Archive for
February 26th, 2007
Stories
Bolivia: The Changing Face of the Flag
Photo taken by Patricia Vargas Claudio and used with permission.
National symbols played a role in the presidential elections of December 2005. Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, the main rival to the eventual winner, Evo Morales, accused his opponent of wanting to change the traditional red, yellow, and green flag to something that reflected the indigenous pride that Morales campaigned on. The wiphala, a multi-colored checkered flag used by indigenous peoples, had figured prominently in the campaign and rallies of the eventual winner. Quiroga and his PODEMOS party said that such a flag would not include those Bolivians that did not identify themselves as indigenous and that the existing tri-color flag was the only symbol that could represent multicultural Bolivia. However, Morales and the rest of his MAS party denied any desire to change the flag.
Senegal Elections: Towards Another Wade Term?
“Senegal Wants Its Freedom Back” headline. By R-Nesto.
Yesterday was election day in Senegal. A campaign marked by some violent clashes started about a month ago and most of the Senegalese bloggers were hoping to see the incumbent, PDS [Social Democratic Party] leader Abdoulaye Wade, defeated. Wade has been in office since 2000 and is just over 80 years old. There were (Fr) about 15 candidates, some representing politcal parties, others coalitions. But judging from their latest posts, Senegal may be in for another Wade term.
Will There Even Be a Second Round?
Blog Politique du Sénégal, which has had nothing but harsh words for Wade, seems pessimistic:
Hormis les directoires de campagne des candidats Ousmane Tanor Dieng et Idrissa Seck, c’est le silence radio dans les différents états-majors politiques. Tanor et Seck contestent les chiffres de la Coalition Sopi 2007. Mais les tendances qui se dessinent accréditent la victoire de Me Abdoulaye Wade. Le second tour parait de plus en plus improbable.
Maldives: Torture Techniques in Paradise
The blog Groundsix notes some of the torture techniques used on detainees and prisoners in the Maldives.
Putting in stocks: The victim is restrained with his or her ankles and wrists locked in tiny holes in a block of wood. The victim remains bent and does not have the use of his/her hands when eating. Defecation and urination is done on the spot and the victim remains with his or her own human waste for days on end. Victims of the stocks almost invariably suffer from spinal conditions for life, if they survive this ordeal.
Gang rape of women prisoners. Sometimes other women inmates are forced to watch this in order to inflict psychological torture on them. (Those who have been forced to watch this are known to have hung themselves)
“Mounting on the angle”: The victim’s arms are passed backwards through the vertical bars (about 60 cm apart) of the vent above the door in a prison cell. The wrists are then tightly handcuffed. The body is left dangling for hours at a time. The victim almost invariably has both shoulders and/or elbows dislocated during this exercise. Indiscriminate beating. Often officials wearing military-style boots stomp on the victim. (In one well-documented case, a 17 year old youth was beaten up on the spinal area, in the interrogation room. He was paralysed for life.)
Torture has been widely used in the Maldives to sustain the current regime in power. Association for the Prevention of Torture and Ill-treatment in the Maldives has documented several cases of torture.
Recent rise in police brutality has prompted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) to hold a demonstration.
Maldives is known to the world as a great holiday destination. Tourism statistics for January show a record number of visits by tourists. UK-based organization Friends of Maldives (FOM) has (more…)
Uganda: Special Report on Best of Blogs
Last week, Uganda bloggers descended on Mateo's bar in Kampala for the second Uganda Bloggers Happy Hour. In addition to catching up with friends and discussing the main challenges facing the nation, the group made nominations for the first Uganda Best of Blog Awards. In a way, 2006 was the year that the Ugandan blogosphere woke up, with a massive increase in quality of writing and the addressing of public issues. The Best of Blog Awards, the brain child of Jackfruity, is an excellent way of recognizing both communal improvement as well as specific blogs and their content.
For Global Voices readers who haven't been following the Ugandan blogosphere closely, below you will find a brief review of the 8 nominees for ‘Uganda Blog of the Year.' Think of this as akin to those slick video montages at major award ceremonies. This quick review is intended to show the incredible diversity of writing style, topics and personalities in the Ugandan blogosphere.
Lebanon: Academia, Agriculture and Construction
Let us begin this week’s roundup of the Lebanese blogosphere with non–political posts. Let us start from a post about two Lebanese salads that are used as appetizers during meals:
Skylark shows us (Fr) how to prepare Fattush and Tabboule, which are two delicious Lebanese salads that are usually found whenever Lebanese spread the table for a guest.
Now that we have satisfied our taste buds, let us move to publishing and academia. Lazarus wrote at the Lebanese Blogger Forum about “A Lost Summer: Postcards from Lebanon” which is a book that compiles quotations, written during the summer war in Lebanon, expressing the thoughts and feeling of people, Lebanese and non–Lebanese during that war:
During this summer war, many people wrote their thoughts and feelings and sent them to friends and family via emails, blogs, and text messages. After several months of work, a group of individuals have been able to compile a collection of quotations from these writings with the aim of capturing the essence of that time. The writings come from Lebanese and non-Lebanese, and were paired (in the form of postcards) with personal photographs that individuals had taken, making this book one for the people by the people.
Staying in the academic world, we have Ibn Bint Jbeil, who calls for the support of the General Union of Palestine Students at San Francisco State University. The Union is working on getting a mural, that pays tribute to the late Dr. Edward Said and to Palestinian culture, approved for their university campus.
Syrian Blogsphere: Free Kareem, Towards a Democratic Syria, Arabism and More
The Syrian blogsphere reacted to the news about the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulaiman with disgust.
Abu Kareem from Levantine Dreamhouse wrote…
The language of the charges is sickeningly familiar. It is the language that paranoid authoritarian governments use when they feel threatened, when someone tells the TRUTH. They ring hollow as if drawn up by a bored bureaucrat, the same set of charges paraded out thousands of times before; all they had to do was change the name of the accused. And for what? Abdel Kareem just expressed his thoughts, he did not incite or threaten violence, he did not undermine the security of the country. His only true crime is that of having and expressing critical thoughts, an inexcusable deviance for an autocratic and corrupt regime much more difficult to deal with than a bomb tossing terrorist. Citizens of such countries are expected to be subservient automatons without critical thought. They are supposed to act like castrated sheep, bleating meekly and bowing to the almighty, infallible leader, Hosni Mubarak (or Bashar al-Assad, or, or…..).
There will be a joint statement from all Syrian bloggers, accompanied by a campaign to free Kareem.
On another issue, Ammar Abdulhamid, gave a very controversial interview to a well known Israeli news network, Ynet. He blogs about it here…
Links for Mon, 2007-02
James from Japan Probe collects a few youtube video on Japanese T.V programs (with English subtitles) about the tensions between South Korea and Japan. The video seems to suggest that anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea is related with the nationalistic education.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) orders TV networks to limit “competition show” durations to two and a half months (instead of four and a half months). — more from China Media Project.
rustinpc has a set of photos on Flickr of this year's Mashramani celebrations in Guyana. “Mash” takes place annually on February 23, Guyana's Republic Day, and commemorates the country's achievement of independence from Great Britain in 1966 with float parades, masquerade bands, calypso competitions and other carnival-style festivities.
MediaCritic sees the “exodus” of Guyanese to other Caribbean territories as “likely to result in is a skewering of national identities and push those voices that trumpet and cling to narrow parochial inclinations into the background. With the inevitable cross-nationality marriages, dual-citizenships and other multi-national personalities single nation nationalistic fervor and dedication will become eroded and will fade to the point where politicians will be left with no alternative but to forge a move towards regional political and economic unity.“
Babalú Blog's Val Prieto posits an imaginary book entitled “Vamos a Selma” (”Let's go to Selma”) which offers a false and revisionist history of the American south and the civil rights movement, and asks: “How many of the same people that have lobbied for the “Vamos a Cuba” book to remain on the shelves in Dade County Public School Libraries, will lobby for “Vamos a Selma” to remain on the shelves as well?“
Bermudian blogger Christian S. Dunleavy has been the victim of a picketing as a result of views expressed in his newspaper column: “Evidently I was a little too close to the subject matter because a number of people have emailed me with the observation that this guy is so clueless that he can't see the irony in holding a sign with the term ‘media whore' while media whoring.“
Three French nationals, some Muslim, were shot dead in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in what seems to be a militant attack, according to breaking news from Crossroads Arabia.
Mark in Mexico cites a study by the Open Source Institute and the Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo (CIDAC) which found that 42% (90,000 inmates) of those in prison in Mexico have never been sentenced.
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