Global Voices

At 11.30am on Wednesday 6th January 2010, a medical bulletin from a private hospital in Salt Lake, Kolkata announced that Mr. Jyoti Basu, a 95 year old Marxist leader and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, who had been hospitalized on January 1st, following a bout of pneumonia had been put on the ventilator and was critically ill.

Mr. Jyoti Basu, a patriarch of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him India's longest-serving Chief Minister as of 2009.

Soon, the word spread like wildfire and in the absence of a follow-up official statement/ medical bulletin regarding his condition, speculations began (both in the real and virtual world) as to whether Jyoti Basu was alive or had passed away. The arrival of a host of political leaders and other dignitaries, one after the other, at AMRI – the hospital where Mr. Basu was being treated, further fuelled the speculation regarding his death.

“Has he passed away?” A friend from Bangladesh asked me in the afternoon on Facebook Chat. “I don’t think so, have not yet heard anything to that effect”, I replied. “The news doing the rounds is that he has passed away but the government is not announcing it yet”, said another friend, an avid netizen.

As the day wore on, the crowd grew outside the hospital, more dignitaries visited and speculation gathered momentum. It also offered us an interesting opportunity to watch social media in action.

‘Breaking News’ of Mr. Basu’s ‘death’ was published on various websites, some of which, for example, SamayLive.com (an online news service from the Corporate House Sahara India Parivar) and kalponik.us claimed that they got the news from ‘inside sources. The ‘news’ was also discussed widely on blogger forums, social networking sites such as Facebook and of course, on Twitter.

By afternoon, Jyoti Basu was a hot search topic on Google, a lot of it being initiated from Kolkata. With all the buzz generated, he soon became one of the trending topics on Twitter, surely a first for someone from West Bengal.

lihkin - Jyoti Basu is dead and its all on Twitter. RIP Jyoti Basu.

paldibyojyoti with the number of tweets claiming Jyoti Basu dead, God himself would have been confused about Mr. Basu's fate!

anoopan (Anoop Narayanan) –  http://twitpic.com/x0xsk - Google suggests Jyoti basu is dead

twikewl (Sunny Sodd) > @atulchawla: Jyoti Basu was born b4 computers, he was against computers, and now he's a trending topic on Twitter. Funny how life works.

By around 2pm, ‘RIP’ messages were pouring in. Tweets were coming not only from ordinary citizens but from celebrity Tweeters associated with MSM. Shobhaa De, a well-known columnist and novelist tweeted:

DeShobhaa - Jyoti Babu's death is worth mourning. I remember our last meeting at the Bengal Club vividly. Intellectual giant and idealist. Rare today. RIP

The page on Jyoti Basu in the Wikipedia was also modified to accommodate the unconfirmed news of his demise.

Finally at around 3.30pm, the veteran leader’s long serving personal assistant Joy Krishna Ghosh issued a statement that the patriarch was very much alive, though critical. Biman Bose, the West Bengal Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) reaffirmed this message. Mr. Bose also stated that he was aware that rumours of Jyoti Basu's demise were being fuelled by ‘certain websites’ and that he had himself read some of them. He urged the people at large not to give credence to such rumours.

Gradually the message began seeping through all the buzz that Mr. Basu was still alive and responding to treatment. Those following the story online saw something interesting happening on the Web.

The pages on the websites that had initially cited ‘inside sources’ and announced the passing away of Jyoti Basu were curiously unreachable or blank. Wikipedia took quick action, removed all incorrect references and semi-protected the page on Jyoti Basu to prevent unauthorised editing.

On Twitter too, a section of Tweeters were already cautioning others not to re-tweet unconfirmed news without checking out official confirmation. There were tweets and re-tweets of news quoting the official statement and medical bulletin. @Shobhaa De drew quite a bit of flack for jumping the gun.

ChinTweet (Chinmay Tadwalkar)  - @DeShobhaa What are you upto,ma'am? Jyoti Basu is critical but still ALIVE! Keep your “RIP” messages with yourself.

Unni1945 (P.N. Unni) - Shobha De's hurry makes good laughing. let Jyoti Basu recover soon

cosmichappiness - @DeShobhaa Jyoti Basu is not dead yet. Hold on to ur obits and check the news

By the next day, more dignitaries, including the Prime Minister had visited Mr. Basu in the hospital. His condition remained unchanged. Some of the Netizens who had keenly observed the frenzied discussions of the day before, were quick to express a critical view of the role played by social media in the entire episode.

Pradeep at Sands of Change wrote on his blog:

Democratization of mass media mechanism may have its good side, but definitely not without pitfalls. A good example of the latter was the way the rumour about Jyoti Basu’s death spread on twitter this afternoon. Like email forwards and sms forwards, this too got mindlessly retweeted. The extent of traffic could be gauged from the fact that Jyoti Basu was a trending topic on twitter for a while… Interestingly, now it was the non-journalists who jumped the gun with “breaking news”, and it was they who got it all wrong! I hope they have become wiser now, and will pardon, when next time round journalists slip.

Kanupriya at Mixed Expressions wrote:

We always speak of media irresponsibility and sensationalism but in this case aren't citizens responsible for this rumor? Yes, Mr. Basu is critical and is hospitalized too but the news of his death is not confirmed by any official sources yet. In fact as per the latest update from most of the official sources, he is still alive. .. Well, now I'm curiously waiting for any update from news sites to know if it is actually a rumor or twitter was the first platform to break this news…Till then the curious case of Mr. Basu continues…

Others urged social media users to be more responsible.

For example, Anirban Saha wrote on his blog:

It’s a plea, to all who uses social media (facebook, twitter, orkut…and the list is endless) to be responsible… we need to be more responsible, as citizens as netizens.. the social media is a powerful tool to educate. It is equally powerful to spread rumours.

According to Shivalika Raj:

Social media is a plat form where people can share ideas, news or information from around the world but that information need to be authentic and not just any useless piece of rumor. The problem with the social media is that we cannot find the authenticity of the person involved and he/she can write anything and that news is spread in two minutes like a wave of water. I reckon that its our duty to make sure that the information we are sharing with our networks is acceptable enough. Assorting such news is quite hectic and sometimes time wasting but spreading a untruthful piece of news is quite dire for the society.

On Twitter too, tweeples were sounding words of caution. For example,

SachinKalbag - Journalists on Twitter will have to learn to remain true to journalism fundamentals. Twitter is a medium not a free-for-all. @surekhapillai

anirbanmisra -Jyoti Basu is alive, it was a rumor, appolise (sic) for being a part of spreading the rumorSachinKalbag –  To those who perpetuated Jyoti Basu is dead myth, please be more responsible. Else Twitter will be under govt scanner.

SachinKalbag – To those who perpetuated Jyoti Basu is dead myth, please be more responsible. Else Twitter will be under govt scanner.

When asked to comment on the viral spread of unconfirmed news positioned as citizen journalism and the resulting criticism of social media as a vehicle of such rumors, popular Indian blogger Dina Mehta said that today the term ‘citizen journalist' was being used loosely, leading to unnecessary controversies. According to her, “citizen journalists are typically folks who are talking to their communities” so not everything that is crowdsourced, or found on Social Media should be labeled citizen generated news/citizen journalism.

As of this hour, Mr. Jyoti Basu continues to be critically ill and is battling for his life. The rumor mills have died down as of now. In the final analysis, the moral of this incident (and others similar to this one, for example the one pertaining to Steve Jobs that appeared on CNN's iReport site in 2008) is perhaps that whether we are recognized/ professional journalists or simply ordinary citizens, it is each of our responsibility to ensure that we do not oil the rumor mills online or off it.

Emotions on Air, Mind Mute visits an orphanage in Azerbaijan and compares the officially stated aim of making 2009 the Year of Children with the reality faced by those seemingly forgotten and destined to remain in residential care.

Since the recent mass demonstration in Iran against the Islamic Regime during the commemoration of Ashura, dozens of Chinese “netizens” have joined the #iranelection Twitter community. They have added their own new hashtag, #CN4Iran, and even built a new site to support the struggle of the Iranian people, titled CN4Iran.org. Global Voices interviewed one of the cyber activists behind this initiative.

When and where was your site created and what are its main objectives?

Our site was created in Dec 28, 2009, hosted by Dreamhost.com (US). Our objective is to support the Iranian people for liberty and democracy, learn from them and spread the experiences to Chinese people.

Please explain us who is involved in this project, and do you have any organizational support?

The creator is CaoTaMaDe (nickname), we also have some webmasters and volunteers. You can see more details on Cn4Iran. Until now, we have NO organizational support.

Have you been in touch with Iranian cyber activists? What are your sources and who is your target?

We followed some Iranian people [on Twitter]. Sometimes we send message such as: How are you? Thank you. The major source is the Twitter users we followed, such as @@persian2english, @oxfordgirl, @oli2be, @tehranweekly. We also collect news from foreign media, for example, CNN.com. Our target is the Chinese cyber citizen, firstly the Chinese users on twitter.com, and then other Chinese Internet users who read our information. Also, we infrequently have some worldwide readers, and we tell them the reaction in China (by translating some Chinese news into English).

Do you see any similarity between Chinese and Iranian censorship? What about cyber activism?

We know that many web sites have been blocked by Iran Regime, which is similar to China. I guess they also have a censor system for keyword filtering, like the Great Firewall (GFW) in China. Such situation is quite common in countries like Iran and China.

About the cyber activism, I think it's viable. However, the governmental censor becomes more and more severe. We hope people from different fileds can have his/her own voice, even if it is noisy voice, but is must be heard. We also hope more people can make contribution, the collaboration in China or ever in the whole world can make the target to be achieved as quick as possible. Twitter.com can easily connect us together, this is a great choice and beginning.

How have been feedback so far?

We received some responses, like helping us to re-design the picture for supporting Iranian people, and helping us to translate English to Chinese. More feedback is the RT on twitter.com.

After finding himself the target of a Federal Police investigation as the leader of the latest corruption network to scandalize Brazil, José Arruda, Governor of the Federal District, can now be shot by net citizens in an online video game. Launched by the Movimento Brasília Limpa [Clean Up Brasília Movement, pt], the game features Arruda and panettone (once simply a popular Christmas cake, but now a symbol of the fight against corruption in the country) flying through the air. Paola Lima [pt] explains how to play:

O passatempo é simples - e feito em cima do que se tornou o símbolo da crise, o panetone. O jogador tem de destruir os quitutes natalinos que aparecem na tela, assim como os bonequinhos do governador José Roberto Arruda. Ao fim do jogo, a mensagem: “Você ajudou a limpar Brasília”.

Movimento Brasília Limpa

The inspiration for the game was the events of November 2009, when the Federal Police accused Arruda of being in charge of a syndicate based on bribery and passive and active corruption that allegedly distributed a monthly sum of R$ 600,000 (approximately US$ 340,000) to its allies. His misdeeds were caught on camera and spread around the country via YouTube. Arruda denied all charges and claimed that the money had been donated to buy panettone for the poor.

Needless to say, this excuse only added to the scandal and has given rise to a number of jokes; even children have been poking fun and calling for Arruda’s removal from government. Many songs, animations and video clips have appeared on YouTube, all using the ready-made public footage to retell the story, seasoned with a lot of mockery. It seems that Brazilians are using humor and the Internet to make sure that the public – famous for their short memory when it comes to politics – does not forget about this case.

http://www.radioretweet.com.br/blog/

MC Paulada has created two funk songs (both in Portuguese) to celebrate the “Pandora's Box” scandal.

MC Paulada/You Tube

MC Paulada/You Tube

The “Pandora's Box” police investigation will be resumed after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve recession, when the Supreme Court and the Federal Chamber will set up a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) to analyze the case. If the institutions do not choose a more effective method of investigation, slow bureaucratic procedures will make the chances of an impeachment scarce, and Arruda could end his term before the next election, due in October 2010.

GameMania

“Arruda's Panettone” is not the first online game featuring Brazilian politicians accused of various misdeeds. The President of the Senate, José Sarney, accused of nepotism back in July, has also been a target. The aim of the following game is to shoot Sarney's head with a cannonball while he is surrounded by other legislators. It is a lot of fun, and you can work your way up through different levels. The game was created by the website Parece Piada. Click below to play:

The tradition goes back to the 1990s, when former Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992, was the target. According to Futepoca [pt], Collor's was the first game of its kind:

O primeiro escândalo de corrupção a ganhar as telas de vídeogames e computadores foi o que envolvia o então presidente Fernando Collor de Mello. Com o nome “Roxo”, o objetivo do passatempo era acertar a figura de um caricato mandatário – com faixa presidencial a tira-colo – com um martelo. Ao garantir o sucesso da empreitada, o pequeno Collor no joguinho, seu membro ganhava a cor roxa e surgia um balãozinho com o dizer: “Ui!”. Tudo em alusão à declaração do próprio alvo da piada, ainda em campanha eleitoral, de que ele teria “aquilo roxo”.

http://desciclo.pedia.ws/wiki

Mauritanian blogger Nasser comments on MP Nomma Bint Mogaya's explosive speech in the last days of 2009 in parliament denouncing General Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz and calling him a hypocrite. He also features her speech in a video translated into English.

Zeinobia writes about the new official news that British MP George Galloway has been declared persona non grata in Egypt - on the background of the Free Gaza March last week. He has been deported from the country and blacklisted in the official and some of the unofficial media too.

Egyptian blogger, Ahmed Shokeir, writes [Ar] his experience with his younger child's infection with H1N1 (swine flu), and how the family worked on combating it.

Maamar Ameur writes [Ar] his experience with his colouring book for children “A.B.Coloring” 's first day on Amazon, and his blogger friends enthusiasm to help him promote the book through different social media websites.

Saudi blogger, Maged, writes a blog post [Ar] about his friend Ali Al Omary, the first blind Saudi Blogger whom -Maged thinks- is not just a blogger but a real philosopher. Ali is also working on a new book about music in Arabic poetry.

Moroccan bloggers joined the Kolena Laila (We Are All Laila) campaign, an independent online initiative inviting bloggers across the Arab region to express themselves freely and raise awareness on the concerns of women in their respective societies, for the first time. The campaign which originally started as an exclusively Egyptian initiative back in 2006 is now covering blogospheres from across North Africa and the Middle East.

Laila is the protagonist of the novel “الباب المفتوح” (The Open Door) by Latifa Az'zayate, and symbolizes women who try to build an independent personality in their communities.

Bouthaina, writing in Arabic on My Sweet Home tells the story [Ar] of a woman to whom modern life seems to have brought little benefit. She writes:

I'm Citizen Like You!

A. C. Osama writing in Ana Wa al-Hayat [Ar] attacks what he sees as widespread sexual harassment against women in his society. He writes:

التحرش الجنسي جريمة.. جريمة يعاقب عليها القانون، ليس لدينا طبعا. بل في دول الشمال. هنا الأمر يختلف، و إن كان هناك بعض الوعي الذي بدأ في الانتشار، إلا أن المجرم الوحيد الذي يشار إليه بالأصابع إن حصل فعل التحرش، ليس سوى المرأة. على الأرجح أنتم تعرفون كيف يحصل ذلك، و إن حدث و أظهرت تضايقك من تصرف “السي السيد” فلن تجد جاوبا أكثر من “إنهن فتنة، يستدرجوننا.. أنظر إلى لباسها! عليهن اللعنة”.
صحيح أن هناك تيار، يريد إرجاعنا، دون وعي منا، إلى زمن كانت فيه المرأة يرى إليها كوسيلة إشباع لرغبات و نزوات الرجل. و هذا ما قد حصل فعلا، فبعد تطور نسبي عرفته مجتمعات بعض الدول العربية في النصف الثاني من القرن الماضي على مستوى التفكير و رؤية الأمور، ها هي الأشياء ترجع إلى أصلها. كل ما يبدو لنا من المرأة هو الجسد. و أول شيء نفكر فيه عند رأيتنا لها هو السرير!!
. الأمر مقرف لدرجة لا تتصور. رأفة بنفسي و بكم طبعا، سأختم الآن. لكن كنوع من التنفيس عن الذات اسمحوا لي بالقول: لعن الله الرجال!!

The issue of sexual harassment was also tackled by writer and blogger Mohamed Mouâd EL GORDE (Medmouad) who calls for more respect and courtesy toward women. He writes:

I owe to my mother who, after the prematured death of dad, sacrified herself to raise us & to have all we need & my maternal aunts who didn't marry just to take care of us & later of grandma. Education & ethics in which I believe came from them & thanking them won't be enough whatever I do. Those silly men should think twice.
I won't allow myself to harass [any woman]. Understand as you want, I try to be as gentelman as possible.
So, men, please: have a respect for women.

Another blogger, Issam, although supportive of Kolena Laila initiative, is skeptical [Ar] about the impact such initiatives can have. He writes:

Hind Idrissi, writing on Hindapress [Ar], yearns for a time when, she says, men and women used to respect each other more. She writes:

Blogger Heebou goes on denouncing a certain mindset [Ar] that he sees prevalent against all Lailas or independent-minded women. He writes:

Blogger Marrokia [Ar] who wears the Islamic veil or Hijab, defends her choice of a conservative lifestyle. She writes:

Finally Naoufel explains [Ar] why in his view some assumptions need to be challenged. He writes:

الديمقراطية هي الحل

Democracy is the solution.

Kolena Laila celebrated its fourth anniversary, and whilst some have been questioning the point behind such initiatives, the organizers claim that it has already reached its main goal: opening up spaces of debate throughout the Arab world. The campaign was held from December 24 to 31.

For many, the news that Bolivian President Evo Morales would name ex-Miss Bolivia Jessica Jordan, 25, as the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party candidate for governor of the Department of Bení seemed like a late Day of the Innocents (Bolivia's version of April Fools Day) joke. However, when the announcement became official in a live televised press conference, the reaction became immediate on Twitter, as well as the reaction to those reactions. After the dust settled, bloggers also began to provide their thoughts about the matter.

Photo of Jessica Jordan by Hugo Miranda and used with permission.

Initial opinions on Twitter were ones of disbelief that a former beauty queen would be nominated to participate in the elections in such a high-ranking position. Diego Arrázola (@darrazola) wrote:

ni pa concejal JESSICA JORDAN puej pa GOBERNADORA! q esta pasando? siguen en la jodita de los inocentes?

Mariela Castrillo (@ardilla_ilusa) wrote:

Lo de Jessica Jordan es hilarante….no hay más gente en Beni? no hay más jóvenes con sueños? q pena…

There were similar messages of disbelief, and many referred to the fact that Jordan was the former Miss Bolivia. However, others thought that it was not fair for people to react in this manner. Patricia (@arquitecta) counters:

que les pasa? ven normal que un feo acceda al poder, pero cuando una bella candidatea, se rayan… machistas!

Jaime Durán of the blog Economía Política, Desde el Lado Gracioso [es] criticizes those that have already written off the candidate:

Están también los que olvidandose de sus posiciones de género han dicho muy sueltos de cuerpo que la niña será muy bella, pero que es poco probable que la cabeza le sirva para algo más que peinarse. Viendo la calidad de gobernadores que hasta ahora ha tenido el Beni, dudo mucho que se pueda criticar a la bella Jessica Jordan, por este tema. Por mi parte, estoy seguro que dictará cátedra en los temas en los que se ocupe, pues siempre he creido que belleza e inteligencia no son para nada incompatibles.

One of the major questions that this nomination raises is “What's in it for MAS?” Beni is a department in the Bolivian Orient that has traditionally been under the control of the opposition. Placing a nationally-known figure, who has not been a party member or active in politics is seemingly attracting the attention of the entire country and could turn the tide in that part of the country. Hugo Miranda of Angel Caido [es] adds his thoughts:

Y bueno esto merece un comentario, quizas resulte obvio que el MAS esta usando a figuras publicas de los departamentos donde aun no domina para tratar de ganar las Gobernaduras y Municipios, de esta forma tener el control total de todo Bolivia.

Quizas para algunos Jessica este siendo utilizada para estos fines del todopoderoso Evo Morales.

Pero queda la duda, y creo que Jessica se merece eso por que ella quiere mucho a Bolivia.

This is worth commenting, maybe it is obvious that the MAS is using public figures in the Departments where it does not dominate, in order to win the Governorships and Mayorships, in this way to have total control over all of Bolivia.

Maybe for some, Jessica is being used for those ends by the all-powerful Evo Morales.

The doubt remains, and I think that Jessica deserves all this because she loves Bolivia very much.

The strategy seems to be working as some bloggers who have been apolitical, or even in opposition to the MAS party are starting to support Jordan. However, some are making it clear that their support is going to the candidate, and not the political party. Even those people who are not eligible to vote in the Department are expressing their desire to help the candidate. It still remains to be seen whether the strategy will work in the elections scheduled for April 4, 2010.

Miranda, who has not been a supporter of the MAS party, writes that the one candidate that he will support is Jordan to the extent that he will include free campaign advertising on his sites. Durán concludes:

Creo que la elección del Beni será la más interesante de todas las que presenciaremos en abril del 2010. Asimismo, desde esta palestra anuncio que estoy dispuesto a trasladarme a la bella tierra oriental para colaborar en tareas de campaña

As “Chunyun”—the travel season before, during, and after the Chinese New Year—approaches, two of China’s largest rail lines are adopting a “real-name” ticketing system.

Guangzhou Station in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou is a major hub for travel in Southern China. Photo by Don Weinland

Information Times reported Friday that passengers traveling on trains serviced by Guangzhou Railway Group or Chengdu Railway Bureau will be required to produce a valid identification card upon purchasing a ticket.  Names and ID numbers will be printed on tickets and must be produced with a corresponding ID card at train stations to gain entrance. 

Along with this change in ticketing practice, Information Times reports that passengers will be allowed three tickets per purchase but must produce three separate ID cards: one ticket per ID.

A variety of factors have brought about the introduction of the system.  The difficulty of securing a ticket has become a hardship for many Chinese working away from home.  “Yellow Cows”, or scalpers, purchase large quantities of tickets in advance to sell at inflated prices.  The new measures may also increase safety aboard trains.

Appeals for a new system have been visible since last Chinese New Year’s holiday.  An article published January 2009 at Sina.com sought a solution to the problem that has been popularly dubbed “a ticket is hard get.”

春运当前，有关火车票实名制的呼声再次高涨。民意一方呼声急切，以为非实名制而不能解“一票难求”之困局。而处于铁道部一方，则断然表示“成本太高”，言下之意，难于实行。铁道部门的这种“傲慢”，加之其垄断地位、春运种种苦难现象，混合在一起，一再地刺激民意昂扬。

Faced with the New Year’s travel season, appeals for a real-name train ticketing system rise once again.  The appeals of the people are urgent, thinking that the “a ticket is hard to get” situation cannot be solved without a real-name system.  But [the rail lines] have resolutely expressed that the “expenses are too high,” or in other words, it would be difficult to carry out.  The arrogance of the rail department along with their monopoly status, the variety of hardships during the holiday travel season, mix together and once again agitate an upbeat popular opinion.

According to Baidu Encyclopedia, the real-name ticketing system will restore a sense of fairness to rail transportation during a season that is already fraught with difficulty. 

目前民众尤其是外出务工人员，在出行乘坐火车这种公益性的大众交通工具时，常常遭遇不公平：虽然长时间排队，却很难买到自己急需的火车票；而一些票贩子却能通过各种手段，获取他们并不急需的火车票。于是，在这种现实面前，公民乘坐火车变成了一种没有权利和尊严的选择：要么你去求人找关系买票；要么你多花钱到票贩子那里买票。

At present when the people, especially those working away from home, take a form of mass transportation such as a train, they often met with unfairness: although they have lined up for a long period of time, it’s still difficult to buy the ticket they urgently need.  Yet scalpers have a variety of means of acquiring tickets they don’t need urgently in the least.  Faced with these facts, the taking of trains by citizens has become a choice void of rights and dignity.  Either you beg someone with good connections to buy you a ticket or you give your money to the scalper.

The Chinese New Year’s travel season, known as “Chunyun” in Chinese, is the world’s largest periodical circulation of people.  According to Xinhua News, This year’s travel season will see over 2.1 billion trips made between places of work, hometown, and back again, an increase of 9.5 percent from last year.

Not all agree with the adoption of the real-name ticketing system.  Baidu Encyclopedia has listed some common complaints regarding the introduction of the system:

春运期间，铁路与民航的最大区别是客流量大。一旦推行实名制后，将会增加售票的信息录入时间和验票的信息核对时间，降低工作效率，影响人流疏散，加剧人群滞留，容易形成挤压伤人事件隐患。所以，实名制在现实中不具有可操作性。

During the holiday travel season the biggest difference between rail and air transportation is the large volume of train passengers.  As soon as the real-name system is in place ticket registration and ticket checking time will be increased, work effectiveness [for rail employees] will be decreased, influencing the dispersing of the flow of people, adding to build up of crowds, and creating the conditions for trampling incidents.  Therefore the reality of a real-name system is not workable.

这仅仅是增加了黄牛的麻烦，并不能从根本上解决问题，真正的黄牛，肯定不会是去排队买票的，既然是从内部拿票，所以你买黄牛票的时候只需带上你的个人信息，如此而已。

This only increases the difficulty of the scalper’s business but by no means fundamentally solves the problem.  Real scalpers certainly don’t line up to buy tickets.  Because they buy tickets [from a connection] within the ticket office, you will only have to provide your personal information when buying a scalped ticket.  It’s as simple as that.

The Chinese New Year’s travel season is generally defined as a period of forty days before, during, and after Chinese New Year’s, or Chunjie in Chinese.  According to Baidu Encyclopedia, this year’s travel season begins Jan. 30 and ends Mar. 10.  Chinese New Year’s, a lunar calendar holiday, lands on Feb. 14 this year and lasts fifteen days.

Information regarding the “real-name” system was first leaked online on Dec. 10 from a Chinese blog.  The changes were later confirmed by a railway insider in an Information Times article.

Russian bloggers humorously discuss photos of a little girl [RUS] who for the second year in a row stands and yawns in front of the Russian president during the Christmas service at the Church of the Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

As expected by different experts parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan were recognized valid. Chairman of the Central Election Commission Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov released that information later the same day (December 27), and added that 15,108,950 voters or 87.8% of all registered voters participated in the elections and, according to the article 44 of the Law on Elections to Oliy Majlis they were legal and undisputable.

neweurasia wrote about different surveys and one in particular by loyal to the Uzbek government Uzniform information agency.

Online survey, conducted during end of October and first decade of November asked respondents if they “…know that December 27 [2009] elections to the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis and region, district and city Kengashes of people’s deputies will be held?”.

Out of 159 survey participants 82 (51.6%) answered “NO”; 12 (7.5%) referred to the difficulties with responding to that question; and, only 65 (40.9%) answered “YES”.

No generalization from my side but… If we consider that this was just a survey asking if they knew about then upcoming parliamentary elections that didn’t mean that they expressed their will to participate in actual elections.

Such opinion comes after checking out results of other survey by the same information agency which asked people to evaluate “…evaluate current activities of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis?”. Out of 171 respondents more than a half (89, or 52%) answered “NEGATIVE”; 15 (8.8%) participants answered “More negative than positive”; “Positive” and “More positive than negative” options got 41 respondent’s approval which sums up to 24% of all answers.

Ferghana.ru’s article titled “Parliamentary Elections Held in Uzbekistan” emerged many different opinions by those who read it.

максим (maksim) says [ru] that his “grandma was forced to participate in the elections because she was said that in case of not participating her pension for January would be available only after New Year.” Nobody wants to be without money on a New Year night, to meet and “celebrate” it with a poor holiday dinner. Thus, old lady had to go and “contribute” to that theater performance.

Che Lovek (basically, means a Human being), another active participant of the discussion, got mad because went to the elections to vote against everybody but couldn’t find such option. His fellow Dionis responded by: “Since we didn’t have “against everybody” option I filled in boxes of all candidates.” This means his bulletin didn’t meet requirements of the counting machine and had been exluded from calculation as invalid.

Whatever happens in the minds of citizens of Uzbekistan, international observers recognized elections as “democratic and open”. Very often serious politics doesn’t care about real state of affairs and analyzes events through the prism of national interests.

Photo courtesy Uza.uz: President Karimov participating in the election on December 27.

Cross-posted from neweurasia.net.

Habrahabr user pechkin1007 published [RUS] photos showing a construction delay at the “Angstrem-M” microchip plant near Moscow. The plant administration received a €815 million government loan [RUS] in 2008 and committed to starting the construction in Autumn 2009.

Sparsh comments on the still persisting caste discrimination in India: “I always ask elders that society has become more feudal, caste oriented and communal than 60 years ago. No clear cut answers. People still ask with smile surname to map out the caste and ancestry in their minds.”

Kerim Friedman writes about his experience teaching anthropology at Dong Hwa University in Hualien.

Women's Forum interviews blogger Scary Azeri, now also a contributor to the online gender-specific site based in Azerbaijan. The blogger, born and raised in the oil-rich former Soviet republic, speaks about her blog and reaction to it. Crossing many cultural divides, the blog has already become popular with foreigners as well as those living in the South Caucasus region. Global Voices Online interviewed Scary Azeri in July.

Have something you want Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to know? You could try tweeting about it to @hatoyamayukio!

@hatoyamayukio

All links in this post link to Japanese content unless otherwise noted.

The Prime Minister started using Twitter during the new year holidays as a means to “bring politics to the people”, in addition to the existing Kantei TV and a mailing list. He also has a new blog called Hato Cafe (鳩Cafe or “Pigeon Cafe”).

Following some confusion with a fake Twitter account [en], his first tweet was sent on Dec 31st, 2009 5:49 PM.

みなさん、あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いいたします。今日からツイッターとブログ「鳩cafe」を始めました。http://bit.ly/7OSH1o ご感想など@hatoyamayukioへお寄せください。馴れるまでは１日１ツイートが目標です。

(The translation above is quoted from @hatoyama_y_en, which is run by translation service MyGengo.)

The initiative is the brain child of the “Civilian Working Group to Shorten the Distance between Citizens and Politics” (国民と政治の距離を近づけるための民間ワーキンググループ). Members include playwright Oriza Hirata, blogger and art director Naoyuki Sato, CEO of eWoman, Inc. Kaori Sasaki, and art director Yuji Tokuda. Tokuda also designed the blog.

@hatoyamayukio's follower count is growing steadily, and is around 139,000 as of January 9th.

Is it really him?

This was the focus of discussion for the first few days and the very first issue that @hatoyamayukio addressed by clarifying that the PM sends a draft of his tweets by e-mail to his secretary, who posts it to Twitter.

This disappointed many people, as voiced by Makoto Chikazoe:

「基本的に私が書いています」と言いつつ、結局スタッフの意見を聞いて秘書官が投稿しているのだ。多くのTwitterユーザーが期待していたのは「首相の生の声」である。しかし、実際には何人もの人を経由した首相の声なのだ。これでは結局Twitterである意味はなく、従来通りの記者会見をテレビや新聞でチェックすればよいだけだ。

Akky from Ajiajin [en] has a different opinion:

Although many internet users expressed their disappointment to it, I personally don’t think that prime minister himself/herself should tweet on their mobile gears. It is reasonable as well as US president Obama never used Twitter.

Is he really reading our tweets?

Obviously, this was the next big question. The answer? Perhaps.

私がみなさんをフォローしていることについて「本当に読んでいるのか」「そんなにフォローできませんよね」などご指摘を頂きました。確かに全てのコメントは読めませんが、執務室のモニターにみなさんのコメントを常時表示し、それを読んで少しでもみなさんの生の声を知りたいと思っています。

(Again, the translation is from @hatoyama_y_en.)

Hato Cafe

Follow back

@hatoyamayukio will follow everyone who follows him. This is called follow-gaeshi (フォロー返し, literally “follow back”), an action that is considered by many in the Japanese twittersphere to be good etiquette.

The Japanese official site guide twitnavi published a post titled “Please wait a while longer to be followed by Prime Minister Hatoyama” on January 2nd, explaining that there is a limit on the system's side.

Tweets for @hatoyamayukio

@hatoyamayukio hasn't replied to anyone (yet?) but the editorial desk at Mainichi Shimbun @mainichijpedit is hopeful:

@HatoyamaYukio 総理！「Twitterの女王」こと歌手の広瀬香美 @kohmi さんとの勉強会にご参加いただけないでしょうか？毎週水曜日に一緒に政治や経済の勉強をしています。ご検討ください！ #kokkokokko

@yamachan_run recently started Twitter:

@hatoyamayukio首相が始めたことがきっかけで、ツイッターに登録してみました。 首相がブログ・ツイッターをどのように使いこなして見せるのかすごく気になります。

Comments from blogger Satonao

One of the signs that the Prime Minster was going to dip his toes into social media came when blogger Naoyuki Sato, better known as Satonao, was invited to have dinner with him. Curious, we posted [en] about the seemingly random event last October.

At that time, Satonao reported:

鳩山さんは Twitter 自体を知らなかったようだけど、とても素直に耳を傾けてくれた（どんな話題にも辛抱強く丁寧に相手の目を見て耳を傾ける人だった）。でもまぁなんというか、Twitter を理解してもらうことの難しさよ（笑）

書き込む姿を見てもらったり、ボクの実況へのみなさんの返信をパソコン画面で見てもらったり（熱心に読んでくれた）、いろいろしているうちにかなり興味はもっていただけた模様。殺し文句は「オバマも使っています！」（笑）。始めてくれるかどうかは全くわからないが、スタートラインには立ってくれたようである。閉じた世界が急にオープンになるのは無理だろう。まずは第一歩。少しずつ。少しずつ。

The denmipapa blog is publishing a series of posts explaining the business side of the Japanese film industry. The fifth installment explores why the industry is not set up to release an ultra expensive 3D movie like Avatar. [JA]