Archive for
March 13th, 2007
Stories
Guinea-Conakry: standing up to a power-hungry President
The technological revolution that enables ordinary citizens to capture and upload video footage on the web has been slow to take root in West Africa. Up to now we haven’t featured any video content from this part of the world on the Human Rights Video Hub Pilot. So this week we're bringing you a rare clip that has made it online from Guinea, the francophone nation whose capital Conakry has been in a state of siege in recent weeks, and where it appears that the struggle continues towards self-rule and sustainable peace:
The clip shows the Guinean Army firing indiscriminately on a crowd of civilians who were demonstrating their growing discontent with the increasingly autocratic ways of President Lansana Conté. Such eye-witness video footage is especially valuable because voices from the Guinean grassroots are difficult to find in the blogosphere. Most of the online commentary about Guinea in crisis has come from international news agencies and bloggers from elsewhere in Africa.
Turkey is Typing: You Tube “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Last week Global Voices reported on the temporary ban the Republic of Turkey put on media site YouTube. The background of the issue stems from a single video posted by a Greek accusing the founder of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as being gay. In response to this video, which was deemed as “Insulting Turkishness”, a court in Turkey blocked all access of YouTube within Turkey. When the offending video was removed, access was again granted. Turkish reaction has come in a variety of forms: anger at the Greeks and the entire situation, anger at the Turkish government's reaction, and outright embarrassment.
Cricket World Cup 2007 through the eyes of the bloggers
The 9th World Cup cricket started with a colorful opening ceremony in the Carribean islands. The tournament is scheduled for 51 matches in a span of one and a half months. The itinerary can be found here, the tickets here, and here is the official website. (via Cric Blog)
The third world view lists cricket blogs and portals from South Asia. A compilation of Cricket World Cup 2007 TV, Radio and Internet live Broadcast links can also be found there.
Mahesh of i3j3 cricket posts some images of Mello, the world cup Mascot. 
A Voice of Colombo posts details on the Cricket World Cup venues, where the matches will be played.
Bharath Hemachandran has done an interesting pre-world cup warm up match performance summary of the 16 playing nations. The Googly posts the world cup group previews.
Do you know what Sri Lanka had in 1996 that they don’t have now? ‘The element of surprise' is the answer tells Dark Horse. Bangladesh aims to enter (more…)
Bolivia: Who's to Blame for the Rains?
Blame it on El Niño or blame it on the West. Either way, much of the eastern part of Bolivia found itself drastically affected by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding that left thousands displaced and caused millions of dollars of damage. Reaction or lack of reaction from the government was interpreted in political terms, as many were left wondering why the government of President Evo Morales did not immediately declare the area a national disaster. The reaction from the rest of the country showed the true colors of its citizens with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised.
Officially the high volume of precipitation was caused by the phenomenon known as “El Niño” (The Child), but President Morales wondered aloud whether some of the western countries may have been directly responsible for these unusual and deadly weather patterns. Jim Shultz from the Democracy Center blog says that Morales raises a good question, whether Bolivia is bearing the result of these climate changes possibly caused by industrialized nations. Federico Fuentes also reports on this ongoing debate in his blog Bolivia Rising, which reprinted his article that was also published in Green Left Online.
Many in the department of Beni waited for a declaration of national emergency, yet it seemingly did not come. Andrés Pucci did not understand the insensitivity of the Minister of Rural Development, Susana Rivero, who said that such an emergency would be declared only in the event of a tsunami. Considering that Bolivia is a landlocked country without a coastline, Pucci thought the comment was even that much more absurd. Days later, the government decided to declare the national emergency in the three provinces most affected. Some analysts say that the decision not to declare a national emergency had more to do with the ongoing process of land reform, than the government's sensitivity to the disaster. According to the land reform law (INRA), any lands under such a declaration are no longer eligible for any reversion.
Cambodia: Blogger evangelists urge youngsters to share knowledge and experience
Since its inception in last year, blogging training aka Personal Information Technology Workshop has introduced basic use of IT skills to more than 2000 students from 10 Cambodia's universities.
A personal information technology workshop in session. Image from Kalyan Keo's blog.
After a few months of preparation, the workshop of Personal Information Technology has come to the stage. The first one was held at International University (IU) on Aug 21 with some 50 participants and the second was at Pannasastra University of Cambodia (PUC) with more than 400 students…
In August 2006, Mean Lux, the blogger advocate who introduced the term Clog and Clogger for Cambodia blog and Cambodia blogger, launched a workshop named Personal Information Technology to provide training that include several sessions such as: how to use email, browse the Web, and more importantly how to create and maintain blog. Up till now, more than 2000 university students participated in the organized workshops.
In the largest and most vibrant Cambodian city, Phnom Penh a large percent of people speak English and have access to computer and the Net at Internet café. The workshop organizers and their sponsor are optimistic that they can play an active role in conducting the workshops for participants from as many higher education institutions as possible. The blogging workshop has been made possible with technical assistance from one of the Internet Service Providers, CityLink. Besides providing the cost of producing training materials, the ISP also make the Internet connection available at every practice session.
Mean Lux, his four other blogger evangelists (Kalyan, Virak, Chantra and younger Kalyan) are able to run the workshop with the recognition and appreciation of university lecturers who reserve conference hall for over one hundred attendees as well as some computer desktops that connect to the CityLink’s internet link. At Build Bright University in Siem Reap, about 200 student attendees took the course.
(more…)
Afghan Whispers:Alcohol,Women and Iranian connection
Afghan bloggers and non Afghan bloggers who write about Afghanistan have lot of stories to share: From alcohol to women and afghan immigrants problems.
Alcohol
Onne Parl tells us why alcohol disappeared from the market last autumn. The blogger says
one can hear two versions why alcohol disappeared from the markets in last autumn. First, Islamic Government is really concerned with availability of alcohol. Secondly: it is a question of money. Considering the low prices, it was clear, that taxes were not included. When government started taxing alcohol, shops refused to pay. Alcohol moved out or it is just hidden, as informed people tell.
Women in Pain
Afghan Lord talks about Women's day,the 8 march,and afghan women's conditions. He writes
sometimes Afghan men beating their wives for nothing just they like it to show their power and anger in his family member. When they feel to beat their wife they do it immediately. Many parents marry their daughters off to wealthy men aged 60 and 70. A shocking story of child bride at the age of four in Kandahar is one example of thousands. Many parents sell their daughters like materials, they are not care where does she goes and what will happened on her. About 57% of Afghan girls are married before the legal marriage age of 16; about 60-80% of marriages are forced.
Safrang says almost same stroy about women in Afghanistan.He says
On the eve of another International Women’s Day the lot of Afghan women has not improved considerably since the fall of the Taliban. That is the unanimous verdict from the UN, AIHRC (Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission) and a number of other organizations and reports in the media. Domestic violence, forced marriages, lack of access to health services (and of lesser immediate concern, to education) remain alarmingly high.
Humanity has no Borders
Thanks to Jadi, an Iranian IT expert and blogger, we discover that a group of Iranians have launched a campaign to protest the Iranian government's mistreatment of Afghan immigrants. We can look at several photos of campagne here. One of the slogans says “humanity does not no any borders” and another slogan means “when injustice becomes a law then resistance becomes a responsibility.”
Links for Tue, 2007-03
Bahrain-based blogger Haitham Sabbah links to a shocking video showing a fight between two students in a classroom, apparently arranged by a teacher! “I have no clue where was this video clip taken. It is a classroom in one of our schools around the Arab world. The teacher’s accent sounds Syrian; however that doesn’t necessary mean that this toke place in a Syrian school. Teachers from all around the Arab world spread over many countries specially in the Gulf region,” he explains.
Secret Dubai Diary posts a news article which says that 200 women are being trained as preachers in the rich Emirate. He describes the development as “extremely encouraging and significant news.”
Qatar-based blogger Morad Rayyan isn't impressed with the results of the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards. “Though I refuse to acknowledge the list of winners since they have scratched my blog from the list of nominees due to discrimination towards Koreans and Jordanians and blah blah… but since I have a big heart and I can easily forgive people…I congratulate all 2007 bloggers “winners”..” he writes.
Friends of Al Jazeera blogger Karim posts a story which claims that the “lawyer of Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who is detained in Guantanamo Bay, has said his health has worsened and he is being force-fed through his nose.”
Tamara Tashbaeva takes readers on a quick virtual tour of her hometown, Osh, a city that she says she does not get to visit often enough.
Having watched The Lives of Others - the winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, “a grim portrayal of life in East Germany before reunification and the twisted relationship between cultural elites and the Stasi secret police” - TOL's Belarus Blog observes: “But as I spoke to my friends in Minsk, read the websites with news from Belarus, and recalled travels to that country, I realized that in some parts of Eastern Europe, the film was more about current events than the past.”
Ben Paarmann notes that Kazakhstan's president was very impressed with Qatar's Education City after his visit there yesterday, and reports on problems in Kazakhstan's education system and a bit on how the government might try to solve them.
Marginalia writes about Latvian graffiti, the “annual scandal on March 16th” and the largely imaginary “extremism” in Daugavpils: “The idea that there could be a significant movement devoted to Russian-bashing in a rather harmoniously multicultural city where ethnic Latvians make up only about a fifth of the population and Russian is overwhelmingly the lingua franca is quite simply ludicrous to anybody who knows this town.”
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