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The Medellín blogosphere experienced a communal “what the ?” about 3 weeks ago, when we discovered that a new TV show about blogging would premiere. My information source was Pablo from No eres tu soy yo [ES] (it´s not you, it´s me), a popular Colombian podcast on everything and nothing at the same time, who mentioned he was asked to be on a show to be produced by TeleAntioquia [ES], a regional network. Investigation ensued.
It was a bizarre affair… even after quite a bit of searching, there were no google hits, no Colombian blogs mentioned the show, no technorati tags. On the Medallo Bloguero [ES] meeting we speculated on the show. How would they handle hyperlinks? What would they talk about? Were the hosts bloggers, if so, who were they? Who would watch a blog show on TV? But the biggest question, and maybe so because it hit our Antioquia blogger status pride was: How come none of us knew about it? Why had no one posted about it? How were the producers expecting a TV show about bloggers to work out… when there was no blogger buzz? Maybe we weren´t the core audience… just the subject matter.
A few days before airing, newspaper ads came out advertising the new show, and teleantioquia posted information on its site [ES]. It´s name would be “Los Bloggers”. It was touted to be a “the first truly interactive magazine in Teleantioquia, bringing different media together”. A program designed for a young audience, it would bring computers and internet to the television screen.
Victor Solano who was interviewed for the show, got to meet the hosts and get an insider view. This is what he wrote before it aired [ES]:
Felicitaciones a Grisales y su combo; felicitaciones a Teleantioquia por apostarle a una propuesta novedosa que como todas las que van en vivo podría tener pequeños errores pero por encima de todo es un acierto que se realice una televisión para los jóvenes hecha por jóvenes y felicitaciones para los antioqueños que recibirán una nueva propuesta ética y estética de un canal regional que tiene mucho para enseñarle a los nacionales que en su arrogancia y sus pasos milimétricos en camino a los peoplemeters de Ibope le cortan las alas a la imaginación y a la espontaneidad. Este mundo de los blogs conquista un nuevo espacio y me alegra haber estado allí, unas horas antes de este parto.
The hosts and producers all commented on this entry, thanking Victor for the interview and information. Expectations grew. We waited… Then we finally got to see the show.
Los Bloggers [ES] is a magazine-style live show where there´s a daily topic and interaction with the audience that can take place through cell phone text messages displayed on screen, phone calls, and comments on their website. They use pre-recorded videos and interviews, flash animations, and also invite guests to their live show.
I had a hard time digesting that first episode. Maybe it was when one of the hosts, Diego Peña, admitted that he doesn't like blogs [ES]:
La verdad, a mí no me gustan los blogs, he intentado leer lo que escriben los autores de sus respectivos diarios virtuales y no he encontrado nada interesante en ellos.
Ouch.
Maybe it was when I saw the word “blog” written on screen twice during a “trivia” session.
Maybe it was because the rhythm was too slow. I got bored at times. It was somewhat obvious that blogging is a brand spanking new topic for these hosts, and when they started explaining about some key concept, got confused, and mixed up, it was even embarrassing.
But I sat through it. And I've watched the new episodes and I've seen it get better bit by bit. They are experimenting with this idea. As Victor mentioned on his post, they are betting on this show without knowing if it'll work out. They are following a hunch that this is the way to do television: realtime with audience feedback. And they, perhaps, are experiencing a bit of stagefright. Their blog gets feedback, people are calling the show, text messages scroll in the bottom of the screen… there does seem to be an interest in the show, and 315 users have already registered at their website. And my experience wasn´t unique.
Jorge wrote in La Fabrica de Cosas [ES]: I saw Los Bloggers and still don´t get it
Básicamente, Los Bloggers es un programa de televisión con presencia online. Presentan un sitio web donde incluyen los blogs de los presentadores (1 , 2 y 3 ) y la opción de registrarse para hacer comentarios. Me registré y pude ver que ya estaba registrado Patton [ES] , un conocido comentarista de blogs y blogger bogotano, así como Merks de Pirated Network, un blog que vengo siguiendo hace un tiempo, o sea que la convocatoria en la blogocosa colombiana ya atrajo a algunos de sus más fieles respaldos. El sitio es agradable, tiene una interfaz visual limpia y de fácil manejo, pero hasta ahora no presta más servicios que permitir comentar en sus blogs, claro está, que se encuentra en versión beta, lo que nos mantendrá a la espera de lo nuevo que se esté ideando el equipo.
Velvet from Piso Tr3s (Third Floor) writes in MedalloBloguero as a reply to both Victor's and Jorge's posts.
Ya había escrito Jorge en Fábrica de Cosas que no entendía muy bien a «Los Bloggers». Bueno Jorge tal vez te anime saber que no estás sólo… yo tampoco lo entiendo muy bien. O para decirlo con más precisión no entiendo muy bien qué tiene que ver todo el cuento de los blogs con el contenido del programa. Para ilustrarlo, aunque ahora escribí que en la primera emisión intentaron explicar lo que es un blog, pues parece muy evidente que ni ellos mismos lo sabían con mucha claridad. Es más uno de los presentadores dijo con sinceridad —algo que se le abona— que a el no le gustaban los blogs (!). Desde ese momento me desencante del programa. Es que lo que pensaba yo y creo también que era lo que esperaban los demás bloguers del país, por lo que puede uno inferir de los comentarios en este poste del profesor Víctor Solano, era que «Los Bloggers» iba a ser un programa sobre blogs o que al menos iba a girar en torno a ellos algo que según se ha hecho evidente en esta primera semana no va a ser así. Tampoco nos imaginábamos como iban a lograr semejante portento, (¡¿un programa sobre blogs en TV?! WTF?) pero ahí estaba precisamente nuestra curiosidad y expectativa.
However, something all three quoted posts have in common is that they end in a positive note towards the show, a perspective similar to what Patton adds in the comments to Velvet's post:
Pero me gusta que tienen la actitud de aprender, están abiertos (y hasta se les nota desorientados) al cambio, a las sugerencias y con ganas de posicionar el programa, de consolidarlo.
He also suggests ways in which to improve the show by adding more blogging content: perhaps by adding daily blogging tips such as “for decency's sake, please credit the sources from which you get your pictures for your posts” for example or to write a recap of each episode as a blog post with links to the different host's blogs and perspectives. They could also add content such as interviews and notes, memes, and material taken from other blogs to shine the spotlight a bit on local and international blogs.
And it seems those who work on the program are REALLY listening. The TeleAntioquia webmaster answered Velvet's post [ES] and all previous comments, giving us feedback on what the show's intentions are:
Es decir, Teleantioquia le está apuntando a la convergencia, la tecnológica de la que todos hemos oido hablar ,y además, está traduciendo ese concepto de convergencia a sus contenidos, allí pensamos que hay innovación en la forma de hacer televisión.
Con todo el respeto por los bloggeros de trayectoria queremos aplicar la dinámica del blog a la televisión: un contenido es puesto en discusión y como un espiral va creciendo con los comentarios de sus “post” para desde allí crear nuevos contenidos que hayan sido construidos entre tod@s. Esto además de poner a disposición en internet otras herramientas clásicas del medio.
Por último, tal y como lo comenté en el blog de Victor Solano, quiero invitarlos a hacer efectiva la versión BETA de Los Bloggers para que logremos construir un espacio que de verdad sea inclusivo y agradable para todos. Ojalá mi comentario sea un estimulo para que sigamos leyendo sus críticas y sugerencias sobre Los Bloggers. No dejen de seguir Los Bloggers y tampoco dejen de comentarlo.
We won't. And if you want to, you can check it out as well here from Monday to Thursday at 6:15 pm, UTC-05.
While the previous post reflected some of what Russian bloggers' thought of Boris Yeltsin's life and death, this one deals with the reactions of predominantly non-Russian observers, blogging in English.
Moscow-based Rubashov of Darkness at Noon writes about his Russian host family's grief:
[…] The mood is heavy in my apartment right now - as I've noted before, my host parents are among the dedicated faithful that remain of the old democrats. They were with him at the White House in August 1991 and despite his many flaws, believed in him to the end. We just toasted to Yeltsin's memory, but it's obvious that the shot of vodka does little to dull the pain. It's interesting, of course, since few Russians would ever hold Yeltsin in such high regard. […]
Rubashov also posts an Ode to Yeltsin, emphasizing the ambiguous nature of the ex-president's legacy:
In August 1991, you showed them that the State should answer to the People, that it could be defeated. You showed them that democracy was worth fighting for because it could be won.
In October 1993 you showed them that sometimes it was OK to use the iron fist to save “democracy.” But what would that teach your successors who have their own ideologies (and power) to save?
In July 1996 you showed them that it was possible to win an election at any cost, even if it caused that election to fall short of the democratic ideal for which you had once fought. Because the alternative - a return to communism - was too horrifying to contemplate. And so, in the name of democracy, democracy was undermined. […]
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog lists things Yeltsin will be remembered for. Here's one:
[…] Yeltsin will be remembered for introducing the world of Vladimir Putin. A virtually unknown figure in 1999 when he became Prime Minister, Putin was originally viewed in Russian oligarchic circles as a manageable bureaucrat who would rule in their name. He wasn’t and what Russia looks like today is very much a result of Putin’s efforts to tame the oligarchy. In this sense, present day Russia is also in part laid in Yeltsin’s lap. […]
In a comment to Sean's post, Heribert Schindler Rossijskaja Federazija offers a German perspective on Yeltsin's legacy:
[…] In Germany he will be remembered the most for one particular fact, the withdrawal of the “Western Group of Forces”, the Russian forces remaining in Germany after WW II.
The withdrawal of the troops was one of the largest troop transfers to times of peace in military history. Despite the difficulties, which resulted from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the same period, the departure was carried out according to plan and punctually until August 1994. […]
Estonia-based Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa praises Yeltsin for putting an end to the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states:
[…] But above all, he was smart to recognize and correct Stalin's mistake of occupying the Baltics in 1940 and to withdraw the Russian army from countries that didn't and still do not pose any threat to Russia. He may have been a bumbling drunk, but, in terms of the Baltics, he didn't let nationalist pride get in the way of making the right decisions that have been ultimately beneficial for Russia.
According to the beatroot, many Poles will likely have positive memories of Yeltsin, too, and here's why:
[…] Yeltsin, the first ever elected president, retired on New Year’s Eve, 1999, without any support at all. The average Russian hated and despised him. Internationally, he was seen as a joke – staggering, drunkenly around the globe, failing to turn up often for meetings with heads of state, because he had drank just one too many (bottles of) vodkas.
Talk to Poles, though, and most look back with nostalgia to the Yeltsin years. He ended communism, after all. And they probably quite liked the fact that Russia became weaker and weaker, and so less of a threat to the new ex-communist Poland. […]
The Ruminator of Ruminations on Russia writes, among other things, about Moscow at the beginning of Yeltsin's second term:
[…] If you can remember post-election Moscow in 1997, you weren't here. […]
Copydude writes on how Yeltsin's era played out for the “Russian Bride industry”:
[…] He not only presided over capital flight but also female flight. The late nineties saw the heyday of the Russian Bride exodus when numbers doubled almost year on year. Well, if all the money in Russia had been laundered abroad, there wasn’t much to keep the girls at home. […]
Nosemonkey/Europhobia posts two videos of Yeltsin having fun and writes:
[…] Yep - Yeltsin was the perfect leader for Russia: drunk, a bit stupid, highly unpredictable, almost certainly extremely dangerous, and practically impossible to work out. Just like Russia itself. […]
To Robert Mayer of Publius Pundit, Yeltsin's death “seems pretty irrelevant” - but he writes about the man anyway:
[…] Truthfully, one can only guess to what people will remember of him. I suppose the first thing I think of is vodka, but that's because he didn't affect me much. […]
Near|Abroad posts a comprehensive roundup of media and blog responses; Robert Amsterdam sums up “obituaries and reflections that various newspaper editors had stored in their top drawers;” and Eternal Remont quotes three “emails sent into CNN today.”
The Bangladeshi blogosphere heated up reacting to the drama of the process of exiling the two powerful lady politicians of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina Wazed and Begum Khaleda Zia crowned the center stage in Bangladesh politics in the past few decades. They spearhead two different ideologies in Bangladesh, which instead of providing the nation a headway, divided the nation. The rivalry between the major two parties Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League (AL) have made the politics more confrontational and put the nation in chaos in recent times. This has resulted in declaring a state of Emergency on January 11th this year and the emergence of a military backed caretaker Government. The Government has taken control of the situation by putting many corrupted politicians behind the bar and suspending all political activities.
Now it seems they want to settle the score with the tradition of dynasty politics in Bangladesh by sending Hasina and Khaleda in exile.
The 3rd world view has details how Sheikh Hasina is being barred from entering Bangladesh. Rumi has details on the deportation attempts of Khaleda Zia.
The Bangladesh poet of Impropriety has the latest on the political situation of Bangladesh. Voice of Bangladeshi Bloggers summarizes a few international press reactions.
Asif at Drishtipat blog opines:
A group of 10 unelected people (.00000000001% of the electorate)has just decided that the lady, whose party won 22 million votes, (40%) of the total electorate in the last election and who is a citizen of Bangladesh, can not enter Bangladesh because she is percieved by them as a threat to the society. They also decided that leader of the other party that got the vote of the other 40% will also need to be exported outside. .00000001% has spoken for the whole country.
However Addafication sees this as an option to bring an end to legacy of politics these two leaders were thriving:
There’s a view that’s out there that says that because these politicians committed crimes, they have to be tried. I am not so sure that given the circumstances, exile is really such a bad option. It’s a low-cost option. On the one hand it avoids bloodshed. On the other, the uncertainties of a trial whose results could not be anything but political.
Rehan of Drishtipat Blog is apprehensive about the political vacuum that will create after the exile of these two leaders.
However there is also widespread support for this government so far and not all supports are without apprehensions. Ahsan thinks Bangladesh is now at a cross road:
The caretaker government, who was given the responsibility to conduct a fair election, seems to be taking steps that no one was willing to take in the past. Can the current caretaker government create an atmosphere where not only the old corrupt leaders are forever removed from the political scene; but also new leaders emerge to guide the nation?
Deshi Blog thinks that inexperience in politics would harm the Caretaker Govt.
Sending both Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to exile would certainly create more chaos in Bangladesh. How can democracy be established by taking away the fundamental rights of political leaders? The way the exile drama is being handled hints abuse of the power, rather than judiciousness.
Sex education is an extremely taboo issue in the very Islam-conscious nation of Brunei. However a recent Borneo Bulletin headline “Teen mums worrying trend” (mirror), had kicked off some interest in the blogging circles. The bloggers feel that maybe it is high time for schools to start incorporating sex education into the curriculum.
Pre-marital sex (zina) is against the tenets of Islam and committing such an act would be enormously sinful. Therefore, many still believe that zina does not happen in the country, or at least not to a significant level. The commonplace idea is that, those who are not married typically abstain from having sexual relations.
However, that is not necessarily so. Jack from the Old Man's blog pointed out that we are “deluding” our naive selves if we believe that no one in Brunei practices pre-marital sex.
I find it sad that in Brunei, we still delude ourselves in thinking that Bruneians don't do these things. That only married couples have sex. We find it hard to accept that sex among teenagers are commonplace.
Jack argues that instead of just being blind to this fact, we should act upon it by educating the teenagers and equipping them with enough knowledge so that they could hopefully make real educated decisions about their own sex life rather than acting upon their instincts and curiosities without knowing of the consequences of their actions.
Of course, it is difficult to actually carry out sex education in schools because the Ministry, as fellow Muslims, they would not want to be seen endorsing and encouraging teens to experiment with sex. However, on the other hand, they are very concerned of the steep rise in babies born outside of marriage, which is also closely linked to another social problem - unwanted babies found in random thrash cans.
Allydee presented the argument eloquently in her blog:
On one hand, we're in a Muslim country and talking abt sex is a bit taboo. On the other hand, we can't ignore it given the fact that pre-marital sex is an ongoing issue in Brunei which leads to teen pregnancies which may lead to abortion or abandoned babies - it's a cause-and-effect. So in order to reduce the effects (teen pregnancies, abortion, abandoned babies) we need to address the cause (pre-marital sex).
LSM from Our Local Style understands the dilemma associated with this,
On one side you’ve got champions of morality and religious fervour who believe that sex education should not include information on contraceptives because such talk will only tempt youths into trying things for themselves. On the other extreme are those who push for better availability and understanding of contraceptives, as short-term a solution it may be, because it is far more desirable than seeing unwanted babies born.
However, the blogger proposed an alternative solution to this problem:
I propose that Brunei bloggers start championing sex education. I know a number of you guys are teachers (or teachers-to-be) and what better way to affect a change in the local education system than by answering a call for public opinion? Blog about sex education, tell us your story, post facts and myths about contraceptives, whatever.
So I kicked off the first post in answer to LSM's proposal and received positive comments regarding the issue. The discussion ranged from enforcement of abstinence by religious instructions to making students wear pregnant suits to teach them about responsibility and the risk of contracting ever rampant STDs.
It is not in our interests as bloggers to introduce sex ed posts to encourage teens to have sex. On the contrary, it is our humble hope that we can help to illustrate the huge responsibility that comes with having pre-marital sex, and also to point out the reality of some of the consequences that they might experience: STDs, teen pregnancies and in the worst case scenario- poor helpless abandoned babies.
Other posts related to this:
What makes a good blog and how do you assess blogs in your region?
Tunisian blogger Mouelhizied has attempts to answer this question and has a lot to say about his country's bloggers.
Although there are 361 Tunisian blogs according to the latest count, only 10 to 20 per cent of them are active and have daily posts, says Mouelhizied.
From the different types of bloggers and blogs, we move on to learning how to spot the different types of doctors.
Egyptian blogger Ana Masri describes the different types of doctors out there.
In Palestine, blogger Majeed Al Barghouti links to a story I have seen before on Palestinian blogs, but which still seems to erk Palestinian bloggers. It is that which shows the Israeli army using Palestinian children as human shields, to protect them from the wrath of Palestinian stone-throwers.
Meanwhile in Kuwait, blogger Kila Matgoog apologises to his readers for not being able to reply to their comments because he is in Hong Kong, where he has to pay for his Internet use!
The unpredictable weather, shoddy telecom services and the rapid surge in the stock market are just some of the topics keeping Kuwaiti bloggers entertained this week.
Ana Filibini, which translates to I am a Filipino, describes the weather in Kuwait in the past week.
“Kuwait has been wet and wild this past week. Raging thunderstorms, lightnings, typhoon like muddy rains and the best show of big chunks of hail,” writes the expatriate.
Qaiss, over at io81, asks a simple loaded question about why their local telecom company isn'y providing a Push To Talk (PTT) service, in which people with cell phones use their phones like walkie talkies and chat to each other for free if they are within the same vicinity.
“Why is MTC (a telecom company) not providing such a service, aren't these guys one of the top players in the region now, or are they concentrated with opening 2 branches in the African continent?”
Another loaded question comes from Frankom.
مالفرق بين ظهور الكوري مرتكب مجزرة فرجينيا في تسجيل مصور “تبرير فعلته أنه مريض نفسي” وبين ظهور بن لادن أو الظواهري في تسجيل آخر “وتبريره انه ارهابي أو المطلوب الاول في أمريكا” ؟What's the difference between the appearance of the Korean perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre in a recording and justifying him as mentally ill and the appearance of Bin Laden or Al Dhawahri and calling them terrorists and America's most wanted?
Amer, from Hilaliya, has already decided what the Quote of the Year is. It is:
“The problem is with you, not the Constitution.”
H.H. The Emir, Sheik Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah
(Speaking to members of the Ruling Family during an unprecedented meeting).
Meanwhile, Q discusses what happened at the Kuwait stock market on Wednesday, when trading reach a record high from dealings in the shares of only one company!
“Everyone was hooked with whatever was happening with the stock market today, and the rumour mill started and hasn’t stopped since …,” he exclaims.
Ziyad , at q80economics, meanwhile turns a serious topic into humour to lighten it up.
“Scientists now agree that global warming is real and if we don’t act now the consequences will be devastating. So what will happen to our local environment in Kuwait and how will we cope if the world reduces its reliance on oil? What can we do within our means to act against global warming? Even though the issue is dead serious, I will offer some foolish answers,” he cautions.
Amer AlZuhair, the Kuwaiti film director who filmed the last election in two movies and got banned by the Minstry of Information from screening them, posted an article he sent to one of the daily papers in Kuwait, asking this simple question.
“Will the folks at the Ministry of Information ever aspire to His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad's tolerance and lift the ban they've imposed on my films?” he asks.
zdistrict covers a local event, where a car dealer introduces a new car model, in a major event in which even a main road was closed for a while.
“This was the IMSA laucnh of the IMSA Lamborghini, it was supposed to be something special but I wasn’t sure of how the event was supposed to go. It seemed that BMW and Porsche had their vehicles there as well as people who brought their super cars and there were some interesting vehicles there. Lots of people showed up and after unveiling of the vehicle,” he explains.
Taras of Ukrainiana got soaked in the rain last Friday on his way to “Maidan 2.2″ and didn't really expect many opposition supporters to show up at the rally at Kyiv's European Square. But - “not only did the sun come shining brightly, but so did the Orange crowd. I wasn’t the only one with the will to carry on.” Read Taras' impressions and see photos here.
Christian Espinoza of Tiempos de Blogs [ES] links to the two newest versions of the MySpace social networking site: MySpace Latinoamérica and MySpace En Español. Think Multicultural hears the message loud and clear with these two additions , “Just the metrics that they will release (e.g. “10 million people registered at latino.myspace.com!”) will continue to show advertisers and marketers that there are Latinos online that they need to reach.”
Freelance reporter C. J. Schexnayder paddled deep into the heart of the Peruvian rain forest to profile indigenous rights activist Julio Cusurichi for the San Francisco Chronicle. In his Klephblog, he writes that, “there is a lot more to this story than what I was able to fit in the confines of one newspaper article.” Here, he provides supplementary quotes and additional background information on the plight of the three nomadic tribes that live in the 3,000 square mile reserve in the Madre de Dios region.
St. John has been experiencing some nasty weather - Frank Barnako posts an update, along with a photo of “exactly what many folks on island are worried about - tremendous runoff from the land and construction sites, filing in the bays, and choking the coral.”
At Life in Armenia, Raffi K. tells how he commemorated the anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Posts from Armenia reports on Global Youth Service Day activities involving school children doing city beautification projects.
Bonnie Boyd reports on how Kazakhstan is carefully navigating domestic and international interests to reform its military.