Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

The Bilitol fulfude association is organizing the 5th international festival of Fulani arts and tradition [fr] from December 8th to December 11th 2011. The festival will take place at Yagoua, a region of the far east Cameroon. The program has scheduled the following events: “educational discussions, […] traditional games, traditional equestrian performances, cooking competitions, poetry, tales, Miss Fula pageant, a fashion show, an evening with the artists, story tellers, etc…”

On  cameroun.football.fr, Guy Roger Obama noted [Fr]: “The day after their qualification for the 30th Olympiad «London 2012», Michèle Madeleine Ngono Mani's (team captain) teammates were not pleased with the delayed payment of the remaining balance of the monetary prize they received for winning the gold medal at the 10th All African Games of Maputo in 2011.”

To mark Labor Day, the non-governmental organisation Migrant Workers Task Force has published a video, in which Georgette, a house keeper from Benin working in Lebanon, relates her experiences and speaks of the changes she would like to see in migrants’ working conditions.

“François Mitterrand and Bob Marley, united for eternity on May 11th 1981″, [fr] is a post on the blog Calédosphère commemorating the 30th anniversary of the passing of the “God of Reggae”, Bob Marley, and the election of former French President François Mitterrand. Bob Marley fans can visit the blog [fr] to follow in the footsteps of the Jamaican star, as well as see photos and videos of the making of the documentary “Sur les traces de Bob Marley” (In the footsteps of Bob Marley), which aired on May 11, 2011, on Radio Nostalgie and Skynet.

The first edition of the “Sida Foot” (HIV-Aids Foot) event will take place in Bamako from June 17 to June 19, 2011, and will be attended by soccer stars. The blog xibar.net writes [fr], “this festival has a special meaning because the year 2011 coincides with 30 years since the discovery of the HIV-Aids virus, 10 years since the Declaration of Commitment by heads of states and governments and 5 years from [the deadline] of the Millennium Development Goals, emphasizing the matter of vertical transmission (from mother to child)”.

Blocked by the Algerian government on January 1, 2010, without motive or prior notice, the website of the Rachad Movement rachad.org [fr] is once again accessible in Algeria. Now, only the Radio Kalima site kalimadz.com [fr] continues to be censored. The Rachad Movement filed a complaint on May 11, 2010, with the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Yahia Bounouar, director of Radio Kalima in Algeria wonders, ”Why is Kalimadz the only blocked news site in Algeria? Who decided this censorship?” The country's private Internet providers such as SLC and Wimax, are owned by the sons of Algerian military generals.

Interviewed by Mrs Nenette Baldé on the blog nenehawa.com, Binta Diallo, the winner of Miss Guinea France 2011, thinks [Fr] that: “The worst is that little Guinean girls associate excision with purity and believe that this is what will make them honorable, exceptional women. That's why I evoked the risks linked to this practice.”