Diego Casaes

Moving to São Paulo

June 6th, 2010 § 0

From now on, I’ll be living in “the largest and richest city in the southern hemisphere and Latin America”, the emerging, chaotic, controversial and fascinating Sao Paulo. I’ve been hesitating to publish this post for a few days, trying to find words to explain this sudden change in my life, but I realized I just need to be as brief as one could and very straightforward.

I came to Sao Paulo to join Esfera, a company based in the House of Digital Culture in São Paulo. A little extract of their about page sums up the idea of Esfera:

Esfera is a project (in a very initial phase) by Daniela Silva and Pedro Markun, focused in communication, politics and new technologies. We want to see in politics the same revolution of practices, values and principles that new technologies have brought to communications. For this matter, we act in favor of transparency, openness and collaboration, by means of projects focused in empowering the citizen, of actions to forge a culture connected to these values and other initiatives.

It turns out I already had been in touch with Esfera before. I heard Daniela speaking in the last Campus Party edition and Esfera is behind the well-known case among Brazilian bloggers of the cloning of Blog do Planalto, Brazil’s Presidency blog. On the occasion, they had literally cloned the blog, by copying the articles and republishing them, because the original blog did not allow users to comment on the posts, which was a rather not-inclusive move from the government.

My stay in São Paulo is yet to be defined. Initially, I’ll be staying for 6 months, but I’m keen to stay for as long as it’s necessary. If I meet new and interesting people who help me model the person I want to be and give me support to achieve my dreams, I’m keen to move forward and do my way to be part of a global conversation.

I’m running out of words now, and as I don’t want to be redundant in this post, I’ll just end it here. Updates on my new life out of the comfort zone of my parent’s house will be made public as they occur. My hope is that good changes take place in my life, whatever the path I’ll be taking from this point on.

Photo taken in the garden of the House of Digital Culture

Balance of the GV Summit 2010

May 15th, 2010 § 10

In the past week I attended the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010. It was the first time I took part in a GV Summit (this was the 5th one) and the first time I had the chance to meet some people whom I talk to in a daily basis. Additionally, it was an opportunity to motivate and surround myself with people from around the world who fight for a better understanding of media, advocate for freedom of speech and use blogs to spread the voices of people that are often unheard, but not only that.

The Global Voices Summit had a special flavor for me. Firstly because I could finally meet Paula Góes in person. She is the one who inspires me the most in Global Voices and I’m thankful for her to believe and support me. Secondly, because I could finally meet other GV members and celebrate with them our love for citizen media in a wonderful and beautiful place like Santiago, in Chile. One of them was Sylwia Presley, a sweet Polish blogger and social media practitioner based in London. I still remember the belly laughs we gave, the hugs and the conversations.

Sylwia and I. Photo By Jillian C. York.

It would be difficult to list all things I’ve seen and people I’ve met this week. The talks, open sessions and discussions of the summit were really amazing. You can get a glimpse of what I’m talking about by visiting the summit blog on this link. One of the discussions undertaken by Sylvia, Kevin Rennie and I was the use of the citizen media for development issues. Sylwia and Kevin are participating in the TH!NK ABOUT IT Competition Round #3 – Developing World. In circles like Global Voices and TH!NK ABOUT IT to cover the developing world and related issues is a very rewarding activity.

I also met some translators and editors of the Lingua Project. Among them, Bijoy Majumdar, a translator from Bangladesh who came to me very quietly and introduced himself. He told me how I resemble the people from his country and confessed he translates my posts into Bangla. His words touched me very deeply. Tarek (@gr33ndata) recorded a very good performance of Bijoy with traditional Bangladeshi flutes.

Tarek has also wrote an insightful post on his experience in Chile. He brings some of his remarks in the post:

Sometimes a short conversation with someone is more inspiring than a long speech or a book, and even if I have to admit that I do not have Sarita Moreira’s courage, I was really inspired by how she left her job to do what she likes and help poor people in distant countries far away from her home country. Also it was ironic to know from her about an Egyptian-born novelist – Albert Cossery – whom I have never heard of before.

Another interesting group of people was the Portuguese-speaking team. Kudos for Clara Onofre, Raphael Tsavkko, Paula Góes, Thiana Biondo, Sara Moreira, Janet Gunter, Debora Baldelli, Elisa Thiago, Manuella Ribeiro and Marta Cooper for being just wonderful. A very diverse and interesting team, among translators and authors of Global Voices in Portuguese. Thank you all for devoting time to talk and to be with me during these days in Santiago. You can’t imagine how good is your influence in my life!

Ethan Zuckerman, GV co-founder and a brilliant researcher of citizen media –whose blog I follow already for almost a year– summarized the love for Global Voices in this post. He addresses a very important topic of working for money versus working for love and captures the idea of why volunteers keep coming to contribute with their writing and translations for Global Voices. To emphasize this love, he brings this remarkable testimony:

I heard a wonderful story from a GV editor who stayed at a miserable job longer than she should because it gave her a fast internet connection and a good opportunity to translate content for GV on company time.

Rebecca MacKinnon, another GV co-founder, also address the summit in her blog and further explores the idea brought by Professor Rosental Alves (Knight Center for Journalism in Americas) in one of the panels during the summit. Rosental compared the old media (pre-Internet) environment to a desert, while the new media environment is more likely to resemble a rainforest. With this new media environment, lots of questions and challenges arise, because just like in a jungle, there are minorities and species that are more evolved than others.

To make sure we live with each other in a sustainable fashion, we have also to take the responsibility to make this environment less cruel and more easier to handle. In my understanding, Rebecca’s last words capture the idea of what we need to do and what we do for dealing with this new environment. She says:

Global Voices is a community of people who are acting like real citizens – not mere passive “internet users” – and who are taking personal responsibility for the future of our information society.

. . .

All in all, it was a great experience to attend this summit and I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends again. I hope we meet each other in the corners of the world, in conferences, job trips, vacation trips, whatever the reason. I remember logging in to Facebook just after coming back to Brazil and saying:

The more I travel, the more I agree that the world is small and we all live in a big village.

Now, more than ever, I feel like a member Global Voices; after seeing and sharing different perspectives in this summit, after meeting (and making new) friends from all over the world. After this week, I feel like a citizen of the world. Thank you Global Voices!

Global Voices. Photo by David Sasaki (@oso) on Flickr.

Will Laziness Poison Brazilian Blogs?

March 31st, 2010 § 1

Last week, state teachers of São Paulo in strike [in Portuguese] for over three weeks demonstrated in the Paulista Avenue [in Portuguese], one of the most prestigious streets of São Paulo city, as a way to reinforce their demands. As a result, the military police was sent to stop the demonstrators from getting closer to the Government Palace and the conflict between them started (you can even hear the sound of moral-effect bombs). Despite the violence implied by the police –which was undoubtedly disgusting– one photograph called the attention of bloggers and Twitter users:

Photo by Clayton de Souza/AE

Reactions over the photo above shattered across blogs very rapidly. Twitter users linked to blogs that republished the photo and many of them even uploaded it to different photo sharing services and re-tweeted to their followers. After the initial wave of uploading the same picture countless times, comments such “Photo of the Year” “The Portrait of Solidarity” “A Photography Masterpiece” sprang from the tips of bloggers’ fingers into their blogs as well as in commentary boxes. Everyone was amazed by the fact that a state teacher demonstrating against the Governor helped his foe — the injured police officer in his arms.

Now, wait a minute!

The surprise for every blogger and Twitter user who helped spread this photo on the Internet is that this man is not one of the state teachers in the demonstration site. He is actually a police officer working undercover amidst the protesters [in Portuguese]. Some even say he is part of the Secret Police Force of the São Paulo State and he was working undercover TO SPY the teachers (that’s the reason why he has a beard, as policemen in Brazil cannot have one).

Well… I’m not going to ask whether this is legal or even ethical — of course it isn’t; a piece of a totalitarian state back to our realities — but rather focus on how we should see this as an example of the fragility of bloggers and internet users’ criterion. Although the photograph agency labeled the photo as “Demonstrator holding police officer”, to assume the man was one of the state teachers without a proper research and amplify the erroneous information was a terrible mistake. And, worst of all… it was lazy!

I wonder how is the average internet user going to make sure what s/he is reading and seeing is true, legitimate and based in a deep journalist research? How does this person escape from the pitfalls of laziness that seem to poison bloggers in Brazil? In my country, a blogger is slowly being acknowledge as an opinion builder; there are bloggers with more readers than the most prolific broadsheets in the nation. But it is safe to say that there are some lessons s/he should learn before achieving a successful amount of readers, such as paying attention to what s/he distributes to readers.

The not-professor-but-police-officer case is just one among many others that make us wonder how bloggers need to rethink their strategies and care about the information they help spread, for this is irresponsible and as bad as mass media’s often disservice to the public. In such cases, bloggers should rely on words such as “allegedly” or “supposed”. Words that seem to have been forgotten even by mass media. This would have prevent a lot of turmoil made in the blogs, and for me, in addition to be a matter of criterion, it is also lack of proper judgment.

There are bloggers who bring new information to the discussion, who report on crisis situations or tragical incidents, but relying on mass media information can be one of bloggers worst attitudes. That’s something I wish I could discuss with a special attention later: how bloggers tend to consume mass media information in Brazil although opposing them, at the same rate as they assume a rather conservative position. By doing this they close their eyes to certain pitfalls that I’ll explain in a follow-up of this story.

To sum up this post, I’d like to share a thought from my GV-friend Marta Cooper in a conversation we had earlier today:

“It’s interesting how the internet has made for a lazier reporting culture” by Marta Cooper.

So, will laziness poison Brazilian blogs? To check a photograph/statement/source reliability before publishing is really a difficult job for bloggers? In a time when many of them are considering themselves journalists, some questions should be brought to the discussion. My piece of advice? OK, you can blog whatever you want, but please think before hitting “publish”.

World Day Against Cyber Censorship

March 11th, 2010 § 4

On March 12th, the internet celebrates the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, as promoted by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international organization committed to support journalists around the world.

The organization has already issued their latest report “The Enemies of the Internet 2010″, and not very surprinsingly, among their list we find: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. However, RSF is hopeful:

The fight for free access to information is being played out to an ever greater extent on the Internet. The emerging general trend is that a growing number of countries are attemptimg to tighten their control of the Net, but at the same time, increasingly inventive netizens demonstrate mutual solidarity by mobilizing when necessary.

Mobilizing against these attempts of censoring our dear and precious internet is what will keep us busy for the next years. Whether it is in Asia, Oceania, Africa, Americas or in Europe, 2010 is slowly showing itself as a year when some governments will fight for not allowing their citizens have proper access to content. We can see examples of this in the ACTA discussions, laws for punishing filesharing and people’s actions on the web, as well as many other reports.

Now, over there in Global Voices, Jillian C. York asked bloggers what anti-cersorship means to us and what are governments and companies takes in this matter. Well, for me, anti-censorship means gathering efforts to promote as much transparency as possible, and allowing people to freely use Internet’s infinite possibilities.

I also think that governments should be encouraged not to regulate, but rather give the proper infra-structure and educate people on how to use the web. This way, citizens will trust the government and be able to freely express themselves on the web: this is of utmost importance! On this matter, I also think companies should become more aware of their influence in society. Google’s decision not to regulate search results in China after having some Human Rights activists’ accounts hacked (follow this link for more information) is a demonstration of how companies should position themselves.

All in all, there is much to discuss. I couldn’t address the whole cyber censorship issue by myself in this post. But one thing is certain: we have to pay attention if we want to have a free environment for expressing ourselves and share content in the future. I strongly believe people’s demands will succeed, but there is a long way for us to path yet, and we never know what to expect from repressive countries such as the ones in RSF’s list. Unfortunately, they can go as far as restraining people to preserve their status quo… but they should know we do anything for preserving our rights as well:

tank-man

Dreams of Pursuing an International Career

January 21st, 2010 § 0

Nowadays, there are a handful of people that when faced with news reports on the difficulties of the world are sensitized by these images and decide they want to pursue a dream of doing something urgent. But things are relatively complicated. Sometimes, especially in Latin America and some African nations it is not very easy to pursue your dreams. Even though it is a matter of will and hard work, there is a chance of being left out of the world conversation if one is not encouraged and supported by others.

In my struggle to pursue an international career, in which I would be able to travel worldwide and teach and inspire people from different cultures –and learn with them– I’m facing one big challenge: funding. I always dreamed of studying in an foreign university, maybe in the UK or in the US, but I would be glad of studying in Japan, Scandinavia, Canada, etc. while applying some of what I learn in different developing nations.

“But what about starting this career in Brazil?” some might ask. Well, I risk to say that something very important lacks in the way the average Brazilian leads his/her career: even though we consume international ideas, there is no reverse flow of inspiring others worldwide with our own ideas. Even though we see the world, the average citizen is not motivated into arguing global problems as a possible influence to their lives and neighborhoods. And this particular behavior is somewhat negative for the amount of individuals who want to take part in the conversations of the international community.

This behavior affects me. Affects many who want to live abroad and have a different education. Although the Brazilian government efforts in the Education field are growing, the country is still full of contradictions and the benefits enjoyed by wealthy groups are scarcely distributed to other parts of society. Ory Okolloh, the Harvard lawyer I share a video of at the end of this post had the opportunity to meet someone who believed in her. A person who did not doubt of her efforts and capacity. Harvard faculty members were able to see she had a potential and encouraged her to pursue her dreams. And I need to work on building a likewise opportunity to me!

Why does European and North American individuals have such a different life –a better life when it comes to job and education opportunities? Because their society believes in Education as a path to success. Because they are granted the money to do so, and because they do believe in inspiration. I have met some university students in Brazil –and I bet this not only happens here– that laugh at the way foreigners (especially North Americans) face life so positively. It might be naivety of me, but I do think this is a tool for keeping yourself motivated and to help you assert your goals and do what you need to do. We Brazilians spend too much time in useless details that will endlessly keep us in despair; and endlessly keep us average.

Anyway, in the past few days I’ve been thinking of how I want to shape my international carer. It must have something to do with Human Rights, Citizen Media and even Tourism. The latter is sometimes neglected in day life discussions because people do not see it as a real source for establishing peace and dignity. At least some of the people who work in this field and whom I had the opportunity to discuss with. Nevertheless, I have some regards to this, but that’s food for thought and for another post.

So this is a little briefing of the current status of my international career:

What do I want:

I want to build a career that will provide me the ability to travel worldwide and learn from different cultures. My interests are citizen media and human rights. I do not want to forget what I’ve learn in Tourism, I’d rather relate some of the topics I’m fond of it and adjust to my global interests.

How do I get it:

I need to put effort on my qualities and build a network of inspiring people around me. These people will eventually become a source of information and inspiration, as well as a bridge to try and make my ideas into projects and these projects into real stuff.

What do I have:

I had a decent education which allowed me to learn how to deal with difficult situations and provided me with the skills for writing, approach communities and reporting; I have an average command of English –still need to improve in this field; I have the ability to learn and engage with people really fast.

To finish this post, I would like to share two of my favorite TED Talks. These two talks particularly have taught me a lot and inspired me to keep pursuing my dreams despite the criticism. The first one is the talk of Ory Okolloh, a Kenyan lawyer who studied in Harvard. Ory is co-founder of Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing tool that I’m slowly enjoying exploring. She tells her story by comparing what Africans have to do to make Africa a better place to live.

And below you can watch the talk of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a prominent Nigerian author. I’ve just ordered one of her books called “Half of a Yellow Sun”. In this presentation, “The Danger of a Single Story”, she argues on the strength of stereotypes and how they influence the way we see others.

I think people are getting tired of hearing me saying “inspiration, inspiration, inspiration” every time. But I do think that this is of ultimate importance if someone wants not to spend a life in boring jobs just to pay the bills.

Note: You see, I studied in a private University funded by a government scholarship. My first option before being granted the scholarship was to study Journalism, but “unfortunately” I was only granted with the Tourism scholarship. I do not regret spending four years of my life studying Tourism. I have learned a lot during these four years. And looking back I think that if I were granted with the Journalism scholarship I might have not succeed in becoming a good journalist. Now I see I’m getting ready for facing the world. In my own pace.

Global Voices: Five Years On

December 23rd, 2009 § 3

When I had the idea to create this personal blog, my main motivation was to reach a different audience, one that speaks English and therefore can follow my struggle into becoming a global citizen and achieving an international career.

I can say that part of my motivation is due to Global Voices. Why? Because Global Voices is little by little enabling me with the tools I need to keep myself motivated. The GV network is giving me tools to keep me inspired and fighting for my beliefs. This is absolutely not something that is achieved easily, since many people give on their goals when they’re discouraged to keep fighting or when they’re doing something they do not like to do. On the other hand, in Global Voices I do what I love to do.

From my brief experience in Global Voices Online, I already had the chance to feel the essence of the project. I’ve already been introduced to people who believed in me and in my ideas. This year, GV is completing 5 years, which means it has been five long years that thousands of people are being continuously inspired by the work of an amazing team of special people. People who hope for a different world; people whose job is to help raising the voices that are usually unheard in the noise of traditional media.

I joined Global Voices in May 2009, which means my experience in far more brief comparing to others who already write and translate for GV since the beginning of the project. But still, I already feel like being part of the whole group. I have always looked for something that would give me the ability to work in a global perspective and yet share my views on a local level. In addition, the grandiosity of the GV network is expressive and it feels magical that we can relate to friends in Sub-Saharan Africa, or from Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and other corners of the world. With that in mind, it is safe to say that GV is somehow a “place” where you find out that the world really exists.

My participation in GV is due to Paula Góes. I was interested in participating as an author and she was kind to help me with that. Somehow, part of my happiness and my accomplishments in this year are due to my work in Global Voices and the inspiration that Paula gives to me. Paula is someone special. She keeps me motivated, she helps me with my posts, she encourages me to try so many things, that somehow if I hadn’t the same kind of support, I wouldn’t do half of what I did this year. I would linger. Our friendship is growing everyday, and maybe because we are originally from the same city, we share perspectives, experiences and goals for our lives. Thank you so much, Paula! =)

Many stories that were brought by Global Voices touched me and influenced the way I see life and the world around me. Among these stories, Jillian C. York brought the case of the Moroccan girl Zineb Chtit, who was beaten by her employers and triggered the discussion of child labor in Morocco. The follow-up of the story made us aware that there is still much to do when it comes to Human Rights and the struggle against child labor.

Mong Palatino, the Regional Editor of Southeast Asia told the story of Mingjie Cai, a Singaporean taxi driver, blogger, and PhD holder from Stanford University. Dr. Cai lost his job and started a new life as a taxi driver. Unbelievable, but true. I remember that after reading Palatino’s blog post I spent the whole night reading Dr. Cai’s blog and his amazing reports on the life of ordinary people who he drove through the city. Some of these stories were so touching that made me cry. Another story by Palatino contemplated the complaints of Human Rights groups on the attitude of the Cambodian government of creating a de facto AIDS colony when it resettled 40 families with HIV and AIDS to a village 25 kilometers outside Phnom Penh City.

Not being narcissistic, one of my favorite stories of this year was actually wrote by me. The story of Januário Alves da Silva, a black man who was beaten and punched by a couple of security guards as he waited for his wife and children in the car park of one of the largest international retailers in Brazil. He was accused of trying to steal his own car. The attackers clearly thought that because he was black he wouldn’t be able to afford a Ford EcoSport (a model of car considered upmarket in Brazil). Januário’s story clearly highlighted the way racism is driven in the Brazilian society and how reptile it is.

My passion for Japan lead me to listen carefully to the words of Scilla Alleci about endangered languages in the Japanese archipelago and to discover that is still a lot to learn about the places we love and the things we want to see during our lives. The value of languages for Global Voices is such, that by publicizing this story and the fragility of these languages [and other tribal languages in many countries of the world] are a way to raise awareness among people and let them know that we need action to preserve people’s traditions.

For 2010, and for the next five years, I hope to contribute even more with Global Voices. I hope to meet other authors and translators, and I want to bring more contributors to our network. GV is changing the life of many people for good and words are not enough to describe the happiness we feel when we talk to each other, even though we are so far way. This is what faith and friendship really means.

At the brink of a new year, I can say I’m entirely happy. Never before I’ve been so fulfilled in my life.

Welcome to My Blog

December 12th, 2009 § 3

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Hello,

Welcome to my blog.

I’m still working on some blog posts. Soon you’ll be able to read all my updates from my upcoming trips, my thoughts on citizen media and a little bit of myself. Meanwhile, please check the “About” page and browse through the sidebar links.

Cheers!

My writing in Global Voices