few interesting events

BlogWorld took place 20-21st of September, so I strongly advice the website and the blog.

Future of Web Apps is planned for 8-10 of October in London. Souns like a niche event, but might be interesting for all bloggers.


Internet Hungary (14-15th of October) is a great idea for Hungarian speaking bloggers, like me, but it struck me that the website has no translation in English - at least I can't find it. Am I so blond?And do not forget that 15th of October is the Blog Action Day 2008, this year commited to the issue of poverty.

When my fellow blogger living in Budapest, Jez Wegierski, posted about attending Global Voices summit somehow I didn't think about checking the organisation behind that event (even though I AM interested in events). I have just came across this very informative and extremely active portal now, and I must say I am well impressed. GlobalVoices is a large portal containing several sub-projects. Apart from the translation sites, I found the Global Voices Advocacy the most interesting one. It not only contains quite adequate data and insights on free speech on-line, but actually suggests tool to fight for it in those countries where some sites are banned.




Have a look at their 403 checker - it's a free to download tool helping to track back what sites were banned on one's pc. Also, some of those are included in the Access Denied Map. This is the type of info you do not find easily, here publicly available. I like when people bravely talk about issues and face the word with facts! Well done!
So, considering some involvement myself, I have contacted them asking about the aim of the site, and got a response from person called Portnoy: 'The main goal of Lingua and GV is to balance the world's information flow biased by MSM and with the help of more than 200 volunteers we have build a citizen media community based on bloggers around the world.
We tackle the 3 obstacles(censorship, digital divide, and language) toward a true global village with Global Voices Advocacy, Rising Voices, and Lingua. You can read more info here'
That is exactly what social media should do, don't you think?

Claudina Velásquez, or: when I was 19

Image via Wikipedia This girl was murdered when she was 19.
Let's just stop here for a sec, OK? What did you do when you were 19? Think about it!
When I was 19 I moved to Budapest leaving my parents, friends and my beloved cat, Czuga (quite similar to Manda on my sidebar actually) and head of to study Hungarian language! (do not ask me why, it just happened).
When I was 19 I was young, ambitious and extremely naive, as well as positive about all the opportunities awaiting me in this huge city. I felt I have all the time of the world to enjoy myself, to establish new friendships. I was alone, but happy - crazy, independent, free...I felt in love. I was introduced to Hungarian culture and I became the insider:)
When i was 19 a whole new world of Hungarian language opened to me - we have a saying in Polish according to which every new acquired language is a new soul we are gaining - it's an old, very traditional Slavic thinking, still - there must be something to it. Hungarians originated from the very same area of Asia as my fathers ancestors (I learned about his family, Korsak, history later on) and I always felt more at home in Hungarian standards and mentality, than I did in Polish culture. I learned to compromise, and became half-a-Pole, half-a-Hungarian in temrs of my national mentality. As with this, I was experimenting with almost everything!
I felt so happy and so ful of potential! I was about to begin American Studies, Hungarian and German Major too - I was about to study languages and literature, business and philosophy - all my favourite topics! And I new I will be able to do so much with the knowledge waiting just behind the corner!
When I was 19 I felt in love with Budapest. Did you ever fel in love with a place? Did you love it trully, so blind that even the worst experience would be forgiven? At the end of the day it was us, people, not the city I could blame...
When I was 19 I used to walk all evening long throught the city at night - completely safe - crossing few bridges, visiting my favourite streets and touching my favourite stones in walls; discovering new ones...
I was all new and I was just beginning my own experience of life...I began the happiness never really demolished by anyone so far!

And this girl, who hapens to wear a T-shirt from Budapest, had a chance for the same experience. She was a student of law faculty in Guatemala. She was found dead on the 13th of August 2005. She was not as lucky as we are - born in the wrong country?
'Families seeking help from the authorities are often faced with indifference and discrimination, and a particularly worrying tendency to blame the victim's behaviour or background for their death. Claudina's father told Amnesty International "The investigator said they thought Claudina was a nobody because she was wearing sandals and a belly button ring."
Despite such obstacles, Claudina's family have been'
It is a fact that 'In 2005, 665 women were killed - 25% up on the previous year, 10 times the rate in the UK, and not one killer caught. With no fingerprint or DNA database, no crime or victim profiling and no forensic science, killers go free and witnesses do not talk.'

Claudina was a lovely young girl, full of potential and free to become whoever she wants to be, yet she was deprived her basic right - right to live.

That is the reason why I decided to run the challenge for Amnesty International and chose her story as my own. If you think I am running it for myself, you are wrong. I was misused but I am alive and I kept my faith in law, truth and independence - my own one.

I will do nything I can (and this really DOES NOT COST me a lot!) to help organisations fighting for similiar rights to be established and respected in other countries. Simply, because I am lucky and I can;)

You can help too - just donate the money you plan to spend for your evening pint to my cause instead.:) Thank you!

Ms Wu and Ms Wang - did China change after Olympics?

OK, I have been reading news about all the achievements during the Olympics but I am still not convinced if the country will change at all...Yes, I am damn sceptical! Krease Chan is making a very valid point on Amnesty Blogs about reality of ordinary people vs. political statements. Would you like to be sentenced for a year of re-education through labor for disturbing public order? (I am sorry, I cannot help but think back to the times when as a student of ELTE university I would hold small parties in my rented flat in Budapest and have police knocking on my door - just simply asking me to turn the volume lower - since it's regular to have neighbours calling police istead of coming over themselves, hehe). This is not funny though. Both ladies are about 80 years old!!!
Amnesty Blogs has more interesting posts, so go and check it out!

Twitter again!

Just decided to sit back in front of my pc - tried not to, just to enjoy last hours of my holidays but checking my mail I realised that while I was away in Budapest I have received an invite to Twitterfone - a Twitter tool based on voice recognition allowing you to update the Twitter account via voice call. Cool, easy to use and really working;) -in Budapest I actually enjoyed keeping in touch with my friends and readers via Twitter last week - NOT browsing, blogging, checking my mail:) which is why I am getting so exited about a tool that for some of you might be boring already, hehe.

Happy Second Anniversary to Lolly btw!:)

Smth I wanted to post on Sunday

I apologize, my work takes us all my time, you probably all know the feeling, so I hope you will understand.

'I have discovered a cute little 'my kind of a place' in London now - just behind a corner for Jv so I can have my breakfast here whenever on a way home. Yes, I actually LOVE to have it on my own. I admire Jv for his ability to stay silent and still mark the space with his presence. But silence is not equal with solitude, which I very often seek. I always did.

I think the slowly weekend mornings should kick off gradually...if I need to rest properly, I need to boot slowly...Even now, I am sitting in this place opposite the mirror, seeing as the shadows from below my eyes gradually fade away as I sip my morning coffee. I cannot eat my croissant yet...

First time I saw this place, I was already happy. You can see them, like little spots hidden in between giants of consumer life - huge shops and offices. They stand still, and bring joy to those Londoners, who still remember the times of morning coffees and newspaper read in the local coffee shop. This one used to be an antique shop and looks really extravagant and slightly disturbing. No, I cannot call it eclectic - it's just bizarre, warm, friendly, and I bet most of the posh locals would hate it just seeing the worn out chairs and floor (old, wooden floor with paint coming off it! - where do you see that?). But, where do you get to see the smile of the serving girl, read morning newspaper or a philosophy book (just because it was left there) or listen to French chanson - quite surprisingly matching with the pictures of Chinese aristocracy on the walls!

Reminds me of Szimpla in Budapest so much! Every village, town, city has its 'Szimpla's. In Budapest it is a down to earth, slightly alternative coffeeshop-pub located int he heart of the Jewish quarter. I used to live in the same street, and spend all summer evenings, and weekend mornings (note: ehm, as a student morning started at 11AM!) there. There were other places too. There were the summer gardens set up each year in a different empty house not to disturb the neighbors(Hungarians are nuts about noise - your neighbors will call police at 10AM sharp if you have a house party, even though you have left them a note about it a week earlier in their postbox, police will arrive and ask you to lower the volume and smile saying 'well, we know, but we need to do that:)) And we are talking about really cultural level of 'noise'). There are the seasonal pubs opened usually by of the Boheme foreigners. I used to like to go to those, even if I disliked getting involved in the whole Boheme life - simply because of my origin I was a part of it anyway. All this was the SPACE of my writing, and I enjoyed the unconditional nature of it all very, very much...
Today, even though my life has run a few circles, I discover that I am still the same.:)
And even though I love UK, I miss Budapest, like I miss Mexico and few people from both of those places who left a mark on my personality...

Yes, it's another side of me. Not the gadget lover, not much of a blogger or photographer, just the quiet Sylwia. Oh well, la donna e mobile.'

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