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1South Asia: Looking Back At 2009Tamberina 2009 Azia Atsimo
2The year 2009 is ending and its time to retrospect how the year has been for the South Asian region.
3In a two-part review we will look back at some of the major events which took place this year in the South Asian countries seen through the eyes of the citizen journalists.
4Special thanks to the South Asia authors of Global Voices for their insight and hard work all around the year.
5The year was tough for South Asia as the global recession affected people of this region too.
6The populous region is a source of many migrant workers in the middle east and other places in the world.
7We saw many migrant workers returning to their homeland as they lost their jobs and saw opportunities diminishing.
8Energy was a major concern as some countries had to cope with power shortage and rolling blackouts.
9Although the history of Bangla blogging is relatively short, the bloggers could achieve a milestone.
10This year about 50 books had been published by bloggers targeting the Ekushey Book Fair in February.
11We also had an interesting post where we looked at Bangladesh through the eyes of the expatriate bloggers.
12On February 25th morning the news broke that a mutiny was in progress inside Bangladesh Rifles (BDR - paramilitary border security force) head office.
13Amidst rumors and media attentions citizen journalists jumped in to cover the developments and provided important perspectives.
14Ack Ack Gun on Satmasjid, Road 7A. Copyright Drishtipat and used with permissionNivalona hatreo ny taona 2009 ary izao no fotoana hitodihana izay nitranga tany Azia atsimo.
15The mutiny ended tragically as it left as many as 148 people dead or missing including many army officers, which left many questions unanswered.
16In March YouTube and File Sharing Sites were briefly Blocked in Bangladesh in an attempt to block a leaked tape containing the audio clip of the meeting of the Prime minister and the aggrieved army officers who were protesting the massacre of army officers during the BDR mutiny.
17Bangladeshi and Indian Netizens took to the task of analyzing the adverse impact on the nature by the proposed Tipaimukh Hydroelectric Project in India (near Bangladesh border) and the miseries it will bring to the local people.
18Online campaigns were launched to protest the construction of the dam.
19Bloggers questioned the transparency of the process of negotiation between the two governments regarding Tipaimukh and discussed about hidden agendas.
20In November pressure from Chinese embassy prompted the local authorities to close down a photo exhibition on Tibet in Dhaka.
21What is Bhutan? One camp glorifies Bhutan as something close to heaven and the other claims that it is practicing ethnic cleansing by driving out Nepali Lhotsampa minorities.Ao anatin'ny tamberina misy fizarana roa no ijerentsika ireo fotoan-dehibe nanamarika io taona io ho an'ny firenena atsimon'i Azia amin'ny alalan'ny mason'olo-tsotra tia mampita vaovao.
22Our new Bhutanese author Sonam Ongmo highlights Bhutanese citizen media to find out the truth.
23Landscape of Bhutan.
24Image by Flickr user Jmhullot, used under a creative commons license
25The Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept was originally coined in Bhutan in 1972.
26However, Bhutanese bloggers share their views on how the concept seems to be taken more seriously in places other than Bhutan. Election:Isaorana manokana ireo mpanoratry ny Global Voices ho an'i Azia atsimo noho ny fahiratantsain'izy ireo sy ny asa mafy notontosainy nandritra ny taona.
27This year marked the 15th Lok Sabha (parliament) Elections in India and citizen journalists were up to the task since the start of the political campaign.
28More interestingly major political parties used different online campaigns for the first time and bloggers reacted to these campaigns (BJP, INC).
29screenshot of a Congress ad showing on Bollywood Frames, an entertainment blog.
30It was indeed India's first digital election.
31Global Voices special coverage on India's elections dissected the campaigns in multiple angles, like the analysis of the impact of socially conscious corporate campaigns and how civil society groups in India used digital tools to run voter registration and transparency campaigns in the run up to the elections.
32Bloggers weighed in with their predictions and analysis of opinion polls and how celebrity power impacted the elections.
33They have also investigated the black money trails of the politicians.
34This time around we saw the the advent of citizen-driven election monitoring - Vote report based on Ushahidi engine and a plethora of online election resources.
35Equipped with all these the month long election was closely watched by the citizen journalists and after the polls they questioned lower voter turnouts and efficacy of campaigns.
36When the results were declared it emerged that the voters voted for no change.
37Indian Twittersphere was quite aloud in reacting to the developments as the results surfaced. Online Campaigns:Mafy ny taona ho an'i Azia atsimo satria tratran'ny fitotonganana ankapobeny ihany koa ny mponina any.
38This year we also saw some successful online campaigns on various social issues being launched in India.
39At the beginning of the year many Indians were irked by the news that a group of young women in Mangalore in the southern state of Karnataka were attacked by Hindu vigilantes in a pub (bar).
40Soon an online campaign emerged by a Facebook group that planned a sassy, bold move to send pink colored women's panties to the Ram Sena party as a ‘Valentine's gift'.
41This non violent protest was called the Pink Chaddi (underwear) campaign.
42The above video shows a pile of underwear and the love letters to the Hindu vigilantes.
43This year the first TEDIndia event took place and the bloggers were excited about it. Read their take on the event.Fiaviana mpiasa mifindra monina maro ho an'ireo firenena an'i (Azia) Afovoany antsinanana sy faritra hafa manerantany io faritra iray io.
44Other notable online campaigns included the greatest driving challenge and the sapling project. Human Rights and Freedom Of Speech:Hitanay fa maro ireo mpiasa nifindra monina no niverina an-tanindrazana noho ny fahaverezan'ny asa sy ny fihenan'ny tolotra azo nohararaotina.
45Chyetanya Kunte, an Indian blogger based in the Netherlands, was silenced by legal threats for criticizing a TV reporter for using sensationalism in her report during the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
46Shiv Shena, a far right political party had sued a 19 year old Indian netizen who criticized Shiv Sena in a social networking site.
47The Indian state of Manipur was in chaos after pictures of an unarmed 27-year old, being shot and killed by the police surfaced.
48Citizen journalists criticized the state and the media for ignoring this issue.
49On the other hand there was a triumph of human rights as an Indian court ruling decriminalized gay sex and a blogger termed the day of the ruling as a big day in the history of independent India.
50Culture & Religion:
51Slumdog Millionaire, a British film based on India become the buzz of Indian bloggers as it had won four Golden Globe awards and was nominated for ten categories at the Oscars.
52This film sparked debates about how it shows life in India's slums, and the attraction it holds for foreigners.
53But that did not stop the movie to sweep the Oscars with win in 8 categories.
54There was an informative post explaining Durga Puja and its rituals. Bidding Goddess Durga farewell until next year.Adihevitra lehibe ihany koa ny resaka angovo fa maro ny firenena no tsy maintsy nizatra fahatapahan-jiro sy delestazy. %3
55Photo by Aparna Ray
56In the next part of this series we will look at Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
57Please stay tuned.