Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2007 April 23

23 April 2007

Daily archive · 9 posts

Stories from 23 April 2007

Russia: Reactions to Boris Yeltsin's Death

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president, died today in Moscow. There is an avalanche of responses to his death in the Russian blogosphere, ranging from “rest in peace” to “be damned.”...

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Bolivia: Interview With El Alto Blogger Mario Duran

Written by Eduardo Avila · Latin America

The city of El Alto is not known for blogging. For starters, internet access is scarce and expensive, while citizens seem to have different priorities. Many who do have internet access have yet to discover the value of expressing themselves via blogs. Mario Duran is a blogger that wants to set out to change all that. In this recent interview, he discusses his entry to the Bolivian blogosphere and his plans to reach out to others.

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China: Blame Canada?

Written by John Kennedy · East Asia, North America

Google seizes up before any results appear in a search for 'Celil,' 'Canada' (in Chinese) and '2007,' fitting given that a proxified search turns up no Chinese language media reports from websites that can be readily viewed within China. It's a different story, as usual, for a Google search which includes the word blog.

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Morocco: Corruption, politics, and the aftermath of a bombing

Written by Jillian C. York · Middle East & North Africa

Corruption encountered while filming Sahara, thoughts on the Casablanca bombings and concerns about the general safety of Morocco as well as the Virginia Tech massacre have been echoing in the Moroccan blogosphere this week.

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Touring Libyan Blogs: more blogger meet ups, education, proud to be a Libyan and a handwriting contest.

Written by Fozia Mohamed · Middle East & North Africa

From Libyan bloggers getting to meet each other face to face to the ugly face of the crisis of the Libyan children infected with Aids in Benghazi, the Libyan blogosphere is thriving with fresh and new ideas this week.

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Tunisphere and the French elections:

Written by samsoum · Middle East & North Africa

Tunisia's love-hate relation - more love than hate - comes to life with the extensive coverage Tunisian bloggers provided in the run up to the French elections. France's impact on Tunisia is both historic and present - it has colonised the latter for a good 75 years and is today its foremost economic partner.

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Nepal: Bloggers Form Association

Written by Ujjwal Acharya · South Asia

Twenty-four bloggers from capital Kathmandu gathered on Saturday April 21 to discuss the formation of Bloggers Association of Nepal (BLOGAN) for the promotion and protection of blogs and blogging in the tiny Himalayan country where blogs are yet to be recognized by the population.

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Myanmar: Helping Hand Blogs

Written by May Hnin Phyu · East Asia

DrCM People of Myanmar are well known for their gentle nature, kind heart, sincerity, generosity and a great helping hand. In Myanmar, various type of non profitable groups and non governmental organizations are formed to help out physical, educational and well being of the country men especially youth and children. These days, many such organizations are starting to use blogs to announce and publish their organizations’ activities. Among them:

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Iranian Women's Movement Beyond Gender and Age

Written by Fred Petrossian · Middle East & North Africa

Thanks to Kosoof, a leading photoblogger, we can discover some important moments of this movement in photographs from the last two years. Here are six photos chosen to display that in the struggle there is no question of gender or age. We see old and young men and women taking part in the demonstrations as well as female police repressing women activists.

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Updates from 23 April 2007

Panama

The Boquete Guide does not think that the major consequence of the new Free-Trade Agreement with the US will be lower safety standards from import food, but rather the higher food costs for Panamanians and increased unemployment of local farmers.

• Eduardo Avila

Colombia

President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has been attracting a lot of criticism for his alleged ties with paramilitary forces in his country. Because of these unclear links, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore officially dropped out of an environmental conference where Uribe would be in attendance. The Colombia Herald writes about these accusations that have been issues in televised debates. Adam Isaacson of the Plan Colombia and Beyond blog analyzes this snubbing and suggests that, “Gore should accept President Uribe's invitation to visit Colombia. Another snub will only give Uribe more ammunition for his domestic political battles. When appearing publicly with Uribe in Bogotá, though, Gore should make a clear and explicit show of support for the many brave Colombians who are investigating and prosecuting paramilitary power, and defending the rights of its victims.”

• Eduardo Avila

Bolivia

Beginning on April 21, the Bolivian government placed restrictions on the import of used clothing. After an agreement was reached with this sector, the deadline soon passed much to the pleasure of national companies that produce new clothing. Mario Duran of Palabras Libres [ES] speculates that the deadline will not end the debate, because many in this used clothing sector will be asking for a two-year extension of the deadline citing that the government did not hold its end of the bargain.

• Eduardo Avila

El Salvador

Tim Muth of Tim's El Salvador Blog introduces us to Salvadoran poet, Roque Dalton, who devoted his life to the overthrow of the ruling oligarchy. In addition to links to essays about this literary intellectual, Muth's article summarizes the events that led to his eventual death at the hands of leftist rivals. He also closes with an example of Dalton's work titled, “Como tú ” (Like you).

• Eduardo Avila

Afghanistan

Afghan Lord discusses the live broadcast beating and arrest of three reporters at a television station by police under orders from Afghanistan's Attorney General, saying that such abuses of power by officials is a threat to media freedom in Afghanistan.

• Nathan Hamm

D.R. of Congo

A blog post by a Congolese ranger about a fellow park ranger who escaped from a rebel group is picked up by Voice of America: “From the post on Tuesday about Jean Marie’s escape from the rebel leader 106, Samantha Newport from the WildlifeDirect team saw the story and wrote a press release. The story was then this weekend picked up by Voice of America and so on Saturday I did an interview over the phone with one of their reporters Kari in Kenya.”

• Ndesanjo Macha