Archive for
March 17th, 2009
Stories
China:Parliament ridiculed for its fancy proposals
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the nation's parliament of more than 2,000 delegates, ended in Beijing on 12, March, with pledges to help maintain steady and relatively speedy economic development in 2009. Top national leaders such as Hu Jingtao, Premier Wen Jiabao were present at the closing ceremony. (Xinhua)
The conference, according to the ruling Communist Party (CCP), is one of the most important institutions which carry out Chinese-style democracy, that is multiple-party co-operation led by CCP. However, the conference has always been viewed as simply a rubber stamp with its sole purpose being to give endorsement to decisions already made, thus giving semblance of ‘popular' support for government programs.
However, what is really popular on the internet in China these days is to highlight and satarize some of the most astonishing, impractical and absurd proposals made by the delegates.
Blogger Song Shi-nan (宋石男） gives a list of such ‘amazing' proposals on his blog. In the appendix, he notes an interesting news:
本次全国政协会议，给每位委员配发了一台笔记本电脑，以实现无纸化政协会议。据称，这是为了响应国家节能减排的号召，节约纸张和环保.
全国政协十一届二次会议副秘书长、民革中央专职副主席修福金认为，本次大会将会期缩短了两天，而且还用电脑替代了原来大量的纸张，这表明从政协开始已经过简朴的生活，开始了艰苦奋斗。
Accordingly, 5 million RMB on paper use will thereby be saved.
However, netizens soon found that the so-called frugal measure actually costs 7.5 million RMB . Some more industrious blogger went even further and calculated how much paper was represented by the 5 million RMB and found that each delegate would have received 36,363 sheets should the 5 million have been spent! Blogger Uncle Y pokes fun of the ambition of 'saving money' by saying, “what a paper mountain the conference would have been!”
At a time of global economic downturn, a notable theme of the meeting is to bolster the economy, and the delegates didn't disappoint us taking much care of the issue. But their proposals are sometimes unintentionally ironical and hilarious.
His proposal was named “economic-cultural industry of Chinese traditional clothing”.
On NetEase, a popular online discussion board, one comment was:
我一开始还以为他是开制衣厂的,再看不是,那我就搞不懂了.这位代表是不是很少出门啊.我的天啊,我真的不敢想象把国家大事交给你们讨论会是怎么样的结果.
Other than clothing, another delegate, Zong Licheng (宗立成), proposed,
Blogger Song Shinan seems to be thrilled by so creative an idea. He comments:
骂国骂是不是也可刺激经济增长？那就来一嗓子——卧槽泥马！
More proposals have been presented:
In response to the proposal, a netizen questions:
Another proposal concerns college students again, who are particularly troubled by job losses this year.
Song Shinan laughs at the idea:
为缓解就业，干脆把战线再拉长一点，小学9年制，初中5年制，高中5年制，加上大学5年制，硕士6年制， 博士7年制，这样博士毕业差不多44、5岁，即使找不到工作，失业10来年也就退休了.
Ran Yun-fei, reviewing all these proposals and opinions, so categorized them:
疯狂言论、愚人提案、八卦愚乐.
But why all these ridiculous statements and happenings could happen in a solemn and important conference? He said:
两会代表不经民选，不在代表来源、阶层分布、利益博弈、民众意愿等方面加以改进，两会不只是橡皮图章，而且是十足的笑料大世界。
Colombia: Documenting the trucker's life on the road
8ruedas logo
Toda la vida, todos los días, hay experiencias que quisieramos asumir como propias. Esta es una de esas. Salir en un camión, agarrar carretera y echarse la vida sobre las 8 ruedas del vehículo al lado de conocidos o desconocidos. Un viaje de una semana larga, por carreteras colombianas, entregando pedidos de cartón (lo que el camionero lleva de carga), emitiendo vía streaming video en tiempo real en una o dos ocasiones por día y recopilando material a ser publicado en diferido cada noche a través de la red. Esa es la intención, simple, arriesgada (?) y sin ningún propósito diferente a pasarla bueno, documentando regiones del país que ninguno tiene por qué conocer de esta manera.
This project is part of their online strategy for their startup nullun, and besides Pacho, as Francisco is known, others are also lending a hand to make this adventure happen. The experiment began yesterday, but due to the uncertainty that comes with the job description, they haven't started on the road yet. They sit and wait for the assignment to come in and for the truck to be ready for dispatch. The following clip was streamed from the location where the truckers sit, wait and play poker:
The whole idea of going out on a truck hit home with a fellow Colombian blogger. Jorge Montoya of Fábrica de Cosas writes about his last trip with his father, a trucker who died 7 years ago on March 15th while on the road:
De Medellín salimos con un cargamento de insumos para una panadería en Sincelejo, y otras cuantas cosas para Barranquilla, pasando por Cartagena. De Barranquilla, parando en Fundación para comernos un platano con queso, fuimos a Valledupar por mangos. Pero a Valledupar también fuimos porque allí se haría la imagen mental que más resalta cuando recuerdo a mi papá: un par de hamacas colgadas debajo del camión parqueado en una estación de servicio, con la brisa del Valle, una botella de ron y un par de tabacos que amenizaban el silencio entre dos personas con la misma sangre pero con poco que contarse. Recuerdos de empatía y vallenato. El ambiente impregnado de vallenato era la regla.
It seems that truckers and their families being estranged is not uncommon. Carolina, Juan Camilo's daughter, tells in the following video about her distant relationship with her father. They greet each other cordially, but have never shared intimacy, private conversations or special occasions.
You can follow the experiment on the 8ruedas site, by adding @cinealoido, or following the #8ruedas tag on twitter, by suscribing to the Ustream video channel, or on qik. A Flickr set has also been set up to check on the images of their travels, such as this portrait of Felipe Taborda, a fellow trucker friends call “Internet” because he knows everything.
Felipe Taborda -alias "internet" by Cinealoido
El Salvador: Blogger Reactions to Mauricio Funes Victory
Editor's Note: This is part-one of a translation of a blog post written by Hunnapuh and published with permission.
After the post-electoral hangover, various blogs from El Salvador posted their reactions to the news of the victory by FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, who defeated ARENA candidate Rodrigo Ávila in the March 15 Presidential election with 51% of the vote. Funes, a former television journalist, ends nearly two decades of rule by the ARENA party and brings FMLN into power, which is a party that was built by former guerrilla fighters after a peace deal ended armed conflict in that country.
The blogs El Trompudo [es] and El-Salvador [es] present the same post published by POCOTE, who asked for the essay to be reprinted and shared, which praised Funes' message that he gave on Sunday night when he proclaimed himself the winner of the presidential elections.
Este mensaje del primer presidente de un partido de izquierda electo libremente por voluntad popular, es, seguramente, el discurso más esperado por los salvadoreños en muchos años.
This message from the first president from a leftist party and elected freely by popular decision is, surely, the most anticipated speech by Salvadorans in a long time.
Emphasis was made that the new government would give preference to the classes of the have-nots and will change the exclusionary model of governing to one that has the political Constitution as a reference, expressing their profound satisfaction.
The blogger Atlacatl takes the opportunity to add “a bit of salt in the wound [es],” expressing his repudiation by the “coverage” from the Salvadoran Telecorporation (TCS). Atlacatl writes that during the election night TCS started to change its tone and went from arrogance to submissive conciliation.
The blogs Chichicaste [es] and the Blog de Sura [es] written by Carlos Sura, a disabled blogger with a very dynamic and frequently updated blog, publishes video and the text of the speech by Funes proclaiming his victory and offering reconciliation to the country.
The Blog from the Movement of Professionals, Technicians and Intellectuals (M.P.T.I.E.S. for its initials in Spanish) salutes the president-elect in their blog with the post “Your Honor, Mr. President Funes, It was Worth It! [es]” with these words:
DIOS JAMAS DESAMPARA A LOS AFLIGIDOS!
Contra viento y marea, contra un poder acumulado en unas cuantas manos, contra los medios de comunicación capitalistas, contra la manipulación del tribunal Supremo Electoral, contra empresarios que atemorizaron a cientos de miles de trabajadores, contra seudo analistas lanzando desprestigio, contra la mayor campaña viciada, cínica y descarada, contra una Fiscalía y Corte Suprema Suprema inclinada a la violación de la Constitución de la Republica, contra el Alto mando de la Fuerza Armada y la Policía Nacional Civil, contra personajes importados de Venezuela, Cuba y Nicaragua pagados por el Coena……….”
GOD WOULD NEVER ABANDON THE AFFLICTED!
Against wind and rising tide, against the power accumulated in a few hands, against the capitalistic media, against the manipulation of the Supreme Electoral tribunal, against businesspersons that terrorize hundred of thousands of workers, against pseudo-analysts trying to discredit, against the most foul, cynical, and shameless campaign, against attorneys and the Supreme Court inclined towards the violation of the Constitution, against the high command of the Armed Forces and National Police, against people imported from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua paid by the National Executive Council of ARENA (Coena)….
Carlos Abrego of Bloguero de Cosas Tan Pasajeras [es] salutes what he considers to be a historical day and highlights that major significance that a person who is openly leftists to be the president of El Salvador:
Arena fué derrotada. El miedo fue vencido. La esperanza puede comenzar a alentar nuestros ánimos. El cambio ahora si que se ha vuelto posible. Hagámoslo realidad.
El Tenampa [es], another blog was one of the first to take “photos of the ARENA's vote” for those workers and laborers who had been reportedly threatened and had to “demonstrate” that they voted for ARENA and writes “Change is Here,” even when it was in the middle of the vote count. The blog La Verdad Siempre Saldá al Aire [es] written by Rojo Bender writes that the people voted with wisdom [es].
The blog Dulce Limón Partido [es] shows her painted finger indicating her recent vote and writes that there are more than a million dreams as a result of the vote:
Ayer, por primera vez en mi vida, sentí que valía la pena ser salvadoreña, haber nacido en estos casi 21,000 kilómetros cuadrados por fin tomaron sentido. No me caben las palabras para expresar toda la emoción que experimenté en todo el día, pasé pegada a la radio, no dormí la noche del sábado, ni mis padres, pasé en el patio, mirando al cielo que estaba nublado y de vez en vez dejaba ver las estrellas. Con los ojos “chilosos” fui a votar, nos llevamos hasta a mi abuelita, Soyapango se pintaba de rojo, y a las 8.30 am ya había caos vehicular. Viví 20 de mis 24 años de edad, bajo un régimen que desde que tengo uso de razón nunca comprendí y nunca estuve a gusto, ni me tragué los engaños de el sistema. Siempre me pregunté, por qué si la gente estaba tan mal, seguía eligiendo a las mismas personas para que las gobernaran. Ayer el pueblo dio lección, y le recordó al gobierno, que nosotros, los que queríamos cambiar, para bien o para mal, somos más y unidos doblegamos cualquier máquina de hacer dinero y poder.
Yesterday for the first time in my life, I felt that it was worth being Salvadoran, being born in this 21,000 square kilometer area finally made sense. There are no words to express the emotions that I felt all day spent glued to the radio, I didn't sleep at all on Saturday night, neither did my parents, I spent time on the patio looking at the cloudy sky and from time to time I stopped seeing the stars. With my “watery” eyes, I went to vote taking my grandmother. Soyapango was painted red and at 8:30 am there was vehicular chaos. I lived 20 of my 24 years living under a regime that I never understood and never felt right with, and I didn't swallow the deceits of the system. I always asked, why were people in a bad situation, and kept electing the same people to govern. Yesterday the people gave a lesson, and reminded the government and us that we want change for better or for worse, we are more and more united overtaking any machine out to make money or to control power.
Tunisia: Remembering Tunisia's First Internet Prisoner
Tunisian Zouhair Yahyaoui will always be remembered among Tunisian activists as someone who had sacrificed his life for the struggle for freedom of speech.
Yahyaoui, who had adopted the pen name Ettounsi or The Tunisian and was a graduate in economic sciences and Internet journalist, had invited readers of his satirical website TUNeZINE to vote on whether Tunisia was a “republic, a kingdom, a zoo or a prison” on June 2, 2000. Soon after wards, he was picked up from an internet cafe by plainclothes police officers, without an arrest warrant.
In November 2003, Yahyaoui was released from prison after spending 18 months and on March 13, 2005, he died of a heart attack at the age of 36. During his time in prison, Yahyaoui went on hunger strike several times in protest against his imprisonment conditions and supporters claim he was also subjected to torture.
To mark his forth death anniversary, The Network of Tunisian Bloggers for Free Blogging reminds us about Tunisia's first Internet prisoner:
تمرّ اليوم 4سنوات على رحيل زهير اليحياوي مؤسس موقع “تونزين”، وقد توفي الفقيد على إثر نوبة قلبية وهو لا يزال في ريعان شبابه.
دخل السجن في ربيع 2002 ودفع غاليا ثمن تشبثه بالدفاع عن الحرية مستعملا في ذلك التقنيات الحديثة التي وفرتها شبكة “الأنترنيت”، وهو ما جعله يصبح رمزا للنضال على الشبكة.
كان ولا يزال يمثل نموذجا للمناضل والمدافع الصلب عن قضايا الديمقراطية ـ و قد دخل عدة مرات في اضراب عن الطعام للمطالبة بتحسين وضعه داخل السجن دون أن تستجيب الادارة العامة للسجون لمطالبه وقد أثرت ظروف اعتقاله على صحته التي تدهورت
He had been thrown in jail in the spring of 2002 and paid heavily for his commitment to defend freedom, using the modern techniques provided by the “Internet”, which made him become a symbol of the struggle on the web.
He has been and continues to be a model for activists and defenders of democracy. He had gone on hunger strikes several times to demand better conditions in prison but the Public Administration for Prisons did not respond to his requests. The conditions of his detention had affected his health, which deteriorated.
And the situation seems to have deteriorated even further in Tunisia since Yahyaoui's death. Fellow Tunisian blogger and Global Voices Advocacy editor Sami ben Gharbia updates us on the repression of the Internet in his country in this post.
The Pope in Cameroon (1): Yaoundé Clean Up Controversy
Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Cameroon from 17 to 20 March 2009. This has led the government to take some radical clean-up measures as described by Griet,Thorsten, Jara and Lisa blog:
1 All small shops, houses, vendor's stalls that don't look nice enough are being destroyed with a large caterpillar. The truck comes by, looks at your stall/house/whatever and if the driver doesn't like, he just destroys it with all its content. It all started about a week ago in the city centre. Suddenly the streets did not house streetvendors anymore, all the local shops at the post office disappeared etc. Now it's been extended all the way to the airport.
2 The road to the airport has brand new streetlights. But then ONLY the way from the airport to the town centre.
3 Tuesday (for sure, other days to be confirmed) the road between airport and town centre will be blocked. Note: the pope arrives in the evening, but the road needs to be blocked from EARLY MORNING. Hence nobody can get to/from work, school etc.
This post also links to another blog by an expertriate family Sander Elke en Milan that has has photos of the destruction to roadside shops in the streets of Yaounde.
This demolition has sparked a debate on the blogs of two expatriates in Cameroon. Συγκακοπαθησον a blog maintained by a missionary in Cameroon posted on the changes to the outlook of Yaounde as a aresult of the Pope's coming.
So what’s my take on the whole thing? It’s nice that the city is getting a face-lift - it sure makes things look a lot nicer, and the big street lights make driving at night or trying to get a taxi along the main route so much easier and safer - but it’s sad that this clean-up has to mean the destruction of people’s way of life. Unfortunately, these people were simply ignorant of the “rules,” some willfully so, and are now facing the consequences. The sad part is that it seems the government was content to just let things be (possibly for as long as 10 years or longer) until something big came up, like the Pope’s arrival. If they had taken these structures down as soon as they went up, there wouldn’t be this kind of destruction of people’s livelihood now. Then again, I guess the law is still the law even when it’s not enforced.
This point of view wasn't really shared by British-born VSO volunteer blogging at Our Man in Cameroon. His reaction in a post entitled Impossible Missionary was simple:
Street stalls are a way of life here. They are everywhere. It’s easy just to say they are illegal but they can be pretty solid structures. What’s more, if they are illegal I’d imagine that they have only been allowed to remain because someone, somewhere is taking a regular few thousands Francs in bribes.
People here struggle. You can bet these structures don’t turn over much and in a country where enterprise and entrepreneurship is so minimal…well what a way to reward it.I ask you, if you are in general agreement with what I have written and also find the missionary’s take as ignorant as I do, to leave a comment. Not below but instead on the missionaries own blog.
However, readers still commented on this story on the Our Man in Cameroon blog. The reactions got to a point that, Karis, the wife of the missionary stepped-up in defence of her husband:
Wow! I never knew my husband could cause such a stir. I think sometimes we think that only people that know us read our blogs and those people know how to take what we write instead of tearing it apart line by line without knowing us at all. Trav, thanks for putting in a good word. Dad A, thanks for the humor. You always put a smile on my face. I just wish all of you that commented here and on his blog knew my husband — you wouldn’t be so harsh as you pull apart sentences.
He and I have had many conversations about how horrible it is that people’s livelihood is taken away from them and all for a few days visit from the Pope. When we were in town on Monday and saw stuff being thrown into trucks, it made me sick to my stomach. More than once, we said, “But how are people going to eat tonight? and the next day and the next day?” It goes even beyond that in…
And then today, I saw him helping people move their sewing machines, their tables, their bags of stuff farther down on our road as the government came through with the bulldozer. No, that was not emphasized enough in this post to show all of our conversations and actions, but wow… that doesn’t mean that my husband doesn’t feel for the people here! Maybe I can convince him to write another post, but I’m not sure because it may be best just to leave this rather than getting things torn apart again. I’d better just stop. A wife sticking up for her wonderful husband isn’t much of a mind changer.
The exchanges did not end at that. This Papal visit has quite some twists to it on the blogoshpere!
Tunisia: Covert Censorship of a Newspaper!
Last week the Tunisian government censored the newspaper, El Mawkef . Censored blog Tunisia Watch writes:
Le rédacteur en chef de l'hebdomadaire “Al Mawkef”, Rachid Khéchana, a accusé vendredi les autorités tunisiennes d'avoir procédé à une “saisie déguisée” du dernier numéro de son journal, organe du parti démocratique progressiste (PDP), une formation de l'opposition légale. Les autorités ont aussitôt démenti cette accusation qu'elles qualifient de “fausses allégations”.
Selon M. Khéchana, des pressions auraient été exercées sur la société privée de distribution pour qu'elle ne livre aux kiosques que deux exemplaires à chacun. Dans un communiqué transmis à l'Associated Press, il considère cette “mesure répressive” comme “une atteinte à la liberté de la presse et une sanction contre tout journal qui s'attache à sa ligne indépendante”.
Les autorités soutiennent cependant que ce journal “parait régulièrement et est distribué à travers le pays sans restrictions aucunes, à l'instar de tous les autres organes de presse”. “Tous les partis de l'opposition en Tunisie exercent leurs activités politiques et médiatiques en toute liberté”, affirme une source gouvernementale. (AP - 14.03.2009)
On Friday [March 13th], the editor of the weekly news paper Al Makef accused the Tunisian authorities of conducting a “seizure in disguise” of the latest issue of his newspaper, mouthpiece of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), part of the legal opposition. The authorities immediately denied the accusation, which they call “false allegations”.
According to Mr. Khechena, pressures have been exerted on the private distribution company so that only two copies were delivered to each newsstand. In a statement sent to the Associated Press, he considers this “punitive measure” as “an attack on press freedom and a sanction against any newspaper that adheres to an independent stance.”
The authorities, however, argue that this newspaper appears regularly and is distributed throughout the country without any restrictions, like all other media. “All the opposition parties in Tunisia operate in political and media freedom,” said a government source. (AP -03.14.2009)
Links for Tue, 2009-03
The End blog recommends person to person charity because: “What happens in state run forced charity, is that when I get one Rupee as a grant or a subsidy, much more is spent on the processes that bring me that money.”
The reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was a proud event for many Pakistanis like the blogger at Monsoon Frog after a long time.
Have the West Indies transformed themselves into a winning cricket team following their 20/20 victory over England? Jamaica's Girl With a Purpose is “cautiously optimistic”.
Bermudian blogger Catch a fire draws attention to the escalating crisis in Madagascar.
The President of the Maldives plans to make the territory carbon neutral in 10 years; Jamaica Salt sees similarities between the islands and is “looking around for environmental action in JA”, while Steve's Dominica's first thought was: “Dominica, ‘Nature island', Green-globe nation etc etc, should be aiming for this.”
Michael Turton analyses some news related to Taiwan's latest defense review.
Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc. posts a flickr photoset of Trinidad and Tobago's 2009 Phagwa celebrations.
So, not only politicians qualify to be national heroes in Zimbabwe.
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