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Arabeyes: Celebrating Eid Al Adha

Amira Al Hussaini · 16:54, December 20th, 2007 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → bn · ar · jp · es

Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid Al Adha - which commemorates Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismael for Allah (God). It also culminates the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which has this year attracted more than 2 million people. Here's how bloggers from the region marked the occasion.

Palestine:
From Palestine Dr Mona El Farra , who lives in Gaza, talks about efforts which are currently underway to help the needy. She writes:

while iam writing this entry , volunteers distribute meat for approximately 1500 families in diffrent parts of Gaza Strip , jabalia , Gaza City , beit hanoun ,Magazi camp , shatie , nusierat ,khan yunis ,in some areas, volunteers are distributing the Eid meat while under real danger , because of the israeli military operation against Gaza in (almagazi camp )
we managed to reach the most needy families ,and at the moment more than 75%of gaza families in Gaza live under poverty line ,
thanks to all who were keen to work this project with us in Gaza

El Farra also describes life under siege in this post:

Xmas time is so close, from Gaza I send my love, and best wishes for merry xmas and happy new year, I ask you while celebrating and rejoicing ,not to forget us in Gaza,to remeber the thousands of men , women and children who takes the worst brunt of continous unjust war , to spread the word of truth, to shake the world consciousness against the big war crimes that is happening in Gaza, the harsh inhuman collective punishment against my people, the occupation crimes that is committed under the pretence of Israel security and fighting terrorism!!
When it is late, it is not acceptable for the world to say: WE DID NOT KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN GAZA

Libya:

In Libya, Khadija Teri describes how Eid is smoother away from the prying eyes of the extended family. She explains:

This is a first for us - The first Eid by ourselves (in 19 years). We've always done Eid with the entire family. Every year the family seems to get bigger, and noisier, and with that Eid becomes an unpleasant experience. This year we decided it was time to go it alone and it was wonderful. No crabby sister-in-laws or screaming babies, and best of all no brother-in-laws hanging about, so the girls and I could wear what we liked and leave our hair uncovered. Yeah!!!!

Lebanon:

In Lebanon, Sietske spends Eid on a boat ride, along with pictures.
She writes:

It’s the Eid in Beirut. Everything is closed today.
In the Cedars the ski slopes opened today. You can sea the snow in the mountains right here in Beirut. It’s pretty early; the season usually starts in January…
And you wouldn’t say it either, as I was basking in the sun at the Solidere Marina. They’ve got some nice yachts moored there. I visited one 10 million dollar yacht. Nice. Very nice. “If you like it so much, ask your husband to buy you one,” said the man. Yeah, right. I’ll settle for the $500,000 model any time.

And then goes on a boat ride.

Beirut Boat ride during Eid
Photo credit: Sietske

Still in Lebanon, Ahmad offers us reasons as to why Eid celebrations do not start on one day across the Muslim world. He writes:

I wish a Happy and Blessed Adha Eid for everyone of you despite the confusion whether the Eid starts Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (or even later). This makes me wonder why would it be so difficult to agree on a unified Eid!?

Among the reasons he cites are:

Explanation 1:
In my humble opinion, the authoritative sheikh in KSA, who also happens to be the employee of the Saudi king, is using a defective calculator ..

Explanation 3:
A third explanation which also makes perfect sense is that not all scholars are spotting the same moon.

Explanation 5:
They spot something else – other than the moon.

Kuwait:

From Kuwait, Fonzy shows us with pictures the shopping frenzy for Eid. He describes the situation as follows:

Past two days I went to Avenues to Boggi to buy a suit then pick it up next day. The first day, it took me 15 mins to find parking. Yesterday, it took me around 30 mins to find a spot and it was all the way next to IKEA. Walking through the mall, you just keep bumping into people. Everyone is carrying all these shopping bags running from store to store, not to mention all those kids who walk around smoking and checking out girls. Though crowded and noisy, it was nice seeing all these people out preparing to celebrate Eid with their new outfits and accessories.

Syria:

Our last stop is in Syria, where Hovic shows us photographs of Aleppo at Eid and Christmas time.

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The troubled pasts of Burkina Faso

John Liebhardt · 14:42 · Burkina Faso

lingua → zht · zhs · es

The United Nations Development Programme recently released its 2007/2008 Human Development Index, which ranks countries not just by incomes, but by social indicators like life expectancy, literacy and education.

This year, the news was not good for Burkina Faso, which dropped from the world’s fourth poorest country to its second poorest. It didn’t escape the local independent press that the country actually placed last because the sole country it beat out, Sierra Leone, is attempting to rebuild itself after a decade-long civil war.

Burkina Mom found it sadly ironic that development indicators are falling while the government throws itself a huge party for National Day, replete with a huge parade and many festivities. It was really just another opportunity for local elites to pat themselves on the back:

Burkina’s people are losing ground daily and the government thinks to distract them with the occasional pathetic parade or speech. Bread and circuses anyone? Hey-the average citizen here would LOVE some food and a good show. But the entertainment on offer is frankly sub-par. The parade on the 11th in honor the National Republic Day was mainly an opportunity for the elites to pat themselves on the back. Certainly none of the modest folks that I work with daily knew anything about the supposedly delightful distraction proposed by their loving government. As for those people working downtown, all it did was prevent them from getting to work on time for several days (there were rehearsals for the parade that shut down the center of town for hours a day). And as for the “bread” part of the equation, that would be much appreciated, as hunger and malnutrition are rife here. But there’s no free lunch. Or even a small free snack.

Burkina Faso also commemorated the ninth anniversary of the death of crusading independent journalist Norbert Zongo, who was killed along with three other people in a village about 100 km south of Ouagadougou.

Zongo, the founder of the country’s first independent newspaper, L’Indépendant, spent much of the last year of his life investigating the death of David Ouedraogo, the personal chauffeur to Francois Compaore, the brother of Burkina Faso’s president. Ouedraogo was secretly held at a base for the Presidential Guard Force, tortured and eventually killed for allegedly stealing money from his employer.

On December 13, members of civil society, press freedom groups and regular citizens gathered once again to demand the government re-open the stalled investigation into the Zongo murders. But as the years continue to add up, Africa Flak, (a blog I am involved in), wonders if any amount of internal and external pressure can be placed on the government to find those who killed Zongo and his colleagues:

“With nine years and counting since the Zongo killings, I am of two conflicting opinions about the steps international organizations and governments can take. My first instinct says it’s too late for outsiders to influence the Burkina government on this issue. That being said, I don’t know how many conversations regarding the Zongo affair have taken place in upper levels between, say, the European Union and Burkina Faso. If the subject has indeed been broached, these discussions have so far proved fruitless – the investigation into the killings has been allowed to wither and die a slow, painful death. It should be said that in the world of diplomacy few things are more sacred than national sovereignty, and the Zongo killings represents the mother of all domestic issue. ”

Finally, Keith from Under the Acacias is told by a person named “H” the strange history of Al Hadji Bani, a man who went to Mecca but became disillusioned with the commercialization of the pilgrimage. He returned to Burkina Faso to Bani, a small village located 230 km north of Ouagadougou, which is now famous for the seven earthen mosques, six of which break Islamic tradition by not facing Mecca.

Al Hadji Bani claimed he was a prophet sent by God, and people started following him, Keith writes. They claimed Al Hadji Bani had dreams and revelations regarding the mosques – about where they should be built.

“H” says that Al hadji Bani then started claiming that he was Jesus returned, and that Bani was the new Mecca, and that Muslims should now pray facing Bani rather than Mecca. This was in 1989, and it was at this time that “H”, along with many others, became disillusioned and left the community.

The rest of the story can be found here.

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Cambodia: Monks Stopped From Petitioning

Preetam Rai · 08:41 · East Asia

lingua → pt · es · de · zht · zhs

Flickr user Jinja has posted images of police action against monks in Cambodia.

Police attack monks

More images at the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.

The monks were protesting against Vietnam's arrest earlier this year of a Cambodian monk Tim Sakhorn. According to a petition at the petition online site, Tim Sakhorn was arrested by Cambodian authorities on June 30 for allegedly for “conducting activities that are harmful to the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship.”. The monk was defrocked and after which his whereabouts were not known. In August the Vietnamese authorities announced that they have arrested Tim Sakhorn for activities that undermine Vietnam's unity.

The monks also want Vietnam to return the Cambodian land that they claim Vietnam occupied in the past. The fight with the police broke out when the monks were heading to the Vietnamese Embassy to drop of a petition.

Bloggers in Cambodia and abroad have been commenting on the issue.

1. Street Fighting Monks

2. Cops Vs. Monks Contd.

(Both from Details are Sketchy)

3. Return of the Kampuchea Krom Monk Issue
(From Erik W. Davis at buddh•ism ad•junkt)

(Thanks to John Weeks for the links)

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Kazakhstan: Blogosphere’s Self-Reflection

Adil Nurmakov · 07:05 · Central Asia & Caucasus

lingua → es

Recently, the Kazakhstani blogosphere has suddenly become interested in what the blogs really are and what sort of impact they have. Bloggers produced series of posts on this topic approximately at the same time. It is difficult to say for sure what was the reason for such wave of self-reflection - maybe it is caused by rising attention of the international donors to development of the citizen journalism, maybe by a series of “best blog” contests (at least three contests are under way - a MediaNet's, neweurasia's competition and a Hivos-funded one, organized by CJ.kz; and some more are ahead), or maybe by the maturing of the blogosphere itself.

Mantrov says that, based on his own experience, citizen journalism - a sign of democratic pluralism - is when a cyber-activist or a journalist is analyzing a certain topic not because of the honorarium, but first of all, because he or she is imbued by an issue and tries to solve the problem. (more…)

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Japan: The battle of HCV victims

Hanako Tokita · 03:04 · Japan

lingua → de

Stories about tainted blood products are nothing new in Japan. In the 1980s, patients with hemophilia contracted HIV from tainted blood products, the result negligence on the part of the government and pharmaceutical companies about an earlier FDA decision to withdraw its approval of the products.

In 1987, pregnant women in Aomori who were given fibrinogen — for which, again, the FDA had withdrawn its approval in 1977 — were found to be infected with hepatitis C, bringing public attention to the issue of HCV infections contracted via tainted blood product. Between 1969 and 1994, HCV infections spread among those who underwent surgery and childbirth and remained unnoticed for decades.

The Green Cross Corporation (now Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation) was involved in both cases, and as vcccttea writes:

このミドリ十字はかつての関東軍７３１部隊の内藤良一(元陸軍中佐)により
戦後まもなく民間血液銀行として設立されメンバーおよび役員に旧７３１部隊関係者が
多くＨＩＶほか薬害を起こしている、そして今度の薬害肝炎です。

The Green Cross Corporation was founded by Naito Ryoichi (former-lieutenant colonel), a member of Unit 731 of the Kwantung Army, as a private blood bank shortly after the war. Many of its members and executives were former Unit 731 officials and the company had numerous cases of medication-related health disasters including HIV-tainted blood. And this time, hepatitis infections.

In 2002, hepatitis C patients who contracted the disease through the use of tainted blood products filed lawsuits against the government and the parmaceutical companies in Tokyo and Osaka. In the following year, similar lawsuits were filed in Fukuoka, Nagoya and Sendai. Four courts ruled that the state and the pharmaceutical compnaies are responsible for the HCV infections, but the Sendai Court denied the state's responsibility. Earlier this month, the Osaka Court suggested mediation through which plaintiffs who contracted HCV via tainted blood products between 1986 and 1988 could be compensated, setting a deadline for the government on December 20.

Kawada in front of Health Ministry
Kawada Ryuhei, parliamentarian and former member of HIV plaintiff, in front of the health ministry on December 19, 2007

Fukuda Eriko, one of the Fukukoka plaintiffs, expressed her frustration with the government proposal following the Osaka court ruling in her blog:

到底納得いかない。
私たちは、従来から、原告だけのために闘っているわけではないといってきました。

Absolutely unacceptable.
We have been saying that we are not fighting only for the plaintiffs.

被害にあったものは、打たれた時期や、製剤の種類にかかわらず、また、原告であるか、ないかに関わらず、なにも悪いことをしていないのに、
肝炎に感染し、健康を害され、周りの大切な人や家族にも、つらい思いをさせながら、人生被害をうています。
平等に救済されるべきです。

Regardless of when they were shot [the drugs] and which kind, or whether they are plaintiffs or not, and although they have no faults, the victims contracted hepatitis, their health is impaired, and important people and family around them also have had to go through difficult times. Their lives have been damaged.
They should be all equally given relief.

しかも、この案を、総理は私たちがのむかもしれないと思っていたんでしょう。
「13日の和解案を見て、検討したい。」とおっしゃていました。
しかし、和解内容は、末に知らされていました。
私たちが、原告だけ救済される案を、のむだろうとと思っていたということが、許せません。
被害者の一部をほったらかしにして、幕引きしようと思っている。

Moreover, the Prime Minister must have thought we would accept the proposal.
“I would like to have a look at the settlement proposal issued on (December) 13th and consider it”, he said.
But the proposal had already been passed on [to him].
I cannot tolerate that he was thinking that we would accept the proposal which was to only give relief to the plaintiffs.
They are trying to neglect some of the victims and be done with it.

Protesters at health ministry
Supporters protesting in front of the health ministry

The scandal has draw significant attention from the media and the public. Kokoro of wanbalance writes:

国がとんでもない薬品を承認しつづけていたのだから、国が保障するのは基本中の基本。問題なのはそれだけではない。だいたい、罪を犯したものが今も罪を問われないで、のうのうと暮らしていることが大問題です。肝心要の時に、いったい誰が続行を決断したのか？これも防衛省の汚職事件と同じ構造があるんじゃないの？そうでなければ、アメリカでは危険だという事で、とっくのとうに使用禁止になっていた薬品だと判明していたにも関わらず、どんどん売っていた製薬会社と、国の役人との汚職から起ったことなんじゃないでしょうか。

Because the state continued to approve such terrible drugs, it is for the state to compensate. That is not the only problem. The problem is that they are not charged with the crime they committed and easily get away with it. Who on earth was it that decided to continue [to sell the drug] at the crucial time? Is this the same structure of corruption as in the case of the Defense Ministry? Otherwise, doesn't it mean that the whole thing happen because there was a corrupt act between the company — who continued selling drug which they knew had already been found dangerous and discontinued in the U.S. — and the state bureaucrats?

Another blogger pochi refers to two newspaper articles, one[ja] about compensation for the HCV victims and another[ja] about an 800 billion yen missile defense.

では、1800億円だとか、5700億円だとかは大きい金額でしょうか？
上の二つの記事を比較してみてください。
　片や、５年後までに、8000億円から１兆円のお金をつぎ込む計画ですが、金額は倍増することも、さらにもっと増えることもある・・・・。そして、その結果は「使い物にならなくなる可能性」があるということだそうです・・・・・。フウ～（ため息です）。
一方、1800億円や5700億円は、自分たちにはいっさい責任がないのに国と製薬会社のせいで被害にあわれた方に支払われるべきものです。

So then, is 180 billion yen or 570 billion yen that big an amount?
Compare the two articles above.
On one hand, they are talking about a plan to spend 800 billion to 1 trillion yen in the next 5 years, and the amount could double or it could go up even higher… And, “there is a possibility that it could be useless” as a result… phew…
And on the other hand, the 1800 billion or 5700 billion yen is the money that should be paid to people who have no fault but are suffering the damage done by the state and the pharmaceutical company.

あらためて、みなさんに問いかけたいのです。

1800億円とか5700億円とかって、大きすぎますか？
救済する人に「線引き」をする必要がありますか？

I want to ask everyone again.
Is 180 billion or 5700 billion yen too large an amount of money?
Is it necessary to “draw a line” among the people to be compensated?

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