South Sudan braces for trouble

In the religiously mixed border towns residents fear they will be on the frontline of any post-referendum violence.

Maggie Fick and Pete Muller Last Modified: 30 Nov 2010 14:35 GMT

<p>Drawing New Lines: Border Issues in South Sudan from Pete Muller on Vimeo.</p>

The scene after dark in this lively market in the northernmost tip of southern Sudan is more reminiscent of the Middle East than of East Africa, but both regions are represented here. Northern Sudanese men in jalabiyas and skullcaps smoke shisha alongside lanky, dark-skinned southerners. Ethiopians serve roast chicken in an outdoor restaurant next to a tea shop run by Darfuris.

This unique merger of cultures in the southern town of Renk is symbolic of Sudan's immense diversity, and the thriving town benefits from its ties to both the north and the south.

On its surface, Renk is reminiscent of the late southern rebel leader John Garang's vision of a "New Sudan" - a place where the enormous diversity of Africa's largest country can be of mutual benefit to its peoples instead of a cause for conflict or exploitation.

Since Sudan's long civil war ended in 2005, the town of Renk has reaped some significant dividends from peace. Twenty-four hour electricity illuminates the town, courtesy of the national grid connection from the north. Cheap goods are available thanks to the paved road running to Khartoum.

Meanwhile in Juba, the southern capital, unreliable "city power" means only expatriates and wealthy Sudanese have consistent electricity due to generators, and products imported from Kenya and Uganda are expensive given the day-long or more journey by road from both countries' capitals.

Desire for independence

Despite the current economic benefits of north-south relations in Renk, the desire for independence among southerners is strong here. Like many other towns across the south, Renk has been holding pro-separation rallies on the ninth of each month in anticipation of January 9, the date currently set for south Sudan's independence referendum.

It is believed that southerners will vote overwhelmingly for separation. "I support separation because I want to feel like a human being," said Siham Abdelatti, 36, a tea seller in Renk's bustling market.

Abdelatti's grandparents fled from Darfur more than a century ago to escape slavery and settled north of Renk in a small village near the border.

Her father married a southern woman from the Dinka tribe, and she said she is proud of being a "mix of northern and southern Sudan," although she is careful to stress that she is a southerner who has the right to vote in the upcoming referendum.

Hussein Bashir, a young northern Sudanese man from a town near Khartoum, peddles bananas, apples and grapefruits at his father's stand in the night market. He says his family moved here in 1997 because they did not have the means to have a similar business in the north.

"We're comfortable here," Bashir said, pulling bananas hanging from the top of the stand and putting them in a paper bag for an older southern Sudanese man with skin much darker than his own. "We don't want to leave because of the referendum but the politics are out of our control."

Traders from the north have varying degrees of connection to the south - from purely commercial reasons for staying to more permanent links like intermarriage.

Ayuel Yuar, 30, embodies the mixed identity of border communities. He hails from the southern Dinka Abilang tribe but, as a Muslim, serves as a member of Renk's Islamic Council.

Yuar explained that tensions in Renk are not between Muslims and Christians, but between the competing political agendas of northerners and southerners. "[The northern government] will use religion as a tool of war again because before they were using jihad as a means of fighting the south," he said. "The southern government will not use religion because it is a secular government. But there will be consequences for Muslims in the south like me. I am afraid," he added.

'Pulling at the root'

The majority of Sudan's known oil reserves lie south of the border, and experts say a substantial proportion of the country's remaining known reserves are in northern Upper Nile. Some fear that the government in Khartoum will not peacefully relinquish control of them.

The multinational oil consortium Petrodar began pumping oil out of the Melut Basin area south of Renk in mid-2006. At that time, the oil blocks in the area were expected to produce 300,000 barrels-a-day, which were exported through a 865–mile pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Petrodar's production in the area accounted for more than half of Sudan's total crude output in 2006.

"The north will not just accept and say goodbye to us," said William Chuol, the police commissioner in Renk. "There will be a pulling at the root."

Despite their determination to vote for separation and form an independent south, everyday citizens of Renk and local government officials alike are well aware that they live in the zone that would quickly become the frontline if conflict between the northern and southern armies resumes. Military experts say that Renk could be reached by heavy artillery from the northern side of the border.

The southern army's division headquarters sit on the edge of Renk. The capital of Sudan is roughly 270 miles away, but the northern Sudanese military is massing troops at the current borderline between north and south.

Military observers from the United Nations mission in Sudan have the mandate to monitor the status of forces and the equipment of both the northern and southern Sudanese armies, but the UN does not have the access or ability to regularly patrol on the northern side of the border.

"If the north refuses the outcome of the referendum, then there will be problems," said Deng Akwei, the Renk county commissioner. "If fighting begins it will be on the border and it will continue from there."

A young girl waits to purchase sweets in the market of Renk, a border town in northern Upper Nile state. Owing to an extensive power grid across the border in northern Sudan, residents in Renk enjoy 24-hour electricity - a stark departure from areas further south where infrastructure is underdeveloped [Pete Muller]

 

Men pass through a bustling market in Renk at dusk. Owing to the availability of goods and consistent electricity, Renk boasts a lively nightlife. Scores of outdoor cafes, restaurants and shops line the main street and attract large crowds. Restaurateurs from all regions of Sudan and East Africa offer an array of traditional dishes, sweets and beverages [Pete Muller]

 

A northern trader poses for a portrait in the Renk market. Renk is home to many northern and Darfuri traders. Less than 300 miles from Khartoum, Renk receives many essential commodities from the north in deals largely brokered by northern traders. Over the years, many traders intermarried with southerners creating a deeply mixed culture [Pete Muller]

A woman and her sons at dusk in Renk. Border communities bear a uniquely mixed culture. Forms of dress typically associated with Islam are often donned by Christians who, through years of mixing and intermarriage, adopted many northern attributes [Pete Muller]

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Al Jazeera

Lorin Mallorie in Haiti: Widespread fear, anger over election results

by Lorin Mallorie on 11/30/2010

Related topics: haiti, avlhaiti

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As an American, I’ve experienced heated emotions during election time.

But, I have never experienced fear. Certainly not fear.

This week, however, Port-au-Prince did — as I have never seen. All the gas stations closed at 8 p.m. the night before Election Day, and a citywide vehicle ban remained in effect until the day after, Monday morning.

All for fear of tire- and building-burning, drive-by shootings, ballot tampering and general electoral corruption.

All of which happened, nonetheless, and I found myself once again fleeing Petionville, just ahead of angry protestors.

Protests broke out just hours into voting, with accusations of ballot tampering by the current government and their favored candidate, Jude Celestine and his party.

Deceased earthquake victims remained on registration lists, and voters who had lost their voter cards in the quake were not permitted to vote, despite being listed.

Twelve of the 18 presidential candidates renounced the elections as corrupt, requesting their annulment (Jude Celestine was not one of them), and accused the current government of tampering with the vote to favor Celestine.

Fifty-six polling stations reported corruption. The BBC reported that Mark Weisbrot — co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, which sent observers to Haiti’s election — called it “a farce.”

In Haiti, of this there is no doubt.

Despite all this, Haiti’s electoral council and current government have held that Sunday’s votes will stand. However, a run-off election will be held between the top two presidential candidates if no one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

As we await the results, the country is “hot.” If Celestine is proclaimed victor, it will surely explode.

People are afraid. Genuinely afraid – of each other.

The short democratic history of Haiti is marred with violence, fraud, government overthrows and often-unwelcome international intervention. This year, just having elections so quickly after the earthquake caused uproar from those living under tarps, the jobless and the sick — who are in no condition to follow politics.

People are afraid because “the mass” is angry.

All month, it’s seemed, “the mass” — the boiling underbelly of the social structure — has threatened to rise at any moment, likely creating a schism by the majority of the country’s poorest.

The days wear on, the “etrangers” (foreigners) remain, and nothing changes. The cholera creeps in – no work, no home, no hope. For most, nothing changes.

It’s humiliating, dehumanizing and quite honestly, sickening to witness.

“The mass.” There is no other name for it when the people of Haiti come together: One great, breathing body of struggle, resistance and strength.

At an election rally Thursday for Jude Celestine, “the mass” came to bear witness. The previous weeks were marked with cholera protests and election shootings, yet Carrefour Airport road was absolutely alive with the crowd.

“Are you American?” said the guy next to me in English, as I filmed from atop a cement barricade.

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you scared?”

Every few minutes someone would start running, a break in the crowd and tens of others would follow. There was an edge of fear and excitement, like at any moment a shot could sound and panic would envelop the streets.

But as the live music came to a close and Celestine finally spoke, his support seemed lacking. People left, or just watched without response — far less than half the crowd seemed to rally at his words.

It’s inconceivable that the people of Haiti will accept Jude Celestine as democratically elected. But whoever it is, the next president will need a lot more than the most votes to run this broken nation.

As we wait for news of the victor, perhaps more than ever in this moment in Haiti, only tomorrow knows what it will bring.

###

 

____________________________________________________

Cuba's solidarity with Haiti

By Rickey Singh

Ethan Zuckerman's musings on Africa, international development
and hacking the media.

 

12/01/2010 (6:38 pm)

If Amazon has silenced Wikileaks…

Filed under: Human Rights,Media ::

Whether you believe Julian Assange should be Time’s Man of the Year, or whether you’d like to see him tried for espionage, rape or other crimes, you have to admit the man keeps things interesting. While the revelations in Wikileaks recent releases haven’t toppled governments, or perhaps even led to major journalistic revelations, they’re forcing important discussions about secrecy, privacy, rights of free speech and the architecture of the internet.

In the wake of “cablegate”, Wikileaks’s release of secret, confidential and unclassified US diplomatic cables, the Wikileaks website has been under sustained distributed denial of service attack. Craig Labovitz, chief scientist for Arbor Networks (a leading firm focused on mitigating DDoS attacks), reports that the site experienced a 2-4Gbps attack on Sunday and a more significant 10Gbps attack on Tuesday. The analysis of Sunday’s attack is interesting in part because it shows how deep the interest in the Wikileaks documents has been – the site was generating well over 10Gbps in legitimate traffic prior to the attacks.

Labovitz references claims of responsibility from “The Jester”, a hacker who’s claimed responsibility for low-bandwidth, application specific attacks against sites he feels promote jihad or damage the US’s standing in the world. The Jester is an interesting figure – he claims to use a technique that allows users to cause serious downtime to sites without harnessing a botnet’s worth of servers – it’s unclear whether this is a technique like the known Sloloris attack, or something novel. And his choice of targets suggests a future where knowledgeable individuals are able to advance their personal political goals online without recruiting thousands of others to “help Israel win” or going on 4chan to organize attacks on the RIAA.

(Slashdot recently reported that the Jester had been arrested and had equipment confiscated in connection with an attack on Wikileaks. However, the article cited doesn’t mention an arrest. A site in the UK references the Jester’s blog as reporting an arrest by local authorities.)

In response to DDoS attacks, Wikileaks moved from servers in Sweden to Amazon’s web servers. This makes good sense – Amazon offers a “cloud” of servers with a great deal of capacity and a team of sysadmins who can fight off DDoS attacks. I’ve encouraged human rights organizations like Viet Tan to use sites like Blogger to host sensitive sites for similar reasons. Unfortunately, multi-Gbps DDoS attacks are really hard for sysadmins to fight off, and crouching behind a big rock is one good response to an attack.

It does, however, have downsides – you’re relying on that company’s continued willingness to host your site. I wrote a chapter for the recent Access Controlled volume on intermediary censorship – censorship conducted by an internet service provider or web service provider, on their own or acting on government instructions. If you’ve got a provider like Bluehost who decides they can no longer host sites owned by Zimbabweans, you may discover that the company you’re counting on to enable you to speak online is acting to silence you.

That may be what happened to Wikileaks earlier today. According to the Guardian, Sen Joe Lieberman (CT-Nutjob) is taking credit for pressuring Amazon to kick Wikileaks off its servers. Recent traceroutes for wikileaks.org and cablegate.wikileaks.org have led to servers in Sweden, suggesting that Wikileaks has changed homes.

It’s going to be very interesting to hear how Amazon justifies this decision. If the company was required by a court order to remove the content, that’s one thing. If they simply responded to pressure from a US Senator, or to boycott threats, it sends a very disturbing message: that Amazon will remove content under political pressure. Yes, Amazon is within its legal rights to refuse service to a customer… but as I’ve argued previously, they’re a private company responsible for a public space. That’s the nature of the internet – we use it as a space for public discourse, though the sites we use for much of our discussion are owned by private corporations and controlled by terms of service that are significantly more stringent than restrictions on public speech.

The rise of internet hypergiants like Amazon that host servers for hundreds of thousands of clients makes these potential conflicts more clear. If you are dissatisfied with the terms of service of your hosting provider, you can always find another… up to a point. There’s been massive consolidation in the web hosting market, and companies like Amazon are likely to control large shares of the market in the future, both because there are economies of scale in providing low-cost service, and because large server farms can more effectively defend from attacks like DDoS. But if large providers like Amazon won’t take on clients like Wikileaks, they’re forced onto smaller ISPs, which may be more costly and less able to thwart DDoS attacks.

If Amazon did respond to pressure from Lieberman, it should open a conversation about the responsibilities of cloud providers towards clients who host political content. If Amazon’s policy is “we can terminate you if we’re uncomfortable with what you say”, that cannot be acceptable to anyone who is concerned with freedom of speech online. I’m looking forward to hearing more about Amazon’s actions and justification, and to hearing from folks like Rebecca MacKinnon and Danny O’Brien who follow issues of free speech and corporate responsibility closely.

---

Update: It’s worth mentioning that Wikileaks is using peer to peer networks to distribute the actual cables. DDoS may be effective in removing their web presence, but it’s going to have a much harder time removing the sensitive material from the internet. The DDoS attacks are actually a useful reminder that we still don’t have a good way to serve web sites on a purely peer to peer architecture. That would be one response to the problems of consolidation I’m talking about here…

---

My dismay about Amazon’s apparent censorship of Wikileaks doesn’t constitute an endorsement of Wikileaks or this recent data release. I have complicated feelings about the organization and its methods. Two pieces I’ve found useful in thinking about Wikileaks:

- Dan Gillmor asks some tough questions about Wikileaks’s organizational transparency and motivations

- Blogger zunguzungu gives a close reading of an essay believed by be written by Assange in 2006 which suggests motivations for the Wikileaks project. This post is worth a close read – I find it both a satisfying explanation of some recent Wikileaks actions and a good reason for skepticism about aspects of the project.

Discuss [2]

-->

2 Responses to “If Amazon has silenced Wikileaks…”

1. WikiLeaks, el poder de la información. - comunicantropo Says:
   December 1st, 2010 at 7:05 pm

   [...] Ethan Zuckerman [...]

2. Rebecca MacKinnon Says:
   December 1st, 2010 at 8:16 pm

   Great post Ethan!! Looks like it was indeed pressure from Lieberman, see:

   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704594804575649050363774246.html
   and
   http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/how_lieberman_got_amazon_to_drop_wikileaks.php

   While Amazon was acting within its own terms of service, it certainly showed that it cannot be trusted to uphold users’ legal and constitutional rights. The Global Network Initiative’s principles for responsible corporate behavior in upholding free expression state:
   “The right to freedom of expression should not be restricted by governments, except in narrowly defined circumstances based on internationally recognized laws or standards.5 These restrictions should be consistent with international human rights laws and standards, the rule of law and be necessary and proportionate for the relevant purpose.”
   and:
   “Participating companies will respect and protect the freedom of expression rights of their users when confronted with government demands, laws and regulations to suppress freedom of expression, remove content or otherwise limit access to information and ideas in a manner inconsistent with internationally recognized laws and standards.”

   The GNI implementation guidelines state:

   “When required to restrict communications or remove content, participating companies will:

   * Require that governments follow established domestic legal processes when they are seeking to restrict freedom of expression.
   * Interpret government restrictions and demands so as to minimize the negative effect on freedom of expression.
   * Interpret the governmental authority’s jurisdiction so as to minimize the negative effect on to freedom of expression.”

   (see globalnetworkinitiative.org)

   These global principles and guidelines were developed through a multi-stakeholder process by human rights groups, socially responsible investors, and several other Internet companies in order to help companies make decisions and establish procedures for dealing with government takedown and data requests – so that user rights will be protected in a manner that is consistent with international human rights norms.

   Amazon is not currently a GNI member. They should be. They clearly need help figuring out how to do the right thing and not completely lose user trust.

 

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This video chronicles the life and times of the noted African-American historian, scholar and Pan-African activist John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998). Both a biography of Clarke himself and an overview of 5,000 years of African history, the film offers a provocative look at the past through the eyes of a leading proponent of an Afrocentric view of history. From ancient Egypt and Africa’s other great empires, Clarke moves through Mediterranean borrowings, the Atlantic slave trade, European colonization, the development of the Pan-African movement, and present-day African-American history.

Short Short Story Competition

The Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition
Writer's Digest is no longer accepting entries in the 8th Annual Short Short Story Competition. Winners will be notified by February 11, 2008 and will not otherwise be made public until they are announced in the June 2008 issue of Writer's Digest.

 

Winners of the 7th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition were listed in the June 2007 issue of Writer's Digest. Click here for a full list of winners.

-->
The Writer's Digest 11th Annual Short Short Story Competition

We're looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant...but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or fewer.

But don't be too long about it—the extended deadline is December 8, 2010.

PRIZES
First Place: $3,000 and a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City
Second Place: $1,500
Third Place: $500
Fourth Through Tenth Place: $100
Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer's Digest Books

* The names and story titles of the First-through Tenth-Place winners will be printed in the May/June 2011 Writer's Digest, and winners will receive the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market and Agents, Editors, and You: The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published. Plus, all First through 25th place winners will receive a free copy of the 11th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection.

 

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6. Winners will be notified by February 14, 2011. If you have not been contacted by this date, you may assume that your entry is not a finalist and may be marketed elsewhere.

7. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard with your entry if you want to be notified of its receipt. We cannot notify you personally of your story's status before the winners are announced. If entering online, you will receive a confirmation email for each entry you submit.

8. Winners' names will appear in the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest magazine. Afterwards, their names and story titles will be posted at www.writersdigest.com.

9. The following are not permitted to enter the competition: employees of F+W Media, Inc., and their immediate families and Writer's Digest contributing editors and correspondents as listed on the masthead.

 

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Top Award Winners will be notified by mail before February 14, 2011. The top 10 winners will be listed in the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest. The top 25 winners will be listed in the 11th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection and at www.writersdigest.com after the June issue is published.

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SPS Studios

Announces Its Seventeenth Biannual Poetry Card Contest
Deadline: December 31, 2010
1st prize: $300 * 2nd prize: $150 * 3rd prize: $50

In addition, the winning poems will be displayed on our website sps.com.
Please read the following, then scroll down to submit your poem.

Poetry Contest Guidelines:

1. Poems can be rhyming or non-rhyming, although we find that non-rhyming poetry reads better.
2. We suggest that you write about real emotions and feelings and that you have some special person or occasion in mind as you write.
3. Poems are judged on the basis of originality and uniqueness.
4. English-language entries only, please.
5. Enter as often as you like!

Poetry Contest Rules

All entries must be the original creation of the submitting author. All rights to the entries must be owned by the author and shall remain the property of the author. The author gives permission to SPS Studios, Inc. to publish and display the entry on the Web (in electronic form only) if the entry is selected as a winner or finalist. Winners will be contacted within 45 days of the deadline date. Contest is open to everyone except employees of SPS Studios and their families. Void where prohibited.

How to Submit

Simply complete the contest form below, or if you prefer, you may send your submission via snail mail* to:

SPS Studios Poetry Card Contest,
P.O. Box 1007, Dept. E,
Boulder, CO 80306.

Poetry Contest Submission Form

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The Sylvia K. Burack Writing Award is a writing contest for high school students in grades 11 and 12 in the U.S. and Canada. The award is made in memory of Sylvia K. Burack, longtime editor and publisher of The Writer. Burack was known for her dedication to helping writers and editors.

The winning writer will receive:

• $500
• Publication in The Writer magazine and on WriterMag.com
• A one-year subscription to The Writer
• A copy of the Gotham Writers’ Workshop anthology Fiction Gallery

 

 

Submission: To enter, submit a previously unpublished 600- to 800-word personal essay in English on the following topic: "Select a work of fiction, poem or play that has influenced you. Discuss the work and explain how it affected you." No song lyrics. For essay writing tips, visit WriterMag.com.

Eligibility: You must be a student in grade 11 or 12 attending a U.S. or Canadian high school at the time you submit the essay. The winner will be asked to provide proof of enrollment in grade 11 or 12 in a U.S. or Canadian high school. Employees of The Writer, Kalmbach Publishing Co. and Gotham Writers’ Workshop and their families are not eligible to participate.

Entry deadline: March 31, 2011

Entry Form

First Name: Last Name: Address 1: Address 2: City: State: Click to Select Alabama Alaska Alberta Arizona Arkansas Armed Forces-AA Armed Forces-AE Armed Forces-AP British Columbia California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Manitoba Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Brunswick New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York Newfoundland & Labrador North Carolina North Dakota Northwest Territories Nova Scotia Nunavut Ohio Oklahoma Ontario Oregon Pennsylvania PR Prince Edward Island Quebec Rhode Island Saskatchewan South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Yukon Postal Code:     Country: United States Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America Uruguay US Virgin Islands Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe   Phone: Email: Date of Birth: Month Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Year 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 How you heard about this Contest: Select a Category Box on Street Print Ad Lecture/Event Search Engine Friend/Teacher Website Email Flyer-  Yes, I would like to receive a bimonthly newsletter, occasional surveys and special offers via email from The Writer magazine.  Yes, I would like to receive a newsletter, schedule updates and special offers via email from Gotham Writers' Workshop. Entry Title: Word Count: 0 Please keep your submission under 800 words.* Entry Text: Rich Text Editor  Toolbar  Bold Italic  Insert/Remove Numbered List Insert/Remove Bulleted List  Link Unlink  About CKEditor  ▲ Elements path

By submitting this entry you signify:

1. That you are the author of the entry
2. That you are enrolled in high school in the 11th or 12th grade
3. That the work is original and unpublished
4. That you agree to the rules of the competition
5. That you are entering only one work to the competition

All entries must be received by March 31, 2011 at 11:59PM EST, the contest deadline. Limit one entry per person. The competition is open to original, unpublished essays of 600 to 800 words. Longer entries will be disregarded.

Rules

Judging criteria: Entries will be judged based on the expression of ideas and overall quality of the writing, including grammar, punctuation and syntax. Only essays written on the specified topic will be considered.

Submission: Only online entries will be accepted.

Entries: Only one submission per student.

Notification: If the winning entrant cannot be reached by June 1, 2011, the runner-up will receive the award. The winner will be announced in July 2011. The winner will be asked to provide proof of enrollment in grade 11 or 12 in a U.S. or Canadian high school.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS  -  OFFICIAL RULES

 

Launch of my newly edited

collection, Other Tongues:

Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

November 30, 2010

After months of organizing and reading and emailing and editing and proofreading and laughing and hair-pulling and everything else that happens when you put a book together, on behalf of me and my co-editor, Andrea Thompson, I would like to finally present our book, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out.  It has finally been published with Inanna Publications.

We are launching the book in Toronto Thursday, December 9th at 6:30 p.m., and will be taking place at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord Street).  You can read more about the historic bookstore here.

OTHER TONGUES: MIXED-RACE WOMEN SPEAK OUT is an anthology of poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative non-fiction, as well as black and white artwork and photography, that explores the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the twenty-first century. Contributions engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.

If you are in Toronto, please do come and support.  Refreshments will be served.  Authors will read at 7:15 p.m.

We are also working on setting up launches elsewhere in North America, so please stay tuned.  If you would like a review copy of Other Tongues, please do send me a message by visiting the Contact section of my blog.

We received so many contributions to the book that it was near impossible to envision the finished product, with firm decisions about which to include.  There are many factors we had to look for (some which were logistical, and part of Inanna’s requirements for length, etc.) in order to produce the final product. But one thing that remained consistent was how impressed we were with the quality of everyone’s work.  Truly.  Andrea and I had many “eureka” moments, realizing our stories were shared by so many women across North America… questions about who/what we were, what it was like growing up, and continued struggles (and blessings) we face today.  What a ride.

Finalizing a book that is all about the evolution of racial identity – a book shaped by the multidimensional space and ever-changing horizon of what being mixed means – is close to impossible.  Our project is, in many ways, much larger than a single book – it is voluminous, literally and figuratively.  We see this finished product as part of history not merely by virtue of its eventual place on the shelves of bookstores and universities, but by its will to ignite a new sense of community amongst mixed-race women in North America.  And what better time than now??

We thank you deeply for your encouragement and support.  Please stay updated about the book on Facebook and on here, where dialogues on the interracial experience will continue.

Warm regards,

Adebe DeRango-Adem
Co-editor, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out

 

Praise for OTHER TONGUES

“In a fresh approach to the quest for understanding mixed-race identity in the Americas, the multiple genres that find their way into the Other Tongues anthology — from poetry to photography, fiction to scholarship — perfectly mirror the prodigious spectrum of their authors’ positions toward the topic. This collection speaks boldly and poignantly to who we are, and by ‘weI mean not only women of mixed-race ancestry, but all citizens of 21st-century North America.”
– Lise Funderburg, author of Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity

“These exciting, beautifully inked narratives tell us that, as each woman embraces her biracial or multiracial identity, she mothers a new world, one with equal space for everyone.”
– George Elliott Clarke, Africadian & Eastern Woodland Metis, Laureate, 2001 Governor-General�s Award for Poetry

“Passionate, courageous and insightful, Other Tongues speaks affectingly about the pleasures and paradoxes of living between the conventional categories of race. It is a significant anthology, one that I’ve been waiting for.”
– Karina Vernon, Assistant Professor, Black Canadian Literature and Diaspora Studies, University of Toronto