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As I sat down to write this post about the blogging scene in Iran, I stumbled upon this excellent video about just that subject. Check it out!
“Iran: A Nation of Bloggers” was made by Vancouver Film School students Aaron Chiesa, Toru Kageyama, Hendy Sukyara, and Lisa Temes, and written by Kate Tremillis. The video uses powerful illustrations (inspired by Marjane Satratpi’s “Pesepolis“) to show how for many Iranians blogging is the most effective way to express themselves. Online forums can empower them to discuss and debate topics that are banned from the public discourse.
This video highlights the fact that blogging is a risky endeavor for Iranian citizens. According to Reporters Without Borders, “Iran has the biggest number of threatened cyber-dissidents in the Middle East and dozens of websites are shut down each year”. Some high-profile arrests of bloggers have recently made international headlines. Hossein Derakhshan, referred to as the “Blogfather” of the Iranian blogosphere, is reported to have been arrested for charges of spying for Israel, a crime punishable by death. Another blogger, Shahnaz Gulami, has also been arrested for blogging about Iran’s treatment of ethnic minorities.
The government has felt so threatened by the blossoming of dissident blogs that the Iran Human Rights Voice is reporting that the Revolutionary Guard has started 10,000 weblogs “for the purposes of adding “quality content” to the Internet” and to establish “the presence of the guards in the weblog publishing domain”. Even Iranian President, Mahmood Ahmadinejahd has his own blog.
Iranian Internet users also face the additional challenge of Internet censorship. The government has banned as many as five million websites, including YouTube and Facebook. All Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, must be approved by the Ministry of Culture and must install filters that block all sites and emails deemed inappropriate. All websites must also register with the Ministry. Internet censorship is certainly limited to Iran. Other countries, including Turkey, China, and even Australia, use, or are considering using, filters to block their citizens’ access to illegal and offensive material.
But despite all of these challenges, Iranian bloggers continue to publish their opinions, thoughts, hopes, and criticisms. The diversity of opinion among Iranian bloggers is remarkable. While some call for democracy and reform, others debate the tenants of Islamic law. Still others discuss their personal lives or post poetry and art. Like bloggers around the world, their goal is to express themselves. Hopefully someday that expression will not have to be limited to the Internet.
An all girl Saudi Arabian rock band named Accolade received some exposure earlier this week by the New York Times. Comprised of four college students, these ladies are not afraid to express themselves through a medium that has traditionally been deemed unlawful by their country’s standards.
The existence of Accolade is groundbreaking on two levels. The first and most obvious is the cultural one. In some Middle Eastern countries, anything that even closely resembles western culture is punished (i.e. long hair on men, tattoos/piercings). So for these ladies to be making a strong wave in the rock music scene in Saudi Arabia is great. More importantly, Accolade is showing the world that women can make it too in this game of rock and roll. It is very rare to find a band (for the sake of this conversation band is being defined as those who play their own instruments and write their own songs) comprised entirely of females in the world. The only ones that immediately come to mind are Bond and The Donnas and both of these groups have received varied levels of attention throughout their careers. Yet, one could hardly even conceive the existence of an all female band in Saudi Arabia!
Of course like all other bands who love western music, but cannot openly practice/perform (Acrassicauda) Accolade suffers in the same way. They are not allowed to even publicize their music for it is all steeped in western culture.
This saddens me as usual, that a creative community would not be allowed to express themselves. However, the Times article goes on to discuss how the music scene in Saudi Arabia has slowly garnered more and more freedoms as time continues. This natural evolution will eventually allow for all of those who are interested in the western arts to practice and perform as they please. This just might take longer than some would like.
The existence of a band like Accolade makes me very happy, for in the work I do there is definitely a large drought of females in the rock music game and it excites me to see more and more ladies grabbing their instruments and bringing their talent/passion to the forefront for all to see and enjoy.
The prevalence of western music in places where anything western is frowned down upon makes me hopeful as well. Considering that 60% of Saudi Arabia’s population is comprised of young people, this is an opportunity for the U.S. to garner the goodwill of the youth in these countries by assisting them in expressing themselves, for they are the future of their respective nations and the U.S. is missing a great opportunity to do as such.
Finally and most appropriately, reading about groups like Accolade, make me thankful that I live in a country where these types of privileges and luxuries are not only allowed, but encouraged as well.
Even though President-elect Barack Obama is still about seven weeks away from taking oath of office, he has his plate full! The monumental change brought about by his historic election has not only raised hopes within the United States but there is a renewed sense of ‘willingness’ in the international community to see Washington in a different light after years of rather abrupt and abrasive policies, based on the ‘principle’ of ‘either you are with us or against us’.
War, inevitably, is the failure of diplomacy. We’ve had enough of it in the past few years. Our world changed forever on 9/11/01. An aggrieved but enraged US was left with no choice but to go after the perpetrators of possibly the worst attack on innocent civilians in modern history.
The world universally abhors terrorism but it has been proven beyond doubt that war is not the answer. The ‘new assassins’ masquerading as religious activists are out to undermine the very ideals on which the edifice the US has stood firmly for more than two centuries. By the same token, wars cannot be left only to the generals and diplomacy cannot be the sole preserve of professional diplomats. Public participation is a must and that is what Obama has promised all along his election campaign.
Terrorism is at once a crime and a symptom of a sickness in an environment that has failed to nurture its human resources, both in terms of imparting to them a sense of purpose and value in life and acquiring marketable skills. That is, perhaps, what the world of Islam is faced with – a dilemma where too many have gone astray because of the distorted and politically motivated beliefs of a few ‘leaders’ within the community from the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan to the confines of Morocco and Tunisia.
The wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have not won us many friends anywhere, much less in the Muslim world. We often wonder why the Islamic world is up in arms against the New War, and ponder over the ways to win the hearts and minds of folks around the globe.
One believes that we have arrived at the turning point in world affairs. We are left with no choice but to step back from the wars we have committed ourselves to. The world expects us to match our economic and military might with our moral might – to stand up for good against evil, for peace against war, for love against hate, for justice against high-handedness. As a necessary start to détente, the US should halt its war talk. This must not be seen as its defeat, but as a victory of peace. One understands that it will not be easy but peace does not come cheap.
We can expect to experience some welcome signs of adjusting US policies in the Obama presidency. Given his keen sense of judgment, he understands that when a country is rich and powerful, that itself generates resentment. If the leaders of the country behave with arrogance, that compounds the problem. It is worth recalling that the problem existed even a generation ago when Senator Fulbright wrote his celebrated book, “The Arrogance of Power.”
The ‘New World’ is a reality. Obama must bear in mind that the US must relentlessly pursue terrorists wherever they are and make fundamental changes in policies related to terrorism accordingly. The US must continue to exercise leadership of the global coalition against terrorism. Needless to say, there is an imperative necessity to utilize America’s enormous military, political and economic strength to promote a just international order.
What is really needed is to deal with the roots of terrorism rather than be concerned only with the terrorist manifestations of frustration and despair.
Burning political and human rights issues, such as the Darfur problem, affecting large populations need to be addressed, in all seriousness. The economic divide affecting the entire world, between the rich and poor countries, is getting wider each year. That the world may witness resort to terrorism against the privileged minority could well become a reality if the reasons for agitation at each world economic moot are not addressed.
Understood that the US itself is faced with loads of issues in this time of monstrous economic distress, it has to soldier on with the good work. Obama has to heal the ailing world. There are hard choices to make. The good news is that Obama is one who can turn the tide with the passage of time.
The dark forces of religious bigotry have to be defeated. Most of the terrorists also recognize the murky background out of which proponents of retrogressive and intolerant ethos that have sprung up to undermine the dynamic synthesis of American foreign policy that worked out so well in the post World War II era and that reflected the lofty ideals for which the US stands for.
The challenge has to be met with an iron hand. Simultaneously Obama can possibly undertake deep introspection to determine the underlying causes of this culture of religious violence so that these can be eliminated through sustained reform and social action in various parts of the world. The criminals must be punished but we must also address the socio-economic and cultural malaise that enables the terrorists to raise their ugly heads and act with such impudent disregard for humanity and the respective faiths of individuals.
The US has to work with the rest of the world, not apart from it. There should be no repetition of the ‘hit out and be damned’ response of the previous administration.
Barack Obama can prove to be a refreshing change. One hopes that conducive counter-terrorism measures will be taken by working multilaterally. The argument is to keep the momentum going but in a broader and prudent manner that ensures less of a war and more of a peace.
— END TEXT
As I write this, terrorists are attacking Western and Indian targets in Mumbai in one of the safest, most cosmopolitan areas of India. Meanwhile, threat levels blare orange as Americans travel home for the holiday. I am reminded of how closely we are all connected and of the need to work together to inspire hope in place of hatred.
Just this past weekend, AID hosted a Rethinking Counter Terrorism Retreat in LA which featured activists, professionals, filmmakers, and regular volunteers who have chosen to focus not on our differences but on the common bonds of humanity that unite us.* These individuals give poor communities a path to development in place of the desperation that leads to conflict and terrorism. Access to education, jobs, health care, and more equal rights provides individuals in vulnerable areas with a real future, giving them a strong reason to choose peace over war.
As you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, consider those less fortunate and what you can do locally to support the common goal of a safer, happier world. Here’s hoping a ‘Green level’ holiday is not too far off.
* The Retreat featured guests from CARE International, Help the Afghan Children, Principle Pictures, Serving Women Across Nations (SWAN), and the RAND Alternative Strategy Initiative.
Going green appears to be the hot new trend across the United States. As environmental advocacy groups bring light to the dangers of global warming, more and more Americans are striving to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles. The city of San Francisco took a bold step last year, banning the use of plastic grocery bags in favor of eco-friendly, reusable pouches. I even recall reading in a trashy celebrity magazine that Jennifer Aniston attempts to shower in a mere three minutes, so as to not waste water.
Yet, even the most successful localized efforts still have a long way to go to rival the immensity of the problem.
This year, for the first time in history, the world’s urban population will exceed its rural one. While mass migration from the countryside has prompted governments worldwide to reevaluate their urban planning schemes, citizens continue to innovate solutions of their own. In the United States, city dwellers have recently begun creating community gardens as a way to increase “green spaces” and build community, but also as a way to combat increased food costs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture claims that 15 percent of the world’s food comes from urban centers. Urban gardening reduces both cost and carbon emissions from food transportation, or food miles, the distance produce travels before consumption.
Though urban agriculture has more prevalently existed in developing countries for reasons of economic necessity, it has not been publicly encouraged, or even legal, until recently. Earlier this month, BBC journalist Andrew Luck-Baker traveled to Kampala, Uganda, to examine the first city in sub-Saharan Africa to legalize urban agriculture. Many Ugandan citizens now grow mushrooms and other vegetables in their backyards. Others have purchased chickens and cows so as to provide their communities with meat, milk, and eggs in exchange for steady income.
In densely populated areas where food is ludicrously expensive, allowing city dwellers to grow their own produce and raise livestock has stimulated trade, assuaged hunger, and promoted self-sufficiency amongst previously struggling Africans.
However, this trend is not without its pitfalls. Without proper infrastructure to control runaway and wandering livestock, city farming can create a significant hassle. Luck-Baker also reports that in Hyderabad, India, officials have found produce cultivated in urban areas is more likely to be contaminated with parasites.
Despite these hazards, urban agriculture has the potential to shield many citizens of developing countries from skyrocketing food prices and chaotic economic downturns. The international community would be wise to experiment further with this trend in order to improve nutrition and promote yet another step toward sustainable cities.
The global financial crisis is highlighting all of the ways in which my new job talking about the BRICs is especially important.
With the world’s economy stumbling, the North-South Axis is becoming much more like the U.S. border than the Berlin Wall–and the South is catching on.
Al Jazeera posted a comprehensive review of recent posturing by the South to advance their concept of a more equal financial system. Pointing very-insistent fingers at the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the U.S., the countries of the South are claiming this financial crisis as a) the end of the North-South axis or b) a shift in the axis that allows the South to drive the car for a while.
Southern nations are upset that the U.S. has spent decades telling them what to do, and yet still managed to ruin the economy. The obvious conclusion, in their minds, is that these instructions were all bogus, and the system must be completely reevaluated without an anachronistic power structure that disadvantages countries that house most of the world’s people and an increasing amount of the wealth.
In defense of the U.S., it is probably unfair to say that the financial crisis signals the inaccuracy of the “Washington Consensus.” I am no economist, but pro-poor and pro-growth policies coupled with fiscal discipline, privatization of industry, and tax reform seem like good ideas to me. (Feel free to disagree in the comments!)
Still, it is also true that there were serious flaws in the financial system that allowed people to continue to ignore the obvious threats of sub-prime bundling, and one of the Washington Consensus’ main points–deregulation–probably played some role in this. (Although some would argue that no regulation would have helped, as much of the lending was done on purpose).
Personally, I don’t find that the system as a whole is completely flawed. It seems somewhat clear to me on initial inspection that the post-World War II mission to liberalize trade and develop economies around the world has been successful in some large measures, and it is hard to argue the counter-factual that it could have been more successful.
I think that this success is actually becoming the problem. [More after the fold]
“Yeah, but it’s true that condoms can’t protect against HIV, right? I just heard from my friend that some new research just came out that said that HIV is so small it can pass right through condoms.”
As the new woman behind the chair at my barber shop made this comment and went about her handiwork, I realized just how wrong “campaign” was in the context of HIV prevention.
It’s common to read about an organization conducting an HIV prevention campaign for a certain population or during a certain period of time, which in and of itself is splendid. The more people being educated about HIV the better…period; however I often wonder if HIV prevention is viewed in the same context as an immunization campaign, one shot and you’re done. You receive the information once, you’re good to go. This sentiment is often expressed by schools when they say that they provide HIV prevention and proceed to describe a series of health classes that students get once during middle school. Unfortunately, HIV prevention doesn’t work like that.
New HIV information, for that matter health information in general, isn’t in the major headlines or on the radar like the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars. It’s buried in scholarly journals that gradually trickle down to the general populace. Perhaps, as a result of this distance between the information source and the recipients, many misconceptions of HIV/AIDS continuously circulate as “new” facts or information. And it doesn’t just happen in my barber shop, I have seen it happen in small-town Wisconsin and in Bangkok, in Washington, D.C. and rural Kenya. I’ve read about it all throughout the world.
When there isn’t a regular, convenient, comfortable and reliable source of HIV information available, people look to their friends, those they trust the most and feel comfortable discussing sexually-related issues with. What their friends say becomes the latest information.
This calls for HIV prevention that is not a one and you’re done, but a continuous process that revisits information and builds upon it with the most recent findings in the field. It calls for a long-term view of HIV prevention.
So…easy to say, how do we get it done? A couple of sparks…
Novice: start with your captive audiences. Educate kids in school at least once a year, starting in late elementary/early middle school and continuing through high school. It’s time for parents and administrators to acknowledge that kids are engaging in sexual activities at younger ages and need education about it.
Amatuer: Urge organizations, companies, etc. to have annual “campaigns”, so it’s not one and done. Or coordinate information so that it is regularly available, but in engaging formats so you don’t get the, “oh it’s the drug commercial again” tune-out.
All-star: Find a point from which to get the community engaged so there are individuals in the community who are championing these issues and are known as safe points of information related to these issues and constant and accurate peer-to-peer education is occurring.
This being my maiden voyage into the sea that is the AIDBlog, please let me preface all future posts by saying that I’m gunnning for as much reader participation as possible. Drop me a comment with opposition, support, an idea for the greater communtiy, a partnership proposal, just to bounce ideas back and forth, a question. It helps me, it helps you. That’s how we’re going to shake things up.
Hi Everyone!
My name is Melanie and I am the new Reproductive Health Associate here at Americans for Informed Democracy.
Yesterday, over a thousand people (myself included) came together in Washington D.C. to hold President-elect Obama accountable to the promises he made to improve U.S. HIV/AIDS policies and programs both domestically and abroad. The election of Barack Obama is, for many HIV/AIDS activists, a light at the end of a grim tunnel that saw the Bush administration ignoring the needs of Americans living with HIV/AIDS and disseminating prevention programs to countries abroad that focused more on ideological beliefs than on best public health practices.
Over the past year, Obama has stated that he would create a national strategy to prevent HIV/AIDS and make care, treatment and housing a priority for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. Obama has also committed to the removal of funding restrictions on needle exchange programs and PEPFAR prevention policies.
Despite the promises made along the campaign trail, we cannot afford to let our guard down and hope for the best. In fact, now, more than ever before, we need to make sure our voices are heard and that we mobilize to advance U.S. HIV/AIDS policies. The political capital of a new and popular President combined with Obama’s progressive stances on HIV/AIDS issues opens a large window for improvement.
Of course there are several special interest groups that would like Obama to focus on their cause, but yesterday’s rally was the FIRST to demonstrate in front of the Obama transition team’s office. The ingenuity of the AIDS advocacy community to reach out to the President-elect so early in the game proved to be a success and a member of the Obama transition team was gracious enough to come out and address the concerns of the crowd.
Overall, the World AIDS Day rally was the most hopeful demonstration I have ever attended; people were genuinely excited by the prospects of what the new Administration can accomplish in the fight against AIDS. But for this to happen, we need to continue to make our voices heard loud and clear.
Charles Nesson, Harvard Law Professor, has filed a counterclaim lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America. If you haven’t heard of the R.I.A.A., their self-defined mission statement is as follows:
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members’ creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world.
Nesson is defending a Boston University graduate student who is facing up to $1 million in fines from the government courtesy of the R.I.A.A. The statute in question is The Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 (H.R. 3456). This statute forces the perpetrator (i.e. person who downloads copyrighted material) to pay a minimum fine of $500 per file if the infringement is incurred unknowingly, and jumps up to an unrealistic $150,000 per file if it is done “willingly.”
This act was passed in 1999, but I think back to when I moved into my dorm my freshman year at the University of California, Davis in 2001. The very first thing one of my floor mates did was install his computer and immediately began downloading movies and music, as to take advantage of large amount of bandwidth that was initially at his disposal for everyone else was busy moving in. He must have downloaded over 75 movies and a countless amount of music without any kind of punitive action.
I never truly understood how the R.I.A.A. goes after people when the above example is a common story amongst most people who attended college in the early part of this decade. More importantly, I completely agree with Mr. Nesson’s analysis that the current copyright model is outdated and needs to revamped.
I also very much agree with Mr. Nesson’s desire to protect artists, but in my opinion the R.I.A.A. was not necessarily formed to protect artistic integrity. In fact I believe it was made in order to protect those who rarely create the art they are marketing (the record industry).
According to A Band’s Guide to Getting a Record Deal by Will Ashurst, labels own the copyrights AND the master copies of music made by artists, not the artists themselves. The artist will usually only make enough to pay the label back for all the money the label invested in distribution, marketing, and producing the artistic content. Very rarely do the artists themselves make a profit. The margin of profit for artists only increases when an artist decides to re-sign with a label. Check out this Wikipedia article, for a few famous examples of this at work. If this is the case, then based upon the R.I.A.A.’s mission statement, they are merely protecting their own profits and not working in the interest of the artist. In essence they are boxing the artist out of truly capitalizing on their own content.
It would be quite foolish for anyone to think that the R.I.A.A. protects anyone, but themselves. In fact I would wager that the “music community” Ms. Duckworth, the Director of Communications at the R.I.A.A., is referring to in her statement is the recording industry and not the artists. (When I called the R.I.A.A., Ms. Duckworth was not available for comment on her statement). UPDATE: Ms. Duckworth got back to me and this is what she had to say:
“The term ‘music community’ in my quote is primarily attributed to the recording industry which has had to endure thousands of layoffs over just a few short years, mostly because of the damages caused by illegal file-trading. These damages triggers a domino effect felt not only throughout the music industry but the entire U.S. economy, as noted by the stats in my quote.”
Not to sound cruel, but I personally have no compassion for those who are taking advantage of other people’s talent and creativity.
I know that personally I would never have been able to build such a diverse appreciation for music without being allowed to fully explore the discography of artists. Now some would claim that I am taking money away from the artist, but as discussed above the amount of money an artist makes off of the sale of a single record is quite minuscule. However, all of the money that I did put into purchasing tickets to concerts and merchandise the band gets a larger percentage of and I would never have gone to see an artist if I wasn’t able to fully listen to their music first.
The most interesting part about this entire conversation is to see how artists have adapted to the current state of technology, while the R.I.A.A. remains the same. Radiohead set a new precedent this year by allowing fans to determine the price of their most recent release In Rainbows. Other artists have embraced what file sharing has done for them. I can think of a handful of bands that would never have received any kind of national exposure without the file-sharing element of the internet.
The most important thing here is that the R.I.A.A. has remained a monolith while the artists that they serve have had to adapt. File-sharing is never going to stop. There will always be music blogs, file-uploading websites, and torrents that are going to disseminate music and other copyrighted material, whether the R.I.A.A. likes it or not.
This equalizing of the playing field for artists is something that I love, for the work I do garners more opportunities for artistic students (hopefully like you!) to gain more exposure in addition to sharing their work with the rest of us.
Regardless, this is the future and the sooner we re-vamp our copyright practices the better.
