After I sleep for 50 hours in a row, I’m going to have lots and lots to say about all of the fascinating conversations that have taken place here at the Global Voices Summit in Budapest. For now, however, I leave you with a ten minute video that tries to encompass much of what the Rising Voices projects have been doing over the past year.

Originally published on the Global Voices Summit blog.

While the first session of the 2008 Global Voices Summit focused on how internet censorship works in Belarus, Japan, Egypt, and Pakistan, and how activists have responded to those limitations, the second session was specifically focused on how censorship affects bloggers and citizen media. It was liveblogged by Juliana Rotich. Speaking during the session were Wael Abbas, who is the first blogger to receive the Knight International Journalism Award for documenting human rights abuses in Egypt through online video; Ory Okolloh, a veteran Kenyan blogger who co-founded Mzalendo, a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament and Ushahidi, which tracked incidents of violence following the Kenyan elections; Alex Au, a leader of Singapore’s gay rights movement who blogs at Yawning Bread; Oiwan Lam, co-founder of the Hong Kong-based media activist site inmediahk.net; Amine, a Moroccan human rights activist and co-founder of DigiActive.org; and Hamid Tehrani, Global Voices Persian language editor who spoke on behalf of Mehdi Mohseni who was not able to secure a visa to come to the summit.

Audience intently focused on the “Citizen Media and Online Free Speech” session.

Wael Abbas spoke first and led off with several difficult-to-endure videos showing clear human rights abuses in Egypt.

Abbas emphasizes that while Egypt claims to be a democracy, its government system is really a façade of democracy which does now allow for full political participation. Unsurprisingly, that also applies to online political participation. Most famously, Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman was sentenced to four years’ prison for insulting Islam and the president. Kareem’s detention spawned the Free Kareem! campaign which has been documented at length by Sami Ben Gharbia on Global Voices.

It’s not easy to be a citizen media activist in Egypt, notes Abbas. Several bloggers have suffered character assassination campaigns. Abbas himself has been accused of being Christian (he is Muslim) and homosexual in hopes of discrediting the videos and blog posts he publishes.

Up next was the tireless (and currently pregnant) Ory Okolloh who was ordered by her doctor to stay in bed. Her version of bed rest, she told us, would be to briefly share her personal experience of the valiant response by Kenya’s bloggers in the political crisis following their country’s late December presidential election. Ethan Zuckerman has recently documented Okolloh’s participation (along with other Kenyan bloggers) throughout the crisis.

As it became clear that Kenya would be in crisis for more than a few days, bloggers began to search for ways to share their workload. Okolloh, who resides in Johannesburg, returned home on January 3rd, after a difficult debate over whether she should stay to document the crisis or prioritize the safety of her young child. Three days after arriving in South Africa, she added a new feature to her blog: “diary entries” written by guest bloggers and submitted to her via email. In the month the diary was active, it featured 26 posts from a variety of Kenyans, including regular bloggers who sought an opportunity to reach a larger audience and from people who had not previously published online. The tone was sharply different from Okolloh’s opinionated, but news-focused, reports - the diaries were personal reflections on the crisis, providing context for readers interested in how the crisis was affecting individual Kenyans.

In her first post on returning to Johannesburg, Okolloh proposed another form of distributed reporting, a Google Maps mashup that showed incidents of violence reported throughout Kenya [...] The reaction to this idea, one of nine points in a long roundup, helps demonstrate Okolloh’s influence and reach in the blogger community. (Technorati lists Kenyan Pundit as the #15,282nd most popular blog in its index, a very high rank for an Africa-focused blog. At the peak of its popularity during the crisis, 0.004% of all blog posts on the internet linked to Kenyan Pundit, a level comparable to regular linking to Global Voices Online, one of the 200 most popular blogs in the world. Within three days of her January 3rd blog post, a prototype version of the system she proposed had been built. By January 9th, it was live at Ushahidi.com. (The term Ushahidi means “witness” in Swahili.) A day later, a partnership with Kenyan mobile phone operators allowed Kenyans to post reports using an SMS shortcode.

Okolloh is clear that, especially compared to her Ethiopian and Zimbabwean colleagues, there was very little institutional censorship, but that most bloggers self-censored during the crisis because of societal and family pressures. There was also the matter of moderating comments. Okolloh received many comments threatening to rape and attack her. Every time she wrote a post she thought of her family and their safety. On a related note, the popular Mashada.com discussion forums were also briefly shut down after some posters advocated violence.

While Okolloh added the element of self-censorship to the discussion, Alex Au starts his presentation with a slide which reads “the psychological side of censorship.” He is concerned about the amount of apathy to the internet censorship which takes place in Singapore. What is it that drives a local society to advocate for their right to free speech and why isn’t it taking place in Singapore? Alex wonders if it might have to do with Singapore’s impressive economic development over the last twenty years. “If life is pretty good,” asks Au, “is there a need for freedom?” On a closing note, Alex adds that he understand the need for anonymity among online activists, but that anonymity usually doesn’t lead to social change, and that activists should be encouraged to use their real names and stand up to repressive governments.

Oiwan Lam describes a court case which was brought against her by Hong Kong’s Obscene Articles Tribunal for posting a photograph of a shirtless woman covered in leaves [Not work safe.]. Oiwan’s case has been covered in detail by Rebecca MacKinnon in a three post series.

Amine also started his talk out with videos to show how online citizen media is spreading awareness about government corruption throughout Morocco. This video shows a police officer collecting bribes from passing cars.

Of course, it only spreads awareness when YouTube isn’t being blocked like it briefly was in 2007. Other sites that have been blocked in Morocco include Google Maps, Livejournal, OpenDNS, Anonymizer, and Google Earth. Amine says the Moroccan government is ‘allergic’ to all website which allow for user-generated content which it cannot control. This is most famously exemplified, of course, in the arrest of Fouad Mourtada for creating a fake Facebook identity of Crown Prince Moulay Rachid. Amine says that it is typical of the Moroccan government’s ignorance about the internet that when Mourtada was being interrogated he was asked by he invented Facebook.

Finally, Hamid Tehrani of Global Voices filled in for Mehdi Mohseni and offered an overview of censorship in Iran. He starts off with a slide of what National Geographic looks like from within Iran. While censorship has always existed in Iran, notes Tehrani, it has been stepped up in the past three years both online and off. Now most social networking sites are blocked, including content-rich sites like YouTube and Flickr. Interestingly, anti-Bush and liberal blogs from the US like Juan Cole and the Huffington Post are also blocked in Iran. This has led to innovative tools from anti-censorship activists like Hamed Saber’s Access Flickr! Firefox extension.

Many of the questions for the speakers focused on how to get more internet users interested in and involved in the anti-censorship movement. How do you make anti-censorship an issue which attracts as much attention as celebrity and technology news? What role does the diaspora community play? How do you try to promote an atmosphere which encourages active participation over self-censorship? These were all mostly open-ended questions, which generated some speculation from the speakers (eg. governments can discredit diaspora communities as out of touch), but no concrete answers.

If you are interested in issues of censorship and citizen media, make sure to subscribe to Global Voices Advocacy.

Today I find myself in Bogotá, a metropolis which, with its high elevation, bohemian vagabonds, and surrounding green hills, reminds me quite a bit of Mexico City. Last time I was here I barely got out of La Candelaria and embassy row. This time I’m in Barrio Chico staying at a quaint little hotel with my friends Álvaro and Claudio.

I am here thanks to the kind invitation of another friend, Carolina, who is organizing the blog track for Campus Party, a sort-of technocentric South by Southwest for the Iberian world. Campus Party has been taking place for 11 years now in various locations throughout Spain, but 2008 marks the first year that the organizers set their sights on the ‘new world’.

Global Voices buddy Daniel Duende (who I will be meeting offline for the first time in a couple days) has a great summary of the first Latin American Campus Party, which took place earlier this year in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Now it’s Spanish-speaking Latin America’s turn to get their geek on with Campus Party Colombia. The most exciting news for me is that 15 of the young participants from HiperBarrio (as well as all the coordinators: Gabriel, Jorge, Juliana, Álvaro, and Alfredo) will be here all week long. You can bet that they will all be posting updates on their personal blogs which will hopefully be summarized on the HiperBarrio website. We’ll get an English translation up on Rising Voices as soon as possible.

The bad news (sorta) is that I won’t be here all week. Tomorrow I will be giving a presentation on the current obstacles to a truly representative and participatory global conversation. Many of those obstacles, of course, are what Global Voices tries to find solutions to: lack of attention by traditional media outlets, government and corporate censorship, and lack of capacity building, training materials, and outreach. Later in the day I get to lead a hands-on workshop on how to use tools like WordPress, Gengo, Worldwide Lexicon, and dotSUB to set up a truly multilingual blog. Should be fun.

Unfortunately, tomorrow is about all the Campus Party experience I’ll get as Wednesday morning I start a gruelling journey from Bogotá to Miami to Frankfurt to Budapest for the Global Voices Summit. This is a meeting I’ve been looking forward to for over a year and a half now. We have grown so much since 70 or so of us were able to get together in Delhi at the end of 2006. It is incredible to look back at the 2006 summit program and realize that so much of what we discussed then lead to the concrete projects which today make Global Voices what it is. The Outreach Session led to Rising Voices. The Language and Translation session led to Lingua. And many of the topics touched in the Tools and Technology session foreshadowed the excellent work that Sami would be focusing on with Global Voices Advocacy.

It is both very inspiring and a little daunting to realize that many of the conversations we’ll be having this week in Budapest will similarly form a road map for Global Voices to follow over the next year or so. Of course, I am especially looking forward to the session on Rising Voices which Lova Rakotomalala will be moderating on the second day of the conference. And, no doubt, I’m looking forward to getting my party on with my Global Voices brethren and sisteren.

My fingers are crossed that on the long-ass plane ride from Colombia to Hungary I’ll find the time to uncross my fingers and hammer out a wrap-up post on Campus Party and a pre-post on the GV Summit.

Until then, chaito, pues.

ConVerGentes, the San Javier La Loma-based group of young journalists who form part of HiperBarrio, have started a podcast. (Subscribe with iTunes.)

Their first episode, in Spanish, features the following topics:

1.) Introduction to ConVerGentes and HiperBarrio by Diego Ospina.
2.) The names and blog URLs of all of the podcasters.
3.) Project leader Gabriel Montoya gives an introduction to Campus Party, in which many of the ConVerGentes citizen journalists will be participating.
4.) What are the differences between Bogotá and Medellín?
5.) Deneiber introduces Ay Amor, Cuando Hablad las Miradas by Guayacán.
6.) What are the differences between La Loma and the rest of Medellín?
7.) Eliana introduces Crimen by Gustavo Cerati.
8.) What is Medellín’s MetroCable system?
9.) Catalina introduces Heart of Stone by the Rolling Stones.
10.) San Andres introduces Primer Día by Julieta Venegas.
11.) Luisa Fernanda Alvarez introduces Autosuficiencia by Parálisis Permanente.
12.) What is the meaning of ‘Ave Maria’?
13.) Catalina concludes the first podcast.

There is just no way around it, the very first step to becoming a global citizen is learning another language. Not only does monolingualism prevent you from communicating with the vast majority of the world’s population; it also prevents you from truly understanding other cultures. Our cultures are deeply embedded in our languages and dialects - you can’t fully understand one without strong familiarity of the other.

I’m sure you’ve already beaten yourself up enough about not paying more attention in your high school foreign language class. Fortunately for you, it is easier (and cheaper) to learn another language today than it ever has been before. All you need are four different components: 1.) a language buddy, 2.) a bilingual dictionary, 3.) a grammar guide, 4.) an audio recorder.

Of course there is the most important component of all, commitment. Learning a second language can’t just be a romantic notion of ordering Italian food properly while you’re on holiday in Venice. Learning another language is tough work. You have to carve out at least an hour every day to practice. It takes years and years to really become fluent. Even then, you still have to practice every week or you will lose it.

Now that I’ve made it sound difficult, let’s go through each component step by step to see just how easy learning a second language has become. First step, a language buddy. You need a native speaker of whatever language you are trying to learn and, more importantly, you need someone who is just as excited to master English as you are to master his or her native tongue.

If you can’t think of anyone you already know, don’t worry, there are plenty of social networking websites specifically focused on setting up language buddies for video conferencing. Three of the biggest sites are Livemocha (free), Palabea (free), and eduFire (pay site). Be picky about who you choose. Your language buddy should be someone who you look forward to speaking with at least once a week and who is just as commited as you are. Before you go searching for that perfect person, think about what it is you want to talk about each week. After getting to know one another better, it’s probably a good idea to plan some sort of joint syllabus, then focus on one person’s language learning for 45 minutes and then the other’s for 45 minutes.

Even before finding your language buddy, you’ll need to find the resources so that you can develop your own class at your own pace. Let’s use Spanish as an example since it is such a widely spoken and beautiful language. For a Spanish-English dictionary, I use WordReference.com, which not only has a thorough dictionary of Spanish to English and English to Spanish translations, but also a Spanish monolingual dictionary, a lexicon of Spanish synonyms, conjugation guide, and a lively, supportive forum community where all of your questions will get answered within a couple hours. You will need more than just an online dictionary, however. You also want a dictionary that you can keep in your pocket for when you’re reading small books or magazines in the language you are learning. Since I always have my iPhone on me, I’ve installed the weDict dictionary application along with several Spanish-English dictionaries. If you’re without an iPhone, I would recommend buying a pocket sized electronic translator. (The Franklin ones are pretty good and available at most major drug stores.)

There are three important parts to learning a language: vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. The dictionary will help you with your vocabulary. To come up with your own syllabus of grammar lessons, however, will require a little googling on your part. You can ‘enroll’ in a course on Livemocha. Or you can simply compile a series of lessons from the internet. For example, here are some simple searches for Spanish, Bengali, Hindi, and French. It is important to pace yourself and stay consistent. Complete at least one new grammar lesson every week.

The biggest obstacle to truly mastering another language for most people is pronunciation. Your grammar can be perfect, your vocabulary superb, but if you’re not comfortable pronouncing the words, you won’t be able to engage in fluent conversation. It takes years to lose your accent and speak like a native speaker. It requires extreme concentration to learn exactly how to shape your lips and how to move your tongue in order to pronounce each syllable of every word properly. The best way to learn pronunciation is to concentrate on exactly how a native speaker pronounces a word and compare your own pronunciation of that same word. Once again, an iPhone is a great tool to do this. You can subscribe to any number of podcasts dedicated to learning a foreign language. Then, after installing Erica Sadun’s VNotes application, you can record yourself pronouncing the same words you’ll be practicing with the podcast. Of course, if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still record yourself practicing pronunciation with a simple $5 microphone and an audio recording program like Audacity. Another excellent resource to learn the pronunciation of words in the language you are learning is Forvo, a collaborative database of pronunciations in over 180 languages.

So there you have it, a guide to learn just about any major language in the world for free. I hope you click through the links and explore around a little bit, but I would recommend that you don’t actually start learning another language until you know that you have enough time each week to commit to it. Like Linda Stone says, committing to one task implies withdrawing from another.

Words Without Borders: The world through the eyes of writers is less a collection of short stories and more a marvelous and inspirational entryway into the universe of global literature. The name, however, is somewhat (and I assume unintentionally) ironic as so many of the stories are grounded in nationalism - either with pride or with, as Horacio Castellanos Moya titles his story, revulsion. In fact, the dynamic between nationalism and global literature is touched on by Pramoedya Ananta Toer in his introduction to Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s short story Children of the Sky:

Unlike writers in the more developed countries of the world, third-world writers don’t have the luxury of devoting themselves completely to the development of their personal writing style or technique. They have an extra task, what I would call “nation building.” Perhaps a writer shouldn’t have to have this task, but in the third world, participating in nation building is, I feel, an honor, not a burden.

In start contrast to Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s patriotism is Roberto Bolaño’s introduction to Horacio Castellanos Moya:

I have now read four of his books. The first one I read was Revulsion, perhaps his best work, certainly his most arresting, a long declamation against El Salvador for which Castellanos Moya received death threats that obliged him to leave the country for a life in exile.

Revulsion is not only an adaptation of folktales or the expression of a writer’s profound disillusionment in the face of his moral and political circumstances, but also a stylistic experiment that parodies the work of Bernhard; it is a novel that will make you die laughing.

Unfortunately, very few people in El Salvador have read Bernhard and even fewer have maintained a good sense of humor. One doesn’t joke about homeland. This is a popular saying not only in El Salvador, but also in Chile and Cuba, in Peru and Mexico, and even in Austria and some other European countries. If Castellanos Moya were Bosnian or Kosovar he wouldn’t even have ben able to board a plane to leave the country. And therein lies one of the great virtues of this book: nationalists of all stripes can’t stand it. Its sharp humor, not unlike a a Buster Keaton film or a time bomb, have an uncontrollable desire to hang the author in the town square. I can’t think of a higher honor for the writer.

Whether envisioning the pen as an instrument to prop up a particular nation or to lambaste the very notion of nationhood, Words Without Borders reveals that we have still yet to reach the era of what Eliot Weinberger describes as the “The Post-National Writer.” The differing perspectives of whether literature should be rooted firmly in nationhood or should try to transcend it is, of course, nothing new. It is at the very heart of Gary Snyder’s Pulitzer Prize winning Turtle Island. As I see it, it is also at the heart of the public response to the recent clash of egos between Derek Walcott and V.S. Naipaul. Naipaul detests nationalism and dislikes his native Trinidad and Tobago. Walcott has become the literary father of the Caribbean.

Nationalism aside, Words Without Borders is one hell of a collection. I recommend it to every English speaker. The format of the book is smart; 28 literary heavyweights like Günter Grass, Ha Jin, and Roberto Calasso, introduce the works of 28 lesser-known writers - works which have never been translated into English before. Among my favorites were The Scripture Read Backward in which Bangladeshi author Parashuram imagines a world in which India colonizes Britain rather than the other way around; The Uses of English by Akinwumi Isola, which makes the reader feel like an observant resident of a rural Nigerian village in just ten pages; Vietnam. Thursday., which would have brought tears to my eyes if I didn’t hold them back in a silly show of manliness; and Juan Forn’s Swimming at Night, a must read for anyone who still thinks that Latin American literature is just multi-generational political stories from the jungle.

Not only is the format of the book very smart, but so is the model of the organization. The foundation of Words Without Borders is its website, which it likes to refer to as an “online magazine.” Then there is an annual print anthology. The 2006 anthology, Axis of Evil, features “short stories and fiction excerpts from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Sudan, and other countries from whom the government would rather we didn’t hear.” I have put it on my “to read” list and I will most certainly do the same with their 2008 anthology, whenever it is announced. Words Without Borders also organizes reading events and is developing an educational curriculum “for use in the high school classroom, including suggested readings, study questions, writing prompts, suggestions for further study and a forum for teachers to discuss materials.”

The model intrigues me because I wonder if it might be the future model of Global Voices. As interest in the global blogosphere continues to grow, our annual Global Voices Summit will attract more and more people from all over. We are also making an educational curriculum. And for a long time now we’ve talked about producing an attractive print book from the thousands and thousands of posts in the Global Voices archive. I would love it if Global Voices could become for bloggers what Words Without Borders is becoming for writers of fiction.

Every two weeks we feature four to five posts by Rising Voices participants as a way of showcasing some of the finest content from new voices that are typically ignored by both traditional and new media.

In order to make new voices heard, however, we must be willing to hear them. Please take twenty minutes out of your day to read their posts, and to offer comments of encouragement.

Thanks to Hamid Tehrani from Iran, Romina Oliverio from Argentina/Canada, and Adelynne Ong from Malaysia for leaving comments on the featured posts from two weeks ago. I hope that this time many more people will take the time to leave comments.

As long as we are on TV

The impressive work by the HiperBarrio group of young bloggers in La Loma, Colombia continues to attract media attention from all over the country. Last week it was the national television program “Camino al Barrio” that visited La Loma in order to feature the community, its history, and the transformation taking place as La Loma puts its violent past behind it. But the visit by the television crew revealed that media attention and obsessive documentation can also distract us from helping out our neighbors when they need us the most. Milthon, a performance artist and talented poet, takes his fellow bloggers to task for carrying more about being on camera than helping their neighbors in a severe time of need.

Three poems translated from Bangla

The young Bangladeshi women at the Nari Jibon center in Dhaka continue to reveal their poetic prowess. This week Rafiq has translated three short poems, originally published in Bangla from Hazera Akter Sherin Sheela, Jesmin Ara Amzad, and Afiya Akter. The themes of friendship and expectations are, of course, universal.

Lost and The River

In Madagascar, members of the Foko Blog Club have also been publishing their poetry recently. Rodro’s poem, The River, takes us from Madagascar’s ancient mountains down through the modern suburbs and out into the seemingly endless sea. Cylnice’s Lost describes the complex feelings of anger, frustration, and forgiveness which overcome us after we are left by a former lover.

Love your children

Just like parents can frustrate their children to no end, the opposite is also often true. But it is important to step back and think about what matters most in our lives. For children, it is often their parents. And for parents, of course, their children. Nancy Condori, a new blogger from El Alto, Bolivia, reminds us just how precious - and fleeting - life can be.

Playing with the paramilitarists

“Putting its violent past to rest” also means being comfortable to share the childhood stories which were so commonplace for members of HiperBarrio’s La Loma group, but which seem surreal to most of us. Dneiber Xady recalls a day when paramilitary soldiers passed the school field where he was playing football with friends and asked if they could play with them. Hours later, along with his friends, Dneiber was running through a storm of bullets to the safety of his home and family. “Mom, I love you- was the first thing I said - Lets hide because they are just in front of our house…”

Lately I’ve been talking to myself a lot. OK, so in my head, but you know, still talking. This is what I say: I say, you know Os’ you should really write a short story about that.

Every day, a new short story idea. I’ve been so busy writing down ideas for short stories that I’m much likelier to publish a glossary of short story ideas than an actual short story.

Today’s short story would, hypothetically, go like this. A little-known tribe of hunter-gatherers from the Central African Republic who call themselves Ba-Banjalle are discovered, thanks to a New Jerseyite, by a former country singer who has lately taken to traveling the world over and helping local musicians enter the big-bucks genre of world music. Like the country singer’s former productions, the album he produces with the Ba-Banjalle gets picked up by a big label and is heard frequently in houses of wealthy leftists in the Bay Area.

But then craziness happens. The album is selected as the best album of the year by Pitchfork, a popular website for indie music aficionados. (If you think this part of the short story is unrealistic, look at Pitchfork’s review of Tinariwen.) One week later Kanye West samples a hook from one of the Ba-Banjalle songs in what will become the first single of the highest grossing album of all time. The music video comes out. Kanye, wearing his patent sunglasses, is walking through the jungle of the Central African Republic until he finds a clearing where he is joined by 100 or so Ba-Banjalle tribesmen and women. All together they do an incredible choreographed dance which mixes the best of the Ba-Banjalle’s dance moves with Kanye’s Chi-town flair. Even modern dance critics pronounce it the best piece of pop choreography since MJ’s Thriller.

A 20-something White entrepreneur originally from the Southern Californian suburbs who introduces himself as ‘Taz’ and likes to speak in Ebonics has recently opened a trendy night club in Las Vegas. He’s tapped his wealthy family members for tens of millions of dollars to put the night club’s name on the map. They have all the sexiest dancers, the cleavagest bartenders, the biggest DJ’s. But they’re not yet bringing in enough money to cover their initial investments. So Taz comes up with the brilliant idea to pay for all of the Ba-Banjalle dancers featured in the Kanye West video to come to Las Vegas and work in his nightclub. They are put on pedestals where they dance, just like in the Kanye video. Taz’s nightclub becomes the hottest thing in the world. Even celebrities have to make reservations. And ordinary people wait in line for 12 hours only to pay the $150 cover and $20 for a beer.

The idea, like all ideas, came from elsewhere. In this case, David Weinberger’s monthly newsletter and Ethan Zuckerman’s blog. I rarely ever disagree with what either one says. So when I do, I figure I might as well speak up about it. Or, write a short story about it. Or, better yet, write a post about a short story.

Yes, Ninjas are cool. Duh. No question about it. But I have a very hard time believing that we know more about Japan than Nigeria because of ninjas. We (and by ‘we’ I mean Americans) know more about Japan than Nigeria because we went to war with Japan. And that, my friends, is how we Americans learn about other countries. So, if you’re really passionate about Americans getting to know more about Nigeria, well, plan an attack. (This, it turns out, isn’t difficult. Just say that have ‘weapons of mass destruction’. You don’t have to get any more detailed than that.)

Regardless if we decide to go to war with Nigeria or come up with a ninja equivalent (uh, hello, Nollywood? A Nollywood night at the local indie theater is every urban hipster’s dream), what good does that actually do for Nigeria? I assume the idea is that if people start paying attention to a particular aspect o Nigerian pop-culture, they will then want to learn more about the country itself. Its people. Its culture and customs and struggles.

I’m highly doubtful.

Take Medellín for example. Last year none of my friends new anything about Medellín except for one name, Pablo Escobar, the drug lord who commanded a fearsome control over city during the 1980’s. Half of my friends only new about Pablo Escobar thanks to a fake film from the popular TV Sitcom called Encore Entourage.

There is actually one other thing that Medellín is becoming famous for in the United States, I learned last month thanks to WNYC culture editor Allison Lichter. Apparently Chivas trucks are becoming all the rage in New York City. The brightly colored open-air trucks pass through the streets of Medellín on Friday and Saturday nights with ragingly drunk middle class 9-5ers leaning outside and blowing their whistles at smiling passerby.

A perfect weekend activity for New Yorkers. It’s also a perfect example of a ninja equivalent. Chivas are “cool”. But do those ragingly drunk New Yorkers then go home and look up Medellín on Wikipedia?

I’m highly doubtful.

I think there are better ways to promote Americans’ interest in foreign countries. The first step is to improve foreign language education at the high school and college level. Why are Americans so determined to be monolingual? Step two is simple word of mouth. Now almost all of my friends know about Medellín. They know that it is much more than Pablo Escobar and cocaine. They know that Medellín has a truly amazing metro system, very kickass libraries, an impressive art museum, and tasty late night chuzos.

Step three, recommend foreign writers. Last night I read a brilliant (and I really mean brilliant) short story by Akinwumi Isola, a Nigerian writer and film producer. Now, not only do I know more about Nigeria, but I want to learn much more.

It is easy for countries to brand themselves with smart marketing campaigns. Just look at what Estonia has done. When I go to Estonia (if Cyrus ever invites me) I expect to feel like I’m in SoHo or Silicon Valley. Surely that’s not how it is, but that is how they’ve marketed themselves.

But in networked age we should try even harder? We should be learning new languages, we should be introducing our friends in one country to our friends in another. And we should always drink at least three mojitos when we do.

As if immigrants to the Western world don’t have enough to worry about with accusations of terrorism and complaints of non-assimilation, they must also endure the frequent criticisms that come from their home country. If they become too involved in the affairs of their home country while abroad than they’re accused of paternalism and arrogance. If they’re not involved enough, then they’ve sold out and forgotten who they were.

Here’s a scenario. It’s about a 18-year-old named Emmanuel. It’s your choice whether you prefer to picture him as a Mexican from Zacatecas who moved to North Carolina or a Ghanaian from Accra who moved to New York City. Whatever skin color your imagination gives him, Emmanuel tells his family that there are no real opportunities where they live. He doesn’t want to work as a mechanic for the rest of his life. He wants a better life for himself, for his family, for his future wife. He assures his family that he’ll be back in five years. Just enough to save up for a house - the one they have always talked about. He will continue to pray every day. He’ll send back money every month. And in five years he’ll return a successful man, get married, and have children.

Throughout the late 80’s and 90’s - as Americans of all colors refused to drive taxis, landscape gardens, or work in kitchens - immigrants took those jobs. Philippine nurses, Mexican cooks, Eastern European and African taxi drivers: they were all sending a percentage of their monthly paychecks back home. Just like Emmanuel said he would.

But Emmanuel didn’t keep all of his promises. Five years came and went. But he stayed. Then seven years. Then ten years. In fact, this is his thirteenth year in the US. He’s been married and divorced. Has a kid. But if you ask him if he plans to ever return ‘home’, he’s unequivocal: “Of course, there is no better place. Back home we know how to enjoy life. Here everyone is so cold, in such a hurry.”

This is the story of many of my friends. They come from Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala. I tell them, for example, that I’m moving down to Argentina. “You’re going to love it. There is no better place. I can’t wait to go back.” But they don’t go back. They get better jobs, buy nicer cars, take a Hawaiian vacation. Some even buy a house with enough bedrooms for their children who don’t speak Spanish.

Something strange happened last year. Something the economists and academics didn’t expect. For the first time ever, Mexican immigrants sent home less money than the year before. Already academics are studying how developing nations can cushion the declining remittance revenue from abroad now that immigrants in North America and Europe are sending less money home and spending more on it on rising food costs and $4 gallons of gas.

Even while financial statistics tell us that the diaspora is sending less money home to family and friends, the internet tells us that many diaspora communities are more committed than ever to the development of their home countries. Here are just a few brief examples:

FOKO Madagascar:

FOKO Madagascar, a Rising Voices grantee project, is coordinated by four diaspora bloggers who are in constant online communication with their colleagues and peers back in Madagascar. They have helped replant trees throughout Madagascar, led several successful digital literacy and blogger outreach campaigns, and, most recently, have raised funds for a needy and deserving family. (An interesting debate about the role of Madagascar’s diaspora community in its development is on Global Voices.)

Ewulenes in USA

Ewulene in USA is a blog I found thanks to Renata Avila. The Association Q’anjobal Ewulense was established in 1991 by a group of Maya-Q’anjobals who reside in Los Angeles. They use their blog to both stay in touch with their hometown (which also has a corresponding blog) and to help fundraise to support the town’s cathedral, support community radio, etc.

Bolivian Voices

Bolivian Voices is another Rising Voices grantee and another excellent example of diaspora and local communities using the internet to come together to create positive social change. Here is an excerpt from an email that Bolivian Voices founder Eddie Ávila sent to the Global Voices mailing list. The entire email is available on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog.

For me, working and moving back here to Bolivia holds special meaning. The decision of my parents to immigrate and remain in the U.S. some 40+ years ago, as you might guess, changed my world forever, but also instilled in me a special responsiblity to “do something” for Bolivia someday. In prior stays in the country, I’ve volunteered at orphanges, gave donations to buy children presents at Christmastime or other worthy deeds, but it never felt right. This project feels right, and even though it is a small drop in the bucket with a country of 9 million in an increasingly polarized society, it is the first step. Creating meaningful interaction with one another regardless of class, ethnicity, geographic location, is just what this country needs…

Rural China Education Foundation

Via Stian Haklev, I found out about the Rural China Education Foundation - a partnership between Chinese living in the diaspora and in the homeland who want to promote better education standards in rural China. Their website is completely available in both English and Chinese and deserves a few minutes of looking around.

Ushahidi

The big winner in this year’s recent NetSquared conference was none other than Ushahidi, yet another important partnership between Kenyans living abroad and Kenyans living in Kenya. Beyond Ushahidi, the Kenyan diaspora community also donated thousands of dollars via cash and mobile phone credits using MamaMikes during the post-election crisis earlier this year.

Project Diaspora

Project Diaspora is the thought-child of Teddy Ruge, a Ugandan-American who I met at a hostal in Kampala. We typed late into the night on our laptops while comparing notes about Aperture, Apple’s pro photography application, and trying not to bob our head to the five or so songs that played over and over again on Africa MTV. Project Diaspora describes itself as “an effort to mobilize, engage, and motivate African diaspora to participate in Africa’s economic and social revitalization.” From the about page:

We propose a new model. There are over 167 million Africans in the Diaspora. As of 2007, financial remittances by these Africans topped $40 billion annually. That’s capital that’s directly involved in the sustainability of lives—through the stimulation of education, finance, health, and social sectors. We believe this model is far more effective in changing Africa’s economic landscape. The continued direct involvement of Africa’s Diaspora community is our solemn mission.

Diaspora Cafe and Bookshop

Vickie Remoe-Doherty was born and raised in Sierra Leone, but moved to the United States to go to college. She is now back in Sierra Leone where she is working with Sierra Visions, a development NGO founded by Sierra Leoneans living in the diaspora. She writes frequently on her blog about members of Sierra Leoneans living abroad who are focused on the development of their home country. Her latest post features the Diaspora Bookshop and Café in Freetown.

I know that a lot of immigrants and sons of daughters of immigrants living in the US read this blog. If you would like some tips about how you can use the internet to contribute to the development of your hometown/ancestral town, feel free to ask either me or any of the people mentioned in this post.

You can read about other diaspora development initiatives in Spanish at Juan’s blog, Globalizado.