Publisher's Platform

By 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed it the most polluted city in Asia. It didn't take more than a minute of breathing it to conclude that over time, Kathmandu's air could kill you.  A WHO report confirms this.

WHO scientists estimate 537,000 people in Southeast Asia and the Pacific die prematurely each year due to air pollution. The level of PM10 in the air of Kathmandu is 120 microgram per square meter. As per the standard of the World Health Organization, the level of PM10 should be 20 microgram per square meter. The level of PM10 is higher than the official standard in most of the places of Kathmandu valley.

We had known to expect pollution. But the experience exceeded the expectation.

We'd travelled two days, spent sixteen hours total in an airplane and had crossed the dateline, to get here.

We dropped our backpacks onto the floor of the clean, stark room in Schechen Guest House, a hotel run by a monastery. 

Is this the form of democracy we must expect from the new Egypt?

A military court has passed a three-year jail sentence on the blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, Reporters Without Borders, says.  Sanad  took aim at the army for how it behaved during the Egyptian revolution this year.   Reporters Wiithout Borders says Sanad "is the new government’s first prisoner of conscience."

Reporters Without Borders went on to say that:

The sentence was issued discreetly yesterday in the absence of Sanad’s defence and his supporters, who had previously demonstrated outside the court. No appeal is possible. Detained since 28 March, he was tried on 7 April, after several postponements, on charges of insulting the military, publishing false information and disturbing public security.

Yesterday, the site shut down for five hours. This happened under the pressure of a huge surge in traffic.  Finally, we upgraded to a larger server and acquired new speed and capacity.  We've been drawing an audience of about 5, 000 people a day. I hope the new system will keep us up and running for the forseeable future. If you can't get onto VO, it means we're down, and that means traffic is up. 

A letter from OpenMedia.ca this morning explains that the fight against internet usage billing isn't over. Here's what you can do about it.

OpenMedia.ca asked Canadians to send Ottawa a message about Internet metering (usage-based billing), and wow did you ever respond – over 420,000 have signed the petition!

We’re excited that we’ve come this far, but the issue has been put back before the CRTC and they’re digging in their heels.  When the CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein was dragged before politicians, he said the CRTC still wants to “find economic ways to discipline the use of the Internet”. 

To win, we urgently need to encourage Konrad to be an Internet Hero. Send a message to the CRTC HERE.