By Shabina Khatri

On Wednesday, Qatar added an eighth digit to all mobile and landline phone numbers in the country. Officials said the move is an effort to create more phone numbers in a country that has seen its population double in the last five years.

Hukoomi, Qatar's government website, explains the change:

Under the plan, the first digit of both the fixed and mobile numbers will be repeated.

Thus, if your old number started with 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 all you need to do is to repeat the first digit such as 33, 44, 55, 66 and 77…

All emergency telephone numbers within Qatar, including 999 and 112, will not be affected by the change, and the country code will remain +974.

Numbers beginning with 1, 2, 8 and 9 will not be changed.

Though residents were initially worried that the change would cause widespread confusion, the transition seems to have been made with little incident.

That's thanks in part to several renumbering applications for mobile phones that automatically update users' contact lists.

The apps, however, didn't appear to work for everyone.

On Twitter, @NazQatar said:

Thanks to screw my phonebook with those apps!! it DOESN'T recognize all numbers start with 00974 #Qatar

@omerm27 said:

its getting kind of annoying already. it's only been two hours

Others were more accepting (and tongue-in-cheek) about the new number scheme.

On Facebook, Fahad Qureshi said:

because too many people are moving to this country, they ran out of phone numbers lol….so now the first digit of every number is repeated….if you ever plan on calling me in the future lol…update your phone books.

On Twitter, mohamed said:

The upside of the telco's in Qatar changing the number format is that I will have to speak to fewer people today. #antisocial

And though the change seems to have gone over peacefully, some continue to worry about the inconvenience having a new number would cause.

On the popular social forum Qatar Living, ajmani said:

All business cards, stationeries, resume's, job sites, other sites, etc etc needs to be updated… i doubt if everyone has fixed it already! Hope there will be a recorded message whenever someone calls on the old number, guiding them to add 3, or 4 or 5 or 6…!

Indeed, for the next three months, those dialing seven-digit numbers will hear an automated message advising them of the new scheme.

Whether that gives people away for the summer and Ramadan enough time to acclimate to the renumbering plan remains to be seen.

By Rodrigo Penalba · Translated by Silvia Viñas · View original post [es]

Flyer for Event 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media

Experts in digital communities will come together for the 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media (in Spanish, ”2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios”) which will take place on August 12 and 13 at the Central American University (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua. The activity is a practical assessment of web tendencies and the power these alternative ways of communication have to influence public and private spheres.

The gathering [es] will include the participation of experts from Central America, Colombia and Venezuela, who will give lectures, workshops and more. The main subjects will be: New Media and Cultural Diversity and Development; Citizen Participation and Advocacy; Content Production for New Media; New Scenarios: mobile applications, new uses and methods, perspectives on the future.

“It is a culturally enriching experience, but it also involves a proposal to emphasize that web activity is not only a novelty, but also a learning method that generates real debate that may influence public opinion,” comments David Ruíz López-Prisuelos, Coordinator at Spain Cultural Center in Nicaragua (Centro Cultural de España en Nicaragua, CCEN).

To help visualize the lectures, the event will begin with a panel discussion about the use of these tools. The panel includes La Carpio Online Project (”Proyecto La Carpio en Línea”) [es]” from Costa Rica, Everything for the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (”Todo por la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua”) [es] from Facebook and Another World is possible (”Otro mundo es posible”) [es]: Organization and action of Nicaraguan social movements on the web. An interesting element will be the use of an open microphone for bloggers to share their experiences.

“It is an activity to discuss the current state of mass media and the tendencies toward other formats that range from micro-blogging to podcasting, and how the media is adapting to various uses and needs that range from basic social organizing to its use in large companies,” says Rodrigo Peñalba [es], an author for Global Voices, a specialist in cultural production in new media and CCEN's special guest to help organize the event.

During the second day, journalist Cristian Cambronero [es] from Costa Rica, Global Voices author Renata Ávila from Guatemala and Yuliana Isabel Paniagua [es] from Global Voices' project “Hiperbarrio” in Colombia will present on experiences in citizen participation on the web. There will also be a teleconference from the BBC in London, workshops on content creation and a conversation with Nicaraguan bloggers Emila Persola [es], Freddy Quezada [es], Space for Alternative Communication and Sexual Diversity (Espacio de Comunicación Alternativa por la Diversidad Sexual [es]), and Fabio Buitrago [es], who will talk about video-blogging as a channel for environmental education and action.

The lecture series will conclude with a presentation about new tendencies on the increasingly common use of blogs and new media by business corporations,  and with case studies on the management of social networks in the world of advertising. The event will be open to the public until full capacity is reached, giving priority to those who register on the official blog where news and updates will be posted.  For more information visit El encuentro de blogs [es], and also the program [es] and list of Confirmed Presenters [es].

By Juliana Rincón Parra

In the aftermath of the devastating Haiti earthquake, women and girls are still facing gender violence, as some of them not only experience rape, but then have to face an absent judicial system and less than adequate medical care.

Tent-City by Edyta Materka under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

In the Ms. Magazine Blog, Gina Ulysse wrote Rape a Part of Daily Life for Women in Haitian Relief Camps, where she points towards the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)and Madre's Report on Rape in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps as the source of terrifying statistics on gender violence.

Many women and girls have lost their support network as well as fathers, brothers and husbands or boyfriends who might've been able to protect them. So being in cramped quarters in the camps really cuts down on their privacy, many have to shower in public and sleep next to strangers or in locations where they are vulnerable to attacks.  Once the attacks take place, many of the cases being gang rapes, they have yet to face more ordeals: most have no way to receive medical aid from female practitioners and the justice system is almost non-existent,  leaving them to deal with corruption in the police and revictimization from authorities in addition to the stigma from being attacked and the knowledge that their attackers are still at large. Ulysse writes:

Women’s access to jus­tice has been even worse.  Women who reported rapes–and were already strug­gling with stigma­ti­za­tion and the psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of sex­ual assault–were often mocked or ignored by police. In some instances, these women have had to deal with police cor­rup­tion as well. More­over, cases have not been pros­e­cuted by the Hait­ian judi­cial sys­tem. Sur­vivors remain vul­ner­a­ble since they con­tinue to live in the same areas of the camps where they were attacked and their rapists remain at large. Sev­eral women reported that they’ve been raped on dif­fer­ent occa­sions since the quake.

The IJDH, Partners in Health and New Media Advocacy Program released a video a few months ago with testimonies from the victims. The footage was recorded by Sandy Berkowitz and edited by Harriet Hirshorn.

Even though women struggle to return to normalcy, it is unlikely their situation will improve as the temporary camps seem to be turning into permanent accomodations. Back in January, CARE USA interviewed Dr. Franck Geneus who coordinates CARE's health program in Haiti and asked him about the reasons why there is higher risk of rape in these camps, and he mentioned the characteristics that make the IDP camps a fertile ground for attacks: the lack of electricity that makes camps absolutely dark at night, badly organized camps and non-segregated bathing facilities and latrines so that males and females have their own.

Janet Meyers, Gender Advisor from CARE also put in her own 2 cents regarding how the camps would be established to make women safer in the earthquake aftermath, pointing out many of the same issues last  February. I wonder how many of these issues remain unresolved and if, as these camps turn into more permanent facilities, it will just pave the way for more assaults to take place.

By Portnoy Zheng

Pomelo(鉑鎂鑼) criticizes the vacuum promises(zht) made by Taipei mayor Hau Lung-pin who promises to build one Manhattan in Shezi region, yet another Manhattan in the basin of Danshui river before the coming election.

By Juliana Rincón Parra

All it took was one child to talk about his destroyed school in front of a camera:  through the following months, thanks to Shawn Ahmed of the Uncultured Project and Nerdfighters, the world rallied through YouTube and raised enough money to rebuild the school.

Pidahouse on the Signboard by Shawn Ahmed under a CC BY NC SA license.

This video tells the story: Cyclon Sidr hit Bangladesh back in 2007: Shawn recorded the damage, shocked at so many children's lives who were lost and then focused on a boy, Pidahouse, a survivor who took him around the town showing him the damage done to the school. After the video aired, the Nerdfighters, a community around the VlogBrothers YouTube channel helped the Uncultured Project raise money to help the boy. First raising enough to repair the roof and then, as more money came in, to rebuild, repaint the school and even get new desks. What makes it even more impressive is that those donations aren't even tax-exempt since as Shawn writes in his site:

This isn’t a charity or NGO – this is just an experiment in charitable community.

Because it’s not anything formal, donations are not tax-deductible.

Last year Shawn kept busy, and we have been following his humanitarian adventure. From the relief efforts back in 2007 and 2008, to the clean water campaign. Although he has many videos on his site, he doesn't post with much frequency, and it may be a good thing, even if it hurts his YouTube ratings:

Although I want to, I also can’t make videos on a regular & frequent schedule. I’m forced to balance doing a good job on-the-ground with spending time making videos.

In some cases, the projects I do take years to complete. They require planning, networking, budgets, on-the-ground trust building, and also need to account for natural disasters & political unrest which push back schedules.

Following, a video of Shawn's appearance at VidCon, a conference on online video, where he shared a video with the Audience: The Boy who Lived is a video showing a story that took 1000 days to tell.

Shawn Ahmed's blog posts are touching, insightful and broad: they touch upon many different topics related to poverty: from Doing good, feeling good and Voluntourism, to the ethics of nudity in poverty photography, while also making a case for charities to seek beyond the celebrity spokesperson and instead invest in the average person and their online audiences. Follow and subscribe to his YouTube channel for a dose of optimism and a glimpse on how one person can change people's lives, a little bit at a time.

By Rezwan

XNepali Blog reports that as a part of the sanitary awareness program in rural Nepal, the Kaikot district council “has formulated a requirement in which every citizenship certificate applicant need to have a toilet at home”.

By Milton Ramirez

Close to the celebration of International Youth Day, Ecuadorian youth from Ambato are happy they can express their own thoughts in a space of tolerance and mutual respect, after three long years of hard work, writes Gabo of Ambato Loco [es]. With the creation of a “Casa de la Juventud” (House of/for Youth), these young people will have a place for entertainment and education: the venue includes a playroom, a film library, a practice room for bands, a room dedicated to research and two audiovisual recording studios.

By Sara Moreira

The 25th of July 2010 is a voting day for local and regional government in São Tomé & Príncipe. Blog OPLOP posts a report about the political system and the current electoral situation in a country that celebrates its 35th anniversary this month [pt].

By Debora Baldelli

Maria Frô talks about the new website FalaRua [Street Talking], dedicated to the street dwellers of Brazil. The online community offers information about the Project for Training and Strengthening of Street Dwellers and invites everyone to participate through a quick registration. [all links in Portuguese]

By Juhie Bhatia

This post was commissioned as part of a Pulitzer Center/Global Voices Online series on Food Insecurity that draw on multimedia reporting featured on the Pulitzer Gateway to Food Insecurity. Share your own story here.

Sunset over farmland in South Africa by Irene2005 on Flickr

While there have been significant increases in agricultural productivity in Asia and Latin America over the last 30 years, productivity in Africa has stagnated and 1 in 3 people in sub-Saharan Africa still go chronically hungry. Many solutions have been proposed to help combat hunger in Africa, but one in particular remains controversial: biotechnology.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that 1.02 billion people do not have enough to eat in the world; more than a fourth of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa. The reasons for the region's food insecurity range from economic crisis to an expanding population. In a Penn State University blog on biotechnology, Dr. Terry Etherton in the United States elaborates on these challenges:

In sub-Saharan Africa, where more “ultrapoor” live, developing technologies to boost productivity is especially difficult because of greater threats from pests and diseases, poorer soil, and drought. In addition, Africa’s R&D [research and development] establishments are small compared to those of South Asia—half had fewer than 100 scientists in 2000. Compared to Latin America, Africa has less than half the rural roads per hectare, 1/40th the capital per farmer, and 1/50th the rural electricity supply per worker. Despite some success with maize [corn], cassava, and some horticultural crops, few African countries have experienced a Green Revolution.

On a global scale, Africa uses the least fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid or genetically modified (GM) seeds of any continent, although many experts suggest that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could help ensure food security by increasing crop yields, producing hardier crop varieties, enhancing a crop's nutritional value, and improving storability. Others claim there are numerous risks associated with adopting GMOs in Africa.

Bloggers following the debate alternately wonder whether Africa is being bullied into accepting biotechnology, or whether Africans are being needlessly scared off by anti-GMO activists.

Journalist Gregory Simpkins in Washington D.C outlines the debate in his personal blog Africa Rising 2010:

Those who don’t trust what they see as Big Science and capitalists, believe GM agricultural products are “Frankenfood.” Those alarmed by the rise in both malnutrition and food prices see a crisis that may be alleviated by using science to jump-start the Green Revolution in Africa. The problem is that there is not enough evidence that these products are either unjustifiably dangerous or completely safe. Africa’s brain drain doesn’t make this situation any easier since many of the scientists who could ensure that their homelands don’t use unsafe agricultural products or take advantage of existing technology to prevent starvation live and work in other countries.

Resistance to GMOs is high. Currently South Africa is the only country on the continent to have approved GM seeds for planting.

Reporter Philip Brasher traveled to South Africa and Kenya to chronicle the role of biotechnology in an article series for the DesMoines Register sponsored by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. He says more than 70 percent of South Africa’s latest corn crop, the country’s largest in decades, is biotech. While some African countries have allowed imports of this GM corn as food aid, others, such as Zimbabwe have rejected these products despite the need.

The U.S. government and American biotech companies say Africans should drop their opposition to GM crops in order to help feed the continent. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also jumped on board, by helping to set up the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2006, and more recently by funding research to engineer more drought-resistant corn. Some agriculture experts in Africa are also calling on Africans to embrace agricultural technologies to boost food production. The blog GMO Africa also believes Africans should be able to take advantage of biotech:

“An open-door policy to new technologies, especially in the field of agriculture, is what Africa needs. When activists intimidate Africa, through fear, into not exploring potential benefits of GM foods, the continent suffers. They stymie a rational debate about whether GM foods have any relevance to Africa.”

However, many bloggers are weary of widely introducing GMOs in a continent comprised mostly of small farms. An article on the progressive pan-African website Pambazuka News by Nidhi Tandon outlines the concerns:

The risks to Africa of fully adopting industrial agriculture in general and GM seeds in particular include:

- transferring its food and farming decisions to global corporations

- losing ecological and agricultural diversity as genetically modified crop varieties spread, and driving small- and medium-scale family farmers off their land because they cannot afford the expensive inputs, including genetically modified seeds, that industrial agriculture demands.”

In South Africa itself, reactions to GMOs also remain mixed. On the blog of a South African family that cultivates “heirloom” and open pollinated seeds, called Livingseeds, Sean Freeman says there isn't enough evidence to support GMOs even though they were “forced onto the South African public”:

‘All the evidence’ shows that GMO is the best thing since sliced bread, however the problem we have is that all of the evidence is slanted and prepared by a) GMO houses b) Scientists that have their research grants supplied by GMO houses or c) Universities that are sponsored by GMO houses. All impartial evidence is wiped sorry forced sorry explained away and serious anecdotal evidence is discredited as not having any scientifically credible weight, as it’s not…… scientific. However here is some anecdotal evidence that is pretty indisputable.

Freeman links to a news story about widespread crop failures in South Africa in 2008/9 due to “a breeding error” in genetically engineered seeds sold by the global corporation Monsanto. An online petition initiated by the African Center for Biosafety says Monsanto compensated commercial farmers who lost their yield but banned them from speaking to the media, and made no mention of whether they compensated resource poor farmers who were given the seed and lost their yield as well.

Most agricultural experts do agree that GMOs alone won't solve Africa's hunger issues. Other solutions suggested by bloggers include organic farming, growing your own food, and promoting social change. Whatever the solutions, on Africa Rising 2010 Simpkins argues we need to openly consider all options, including biotechology:

The behind-the-scenes debate over GM foods needs to be brought into the open and examined carefully. Promoting products that may be dangerous is unacceptable. However, in the face of growing hunger in Africa, we owe it to the hungry to explore every possibility for meeting their needs while they still live.

By I-fan Lin

On July 18th, Taiwanese farmers turned the grand boulevard in front of the Presidential Office into rice fields to protest against the Land Expropriation Act.

On June 9th, 20 excavators were sent to take over 28 hectares of rice field in Dapu Borough (大埔), a farming village, to make way for the expansion of Jhunan Science Park. Similar land expropriation stories were heard in other counties.

Some farmers and activists in Dapu pointed out that the land expropriation was illegal and filed an application with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to void permission for Miaoli County Government to take over farmland on July 17. At night, they protest in front of the Presidential Office, and residents who are facing a similar situation in Houlong Township (後龍), Miaoli County, Erlin Township (二林), Changhua County, Jhudong (竹東) Township and Jhubei (竹北) City in Hsinchu County and Tucheng City (土城), Taipei County joined in.

After the overnight sit-in, thousands of farmers and activists paved the Ketagalan Boulevard with rice shoots, turned the concrete ground into green field and presented to the public the beauty of agriculture.

The rice seedlings were shipped directly from the farm fields.

Photo courtesy of Edd Jhong.

The farmers started to pave the rice seedlings outside the Presidential building.

Photo courtesy of Edd Jhong.

The Ketagalan Boulevard was transformed into a green field.

Photo courtesy of Edd Jhong.

Ai-Wen Chen (陳藹文), a supporter who joined the overnight protest, explained why she joined the protest.

自從在網路上看到怪手開進農田強行「整地」的那一幕，我就開始擔心，會不會有一天，我家的地也這樣，可能爲了「開發」二字，我就必須獻出，不管我願不願意。這真的不是錢的問題，是我覺得我們應該被尊重。

When I saw the image of excavators rampaging in the rice fields, I started to worry that maybe someday my land will face the same threat. Maybe I will be asked to give up my land no matter I like it or not because of ‘development.’ This is not a matter of money. I think we deserve some respect.

我來到這兒參加守夜行動，夜宿凱達格蘭大道，這次的大會師才知道，原來，受害的不只是農民與農地，許多人的居住地、一些古蹟建築的所在地，都同樣被霸王硬 上弓，為了捷運、為了高鐵、為了科學園區、為了工業區…等「開發」的好理由，一個土地徵收條例，所有人都只能用抗爭來表達不願意。只能用抗爭來表達不願意，是我們尊嚴的二度喪失。

I joined the overnight protest and slept on the Ketagalan Boulevard. After talking to other protesters, I learned that not only these farmers’ rice fields, but also some people’s houses and historical buildings were forced to torn down because of the metro, high-speed rail, science parks, industrial parks, etc. Because of ‘development’ and the Land Expropriation Act, what we can do is coming here to protest. When we need to protest to show our objection, we lose our dignity again.

Are you curious about the fate of these rice seedlings?

這些秧苗被在場農民命名為「凱稻」已在行動結束後，被移到台灣各地農村播種，象徵農村生生不息。

These rice seedlings were named ‘Ke-rice’ (its pronunciation in Chinese is the same as the nickname of Ketagalan Boulevard) by the farmers. They were moved and planted in villages across the island to symbolize the never ending cycle of life in rural Taiwan.

By Hamid Tehrani

Kandovan is a 'strange' Iranian village in Eastern Azarbaijan province where houses are in the middle of rocks. Watch the photos.

By Sara Moreira

A new citizen journalism project is underway in the poor, marginalized suburbs of São Paulo. Journalist Bruno Garcez launched blog Mural [pt] where he posts citizen media tips and interacts with his students. The new citizen reporters are also invited to publish their reporting and explain the process they have followed.

By Ndesanjo Macha

An eye on the charcoal trade in Malawi: “Like the rest of the world, forests in Malawi play a vital role. They are the engine of survival to millions of poor Malawians, but at the rate with which forests are being cleared, mainly through illegal logging and burn agriculture, the poor are likely to face hard times for generations to come.”

By Ndesanjo Macha

Niall Tierney writes Concern Worldwide and hunger in Niger: “Concern launched an early, groundbreaking response using “short-harvest” seed varieties, mobile phone technology and cash, and emergency nutrition programs to reach the most vulnerable before the food ran out…”

By Onnik Krikorian

FrontlineSMS says that more than 50,000 alerts on health care service have been sent using its open source software by international development organization Oxfam. The post includes a video report.

By Ndesanjo Macha

“In celebrating African creativity; Maker Faire Africa 2010 and African Digital Art network are partnering up to encourage designers throughout Africa to showcase their talent through a T-Shirt Design Competition,” writes Ghanaian blogger Mac-Jordan.

By Janet Gunter

Last week Friends of the Earth Europe and Mozambican NGO Justiça Ambiental [Environmental Justice, pt] furiously denounced an accord between Brazil, the European Union and Mozambique to promote biofuels production in Mozambique.

The agreement would increase technical cooperation to promote biofuel production in Mozambique. Currently Mozambican sugarcane ethanol imports to the EU would be subject to very low tariffs in comparison with Brazilian ethanol, which the EU will continue to tax.

Brazilian companies would profit from increased emphasis on the sector and assistance, as some are looking to expand their operations in Mozambique. According to Reporter Brasil [pt] at the end of last year, at least two major Brazilian companies had land use agreements to expand sugarcane production in Mozambique, and were looking for financing to actually produce ethanol in the country.

Photo by Flickr user Tonrulkens with CC license

Officials are saying that African production would have to meet European environmental standards and undergo feasibility studies.

Yet even some of the first ethanol projects in Mozambique have been fraught with social and environmental concerns (see recent Global Voices coverage of one case). Justiça Ambiental said in a press release last week

The expansion of biofuels in our country is transforming natural forest and vegetation into fuel crops, is taking away fertile farmland from communities growing food, and creating poor working conditions and conflicts with local people over land ownership. We want real investment in agriculture that allows us to produce food and not fuel for foreign cars.

In response the government news service AIM called Friends of the Earth's statement “woefully ignorant”, also attacked JA, saying there is no evidence to suggest that biofuels production has hurt food production.

Yet in addition to Friends of the Earth's own report (”The Jatropha Trap“), another study from International Institute of Economics and Development in the UK (”Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Mozambique“) has urged caution in recent weeks in relation to biofuels expansion in Mozambique.

By Flickr user Fotos da Bahia with a CC license

The trilateral agreement is just one indicator of the strength of what Brazilian commentators have called President Lula's “ethanol diplomacy”. Leandro Freitas Couto writes [pt]

Na recente visita do presidente Lula a seis países africanos (Cabo Verde, Guiné Equatorial, Quênia, Tanzânia e África do Sul) os biocombustíveis, o etanol mais especificamente, tiveram destaque na agenda. […] O Brasil também já dispõe de um acordo com os Estados Unidos sobre o tema, assinado ainda durante o governo de Bush Jr. Prevê ações de cooperação triangulares, nos moldes do acordo agora assinado com a União Européia e Moçambique […]

A diplomacia do etanol, portanto, vem se consolidando nos últimos movimentos da gestão da política externa do presidente Lula. A substituição paulatina, mas inexorável, dos combustíveis fósseis e a atenção crescente às questões climáticas tendem a fortalecer ainda mais essa agenda no futuro, o que ajudará a fortalecer a presença do Brasil no cenário mundial. […] Com esse cenário, a despeito dos resultados eleitorais de outubro desse ano, a continuidade dessa linha de ação da política externa brasileira está garantida para os próximos anos.

In his recent visit to six African countries (Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa) President Lula, biofuels, specifically ethanol, were high on the agenda. […] Brazil already has an accord with the United States in the area, signed during the Bush government. It foresees triangular technical cooperation, along the lines of the accord just signed between the European Union and Mozambique […]

Thus ethanol diplomacy has been consolidated in the last moments of foreign policy practice of President Lula. The gradual, but unstoppable, substitution of fossil fuels and the growing attention to climate issues will only strengthen this agenda in the future, which will help strengthen the presence of Brazil on the world stage […] With this scenario, whatever the electoral results this October, the continuity of this line of foreign policy is guaranteed for coming years.

Brazilian activists like the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) Alagoas have denounced this form of “diplomacy” during recent years. In a 2009 visit to Maputo for a conference on agrofuels (the word used to avoid the positive connotations of “bio”), CPT Alagoas said [pt]

Historicamente, a atividade sucroalcooleira no Brasil tem sido geradora de profundos desrespeitos aos direitos humanos e vem causando graves danos ao meio ambiente. Nos últimos anos, a expansão indiscriminada dos canaviais para produção de etanol - com o objetivo de atender as expectativas do mercado exterior - vem ampliando a super-exploração dos assalariados da cana e o aumento do número de trabalho análogo à escravidão. […]

Colocar o Brasil como um país chave na produção de energia renovável é fazer uma leitura superficial ou de resultado, é passar uma borracha no passado recente e criar uma falsa impressão que todos os impactos (econômicos, sociais e ambientais) foram superados e que o etanol produzido no Brasil é um combustível limpo. […]

Não podemos permitir que esse modelo de exploração seja exportado para a África nem para nenhum outro país do mundo.

Historically, sugarcane ethanol activity in Brazil has generated profound disrespect for human rights and has caused grave environmental damage. In recent years, the indiscriminate expansion of sugarcane production for ethanol - with the objective of fulfilling expectations of the international market - has broadening the super-exploitation of sugarcane wage laborers and has increased the amount of work analogous to slavery. […]

Positioning Brazil as a key country in the production of renewable energy is to make a superficial or results-oriented reading, it is to erase the recent past and to create a false impression that all of the impacts (economic, social and environmental) were overcome and that the ethanol produced in Brazil is a clean fuel. [..]

We cannot permit this model of exploitation to be exported to Africa, nor to any other country in the world.

The Mozambican blogsphere has yet to comment at any length on the trilateral accord. Yet the issue of ethanol has received some comment in the past, including from NGOs and social movements. The National Farmers Union (União Nacional de Camponeses, UNAC) recently posted an interview, Ismael Ossemane, says [pt]

Agora com o etanol e os agrocombustíveis começa uma maior busca por terra em Moçambique e a tendência é esta força por em prova a lei de terras. Então nos encontramos nesta situação: ainda há terras para os camponeses por causa do estágio de desenvolvimento do país, mas através da forma como começam a entrar as empresas, percebemos que, se hoje lutamos para defender a terra que temos, em breve começaremos a lutar para ter terra.

Now with ethanol and agrofuels, a greater demand for land in Mozambique commences and the trend is that this is testing the Land Law. So we find ourselves in this situation: there is still land for small farmers due to the stage of development in the country, but with the way companies are starting to come in, we can see that if today we are fighting to defend the land we have, soon we will begin to fight to have land at all.

It bears stating that the ethanol in question appears to be for the export market and likely will not solve Mozambique's own dependence on imported oil. In fact, the announcement of this accord came as gasoline retailers were threatening to raise prices and potentially fuel unrest in Maputo like that seen in February 2008 (see Global Voices coverage.)

By Ndesanjo Macha

Gregory Simpkins argues that African governments spend an average of US$4 billion a year to hire about 100,000 Western experts to handle functions, which could have been performed by the African professionals in the Diaspora.

By Karlo Mikhail Mongaya

Photo from the Flickr page of rickyli99

Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines, is now experiencing a water shortage crisis with millions enduring water supply rationing. Desperate for a bath, disgruntled residents have taken to breaking a water pipe in Malabon City. Filipino bloggers try to make sense of the crisis.

Blackshama's blog finds the fact this rationing is done during the rainy season worrisome.

August is historically the wettest month. Unless weather patterns change, next month may be the driest August. September is the last month of the wet season and then the dry begins. The only thing to be done is to lessen water use.

This shortage also came in the wake of the recent onslaught of the Typhoon “Basyang” (international codename: Conson). Window To my Soul is “going nuts” over the lack of water.

Wait, we do have water, btw. However, water pressure is too weak that it doesn't go up. It does not reach my room. My washroom does not have water. The faucets in it have not released a single drop since the storm [Typhoon Basyang]. So that's roughly 6 days of being waterless. I have to fetch water all the way down from the basement.

I am Hybrid Cha shares her own water shortage experience.

This is really pain for me, for all of us and I absolutely am extending my patience the farthest I could because I do not have any choice (smile!). Plates, utensils, pans and glasses unwashed, left in the kitchen sink overnight; not having a good and indulgent bath (since water arrives (arrives???) at 6 AM and leaves (leaves??? visitor it is!) around 1 PM) for work; I wanted to take a short and comfy shower (when I feel like it) but since there is no water well what can I do but endure that sticky and messy feeling. There are things that I so want to do, things that are part of my routine that I could no longer do these past few days (since Thursday evening, July 15th to be exact!) because water just would not cooperate.

Let's Go Pinoy also shares a personal experience which he thinks is connected to the water crisis.

although our faucets continue to provide our much-needed water supply, yesterday the water that was coming out was a light brown color! I thought at first it was from the dirty pail and washed it both inside and out and then after several rinses, I realized that it was the water itself. It's still that way this morning but not as brown. Because of this I didn't want to take my bath yesterday. But the heat and my stickiness from sweating got the better of me and I used the water to bathe.

Pinoy Buzz III recommends measures that the government can take to solve the water shortage problem in the long-run.

1. All buildings should be retrofitted so that it will be able to recycle the water it uses for its sinks and toilet bowls.

2. All buildings should start storing rainwater.

3. All commercial establishments and private residences must have a waste water treatment facility. Smaller establishments can opt to have a communal waste water treatment facility, larger establishments may have their own.

4. Ban the development of new golf courses and inland water resorts.

5. Start the construction of desalination plants…

6. Start the construction of water recovery facilities along the Pasig River and in Laguna de Bay.

According to the Radical's Nut, the water shortage crisis goes beyond the El Niño phenomenon and would not have been as bad “if not for structural issues related to the privatization of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) almost 13 years ago.”

Among the many promises made by the private water concessionaires and hyped by the then Ramos administration was upgrading the decrepit water system infrastructure. Such upgrade intends to substantially reduce non-revenue water (NRW, or water lost due to leaks and pilferage) and help achieve universal and 24/7 water supply for an increasing number of households. In their original concession agreement with MWSS, the private water firms promised to provide universal access by 2001.

But until today, less than 60 percent of 790,000 households in Maynilad’s service area have 24-hour water service while only 74 percent receive water at 7-pound per square inch (PSI) or stronger pressure (read here). More than half (53 percent) of water allocated to Maynilad continues to get wasted because of leaks and pilferage (read here)…

There is no available data that break down NRW into leaks and pilferage. But the continued pervasiveness of illegal connections may be explained by skyrocketing water bills due to full-cost recovery under water privatization. Since MWSS was privatized, Maynilad’s basic charge has already soared by 449 percent and Manila Water, by 845 percent. Put that in a situation of worsening job scarcity, stagnant wages and income, and rapid increases in the overall cost of living and you will get the picture.