Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 49

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, HIV/AIDS, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

HIV/AIDS: A window of opportunity for South Sudan

Photo Credit: antiimperialism.com

As South Sudan prepares for independence, the celebrations will be tempered by the grim reality that awaits them. The nation is plagued by numerous health burdens due to decades of civil war resulting in a lack of trained health workers and poor infrastructure, and inadequate health and education systems. One such burden is HIV/AIDS. Dr. Wichgoah Piny, the state’s HIV/AIDS commissioner said that about 116,000 people are known to be infected by the virus in South Sudan, 46,000 of which are being treated at hospitals within the region. This number lies in the middle ground when looking at the rest of Africa. East Africa generally has a higher prevalence whereas West Africa exhibits a lower prevalence of the disease. Some estimates say up to 4.7 million in South Sudan are at risk of acquiring the disease.

But those numbers could grow exponentially in the coming years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Sudan as “a ticking time bomb” and a threat which needs a cooperative and collective effort to fight in the new nation. Dr. Olivia Lomoro, the GoSS Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health who spoke at a South Sudan AIDS conference warned, “HIV/AIDS is a real issue in Southern Sudan despite the efforts we have put to fight it. It remains a threat and a time bomb we are expecting.”

UNAIDS officials in South Sudan

Dr. Mohamed Abdi, the WHO Director in South Sudan said that, “AIDS is a big problem in South Sudan and we need to fight it together.” He said that in more than two years he had worked in the region, very few people were getting treatment.

The consequences of a surge in HIV/AIDS could be catastrophic. The health infrastructure is already poor as it stands. An HIV/AIDS epidemic would paralyze the health sector for years and impair growth in other sectors. This could result in a crisis that no new government would be prepared to handle.

So in a sense, this is a defining moment for the future of health in South Sudan. As the new government establishes itself and its policies, it has the opportunity to be forward looking in the development of its health infrastructure. If HIV/AIDS is afforded a chance to “blow up” as WHO fears, the country will immediately be sunk further into a health crisis.

This presents an opportunistic entry point for the implementation of ICTs into the health sector in South Sudan.

Opportunities

A survey completed in 2006 by WHO revealed that over 910 health facilities existed in South Sudan. At the time, a majority of those facilities were claimed to be in a “deplorable state”. However, Dr. Lomoro recently pledged that Lakes state now has a new hospital which is going to be used as a teaching hospital to help in delivering quality health. She also mentioned investments through the Chinese government will be used to build new health centers and rehabilitate old ones. Incorporating ICTs in the rehabilitation process will pay dividends for the health sector in the future.

South Sudan is being held captive by a number of health issues such as measles, yellow fever and tuberculosis to name a few. Furthermore, South Sudan has up to 80% illiteracy rates in some parts, which make communicating through ICTs invaluable. The most basic forms of ICTs like radio, television and mobile phones can build a communication bridge for the illiterate to keep them connected and informed.

Dr. Lomoro also pointed out that the first target for the Ministry of Health in the Government of South Sudan is the training of health personnel in all the ten states of South Sudan in order to deliver quality health services to the population in a professional standard. One way to go about this would be to include ICT training in that workforce development. Taking this route would build workforce capacity and bolster the development of ICTs in the country.

The population returning from Sudan proper and surrounding African countries are also coming back with health work force skills. So there is a hope that as people return, their skills will be used in improving service delivery.

Several factors exist that support the idea of integrating ICT into the health infrastructure of South Sudan

Present ICT Usage

The market for ICTs is ripe and growing in South Sudan. The initiatives that would make a big impact in fighting HIV/AIDS using ICTs utilize mobile phones and radios as the media for communication. These media platforms are the largest in South Sudan.

Photo Credit: biztechafrica.com

A 2007 survey entitled “Media Access and Use in Southern Sudan,” showed that radio was the main source of information for the population as a whole with 59% of respondents citing the radio as a source of information, the highest out of all forms of media. Additionally, HIV/AIDS awareness radio programs make up 17% of the most popular radio programs. This indicates that HIV/AIDS discussions already have a base in South Sudan media.

Mobile phones on the other hand don’t enjoy such high rates of usage as radio due to 30% coverage rates. However, the mobile phone network has expanded considerably since 2005 and is predicted to keep expanding in the near future. Also noteworthy is that only 14% of South Sudanese get their information from newspapers and 13% from television according to a report. It’s clear that radio and mobile phones are the most widely used avenues of communication in South Sudan.

Plans to expand broadband cables

As recently reported, South Sudan is on the shortlist to receive fiber optic broadband cables. Broadband services make it possible to interconnect affiliated healthcare facilities around the country so that they can utilize and share scarce human and technical equipment resources to deliver quality and affordable healthcare services. These cables can establish a foundation for ICTs not just in health, but for all sectors in South Sudan.

Past Successful HIV/AIDS Programs

South Sudan won’t be the guinea pig for using ICTs for HIV/AIDS either. There have been quite a few successful HIV/AIDS programs in the past that succeeded in similar environments:

Targeting Nomadic Populations – USAID and other external NGO’s worked together in Nepal in 2005 to introduce a radio program on HIV/AIDS awareness by integrating entertainment into its programming

Capitalizing on existing media penetration:

o Radio – Tanzania also introduced the Tunajali HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Radio Program in 2010 with the help of PEPFAR.

o Mobile – Two mobile phone programs, Text to Change(TTC) and Freedom HIV/AIDS used mobile phones to reach thousands of people to educate them on HIV/AIDS

Photo Credit: freedom HIV/AIDS

South Sudan should approach some of the major NGO’s on the ground to help implement these initiatives that use ICTs. Organizations like USAID, WHO, UNICEF and the UN have spearheaded many initiatives like the ones described above in the developing world. They should at the very least try to do the same in South Sudan. They need to realize the opportunity at hand.

Possible ICT Policy

So the framework to set South Sudan off on the right foot is present just as they kick off their sovereignty. However, an HIV/AIDS epidemic is a threat. The markets for intervention exist, proven initiatives exist and they can be adopted using the aforementioned plans to establish new broadband cables. All of the stars have aligned. The tricky part is getting officials to the table and churning out an action plan. This will involve NGO officials talking with South Sudanese Government officials and making this opportunity a priority.

South Sudan has already seen its darkest days. They want to move now from being a hub for relief efforts to a hub for development. The health sector can benefit tremendously from using ICTs to prevent an HIV/AIDS disaster. Once HIV/AIDS is under control, the ICTs can be utilized strategically to tackle other health issues, as they are being done all over Africa and the developing world. If not, it may not be long before South Sudan encounters its darkest days once again.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Cross Cutting, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

iWeek South Africa

The 2011 10^th Anniversary iWeek conference, a South African Internet and telecoms industry’s annual gathering, will feature international speakers from six continents.

The 10^th staging of the iWeek Conference kicks off on September 21 to 23 this year at the Royal Elephand, Eldoraigne, Centurion, South Africa. The annual event is a gathering of internet and telecoms players, but it is open to others. This year’s staging will focus on how the internet has changed societies.

The event, which is sponsored by MTN Business Solutions, Ad Dynamo and Vox Telecom, will feature leading speakings, including Juan Du Toit from MXiT, Peter Coroneos, chief executive of the Internet Industry Association (IIA), Dr. Roger Leslie Cottrell from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, Jack Unger, president of Ask-Wi.Com and Ramy Raoof, online media officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Go here to register.

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Whose ICT Stats Should We Trust?

Nigerian journalists and government officials; Photo: USAID

While reading a news article in Reuters Africa a couple of weeks ago, I came across some ICT statistics that caught my attention. Funke Opeke, Chief Executive of the Main One Cable Company, last week estimated that Internet penetration would triple by 2013 in Nigeria, from the current 11% to 35-40%.

What surprised me, though, was not Opeke’s claim that Internet penetration would triple, but instead the statistics themselves. I knew that the ITU reported Internet penetration at 28.4% in Nigeria, quite different from Opeke’s 11% estimate. I contacted the author of the article, who forwarded me an excel document from Mrs. Opeke. The excel document had Internet penetration estimates in Nigeria from nine different hyperlinked sources such as the ITU, Business Monitor International, and the World Bank, with estimates ranging from 7-40%. Opeke used the 11% estimate in her public statement on increasing Internet access in Nigeria, she explained, to be conservative in announcing Main One’s plans.

However, I followed the hyperlinks to verify the statistics and found that they were in fact quite incorrect. Most of the websites deferred to the ITU’s 28.4%. Some of the Internet penetration statistics on the excel document were incorrectly entered, or gathered from the wrong year, or even from a different country, not Nigeria. The actual statistics reported in various reports on the Internet almost always come back to the ITU.

The root of the problem is that the news agencies are reporting the goals of the telecommunications companies as objective statistical projections. The motivation for the companies, or government ICT ministries, to exaggerate their projections and manipulate data is inherent. Instead of reporting private businesses’ “predictions” as facts, journalists should verify businesses’ claims with data from the ITU.

Further examples of inaccurate data reporting are widely available. Cisco Systems announced earlier this month that global Internet traffic will quadruple by 2015, based on their predictions. The headline read simply, “Internet traffic set to take off.” Recently, Nigerian journalists published an article entitled “Broadband is the future of our economy,” based solely on the personal comments of the CEO of Nigerian company Geoid Telecommunications:

“I quite agree that broadband is the future of Nigeria’s economy. I think it is obvious given the increased penetration of wireless devices in Nigeria. …a greater number of Nigerians now have wireless devices such as the BlackBerry, i-Pads and so on.”

Photo: ITU flickr

One critic of Nigerian telecommunications, Nmachi Jidemna, highlights the low amount technological development in Nigeria in comparison to South Africa and Kenya. The success of M-PESA, Ushahidi, MXit, and Umbono, among other applications in Kenya and South Africa, are attracting foreign attention and, more importantly, foreign investment. While in Nigeria Internet penetration is relatively high, technological development is comparatively low.

Since the Nigerian telecommunications industry has not attracted as many investors from the private sector or created revolutionary applications, the Nigerian government has created a local technological hub mimicking Silicon Valley in the United States, the Abuja Technology Village. Since its creation in 2009, though, there have been few positive outcomes of the initiative, leaving technological development at a standstill in Nigeria.

Yet, the Internet can be a powerful tool for development. Its potential as a tool to facilitate development, though, should not be over-stated. Claims that demand for Internet access is “insatiable” or that access will triple within two years, should be reported more cautiously. News agencies should continue to interview telecommunication companies, but should paint a more objective picture of reality.

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Anti-Corruption Tools: Promise and Problems

Transparency International is well known for their Corruption Perception Index, but the organization is also looking closely at ICT tools that are forging a new frontier for the collection and dissemination of information on bribery and corruption.

Although these diagnostic tools have been helpful in enhancing good governance because they invite participation from civil society, they also raise some challenging issues.

In an interview with Francesco De Simone of Transparency International U.S.A., he observes that one of the key issues of these new tools is how to guarantee accuracy of information so that it can be leveraged to reduce corrupt practices and promote good governance.

Bribespot is an online application allowing users to anonymously report instances of bribery that can be seen on Google maps; then identifies the size of the bribe, and area of government affected.

One issue with anonymous crowdsourcing tools is they may be vulnerable to being used for libel and defamation, De Simone states.

Without a source to pinpoint evidence of the bribe occurring, authorities accused of serious allegations can argue it defames their character, dismiss the accusation, and refuse to change their corrupt behavior.

Bribespot and Ipaidabribe.com reduce the risk of defamation by limiting the number of accesses or reports from certain users, cellular phone numbers or IP addresses.

screen shot of Bribespot where a 900,000 bribe in Brazil reported

Although not citing a specific individual, this screenshot on Bribespot shows how anonymity could be problematic

Another issue, De Simone notes, is the lack of understanding of what constitutes an actual bribe in the country.

Ipaidabribe.com, has similar applications to Bribespot, but addresses that shortcoming.

The website’s forum has a question and answer section on the correct procedures of public service departments in India, such as the Police Department or land sales, and the corresponding proper processes. The website also has a short test users can take to verify how much they know about bribery.

These features reduce inaccurate postings and provide a benchmark: when people are charged incorrectly, they know that they are paying a bribe.

Though seemingly commonplace to the Western world, it is important for people in the developing world to have a clear understanding of what a bribe is since they likely have to deal with corruption on a daily basis.

screenshot of ipaidabribe question and answer forum

Screenshot of ipaidabribe.com's explanation on procedures to pay property taxes

While some sites do not include all features of the ideal diagnostic tool, some play an important role in easing corrupt practices and should not be discounted.

De Simone believes these websites are most effective when they are used for a practical purpose and tied to a policy reform, such as Ushahidi monitoring elections in Nigeria, or ipaidabribe’s reports on government agencies that have received multiple corruption allegations. These type of citizen reports hold governments accountable and can help to spur social change.

Though Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index put corruption on their map, new crowd-sourcing and crowd-mapping tools are making strides for anti-corruption and good governance. “Every step we take towards the goal of decreasing corruption worldwide is a good step to take,” De Simone said with a smile.

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Drug traders paying pharmaceuticals for counterfeit drug detection?

U.S. based social enterprise Sproxil announced the start of its counterfeit drug detection program in India two weeks ago. This comes after the company announced it would receive a $1.8 million financial backing from Acumen Fund to expand its operations to India back in March 2011.

Sproxil is well known for its Mobile Product Authentication (MPA) architecture which fights the distribution of counterfeit drugs in developing nations. The MPA system takes advantage of the mobile phone market which is widely accessible in Africa. MPA uses scratch off cards that come with purchased drugs. These scratch off cards display a unique identifier which is texted to the pharmaceutical supplier to verify the authenticity of the drugs.

Photo Credit: Sproxil

When drugs depart the factory they are manufactured at, the scratch off card with the unique identifier accompanies every package manufactured ensuring authenticity from the source. When the drug is purchased, customers can scratch the card and text the identifier to a number provided by Sproxil from any cell phone and receive verification within seconds on the authenticity of the drugs. Sproxil says the texts are free of charge to the consumer.

Sproxil has affected the lives of many uninformed consumers before going into India. They established the first national mobile-based anti-counterfeit program in Africa and has already sold millions of anti-counterfeit labels which provide services to several global pharmaceutical companies, the company says. Drug suppliers in Africa that have lost potential revenue claimed to have covered for their losses and even experienced growth after using MPA.

Sproxil moves to a market in India that is suffering from counterfeit drug trade. “India has one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world, but is plagued by counterfeit (spurious) medicines made elsewhere that tarnish brand India,” said Ashifi Gogo, CEO of Sproxil. Gogo cites the recent success of a pilot program in Nigeria as the basis to expand to India. Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication technology has touched the lives of over 80,000 people, helping patients avoid getting ripped off by counterfeiters,” said Gogo.

Photo Crdit: SRxA

The world of counterfeit drug trade is a devastating one. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 30% of drugs sold in developing nations are counterfeit with the counterfeit drug market estimated at $200 billion by the World Customs Organization (WCO). The number of deaths and drug resistance levels continue to rise due to consumption of fake drugs, which is creating a healthcare nightmare.

The MPA system is a cost effective and relatively simple way to track fake drugs for both consumers and (authentic)drug suppliers. To allay the costs of his service, Gogo thinks his system gets drug counterfeiters to pay for MPA services. “Consumers are not paying, government is not paying as well. Pharmaceuticals are paying Sproxil to recoup shares lost to counterfeiters. So in some sense, the counterfeiters are paying for this service.”

In any case, Sproxil seems poised to make a dent in India’s counterfeit drug trade, and it is much needed.

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Connectivity, Education, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Kenya university to roll-out e-care

Kenya’s Kenyatta University

Kenya’s Kenyatta University’s referral hospital’s doctors and interns are getting a boost in the services they are able to provide to patients with the establishment of an e-care system that will enable them to consult with doctors and experts across the globe.

According to Vice-Chancellor Olive Mugenda, the new e-technology will enable patients to receive the appropriate care needed inside the country, and not be forced to travel abroad to consult other experts. The move is likely to see Kenyans overall health costs reduced.

The KES Sh9 billion (about USD $100 million) hospital, funded by the Chinese and Kenyan governments, will also connect medics at the referral hospital with those in rural areas.

Mugenda says the facility would have a cancer unit and a geriatric wing to provide health care for the old. ”The need for a cancer unit is justified by the increasing cases of the disease among our people,” says Mugenda.

The university will, on 8 July 2011, officially launch a centre to equip students with the necessary skills to be job creators.

The Business Innovation and Incubation Centre will offer students office space, Internet facilities, capital to start businesses and assistance in marketing their products.

Janan Yussif

July 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Family Planning, Health, Health, Health Systems, Infectious Diseases, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Nutrition, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

New mHealth service gives Iraq options for monitoring health

Iraq’s largest private telecommunications company, Asiacell, announced this week the launch of its mobile health content download and SMS service which is now available to its prepaid and postpaid subscribers. Asiacell is the only mobile telecom company providing coverage for all of Iraq.

An Iraqi man holds a cell phone. Photo Credit: Mario Tama, Getty Images

The new service offers information on various health practices which can be discriminately selected by the user. Asiacell offers a weekly and a daily health update service. The daily health updates include information on women’s health, men’s health, children’s health, dieting, mental health, and diabetes. Albeit a little more limited, the weekly updates is a downloadable service which only cover topics such as sports and fitness, mental health, and emergency medicine.

Customers can subscribe to the daily SMS service, by sending a blank SMS message to the toll-free short code “2330”, and then send their preferred health topic, which they can choose from a list that will be automatically sent via SMS, to short code “2331”. This service costs IQD 2,500 ($2.14) per month.

Subscribers can also download content on a weekly basis by sending the number “1” to short code “2332” for sports and fitness information, or to “2333” for mental health information, or to “2334” for emergency medicine information. This service costs IQD 2,000 ($1.71) per month.

A similar service operates in India called mDhil which uses SMS to send health messages on various topics. The service overcame social stigmas regarding certain topics of health such as reproductive health, and became one of the most successful mHealth programs in India. Asiacell’s new service faces identical hurdles in Iraq and hopes to prevail like mDhil did.

Photo Credit: Asiacell

Asiacell is the only telecom provider to cover all of Iraq. They provide services to nearly 8 million of the estimated 31 million living in Iraq. This is remarkable given that just 5 years ago under the reign of Saddam Hussein, less than one million Iraqis had access to land lines and the average civilian did not have access to a mobile phone. Despite that and the war which ruined telecommunication infrastructure, Iraqis now have steady access to telecom services, especially mobile phones.

It is probably due to the increased access to information that has led Iraqis to become more health conscious claims Asiacell. Dr. Mustafa Adil, an Iraqi physician, said that maintaining a healthy lifestyle has become a major concern for communities, as people are more aware of the importance of following the latest health advancements and practices. He explained that Asiacell’s Mobile Health service supports the healthcare sector’s goal to promote sound health habits.

July 6, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Zambia Telecom gets deal approved

CEC Executive Chairman Hanson Sindowe

Zambia’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has approved a proposed joint venture between Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) and Liquid Telecommunications Holding of Mauritius into one major conglomerate.

The move has investors and analysts excited about the future prospects of the telecom sector in Zambia.

“We have long been left outside major moves and investment so hopefully this will help jumpstart the industry in the right direction,” says John Yubo, a Zambian IT professional.

The agreement will form the new company CEC Liquid Telecommunications Limited. Brian Lingela, CCPC spokesperson, says the commission gave the final authorization as the deal did not infringe upon competition concerns.

The new venture will see each company with an equal 50% share in the new company and is to be incorporated in Zambia. Both companies are also expected to invest some $30 million in the establishment of the new company.

“The transaction did not raise competition concerns in the fiber optic market,” says Lingela.

“Investigations by the commission found that the proposed joint venture would not raise competition concerns in terms of increasing barriers to entry in the market,” he added.

Lingela says that the CCPC did not believe that CEC would abuse its 40 percent market share of the fibre optic market.

“In their deliberations, the board expressed hope that the transaction would result into some efficiencies particularly because Liquid Telecom has a regional reputation in the provision of fiber optic network from which CEC would benefit,” says Lingela.

By: Staff Writer

July 6, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

VAS Africa 2011: Gateway makes its presence felt

VAS Africa 2011 is currently underway

Gateway Communications, supplier of pan-African telecommunications services, is showcasing its range of value added services (VAS) for ISPs (internet service providers) and African mobile network operators (MNOs) at the VAS Africa 2011 currently underway at the Sandton Convention Centre, South Africa.

The Gateway Communications VAS products offer turnkey solutions, which can open up new revenue streams for MNOs and ISPs in Africa.

The company has vast voice and data transmission networks experience. Some of Gateway’s VAS products include Cibenix, an on-device service enabling MNOs to have a strategic presence on their customers’ handsets, ranging from smartphones to feature phones.

“Our presence in over 40 African countries, teamed with our rich heritage of successfully delivering critical services that mobile operators depend on to run their networks, makes Gateway Communications the right partner to deliver rapid growth.

Our ever expanding VAS solutions are tailored for the African market so we deliver new services that drive revenue for operators,” says Mike van den Bergh, CEO of Gateway Communications.

Gateway Communications is launching Data on Demand, a pre-paid data solution giving ISPs and MNOs the ability to buy capacity with no long-term commitments.

The VAS Africa event aims to serve the development needs of African operators to extend and expand their VAS offerings.

July 6, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Syria Protests: Making Amends Through the Lens

Syrian child in protest with colors of the flag on his face Photo Credit: © Sham News Network

Muhammad, 27, fled his home in the port city of Latakia last March, and deserted his job as cameraman for the Syrian state television network.

He now opts to use his acquired skills for media activism.

Similarly, Osama, 22, is a soldier for the state army who refuses to shoot at his fellow Syrians in protests.

He now arms himself with a brand-new-video-equipped smartphone, instead of a gun.

These two cases exemplify a recent transformation from Syria’s previous state media and soldiers, to activists who are “bearing witness,” to the atrocities being committed by the Syrian government.

Caption: Supporters of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shout slogans in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, March 27, 2011. REUTERS/George Ourfalian

"Supporters" of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad shout slogans in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, March 27, 2011. Photo Credit: Reuters/George Ourfalian

The Syrian government uses their state television network as a medium to propagate images of citizens attacking soldiers during protests, when the opposite is reality; and airs images of peaceful demonstrators at pro-Assad rallies, instead of showcasing dissidents.

Civil society wants to achieve social change by recording what their eyes and ears see and hear.

Muhammad is rectifying his work on the state channel, arguing that the station “threatens people’s lives,” by refusing to film the violence against protesters, or blaming them for soldiers deaths.

He is making amends through his work exposing the true stories of Syria’s pro-democracy uprising, with a great combination of technical skill and secrecy.

The true stories of Syria’s revolution are unreported, he says, because the intelligence community, called the Mukhabarat, control everything projected outwards. “The world does not know what is happening here,” he says, “The Mukhabarat are killing people without any media attention.”

“Syrian media lies, lies, lies,” Muhammad states. “I had to leave my job to protect the Syrian people, here in the valley and everywhere else.”

Muhammad is part of a group of cyberactivists who clamor to obtain footage of military forces as they roll into towns. There are also Syrians within the military itself engaging in the cyberactivist movement, despite personal costs.

Military service is compulsory in Syria, unless they are the only male child or pay a heavy wage, and lasts almost two years. In 2010, army regulars were estimated at 220,000 troops, with an additional 300,000 in reserve.

22-year-old Osama is a Syrian soldier who obtains footage while serving since he bought a brand-new video-equipped smartphone in the Syrian tech capital of Bahtha.

“They told me that Israel had occupied Daraa, and some people there were siding with Zionism against our president, so we had to go and liberate the city,” he says. But “there was no Israeli occupation there. We were actually occupying the city, there was nobody else”.

In a still frame from video posted online by Syrian activists, a soldier appeared to plant ammunition among the bodies of protesters who had been shot and killed. Photo Credit: NYTimes

According to an article in Wired.com, Osama frequently takes days off to visit a friend’s house with a satellite link. The individual coordinates these teams of so-called video soldiers, taking their full flash cards and gives them back empty ones. He has recently been uploading and distributing the mobile camera footage on Youtube and Facebook.

One clip, posted online in the beginning of June and shared on a Syrian activist Facebook page, was supposedly produced by one of the shabiha, the militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

This featured activist’s video shows heroic music over images of heavily armed men in uniforms smiling and laughing as they chat near the bloody corpses of two men in civilian clothes.

“I decided to start filming and documenting the truth when I realized the amount of lies we are forced to believe at the army,” says Rami, who is another Syrian soldier interviewed by Wired.com.

“This will be my weapon,” Osama asserts, and wonders: “Maybe one day, when this is over, I will throw my gun away and become a video reporter. Inshallah.”

While the outside world has been watching video clips of barbarism, Syria’s state-controlled media has repeatedly published and broadcasted violent images that the government maintains stems from protesters. It seems, however, both state media and shabiha are taking initiatives to show the reality of the situation, one video at a time.

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July 5, 2011/by actualize

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