaganda all the time and an opposition will oppose it with style and credibility. Hopefully we will organize a country.

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Google sends new year gift to Cambodia

A small portrait of the translator Tharum Bun · 13:11 · East Asia

Google users in Cambodia were surprised to find that when they visit www.google.com, the site redirects them to www.google.com.kh domain. In early December the largest web search company launched Google Cambodia domain that provides users the possibility of finding information in Khmer, the official language of Cambodia.
“Today, to my surprise, I found Google with new Cambodia domain (previous unofficial Google for Cambodia domain is http://www.google.com/intl/km/),” wrote Sopheak, a Cambodian blogger who publishes weblog posts in his native language.

A number of reports from Cambodia, mostly by technology enthusiasts, indicate positive response to Google stepping to the niche market. “Just noticed that Google finally accepts Khmer. For example, search for ភាសាខ្មែរ (”Khmer” in Khmer)… not that many results there yet, but it’s nice to see things going forward for Khmer language,” an expat working as a web designer mentioned on his weblog.

google_khmer
A screenshot of Khmer-language version of Google homepage

The news of Google's launch of the Khmer language got a mention in Cambodia's popular multilingual newspaper, the Cambodia Daily. The full version of the text can be found here.
As quoted in the newspaper, Intel Corporation representatives believed that only 12 percent of Cambodians had access to the Internet.

The mission of Google, the leading online search, is to organize the world's information. This big idea behind the success of company's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin makes Google to the first choice of most Internet users in online engine.

Vutha at ‘We always go forward over the world' noted that: “Recently, Google Company launched the Google Cambodia domain (www.google.com.kh). By the way, we can type in Khmer Unicode to search for something. In the result, in the near future, we, cambodians, will use Khmer Unicod Font instead of other Khmer fonts like ABC font, Limon and so on.” And more comprehensive coverage was made available by a long-time Cambodia blogger at ‘webbed feet'.
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Bloggers in West Africa, harsh migration, low bandwidth and Who Killed Deyda?

Oluniyi David Ajao · 07:53 · Sub-Saharan Africa

We get to know more about two bloggers in West Africa this week. Keith Smith in Burkina Faso shares his photos, and George Ngwane in Cameroon re-publishes an interview with a local newsmagazine.

Blogger, Keith Smith, has been a missionary in Burkina Faso since 1989 and has been blogging at Under the acacias. He shares a comment he has been hearing in recent time. However, he wants No Comment:

You’re Looking Old!

Keith in rice field Keith at home

This was another unwanted comment, made twice by different people in the last few days here in Burkina. Apparently, my beard is significantly whiter than when I was here a couple of years ago. The comment was probably meant as a compliment, and might have been joined by the other unwanted compliment: “You’re looking fat!”

You can make up your own mind from these photos of me from 2003 in the rice field, and this week in Gorom. Maybe on this occasion it is just as well the comment section is closed…

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