Global Voices Online

Stories

Lessons from the Free Kareem campaign

Sami Ben Gharbia · 15:58 · Middle East & North Africa

Even though the “Free Kareem” campaign has not yet achieved its primary goal of getting the 22-old blogger Kareem Nabel Sulaiman released from the prison where he is sentenced to spend the next four years for insulting Islam and the Egyptian president Hosni Moubarek, support for the case is growing rapidly, both online and offline. Even those who may not agree with the things he wrote on his personal blog — or the manner in which he wrote them — are expressing solidarity with Kareem by signing petitions, demonstrating in the streets, blogging about the case and adding his banner to their sites and blogs. Worldwide rallies designed to help “Free Kareem” have taken place in front of several Egyptian embassies around the globe and the case has caught the attention of both mainstream and citizen media.

The role that Global Voices has played in covering, supporting and amplifying Kareem’s case is obvious. Since the beginning, our team of editors and authors have been continuously translating and reporting what their respective blogspheres are saying about the case. As you can see from the next animation, Global Voices has served as source of information for many who couldn’t find sufficient background knowledge and, given the existing cultural constraints and communication barriers across countries, offered a better picture of the situation than many other sources.

(more…)

10 comments · read »

Egypt: Bloggers Detained .. Again .. and Released

Amira Al Hussaini · 12:53 · Middle East & North Africa

In what has now become the norm, two prominent Egyptian bloggers, along with a human rights lawyer, were detained in custody today and later released.

Another blogger has also been called by telephone to appear at a police station - which he refused to do unless he received official summons. Citing security reasons, this third blogger contacted GV and asked that all reference to his case be dropped.

The two bloggers were Alaa Abdel Fattah and his wife Manal and the lawyer is Jamal Eid, the director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Alaa has previously spent time behind bars for his activism.

Washington DC-based Egyptian blogger Nora Younis announced the developments with alarm, saying that authorities are closing in on bloggers and are continuing escalating the stand off between them.

تم استدعاء المدونين علاء ومنال، والمحامي الحقوقي جمال عيد مدير الشبكة العربية لمعلومات حقوق الانسان، للمثول أمام نيابة امبابة وجاري التحقيق معهم الآن بتهمة سب وقذف القاضي عبد الفتاح مراد

عبد الفتاح مراد كان قد رفع قضية ضد الحكومة مطالبا اياها بأغلاق 13 موقع ومدونة على الانترنت من المواقع والمدونات الداعمة للحريات، وحقوق الانسان، والتي كشفت وقائع تعذيب المواطنين في أقسام الشرطة مؤخرا وتقود حملات ضد جلادي وزارة الداخلية، وضد الدولة البوليسية، وتتلقى شكاوى المواطنين، وتقوم بعلاج ضحايا العن

“Bloggers Alaa and Manal have been summoned, along with Arabic Network for Human Rights Information director Jamal Eid, to appear in front of the Public Prosecutor and are now being questioned for insulting Judge Abdel Fattah Murad. Murad had earlier filed a law suit against the government calling for the closing of 13 websites and blogs, which promote freedom and human rights and which have exposed torture being committed against citizens at police stations. The sites have also been active in leading campaigns against the Interior Ministry's tyrants as well as against the police state. The blogs and sites also look into people's complaints and attempt to treat the victims of torture,” explained Younis.

(more…)

4 comments · read »

Whiskey We've Got, But Where's the Meat?

Luis Carlos Diaz · 12:30 · Americas

lingua → fr

Carnicería by Luis Carlos Diaz

Venezuela is one of the principal oil-exporting countries of the world. However, petroleum is not edible and, lamentably, Venezuela's national food industry is not able to feed its population. So Venezuela is, since its economy stopped having an agricultural focus at the beginning of the 20th century, a country that imports almost everything it consumes, with the exception of a few internal industries producing basic necessities.

The lack of understanding of how these commercial channels operate means that periodically citizens find themselves with a shortage of some products. From 2006 onward, the shelves of Venezuelan markets and supermarkets have been seasonally empty of things like coffee, sugar, milk, chicken, beef, pork, cheese, sardines, oil, beans, caraotas (black beans, the base of our typical dish), and rice, among others. Other products such as the spare parts of vehicles or some medicines are also scarcely available, as Mario Concha reveals in his article Anorexic Revolutionary.

(more…)

3 comments · read »

Bangladesh: Redefining democracy

Rezwan · 09:12 · Bangladesh

Since the declaration of the state of emergency in January 11, 2007 Bangladesh is going through a major political shift. In a graft busting operation more than 150 senior politicians, top civil servants and businessmen have been arrested. The list includes influential ministers from past regime, MPs from the major political parties and top shot businessmen and ex Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's son Tareque Rahman was not spared. With the recent execution of 6 death-sentenced militants, the caretaker government had also sent the message that terrorism will not be tolerated. Sense of sanity prevails in Bangladesh after years of political acrimony between the major two political parties Awami League and BNP. Common people seem to be not much bothered by the suspension of some rights like detainment without charge-sheet and barring criticisms against the government.

While the chief adviser, in effect the prime minister of the Caretaker Government Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed is the Boss of Bangladesh (as termed by the TIME magazine ), the military backing of the government is more than obvious. There are no shortage of rumors and predictions but the January 11 change was more or less “a bloodless diplomatic coup in Bangladesh” as termed by the blogger Shada Kalo . It is clear that the armed forces do not want to come in front directly for many reasons and this move was tacitly supported by the Western governments.

Blogger Asif Saleh writes in the Himal South Asian writes about this ‘pseudo innovation of an unelected, military-backed government’, which is gaining popular support. He critics the conventional party politics in Bangladesh “If democracy can be manipulated to serve a chosen few, is it practical in developing countries?”
(more…)

0 comments · read »