So, Berlin has also played host to some of America’s greatest presidential speeches. In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” address:

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered his “Tear Down This Wall” speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, imploring the Soviet leader to end the Cold War:

And most recently, in July 2008, Barack Obama spoke to 200,000 Europeans about re-establishing transatlantic bonds in one of his most memorable campaign addresses:

Ivette Feliciano translated the following blog posts from Venezuela and Cuba:

From Profeballa, a Venezuelan blogger: “It’s been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, when will Venezuela’s wall come down? As I’ve said before, it will fall once more Venezuelans become aware of their rights and knock it down. When they destroy the mental wall that keeps us underdeveloped…”

From Elías Amor Bravo, an anti-communist political writer: “The fall of the Berlin wall 20 years ago is a very important event for all Cubans. We shared in their optimism and were happy to see how families were reunited after decades of communism that separated them. The fall also forced the Cuban government to make changes it never intended to make, due to the absence of political, ideological, and financial resources that formerly came to the Island from the USSR. The period after the fall of the wall allowed for the free circulation of money, the authorization of private activity, although it was under rigorous control, foreign investment, and tourism…It also allowed for Cubans on the island to have more contact with family members abroad, and in turn mobilized many to organize themselves as dissidents and opposed to the government, something formerly unheard of….”

A Berlin Wall commemorative stamp.

The Argentinian website INFOBAE makes note of the Cuban government’s reaction to the date: “The official press in Cuba will ignore the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. They only recognized and celebrated the 92nd anniversary of the October Lenin revolution…”

Gizem Yarbil notes an interesting story from The Wall Street Journal about a red deer called Ahornia refusing to cross the old Iron Curtain. Ahornia inhabits the area along the border that once separated West Germany from Czechoslovakia. This area is now part of Europe’s biggest nature preserve thriving with a lively combination of wild animals that roam freely across the once fortified border. But according to the article, Ahornia is the only species that stops and turns back once it reaches the barrier zone where once an electrified fence and barbed wire used to stand. It quotes a German producer of nature films who has worked in the area says, “The wall in the head is still there.”

Contributing blogger Vadim Nikitin writes about where nostalgia is the strongest for the former Soviet Union — the Global South. Read the full post here:

According to a BBC poll published on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, “Opinion about the disintegration of the Soviet Union is sharply divided. Europeans overwhelmingly say it was a good thing: 79% in Germany, 76% in Britain and 74% in France feel that way. But outside the developed West it is a different picture. Almost seven in 10 Egyptians say the end of the Soviet Union was a bad thing and views are sharply divided in India, Kenya and Indonesia”.

This despite the fact that India and Indonesia, as well as Russia, have experienced unprecedented levels of economic growth since 1991.

What could explain such nostalgia? One factor might be a general disenchantment with free-market capitalism:

“More than 29,000 people in 27 countries were questioned. In only two countries, the United States and Pakistan, did more than one in five people feel that capitalism works well as it stands. Almost a quarter - 23% of those who responded - feel it is fatally flawed. That is the view of 43% in France, 38% in Mexico and 35% in Brazil”.

Much of the global dissatisfaction with capitalism, the report suggests, stems from that system’s production and exacerbation of income inequality. While economies based on high growth models may produce more wealth as a whole, its distribution is skewed overwhelmingly in favor of a small minority.

Tokyo’s neighborhoods straddle between the need for modern development and the desire to maintain historical buildings and structures.

For instance, Fujiizaka, affectionately named “the slope for seeing Mount Fuji,” in the Nippori neighborhood, has been increasingly blocked by tall buildings that obstruct its view. Residents have banded together to push for preservation. The neighborhood cause is slowly gaining support as a growing desire to preserve historical places takes hold in Tokyo, reported the New York Times.

The city of Tokyo is geographically complex, with 8.5 million people living in 23 districts that span 620 kilometers.  The history of the city’s development is characterized by a continual process of restructuring and growth. It is a city that is renewed on average every twenty years, with few buildings surviving from the past.

This is due in part because as the capital of Japan since 1868, it has been used as a showcase for the Japanese modern age. It has also seen major development because of the need for new construction after World War II, earthquakes and the Olympics, according to the Goethe-Institut.

Chris Salzberg, a writer/translator living in Tokyo, Japan discusses the reaction to the recent development plan for the neighborhood of Shimokitazawa for Global Voices Online.

Tokyo has no lack of small, winding streets. Shibuya has its maze of criss-crossing shōtengai, Roppongi its club-lined back alleyways, Ueno its open-air street markets. But no neighborhood in Tokyo packs more complexity per square foot than Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood whose layout bears closer resemblance to a ball of thread than to anything an urban planner would come up with.

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Shimokitazawa’s spaghetti-like mess of streets and train lines evoke passion among some, frustration among others. The area has earned a name for itself as a breeding ground for creative young artists with its dozens of small theaters, art galleries and music venues. While eccentric characters like Rikimaru Toho fit perfectly into this urban environment, others see the maze of narrow streets as a dangerous fire hazard and a giant urban congestion knot in need of unwinding.

The entire area happens to lie in the path of a would-be thoroughfare running through Shimokitazawa to Shibuya, originally set forth in a “War damage revival plan” drafted all the way back in 1946. After several changes, that plan was brought back to life in 2003 and demolition and construction work has been slated to start in 2010. Should it be executed, the plan will split Shimokitazawa apart with a 26-meter wide expressway, Subsidiary Route 54 (補助54号線).

While the basic shape of those redevelopment plans had been known for some time, it was only a few weeks ago that the first glimpses of the new design finally emerged on the blog of Kuniyoshi Yoshida, a local landowner and head of the Shimokitazawa South [ja] shopowners’ union. Comments which began to appear on the blog, blasting the new design for its failure to respect the Shimokitazawa atmosphere, were swiftly deleted, but hostility against the plans only grew.

See this video of the streets of Shimokitazawa neighborhood below:

The Maldives, along with other islands such as Seychelles and Tuvalu, is organizing a series of activities and events to pressure the international community to take action. On Saturday it will hold an underwater cabinet meeting designed to highlight the danger Maldives faces from rising waters and rising temperatures.

Global Voices Online posted a roundup of blogs from Maldives explaining what the small island nation is doing to publicize the urgency of the issue.

One of the first major events, run by Avaaz.org, was a Global Climate Wake-Up Call on Septemer 21 in Malé, the capital of Maldives.

The International Day of Climate Action, coordinated by 350.org, will be on October 24. Among the events of that day: 350 grounded motor vehicles and a 350 kilowatt reduction in energy consumption in Malé.

“350″ signifies the safe upper limit (in parts per million) for carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere. The current level is 389 ppm. Vroomfondel explains the movement’s goals:

By having actions all around the world that day, 350.org plans to send a clear message to the world leaders (who will be meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark this December to craft a new global treaty on cutting emissions) that ‘the solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis.’

In addition, the Maldives Photographers Association together with the Maldives Science Society is planning to send 350 unique postcards to 350 world leaders and personalities who will be attending the Copenhagen conference (COP15).

350Postcards distributed a compelling YouTube promotional video for the photo campaign:

Zim, a blogger and diving instructor, describes the underwater rally and subsequent underwater cabinet meeting:

One of the key events on the international day of action is the 24 hour Underwater Rally organized by the Divers Association of Maldives (DAM). 350 divers, diving in teams are going to spend 24 hours underwater. The message DAM is giving is that Maldives is sinking and it’s more than just a country being lost to the sea. A unique heritage is gone. An irreplaceable ecosystem is being destroyed…

The President of Maldives along with all the cabinet ministers are going to meet underwater while using scuba. Using hand signals and slates they are going to endorse and sign a message from the people of Maldives to the world leaders meeting at Copenhagen this December for the Conference of Parties (COP 15)…

We are on the edge. With just a couple of steps forward Maldives along with a number of other vulnerable countries will be lost beneath the waves. We ask everybody not to sign our suicide pact.

Climate change NGO Bluepeace explains in a blog why the world should pay attention to “Vulnerable,” a photo exhibition in Maldives:

As one of the lowest-lying countries in the world, Maldives is particularly vulnerable to climate change. The proliferation of images in today’s internet age is such that Maldives is known the world over as a stunning holiday destination. While Maldives has been the subject of many documentaries and news articles regarding climate change, to date no documentary has been produced by Maldivians for an international audience. This is a chance for Maldives to show vulnerability to the world as seen through our eyes.

Lastly, a Maldivian blogger Fenfulhangi asks some key questions about the December conference:

Will the new [Maldividan] President Mohammed Nasheed attend the [Copenhagen] summit with the talks of lack of funding in the government budget?

As one of the major contributors to Climate Change and its adverse effects, will the USA sign onto the new document that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol that USA previously refused to sign onto?

Will there be same or harsher penalties for developing countries that emit large amounts of CO2 or will it be the richer countries who pay?

Victims of the September 28th events in Conakry.

A number of Western governments have stepped up their condemnations of recent violence and brutality in Guinea.

An estimated 157 died last week as government troops shot demonstrators who were voicing their disapproval of military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara’s decision to become a candidate in January’s elections.

On Monday, a senior U.S. diplomat arrived in Guinea to scold the embattled regime for cracking down on the massive September 28th political protest in Conakry, the capital.

The U.S. envoy met with Captain Camara for two hours, blaming him personally for the violence and instructing him not to run in the upcoming elections.

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has urged international intervention and said that France would no longer work with the dictator.

But, for his part, Captain Camara defended the actions of his soldiers in an interview with a dozen foreign journalists yesterday night.

The government blames the opposition for the large death toll.

Senegalese French-language daily newspaper
Le Messager described Camara as having “responded to the reporters’ questions…with pleasure.” The article gives a detailed account of Camara blaming the opposition for the riots and subsequent deaths:

He placed responsibility for the killings on the political leaders who organized the demonstrations, despite the protest ban. [Camara] declared that the protesters “attacked police buildings…and burned cars. These are leaders who have told children to go take up arms.”

[Camara continued], “That was a plot against me. It failed. The opposition believed that their protest would provoke the security forces to crack down on the civilian population, and that afterward, I would be overthrown. It was premeditated.”

But the photo evidence may be stacked against Guinea’s leader. An article in Monday’s New York Times describes three cellphone snapshots of the sexual violence committed against women:

One photograph shows a naked woman lying on muddy ground, her legs up in the air, a man in military fatigues in front of her. In a second picture a soldier in a red beret is pulling the clothes off a distraught-looking woman half-lying, half-sitting on muddy ground. In a third a mostly nude woman lying on the ground is pulling on her trousers.

According to human rights groups, the rape toll was staggering, and Guinea’s women seem to have borne the brunt of the military’s repression.

Blogger Laura Sjoberg, a political scientist at the University of Florida, analyzes the riots from a female perspective:

There’s an obvious point for those who would see [international relations] through gendered lenses here: women’s rights. What happened to the women who were raped in Guinea is terrible, fraught with gender subordination, violent, and should never happen to anyone ever again.

It would be a mistake for gender analysis of this situation and the news stories portraying it to stop there, however.

Through gender lenses, I’m interested in the question of how it came to be that “rape is a fairly common tool of military repression” (the article adds “in Africa,” but most research on wartime rape shows that the prevalence of rape as a weapon of war is not geographically or culturally limited). What is it about rape that makes it an effective tool of repression and war-fighting?

Conakry residents load a minibus. Flickr photo: martapiqs under a Creative Commons license.

Almost one year after a bloodless coup in December 2008 — during which Captain Moussa Dadis Camara took power several hours after the death of Guinea’s 24-year leader — violence has begun to rock the West African nation’s capital city of Conakry.

The regime’s forces stormed a political rally held on Monday at a football stadium and dispersed the crowd of some 50,000 using tear gas and gunshots. Human rights groups have called for security forces to halt its violent crackdown on political dissidents.

The authoritarian military ruler had pledged to restore civilian rule 60 days after seizing power, but elections have been delayed until 2010.

Protesters are demonstrating against Captain Camara’s presumed candidacy in the elections. A recent announcement proclaimed that the current ruling military council also intends to run.

Human Rights Watch quotes one witness describing the actions of security personnel:

I saw the Red Berets [an elite unit within the military] catch some of the women who were trying to flee, rip off their clothes, and stick their hands in their private parts. Others beat the women, including on their genitals. It was pathetic –- the women were crying out.

Blogger Konngol Afirik (translated here from the original French) also blames the elite Red Beret units for the violence:

Though the junta banned all demonstrations, the “Forces Vives” decided to have it anyway…The Red Berets are known for blind cruelty. Most of the dead and wounded fell at the hands of this elite unit better equipped and paid than the regular army…

Two of the main opposition leaders, Cellou Dalein Diallo and Sydia Toure, are among the wounded. Once again, the African Union and CEDEAO and their international partners are revealed as ineffective against this putsch leader, who is ready to walk on corpses to remain in power.

Worldfocus contributing blogger Ethan Zuckerman writes in his blog, My heart’s in Accra, that the African Union, which refuses to recognize military governments, should encourage Guinea to hold elections as soon as possible:

What’s been interesting for me, in the short term, is watching the few comments mentioning #Guinea on Twitter are focusing on media coverage. Nasser Weddady, outreach director for HAMSA [Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance], offered this tweet a couple of hours ago: “In plain English: screw #Polanski, I am more interested in what’s happening in #Guinea than that fugitive pervert.” It’s been retweeted several times, reflecting either a frustration at media coverage, or simply that lack of any other news out of Guinea at this point…

How Guinea could have emerged as a major power based on its (bauxite) mineral wealth is a sad, familiar, important and insufficiently understood story.

- Ben Piven

In Pakistan, in cities like Lahore, Eid means neon-lit and food-fueled street fairs long into the night.

Amna Nawaz, an International Reporting Project fellow in Lahore, reports on how Pakistanis  - including her own family - view the holiday.

At the blog “All Things Pakistan,” a Worldfocus contributor, readers weighed in on the meaning of Eid.

Aziz said:

Eid is…when you forget all differences and ask for forgiveness from Allah as well as each other. For Allah will forgive your sins towards Allah but not towards mankind until you seek forgiveness from the ones you hurt.
Eid is…when a bunch of teenagers get on motor cycles and go to Tariq Road to hang out and watch people shop

Roshan adds:

Eid is…when you wear new clothes and go to mosque for prayers
Eid is…when you hug people praying around and greet everyone in the community
Eid is…when you eat Saviyaan/Sheer-Khurma prepared by loving mothers
Eid is…when girls are wearing bangles with having artistic hina designs on their hands
Eid is…when you have feast at your home and children are having lot of fun
Eid is…when you visit your friends and families to exchange greetings.

Zia M says:

Eid Mubarak to all…
Eid is remembering the less privileged ones.

Alessandra Baldini, the New York bureau chief of the Italian news agency ANSA, joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss how Italians view the war in Afghanistan and the Obama administration.

Worldfocus producer Channtal Fleischfresser translated the following comments posted on the Web site of the Italian daily La Stampa, where there was a vigorous debate over Italy’s role and mission in NATO’s Afghanistan coalition.

Mozart 2006 said:
Six people died? I’m sorry. They are soldiers, they knew they were going to Afghanistan and not to Club Med. They knew what they would earn and what they would risk. They were VOLUNTEERS…. They died. Peace be upon their souls, and condolences to their families. But please, don’t associate me with this “our boys” rhetoric. They are not mine.

GC said:
If the Americans had left in 1943 at the first deaths. Hitler would have won. Or Stalin. Today the Taliban would win, and they would not be content only with Afghanistan.

MARCO V. said:
What would make the most sense would be to stay, employing an exit strategy… out of what at this point is becoming a senseless conflict: you can’t export democracy.
Oil cannot justify everything.

Gianfranco Lepore said:
Bring them home immediately and enough with the so-called “peace missions,” please! We should send these enormous sums of money to earthquake zones or any other cause, and stop calling these poor people who lost their lives martyrs: they were mercenaries and they knew they were risking their lives.

…Some 1000 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of the year: no one cares about them!

Elisas said:
There’s not a lot of sense in staying to be targets for the Taliban… At this point it’s better to return home. It’s a senseless mission: you can’t bring democracy to those who don’t want it.

By Monday, security forces had restored order and Kampala was relatively calm — but the turmoil points to mounting tensions ahead of the Uganda’s 2011 election.

Several radio stations were shut down following the outbreak of violence. Watch a video exploring the riots from Kenyan television channel NTV:

Twitter users in Uganda — including UgInsomniac and solomonking –  have been providing updates on the situation using the hashtag #kampala.

Zehra Rizvi — Twitter user zehrarizvi — describes her experience using the micro-blogging service during the riots:

The real power of tweeting came to me during the last few days of rioting we’ve had in Kampala. [...]

I went out to the office and was driving in eerily quiet streets (it’s just a ten minute drive) and was standing in the office and all of a sudden heard a rat ta tat tat. No one else really blinked, so I was like, hmm, OK, my imagination. Second time I heard the sound, I was like, umm, guys, what’s that? Answer: Police firing live rounds into crowds to disperse them. [...]

I came home and tweeted about it. Just one message. And all of a sudden, got a response from someone I didn’t know. How @UgInsomniac found my tweet, was a mystery to me but then I saw the hash tag. I did a search on Kampala on twitter and was plugged in BIG time to everything. I spent the next day and a half glued to twitter and watched as the Kampala stories came flooding in.

It was incredible. There has been a media blackout and the only way for me and lots of others, including major newspapers to follow what was going on was through twitter. [...] And it’s not that it was just news flowing in. It was about the community of news and the support I felt from everyone who was tweeting. We were all in it together.

Blogger “Sarah” at “The Malans in Uganda” described the scene on Friday:

I was at the office this morning. I had an interview scheduled so I had to go. While I was interviewing the guy, shots were ringing out and police cars were hurtling up and down the roads, sirens blaring. The poor guy was terrified!!!! Not sure if it was the interview or the fact that he had to make his way back home through all the problem areas.

View photos taken by riot observers and an interactive map aggregating reports of rioting and violence at the Web site Uganda Witness.

A blogger at “Paradox Uganda” explores the background of the violence and muses about the future:

My reading of the president is that he has been decidedly anti-tribal, making every effort to unify the sense of identity of his people. But he’s also accused of favoring his own people, the Banyankole.

The reaction of these few uncertain days has revealed that the latent tribalism is close to the surface, ready to blow. There are some disturbing parallels to Kenya in 2008, or Rwanda in 1994, though nothing here has happened on those scales yet. One big difference is that Uganda has an intact and functional government and military who are acting to stop rather than increase violence. The root issue seems to be the insecurity of living too close to the edge of survival, the nagging doubt that the world just may require that one kill or be killed, grab or go without.

President Museveni has been accused of interfering in Buganda kingdom matters. Photo: IRIN

Blogger “Rhino” expresses concern for the country’s future, asking fellow citizens to “wake up to reality”:

[O]ur greatest enemy is apathy. There is a lot of it out there and it saddens me. When the riots were underway, I took a breather from my duties as a citizen journalist and had a chat with my friends. I could not believe how unconcerned they all were. It seemed as if the chaos did not have anything to do with them. I told them that this violence represented far bigger concerns that just Mengo and the government. I told them that there is a lot of bitterness out there and any self respecting citizen should pay attention. There were reports that some people were being targeted because they had “long noses” which meant that they hailed from lands other than Buganda. The tribal and religious divisions among us threaten to lead to chaotic times not dissimilar to those of ages past and there is no doubt that the government has enacted policies that have greatly exacerbated this problem. It has become clear that fragmentation of the country has served little else than prop up the ruling party and benefit the well connected while the ordinary Ugandan slips further into poverty and desperation. We must all wake up to reality; we can no longer afford to be indifferent. Even those of you who have no desire to engage in partisan politics should realise that it is up to us the people to fix our nation. Our leaders can only do so much if each one of us does not give to the other the very rights we reserve for ourselves. People have died, let their lives not go unnoticed; let us learn from these things. Let us remember the dead.

A blogger at “Gay Uganda” writes that though peace has returned, tensions remain:

Peace, calm has returned to Kampala.

Oh, I dont doubt that the armoured personell carriers (mambas) are still patrolling the city. I dont doubt that there are thousands of plain clothes intelligence people mingling with the cautious crowds. They are there. And we know it, and so we have to be cautious. [...]

And the Baganda? Bitterness. Angered, bitter.

Blogger “Rogue King” writes that the peace is much too fragile:

I also believe that it is too early to say life is back to normal. It’s a very delicate standoff, and any wrong move by either side could spark off fresh (and possibly worse) violence.

As always, we can only hold our breath and wait.

Although consumers usually expect prices to increase during the month of fasting, the commodity’s dramatic rise has caused ire towards politicians and sugar mill owners. Anita McNaught of Al Jazeera English reports on the sugar shortage during the holy month of Ramadan when sugar and sweets are such an important part of life.

Sana Saleem is a 21-year-old  Pakistani working for a British publication in Karachi. In her analysis of the sugar crisis, she points out:

The ritual price hike before Ramadan starts is quite normal and expected. Every year a massive price hike is seen in food items and various goods just before the start of Ramadan. Quite interestingly, this is justified as a ‘business tactic’ to get maximum profit at the time people are bound to store in food items. Ironic but true. However, the recent price hike in ‘sugar’ prices has been termed as a ‘Sugar Crisis’ by Pakistani Authorities and media outlets. If inquired regarding the sudden increase in prices the local stores point fingers at the lack of supply and an increase wholesale rate, which is then directly affecting the retail market. So how does one figure out the sugar imbroglio? A significant raise in prices -up to Rs.20- just before the peak consumption time seems absurdly convenient.

Changing Up Pakistan is written by the head the social investment wing of ML Resources, a small private investment firm. The author gives a very thorough explanation of the natural and artificial causes of the sugar crisis:

The current year saw a natural decrease in sugar production. In general, farmers, like others, only produce crops that give them maximum profit. In 2008-09, the current government increased the wheat price to Rs 950 (minimum price) to encourage farmers to grow wheat. This was an attractive incentive and resulted in attracting non growers to grow wheat (as it is profitable). As a result, sugarcane farmers switched to wheat production which resulted in a drop in sugarcane production.

Moreover, over the past decade, sugar cane production has declined because of the naturally difficult/negative constitution of the sugar market. Numerous specialists state that farmers have decreased the total area under production due to water shortage, behavior of the mill’s management, late payments, increased input cost, and diseases and rodent attack. They especially blame mill owners for late and/or no payments to farmers and limited irrigation water that make the farmers reluctant to grow the crop. Hence, these two factors have naturally reduced the supply of sugar by 15 to 20 percent compared to last year.

Moreover, in the International Market, Brazil and India are the biggest sugar producers in the world. In 2008-09, these two producers faced adverse weather conditions that resulted in a natural reduction in the global supply. Hence, the global price of sugar sky rocketed as well.

Prior to Ramadan, like any other year, wholesalers and mill owners have been accused of hoarding sugar. By limiting supplies, they artificially created a shortage. The main reason is profit. Mill owners buy sugar cane before December because crushing season lasts four months (December to March). Approx 38 to 40 lakh tons of sugar cane is crushed (this is the whole annual supply). The processed sugar is then kept in warehouse or sold to wholesalers. Hence, these mill owners and wholesales are key suppliers and have a monopoly over supply and thus control prices. As they are aware of higher demand before Ramadan, they deliberately withhold supply to manipulate higher prices and profits and hence artificially reduce the supply of sugar in Pakistan.

Another Pakistani blogger, Hassan Khan, writes in his Sugarphobia post that a cabal of business and political interests are colluding to generate maximum profit from the current economic turmoil:

Pakistan has approximately 80 sugar mills. Most of them owned by investors and politicians. Level of hypocrisy is that before Ramzan, they have started stocking sugar and its price from Rs 38 per kg jumped to Rs 54. It always looks bad when you switch a Pakistani news channels but worst when such crises is on its peak and a minister is briefing press that due to increase in international prices of sugar, sugar prices are increasing in the Pakistan.

Watch World Remembers Beginning of World War II, a report by English-language TV station Russia Today highlighting the difficult history between Russia and Poland.

Vladimir Lensky, the New York bureau chief for Russia’s Channel One, discusses Russia’s role and responsibility in World War Two.

In a Russian language blog on Moscow radio station Echomoscow’s website, writer Sergei Shagunov comments on Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent article in a Polish newspaper about the Soviet-Nazi pact to split up Poland in 1939.

Read the full post here in Russian. The following excerpts were translated from by Worldfocus producer Christine Kiernan.

It is frequently necessary to disagree with Vladimir Putin, but in his article published in the newspaper “Vyborcha” [the Polish newspaper], there are strivings for objectivity. Today this is rare thing. Of course [even-handedness] is possibly only when there is open discussion. …The 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War is reason for a sharp, honest, difficult conversation.

Poland was up until the end a [partner] of Hitler, participating in the invasion of Czechoslovakia… and its minister of foreign affairs Bek spoke about pretensions to Soviet Ukraine… It’s necessary to remember that England France from the beginning shut their eyes over Germany’s armament, then gave Czechoslovakia to her, and finally, drew out and [ruined] Moscow discussions about the creation, together with the USSR, of an anti-German coalition. So Hitler broke the East. ..

Yes, the Soviet Union was totalitarian. But even totalitarian states have their own interests…..For example, interests of safety.

A simple question: was it necessary to sign an amoral supplement to the Soviet-German pact?

Everyone was amoral, including Poland. Everyone is guilty in the war. To different degrees? Perhaps. But all the same – guilty.

Writing in the UK’s The Guardian, Anita Prazmowska says that despite Putin’s subsequent efforts to praise Polish bravery during the war, the timing of his comments will strike many Poles as misplaced. Read the full post here.

1 September is seen in Poland as a beginning of its enslavement, first under Nazi domination and then, after the war, to Soviet domination. 1 September is a time of grieving. One can’t really expect Poles to see this as a date for reflection on the shortcomings of their own governments’ policies in 1939 and subsequently. Thus Putin has on the one hand accepted that the Soviet Union was wrong, but he has also publicly reminded the Poles that they too have to address some unsavory moments in Poland’s history. The fact that he spoke of the Russian people being victims of both Stalinism and of Nazism has done little to soothe Polish anger.

Fires in Athens.

Massive fires near Athens have forced thousands of Greeks to flee their homes, destroying roughly 37,000 acres of forest. Firefighters have been battling to contain the blaze for days.

Two years ago, Greece faced its most deadly fire in recent memory, which killed 65 people. In the aftermath, the government was criticized for its lack of coordination and preparation.

Blogger “Zeta Zizou” mourns the Pendeli mountain, a casualty of numerous fires:

Today the skies are not orange or grey. They are dark, but you can see the blue
The fires have eaten all the mountain of Penteli, everything that I hold dear as it is part of the place I grew up.

Pendeli has been burnt down many times. Various locations. In 1998 I remember I was one of the volunteers trying to save what I could only to run with new fire fronts exploding behind me with flames reaching more than 40m. I was trying to free the anmals from the abandoned houses. I was trying to water the roofs. Some was saved

Well, not any more. The entire mountain of Pendeli is now gone. From Marathon to Palea Pendeli. Well, the rocks are still there, they will be there till the end of time. Everything else is gone. Everything that has anything to do with life.

Of course I can not say that I did not expect that. But not this biblical catastrophy. Pendeli should not have been inhabited. Some very old neighborhoods, especially the hospitals and the monasteries have good reason to be there. But all these areas should not exist. Pendeli ought to belong to its forrest, to its rabbits, wolves, foxes, eagles, ducks, wildboar etc. None of that exist now as Man has burned it down so many times.

View an interactive map of the current fires.

In this amateur video from YouTube user mourmouranews, watch firemen attempt to battle the flames:

Blogger “John Psaropoulos” observes efforts to fight the fires:

I saw the ease with which wood re-inflames itself off Pendeli Square, in the eastern suburbs. Fire reached the front yards of houses off the square in the middle of the day. It nestled in some piles of dead wood in an untended plot and jumped from there to the branches of a large Aleppo pine.

A fire truck put it out once, followed by a municipal water tanker a second time. It reignited yet a third. It was left to a few young men and women with buckets of water and branches to carry on the fight.

One of them climbed a ladder and took a saw to a flaming branch. It was too thick to cut. Another climbed up with a bucket of water and doused the limb. But it was a small victory in a small yard. Around the volunteers smoke filled the air and helitankers circled overhead like angry wasps in an orange sky, a reminder that the size of this task requires superhuman machinery.

[...] Inevitably after these fires people argue about how they started and whether the fire service strategised its response well. But the key question is what is being done to prevent them. Why forest floors are not cleared, dead wood cut away from trees and networks of early warning heat sensors installed in the forest are the questions the government has to answer.

In another video from YouTube user oposoum, residents are seen trying to quench the fire with buckets and spades:

A blogger at “Devious Diva” blames the government for not making changes in the aftermath of the 2007 fire:

It’s just criminal what is happening.There are not enough fire engines, firefighters, planes, helicopters… not enough of anything. What happened to the promises made two years ago ? Where are the firebreaks ? Where are the new planes? Why has it taken the government two days to declare a state of emergency so that Greece can get help from other countries ? We have about three hours of flying time left (firefighting planes can’t function in the dark) and then the residents of these areas are on the own with the few professionals they are “lucky” enough to have nearby.

It’s tragic and unbelievable.

I am sitting here shaking with rage at the lack of foresight the authorities have shown and at the downright lies that people were told after the huge wildfires in 2007.

It’s disgusting.

And you know what’s even more disgusting ? No matter how this all turns out. No matter how many injuries and even deaths. No matter how many homes and businesses are burned.

Absolutely NOTHING will be done to prevent this happening again.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user superbilly16v under a Creative Commons license.

Should governments make laws about how to punish children? Or it is a private matter?

In a nationwide non-binding referendum that ended on Friday, nearly 88 percent of New Zealanders voted “NO” when asked this question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offense?”

There is already a law on the books in New Zealand that prohibits parents from hitting their children. Some parents think the law is intrusive and that this form of discipline is a private family matter.

The government has said that the existing law will not be changed.

Should governments make laws about how to punish children? Or it is a private matter? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

New Zealand bloggers weighed in on the issue.

Kiwi blogger Kelvin Hartnall takes issue with the language of the referendum:

My first complaint is with the unnecessary adjective ‘good’; how can ‘good’ parenting be wrong? To see the effect of this word, just try rereading the question by placing a negative adjective in this place such as ‘abusive’.

My second complaint is with the word ‘smack’ in the question. My issue is that this word doesn’t actually appear in the Act at all. In this question it helps conjure up a loving gentle smack on the bottom. The Act was passed to prevent physical assaults on children that would be prosecutable if the child was an adult.

Blogger “KiwiPolitico” explains why s/he voted yes to overturn the smacking ban:

I voted yes because I believe smacking children is wrong.

I voted yes because I want to reaffirm that the Christian right do not speak for me. Many many (many) Christians in New Zealand believe, as I do, that smacking is wrong.

I voted yes because countless people gained the signatures of 300,000 voters to give me the opportunity to say out loud what I believe.

I voted yes because I want to live in a country where children are hugged, held, comforted, and raised to be non-violent adults.

At a Facebook group urging a “NO” vote, “Bart” writes:

It demotes Parents from being the highest authority in their childrens lives and devalues the role of parents in the family, and the family is the cornerstone of civilised society.

It leaves children without guidance, a quick smack is effective at communicating without resorting to emotional blackmail and other methods which are actually more damaging and have a longer lasting “scaring” effect.

It supposes that behaviour (if it is bad, but it’s not when done normally in loving correction) can be changed by legislation. If it is such a good thing to not smack (for the correct reasons) then why is there not several years of education instead of the intrusive law telling good parents how to bring up their own children.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Stephen Poff under a Creative Commons license.

The incident over Lockerbie, Scotland, shortly before Christmas 1988 killed all 259 people on board and another 11 on the ground. Authorities said they freed the man because he is dying of cancer. The U.S. government has condemned the release.

Did the Scottish authorities make the right decision? Please tell us what you think in the comments section below.

In the following video released by the Scottish government, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill explains his decision to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi and answers questions about how the move will impact relations with the U.S.

Families of the victims decried the release, as seen in this video from the Associated Press:

British blogger Iain Dale condemns the release:

Ministers are appointed to make decisions, and today Kenny MacAskill made the wrong one. [...]

Showing compassion is a laudable character trait. [...] This may sound hard and heartless, but I the only emotions I feel towards al-Megrahi are contempt and anger. His failure to comprehend the magnitude of his crimes and say sorry to those affected by them should have meant that he died in the place he belongs. Prison.

Scottish politician Calum Cashley defends MacAskill and takes offense at criticisms of the justice system:

This was no easy decision to make but the decency and humanity of Kenny MacAskill shone through today when lesser politicians were taking cheap shots in the hope of getting their names in the papers and were talking the Scottish justice system down in the process. Our Justice Secretary raised Scotland today. Judge our society by the way we treat the weakest members of it, by the way we welcome those in need, and by the way we treat those who have wronged us. Judge us by the way we act as a society and, now, know that compassion has a place at the heart of justice in Scotland, that justice here is tempered with mercy. Release on compassionate grounds is not unknown in Scottish justice - it’s part of the standard practice - but when the man who has been found guilty of committing such a terrible crime in our land can find mercy at the hands of our justice system we can think the system worthy of the name.

Steve Holmes, a minister in Scotland, explores varying reactions in the U.S. and U.K.:

The news reports I have heard suggest that the notion that he might be freed is being greeted with simple incredulity in the USA. The breadth of condemnation from across the Atlantic is striking: it is not confined to (families of) victims, or to social conservatives, but seems to be almost universal (Democratic senators have intervened publicly, and Hilary Clinton has been reported to have been involved).

Is Britain – specifically in this case Scotland – just more liberal than the USA? Actually, probably it is, but I don’t think that this is the reason for the divide in this case. Rather, our understandings of what words like ‘guilt’ and ‘justice’ mean are culturally-determined, and somewhat different. To us, dying in prison seems a cruel and unusual punishment, and so essentially unjust; it seems that the default assumption in the USA is that sentences should be served, and so that any relaxation is unjust.

Shah Rukh Khan’s name came up on a computer alert list and he was then questioned at length. Khan, a Muslim, was in the U.S. to promote a film, “My Name is Khan,” that explores the racial profiling of Indian Muslims living in the U.S. after 9/11.

Following the incident — which was widely reported in the Indian media — several of Khan’s supporters gathered in India to protest, and some burned an American flag. View a video of protests in New Delhi courtesy of YouTube user midday:

Was Khan’s detainment the result of insensitive racial profiling, or was the actor simply accustomed to India’s VIP culture?

Worldfocus asked Nitin Govil — an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego and the co-author of “Global Hollywood” — for his thoughts on how the incident has been perceived in India:

For much of his career, Shah Rukh has rather carefully avoided putting his Muslim identity at the forefront. This is why his forthcoming film “My Name is Khan” is so interesting given the context of his stardom in India.

Responses in India have varied from protests to the burnings of U.S. flags, condemnations by high-ranking Indian politicians, celebrities, cricketers and other public figures, to a kind of “what else can one expect in America” kind of attitude that confirms what most around the world think about the U.S. policy on travel and detention.

Given that all Indians have a deep familiarity with bureaucracy in their everyday lives, there has been a general sense that a short questioning period for Khan might have been alright, but that U.S. authorities clearly took things too far. Although Khan has called for folks back home not to, in his words, “take things too far,” at the same time, many think that he has quite smartly used the incident as a way to promote the new film as well as the issues it addresses.

NDTV, a leading English-language news channel in India, covered the incident — calling it “a huge, huge embarrassment” — and spoke with Khan:

Comments on an Indian social networking site, iTimes, reflected the smattering of opinion in India:

Gayatri Goswami writes:
This is no joke people. Shah Rukh Khan is the biggest movie star in India, a country of 1.3 billion people, thereby making him the biggest movie star in the world. I’m struggling to find a comparable here in the US. No offense to Will Smith or Matt Damon or Pitt, Cruise, Clooney, Angelina or whomever else you can think of, but they all pale in comparison.The detention was shameful and U.S should apologize, they better

Dilnaz Seth writes:
i think U.S should apologize, but why r we making so much of noise abt it, because it is SRK, there are so many innocent muslims with surname Khan who go through this everyday, what about them, do we care for all or just the celebs

Kaushik Sanyal writes:
Hey guys, I think India should learn that, “VIP treatments” which are part of everyday life in India, does not happen in other parts of the world. Even, ex-president of USA Al Gore has to go through security checks in US airports ! I don’t know why SRK is making such a big issue out of it or so called patriotic Indians are raising such a noise ! Everyday in our lives, we see or meet people who takes advantage of their VIP status in India and resent that - why should it be different in this case. I am no USA lover but I recognize the fact that a small time Immigration official can insist to follow the rule book. I hope it also happens in India.

Rragijav Achar writes:
I feel appreciating the US for talking this step. They have given the highest level of interest to their countrymen, unlike India. Wake up India, the US doing the right stuff so only they could stop the terror in their country. Imagine India how many times this happened with us and what actions we have taken against it. They have full rights to do so, as they consider their countrymen as their biggest asset. Count how many times the underworld dons escaped from the hands of Indian government and image what would have US done if the same thing had happened. Think out of the box. Wake up India wake up… it’s time for tight security… I would appreciate if India takes similar actions against each and every person enters and exits India.

Comments about Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) — some calling the system “evil” or “Orwellian” –  have drawn the attention of many U.K. residents, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who this week joined a Twitter campaign to defend health care in his country.

Andrew Clark, the New York correspondent for The Guardian, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how Britons view the U.S. health care debate.

Below, read comments from British bloggers who defend their health care system.

For more on alternative health care systems around the world, see the Worldfocus signature series “Health of Nations.”

British Twitter users have launched a campaign to defend the NHS, using the hashtag #welovethenhs.

Gordon Brown was among the many who participated in the campaign, tweeting:

PM:NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there

Another Twitter user, Andrew Learmouth in Aberdeen, writes:

I’d be dead, my mum’d be dead and my dad wouldn’t be getting a new knee if it wasn’t for the NHS. Worth every penny

Geraldine in the U.K. chimes in:

went private when I was rich, used NHS when I’ve been poor. No diff in level of care whatever. Happy to pay taxes for it.

Steve Ince in East Yorkshire adds:

Many of my family would have no quality of life without the wonderful work of the NHS and the hardworking staff. Thanks!!!

Bloggers, too, shared their experiences with Britain’s health care. Gareth Wyn in Stockwell, London, explains his own reasons for supporting the NHS:

The American Right seem to be getting their knickers in a twist, all over the fact that the Obama Administration wants to provide them with a basic level of health care and that the NHS is so bad that people are being left to die in hospitals. [...]

I suspect that no one would claim that the NHS is perfect but it saved my life and that of my mother when I was born, it was fabulous when my grandparent were alive and even when they were near death. My mother, father, uncles have all had fabulous treatment for cancer related illness, I’ve had wisdom teeth extracted, a number of surgical procedures, all for free. I am able to call the doctor at 8.30 to make an appointment, and will have seen him and be in work by 10.30. Cost nothing except my tax payments. In fact I would be happy to pay a bit more tax if it meant an even better service.

Blogger Sarah in Cambridge shares her own experience:

Word of this is getting around - apparently in order to discredit the, as I understand it, somewhat limited reforms that President Obama is proposing for the US’s very expensive, and not all that effective health care system, right wing pundits in the US have been using the NHS as a scare story about all the bad things that can happen under “socialised medicine”.

I want to make a personal point. When I was eight years old I was walking home from school one day. An illegally parked truck was blocking my view along the road. I edged out to look round, and at that moment I’m told someone stepped out from one of the garden gates on the opposite side. A car which was travelling along the road swerved to avoid them, and narrowly missed the truck I was peering out from round.

I experienced this as a screeching of brakes, at which point I guess I must have had a ton of adrenaline dumped into my system. I came to rest on my back [...] I felt a pain more intense than anything I’ve ever experienced in my stomach - far more pain than an eight year old should have to deal with. I looked up to see a circle of faces looking down at me.

In due course an ambulance arrived. It took my to the Chesterfield Royal Hospital where I spent a week on the Nightingale Children’s ward in a lot of pain, being fed through an IV line in my arm, feeling deeply sorry for myself.

Through all of this there were no insurance companies involved, nobody ever asked how the x-rays, the doctors, the medicine, the bed, etc. were to be paid for, no questions were ever asked about whether we had “coverage”, they just sent an ambulance, took me into hospital, looked after me for a week, and got me back in a fit state to be sent home. When I was eight years old the system the US right wing wants to portray as some kind of socialist dystopian disaster simply did its job and saved my life.

So yeah, thanks for that NHS, and don’t believe everything you see on the television, especially if there are political lobbyists involved.

An American blogger living in London compares the U.S. and U.K. health care systems:

I figured I could add some of my own experience with NHS since I moved to London.  Like most Americans exposed to anti-socialist rants on the poor quality of socialized healthcare, I was a bit wary and skeptical.   Would I be waiting in line for hours?  Could I trust the quality of care? Would the system be unnavigable and complicated?  Fortunately, my experience was quite the contrary.

I felt it was important to share this after reading and watching some of the anti-healthcare reform initiatives spreading back home.  The system is efficient, provides satisfactory care and it’s FREE.  Totaling up everything I’ve had done since my arrival here, I probably would have had to pay around $2,000 back home

Clinton visited a clinic and a large refugee camp in the eastern town of Goma, where she pledged $17 million to deal with sexual abuse.

Severinne Autesserre, an assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the conflict in Congo and how the country’s government and people will respond to Clinton’s message.

Watch the Worldfocus signature video “Rape as a weapon of war in DR Congo” and see our extended coverage of the crisis in Congo.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about Clinton’s mission: Clinton must call for an end to Congo’s media censorship

A blogger at “Texas in Africa” writes an open letter to Hillary Clinton:

I think it’s great that you’re headed [to Goma]. You have to get out of Kinshasa to understand the country and its governance problems, and you will not understand the conflict in full — or how pitiful and inadequate the international response to it is — without going to the east and meeting some of the victims. [...] You will meet little girls who’ve been gang raped by soldiers and who can no longer talk or feed themselves. You’ll see mothers and their children who live in a kind of poverty that does not compare with what you see in Kenya or South Africa or Ghana or any of the places you’ve previously visited on the continent.

Remind yourself that this is the norm in eastern Congo. [...] You will not be the same after hearing their stories. But the people of the Congo don’t need you to see and be shocked by their situation. They need you to do something. They need you to go beyond the rhetoric. So I am begging you: please make this trip different.

Blogger “Marcel,” with Oxfam’s operations in Congo, gives Clinton some advice based on experience with rape victims:

This afternoon I’m supposed to be attending a meeting with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who flew into Congo last night.

She couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time. Rape is widespread here, and cases have increased dramatically in the past few months.

I remember a woman I met in the remote Lubero territory of North Kivu Province. She told me she witnessed a gang rape of another woman by three armed men. It is almost impossible to describe the scenes she told me, but she was so brutally raped that she later died of internal bleeding. The witness, the woman I talked to, fled the area in terror. So did thousands of other unnamed victims in the past few months.

[...] If Hillary Clinton asks me what she can do to reduce rape in eastern Congo, I will tell her first of all that the US government, and the rest of the international community, needs to urgently rethink its support for an offensive that has - according to UN figures - forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes, and has resulted in rape cases spiralling out of control. The military option must not be the only strategy. It is always the civilians - the women, children and men of Eastern Congo - who pay the highest price for any military operation.

The “Wide Angle View” blog examines different approaches to combating rape:

I was encouraged to read about both the top-down and a bottom-up approaches underway in the area to address sexual violence, which I think are equally important for effective change. Having legal structures in place regarding all forms of sexual violence against women is vital for preventing aggressors from acting with impunity, and may provide some preventative dissuasion. And public services are essential for dealing with the aftermath. On the other hand, changing attitudes is a slower process, and immensely difficult, but it offers the only hope of clipping sexual violence in the early stages before it can grow and take root.

Doctors Without Borders shares a video of Congolese refugees in neighboring Sudan:

The

Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

In Asia, Typhoon Morakot has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but not before it caused widespread destruction in several countries.

The typhoon dumped as much as 80 inches of rain in parts of Taiwan, where 400 or more people were reported buried and are unaccounted for after a mudslide in one village Sunday morning. In China, hundreds of villages and towns were flooded and more than 2,000 houses collapsed. Almost one million people were evacuated. In the Phillippines, the storm killed at least 22 people over the weekend.

Blogger Sandy in Neipu, Taiwain describes the devastation:

Riding around Neipu today we saw - a duck farm’s metal shed all twisted all over the bridge between Neipu and WanJin, elementary school and junior high with school kids gathering fallen tree limbs to put into dumpsters, and signs blown all over. The new levy at the river between Neipu and WanLuan where we had ridden bicycles to all summer is covered with mud and a tree is across the one-lane bridge, but less flooding occured there than before.

More aftermath of the typhoon - many stranded, many displaced from their homes, many without power or water, many wondering if their families high in the mountains are all right, many scared, many hungry and thirsty, many cleaning mud and floodwaters from their homes.

Watch a video of the typhoon’s aftermath from YouTube user WXextremeWX:

Blogger Nick in Taiwan says that many have braved the weather:

In New Orleans, when a hurricane was coming, we usually evacuated – either to Baton Rouge or Texas or wherever we could north or west. Well, you can’t really evacuate here, since, you know, we’re on a small island, and no matter where you go you’re more than likely still somewhere in the storm’s path. You obviously can’t fly anywhere, and boating is not too encouraged in these conditions. So, we’re stuck here.

Some of you might think that I’m nuts for venturing out in this weather, but the truth is, I am far from alone. In fact, the weather doesn’t seem to have slowed this town down as much as one might think. There are many, many restaurants and stores that have remained open the whole weekend. In my cab ride last night, there were lots of cars on the road, and even a few brave – or unlucky – scooter riders. When Mo drove me home this afternoon, there were even more cars on the road. It’s just crazy, especially given the fact that, despite the storm traveling through northern Taiwan, it’s our beloved southern part of the island that has by far sustained the most flooding and damage.

Meanwhile, The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch for five countries after a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the Indian Ocean, though the warning was later lifted.

Japan was struck by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday and a  7.1-magnitude earthquake on Sunday. The quake was centered well offshore, deep under the Pacific Ocean. Japan is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and is struck by about 20 percent of the world’s quakes. Experts put the chances of an earthquake centered near Tokyo at 70 percent in the next couple of decades and warn that thousands could die.

A blogger at “Shibuya” in Japan shares that worry:

Japan experiences many earthquakes every year and most are not too strong. The one everyone is worried about is if a huge earthquake were to hit the center of Tokyo.

Whilst most apartment buildings and office buildings have been constructed under some strict earthquake resistant guidelines, there are still many older structures which may not stand up so well under the ultimate stress test.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Jon@th@nC under a Creative Commons license.

Aquino led the pro-democracy People Power revolution in the 1980s and was president of the Philippines for six years.

Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports on the funeral and what the future holds for politics in the Philippines.

Filipina blogger Aileen Siroy describes what Aquino meant to her and the country:

Why I cried buckets when Cory died and while watching the necrological service and requiem mass was because I was sad at the passing of an amazing woman who sacrificed a lot to bring back democracy and freedom to this country. She has given us these amazing gifts which we are enjoying now, and I feel like I’ve lost someone very close to me.

I cannot imagine living in fear. I cannot imagine waking up realizing I have been or any of my loved ones kidnapped, murdered, or disappeared without a trace.

I cannot imagine a life without freedom to express my opinions and thoughts. I cannot imagine even basic rights being suppressed. If Ninoy and Cory did not choose to give their lives, I might have already been a prisoner (or worse killed) for rebellion. Rebelde ra ba gyud kaau ko.

I don’t think another leader will have another funeral procession like this.

View a slideshow of mourners in the Philippines from Flickr user thepocnet under a Creative Commons license.

Vince Celeste attended the mass on Wednesday and provides an account of the experience:

It really feels different to be there near the casket of Cory who was lying in state just few meters away than watching it on the television just like yesterday. I contently stood up at the right aisle of the Cathedral near the choir’s place until I went out. Walking together with the people going out from the Cathedral up to the main street made me feel proud to be in solidarity with those who were not able to get inside during the requiem mass. It worth the presence.

This attendance completed my sense of being a Filipino, and made me proud being part of the crowd admiring Cory Aquino’s legacy. In solidarity with all the Filipino people, I must say, “Mabuhay ka, Tita Cory!”

Watch a video from a gathering earlier in the week, when Aquino’s casket was transferred to the Manila Cathedral:

Blogger Ryan Ericson Canla describes the leader’s legacy:

I was born during the time that the martial law was still in effect. I was a toddler when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. I saw his funeral and his coffin was placed in a truck as well same as his wife Cory Aquino’s funeral march. I grew up to know and admire President Cory Aquino. I will long to treasure and cherish these memories for as long as I live. We only get to pass this life once and we only get to have a Cory Aquino once in a lifetime. We are lucky to have witnessed her life until the very last day that she remained faithful and hopeful to God, to the Nation and to the Filipino People. Besides, she is too blessed after all to be forgotten… Thank you President Cory Aquino!

A blogger at the “Pinoy Sounding Board” argues that Aquino’s death will have political ramifications:

There will be elections next year; a legacy that Mrs. Aquino has certainly affirmed with her death.  People will certainly not permit another abuse against democracy and freedom and the masses of people gathering these past days to give their final respect to Mrs. Aquino is only a glimpse of the millions of people who will certainly proceed to voting precincts to cast their votes.

Goodbye dear President.  In your death, you have revived the slumber of a nation and had sent the proud to their knees.

Blogger James Perez takes a more skeptical tone, writing that the mass mourning for Aquino will not translate into real change for the Philippines:

right at this very moment, most Filipino people are being overwhelmed by the death of former president aquino, well not me. one thing that Ive noticed for the past several days, may it be from the media or any random people i met, is that they see this “event” as an “awakening” a “democratic cry” or for exaggeration purposes, “rebirth.” surely her death caused thousands and thousands of people to gather but it doesn’t mean that life will change after this. of course, i have high hopes for our country,in fact, i really don’t want to go abroad to work, but we’ve seen this instance a lot of times, people gathering around from all walks of life trying to compensate for their irresponsible behavior by participating on such. yes, i understand that, standing for three hours or more under the rain just to see the woman behind the yellow persona, is such an amazing experience but how would that bring about change, if after which, we’re going to again, be the same old Filipino’s, mrs. aquino prays for. i feel for the aquino family, my lolo passed away weeks ago and i also feel for my fellow countrymen, you mourn, you grief, you pray and you pray really hard but still those are not enough for change. only one thing is for sure, life goes on, with or without the color yellow.

On Monday, seven weeks after Iran’s disputed presidential election, the country’s supreme leader endorsed the declared victor.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave his blessing to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, clearing the way for Ahmadinejad to be sworn in on Wednesday for a second term.

Watch a video of the ceremony from an Iranian television channel:

But later, there were reports of new clashes in Tehran between security forces and protesters who oppose Ahmadinejad.

One Twitter user purporting to be in Iran wrote of his discontent:

Ahmadinejad is not my president Ahmadinejad is not our president Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s president.. never.. never… never

In black monday: coup government was appointed. where is my vote? where is Iraniran’s vote?

Watch a video claiming to show Monday’s protests from YouTube user IranYouth:

A large trial began this weekend for those arrested in the violence and protests that followed the election. They included many prominent politicians and religious figures.