Photo of protesters and police officers by R. Scott Lamorte (More here).
Touring this week through Guatemala's blogosphere, it was interesting to read the reactions to President Bush's recent visit, which differed from the usual pronouncements against U.S. policy. Some Bloggers discussed the Hollywoodesque display of security agents, how protests interrupted their activities, and how the non grata visit to a sacred place was fixed with a “limpia” (purification) by indigenous groups.
CARPE DIEM said that to go inside his own house he had to identify himself. He also described his street during Bush's visit:
Mi calle está sitiada. Hay una malla de metal en un extremo y un obstáculo de concreto en otro. Hay Policías Nacionales, Policías Municipales, SAAS, Antimotines, soldados chapines y gringos, perros, bomberos, periodistas, curiosos y quién sabe qué más.
What I thought were the interesting blog posts this week all seemed to revolve around business and travel. I think that it is the coming of spring that makes me what to run away from ordinary life.
Of course, if you wish to run away to say…Turkey…blogger Talk Turkey has an interesting way of funding that. Bloggers are all about links, and in order to create more links, Metin is starting a “link contest” for his site. The grand prize is a trip to Turkey, runners up get an iPod Nano….and as I don't want to miss an opportunity for a free trip to Turkey, I give this link to him.
Flying may not be everyone's cup of tea as Murat from Amerikan Turk tells us a bit about his fears while flying…
6 comments · »»“In the event of an emergency water landing…
…this aircraft will disintegrate into a billion fiery pieces and your physical being will instantaneously transform into the consistency of cooked ‘chum'…”
As a kid flying to Turkey every couple of years, I imagined that an emergency water landing would be awesome fun. There were huge self-inflating rafts! Super-slides to joyfully launch down! (no shoes allowed!) Some of the slides doubled as rafts! Self-inflating life vests! What a crock

An interesting discussion on whether one should homeschool their children or send them to a school appeared on some blogs from the Philippines.
A Passerby's Trail writes
I am an educator and I had a lot of teaching experiences in different school levels; yet as a mom, I prefer to homeschool my child. I’m aware how much work it’s going to be, especially if I intend to create a curriculum from ground up. But I’m willing to invest all my time, my energy, my creativity and my expertise. It’s worth it, because it’s for my child.
Tito Rolly, another Filipino edu-blogger agrees with A Passerby's Trail and feels that technology may provide a good platform for home schooling
I think homeschooling is not a far-fetched scenario given the extent of what technology can do today. For example, whereas we have to buy volumes of encyclopedia before just to get an idea on a certain topic, the same can be had with just a click on your mouse.
And how it would help the kids, Tito continues
What this means is that a child no longer has to face the dangers of going to school; being run over by a vehicle while crossing the streets, the hassles of commuting to and fro' being kidnapped, be confronted by bullies, playing hooky :-) or whatever… that also means less expenses for baon, miscillaneous expenses, grouchy teachers, etc. (No more suspension of classes during typhoons provided there is electric current) All they have to do is to log in to a site, open their lesson and learn. This may also mean that we can go global. Enrol our kids to schools anywhere in the world. Ah, the possibilities are just limitless.
Noypetes, commenting on Tito's post feels that home schooling might make class re-unions a thing of the past and the students may not develop social skills if they don't go to school and mix with other students.
(more…)
Today is Francophonia Day. About 50 French-speaking countries and territories, some belonging to the Organisation Mondiale de la Francophonie and others not, will reflect on what it means to have French as a language –often alongside others. (Not to worry we will tell you what the bloggers said as soon as they've said it.)
At Global Voices, this day has special significance as well. One year ago, I was barely getting my feet wet as a novice Francophonia Editor, translating into English blurbs from the blogs of French-speaking countries who don't get much coverage in other media. Today as Global Voices Lingua team leader, I and wonderful francophones like India-based Haitian blogger Pascale Doresca, French journalist and Le Monde contributor Claire Ulrich and Malagasy blogger and GV author Lova Rakotomalala have been translating in the other direction, i.e. from English to French at Global Voices en Français. The goal is to bring more and more Francophones online into the global conversation. By translating Global Voices content into French, we hope to do just that.
See for yourself, the Global Voices en Français site is a work in progress but volunteer translators have been generating French-speaking GV content for Francophones for over a month. If you are a French-English bilingual, please contact us to join the team at francophonia [at] globalvoicesonline [dot] org.
Flashback. Inspired by Global Voices Latin-America Editor David Sasaki's workshop on GV and language at the GV 2006 Summit in Delhi, a group of francophone bloggers approached Global Voices co-founders Ethan Zuckerman, Rebecca MacKinnon and Portnoy Zheng about starting a Francophone GV page similar to Portnoy's then year old GVO China site over lunch at Delhi Day 2. Other language communities expressed interest and Project Lingua was born.
Lingua, which is still in its infancy, brings you more than just GV en Français. It comes in:
-Bangla http://bn.globalvoicesonline.org/
-Chinese (simplified) http://zh.globalvoicesonline.org/hans/
-Chinese (traditional) http://zh.globalvoicesonline.org/hant/
-French http://fr.globalvoicesonline.org/
-Portuguese http://pt.globalvoicesonline.org/
-Russian http://ru.globalvoicesonline.org/
-Spanish http://es.globalvoicesonline.org/
Please join me and the whole Lingua team by contributing your language skills to any of the above groups. For Bangla, contact Rezwan Islam at i_rezwan[at]hotmail[dot]com. For Chinese contact Leonard at romleonard[at]gmail[dot]com. For Portuguese contact José Murilo Junior at portuguese[at]globalvoicesonline[dot]org. For Russian contact me at francophonia[at]globalvoicesonline[dot]org as we are looking for an energetic person to run that group. For Spanish, contact David Sasaki at osopecoso[at]gmail[dot]com.
Francophonia Day is truly a multilingual day for us at Global Voices.
4 comments · »»
The Zimbabwean government, backed into a desperate corner by a growing groundswell of protests, lashed out violently last week brutally crushing a “prayer meeting” planned by a coalition of civic organisations inlcuding the opposition. The fateful prayer meeting, slated for the Zimbabwe Grounds last week in the historically significant Highfields suburb in Harare had been planned by the Save Zimbabwe coalition failed to even take off. In a country with repressive media laws, it was the bloggers and online news outlets that clued the world into what went on in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's state owned media only gave the violence and police brutality cursory mention all the while blaming the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Frustrated by this, Kubatana Blogs wondered:
The media in Zimbabwe is owned and operated by the Mugabe regime. So Sunday’s aftermath, aka how the events are being portrayed, is in the hands of the State. Zimbabweans, since last night, are being force fed a diet of MDC thuggery, non-attendance and opposition violence.
This makes me wonder when the pro-democracy movement will get its act together in terms of creating its own robust media and information response unit. The majority of Zimbabweans don’t get satellite tv so Zimbabwe’s prominence on the BBC last night is neither here nor there for those who want to get the real story.
This man, Gift Tandare, was killed by Zimbabwe's police during skirmishes before the rally. On top of that, mourners were shot at his funeral a few days later.
Now there are reports that Gift's family has been forced to exhume his body as the police took it away from them. In her ode to Gift posted on Black Looks, Isabella Matambanadzo observes:
5 comments · »»He was on his way to a prayer meeting. He was committed to joining other Christians in collective worship for some respite from the political and economic problems facing his country. His crime: being an activist for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC. Rest in Peace Gift Tandare. Zorora Murugare.
Gulru writes a post in response to a question she was recently asked about why Tajik women accept the dominance of men.
Depending on who the community, Navruz, the Persian holiday marking the beginning of spring that is celebrated in Iran, Central Asia, and elsewhere, is today or tomorrow. News from the Caravan has a soundtrack for Nauryz for those who want to add a little Kazakh flavor to their celebrations.
Karen Shimizu reviews Maharaja, Tbilisi's only Indian restaurant.
Harmick of Blogrel explains why one should not expect much political change as a result of Armenia's upcoming parliamentary election.
Anoush Armenia posts video of the recent flash mob in Yerevan.
The Head Heeb on the dispute over the Nigerian Vice-President candidacy, “The root cause of the controversy is Article 137 of the constitution, which prohibits any person indicted for fraud or embezzlement from running for president, as well as similar clauses disqualifying indicted persons from standing for the national assembly or senate. In recent months, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has indicted dozens of candidates, and it has been increasingly accused of targeting opposition candidates who pose a threat to the ruling party.”
Palestinian blogger Imaan, who is now based in Sweden, gives us a detailed account of how she was able to finish her housework, arrange for her children to be looked after and slip with a friend to attend a Palestinian hiphop concert here. “Here's what I liked most about them; they were passionate! Far too many times I've witnessed apathy and hopelessness in the eyes of palestinians. Here on stage was pure passion. They are skilled. Apart from having a message and a coldmine to pour from (you need to be angry if you're gonna be good at hip hop in my humble opinion), they are skilled with lyrics, rhymes and melodies,” she writes.
“Palestinians from the souther Bethlehem village of Umm Salamuna and neighboring villages will protest against the Israeli bulldozers which are currently razing their land for the Apartheid Wall. In honor of Mother’s Day, Palestinian and international women will march in solidarity on the frontlines during the demonstration,” announced the International Solidarity Movement here. Mother's Day is marked on March 21 in all Arab countries.
“For four consecutive nights, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have invaded Balata Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Nablus, Occupied Palestine. They drove up and down the camp, threw percussion grenades and fired randomly at residents’ homes,” writes Bahrain-based Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah here.
Jordan-based blogger Shaden Abdul-Rahman says it seemed like all Jordanian bloggers woke up one morning and signed onto Facebook en masse. “So it seemed like Jordanians woke up one day and decided to group sign-up for Facebook accounts. It’s funny how almost everyone from JB signed up for an account on the same exact day,” writes the blogger.
As the world reads to remember Anna Politkovskaya tonight, La Russophobe posts a translation of a forum thread featuring photos of the Russian journalist's alleged killers following her into the supermarket just off Komsomolsky Prospekt in Moscow.
What has been written about Russia under Nicholas II sounds much like what could've been written about Putin's Russia. Apricotflan.com draws some conclusions and makes some forecasts.
Deleted by Tomorrow reacts to the post about the Slovak language and Slovak linguists over at bulbulovo.
Tom Allan has posted his reflections on community radio in rural Guatemala on Indymedia.
Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo snaps a shot of the original building to house Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
Milton Ramirez has a great roundup of response to President Rafael Correa's sparring with Ecuador's congress including excerpts from English and Spanish-speaking bloggers.
This looks like a tasty combination: crispy fried whole fish from Panamanian chef Melissa de León with twice fried plantains from Honduras-based “La Gringa”.
DesiDabba on the almost flippant use of rape as a plot twister in Indian tele-serials. “While the producers and others involved justify inclusion of such social offences as the ‘demand of the script’ and ‘story-telling’ there are many who simply label it as a cheap TRP tactic. Audiences across the nation now feel the need of censorship for Television shows. The common protest is that unlike a movie where one can choose to watch or not to watch, the same is not the case while watching prime time tele-serials.”
Sepia Mutiny has a moving post on belonging to various cultures - by birth, accident, choice and necessity. “No one has the right to be the arbiter of who does and does not get to participate in their culture. Such judgmental “guardians” had the genetic fortune or fate to be born in to what those whom they look down on are drawn to, but that doesn’t endow them with any priveleges like the one our banned commenter wishes she could exercise on all those “black and hispanic women”.”
ICT for Peacebuilding on the increasing instances of web censorship and the cause for concern. “..my firm belief that technology, though it may not be neutral, will secure and strengthen the work of pro-democracy and pro-rights activists far more than it will aid governments clamp down on them. All it takes it one photo or a single mobile.
Deepak's Diary on the third blogmeet in Nepal. “We are young, modern generation of urbanites who have left our backwater heritage behind. But, there are so many obstacles. One crucial among them is our own tendency: we don't want to take initiatives. Yet, when someone takes the risk and the road is less bumpy, we jump on the bandwagon.”
Light Within on the authenticity of the Black Madonna in various cultures. “Believe it or not — she is black! Her features, in most instances, are non-European! And ironically, most of these images are located in Catholic churches in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Now I am not out to distort history but the veneration for the Black Madonna has never ceased, and she continues to be worshipped till this day.”
Coming back from maternity leave, the prolific Ana Maria Salazar summarizes some of the latest stories coming out of Mexico.
Russian Beauty tours Moscow subway stations: Mayakovskaya and Park Pobedy.
Kevin Lim is inviting his readers to a panel titled “Crowdsourcing the Media” that he is moderating as a part of a technology conference. “Initially entitled “Citizen Journalism”, the panel I’m moderating didn’t quite capture the feel of what the discussion was going to be about, so I renamed it to “Crowdsourcing the Media”, which seemed more inline with the way local news agencies approach citizen journalism.”
Kuwaiti blogger Ayya touches on internet censorship in this post .
“We Kuwaitis usually pride ourselves that regardless of what, we still have the freedom to express our thoughts. Well; surprise guys, this is not true anymore. Internet providers like Fastelco, Quality Net and KEMS, are blocking sites, forums, as well as blogs, as an on-going process. And it would not surprise me a bit to wake up one day and find out that my blog is gone,” she writes.
Hegelchong criticizes the mainstream media's insensitivity towards animal rights in the news concerning central government giving two Pandas to Hong Kong for 10 years anniversary of reunification of Hong Kong with China (zh).
Israeli blogger Stephanie says that more than 7,000 British football fans are expected to be in Israel for a much anticipated match…and some more.
“The English side of the stadium has already sold out but the British fans are interested in matters beyond the game - they’re looking forward to sunning themselves on the beach, checking out restaurants, partying and hitting the local pubs (uh oh). The Israel press claims British police have banned “known hooligans” from coming over for the game. What a relief. Ha ha,” she writes.
Israeli blogger AgentAzure is questioning the attachment of Muslims to the Temple Mount based on photographs he has posted.
“However, my impression, formed under the influence of the pictures posted below, is that it was practically lying in ruins, forgotten and neglected, for a long time. Only when Jews arrived in the region en masse and started affirming their rights, did Muslims begin to show such keen interest in the “holy” sites,” writes the blogger.
Israeli blogger Yael K is looking for her gas mask. “This is actually a good question and I don’t have the answer –in some cabinet or drawer or under something or another, perhaps the bed, hmmm. Not that I’m expecting to need it for anything any time soon but as a preparedness measure I guess I should know where it is,” she writes.
Israeli blogger Batya is warning against the election of Obama , whom he accuses of being sympathetic towards the Palestinians.
“Yes, he, like Jimmy Carter and Condi Rice, is pro- (sic) “palestininian.” That's dangerous for Israel. It doesn't bother them at all that Arab terrorists are murdering and injuring Jews. They only care about the Arabs, who aren't “poor” at all,” writes the blogger.
“We carry so much useless and unwanted baggage that is passed on to us from the previous generations, and implicitly it just weighs us down, stifles our chances to be creative and imposes illogical limits on our lives, choices and freedom,” writes Tunisian blogger Subzero Blue. He advice is not to pass any of that to our children.
Vutha describes the four types of beggars one may find in Cambodia.
“So, my old fart of a father, pushing seventy if there ever is a day, is getting hitched to a young hussy who is more than twenty years his junior.” Mighty Afroditee posts an entertaining piece on the ever-changing family dynamic.
Christian Dunleavy at Politics.bm explores the concept of political blogging versus traditional journalism: “…while I certainly come at things from a specific angle, my potential biases are declared, whereas those in the traditional media can be much more subtle and undeclared…”
“I have a thing for old buildings,” writes Gallimaufry. “But it must be more than an appreciation of traditional Bajan architecture that moves me so, that causes me to feel a sudden rush of tenderness toward these abandoned structures.” Some perceptive musings on what makes a house a home.
White African blogs about a mobile information exchange for farmers in Kenya, “Rural farmers in central Kenya have been piloting a project, called DrumNet, that provides marketing, financial services and information to them using their mobile phones. The project’s premise is that information on the market is one of the key elements that keeps farmers from getting the full market value for their products.”
At WeblogBahamas.com, guest commentator Bruce G. Raine weighs in on what he calls the Bahamian government's “promoting a fear of white people” and the resulting alienation of those who contribute to the island's economic mainstay - tourism.
MM links to a New York Times story on AIDS in Afghanistan and compares Malaysia to Afghanistan. “
Egyptian blogger MaLeK (aka MaLcoLM X) has been kidnapped today as he was in his way to attend a sit-in in front of the People's Assembly in Cairo.
According to blogger Amr Gharbeia, Malek has asked a Ghad party activist to report the arrest to Hisham Mubarak Law Center.
It has also been reported that two other bloggers were detained: Mohammad Gamal (aka Gimihood) and Mina (aka Haj Girgis).
Chris Kiagiri writes, “Here at Google, we have just announced that we have signed a deal with the Kenya Education Network (KENET) to provide universities in Kenya with Google Apps™ – Google’s set of hosted and customizable communications services. This includes access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets under their university's domain and, as always, for free.”
Vincent Maher writes about a
“If you are wondering how low some people will sink then this is just about it. Colleagues in Norway sent me an email with this story about a Norwegian project to promote a beauty contest for landmine survivors in Angola and to create a fashion magazine for specially designed clothes for survivors. The project has received some $80,000 from funders including the Norweigan government,” writes Sokari Ekine who considers the project highly offensive.Sub-Saharan Africa
Jacky writes about the weekend blogger gathering organized by sina. The topic is about media and blogging (zh).
The Nostril flush is for dealing with cedar pollen allergies, JP explains how to use it at Japundit.
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