Archive for
February 27th, 2007
Stories
Panama: More Deadly Than War
#1: Panama Guide reports on Charity Expat Social:
…We ate dinner with Sister Griselda Rios who has been working with the orphanage for more than three years. They have about 160 children there at any one time. She came to the dinner with Felipe Arosemena (hijo) who has been at the orphanage basically his entire life. His father, Felipe Arosemena (padre) has been working there for 36 years. The highlight of the evening was a donation by 14 year-old Elliese Judge who has been saving her spare change for more than three years. Tonight she donated $303.00 to the orphanage. How cool is that? Read the complete article…
I personally know Elliese Judge, her brother Carlton, Naomi and Phillip Judge, their proud parents. Elliese, at the young age of 14, is working on her first fiction book. Like many others, the Judge family came from abroad a few years ago and made Panama their home. As a Panamanian, it makes my heart beat louder when I learn about events as rewarding for all participants as the one cited above.
Meet Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices' new Advocacy Director
Global Voices is delighted to announce the appointment of Sami Ben Gharbia as Advocacy Director, and the attentive reader will already have noticed his posts on anti-censorship and free-speech issues.
Sami pictured next to a free-speech campaign slogan
Sami is an experienced human rights campaigner, a Tunisian who has lived in exile in the Netherlands for the past seven years. He first joined the GV community as a result of the comments thread when we featured his Tunisia Prison Map back in September 2006. This innovative and exciting mashup of different digital media and tools subsequently gained much attention in the media.
The aim of this new position is to allow Global Voices to act as a hub for communication between different anti-censorship and free speech initiatives around the world. It is the second “leg” of the GV “tripod” of amplification, advocacy and outreach.
To find out more about Sami's history, journey to this position and vision for the future, community member Mary Joyce put the following questions to him by e-mail:
China: Government study tours questioned
Somewhat related to this recent post, Sichuan province Writer's Association member and Strong China blogger Li Hongzhi looks at a recent decision from the organizational department of the provincial Communist Party which limits government leaders' training trips abroad.
Chinese teachers go abroad to experience and learn, as do liberal intellectuals [zh] like Xiao Shu, even China's underground religious leaders.
So why then shouldn't the country's civil servants? One would think that would be a positive step for an authoritarian government. Is there the fear China's government leaders will start doing like its businessmen and bank directors? Not at all, blogs Li, speculating that given what he sees as an apparent lack of implementation of ideas he assumes civil servants would have absorbed while abroad, eagerness to participate in these study trips might have more to do with the trips, carried out with so little supervision, having become tourism opportunities for people who might otherwise not so easily get visas out of the country.
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Saudi Arabia: Government Cracking Down on Bloggers, New Saudi Ambassador to US, and More
A Press frenzy over Saudi school curriculums, a govermental campaign targeting a number of male Saudi bloggers, Anna Nicole Smith, Kareem Amer, forced divorces, a new government program to fight corruption, and much more are keeping the Saudi blogosphere lively.
Khloud did a great job at summarizing a recent BBC article that talks about King Fahad Academy's regret over some books, parts of which label Jews as “repugnant” and Christians as “pigs.” Ash, who happens to have spent 12 years in that school up until 1999, claims that it's all a “damn lie,” and elaborates on the recent hysteria:
It started when a teacher Colin Cook, who taught my brother btw :P decided to take legal actions against my school after being dismissed in 2005. Honestly I don’t really care if he wins or not he feels he was unlawfully dismissed that’s his problem and he has to deal with it, BUT to drag my school's name through the mud?!?!
According to Bloggers Observatory there has been a recent governmental campaign against 4 Saudi male bloggers, Fouad Al-Farhan, Riyadhawi, Mashi Sah (translates to “On the Right Track”), and Rajul Al-Huriyya (translates to “Man of Freedom”). This did not go unaddressed by other bloggers; Al-Failasouf (translates to “The Philosopher”) has written (in Arabic) a post about it and titled it “A Letter.” He began it with: “Our silence, as Saudi bloggers, in itself, is a shameful thing.” Aya addressed a similiar case; the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Suleiman (pseudo name: Kareem Amer) to four years in prison for “the crime of insulting the president and inciting hatred of Islam.”
Crossroads Arabia have also been very busy recently. In one week, they updated on the recent Valentine's-day-related punishments, Adel Al-Jubeir's formal assignment as Saudi ambassador to the US, HR groups protesting Saudi beheadings, cyber activism by Saudi women, and both forced divorce cases of Fatima and ex-husband Mansour, and Rania and ex-husband Saud.
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Turkey is Typing….Food and Music
I'm reaching in a different direction this week. Let's talk Turkish food and music. Zen in the Kitchen talks about the simple pleasures in eating bread with fresh olive oil. Tastes of Mavi Boncuk gives us a background to the history of the Turkish national drink Raki, and Almost Turkish Recipes shows us what Raki and meatballs have in common:
Tekirdağ, my hometown, is renown for its rakı (Turkish brandy made from grapes) and meatballs. Tekirdağ rakı is famous because although it's made from raisins everywhere else, in Tekirdağ rakı it's made from fresh grapes. As for meatballs, the recipe is a mystery. The recipe is not widely known, because nobody in Tekirdağ would make Tekirdağ meatballs at home; you go out to one of the billion meatball restaurants in town for meatballs.
Yogurtland teaches us about Ashura, a dessert rumoured to have been made on Noah's Ark: (more…)
Tunisphere: How to blog about politics without being censored?
Tunisian bloggers seem to have found ways to talk about Tunisian politics while avoiding getting caught by the ATI (Tunisian agency of Internet) watchdogs in charge of denying access and filtering out any site or blog that is critical of the Tunisian government and its members.
After its last campaign in December last year, which targeted multiple blogs that were a little critical about the current situation in the country, ATI seems to be more permissive.
Zizou from Djerba interpreted this as a good sign, hoping that it is a prelude to a new overture from the government, even though he thinks at the same time we saw very few critical posts since that campaign, adding that the last events (gunfights between police and armed Salafists) had to do something with this attitude.
Il est aussi vrai que les blogueurs tunisiens ne se sont plus risqué dans les sujets sensible et le surf sur les sujets borderlines ne semble plus etre le passe temps favori de la majorité des blogueurs.
En tout cas on ne peut pas nier que tout ceci est la consequence de l'episode de Soliman…
The only blogger who remains under surveillance is Mouwaten Tounsi, who is at his 6th new address since last year. Mouwaten chose to be more direct in his posts, especially in his open letter to the president, about more freedom for the Press.
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Links for Tue, 2007-02
The CRD/TI Armenia Election Monitor reports on a protest against Armenia's president that took place today outside of the presidential palace. The protesters are former residents of homes that the government evicted them from and for which the government paid less than market value.
neweurasia posts a comment from a reader who was discussing whether or not access to the internet is important for people in Turkmenistan. The commenter points out there are plenty of more serious problems to worry about.
Afghanistanica, a new blog covering Afghanistan, looks at the role of public relations strategies in Ahmed Shah Masood being remembered as a hero and Rashid Dostum being considered a warlord. The difference, the blogger argues, is that the latter let his enemies define him, while the former used savvy spokesmen to define him.
Registan.net discusses the plight of Uzbekistan's merchants. Despite recent changes that should make trade easier and more profitable, cross-border traders still face numerous difficulties as a result of police harassment and high taxes.
Elizabeth posts on the Tajik tradition of bringing a plate of food to one's neighbors whenever a large meal is made. The only catch is that one cannot return the plate empty.
The Glory of Carniola catches a cold (or something) and contemplates trying a number of Slovenian traditional cures (which, if proved inefficient, would get him tipsy, at least). Get well soon, Michael :)
Traveling Life writes this about the foreign film that got this year's Oscar: “Anyway, Lives of Others did make me appreciate a little more the hate felt by many towards the proponents and tools of the old systems. Even I can remember my mother being taken in for questioning to the police (milicja) headquarters when my father remained in West Germany after the martial law was declared. And I feel deep disgust towards people who actively supported that awful system.”
Stepping Stones posts photos of the Tirana neighborhood she lives in.
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