Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

After the payment raise scandal [es] of Peruvian congressmen, disguised under the rubric of expenses, in Sesión de Control, journalist Martin Hidalgo makes a comparative analysis [es] of the salaries of deputies in Latin America. “At the top of the highest paid legislators are Chileans, who earn a salary of [...] about $ 30,602 dollars.” “Until November, Peru was in the sixth [place], but the increase has put the country over Colombia.” Martín concludes: “Disapproval of Congress in Peru remains high, with 63%. Everything is even more worrisome if we consider that, according to Proética, 86% believe that there is corruption in Parliament.”

During his visit to Peru for the Third Summit of South American-Arab Countries (ASPA) from October 1-2, 2012, the King of Jordan, Abdullah Bin Al-Hussein, took a leisure trip [es] from Lima to Cusco on his motorcycle. During the trip, two vehicles from the king's convoy forced a team of reporters to stop and tried to confiscate their cameras. A representative of the monarch later tried to apologize. The blog Andares writes about the episode and concludes [es]: “Get out of here, King of Jordan.”

Peruvian bloggers Juan Arellano [es] and Paco Bardales [es] report on the murders of 14 shamans in the amazon town of Balsapuerto. The main suspect is the mayor of Balsapuerto, Alfredo Torres, and his brother, who are reportedly evangelical Christian and see these shamans as “devils”.

Ibis Liulla at CiComunica asks [es]: “How can the media help citizens make an informed vote, if they are polarized and so outrageously biased in favor of a candidate at the expense of the other?” in relation to the Peruvian run-off elections next June.

Juan Diego Gómez posts in his blog about Fractal'11, an event about fiction, art, science and technology that will take place in Medellín, Colombia, on April 8-9, 2011. Juan Diego introduces [es] some of the speakers: awarded Science Fiction writer Kij Johnson (@kijjohnson), cyborg anthropologist Amber Case (@caseorganic), researcher Johanna Blakley (@Mojojohanna), creative technologist James Alliban (@jamesalliban), and musician Sam Pool aka SPL (@SPLSamuel).

Jonathan Sánchez examines [es] how the media should face a viral campaign against them, in connection with a recent Facebook campaign [es] organized against Philip Butters, a journalist at Capital Radio who aired some statements that were considered homophobic during his radio program. Jonathan indicates that the radio's Facebook page [es] is full of messages about this incident.

@coloresmari posts in her blog [es] that she feels inspired when she watches videos by @juancanola and says: “I see people from different communities and regions in Colombia really working, taking advantage of the possibilities that digital media gives them.”