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Angered by Online Censorship, Palestinians Say #NoToBlocking · Global Voices
Marwa Fatafta

One of the campaign's posters “#NoToBlocking”. Source: Twitter.
Angered by the Palestinian Authority's (PA) latest blocking of news websites belonging to rival political groups, Palestinian activists and journalists launched Monday evening a social media campaign to protest against the PA's censorship and crackdown on free speech, and what they deem as increasingly authoritarian policies.
The campaign called on the public to use the Arabic hashtag (#لا_للحجب), which translates to ‘no to blocking’, and demanded the PA's Attorney General to issue a public statement stating the reasons behind his decision.
The Palestinian factions and people say NO to silencing their voices by blocking news websites!#لا_للحجب
— لا للحجب (@RejectBlocking) June 19, 2017
دعوة للتغريد
على الهاشتاق #لا_للحجب
اليوم الاثنين الساعة ال10:30 مساءا
وذلك رفضا لسياسة تكميم الافواه .. pic.twitter.com/mzLbUUqUH8
— Palestine | فلسطين✌ (@raed_selmi) June 19, 2017
An invitation to tweet: To reject the silencing of voices, to prevent the suppression of freedoms, and to protest the decision to block websites, join us on Monday at 10:30pm using the hashtag #NoToBlocking
On 12 June, the Palestinian Attorney General ordered Palestinian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the West Bank to block a number of websites that are not in line with the PA's political orientation. Initially, 11 websites affiliated with ex-Fatah leader Mahmoud Dahlan and Fatah's political rival, Hamas were blocked. An official at the Attorney General's office said the sites were blocked for violating “rules of publication.”
It remains unclear precisely which “rules” they were referring to, but the 1995 Press and Publication Law includes several vague and broad restrictions on freedom of expression.
On June 20, local observers reported that the number of blocked websites rose to 22. According to Palestinian news site Arab48, the Attorney General originally submitted a list of 40 websites and pages for these companies to block, including Facebook pages of multiple Palestinian social media influencers. This has not been confirmed or denied by the PA or local ISPs. As of June 21, no Facebook pages on the list had been blocked.
Activists were particularly angered by the lack of transparency on the reasons behind this blocking decision.
#Palestinian Public Prosecution #blocked news sites, for no reason!
#حجب_مواقع #Palestine #freedomofpress #لا_للحجب # pic.twitter.com/aiEbDyj5WD
— لا للحجب (@RejectBlocking) June 19, 2017
Journalist and blogger Marah Elwadia tweeted:
السلطة الفلسطينية تحجب أكثر من 22 موقعاً بدون معرفة الأسباب والقائمة تتوسع، تقمع الإعلام وتمارس ديكاتوريتها بحقه وحق جمهوره#لا_للحجب
— Marah M. Elwadia (@MarahWadia) June 19, 2017
The PA blocks more than 22 websites without explanation and the list is growing, [PA] suppresses media and exercises dictatorship against it and its public #NoToBlocking
Other netizens remain skeptical as to the effectiveness of such blocking measures in this “social media age”.
يحاولون اسكات المنابر الحرة بشتى الوسائل لكن الحق يعلو ولا يعلى عليه ،ولا يستطيع الجبناء اسكاته ،،#لا_للحجب pic.twitter.com/kME48byIZc
— محمد الفيومي #غزة (@moh_Fayoumi) June 19, 2017
They try to silence free platforms by all means, but the truth is above and beyond [their efforts], and the cowards cannot silence it #NoToBlocking
يعني في زمن السوشيال ميديا، السلطة مصرة ع سواد الوجه وبتروح تحجب مواقع إلكترونية.
والله انهم بيحزنوا #لا_للحجب
— محمد الشيخ يوسف (@Alshaikhov) June 19, 2017
In the age of social media, the PA insists on making scandals and blocks websites. They are really pathetic #NoToBlocking
User Yahya Hilles had the following message for the PA and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The militant group has been staging its own crackdown on journalists and activists.
#لا_للحجب يا حكومة رام الله و #لا_للاعتقال يا حكومة غزة
لن نقبل بقمع الحريات وتكميم الأفواه ( رام الله ، غزة )
— يحيى حلس #غزة (@yahyaHilles) June 19, 2017
To the government of Ramallah #NoToBlocking and to the government of Gaza #NoArrests, we will not accept suppressing freedoms and silencing voices (Ramallah, Gaza)
Some have called for boycotting the ISPs who are seen as complicit in the PA's violation:
هذا اخر اشتراك لي في شركة حضارة لخدمات الانترنت ان شاء الله.. #لا_للحجب
— عمر (@Om92ar92) June 20, 2017
This is my last subscription with Hadara [an IPS in the West Bank] #NoToBlocking
Aljazeera journalist Suhaib Alassa slammed the PA for its double-standards:
كيف للسلطة الفلسطينية أن تطالب بالتحرر من القمع الاسرائيلي وهي تُطالب من منظمات حقوق الإنسان في العالم باحترام حرية الفلسطينيين؟!!#لا_للحجب pic.twitter.com/kjCxtuQJJi
— صهيب العصا (@SuAlassa) June 20, 2017
How can the Palestinian Authority demand liberation from Israeli suppression, while human rights organizations are demanding it to respect Palestinians’ rights
Palestinian activists said they will continue their campaign until the Attorney General cancels his directive and unblocks the sites. In the meantime, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor took the issue to the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council and commented in a statement:
“The PA has closed and censored various online and print media outlets, and it systematically cuts the salaries of parliament deputies speaking loudly of their opposition.”

author: Marwa Fatafta


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As Deadline to Leave Saudi Arabia Nears, Ethiopian Workers Trapped Between Two Bad Choices · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Screenshot from report ‘Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia are complaining about the slow performance of their Embassy’ on Ethiotube.
Thousands of Ethiopian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have pleaded to the Ethiopian government to expedite their return by helping them prepare documents to secure exit visas, as the Gulf country prepares to begin deporting as many as half a million Ethiopians.
It has been nearly three months since the Saudi Arabian government gave 90 days to all unauthorized migrant workers in Saudi Arabia to leave the country.
Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Qatar are among the few countries in the world that force foreign workers to secure exit visas before they leave the country. In order to secure the visas, other documents must also be in order.
As the Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT) outlet run from outside Ethiopia reported:
Since Saudi officials announced those with illegal status to leave the country Ethiopian immigrants are strongly accusing Ethiopian embassy in Saudi Arabia for not helping them to return to Ethiopia.
Yet roughly a week until the 90 days grace period ends and after months of bureaucratic delays at the Ethiopian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, only 80,000 Ethiopians were able to get travel documents that will legally help them exit the country.
of the estimated 400,000 undocumented #Ethiopians living in #SaudiArabia, only 80, 000+ “secured exit visas”; 11 days for amnesty to expire pic.twitter.com/T2s3w9wEOz
— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) June 15, 2017
An estimated 750,000 Ethiopian migrants live in Saudi Arabia, among which a significant majority are unauthorized workers.
Ethiopians enter to Saudi Arabia through various channels. Some traveled as authorized workers on planes but more people enter the country by land with the help of smugglers. There are also some who remained in the country after they travelled there for the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
So far, only 30,000 migrants were shuttled back to Ethiopia. However, with the current pace of repatriation, most migrants will still be in Saudi Arabia when the grace period ends. Saudi authorities have said they will start to raid and deport migrant workers on June 30.
In 2013 when Saudi authorities engaged in similar operations, Ethiopian migrants were the victims of deadly physical assaults. Workers who sought to return to Ethiopia were held in makeshift detention centers without adequate food or shelter.
During the 2013 deportation, Ethiopians used social media to organize their protest against Saudi Arabia.
Despite these hardships and the Ethiopian government's promises of a swift resettlement, there are migrants who do not want to return to Ethiopia, where there are few economic opportunities.
Nebiyu Sirak a citizen journalist based in Saudi Arabia reported:
It is horrifying that most Ethiopians have not shown an interest in returning home despite risk of violence.
As the workers fret for their futures, the Ethiopian government has pledged to cut by half the price of a plane ticket home for those who will fly with Ethiopian Airlines, as well as offering resettlement and jobs upon arrival. Most view these as false promises however.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Endalkachew Chala


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How the Mexican Government Puts Citizens Under Systematic Surveillance · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Mural No More Massive Spying by @WarDesignCo. Image via Flickr user Klepen, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Mexico has become a prime destination for the surveillance technology industry in the Americas. Trade fairs are held annually and relationships between manufacturers, distributors and the Mexican government has intensified rapidly throughout the administration of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. We are now beginning to see the causes and effects of these espionage practices.
Journalistic and independent investigations carried out by civil society organizations as well as various leaks have brought this relationship to light since 2013.
In 2013, University of Toronto's Citizen Lab reported that spyware company Gamma Group was operating in Mexican telecommunications, which led to an investigation by various civil society organizations. That investigation along with journalistic research, documented the fact that FinFisher/FinSpy spyware had been acquired by several Mexican authorities through the company Obses de México.
Following a massive leak in 2015, we learned that the Mexican government had also purchased spyware from the controversial Italian firm, Hacking Team, through the intermediary, Teva Tech México SA. Those documents revealed that Mexico was the firm's main client worldwide, having made multi-million dollar purchases of surveillance tools called Galileo and DaVinci, both of which are commercial names for Remote Control Systems or RCS.
Later in September 2016, the New York Times revealed that the Mexican government had entered into contracts with the Israeli firm NSO Group to acquire Pegasus surveillance software.
By the end of 2016, additional reports documented purchases of equipment with interception capabilities known as IMSI-Catchers from companies in Finland and Switzerland each year from 2012 to 2015.
The most recent scandal took place on June 19, 2017 when 76 new cases of attempts to use Pegasus malware against journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico were revealed thanks to research, documentation and publication of a report by Article 19 and Mexico City-based NGOs Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) and SocialTIC, along with technical research by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
The New York Times published a detailed report about the investigation that appeared on the front page of the US newspaper:
Ganamos primera plana en el NYT. Algo de corrupción? No, publican cómo nos espía el Gob de Peña a periodistas y activistas #GobiernoEspía pic.twitter.com/IujXLtx8OT
— Daniel Lizárraga (@danliza) June 19, 2017
We're on the front page of the NYT. Is it about corruption? No, they published about how Peña's government spies on journalists and activists #GobiernoEspía
Mexico's legal framework authorizes interception of private communications for the purpose of investigating crimes — with previous approval from the federal judicial authority. The Mexican government has insisted that their use of surveillance technology has been authorized by relevant authorities. Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington, confirmed this to the New York Times in a previous article about the Mexican government's million dollar contracts with the Israeli company NSO Group in 2013.
Nevertheless, evidence indicates that the tools have been used against activists, journalists and people who have expressed dissenting opinions or oppose the current government.
As a result of the multiple proofs of illegal digital surveillance utilizing software exclusively used by governments, on May 23, 2017, social organizations that were a part of the Secretariado Técnico Tripartita (Tripartite Technical Secretariat or STT) of the Open Government Alliance (AGA) stepped down from their positions in the group:
Por espionaje, sociedad civil deja participación en Secretariado Técnico Tripartita de Alianza para Gobierno Abierto pic.twitter.com/XxyBvhpFih
— Fundar (@FundarMexico) May 23, 2017
Due to espionage, civil society will cease participation in the Secretariado Técnico Tripartita for Open Government
Prior to the most recent revelation, the New York Times reported on February 11 that three members of organizations defending the right to health had all received text messages containing malicious links from Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group. They included Alejandro Calvillo, general director of El Poder del Consumidor (The Power of Consumers); Luis Encarnación, coordinator of the Coalición ContraPESO (Counterweight Coalition); and Dr Simón Barquera, a researcher attached to the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (National Institute of Public Health).
Research from the Citizen Lab confirmed the claim and detailed that during 2016, malware was used to take control of the activists’ devices in order to spy on their communications during a campaign to support a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Mexico.
According to the New York Times:
El descubrimiento de los programas espías en los teléfonos de los impulsores de un impuesto desata preguntas sobre si las herramientas están siendo usadas para promover los intereses de la industria refresquera de México.
The discovery of spyware on the phones of sugar tax supporters raises questions about whether the tools are being used to promote the interests of Mexico's beverage industry.
Citizen Lab's report on this case states that the same infrastructure of NSO Group was used in 2016 against Mexican journalist, Rafael Cabrera, while he was collaborating with Aristegui Noticias’ investigation on the “Casa Blanca”, which implicated the Mexican President and his wife in corruption. In August 2013, together with Lookout, they detected and reported on attempts to intercept Cabrera's cell phone as well as that of Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights defender in the United Arab Emirates.
In the special report Cyberespionage of journalists, the newspaper Proceso pointed out that the presence of companies that commercialize these kinds of surveillance tools is not new.
In July 2015, Proceso revealed that Hacking Team cataloged its Mexican clients in an “offensive” category, that is, those who use the spyware to penetrate and manipulate the devices of their targets.
Proceso also reported that Cisen used the Italian company's spyware for political purposes: during 2013 they made more than 30 requests to Hacking Team to infect files named: “Proposed PRD reform”, “Energy Reform”, “Police kidnapping”, “CNTE” or “Marcos and Julio Sherer” (sic) among others. In order to be infected, the person targeted has to open a file [sent typically via email or SMS by the attacker]. Attention-grabbing titles are used for this purpose.
The e-mails showed that NSO Group had been operating in Mexico before Hacking Team and that the Italian firm intended to surpass its Israeli competition, who had obtained juicy contracts with both federal and state dependencies during the administration of [previous Mexican president] Felipe Calderón.
A detailed investigation carried out by independent media groups Animal Político and Lado B describes how surveillance tools in the hands of government are used to illegally monitor political opponents. Such was the case of the Puebla state government headed by Rafael Moreno Valle, who used Hacking Team software to spy on his opponents, along with journalists and even academics approaching elections.
It is clear that Mexico has become a paradise for the surveillance industry. Companies focused on development and commercialization of spyware products and surveillance of telecommunications can sell their products to agents of the state in an environment of little transparency and even less accountability.

author: Giovanna Salazar


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In This Charming Argentinian Hamlet, No Cars Are Allowed · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Spot in La Cumbrecita. Image on Flickr by user José e Marina (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Can you imagine how it must be to live in an all pedestrian town where there are virtually no cars? Such a place does exist, and it's called La Cumbrecita (The Little Peak). The small town is located just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Argentinian city of Córdoba, in Sierras Grandes in the province of Córdoba, and it has roughly 1,000 residents.
La Cumbrecita is a gem of ecotourism with an aesthetic that recalls a 15th century German town. It was founded less than a century ago, according to the province government's tourist website:
En el año 1932, viaja a Argentina desde Alemania el Dr. Helmut Cabjolsky acompañado por su familia. En la búsqueda de un lugar para vacacionar, compra en 1934 en las sierras de Córdoba un campo de aproximadamente 500 ha, el cual contenía como punto de referencia geográfico al denominado Cerro Cumbrecita.
La primera edificación [era para servir] de casa de veraneo para la familia Cabjolsky, pero muy pronto se transformó en albergue para alojar a los amigos de la familia. Años más tarde, dado el creciente interés turístico que despertaba el territorio, la casa comenzó a funcionar como una pequeña hostería.
Back in 1932, Dr. Helmut Cabjolsky went to Argentina from Germany together with his family. They were looking for a place to spend their vacations, so in 1934 he bought a 500-hectare land in the Córdoba mountains that had as geographical landmark: the so-called Cumbrecita hill.
The first building [was meant to be used] as summer house for the Cabjolskys, but soon after it became a guest house for family friends. Years later, due to the increasing tourist interest in the place, the house started to operate as a small hostel.
At first, the town wasn't designed as the tourist destination that it has now become:
La divulgación del encanto del lugar […] no fue intencional sino más bien circunstancial y de boca en boca, ya que nunca se había pensado en la posibilidad de que La Cumbrecita, Córdoba, podría transformarse en polo de atracción turística.
En la actualidad, el turismo en La Cumbrecita, Córdoba, es uno de los mayores atractivos de la región, llenando sus calles de visitantes nacionales e internacionales durante cada temporada estival.
As the place's charm spread by word of mouth […] the possibility of La Cumbrecita, Córdoba, becoming a tourist destination wasn't our intention, but rather circumstantial.
Today, La Cumbrecita, Córdoba, is one of the most attractive tourist places in the region. Every summer season its streets are always filled with national and international visitors.
“Welcome to La Cumbrecita, pedestrian town”. Entrance of La Cumbrecita. Image on Flickr by user Juan Pedro Diez (CC BY 2.0).
One of the rules of La Cumbrecita is that from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., streets are closed to automobiles. All vehicles must be parked at the town's entrance and tourists can only get in on foot.
According to a piece published on BBC Mundo, Ingrid Cabjolsky, granddaughter of the founder, remarked that she doesn't understand “why in historic centers in European capitals, cars are still allowed”:
Tú entras al centro de cualquier ciudad y está colapsada, tanto por la cantidad de autos como por la contaminación visual, ambiental y sonora.
You go to any city's downtown, and it's all jammed up, due both to the number of cars and to the visual, environmental and noise pollution.
As idyllic as it may sound, the place has its challenges:
Venir a vivir a La Cumbrecita no es fácil, porque al ser parte de una reserva natural los códigos de zonificación y edificación son muy estrictos: en busca de mantener la calma y el paisaje natural, por ejemplo, los lotes deben ser de mínimo 2.000 metros cuadrados.
Living in La Cumbrecita isn't easy. Being part of a nature reserve, zoning and building codes are very rigid: for instance, in order to keep the quietness and natural landscape, all lots must have at least 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet).
La Cumbrecita's website itself offers some warnings about what should be taken into consideration to have a pleasant visit:
En La Cumbrecita NO EXISTE Banco, NO HAY Cajero Automático, y NO DISPONEMOS de una estación de servicio para proveer combustible, por lo que recomendamos PREVER dichas necesidades.
La Cumbrecita es un pueblo peatonal, todos los circuitos internos están previstos para ser realizados a pie; es importante prever de CALZADO APROPIADO para recorrerlos. […] es necesario disponer de ABRIGO, LENTES DE SOL Y PROTECTOR SOLAR.
There ARE NO banks in La Cumbrecita, NO ATMs, and we DON'T have gas stations to pump fuel, so we recommend you anticipate those needs.
La Cumbrecita is a pedestrian town, all internal circuits are designed to be followed on foot. It's important to wear APPROPRIATE SHOES to go from one place to another. […] having a GOOD COAT, SUNGLASSES and SUN PROTECTION is a must.
On Twitter, people have posted photos from the town. Matías Di Santi showed us how La Cumbrecita welcomed him:
Después de viaje en ✈, así nos recibe La Cumbrecita ?, en tierras cordobesas ?. pic.twitter.com/eUbUnAuYCG
— Matías Di Santi (@matydisanti) 25 de mayo de 2017
After the journey, this is how La Cumbrecita, in Cordobese lands, welcomes us.
Majo shared a moment of her childhood in town:
#RetroMomento A los 10 años
en La Cumbrecita ? pic.twitter.com/uhkrcm3hc7
— Majo (@Majius3) 25 de mayo de 2017
Retro moment: me at age 10 in La Cumbrecita.
Sou described how her experience was somewhat contradictory to the peace the town usually offers:
El 1ro de mayo fue a La Cumbrecita (Córdoba) y me decían que necesitaban un descanso por la cantidad de turistas que venían teniendo. ???
— Sou??? (@sou_2014) 28 de mayo de 2017
On May 1st [Labor Day in many countries], I went to La Cumbrecita (Córdoba), and there I was told they were already needing a break from all the tourists they were receiving.
Meanwhile, Aldana Martínez shared her bigger wish:
Haría cualquier cosa con tal de mudarme a la Cumbrecita ??.
— Aldana Martinez (@aldi_lodigiani) 16 de mayo de 2017
I'd do anything to move to La Cumbrecita.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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‘Minor Storm’ Causes ‘Major Losses’ in Parts of Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screenshot from a YouTube video by Alvin Birbal, showing the flooding in some parts of Trinidad & Tobago after the passage of Tropical Storm Bret on June 19, 2017.
As of 5 a.m. on June 20, 2017, the tropical storm warning that was in effect for Trinidad and Tobago was discontinued — but in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Bret, the humour and lightheartedness of storm night has taken a sobering turn.
A YouTube video uploaded by Alvin Birbal showed the devastating degree of flooding in south Trinidad as a result of the storm:
There were also reports of landslips, fallen trees, and rivers bursting their banks, but thankfully no loss of life, save for one incident in which a man fell and broke his neck running from the heavy rains.
Many netizens shared their photographs and videos via Twitter:
The pomerac tree that fell on Ward 23 of the St Ann's hospital that housed 27 patients. Luckily no one was hurt @tv6tnt @expressupdates pic.twitter.com/e7VxaVuhgO
— Mark Bassant (@MarkBassant1) June 20, 2017
Godineau River breaks its banks. Looking southward at the Sudama Teerath along La Fortune Pluck Road in Woodland. pic.twitter.com/5sHnPdrmK9
— Karuna Moonan (@KarunaMoonan) June 20, 2017
Effects of Tropical Storm Bret in Moruga @CNC3TV @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/pBkbuIdfGG
— Girl Child (@brittlrjohnson) June 20, 2017
Photos of the effects of Tropical Storm Bret came in from far and wide:
Manuel Congo, San Carlos Arima @CNC3TV @cnewslive @tv6tnt #TropicalStormBret #ResidentReporters pic.twitter.com/kYJxvgKH7C
— đee (@kdia07) June 20, 2017
Caroni River, Hydraulic Rd, Kelly Village, Caroni @CNC3TV @tv6tnt #TropicalStormBret #ResidentReporters pic.twitter.com/7Akg9UWAmh
— đee (@kdia07) June 20, 2017
@tv6tnt upper santa cruz this morning before blind school pic.twitter.com/RmdFkEa1Kt
— Graeme Oliver (@TriniOli) June 20, 2017
Some folks simply tried to make the best of a bad situation:
Residents recreate in floodwaters in Pasea, St Augustine. The river is completely backed up and about to burst its banks. @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/Sxb0H6I0Sw
— Rynessa (@rynessacutting) June 20, 2017
On Facebook, Taran Rampersad shared photos and stories, and gave updates on several areas across the country, including reports that Mosquito Creek, a major south causeway that hugs the coastline, was flooded, making access from south Trinidad to the central and north of the island quite difficult. In a moment of frustration, he added:
Everyone sees what's wrong with Mosquito Creek – has seen it for generations. But it's South of the Light House, so no one seems to care.
Because most businesses and government services are centralised in Port of Spain, there is a common perception that any place beyond the lighthouse — which is situated on the perimeter of the capital city — is of no import. Nigel Wall, who posted a photo of the flooded Barrackpore area, echoed that concern:
Because the government and Port of Spain is ok, no word from the authorities on what they are doing in the South.
Facebook user Keith Francis added:
But under all seriousness, yunno if somebody had the presence of mind to put a piece of monitoring equipment in the Caroni and the Creek to tweet when the water level reach a particular height that might not be the worst public service in the world. #JustSaying
Facebook user Kelly Warren Fitzjames, who lives in Brasso Seco, a rural community in northern Trinidad, provided an update:
Rains all night and still falling, electricity gone since 9pm and roads blocked in several places (flooding and slush by quarry, land slides by Christophene king, large tree falls before Asa Wright and perhaps more). Ministry of Works already starting from quarry with back hoes to clear the roads. Phones still in operation (thanks to TSTT's new cell site generator) but cell phones will be losing charge soon with no way to recharge until roads are cleared and T&TEC can reach inside. No personal injuries or property damage that I know of after making several calls to residents.
The “Christophene king” she refers to is a farmer who grows the vegetable in an ecologically unsustainable way, causing great danger to the already precarious road that borders his area. Asa Wright is a nature centre that has taken great care to preserve the rain forest of Trinidad's northern range. TSTT is the state telecommunications provider, and T&TEC is the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission.
Meanwhile, Facebook user Rhoda Bharath shared a report on areas that were affected by the storm, and the Facebook page The Daily Corbeau posted a photo album of some of the damage caused.
The storm also affected the water supply in some areas:
BREAKING: WASA confirms the shutdown of several Water Treatment Plants throughout Trinidad due to flooding following #TropicalStormBret. pic.twitter.com/JQMuWB5Kv9
— Clydeen McDonald ? (@ClydeenMcDonald) June 20, 2017
As is often the case with these types of occurrences, politicians attempted to use the storm as a platform for one-upmanship, which some hashtagged a #NaturalPoliticalDisaster. The Rundown, a popular television show on CNC3, posted a photo of some of the opposition-affiliated lawyers involved in the current judicial controversy in Trinidad and Tobago, along with the following caption:
Rumour has it that the [opposition party] UNC plans to file an injunction in the High court to stop tropical storm Bret from passing over this country. #rumours
On Facebook, Rhoda Bharath warned of “mischief makers” circulating fake flood videos, and several people that Global Voices spoke to reported getting WhatsApp messages containing old flood videos.
Naturally, Wired868's Mr. Live Wire chose to look at the more amusing side of the situation, calling Tropical Storm Bret “the biggest case of overselling the damn thing since President Carmona claimed to be a superhero whose powers were pre-action protocol letters, distraction and donkey logic”, but Twitter user Judy Raymond summed it up well:
Some people suffered major losses in a minor storm. The season has only just begun–and we don't usually get hit at all. Fingers crossed…
— Judy Raymond (@heyjudeTT) June 20, 2017

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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More Than a Year Later, Landslide Victims Scrape By in a Resettlement City in Myanmar · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

New City residents clear a small patch of land to grow corn and potatoes. The previous year, animals ate or destroyed all the food they planted. Photo and caption by Brennan O’Connor / The Irrawaddy
This article by Brennan O’Connor is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Extensive flooding in remote western Chin State, one of the poorest areas in Myanmar, caused massive landslides in 2015. In capital city Hakha, the landslides displaced thousands, wiping out half of the city’s farmland.
Around six months after the disaster struck, the state government started providing homes to victims in a new neighborhood called “Hakha Thar” in Hakha dialect, or “New Hakha” in English. It is informally referred to as New City, located several kilometers from the city center.
But, more than a year after the resettlement, residents only just received power and still do not have running water. They are left to rely on collecting rainwater and deliveries from local aid groups.
Sang Vel’s home was located in the landslide zone. She and her family were evacuated to a relief camp where they lived for eight months. It was a tough time; she explained how they needed to procure their own blankets to ward off the frigid temperatures during the winter months. They were relieved to move out of the camp and into a new home. But after living in New City for a year without basic amenities, the family is growing increasingly frustrated.
Overlooking Hakha, New City is located on several of the highest mountains in town. Most houses are identical: small, square structures slapped together quickly with wood and aluminum siding. The roads connecting them are still unpaved. The frequent wind that blows through Hakha creates dust storms in New City.
Like most residents, Sang Vel and her husband Dan Tlang Ti Phul are unemployed. Before the landslides they sold vegetables to local merchants. But the money they made before is too little to consider commuting by bus into the city. Instead, they rely on their son, who stays permanently in downtown Hakha with relatives, to deliver goods with the family’s three-wheeler.
During a public town meeting in late 2016, the Chin State government promised that funds from the 2017 budget would be used to complete unfinished public works in New City. There are signs this is starting to happen. Residents recently received electricity, a large water storage tank is finished and roadwork is underway.
No livelihood initiatives for residents have been announced, however. Most of the landslide victims worked in agriculture before the landslides, but much of the farmland has been buried.
After facing difficulties securing stable jobs in the city center—work was already scarce before the floods—those whose land wasn’t destroyed have returned to their farms, at least for part of the week. Yet the area remains at risk of landslides during this year’s monsoon season.
Workers wait to get paid for digging out a lake that was buried during the 2015 landslides. The lake will be used to collect rain for the city’s drinking water. Photo and caption by Brennan O’Connor / The Irrawaddy
Located on steep mountain ridges that overlook Hakha, the New City remains unfinished after more than a year since it was built. Photo and caption by Brennan O’Connor / The Irrawaddy
Landslides destroyed hundreds of homes in Hakha and half of the town’s farmland. Due to the loss of arable land many vegetables must be bought in by truck from other city centers in Chin State. Transport costs have resulted in higher food costs. Photo and caption by Brennan O’Connor / The Irrawaddy
The government built around 1,000 homes in the new city for victims of the landslides. Photo and caption by Brennan O’Connor / The Irrawaddy

author: The Irrawaddy


text:
Where Did Indians’ Ancient Ancestors Come From? The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate Rages Once More · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Map of Indo-European migrations. Image by Joshua Jonathan via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY SA 4.0
Indo-Aryan migration theory, a controversy for the ages, is fueling discussions once more in India after an article published in The Hindu newspaper highlighted the genetic evidence that the Indo-Aryan peoples came from Central Asia and Europe to South Asia.
Indo-Aryan peoples are an ethonolinguistic group of people that speak diverse Indo-Aryan languages and currently live predominantly in the South Asian region. The population of the modern descendants of this group is more than 1 billion, or a seventh of world's population.
There has been a long tug-of-war between those who are for and against the theory that Indo-Aryans arrived to India from outside. Among opponents of the theory in India are Hindu nationalists — who sometimes cast it as a product of colonialism designed to denigrate India — as well as some researchers.
The alternative theory proposed by opponents based on Rigveda, one of the oldest religious sculptures of Hinduism, suggests that the Aryans were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. The idea of a pure Aryan race and the social division that many Hindu scriptures recommend based on one's race has pushed the conflict even further.
Mainstream researchers tend to reject this theory on the basis of linguistic and genetic studies. Instead, they say evidence points to Indo-Aryans and Iranians originating from the Proto-Indo-Iranians. After this split during the period 1800-1600 BCE, the latter group was settled around Iran while the former migrated to Anatolia (most of modern-day Turkey), Pakistan, northern India, and Nepal. The classic Indo-Aryan models attempt to explain how migrations would have happened around 1500 BCE from Central Asia and Eastern Europe to South Asia and Anatolia, which possibly brought the ancestors of the Indo-Aryan peoples and their language Sanskrit to India.
A detailed article published on June 16 in The Hindu, titled “How Genetics Is Settling the Aryan Migration Debate”, touches upon many other societal aspects linked to the hypothesis, such as the patriarchal social structure in India and how the Sanskrit language came to the Indian subcontinent along with the Aryans.
‘Aryan’ migration into India around 2000 BC is no longer a theory. A flood of DNA data settles the debate. My piecehttps://t.co/ZnG7ZNv0Mc
— Tony Joseph (@tjoseph0010) June 17, 2017
The article cites multiple instances of research carried out in different countries, both approving and disavowing the theory. One citation is of a recent piece of research done by 16 scientists that led to the publication of a peer-reviewed journal paper titled “A Genetic Chronology for the Indian Subcontinent Points to Heavily Sex-Biased Dispersals” published in the journal “BMC Evolutionary Biology”:
In particular, genetic influx from Central Asia in the Bronze Age was strongly male-driven, consistent with the patriarchal, patrilocal and patrilineal social structure attributed to the inferred pastoralist early Indo-European society. This was part of a much wider process of Indo-European expansion, with an ultimate source in the Pontic-Caspian region, which carried closely related Y-chromosome lineages, a smaller fraction of autosomalgenome-wide variation and an even smaller fraction of mitogenomes across a vast swathe of Eurasia between 5and 3.5 ka.
Harvard Professor David Reich, who has been working for a long time on this subject favoring the Indo-Aryan migration theories, is also mentioned. In 2009, he published the paper “Reconstructing Indian Population History“, and later in 2016 in an interview highlighted the mixed races of the Indian subcontinent:
In the beginning of 2007, we started studying at the whole genome level, the whole organism level, the DNA from initially twenty-five diverse Indian populations. It’s now more than 200 that we’ve studied. We picked these populations to be as diverse as possible, capturing the linguistic diversity of India. […]
[…] the great majority of Indian groups today are descended from a mixture of basically just two ancestral populations, one which we call the ancient ancestral North Indian and one which we call the ancestral South Indian. Everybody is mixed in India without exception. Even the most isolated groups, which are hunter-gatherers living in the forest or isolated places, everybody is mixed with at least 20 percent of each of these ancestries.
Scheme of Indo-European migrations from c. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the Kurgan hypothesis. Image via Wikimedia Commons by DBachmann. CC BY SA 3.0
Audrey Truschke, assistant professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University in the US, tweeted out the article:
The linguistic evidence for the #AryanMigration theory is very strong. For those that need hard science also: https://t.co/AigrwNS4wX
— Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) June 16, 2017
Sitaram Yechury, a veteran leader of the Community Party of India, and Devdutt Pattanaik, a mythologist and writer, similarly hailed the article:
The historical evidence of Aryan migration and the confluence that India is. Brilliant piece by @tjoseph0010 https://t.co/wCZvoPY4pm
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) June 17, 2017
Excellent article . Scientific so will upset myth-haters. https://t.co/8xxXpIMe9e
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) June 17, 2017
However, Anand Ranganathan, a consulting editor at the Indian news outlet Newslaundry.com, attacked the article in the Hindu:
A few quick points on the interesting piece on Aryan Migration published today in the Hindu. pic.twitter.com/UjaBmEdZx9
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) 17 de junio de 2017
Nityanand Jayaraman, a Facebook user, also pointed at the possibility of a close connection of north Indians with the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan:
Interesting article on how Yogi Adityanath and Vishnu Bhagwat may be more closely related to their brothers in Pakistan and Afghanistan than they care to acknowledge. And about India's multiculturalism.
Sanjeev Sanyal, a writer who earlier opposed the Aryan invasion theory, has written on Facebook that he would read the recently published papers and is ready to change his opinion if there is a changed evidence:
The genetic evidence on “Aryan Invasion” appears to have shifted to support a migration around 2000 BC (according to this article anyway). Have not closely followed the latest papers, will need time to read the new papers on this. If the evidence has really changed, I will also change my view. Only way to do research.
The debate on whether Indo-Aryans migrated from outside India and brought their oldest language Sanskrit to the South Asian region continues to rage and pave the way for more anthropological research on the people, cultures and languages of the region. There are over 780 languages across India which makes India one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. However, of these languages, only 22 enjoy constitutional protection while over 196 languages are endangered.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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With Public Finances Under Strain, Mozambique’s Government Approves Purchase of Luxury Cars for Deputies · Global Voices
Alexandre Nhampossa

Each car costs around 220,000 US dollars, totalling around 3.8 million. Photo: @N93/Flickr CC BY 2.0
Mozambique’s public finances may even be out of control, but this did not stop the Assembly of the Republic acquiring 17 Mercedes Benz vehicles, model c-180, for use by their deputies. Each car costs around 220,000 US dollars, which equals around 3.8 million dollars in total.
The purchase, which has been causing indignation on social media, happened at a delicate moment for the country’s public finances. Mozambique’s previously booming economy was seriously shaken in 2016, when it became public that three companies had secretly contracted around 1.4 billion dollars – equivalent to 10% of the country’s GDP – in loans from British banks, with state guarantees but without the Assembly’s knowledge.
The state can now be subject to litigation by vulture funds which possess the bonds, similar to the example of what happened in Argentina in 2005. In the UK, the case gave fuel to the Jubilee Debt Campaign movement, a British activist group pressuring creditors to not block developing countries from renegotiating debt with British banks — something Mozambican President Felipe Nyusi is trying to do.
While the negotiations are not happening, the state finds itself obliged to penalize the population to balance the books in the short term: just last year, the government cut the 13th salary — a kind of Christmas bonus  — of some public servants.
The purchase of cars was made by the Assembly’s Permanent Commission, the body coordinating its activities, without, however, having been subject to discussion by the lawmakers.
Even on 9 June, two days after the decision was made public, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy and Finances spoke to the press, defending the apparently exorbitant spending on the deputies’ private transport:
É de direito que os membros da Assembleia da República sejam transportados por carros protocolares daquele nível, como acontece com os membros de outros órgãos de soberania do Estado.
It is right that the Assembly of the Republic’s members should be transported by official cars of that level, as is the case with members of other bodies of the sovereign state.
The university professor and deputy of the Municipality of Quelimane, Manuel de Araújo, criticised the purchase and clarified that the issue is not deputies’ entitlement, but the timing of the vehicles’ purchase with the news of the three companies’ “illegal borrowings”, as Mozambicans are calling them:
Não nos entendam mal, não estamos contra os Mercedes Benz que vos dão estatuto, estamos é contra o momento em que tomaram a soberana decisão de os adquirir sem olhar para o contexto em que o país se encontra por causa da vossa preguiça em fiscalizar as ações do governo! Ou seja o país está onde está em parte porque vós não fostes capazes de fiscalizar ação do governo e como se não bastasse incluíram tais dívidas [ilegais] na Conta Geral do Estado, tentando legalizá-las para que seja o pacato povo a pagar as falcatruas de uns e de outros”.
Do not misunderstand us, we are not against the Mercedes Benz that law accords you, we are against the moment when they took the sovereign decision to acquire them without looking at the condition in which the country finds itself because of your laziness in supervising the government’s activities! In other words, the country is where it is partly because you were unable to supervise government activities and, as if that were not enough, they included such [illegal] debts in the State General Account, trying to legalize them so that it is the quiet people who pay for others’ fraud.
Many also highlighted the chaotic situation of the country's public transport network — demand in large cities is largely served by informal and private transportation, open-top vehicles called “my love”. Zee Mavye, a graduate student at Eduardo Mondlane University, posted on his Facebook wall:
Veja só como é irónico: o patrão [povo que paga imposto] está no My love às 5h apanhando banho de nevoeiro a caminho do gabinete para garantir a não falência da empresa, enquanto o empregado [deputado] ainda está dormir para depois fazer se transportar num Benz com vidros fechados quando forem 8:30 depois de um café garantido pelos impostos do patrão. Mas bem bem, estes não engasgam se ao pensar no sofrimento do povo?.
Look how ironic it is: the boss [taxpaying people] is in a My Love at 5am getting a shower of fog on the way to the office to ensure the company does not go bankrupt, while the employee [deputy] is still sleeping, to be later transported in a Benz with closed windows when it is 8:30 after a coffee guaranteed by the boss's taxes. But fine, fine, these people do not choke when thinking of the suffering of the people?
The situation motivated Venâncio Mondlane, deputy of the smallest party with parliamentary seats, to launch a campaign rejecting the vehicles. Of the 250 deputies, he is the only one that has publicly shown indignation so far.
Opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama, who has been operating in exile in the bushes of Gorongosa ever since the contested 2014 elections, described the decision as “regrettable” to the press by telephone — at a conference attended by Global Voices on 15 June — but said he would not mobilize his party to reverse it. “It must be emphasized that the party’s president does not give return orders. Why not give an order? Because it was the state that made the order and not us. Renamo’s deputies did not ask for luxury cars or choose the brands,” he said.
Jorge Matine, a researcher at the Public Integrity Center, a local organization working for public transparency, did not express much hope for reversing the situation: “The famous Mercedes are already in the possession of the respective leaders,” he said.
Other reactions on social media included that of the political analyst Domingos Gundana, who put the question on Facebook:
Será que não podiam ter esperado a normalização da economia, a redução do custo de vida no bolso do cidadão, não podiam dar prioridade à materialização do dossier Paz, aprovando os instrumentos que estão em discussão [no parlamento] para depois receberem os tais Mercedes como prémio pelo trabalho feito? Nem Paz temos, nem comida temos, nem transporte público temos, nem medicamentos temos, salários sem datas fixas, crianças a sentar no chão debaixo de árvores e alguém esbanja dinheiro por algo que não é prioridade.
Could they not have waited for the normalization of the economy, the reduction of the cost of living to match the people's budgets, could they not have given priority to the realization of the Peace dossier [to end the simmering conflict in the country], approving the instruments under discussion [in parliament], to receive such Mercedes afterwards as a reward for the job being done? We do not have peace, we have no food, we have no public transportation, we have no medicines, wages with no fixed dates, children sit on the ground under trees and someone squanders money on something that is not a priority.
Bitone Viage, a Mozambican graduate student in political science at the Federal University of Pará in Brazil, asked members of the Assembly of the Republic on Facebook not to view the place as a source of wealth:
Prezados não façamos da Assembleia da República um grande jackpot, onde o voto popular é visto como casa de loteria. Será que há mesmo necessidade de proverem Mercedes Benz aos nossos deputados. Aliás, estes por sua vez mesmo sabendo que estamos face a uma tal propalada crise, que moral prevalecerá para aceitar os ditos Mercedes?
We should not make the Assembly of the Republic a big jackpot, where the popular vote is seen as a lottery house. Is it really necessary to provide Mercedes Benz to our deputies? Incidentally, these people, for their part, even knowing that we are facing such an widespread crisis, what morality will prevail in accepting the so-called Mercedes?
There were also reactions on Twitter:
Governo gasta 228 milhões de MT a comprar ultimas Mercedes pra deputados ? com esta crise esse dinheiro podiam construir universidades ?
— Bad gal Su ?? (@SumayraNunes) 9 de junho de 2017
The government spends 228 million meticais on the latest Mercedes for deputies. With this crisis that money could have built universities
18 Mercedes quantas carteiras dariam? Esta é a questão que devíamos todos nós fazer https://t.co/k7z2rm8PrJ
— Stelão – BRATVA Sgt. (@StelaoBonGz) 12 June 2017
18 Mercedes how many school desks would that pay for? This is the question we should all be asking.

author: Alexandre Nhampossa


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Detained Telegram Channel Admins Go on Hunger Strike in Iran · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Telegram channel admin Nima Keshvari was detained in mid-March 2017 by the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization.
This report was first published on the Center for Human Rights in Iran website.
Six administrators of channels on the Telegram messaging application have gone on hunger strike in Iran's Evin Prison to protest their prolonged detention without access to legal counsel. The six men were arrested in the run-up to Iran’s May 2017 presidential election.
An informed source told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that no charges have been issued against the detainees—who supported President Rouhani’s recent re-election bid—more than three months after their arrests by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in March 2017.
“Lawyers have come forward to defend them, but the prosecutor’s office and the judge have not allowed lawyers to see the prisoners according to a recommendation by the IRGC,” the source told CHRI.
“Legal representation becomes official after a client signs a document delegating his or her lawyer,” added the source. “This has not occurred yet.”
Ali Ahmadnia, Mojtaba Bagheri, Sobhan Jafari-Tash, Javad Jamshidi, Nima Keshvari and Saeed Naghdi began a hunger strike on June 19, 2017 in Evin Prison’s Ward 2-A, which is controlled by the IRGC.
Their case is being tried at the Revolutionary Court in Tehran presided by Judge Abolqasem Salavati.
Attorney Ali Mojtahedzadeh told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) on June 21 that he was assisting Keshvari and Bagheri upon requests from their families, but his requests to meet them in the prison have been denied.
“The accusations mentioned in their case are related to their activities in support of the [Rouhani] government,” added Mojtahedzadeh. “You cannot accuse people of acting against national security when they are cooperating with the government.”
The centrist administration of President Hassan Rouhani, who maintains close ties with reformist factions, has been publicly criticized by the IRGC for refusing to censor some of Telegram’s features.
Rouhani also resisted pressure from hardliners to ban Telegram ahead of the March 2016 parliamentary elections and the May 2017 presidential and local council elections.
According to Telegram, some 40 million people use the app, mostly on their mobile phones, in Iran.
Between March 14-16, 2017, agents of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization rounded up eight administrators of 12 Telegram channels aligned with reformist factions that supported Rouhani’s bid for a second term.
Two were soon released, but six remain in detention and were forced to hand over control of their Telegram channels to the IRGC, which deleted all of their content.
Nearly two weeks after their arrests, on March 26, following calls by reformist members of Parliament for an explanation of the arrests, Rouhani asked the Interior Ministry to investigate the “suspicious arrests of a number of media activists on the eve of the elections.”
To date, the Ministry has not made its findings public and judicial officials have not commented other than to announce that the men were arrested in connection with alleged “security issues” and “indecent acts.”
“Regarding this particular case, there are matters that relate to the intelligence minister himself (Mahmoud Alavi) and therefore he cannot comment on this case or prepare a report about it,” said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei on April 12.
“I don’t know of any crime that the admins may have committed for which I share responsibility,” Alavi replied hours later. “It looks like they may have been arrested because of me.”
“Whoever has a complaint concerning the work of the assembly [Parliament] or the executive power, or the judicial power can forward his complaint in writing to the assembly. The assembly must investigate his complaint and give a satisfactory reply. In cases where the complaint relates to the executive or the judiciary, the assembly must demand proper investigation into the matter and an adequate explanation from them, and announce the results within a reasonable time. In cases where the subject of the complaint is of public interest, the reply must be made public.”
Alavi was appointed to head the Intelligence Ministry by Rouhani.
CHRI has obtained an Instagram photo showing the Minister posing with some of the detained admins. The Instagram account has since been shut down.
Frustrated by the lack of due process in their loved ones’ cases, families of some of the detainees lodged a complaint on June 6 with Parliament’s Article 90 Committee, which is in charge of investigating public grievances.
According to CHRI’s source, the committee has not released the result of its investigation.
Thirty MPs wrote a letter to Alavi on May 30 asking him to explain why the admins had been under prolonged detention without legal counsel in violation of the Constitution.
“A number of pro- [Rouhani] government Telegram channel admins who were arrested in the run-up to the presidential election remain in legal limbo more than two months into their detention,” said the letter.
“Based on information we have received, these individuals have not been charged within the legal time limit under Article 32 of the Constitution and have been denied a lawyer in violation of Article 35.”
On June 6, Alavi responded to the MPs’ questions in a closed session of Parliament, but those deliberations have not been made public.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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Nigerians Celebrate the Election of Seven British-Nigerians to the UK Parliament · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Chi Onwurah, the member of parliament for Newcastle Central, at an MP Policy Exchange in 2013. Image by Flickr user Policy Exchange. CC BY 2.0.
On 8 June, a general election was held in Britain. Voters went to the polls to choose members of parliament from the 650 constituencies around the country. In a first of its kind moment, seven of the parliamentarians sent were of Nigerian origin. The Nigerian-based website Ventures Africa reported that “three of them won under Theresa May’s Conservative party while the other four won under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party.”
The seven elected MPs and the constituencies they are representing are: Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden), Chineylu “Chi” Onwurah, (Newcastle), Chuka Umunna (Streatham), Fiona Onasanya, (Peterborough), Helen Grant (Maidstone and The Weald), Kate Osamor (Edmonton) and Kemi Badenoch (Saffron Walden).
Back in Nigeria, the news was greeted warmly. Here is what the senior special assistant to the Nigerian president on foreign affairs and diaspora had to say:
Honorable Abike Dabiri-Erewa congratulates seven (7) Nigerian citizens on their victory at the U.K parliamentary elections. pic.twitter.com/IjilVe870c
— CorpersHub (@Corpershub1) June 9, 2017
However, some in the western African nation warned the Nigerian government against “appropriating the success of foreign citizens of Nigerian descent”:
Nigerians often appropriate the successes of foreign citizens of Nigerian descent. We celebrate these successes as our own understandably.
— Resistance is Futile (@chrisngwodo) June 11, 2017
Another Twitter user reminded that these MPs were not in the British parliament as representatives of Nigeria.
Dear @abikedabiri, they did not contest to represent Nigeria in the UK or got the mandate of FGN.This state-hypocrisy is an aberration pic.twitter.com/kNIdQ6z6SX
— Sir.Ariyo-Dare Atoye (@AriyoAristotle) June 11, 2017
Omalicha questioned the Nigerian-ness of these new MPs.
She ain't Nigerian biko. If she ever lived here, she won't be sweeping anything other than her house. https://t.co/42Tng96GMD
— Omalicha™ (@ree_nne) June 9, 2017
A British-based Nigerian university lecturer, Dr Adebisi Adewole, pointed out that the ethnic divisions that define Nigerian politics means it's unlikely that the winning MPs would've been successful in their country of origin. He wrote:
In Nigeria, they would have been asked, ‘Who knows your family?’ ‘Ah, you are Igbo and you have Yoruba blood with your mother known to have dated an Hausa man’, ‘You are a woman’ ‘You are too young’, ‘How much do you have?’, ‘Who is your godfather?’, You are Muslim’, and so on. No one would have bothered much about the question of competence for the job…
The same sentiments were expressed by a Dapo Rotifa in a post on Facebook:
Splendid! 7 Britons of Nigerian descent won seats to the parliament in the British elections. And as expected we're all adulating, as we're wont to do, the feats our ‘compatriots’ achieved in a foreign land. That's deserving. It gladdens my heart too….
Let's go back to our brothers and sisters who won elections in Britain and our celebration of that. Actually I have a problem with us on that. Let me put it into question even if rhetorically: why do we celebrate a feat outside our shores but find such sacrilegious in our land? The Osun man celebrating our Nigerian exploit in Britain will cry foul if an Oyo who has lived all his life in Ile-Ife wants to stand for election in Osun. Yes, you can say it's a different environment but when are we going to start to make our own environment conducive to recognize the commonality of our humanity?

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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People Around the World Celebrate International Day of Yoga, an Ancient Indian Tradition · Global Voices
Rezwan

International Yoga Day 2015. Image from Flickr via user Narendra Modi. CC BY-SA 2.0
On June 21 this year, hundreds of thousands of people in more than 200 countries of the world celebrated International Yoga Day by practicing Yoga together in public. Social media spaces around the world were filled with images of people doing yoga and the hashtag #InternationalYogaDay was trending during the day.
Yoga can be viewed as a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India (between the sixth and fifth centuries BCE). Yoga gurus from India introduced the practice to the West in the late 19th and early 20th century and it is now a multi-billion dollar industry across the world. While in much of the Western world yoga is popular as a system of physical exercise, in India, it is much more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core.
Many countries which do not know our language, tradition, or culture, are now connecting to India through Yoga. Yoga connects body, mind and soul. It is playing a big role in bringing the world together too. – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, June 21, 2017.
In 2014, Narendra Modi became the 14th Prime Minister of India and started spearheading an initiative to reclaim Yoga as an historic part of Indian culture. In September that year, he made a call to other nations at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) for a day to celebrate yoga globally. In December 2014 a resolution was adopted in UNGA to mark June 21 as the International Day of Yoga, which has been celebrated across the world ever since.
In the same year, the Modi government cemented its focus on Yoga by appointing a minister for Yoga and traditional medicine. On December 1, 2016, Yoga was listed as part of UNESCO’s Intangible cultural heritage.
#Yoga, a heritage of the past and technologies of wellbeing for future. -Sg @UNESCO #CulturalHeritage https://t.co/U3jIIpfljg
— Sadhguru (@SadhguruJV) December 4, 2016
Here are some of the images that came out of India today showing people from all walks of life enjoying the day:
A Guinness World record of largest yoga session of the world in Ahmedabad today #InternationalYogaDay pic.twitter.com/aTtrcACBE4
— Rishi Bagree ?? (@rishibagree) June 21, 2017
Yoga liberates your mind & soul. It purifies & cleanses your body. Celebrated #InternationalYogaDay at Dimapur. @PMOIndia @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/An2evxASFT
— Rajiv Pratap Rudy (@RajivPratapRudy) June 21, 2017
It was a great pleasure to perform #Yoga on 3rd #InternationalYogaDay with the enthusiastic people of #Howarh, West Bengal @moayush pic.twitter.com/DMWJAKoQ0R
— Arjun Ram Meghwal (@arjunrammeghwal) June 21, 2017
CISF to BSF jawans, old, young, amazing energy levels of Yoga! #InternationalYogaDay pic.twitter.com/azAOxJnenr
— Anjana Om Kashyap (@anjanaomkashyap) June 21, 2017
Yoga was even used in a protest against the government:
Farmers perform #Shavaasana to protest against govt; Congress agitation against Mandsaur deaths#BJP_KisanMuktasanhttps://t.co/hVir9PERrt
— Syed Maqbool (@maqbool_sm) June 21, 2017
Congress workers perform ‘Shavaasana’ on International Yoga Day https://t.co/f6Viq13J1w
— Maneesh Karki (@maneeshkarki) June 21, 2017
This year the International Yoga Day expanded to even more countries in the world:
#InternationalYogaDay celebrations at israel pic.twitter.com/xYpdGmrcY3
— Dr Monika Langeh (@drmonika_langeh) June 21, 2017
#InternationalYogaDay at Burj Park, Dubai, UAE. #IDYwithArtofLiving pic.twitter.com/FdNEMXkBta
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) June 21, 2017
Thousands participated in #InternationalYogaDay in Bangladesh. #IDYwithArtofLiving pic.twitter.com/HP0kLS6fM5
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) June 21, 2017
Over 3000 people participated in #InternationalYogaDay in Suva, Fiji. #IDYwithArtofLiving pic.twitter.com/riZPoGSEmF
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) June 21, 2017
#IDYwithArtofLiving at Machu Picchu, Peru pic.twitter.com/G6roAIFG8R
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (@SriSri) June 20, 2017
Yoga is a light which once lit,will never dim.
A sneak peek of the iconic UN Headquarters building being lit on #InternationalYogaDay pic.twitter.com/jH5JaD9kLQ
— Tanmay Shankar (@Shanktan) June 21, 2017
Bollywood celebrities have also shared motivational pictures of themselves in Yoga poses on social media.
Yoga has always been a personal and individualistic practice, the meaning and benefits of which can only be determined by the practitioner. And this collective campaign of spreading Yoga to other countries of the world should bring tremendous benefit to millions of practitioners of this ancient Indian practice all over the world.

author: Rezwan


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Thousands of Japanese Woodblock Prints Just Became Available Online · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Detail from “The Warrior Fujiwara Hidesato Battling the Giant Centipede” by woodblock artist Katsukawa, Shuntei, 1770-1820. The woodblock print is inspired by the folktale “My Lord Bag of Rice” where warriors battle a giant centipede near the Seta Bridge at Lake Biwa in central Japan. Interpretation of image assisted by Matt Alt and Matthew Penney.
The United States Library of Congress has released nearly 2,500 woodblock prints into the public domain in its online collection “Fine Prints: Japanese, pre-1915.”
The Library's Prints and Photographs Division online collection curates woodblock prints and drawings from two artistic traditions, Ukiyo-e and Yokohama-e from the Edo (1600-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods.
According to the Library of Congress, “The Japanese art of Ukiyo-e developed in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) during the Tokugawa or Edo Period (1600-1868), a relatively peaceful 250 years during which the Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan and made Edo the shogunal seat of power.”
In terms of Yokohama-e, the Library of Congress notes that after new trade agreements with the West, Yokohama became a rapidly growing center of trade with the outside world starting in the 1850s:
For Japanese artists, the port city of Yokohama became an incubator for a new category of images that straddled convention and novelty. Building on methods of production and marketing established by Ukiyo-e artists and publishers, Edo print publishers began to send artists to Yokohama to sketch foreigners in situ. Bewhiskered men and crinoline-clad women were shown striding through the city, clambering on and off ships, riding horses, enjoying local entertainments, and interacting with an endless array of objects from goblets to locomotives.
The Library of Congress prints collection depicts a vast number of subjects including actors, women, landscapes, scenes from Japanese literature, daily life in Japan, and views of Westerners in Japan.
Here are just a few examples of the Library of Congress collection:
Description: “Hana noen shanaō” by Utagawa, Kuniyoshi, 1798-1861. “Print shows a person, possibly the warrior Ushiwakamaru (Minamoto no Yoshitomo) as a young man, climbing a tree and using a stick to taunt anthropomorphic creatures (goblins) who are picking up sticks to defend themselves; an old man is asleep against a tree in the background.”
Description: “Night moon over Mount Manno” by Taiso Yoshitoshi, 1839-1892. “Print shows a demon-like wizard with wings and talons holding a piece of paper with writing on it before a woman with very long hair.”
Description: “Foreign settlement house in Yokohama” by Utagawa, Yoshikazu, active 1848-1863. “Japanese print shows a kitchen where food is being prepared and of adjoining rooms, in one room a man is getting a shave, in a foreign settlement house in Yokohama, Japan.”
Description: “Horse race in Ueno Park, by Hashimoto, Chikanobu, 1838-1912 .”Japanese triptych print showing jockeys on horseback racing around a track surrounding a lake. A Japanese military officer and Japanese women view the race from an elaborately decorated grandstand. Animals and objects fall from the sky.”
Description: “A woman writing about memories of places visited”. The work's creator is unknown.
The full collection can be viewed here.
According to the Library of Congress, there are no known restrictions on this collection, and reproduction is allowed by “fair use“.

author: Nevin Thompson


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ISIS Attempts to Exploit Balkan War Wounds With Localized Propaganda · Global Voices
Ruslan Trad

Memories of the 1992-1995 war are still fresh in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This mural next to children's playground commemorates the fallen from a Sarajevo neighborhood (its text reads “Honoring the Shahid and the fighters of Velešić”). By targeting its propaganda towards Bosnians, ISIS is trying to exploit the wounds from this war. Photo by GV, CC-BY.
In recent months, the militant group ISIS, which has brutalized large swathes of Iraq and Syria for a few years in the name of establishing a “caliphate,” has been increasing its propaganda aimed at the Western Balkans.
The countries of the Western Balkans — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia — are home to significant Muslim populations. By targeting its propaganda towards them, ISIS is trying to exploit the wounds of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, which saw people divided along ethnic and religious lines.
On June 8, Al Hayat Media, a media outfit for ISIS (also known as ISIL, Daesh, and Islamic State) published the 10th issue of their online magazine Rumiyah. It was circulated in nine languages, including Bosnian, with each version providing customized content to their sympathizers in different regions of the world.
Rumiyah has always published in Bosnian, but this issue marked the first time it had a message specifically for citizens of the Western Balkans. In it, ISIS claims they have “not forgotten” the region where they would bring “blood for the enemies and honey for the friends.” The rhetoric is full of menace for the “infidel” Serbs and Croats, and reminiscences of war crimes against Muslims from the past wars. The message includes especially dire threats for the “murtadd”– a term meaning someone who has renounced their own religion or heretic — referring to the majority of local Muslims of Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia who do not support any kind of Islamic radicalism.
While large numbers of Muslims also live in the other Balkan countries, ISIS announcements have not mentioned them, nor their capitals as future targets for their “soldiers, cutting the heads and shedding the blood of infidels, until they submit and pay tribute.” A Bulgarian Twitter user commented that they prefer it that way.
За втори път “Ислямска държава” явно ни пренебрегва като враг, достоен за внимание. Аз съм ок да продължават по същия начин.
— Хайманата (@apkarageorgiev) June 9, 2017
For the second time “the Islamic State” publicly neglects us as an enemy worthy of their attention. It's quite OK for me if they continue in the same vein.
Rumiyah is not their only effort to target local audiences.
New channels, mostly in messaging application Telegram, have also recently been created. All information they contain is in Bosnian, including videos, posters, translations of statements from ISIS, and other types of propaganda. One of the newest channels was created on June 8, on the day when latest Rumiyah issue was published. Currently, there are four major channels which are very active.
Screenshots from a Telegram channel conveying ISIS propaganda in Bosnian, including links to resources, videos from the battlegrounds, and links to other articles.
Religious identity played a major role during the armed conflicts that raged through former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. Nationalist politicians nurtured and exploited divisions across ethnic and religious lines, pitting against each other the former neighbors that used to live in “brotherhood and unity” (the official slogan of the broken federation).
Most Balkan nationalists use the religious identity of the majority of the ethnic group they claim to represent as part of their ideologies. Groups like these claim that to be a good Croat, one has to be a pious Catholic, for example, or only devout Orthodox Christian Serbs are worthy of the name, or that being a Bosniak is inseparable from being a Muslim. (Albanian nationalism is an exception — even though most Albanians have Muslim heritage, those of other faiths are not looked down upon by compatriots.)
During these wars, over 140,000 people lost their lives, and several million were forced to leave their homes. Numerous war crimes were committed in the name of “defense” of one's chosen ethnicity and religion, and the trials for some of them are still going on. Meanwhile, the fact that various politicians and media have bestowed heroic status on some war criminals does not inspire confidence among the neighboring peoples.
This historical heritage is continuously revisited for political mobilization, and as a consequence aggressive attitudes towards other religions is ingrained in some Balkan citizens.
Such ISIS propaganda isn't only aimed at recruiting new members, but also motivating sympathizers — some of whom have returned from fighting in Syria — to carry out attacks in the group's name, a call that could be made more potent given the recent history in the Western Balkans.
Balkan fighters started going to Syria in 2012-2013 after the Assad regime intensified its campaign against a popular uprising. Extremist groups presented these actions as an attack against Islam, even though the government's aim was not religious, but political, and exploited the opportunity to use the people's suffering as recruitment tool.
The following estimates combine the data published by authorities, as well as from reports by investigative journalists and think tanks, and my own personal reporting while working as a journalist. There are around 875 Western Balkan fighters in Syria and Iraq. Roughly speaking, between 90 and 200 are from Albania, between 217 and 330 from Bosnia, between 232 and 300 from Kosovo, between 100 and 146 from Macedonia, about 30 from Montenegro, between 50 and 70 from Serbia. There are also fighters from Slovenia and Croatia.
Many of these fighters belong to al-Qaeda's Syrian branch (known previously as Jabhat an Nusra, and today Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), and another part are among ISIS forces, in units lead by Albanians or Bosnians.
Some of the fighters coming from Bosnia originate in the Salafi communities such as those in the mountain villages of Gornja Maoča, Ošve and Dubnica. They are not result of missionary activity, but of settling of foreign fighters from the Bosnian War and their families.
From 1992 to 1995, hundreds of fighters from various Muslim groups fought on the Bosnian side, and afterwards some of them settled in remote villages to avoid attention. They were already influenced by the ultra conservative Islamic movement Salafism and for two decades have lived in peace resembling the Puritan communities of the 16th and 17th centuries in Western Europe. In each such village they created infrastructure to support community funding and spiritual development, including small businesses and religious education facilities. Salafist communities also have real estate and travel agencies that work mostly with Arab tourists.
When the war broke out in Syria, some of these families went there, drawn by the promise of building an ideal Muslim state with the creation of a so-called caliphate in 2014 taking advantage of the chaos of the civil war in Syria and the repressions of the Syrian government. It should be made clear that not all Salafi are militant, and many of them continue to live in Bosnia, accepting its institutions.
Bosnian mountains in the vicinity of Sarajevo. Some foreign veterans of the Bosnian War had settled in villages in the area, forming Salafi communities. Photo by GV, CC-BY.
Balkan fighters also include Albanians, some of whom have been recruited by a mosque that operates outside of the control of the Muslim Community of Albania (KMSH, Komuniteti Mysliman i Shqipërisë), the mainstream religious organisation founded in 1923. The number of Albanians going to Syria, however, decreased from 20 in 2012 to only one in 2015 after the country adopted special legal measures against such fighters, making recruiting, funding or supporting fighters punishable by 15 years in prison.
Authorities in neighboring Macedonia adopted similar measures in 2015, criminalizing participation in foreign conflicts and related financing with five years in prison. In Kosovo, meanwhile, security forces had been openly cracking down on jihadist activity since 2014, when they arrested a dozen suspects, including imams.
But the threat posed by citizens who return home after fighting in Syria or Iraq remains. ISIS military failures increase this possibility, as analysts believe that the organization could turn its focus on Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Balkans, as important geopolitical areas with exploitable history of conflict and unresolved problems.

author: Ruslan Trad


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June and July Mark the Anniversary of the Wartime Destruction of Japan’s Cities · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The regional city of Shizuoka after being firebombed on June 18, 1945. Photo by Hidenori Watanave.
The summer months are a time of reflection in Japan. Each August marks O-Bon, the annual festival of the dead, when deceased relatives are said to visit their ancestral homes mid-month before returning to the netherworld. August is also the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as Japan's capitulation in 1945 and the end of the Second World War.
The bombing of Hiroshima, and, to a lesser extent, Nagasaki, which resulted in the destruction of both cities and hundreds of thousands of dead, is well known outside of Japan. What is not as well known is the methodical firebombing campaign in the months that lead up to the deployment of nuclear weapons and the end of the war that destroyed nearly all of Japan's cities.
Starting with the firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 — the single-most destructive air raid of the war –bombing raids systematically targeted Japan's cities for complete and utter destruction in June and July 1945. Japanese researcher Hidenori Watanave, who specializes in online mapping technology, has posted colorized images of the bombings on Twitter.
72年前の今日。1945年6月22日，姫路空襲。9時50分ごろB-29約60機が飛来し，川西航空機姫路製作所を中心に約1時間の爆撃を行なった。死者341人，被災者10220人。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/3hhreqYyty
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 21, 2017
On this day, 72 years ago: on June 22, 1945, the great Himeji Air Raid occurred. At about 9:50, 60 B-29 bombers appeared, targeting the Kawanishi airplane factory in Himjeji for about an hour with bombs. 341 people died, and 10,220 were left homeless. Image colorized by neural network.
Watanave uses a web-based tool to add color to black-and-white images, and often researches the images of the bombing on JapanAirRaids.org, a digital archive dedicated to the international dissemination of information about the air raids conducted by the United States Army Air Forces and Navy against Japan.
‘Tokyo – the the morning after!’ Source: Library of Congress, Curtis LeMay Papers, Air Intelligence Report, Vol. 1, No. 2. and Journal of Historical Geography, ‘A cartographic fade to black: mapping the destruction of urban Japan during World War II.‘
The methodical destruction of Japan's cities is estimated to have resulted in 333,000 killed and 473,000 wounded civilians, with an estimated 15 million left homeless.
72年前の今日。1945年6月22日の朝，呉軍港空襲。162機のB29が合計1289発の爆弾を投下。「この世界の片隅に」の晴美は，この空襲で投下された時限爆弾によって亡くなった。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/IXyZzM3dy3
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 21, 2017
On this day, 72 years ago: in the morning of June 22, 1945, the Kure Naval Yard air raid occurred. 162 B-29 bombers dropped a total of 1,289 bombs on the facility. Harumi, a character in the [2016] animated film ‘In This Corner of the World‘, was killed by a delayed-release bomb in this air raid.
72年前の今日。空襲を受ける呉軍港。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/Nk77XvsdgE
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 21, 2017
72 years ago today: Kure under attack.
空襲後の呉軍港。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/Mn1DkzscAP
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 21, 2017
The port of Kure, following the air raid.
72年前の今日，空襲で炎上する静岡市街。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/Aua7m8bDXF
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 18, 2017
72 years ago today: Shizuoka burns during an air raid.
72年前の今日。静岡大空襲。1945年6月19日深夜から20日未明にかけて，B-29爆撃機137機により旧静岡市市街が攻撃された。死者1,952名以上，負傷者5,000名以上，焼失戸数26,891戸。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/ftyy4yZojd
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 18, 2017
72 years ago today: the Great Shizuoka Air Raid. Late at night on June 19 until the early morning hours of June 20, 137 B-29 bombers attacked what was the city center of Shizuoka. 1,952 died, and more than 5,000 were injured. 26,891 homes were destroyed by fire.
72年前の今日。福岡大空襲。1945年6月19日から翌6月20日にかけて，福岡県福岡市の市街地が攻撃された。この空襲により，1,000人以上が死亡・行方不明となった。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/s5oGixFjv5
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 18, 2017
On this day, 72 years ago: the Great Fukuoka Air Raid occurred on June 19 and June 20 when Fukuoka City center was attacked. This air resulted in more than 1,000 dead and missing.
72年前の今日。1945年6月18日，浜松と四日市が空襲を受けた。浜松では死者1720人・焼失家屋15,400戸，四日市では死者736人・負傷者1500名・行方不明63人・被災者47,153名・焼失家屋11,390戸。写真は浜松。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/lZnoeRgTEy
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 18, 2017
On this day, 72 years ago: Hamamatsu (in Shizuoka Prefecture) and Yokkaichi (in nearby Mie) were bombed. In Hamamatsu, 1,720 people were killed, and 15,400 houses destroyed. In Yokkaichi, 736 people died, 1,500 were injured and 63 went missing. The number of displaced was 47,153 and the number of houses destroyed was 11,390. This photograph is of Hamamatsu.
72年前の今日，空襲を受けて破壊された浜松市街。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/VjECGpBHgc
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 18, 2017
72 years ago today, the center of Hamamatsu was destroyed after being bombed.
72年前の今日。1945年6月17日，鹿児島大空襲。鹿児島市内一円が焼夷弾により爆撃され，死者2,316人、負傷者3,500人を出した。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/ILUNhIFcrW
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 16, 2017
72 years ago today: on June 17, 1945, the Great Kagoshima Air Raid occurred. The entire city was targeted with incendiary bombs, leaving 2,316 dead and 3,500 injured.
爆撃を受ける鹿児島・垂水の街。ニューラルネットワークによる自動色付け。 pic.twitter.com/huVrro8xHA
— Hidenori Watanave (@hwtnv) June 16, 2017
Bombed-out Kagoshima and neighboring Taramizu.
To colorize the images, Watanave has relied on a Waseda University online project called Neural Network-based Automatic Image Colorization. Neural networks are computer systems that work in a way that's similar to the human brain.
Watanave has used the tool in several projects devoted to preserving and mapping eyewitness testimony from World War II, including an interactive map of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Watanave is also the creator of a similar innovative mapping project that tracks the last moments of the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Anyone can use Waseda University's neural network-based automatic image colorization tool here.


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Netizen Report: Arrest and Web Censorship Spark Online Protests in Palestine · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

The Problem with Censorship is XXXXXXXXX, Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Cory Doctorow via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Censorship has been on the rise in Palestine in recent weeks. On June 12, officials from the Palestinian Authority demanded that ISPs in the West Bank block a reported 22 websites, most of which are affiliated with the opposition Islamist party Hamas or are otherwise critical of President Mahmoud Abbas. The websites appear to be blocked only in the West Bank.
An official from the Attorney General’s office, who wished to remain anonymous, said the sites were blocked for violating “rules of publication” but did not offer further specification. The 1995 Press and Publication Law includes several vague restrictions on freedom of expression, including a rule that forbids the press from “contradict[ing] the principles of….national responsibility” or publishing material that is “inconsistent with morals.”
The Haifa-based Arab Center for Social Media Advancement (7amleh) denounced the order, saying “[We] find that this move fully contradicts all international treaties and conventions, and marks a significant violation of the digital rights of segments of Palestinian society.”
Online, Palestinians have expressed frustration over the blocking and lack of transparency around the PA’s order. They have launched a campaign under the Arabic hashtag #لا_للحجب (“no to blocking”) demanding that the Attorney General explain the decision in a public statement.
This spate of online censorship comes on the heels of the June 8 arrest of Nassar Jaradat, a young Palestinian Facebook user. The PA charged Jaradat with “insulting and defaming public officials” in a Facebook post critical Jibril Al Rajoub, a prominent figure among PA leadership. In a recent interview with Israeli news program “Meet the Press,” Al Rajoub said that the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem should “remain under Israeli sovereignty”, a statement denounced by many Palestinians.
In his Facebook post, Jaradat said of Al Rajoub’s statement:
To give what you don’t personally own to those who do not deserve it. This is the essence of deception and the terror of concession.
Jaradat could risk anything from three weeks to two years in jail, in accordance a provision on “defamation, insult and abasement” in the Jordanian Penal Code of 1960, which is still applicable in the West Bank.
Mexican human rights lawyers, journalists and anti-corruption activists were targeted by spyware acquired by the government, according to research published this week by a group of NGOs in Mexico and Canada. The spyware was purchased by Mexican authorities from the Israeli company NSO group, under an explicit agreement that it be used only to investigate criminals and terrorists. Among those targeted were prominent journalists, lawyers investigating the mass disappearance of 43 students, and an American lawyer representing victims of sexual abuse by the police.
The government has denied engaging in surveillance and communications operations against human rights defenders without prior judicial authorization. However, research by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab suggests that the choice and targets and style of targeting “provide strong evidence the targeting was conducted without proper oversight and judicial accountability.”
Venezuela’s Information Minister reported last week that at least 180 Twitter accounts belonging to government supporters and government-sponsored media channels have been suspended from the US-based platform. On June 17, President Nicolas Maduro made a public statement condemning the suspensions as an “expression of fascism” and vowing to open thousands of new accounts. “The battle on social media is very important,” he said. Although Twitter’s guidelines prohibit violent threats, harassment and “hateful conduct”, the company’s implementation of these rules is known to be uneven and unpredictable.
Chinese cities including Jiangbei, Jinan and Suqian, have implemented facial recognition software to shame and fine citizens for jaywalking. Once captured, their images appear on big screens at intersections and their information, including a headshot, name, age, home address, registration and ID number are uploaded to a police system.
On June 15, Japan's parliament ratified a controversial “anti-conspiracy” bill into law. There are fears the vague nature of the new law, which covers nearly 300 crimes, will erode civil liberties in Japan by providing authorities with broad surveillance powers, leaving the question of who can be monitored open to interpretation. Joseph Cannataci, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, has criticized the bill and expressed concern that may “legitimize and facilitate government surveillance of NGOs perceived to be acting against government interest.”
Afef Abrougui, Mahsa Alimardani, Renata Avila, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marwa Fatafta, Leila Nachawati, Dalia Othman, Elizabeth Rivera and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Remembering Native American Civil Rights Pioneer, Lehman Brightman · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Screenshot of Lehman Brightman in a 1970 video clip at the University of Oregon. (YouTube)
A pioneer of Native American civil rights and activism passed away on Sunday, June 18, 2017 in Walnut Creek, California, ending a life of rebellion and struggle to claim a lost history.
Lehman Brightman, a Native American of Sioux and Creek origin, was born on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in 1930. Brightman was a militant leader and organizer for the rights of Native Americans throughout the 1960’s and 70’s, and later taught sociology and history in the San Francisco Bay Area.
His passing, as well as his life and legacy, have received little coverage in the mainstream press—which in many ways reflects the reality of the Native American struggle for recognition and justice in the United States. But though these things are often relegated to footnote or back page, both Brightman’s life and the history of the Native American civil rights movement serve as a testament to the vitality and power of this passionate quest for justice.
Brightman often used the phrase, “Indian Power”, and believed that a militant tone was justified, given the long history of genocide and abuse suffered by Native Americans at the hands of the United States government. Brightman’s fiery language and take-no-prisoners attitude was reflected both in his rhetoric and in his actions, which brought a sense of strong leadership and dignity to Native Americans similar to that exercised by Malcolm X.
Political correctness was never a focus for Brightman. Speaking to a crowd in 1969, Brightman proclaimed that “We call ourselves native American because we were given the name Indian by some dumb honky who thought he landed in India.”  But action was.
In the summer of 1968, Brightman formed the United Native Americans (UNA) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Brightman said he formed UNA “just to raise a little goddamn hell. And I raised a hell of a lot of hell.”
On November 20, 1969, Brightman was involved in the takeover of Alcatraz Island, starting a symbolic 19-month occupation to reclaim Native American land rights and organize a united front for a new movement. The occupation grew out of an increasing sense of urgency among Native Americans that radical action was the answer to years of neglect and repression by the federal government. Earlier, in August 1970, Brightman had led a group of activists in an occupation of Mount Rushmore.
This 1970 video covers the militant stance of Brightman and the groups he was involved with him. Footage of their actions captures the vibrancy and hope of the era, and contrasts sharply with the absurd narrative offered by the media coverage.
In 1976, Brightman’s home was raided by the FBI after he harboured the American Indian Movement activist Dennis Banks, who was a fugitive at the time. The case received national attention and Brightman expressed no regrets for his actions, often retelling the story to his students as a professor.
Headline in the San Francisco Examiner featuring Brightman in 1976
I was one of those lucky enough to have taken a class with Brightman, who often colored his discussion of US history with his own accounts of serving during the Korean War, organizing during the 1960’s, and spoke frankly about the conduct of Federal Authorities.
The recent events at Standing Rock serve as a reminder that injustice against Native Americans remains an ever-present issue in the United States. Lehman Brightman’s refusal to accept complacency, as well as his generation's quest for dignity through direct action and change through confrontation, holds lessons for the present and future, particularly for communities of color and for people of the Third World.
This brief account cannot adequately do justice to Brightman or his tremendous legacy. I do hope, however, that it encourages those who were not aware of him to draw inspiration from his work, and from the extraordinary history of activism and resistance on the part of Native Americans in the United States.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah