Digital Divides the Neighborhoods

Source: Gapers Block

Htun-Htun Thing (pronounced: toon-toon ting), a 16-year-old refugee from Burma, spent a recent Sunday afternoon chatting with friends online. His friends are in New York and Florida, Australia and Kuala Lumpur -- anyplace that has taken in members of the ethnic Chin population who have fled the country in the face of human rights violations. Communication is filtered through the standard QWERTY keyboard, so not only are Htun Htun and his friends connecting and preserving a sense of community, they're also becoming more literate, strengthening their written and spoken English with every keystroke, whether they realize it or not. He lives on the North Side of the city, in Albany Park, a neighborhood scattered with immigrant populations from Sarajevo to Seoul, and where broadband access is plentiful.

When Htun Htun was done talking to friends on Sunday, his 10-year-old brother Jacob used the computer to stream episodes of "South Park" online. Later, they used Google and YouTube to teach me about Burma and the Chin population there. Like most people reading this, they know how to search for and find information online.

But just a couple miles to the south, in Humboldt Park and Pilsen, the computer access and fiber optic networks that connect much of the North Side to the opportunities inherent in Web 2.0 dry up. Mexican-born Alfonso Vargas doesn't have a computer or an internet connection. More importantly, he doesn't see the benefit to be gained by having either. He travels from the Humboldt Park studio he shares with his brother and cousin to Truman College, in Lakeview, four days a week for English classes and works in a kitchen in the Loop. "The job is good," he says, "but I need something more. More hours, more money." He makes $8 an hour and found the job by walking the Loop and filling out applications; he has no idea there's a website of classified ads listing jobs by the hundreds, or that he could learn and practice English from his couch, saving on the bus fare to Lakeview.

Do you use the internet at all, I ask him. "Sometimes, when I'm at school," he says, but when I ask about home use he says no. "I don't need that. My brother wants (a computer), but I don't really care." He buys $5 phone cards from a store near his apartment to call back home to Mexico and talk to family on his days off.

Alfonso is, according to studies in Chicago over the past year, typical of many Latino immigrants, whom the studies say are generally isolated from the digital technologies that are increasingly essential for life in the urban United States.

A study of broadband and digital technology use across the city came out over the summer, authored by University of Illinois researcher Karen Mossberger. It highlighted the city's Latino population in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Humboldt Park as among the least connected. While all immigrants must contend with a lack of familiarity, Latinos were singled out as the least likely to bridge the gap -- a phenomenon coined the "digital divide."

Pilsen and Humboldt Park were selected for pilot programs to receive city funding to cross the divide. In Pilsen, non-profit groups have been working over the past year to not only train residents in the use of digital technologies, but to more generally popularize and familiarize people with the potentials of the internet.

Jaime Guzman is running some of those projects out of the Resurrection Project in Pilsen. They run community classes in the neighborhood, and have set up community tech centers and public internet kiosks. "We did our own study," he told me, an informal poll at a local middle school, "and we found that interest is much higher in the (Pilsen) community for using internet technology than the UIC study suggests." It's the access and the know-how that he says needs improving.

Guzman, raised by Mexican-born immigrants just to the west, in Little Village, knows how beneficial regular internet use can be for first and second generation Americans. "For the first half of my life, I learned about American culture from TV," he likes to say; "but later, in my twenties, if I didn't understand something Americana, I just googled it."

Similar efforts are underway on the South Side, in the Auburn-Gresham, Chicago Lawn and Englewood neighborhoods as well -- three communities also singled out in the same study and picked for pilot projects. Internet kiosks have been set up at community centers there as well, and last summer students on break took part in a journalistic endeavor to create a newsletter and digital media that covered community issues.

But Mossberger, the UIC researcher, says that home use is the key. "Using it conveniently and at home, that's where habits are formed and real learning takes place," she says, a statement that may be backed up by Alfonso's lack of enthusiasm for the internet he uses at school in Lakeview, miles away from home at a place he's probably eager to get out of.

Guzman says he's still in conversation with people at the city's Department of Innovation and Technology about expanding broadband access. "We're trying to figure out what the most efficient way to get more people engaged is. We're still studying it. If it turns out that free wifi access is what's needed, we'll try and do that, it's been done in other cities. Right now, we're focused on getting people familiar with the technology, and seeing how it can benefit them."

One way that engagement with the web can clearly help these communities is in terms of economic development. Guzman spoke about a study that found that nearly $12 million leaves Pilsen annually. "There are a lot of reasons why residents spend money elsewhere," he says, "but definitely one is that they don't know about everything that's right here in the community." Part of the pilot program was the construction of a community website, the Pilsen Portal, that highlights community issues as well as local businesses.

With its high-end coffee, its modern decor and its wall space dedicated to showcasing local fine art, he says the Jumping Bean Cafe is the sort of place that Chicagoans from all communities would go out of their way to patronize. "But they have no website, and a lot of people don't know about it." (Jumping Bean Cafe has recently started a blog and a Facebook page). Fogata Village, another neighborhood restaurant with an odd mix of Mexican and Italian menus and a focus on organic ingredients, just recently launched a website. I know that I follow Flaco's Tacos, a South Loop taco shop, on Twitter, and have on more than one occasion made plans specifically to stop by when they tweeted about specials and promotions.

Getting local business communities in under-served neighborhoods engaged online could potentially be a galvanizing force for rejuvenating commerce, attracting and keeping money in those communities -- a potential tool for economic development with more self-direction and empowerment, not to mention accountability, than any TIF project.

This feature is supported in part by a Community News Matters grant from The Chicago Community Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

— Danny Fenster /

Malaysia gets poor marks for human rights

thestar
online

KUALA LUMPUR: To ensure it stays in control and in power, the Malaysian government has turned its back on promises to protect people’s rights, said Human Rights Watch.

In its report released yesterday, it said, when Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took over as Prime Minister in April 2009, he promised to respect the fundamental rights of the people but his government has failed to undertake the systematic reforms needed to fulfil that pledge.

It said the government harassed the Opposition, improperly restricted the right to peaceful expression, association, and assembly and mistreated migrants.

When it comes to human rights, Malaysia is more about rhetoric than reality, it said.

“The Malaysian government appears to be more interested in pursuing short-term political advantage rather than safeguarding rights,” said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

The 612-page World Report 2010 reviewed human rights practices around the world over the last year.

It said the release of a number of Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees early in Najib’s term was a positive development, but stressed that Parliament should repeal the ISA and other repressive laws including the Police Act 1967, which it said, was used to justify a “violent crackdown” on a citizens’ march against the ISA.

The report also said that following the impact of the Internet on the last general election, the government has tried to rein in non-traditional media, putting them and bloggers under closer scrutiny.

It also voiced concern over continued government control on the traditional media and called for the Printing Presses and Publications Act to be rescinded.

The report also criticised the government for failing to distinguish refugees and asylum seekers from undocumented migrants and for its use of an “ill trained, abusive civilian force” (Rela) to crack down on undocumented migrants.

It said detainees were kept under inhumane conditions causing several of them to die last year while dozens were infected with leptospirosis, a disease spread by animal faeces in unclean water.

“How many more migrants have to die in detention before Malaysian policymakers wake up?” said Robert­son.

The report also criticised Malaysia for continuing to crimininalise adult consensual sexual behaviour including sodomy and said it is about time the government brought its criminal code into the 21st century.

26 Myanmar nationals seeking asylum nabbed

thestar online

PORT KLANG: The marine police in Selangor have detained 26 illegal Myanmar nationals, believed to be seeking political asylum, off the Bagan Hailam waters near Pulau Ketam off Port Klang.

Port Klang Commanding officer DSP Norzaid Muhammad Said said all of them were found in a passenger ferry that was on its way from Sungai Lima, Pulau Ketam to Port Klang at 6.30pm on Saturday.

He said 21 of them were holding United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards issued by a neigbouring country, while the remaining five had no valid travel documents.

“Since the UNHCR card was issued by another country and not Malaysia, they cannot seek political asylum as provided for by the law. We have received information that the 26 had been earlier detained by the authorities in a neighbouring country but were ferried out by a syndicate which used speed boats,” he told reporters at his office here yesterday.

Norzaid said upon arrival from their original destination, the Myanmars, aged between 17 and 56, had stayed in Pulau Ketam for two days before continuing their journey. — Bernama

Immigration to act against employers harbouring illegal foreign workers

the star online

PETALING JAYA: The Immigration Department will begin a nationwide crackdown from Feb 15 on thousands of employers believed to be harbouring or employing illegal workers.

The operation will be carried out with the help of police and Rela.

Currently there are about 1.8 million approved foreign workers in the country, and the department be-lieves there are at least an equal number of illegal ones.

Immigration director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman said the department was already meeting with employer associations and groups before the deadline to “educate” them on the immigration laws and policies for hiring foreign workers.

“From Jan 5, we have been having dialogues with associations such as the Malaysian Employers’ Federation and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers,” Abdul Rahman said in an interview yesterday.

He said employers should be more responsible and understand that the Immigration Act prohibited keeping workers with expired visas.

“The opportunities for work here and willingness of some employers to keep illegal workers are to be blamed. It’s all about supply and demand,” he added.

Abdul Rahman said no employers had been charged lately as it was difficult to gather enough evidence to enable prosecution.

“To build a proper case, we would need the punch cards, salary slips and contracts between the employers and their workers,” he said.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told Indian journalists that more than 39,000 Indian tourists, mostly from Chennai, had abused their visa-on-arrival (VOA).

Abdul Rahman said most of the 39,000 “missing” Indians were believed to be in the country’s economic hotspots of the Klang Valley, Penang, Perak and Johor Baru, which had many employment opportunities.

It was reported that 75,645 out of 248,939 foreigners issued with VOAs between September 2006 and September 2008 had misused their visas.

They were from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Myan-mar, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Abdul Rahman said enforcement was also hindered by the easy assimilation of the southern Indians to Malaysian society.

He added that the three countries with the most number of “missing” citizens in Malaysia were India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but was unable to furnish any figures.

Tourism Malaysia figures placed arrivals from India at 590,000 in 2009, a 7.1% increase from 2008. Most of them cited sight-seeing, visiting friends and attending conferences as their reasons for coming here.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Employers’ Federation executive director Samsudin Baradan said the federation had warned its members not to retain or hire workers whose visas had expired.

However, Samsudin said it was understandable that some companies were hiring and harbouring workers illegally.

“It is not easy to get foreign workers because of the costs and procedures involved,” he said.

He added that the federation had been pleading with the department to be more consistent in its policies regarding foreign workers.

“The policies keep changing. We only come to know the changes through the media.

“The department should brief our members before implementing such policies,” he said.

For example, Samsudin said many companies were caught by surprise by an April 2009 policy that forced them, instead of their workers, to pay the levy of about RM1,800 per worker per year.

“It’s like you can do it today but tomorrow, you cannot. It is ad hoc, it is a knee-jerk reaction,” he said.

Nearly 40,000 Indian Nationals "Missing" In Malaysia - Najib

----BERNAMA

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 (Bernama) -- A total of 39,046 Indian citizens are "missing" in Malaysia after their tourist visas expired and it is a worrying issue for the country, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

The prime minister said they had gone missing from the Immigration Department's records, according to an estimate drawn up in June last year.

That was why the department was not keen on visa-on-arrival for Indians as the facility had been abused, especially by those from Chennai, he said.

"These people who came to Malaysia through the visa-on-arrival facility, could be back in India or be among people here...(maybe) working in the Indian restaurants.

"We just don't know where these people are now...probably still in Malaysia for economic reasons," he said in a interview with visiting Indian journalists at his office here Monday.

Najib indicated that he might take up the issue during his three-day official visit to India, beginning Jan 19.

The prime minister said Malaysia had been quite liberal in allowing priests and barbers from India to come and work in the country.

"We would like the Indian people to visit Malaysia as tourists. We have been quiet liberal. We want genuine ones. They are most welcome.

"We are willing to consider reintroducing the visa scheme for people coming from cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi but not from Chennai. The problem of overstaying is only from Chennai, he said.

Asked whether the government would hold any dialogue with the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), Najib said many people had realised that the group had "really exaggerated and manipulated the whole situation" of the ethnic Indian minority.

He said that most Indians in the country wanted the government to be sensitive to their needs and the government had been responsive.

"We have attended to a lot of the Indian problems and I don't see that Hindraf has been an important force in Malaysian politics," he said.

Asked on the move by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to appoint a special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, Najib said any follow-up action would be possible only if India and Pakistan were agreeable.

"Malaysia feels that the issue should be settled through peaceful negotiations," he added.

Children get a chance in Malaysia’s refugee-run schools

SOS Children's Villages

Refugee communities living in Malaysia have taken their children’s education into their own hands and set up their own schools in the cities and towns they live in. Some 10,000 of the 71,400 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the United Nations refugee agency in Malaysia, are school-age children. But none of them have access to a formal education.

One refugee community that has taken it upon itself to school its children is a group of Chin refugees from Myanmar, living in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. The school is basically a flat above a shop in the city centre, run by a refugee group called the Chin Students' Organization (CSO). Nearly 200 refugee children go there to learn English, maths, science and Chin cultural studies. They even play sports once a week. "CSO started this school because our children could not attend the public schools," said CSO coordinator Hup. "The children did not learn enough in Myanmar, so if they also have no education here, their lives in the future will be very hard," he told Reuters news service. Also, many of the children do not have enough to eat at home, so coming to school means they will have a full stomach each day. Refugee and Malaysian volunteers teach five days a week and the school which gets most of its funding from the monthly fee of about £3 paid by parents, and from donations from aid organizations.

The United Nations refugee agency chips in providing text books used in the Malaysian curriculum. Sisters Lidia, 12, and Sonia, six, both attend the school. "We came to Malaysia one year ago, and I began to attend this school immediately," said Lidia. "I like being in school and learning new things, but Sonia could not attend school at first. She was frightened of men, of police. She would not leave our flat." Attending school has helped her younger sister emerge from her shell, Lidia added. "It is so important for the children to attend school – not just for education," said Hup. "They learn team work, discipline, cleanliness and self confidence." For 14-year-old Sui, it’s clear she likes the games more than lessons. "I am very good at softball. I think I am better than the boys," she said. "It feels very good when I beat the boys – I feel like I can do anything." And the school gives her a chance to dream of a different future. "What do I hope for in my future?" asked Sui. "Peace. I just want a life of peace."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children

Thatcher wanted Fraser to buy island for refugees

The Sydney Morning Herald

FEARFUL of a public backlash against Vietnamese refugees, Margaret Thatcher asked Australia to help buy an island to resettle them, British cabinet documents from 1979 reveal.

Released after 30 years of mandatory suppression, the Downing Street papers reveal the extent of the then British prime minister's aversion to granting asylum to 10,000 boat people at the United Nations' request.

The Iron Lady warned her ministers of ''riots in the streets'' and hatched a plan to have then Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser jointly purchase an island in Indonesia or the Philippines - ''not only as a staging post but as a place of settlement'' for them all, the papers said.

The plan for a refugee colony was blocked by Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, who was concerned it could become a ''rival entrepreneurial city''.

The former Liberal prime minister was unable to recall the proposal yesterday but he noted Britain's reluctance to assist the resettlement effort. ''I've got absolutely no recollection of it. I've got a fairly good memory for what happened at the time,'' Mr Fraser said. ''The British were not involved in taking a large number of Vietnamese refugees. We were, Canada was, America was and France took a great many.''

Australia eventually became home to about 220,000 Vietnamese refugees. Canada took a few more, the US more than a million, and France about 90,000.

''One of the problems was a lot of the people fleeing Vietnam were doing so in boats that … were totally unsuitable for survival at sea,'' Mr Fraser said.

''Therefore, it was essential to try and establish centres they could get to without making the journey longer than it had to be.''

Malaysia had initially pushed boats back out to sea and many refugees were believed to have drowned.

''As a result of diplomacy, they agreed to establish holding centres. That was on the understanding that we, and other refugee recipient countries, were going to take a very large number so they weren't all going to be left as a problem for Malaysia,'' he said.

A similar global effort was needed now, Mr Fraser said. Repeated Opposition criticism of the Government's border protection policies perpetuated a myth, he said.

''It's obviously nonsense. Politicians would be surprised how much support a political party would get if it truly stated the case for asylum seekers and refugees and explained the circumstances from which they are fleeing.

''It shows a lot of courage to leave everything you know behind to try to get a better future for your family.''

The Fraser government's liberal attitude to Vietnamese refugees met no political opposition.

Allah for All

Malaysia Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — In a small church 45km southwest of the city, some 700 Catholics celebrated the dawn of the new decade singing praises to “Allah”.

Father Lawrence Andrew, parish priest of the Church of St Anne, usually conducts Mass in Bahasa Malaysia on Sundays for the benefit of the 200 East Malaysians who have joined his parish in Port Klang.

But he decided to preach in the national language last night after the High Court delivered judgment which overjoyed Christians nationwide.

“It's a special Mass,” Lawrence told The Malaysian Insider over the phone yesterday evening.

“Allah is no longer prohibited to us,” he said, the smile coming through the phone line.

“My parish is small but there's a growing number of Sarawakians who have been coming to church. I use Bahasa Malaysia because English to them is a foreign language. And the younger generation too are able to understand Bahasa,” he explained.

The government had first banned the church from using the word “Allah” in a Christian context three years ago in the Catholic newpaper Herald, allegedly to avoid confusing the majority Muslims who also use the word for their God.

The church sued when the Home Ministry threatened to take back the publishing permit, which is required to be renewed every year.

Lawrence said he has been invited to preach in Kota Kinabalu tomorrow and will be doing so in Bahasa Malaysia as well.

According to census figures in Sabah, about 2.45 million people there are Christian while in Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, statistics show 43 per cent of the population is Christian.

But Lawrence believes the figures are outdated and there are more Christians now in Borneo. He puts the figures in Sarawak closer to half the population.

The next census is due to be carried out in the middle of this year, according to the national Statistics Department.

The High Court yesterday ruled the Home Ministry ban was against the Federal Constitution which protects the rights of minorities.

Judge Datuk Lau Bee Lan declared the Herald has the constitutional right to publish the word “Allah” to refer to the Christian God.

She also struck out a second attempt by seven Muslim groups to join the Home Ministry in stopping the church, overturning a long-held but mistaken belief among some of the majority Muslims in the country that the word is exclusive to Islam.

Herald is the only Catholic paper in the country and has been in print for the past 20 years. Some 14,000 people subscribe to the weekly, which is limited for sale within church premises.

To cater to the diverse ethnicities in Malaysia, it publishes in four languages: English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil.

The church had last year applied to the Home Ministry to also publish in the Kadazandusun language but was turned down.

Lawrence, who edits Herald, told The Malaysian Insider that he was “very happy” with the court's decision, as was the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam, named as the publisher when informed late yesterday evening.

The priest-editor said Catholics can look forward to reading articles which contain the world “Allah” again from Jan 10, when the next print issue of Herald comes out.

The online version of Herald (http://www.heraldmalaysia.com/) will include stories on “Allah” immediately.

But, Lawrence was quick to add he would not publish the word “Allah” just for the sake of putting it in.

“Only when it is relevant and we are quoting from Scriptures and the word is used,” he stressed.

The church had held back from publishing material containing the word “Allah” for the past two years, while waiting for the court outcome.

Despite the court's judgment, a Malay-Muslim politician from the ruling party continued to probe the Church's real reasons for pushing a Malay medium for its worship.

“What is their motive? Why all of a sudden they want to use the word 'Allah' when all this while they have been using the term God?” Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman shot back when asked to comment by The Malaysian Insider.

“This is definitely provocation, they are just using all this human rights, religious rights as excuses. This is sensitive to the Muslims and this will create racial and religious tension,” the Pasir Salak MP said.

Lawrence was in the crowded court yesterday for the decision but rushed back to his parish to prepare for the special midnight worship to usher in the new year.

In his single-page statement, he welcomed the “long-awaited decision which clearly upholds the socio-cultural and anthropological body of evidence of the Christian people of the Malay archipelago, now Malaysia, in using the word 'Allah'.”

“We wish to state that the hearsay statements claiming that we have been using the word 'Allah' only recently is misleading and does not hold up to the rigour of historical scrutiny,” the priest said, referring to a Malay-Latin dictionary from 1631 which he claims is among the first-ever dictionaries printed in relation to the Malay language.

“This also means that the Bahasa Malaysia-speaking community of the Christian faith can now continue to freely use the word 'Allah' — a word that has been in their worship and instructions in the faith — without any interference from the authorities,” he said.