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Japan calls for stricter COVID-19 measures for U.S. military personnel · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

U.S. Marine Corps and JASDF personnel await the arrival of JASDF F-2 aircraft at the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Shizuoka, Japan. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Katie Gray, uploaded to Flickr on Dec. 9, 2021. Image license: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Japanese government has declared a limited state of emergency in three prefectures after a sudden spike in COVID-19 infections during the first week of January. While there have been daily increases of COVID-19 all across Japan, there are fears American military personnel are responsible for igniting an explosive new wave of COVID-19 in the country.
Two of the prefectures, Yamaguchi in western Honshu, and Okinawa, an archipelago in Japan's far west, host extensive United States installations that have also seen sudden increases in COVID-19 over the past week. The third prefecture, Hiroshima, neighbors that of Yamaguchi and its own American military presence.
Jim Rion, a writer and translator who resides in Yamaguchi, noted the correlation between case counts and U.S. military presence in western Japan:
Can anyone spot the US military bases? https://t.co/ViaiQJaSuN
— Jim -I Translate Sake- Rion (@Jim_D_Rion) January 6, 2022
January 6 (2020) new COVID-19 case counts for Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures, and prefectures in Kyushu region:
Yamaguchi　 181 [Note: Hosts U.S. military bases]
Fukuoka 　80
Saga　 19
Nagasaki　 10 [Hosts U.S. naval presence]
Kumamoto　 24
Oita　 8
Miyazaki　 6
Kagoshima 61
Okinawa　 981 [Hosts U.S. military bases]
Fears of a COVID-19 outbreak sparked by U.S. military personnel began on January 3, after U.S. base commanders in Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture) announced 143 new cases of COVID-19 over the previous five days. In Okinawa, there had been 235 cases reported within the U.S. military on January 1, a single-day record for the military there so far.
By January 5, more than 2,000 daily COVID-19 cases were recorded across Japan for the first time in over three months. While not linked to the country's U.S. military presence, major cities— including Tokyo and Osaka—were recording a spike in new COVID-19 cases as the week went on.
On January 6, Hiroshima, which neighbors Yamaguchi, announced 273 daily cases, the highest since late August. By January 8, Okinawa recorded more than 1,000 daily COVID-19 cases, characterized as an “explosion”  by prefectural governor Tamaki Denny, who pleaded with the Japanese central government for more decisive action.
In the meantime, under Japan's quasi-state of emergency, also known as “mambo” (マンボ, or まん延防止等重点措置), restaurants and bars in the three prefectures will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol from January 9, and will be encouraged to close early in an effort to help prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
For some, Japan's “mambo” is not enough to deal with the current COVID-19 threat. Perceptions that U.S. military personnel, contractors, and their dependents generally refrain from wearing masks and abiding by other behavioral measures to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19—paired with the fact that there are at least 54,000 such personnel stationed at 85 facilities located all over Japan, not to mention 8,000 civilian and contractor employees, plus an additional 45,000 dependents—have contributed to people's concerns.
Military facilities of the United States in Japan (2016). Source: Wikimedia. Image license: Government of Japan Standard Terms of Use (Version 1.0)
There are also fears there are no COVID-19 testing or vaccination requirements for U.S. military personnel and their depedents as they are rotated into Japan on military flights.
In response to pressure from Okinawa's Tamaki and other prefectural governors, Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa called on U.S. commanders to impose more restrictions on the movement of military personnel to base, to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On January 6, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration would “do everything it can by working together with Tokyo to curb the spread of the virus.” However, a readout of the meeting between Blinken and Hayashi, his Japanese counterpart, does not mention COVID-19 outbreaks at U.S. bases across Japan. By the end of the week, some opposition politicians in Japan were calling for more rigorous restrictions on the U.S. military, including confining personnel to base.
Governor Tamaki of Okinawa, where daily COVID-19 cases surged to 1,400 on January 7, demanded that Japan review and update the Status of Forces Agreement, which provides a legal framework for the American military presence in the country, in order impose a mandatory quarantine on service personnel.
Under the agreement, Japanese police can exert little legal authority over U.S. personnel stationed in the country. Japan's COVID-19 measures, such as masking and social distancing, rely on voluntary compliance and shared social norms and conventions. In contrast, American military personnel stationed in host communities across the country generally follow their own rules about personal conduct, which are enforced by their own chains of command.
For some U.S. residents of Japan, including Dan Castellano, a writer and translator residing in Tokyo, the American military's perceived role in Japan's newest COVID-19 wave is a source of shame:
As an American I’m absolutely enraged from this behavior of the US military https://t.co/7a7DCpXqUY
— Dan Castellano (@ninja_padrino) January 5, 2022
For the time being, American military leadership in Japan has pledged to enhance COVID-19 mitigation measures by implementing new health restrictions, including masking and a mandatory negative COVID-19 test before travel to the country.

author: Nevin Thompson


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The paradox threatening Ukraine’s post-coal future · Global Voices
openDemocracy

Cherkasy power plant, Cherkasy, Ukraine. Image by Anton Galeta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
This article by Nazarii Vivcharyk appeared on OpenDemocracy on December 15, 2021. It is republished as part of a content-sharing partnership and has been edited to fit the GV style.
For power plant director Oleksiy Bida, a post-coal future in Ukraine is a “political decision”, he tells me as he guides me round the coal-fired power plant that powers 70 percent of public sector buildings and residences in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy.
Cherkasy, home to just shy of 300,000 people on the banks of the huge Dnipro river that runs through the country, is one of many cities that predominantly rely on coal power in Ukraine. But that could come into question with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s COP26 promise that the country, like several others, will stop using coal by 2035. How this promise will translate in practice remains to be seen – including in Cherkasy.
Bida says that his plant is ready to use natural gas instead, but that while it’s “technically possible”, it will be “unprofitable for our company and consumers, there will be a significant price rise”.
For a transition to alternative energy, Cherkasy’s power plant will need investment, according to Bida, and it already finds it difficult to source coal in Ukraine itself. The country’s mines in Donbas used to provide it, but since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, many of them are now in occupied territory, or flooded. “We have a situation now where we have the money for coal, but we can’t buy it,” he remarks.
Price rises for consumers, infrastructure and supply problems, technology, investments and political will are just some of the problems on the difficult path towards Ukraine’s post-coal future. Indeed, it is hard to imagine an energy transition in a country that frequently appears to be in the midst of an energy crisis. But with Ukraine supposed to stop using coal in only 14 years, the discussion needs to begin today.
Ukraine is famous for its coal, or at least, it once was. The country’s mining region, Donbas, provided some of the best quality coal in the Soviet Union, and then independent Ukraine. Today, following the war in eastern Ukraine, some 39 of the mines in Donbas are flooded, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). This translates into issues with supply and quality, and they’re already being felt in Cherkasy, which has problems with pollution and low temperatures.
“The situation in Ukraine as a whole, and here in Cherkasy, is critical,” Anatoly Bondarenko, head of Cherkasy city council, stated recently. “We don’t have enough coal, and the coal that was brought in from Poland does not have the right heat value, and so our buildings are often cold.”
Pavlo Karas, head of the town’s public energy infrastructure company, recently reported that, with the Ukrainian government’s move away from coal, Cherkasy’s coal-fired power plant will last another ten to 20 years before it is shut down. Karas’ company operates on gas, and heats a significantly smaller number of homes in town, but it does have a heating plant that could be reconstructed and put back into operation.
Yet the current problems with heating in Cherkasy seem to overshadow the long-term picture, according to Viktor Bezzubenko, the deputy mayor: “Our power plant can work with gas and coal, but they’re getting half of the coal they need right now – they need 60,000 tonnes a month, and they get 30,000. And so to keep the town warm, we have to use gas, and it’s relatively expensive.”
Indeed, Bida, says his plant actually has the funds to purchase coal, but cannot get the quality material he needs: “We’ve written to state-owned mines, we wanted to buy Ukrainian coal from Pavlohrad like before, but unfortunately we couldn’t.”
Furthermore, the introduction of new market processes in Ukraine’s energy sector is still at an early stage – and has had negative effects, says expert Viktor Kurtev. “The system is not only out of balance technically, it’s also out of balance financially,” he says, pointing to significant debts between Ukrainian energy companies. “The energy management system has been destroyed, and we’re not just talking about oligarchs here. It’s also the government’s responsibility.”
President Zelenskyy, for his part, recently called on Ukrainian businesses and the media to stop spreading news about supply problems for coal and gas. “At some point our angelic patience will end,” he said, “and for some a hellish period will begin.”
openDemocracy asked Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy for its position on the country’s commitment to stop using coal. The ministry said that Ukraine’s commitment to a gradual phase-out “did not contain strict obligations and does not mean a radical refusal of coal”, but that it would lead to “a dialogue between governments, businesses and local authorities about moving away from coal in a sustainable and economically inclusive manner”.
That, the ministry said, would mean an end to the “uncompensated use of coal for energy production”.
In effect, Ukraine is facing a paradox: on the one hand, the country badly lacks coal to run its power plants – and on the other, it needs to prepare for a situation where it needs radically less coal than it does now. That is, if it’s going to meet its 2035 phase-out target and the president’s target of climate neutrality by 2060.
Outside Cherkasy, there are faint signs of possible solutions to the energy crisis – although they are out of step with central government commitments. The city of Vatutine, home to roughly 15,000 people and some 100km from Cherkasy, is about to mark 25 years since its coal mines were closed, although as local residents tell me, there is still reason to consider reopening them.
Although the city had its own coal mine complex, it lacked the quality of Donbas coal, and so Vatutine also operated a coal briquette factory, says Vasyl Cherkashyn, a miner with two decades of experience. These briquettes were not only used to heat the city, but also the villages outside it. Since the mines were closed in the late 1990s, “they have collapsed or flooded, and the briquette factory has been disassembled for scrap”.
Although the Cherkasy region had its own coal reserves, it eventually switched to Russian gas as a principal source of energy, which was heavily advertised at the time, says Yuri Hromovskyi, a former regional council deputy, who was born in Vatutine. “At the beginning, it was okay, because [Russian] gas was cheaper. But then we started to discuss, shouldn’t we go back to mining coal somewhere nearby? After all, we’re still importing coal from South America and so on.”
On a smaller scale, the village of Stepantsy, further north of Cherkasy, is experimenting with alternatives to coal. To deal with its own heating problems, the village now produces its own heating pellets from the surrounding woods.
“The pellet price now gets to around 6,000 hryvnya [about $220] per tonne. That’s cheaper than gas or electricity,” says Volodymyr Mitsuk, head of the Cherkasy region’s association of territorial communities, who recently called on village administrations in the region to move to alternative forms of energy.
Oleksandr Yaremenko, head of Stepantsy village, tells me that while pellets do not cover heating needs for the whole village – they still have to use gas and coal – this year they shifted focus to self-made fuels, given the problems with coal and gas supply. Ahead of the next heating season in 2022, he says the village is working on transferring public sector facilities to alternative fuels.
Elsewhere in the region, there are 33 solar power facilities and 13 small hydropower plants, although with some of the solar power stations connected to Ukraine’s national power grid, they do not meet the region’s needs. “For some people this is business or just additional financial support. Those who have extra energy sell it to the centre and receive money for it,” says Serhiy Chuban, infrastructure director at Cherkasy regional administration.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy has stated that it is working on increasing the country’s atomic energy capacity and integrating alternative energy. Indeed, it now plans to build new nuclear power generators according to its own plans, along with the US company Westinghouse. Included in these plans is the town of Orbita in the Cherkasy region, which is home to an unfinished reactor.
Thus, while energy prices keep rising – and Ukrainians keep facing fuel poverty – Ukraine is left waiting for new coal supplies and energy imports from Belarus. The Ukrainian government’s plans for new energy generation are important – but until they’re implemented, they are just that: plans.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: openDemocracy


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Twitter turns white as people share images of snow in Kashmir · Global Voices
Rezwan

Winter Postcard from Kashmir. This is Aparwhat Peak looming large on Gulmarg valley, Kashmir. Image by Rajarshi Mitra via Flickr. CC BY 2.0.
Snow-clad mountains, scenic valleys, houses draped in white and silent puffs of falling flurries from the pale grey sky—these are glimpses of winter in northwest India's Kashmir region, as the valley experiences the 40-day winter period known as Chillai Kalan (major cold), which began on December 21.
Heavy snowfall started in early January throughout most of Kashmir, resulting in the cancellation of dozens of flights. Temperatures in many parts of Kashmir were either at or below freezing point, with certain locations recording up to minus four degrees Celsius (24.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Though Chillai Kalan can be harsh, many Twitter users have also been appreciating and sharing photographs and videos of its beauty.
Activist Abdul Hameed Lone posted an image of heavy snowfall:
Beautiful #Kashmir. Snow-fall pic.twitter.com/lH3zAA8rFZ
— Abdul Hameed Lone (@HameedAPHC) January 7, 2022
Twitter user Mir Kamran shared:
White blanket of snow covers Kashmir valley#Kashmir #Snowfall #MlrKaMrAN pic.twitter.com/QbvyJlKQ5a
— Mlr KaMrAN (@MlrKamran) January 6, 2022
Researcher Arhan Bagati, meanwhile, noted that winter in Kashmir attracts a lot of tourists:
Kashmiri Chillai Kalan attracts 18500 tourists since January 1st with around 3,000 in Gulmarg and 1700 in Pahalgam.https://t.co/H7fnVAAJfK@diprjk #JammuKashmir @manojsinha_ @JandKTourism
— Arhan Bagati (@IamArhanBagati) January 8, 2022
Journalist Ieshan Wani shared a video that captured the peacefulness of winter mornings:
Winter mornings be like: pic.twitter.com/Ahi1nApXwM
— Ieshan Wani (@Ieshan_W) January 8, 2022
Photojournalist Umar Ganie, meanwhile, shared footage of Kashmir at night:
In video- Snow night in Srinagar. #Srinagar #Kashmir #Snowfall #snow #SnowNight pic.twitter.com/8cquyl4cxM
— Umar Ganie (@UmarGanie1) January 7, 2022
Not everyone, however, was pleased with the amount of snow. Journalist Majid Hyderi (Jimmy) complained that the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) didn't clear the snow as expected:
For 2nd consecutive year, SMC didn't clear snow from lanes & bylanes!
This being scene along Airport Road mohallas, plight elsewhere can only be imagined.
Movement of pvt vehicles cleared some snow and SMC will draw fat bills.#MJH #Kashmir @nitishwarKumar @AtharAamirKhan pic.twitter.com/CtyrOkjg29
— Majid Hyderi -Jimmy (@majidhyderi) January 8, 2022
In fact, Shehryar Khanum made the point that romanticising snow is a privilege:
It took me a long time to realise that romanticising snow is a privilege. Guilty. Kashmir has no infrastructure for this kind of weather. We don’t build weather friendly homes, power supply is bleak, access to roads becomes a challenge, and it just cripples daily routine.
— Shehryar Khanum (@shehryar_khanum) January 8, 2022
Winter brings many challenges to local residents, as in this instance—shared by Kashmiri journalist Irfan Amin Malik—when people carried a pregnant woman on snow-covered roads:
People carry pregnant woman on shoulders, horse through knee-deep snow in frontier district of north Kashmir’s Kupwara pic.twitter.com/xr3cofgw5P
— Irfan Amin Malik (@irfanaminmalik) January 8, 2022
Journalist Tabeenah Anjum also spared a thought for the region's birds, which have been having a difficult time collecting food during the heavy snowfall:
Woke up to this sheen video. Folks back home, sent me this. Slightly late, but the birds did drop in for breakfast today.
With snow everywhere, it is difficult for winged friends to find grains. Let's do our bit & place grains at accessible places 🌨#SheenStories#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/Y2Qpy7l2c8
— Tabeenah Anjum (@TabeenahAnjum) January 8, 2022
Nevertheless, Kashmiri student Falak Qureshi looked on the bright side:
A cute Kashmiri girl presenting a Snow art.#Kashmir pic.twitter.com/lQm4eE2Xsf
— Falak Qureshi (@FalakQureshi_) January 6, 2022
Akhtar Ahmed also chose to show how people are enjoying the snow in Kashmir:
Enjoying snow in Kashmir valley India pic.twitter.com/rLzDhRSp7T
— Akhter Ahmad (@AkhterAhmad12) January 8, 2022
On January 7, the weather department sounded fresh alerts for heavy rain and snowfall, as well as possible avalanches and landslides, warning people to expect flight disruptions as a result. A landslide triggered by heavy rains has already blocked the Jammu-Srinagar highway, leaving a few thousand vehicles stranded.
According to the authorities, there is still an adequate supply of essential commodities for residents in far-off snowbound areas in the Kashmir valley, as people were given a four-month advance of food supplies. In these areas, people adhere to old customs during the winter to survive—including stocking up on sun-dried vegetables and fish.
Mohsin Hussain War explained:
Drying food in the sun is a safe and economical way to preserve food,
In #Kashmir sun drying of different food items for winter is an age old tradition, earlier it was done on large scale to fight the food scarcity during harsh winters. pic.twitter.com/CqWgfSIsqF
— Mohsin Hussain War محسن حسین وار (@TheMohsinWar) November 12, 2021
Twenty days of Chillai Khurd (small cold) typically follow the 40 days of Chillai Kalan. Winter in Kashmir will officially end after the expected ten days of Chillai Bachha (baby cold), which comes on the heels of Chillai Khurd.

author: Rezwan


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Change of government in Chile: The return of (fragile) hope · Global Voices
Nicolás Lazo Jerez

Image of Gabriel Boric giving his victory speech in 2021. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Gabriel Boric, recently elected president of Chile for the period 2022-2026, has a task of gigantic proportions before him. Starting March 11, when the current president, Sebastián Piñera will pass the reins of government to him, he will have to face the ongoing threat of COVID-19, an economy weakened by continuing inflation and a new political term—that day a part of the parliament will also be renewed—without a large majority to ensure a broad consensus. The hope that Boric has sparked in his voters will soon have to face a difficult reality.
On top of this, there are the country’s unresolved structural challenges, such as the debt of young people in university education, inequity in access to healthcare, and the failure of the private pension system imposed during  Augusto Pinochet‘s civil-military dictatorship, among many other issues. The difficulty of the work ahead will be unlike anything Boric has known so far.
The presidential campaign took place in the middle of a consultative process to renew the constitution, which was activated through a public vote after the October 2019 crisis, when thousands of Chileans took to the streets to demand a new social pact. Gabriel Boric, representing the left-wing grouping Apruebo Dignidad, won the presidency in the second round on Sunday, December 19, with 55.87 per cent of the vote, compared to 44.13 per cent for the far-right ex-deputy José Antonio Kast, who was strongly opposed to the idea of a new constitution.
The 35-year-old president-elect knows a thing or two about taking on tough challenges. A decade ago, together with other leaders, he headed a massive student movement that demanded free, quality public education from Piñera, who at that time was in his first term as president. Now, during the last part of his second term as deputy for the southern region of Magallanes, Boric gathered the signatures in support of his presidential candidacy at record speed, won a primary where he was not the polls’ favourite, stoically endured the personal attacks and fake news from Kast, and won in the runoff with a difference of about one million votes after coming second in the first round, so becoming the youngest and most voted-for president in Chile's history.
Given José Antonio Kast's open pro-Pinochet sentiment, as well as his negative views, and those of his associates, on women and sexual diversity, the final stretch of the campaign resembled the polarization of the referendum that ended the Pinochet regime in 1988. More than 30 years later, the division of votes between the two options then and now was practically the same. As such, on December 19, Boric's voters were doubly delighted, on the one hand with the electoral victory, on the other hand with the retreat—until further notice—of populist neoconservatism in the style of Trump and Bolsonaro.
Following that night's excitement, when Boric spoke of Salvador Allende before the packed crowd in central Santiago, anxiety has developed about the coming changes and the wave of expectations that the president-elect will have to manage with great caution. However, the mere fact that hope has returned to people's vocabulary is good news in the middle of so much doom and gloom. In times of pandemic, climate crisis, forced migration and other dispiriting human dramas, Chileans preferred a political project that seeks a better future, instead of backing a discourse dominated by fear of internal and external enemies, real or imagined.
Of course, it is not enough to just show the way to the dream. If Boric disappoints in his redistributive project, stumbles too many times on his supposed weak points—urban crime, drug trafficking and terrorism in the Araucanía Region—or even if he runs a mediocre government, the disappointment will run deep and the hope will show its fragility. That would be exactly the fertile ground in which Kast's discourse could take root: a promise of restoration that claims to recover a questionable “lost order” and a supposedly patriotic exceptionality which uses the metaphor, very frequent during the 90s, of Chile as a “good neighbour in a bad neighbourhood.”
On a regional level, with Gabriel Boric we can expect the strengthening of the soft left of the former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet and the resurgent Luiz Inácio da Silva, which the inexorable political pendulum had kept out of power for at least five years. It is also expected that he will strongly promote a “turquoise” diplomacy, as is called the agenda of sustainability which combines the causes of the forests and the oceans, and that, unlike some other progressive heads of state, he will unambiguously condemn human rights violations committed by any government, including, as he has already done, those claiming to be left-wing.
Furthermore, everything indicates that he will be a leader respectful of institutions and regional multilateralism, a spirit of dialogue that he has already demonstrated within Chile. Proof of this is that his first activities as president-elect were a protocol reception at La Moneda palace, where he was received by the very president he has severely criticized for his leadership during the social unrest of 2019, and then a visit to the headquarters of the Constitutional Convention, to which Boric offered guarantees of support and autonomy.
Although the truth is always more complex than the typically Manichean viewpoints on social media, citizens online will nevertheless be tough when it comes to assessing Gabriel Boric's presidency. It will depend on him and his administration's team, in four years’ time, to not be viewed in such simplistic terms. We also know that the honeymoon period currently enjoyed by the popular president-elect will probably be short-lived. Beyond these subjective interpretations, the real success will be that the new leadership manages, as promised during the campaign, to allow Chileans to live a little better.

author: Nicolás Lazo Jerez


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Global Voices seeks an editor to lead our Greater Central Asia coverage · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Image of Osh bazar in Bishkek. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
Are you a writer and editor with a deep understanding of and curiosity about all facets of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan? Are you excited about shaping ideas into stories, social media posts, and other editorial outputs in collaboration with a diverse community?
If you answered “yes” to the questions above, you might consider applying for the position of Regional Editor for Greater Central Asia.
The Regional Editor will be responsible both for editing stories written by Global Voices’ volunteer contributors and for writing stories about the region. Global Voices stories focus on topics such as internet culture, freedom of speech online, technology and digital rights, human rights, diversity and representation, and language diversity.
The Regional Editor will also work with a diverse community of contributors who write stories, share ideas for stories, and set the editorial agenda for the region by proposing ideas, sharing knowledge, and providing leads.
Preference will be given to candidates with knowledge of Central Asian languages including Dari, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Pashto, Tajik, Turkmen, Uyghur, and Uzbek.
Global Voices is a global, virtual organization. The engine of the Global Voices newsroom is a team of part-time editors who work with volunteer contributors and translators around the world to highlight stories and perspectives that are underrepresented in international mainstream media.
Candidates must be comfortable setting their own schedules and working in a wholly virtual environment.
We strongly welcome candidates currently contributing to the Global Voices project to apply.
The position is part-time and will be treated as a freelance contract.
Submit a résumé and a cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a good fit for the position to  jobs@globalvoices.org, with the subject line: . Please attach your cover letter as a .doc or .pdf file in addition to including it in the body of your e-mail.

author: Filip Noubel


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Heavy floods leave over 30,000 displaced in northern Sumatra, Indonesia · Global Voices
Sydney Allen

An aerial photo of flooding in the Aceh region last week after days of heavy downpour. Via YouTube.
After a week of heavy rain on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, more than 32,000 people have been displaced, and three children have died. Many more people are unaccounted for across the region. Torrential rains overtook the island on December 31, 2021, causing destructive flash floods in four districts. Since then, persistent rain has left parts of Northern Sumatra underwater.
In pictures: Heavy rainfall causes floods in Indonesia's North Aceh pic.twitter.com/9eIHugdLOh
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) January 4, 2022
Residents from the most affected regions have been taking shelter in mosques, temporary shelters, and public buildings as more than 11,000 homes have been submerged.
In some areas, the floodwaters have begun subsiding, but many regions remain submerged, making the areas inaccessible and hindering relief and rescue efforts. North Aceh officials have declared a state of emergency until January 15.
This aerial picture shows inundated buildings including a mosque (C) during flooding in Lhoksukon, North Aceh on January 4, 2022. #Flood #Indonesia #NaturalDisaster #BisheshNews
(Photo by ZIKRI MAULANA / AFP) pic.twitter.com/EWOEsj7SHa
— Bishesh News (@BisheshNews) January 4, 2022
While officials’ immediate concern is rescuing those who have been injured or harmed by the floods, some are concerned about what comes next.
Muhammad Hatta, who lives in a small village near the town of Lhoksukon in Aceh province, told AlJazeera he is especially concerned about the economic ramifications, noting, “The local economy has been destroyed.” He added:
We are more worried about what happens after the floodwaters subside. All the rice paddies in the area are underwater. The farmers were just about to harvest them, but crops usually die after three or four days of being completely submerged. The farmers will have lost everything.
Health specialists are also concerned that the flood could exacerbate health problems and lead to a spike in COVID-19, which Aceh province has largely contained for most of the pandemic, with only 38,000 reported cases since March 2020, according to official counts.
Pulmonary specialist Dr. Indra Buana, based in Lhoksukon, told AlJazeera, “COVID-19 numbers in North Aceh have been going down and I have had fewer patients coming to see me with serious symptoms in recent weeks.”
However, as residents crowd together in emergency shelters and mosques, Buana is concerned the virus could spread. Aceh is one of the least vaccinated regions in Indonesia, with only 22 percent of the population double vaccinated against COVID-19 as of January 2: “We are worried that there will be a spike in COVID-19 cases. It could be very dangerous if someone from outside the area who has COVID-19 visits the shelters and unwittingly infects everyone.”
Aside from COVID, floods carry their own array of health risks. Swallowing contaminated floodwater can lead to lung inflammation, and the wet weather and humidity can exacerbate asthma or lead to upper respiratory tract infections.
While floods are an annual occurrence during Indonesia’s rainy season (roughly November to March each year), the nation has been grappling with unusually strong storms since November 2021, spurred by La Niña. The meteorological phenomenon, which means “little girl” in Spanish, occurs every few years, causing water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean to become lower than normal and impacting global weather patterns. In Indonesia and the Pacific, this results in increased cyclones and rainfall, which can lead to landslides, floods, mudslides, and more.
Floods have affected at least 14 districts in Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo Twitter via @theguzel_
In October 2021, Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Indonesia’s national agency for disaster management, warned that the La Niña phenomenon was developing and urged districts to prepare for more severe weather events, saying, “Historical records show that La Nina in 2020 caused an increase in the accumulation of monthly rainfalls in Indonesia by 20 percent to 70 percent of normal conditions.”
But the floods can’t just be attributed to La Niña. Environmentalists say the climate crisis and deforestation are also contributing to the more extreme weather events. The Indonesian environmental NGO, Wahli, told the Jakarta Post that the destruction was worsened because much of Sumatra’s forests have been cleared for massive palm oil plantations. Without trees and shrubbery to act as natural barriers, flash floods can become deadlier and more destructive.
Ananda Justisiani, a spokesman for the Aksi Cepat Tanggap emergency relief team in Aceh, told Arab News:
Kali ini, banjir terjadi pada skala yang lebih besar lagi. Keadaan sangat teruk sekali kerana sungai-sungai melimpah-ruah dan terdapat hujan yang lebih lebat. Oleh itu, paras air tidak turun.
This time, the floods happened on an even bigger scale. The situation is very bad because the rivers are overflowing and there is heavier rain. So the water level is not going down.
The Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos), Tri Rismaharini (Risma), visited the victims on Monday, January 3, and helped to deliver aid and supplies. Many of the victims asked the government to rebuild their homes that were destroyed, to which Risma responded in a written statement, “We encourage the local government to immediately review the residents’ requests.” Risma also plans to consult with experts to determine whether the original housing placements are safe or if they should be moved.
To help combat future floods, the government is constructing the Keureuto Dam, which will block the Krueng Keureuto river and some of its tributaries. The dam is expected to be complete in 2023 and may help lessen the annual flooding.
Sumatra isn’t the only island facing hardships due to this year’s extreme weather events. Parts of Java and Papua were also inundated with floods this week.

author: Sydney Allen


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How one birthday party sparked an outpouring of anger and resentment in Hong Kong · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Witman Hung's birthday party poster via inmediahk.net
2022 has kicked off with a scandal in Hong Kong involving 13 government officials and 20 newly elected Legislative Council members who violated the city's pandemic control policies by attending a birthday party with over 200 guests. The incident has been nicknamed “Hung's partygate” (洪門宴) and has some accusing city leaders of inconsistent policies and hypocrisy.
The party was hosted by Witman Hung, a Hong Kong deputy for the Chinese National People’s Congress. Hung is also Principal Liaison Officer for the Hong Kong, Shenzhen Qianhai Authority which is a coordinating body of a regional development project that integrates Hong Kong into the southern China Great Bay Area.
The birthday party took place on January 3 — just 4 days after the first community transmission case of the highly contagious Omicron variant was found in Hong Kong. The government was on high alert as a local outbreak could jeopardize the open border arrangement with mainland China under China’s “zero-COVID” policy.
Yet in the midst of such a crisis, more than a dozen top-ranking government officials attended the opulent birthday party. According to photos and reports, attendees violated the administration’s pandemic control policies by not wearing masks and not doing a mandatory check-in through the state contact tracking app, LeaveHomeSafe.
Photos from the event showing Witman Hung and his guests not wearing masks circulated widely on social media.
Leaked photo of the birthday party Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui attended, where a #COVID19 patient was present, shows everyone at the party had their masks off#animalfarm #allanimalsareequal pic.twitter.com/TJ1lhd1njK
— Real Hong Kong News (@RealHKNews) January 6, 2022
Among the dozen officials who joined the party are Casper Tsui, the Secretary of Home Affairs who is in charge of enforcing the pandemic control measures, and three top officials from the law enforcement authorities: Au Ka Wang, Director of Immigration; Raymond Siu, Police Commissioner; and Simon Peh, Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Au Ka Wang, who was fined in July for breaking COVID-19 rules after attending a luxury dinner arranged by the China Evergrande Group. He was among one those who did not check in with LeaveHomeSafe at the birthday party. Both Au and Siu are members of the Hong Kong National Security Committee.
The rulebreakers might have gone unnoticed, except two days after the event, one guest tested positive for the Omicron variant. On the same day, the government tightened pandemic control rules by banning indoor dining after 6 pm and closing swimming pools, sports centers, bars, gyms, museums, and more for at least two weeks.
Since the mandatory check-in rules were implemented in November 2021, many restaurant owners have been fined as some of their customers did not check in with “LeaveHomeSafe.” In addition, under the current pandemic control measures, anyone who comes into contact with a confirmed Omicron patient has to undergo a 21-day mandatory quarantine at the Penny Bay quarantine centre.  The maximum penalty for those who violate the pandemic public gathering order is an HKD 25,000 fine (USD 3,200) and a 6-month prison sentence. Many critics are calling for “equal treatment” for the rule-breakers.
After a tentative positive case linked to the party was identified on January 7, about 170 identified party attendees were sent to Penny Bay quarantine centre for 21 days. But 90 were released after one day as the case was a false alarm, the testing result was contaminated.
However, on January 9, officials identified another positive case linked to the party, but the person was not included on the guest list. According to the Center for Health Protection, the authority has thus far identified 192 party attendees. However, the list is still incomplete as the host claimed he has no idea exactly how many people attended the party without an invitation.
While the pro-Beijing camp is attempting to criticize the airline Cathay Pacific after two of its aircrew breached quarantine restrictions and infected community members with COVID-19, many citizens are calling for disciplinary action against all officials involved.
The most common expression used for criticizing the officials is “know the law and break the law” (知法犯法), as seen on various social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook:
洪門宴就算有冇引至疫情爆發都好都要大力屌鸩班仆街官同垃圾議員，重點吾係疫情而係班仆街係知法犯法、官商勾結、事前事後互相包疵
Even if the partygate did not result in an outbreak, we should slam the officials and lawmakers. The issue at stake is that these scumbags know the law and break the law. They are in collusion and after the scandal was exposed, they covered up each other.
原來廉政公署最撚大職位嗰個係可以去周圍應酬？唔知做廉政專員最緊要嘅守則係乜嘢？係知法犯法啊？
Now that I know, being the head of the anti-graft authority can hang around and socialize in such a manner. What about the code of conduct for the commissioner? Master the law so that you can break it?
To avoid a “serious blow to the credibility of governance,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam asserted that the government would probe into the officials and find out if they had broken the rules through an internal investigation. However, some netizens are skeptical of whether an internal investigation will be enough:
唔好轉移視線啦、而家係違反檢疫條例，要公開起訴而不是「內部」調查呀
Don’t divert the public attention, this is a clear violation of pandemic control regulations. What is needed is a public prosecution, not an internal investigation.
內部調查=自己友保護傘！犯法可以內部解決，真係權貴先做得出！犯哂法，又唔使辭職，上面嗰果支那國又唔炒佢，啲高官已經各部門首長，請問邊個負責內部調調查？
Internal investigation = to a protective umbrella for their own kind and an internal solution to law-breaking behaviour among the ruling bloc. They don’t have to resign after breaking the law, Beijing does not want to fire them and they are the heads of major government organs. Who can be responsible for the internal investigation?

author: Oiwan Lam


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The long-lasting conundrum in Tajikistan’s Pamir region · Global Voices
Paolo Sorbello

Outside of the main cities, the Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Region is mostly mountainous. Photo credits: AmanovDmitry (Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0)
Making up almost half of Tajikistan's territory, the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (widely known by its Soviet-era acronym GBAO) is a mountainous province with which the Dushanbe government had historically difficult relations. Tensions have flared up into protests and a state of emergency in the past months, but the roots of the conflict go back in history.
GBAO's population is mostly composed of Pamiris and, in the 1990s, during Tajikistan's civil war, the leadership of the region called for independence. Through GBAO run most of the rivers that feed both the waterways and the hydroelectric plants of the country. Despite its relatively small population, around 270,o00 residents, the region is of strategic importance for the government.
Emerging victorious after the civil war and the ensuing struggle for power, President Emomali Rakhmon has swiftly quashed any opposition in his 27-year rule, maintaining an iron fist at home and allegedly placing pressure on and ordering the murder of exiled political opponents. In GBAO, Rakhmon's government applied an especially oppressive regime because of the Pamiri leadership's earlier affiliation with opposing forces during the civil war.
It is important to note that, despite the differences in ethnicity and religion, the divisions seem to be motivated by power and socio-economic welfare. Besides being politically sidelined, in fact, the region was shunned by businesses and state enterprises.
For about a decade, clashes have intensified between local GBAO residents and officials of the Dushanbe government.
In July 2012, perhaps the darkest day in GBAO's recent history, dozens were killed in clashes between local groups designated as rebels and Tajikistan's military. The official tally of 42 killed was contested after hospitals and eyewitnesses said at least 200 died in the shootings. While the government hinted at the possibility that the turmoil was caused by Afghans who had crossed the border, other accounts clearly outlined a power struggle at the center of the dispute.
In the aftermath of the clashes, the region was sealed off, with communications and road transport blocked. But the militarization of the region failed to resolve the tension, which resurfaced regularly during small-scale skirmishes. In June 2014, three people, including a police officer, were killed in a shooting in Khorog, the region's capital.
In 2018, the escalation of the conflict reached a new level, with violent clashes between local protesters and the security forces.
Under heavy scrutiny from the authorities, in the autumn of 2018, youth protests were harshly repressed leading to violence on the night of November 4, when special forces opened fire against GBAO residents, injuring two. Always cited as a region where crime thrives by the central authorities, GBAO is often placed under emergency measures, which limit freedoms and keeps communication and movement monitored.
The 2018 incident sparked a new wave of protests, which were again repressed, although the government agreed to appoint an authoritative local figure, Yodgor Faizov, as the new head of the region.
Faizov kept his post until November 2021, when tensions between local residents and the authorities heated up again. At the end of November, as thousands crowded the streets of Khorog in protest against abuse of power by the police, the government moved in with special forces and attempted to suppress the demonstration. Two protesters were killed and more than one thousand were arrested, according to eyewitnesses.
Following the arrests, the region was once again locked out of communication and six military block posts were erected to monitor travel in and out of the region, only allowing for a limited number of supply trucks. The internet shutdown, which continues to date, has lasted for more than one month, preventing any independent reporting from the region. In an attempt to appease the protesters, the government promised certain concessions, including an independent investigation on the incident that provoked the tensions. Yet, the requests of the local population were later disregarded.
The ongoing conundrum in GBAO rests on the lack of legitimacy of the local leaders as picked by the central government, journalist Anora Sarkorova explained in an interview with Cabar.Asia.
The problem is that de facto, none of the leaders of the region, as well as the local parliament, hold real powers as prescribed in the Constitution. [Even] the most experienced leader in the current conditions only becomes a talking head of the central government, which makes decisions on GBAO not taking into account the interests and conditions of the Pamiris.
Until the local population is allowed to select its own leaders, the central government will have to constantly balance the region's dissatisfaction and the need to keep the situation under control.

author: Paolo Sorbello


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As Turkey rolls out its own COVID-19 vaccine, questions loom over its efficacy · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Screenshot from DW video news segment.
Turkey joined the list of countries developing their own vaccine against COVID-19 in November 2020. In December 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved Turkovac for emergency use as a booster vaccine. However, as medical professionals began delivering jabs, in the absence of publicly available data from the Phase-3 trials, some experts are hesitant, saying it is too early to comment on its effectiveness.
Meanwhile, the number of newly infected patients has skyrocketed in the country in recent weeks due to the new Omicron variant, reaching 65,000 as of January 11. So far, the country has administered over 130 million vaccines for first, second, and third doses according to official statistics. Around 80 percent of the country's population has received at least two vaccine doses of vaccine. The ruling government hopes that the national vaccine, will help boost trust in vaccines and encourage more people to get vaccinated.
The national vaccine, Turkovac was developed by the University of Erciyes, the Ministry of Health, and the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes. Phase 1 of trials began in November 2020. At the time the trials were carried out on 44 volunteers. Phase 2 and 3 were carried out in February 2021 and June 2021 respectively. Originally named ERUCOV-VAC, President Erdoğan renamed it Turkovac in June 2021. Before the national vaccine was completed, Turkey was administering Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. According to Bloomberg, “Turkovac uses inactivated viruses to boost immunity, rather than the messenger RNA technology that’s the basis of inoculations made by Pfizer-BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.”
But its hasty rollout raised questions around its trustworthiness.
The COVID working group at the Turkish Medical Association issued a statement saying, “The ministry's statements that a vaccine is considered safe and effective in the absence of the published scientific study results and discussions in scientific environments, will unfortunately increase existing vaccine hesitancy.” The association added that while the homegrown vaccine could help control the pandemic globally and at home, it should only be approved for emergency use until rigorous evaluations are completed and the results are made public. The group urged the Ministry of Health to share the results of trials with the public to avoid increasing anti-vaccine sentiments.
Şebnem Korur Fincancı, the Turkish Medical Association Chairwoman, encouraged authorities to share data on Phase 3 trials in an interview with the Diken news website. “We can then understand how the vaccine was received an emergency use approval. Because, based on the data we have at the moment, the vaccine does not look suitable for an emergency use.”
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) website lists the national vaccine under Phase 2 trial.
Fincancı's reservations follow reassurances by Professor Ateş Kara, the director of the Turkish Vaccine Institute and a member of the Health Ministry’s scientific board on COVID-19, who previously told the state news agency that, “there is a rapid jump in the antibody levels [produced by the national vaccine] in studies where Turkovac is applied as a booster shot.”
Hacettepe University Faculty Member Mehmet Ceyhan disagrees. In an interview with Sozcu newspaper, Ceyhan told Sozcu newspaper that making conclusions based on antibodies and in the absence of Phase 3 trial data, is nonsensical. “Human health is at stake here. Without any sufficient data, I cannot say ‘use this vaccine or do this instead of that.’ I must see the findings of Phase 3 trials, and the so-called ‘jumping antibody level’ before making any evaluation.”
Despite the criticisms, the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, received the Turkovac booster shot live during a press conference on December 29, 2021, together with other members of the Health Ministry’s scientific board.
Bilim Kurulu Üyelerimizle beraber hatırlatma dozlarımızı TURKOVAC aşımız ile oluyoruz.
📍Ankara Şehir Hastanesi https://t.co/D8BFSQnoC7
— Dr. Fahrettin Koca (@drfahrettinkoca) December 29, 2021
Together with our members from the Scientific Committee we are receiving our vaccine Turkovac for booster.
Meanwhile, following the latest Health Ministry’s scientific board on COVID-19 meeting on January 5, the Ministry of Health reduced the quarantine period for patients infected with the virus to seven days. Previously the quarantine period was 10 days but with the rise of the Delta variant, it was raised to 14. The measures also include following the rules of social distancing, wearing masks, spending less time indoors, as well as calling on citizens to receive booster shots. No further restrictions were announced.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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‘I chase bad men!’  How the late Andrew Jennings changed investigative sport journalism · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Investigative journalist Andrew Jennings on October 30, 2013, giving the presentation ‘Who wants to go to Qatar in 2022? Hands up!’ Photo by Thomas Søndergaard/Play the Game via Play the Game on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Trinidadian sports journalist Lasana Liburd pays tribute to his mentor, British investigative reporter Andrew Jennings, who died in England on January 8 following a brief illness, at the age of 78. This article was first published at Wired868. An edited version appears below with permission.
One of my most vivid memories of Andrew Jennings came on our second meeting, after a media conference at the Trinidad Hilton in the build-up to the 2001 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.
It was an elegant event, attended by then FIFA president Sepp Blatter, with every local sports reporter of note present. Jennings had not yet distinguished himself in football, but he caught the attention of the room with some spicy questions to the head table during the Q&A session.
Refreshments in hand, curious local reporters surrounded the short, plump, grey-haired Brit to learn more about his mission on the island. Jennings put up with barely a few minutes of chit-chat before he leaned purposefully towards the group, as if to share a secret. Instinctively, his local “hosts” reciprocated by leaning towards him.
“Let’s get those crooked fuckers,” hissed Jennings, in a fierce whisper.
Eyebrows shot up and, to a man, everyone seemed to remember somewhere else in the room they needed to be. In less than a minute, I was the only one left in his company.
Jennings, smiling, leaned forward again.
“I find it better not to waste time separating the wheat from the chaff,” he told me, with a wink and a wry smile.
It epitomised Jennings: funny, mischievous, clever and confrontational. He was a man who understood his purpose.
I’d met him a few days earlier, when he sought me out—on the recommendation of an undisclosed third party. He was investigating corruption in FIFA and, naturally, he found that there was ample evidence of it in the Caribbean. So he was searching for someone in the region he could trust.
I was 24 years old and had already been a journalist for five years. Within my first year on the job, I wrote a critical piece on the administration of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF)—steered by then FIFA vice-president Jack Warner—for the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, and I never changed course.
But Jennings was something else entirely. He was an investigative journalist; and he became my mentor in that field. (His wife, Clare Sambrook, a former UK Guardian editor and author, certainly gave me some valuable writing tips, too.)
I know personally of Jennings’ interactions with Brazil striker Romário, Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, and West Indies batsman Sir Viv Richards. There are no doubt hundreds of others—some more illustrious, most less so—who reached out to the veteran journalist and found someone keen to empathise and make their challenges his.
A lot will be said of Jennings’ excellent work over the years. That is as it should be. His first sport book The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics, which he co-authored with Vyv Simson in 1992, shook up the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and was listed by the New York Times as one of the best sport reads of the century. He wrote two more books on the IOC and three on FIFA, in addition to producing dozens of documentaries and giving maybe hundreds of lectures.
Jennings zeroed in on how money meant to further the sport was funnelled away by corrupt officials; he shone a light on the way conscientious administrators, managers and coaches were bullied and purged, and athletes, fans and governments were abused and cheated.
It is hard to overstate the real value of journalism of that sort.
For the fan-in-the-street, the abiding image may well be of a feisty, grey-haired man picking fights with powerful sport officials. But Jennings could never have amassed the multitude of well-placed contacts he did without whistleblowers feeling absolutely certain that his concern about the sport was genuine and his discretion regarding their identities was unimpeachable.
For me, though, Jennings’ most important qualities were his empathy, honesty, tenaciousness and generosity.
As we collaborated for years, eventually sharing sources, I can say with complete certainty that some of the persons who trusted Jennings with inside information held very high positions within FIFA and its confederations. And they often remained his confidants for years.
There were administrators and athletes on every continent who believed in Jennings. He never took that responsibility lightly; he worked tirelessly to create a better world for them.
In Trinidad and Tobago in 2006, Warner started a narrative that Jennings was an English irritant who was trying to stir up trouble so as to unsettle the Soca Warriors before the two nations faced each other at the World Cup in Germany. I could not stop laughing at that. Jennings could barely tell the difference between Dave Beckham and Peter Crouch! He was not a football fan and knew very little about the game.
Jennings entered this field because he was challenged—and financed—to replicate his eye-raising IOC work on FIFA. His interest was solely in the moral and fiduciary responsibility of administrators to the young men and women who played “the beautiful game.” It meant that, unlike most sport reporters, Jennings could not be bribed or threatened with non-access to tournaments.
Jennings did not have many friends within the profession, but he kept those he thought were the right ones close. And, long before Facebook and the rise of social media, he created a network of investigative sport journalists across the globe that has eventually outlasted him.
During my stay in England and Scotland between 2003 and 2006, I often visited Jennings and his family for four or five days at a time on their farm in Penrith, England. This was where Jennings refuelled mentally between frequent work trips or did the bulk of his writing.
When the mood was right, we would take long walks to the Lake District or enjoy staring straight across the Pennines in the direction of Leeds and Newcastle. I remember his immense pride in having me try the organic tomatoes he grew himself. He told me how he responded when his young son, Henry, asked what he did for a living.
“I chase bad men,” he told him.
He had a way of stripping any matter down to its bare bones, its true essence. It was how he worked and how he lived.
One of Jennings’ most impressive tools was the “doorstep” interview, where he would seemingly materialise out of nowhere with a tricky question. He would patiently research his target, secure their potential schedule, and stake out the potential locations beforehand—like a hit man in an action movie.
Jennings converted the surprise interview into an art form. “What is just the right opening question—not too convoluted for viewers to grasp, or so simple as to be easily brushed off?” Warner, of course, was “doorstepped” by Jennings on at least three occasions. The Trinidadian’s furious responses—in particular, “go ask your mother”—became viral hits.
On learning of the great man’s passing, former Sunday Times journalist James Corbett posted this comment to a WhatsApp group of global investigative journalists: “Imagine being doorstepped by Andrew Jennings at the gates of heaven.”
Indeed. If there is any justice in the afterlife, maybe the greedy fat cats of sport have not seen the last of Jennings just yet.

author: Guest Contributor


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Trinidad and Tobago residents’ response to proposed amendments to fireworks legislation? Enforce existing laws · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Fireworks; Photo by Nikki Pirch on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
At certain times of the year in Trinidad and Tobago—including Divali, Christmas, and New Year's—online spaces become filled with stories of traumatised infants and seniors, not to mention animals who go missing or are killed, terrified by the sound of fireworks.
Independence Day fireworks in Port of Spain, Trinidad, August 31, 2005. Photo by C*POP via Georgia Popplewell on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Despite the country's Summary Offences Act providing very clear parameters regarding the sale and use of fireworks—police permission required to set them off, thousand-dollar fines for doing so illegally and irresponsibly within towns, etc.—residents have had to endure annual auditory assaults, even as they desperately petition for the laws to be enforced. This was the case up until the early part of the 21st century when fireworks displays were public events that were professionally staged to celebrate milestones like Independence Day.
From as far back as 2014, the Animal Welfare Network and the Trinidad and Tobago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TTSPCA) have been campaigning for an end to the sale of fireworks, hoping to curb the practice by targeting the supply chain. Yet this year, on January 3, Facebook user Darlene Easton posted a status update outlining why she had no confidence in this ever happening:
While this is something I feel very strongly about, the reality is that fireworks will not be banned in this country, despite the adverse effects it has on many people, animals and property. […]
How [are] firework[s] importers able to obtain forex approval for large sums of money, for a product which will literally go up in smoke and has no sustainability value, but hundreds of small Mom and Pop business[es] are struggling to obtain foreign exchange to sustain their businesses?
Why are the police unable or unwilling to enforce the laws in accordance with the Explosives Act Chapter 16:02 and the Summary Offences Act Chapter 11:02 […]?
Why have the voices of the people signing petitions and voicing their concerns and protesting against the undiscerning use of fireworks been ignored for several years?
Why [have] the scores of social media posts asking for help to find lost pets who have fled the safety of their homes, in absolute fear and terror after a night of fireworks, not touched the hearts of the people who can actually make a difference regarding the laws?
Although Easton concedes that “fireworks are beautiful to look at and many people are not personally affected by them”—Andre Abraham, the managing director of Fire One, the country's premier fireworks retailer, has also said that he sees his business as a way of uplifting his compatriots and fostering a sense of national pride—she feels that “the time has come to review and amend the laws regarding the sale and use of fireworks”.
While Faris Al-Rawi, the country's attorney general, showed his animal-lover side on New Year's Day as a preface to reexamining the legislation, his proposed amendments are being met with scepticism.
Request for Feedback – THE SUMMARY OFFENCES (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021
The draft bill can also be view at https://t.co/xdXclt0Lwt
Feedback can be emailed to events@ag.gov.tt by 26th January, 2022. pic.twitter.com/Pz97jGuDh1
— Faris Al-Rawi (@Faris_alrawi_ag) January 6, 2022
On Facebook, Animals 360 Foundation posted:
AG this post leaves us with no confidence that good will prevail. For six years we have begged for legislation to protect all our dogs, all our animals, all our people. You have not acted responsibly and in a timely manner. The blood is now on your hands. Whatever you bring better take fireworks out of the hands of John Public and limit it to regulated 20 minute displays managed by professionals in approved areas that cannot harm people or animals and restricted to national celebrations only i.e. Independence and Old Years. It's really hard now to believe what you have to say and your empty promises.
Adding literal fuel to the fire was a Facebook post by fellow government minister Stuart Young, detailing his visit to an east Port of Spain community in which several residents lost their homes as a result of fireworks debris landing on the roof:
Fortunately no lives were lost.
This incident highlights how the irresponsible actions of a few, can in a split second, negatively affect the lives of many innocents.
The majority of comments on the post supported proper enforcement of the fireworks laws, while others—including the Animal Welfare Network and The Zoological Society of Trinidad and Tobago—advocated for a complete ban on noise-producing fireworks. Even the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), charged with being stewards of the country's natural environment and everything that impacts it, noted that a survey it spearheaded showed that more and more people want noisy fireworks to be banned.
When the survey respondents were asked about the measures they would like to see with regard to fireworks use, the majority were in favour of banning noise-producing fireworks, as opposed to banning the practice entirely. Recommendations also included changing the current legislation to include cultural practices like bursting bamboo, which have similar adverse effects and can sometimes end in loss of life or limb, as well as to allow for stricter enforcement of laws and the implementation of heavier fines.
In one TTSPCA comment thread, Facebook user Natasha Nunez noted:
I hope everyone who liked this post is also sending a response to the latest draft legislation on fireworks to indicate to the AG that what he has produced is not acceptable. [C]ollective action by citizens to advise lawmakers on how to serve US is the only way to achieve real change.
Aarti Gosine was one of those who sent feedback to the ministry, taking issue with, among other things, the allotment of “days and the hours in which these fireworks could be set off without a license,” the ability to set off fireworks on “privately owned land,” and the allocation of a paltry half-mile radius as a safe zone with regard to the noise pollution aspect of the practice.
On January 7, after reviewing the AG's draft legislation, the TTSPCA reiterated its recommendations to the parliamentary Joint Select Committee in 2017, calling for:
A ban on the sale of fireworks to members of the public
A ban on the use or discharge of fireworks by members of the public
A permit/ licensing arrangement for the use of fireworks for special events.
Restrictions on the location, and period during which fireworks can be used at special events
A requirement to inform responsible agencies and the public in advance of any special event.
A transition to ‘silent’ or reduced noise fireworks at special events
The next day, Minister Young said he believed fireworks are a poor use of foreign exchange and should not be available for purchase by members of the public.
Like many others, Tobago-based animal activist and newspaper columnist Elspeth Duncan agreed:
Unless there is enforcement of the law, no legal amendments re fireworks will amount to anything…just as amendments to the laws against animal cruelty have, thus far, amounted to nothing. As it stands, the draft fireworks bill is unacceptable. According to one source, the draft sounds like it was written by the sellers of fireworks themselves.
Barring a complete ban on fireworks (which will probably never happen in TT), Minister Stuart Young’s call for a ban on the sale of fireworks to members of the public will be, for many (and hopefully most) of us, the only acceptable amendment to the legislation.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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China aims to wipe out Omicron ahead of Winter Olympics · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chinese president Xi Jinping inspected Olympic venues ahead of the Winter Olympics and gave a speech about health protocols and expectations. Screenshot from South China Morning Post's Youtube Channel.
The Beijing Winter Olympic Games are set to begin next month on February 4th. About 27,000 Olympic-related personnel are expected to enter the country in the coming weeks.
Chinese authorities have been preparing an enclosed campus or so-called “Olympic Bubble” to prevent contagious COVID-19 variants from spreading into Beijing. But this plan has been complicated as cases of the Delta and Omicron variants were recently identified in the country, raising concerns about how Beijing can contain the outbreak ahead of the Games.
Last week, Tianjin, a city 100-kilometers from Beijing, found two local Omicron cases. A massive testing campaign was launched and 18 more cases were found on January 9, with 10 symptomatic and 11 asymptomatic cases were identified on 10 January.
According to Tianjin’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the city is experiencing third-generation spread, which means undetected cases have been circulating for 14–21 days and the authorities have yet to identify the origin of the infection.
As the Winter Olympics are approaching, the port city is on red alert. To contain the spread, the city’s 14 million population is lining up for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests.
To prevent the spread of Omicron to other cities, residents in Tianjin are forbidden from leaving their residential district, according to a number of testimonies from Weibo.
However, some expect the contagious Omicron variant may have already travelled to Beijing as the hidden transmission in Tianjin has found its way to Anyang city in Henan province.
Anticipating this, Beijing authorities are on high alert:
“All tutoring centers, daycare centers and vocational training centers were closed down, while universities and colleges sealed off their campuses.”
“Sealed off” = “welded shut”?#beijing2022 #covid #omicron https://t.co/MxK53NTA6a
— Chris Fenton (@TheDragonFeeder) January 10, 2022
Thus far, China’s zero-COVID strategy has been successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 within the country. Wuhan, the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak, virtually eradicated the virus within four months despite criticisms about its authoritative lockdown measures including roadblocks, suspension of public transportation services, massive home quarantine, severe punishment, a health and contact tracking system that restricts individual mobility, and more.
And more recently, a three-week lockdown since December 23 in Xi’an, a city in Shaanxi province, has more or less halted the spread of the Delta variant. The new local transmissions in Xi'an were down from 155 on December 29 to 13 cases on January 10.
Yet, the social and political cost of authoritative control measures is huge. During the lockdown in Xi’an, frustration about the restriction on freedom emerged on social media with witness accounts of food shortages and inadequate care for vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and elderly people with heart conditions.
Meanwhile, the authorities placated community frustration with apologies:
A Xi'an city government statement said the incident had “caused widespread concern in society and caused a severe social impact.”https://t.co/6Td1yJIb8m
— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) January 6, 2022
And also with suppression:
Police in the northern Chinese city of Xi'an have arrested dozens of people for spreading “rumors” online after authorities banned the city's 13 million residents from posting negative reports over the new COVID-19 lockdown.https://t.co/hP5OHN6wN7
— Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) January 8, 2022
Now that Omicron has reached China, the country's control model as crystalized in its zero-COVID strategy will face a serious test, as pointed by Shirley Ze Yu, a professor on political economy:
#Omicron is spotted in Tianjin. This will be a most serious test to China’s zero-Covid policy, because the social cost will surely be more massive than before, due to the nature of the strain. Less than 30 days before the Winter Olympics, can China make Omicron disappear? pic.twitter.com/zEYDYC1uuJ
— Shirley Ze Yu (@shirleyzeyu) January 10, 2022


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Erdoğan and the AKP’s war with art and culture · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“Against Censorship at Flickr” by alias65 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
During the annual Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Awards ceremony in December 2021, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the crowd, saying, “The stronger you are in culture and arts, the more you can direct and manage your environment. It is a fact that the most powerful weapons of those who manage the global system today are the tools of culture.” In the years since his ascent to power, President Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has slowly taken control over much of the country's art and culture scene.
Scores of well-known artists, singers, songwriters, and comedians have faced intimidation, crackdowns, and threats over their work. These groups are known for using their trades to talk about nationwide grievances and politics and are therefore perceived as a threat to the ruling party. Even theater, humor, and satire groups have faced significant pressure from the ruling leadership. There have also been plenty of examples when the ruling government tried blocking television series, shows, and foreign music. The justifications are often broad, with accusations that the material promotes terrorist propaganda, encourages drug use, insults the president, offends local family values, or even offers cultural disinformation.
But it was not always like this.
In his reflections on the early years of AKP's rule, academic Emre Tansu Keten wrote that when AKP came to power in 2002, they had a significant focus on arts and culture, and several important art institutions opened between 2002 and 2011. “The harmonization process with the European Union and the encouragement of the private sector to invest in the field of culture and arts brought about the harmonization of the cultural field with the neoliberal economic program and the AKP's support of this process by abandoning its own cultural agenda – for a while,” wrote Keten.
But changes within the fabric of the political leadership — especially in the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests — shifted the ruling party's view of artistic and cultural trends in the country, “the government, which saw the cultural field as an economic and diplomatic tool throughout the 2000s, would start to politically instrumentalise culture after 2010, especially after the Gezi Uprising, due to the identity-based cultural polarization policy it stuck to,” wrote Keten.
Others argue the change was already visible following AKP's re-election in 2011. In an interview with Eurasianet in 2012, the political scientist Cengiz Aktar said after securing a third victory, “The prime minister now is feeling so confident and so sure of [the AKP’s] endless power, that he is now giving a signal of overall social engineering.”
Four years after that interview, a failed military coup changed the political and social fabric of the country drastically. Days after the coup, the government declared a state of emergency, effectively allowing the ruling government “to rule by decree and without judicial control or opposition,” wrote journalist Barçın Yinanç at the time. In its June 2021 report, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving freedom of expression, wrote, “Erdoğan and the AKP responded to the 2016 coup attempt by ruthlessly cracking down, undermining democratic norms, and seizing new levers of power. They have aggressively used these powers to target dissent on a society-wide scale.” Among those targeted since the coup are “writers, artists, and other creatives.”
With COVID-19 came new restrictions. While Erdoğan announced Turkey would be lifting remaining pandemic-related restrictions starting July 1, 2021, he ended up creating new long-term rules, deciding that as of July 1, all music events would have to end by midnight. In an address from Ankara, he said, “Excuse me, but nobody has the right to disturb anyone at night.” The hashtag #Kusurabakiyoruz (we don't excuse you) began trending immediately on Turkish Twitter, with scores of citizens and musicians expressing their displeasure with the new ban.
On Friday, January 7, 2022, an Official Gazette report introduced a series of bans related to noise regulations at entertainment venues. The new restrictions ban live music at open and semi-open spaces in areas described as highly sensitive (residences, hospitals, children's and elderly care homes, boarding education institutions, and student dormitories), sensitive (hotels, schools, and religious facilities), and least sensitive (administrative and commercial buildings, playgrounds, and sports facilities). In highly sensitive areas, venues can only have live music indoors. In sensitive areas, outdoor activities such as concerts, events, festivals are prohibited after midnight. In the least sensitive areas, while live music is free after midnight, concerts, events, festivals, and similar outdoor activities are prohibited after midnight.
Commenting on the new regulations on his Twitter, lawyer Ali Gül wrote, “With the change in the regulation published in the Official Gazette, almost all entertainment activities are prohibited after 12 pm in Turkey.”
Established in 1994, Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) is the country's main audiovisual regulatory authority. Its powers were vastly expanded in 2019 when the institution was granted the authority to regulate online broadcasters as well. The same year RTUK banned the American television series Modern Family because the show was using profane language and showed a child born out of wedlock. A year later, Netflix dropped a TV series before the production even began because RTUK “objected to a gay character in the supporting role as described in the script.”
There is also the country's national public broadcaster TRT, which notoriously censored some 200 songs in 2018 reported DW on the grounds that the music encouraged alcoholism or terrorism.
Last year, Turkey's Family Affairs Ministry too got involved in content censorship, arguing K-pop, which has a significant fan base in Turkey, “was removing young people from their families and encouraging them to live a gender-free lifestyle.” On Twitter, Turkish fans even started a hashtag, #kpopyasaklanmasın — #KPopshouldnotbebanned.
“It is not the first time a worldwide music trend has been targeted by Turkish media. In the mid-1990s, Turkey’s mainstream media outlets argued that Western heavy metal groups encouraged satanism. The main difference today is, while earlier concerns mostly focused on young people from secular families, K-pop has triggered concerns among conservatives,” reported Ahval in 2019.
In her 2019 Washington Post article, academic Lisel Hintz wrote, “particularly in repressive regimes, subtly veiled criticism through what is generally considered “entertainment media” can play a subversive role, chipping away at the legitimacy of those in power.” Hintz was referring to two specific rap videos released simultaneously at midnight in 2019.
The song, Susamam (which translates to “cannot stay silent”), became a number one trending video on YouTube on September 6, 2019, in Turkey. It was an ode to Turkey and its most pressing social, political, and cultural issues. Within 48 hours, it turned into one of the most popular hashtags on Turkish social media.
The second rap song was released by Ezhel, one of Turkey's prominent rappers, “Olay” (Event) – a song about the 2016 failed military coup, Gezi Park protests, and other controversial events from recent years. Hintz wrote that the songs and their impact reignited via social media “reflect the uniquely visceral, defiant and captivating power of pop culture.”
Others like the journalist and writer Barbaros Altug are also hopeful. In an interview with DW, Altug said, “There are artists who are strongly resisting, despite everything. Turkey has a power of resistance that amazes everyone. And it is strongest among artists and intellectuals,” adding that despite challenges, “the struggle for democracy and artistic freedom is still worth fighting for.”


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Iranians demand justice on anniversary of airplane downing · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

All 176 passengers aboard Ukraine airline's flight 752 were killed. Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Iranians on January 8 commemorated the second anniversary of the shooting down of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752,  with slogans such as “We demand justice” and “We demand the truth” in stands around the world and on social media.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot missiles at the plane only three minutes after take off from Tehran's IKA airport, killing all 176 passengers aboard. Over 100 of the Iranian victims had Canadian citizenship or residency, prompting some families of the victims to sue Iran in Canadian civil court.
The shooting down of the jet came days after a US drone strike in Iraq killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This was followed by Iranian missile attacks on a US base in Iraq. Iranian authorities initially denied being responsible for the of the attack on the civilian jetliner close to Tehran’s Imam Khomeini international airport. But, facing mounting evidence of its accountability, Iran's Armed Forces Central Command admitted on January 11 that the Revolutionary Guards had “mistakenly” shot down the passenger jet.
On April 6, 2021, Iranian authorities said 10 people were found guilty for their role in the incident but their ranks, identities, the sentences and the charges against them, were not revealed.
A few days before the second anniversary of this tragedy, a Canadian court ruled that Iran should pay about $84 million in punitive damages to families of six people with Canadian citizenship or residency.
Families of victims advocating for justice
On the second anniversary of the crash, the families of the victims commemorate their memory from Toronto to Tehran.
In Tehran's international airport, protesters chanted slogans for justice and truth. They also called for a fair trial of those responsible for the assault.
⚡ BREAKING:
Families of flight #PS752 victims gathered at Tehran Int'l Airport, where they said their last goodbyes to their loved ones two years ago. They demand JUSTICE!
خانواده های جانباختگان پرواز PS752 برای دادخواهی و به یاد عزیزانشان در فرودگاه بین المللی گرد هم آمدند. pic.twitter.com/wmuqaBXdhV
— PS752Justice (@ps752justice) January 8, 2022
There tweets were posted by the Association of PS752 Families of Victims which was formed in Canada in March 2020 with the main goal of “unit[ing] grieving families, keep[ing] the memories of the passengers alive, and most importantly seek[ing] justice. We are determined to uncover the truth and find out why a commercial flight was shot down by IRGC’s missiles.”
In Toronto, where many victims lived, their memory was honoured.
Yesterday at #AradZarei memorial at ElginMills cemetery & Today at @ps752justice event at Mel Lastman square in Toronto, I paid my respect to families of victims and lit a candle in memory of the victims of #ps752#IWillLightACandleToo #من_هم_شمعی_روشن_خواهم_کرد#PS752Justice pic.twitter.com/3yE95iEnzn
— Ardeshir Zarezadeh (@Ardeshirz) January 9, 2022
Several Iranian citizens circulated photos of victims and remembered the children who were killed in that attack on social media.
We demand justice
We demand truth#IWillLightACandleToo #من_هم_شمعی_روشن_خواهم_کرد #PS752 pic.twitter.com/83E01YZT4U
— Esmaeil Mohammadi, MD MPH (@Ess_Muhammadi) January 7, 2022
Solidarity, from artists to academics
Many artists and political activists showed their solidarity with the families of victims by sharing designs, photos, and the hashtag #IWillLightACandleToo on Twitter.
Golshifteh Farhanai, the globally renowned Iranian actress, shared a couple of posters commemorating those who died.
#PS752 #IWillLightACandleToo #من_هم_شمعی_روشن_خواهم_کرد pic.twitter.com/S9p5WX0cd1
— Golshifteh Farahani (@Golshifteh) January 7, 2022
Dr. Faisal Moola, a forest conservation and management professor at Ontario's University of Guelph, remembers one of his Ph.D. students, Ghanimat Azhdari, who was a specialist in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), working to support the participatory documentation of territories of life.
Today is anniversary of downing #PS752 by Iran.Among victims were dozens of children & students, including my precious PhD student #GhanimatAzhdari. State sanctioned murder no different than massacre of youth at Tianamen Square, Soweto deserving of same international condemnation pic.twitter.com/M1q98rlh4w
— Dr. Faisal Moola (@faisal_moola) January 8, 2022
Hypocrisy of politicians
Several Iranians criticized Iranian politicians who published posts mourning the victims of the Ukrainian airplane, such as former Minister of Information M. J. Jahromi, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, former foreign minister, calling them part of the Iranian State, covering up the attack.
Iran's Information Minister at the time of the regime's downing of Flight #PS752, tweets that “there is a knot of sorrow in [his] heart.”
Jahromi's Ministry was believed to largely be responsible for cracking down + restricting internet and flow of information inside the country. pic.twitter.com/8ct55cCAnE
— Nahayat Tizhoosh (@NahayatT) January 7, 2022
‘Our patience is exhausted’
Hamed Esmaelion, spokesperson of the Association of Families of Flight PS752, whose wife and daughter were among the 176 passengers slain by Revolutionary Guard's missile, delivered a statement on 8th January:
“Our patience is exhausted. Today, is the day when diplomacy ends and justice begins.”
Statement of the Association of Families of Flight PS752 delivered by spokesperson @esmaeilion on the 2nd anniversary of the downing of flight #PS752.#ps752justice pic.twitter.com/mWhMEumnS4
— PS752Justice (@ps752justice) January 9, 2022

author: Fred Petrossian


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The Soviet Union existed for 70 years, but don’t expect to find it as a location in the world of comic books · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Very few mainstream comics have been set in the Soviet Union. Exceptions include ‘Corto Maltese in Siberia,’ ‘The Golden House of Samarkand,’ and ‘Superman: The Red Son.’ Photo by Filip Stojanovski (CC-BY 2.0) depicts recent editions of the three comics, published in Serbia.
The Soviet Union existed for 70 years, from 1922 to 1991, and at its height encompassed 15 states stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea to the Bering Strait. Despite its importance in world affairs for much of the 20th century, there’s one area of international culture in which the USSR barely existed: the world of comics.
The USSR didn't have its own comics industry, so it couldn't produce stories about itself. And though a few of its allies had some comics being published while being part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, with the possible exception of occasional World War II stories, even they didn't have any major series set in the USSR.
Between 1947 and 1991, during the Cold War, mainstream American comics didn't offer much opportunity for their audiences to get acquainted with the Soviet people and their lands, beyond the “us vs them” clichés.
While US superhero comics had many stories involving Soviet characters, such as Marvel's Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), very few were set in the USSR. And when they were, similarly to James Bond films, they didn't really touch upon the life there outside limited settings, such as military installations, Moscow's Red Square and the Kremlin, or KGB offices.
Fandom databases listing DC and Marvel comics indicate that only a minuscule portion of mainstream superhero stories use USSR as location: about 286 (183 + 93 + 10) compared to over 20,291 set in the USA (4,344 + 15,404 + 543). The ratio is about 70 to 0ne.
The first instance of a major comics series with a story set in the Soviet Union came several years after its formation. The adventures of the acclaimed Franco-Belgian reporter Tintin began with the 1929 story “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.”
The front page of the 1 May 1930 edition of Le Petit Vingtième, declaring “Tintin Revient!” (“Tintin Returns!”) from his adventure in the Soviet Union. Photo: Wikipedia (fair use).
Rather than reporting, there Tintin acts more like a secret agent, fighting “evil communists,” who are presented as a gang of bloodthirsty robbers who exploit the helpless, subdued population, stealing their food and killing at will. They are also seen as incompetents incapable of capturing the hero, who returns triumphantly home to Brussels to a hero's welcome by cheering crowds.
As the basis for his first Tintin story, the author Hergé perused much of the content of a 1928 anti-Bolshevik pamphlet “Moscou sans voiles” (Moscow Unveiled) by former Belgian diplomat Joseph Douillet.
This story also seems to have set the standard of depicting “Soviet Russia” as a drab and dreary wintery wasteland, with the freezing cold as a recurring motif.
Though the first run was commercially successful, the author considered this work substandard and crude, and for decades refused requests for reprints. Hergé only agreed to republication in 1973 in reaction to expensive “mediocre-quality” unlicensed editions that exploited the growing fan base. In the following decades, the previously shunned episode had been “normalized” as part of collections and was republished in Belgium and abroad through translations.
Comics aficionados mostly consider this episode as a reference in discussions contrasting Hergé's later works. A comment about the 2011 Croatian edition on Stripovi.com, a forum/encyclopedia for comics publishing across the region of former Yugoslavia, sums up the general impression of the fan community:
Šovinistički, imperijalistički, rasistički, avantiristički. Zanimljiv jer pokazuje od kud je Tintin krenuo i ne puno više od toga.
Chauvinistic, imperialistic, racist, adventurous. This comics is only interesting because it shows Tintin's starting point, and not much more than that.
Croatian hardcover album containing ‘Tintin in the Land of Soviets and Tintin in Congo’ (2011) and the Serbian edition of its parody, ‘Spirou in the Land of Soviets’ (2021). Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC-BY.
Spirou à Moscou, cover of 1990 Belgian edition by Dupuis. Photo by Wikipedia, fair use.
Franco-Belgian comics duo Spirou & Fantasio had two adventures in the USSR. The first was released in 1990 as the album “Spirou à Moscou” (Spirou in Moscow). It has a light tone, caricaturing many of the Western stereotypes about the Soviets, such as playing suicidal Russian roulette and men greeting each other by kissing on the mouth.
Unlike their preceding compatriot Tintin, this pair of hero reporters help the authorities fight the infiltration of the mafia, run by Fantasio's evil cousin Zantafio, who uses a Slavicized acronym Tanaziof as a moniker.
Their second coming to the Soviet Union was published in 2020, about three decades after its demise.
“Spirou chez les Soviets” (Spirou among the Soviets) can be viewed as a clever parody of Tintin's adventure and the duo's first trip to Moscow, expanded with “visits” to a Siberian gulag, Baikonur Cosmodrome and a wild train ride. While set in the late 1950s, this story also deals with the issue of the unsustainability of Stalinist state socialism, as well as the depressing effects of combined commercialism and poverty which characterized the social demise during the 1990s.
One notable exception from the industry “norm” is the cult classic Corto Maltese, made by legendry Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt (1927-1995). The main character is a romantic and amoral globetrotting wanderer, often accompanied by characters based on historical figures.
For instance, the episode Corto Maltese in Siberia, published in 1974, involves the immoral Russian adventurer Rasputin, а recurring character based on the self-proclaimed holy man and imperial advisor Grigori Rasputin (1869-1916). In Pratt's fictional universe, Rasputin first appears as a pirate sailor in a story set in 1913, while the episode set in Siberia takes place in 1918 during the Russian Civil War.
The Golden House of Samarkand, published in 1967, is another graphic novel that takes Corto Maltese to Soviet territory. He visits Turkey, Iran and several Central Asian countries, including then-Soviet Uzbekistan and Tajikistan during a treasure hunt set in 1922.
The Italian cover of The Golden House of Samarkand. Photo by Paolo Sorbello, used with permission.
At one point in this story, local Soviet authorities detain Corto and are supposed to execute him, but he “pulls out strings” and phones a friend who intervenes on his behalf. The friend is Joseph Jughashvili, later known as Joseph Stalin, whom Maltese met while the future dictator worked as a “shy night porter” in Ancona, Italy, in 1907.
Paolo Sorbello, the Greater Central Asia editor for Global Voices, analyzed the Italian edition and noted:
In the episode, Corto endearingly calls Stalin ‘Bepi’ and complains about the spotty phone connection, while a Soviet officer listening in remarks how the frontier war zones that he plans to visit have even worse infrastructure. Having to go through Central Asia during the struggle for power between Imperial Russia, Pan-Turkic movements, and the Soviet army is a dangerous adventure for Corto. Pratt's narrative revolves around the weak allegiances that the armies in the peripheries of the empires had for the great powers. Defecting soldiers, retreats, and corruption at border crossings are commonplace in this adventure of the sailor.
According to Vladimir Bitoljanu, comics book publisher and co-founder of Bunker comics bookstore in Skopje, North Macedonia, the way the Soviet Union is depicted in Hugo Pratt's graphic novels doesn't differ from romantic depictions of dozens of other locations around the world. In a statement to Global Voices he explained:
“Unlike some other comics authors from his time, Pratt doesn't resort to stereotypes that depict the Soviets as particularly negative. Of course his stories are full of local heroes and villains against the backdrop of the wars and other conflicts, but his style is realistic in presenting both positive and negative sides of human character in an unpretentious manner and without political bias.”
One superhero graphic novel set in the Soviet Union bears an honorable mention here even though it was made 13 years after its dissolution. The critically acclaimed DC miniseries Superman the Red Son (2003) depicts an alternative “what if” origin story: in 1953 the baby Superman doesn't land in a quaint U.S. Midwest cornfield but in the fertile wheat-covered plains of Soviet Ukraine. Consequently, Superman becomes a Soviet patriot, using his powers to further a dystopian state based on Stalinism.
Comics stories set outside of the familiar locations can either feed on existing mainstream biases and animosities or enrich the understanding of media consumers about faraway lands and cultures. The comics industry is under existential pressure due to the decline of print worldwide, and one way to adapt to the new age is to offer engaging stories reflecting the globalization and cross-fertilization between communities.

author: Filip Stojanovski