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Cuba: Blocked Blogger Yoani Sánchez Receives Prestigious Award

Elia Varela Serra · 21:42, April 8th, 2008 · Americas

lingua → mg · fr · es

Yoani Sánchez is probably the most famous blogger in Cuba, a country where internet access is very limited and controlled. Her blog Generación Y [es] is extremely popular for anyone interested about Cuba, and has been often featured as an example of cyber-dissidence in Western media such as The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Público [es] or BBC Mundo. Since Fidel Castro's retirement from the Cuban Presidency in Februray and with the world's eyes turned on Cuba, Generación Y's popularity has increased even more, reaching 4 million visitors in March and 1,600 comments in her latest post. Probably for that popularity, Yoani's blog was recently blocked by the Cuban authorities, outraging Cuban bloggers in the diaspora and blog readers in general.

Last Friday Yoani Sánchez received another type of recognition, when she was awarded the Ortega y Gasset Prize in Journalism by Spanish newspaper El País, the most prestigious in Spanish language (equivalent to the Pulitzer in English language) named after philosopher and journalist José Ortega y Gasset. As Penúltimos Días [es] reported, she received the award in the category of Digital Journalism for the following reason :

… por la perspicacia con la que su trabajo ha sorteado las limitaciones a la libertad de expresión que existen en Cuba, su estilo de información vivaz y el ímpetu con el que se ha incorporado al espacio global de periodismo ciudadano.

… for the perceptive way in which her work has dodged the limitations of freedom of expression that exist in Cuba, her sharp information style and the impulse with which she has joined the global space of citizen journalism.

Yoani wrote a post titled “I can't believe it!” after hearing about the award:

Esa porción de filóloga que aún me queda –que conoce de literatos, filósofos y nombres académicos- está dando saltos de contenta por el Premio Ortega y Gasset de periodismo que me han otorgado. La blogger, por su parte, siente que tantos obstáculos para acceder a Internet, tanto memory flash llevado de aquí para allá, ha valido la pena. Sólo atino a recordar que era abril –ya Eliot había reparado en la crueldad de la primavera- y decidí exorcizar mis demonios en un Blog. Comencé por expulsar al más paralizante, ese que nos hace apelar a la máscara, el disfraz y el silencio. El segundo en la fila de los desalojados, fue la apatía del que sabe que no puede hacerse mucho. A mediados de agosto, la legión formada por la frustración, el desencanto y las dudas ya drenaban con cada post. Lo que parecía una terapia personal, para sacudirme todos esos achaques, se convirtió en un espacio para muchos que, curiosa coincidencia, también tenían sus propios demonios. Lectores, yo sólo soy el rostro en la barra lateral de este sitio. Ustedes, polemistas, incendiarios, censores y boicoteadores, son, en fin de cuentas, los que hacen el Blog.

That portion of a philologist that I have left - that knows about people of letters, philosophers and academic names- is jumping for joy over the Ortega y Gasset Prize in Journalism that I've been awarded. The blogger, on the other hand, feels that for so many obstacles to access the internet, so many flash drives that I have carried around, have all been worth it.
I can only manage to remember that it was in April - Eliot had already noticed the cruelty of spring- that I decided to exorcise my demons in a Blog. I started by expelling the most paralizing of them all, that one that makes us resort to a mask, the disguise and the silence. The second one in the line of the abandoned, was the apathy of that who knows that not much can be done. In mid August, the crowd made of the frustration, the disillusion and the doubts were already draining away with each post. What seemed like a personal therapy, to shake off those ailments, became a space for many who, funny coincidence, also had their own demons.
Readers, I'm only the face on this site's sidebar. You, polemical, incendiary, censoring and boycotting readers, are, at the end of the day, the ones that make the blog.

Many blogs and readers have been celebrating Yoani Sánchez's award, such as Enrisco [es] , Bitácora cubana [es], El blog de Tania Quintero [es], just to name a few. Cuban writer Zoe Valdés, who lives in Paris, expressed a wish:

Ojalá el Premio Ortega y Gasset siga premiando a periodistas cubanos, notablemente a aquellos que se encuentran en celdas de castigo hoy en día, y que aún así siguen informando de la realidad de las cárceles cubanas. O a otros periodistas cubanos, que llevan años, en condiciones peores que la propia Yoani, ella misma lo ha dicho, intentando pasar la comunicación de la realidad, fuera de la isla, a través de llamadas de teléfonos, o a través de correos inseguros.

I hope that the Ortega y Gasset Prize Award continues recognizing Cuban journalists, especially those that are today in solitary confinement cells, and who in spite of that continue to inform about the reality of Cuban prisons. Or to other Cuban journalists who for years have been trying to communicate the reality of the island through phone calls or insecure mails, in worse condicions than Yoani - she said it herself.

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Korea: Drama Kingdom

Hyejin Kim · 13:10 · East Asia

lingua → bn · es · zht · zhs

Korean dramas have been popular outside Korea. There has been a term to refer to this popularity, Hallyu (Korean wave). Pretty girls and neat boys, and their pure love or triangular love relations…. They would be characters to represent Korean dramas. The popularity of Korean dramas has become one of the important businesses through exporting to other countries.

One result of hallyu is aggressive competition between channels over dramas in Korea, and the budget to make a drama is increasing tremendously. The program rating decides the length of dramas and the content of the drama story. The Internet has become a significant means to sense how the audience reacts each time. Opinions the fans leave on the drama website are more powerful than scenario writers or producers.

Recently, there have been criticisms of Korean dramas. A new drama that talks about people who are making dramas is very popular. And the drama producer and scenario writer announced that they would not change the end of the story according to the audience’s opinions, and they will focus on professionals’ lives, not on a love story.

But Tara shows the characteristics of Korean dramas again.

한국 드라마는 짝짓기를 안하면 성립이 안되는가?

21C 대한민국은 드라마 왕국이고, 드라마 왕국은 죽어가고 있는데 어찌하여 드라마를 위기에 빠뜨린 이들은 반성하지 않는 걸까? 그동안 드라마 제작진, 작가, 감독, 배우, 기타 스태프를 등장시키는 드라마는 많았다. 허나, 결국 그것 또한 방송국에서 연애하는 이야기로 끝날 수밖에 없었다[…]

어찌어찌 하다가 요즘 새로 하는 드라마 를 보게 되었는데, 꽤 재미있었다. 그래서 계속 시청하게 되었고, 다른 사람들은 이 드라마를 어떻게 생각하는지 궁금해서 간만에 드라마 게시판에도 기웃거려 보았다. 그리고.. ‘더헛~' 놀라면서 다시는 안 가야 되겠단 생각을 한 번 더… 예전에, 드라마 시청 게시판에 놀러 갔다가 배우 팬들끼리 언쟁을 벌이며 싸움박질하는 현장을 구경한 뒤론 잘 안 가게 되었는데, 최근 흐름을 보아하니.. 별로 달라진 건 없는 것 같았다. 사실, 드라마를 보고 나서 해당 게시판 찾아가서 글 남기는 시청자는 전체 시청자의 1%도 안된다고 하던데…

엄밀하게 말해서 내가 선호하는 드라마 작가는 1%도 안되는 시청자들의 배 놔라, 감 놔라에 휘둘리지 않고 애초에 본인이 기획한 대로.. 촘촘하고 탄탄한 구성과 본인이 처음부터 의도한 개연성 있는 결말을 보여주는 작가이다. 본인이 원래 무엇을 쓰고자 했는지 망각한 채, 타인들의 제각각 취향과 참견에 갈대처럼 휘둘리는 작가는 어쩐지 무지 줏대 없고 실력 없어 보이기에[…]

.. 이 드라마의 기획 의도를 한 번 살펴보자- 분명, 기존에 난립했던 천편일률적인 짝짓기식 한국 드라마를 비판하는 내용이다. 그리고 자기네들은, 기존에 그래왔던 것처럼 방송 관련 등장 인물들이 방송국에서 연애하는 이야기로 끝날 수밖에 없는 그런 드라마 따위는 쓰지 않겠다는 식으로.. 뭔가, 방송을 중심으로 한 전문 직업인들의 이야기를 기존의 드라마와는 달리 차별화 되게 보여줄 것처럼 거창하게 기획 의도를 잡아놓구선.. 최근 이 드라마에 대한 흐름과 시청 소감을 종합해 보니 기획 의도와는 전혀 다르게 흘러갈 가능성이 크기에, 또다시 적잖은 실망을 하고 있는 상태이다. ‘그럼, 그렇지.. 기존의 연애극이랑 뭔가 다를 것처럼.. 기획 의도만 거창했지, 전문 방송 드라마는 개뿔~ 그냥 직업이 배우, 작가, PD, 매니저인 주인공들이 자기네들끼리 연애하다 끝나는 그저 그런 연애극으로 흘러가게 되는 건 아닌가..' 싶은 우려가 들었다.

Why are Korean dramas crazy about love stories?

In the 21st century, Korea is the drama kingdom. While the drama kingdom is dying, why don’t people who throw the dramas into crisis reflect? There have been so many dramas that talk about professionals, such as drama producers, scenario writers, directors, entertainers, and other staff members, as main characters. But in the end, the stories are all about love stories[..]

I started watching a drama recently. It is quite interesting. So I continue to watch it and check its homepage to see how other people think about this drama. And then.. ‘oops~’ I decided not to check this kind of site anymore. Before, I had checked another website of a drama and seen that actors’ fans were barking at each other. I decided not to spend my time there. It seems that the trend hasn’t changed at all. In fact, I heard that people who leave their opinions on the homepages of dramas are just 1 percent of the total audience.

Strictly speaking, drama scenario writeres whom I like are the ones who don’t change the end of their stories for this one percent of the audience who interferes in the stories and keeps the scenarists under their thumbs. Forgetting the original reason why they wrote the story, some scenarists like reeds are swayed by whatever other people say. Those scenarists look spineless[…]

… Let’s check the intention of making the drama I am watching now. It is about criticizing Korean dramas that have been obsessed with talking about love stories and mating men and women. And then they showed that the intention of making this drama is not to make dramas that have been made before. Their purpose is to make the drama talking about professionals. But observing the plot and opinions from the audience, it seems that the drama will change contrary to the original plot. I’m getting disappointed. ‘So it is… the intention that they started was on a large scale… like they will be different from the existing love stories. People who have jobs, such as entertainers, scenarists, PD [producers], managers, just go out and make love stories… that’s all. They might end the love story.’ I’m quite concerned.

- 약은 약사에게, 진료는 의사에게.. 드라마 창작은 제발 전문 작가에게 맡기라..

무엇보다.. 작가가 그걸 원하지 않아도 시청자들이 마구마구 압력을 가하면 드라마 작가도 인간인지라, 흔들릴 수밖에 없기에.. 그래서 이 드라마가 애초의 기획 의도와는 달리 결말이 산으로 갈까봐 무지 걱정된다, 난… 이 드라마 등장 인물들의 대사 내용 중에 이런 대사가 있었다. “우리 나라 시청자들, 그렇게 수준 높지 않아요~” 였던가..? 새삼 그 말이 정답이네, 싶기도 하다. 물론.. 보다 다양한 거, 발전적인 걸 원하는 시청자들도 있긴 하지만 극소수이고 대부분의 시청자들은 아직까지도 여전히 5년 전에 봐 왔고, 10년 전에도 봐 왔던.. 이젠 너무나도 익숙해져 버린 주인공들간의 므훗한 러브러브 모드, 내가 원하는 라인으로 무사히 그 로맨스가 연결되는 결말이 나길 원하고 그걸 통해 대리 만족을 느끼려고 한다. 그런데 그게 만약 삼각 관계가 되어 버리면, 두 동성의 배우 팬들 간에 살벌한 신경전이 오고가고 결국 어느 한 쪽으로 결말 지어져 버리면 그 반대 쪽 라인을 지지했던 팬들은 대리 만족 대신 상처를 받게 된다는 것[…]

한국 드라마 내에서, 천편일률적인 짝짓기는 이제 그만~

많은 시청자들은 결국.. 그저 그런 연애극이 아닌, 전문 방송 드라마를 표방한 이 드라마에서조차 상투적인 멜로를 원하고 자신이 원하는 라인으로 흘러가지 않을 경우, 벌써부터 작가를 공격할 태세다. 솔직히, 이 드라마를 재미있게 보고 있는 내 입장은.. 어느 한 쪽 라인 지지자에게 섭섭함을 안겨주거나 기존의 연애극같은 상투적인 짝짓기 식 결말이 아닌.. 같이 방송 일을 하면서 끈끈한 동료애가 생기고, 각자 자기 직업에 대한 정체성을 찾아가는.. 그 정도 선에서 결말 지어졌으면 좋겠다. 그게 제작진들이 천명한 기획 의도를 안 뻘쭘하게 만드는 결말이기도 하고…

- Leave pharmacists to do their work… Leave doctors to do their work… Leave scenarists to do their work to make stories…

Most of all… even though the scenario writers don’t want to change the stories and the audience gives the pressure on and on, the scenarists are also humans and could be confused… therefore, I’m really afraid that the conclusion of this drama will go in a different direction as well. A line in the drama says, “Audience? Their level is not that high~” It might be the answer. Of course there are people who long for more various and better stories. But they are the minority. Most of them want the story to talk about love between the main characters and to end the way they want. The trend has not changed yet compared to five or ten years ago. And they get the satisfaction through the stories indirectly. But if it is triangular relations, conflicts between fans of the two of the same sex get serious. When the story ends with one side, the fans of this other side got hurt[…]

Please stop monotonous love stories~

It seems that many people who watch this drama could be aggressive if the drama doesn’t show conventional love stories. Honestly speaking, as the person who watches this drama and finds it interesting… I want the conclusion that is not looking for love, but that shows that the major characters find their own identities with their jobs and discover camaraderie. That should be the conclusion as the producers had clarified as the original intention…

- 한국 드라마의 고질병, 완치될 수는 있을까?

[…] 우리나라 드라마, 예전부터 쭉~ 메디컬 드라마라 표명한 드라마에선 직업인 의사를 다루는 게 아닌, 의사들이 연애하다 끝나는 드라마로 만들고.. 전문 법조인 나오는 드라마에서도 변호사들이 연애하다 끝나는 드라마로 만들고.. 경찰 드라마에서도, 파일럿 드라마에서도, 호텔 드라마, 방송 드라마, 전문 경영인&상업 드라마, 스포츠 드라마, 실제 역사를 다룬 정치 사극에서도 다 연애만 하다가 끝난 드라마가 부지기수였다. 이젠.. 맨 처음 기획 의도를 중간에 살짝 밥 말아먹는 그런 드라마는 더이상 보고 싶지가 않다. 미국에는.. 또 일본에는 실제로 연애 드라마와는 차별화된 전문 드라마들이 참 많던데, 우린 언제까지 그 단조로움을 못 벗어나고 제자리 걸음을 해야 하는 것일까..?[…]

- Inveterate disease of Korean dramas, is it curable?

[…] Drama of our country, from the past to the present~ In medical dramas, they’re not talking about medical doctors, but focusing on love stories. In law dramas, all lawyers in the drama are in love… dramas about policemen, pilots, hotel, broadcasting, professional businessmen, sports, and political history… all dramas are talking about love. I don’t want to see the dramas that give up the original intention of producing them. In America… in Japan… there are many professional dramas different from love story dramas. Why can’t we get over the monotony? Why are we in a stalemate? […]

There is a series of parodies of Korean dramas that American comedians made. They show characteristics of Korean dramas (in a funny or extreme way^^)

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Ecuador: Security and Privacy Concerns on the Internet

Milton Ramirez · 04:36, April 8th, 2008 · Americas

lingua → mk · sq · zht · zhs · es

Picture by Presidencia de la República del Ecuador and reproduced under authorization

Ecuador has been in the headlines a lot in 2008 so far. First, torrential rains have fallen and have left much of the country under water. Then, the controversial dispute involving national sovereignty and its neighbor, Colombia, has also been in the news recently. Finally, the announcement that has left Ecuador's government in hot water [es] indicates that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has found shelter in the country. However, something that has not been in the news, but may be just as worrisome is the question of security on the internet and the recent incidents of hacking.

The hacking of the page of the presidency occurred in the middle of February, and was committed by a hacker who openly mocked [es] the security of government systems and assures he will get into other media portals. Carlos Jumbo [es], who works in this profession explains that it is not the first time this happened in Ecuador and problems like this can be solved:

Fácil de ubicar y detectar con prevención, el problema está en los responsables de las seguridades de estos espacios gubernamentales, deben saber qué hoy en día las verdaderas batallas se libran en el ciberespacio…. se tiene que aprovechar la reforma a la ambigua Ley de Seguridad Nacional que se debatirá en la Asamblea Constituyente, introduciendo nuevos artículos que conlleven a la protección de los recursos naturales y para la lucha contra el Ciberterrorismo, una amenaza creciente en América Latina debido al poco esfuerzo de los países en dedicar su esfuerzo en diseñar y planificar estrategias para contrarrestar estas amenazas latentes, mientras tanto, una cultura de Ciberseguridad puede convertirse en un elemento indispensable para el desarrollo de los pueblos con menor desarrollo.

It's easy to locate and identify with prevention, the problem lies with those responsible for the security of these government's entities, they should know today that the real battles are being fought in cyberspace…. They need to take advantage of the reform of the ambiguous National Security Law that is being debated in the Constituent Assembly, which introduces new regulations involving the protection of natural resources and the fight against Cyberterrorism, which is a growing threat in Latin America because of the little effort made by countries to devote their efforts to design and plan strategies to counter these latent threats. In the meantime, a culture of Cybersecurity can become an indispensible element for the development of lesser developed countries.

People and bloggers were concerned of this incident and Palulo [es] while visiting southern Ecuador tried to look for a technical answer from the experts at the Technical University of Loja. He interviewed two professionals who have deep knowledge of ASP applications, ISS servers y hacking. The following are Fausto Loja's opinions:

La servidores ISS pueden ser atacados por fallos en el sistema operativo utilizado para gestionarlo. En el caso de la página de la Presidencia se utiliza Windows, que no es tan seguro, y eso se manifiesta en la publicación de parches de seguridad (service packs) por parte de Microsoft; además “cuando los desarrollos no son hechos por quienes sepan de seguridad, pueden dejar muchas puertas abiertas”, y esto puede provocar que personas se introduzcan en las aplicaciones y hagan alteraciones,…

The ISS servers can be attacked by bugs in the operating system used to manage it. In this case, the page of the presidency uses Windows, which is not as secure, and this is manifested in the publication of security patches (service packs) by Microsoft , besides “when developments are not made by those who know the facts, security may leave many doors open,” and this can allow others to enter the applications and make alterations…

Some of these violations are common in Ecuador, but not when the company allows the opening of private data. A major telephone company in the country allows the public see all sensitive information about its customers. La Bitácora de Calú [es], warns:

Precisamente eso sucede ahora mismo con Pacifictel, uno de los operadores estatales de telefonía fija del Ecuador. Cualquiera está en capacidad de llegar a conocer no solamente el nombre, el número de cédula o la dirección de un abonado a partir de su número telefónico, sino incluso los números telefónicos a los cuales ha llamado, la duración de las llamadas y otros detalles más [..] Sin duda que para el propio abonado esta información le puede ser útil, pero Pacifictel debería crear un perfil con usuario y contraseña para que cada abonado pueda ingresar a un entorno donde se provea esta información, de lo contrario -tal como sucede ahora- todas tus llamadas -y las de tu vecino/a- efectuadas y recibidas pueden ser espiadas por cualquier persona que tenga un simple acceso a Internet.

This is happening with Pacifictel, one of the state-owned fixed-line telephone operators in Ecuador. Anyone is able to know not only the name, identity card number or address of a subscriber from your listed phone number, but even the telephone numbers to which you have called, duration of calls and other details [..] Certainly for the customer itself, this information can be useful, but Pacifictel should create a user profile and password for each subscriber to enter where such information is provided, or else-as is happening right now-all your incoming and outgoing calls - and those of your neighbor- can be spied by anyone who has a simple Internet access.

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Syria: The Arab Summit

Yazan Badran · 02:20 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → zht · zhs

So, another Arab summit comes and goes. This time it was the all awaited Damascus summit. As you can see, this roundup is almost a week late, simply because I couldn't find anyone who's actually writing about the summit - which tells you exactly how little people have come to expect from these annual gatherings.

Of course, as with every Arab summit, this year has its own drama - who will attend? Given all the bickering and tension between Syria on one side, and the Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian triangle on the other, people were expecting a showdown. Differences over Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Syria's alliance with Iran has driven the relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia into an all time low, and even for a time, threatened to thwart the whole Arab Summit.

Rime Allaf gives us a wonderful wrap up of the situation before the summit:

Syria is anxious to avoid a humiliating no-show from the big names. Repeatedly trying, and repeatedly failing, to secure Saudi approval for a visit by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem to deliver the official summit invitation, Syria finally resigned itself to send it at a much lower level, illustrating the depth of the gulf between Riyadh and Damascus. It will not have helped, of course, that Lebanon was the last of 22 countries to be invited to the summit, in a manner defying protocol and typical of Syrian “diplomacy”: handed to a resigned minister of the Lebanese cabinet by an official of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, it wasn't even signed by the host of the event, but by the Syrian Prime Minister.

The summit also meant a great deal of logistic work, Damascus with its old infrastructure needed an emergency face-lift, the preparations reached some extreme levels with closing down the airport and some parts of the capital. Sasa tells us about that.

And this morning, the airport closed (yes, that's right, it closed - shut down until next week - no civilian flights in or out of Damascus International Airport, and no-one is allowed to fly over Syria's capital). That was only announced a couple of days ago - unless you're a Syrianair passenger, in which case, it still hasn't been announced!. That didn't even happen during the Iraq War.

And so, the long awaited summit took place, but not without Lebanon boycotting it. The results of the summit?
The final statement of the summit, was called the “Damascus Declaration”. Almarfaa blog, wonders, is it a coincidence that the name “Damascus Declaration” has thus far been associated with the biggest opposition umbrella group?

وهي حركة - إن كانت مقصودة وأتوقع انها كذلك - تهدف إلى محاولة إخفاء وتهميش (إعلان دمشق) المعارض للنظام وتخفيف تأثيره الإعلامي بعد أن تم تخفيف تأثيره السياسي من خلال الاعتقالات لجميع قياداته وأعضاءه في أسلوب قمعي متخلف ينم عن حقد دفين لأي حركة معارضة مهما كانت سلمية !
هناك فرق كبير بين (إعلان دمشق) المعارض .. و(إعلان دمشق) التابع للقمة العربية !

This is a move -if it was intentional, and I think it was- that aims to hide and marginalize the “Damascus Declaration” that is opposed to the regime, and to weaken its effect on the media, after it has weakened its political effect with the arrest of all its leaders, in a repressive manner that only reflects deep hatred against any opposition movement, no matter how peaceful it is!
There is a big difference between the Opposition's “Damascus Declaration”, and the Arab summit's “Damascus Declaration”

As for attendance, Ibrahim Hamidi sums it up on Joshua Landis' blog,

The final answer is 11.

The countries whose Heads of State came were: Syria, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Kozzor
al kamar, Palestine, Libya,

Heads of State who never attend Arab summits: Oman, Morocco

Heads of State who declined to attend: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain.

Boycott: Lebanon.

Yes, yes. Another year, another summit.

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