Archive for
June 8th, 2008
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Japan: Bloggers on Akihabara knife rampage
A knife attack in Tokyo's Akihabara area, according to news reports carried out by 25-year-old suspect Tomohiro Kato, has taken the lives of at least seven people and left many more injured. The suspect apparently crashed a two-ton rented truck into pedestrians on an intersection close to Akihabara station, and then began attacking onlookers.
The incident happened on the anniversary of a similar crime in Japan's past. Seven years ago on the same day, Mamoru Takuma went on a rampage at Ikeda elementary school in Osaka and killed seven children.
For a list of articles, information, and photos on the stabbing, see Akibablog [ja]. The forums are naturally full of comments [ja], and at ICHINOHE Blog [ja] there is a rundown of Twitter coverage of the incident. Blogger kawataso posted lots of photos [ja] and gave a run-down of their experience of what happened:
今日僕は高崎から戻ってきてそのままアキバに来ていました。まだ11時でホコ天も始まっていなかったのでとりあえずリナカフェに入ってスライドをつくったりいろいろやっていました。
で、作業に集中していてまわりがざわつくまで気づかなかったのですが、開店中なのになぜか店のシャッターが降りていました。
Linux Cafe (in Akihabara) with the shutters closed [シャッターの降りた店内], photo and caption by Kawataso
何があったのかなーと思ってたらなんか通り魔がでたとか、亡くなった人がいるとか、まだ犯人がつかまっていないからシャッターをおろしたんだとかそういう話が店内でささやかれていました。
[…]
しばらくして犯人は捕まったという速報が入ってきて、その時点ではまだ別のメディアではそういう情報がなく錯綜しているようだったのでもうしばらく見守って、いくつかのメディアで犯人逮捕の報が流れたことで、とりあえず店内はすこし落ち着いた空気になりました。
店のシャッターはしまったままですが、とりあえず大丈夫だろうといったん荷物をまとめてカメラを持って店を出ました。リナカフェが面している通りの店は基本的にいつも通り開店していましたが、大通り側にも入り口があるソフマップは念のためシャッターを下ろしているようでした。
Crowds and ambulance, patrol car [人だかりと救急車、パトカーたち], photo and caption by Kawataso
そのまま大通りへ出ると予想通りの人だかりと、予想外の救急車、パトカーたちがいました。
現場はドンピシャで交差点の真ん中らしく、完全に交差点は封鎖されていました。
それから、もちろん警察関係、救急関係者はたくさんいたのですが、それ以上に印象的だったのは路面に散らばった靴やいろいろな持ち物でした。
Many police and ambulance crew [たくさんの警官、救急隊員], photo and caption by Kawataso
Blogger zun00340 was at the scene, and describes what happened:
今日、秋葉原で通り魔事件がありましたね。
本当に痛ましい事件でびっくりしましたが、実は、事件発生時、偶然近くにいました。
It was such a tragic incident so it shocked me, but actually, at the time of the incident, I just happened to be nearby.
[…]
事件発生時、駅に向かって歩いていたところだったので、きちんと目撃はしていませんが、最初は何かがぶつかるような車の大きな音がしました。
交通事故？と振り返ったところ、その直後に、奇声と叫び声が聞こえてきて、
「ヤバそうだから、早く行こう！」
という相方の判断は、正しかったんだなぁと今となっては思います。
Traffic accident? — just as I looked over my shoulder, at the very next instant I heard someone scream in a strange voice,
“This looks dangerous, so let's get out of here fast!”
And when I think about it now, my friend's judgment was correct.
現場周辺では、いろいろな情報が錯綜していて、逃げる人、集まってくる野次馬（これが大部分）などでもう大パニック状態でした。
小さなお子さんを連れた人たちは、集まってくる野次馬たちの存在の方が危険だったかもしれません。
もの凄い勢いで、人を押しのけながら現場に向かっていましたから。
The people who had young children with them may actually have been in more danger from the onlookers who gathered [at the spot].
Because they were shoving past people with an incredible momentum to get to the scene.
「サリンが撒かれたらしい」
「通り魔が出た」
「爆弾テロ？」
“There's a street slasher”
“A terrorist bomb?”
様々なデマや憶測が流れていましたが、状況がしっかりわからない状態は本当に恐ろしかったです。
Photo by Kawataso
The truck. Are they taking fingerprints? [トラック。指紋採取中？] Caption and photo by Kawataso
Blogger yonekami, who was at the spot when the stabbings happened, writes:
丁度そのとき俺らはその脇道にある店の中にいました。
店に出た時、かなりの血が広がってました。
警官が取り押さえる際に容疑者から刺された血痕だと思われます。
あと数分早く出ていたら・・なんてことを考えるとものすごく恐ろしいです。
人生何が起こるか本当にわからないですね。
When we left the store, there was blood all over the place.
When the police captured the suspect, there seemed to be bloodstains from the stabbing.
If we had left just a few minutes earlier… it's extremely terrifying just to think about it.
You never really know what will happen in life, do you.
Scattered possessions. [散らばった所持品] Caption and photo by Kawataso
Suspect's rented truck. Photo by Kawataso
Blogger yoro was also nearby, and explains:
事件の起きた時間、わたしとカミサンと三男の３人で秋葉原にいて、ヨドバシか池袋へ車で移動するところでした。そのため、事件の現場は目撃もしていませんし、現場からはちょっと離れた場所にいました。が、以前から良く行く場所であり、ほんのわずかな違いと言うか、偶然で難を逃れたような気もします。
Blogger yodogawa, who arrived at the spot shortly after the incident occurred, describes the scene:
例の事件が１２３５時にあったそうで、
１３００時に私は現場にいました。
交通事故かとも思いましたが、それにしては被害者が多いし、
警察も多い、
おまけに数人が心臓マッサージを受けていて、
救急救命士が殺気だっていました。（仕事中にころに似たヤバイ雰囲気は何度か味わっているのでそんな感じでした）
通常の事故（と言うのも悪いですが）と明らかに違い、『とんでもない事が起きた、多分テロか通り魔的な何かだろうな』
と考えて場所を後にして家に帰りました。
I thought it was a traffic accident, but there were too many victims for that, and there were lots of police,
and besides that many people were receiving cardiac massage,
and the paramedics were frantic. (I've experienced a similar kind of terrible atmosphere at work, and it was that kind of feeling.)
I realized that it was clearly different from an ordinary incident (saying that is also bad, but…), that “something unthinkable has happened, maybe terrorism, or something like a street slasher”, so I left the spot and returned home.
Iran: Green Activists in Movement and Photos
Green blogs are a valuable source for understanding Iran's nature and environment, its problems and challenges. Green bloggers actively take part in campaigns to protect nature and animals. They publish articles, stories, and photos, and they organize conferences and demonstrations. In this post, we look at green activism in Iran through the eyes of bloggers in last year.
Here are some photos of artistic environmental activity to protest against the destruction of nature and hunting of animals.
Art and Environment
Mojgan Jamshidi has published [fa] several photos from a recent art festival in the northern city Noshahr. The photos were taken by Ahmad Nadalyan and Raheleh Zomorodnya:
Some protested against keeping animals in cages:
or hunting them:
Protest
Hamnahad has published [fa] the photos of demonstrators who protested against the presence of an Italian circus in Tehran last January. They carried the photos of several animals in chains with slogans such as “Love us in freedom not in chains” or “Born in captivity has no desire to live.”
Warning
in his blog, Mohammad Darvish has written about [fa] a conference about the construction of big dams, the consequences and alternatives. He was one of the speakers too.
Jamshidi shows [fa] the negative impact of one dam in Iran, where the Urumiyeh lake in the north west has become a salt lake and animals have perished.
Action
Grey Wolf shows [fa] people planting trees together for a better future.
Blogger of the Week: Ljubiša Bojić
Today's Blogger of the Week series takes us to the heart of the Balkans, where we chat with Global Voices author for Serbia Ljubiša Bojić (pronounced Lyu-bi-sha Bo-yich) about blogging, politics and citizen journalism in Serbia.
Aged 24 and a graduate in journalism, Ljubiša Bojić is an enthusiast of new media:
Currently I'm writing a book about web journalism and digital marketing that I intend to publish in English. I am also in advertising, working as a creative director, mainly doing copy writing. I am interested in great stories and how to make them. It annoys me to see so so much wasted human potential.
Being so passionate about journalism and digitial media, it is not surprising to hear that he started blogging (in Serbian) quite a few years ago:
I have been blogging since 1999. NATO aggression against Serbia motivated me to blog. There was a platform called “Beograd.com”. Many individuals across the country used to inform the community about the state of alert (where the planes came from and what they bombed, etc.). This website marked the beginning of citizen journalism in Serbia. I am proud that I was part of it.
Then, in August 2006, while doing an internship in Hong Kong, Ljubiša started a blog in English to reach a broader audience and “to contribute to the understanding between Serbia and the rest of the world”. In one of his first posts, he wrote a little story about a recurring topic in his blog - corruption:
Here I am on a plane headed to Belgrade. Behind me one Serbian man and a Armenian lady start a conversation. What a better topic to kick off a chat than with corruption issues. Man tells her what he encountered when he was awaiting flight in Moscow. Apparently lady at the counter asked him for bribe when he needed a wheelchair to use it around the airport as he was recovering from a medical operation at the time. On the other side, a Chinese-looking lady tells him about police asking her for bribe in her homeland. They go on and on about corruption. What a beautiful way to connect people. I think they were slowly getting in love while we were getting closer to Belgrade.
However, because of his work and all the projects that he's involved in, Ljubiša says that lately he hasn't had as much time to blog as he used to:
My English blog is pretty messy because, currently I store links and some citations there. Originally I wanted to communicate with the world. But now, because of intensive workload, the only way I manage to keep that connection is by sharing links which inspire me.
Besides his personal blog in English he also blogs in Serbian for the official blog for the Strengths of Serbia Movement “to project a new image of the organization that will get to the citizens' souls”. There he talks about human rights and political issues such as the following:
In my opinion, our government did great injustice against a politician who won 19% of vote at presidential elections in 2004. They marked him as a criminal, so he had to leave Serbia. His name is Bogoljub Karić, and my cause is to establish strong institutions in our society, so ruling politicians could never abuse power.
In 2006, at around the same time he started his blog in English, Ljubiša joined the Global Voices Online team as an author for Serbia and the Balkans after meeting co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon in Hong Kong:
It was sunny day and I was trying to get an interview from journalism professor for my documentary about media in Hong Kong. I talked to Ying Chan, head of Journalism and Media Studies Center at HKU. She told me about exciting thing going on around blogosphere - Global Voices Online. At that time, she was expecting arrival of a new professor to teach New Media. Guess who that was - Rebecca MacKinnon.
During his almost two years with Global Voices Ljubiša has written mostly about Serbian politics, such as Kosovo's independence or last january's presidential elections. But he has also introduced blogs from his home town (Kragujevac, in Serbia), has written about the situation of Roma people in Slovenia and the legalization of prostitution in Croatia, and has introduced many readers to the famous Bosnian pyramid and to the oldest blogger in the Balkans.
Ljubiša Bojić is also the founder of the Serbian Web Journalism School, a new media project that recently received a Rising Voices grant and that is also supported by the Serbian Journalist Association and the International University of Novi Pazar. He described in his blog what motivated him to start this project:
As the process of transition continues, the number of those who can't find job grows, here in central Serbia. This people need voice, at least. I decided to apply for Rising Voices grant in September to provide education, motivation and technology to individuals in need, so they can go online, tell their stories, establish contacts with some international organizations and maybe even get help. If nothing else, I am sure they will get moral support from communities of bloggers and news media from everywhere around the globe. They can share facts about corrupt privatization in Serbia, describe the way state treats them and talk about their human rights issues.
Another aspect of his Rising Voices project is contributing to the understanding between Serbian and Albanian youth from Serbia and Kosovo respectively:
Picture below shows Serb and Albanian youth talking how to connect and overcome difficulties that were created during centuries of hostility in southern province. I strongly believe young activist can make a difference. We need to come close, and do our best to boost economy. We would all love to live better and enter the EU. Why should we make conflicts and disagreement, when we can bond and interact.
Asked about the Serbian blogosphere, Ljubiša commented:
The Serbian blogosphere is diffused and small, because most of people hardly find time to blog something meaningful. Real hit among young generations is Facebook though. There are no real blogging stars except those public figures who post on B92 VIP. I consider limiting who can blog bad decision, so mortals use international blogging platforms, except one Serbian service (mojblog.co.yu).
He sees himself as a kind of bridge between different types of bloggers in Serbia:
One part of Serbian bloggers write about their day to day life, and there is no much politics. Others write politics exclusively. Part of them are patriotic, and the other part are oriented towards the European Union. So, our blogosphere is divided like our society. I am somewhere on the middle of this specter, so I can connect them. Ha ha ha.
And finally, we had to ask him about his most memorable blogging experience:
When the CNN said that NATO had bombed a military factory in my city (Kragujevac). That was in 1999. And that was actually a car production factory, Zastava. I blogged about the lie published by mainstream media. I think not so many people heard about it. But there was no GVO back then. I learned how media can be misused. That is how I came up with a media/political positivism theory.
Japan: Popularity of Q&A services
Results of a survey by NetRatings Japan, Inc. [ja] released on May 23rd and posted at japan.internet.com [ja] revealed some surprising trends [ja] among Japanese Internet users. Among other things, the survey found that while the amount of time that people spend on the Internet is going up, the number of page views is flat, contrary to what many expected.
The survey also found that popularity of Q&A services, particularly Yahoo!'s Chiebukuro (知恵袋) service started in 2004, have skyrocketed in recent years. From a total of 1.72 million page views on Chiebukuro in 2006, the figure increased to 12.62 million page views by March, 2008. (Other popular Japanese Q&A services [ja] include OKWave [ja], goo's “oshiete!” [ja], and Hatena Question [ja].) The study pointed out that while the reach of Yahoo! Chiekibukuro [ja] was 25.7% in Japan, the reach of the comparable “Yahoo! Answers” service in the U.S. is only 9.4%. Wikipedia also has a higher reach at 37.8% in Japan, compared to 24.5% in the U.S. (A different study, translated at What Japan Thinks, indicated that Japanese trust Q&A sites almost as much as they trust Wikipedia.)
In a post entitled “Japanese like Wikipedia and FAQ”, blogger lattice remarks on the differences between Japanese and American Internet users:
日本人はアメリカ人と違って、人前でオープンに議論するということが苦手である。「人には聞けない事をこっそり調べる」という欲求にネットは合っているのかもしれない。ネットのＦＡＱが流行るのもそうしたこともあるのかもしれない。身近の人間には訊きずらいが、ネットで匿名だと訊きやすいので初心者ＦＡＱなども大いに賑わう。ネット上の「教えて君」である。これも自分では積極的に調べようとしない、安易にネットで訊けばいいという、やはり思考停止の反映の１つにも思える。それに対してYahoo!知恵袋のように丁寧に答えてくれる人もいるが、思考停止を指摘するのが「ググレカス」であろう。
しかし何かネットで調べようとするとき「Google先生に訊いてみよう」とばかりキーワードを入れると出てくるのがYahooで」と言われているようなものだからである。それがネットだからといえばそうではあるのだが。
In other results, the survey also confirmed the incredible popularity of Japanese tarento on the Internet. The blog [ja] of actor Kamiji Ysuke in particular was reported to have around one million visitors, with a single entry drawing between ten and fifteen thousand comments over a span of just a few hours. So numerous are the comments on tarento blogs that some have even speculated [ja] the comment-writers may not be human [ja].
Thanks to Taku Nakajima and Yu Yamamoto for suggesting and researching this topic.
Links for Sun, 2008-06
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog links to his piece in eXile - “Nemtsov’s White Paper: Bombshell or Dud?” In the comments, readers discuss, among other things, eXile and the problems the paper's facing now.
Latvian Abroad fears that one Latvian paper - Diena - may not “survive in the Internet age.”
Kyle Grady of What's Going Down? writes an open letter to the editors of Lifestyle.bg and author Tihomir Dimitrov, prompting a heated discussion on Bulgaria, feminism, women's rights and other issues (41 comments so far).
Vilhelm Konnander writes about Prometheism and post-Soviet geopolitics.
Window on Eurasia is wondering whether Gagauzia could “replace Transdniestria as Moscow’s lever of choice in Moldova.”
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