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Bolivia: Referendum Coverage on Twitter

Eduardo Avila · 20:22, January 25th, 2009 · Americas

lingua → pl · es · bn · mg

As the polls close across Bolivia for the Constitutional Referendum vote, many of the country's users of Twitter have been hard at work sending messages about their experiences from their cities. In order to centralize the information, they are using the #referendum tag.

Throughout the day, many tweeted after returning from their polling place and reporting on the action. Rolando Espinoza (@darkrho) writes about the opposition youth group in Cochabamba, who were present at the school where he voted:

#referendum cbba (Cochabamba) juventud kochala (the youth group) are controlling delegate lists at the Loyola School.

In La Paz, Eliana Quiroz (@e_liana) writes how many are spending the day after performing their civic duty.

Some eat sajta de pollo (chicken dish) and others drink Coca-Cola after voting at the high school in La Paz.

She also posts a photo on Twitpic of her ink-stained finger indicating that she has already voted.

Some voters find themselves far from home on election day. Mario César Señoranis (@mariocesar_bo) of Santa Cruz is currently across the country in the city of La Paz and is unsure whether he can vote:

I am waking up u_u zZzZ … I still don't know how to obtain the voting certificate for the #referendum, I should have voted in scz (Santa Cruz), but I am in lpz (La Paz) 8′(

The site Al Minuto [es] created a special Twitter account @referendum_bo to share links of the news unfolding events and also placed a Cover It Live widget to generate live chat and republication of some tweets.

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Brazil: A Glance at Campus Party Brazil in Pictures

Paula Góes · 18:25 · Americas

lingua → pt · sr · mk · es

Campus Party Brazil 2009 in São Paulo comes to a close this Sunday. Over 6,500 people have taken part in this second edition of what is arguably Latin America's largest technology and digital culture event, bringing discussions around blogs, robotics, photography and video, games, modding, free software, digital inclusion, and even ecology. In this photo overview of the event, you will see a selection of curious pictures among the thousand images posted on Flickr under Creative Commons licenses.

Photo by poperotico, with the following caption:

Milhares de campuseiros se aglomeraram aqui na Arena da Campus Party 2009, realizada no Centro de Exposições Imigrantes.

Você veio?

#cparty , eu fui!

Thousands of campus-goers clustering here in Campus Party 2009's arena, held at Centro de Exposições Imigrantes.

Did you come?

#cparty, I was there!

Case Modding, in photo by _thebest_

“This is a CPU!”, photo by Fabio Pazzini

Photo by Luiza Medeiros, with the title “Nerds demand music at Campus Party”. The demonstration happened on January 24 and became known as the “Chair Dance”, “Chair Ballet” or “Chair Protest”. Here is a video showing the protest. Elzo Brito [pt] explains:

No final das contas, o que ocorre, não conseguimos a musica, pois segundo a organização do evento, tem um hospital aqui do lado e já reclamaram duas vezes, na terceira veio um oficial de justiça aqui pedindo o encerramento do evento.

In the end, we did not have music, because according to the event's organizers there is a hospital next door and they complained twice, on the third occasion a Court Clerk came calling for the end of the event.

Photo by Tatiana_Reis at the digital inclusion area.

There were some demonstrations against the controversial Digital Crimes Bill, which may be passed in the Congress at some point this year:

“Against the Azeredo Bill”. Photo by Tatiana_Reis.

The banner reads: “Protect the future of the Internet in Brazil and the world”. Photo by bntmzk. A similar photo by Gabriel Chiarastelli won second place in the Campus Party Photo Contest.

“Augmented Reality”, photo by R. Seiji.

Old technology still survives. Photo by HelenaN

“Do bloggers help you to form your opinion?”. Photo by fore.

“Help ~~the developers of~~ the world, update your shitty IE6. PS: Actually start to use Firefox”. Photo by vivoandando

Breaking the national record of overclocking at Campus Party. BR-OCTeam reached a processing speed of 5.6 Gh [pt].

(Some of the Flickr related tags: cparty, cparty09, cpbrasil, campusparty, #cparty, campuspartybrasil, campuspartybrasil2009)

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Taiwan: Books, Writers & Videos

Leonard Chien · 15:11 · East Asia

lingua → sr · id · fr · mg · es

Every Sunday on the local newspapers China Times (中國時報) in Taiwan, many readers are expecting the two pages reviews on books. In the year end, book columnists will announces their picks on “Books of the Year” (開卷好書獎), the best Chinese books published in Taiwan in that year. Since 2006, the newspaper also makes “Book Video” for awarded writers, representing their works in word, music and image.

This year 11 writers are invited to participate in the clips, including novelists, activists, and essayists. There writers share their views and perspectives towards their works, and what they want to reflect upon through words. Although the videos are all in Chinese, hopefully they can still convey and reproduce the atmosphere in their works. In the end of each clip, the voice over promises they are “Good books, and good to read”.

The following are some selected clips with my translation of the writers' narration.

Plastic Opium

In Plastic Opium, the author Xia Chuan-Wei (夏傳位) reveals how credit cards and debit cards influence public perceptions, what unreasonable revolving interest rates are imposed to users, and what discriminations debtors face after falling into the credit card trap. In the clip, you can see the shopping districts in Taipei. He says in the clip:

[…]我想這個社會應該深一層地問，我們可以容許銀行業者賺錢到什麼樣的程度，都不用為他們所造成的社會後果負責；我們社會也應進一步思考，應該要建立一個什麼樣的標準，容許卡奴在負起他們自己的責任以後，重返這個社會，重新生活；我們更應該思考，怎麼樣督促政府，負起他應該負起的管制責任，這個社會要建立起一個什麼樣金融正義的標準，讓每一個人都擁有權利，能夠接觸到這個社會的金融資源，來發展他們自己的事業與生活。

[…] Our society should ask some deep questions: How much profit that banks can earn without being responsible for legacies and consequences? What standard should be raised to help debtors get back to the society and start a new life, after shouldering their duty? How should we urge the government to be accountable and place suitable regulations? How can we define “financial justice” so that everyone can access financial resources to develop their business and life.

The author Gu Yu-Ling (顧玉玲) is a long-term activist for migrant worker rights. Us is a book recording stories of several Filipino migrant workers. Taiwan has introduced lots of migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, since 1990. In her own words in the clip:

[…]這本書如果對社會會有一點作用的話，我希望它像照鏡子一樣，讓我們看見彼此。我們使用抗爭，我們使用了歌舞表演，然後那個記者會或公聽會，我們用各種軟的硬的方式，其實不就是試著要跟這個社會對話嗎？[…]我一路書寫，我一直非常非常意識到讀者在哪裡，我希望人們看見，我希望人們知道這真的發生在台灣，就在我的左鄰右舍，我只是視而不見而已。[…]

[…] If this book can have any effects to the society, I hope it would serve like a mirror to help us see each other. We have tried to protest, to perform songs and dances, and to hold press and public hearings. With all these ways, soft and hard, we are just trying to foster a conversation to the society. […] I am always very aware of my readers when I write. I hope people can see. I hope people can understand that these stories really happen in Taiwan. Migrant workers are in our neighborhood, but many people pretend they do not exist.

The End of River

As the first generation of Malaysian-Chinese writer in Taiwan, Li Yong-Ping (李永平) writes the novel with Borneo, Malaysia in mind, but lives in Taipei, Taiwan. He mentions:

我是一個小說家，小說家應該有個本事，能夠把兩個不同的空間結合在一起，你打開書房的窗子，你看到的是台灣的河流「淡水河」，你寫的是婆洲大河，可是在一個作家心靈裡頭，這兩條大河、這兩種風景，它就很奇妙地會產生一種互動，那個互動越來越強，結果這兩者就融合在一起，到了後來我幾乎分不清，我到底是寫婆羅洲大河，還是寫台灣的大河，我覺得這是寫作過程裡頭最美妙的一種經驗，這很難傳達出去，但是我相信敏感讀者在我的作品裡頭，應該可以看出這非常非常有趣的面貌。[…]

I am a novelist. Novelists should have the skill to combine two different spaces together. When I open the window in my study, I see Dan Shuei River in Taiwan, but I am writing the story about the river in Borneo. In a writer's mind, the two rivers and the two scenes will miraculously interact. As it grows stronger, the two rivers merge together. In the end, it is so difficult to distinguish which river I am writing about. This is the most beautiful experience in writing, which is hard to be conveyed. I believe, however, sensitive readers will notice this very interesting situation.

To view all 11 clips, please visit YouTube page. To read notes from video production team, please visit OpenBook Blog [zh].

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Japan: Looking back on 2008

Chris Salzberg · 10:53 · East Asia

lingua → id

The last year in Japan saw, among other things, an economic crisis, employment instability, and the beginnings of the collapse of journalism. While the year was already recapped here last month, we add to that recap the reflections of bloggers looking back over the year.

Blogger Motohiko Tokuriki wrote about this year's Alpha Blogger Awards (see the GV article about last year's event):

2004年から毎年続けていたアルファブロガー・アワード（旧：アルファブロガーを探せ）ですが、今年は思いっきり趣向を変えて、ブログ記事大賞ということで、ブログ単位ではなく記事単位の投票で開始しました。

The Alpha Blogger Awards (formerly: Search for Alpha Bloggers) has been held continuously every year since 2004, but this year we are putting our efforts into changing the idea [of the awards], and so this year we will award prizes for blog entries — not at the level of individual blogs but at the level of individual entries.

実は記事単位での投票というのは、最初の2004年のアルファブロガーを探せの時にも試みていた幻の企画です。
　当時は、ただでも無名の企画だったので、ブログ毎の投票を集めるのが精一杯で、記事毎の投票はほとんど有意義な数が集まらず、結果発表すらしなかったという経緯がありました。（その節は、投票頂いた皆さん、本当に申し訳ありませんでした。）

[This isn't in fact the first time] there has been voting at the level of articles; it's a throwback to 2004, where we experimented with the idea at the first Alpha Blogger Awards [”Search for Alpha Bloggers”].
At that time, it was a project without any real name, so we tried very hard to gather votes on each blog, but this didn't add up to a significant number, and there was never any announcement of winners. (Apologies to all of you who voted on that occasion.)

ただ、記事毎の投票をやってみたらという意見は多数いただいていましたし、現在では2004年に比べると、ソーシャルブックマークとかブログ検索とか、1年を振返るためのツールも充実していますし、とにかく一度やってみようということで、実施に至った次第です。

But considering that there were so many people who were interested in voting at the level of articles, and that, compared to 2004, social bookmarking, blog search, and so on — the tools [people] use to look back over the year — had progressed so much, we decided to try it out one time, and so we are having [this style of] awards this year.

Tokuriki-san also picks out the three entries he found most important over the whole year: one article [ja] by Osamu Higuchi about Google's new Street View service (see Global Voices post), an article by blogger boiledema [ja] about Toyota's Just-in-Time system (see Global Voices post), and an article by blogger mkusunok titled “we're hacking politics” [俺達ちゃんと政治もハックしているよ].

Blogger and journalist Hiroyuki Fujishiro wrote about the change in the country's media industry:

金融危機や雇用問題など暗い話題で終わった2008年は既存のマスメディアにとっても厳しい年となりました。これまで指摘されてきた、マスメディアの凋落がついに表面化。新聞、テレビだけでなく広告代理店も厳しい決算となりました。それだけでなく、秋葉原事件、毎日新聞「WaiWai」問題、オーマイニュース失敗など、メディアのあり方に関わる本質的な問題も、さまざまな形で表面化しました。

The year 2008 was a difficult one for the mass media, ending with a gloomy picture of a looming financial crisis and employment problems. The decline of the mass media, signs of which had already been perceptible, at last came to a head. Newspapers and television, as well as advertising companies, all faced tough financial decisions. And as if that wasn't enough, there was also the Akihabara massacre, the “WaiWai” incident at Mainichi Shimbun, the fall of OhmyNews Japan, and fundamental problems in the media, all of which emerged in a variety of different forms.

[…]

「市民メディア」として注目されたオーマイニュースの失敗は、メディアがインフレを起こしている時代に単にメディアを持つだけでは何の意味もないことを明らかにしています。市民メディアに関わる議論では、従来からマスメディアとは異なるメディア（オルタナティブメディア）を持つことに重きを置く議論もありますが、単にオルタナティブメディアを持つだけでなく、何のための、誰のためのメディアなのかを明確にしていかなければ、ただあるだけのメディアになってしまうでしょう。

The fall of OhmyNews, a project which had attracted attention as an example of “citizen media”, made clear that in an era where the landscape of media is expanding, simply being the media alone is no longer significant [in and of itself]. Among the arguments for citizen media, there is one argument that emphasizes that [citizen media] is different from mass media. [But the point is] that it's not just about being a different (alternative) media; without clarifying what and who the media is for, one media is just like any other.

Blogger Nobuo Ikeda, meanwhile, picked up a conversation [ja] started by Uchida Tatsuru [ja] and Dan Kogai [ja] on the question of whether Japan will become a more “inward-looking country” this year:

Dankogai経由で内田樹氏のおもしろい記事を読んだ。結論からいうと、「2009年はたぶん日本は『内向きシフト』舵を切るようになると私は推察している」（原文のまま）という彼の意見に、私も賛成だ。ただ私はこの記事を皮肉だと思ったのだが、どうやら内田氏は本気で内向きがいいことだと信じているらしい。彼はこう書く：

Through Dan Kogai, I learnt about an interesting article by Mr. Tatsuru Uchida. I agree with his view, which can be seen in his conclusion that: “I'm guessing that perhaps this year Japan will make a turn toward ‘looking inwards'.” [quoted verbatim from post] However, although I had thought that his post was meant to be cynical, it seems that he in fact really believes that it's a good thing to look inwards. Here's what he wrote:

Ikeda quotes from Uchida, who writes:

「外向き」になるにはアメリカにはアメリカの、フィンランドにはフィンランドのそれぞれの「お国の事情」というものがある。その切ない事情についてはご配慮して差し上げるべきであろう。だが、わが日本にはせっかく世界でも希なる「内向きでも飯が食えるだけの国内市場」があるのである。そこでちまちまと「小商い」をしていても飯が食えるなら、それでいいじゃないか。

In “looking outwards”, each country has its own respective “national conditions” to take into account: America has its own conditions, just as Finland has its own conditions. I suppose these oppressive conditions should be taken into account. However, in Japan, there is an unusual “domestic market within which people can get by even while they are looking inwards”. If people can make a living with just a small business, then there is nothing wrong with that.

Ikeda then responds:

フィンランドが外向きだというのは正しいが、アメリカは主要国でもっとも内向きの国である。彼らのパスポート保有率は14％で、内向きの日本人（26％）の半分しかない。それより問題は、「内向きでも飯が食える」のかということだ。内田氏の勤務している女子大の学生の授業料を払っているのは彼らの親だが、その所得は日本経済が衰退すれば減ってゆく。

While it is correct to say that Finland is outward-looking, America is actually the most inward-looking of the [world's] major powers. Only 14% of American people hold passports, that's only half the number of people (26%) [who hold passports] in inward-looking Japan. And what is an even greater problem is [the question of whether] “you can make a living while being inward-looking”. The students at the women's university where Uchida works have their tuition fees paid for by their parents; that money will start to dry up if the Japanese economy goes into decline.

そして「内向きでも飯が食えるだけの国内市場」は、どんどん中国や韓国などに侵食されている。たとえばPCの世界市場では、HP、デルに中国のレノボと台湾のエイサーが続き、国内トップの東芝でもわずか4.3％だ。おかげで東芝もソニーも、人員整理を始めている。「ちまちまと小商い」をしても、規模の経済で太刀打ちできないのだ。

And then [there is the issue that] this “internal market within which you can make a living even while looking inwards” is steadily being encroached upon by China and South Korea. In the global market of PCs, for example, China's Lenovo and Taiwan's Acer have followed [in the footsteps of] HP and Dell, with Japan's domestic brand Toshiba at only 4.3%. Both Toshiba and Sony are cutting back on personnel for this reason. So even if you run a “small business”, you can't compete with the economics of scale.

トヨタを筆頭とする輸出産業が総崩れになった日本経済は、結果的には「内向きシフト」をとるだろう。そのためにマイナス成長が続いたら、まっ先にあおりを食うのが私立大学で、すでに半数が定員割れだ。内田氏の勤務する大学がどうかは知らないが、一般論としていえば女子大の経営状況は最悪なので、彼が飯を食えなくなるリスクは、彼が思っているほど小さくない。

Starting with Toyota, Japan's import-export industry is in total collapse, and so I really wonder whether the Japanese economy will take this “shift toward looking inward”. Thus if negative growth continues, it will be the private universities that will suffer the repercussions, [universities] that already have only half their normal enrollment. I'm not sure how it is at the university where Mr. Uchida works, but the economic conditions at women's colleges are generally considered to be terrible, and so the risk that he will no longer be able to make a living [there] is not as small as he thinks.

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Iran: BBC launches new Persian TV channel

Hamid Tehrani · 05:37 · Middle East & North Africa , Western Europe

lingua → fr · it · zht · zhs

The launch of BBC Persian TV on January 14, attracted praise, enthusiasm, suspicion, and in one word: attention! Iranian bloggers are expressing their opinions on this new channel, and they are as diverse as ever.

While some consider that the new channel can play a role in bridging disagreements between the United States and Iran, the Iranian authorities called it a threat to national security.

So far, the Iranian government has refused permission for BBC Persian TV to have an office in Iran, although the Islamic Republic run Press TV itself has an office in London.

BBC Persian TV provides 8 hours of daily programming for the Persian-speaking world. It draws not just on the worldwide news gathering resources of the whole BBC, but also on its own Persian-speaking correspondents in Washington, Jerusalem, Beirut, Islamabad, Istanbul, Dushanbe and Kabul.

Here is a promotional trailer for BBC Persian TV. The voiceover promises, “Music, and more than music”:

LegoMahi, a blogger and designer says [fa]:

کیفیت تولید بالای برنامه های تلویزیونی بی بی سی من رو مثل همه کسان دیگری که برنامه های هفته اول شروع این تلویزیون رو دیدند ذوق زده کرده.همونطور که مثلا دیدن یک هتل 5 ستاره، یا یک استادیوم مدرن، یا یک پلاژ تمیز، یک باسکین رابینز “واقعی”، یا یک فروشگاه یا سوپرمارکت بزرگ در ایران آدم رو متعجب و ذوق چیزها هست که برای ساکنان دنیای متمدن (و بعضی وقتا نه چندان متمدن) بدیهی است…بی بی سی فارسی برای اولین بار (حد اقل تا جایی که در خاطر نسل من و ما هست) به تماشاگر ایرانی امکان دیدن برنامه های خوب و داشتن تجربه ای که میلیون ها نفر دیگر از ساکنان زمین همیشه داشته اند را میدهد. بالاخره در قرن بیست و یک، دست ما را گرفته و برای اولین بار ما را با قرن بیستم آشنا میکند،

“The high quality of BBC programs during the first week that I was watching it, made me very excited. It is just like seeing a 5-star hotel, a modern studio, …or a big supermarket in Iran surprises me. There are a series of things in their existence that are considered very normal for the civilised (and sometimes not really civilised) world, but for us is just like a dream… BBC Persian, for the first time in the remembrance of my generation, lets us experience watching quality programming. The experience that millions of people on this earth have had for many years… Finally at the beginning of 21st century, BBC presents to us the 20th century.”

Mahjad writes [fa] that BBC really started well, “and much better that I imagined.” But that you always find, “jealous people who just see the half-empty glass.”

Seaman who launched [fa] a blog to analyse BBC Persian TV programs, says it sometimes seems they do not have enough programs, and will repeat one several times, such as “Kamkara”, a program about a group of musicians.

Bamdadi says [fa] we should be happy, but not excited. The blogger says finallythe monopoly of low quality US-funded Persian-speaking Voice of America and Los Angeles-based channels is over. While celebrating that official TV in Iran will most likely need to improve and decrease propaganda in programs, the blogger warns:

به خاطر خلا رسانه ای در بین فارسیزبانان، این خطر وجود دارد که تلویزیون بی بی سی فارسی به سرعت اعتبار و محبوبیت بسیار بالایی پیدا کند و در این صورت دستکاری کردن افکار عمومی مردم ایران در راستای منافع انگلستان و متحدانش راحتتر میشود.

“Due to the absence of competitors, the BBC can very quickly attract credibility and popularity among Iranians and start to manipulate Iranian public opinion for the benefits of the UK and its allies.”

Menbar, an Islamic cleric, remembers [fa] that his father used to listen to BBC radio during the Iran-Iraq war. He says that BBC TV is professional and has hours of interviews in its archive from Iranian personalities. He wonders if Iranian television has such archives.

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Madagascar: Devastating tropical storm makes way for a political one

Lova Rakotomalala · 03:20, January 25th, 2009 · Sub-Saharan Africa

lingua → mg · fr · es · sw · pt

A few days after passing Madagascar, the official toll from the damages caused by Cyclone Fanele have finally come in. President Ravalomanana president flew to one of the affected areas to assess the extent of the devastation.

Cyclone citizen media initiative

While the BGNRC (department of risk and disaster management) is still without an official website, reports pertaining to the damages are being aggregated on an open-source Google map by two bloggers, Marie Sophie Digne and Tomavana (fr).

Here is a summary of the damages, according to IRIN, via ReliefWeb:

New figures from Madagascar's National Office for Natural Disasters Preparedness (BNGRC) indicate that cyclone Fanele claimed eight lives and affected some 40,400 people [..] The BNGRC said a further 63,000 people were at risk in Menabe if heavy rain continued to fall. Relief teams are still assessing the damage caused by the two storms, and figures are expected to rise as more information on the full extent of the damage is gathered.

Political turmoil

The Malagasy blogosphere was also buzzing with political news and commentary about a new massive political gathering today (Jan 24th) and a call for a national strike to demand the resignation of the entire administration.

Many bloggers have provided live blogging and images of the event (additional images on facebook).

Blogger Ariniaina provides a brief factsheet on the background of the turmoil:

Andry Rajoelina (or Andry TGV) had a TV Station named VIVA and still have a radio station with the same name. The minister of the communication has decided to close the TV station VIVA due to a documentary movie that this station had broadcasted. It was a message from the former President of Madagascar, Didier Ratsiraka [..] Since then, the Mayor ( of Antanarivo, Andry Rajoelina) gave an ultimatum to the government to re-open VIVA TV station before January 13 [..] As Andry didn’t get what he wanted, he invited the people of Tana to go on a strike AGAIN today, January 24.

( demonstration photo via ariniana )

Blogger Jentilisa provides in-depth analysis of the discourse on both sides of the political spectrum and cautions against the spreading of unverified rumors (mg):

Toy izany ihany koa nisy hazo nianjera tao amin'ny kianjan'ny demaokrasia, noho ny fahanterany mazava loatra (tatitra heno tamin'ny radio tana, kidaona maraina) nefa misy manadrohadro hoe “lazao fa sabotazy ihany koa e!”; eo indrindra isika, fambara zavatra amin'ny hafa hatrany ny zavatra toy izany na dia tokony ho tsy misy dikany aza. Eo amin'ny toe-tsaina minomino foana mbola ananan'ny maro dia mbola fampitandremana aloha izay,

A tree fell on the square for democracy (where the meeting took place) because of the evident affluence ( message heard on the radio); still some claim “say that it was a sabotage”. So here we are, talking about insignificant events instead. We are still so prone to believe anything we hear and I would like to caution against that.

Blogger Avylavitra reminds us that the government is also trying to terminate VIVA radio and that the reason it advances for it does not hold up. There is a law against private radio broadcasting all over the country. Yet, one pro-government radio MBS has been broadcasting nationally for 5 years without any threat of censorship (mg):

Tsy hoe fanenjehana ny MBS akory no ilazako izany fa filazana kosa hoe ‘Natao ho an’iza ny lalàna?'

I am not trying to single out MBS. I am just asking: ” Is the law only applicable for a few ?”

( Malagasy activist yes we can shirt by avylavitra)

History repeating itself
Mialisoa Randriamampianina, a journalist and blogger, is dissapointed to see a replay of the events in 2002, with the same errors, same bellicose rhetoric and a democracy that is still far from mature (fr):

À défaut d’une véritable culture politique, ce grand public se rabat sur la bonne vieille offuscation des éternelles victimes, le ton toujours plus haut, la prudence toujours bradée [..] Ainsi faisait-on en 2002, ainsi fait-on en 2009 [..]: la rue est devenue le chemin forcé, la menace, le recours incontournable. Et au bout, une implosion qui n’est pas forcément utile. Il y a sûrement une juste manière de se faire comprendre, en dehors des intimidations un peu trop faciles et de la condescendance maladroite. En attendant un peu de sang-froid, on en est tous là, en train de naviguer à vue d’œil ou à l’aveuglette. Et on appelle cela « une quête de la démocratie »…

Without a true political culture, the crowd is resorting to the old whines of eternal victims, the noise ever louder and prudence thrown out the window [..] So we did in 2002, so we will in 2009 [..] the street has become the only way, the leverage, the absolute recourse. Eventually, an implosion that may not be very useful. There has got to be a way to convey your message, without the easy intimidations and the awkward condescension. While we wait for a bit of perspective from cooler heads, we are here, trying to find our way out. And we called this ” a quest for democracy”

Randy also a blogger/journalist, agrees that Madagascar may still may not be ready for a true democratic process (fr):

Et c’est bien ce qui inquiète une partie de l’opinion. Car, dans tous les pays du continent qui se sont livrés à ce jeu, c’est toujours par des manifestations d’une spontanéité suspecte que commence la mise en scène.

And that is what scares some. As was the case in most countries of the continent that tried the (democratic) game, suspiciously spontaneous public protests set the stage.

The irony of the current president threatened by a public tour-de-force reminiscent of his own ascendancy to power is not lost on blogger Rajiosy (fr):

L’ironie de l’Histoire veut que celui-là même qui a outrepassé l’Etat naguère a eu pour tâche de restaurer l’autorité de cet Etat et de stabiliser ses institutions. Il se retrouve aujourd’hui mis en demeure de conforter cette pérennité. Tâche difficile on l’a vu face à une partie de population versatile.

The irony of the story is that the same person who back then overrode the rule of law now has the task to restore the authority of the state and stabilize its institutions. He is now faced with trying to consolidate his position. A difficult task considering the volatility of public opinion.

Maturing twittosphere

An intriguing development during this political process was the emergence of an active Malagasy twittosphere who posted political development in a real time manner. One can follow a timeline of related tweets by searching for #madagascar: