Archive for
June 11th, 2009
Stories
Russia, U.S.: Reactions to WSJ Story on Web-Savvy Homeless
Earlier this month, Russian social networking portal Habrahabr.ru featured photos and some translated text (RUS) from the May 30 Wall Street Journal piece on the online presence of the U.S. homeless - On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired.
The original English-language story has generated 93 comments. On Habrahabr.ru, there are currently 183 responses - and below are some of them:
kakains:
Wow!!! 0_0
Here you don't run into bums with laptops […]isnotme:
Here even if you run into one, you wouldn't think that he bought it.
Unechka:
Here a bum would get killed for this laptop. And, quite possibly, by the law enforcement people.
Sigurd:
Here even an ordinary person who takes out a laptop in the street wouldn't survive for too long…
crazysiemens:
Here it's not even often that you run into an ordinary person with a Macintosh ))
jeje:
If this were April 1, I would've never believed it. But, damn it, we are dirt poor even compared to the bums in the United States.
dymdym:
These are singular cases. We also have all kinds of whiz kids among bums. One is even making movies and winning awards at festivals. But the majority are alcoholics.
r_p:
Here some students can't afford to buy a laptop […]. It's making me sad (
Inskin:
There is some difference - as far as I know, they have summer in California all year round. And there are many open - and free - wifi's, too, I guess. Here in [St. Petersburg], if you become homeless, then nine months of the year a laptop and internet are the last things to be concerned about. :)
Petrucha:
Here vodka is the best laptop.
hypercom:
There, bums can't live without internet, while here educated and well-employed people have no idea what internet is for. This difference is more upsetting that the difference in money availability.
big_jump:
Some people can't understand what they need a computer for, and internet is a totally different dimension for them altogether.
Pakistan: Mayhem in Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of the North-West Frontier Province and the administrative center for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It is located on the edge of the Khyber Pass near the Afghan border. It is the commercial, economic, political and cultural hub of the Pashtuns in Pakistan and acts as a geographical and cultural front line among extremist, moderate, and liberal Islam. In the recent months the city seems to be ‘under attack’ with over 8 bomb blasts taking dozens of lives.
A recent attack targeting ‘Pearl continental', a five star hotel located in a high security zone has triggered panic across Peshawar. Al Jazeera English has details:
Kulsoom Lakhani discusses the attack in Changing Up Pakistan:
US officials said no Americans who had registered with the embassy were staying at the hotel, [this does not mean there were no Americans at the PC, just that none who had registered were there]. I hope the news focuses also on the Pakistani victims of this attack. It seems there were many hotel workers killed, much like the Marriott bombing in Islamabad.
The city is of prime importance at the moment being home to a number of IDP camps. It also serves as a military base for those deployed to fight with the militants. In such conditions militants are bound to make their presence felt in the City, a much expected reaction to the ongoing battle in Malakand division. The Peshawar valley is bounded on the North and North East by hills, which separate it from the Swat Valley, where the army is currently engaged in a battle with the Taliban.
A blog post on Five Rupees contemplates on the recent mayhem in Peshawar:
A major bomb blast has rocked Peshawar, extensively damaging the Pearl Continental Hotel - one of the city’s few major hotels. The hotel was home to a large number of UN and INGO officials, as well as foreign reporters. Most of the UN officials belonged to the UN Food Program (credit: Dunya News).
It was a suicide blast. The bomb disposal squad reckons that about 500-550 kg of explosives were used which has caused a crate 8 feet deep and 25 feet wide. There were two attackers who first opened fire before driving their car into the hotel gates, which is similar to recent attacks in Lahore and Islamabad.
Faisal Kapadia regrets the unfortunate series of incidents in Peshawar in his blog DeadPan Thoughts:
The people of Pakistan are in shock, this is the third attack in so many weeks, each one brings more carnage and the realization that the war supposed to be fought far away in the mountains is now here in the streets of our cities.
Even now the police of our country are paralyzed having no forensics to trace our enemies and shoddy equipment, with a ratio of 1-500 plus civilians what security can they provide us?
Amid the ongoing war in Swat, the ordinary people are horrified realizing the worsening conditions all over the country. The Taliban retaliation to the army offensives seems to go on and grow fiercely. While the nation is under strain with the massive humanitarian crisis at hand. The killings of UNHCR and INGO officials are a major setback to the relief operations.
Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House shares his insight on the death of development workers in a recent blast:
Pak Tea House mourns the death of a dedicated aid workers in the Pearl Continental. As I am a part of the development ’set’, such incidents are deeply disturbing. After all development workers work in difficult circumstances for a commitment to their professions which in theory at least is based on idealism. We are saddened to see that UN staff have offered their lives along with scores of innocent Pakistani civilians. Why are the extremists killing innocent civilians – in a war surely you choose your targets or is it just a reflection of the mayhem they want to create and make it into another terror-zone.
The series of violence in Peshawar is evidence to the fact that the militants will be using massive force to destroy ‘peace’ in Pakistan. Their violence crosses all barriers of humanity as they continue to work towards damaging not only the lives of people but also hampering the ongoing relief operations leading to further chaos.
Mapping Iran’s Blogosphere on Election Eve
John Kelly and Bruce Etling share their study about Iran's blogosphere and election on the internet and democracy blog. Internet and democracy is the team blog for the internet and democracy project in Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Harvard.
Based on our monitoring of the Iranian blogosphere on election eve, it looks like Mousavi has broader support in the online blog community than Ahmadinejad. (For a broader understanding of the different attentive clusters in Iran check out our new online interactive Iran blogosphere map). The below maps show who is linking to websites associated with the candidates. It’s pretty interesting to see the contrast between Ahmadinejad emtedadmehr.com), whose links are very concentrated in the Conservative Politics cluster, and Mousavi mirhussein.com), whose links come from all over the map, not just the reformist politics group.
We are particularly struck by how many links come from the poetry cluster, which rarely links to political sites. Also, Moussavi has even more links from the CyberShi’a than Ahmadinejad.
This online interest doesn’t necessarily translate to the offline world, but it may indicate a broader level of excitement about Mousavi in the electorate, particularly among those outside his expected base of supporters, which could ultimately lead to higher voter turn out for Mousavi.
As Hamid Tehrani wrote earlier this week, YouTube is being used a lot by Iranians in this election. Here is one of the YouTube videos most linked to by reformists.
And here is the video most linked to by conservatives, which Hamid pointed to earlier in the week as an example of conservatives trying to discredit Khatami, who has supported Mousavi since he dropped out of the race himself.
Iran experts caution against trying to predict election winners Iran (because we’ve been surprised before), and we’d caution against predicting a Mousavi win just on this analysis, but it is certainly interesting to see the larger level of online support for Mousavi on the eve of the election. We’ll have to leave it to the voters at this point.
Some additional data and analysis on Iran’s election eve blogosphere is posted on Morningside Analytics Shifting the Debate blog. You can also catch an interview and find all of Hamid Tehrani’s posts on the Internet and the Iranian election on the PBS Web site.
Check back here next week for the big release of our Arabic blogosphere paper and accompanying event at USIP.
Indonesia: Deteriorating Primary Defense Weapon System
Another Indonesian military helicopter crashed on Monday in Cianjur, West Java, raising concerns among Indonesians regarding the country's deteriorating Primary Defense Weapon System (Alutsista).
Last month, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yuhoyono (SBY) admitted [id] defense weapons procurement budget alleviation. However, he claimed that the government didn't cut the weapons maintenance budget.
Indonesia is currently having an unease bilateral relation with the neighbor country Malaysia over Ambalat. Both country claim ownership over the oil rich sea block situated in Celebes Sea which borders with Malaysian state Sabah.
Despite the agreement made by both governments to eliminate show of force, many believes that it's a crucial moment for Indonesia to defend its sovereignty.
A post appeared on Pemuda Indonesia baru blog questions the quality of Indonesian army:
Kembali Pesawat TNI jatuh padahal belum lama tragedi Hercules berlalu. Pesawat jenis Helicopter Bolco milik TNI angkatan Darat (AD) ini yang membawa 3 penumpang dan 2 kru. Pesawat ini dikabarkan jatuh di desa Pagelaran, Cianjur Selatan, Jawa Barat.
[…]
Kejadian naas ini membuat kita bertanya-tanya, Sekuat apakah TNI kita? Pertanyaan ini timbul dikarenakan saat ini bangsa kita dihadapkan pada situasi yang sangat penting untuk membuktikan bahwa TNI kita Kuat. Dimana Negara tetangga kita saat ini sedang asyik-asyiknya memamerkan kekuatan (Show Force) tentaranya di Ambalat.
[…]
Menurut salah seorang Anggota DPR, bahwa kekauatan TNI saat ini masih diatas Tentara diraja Malaysia, Tolak ukur dari pernyatan beliau adalah kuantitas, dimana Jumlah personel dan peralatan TNI masih lebih banyak bila dibandingkan dengan Tentara Diraja Malaysia. Tapi bagaimana dengan kualitas?
Jatuhnya pesawat milik TNI yang terjadi beberapa kali belakangan ini dapat dijadikan sebagai indikasi bahwa kualitas Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) perlu dipertanyakan. Benar memang dari jumlah kita menang tapi dari kualitas sangat diragukan.
Once again a military air craft crashed, while the Hercules tragedy happened not so long ago. A Bolco type Helicopter belongs to the Indonesian Army, the helicopter took three civilians and two crew members. The craft crashed in Pagelaran Village, South Cianjur, West Java.
[…]
The unfortunate event makes us wondering, how strong is our Military? This question arise in the midst of a crucial event when the army is supposed to be able to show its strength. Our neigboring country is ardently showing its military force (Show of Force) in Ambalat.
[…]
According to one people's representatives, Indonesian military force is still above Malaysia's, however his assesment was based on quantity, where (it's a fact that) our personnel and weapons are bigger in number compared to those belong to Malaysian Army But what about the quality?
The Army's plane crash that happened a few times lately could raised question regarding the quality of the Indonesian Army. Indeed we win in terms of quantity, (but) our quality is questionable.
Dwi Eka wrote a post on Think and Act for National Defense, not long after the crash of Lockheed C-130H in East Java last month, which killed 101 passengers and army members. She stated that Primary Defense Weapon System has been a serious topic within the government, and since 2007 the Indonesian military (TNI) experienced budget cut that made them struggle to maintain the Alutsista.
TNI adalah ujung tombak pertahanan negara, dan pertahanan negara adalah penentu kedaulatan dan kelangsungan negara.
[…]
Boleh jadi, permasalahan alutsista bukan hanya karena terbatasnya anggaran melainkan serapannya yang juga rendah. Anggaran yang telah ditetapkan dalam APBN ketika dicairkan tidak tepat sasaran, atau mengalami kebocoran. Adanya sistem fee yang telah membudaya sangat mempengaruhi kualitas proyek. Sehingga tidak heran jika ada yang menginginkan audit ditubuh TNI. Ini tentunya didasari atas niat yang baik, bukan sama sekali untuk menggembosi TNI itu sendiri, melainkan sebaliknya, dengan sistem pengadaan & perawatan alutsista yang transparan & terukur, kita ingin agar TNI dapat menyerap anggarannya sebesar-besarnya untuk peningkatan kekuatan pertahanan. Audit dimaksudkan untuk melihat sejauh mana serapan anggaran itu berlangsung dan jika ada indikasi penyimpangan maka dapat segera dicari solusinya.
Selain itu, untuk meningkatkan serapan anggaran, masing-masing pihak secara jujur dan ikhlas harus menjunjung profesionalisme dengan mengedepankan aspek moralitas bahwa semata-mata kita berjuang untuk mempertahankan harkat dan martabat negara.
Berikutnya perlu dikaji ulang secara mendalam pula tentang bagaimana menata kembali sistem perekrutan, meningkatkan standar pendidikan prajurit dengan mengutamakan profesionalisme bukan pengharapan materi semata, dan mengisi kembali pos-pos yang selama ini terabaikan seperti memperkuat kembali wilayah perbatasan dan pemeliharaan aset negara serta kemampuan tempur personil TNI.
Upaya ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan serapan anggaran yang terukur kinerjanya. Dengan demikian publik pun akan paham dan merelakan sebagian anggarannya dialihkan untuk sektor pertahanan.
The TNI (Indonesian National Army) is the lance of national defense, and national defense determines the state's sovereignty.
[…]
We can assume that Alutsista problem was not caused by limited budget, but also because the budget's absorption is low. The use of the available budget, which is included on the national budget, is off target or leaked. The Fee system influences the quality of the (purchasing) projects. No wonder if some wants to see audit within the Indonesian Military. The audit is, of course, a good intention, not at all a way to deflate the TNI but on the contrary, with a transparent and measured Alutsista's procurement and maintenance system the people are hoping that the TNI will absorp as many available budget as possible in order to enhance our national defence. The audit aims to see how well the military use the budget, so we can look for solution if there's any sort of (budget) divergence.
Moreover, to increase the absorption of the budget, each individual needs to be honest, sincere, professional, and sets out the morality aspect because we're fighting for the country's honor and dignity.
On the next level, we need to seriously reassess the recruitment system, increasing the education (and training) standard of our soldiers by emphasizing on profesionalism instead of material compensation, and refilling the abandoned posts, like enhancing our border strength and maintenance of the state assets and also combat capacity of the TNI's personnels.
This efforts hopefully could increase a well targeted budget's absorption. With this the public will understand and allow their money to be invested for the defense sector.
Speaking to a local journal, Air Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen said [id] that openly speaking about national defense and main defense weapon system could endanger Indonesia and the civilian population.
In Indonesia, homeland security and defense information is classified, according to the state law.
Next July, Indonesians will head to the ballots to choose the next RI 1 (Republik Indonesia 1 - head of state). The Alutsista matter is fast becoming the favorite agenda for the three hopefuls, each of them claim to increase the procurement budgets if they're elected.
African photographers, writers and artists find their voice in blogs
As more Africans come to realize the power of blogging as a tool for expression on a global scale, the number of bloggers has increased and so has the themes in focus.
In that number of growing blogs, a lot of African artists have also joined in with a huge increase noted in poetry blogs as well as emerging photography and visual arts blogs.
We review some of them.
Poéfrika is a weblog of creative, Africa-inspired writing. The blog features poetry by various African poets, interviews with poets, writers as well news and information on world renowned poets and writers alike.
The blog also has a lot of resource material for would be poet as it lists links to various poetry publishing magazines, writers who have been featured in the blog and other links of interest to writers including their potrait photos.
Poéfrika is run by Rethabile Masilo a Lesotho citizen but currently based in France. He also runs Canopic Jar and Basotho which also feature written and visual art.
Fikira Zangu (Swahili for My Thoughts) is a Kenyan blog ran by Bonyo Buogha Anthony who is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The slogan for his blog is
“Intense thoughts like active beings, come and go Haunt us then flee, leaving ajar the door.”
This is what he says about himself
….I my words forgot, and thoughts my wrote; I'm weeping laughter, Humming thoughts and writing beats, Walking thoughts and thinking walks….
I would say that is a poetic piece right there.
Hi poetry is short and precise with most not exceeding 10 lines. The themes range from love to politics to his challenges as a poet.
An excerpt from his poem – Will you still be mine
Will you still be mine in the morning
After the evening passion fades
After all the pleasures of last night
have all been swept awayWill you still be mine
After the bitter arguments and fighting
After harsh words have been exchanged
will you open your arms and let me back in
Marten’s Blog is a purely photography blog run by Marten Schoonman who is based in Nairobi Kenya but one who travels a lot through the East African region and beyond.
The blog is an online diary captured in image form featuring a lot of breathtaking sceneries and immaculately taken photos of different people and items.
He also features some photos and photo sites that have fascinated him.
Africa Rock - Photo courtesy of Marten Schoonman
Merlin is a Campus student born in 87. He describes himself on his blog, iceboxmerlin.
got a swag to walk the talk, talk the walk sometimes, but always a down to earth and sensational individual to be around!’
You can tell from the image header that he is a great fan of animations. He labels his blog, ‘The Phanton Thought……..'
His disclaimer,
“Here are my thoughts on the world, life and the unraveling of the universe. The symptom of an involved mind with the features of life, is the intelligence and later a harnessed genius. It is the achieved Phantom thought of thick air!
His blog features a lot of poetry and prose in which he explores different issues and themes.
An excerpt of his poem, ‘The air is thick!…
Where the air is thick!
I have gone to a place,
like what a journey would be…
and had sweet thick mango juice,
A Kayamba playing in the back ground,
like that group of men call themselves Kayamba Africa
there was a man though,
a Rasta Man chewing at Muguka
green gobbler and something he's mumbling
between stuffing his mouth.
and puffing a cigarette,
the air here is unmistakably thick
so he says with a thick baritone voice,
“young man!”,
“write us some of that scribble you call poetry…”
“am in a mood for anything”
and a thick air came about me,
to put some sense into him!
Boyd Oyier is a 4th year student at a university in Kenya. He is also a self taught artist who loves to experiment and is currently working with charcoal and pastels.
A potrait of Malcom X as drawn by Boyd Oyier
His depictions of influential world faces on are superbly done with emotions that one can almost touch.
His blog is not more than a month old, something he started after attending a workshop on blogging and social networks in Nairobi.
He is currently putting together his first ever official collection that is titled “Politics in Black and White”
This is what he states as the purpose of art:
“The main function of art should be to connect to people. Each of us appreciates art in one form or another, but we are turned off by the ‘elite' who decided to complicate art by using labels such as 'surreal', ‘new age' and ‘contemporary'. The best art is the art that you love!”
We look forward to seeing the collection online.
Tafsiri Hii is a Kenyan poet blogger who runs afropoem, a blog about a Black Woman’s Poem.
This is how she describes herself:
”Black; from the curl of my hair to the toe on my foot…. African; it's in the blood flowing in my veins, the music in my voice, the dance in my walk…. Lover of words; written, drawn, sketched, scratched… Appreciative of the power of said words; be they written, spoken, hidden or displayed”.
Her blog which is barely one year old confronts issues of trafficking of African Women for prostitution, love, culture and celebration of African Men among other themes,
These blogs are proof that there is more to Africa than politics as has been depicted by many African bloggers. We can be sure of seeing more such blogs.
Latin America: The Problem of Child Labor - Part II
Child labor is a sad reality in Latin America, and often many residents throughout the region become so used to seeing working children that they don't even realize it. Who has not used the services of a shoeshine boy or a young caretaker of cars? Awareness and steps are being taken to change all of this. In observance of the World Day Against Child Labor 2009, which will be held on June 12, members of the Global Voices Latin American team helped to find related blog posts and links about this issue in their own countries for part two in this two part series.
From Venezuela, the non-profit organization Muchachos de la Calle [es] (Street Children) has been working to “develop citizens, through the teaching of artisan skills, in order to reduce the number of children and adolescents that live and/or work in the street” and shares its experience through its blog [es]. Another organization, Observatorio de Infancia y Juventud [es], is also working to “construct a social investigative organization in order to collect data that allows for the formulation and follow-up of public policies; as well as to receive complaints and provide support against the threat and violation of Human Rights of children and adolescents in Venezuela.”
The blog Periodismo Guayanés [es] writes about child workers who are the “last in line”:
el hecho de que exista un número significativo de instituciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales de atención a los niños, así como un ordenamiento jurídico favorable en la materia, no endosa el éxito, es necesario la implementación de los sistemas y el seguimiento de los mismos. Algunos expertos coinciden en que la anulación del trabajo infantil es viable, sólo si diseñan mayores posibilidades laborales para los adultos y sus comunidades, y que las soluciones están en brindar alternativas a las familias para que “rompan el ciclo de pobreza a través de cooperativas, y la adquisición de maquinaria agrícola, por ejemplo, no se sigan estancando los sueños de los más pequeños”. “Los costos de erradicar el trabajo infantil serían de 76 mil millones de dólares y los beneficios económicos netos para 2020 serían $330 mil millones de dólares. Es decir, habría un beneficio neto para la región si se eliminara el trabajo infantil” aseguraba en 2005, María Arteta, directiva del Programa Internacional para la Erradicación del Trabajo Infantil (IPEC) de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo.
the fact that there is a significant number of governmental and nongovernmental institutions that provide services to children, as well as a favorable legal framework in this field, it does not guarantee success, it is necessary to implement the systems and to follow-up. Some experts agree that the elimination of child labor is viable, only if there are better work opportunities for adults and their communities, and that the solutions lie with providing alternatives for the families so that they can “break the cycle of poverty through cooperatives, and the acquisition of agricultural machinery, for example, so that they do not continue to stagnate the dreams of the smallest ones.” “The costs of eliminating child labor would be 76 billion dollars and the net economic benefits for the year 2020 would be $ 330 billion dollars. In other words, there would be a net benefit for the region if there was the elimination of child labor ” claimed María Arteta, director of the International Program for the Eradication of Child Labor (IPEC) of the Organization International Labor Organization. in the year 2005.
Photo by David Sasaki and used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.flickr.com/photos/oso/3602948325/
A recent post from Mexican blogger Mario Luis Fonts describes the “atrocity of child labor.” He points out that families with low incomes, shortages, a lack of sound governmental policies, and even migration as some of the causes that lead children to this situation [es]. In addition, Maricel Pérez on the blog Sinergia a.m. [es] writes a touching story of a child worker, Pablo:
Más conocido como “Pablito”, este pequeño se levanta a las 6 a.m. y alista todos sus útiles. Camina muchas cuadras y en la calle de Corregidora, esquina con Universidad, deja todos sus herramientas de trabajo; cierra los ojos, ora y le pide a Dios “que me vaya bien hoy Diosito, no quiero quedarme sin un peso esta noche”. […]
Ya se acerca la noche, y Pablito sólo recibe $20 pesos, que seguramente es muy poco para los lectores; pero él dice que “me sirve para comprar una coca y unos tacos o unas papas de paquete en la tiendita de camino a casa; lo que me sobre se lo doy a mi mamá que trabaja aquí cerca en otra esquina”
Así puede ser la situación de varios niños que trabajan en diferentes calles de las ciudades mexicanas; unos pueden sufrir más que Pablito, otros menos que él. Lo que yo pueda decir sólo es un pedazo de lo que viven los que jamás son escuchados, los que gracias a un poca cantidad de pesos son auxiliados para sobrevivir; pero muchos no nos damos cuenta de su sufrimiento, de la realidad que viven aquellos seres, una realidad que parece ser distante a la nuestra, sin embargo, habrá que darse cuenta de que hasta que no nos preocupemos por escuchar a los demás; y por romper esa indiferencia hacia los otros; la situación de nuestro México no mejorará jamás.
Better known as “Pablito,” this small child woke up at 6 a.m. and prepared all of his items. He walks many blocks and on the street Corregidora at the corner of University Street, he leaves all of his work tools, he closes his eyes, prays and asks God “that all will go well today, I don't want to end up without a peso (Mexican currency) tonight” […]
Now comes nightfall, and Pablito only earned $20 pesos (approximately 1.50 USD), surely there sounds like very little for the readers, but he says “it helps me to buy a few tacos and a Coke or a packet of potato chips at the shop on the way home, what is left over I give to my mom who works here in another nearby corner “
This may be the situation for many children who work on different streets in Mexican cities; some might suffer more than Pablito, others less than him. What I can say is only a piece of how they live, and what might never heard, which thanks to a few pesos are enough to help them survive, but many of us do not realize their suffering, of the reality in which those human beings live, a reality that appears to be so distant from our own, however, we should become aware that until we do not sorry about listening to others and break this indifference towards others; the situation in our Mexico will never improve.
The blog Un Boliviano en Argentina [es], written by Juan Vasquez, a Bolivian immigrant living in Argentina posts a cultural question that discusses the problem inherent to culture and idiosyncracy:
un tiempo atras en una conversacion con unos compañeros, discutimos por un tema puntual dentro de la colectividad, q es la del trabajo infantil. En medio de la charla una de las participantes dijo algo q me llamo muchisimo la atención….dijo: …”tenés q ver el lado cultural de la cuestión, alla en Bolvia también trabajan en las cosechas, las chacras, y los padres de esa forma les enseñan. Para ellos esa la unica forma de aprender todo lo q se refiere a la siembra y cosecha. En los talleres pasa algo similar, los chicos aprender un oficio y ayudan a sus padres”… Ese comentario me dejó mucho mas preocupado, ya q no solamente es un discurso q “naturalisa” esa forma de trabajo y explotacion sino q tambien ese mismo tema fué argumentado en el fallo de un juez argentino Oyarvide dijo q la forma de explotacion en la q los bolivianos trabajamos aqui se puede explicar como una especie de “Ayllu”.
a while ago in a conversation with some colleagues, we discussed a topic within the community, which is about child labor. Amid the talk from one of the participants, he said something that surprised me …. he said, “you have to see the cultural side of the issues, there in Bolivia they (children) work in the harvests, on the farms and that is how the parents teach them. For them, it is the only way that they can learn about sowing and havesting. In the work shops, the same thing happens, the boys learn a trade and help out their parents” … That comment left me very worried, and not only because of the rhetoric that “justifies” that type of work and exploitation, but that also the same argument was used by the Argentine judge Oyarvide, who said that type of exploitation in which the Bolivians work here can be explained like some sort of “Ayllu” (political and social units of indigenous life).
And finally from Peru, I add a post from my blog Globalizado [es] that I wrote, and contains facts and figures about child labor in Peru that estimated that 1.8 million children are currently working. There are also rough estimates that the number could grow to 2.5 million children, according to a report in the news site RPP [es].
Las causas y consecuencias de esto son muchas, y dada la crisis económica no creo que haya mejoras en la situación. El Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia apoya a los niños sin embargo no es suficiente. Basta con recordar desde los casos de los niños esclavizados en las zonas mineras o las niñas que son víctimas de explotación sexual a los niños mendigos o los niños burrier para saber que hay mucho por hacer en este campo.
The causes and consquences of this are many, and especially due to the economic crisis, I don't think that the situation will improve. UNICEF supports children, however, it is not enough. It is enough to remember the cases of the children enslaved in the mining areas [es], the young girls who are victims of sexual exploitation [es], the child beggars [es] or the child drug mules [es] to know that there is a lot left to be done in this area.
What can be done to help alleviate this problem in Latin America and around the world?
Links for Thu, 2009-06
Dr. Sean's Diary examines the results of the European Parliament election in Central and Eastern Europe.
Little Miss Moi links to a Mirror.co.uk's profile of UK-based Ukrainian artist Olha Pryymak, who blogs at Olechko.org.
Window on Eurasia reports: “After three years of effort, Moscow has succeeded in attracting the return of only 8800 of the more than 300,000 “compatriots” abroad whose resettlement in Russia it had counted on, an outcome that should not have surprised anyone familiar with Russian conditions or with poll results showing that many Russians would like to live abroad.”
Arnis Balcus posts pictures from “a weird private house in Vladimir, Russia - the landlord has installed newly built monuments of all the leaders of USSR, from Lenin to Gorbachev.”
A reaction to the footage of Ratko Mladic aired on a Bosnian TV station - at Rants of a Hyphenated Researcher: “These highly disturbing videos show the banality of evil: the man accused of murdering in cold blood 8000 young boys and men in Srebrenica, shelling Sarajevo on a daily basis and murdering over 10,000 civilians during the siege, and orchestrating the biggest campaign of murder in Europe since the Holocaust, smiling, attending his son's wedding, singing Serbian songs.”
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