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Lebanon: Strike Gone Sour

Moussa Bashir · 18:55, May 8th, 2008 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → ar · mk · bn · es

May 7 should have been a day for general strike and demonstration to contest the government’s economic policies, price rise and low wages. The workers syndicate had to cancel the demonstration, although keeping the strike on, because clashes broke out in many places around Lebanon between different factions belonging to the pro–government and opposition camps. Bloggers were quick to comment on the events. Here are some of their reflections from yesterday although the events are escalating very fast into gunfights in the streets of Beirut. Check back for more summaries on bloggers posts and reports on the unfolding crisis:

Tantalus’ comment reflects what most Lebanese fear - “a civil war”:

upon hearing knocking on his door, Lebanese citizen gets up to see who's there:
Oh Civil War, where have you been for 18 years? I've missed you. Welcome back.

Rami expresses his disgust:

Also F*** those who try to pretend they’re angels, while we know very well that it takes AT LEAST 2 to start a fight, so it’s quite obvious that 8 March and 14 March are both a*******.
I’m at work now and I still don’t know if it will be safe to go back home or not… Oh that’s one more F*** YOU to the “wado3″ (situation).

The Inner Circle explains why he is now ashamed of being Lebanese:

The worst part of all this, is that Lebanese think they’re propped up to being better than their surroundings. For one, Lebanon is not even on the map for most of the world; For me, today, Lebanon is mostly a bunch of low class, rubbish people that rule out any image the few intellectuals behind the scenes strive to propagate. Everybody forgot the purpose of today’s demonstration, or whatever you want to call it, ten minutes into the show.

Angry Arab analyzes what Lebanon is going through and why from a social, regional and historical perspective:

Several of the emails I received from Beirut today informed me that “civil war” has erupted or started in Lebanon. Which makes you wonder: when does social science decide when a civil war officially starts? It does not start with a parade or a press conference, and I can assure you, from experience, that often people don't know that they just entered a civil war. […]
What Lebanon is going through right now is undoubtedly part of the legacy of Rafiq Hariri. His designs for Lebanon (early on with Syrian-Saudi support, and later with the support of a faction in the Syrian regime before it was neutralized after the rise of Bashshar Al-Asad) clearly were in tune with the US-Israeli plans in the region. […]
Sanyruah was too inviting for the Americans: they thought that he would do in Lebanon what Maliki failed to do in Iraq: to impose national will against militias and resistance groups anywhere in the region. No one in the new era is permitted to defy US/Israeli will. […]
What happened in Lebanon today was certainly part of a larger regional conspiracy: you can't isolate the developments of Lebanon from the developments in Iraq and Palestine. […]
So will there be civil war? Thus far, one can say this. The party that wants civil war can't achieve it, and the party that is capable of instigating and sustaining a civil war does not want it–not yet anyway.

Jnoubiyeh mentions the government's decisions as violations that will lead to undesired repercussions:

The decision to remove B.G. Shqeir will also prompt Muslim Shiite powers in the opposition to act so that immunity of Muslim Shiite official posts remains intact.
Hours earlier, the vice president of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Kabalan said he conveyed a message to Saniora that removing Shqeir would be viewed as an unprecedented violation that will lead to undesired repercussions.
For his part, the head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun defended Hezbollah's communications network, stressing “there are other private communications networks than Hezbollah's.” “Finding a camera on airport road is not a security penetration,” Aoun said. “The road to Bekfaya is full of cameras and they monitor us all the time,” he added.

Friday Lunch Club posts a letter he got from Nir Rosen in which Nir reports about his experience during the day while running around from one flashpoint to another:

“….I spent the entire day running around all the flashpoints in Beirut, wherever there were mobs, shootings, explosions, I got harassed by various militias from both sides and it works perfectly for my big story about the Sunnis of Lebanon and their militias, but I was really shocked at the behavior of Amal. I’ve spent a lot of time with Mustaqbal militiamen, who of course are thuggish and racist and their militias are getting better organized, and that’s all frightening, but they seem very weak and almost cowardly when compared with the Amal thugs I saw today, who were very provocative.

The Human Province asks how an issue like raising the minimum wage should become an excuse for street fight:

My friend S, on the other hand, lives in Corniche el-Mazra'a, where there has been fighting most of the day. She just told me that they haven't seen any army troops in over an hour, just militiamen from Amal and Mostaqbal (Future Movement) carrying guns and RPG launchers. They don't have any electricity and have had to leave the living room, because the windows are too big. There have been other clashes in the usual places: Cola, Museitbeh, Tariq el-Jadida, Tayounneh and Ras el-Naba'a, amongst others.
It's really depressing to me how even an issue like raising the minimum wage, which should have appeal across sectarian lines, inevitably turns into an excuse for thugs from vying political parties to fight in the street.

Mirvat sees the situation as a curse Lebanese inherited from their Phoenician forefathers:

It is the curse of our fathers that we should never be together, that we should always be divided. That we should destroy everything we achieve. That we should work against each other. That we should always leave the next generation in dire despair and faced with the challenge of re-building a name for themselves and their country, until we ruin it all, all over again.
Feiruz is stuck at the airport!
Will we ever be taken seriously again, be respected again? When we do not trust ourselves, we exhaust ourselves, we self-destroy and we will .. inevitably .. implode from within!

Liliane sees Lebanon being torn apart between two factions:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we the Lebanese are being dissected and torn apart by two major evil forces, the Haririst and the Hezbollah!
The coming days will unveil the upcoming war, not necessarily a typical civil war which we are used to, but when RPGs, Snipers and bombs are used in a supposedly “peaceful” demonstration, then it is an ugly battle taking place to say the least.
Until now, some of the Future movement members have closed the road in Saadneyil and also in Masnaa, which is the crossing border between Lebanon and Syria in response to the closing of the road to the airport by Hezbollah. The first, claimed that once the airport road is open, they will open the roads on their ends.

Marxist From Lebanon points out to the fact that all political parties are organized for war:

The events of today show much each and every political party is organized for war. The realist perspective would be the Security dilemma: “hey they got arms, so I will have arms as well even though I am a lover of peace!” A Small Question though, if you take the collective number of the people on the streets, it tells you that the majority of the proletariat in Lebanon do not [want] war, and only those pathetic rug rats wants to go to war.

Photos and updates are being posted at Blacksmiths of Lebanon, at Bilad ash-Sham and at Farfahinne.

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Myanmar: Slow relief work

Mong Palatino · 17:51, May 8th, 2008 · East Asia

lingua → bn · mg · fr · es

First, an update on the situation in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis hit the country a few days ago. The death toll continues to rise. The official report on the number of casualties is way below international estimates. The government is still placing the number of dead people around 23,000 while international aid groups believe the figure could now reach 100,000.

Golden Colour Revolution hints the death toll could be worse:

“According to an undisclosed interview with one government official, death toll is reaching 600,000 so far and 100,000 still missing. According to his figure, 180,000 were killed in Lutbutta township alone. 90,000 in Phyar Pone Township; 80,000 in Bogalay Township; 50,000 each in KywanGanKone, DayDaYae and MawKyane Township.Authorities. Army and its thugs are throwing away dead bodies to the nearby river. Even in Ye Way Cemetery in Yangon City, dead bodies are cremated in batch without proper identification. Emphasizing to Phyar Pone Township, authority declared an Emergency Act.”

Bangkok Dazed received an e-mail from an expat friend living in Yangon, Myanmar. Below is a short description of how people in the residential city are coping with the situation:

“In our house we were trapped when tress around the house fell over after 11 hours of strong winds at 200-240 knots. The mess is terrible everywhere, with all electricity down and no water for days. Our home/office phone lines are down including all power lines. I am here today at the internet café. This area on Mahabandoola Street is open again in downtown Yangon, as they had underground wiring and cables. All the rest of us who live in residential areas and in the city are left with no power. We are looking at 3 to 6 months, or maybe 1 year to get power again! To add more stress, all food and water has gone up 3 times the price. As each day goes by, the price of generators go up; we paid $2,000 for a generator that is usually priced at $900 to $1,200. So it’s really bad. All of us are unhurt, but we are still coping with this situation.”

Now, let’s discuss the status of the relief work in Myanmar. The ruling Junta is still restricting the movement of international relief groups. Soe Moe enumerates the services and goods needed by Myanmar today:

“It’s been 6 days since the cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar and the situation is getting worse day by day due to the decomposed animals and human lying around the effected areas. Recent days, we had witnessed the generosity of the world as the humanitarian aid in millions of dollars. But it is very sad to find out that Burmese government is hesitating to grant visa to UN aid workers and NGOs in the name of politics. It is not the time for politics during the time of humanitarian crisis. And it is very sad to hear on news that the western nations are willing to provide the aid needing by the cyclone Nargis victims while Burmese government is refusing to accept them.

“Today first UN aid plane has landed in Yangon International Airport after 2 days delay due to the visa issues. And more planes are waiting permission from Burmese government to land in Yangon. Italy, Thai, India and Indonesia aid planes had been allowed to land in Yangon. We have seen the death toll increasing dramatically over the days.

“What we desperately need is experience aid works and rescue units to help the survivors, to dispose the dead bodies properly and to control the deadly diseases. We need helicopters to go to the most remote areas where the aid is greatly needed. In Burmese air force, we have limited numbers of helicopters and they won’t be able to help those from remote areas. US military is offering aid mission. The US airbase in Thailand is ready to send its helicopters and ships to Burma for search and rescue mission. And again, Burmese generals are not going to accept the offer because they are Americans. This is not the time for like or dislike. This is the time to save as much people as we can.”

The blogger is also horrified to see the dumping of corpses in the rivers:

“I was so surprised to see that dead people being dump into the rivers. I’m wondering what they are thinking. It won’t solve the problem by throwing the dead bodies in to the river. In fact, it will endanger the people who are living along the river bank with deadly diseases.

“In a matter of days, the death toll will increase again. This time it is not going to be devastating force of the cyclone Nargis, but it is going to be the poor health care and reluctance to accept the aid workers around the world by the generals of Burma. And this time the government will also be responsible for the dead of tens of thousands of Burmese in Burma. Their ignorance to the early warning of the cyclone Nargis and reluctance to accept the aid from around the world will be the main cause of people dying in our country. And we will never forget how people are being killed during 1988, September 2007 and May 2008.”

Bangkok Dazed insists giving aid should not be politicized:

“If the USA, or any country, wants to offer humanitarian aid, I think that is wonderful. But the aid shouldn’t come with strings attached, or accompanied by lectures. Just help the people that need it, and keep your political and religious agenda to yourself. But that seems to be an impossible task for the “holier than thou” contingent. You would think those idiots in the Bush administration would “get it” by now. But no, they continue their same style of inflammatory, derisive diplomacy; criticizing and ridiculing other countries, rather than making a sincere attempt to engage in constructive dialogue. That means sitting down and talking to the other country, not lecturing them and calling then bad names.”

Beyond SG advises the Junta to learn from the Chinese government:

“Aid is pouring in from all over the world. The bottleneck is the damaged infrastructure which was not very good to begin with. Initially suspicious of foreign assistance, the Myanmar Government is cautiously opening its door to outside help. This is a major test for the military government. If it rises to the challenge, its standing in the eyes of the citizenry will go up. The manner in which the Chinese leadership responded to the unusually cold weather during the Chinese New Year period this year earned it widespread praise.”

Asia's Perfect 10 is looking for the intervention of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN):

“Close to 5 days after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, ASEAN has yet to mobilize anything to aid Myanmar. Thailand and Indonesia have pledged something. Good for them but ASEAN is reacting really slow to aid one of its member states.”

The Junta really suffers from low reputation. Even international relief campaigns are assuring the potential donors that the relief goods will not be directed to Myanmar’s government. Melody’s quotes a sample of the relief campaign information drive:

“You can provide immediate, direct relief to Burmese cyclone victims. The relief will go entirely to the victims. These will not be sidetracked by government agencies, politics or administrative siphoning.”

Straight Talk provides details on the donation drive in Malaysia. Busy Days monitors donation collection in Singapore. The blogger also writes that

“A well-known regional Myanmar Blogger, Nyi Lynn Seck, from Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar, has volunteered to go to the affected regions of Irrawady Delta to distribute food, medicine and other relief supplies.”

Ko htike's prosaic collection describes the military generals as shameless after they were caught replacing the labels of aid boxes from Thailand. The Burmese Ruby Diary is disappointed that some commentators are writing that the cyclone was a punishment for Myanmar. Little Myanmar compiles an international aid contribution list.

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Brazil and Orkut: made for each other?

Daniel Duende · 16:14 · Americas

Orkut Brazil Orkut, Google's experiment on Social Networking Services, is extremely popular in Brazil. More than 53% of Orkut users is Brazilian — even more, if you take into account Brazilian's profiles that don't show their country information and profiles by Brazilians living abroad — and more than 70% percent of Brazil's Internet users are actually profiled and active on the network.

A very large part of Brazil's online life is going on inside Orkut. Still, most of the Brazilian mainstream media and the blogosphere don't pay much attention to this social networking service, unless there's something bad to be said about it. News about hate-groups meeting at Orkut, or about pedophiles using of the social networking service to exchange child pornography or to hunt for potential victims, are fairly common on both the Brazilian media and blogosphere. But what else is going on there? Who might be all these Brazilians at Orkut, and what are they doing there?

To give Global Voices Online readers some insight into the answers to these questions, let's take a quick look at some of the Brazilian activity at Orkut, and you're invited to come along if you have an Orkut profile or a Google account - you need at least a basic registration — in order to follow the links:

First of all, let's take a look at some profiles. The first thing you notice is… Brazilians have a lot of friends. It's very common in Brazil to add everyone you know — or even just heard of — and fake or “non-person” profiles to your friend's list. More than that, it's usual to add people you don't know and don't even want to know, just in case you wish to visit their profiles someday. It's also easy to notice how fond we are of showing pictures of ourselves and our friends, except when we want to look particularly cool (and that's fairly less common). Most profiles are very colorful in language and imagery, and show a lot about what it's intended for the profile viewers to know about the people behind them. It's easy to feel that despite personal taste differences, Brazilians feel very “at home” at Orkut and their profiles are testimony to this.

Gigi, one of the famous Orkut divas

Gigi is famous on the scene. Lots of friends, lots of pictures, long description, busy scrapbook: Typical Brazil.

The scrapbooks, places where users can leave open short messages to others on their profiles, are heavily used not only to chat, sometimes to many people at a time — is if everyone was in a house meeting or a party — but are also usual places to advertise parties, events and share quotes and textual fragments. It's a matter of opinion whether these are spam or just free-form personal advertising.

Fake profiles, as well as bogus communities — like this one named “it must be boring to be a tree” — are very common. However, more than causing mayhem, these are more commonly put to mostly healthy humorous uses. Some even say Brazilians rise fake profiles and bogus communities to a work of art.

On the “I woke up somewhat bilingual today” they don't even have forum topics. The community was made just for the fun of having it's banner on their profiles.

Now, let's take a look at the communities. Besides the vast majority of communities aimed more to provide humorous or ideological “badges” for their members to show on their profiles than places for real conversations, there are a lot of serious communities too, and a lot of interesting and passionate debates are going on there. Let's take two examples. one from a community discussing the women's right do decide on abortion and the other from a community discussing Brazilian ban on WordPress.

Abortion is only legal in Brazil in cases of sexual abuse or pregnancy that endangers the mother's life. In this thread about whose interests were behind the legalization of abortion in Brazil, on the community “Aborto: um tema em debate” [”Abortion: a matter under discussion”], mor@ngoღღ says [Pt]:

“[…]Hoje li um texto* que no mínimo aguçou essa minha vontade de esclarecer a questão. Trata-se dos dizeres do Professor Humberto Vieira presidente da PROVIDAFAMILIA.

De acordo com sua pesquisa, ele mostra que existem correntes eugenistas que pregam o controle populacional usando entre outros recursos o aborto.

Essas correntes seriam responsáveis por discursos bem parecidos com o que vemos aqui. Por detrás de um feminismo de fachada querem reduzir-nos em número para que não representemos uma ameaça ao domínio dos países imperialistas.[…]“

“[…]I read an article today that sharpened my urge to clarify [this] matter. It was about what professor Humberto Vieira, president of PROVIDAFAMILIA [roughly: “PRO-LIFE-AND-FAMILY”] association, says. According to his researches, he shows that there are some eugenic factions that preach the population control using, among other methods, abortion. These factions were responsible for speeches that are very similar to the [pro-choice] ones we see here. Hiding behind a facade of shallow feminism, they want to reduce our numbers so we don't represent a menace to the imperialist countries domination.[…]”

Then Jose Guilherme furiously retorts [Pt]:

“[…]se vc levou a sério esse texto mediocre e paranoico por favor vai pra comunidade do Olavo de Carvalho. Pq lá é que eles gostam dessas teorias de dominação mundial.

E se for verdade ? Vamos deixar de fazer algo pq os outros querem isso ? Vamos ditar as nossas políticas públicas para contrariar aos supostos “imperialistas” e não pq interessa ou não ao país ? E como diminuir população ajuda os “imperialistas” ? Tudo vago e sem explicação… claro…“

“[…]if u took this mediocre and paranoid article seriously, u should go to the Olavo de Carvalho community. ‘Cos they really like these world-domination theories over there. And what if it's true? Should we refrain from doing something just because someone else wants us to? Should we modify our public policies just to counteract some supposed ‘imperialists', and not because it is in our country's best interests? And how does reducing the population help the ‘imperialists'? All very vague and with no explanations… of course…”

Politely, mor@ngoღღ tries to support her point:

“Eu entendo controle de natalidade como determinar quantos filhos cada pessoa deve ter. Diferente de planejamento familiar. Pelo menos era o que eu pensava. Eu via planejamento familiar como dar ferramentas para que as pessoas escolhessem quantos filhos querem ter…
Mas se a campanha vier acompanhada de atos proibitivos ou punitivos vira controle de natalidade, isso eu sou contra.“

“I understand birth control as the determination of to how many kids a person is allowed to give birth. It's not the same as family planning. At least, that's what I used to believe. I used to see family planning as bestowing tools for people to choose how many children they want to have… but if the campaign includes prohibitive or punitive acts, it becomes birth control, and I am against that.”

Kelli joins the conversation saying [Pt]:

” Meio incoerente não?
[…]
Aborto criminalizado é um ato proibitivo e punitivo, então vc tbm é contra?“

“Doesn't it sound a little incoherent? […] The ban on the abortion is a prohibitive and punitive act. So, you're against this [ban]?”

Then José Guilherme delivers his coup-de-grâce:

“Morango […] Esse discurso é meramente uma forma de atacar a legitimidade de quem é a favor da legalização. Pintar essas pessoas ou como capachos de “agentes” externos… ou como ingenuos manipulados. Ou seja… ao invês de debater as questões… buscam atacar as pessoas e suas motivações. Ad Hominem em escala grande.
Na ANDSC menos de 25% das mulheres disseram que abortariam/abortaram… então ao menos 75% realmente acreditam que as OUTRAS devem ter esse direito sem que isso seja reflexo de interesse proprio.
As teorias ditas “Freakonomics” de controle da natalidade tambem foram rejeitadas pela ANDSC.“

“Morango […] your speech is merely a way to undermine the legitimacy of those who fight for the legalization [of the abortion]. To make them look like servants to external ‘agents'… or like manipulated naive people. So… instead of discussing the important matters… [you] seek to attack people and their motivations. It's a mass Ad Hominem [argument]. At the ANDSC [Aborto não deve ser crime - “abortion should not be a crime” [Pt], a pro-choice Orkut community] less than 25% of the women said they would eventually get an abortion, or have already had one… so, at least 75% of them really believe the OTHER ones should have this right [to choose], without any personal interest involved. The mentioned ‘Freakonomics‘ birth control theories were rejected, too, at ANDSC.”

At another community, about the Brazilian justice threat to ban Wordpress.com domain [Pt] (already discussed here and in many other places), there's a thread where the members show their discontent at the idea of one million users being punished for just one blogger's misdeeds. Paulo calls its peers into action:

“Calar a boca de 1 milhão pelo erro de um ?
Não podemos deixar isto acontecer. Se alguém errou, que pague-se pelo ato cometido, mas não se pode penalizar uma coletividade, devido o erro de um indivíduo.
Temos que chamar a atenção da mídia e da sociedade para este cerceamento da liberdade que querem cometer.
Mande e-mails para os amigos, para a imprensa, para autoridades.
Se nos omitirmos, teremos nossa boca calada. E depois não adianta chorar. “

“Silencing one million [users] to punish for just one's mistake? We can't let it happen. If someone misbehaved, he or she should pay for his/her acts, but you can't punish the entire collective for just one individual's misdeeds. We must call the media and the society attention to this violation of our freedoms that they want to commit. Send emails to your friends, to the media and to the authorities. If we omit ourselves, we will have our mouth shut, and then it will be no use to crying over this.”

Athos seems to agree with Pedro, and vents his frustration over his faceless suspect [Pt]:

” Se verem um blog de pornografia,denunciem.
Vai ver é ele que fez toda a merda.“

“If you see a pornographic blog, report it. Maybe it was the responsible for all this shit.”

There's always a lot to say about Brazilian use of Orkut. On my next articles, I'll try to keep track of it, and use it together with the Brazilian conversations on the blogosphere, to amplify Brazilian voices on the Internet. This will surely provide a better picture of what we have to say to each other, and to the world.

As a bonus, here is a video, provided by José Murilo in his blog Ecologia Digital [Pt], where we can watch John Perry Barlow — political activist, social thinker and mythical band Grateful Dead's lyrics writer — explaining his views on Orkut and Brazil, and telling us how he may have been an important part of all this Brazilian online party:

—

The author of this article is on Orkut too. He may be found here. Don't forget to leave your opinion about his cat. Both man and cat appreciate it a lot.

(author's note: most of Orkut links in this article are in Portuguese)

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Malaysia: Vigil for jailed blogger Raja Petra this evening

John Kennedy · 04:13 · East Asia

lingua → bn · mk · sq

Take note of what's been happening in Malaysia these past few days since popular blogger and political commentator Raja Petra Kamarudin, 58, was imprisoned on Tuesday after a trial which saw him charged with sedition for having written a blog post.

If the Malaysian government was truly worried about bloggers effecting social unrest, now they have it. Remember, this is a country where any politician worth their mutton—Jeff Ooi was one of several Malaysians who rode their blog and calls for reform to Parliament in recent elections—has a blog, and even the old goats now blog too.

Ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has a highly-read blog, as does PM hopeful Anwar Ibrahim.

“They set up their blogs, and they try to close down our blogs.”

Raja is one of the sharpest voices both online and off in Malaysia, so it's highly suggested you check out his statements to the public right after his sentencing, vlogged by Malaysian citizen media stronghold, Malaysiakini.

Raja Petra (or RPK) has had his case brought to parliament, where MP-bloggers are calling RPK's arrest politically-motivated retaliation sought by the current ruling coalition following its heavy losses in recent elections, elections that saw for the first time popular bloggers winning seats, on a platform of increased transparency and post-colonial racial integration.

As the Malaysia Star points out, this is the first time that a blogger has been charged under the Sedition Act, and RPK now faces a fine of up to just over USD 1,500 and/or three years in prison. The trial, which saw businessman Syed Akbar Ali charged with sedition for a comment he left on RPK's blog, appears to have been carried out with no clarification given as to which part of the Act RPK had supposedly violated.

Multi-ethnic reform lobby group Aliran looks at the text of the Sedition Act, and expresses shock that this led to anything more than a defamation charge.

As of Thursday morning, RPK's readers have raised online far more than what he stands to be fined, and also today comes news that Raja Petra is on a hunger strike, and refusing to meet even with his own wife.

Following a candlelight vigil held outside Sungai Buloh prison last night, another vigil will be held at 8pm this evening in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

A Facebook group that has been set up to call for RKP's release is buzzing today, and a whole set of images can be found there, among other places, for anyone who wants to put a badge on their blog to show their
support:

At the center of all this is still the murder of Mongolian former model and polyglot Altantuya; Raja Petra's blog post calling for justice in her death to be resolved has been posted widely in recent days; here's how it begins:

Today, we shall not be talking about politics. We shall also not be talking about race or religion. Today, we shall talk about doing the human thing. Today, let’s discuss how to launch a ‘Justice for Altantuya: restore Malaysia’s dignity’ campaign. And let’s send those bastards who murdered Altantuya to hell where they belong.

An invitation was extended earlier to Mr. Kamarudin to come speak at this year's Global Voices Advocacy summit to be held in Budapest this June, and remains extended now.

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The Global Voices Summit ‘08 site is live!

Georgia Popplewell · 03:03, May 8th, 2008 · Announcements

lingua → ar · mg · sq · pt · bn · mk · zht · zhs · fr · jp

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the web site for the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008!

Our Summit will take place this year in Budapest, Hungary on June 27-28, 2008. Visit the Summit site for background information on the goals of the meeting, our terrific program of events, registration details and information about the charming city of Budapest, including a list of blogs about Hungary.

And while you're at it, please help spread the word about the Global Voices Summit by flying one of our sweet-looking Summit badges or banners on your blog or web site.

Over the next few days and weeks we'll be adding speaker bios, a list of attendees and more — and do keep checking in at the site for blog posts and commentary from Summit participants and others and to join in the conversation.

See you in Budapest in June!

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China: EV71 outbreak in China sparks criticisms

George Sun · 02:19, May 8th, 2008 · East Asia

While not bird flu related, the recent outbreak of HFMD (Hand Foot and Mouth Disease) in China gives us an opportunity to see how the Chinese government responds to an epidemic. During the weekend china issued a countrywide alert to control the disease as it is also spreading in many other parts of china. Still, one can’t see the end of that trouble that is on rise with every passing day. Blogger Chenguang [zh] shares his opinions comparing it with the outbreak of SARS in 2003.

在4月23日之前，安徽省疾病控制方面的专家一直为病因的确诊感到焦虑和担忧。但后来却发现引起此次公共卫生事件暴发的“真凶”，竟然是在40年前就已发现的常见肠道病毒EV71，而且这种病毒引发的“手足口病”在全世界很多国家和地区都已经出现过，就在去年的安徽邻省山东，也出现过近万例的报告，也有死亡病例。

Before April 23rd, the disease control experts in Anhui Province felt the anxiety and concern because of the confirmation of the cause of the disease. But later on they found the original cause of this public health event, which was the epidemic intestinal virus EV71 found 40 years ago, and this virus triggered the “hand, foot and mouth disease” in many countries around the world. Last year, in Shandong, Anhui's neighbouring province, there were nearly 10,000 illness cases reported, including a few deaths.

当外界问责安徽省卫生厅“没有及时向卫生部上报病情”时,“肠道病毒EV71感染不是法定必须上报的传染病”这个最冠冕堂皇的理由就把应该承担的重大责任推得一干二净。而当时的实际情况是，阜阳已经因此死了十多个患儿了。

When the outside accountability comes to Anhui Provincial Health Office, asking for “a timely disease report to the Ministry of Health”, the high-sounding excuse that “intestinal infection EV71 virus is not a statutory infectious diseases that must be reported” has completely passed the buck to others. At that time, in actuality, more than 10 children had died in Fuyang.

事后，更有官员在接受媒体采访时说，“我国每天大约有2万到3万例各种传染病报告，每年大概有600多万个病例报告，每例都通报，不是造成社会不稳定吗？”

After the accident, more than an afterwit official said to the media, “China has about 20,000 to 30,000 cases of various infectious diseases reported daily and more than 6 million reported cases annually. If we report each one of them, won't it inflict social instability?

思想上重视，实践上落后。在中国行政文化中，保一方平安，是官员不得不严重关注的事项，搞不好是要丢乌纱帽的。上级官员也会动辄以“祖国和人民”的利益教育下级官员。然而，这会促使管理者只重视“社会安全事件”，现对忽视”公共卫生”/“自然灾害”；为了尽可能“明晰”负责，遇有危机事件出现时，或者隐而不报，或者上报了事。缺乏超越常规处置应急事项的动力和机制，也极为缺乏预警的技术手段以及技术与管理有效对接的能力。年初的南方大雪，气象部门是事前有所预测的，但却没有将此预测转化为应急管理的一部分。阜阳EV71感染事件之后，人们会再次想到我们政府公共卫生应急管理能力的低下,急需为应急管理制定相应的法律。

Ideological attention, but backward practice. In China's administrative culture, security is the matter officials have to seriously concern about. Otherwise, it may cost their official positions. Higher-level officials will often use “the motherland and the people” to teach the lower level of officials. However, this will only attach importance to managers of “social safety incidents” and ignore the “public health” / “natural disaster”. In order to “clear” responsibility, in the event of crises, they are more likely to hide, not report or just “report up”. Being devoid of the effective system and mechanisms to handle emergency matters, the local government also lack the early warning technology and the technical means to dock with the management capacity. The heavy snow in the South early this year had been forecasted by the meteorological department, but there is no forecast in this part of emergency management.

Blogger Lelelele [zh] says a lot suspicion can be raised from the issues of the mass infection of EV71.

安徽省卫生厅在4月29日的新闻通报中称，省财政安排了1000万元专款用于购置救治设备。但截至5月2日，大多数病童家属还不知道这一规定，也并未享受政策实惠，继续承受着医院高收费之苦。相对于以谎言辟谣，某种程度上还只属于行政良知的范畴，而当地对于专项拨款“去无踪”则显然远远超越了良知的边界，这令人费解！

On April 29th, Anhui Provincial Health Office announced that 10 million RMB has been deployed to buy the treatment apparatus. But until May 2nd, most of the victims' families didn't know this regulation and didn't receive any profit of the policy, still enduring the high price of medicine. Compared with the refuting of the rumors, which is merely, in a sense, a matter about conscience, the “disappearance” of financial deployment is way beyond that. How inconceivable it is!

English blogger FLA_MEDIC thinks there is a lack of effectiveness in China's health and sanitation system.

In 2003, China covered up the fact that they were seeing hundreds of cases of a new type of deadly pneumonia, what became known as SARS, for several months. They have in the past been less than forthcoming about their bird flu cases, and have been slow to send samples to the WHO.

Blogger Yin Minhong even says that PM Wen Jiabao should resign if the government can't successfully control the spread of the disease.

The number of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) cases reported in China this year has risen to 11,905 by Monday, resulting in 26 deaths, according to Xinhua counting of local official figures. Tang Xiaoping, an epidemic expert and deputy head of the health bureau of Guangzhou, said the drastic rise is a result of an order by the Ministry of Health on Friday, which classifies HFMD as a C class epidemic that must be reported to the ministry.

An anonymous author posts a few words saying the spread out of EV71 reflects much broader and inner social problems in China.

It might help to put this epidemic in perspective and look at the history of outbreaks in the past and also at the health condition of children in that part of China. Are these children at higher risk for some reason? Are they susceptible to other infections? What is health care, poverty, economics like in that part of China. The air looks very polluted there.

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