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Costa Rica: National Films Gain Positive Reviews

lingua → es · bn · zht · zhs

An interesting, yet important storm of audiovisual productions is shaking Costa Rica’s attentive eager audience this year. Costa Rican bloggers provide their thoughts to the new cinematic offerings.

Miguel Gomez and his film El Cielo Rojo (The Red Sky) debuted at the beginning of August getting favorable reviews from experts and general viewers. Cristian Cambronero of Fusil de Chispas [es] delivers a short, yet detailed review of the premiere of El Cielo Rojo on his blog:

Miguel escribió varios diálogos brillantes, absolutamente creíbles para nosotros, su público meta, los espectadores costarricenses. Yo, y estoy seguro que le pasará a muchísimos de quienes la vean, me reconocí a los 17 años en muchas secuencias, y mi mamá, y a mi abuela, y a las vecinas.

Miguel wrote a brilliant script, absolutely believable for us, his target audience, the Costa Rican viewers. I (for the many others that will see the film) recognized myself at 17 years old in some scenes, and I also recognized my mother, my grandmother and some of my neighbors.

Trailer of El Cielo Rojo

Another director, Isthar Yashin recently contributed to the national cinema with El Camino (The Road) which received important awards and recognition in foreign Film Festivals. Inspired by El Camino’s intended message searching, Sergio Pacheco from La foto salió movida [es] writes:

Siempre me he reconocido migrante en mi propio país. Nací fuera de la capital y desde hace diez años estoy en la urbe (si a San José se le puede catalogar de tal forma). Muchos nos movemos dentro de nuestro país, entre países, entre mundos, entre el mundo, y el común denominador de ese movimiento es la búsqueda. El resultado es para todos diferente y para mí nunca estarán en el paralelo ganar- perder, si no en el de sobrevivir, que es un fluir.

I’ve always felt like a migrant in my own land. I was born in the countryside and ever since ten years ago, I live in this large city (if we can call San Jose as one). Many of us move around inside our country, between countries, between worlds, among the world and the common denominator of this movement is the search. The result is different for all, and for me it will never be about winning-losing, but about surviving, which is always in movement.

Trailer of El Camino

Both Gomez and Yashin, intend to portray cultural and precise characteristics that may be considered as part of the distinct innermost nature not only of Costa Ricans, but all habitants of Central America.

The party is not over. Last week Bisonte Producciones offered a warm invitation in the form of a Two-Day Film Festival that exhibits different short films produced in its majority by students and amateurs whose lives, imagination, and reality have been seduced entirely by the audiovisual production. Latin America has always fostered the development of artistic expressions that expose one of the richest cultures regarding way of thinking, feeling and doing. Without a doubt, this is just the beginning.

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Where in the world are Global Voices translators?

Solana Larsen · 20:33, September 2nd, 2008 · About GVO , Announcements

lingua → bn · mk · mg · pt · ar · it · zhs · zht · fr · es

These days, Global Voices' Lingua translators produce 15 different language editions of this website (18, if you count the up-and-coming Swahili, Russian, and Serbian) so people around the world who don't speak English, can join the global conversation.

We have welcomed more than 70 volunteer translators from at least 21 countries to the Global Voices community in the past year and a half.

It's not an easy task to keep up with the 150+ authors, editors, and translators who regularly contribute their energies to Global Voices.

We have no physical office, no geographical headquarters, and only rarely have a chance to meet face to face. You can read more about how Global Voices works on our About page.

Claire Ulrich who heads Global Voices in French has plotted the approximate locations of all Lingua translators on this Google map.

Please help spread knowledge of the many different Lingua translation sites by linking to them in your blog.

Agrandir le plan

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Morocco: Welcoming Ramadan

Jillian York · 12:22 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → pt

Ramadan comes but once a year, and Moroccan bloggers (like those in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere) are gearing up for the month ahead.

Lovefrom1stbite shares a recipe for the delicious Ramadan treat chabakia, including a picture of the treats cooking:

Al Miraat/The Moroccan Mirror forgoes words, instead sharing this image:

A day late?

This year, Ramadan in Morocco will start a day later than in most of the world. Morocco, Mauritania, and Iran all determined Ramadan to start Tuesday, a fact which leaves some bloggers puzzled. 27monthswithoutbaseball, a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, says of the delay:

So, Ramadan didn’t begin today after all, at least not in Morocco. It doesn’t really make sense to me – after all, scientists can predict moon phases with complete accuracy from now until the end of time – but they have to wait until the imams say it’s Ramadan. I guess it makes more sense knowing that in every country it’s different – Ramadan started yesterday in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, today in Egypt and most of the Arab world, and will start tomorrow in Morocco, Mauritania and Iran. Who knows, maybe the moon does look a little different in every country. Science doesn’t always have all the answers. We did change the time last night though – back to old time!

North Africa Notes, also a foreigner in Morocco, commented on her feelings after hearing the news that Ramadan had not yet begun:

But today, Monday, sure felt like Ramadan, I think people were so ready for it to be announced as starting today that it was hard for them to get into eating. As I ate a group breakfast with my friend's family we commented on that, it just felt kind of weird to be eating. We were all happy though that the Moroccan government had decided to repeal Daylight Savings time as of this morning,in order to make Ramadan a little easier on everyone ,they said. So we put our clocks back to how they were before and gained an hour. 10 am became 9 am. Sunset is now at 7 instead of 8, Alhamdulilah.

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Mexico Marches against Violence

Juliana Rincón Parra · 02:57, September 2nd, 2008 · Americas

lingua → mk · fr · pt · bn · es · zht · zhs · jp

lit votive candle Mexicans, fed up with the increasing violence and insecurity their country has been facing this past year, as it was mentioned on this past Global Voices article, decided to have a silent march and candle-lit anthem singing throughout the country and in some other locations like Costa Rica, USA, Spain, Israel, Poland and England during Sunday August 31st, 2008. The website Lets Illuminate Mexico has details about who supported the march, their reasons and it will soon have video and photos.

MaJaDeRiA, a Colombian blogger living in Mexico, writes in her blog about her experience marching in this event, and noticing how class divided it was. The upper crust did head out to march, but stayed at the starting point, the Angel of Independence statue, the middle and lower classes, known by some as the “metro travelling class” did meet at the Zocalo. She ends with a few questions for the Mexican citizens:

• Por que no había una unanimidad de consignas?. Entre pedir la paz, pedir que si no cumplen renuncien y pedir que se acaben los secuestros….qué era lo que en realidad pedían?.
• Nunca entendí por que la marcha no era contra la violencia, sino contra la inoperancia de las autoridades. Una cosa va de la mano de la otra?. No debería uno marchar contra la violencia y pedir la revocatoria del mandato de las autoridades en otra parte?.
• Quién es el malo acá?. Los delincuentes, las autoridades, o quién?.
• Por qué llegar al Zócalo y no a los Pinos?. (a.k.a la casa del Presidente).

-Why wasn't there a unanimity in slogans? Among the requests for peace, asking for those who don't do their work to resign and demanding the end of kidnapping… what was it that they were really asking for?
- I never understood why the march wasn't against violence, but against the uselessness of the authorities. One thing goes along with the other? Shouldn't one march against violence and ask the revocation of the authorities mandate somewhere else?
- Who is the bad guy here? The delinquents, the authorities, or whom?
-Why reach the Zocalo and not los Pinos (a.k.a. the President's house)?

Her video Marcha D.F. on how the is on Blip.tv. The Spanish captions read: I don't know if marches
are good for anything other than giving incentives for informal commerce. But I do know that MANY people were at the D.F. March. It was good to see them walk.

From the Mexican city of Monterrey, yazpeace posts a video of the candle-lit anthem singing:

Image credits: photograph of votive candle by skyseeker.

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Caribbean: Hurricane Gustav

Janine Mendes-Franco · 00:09, September 2nd, 2008 · Americas

lingua → pt · es · bn · fr

Hurricane Gustav approaching Kingston - Photo courtesy Wayne Sutherland, used with permission. Visit Wayne's photostream.
It's that time again - hurricane season - and while 2008 has produced a motley crew of storms in three short months, Gustav is the one that stands out. At least so far. The storm, which was initially formed to the south-east of Port-au-Prince, was categorized as a hurricane on August 26. The system quickly moved across several Caribbean territories, hitting Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Cuba, before heading towards the United States.

Bloggers were bracing themselves for anything. Mighty Afroditee was busy with preparations for the approaching storm, especially after the Caymans' experience with Hurricane Ivan four years ago:

As we sit with abated breath, enjoying the last remnants of the electricity, water, and basic amenities, praying for the best, but prepared for the worst…Gussin’ Gus makes his way forward, anxiety and uncertainty preceding his unwanted visit, and all I can say is…well shit! I am flicking fed up of this hurricane business.

From Grenada, Blah Bloh Blog's thoughts went out to her fellow bloggers:

Prayers and thoughts are with Stunner and Mad Bull as T.S. Gustav is currently over JA and heading slowly to the Caymans. Keep safe and let us know you are OK. It’s amazing to realise that Gustav is the thunderstorm that passed over Grenada last Saturday.

Every island in the storm's path was preparing for the worst, but Haiti seems to have got hit hard. Pwoje Espwa kept readers up-to-date with daily posts:

Rivers are overflowing as the denuded mountains cannot absorb the rain. We are hearing of many more people going to the hospital with sick babies, that many have lost crops, than there will be fewer children going to school this academic year. Haiti did not need this at this time. Food and fuel prices have gone through the roof giving cause to the political manifestations which can so easily turn violent.

A day later, the news was not much better. Pwoje Espwa's photos highlighted the level of damage Gustav wreaked:

Just had another mini-storm with wild wind and rushing rain. Many homes have been lost; tons and tons of agricultural products have been flooded; over 60 Haitians have died in these past few days. Haiti is old news now as folks focus on Jamaica and beyond.

Jamaica's new government, in the meantime, was busy reassuring citizens that the country's emergency services were well prepared for the storm - YardFlex.com noted that the Prime Minister was “guardedly optimistic that the storm will not cause the island to suffer much damage”.

This was, unfortunately, not to be. Reports of flooding, damage and loss of life started coming in from bloggers all over Jamaica. Abeng News Magazine said that as many as nine deaths were unconfirmed; A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah thought the storm flew in with a fury, Francis Wade admitted that Gustav gave Jamaica “a good and proper ‘mash up'” and Annie Paul was fooled into thinking that he was “a gentle soul”:

He's been here a few hours now. i don't mind him…compared to Emily and Dennis. Or Ivan. Ivan was terrible.

It was not long before she realised her error in judgment:

Gentle soul? couldn't have been more wrong. Gustav was a killer, insidiously creeping across the country, causing rivers to burst their banks and washing away homes and lives. Not much to choose between Ivan and him.

Hello World also confessed to being “tricked by tropical storm Gustav”, while Stunner's Afflictions echoed his sentiment:

What seemed to have been a walk in the park with Gustav going north of Jamaica and only delivering some rain to the island has certainly changed!

Stunner also took time to post video of the storm's effects on Kingston, the capital city, while A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah was hoping the floods would wash away all of the country's criminals.

Then there was the aftermath, which Annie Paul describes quite poetically:

There is something so newborn and fresh in the air after a hurricane leaves—don’t tell me Gustav wasn’t a hurricane when he visited here; it’s like insisting someone is 19 when they’re turning 20 tomorrow. The atmosphere seems to have been cleansed, purged of all the humid, hot and evil vapours that have been oppressing us for months now. A zephyr-like breeze whispers idle threats and the sun sparkles as it shines on the moist landscape. The riddim track to Marley’s Natural Mystic is blowing through the air.

Blowing through the air, perhaps, in much the same way that Gustav continued along his path to the Cayman Islands and Cuba. In the Cayman, Mighty Afroditee was suffering from cabin fever and Mad Bull was rejoicing over the fact that he still had “light, water, TV and the internet!”

Cuba did not fare so well. Black Sheep of Exile got news that “the devastation in the Isle of Pines is just beyond words”, while Havana-based blogger Yoani Sanchez, who wanted to post updates about the arrest and subsequent release of Cuban punk rocker Gorki, was practically imprisoned by the storm:

Because of Gustav the weather situation in Havana doesn’t allow me to leave the house to connect to the internet in a public place. On my balcony, fourteen floors up, we already have strong winds, and have started to close the windows and protect the plants. Today I am called on to face another cyclone.

Today, Hurricane Gustav began to rage over Louisiana and Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella's heart went out to the city of New Orleans:

This weekend marks a horrific anniversary for the cradle of jazz, and three years later almost to the day, there’s a carefully planned city wide evacuation in the face of the category-four Hurricane Gustav. I can just imagine the fear and panic and emotion swirling in the hearts of Nawlins natives today, for whom the devastation of Katrina is a recent nightmare. I just wanted to offer support to everyone in New Orleans and up the coast all the way to Alabama. Be smart, stay safe, and our prayers are with you.

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