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USA: Voices without Votes watch the Debate

Solana Larsen · 19:38, October 2nd, 2008 · Americas

lingua → fr · es

You may not be able to see Russia from your backyard, but if you tune into Global Voices' U.S election website, Voices without Votes, you sure can learn a lot about what the whole world has to say about tonight's debate between the U.S. vice presidential candidates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.

The unpredictability of Republican candidate, Sarah Palin from Alaska, has heightened the global curiosity factor significantly.

Two posts on Voices without Votes offer a preview of what non-American and expat bloggers are saying on the eve of the debate. In “Debate Watch: What is Sarah Palin Getting Into?” Hoa Quach quotes world bloggers for and against the Republican candidate.

Israeli blogger, Sultan Knish says:

“Palin has suffered from hysterical overreactions on both sides. Hysterical hatred from liberals and hysterical adoration from conservatives and now a hysterical backlash from some conservatives. She has an interesting story, but she isn't superhuman, she can't fly or change the nation in 5 minutes. Like every Governor who wends his or her way to the White House, she'll need time to learn and adjust, but she has proven that she's capable of taking on big jobs, which frankly is more than Obama has proven.”

Meanwhile, also on Voices without Votes, Jillian York shares some links to bloggers talking about Democratic candidate Joe Biden in, “Debate Watch: What is Joe Biden Up Against?”.

Spanish-American blogger, Claudia, writing for PoliGazette, says:

At this point, the VP debate is creating the expectations of a monster truck rally. It will be watched purely for the spectacle, to see big cars errupt in flames. The narrative is basically set in stone that this VP debate exists to see if Biden can actually achieve putting his whole leg in his mouth and to see if Palin can actually achieve speaking for upwards of an hour without saying anything coherent.

In the last month, Voices without Votes aggregated more than 800 posts from bloggers around the world writing about the election.

Today, a New Zealand blogger on Lucire writes about Palin and “in defense of lipstick”. Margot the Marrakesh Mystic checks the Chinese astrology charts of both vice presidential candidates, and the blog England for Obama suggest that Democratic candidate Biden should go for an attack strategy in tonight's debate.

With only a few weeks to go before the election in November, the Voices without Votes bloggers are pulling together to spread the word about the website in the name of global dialogue.

Global Voices' Morocco author, Jillian York invites readers to buy t-shirts and stickers. Lebanese author, Nash Suleiman has made this video (and this one) to advertise the website:

Join us on Facebook and Twitter (especially if you're going to be Tweeting the debate!), and visit the websites of our partners who are also covering the elections from as many different perspectives as possible.

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Jamaica: A Nation Mourns

Janine Mendes-Franco · 16:56 · Americas

lingua → fr · mg

Jamaica was an elated nation a month and a half ago as it celebrated the victories of its Olympic heroes. This week, a stunned nation is in mourning as the headless body of a little girl believed to be 11-year-old Ananda Dean was discovered weeks after her abduction.

This harrowing end to the search for Dean is made even more disturbing by the fact that more than fifty children have been murdered in Jamaica since the start of the year, among them Aakim Scott, whose dismembered body was found stuffed into a bag. A teenager has since been charged with his gruesome murder.

Jamaican bloggers are as shocked as the rest of the population, and are making their voices heard in an effort to examine how such brutal acts against minors have become so widespread. Even before Dean's body was reportedly discovered, Kadene Porter at Abeng News Magazine was keeping a close eye on developments:

September 25 is day eight since eleven year-old Ananda “Passion” Dean went missing in her Kingston, Jamaica community. The feverish hunt for her continues, days after a concerned passer-by found her brand new schoolbooks dumped on a busy Pembroke Hall avenue in the nation's capital. Understandably, her parents are facing an anguish no parent should ever have to face, but which is becoming all too familiar across the length and breadth of Jamaica when children do not return home from school after a reasonable hour. Ananda’s disappearance has occured on the heels of a most disturbing and gruesome find in the sleepy little district of Sandside, St Mary, where the dismembered body of another 11 year old was recovered from a garbage bag.

Problem is, the children are fast running out of trusted adults. Many of the island’s nearly three million citizens are agonizing over the acts of depravity which are so frequently reported in their daily newspapers. They are frightened, not knowing when the blood-lust will be directed at them, and are also angry at the growing realization that the state is powerless, or unwilling some say, to protect them. Concealed weapons of every description have become staples in the survival kit of adult and child, whether from the tough inner-city streets or the dwellings along the nation’s rural dirt-tracks, the grim determination of citizens forced to claim justice for themselves.

Once the body (believed to be Dean's) was found, Porter wrote a follow-up post:

News reports in the island’s major dailies detail the gruesome discovery and the reaction of family and witnesses, along with reports of the taunting telephone calls received by the parents by pranksters demanding ransom or providing clues that led nowhere. Although fifty children have been murdered since the start of the year, the child’s father was told when he reported her as missing, that the police would need to wait for a 24 hour period before she could be officially listed as missing and any action taken. With the current murder trends, this lack of prompt action shows remarkable insensitivity on the part of the police, for by the next day, the trail of her abductors had grown cold.

Untold grief will hover over Ananda’s family for months to come, but sadly, for a population that has over time learned how to steel itself against the effects of horror, in a matter of days it will be back to business as usual, until the next collective gasp in the wake of yet another unspeakable atrocity.

Yawd From Abroad was overcome with emotion on hearing the news:

Tears filled my eyes as I saw the picture of 11 year-old Ananda Dean’s mother, Nordia Campbell, in such anguish. She’d just possibly seen the remains of her daughter’s body pulled from a precipice and was inconsolable. Who wouldn’t be? I’ll never forget that picture, that pain.

It seems that there is no end in sight for the level of viciousness that we as human beings will take against another. To snuff out the life on an innocent child in exchange for phone card credits? My God! It’s beyond deplorable and sad. It’s incidents such as these that should make government stand up and not only take attention but corporal action. What has to happen before serious changes are made?

Stunner could barely get his mind around the horrific circumstances surrounding the child's death when he got wind of another sad piece of news:

The nation would not get a chance to breathe again before another shock…a NINE (9) MONTH OLD child…was molested and slain. Just the though of an infant that young suffering such a horrible act send shivers down my spine, and makes me blaze with anger! Such acts aught not to happen! How could this happen in our society? How could people allow such an act to be carried out under their roof?

The death toll now stands at 57 children and the year has not ended…based on this trend we can brace ourselves for more of these heartless acts. It seems nothing is being done to stop this carnage. Or is it that nothing can be done to stop it?

He continues:

Parents need to more vigilant where their children are concerned, they need to be protective and to teach their children to be wary of strangers from an early age. But parents can't be with their children all the time and all the preparation and teaching a parent does is not a guarantee that the child will be safe. The police have to play a part, the school has to play a part, the government has to make the necessary legislative changes and enforce the law, and society has to also look out for our children. It may not stop these incidents, but maybe it can reduce the frequency of the carnage on our youths.

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Jamaica: Save our children

Bianca Welds · 16:50 · Americas

Jamaicans of all ranks are mourning the plight of the nation's children. The figures show that nearly 60 children have been killed since the start of January 2008. A recent spate of child slayings has raised this issue to the forefront of the nation's awareness.

The community anguish that arose at last week's discovery of the body of a missing eleven year old, Ananda Dean, echoed throughout the country as parents were reminded of the level of vigilance needed to keep their children safe. However, as Jamaican blogger Stunner points out, it will require the contribution of all sectors of society to protect the children. He says,

But parents can't be with their children all the time and all the preparation an teaching a parent does is not a guarantee that the child will be safe. The police have to play a part, the school has to play a part, the government has to make the necessary legislative changes and enforce through the law, and society has to also look out for our children.

Kadene Porter of Caribbean news site, Abeng News, remarked that it would be a matter of days before Jamaica returned to normal until, as she put it, the nation's

[…]next collective gasp in the wake of yet another unspeakable atrocity.

Unfortunately, that gasp came sooner than expected when news broke of the kind of crime no society dreams could be committed by one of their own. Jamaicans awoke on Wednesday morning, jarred out of their perrenial slumber by the story of a nine-month old infant perishing after being molested and sodomized by a family member while it's mother was in jail.

The shame and outrage at the savagery and heartlessness now rampant in Jamaican society is being decried at all levels. Ordinary citizens, politicians and organizations dealing with children's rights are calling out for something to be done.

The biggest concern, besides the actual victims of these horrendous crimes, is the effect of this environment on those children who have to stand by and watch as their safety and peace of mind is eroded before they even reach puberty. As another Abeng News article put it,

When children witness adults engaging in vigilante justice where thieves are hanged in the streets, hacked to pieces and torched, what innocence is expected to remain with them? When reprisal killings become the norm, how are the young expected to resolve differences, as adults in the community commend each other when murder settles a conflict, and threats are issued for the next round to ensure the cycle of violence never ends? And where should these juveniles — who oftentimes become parents in their early teens – learn parenting skills when at least one parent, the father in most cases, is missing from their lives?

Jamaica is searching for solutions to stem the bloodletting before it corrupts their society irreparably. With it's shame brought to light, Jamaicans may have found a common goal even as they prepare to celebrate some of their athletes' recent accomplishments in the Beijing Olympics.

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Hong Kong: Banned Halloween Ads

Oiwan Lam · 04:35 · East Asia

lingua → mk · fr · es · ar

Every year, the Ocean Park in Hong Kong would organize Halloween party for attracting visitors. However, its advertisements faced a lot of complaints from the public. This year, some of its clips were banned. But one of the the banned clip is now circulated via youtube and has attracted a lot of attention in local blogs and forums.

The video is about haunted lift in which a kid tormented by the education system asks a big sister for his school grading report. The genre copied the scary Japanese ghost-eyes. Don't click the video below if you have a weak-heart :)

Charlize doesn't find the video horrible at all and wonders why the government bans it. However, Ryan finds the video really scary:

一看開頭，真的好驚啊！場景是地道的香港公屋場景，大部份香港人都很熟悉的地方，也是成長過程中聽過的鬼故事的發生地點。越熟悉的地方，發生的恐佈事才越怕，因為身同感受。

When I first watch it, I felt so chilly! The setting is public housing in Hong Kong, and everyone in Hong Kong is familiar with the spatial setting. And so many ghost stories are related with public housing. The more familiar the place is, the more horrible you feel, because you tend to associate with your experience.

Missque finds the advertisement very successful even though it is banned:

雖然禁播，但放在網上做宣傳仲底，
還有(禁播版)的卓頭，連我咁驚既的都要睇，你又點會唔睇，拍左又點會浪費。

Although it is banned, it has very good effect in the Internet
The ban itself attracts a lot of attention. People like me (the weak-hearted type) wouldn't have watched it if it is not a banned video. Sure you won't miss it. It is a good strategy.

However, the circulation of the banned video may fall into the trap of local censorship law. The government's Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority can give warning to online service providers or submit the suspected “indecent” or “obscene” online articles to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification. The circulation of “indecent” material to public audience is a criminal offense and is subject to a fine of HK$400,000 and 12 months imprisonment for first conviction and HK$800,000 and 12 months imprisonment for subsequent conviction.

Will TELA give warning to the Ocean Park and youtube? Probably not as Ocean Park is an iconic local business and such practice will kill the internet freedom. However, how should the TELA deal with the double standard in handling internet censorship? Like this case?

The government has decided to review the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance last year and it will likely present the public consultation this month. Let's wait and see how it deals with the Internet censorship in the draft.

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Russia: Eid ul-Fitr in Moscow

Veronica Khokhlova · 01:20 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → es

Over 30,000 Muslims reportedly came to the Moscow Cathedral Mosque for a communal prayer on Sept. 30, the first day of Eid ul-Fitr, a Muslim holiday known in Russia as Uraza Bayram, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan. A fair number of non-Muslim Russian bloggers, however, seemed concerned about the presence of so many Muslims in the Russian capital - despite the fact that Russia is home to some 20 million Muslims and Moscow's population is over 12 million people.

Some of these bloggers re-posted an uncredited Sept. 30 photo of the people crowding around the Moscow Cathedral Mosque compound, located right next to the Olympiysky Sports Complex.

Commenting on the picture, LJ user khramov-s wondered (RUS) “why it [wasn't] okay for Russian Orthodox Christians to be Russian nationalists” whereas Muslims could convene freely in great numbers the way they did on Sept. 30.

LJ user tor85 wrote (RUS) that Uraza Bayram wasn't “our holiday” and called to ethnic Russians to join the ultra-nationalist Russian March on Nov. 4 (more on the 2006 event is here).

LJ user krylov wrote (RUS) about what in his view was a tendency of the municipal and federal authorities to demonize Russian nationalists and to nurture Muslims; this post has generated over 170 comments, many of them pretty savage.

LJ user allan999 wrote (RUS) that “millions of Muslims [were] blocking the streets of Moscow” - and LJ user antas commented that he couldn't believe the picture hadn't been photoshopped: “[…] Though, if it's true, it's definitely [a horror],” he added.

LJ user teaser_girl, who used to work in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque neighborhood, wrote (RUS) that she was scared.

LJ user nezabudu complained (RUS) in a comment to LJ user dark_lawyer's picture post that those who worked in the area couldn't “even go out for a cigarette” on Sept. 30, nor could they “enter or exit the metro, or walk through an underground pass: THEY are everywhere, it's impossible to squeeze past them, and these crowds are worse than the mass gatherings of [football] fans - I'm telling you, there are as many of them.”

LJ user aoutien also happened to be around at the time of the Sept. 30 mosque event - but her observations (RUS) were quite different from those translated above:

In the morning, it felt as if all the [gastarbeiters] of Moscow gathered at Prospekt Mira [metro station]. The first impression from such a number of Muslim men in a hurry was as if somewhere behind the buildings a foundation pit for an [enormous construction project] had already been dug out. And they were all so energetic, a bit tense, as if their working day was about to begin.

The closer to the metro, the denser the flow, and by the doors there was already something of a crowd. The police restricted entry, and in various parts of the crowd they began to sing. Solemnly. Beautifully.

The feeling is a bit uncozy, but totally safe, both among these dark-haired people in leather jackets and in the police zone. “We have something like your Easter today,” one young man explained to an alarmed-looking woman in the metro car.

“Uraza Bayram,” says the internet. And it also tells me about [the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah], and about [the Orthodox Christian holiday commemorating Vera (Faith), Nadezhda (Hope), Lyubov (Love) and Sophia].

Happy holiday, dear comrades! Whichever one you prefer… [All three holidays fell on the same day this year.]

LJ user _kutuzov composed (RUS) this caption to the Sept. 30 mosque photo: “Uraza Bayram. Moscow. Or Moskvabad?” LJ user eriklobakh argued in a comment that the congregation of this mosque has historically been made up of Tatars “who have been living in Moscow and Moscow region since the 16th century,” and that making jokes about “Moskvabad” was inappropriate. In a separate entry (RUS) - posted both on his blog and in the ru_politics LJ community - LJ user eriklobakh, who is an Orthodox Christian with Tatar roots, expounded on his view of the matter:

[…] I repeat for the illiterate ones - those who haven't bothered to figure it out for themselves. This particular mosque in Moscow has always been predominantly Tatar - the so-called [Mishers] who've lived in and around Moscow since the 16th century.

Almost no [Uzbeks, Tajiks, Azeris] ever visit this mosque. Everyone speaks Tatar there, the mullahs are Tatar, etc.

In this context, we can't be talking of any influx of migrants, etc. There are some 800,000 Tatars in Moscow (not all Tatars are Muslim, of course, but still) - and there are only three mosques.

Naturally, it gets jam-packed there every holiday. More than during the all-night services at Moscow's Orthodox temples for Easter and Christmas - because, I repeat, there are only three mosques in Moscow.

For such a huge city, it's just terribly not enough. […] and instead of buying [seats in the government], Moscow Tatars should better worry about building new mosques - at least for their own community. […]

LJ user svetonius posted this relaxing comment (RUS) on LJ user eriklobakh's blog:

First of all, I totally agree with your arguments about the number of mosques. Second, this one is the main mosque of Moscow. Third, Uraza Bayram is the main spiritual Muslim holiday, which can be compared to the Orthodox Christian Easter. So why be surprised by the crowds?

A religious Jew would not be surprised by the fact that the area around the [Cathedral of Christ the Savior] is jam-packed during the all-night Easter service, right? And a religious Muslim would see no harm in it, either.

And I'll share a secret with you - they sell wonderful lamb and horse meat at this mosque's store.

LJ user zubkoff shared a Soviet-time memory (RUS) of his Tatar friends and the feast in the land of defitsit that their holiday normally implied:

Uraza Bayram

I don't remember the correct name of it in Arabic. I remember what my Tatar classmates called it (there were still many of them in [Moscow's Zamoskvorechye district] then). The Tatars knew that in honor of Uraza Bayram their grandmothers would definitely bake something tasty in the evening. And there was also the Tatar Culinary [store] at [Yakimanka] - at the exact spot where Eldorado [store] is now. And even under the Soviets, they used to supply [this store] with all kinds of delicacies for the holiday - above all, lamb meat! You can imagine [the kind of agitation] that reigned there then…

LJ user planka-forever, an ethnic Tatar vocalist with a Moscow-based music band Planka, greeted her family and friends - and wrote about the holiday culinary wonders she'd be missing:

Today my family, like many Muslim families, celebrates a big and happy holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan - Uraza Bayram!!! Today they'll bake something tasty, that's the indispensable condition: pancakes, belish, triangles, and perhaps chak-chak )) [recipes of these and other Tatar dishes are here]

Yum-yum, I'm with you in my thoughts!

My friends! Peace be upon you and your houses!

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