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John Oliver 2, Jack Warner 0: Trinidad & Tobago Is #ROTFL · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screen grab from John Oliver's latest response to ex-FIFA Vice President Jack Warner.
Both the gloves and the mittens are off in the war of words between British comedian John Oliver and and Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, and Trinidad and Tobago netizens haven't laughed so much since this whole debacle started.
Towards the end of May, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of several current and past FIFA officials, of which Warner is one, on a staggering number of counts of financial impropriety, including wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
The attention of the world soon turned to the twin island republic, from which Warner hails and where he has been been firmly rooted for the past several years. Passionate football fan John Oliver, who hosts a late night show on American TV channel HBO, had been training his comedic guns on FIFA's allegedly corrupt practices long before the arrests in Zurich happened almost a month ago. Naturally, Warner was comedic fodder that was too good to pass up.
On June 9, Oliver booked a five-minute time slot on Trinidad and Tobago's TV6, in response to a video by Warner that the station had aired a few days prior, in which he cautioned that he would reveal evidence linked to his involvement in FIFA's financial activities. Oliver made a plea to Warner to stop “blueball[ing] the entire planet” and make good on his threat.
Warner's reaction was predictable. Most netizens expected him to post a video response to Oliver and he did not disappoint. In fact, many thought he managed to unintentionally trump Oliver in terms of comedic content. Last night, on his show, Oliver hit back — and if Trinbagonians thought that his first attempt at Jack-baiting was mild, Oliver certainly redeemed himself. The bit was on target and uproariously funny.
In response to Jack Warner calling him a “comedian fool”, Oliver says:
Wait…comedian fool? That's not an insult…that's literally my business card!
Not missing a beat, Oliver, like many Trinbagonian social media users, questioned the use of the music in Warner's video:
I have to ask…what was that music behind you? We didn't add that…it was in the original, and believe me, it continued to build! […] He is really good at making videos because that music makes anything sound better! […] I'll tell you one thing that Jack Warner is definitely not guilty of and that is overthinking his music choices.
The comedian also apologised to Trinidad and Tobago for getting them stuck in the middle of a feud that really should have been between himself and Warner. In a clever comedic twist, he does to Tobago (the smaller of the twin islands) what Tobagonians have long accused Trinidad of routinely doing — treating them with disdain:
And listen, Trinidad, I am sorry you got dragged into this. You're an amazing country. Tobago…not so much.
On Facebook, Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde responded:
And the beat goes on. Jack Still giving John Oliver material. Hope the Tobagonians get his satire and don't take it personally.
With a dramatic dip in lighting and epic music of his own, Oliver's segment then got down to brass tacks as he delivered another message to the beleaguered ex-FIFA bigwig:
Mr. Warner, we meet again old friend. It is I, the comedian fool. Jack, we're a lot alike, you and I. We both know this music makes anything we say sound a lot more impressive than it actually is, and we both have our flaws. People have said I'm not a good listener, for example, just as I've said that you diverted 750,000 dollars in Haiti relief funds into a bank account you controlled. And sure, we may dispute those charges, but my point is, neither of us is perfect.
So to you I say this, Jack: If you really want to continue to trade shit-talking videos with increasingly high production elements, then consider your challenge accepted, my friend. Because you have magnificent music under yours…well played. Well, I see your music choice and I raise you…fire! [Cue the pyrotechnics.]
Your move, Jack…your move. Either respond to me by this time next week with a more spectacular video than this or I will accept your gracious defeat.
Twitter was all over it:
#JohnOliver‘s response to #JackWarner features massive fireballs | Soccer | #SportingNews http://t.co/YtYjkmleLn #eyebalz #buzz #1minRead
— Eyebalz (@Eyeballsio) June 15, 2015
Trinidadian Spicy Crispy George had this to say:
Great rebuttal 2 #jackwarner last night @iamjohnoliver How much longer b4u step up+acknowledge that he is a creature of our present govt?
— Spicy Crispy George (@30daysnFebruary) June 15, 2015
Jack Warner faces a slew of charges as well as possible extradition to the United States; he and his legal team clearly have other battles to fight, but the Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere is keen on finding out whether or not Warner will respond, once again, to the “comedian fool”.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Local Chinese Authorities Use Internet Slang ‘Ziganwu’ in Their Propaganda Recruitment · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

Ziganwu （自干五）, a new generation Red Guards on China's Internet. Image Source: botanwang.com
In China, ziganwu refers to self-motivated Internet commenters who unconditionally defend the government. Unlike the 50 Cent Party (wumao dang) who are paid by authorities to praise the Chinese Communist Party and guide public sentiment, ziganwu are volunteers and not officially affiliated with the government.
The nickname, which literally means 50 Cent Party commenters who bring their own food, appears to have made its way into the government's official vocabulary for the first time.
A provincial education document titled “The Notice of Recommendation of Core Internet Commenters and Ziganwu”, issued mid-May by the Sichuan education office, indirectly confirms the term's inclusion in official language. Netizens recently discovered the document on the websites of some provincial colleges, including Mianyang Normal University, Sichuan Medical University and Aba Teachers University.
There are a few types of pro-government Internet commenters in China, though they all undertake similar propaganda work. In addition to the 50 Cent Party and the newly government-recognized ziganwu, “online youth civilization volunteers” seek to spread positive energy and “purify” the internet. Leaked emails showed that the China Communist Youth League, one of the most significant Chinese Communist Party organizations under the single party regime, has set out to recruit an estimated 18 million of these commenters from colleges throughout the country since last year.
A screenshot shows the official notice of recruiting ziganwu. Image source: Weibo
The Sichuan document lists recruitment criteria for the ziganwu and the “core Internet commenters” composed of both teachers and students from the colleges. It demands that each public college recommends 50 Internet commenters from among students. For private and vocational colleges, the numbers are 20 and 10, respectively, with 70 percent being teachers and 30 percent students. Eighty-one provincial colleges are estimated to have 3,450 core commenters.
Soon after it went viral on social media, authorities pulled the notice from college websites on June 7.
Below is a translation of the requirements and responsibilities of Internet commenters listed in the document:
推荐条件：
1.政治立场可靠，模范遵守宪法和法律，拥护中国共产党的领导和中国特色社会主义道路。
2.政策水平较高、业务工作能力较强、有较好文字能力，专业成就和学业成绩较突出，具有一定学术影响力和社会知名度。
3.作风正、人品好，自愿承诺不利用网评员身份为个人或有关机构谋求商业利益和其他不正当利益。
4.具有网络传播技能，熟悉网络传播特点，能够经常撰写文章、接受采访，并对网上舆论工作提出建议和意见。
工作方式：
1.骨干网评员、骨干“自干五”以撰写评论文章、接受访谈等方式，经常性开展舆论引导工作。
2.鼓励骨干网评员、骨干“自干五”开设微博、微信等账号，做好个人作品的及时转发工作。
3.骨干网评员、骨干“自干五”协助省教育厅开展组织好网上舆论引导工作。省教育厅将利用可行的行政手段、技术手段和市场力量，加大对知名专家、言论专栏的推广力度。
Recommendation requirements:
1. Having a reliable political stance, complying with the constitution and laws and supporting the lead of China’s Communist Party and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
2. Having a high level of [making or using] policy, a strong ability for professional work, and having a good writing ability, academic achievement and study performance.
3. Having the integrity of style and good personal character, and commitment not to use the Internet commenter role to seek business or improper profit for an individual or organization.
4. Having the skill and being familiar with the traits of Internet communication, writing articles and frequently conducting interviews and offering advice and opinions for the work of online public sentiment.
Working methods:
1. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu should frequently guide the public sentiment by writing commentary, conducting interviews and so on.
2. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu are encouraged to register accounts on Weibo, WeChat and other platforms, and are responsible for timely reposting of personal work (to guide the public).
3. Core Internet commenters and ziganwu should assist the provincial education office to develop and organize the work of guiding the public. The provincial education office is going to utilize practical measures of administration, techniques and market power to promote well-known experts and opinion columns.
Novelist Xia Shang pointed out on Chinese Twitter-like Weibo the harm that Internet commenters could do to society by comparing them with Red Guards, a savage group of youngsters in Mao Zedong's disastrously social movement in the 1960s:
高校网络文明志愿者，即网评员，是后文革新一代红卫兵，老红卫兵用器械和拳头打砸抢，破坏社会秩序，损毁民众私产，乃至剥夺公民生命。新一代网络红卫兵用污言秽语围攻普世价值，混淆视听，充当意识形态帮凶。老红卫兵领导着新红卫兵，将缺乏判断力的莘莘学子培养成网络暴徒。文革从未走远，就在当下。
Internet civilization volunteers in colleges, as known as Internet commenters, are the new generation of Red Guards born in the post-Cultural Revolution era. The older generation of Red Guards used weapons and fists to batter and loot, to break the social order, to ruin people’s private fortune and even to deprive citizens of their lives. The new generation of online Red Guards use filthy words to besiege and attack the universal values in order to mislead the public, and in this way they work as accomplices of ideology. The new generation of Red Guards are led by older ones who bring up students to be Internet mobsters. The Cultural Revolution never passed away; it lives on currently.
Medical attorney Liu Ye pleaded for college students not to work as Internet commenters:
作为曾经的大学教师，奉劝大学生网评员们，在毕业求职简历中不要填写“曾任网评员”或“优秀网评员”经历。这是见不得光彩的经历，将使你的求职增难，人生蒙羞。
I had worked as a college teacher, so I want to exhort college students who work as Internet commenters not to add experience as “having had worked as Internet commenter” or “excellent online commenters” to your resumes. This kind of shameful experience will make your job hunting more difficult and humiliate you all your life.
The official stance on the commenter role's value is quite the opposite. Zhao Shibing, a teacher of Harbin Normal University, claimed in state newspaper Guang Ming Daily last November that “to make the China’s online space brighter, we need more ziganwu to guide people to be builders of good morality and movers of social civilization progress.”
The Communist Youth League also defended ziganwu on its official Weibo account:
值得庆幸的是，在这个物欲横流的时代，还有这样一帮人，不计较个人得失，自带干粮，拿键盘做武器，用思想去搏杀，在看不见硝烟的网络战场上与网络负面力量艰难地抗衡，顽强地守卫属于我们共同拥有的网络家园，他们是“自干五”，也是网络文明志愿者。
Fortunately in this materialistic era, there is still a group of people who do not consider their interests, who bring food themselves, take up keyboards as weapons, use thought to resolutely fight through the smoke of this Internet war with positivity, and fearlessly defend the online homeland that we share. They are ziganwu, and also are online civilization volunteers.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Patrick Wong


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Twitter Discourse Around Putin and Poroshenko in Ukraine and Russia · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

What do Russians and Ukrainians talk about when they tweet about their presidents? Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
This article is part of a citizen-media data-analysis project, a collaboration between RuNet Echo and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Explore the complete article series on the All the Presidents’ Tweets page.
In our previous posts, we've looked at the language distribution and the geospatial variety of the tweets in our six-million-strong data set. But one of the goals of our analysis was to delve deeper into the content from Twitter users in Ukraine and Russia in order to see how they were talking about the presidents of their countries. Thus, we filtered the tweets by “country code”—one of the many characteristics Twitter provides for each user as part of its metadata. While not every user chooses to specify their country on Twitter, the “country code” designation is still a reliable and transparent way to narrow down our huge pool of tweets to those that represent a meaningful sample of users based in our countries of interest.
After parsing the larger tweet archive, collected in October and November 2014, we ended up with a little over 6,000 tweets with country code “UA” (Ukraine) and almost 8,500 tweets with country code “RU” (Russia). As in our larger sample, all tweets in the two smaller country samples contain one or more of the following keywords: poroshenko, putin, порошенко, путин and путін.
This is a much smaller amount of data than six million tweets, but it is more meaningful, since it represents a sample of Twitter users united by language, geography, citizenship and many other things. At the same time, comparing Ukrainian and Russian users tweeting about Putin and Poroshenko can yield some insights into how the conversation around the key political figures differs by country.
To give our readers an overview of the Ukrainian and Russian discourse about the heads of states on Twitter, we decided to use word clouds. A word cloud (also known as a subtype of a weighed list in visual design) is a simple, but effective graphic format that allows to visualize a text or, in this case, a collection of tweets containing text, as a cloud-like shape made of words, in which the size of each word indicates its frequency or importance. In our case, the size of each keyword reflects the frequency of the words in the tweets from each subset.
We used a tool called Twarc Wordcloud (made by Ed Summers, open source) to generate word clouds for the Ukrainian and Russian Twitter samples. Since our word cloud script doesn't read Cyrillic, we mostly ended up with content from English-language tweets (apart from cases where Latin characters were used, e.g. for hashtags). Despite the limitations, the results were quite interesting.
Russian Twitter Discourse
Top terms in tweets with country code for Russia from larger sample containing keywords poroshenko, putin, порошенко, путин and путін.
Perhaps surprisingly, Ukrainian president Poroshenko features more heavily in tweets by Russian users during the fall of 2014 than his counterpart, Putin. While the latter is still prominent, the former is mentioned much more, along with “Donbas” (curiously, the top term is the Ukrainian spelling of the region embroiled in conflict; the Russian is “Donbass”), and “residents” (presumably of eastern Ukraine). Also used quite often is the verb “accused,” although it would require closer analysis of tweets to see who exactly was accusing whom, and of what—but certainly, plenty of accusations were flung both ways during the fall of 2014.
Other words that featured often in the Russian sample include the names of some world leaders, like Obama and Assad, and historical figures, like Hitler and Stalin. Another set of terms features key events of the Ukrainian crisis, such as the MH17 tragedy, Crimea, and the G-20 summit. Words like “war,” “threat,” and “propaganda” are also prominent, indicating that Russian Twitter users seemingly talk quite often about both presidents in the context of the conflict and its political circumstances.
Ukrainian Twitter Discourse
Top terms in tweets with country code for Ukraine from larger sample containing keywords poroshenko, putin, порошенко, путин and путін.
Interestingly, Putin features more prominently in the Ukrainian Twitter sample discourse—a mirror opposite to the Russian discourse favoring Poroshenko. Another surprise is how seldom Poroshenko himself is mentioned: instead, tweets from Ukrainians contain more mentions of Ukraine's previous president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in the wake of the Euromaidan protests in February 2014. “Ukraine” itself features quite prominently as a keyword, along with conflict-related terms like “terrorists,” “intervention,” “destroyed,” “soldiers,” and “fighting.” These indicate that the context for discussions of top political brass by Ukrainians is similar to that of Russians in our sample. The word “change” is also used fairly often, suggesting perhaps, some positive sentiments in the post-Euromaidan political discourse.
In our next posts, we'll delve deeper into more comparative analysis of the tweets’ content. We'll also examine the network of users behind the tweets to better understand who is tweeting about the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Yemen’s Heritage, a Victim of War · Global Voices
Noon Arabia

A captivating view of Old Sana'a by photographer Ameen Alghabri
Yemen, one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Arab World and also the poorest Arab country, has been pounded by airstrikes led by its rich neighbour Saudi Arabia for almost three months. The operation began after rebel group Houthis took over the capital Sana'a, causing President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to flee to the port city of Aden and shortly after seek refuge in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Over 2,500 people have been killed and 11,000 injured since the war started on March 25. One million people have been internally displaced in Yemen and 21.1 million — 80 per cent of the population — are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the latest report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Yet the country's residents have not been the only victim of this war. Yemen's heritage has also suffered.
On May 9, Saudi jets targeted the Mosque of Imam al-Hadi in the city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold. The mosque is the third oldest in Yemen and was built 1,200 years ago.
Saudi raids target the Imam Al-Hiadi's historic mosque in Saada. Video from Houthi TV Almasirah. #Yemen #Peace4Yemen https://t.co/6K1v8e0BO9
— Yemen Updates (@yemen_updates) May 9, 2015
Pic of Al-Hadi mosque of Saada province being hit today by Saudi airstrikes,4killed&10others wounded. #Yemen pic.twitter.com/DO1mjxGPEK
— Fatik Al-Rodaini (@Fatikr) May 9, 2015
Jamila Hanan, a humanitarian activist, shared photographs of the ancient and beautiful mosque in her tweet:
Reading about beautiful Al-Hadi Mosque in #Saada #Yemen built in 9th century. Struggling to grasp that it was bombed. pic.twitter.com/5x5qSL3CQd
— Jamila Hanan (@JamilaHanan) May 9, 2015
On May 11, the old city of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, was heavily bombed overnight, causing severe damage to many of its historic buildings. Other areas damaged by airstrikes were the old city of Saada and the archaeological site of the pre-Islamic walled city of Baraqish, causing UNESCO Director-General to issue a statement calling on all parties to protect Yemen’s cultural heritage. Ms. Irina Bokova said:
I am particularly distressed by the news concerning air strikes on heavily populated areas such as the cities of Sana’a and Saa’dah. In addition to causing terrible human suffering, these attacks are destroying Yemen’s unique cultural heritage, which is the repository of people’s identity, history and memory and an exceptional testimony to the achievements of the Islamic Civilization…I call on all parties to refrain from any military use or targeting of cultural heritage sites and monuments, in respect of their obligations under international treaties
On May 24, two Saudi airstrikes targeted the ancient Al-Shareef Citadel in the city of Bajel in Hodeida province.
Yemen Heritage is under Saudi strikes Pix of al-Shareef Castel, Bajel city of Hodeida. W #Yemen hit 3times by Saudi pic.twitter.com/o39QAGsVQZ
— Fatik Al-Rodaini (@Fatikr) May 28, 2015
On June 4, Dar-al-Hajar (Rock Palace), perched atop a rock in Wadi Dhar, north of Sana'a built by Imam Mansur in 1786 AD, was reportedly targeted by Saudi airstrikes.
Dar al-Ahajer was hit today by KSA jets. Also the country's hertiage and history are under Saudi fires. #Yemen pic.twitter.com/ZL4hrP49bZ
— Fatik Al-Rodaini (@Fatikr) June 4, 2015
On May 25, Dhamar's Regional Museum, hosting thousands of artifacts from the Himyarite civilisation, was completely destroyed by Saudi airstrikes.
Dhamar museum, hosting 10k+ artefacts from Himyarite civilisation and nearby site of Zafar, destroyed by #KSA missiles #yemen
— ghumdan (@ghumdan) June 5, 2015
#متحف_ذمار قبل وبعد قصف #التحالف_العربي #Dhamar museum before and after the recent #Saudi_led coalition air strikes pic.twitter.com/XQ9iuSvKQc
— رياض باكرموم (@Riyadhbakarmoom) May 22, 2015
On June 1, the ancient Great Mareb Dam, described as “one of the grandest engineering marvels of the ancient world” and one of the most important ancient sites in Yemen dating back to the ancient Queen of Sheba, was damaged by Saudi airstrikes which hit the better-preserved northern sluice. The original dam was first built in the 8th century BC, in the city of Marib which was once the capital of the kingdom of Sheba (Saba).
‘Engineering marvel’ of Queen of Sheba's city damaged in airstrike: http://t.co/S81MIfWnON
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) June 3, 2015
Yemen Post Newspaper shared a before and after photograph of the Great Dam:
BEFORE & AFTER… Photo of #Yemen historical tourist site “Mareb Dam” that was hit by #Saudi airstrike. #اليمن pic.twitter.com/ucRmWp7tHP
— Yemen Post Newspaper (@YemenPostNews) June 1, 2015
On June 5, the beautiful Al-Qahera (Cairo) Castle overlooking the city of Taiz was destroyed by Saudi airstrikes. Houthi and ousted president Ali Abdulla Saleh's forces were reportedly using it as a military position to shell their opponents in the city.
Yemen Post News tweeted photographs of the castle as it was being hit and before and after photographs showing the damage.
AlQahera Castle DESTROYED: One of #Yemen TOP historical sites& #UNESCO heritage site hit by #Saudi Airstrikes #اليمن pic.twitter.com/DfEhHW7Uwd
— Yemen Post Newspaper (@YemenPostNews) June 4, 2015
BEFORE & AFTER ATTACK: 800 year old Historical AlQahera Castle in Taiz no more thanks 2 Saudi Missiles #Yemen #اليمن pic.twitter.com/9QLtSncaKu
— Yemen Post Newspaper (@YemenPostNews) June 8, 2015
The destruction of all these heritage sites by Saudi airstrikes across Yemen seemed to go unnoticed until the morning of June 12, when a Saudi missile hit the Qassimi neighbourhood in Old Sana'a, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and boasting 9,000 mud houses, some of which are built before the 11th century. The world was outraged by the news of the destruction of this 3,000-year-old heritage by Saudi airstrikes, but mostly Yemenis were devastated.
A video uploaded by UNESCO offers a glimpse of old Sanaa:
Photographer Alex Potter commented:
Dust to dust. #sanaa #yemen pic.twitter.com/rwkSwkrek7
— Alex Potter (@alexkpotter) June 12, 2015
@CNN ‘s late night report on the destruction in the Old City of #Sanaa #Yemen https://t.co/VMF3m5NKVA
— Alex Potter (@alexkpotter) June 13, 2015
The director general of UNESCO once more condemned and deplored the attack on Old Sana'a. In a statement she said:
I reiterate my call to all parties to respect and protect cultural heritage in Yemen. This heritage bears the soul of the Yemeni people, it is a symbol of a millennial history of knowledge and it belongs to all humankind.
Ahmed Al-Sayaghi shared photographs of the Qassemi neighbourhood in Old Sana'a before and after the missile attack, showing the destroyed houses.
OLD #SANAA CITY Before & after the airstrikes 😔 #Yemen pic.twitter.com/DUrMofYEF3
— • A. Sayaghi • (@AhmedSayaghi) June 12, 2015
Abubakr Al-Samahi eloquently expressed the feeling of many Yemenis in his piece in al-Araby al-Jadeed:
We have become accustomed to seeing the destruction of Yemen.
Yet, when the places destroyed are buildings you remember, streets you walked down and sights you loved, the pill is harder to swallow…Of course, the lives of the thousands killed in Yemen's war are more important. But I, and many other Yemenis, feel a deep sense of pain when we see the destruction of our heritage, places that we want to share with the world.
It took our ancestors hundreds, if not thousands of years to build our cities in the sands and our palaces in the mountains. All it takes is a moment for them to be destroyed.
Ali Almurtada drew a comparison to explain the feeling of Yemeni pain.
If you find it hard to understand what Old Sanaa represents to Yemenis, imagine the pyramids in #Egypt being destroyed. #Yemen
— Ali Almurtada (@AliAlmurtada) June 13, 2015
Yemen perhaps is a poor country economically, but is very rich culturally with its heritage and history, a source of pride to Yemenis and a painful loss to witness its destruction. It seems Saudi Arabia's “Operation Restoring Hope” has turned into “Operation Destroy History”. Today, Yemenis cry over human and stone, life and history, which are destroyed in the war by all parties, ousted president Saleh and Houthi forces and mostly the Saudi-led coalition.

author: Noon Arabia


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Candlelight Vigil for the 23 Victims of Boko Haram Suicide Bombings in Chad · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Image in the aftermath of the bombings from Eric Topona with his permission
Two suicide bombings killed at least 23 people Monday (June 15) in Chad's capital N'djamena. Chad government stated that four attackers belonged to extremist group Boko Haram and were killed by the blast which targeted police. More than 100 people were also injured in the incidents. Chad has committed his army against Boko Haram in Nigeria. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has repeatedly threatened to attack Chadian interests before monday's bombings. Chadian activist Abdelkerim Yacoub Koundougoumi Egrey announces that a candlelight vigil to show solidarity with the victims will take place in Paris, place de la république on June 16 at 18h.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Evicted Indigenous Community in Kenya Claims World Bank Money Helped Burn Their Homes · Global Voices
ICIJ

Selly Rotich stands in what used to be her kitchen. Hours earlier KFS officers destroyed the mud and thatch dwelling, Rotich said. Photo: Tony Karumba / GroundTruth. Used with permission from ICIJ.
This story by Jacob Kushner, Anthony Langat, Sasha Chavkin and Michael Hudson is part of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series “Evicted and Abandoned: The World Bank’s Broken Promise to the Poor” and is republished on Global Voices under a content-sharing agreement.
Gladys Chepkemoi was weeding potatoes in her garden the day the men came to burn down her house.
After her mother-in-law told her that rangers from the Kenya Forest Service were on their way, Chepkemoi strapped her 1-year-old son on her back and hurried to her thatched-roofed home. She grabbed two tins of corn, blankets, plates and cooking pans, and hid in a thicket.
She watched, she said, as the green-uniformed rangers set her house ablaze.
After they were gone, she came out of the thicket to see what was left.
“What used to be my home was now ashes,” she said.
The young mother is one of thousands of Kenyans who have been forced out of their homes since the launch of a World Bank-financed forest conservation program in western Kenya’s Cherangani Hills. Human rights advocates claim government authorities have used the project as a vehicle for pushing indigenous peoples out of their ancestral forests.
They are not alone.
In developing countries around the globe, forest dwellers, poor villagers and other vulnerable populations claim the World Bank — the planet’s oldest and most powerful development lender — has left a trail of misery.
Dams, power plants, conservation programs and other projects sponsored by the World Bank have pushed millions of people out of their homes or off their lands or threatened their livelihoods. In some cases, governments supported by World Bank money have arrested, beaten and even killed people who objected to being forced from their homes, according to interviews and official complaints.
In developing countries around the globe, forest dwellers, poor villagers and other vulnerable populations claim the World Bank — the planet’s oldest and most powerful development lender — has left a trail of misery.
The World Bank has admitted “shortcomings” in its protections for people displaced by projects the bank supports. It says it is working to improve its policies and how it enforces them. The bank also says protecting people in the way of big projects is a “cornerstone” of its efforts to “end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.”
In Kenya, the World Bank’s in-house Inspection Panel found, the bank violated its policies by failing to do enough to protect the Sengwer, an indigenous minority group in Kenya’s western forests that includes Chepkemoi and her family.
The report, released in October 2014, concluded the bank wasn’t directly to blame for the evictions targeted at the Sengwer, but said the bank might have helped prevent abuses against them if it had enforced its own rules  — including the requirement that its borrowers respect the land rights of indigenous peoples.
The World Bank began financing the Kenya Forest Service’s Natural Resources Management Project in 2007. It promised to cover $68.5 million of the project’s $78 million budget in an effort to help the KFS “improve the livelihoods of communities participating in the co-management of water and forests.”
The Forest Peoples Programme, a U.K.-based advocacy group, says the bank’s funding of the conservation project put the Sengwer in danger because the project redrew the Cherangani Hills’ protected Forest Reserve in a way that included thousands of them inside the reserve’s boundaries. This gave KFS officials a pretext for evicting them, according to the group.
Paul Kibet, secretary of the Sengwer Council of Elders, said that cash from the World Bank also provided the equipment the KFS needed to launch its mass eviction campaign.  “After receiving this money, they bought new vehicles. They bought the forest guards a lot of new guns and boots, et cetera,” he said.
Justin Kipkorir displays some household items destroyed along with his home. Kipkorir said Kenyan forest rangers raided and destroyed the house weeks earlier. Photo: Tony Karumba / GroundTruth. Used with permission from ICIJ.
Kenya’s government believes the Sengwer are illegally occupying public lands. Authorities have torched at least a thousand Sengwer homes since the World Bank began financing the conservation project, according to accounts by Sengwer and human rights researchers. They have also jailed dozens of Sengwer for farming without permits and trespassing on lands that their clans have occupied “since time immemorial,” a formal complaint from a group of Sengwer to the World Bank claimed.
The KFS says it has not carried out “forceful” evictions of the Sengwer and that “genuine persons deserving resettlement” have been “extensively profiled through a consultative and participatory process.”
Smoke rises from a homestead destroyed by fire in western Kenya’s Cherangani Hills. Members of the Sengwer, an indigenous group, claim Kenya Forest Service rangers have tried to drive them out of their ancestral forest by burning their homes. Photo: Tony Karumba / GroundTruth. Used with permission from ICIJ.
In the spring of 2011, the World Bank urged Kenya’s finance ministry to end the evictions until the bank could help the government work out a plan for  addressing the Sengwer’s concerns.  According to bank officials, Kenyan authorities agreed to stop the evictions until they found new land where the Sengwer could relocate.
Sengwer leaders said the land offered by the government was treeless and barren.
Paulina Sanyaga said that after the KFS torched her home in March 2011, she slept in the forest with her children. Her youngest was 5 years old at the time. “My child asked why we were sleeping outside, and I told him that the government had burnt not ours alone, but everybody else’s house too,” she recalled.
Because her fence was destroyed by KFS men, she said, many of her cattle and sheep were lost or stolen.
“It felt so painful to lose them,” she said. “They were my own sweat.”
John Chebaraa, a 60-year-old father of seven, said he slept in a caved-in tree trunk the night after his home was burned in mid-2011.
“It was very cold,” he said. “When I woke up the next morning my body was grayish and pale.”
After their house was torched in October 2011, Chepkemoi, her husband and her co-wife — the Sengwer are polygamous — built a makeshift shelter out of bamboo, cow hide and sheep skin. They slept in it for months instead of building a permanent house, she said, “because KFS were always patrolling nearby. If we built another house, they would have burned it down as well. So we waited until they stopped patrolling the area.”
The fire set by the KFS consumed their millet, five sacks of corn and four beehives, Chepkemoi’s husband, Brian Bett, said. The family only had potatoes and milk to eat.
“I did not have enough food for the family to eat, and we often had to sleep hungry so that my children could eat,” Bett said. “My children have faced a lot of difficulty and they cried a lot, because they are young and do not have the ability to explain what is ailing them.”
Kenya’s government continued its relocation push after the World Bank’s funding for the Natural Resources Management Project officially ended in June 2013.
In early 2014, advocates for the Sengwer reported that authorities had begun a new wave of evictions, writing to United Nations agencies that things on the ground were “chaotic,” with some people moving with their children and belongings “to nowhere in particular.”
The bank, noting that it was no longer funding the forest conservation project, said it was “not linked to these evictions.” World Bank officials argue the bank is not to blame for any of the evictions carried out by the KFS because the Kenyan government has been evicting the Sengwer for decades and continued doing so after the bank’s official role ended.
Tom Lomax, a human rights lawyer with the Forest Peoples Programme, said the World Bank deserves a measure of blame even for more recent evictions because it “did not do enough — or didn’t do anything loud enough — to address the evictions during the course of the project.” That emboldened Kenyan authorities to go forward with a removal campaign that grew increasingly aggressive during the World Bank’s sponsorship of the KFS, he said.
Women carrying firewood emerge from the forest. Photo: Tony Karumba / GroundTruthTens of thousands of Sengwer still live in the Cherangani Hills. KFS rangers have maintained the campaign of evictions through 2014 and into 2015, according to Sengwer leaders. Used with permission from ICIJ.
In September, reporters witnessed two gutted, smoldering homes and several fences still burning. Residents said forest rangers had set the fires hours before.
“I don’t understand why they chase us like this,” Selly Rotich, a mother of five, said as she sat outside her scorched home.
The next day, nine KFS rangers confronted reporters as they entered the forest, demanding why they were talking to the Sengwer.
“These guys are squatters,” said one officer, who declined to identify himself. “They are not allowed to be in the forest. They are here illegally.”
Reporters asked the rangers if they were the ones who set fire to Sengwer homes the day before. Another ranger responded, “You are being lied to. You are being misled by the people. They claim that we are burning the houses — how do you know that they are not burning their own houses?”
At that, several of the KFS agents grinned.
Jacob Kushner and Anthony Langat are Kenya-based reporters for the GroundTruth Project, a non-profit global news service headquartered in the US. Sasha Chavkin is a reporter and Michael Hudson is a senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

author: ICIJ


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Jailed Cartoonist Atena Faraghdani’s Lawyer is Arrested for Shaking Her Hand · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Mohammad Moghimi, the attorney of the Iranian activist and cartoonist Atena Faraghdani was arrested on 10 June following a visit to his client in jail. His charges are based on the fact that he shook Faraghdani's hand. Faraghdani was recently sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for posting drawings and content critical of the government on her Facebook page.
According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency, Moghimi has been transferred to ward 10 of Rajai Shahr Prison in Karaj. His bail has been set to 20 million tomans -approximately $7000 USD. It is likely Faraghdani will face similar charges.
PT #Iran lawyer Mohammad Moghimi arrested for committing grave crime of shaking his client #AtenaFarghadani‘s hand pic.twitter.com/uM8kRwXdyF
— Mansoureh Mills (@Mansourehmi) June 14, 2015
Cartoon by @ManaNeyestani: #FreeAtena and her lawyer both in jail… #Draw4Atena pic.twitter.com/k3JL4Op9oY
— Katniss/Lisbeth (@shokufeyesib) June 16, 2015
The social media campaign for Faraghdani's release can be followed under the #freeAtena hashtag.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Pink Dot Rally for LGBT Rights Gathers 28,000 People in Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Spreading the message of love during the Pink Dot event. Photo from the official Facebook page of the event.
More than 28,000 people gathered in Singapore’s Hong Lim Park to celebrate Pink Dot, an annual assembly in the city to promote inclusivity, diversity and LGBT rights. This is the biggest Pink Dot event ever since it started in 2009. Last year, Pink Dot drew a crowd of 26,000.
This year’s theme, ‘Where Love Lives,’ hopes to inspire “the community to reflect on the progress that has been made towards dispelling the discrimination and prejudice that face the LGBT people”. The video below shows the culmination of the Pink Dot celebration in the evening:
Despite the growing number of Singaporeans who are supporting the aims of Pink Dot, the LGBT community continues to confront several challenges. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Section 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalizes gay sex. Last month, a Taiwanese music video which celebrates the life of a lesbian couple was banned by authorities for containing ‘mature content’. And on June 12, 2015, or a day before the Pink Dot event, the government has rejected the petition of organizers to broadcast the event’s video advertisement in cinemas.
To counter Pink Dot, a Christian pastor asked his followers to support the ‘Wear White’ campaign in order “to affirm the important role that the family plays in nation building.” Alluding to the LGBT community, Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong told his followers that many problems of society today are caused by the “hurts and pains within a dysfunctional home.”
Organizers of Pink Dot hailed the success of the event while acknowledging the challenges that remain in advancing LGBT rights in Singapore:
While some congregate on the pretext of protecting the conventional family, we are here to embrace all families, and all individuals. We believe everyone deserves the Freedom to Love, and the Freedom to be themselves. We recognize that the journey towards inclusivity and diversity in Singapore is still some way off, but we are confident that we will be able to achieve this together, one day in the near future.
The Twitter hashtags #WhereLoveLivesSg, #FreedomToLove, and #PinkDotSg were used during the Pink Dot celebration. Below are some of the photos of the gathering last Saturday which saw Singaporeans from all walks of life converging at the Hong Lim Park:
#PinkDotSG 2015: They help us move mountains every year, so THANK YOU to our family of Pink Dot Volunteers! pic.twitter.com/HgNKyNZ8ZP
— PinkDotSG (@PinkDotSG) June 13, 2015
we support @PinkDotSG 💖 freedom to love 💑👪👫👭 #WhereLoveLivesSG pic.twitter.com/V3cqVd7jxS
— Jamie Lee (@jamieluvsosi) June 13, 2015
The @airbnb_sg crew in support of #PinkDotSG! #freedomtolove #BelongAnywhere pic.twitter.com/VNaefy3Je3
— JJ Chai (@JJChai) June 13, 2015

author: Mong Palatino


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How the Kremlin Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Online News Aggregation · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

“Dr. Strangeputin.” Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
With well more than twice as many visitors as Russia’s most popular news websites, Yandex.News, an aggregation service offered by the country’s most popular Internet search engine, is perhaps the RuNet’s single most influential portal for information about current events. According to a study by Darya Luganskaya, published last week in the newspaper RBC, the Russian authorities appear to have mastered several ways to fool Yandex.News into promoting government-planted stories to an audience that surpassed 23 million people in April.
Luganskaya found that Yandex.News, which automatically aggregates stories from several thousand different news websites, is susceptible to various forms of manipulation, despite Yandex’s claims that it is protected against such meddling. The service appears to be vulnerable to at least three tactics that the Russian government and others have exploited.
Last May, Lenizdat.ru, a website based in St. Petersburg, revealed that a certain “photographer from Moscow” had recently offered it several thousand rubles to publish a story about a petition then gaining support on Change.org. The offer required that Lenizdat.ru publish the text precisely between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. on Monday, May 25. Even more curiously, Lenizdat.ru was asked to rewrite an article that was already published on another website.
Natalia Goncharova, Lenizdat.ru’s chief editor, says the offer stipulated that her website refrain from identifying the story as promotional material, which Lenizdat.ru publishes for 3,000 rubles per text. Goncharova turned down the proposal, and instead published an article describing the bizarre solicitation (though she refuses to identify the man who contacted her).
Why would someone pay money to place a story specifically within a 45-minute window? The answer has to do with the three basic indicators Yandex.News uses to rank reports and highlight the day’s “Top Five” stories: (1) the number of stories about a particular news event, (2) the prominence of the media outlets writing about it, and (3) the intensity and frequency with which news outlets are publishing these stories.
Though Lenizdat.ru refused to report on the Change.org petition, it appeared in various rewritten forms on several other major news outlets, including Lenta.ru, on May 25, roughly at 8 a.m. Afterwards, even more websites ran stories about the petition, including RBC itself. Accumulating 30 articles and more than 100 photographs associated with the petition story, it rose quickly in Yandex.News and joined the Top Five, where millions of people likely saw it.
So what is this petition that certain parties were so interested in promoting? On May 22, a man identifying himself as Robert Hill appealed on Change.org to the US Congress and the Obama Administration, asking Washington to grant American citizenship to Mikhail Kasyanov for his “invaluable contribution to support the US position on key issues foreign policy of Russia.”
Kasyanov, a former prime minister and now an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, angered many in Russia’s so-called “patriotic circles” last April, when he asked the United States to impose sanctions on Russian television “propagandists,” whom he holds indirectly responsible for the murder of Boris Nemtsov.
Written in poor English, Hill’s petition immediately attracted a flood of signatures, and it was this apparently breaking news that Lenizdat.ru refused to cover. According to RBC’s sources, Hill’s Change.org account was originally registered in Moscow. When some people started noticing this, Hill changed his profile to say he lives in Washington, DC.
RBC’s Luganskaya spoke to two different public relations firms in Moscow, which told her that Change.org is one of their industry’s favorite instruments for promoting different stories. Once a petition is live, PR agencies will publicize it with links placed in popular communities on VKontakte and Facebook, where it’s possible to gain an organic following that makes further targeted promotion unnecessary. Controlling for geography, age, and other social indicators, publicists are able to place the petitions before the eyes of the people who are most likely to sign it and tell their friends.
It’s through resources like Change.org, a source told Luganskaya, that it’s possible to influence Russia’s Facebook users, who typically make up an “educated, critically oriented group that follows the blogosphere and independent media.” One publicist claimed that roughly 10 percent of Change.org’s 950,000 Facebook followers are based in Russia.
Change.org told RBC that it runs checks on all the signatures its petitions receive. When Luganskaya’s article was published, for instance, Change.org said it had already deleted more than 15,000 signatures on the Kasyanov petition. That was on June 9, when it still showed 11,000 signatures. Today the petition has fewer than 3,000, meaning that Change.org has deleted at least another 8,000 phony signatures in the past week.
Since the summer of 2014, several hundred Moscow government institutions and newspapers have joined Yandex.News’ registry of media sources. As a result, it’s become increasingly common to find trending stories about Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s various civic accomplishments. Suddenly it’s become a “Top News” event when Sobyanin opens a private kindergarten, attends a forum, or vows to repair a highway.
And just as soon as fluff pieces about Moscow’s mayor started appearing, the Russian authorities mysteriously abandoned their effort to subject Yandex.News to new regulations.
Asked to explain the significance of her findings about Yandex.News and Change.org, Darya Luganskya told RuNet Echo that “it doesn’t mean anything good for society.” Contrary to the hopes of many who say the Internet might rescue Russians from the grip of state propaganda, Luganskaya says “even the people not watching television can be manipulated by both the Kremlin and commercial enterprises.”
She says the average person likely has trouble distinguishing real stories from news planted by publicists: “The mechanisms for promoting [stories] through petitions is designed to build people’s trust. ‘Look—10,000 Internet users just like you have already signed,’ they tell people. They make it look real, so that real people might join in supporting it.”
Luganskaya says she doesn’t have any hard evidence that the government is behind these planted stories, but she expressed confidence, based on conversations with publicists and recent data leaks by the online group Anonymous International, that the Kremlin is responsible for promoting many political stories that make their way to the top of Yandex.News.
The Kremlin doesn’t have a monopoly on these tactics, however, and businesses have used them as lobbying tools, as well. Luganskaya says she spoke to one public relations agency that promoted a Change.org petition about an ecological issue. It became one of the site’s top-trending petitions worldwide, Luganskaya says, and the Moscow city government soon responded by easing regulations placed on the publicist’s client.
“This phenomenon is about manipulating the Internet audience,” Luganskaya says. “It is for power and it is for money.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russian Lawmakers Vote to Support First Draft of ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Law · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Only one Russian lawmaker voted against the first draft of the “right to be forgotten” legislation. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Members of the Russian Duma (parliament) demonstrated almost unanimous support for a new draft law requiring Internet search engines to delete links to content based on users’ requests. The first reading of the “right to be forgotten” legislation was passed in the Duma on June 16. If the final draft of the law is adopted, it will come into force on January 1, 2016.
423 lawmakers out of the 450 total members of parliament voted in favor of the law. MP Dmitry Gudkov (of the A Just Russia party) was the only lawmaker to vote against the “right to be forgotten.”
Я единственный против законопроекта о забвении, и он принят в 1-м чтении
— Дмитрий Гудков (@gudkovd) June 16, 2015
I'm the only one against the draft law on forgetting, and it's just been passed in first reading.
The new bill, introduced by lawmakers on May 29, creates a framework for a “right to be forgotten” in Russia that would require Internet search engines to delete links to data about individuals upon request, including information that is seen as false or erroneous. Links to credible information that is more than three years old could also be deleted. The only exception has been made for criminal cases and proceedings whose term has not expired. For cases where search engines fail to comply with deletion requests, a complementary law imposing fines of up to $55,000 has also been submitted to the Duma for consideration.
The new bill also introduces novel terms and concepts into the Russian legal space, such as “search system/engine operator,” “search system/engine,” and “link.”
The “right to be forgotten” legislation has faced criticism from the Russian Internet industry: a spokesperson for the country's biggest search engine Yandex said the law would violate constitutional rights to information and saddle search engines with unreasonable and unusual legal burdens.
RuNet users also discussed the new initiative, wondering whether the law would affect search engines other then Yandex, such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo, and whether the latter would comply. Journalist Evgeny Feldman joked that posting critical commentary of the lawmakers’ decision online was nice, but probably futile.
через три года депутаты смогут стереть из поисковиков все, что вы им сейчас напишете, так что не стесняйтесь
— Feldman (@EvgenyFeldman) June 16, 2015
In three years’ time the lawmakers will be able to erase from search engines everything you're writing to them now, so don't hold back.


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Stuxnet-Like Digital Attack on Iran Nuclear Talks May Have Come from Israel, Security Researchers Say · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Hotel Beau Rivage in Lausanne during the talks of E5/EU+1. This photo is used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 from the European External Action Service's Flickr photo stream.
Moscow-based technical security company Kaspersky Lab last week revealed evidence of a new cyber attack on both its own network and those of several European hotels that hosted nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) last year.
This follows a March 2015 Wall Street Journal report that revealed senior White House officials knew Israel was spying on talks surrounding Iran's nuclear program. The report explained, “the spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal.”
Kaspersky Lab is an internationally recognized software security research group and antivirus developer headquartered in Russia and registered in the UK. The group is a leading institution in the field of software and network security and regularly publishes research on security vulnerabilities and digital attacks.
Kaspersky and the US technical security company Symantec Corp independently verified that the virus used in the attack appears to be an offshoot of the espionage software called Duqu, which security experts linked to the Israeli government. In a June 10 report, Ars Technica explained that Duqu appeared to be an ancestor of the now infamous Stuxnet virus, the US-Israel digital espionage project targeting Iran's nuclear program and designed to sabotage the centrifuges enriching uranium.
Developers planted several false flags in the malware to give the appearance its origins were in Eastern Europe or China. But as the Kaspersky researchers delved further into the 100 modules that encompass the platform, they discovered it was an updated version of Duqu, the malware discovered in late 2011 with code directly derived from Stuxnet. Evidence later suggested Duqu was used to spy on Iran's efforts to develop nuclear material and keep tabs on the country's trade relationships. Duqu's precise relation to Stuxnet remained a mystery when the group behind it went dark in 2012. Now, not only was it back with updated Stuxnet-derived malware that spied on Iran, it was also escalating its campaign with a brazen strike on Kaspersky.
Kaspersky researchers couldn't explain whether individual participants in the nuclear talks were targeted, but they say the video and audio conference systems of the hotels may have been targets of spying.
A screenshot of the windows installer files used by Duqu 2.0. Kaspersky explains this to be a “malicious stub” in their technical report. Image taken from Kaspersky Lab's “The Duqu 2.0: Technical Details.”
Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely has denied Israel's involvement:
There is no basis for the international reports claiming Israel was involved in the matter. What’s much more important is that we prevent a bad deal, otherwise, at the end of the day, we will find ourselves under Iran’s nuclear umbrella.
While it is hard to directly link these viruses to state surveillance activities, the series of events beginning with Stuxnet can offer some clues. Ars Technica surmises that Duqu is likely the work of “a wealthy nation-state”:
While neither the US nor Israel has officially acknowledged any involvement with Stuxnet, New York Times reporter David Sanger's book Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Powerleaves little doubt the computer weapon was jointly developed by the two countries in an attempt to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment program. Nearly identical code signatures in Stuxnet and the 2011 version of Duqu mean that whoever developed the latter had broad access to the Stuxnet source. And given the work schedules of the Duqu attackers, it seems likely they were physically located in or near Israel….even if Israel wasn't directly involved, there's little doubt Duqu is the work of a wealthy nation-state or at least supported by one.
For the technical report of the Kaspersky findings, see here.


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What Does India’s Smart Cities Project Mean for the Poor? · Global Voices
Sourabh

Screenshot of the India's Smart Cities Project Website
India’s smart cities project, a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been hailed in the country and domestic media alike for its sheer magnitude and ambition. The 100 smart cities are satellite towns of larger cities and will consist of modern infrastructure, which will be added to the existing mid-sized cities.
As an increasing number of Indian people move from villages to cities in search of opportunities, the government believes that this 70.6-billion-rupee plan will ensure a high quality of life to people comparable with any developed European city.
But in a country where millions are struggling to get by, the initiative has some observers wondering how people will be able to afford the expensive housing and living costs of smart cities. This has given rise to a debate: Is India’s smart cities project built to keep out the poor class?
India needs smart villages & not smart cities: #AnnaHazare WATCH LIVE HERE : http://t.co/4La2nKbzs3
— ABP News (@abpnewstv) January 28, 2015
@MVENKAIAHNAIDU @ #Chennai #CII #SmartCities conference – “Gandhiji said: ‘Back to villages’..some take it as ‘turn your back to villages!’
— Preeti Singh (@TruthAbtNobody) January 29, 2015
One year on, there are still questions on what will constitute a smart city. According to a concept note released by the urban development ministry, smart cities will be the cities which have (intelligent) physical, social, institutional and economic infrastructure, which ensure centrality of citizens in a sustainable environment.
The project has already started 12 kilometers from the city of Ahmedabad with the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). In the next five years, the place will boast of high rises with sparkling glass facades, and the river Sabarmati flowing nearby will feature clean blue water.
GIFT 1, The tallest building in Gujarat. Image by Gujaratin via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0
The technology will be such that “human excrement will travel faster than most Indian trains,” Indian journalist Manu Joseph reported in the New York Times. The buildings will be equipped with sophisticated surveillance, 24/7 electricity and clean water, and fast trains with automatic doors.
But the project is also facing multiple problems and delays. The upcoming infrastructure in most parts of the country is coming at the expense of farming land.
Land acquisition in India is a very complicated process. The Modi government is looking to eliminate the requirement for the consent of landowners for certain projects to make land acquisition quick. Memories of protests by farmers against the construction of an expressway and India’s first Formula 1 track are still fresh, and the government's actions have contributed to a popular perception that they fight for private firms over farmers. The political opposition and its supporters have used the term ‘Suit Boot ki Sarkar’ to reference Modi’s monogrammed suit and the government’s supposed preference for industrialization instead of agriculture and the common man.
#Modi: “Land Bill is not a matter of life or death for me” But it is a matter of life & death for millions of poor farmers Modiji.
— Abdulla Madumoole (@AMadumoole) May 30, 2015
#Modi & #CBN together remind #Hitler & #Tuglak If you don't surrender land to CRDA under pooling we will acquire it thru #LandAcquisition
— Make in Telangana (@gandhi_pv) May 3, 2015
In January 2015, comments from an economist at an interactive panel discussion on smart cities held in Chennai and Mumbai seemed to confirm criticism of the project. Journalist Shruti Ravindran tweeted various paragraphs from the brochure ‘Smart Cities in India: Reality in the Making’ handed out to attendees.
“Smart cities” will, by definition, have to keep out the poor. From a conference in WTC Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/eViKxfcmMY — Shruti Ravindran (@s_ravindran) January 29, 2015
@s_ravindran the passage comes from this official brochure handed out in a smart city themed program held today. pic.twitter.com/eok3tfNCJU
— Shruti Ravindran (@s_ravindran) enero 29, 2015
@s_ravindran the economist Laveesh Bhandari, explains that it's “the natural way of things” to keep “some people out” pic.twitter.com/jAmMjdvQ1w
— Shruti Ravindran (@s_ravindran) enero 29, 2015
The tweeted passages, which were taken from an essay within the brochure by Laveesh Bhandari, founder and chief economist at economic research firm Indicus Analytics, read:
When we build these smart cities, we will be faced with a massive surge of people who will desire to enter these cities. We will be forced to keep them out. This is the natural way of things, for if we do not keep them out they will override our ability to maintain such infrastructure. There are only two ways to keep people out of any space – prices and policing. In other words, the prices will automatically be higher in such cities – the notion that they will be low cost is flawed. Even if possible from a cost provision perspective, they cannot be low cost from a demand supply perspective.
Even with high prices, the conventional laws in India will not enable us to exclude millions of poor Indians from enjoying the privileges of such great infrastructure. Hence the police will need to physically exclude people from such cities, and they will need a different set of laws from those operating in the rest of India for them to be able to do so. Creating special enclaves is the only method of doing so. And therefore GIFT is a [special economic zone] and so will each of these 100 smart cities have to be.
Safety and security are the outcomes of a city where the rule of law defines daily lives and where justice is the dominant notice of resolving disputes. But all disputes are not resolved through laws, policing or a judiciary; a well-functioning political mechanism is by far the best dispute resolution mechanism.
He later argued that the government will eventually:
[…] need to decide whether to continue with building such enclaves, or use these enclaves as an example, and expand such services across all of India's 8000 odd cities […] If it is the latter, it will need to move forward on a spate of urban reforms.
Read the essay in its entirety here.
Blogger Vidyut commented in response:
So let me get this right. The government will be used to empty land to build smart cities in the name of developing the country. It will be called “inclusive development”. And the smart cities built on this land will be for the rich – by design. And we are talking of a hundred cities, displacing god knows how many people. The police of the land will be used “on the tax payer’s money” (as these hotshots like to call it) to keep the poor out of these cities using laws OTHER THAN INDIAN LAWS.
While “N”, commenting on her post, wrote:
On the face of it, it does seem cruel but nothing can make the development go faster and reach India’s poor than making our cities world class and attracting the talent and entrepreneurs which we are losing to emigration. With China reaching some 160 or so cities with more than a million population and the infrastructure in each city is just amazing, it can be seen how urbanisation is working there. Such fear mongering will lead us nowhere.
Critics see the smart cities project as something that will deepen the divide between the elite and the poor, and further take the ‘dreams of luxuries’ away from the public domain and hand it to a few who can afford it.
@PMOIndia India is made of 80%rural pop. Development of clusters is more important than smart cities to stop conversion of agri land
— sudershan shanker (@sudershansm) January 30, 2015
They fear that despite its promise of 24×7 electricity and high-rise buildings that will shine in daylight and glow in the dark, the smart cities project will cast dark shadows across the country. India needs something for its masses, but not everyone is convinced that smart cities are the answer.

author: Sourabh


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Zambia’s Government Plans to Buy Police Cars That Cost Half a Million Dollars Each · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

A Zambian police van carrying riot police chasing rioting students at one of the public colleges in Lusaka. Photo used with the permission of Lusaka Times.
To many Zambians, the news item on state-run Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) television on June 14, 2015, about the government’s intention to spend a hefty US$190 million on a fleet of motor vehicles for security wings was just that, a piece of information from the governors to the governed.
Home Affairs Minister Davis Mwila, who was quoted in the story, disclosed that the vehicles would be bought for the Zambian Police, Drug Enforcement Commission, Prisons Service and the Immigration Department.
One Facebook user, Kaluba Chilaisha, did not only do the maths but also linked the amount to a loan from China that authorities initially did not announce to the nation not too long ago. He wrote:
Just watching the evening ZNBC news and heard that government will spend $192m for 400 vehicles for security wings. The math can't be correct, $480,000 per vehicle? What type of rides are these and from where?
In a comment on the same post, Chilaisha wrote:
I mean, this is serious guys! There are reports of $192m loan which ties to this now!
Some Twitter also reacted to the story.
@muchimc1 asked the following questions:
$190m on ZP vehicles..do these vehicles refuel themselves, do they also stop crime on their own..are they automated cops?
— M U C H I . (@muchimc1) June 15, 2015
Namushi hopes the newscaster made a mistake:
I'm in shock.. I really hope that newscaster read that item wrong.. Pantu if we have borrowed $190m for 400 vehicles then we are screwed
— Guy known as Namushi (@ThaNewMe) June 15, 2015
Zambia’s leading private daily, The Post, exposed the US$192 million loan which was initially concealed, quoting a letter between the secretary to the cabinet and the secretary to the treasury:
Cabinet at its 8th meeting held on April 27, 2015 accepted the recommendation by your minister that approval be given to the contraction of a loan from Poly Technologies Incorporated of China amounting to US$192,924,047 to support the implementation of the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of security equipment for Zambia Police Service, Immigration Department, Prisons Service and the Drug Enforcement Commission.
Interestingly, the government only disclosed a US$14 million loan procured from China to supposedly improve water and sanitation in one of Zambia’s most rural provinces, the figures of which one opposition politician, Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) President Charles Milupi disputed:
I am a headman and I can speak as an expert on this matter. When I was sinking a borehole for my village, I spent an equivalent of US$3,500, that included drilling, a hand pump, transportation and all. Now, when you do your arithmetic properly, you will find that this government is promising to drill 4,000 boreholes in each of the 100 villages. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
The exposure of the loan by the media angered President Edgar Lungu, who is also defence minister, ordering the police to probe the source of the information and bring the culprits to book.
It is Information and Broadcasting Minister Chishimba Kambwili who is also chief government spokesman who directly ordered the inspector general of police to probe the leakages:
I am directing the Inspector-General of Police with immediate effect to take keen interest in the leakage of this document and bring the culprits to book. Even if Government sat and discussed this loan, there is absolutely no way that it can be brought to the general public because some of these issues are of very high security concern, and there is no way Government can disclose that to the general public. And for those people either at the Ministry of Finance, the treasury or in the office of the Secretary to Cabinet who are leaking documents, we want to tell them that their days are numbered and they should not blame anybody. They should face the consequences of their action.
A reader on Lusaka Times called the way the Zambian government is run a criminal enterprise, writing:
Zambia is a full-blown criminal enterprise. This situation is politically wrong, economically unjustifiable, socially immoral and intellectually unacceptable for Zambia where the entire cabinet can borrow and keep the money for itself without telling the taxpayers. As a matter of fact, it’s cabinet that should be investigated and subsequently arrested.
Despite President Lungu and his minister, Kambwili’s order to police to probe the people who leaked the information, no one has been arrested so far.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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Abortion in Chile, a Clandestine Choice · Global Voices
Julie Aelbrecht

“My body is not a democracy. I choose”. Rally for a free and safe abortion, Santiago de Chile. July 25, 2014. Photo by Periódico El Ciudadano (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Since 1974, when the law was changed under Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, Chile has been one of seven countries in the world that do not allow abortion under any circumstances. After democracy was re-introduced in 1990, there were several attempts to decriminalize abortion, but all of them, including a promise from president Michelle Bachelet to legalize it in case of rape or mortal danger to the woman, were unsuccessful.
When the Chilean constitution had to be changed in 1974, Senator Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz gave a speech about abortion that included the following: “The mother must have the child, even though it might be abnormal, even though it may be unwanted, even when it is the product of rape and even though the pregnancy may result in her death.”
Although the constitution itself remained vague and only “protects the life of the unborn,” Guzmán's discourse remains the best summary of the policy today.
By Bachelet's May 21 speech of this year, the promise had disappeared, but the debate had not. Every couple of months, the Chilean press runs a series of articles about very young girls who get pregnant, usually as a result of rape, sometimes by a family member and are not allowed to abort. This year, it was an 11 year-old girl, whose tragic story made her a symbol of the cause.
Mi cartel del día de la mujer dirá “Chile país en donde una NIÑA de 11 años puede ser MADRE DE SU PROPIO HERMANO. ABORTO LEGAL AHORA”.
— #ApagonFemenino (@BessyPrado) March 4, 2015
“My poster for Women’s day will say: ‘Chile a country where a girl of 11 can be the mother of her own brother. Legal abortion now.”
Chile is a catholic country in its roots, so it is unsurprising that the prohibition regarding abortion is only one of many sides of a broader societal issue.
Mensaje de los Obispos de Chile ante el proyecto de despenalización del aborto http://t.co/anQNWwcNTv — Iglesia.cl (@iglesiachile) May 26, 2015
“The bishops of Chile react to the project to decriminalize abortion http://t.co/anQNWwcNTv”
The contraceptive pill is sold over the counter at pharmacies, but the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive used retroactively to prevent pregnancy, is harder to get a hold of. The emergency contraceptive was legalized in 2002, after a long battle in the courts. Affluent Chileans could get it in private clinics, but most women had to resort to the national health service, which only provided it in case of sexual assault. From 2006 onwards, it was made available to women from the age of 14 without parental consent, but
On March 8, 2015 International Women’s day, an estimated 8,000 people marched in the streets demanding safe, legal abortions. A couple of weeks later, an estimated 5,000 marched “for life.” Siempre Por La Vida, a Chilean pro-life organization, wants to keep the law as it is at all costs.
I spoke with Rosario Lagos, president of Siempre Por La Vida, who believes that even therapeutical abortion (in case of mortal danger) is “completely unnecessary,” because “doctors in Chile have the moral and professional obligation to save the life of the mother.” She calls abortion a “false promise for mental ease.” Lagos told me women need “company, support and protection,” not abortions.
“And in the case of rape,” Lagos said, “it is fundamentally unjust to condemn the child to death and the rapist to imprisonment. Abortion also causes more harm than good.” According to Lagos, “scientific evidence” shows that abortion “causes more physical and emotional damage.”
Javiera and Amanda of Serigrafia Instantanea are on the other side of the debate. They are part of a collective of artists that make posters and t-shirts to support social justice causes. “Chile is a conservative country, with a super conservative leadership,” said Javiera. “But why should they have the right to make decisions about my body? I don’t believe in the legalization of abortion for therapeutic reasons. We should have the right to freely make decisions about our fertility.”
Serigraphy brigade for free abortion rally in Chile. Image posted by Tomas Matala Aedo on Facebook.
Amanda talks about abortion as part of a much broader issue. “Abortion is only a symptom. We want to reclaim our bodies. Because abortion is already a reality in Chile. Rich women go to clinics; women without money have to resort to other measures.”
Every year between ten and twenty thousand women have illegal abortions in Chile. The taboo around this activity casts a massive shadow over the whole issue, so it is difficult to ascertain the accuracy of that figure. Human Rights Watch Latin America estimates that “a large part of the pregnancies in Chile are unwanted. About 35 percent end in abortion, which makes for around 160,000 abortions every year, 64,000 of which are on girls under 18.”
One of the organizations that helps women have safe abortions at home is Linea Aborto Libre, ran by Angela Erpel Jara, who is also a sociologist at the University of Chile. Every day between 8 and 11 pm, Linea Aborto receives as many as 15 calls from women seeking information on how they can have safe abortions using Misopostrol. To complement this service, they distribute books on the subject. Last year, after getting the books into local libraries, Linea Aborto Librea was sued three times, charged with practicing medicine illegally and inciting criminal activity. None of the charges stuck.
Erpel Jara and her colleagues focus on the practicalities and on the women they assist, instead of on the law. “We’re not interested in negotiating with members of parliament,” she says. “The law allowing therapeutic abortion is a waste of time. Women shouldn’t have to ask permission from male lawmakers to prove to male doctors that they have been raped or are in mortal danger to be able to make decisions about their own fertility.”
Erpel Jara only helps women with the treatment in their homes; legally, she can’t tell them how to get Misoprostol. But it’s not that hard. With the help of Google, a cellphone (the vendors communicate via WhatsApp) and 60,000 pesos (US$100), anyone can get her hands on the pills. A quick search yielded 30-plus individuals who have taken the risk of putting their phone numbers online, sometimes along with their names, and declare themselves to be sellers of Misoprostol. It’s unclear where they get the product. One study mentions a “Misoprostol mafia”, though the drug is available by prescription in most of Chile’s neighboring countries.
As an experiment, I sent text messages to a couple of the numbers and asked if they could get me Misopostrol. One of them answered instantly, asking what stage of pregnancy I was at and reassuring me they had “experience in the medical sector.” It became painfully clear that women who do this run a dual risk: they’re putting their health in the hands of a number found on the Internet, and their trust in clandestine salespeople. And if something goes wrong, a doctor could denounce them, landing them in prison.
At present there is little hope that the situation will improve. The president has remained silent, the law remains unchanged. The prohibition against abortion is ingrained in the Chilean constitution, a constitution, which, from its very first article, guarantees the safety of all citizens and the freedom to realize spiritual and material fulfilment—a freedom denied to hundreds of Chilean women each year.

author: Julie Aelbrecht


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Australia’s Matildas Waltz Into the Women’s World Cup Knockout Round · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Lisa De Vanna's goal
TV Screenshot – SBS televison
#GoMatildas topped Twitter trends in Australia as a 1-1 draw with Sweden propelled the national women’s football team into the round of 16 in the World Cup in Canada. This followed a strong 2-0 victory over Nigeria and an encouraging 1-3 loss to the USA, who are the tournament favorites.
STANDINGS: Confirmation #USA & #AUS go through to Round of 16 from ‘Group of Death.’ #SWE must wait. #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/aU4ZX5V1wL
— FIFA Women'sWorldCup (@FIFAWWC) June 17, 2015
There was plenty of praise and high hopes online:
Stoked with the Matilda's result!! Bring on Brazil 👍⚽ #AUSSWE #WomensWorldCup
— Zoe Hara (@zoehara5) June 17, 2015
I can see #AUS going far in this World Cup. They're playing some of their best ball and I love it. @TheMatildas #WWC2015 #GoMatildas
— Neveen Esho (@NeveenEsho) June 17, 2015
Not all Matildas supporters were completely happy with the result:
I mean, it was a satisfactory game. But somehow it wasn't satisfying. Have higher hopes for #AUS. #AUSSWE #GoMatildas
— Elena Wewer (@ElenaWewer) June 17, 2015
It was a very satisfying day for Aussie soccer. The men’s side @Socceroos defeated Kyrgyzstan 2-1 in a World Cup qualifying match:
VIDEO: See how the @Socceroos got the job done against a spirited Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek – http://t.co/EotpSsijFd pic.twitter.com/rRtRK0ZmqP
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) June 16, 2015
Great few hours for #Aus (@FFA) football. @Pararoos, @TheMatildas and @Socceroos all getting a result. #GoPararoos #GoMatildas #GoSocceroos
— David (@gotosleepathome) June 17, 2015
The Paralympic Team @Pararoos also won 2-0 against Portugal in their quest to reach the Rio Paralympics.
The @Pararoos started their #CPFWC in emphatic style, defeating #Portugal 2-0! @CPEngland2015 @AUSParalympics
— Para Sports News AUS (@AUS_ParaSports) June 16, 2015
Sarah K Wright managed a handful of emojis in her victory tweet for the Matildas:
@TheMatildas De Vanna's awesome goal! So much skill and domination! 👍🏼💚⚽💛 #GoMatildas #ThisIsIt
— Sarah K Wright (@sarahkatewright) June 17, 2015
Given that Lisa De Vanna’s goal came in the first five minutes and Sofia Jakobsson provided the equaliser for Sweden in the 15th minute, Justin Civitillo’s had a long wait:
Here we go, another 45 mins of unimaginable stress. Let's do this. #GoMatildas #FIFAWWC
— Justin Civitillo (@JC_Kazama) June 17, 2015
Matilda’s coach Alen Stajcic let the players take the limelight:
“We're battle-hardened now. There's belief. Bring on Brazil.” -Alen Stajcic after #AUS finish 2nd in Group D. Carry no yellow cards too.
— Anthony DiCicco (@DiCiccoMethod) June 17, 2015
Australia’s next challenge is a big one – Brazil. Football website Outside90 offered some reassurance:
The Matildas have grown in confidence with every passing game and their maturity and patience in defence, their doggedness in midfield and the clinical and ferocious nature of their attack makes them a real contender to progress through the knockout stages of this tournament.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Bicyclists, Hang Up That Phone. Japan’s Traffic Laws Just Got Tougher · Global Voices
Matt McClellan

Under the new regulations, bicyclists can no longer use smartphones while riding, but may still be able to use umbrellas. Screencap from YouTube user Bill Adler.
In response to an increase in bicycle-related accidents, newly revised traffic laws went into effect across Japan on June 1, 2015. Bicyclists caught violating them will be required to attend a traffic safety course or pay a fine.
Out of the nearly 110,000 traffic accidents reported in Japan each year, about 20% of all accidents involve bicyclists. The annual number of fatal accidents involving bicycles but not cars and trucks rose from 51 in 2004 to 82 in 2014, according to an OECD report.
The newly revised laws targeting bicyclists are intended to curb dangerous behaviour, which includes riding through stop signs, ignoring traffic signals, obstructing or failing to yield to pedestrians, and riding a bicycle while intoxicated or using a smartphone or other mobile device.
Compared to some Western countries, bicyclists in Japan have long been allowed to generally behave as they please when riding in traffic or on the sidewalk, with little complaint from pedestrians or motorists.
In Japan it is not uncommon to see a bicyclist holding an umbrella while smoking a cigarette and making a telephone call as they ride into oncoming traffic. Under the new laws, smartphone use by cyclists is specifically called out and prohibited, while umbrellas are ignored. However the intent of the regulations is to dissuade distracted cycling, so bicycling with an umbrella may soon be a thing of the past in Japan.
Recalcitrant cyclists are a serious social issue because cycling is so widespread. Unlike in Western countries where commuting by bicycling is just starting to catch on as a social trend, in Japan everyone from high school students to office workers use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation. There are large lots dedicated to parking bikes for the day for a small fee, and there is even an efficient system for temporarily renting bicycles in urban locations. There are some places where bicyclists are permitted to drive on the sidewalk or use the same stretch of pavement as those on foot.
When news of the revised traffic safety rules for bicyclists was announced in late May, some people took to social media to voice opposition to the new rules, while others say a crackdown on bicyclists is long overdue.
Shortly after the June 1 road safety laws for bicyclists came into effect, popular YouTube vlogger sandabee uploaded video showing bicyclists committing traffic violations in the ultra-busy Shibuya crossing:
Under the newly revised regulations, bicyclists who are caught violating one of the regulations more than twice in three years will be required to take a traffic safety course before being allowed back on the road. A single class lasts for three hours and has a mandatory fee of 5,700 yen (approximately US$40). Those who refuse to attend the course will be fined up to 50,000 yen (approximately US$450).
Some people have made their dissatisfaction known regarding the new regulations:
自転車運転に注意？6月から始まる「自転車運転者講習制度」とは？ – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/HGehHAzSXA これでﾁｬﾘｶｽ絶滅すればいいがな。あと歩行者にも罰則はよ
— 零†ワサラー団愛媛代表†SP3 (@frandre_owen) June 4, 2015
Should bicyclists watch out? What will increased enforcement of Road Traffic Law towards cyclists starting June 1 actually mean? -from NAVER Matome http://t.co/HGehHAzSXA
I wonder if this will really cut down on idiotic bicyclists (charikasu, ﾁｬﾘｶｽ). Next we can start fining pedestrians too.
Others have expressed concerns how much mandatory traffic class will cost for bicyclists caught breaking the rules:
自転車運転に注意？6月から始まる「自転車運転者講習制度」とは？ – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/cJILxhXElO 自転車法くそすぎて草生える／(^o^)＼ 雨の傘や飲酒運転罰金5万て･･･ 国がいきなり決めたんだから受講料無料でしょ 5700円高いよ
— 私は夜行性( ˘ω˘ )ｽﾔｧ (@bitchdoll37) June 3, 2015
All these damn traffic laws are sprouting up like grass. The penalty for riding with an umbrella or while drunk is 50,000 yen (US$400)… Since Japan just decided on this, shouldn't the lecture be free? 5,700 yen (US$40) is expensive, ya know!
A few have pointed out that since riding a bicycle, unlike driving a motor vehicle, doesn't require a license or formal training, it's possible some cyclists will misunderstand traffic signals or signs:
自転車運転に注意？6月から始まる「自転車運転者講習制度」とは？ – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/cZe9qIjjWC これ気になってたんだけど、私車の免許も持ってないから、道路標識の正確な意味とか知らないし、知らずに違反しちゃいそう
— ai mas (@ai_meeee) May 25, 2015
I'm totally interested in [becoming a better bicyclist], but as someone who doesn't have a license, I don't always know what road signs are actually supposed to mean. So it seems like I could violate one of these new regulations without knowing it.
However, there are some who are in favour of stricter regulations for cyclists, especially when it comes to anything that detracts from the ability to focus on the road:
スマホ運転や傘さし並列での迷惑走行等、高校生や中学生をバンバン取り締まって欲しいわ > 自転車運転に注意？6月から始まる「自転車運転者講習制度」とは？ – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/uiCDV6fsvI — きょーこあんこあんず (@kykankanz) May 25, 2015
Using a smartphone or umbrella while riding a bike is a pain in the ass (for other people). I'd love to see them really crack down on high school and middle school students for doing this.
And there were those who found humour in the situation:
いくら6月1日から自転車の法律が厳しくなったからといってこれは流石にハード過ぎませんか？ pic.twitter.com/hvr6xmsLjR
— マリーアントワネット【公式】 (@ohohohoho45) June 3, 2015
TRAFFIC SIGN: “Cyclists – please ride within the blue zone on the left.”
Even though the new rules starting on June 1 are supposed to be tough on cyclists, don't you think this is a little over the top?

author: Matt McClellan


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Is the Kremlin Watering Down Russia’s ‘Right to Be Forgotten’? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
According to the news agency RBC, Kremlin officials met privately on Monday, June 15, with representatives of Yandex, Russia's largest Internet search engine, and reached a compromise that will weaken the next draft of legislation designed to introduce to the RuNet a “right to be forgotten.”
According to RBC‘s source in the Duma, lawmakers have agreed to remove a controversial component of the legislation's first draft that would have allowed individuals to force search engines to delete links to any personal information that is more than three years old—even without evidence that the information is inaccurate or libelous.
According to Yandex spokesperson Asya Melkumova, the tech giant also lobbied Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Vyacheslav Volodin, to drop language in the bill that would saddle search engines with determining the legality of deletion requests. Yandex says a state agency—not private companies—should manage this task, which would require significant resources from websites and expose them to substantial legal liability. Melkumova says the Kremlin did not agree to remove these requirements, however.


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Jack Warner’s First Revelation Involves Trinidad & Tobago’s Prime Minister, Marijuana and a Cover-Up · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Photo by The Commonwealth, used under a CC BY-NC 2.0 license.
It may not be the kind of information that interests comedian John Oliver or the United States Department of Justice, but disgraced former Vice President of FIFA Jack Warner, who is wanted by US authorities to answer corruption charges, has been making good on his televised promise to reveal damning information that involves the country's People's Partnership government.
As Warner himself said, “the gloves are off” — and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been at the receiving end. He has claimed that marijuana was allegedly found at Persad-Bissessar's home in south Trinidad two years ago and that there was a subsequent cover-up by public officials.
Having recently announced the date of the country's upcoming general elections as September 7, 2015, Persad-Bissessar has been spinning Warner's first major revelation as silly season propaganda. However, three days after Warner dropped that little bomb, he has come out with supporting evidence in the form of incriminating audio recordings and documents, holding a nearly hour-long press conference to share the details:
Warner maintains that on Friday, April 12, 2013, when he was the country's minister of national security, Mervyn Richardson advised him that security officers had found a four-ounce packet of marijuana outside a window of the prime minister's residence. Warner called Roodal Moonilal, a minister of parliament whom he describes as the “leader of government business”. Moonilal recommended calling Persad-Bissessar, who was apparently out of the country at the time, though the government, in an effort to discredit Warner's story, says she was not. Warner informed the prime minister of the discovery and says that she was “surprised”, allegedly asking him whether she should return to the country and resign.
In Warner's words, he “prevailed upon her not to do so”. Warner claims that in the end, Moonilal, Richardson and himself would “bury it”; he then informed Captain Gary Griffith, Persad-Bissessar's national security advisor, of the situation. Warner also gave a written statement to journalist Denyse Renne, which was published as part of an investigative story that was published last Sunday.
The country's Dangerous Drugs Act, under the section Burden of Proof and Presumptions, says “if a dangerous drug is found to be concealed in any premises, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proven, that the said drug is so concealed with the knowledge of the occupier of the premises”.
In the view of popular satirical website Wired868 though, the crux of the matter “is not so much whether marijuana was found on the Prime Minister’s window sill or under her pillow”:
It is not just that her former advisor, Gary Griffith, is so dishonest he has to ask Warner’s permission to speak the truth or to help him recognise sincerity in the first place.
Or that her closest aide left in the Government, Moonilal, is so fluent in dishonesty it probably qualifies as his first language.
But it is that the Police Service is so shamelessly crooked, incompetent and allergic to truth and justice themselves, they might as well join the Partnership and be done with it.
So why reveal all this now? Warner told the press conference that after defending the prime minister at every turn, he felt betrayed that she would turn him over to the US without a second thought:
Last Friday, I felt I owe it to this country after she announced the date for elections, to expose this teflon prime minister who for five years has fooled me. I felt the truth must be told. And if after all of this the country wishes to reelect her and the People's Partnership, that’s the country’s business, but my conscience will be clear. I am prepared to sacrifice myself today not because I love me less, but because I love Trinidad and Tobago more.
Warner began to produce his evidence — three audio recordings he is using as “proof to show the country who the prime minister is…and who Jack Warner is.” In taped conversations between Captain Griffith and Warner, it is revealed that the prime minister routinely took five-day weekends; Griffith also alludes to other “ammo” that he and Warner have on her. When they discussed the alleged marijuana find, Griffith was intent on trying to clear his name from being involved in the cover-up.
The country's acting commissioner of police confirmed yesterday that marijuana was indeed found at the prime minister's home; a formal investigation has been launched. Social media users, meanwhile, have shared photos of cheques, emails and receipts that Warner released, which incriminate other members of her government. The prime minister has since issued a statement on the allegations, saying she was out of the country at the time “a substance” was found outside her residence and that many staff have access to the grounds:
Needless to say, I am horrified and disturbed to hear these reports.
While the timing of this disclosure is clearly political, I have faith in the police to investigate their own conduct and that of all the law enforcement professionals involved.
Wired868 was having a hard time with the many about-turns the government and police were doing:
As Warner prepared to reveal Griffith’s uncensored opinion about Tanty Kamla’s love of five day weekends and the chalice at her Philippine palace, everyone suddenly recovered from their marijuana-induced short term memory loss.
[Deputy Police Commissioner] Gould remembered the illicit discovery; and Acting Police Commissioner Williams, who is as bad an actor as he is a policeman, responded by requesting a police probe into the police probe of the police cover-up.
Naturally, it will be done by the Trinidad police.
And Persad-Bissessar remembered she was indeed out of the country at the time stated and that the joint could have belonged to any one of the dozens of mens [sic] who control her compound. It sounded like something you ought to hear in Taxi Cab Diaries rather than from the Office of the Prime Minister.
Throughout the press conference, Warner refused to take questions from local and international media alike about his alleged football improprieties. He did however, say:
Now is time for re-election and I am saying Mrs. Persad-Bissessar is unfit to be elected. I can’t hold this back anymore because the public must know. What you have heard here is the tip of the iceberg. I ain't start yet. And if this one thing has caused so much amount of confusion […] what about the second and the third and the fourth? Because there are, and I will tell you all and they could do me what they want because those things are already in the hands of lawyers, all of them except two.
Warner has said that he has been receiving death threats. Curiously, the former FIFA vice president-turned-politician is tying these revelations to his own political events, perhaps a strategic move that he hopes may win him enough public support to keep himself politically relevant for the upcoming general election:
At every community meeting of the ILP [Independent Liberal Party], I’ll play one of those tapes […] until the country understands that the prime minister is a liar, Richardson is a liar, the commissioner of police is a liar and therefore ask yourself, ‘Why are they lying?’


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Remembering the Kyrgyz Woman Who Adopted 150 Children During the Siege of Leningrad · Global Voices
Zukhra Iakupbaeva

Three men bury the dead during the Siege of Leningrad in 1942 at the Volkovo cemetery. Boris Kudoyarov, RIA. Licensed to reuse.
“A legend”: this is how Kyrgyz and Russian media are referring to Toktogon Altybasarova, 91, who sheltered 150 children evacuated from Leningrad over the course of a two-and-a-half-year blockade during World War Two that cost up to a million lives.
In 1942, as Nazi Germany bombarded Russia's second city, now called St. Petersburg, 16-year-old Altybasarova, who died last week on June 11, spared the evacuees from hunger and hosted them in a dormitory for local factory staff in her remote home village of Kurmenty, northeastern Kyrgyzstan.
She had just been elected head of her village council at the time.
Photo taken from Wikipedia
Altybasarova determined the children's age and gave them first names. Supervising a team of carers, she saw the children through to adulthood as they left to work and study in different parts of the Soviet Union.
According to Kyrgyzstan's state broadcaster, Altybasarova kept and treasured letters from her adopted children until her death.
President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev, said in a video message:
Токтогон Алтыбасарова во время Великой Отечественной войны стала матерью 150 детям из блокадного города Ленинграда. В свои 16 лет, окружив детей заботой и вниманием, сумев им передать ощущение близости и теплоты, Токтогон-апа заменила им родную мать.
During the Great Patriotic War [1941-1945], Toktogon Altybasarova became a mother to 150 children from the the besieged city of Leningrad. At 16-years-old, Toktogon-apa took on the role of their mothers by surrounding the children with care and attention and conveying a sense of closeness and warmth.
Altybasarova had eight of her own children, 23 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. The President's office allocated 100,000 Kyrgyz soms ($1,700) to cover her funeral costs.
Under an article on the Kyrgyz news website Vecherni Bishkek, readers celebrated Altybasarova's long life:
Вот настоящий пример человеческого отношения к людям!
Надеюсь, что она воспитала своих детей именно такими, какой она была сама. Настоящими!
Here is an example of a truly human relationship to other people! I hope that she raised her children the way she was herself. As real people!
While a person claiming to be Altybasarova's daughter thanked well-wishers:
Всем ,  выразившим  соболезнования моей маме  – Алтыбасаровой Токтогон , большое спасибо !  Спасибо за поддержку и за ваши добрые слова !!!! Спасибо детям из блокадного Ленинграда за добрую память !!!
To all those offering condolences to my mother, Toktogon Altybasarova, many thanks! Thank-you for your support and kind words!!! Thank you to the children of Leningrad for the kind memories!!!

author: Zukhra Iakupbaeva


text:
Self-Proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ Now Has an Internet Blacklist · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Most of the websites on the blacklist are those of Ukrainian media. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Internet blacklists are a common occurrence in countries like Russia and Belarus, and now officials of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic” in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine have decided to join the club. Their newly-minted blacklist consists mostly of Ukrainian news websites which “DPR” authorities believe to contain “information banned in the republic.”
On May 30 the “members of parliament” of the unrecognized separatist state unanimously voted to pass a new law “On information and information technologies.” Among other things, the law introduces a “unified registry of domain names, URLs and network addresses on the Internet, which allow to identify websites containing information that is banned for dissemination in the DPR,” according to a Zerkalo Nedeli report. The authors of the “blacklist” law say its main purpose is to “help regulate the use of information technologies and provide for information security.”
Ukrainian social media users immediately noted the similarity of the new legislation to existing Internet regulation in Russia.
Ну от. Вивчають досвід РФ http://t.co/zRODhxKQRc
— Nastya Stanko (@StankoNastya) June 3, 2015
Here we go. They're studying Russian best practices.
Although the “blacklist” law did not specify specific URLs that were considered for the block-list, on June 11 the website of the local cable TV company in Donetsk published a list of Internet addresses it reported were currently blocked at the request of the “Ministry of Information and Communication of the DPR.” The list includes websites of almost 40 Ukrainian national and local media outlets, including Hromadske TV, 24 TV Channel, Segodnya, and Radio Liberty.
It is unclear whether the list published by the cable company is the “unified registry” mentioned in the text of the law. The “Ministry” itself, when contacted by RFE/RL, denied knowledge of the blacklist or its contents, and the “Minister of Information” told reporters that she herself “had access to Radio Liberty website.” However, users trying to access the some of the websites from the list inside “DPR”-controlled territory report that they are indeed unavailable, according to RFE/RL.
The Russian-supported separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine have tried to block Ukrainian websites before: in September 2014, local ISPs in Donetsk received letters from self-proclaimed “DPR officials” demanding they block 27 Ukrainian news websites “to prevent the distribution of inherently false information and libel.” At least some of the ISPs complied with the demand then, as local Internet users reported being unable to access some of the pages listed in the letter.