Archive for
October 5th, 2008
Stories
Blogger of the week: Rezwan
Global Voices new South Asia editor, Rezwan, from Bangladesh has been with Global Voices as a volunteer author since 2005. Memorable posts by Rezwan include a report on Twittering' an earthquake in Bangladesh, and a story of colorful but expensive Bangladeshi weddings. He replaces the illustrious Neha Viswanathan as South Asia editor.
His personal blog, The Third World View portrays Bangladeshis and Bangladesh in English to a global audience.
Eager to help create more content in Bangla on the web, Rezwan initiated the Lingua website Global Voices in Bangla with fellow translators.
He is also Features Editor on Rising Voices, a Global Voices project that gives micro-grant funding to new blogging projects in some of the most marginalized communities of the world. Here, Rezwan writes about the internet connectivity problems facing REPACTED bloggers in Kenya, the explosive energy of young bloggers in La Loma, Colombia, and shares the beautiful photos taken by Bangladeshi women-bloggers of Nari Jibon.
A scenic sunset at Bangladesh's Cox’s Bazar sea beach by Nari Jibon blogger Nilufa Anne.
Why did you start your personal blog in 2003 and what was the reason you chose to write in English?
I was in Dhaka then, and I read a story in a local newspaper about the famous Iraqi blogger Salam Pax, who was writing an online diary about the Iraq war and the effect it was having on his everyday life. I started reading his blog and also came across some other interesting blogs.
This inspired me to start my own blog sometime in April 2003. At first I could not figure what to write. But I soon found out from the other blogs that there are huge misconceptions about Bangladesh, mainly due to the absence of Bangladeshi voices on the Internet. And I found my focus: topics on Bangladesh and following the Bangladeshi blogosphere.
In those days Bangla Unicode was only in the development stage so I could not blog in Bangla (as the reader had to have the same Bangla software/fonts I used). My focus was to communicate with the world, so English was the ready choice.
How did you first hear about Global Voices?
I probably first came across the site because my blog was being linked by Global Voices. I was already doing small roundups in my blog and guest-blogging in a couple of regional ones.
Then in July 2005 I received a mail from Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon : “We find that we've been linking to you quite frequently over at Global Voices and would love to know a little more about you…” She requested me to post on Global Voices.
I was thrilled to write for Global Voices, and the rest is history.
What is your most memorable blogging experience?
I've have a lot of interesting experiences. I remember in April 2004 I traveled to Sri Lanka and blogged about it. I remember how desperate I was to find an Internet-connected PC to upload my pictures and post my daily report. This urge makes one a passionate blogger.
I also get my share of amusements from the comments in my blog posts. I wrote about the national ID card implementation process in Bangladesh, and sometimes I still receive comments from people who have specific queries like “My ID is lost. Please tell me how can I get a new one.”
What persuaded you to start Global Voices in Bangla?
Bangla-blogging is relatively a new phenomenon. It really took off in December 2005 when a Bangla blogging platform was launched, breaking all technical barriers (it's now the largest). Bangla is spoken by 230 million people in the world, but because of absence of a unified Bangla computing platform (unicode) hundreds of Bangla online sites/publications in Bangladesh and India are not searchable and there is really a shortage of quality, Bangla content on the web.
That is why I was interested in translating Global Voices content in my mother tongue. I knew that soon, more and more people would have access to the Internet, and I wanted them to be introduced to blogs around the world in their own language. We have 15 translators on board but only 4-5 are regulars. I hope we we will be able to find additional enthusiastic volunteers to join the team.
The only thing you need to do now to read Bangla fonts is set your browser's character encoding to Unicode (utf8). Earlier you needed to download at least one unicode Bangla font, but now most recent operating systems come with everything pre-installed. Check here if you face problems either typing or reading Bangla fonts (http://bn.globalvoicesonline.org/bangla-settings/).
What have you learned about citizen media through your writing about the Rising Voices projects?
I enjoy following the developments of the various Rising Voices grantees. I come from a developing country myself and can relate to many of the challenges they face, like getting connected to the Internet, or just to be able to sit in front of a computer. I still hear from bloggers back home that sometimes they open a web page, and it takes so much time to load, they can grab a cup of tea and finish it while they wait. But these people are still passionate to blog, and this is true for participants in every Rising Voices project, whether in Madagascar, Kenya or Dhaka. Highlighting their efforts makes me realize more and more, that what we are doing is right.
What do you feel are some of the most important developments in Bangla citizen media in the past year?
The first one was the Bangla blogging platform I discussed above. Now we have 4-5 platforms with thousands of users and many, many readers, and they have a growing competition between them. The blogs on other multilingual platforms like Blogger, Wordpress etc. are also coming up.
Soon a popular Bangla news daily from Bangladesh will be introducing blogging services and others will follow suit. The Bangladeshi government has declared that it will install computers and Internet connections in almost 10,000 schools across the country. I think we will soon see an explosion of blogging in Bangla.
In South Asia as a whole, do you think citizen media has had any impact on people's attitudes or understanding of cultural and political differences?
Yes of course. We had different developments in the blogospheres in those countries but more or less the people have come to know about the power of blogging.
The Pakistani blogosphere has shown their diversity and openness breaking through the stereotypes portrayed in the media. The Indian blogosphere is so huge and its regional language blogosphere are growing to emphasize the country's multicultural, multi ethnic heritage. In Bangladesh, where the traditional media ignore blogs and are more prone to self-censorship to protect themselves, the bloggers have broken all barriers to voice their opinion fearlessly and some journalists now prefer blogs to publish their investigative reporting.
It also is fascinating to get perspectives from the bloggers about the Sri Lanka's ethnic disputes, Nepal's journey towards democracy, Bhutanese culture, and Maldivians opposition to their long serving President.
The traditional media of these countries often follow the politics of acrimony which sometime augment nationalism and hatred between these countries. You just need to look at a common incident (e.g. the border dispute in India and Pakistan) and follow the newspaper coverage of both the countries, and you see how skewed the reports are. The bloggers are bridging the gap by adding a human touch to the issues, and are in fact creating more friends than enemies between those countries.
Photo of Rezwan above, was taken by Jen Brea and is shared under a Creative Commons license.
Brazil: 128 million vote on the anniversary of the Constitution
Queue in Santos, state of São Paulo. Photo by Flickr user Luana Garrido used with permission.
Over 128 million Brazilians are today choosing 5,563 mayors for cities and towns, and 52,137 city councilors. Despite the huge numbers, the electronic voting system adopted in the country means that the first results will be available as soon as the polls close, at 5 pm local time, and by tomorrow some cities will already know their elected representatives. If there’s not a 50% plus one vote winning margin in today’s voting for 79 cities with over 200,000 electors, run-off elections are scheduled for October 26.
Nice Pinheiro [pt] has just come back from the polls and said that everything is going smoothly in the small city where she lives in the state of Rio de Janeiro:
Acabei de chegar. Fui votar. Adoro votar. Faço questão de exercer minha cidadania. E lembro de todos os candidatos em quem votei. Não voto por votar. Nunca. Não anulo meu voto e muito menos voto em branco. É meu direito, e faço questão de preservá-lo e exercê-lo.
Campaign remains in Santos, state of São Paulo. Photo by Flickr user Luana Garrido used with permission.
Voting in Brazil is compulsory and every literate Brazilian whose age is over 18 years and less than 70 years is obliged to vote (except those who live in the Federal District and territory of Fernando de Noronha where there are no local elections). Not everyone likes the fact that voting is an obligation, like Cleber Rosa [pt]:
Chegou o dia em que somos obrigados a sair de casa, enfrentar uma fila e escolher entre candidatos que temos CERTEZA que não vão fazer nada para a melhoria de nossa cidade, estado ou país.
Alguns chamam isso de “exercer cidadania”, eu chamo de “nos obrigar a escolher entre o ruím e o pior”.
Some call it to “exercise citizenship,” I call it to “oblige us to choose between the bad or the worse.”
Patricia Marques [pt] agrees that voting should be a right, not an obligation:
Sei que ainda verei a mudança do voto obrigatório para o voto facultativo e nesse dia talvez irei sair de casa para votar com muito mais felicidade, me sentindo detentora de reais direitos políticos, me sentindo muito mais cidadã.
Lola Aronovich [pt] writes about all the good memories that elections bring her and wishes everyone a happy voting day:
Portanto, pra mim, há tanta emoção, tantas lembranças, tanta esperança, por trás de cada voto, que fica difícil entender quem não gosta de votar, quem sente saudades da ditadura, quem acha que um votinho não faz diferença. Eu sou apaixonada por eleições. Se meu conselho vale alguma coisa, vá à urna com orgulho e consciência e escolha quem você quer que te represente na câmara dos vereadores e quem você quer que governe a sua cidade. Que é sua, é nossa, vale lembrar. É nosso país, nosso planeta, e o único que temos. Bom voto!
Upon the close of voting, at 5 pm today, Idelber Avelar [pt] will be covering the elections on his blog and invites everyone to participate:
Este post será atualizado várias vezes no dia de hoje, provavelmente a partir do final da tarde, com links, números e comentários sobre as eleições municipais brasileiras. São 5.563 municipios elegendo prefeitos e vereadores. No G-79, ou seja, as 26 capitais e outras 53 cidades com mais de 200.000 eleitores, pode haver segundo turno. Chegando das urnas, deixe aí o seu depoimento.
20 years of the Brazilian Constitution
The special day coincides with the 20th anniversary of the current Brazilian Constitution, known as the Citizen Constitution, the one which guaranteed human rights and restricted the state's ability to limit freedom - a reaction to the period of military dictatorship. Renata Pimenta [pt] reminds us that it is exactly because of this Constitution that Brazilians are able to go to the polls today:
A “Constituição Cidadã” foi responsável por devolver aos cidadãos seus direitos individuais, cassados pela Ditadura Militar (1964-1985). Graças ao novo documento, o povo brasileiro pôde votar para presidente em 1989, já que a Carta restabeleceu o voto direto nas eleições presidenciais. A Constituição anterior, de 1967, estabelecia plenos poderes para o governo militar.
The images above are from a commemorative selection of photos from Agência Brasil, used under a Creative Commons License.
China milk scandal and Southeast Asia
Like the rest of the world, the China milk scandal has alarmed Southeast Asian countries. China is the major trading partner of Southeast Asian nations. Chinese goods are popular and accessible in the region. It is not surprising to learn that Chinese milk products which are contaminated by melamine have already been sold in local markets.
How did governments react to the issue? Chinese milk products were scrutinized, strictly regulated and banned. Even the popular white rabbit candy was listed as a dangerous food item. Health agencies have published a list of safe products from China.
Because of the milk scare, consumers are changing their diet, while others refrain from drinking milk. As expected, milk companies are assuring customers that their products are safe. A consumer from Brunei wants the government to review its list of contaminated milk products. Now a Mummy is worried since she bought a biscuit from a company based in China.
What is the reaction of bloggers? A Singaporean describes the issue as “Weapons of Mass Consumption-Tainted Milk Saga.”
Bangkok Pundit advises the government not to overreact:
“The government needs to take appropriate action to ensure the safety of its citizens, but it likewise shouldn't overreact and create a panic - if the government overreacts, China could retaliate and this affects Thai exporters.”
A reader is shocked to see Chinese milk products still being sold in Thailand supermarkets:
“I think the Thai government's stance is totally unacceptable, it's not just a question of PR. How come you can still see the products on the shelves in supermarkets? The government should take a strong stance for the public safety and inform us clearly what products are contaminated and remove them.”
Alexisthetiny from Bangkok will now buy more local and unprocessed food products:
“Melamine is supposed to be toxic, right? How in the heck, then can we have ‘acceptable levels’ of that stuff in our food? I’d imagine that for something this disgustingly bad for our health, ‘acceptable levels’ would be nil. Jesus. How on earth have we gotten to a point where we would allow stuff like that to be added to our food? Actually, how on earth have we gotten to this point where we allow corporations to tell us what is ok in food even if it goes against our instincts? One thing for sure, this is going to change my food shopping habits. From now on, its as local and unprocessed as it can get.”
My Food for Thots from Malaysia writes about the difficulty of banning trade with China:
“But heck, what's not made in China? Even Nike shoes are made in China! Does this mean it's only safe buying stuff not made in China? Which only mean the expensive, branded stuff? Which leads to bigger inflation? Which means our salaries will not suffice? Sigh….”
Tumbleweed in Space from East Timor writes about what the milk scandal revealed on modern living:
“The recent milk scandal in China once again reminds us of how much contaminants there are in almost every aspect of our life. This time it's melamine, but recently studies have also shown that polycarbonate, a plastic commonly used for milk bottles, contains the hormone-disrupting Biphesonol-A.”
What is the possible impact of the scandal on Myanmar? Fear from Freedom explains:
“Chinese milk powder is used widely in Myanmar. Coffee and tea mixed packets are used widely as well. Since these packets contained milk powder the authorities should check the source of the milk. Singapore found tainted milk powder in tea packets and our imports are from Singapore. It is important to tell the people so they can avoid milk powder from China in any form until things are checked.”
House on a Hill from the Philippines reminds the government not to impose trade policies that hurt the poor:
“Instead of taking pains to determine whether Sanlu milk could have indeed been smuggled into the country and sold to the public, we have government officials overreacting by freezing imports and pulling off the supermarket shelves just about any milk and milk-based product from China. What kind of solution is that? That’s a double whammy. That’s discriminating against legitimate Chinese producers and exporters of milk and milk-based products. Worse, that is hurting poor Filipinos who can not afford the que horror prices of milk and milk products sold locally by multinational companies.”
Then she identifies alternative sources of calcium:
“So we have a government who has continually failed to educate the people of the dangers of buying unlabeled food products. That same government is cutting off the supply of cheap milk because it cannot curb smuggling. Where does that leave the consumers, especially the poor ones? For those with children below two years old, breastfeed them. For the rest, understand that while milk is a good source of calcium, it is not the only source of calcium. Sardines, okra, tofu and beans are all rich in calcium.”
The Curious Life of a Quirky Chef from the Philippines asks “Is China trying to kill the world one kid at a time?” The blogger adds:
“First, there was the global controversy about children's toys that were tainted with lead. Then, the issue about candies and biscuits from China that allegedly contain formaldehyde. Today, health officials all over the world, plus the millions of dairy consumers are panicking because of the Chinese milk products that are contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.”
Hong Kong: Netizen Against Introduction of Internet Filtering
The Hong Kong government has issued a consultation paper on the “Review of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance” last Friday (Oct 3). The first round of consultation will be lasted until end of January.
A most controversial issue is the suggestion on introduction of an internet filtering system in Hong Kong. In part 4 of the consultation paper, it states that the main issue at stake is:
Given the emergence of new forms of media, particularly the growing popularity of the Internet, members of the public consider it important that measures are taken to protect youngsters from the dissemination of obscene and indecent materials on such new media systems.
The government layouts a number of options:
Option one: co-regulation approach that demands Internet Service Providers to:
1. tighten up their service contracts with subscribers by incorporating specific clauses which prohibit subscribers from publishing obscene or indecent articles;
2. formulate measures against repeated offenders, which may involve limiting the bandwidth made available to such offenders or imposing temporary suspension or termination of service in case of contravention of contractual terms;
3. implement a voluntary labelling system and encourage webmasters to label their websites to indicate whether they are suitable for children and youngsters;
4. provide filtering services to subscribers for the purpose of filtering out web content which is not suitable for children and youngsters.
Option two is mandatory approach via legislation:
to make it mandatory for ISPs to provide filtering service to their subscribers so that
children and youngsters will be protected from web content not suitable to them. This would enable filtering of content from both local and overseas websites.
Option three is statutory approach, which targets at content providers:
1. websites are required to provide warnings if they display indecent materials;
2. an access control system is to be established to authenticate the age of the web users. For example, web users are required to input their credit card data before getting access to webpage containing indecent materials to ensure that they have attained the age of 18;
3. empower enforcement agencies, upon receipt of a judicial warrant, to issue a “take-down notice” to the indecent websites or the ISPs concerned; and
4. prosecute content providers who fail to comply with the statutory requirements.
Martinoei criticizes that all the suggestions imply an introduction of Great Fire Wall in Hong Kong:
蘇錦樑呢條X建聯黨員，話咁快就要在香港引進防火長城，淫審處本來己經被指權力過大，依家權力仲要大到搞過濾名單，係咪想搞香港版防火長城。照香港有大衛像都係淫褻嘅硬膠前科，隨時成個高登都會列入過濾名單，咁樣仲成世界？仲惡過廿三條。
Although the government stresses that it doesn't have any fixed position, erynnyes from Those were the days is still angry at the government's suggestions:
當然，政府把一切說成諮詢，政府沒有立場，甚至在文件中提出反對者聲音，以顯示中立，可是在童工角度，有些立場、建議，根本提出也是罪，因為這是削弱香港互聯網自由，完全毋須討論，皆因沒有任何妥協之餘地！那份諮詢文件，就像互聯網的23 條，只想打造一個超越中國的打壓互聯自由的香港金盾！
Hystericireul posts a large picture of David Statue in his blog to protest against the Indecent censorship policy. He also makes a dozen points on the consultation:
10. 淫唔淫，根本就係同洩唔洩一樣，各施各法各隨心。除左少部分好明顯變態嘔心核突既物品之外，根本好多物品就無一個清晰定義去界定點為之「淫」，尤其是當你成班仆街連大衛像都可以覺得係「淫褻」既話，仲有乜野係唔淫？vv物語講西，淫唔淫？西廂記夢中交合，淫唔淫？莫非我地以後創作時就唔可以打破古人既曖昧，照樣講到扑野就「呵呵，哈哈，嗯嗯」算數？
11. 根本個問題係，健立一個健康健全既人格，咁佢睇乜都唔會變壞。而家係你班撚樣搞柒左個社會，成班小朋友未升中先西窿，3456789p玩齊，呢個係佢地腦荀未生埋既問題，我地要做既係好好教導佢地，而唔係一味禁絕囉。
11. The issue at stake is to help our children to develop a healthy personality, then whatever they read, cannot have negative impact on them. Look at how this group of dick heads rule the society, children are having 34567 P (multiple sexual partners) before they enter high school because they are not mature in their attitudes. We should teach them, not prohibit them from knowing.
There are also some discussions from Internet forums, such as from pumb.org:
User169167 criticizes the government's official ability in governing Hong Kong:
雞有病 = 唔俾賣活雞唔使煩
樹有病 = 斬晒佢唔使煩
色情網頁教壞細佬 = block晒佢唔使煩政府班高薪厚職既天材知唔知咩叫教育？
說穿了其實就係借管制色情網頁為開端，繼而達至更容易收緊其它題材網頁(例如政治、社論)，壓抑社會另類渠道反對聲音。
When trees are sick = cut them all and save the trouble
When pornography websites have negative impact on children = block them all and save the trouble
All these well-paid high ranked government officials, do they know what is education?
The hidden agenda is to start from controlling the pornography websites and then tighten the control of other websites (such as political and social critics) and repress oppositional voices.
User george2be said that the government power should stay out of the filtering mechanism:
家長同學校想filter, 應該自己裝軟件做. 政府可以提供資源同條件令呢d軟件更易買到 (如跟機可以加). 根本無需要立法賦予政府設立過濾機制既權力.
正如莫乃光講, 現在最大問題係淫審處裁決標準不一, 缺乏公信力. 連定標準既機構都亂七八糟, 在未解決呢個問題前, 點可能立法比佢權力去過濾更多既言論同資訊.
倒行逆施莫過於此.
Like what Charles Mok has said, now the problem is about the double standard in the OAT judgment. They have lost their credibility in the public. If they don't have a clear standard, how can we give the power to the government in filtering information?
This is such a regression in local governance.
User P-U-M-B pointed out that the internet would eventually become intranet under such policy direction:
咁搞法 !! internet 變左intranet
Kay sets up a facebook group on defending internet freedom to follow through the consultation.
Links for Sun, 2008-10
Chinese communities in Thailand are celebrating the annual Vegetarian festival. Check out these interesting photos.
Red Roses, Gold Thorns from Singapore opposes the proposal to use breast milk in making ice cream products.
Rebecca Mackinnon from Rconversation blogs about the recent security trap problem of the Chinese Skype, or Tom-Skype. Imagethief suggests foreign Internet firms to operate their own business rather than surrender their brands to local partners.
The GLOCOM blog has a report (in both English and Japanese) on new JICA president Sadako Ogata's [緒方貞子] presentation Oct. 2nd at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ), which follows on the Oct. 1st consolidation of much of Japan's Official Developmental Assistance (ODA) through the merging of JICA and JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation). The report describes Ogata's presentation as “one of the most impressive luncheon speeches at FCCJ in recent years.”
Have a look at Sinsoku VIP [神速VIP] for an amazing list of photos that evoke the senses [ja].
In a post entitled “Google, the anti-social corporation” [ja], former Mainichi journalist and writer/blogger Hiroyuki Fujishiro [藤代裕之] at Gatonews picks up on an ongoing series of posts [ja] by blogger and security researcher Hiromitsu Takagi [高木浩光] criticizing Google's handling of the roll-out of its Street View service in Japan. Fujishiro notes that while business aspects of Google are generally viewed positively, there is a need for more discussion on various issues relating to privacy, censorship, security/trust and culture.
id:heimin posts pictures he's taken with his keitai [mobile phone] camera over the last year [ja], including: shots before and after he shaved his head, close-ups of cutting nostril hair, snapshots of meals he's eaten, cats and dogs, the Hanshin Tigers, manga and ice cream. The popularity of Keitai Shosetsu [short story] award-winner “Atashi no Kanojo” spurred the blogger to start the “Japan Keitai Photo Awards”, which he hopes to win himself. Prize money is 2 million yen, but be warned: the blogger hasn't paid his last month's rent yet and only has 10,000 yen in his pocket.
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