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Personal and political: The anti-Castro blogosphere reacts to Cindy Sheehan's Cuba visit

Hell hath no fury like an anti-Castro blogger confronted with the idea of a US anti-war activist's visit to Cuba. Or so the reactions to Cindy Sheehan's visit to the island would suggest. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in 2004 while serving in Iraq, came to the world's attention in August 2005 for her extended vigil at a peace camp outside George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. No stranger to controversy nor to personal attacks, Sheehan travelled to Cuba on January 6, 2007, along with 11 other human rights activists, to participate in the January 11 demonstrations demanding the closure of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in eastern Cuba. Nearly 400 prisoners are being held at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The tone of the much of the commentary on Sheehan's visit from anti-Castro bloggers has been predictably strident. The influential Babalú Blog led the charge on January 4 with the following:

Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Code ~~Frustrated Lesbians~~ Pink and other prominent Useless Tools will be traveling to Cuba next week to protest Gitmo, hold press conferences in Havana and quite possibly enjoy a Jinete or three. . . .

Of course, this group of f***tards will not be visiting the Kilo Ocho prison or any of the other Cuban prisons shown in this pamphlet. They wont be visiting Oscar Elias Biscet or any of the other prisoners of conscience held in castro's gulags.

Nope. They'll be visiting Gitmo, where the detainees live better than the average Cuban citizen.

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China: And we don't stop

John Kennedy · 11:45 · East Asia

First blind reproductive rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng was charged in August last year for destruction of property and instigating a riot and sentenced to four years in prison, and land rights lawyer Guo Feixiong was arrested in September charged with running an illegal printing press out of his home, terms of sentence yet to be made public.

Then on January first, the day new rules granting foreign journalists increased freedom to interview Chinese citizens came into effect, all-round human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, his wife, his fourteen year-old daughter and three year-old son were forcibly removed from their home and rushed out of Beijing by an entourage of around twenty state security agents, according to posts on Gao's blog, now being updated by AIDS activist friend Hu Jia, himself having been under house arrest for the past six months. (more…)

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What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about the new year

Tim Muth · 10:00 · Americas

lingua → zhs · zht

Salvadoran bloggers begin 2007 with a call for realism when looking at the situation facing the country. There was considerable reaction to the end of the year statements(es) of the president, Tony Saca, who asserted that the economy was growing very healthily and declared that 2007 was to be the “Year of Social Peace.”

JJmar at the Hunnapuh blog comments on the government's patting itself on the back(es) regarding economic growth in 2007. He points out that the government's statistics of 4.7% economic growth had been discredited and that growth was only 3.5%. More importantly, the root of the growth was increasing remittances from Salvadorans who had emigrated abroad and not from economic vitality domestically. Exports were increasing, but these were also tied to the Salvadoran diaspora as “nostalgia” foods were sent to emigrants in the US and elsewhere looking for a taste of home.

Ixquic reflects the hopes and dreams (es) of many Salvadorans. She also heard the government say that the economy is growing, but notes that there does not seem to be an improvement in ordinary lives. She suggest that the lack of benefit to the ordinary person from economic growth could be the result of growing inequality of the distribution of economic resources in the country. Similarly, when the government tries to spin the country's crime problems by stating that crime has not increased in the past 12 months, Ixquic finds little comfort for the victims when crime is already at painfully high levels.

What troubles Ixquic the most, she writes, is a lack of citizen spirit and participation whether it be in politics, or justice, or civil actions. Those who do participate seem to be stuck with anachronistic ideologies and lacking in creative solutions. Although the next election is not until 2009, Ixquic already sees signs of the country becoming ungovernable as the old parties harden their positions.

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Sudan: Saddam's Good Side and Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers

SudaneseDrima · 07:27 · Sub-Saharan Africa

lingua → zhs · zht

In this week’s round-up, we take a look again at the Sudanese blogosphere. As one would expect, blogs posts were mainly centered around Saddam Hussein’s execution and the alleged rape of children in South Sudan by UN peacekeeping troops. Sudanese bloggers also wished each other a happy 51st independence day.

We’ll first start with the reactions to Saddam Hussein’s execution. The Sudanese Thinker was delighted by the news while others like Daana Lost in Translation took the occasion to remind people of the good things Saddam did during his lifetime:

We are never told that he led an extensive modernization program of Iraq that included:

He redirected the control of Iraqi oil from international monopolies so that Iraq would receive their oil revenues, which caused a huge economic boom to the country.

Iraq started providing social services to its citizens that were unprecedented in the middle east.

He established a campaign to eradicate illiteracy from Iraq and free education became compulsory to the highest educational levels.

The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free health care to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers.

Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

What do you know…so the tyrant had a good side to him after all!!!

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The Hindi Blogosphere: Nithari and the New Year

Amit Gupta · 06:32 · South Asia

lingua → zhs · zht

With just about every person in Nithari village of Noida & news media in an uproar on the issue of missing children and the subsequent discovery of their skeletons, Hindi Blogosphere isn't far behind in expressing their reactions. Tarun was criticising the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh for not even bothering to visit Nithari to atleast console the grieving parents whose kids were abducted, sexually molested and then killed brutally and whose remains where recently found months after they disappeared. Chandra Prakash is also upset on this issue and saying that Nithari is one of those faces of the corrupt Indian system to hide which efforts are being made by those who can make such efforts. He also says that the day we understand these things will be the day when we will be able to recognise these diseases and think of ways to eradicate them.

And its not that the new year started with all this serious stuff. Some of us welcomed the new year in the mountains in cold weather and survived it to tell our tale. And some have been really busy over the new year, like the Tarakash team who had setup a public poll to chose the “Upcoming Hindi Blogger of 2006″ which ended just a couple of days back and whose results have come out. This effort of Tarakash team didn't go unnoticed outside blogosphere as a leading Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar published a story covering this effort to recognise Hindi & Gujarati bloggers. And while we are talking of awards, a special mention goes to Eswami for giving away the “Eswami Indifference Award 2006″ to Indian Police Force which in fact satirically highlights the indifference attitude of the indian police which stand correct on the saying

Laaton ke bhooth, baaton se nahin maante.
(explained in English)
Some understand the language of kicks better than the one of words.

Coming to the Hindi language, Ravi Ratlami got his new year's gift as popular online hindi magazines Abhivyakti & Anubhooti did away with the font-specific versions of their websites & adopted unicode from 1st January 2007. Hindi tech blogger Unmukt is kinda surprised as live streaming media service of Council of European Union can be seen only on Windows and Mac & not on Linux. As he finds out, the FAQ from EU says that they don't support Linux as they can't do it in a legal way and on this Unmukt is surprised because unlike Windows & Mac(which are proprietory systems), Linux is open source and is not owned by any company, so how can supporting it has legal implications!! Thus he asks people to sign & support a petition against this action of EU which he already has signed.

And on a final note, GK Awadhiya's narration of Mahabharat continues as Arjun gets divine weapons.

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Peruvian Photojournalist Jaime Razuri Kidnapped in Gaza

David Sasaki · 04:20 · Americas

On New Year's Day, Jaime Razuri, a 50-year-old Peruvian photojournalist working for Agence France-Presse, was kidnapped at gunpoint on a street in the Gaza Strip.

Razuri was standing in front of the AFP office when five masked men approached him, pushed him in a car and sped away, officials said. Beyond that details about the incident are very sketchy.

Details remain sketchy.

This is a story of community, camaraderie, and international solidarity. This is a story with a happy ending.

The above block quote comes from C.J. Schexnayder, an American freelance journalist based in Lima, a blogger, and a friend of Rázuri:

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