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Censored on WeChat: the disappearance of Ye Jianming, former chairman of CEFC China Energy · Global Voices
Wechatscope

Screen shot from Youtube: View China.
This post was written by the team of WeChatscope, a research initiative led by Dr. King-wa Fu at The University of Hong Kong.
With more than 1.0825 billion individual users, along with more than 20 million registered public accounts, WeChat has the largest number of domestic users and the most extensive coverage of any social media service in China. As such, it has become a chief component of China's rigorous censorship regime.
In 2017, our team at the University of Hong Kong built a technical web “scraping” system for studying censorship on WeChat's publicly accessible pages. Throughout 2018, we tracked more than 4,000 public accounts covering daily news and preserved censored posts in a publicly accessible database, WeChatscope. This article is the fifth in a partnership series with Global Voices.
No one in China is immune to “disappearance.” Alongside many everyday people, billionaires, celebrities and high-ranking officials have been subject to such treatment.
In 2018, there were a number of high-profile disappearances, including actress Fan Bingbing, Christian church leader Wang Yi, casino operator Yang Zhihui, Interpol chief Meng Hongwei and billionaire Ye Jianming. These public figures all were forcibly disappeared for different reasons. Some have already returned to their normal lives and some are still missing.
When people are disappeared, online news about them also disappears, through censorship.
Fan Bingbing was the most well-known person in this group and, as anticipated, was one of top ten most censored topics on WeChat in 2018. But at the other end of the spectrum was Ye Jianming, the low-profile billionaire whose case triggered major waves of censorship. Like Fan, his case became one of the most censored topics of the year on WeChat.
Until recently, Ye Jianming was the chairman of CEFC China Energy Co., Ltd. and China Energy Fund Committee. As an entrepreneur, he first gained notoriety for the rapid expansion of his business empire and his patriotism. And then he went missing. Soon thereafter, a March 2018 investigative report by Caixin, a renowned finance and business news outlet, revealed that Ye was suspected of committing economic crimes and had been put under investigation. The report was published and censored just hours later. The news startled the WeChat community.
On the same day of its report on Ye, Caixin also published a special report titled “Investigation Casts Shadow on Rosneft’s China Investor CEFC” on its public WeChat account. The report delved into Ye's background, beginning in his hometown in Fujian. It revealed that Ye holds a Hong Kong identity card and that Ye founded CEFC when he was in his mid-twenties in 2002. By 2014, the company was ranked 222nd on the Fortune Global 500 List, with revenues amounting to US $43.7 billion. In a little over a decade, it had become the largest non-state-owned energy company in China.
Other media outlets quickly followed Caxin's reports and reproduced their own story versions on WeChat. Most of these reports were deleted one day later and replaced with a note reading “deleted for illegal content”.
In WeChatscope’s dataset, censored posts that contained “Ye Jianming” also included words like “low-profile” (低調), “mysterious” (神秘), “political and business relationship” (政商關係), “CEFC”(華信), “oil tycoon” (石油巨賈) and “hunt for background” (起底).
The censorship of content related to Ye Jianming went into high gear, pushing the term into the ten most censored topics of the year on WeChat.
Why were Chinese authorities so eager to conceal the mysterious identity of Ye Jianming and the origins of his business?
After Ye's disappearance, the Chinese state-owned investment company CITIC group began taking over CEFC’s overseas assets. Though CEFC had been registered as private entity, it was already a close partner in joint ventures with state enterprises like China State Shipbuilding and China Railway, among others. But this quick turn of events suggested that the relationship between CEFC and the Chinese government was deeper than people realized.
Outside China, the corporation had been under scrutiny for its acquisitions around the world for some time. Since 2015, CEFC has made numerous major agreements with private and state-owned corporations outside of China, investing in infrastructure projects and buying shares of companies in Chad, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Georgia and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2015, Ye Jianming was named “special advisor” to Czech president Milos Zeman and soon thereafter, CEFC acquired stakes in a Czech airline. The company also bought a brewery, a media company, a soccer club, and one of Prague’s largest office complexes. In 2016, CEFC China Energy acquired a 35 percent stake in three oil blocks in Chad from Taiwan’s state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp.
In February 2017, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) granted CEFC a 4% interest (equivalent to more than 3.2 million tons of oil per year) in the company’s onshore oil concession for 40 years. In September of the same year, CEFC had planned to take a $9 billion stake in Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned energy giant. But the deal never went through, due to Ye’s alleged involvement in economic crimes.
These agreements, and the government's swift takeover of CEFC following Ye's disappearance, suggest that the Chinese government was actively using CEFC to engage in economic diplomacy. Analysts suspect that these agreements were intended to incentivize state utilities and corporations to invest in China's ambitious and highly-publicized One Belt, One Road initiative.
CEFC’s political association with the Chinese government was further unveiled after the US authorities arrested Patrick Ho Chi Ping, a former Hong Kong government official, over a bribery scheme involving CEFC's oil holdings in Chad and Uganda in November 2017. Ho was eventually convicted in December 2018. The incident also caught the eyes of international media outlets.
Within China, as these dealings came to light, Ye Jianming was disappeared, CEFC's assets were transferred to the state-owned CITIC group, and the censorship authorities tried their best to keep the open secret in the dark. Still today, the whereabouts of Ye Jianming remain unknown.

author: Wechatscope


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Promoting communal harmony: The risky business of brand activism in pre-election India · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

A screengrab from the Surf Excel ad. (Fair Use. Copyright owned by original authors.)
A video by Indian detergent brand Surf Excel showing a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy playing during the Hindu festival Holi has divided viewers and Internet users. While one part supported the communal harmony that the Hindustan Unilever-owned brand is trying to promote through the ad song titled “Rang Laaye Sang” (“colours bring us together” in Hindi), the other part has accused the ad of humiliating Hinduism. The ad has reached 10 million views by the time this post was reported, making Surf Excel's brand name more widespread than ever before.
Those opposing the ad have accused the brand of promoting Love Jihad, an alleged campaign when a Muslim boy fakes love to eventually convert a non-Muslim girl into Islam. Social media began filling up with posts containing hashtag #boycottSurfexcel.
#HUL has no right to preach Hindus how to celebrate Holi and certainly donot need to be taught secularism @PaulPolman Your #SurfExcel ad has hurt Hindu sentiments just like the previous Kumbh ad. Hence we #BoycottSurfExcel & #BoycottHULproducts pic.twitter.com/h6jntJcMyA
— Hindu Defense League (@HDL_Global) March 9, 2019
People have become so upset by this ad that many Android users reported the Microsoft Excel app on Google Play Store. It has received the lowest one-star rating because users are mistaking it for Surf Excel, going to the level of calling it “Anti-Hindu Software”. This phenomenon is not new in India.
Beta Padhao , Desh Bachao pic.twitter.com/GEklOfFj1Z
— That witch  ? (@polysmind) March 12, 2019
(Translation: Educate your child, save the country)
Actor and comedian Vir Das has tweeted suggesting that the negative publicity has helped Surf Excel's sales.
To the Bhakts. You have no idea how much Surf your outrage helped sell….congrats ? You're practically the new brand ambassadors.
— Vir Das (@thevirdas) March 11, 2019
(Editor's Note: Bhakt is the romanization of a Hindi language word that means ‘devotee’. The followers, supporters, and admirers of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are called ‘Modi Bhakt” and on social media ‘Bhakt’ is mentioned to describe the supporters and admirers of PM Modi.)
French researcher Elliot Alderson tweeted on March 12 that there has been 105,929 tweets with three hashtags — #SurfExcel, #BoycottSurfExcel and #BoycottHindustanUnilever.
Thread: For 2 days, I captured 105929 tweets with the hashtags #SurfExcel, #BoycottSurfExcel and #BoycottHindustanUnilever. Follow this thread for an analyse https://t.co/qV06P7fc3K
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) March 12, 2019
However, the ad-related debate is no longer limited to the general public but has spread into the political discourse as India is preparing for its general election between April 11 – May 19. In a tweet by Sanjay Jha, a spokesperson from the current opposition party, blame was thrown on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party  (BJP) for spreading malice against the children in the ad cast.
My next piece coming soon: The vitriol against young children featuring in the #SurfExcel advertisement is enough reason to totally reject the vicious, sectarian #BJP. India needs to dump them wholesale. We have regressed to the Dark Ages under #Modi. #BJP_भगाओ_देश_बचाओ
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) March 12, 2019
Hindustan Unilever faced backlash not long ago for another ad related to its tea brand which highlighted the abandonment of the elderly during Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage with the world's largest religious gathering.
The timing of this ad is odd, given that it comes as India is recovering from a series of tragic events in Kashmir that includes a suicide bombing on a convoy in Pulwama followed by defensive air strikes by both India and Pakistan. The communal relation between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims in India, which is larger than the entire population of Pakistan, is going through a critical time as a result of the recent events. This ad could be a scapegoat for such ongoing heated debates.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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Teen theatre production banned by Russian authorities for promoting ‘non-traditional family relations’ · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

In front of the Russian Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. In 7 September 2013 a group of activists painted the pedestrian crossing stripes with rainbow colors to protest the Russian anti-LGBT sentimentality and legislation, notably the bans on “homosexual propaganda” // Flickr, Murmur, under CC3.0
“The Pinks and the Blues,” a youth theater production about gender stereotypes, has been banned by local authorities in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in far eastern Russia.
Russian media report that company director Yulia Tsvetkova was questioned by a police anti-extremism unit, and that the actors in her amateur collective, teenagers aged 13 to 15, were questioned as well.
The play was intended to be staged as part of an activist theatre festival called Tsvet Shafrana (The Color of Saffron), touching on diverse subjects such as school bullying, the Prague Spring and anti-war themes. The festival has been called off, due to the ban and its loss of a performance venue.
“The Pinks and the Blues”, developed by the activist troupe Merak, triggered intense scrutiny from local authorities who saw it as a dangerous and subversive activity promoting “hatred against men and non-traditional family relations,” Tsvetkova told Takie Dela, an independent charity news website. In parallel, her festival first lost one venue that agreed to host them, and then another one two weeks later. These cancellations sent a clear signal to Tsvetkova that authorities would not allow the festival to proceed.
“Non-traditional family relations” echoes the formulations of a recent law legislating against “propaganda of homosexuality to minors.” In the recent years, it has been used almost exclusively against advocacy groups for gay rights, gender equality and sex education. Accusations of “gay propaganda” can attract large amounts of attention and pressure from local legislators, child welfare and school authorities, as well as the police’s anti-extremism unit — as it happened in Tsvetkova’s case.
Yulia Tsvetkova, a teacher and a feminist activist, says that during questioning, police agents confronted her with print-outs of her social media posts about sex education in schools, feminism and homosexuality.
She denies ever exposing her child actors to any LGBT-related content, saying:
«Розовый и голубой — типичные “женский” и “мужской” цвета, вот и все, — объяснила Юлия. — Постановка именно об этом, и название для нее придумал один из актеров, ребенок 11 лет».
Pink and blue are seen as typically “male” and “female colors”, that’s it. That’s what the play is about, the name was suggested by one of the actors, a 11-year-old child.
Tsvetkova also said the police were acting on three different anonymous letters of complaint against her, all written in the same formulaic language echoing the words of the law prohibiting “propaganda of non-traditional family relations.”
Russia has recently passed a series of socially conservative laws and “traditional values” are regularly mentioned in political speeches and statements. These laws have been used to prosecute activists, health awareness websites and online news media, resulting in fines and website blockages — not to mention intense hate campaigns on social media and other forms of public backlash.

author: RuNet Echo


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#ViernesTradicional highlights and safeguards Mexico’s rich cultural diversity found in clothing · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

My trajinera, Princesa, is aptly named so. The floating gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City is always an amazing day. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of planning the @atravesarte fiesta for #artweekmexico . My tunic and bag hand woven in San Juan Cancun, Chiapas by Señora Juana for @xhico_a_mano Hat by @stetsonusa #fashion #mensfashion #style #cowboyhat #handmade #xhico #xochimilco #boat #cdmx #mexicocity #mexico #ciudaddemexico #mexicomagico #mexico_maravilloso #visitmexico #cdmx_oficial #mexicodesconocido #captura_mexico #igersmexico #ig_mexico #mexicosoprendente #travel #traveldeeper #viernestradicional ? @saniegosanches
A post shared by  Xhico (@xhico) on
Every Friday on social media, colorful images of traditional textiles and clothing from across Mexico highlight its rich cultural diversity. Through a campaign called “Viernes Tradicional” (Traditional Friday), which is in the spirit of the trend in some office environments of encouraging casual dress on “casual Friday,” images can be found on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
An invitation is made for indigenous and non-indigenous people to upload a photo of themselves wearing their favorite item of traditional clothing with the hashtag #ViernesTradicional and an accompanying description of the technique, origin, and if possible, the name of the artisan. The result is a weekly snapshot of designs and their background representing indigenous peoples of Mexico.
However, freely uploading these types of photos in such a public manner opens up the door for possible plagiarism leading to commercial exploitation, an ongoing challenge for artisans from Mexico and across Latin America, whose livelihoods depend on their original designs. As a result, this campaign provides a space to report potential plagiarism, and stresses the importance of better understanding the origin of these garments and the need to support local artisans.
Ná ko’o ín yàtsi ntixi vichi kùi kií nu yatvi nu ñuu xnuviko #xnuviko #mixtepec #pulque #oaxaca #mixteco #viernestradicional
A post shared by  Roberto Chavez (@robertochavezart) on
#Repost @anny13arzola ? Huipil en telar de cintura de San Juan Bautista, Oaxaca. Con representación del pavorreal y en el pecho tiene el ombligo del mundo la visión cósmica de los pueblos, que emana desde el centro del universo rodeada de los 4 puntos cardinales #Tlacoatzintepec #Oaxaca #Huipil #amorxlostextiles #viernestradicional #viernestradicionalvalora #ElOrigenSíCuenta #patrimonioTextil #ConsumoÉtico #hechoenmexico #hechoporartesanos
A post shared by  Viernes Tradicional (@viernestradicional) on
Huipil en telar de cintura de San Juan Bautista, Oaxaca. Con representación del pavorreal y en el pecho tiene el ombligo del mundo la visión cósmica de los pueblos, que emana desde el centro del universo rodeada de los 4 puntos cardinales
Huipil made by waist loom from San Juan Bautista, Oaxaca. With representation of the peacock, and located on the chest, is the representation of the navel with cosmic vision of indigenous peoples, which emanates from the center of the universe surrounded by the 4 cardinal points
Los textiles mexicanos, tan coloridos, tan únicos, tan especiales… siempre reflejan amor, paciencia e historia ?  Hupil Chenalhó de Chiapas .- @estiloisabeles  #toscanoxméxico #mexicanbloggers #shotiniphone #iphonex #elorigensicuenta #huipil #chiapas #estiloisabeles #consumelocal #consumelohechoenmexico #mexicomagico #mexicovive #mexicangirl #viernestradicional #coloresmexicanos #mexico_tour #prefierovestirmx
A post shared by  Fer Toscano ? (@toscanoxmexico) on
Los textiles mexicanos, tan coloridos, tan únicos, tan especiales… siempre reflejan amor, paciencia e historia ? Hupil Chenalhó de Chiapas – @estiloisabeles
Mexican textiles, so colorful, so unique, so special… always reflect love, patience, and history. Hupil from Chenalhó de Chiapas by @estiloisabeles
#ViernesTradicional con la clásica camisa de algodón con bordado color petróleo de Jalapa de Díaz desde luego de @region_impulso ??❤??❤?? @viernestradicional #Tatto #tattoos #Oaxaca #mexico #igersoaxaca #igersmexico #sustainablefashion #ig_oaxaca #ig_mexico #instagram #vsco #instapic #capturaoaxaca #instapicture #ConsumeLocal #HechoEnMexico #ViernesTradicionalActúa #ViernesTradicionalValora
A post shared by  Jared Castro Ziga ? (@jaredcastro77) on
#ViernesTradicional con la clásica camisa de algodón con bordado color petróleo de Jalapa de Díaz.
#ViernesTradicional with the classic cotton shirt with petroleum-colored embroidery from Jalapa de Díaz (Oaxaca).
#mexico #oaxaca #amooaxaca #santodomingooaxaca #istmo #istmodetehuantepec #viernestradicional
A post shared by  Claudia Guerrero (@clau_gr) on

author: Eduardo Avila


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Biryani Stories: How Dhaka’s Biryani went from being the food of the elites to the dish everyone eats · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Prawn Biriyani. Image by Jyothis via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0
This is the third article of our series “Biryani Stories”, which looks at the common culinary culture in South Asian countries. In this installment, we explore the Biryani culture in Dhaka.
In Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, the anarchic traffic congestion along the city's major roads gives you the opportunity to observe the street food shops. The aroma of their spicy Biryani, which is very popular and easy to find, will allure you!
The inclusion of Biryani as a Bengali dish dates back to only a few centuries. Bangladesh, a low-lying country in the fertile Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta region, has cultivated rice for the last 5,000 years. The rice produced from the land, combined with the fish from the numerous rivers that crisscross the country, earned its residents a nickname that stuck: the “fish and rice-rich Bengalis”.
Over time and as the region passed through the hands of various invaders — including a period of Mughal rule in the greater Indian subcontinent — many foods were added to Bengal's culinary culture. Mughal food, known as Mughlai cuisine, is part of this rich heritage, and its standout dish is the Biryani of Dhaka.
In 1610, after the Mughal rulers declared Dhaka as the provincial capital, Mughal subedars (equivalent to British captains) and other high officials arrived in Dhaka to manage the administration. Most came from Lucknow in present-day India, bringing personal cooks with them. While many subedars were subsequently transferred from Dhaka, some of the cooks remained, keeping the Biriyani culture alive in Dhaka by opening shops and allowing the Mughal diet to flourish. It gradually fused with Dhaka's local cuisine, creating a unique taste, winning the hearts of ordinary people and slowly becoming a regular part of their diet.
Biryani is a trademark dish in Bangladesh capital Dhaka city. Biryani shops are found all over the city. Photo: Author.
If you are asked to name a few signature foods of Dhaka City, Kachchi (raw) Biryani would be at the top of the list. In any social event, even if it's just a small gathering, once the food is being served Biryani will be on the menu. In Dhaka, the preferred Biryani brand is Hajir Biryani, which was created in 1939. Its unique characteristic is that it is cooked using mustard oil (instead of the traditional ghee or butter oil), and mutton is used as meat.
Jhunur Biryani is another famous Biryani brand in Dhaka, but it is cooked with chicken meat. Shah Saheb's Biriyani, Nanna Biryani and Fakhruddin's Kachchi are equally popular foodie brands.
When Canadian YouTuber and food video blogger Trevor James visited Bangladesh recently, he tasted the Dhaka brands Haji Biriyani and Nanna Biryani and praised them immensely.
Traditional Biryani meat recipes use mutton, beef or chicken, but in the “fish and rice-rich Bengali” country, Biryani is also cooked with prawns or even catfish. There is also vegetarian Biryani, and the custom of Hajir Biryani is to sell it in containers made of jackfruit leaves.
Biryani is basically cooked in one of two ways. In Pakki Biriyani, meat, and rice are cooked separately, then placed in layers for roasting. To make Kachi Biryani, mutton is marinated with yogurt and spices overnight, then placed at the bottom of a big cooking pot. Potatoes and rice go on top of the meat and the lid of the pot is sealed with dough to make it airtight. The meat, potatoes, and rice all are cooked together over a slow fire Dum-pukht style, which helps the dish retain its natural aromas.
Hajir Biryani is usually packed in containers made of jackfruit leaves. Image by Vinegarymass911 via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0
In the blog Guruchandali, Sukanta Ghosh describes a special feature of cooking Kacchi Biryani:
বিরিয়ানী তৈরীতে নাকি তেঁতুল কাঠের আগুন লাগে- আগুনের আবার নাকি পরত থাকে । আধুনিক যন্ত্রে তাপ মেপে নয় – বিরিয়ানী তৈরী হয় আগুনের রঙ দেখে ।
The tradition is to cook biryani using the wood of Tamarind tree — the slow fire is said to have layers too. They don't use modern equipment like a thermometer for measuring the cooking temperature — the good chefs cook Biryani watching the colors of fire.
He added:
বিরিয়ানী রাঁধতে গেলে নাকি চাল ভিজিয়ে রাখতে হয় দুধের মধ্যে সারারাত। সেই দুধে একটু কেশর মেশানো থাকবে । আর যে পাত্রে বিরিয়ানী হবে সেই পাত্রের নিচের তলে তেজ পাতার একটা লেয়ার দিয়ে রাখতে হবে।
For cooking biriyani, you have to soak the rice in milk for the whole night. A little bit of saffron is added in that milk. And the bottom of the pot where Biryani would be cooked will have a layer of bay leaves.
Quite apart from the traditional rituals of Bangladeshi weddings, the main attraction at such celebrations remains the sumptuous food. Without Biryani, wedding arrangements are deemed incomplete; in fact, brides and grooms have been known to quarrel over the absence of Biryani on the wedding menu. Kachchi Biryani is the type that is typically served at wedding feasts.
Here's a peek at some Biryani recipes that are served at weddings:
For Bangladeshis, Biryani is another name for love. They never get tired of eating it, and because of its rich ingredients and spices, it is a satisfying meal that fills you quickly. In the words of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Thakur, “I have loved you hundreds of times in hundreds of ways!”
A Twitter post by Hasib Gazi echoes this sentiment:
সমুদ্র,বিরিয়ানি আর সুস্বাদু চা হলে জীবনে বাকিটা সময় একা একা কাটিয়ে দিতে পারবো! ❤
— Mohammed Hasib Gazi (Shakibian) (@hasibgazi) March 10, 2019
Watching the sea, eating biryani and drinking delicious tea — thus I can spend the rest of my life alone!
If reading this has already whet your appetite, come to Dhaka and enjoy the taste of Biryani at any one of these establishments, reputed for offering the most delicious Biriyani dishes in the city.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Hundreds gather in Nigeria to mourn professor Pius Adesanmi: ‘A juggernaut of African thought’ · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Screenshot of the concluding paragraph in “An Archaeology of Nigeria” by Pius Adesanmi via Nigerian Tribune, March 9, 2019.
It was a sober gathering — tributes, poetry and candlelight procession. On March 13, 2019, at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, hundreds gathered in honour of Pius Adesanmi, the Nigerian postcolonial scholar and poet who died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 plane crash on March 10. There were no survivors.
A tree has fallen and the birds are homeless.
Sober and very emotionally charged gathering of friends of #PiusAdesanmi in the University of Ibadan. pic.twitter.com/KZXjxcqQBY
— Nwachukwu Egbunike (@feathersproject) March 13, 2019
Observing the people who attended the memorial, Adesanmi touched each person's life that he encountered. Professor Remi Raji from the University of Ibadan asserted: “Pius has lived like a 90-year-old sage, even though he just turned 47,” in terms of his enormous impact on the world.
Adesanmi often expressed his frustration with Nigeria's almost rudderless leadership and passive citizenship. And like many who stand consistently on the side of the weak and oppressed, the propensity of losing hope is high. Reading the concluding paragraph of Adesanmi's “An Archaeology of Nigeria,” which he wrote a day before he died, it seems that he might have reached that stage.
But Adesanmi was wrong. The global outpouring of grief has shown that he did not fight in vain. His work influenced and continues to impact the lives of so many, and his legacy will thrive because his ideas resonate with so many in African academic and literary circles as well as internationally:
The Parable Of The Shower Head, One of my favorites by Prof. @pius_adesanmi RIP #PiusAdesanmi pic.twitter.com/1OIGFiBQjD
— Adeola Fayehun (@AdeolaFayehun) March 11, 2019
Friends, colleagues, fans of Adesanmi have continued to mourn his death. This is the second part of a series of tributes — shared exclusively with Global Voices — to one of Africa's finest public intellectuals.
Read more: Nigerians grieve the death of Pius Adesanmi, postcolonial scholar and public intellectual
Prof Adensami's passing is a gigantic loss not only to Nigeria and Canada, but to all of us, in every nation on our continent and the world. If there is one thing that we can do to honour him, is to remember Prof's parable of the shower head, and ensure that we as Africans do not accept mediocrity in any form, not from our leaders and certainly not from ourselves. Lala Ngoxolo [Sleep peacefully in Zulu]. — Angela Quintal, Africa Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists
L-R: Pius Adesanmi, Ayo Sogunro, Adeola Fayehun, Victor Ehikhamenor, Kola Tubosun. After a panel discussion called “Satire and Public Consciousness in Africa,” at the 2015 Ake Arts and Books Festival. Image used with permission from Kola Tubosun.
Pius Adesanmi was the antithesis to the conventional notion of a Nigerian academic. Contrary to the norm of the stuffy professor, he was energetic, self-deprecating, humorous, and willing to engage humans at different levels of literacy both online and offline. More importantly, he was a believer in popularising researched knowledge, disseminating complex thoughts in engaging and accessible ways. For me, he was an enabler and support system, a mentor who never hesitated to reference my thoughts despite his greater experience and expertise. The loss from his death cannot be exaggerated. The world has lost a rare type of human, Nigeria has lost a rare type of intellectual, and I have lost a rare type of friendship.   — Ayo Sogunro, writer and human rights lawyer
Like I noted in my tribute poem: “The paths chose you — in memory of Pius Adesanmi,” Payo, as friends fondly called him, was a friend who chose his paths. Many paths, as you can see with the diverse people who mourn and also allowed his paths to choose him. He kept fidelity to friendship, sometimes chastising of those friends he disagreed with; but all of this he did with love of humanity that his being epitomized.  — Abdul Mahmud, human right activist and lawyer
Left to Right: Okey Ndibe, Nduka Otiono and Pius Adesanmi. Photo used with permission by Okey Ndibe.
I remember Pius Adesanmi, Payo, as I called him — for his big-heartedness, his big laughter, his awe-inspiring kaleidoscopic intelligence, and his inexhaustible bag of jokes. Pius’ heart ached for a better run, humane Nigeria — a yearning that became an obsession, evident in his eloquent speeches and punditry. He was an accomplished scholar who was as versed in the discourse of several disciplines as he was in the language of the streets, the tongue of Nigeria’s—nay Africa’s—bruised humanity. Apart from his extraordinary scholarship — or, more to the point, integral to it — he was accomplished at friendship. Payo exuded a joyful humanity that was quite infectious and a delight to behold or experience. With his passing the world, for me, has become a dimmer place.   — Professor Okey Ndibe, writer and Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute at University of Nevada, Las Vegas
… One evening Pius called, he was angry and he wasn’t going to hide his angst. ‘Kilo man se iwo ati Sowore, ema lo si Nigeria eni sofun eyan, Olorun maje ka ri ko se dada?’ [Why do you and Ṣòwòrẹ́ do so, you will go to Nigeria and won't tell, may God forbid bad luck?] This was a reference to myself and Omoyele Sowore just showing up in Nigeria without letting friends and family know. Pius was of the opinion we took unnecessary risks and should at least let him know. I got the message and made it a point of duty to always inform him about my itinerary. Pius also kept to his side of the bargain.
Pius Adesanmi had no time for trivial conversations but he wanted to understand the reason behind people’s behaviour. His question usually goes like this: “Ba wo ni ore wa se wa se beyen?” [Can you explain the behaviour of our friend?] Pius wanted to get at the root of individuals’ behaviour: be it friends in government, our activist friends or his fellow writers. Pius was always at a loss why people misbehave. Pius loved Nigeria, he loved Africa. — Kayode Ogundamisi, political activist
In May 2011, I taught a seminar at Carleton University, Ottawa, where Pius Adesanmi was a professor of literature and African studies … The book I talked through with his students was Chinua Achebe’s ‘Arrow of God.’ It was Pius’ idea; he was going to be away on that day and I was the visiting lecturer taking charge of his class. He had emailed ahead to say he would tell his students that an “alejo pataki” (a very important visitor) was coming. He believed that much in me. He was generous with his intellect and scholarship, and with his art and spirit. …
Pius was that rarest of persons, his heart was filled to bursting with love and affection for those around him. He was thoughtful and insightful, brimming with kindness and decency. Had that plane not dropped out of the sky, he would have gone on to become a juggernaut of African thought. I had no doubt about this. I already had a measure of his searing intellect, his intimidating achievements. Many have spoken of his love for God and country. But Pius Adesanmi — the human being – to get a glimpse of that was a special privilege, indeed. — Molara Wood, writer, journalist and critique

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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‘Racism is the shackles holding back our Republic,’ says Brazilian anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. Photo: Leonor Calasans/University of São Paulo, used with permission.
In Brazil, nearly 72 percent of homicide victims are black, according to 2018 statistics. In 2016, the total number of violent deaths reached 61.283. This staggering figure is equivalent to the average yearly number of deaths in war-torn Syria, as anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz points out in her efforts to highlight the issue of racism in her country.
A professor at the University of São Paulo and Global Scholar at Princeton University, Moritz Schwarcz is a leading Brazilian historian and anthropologist who is widely acclaimed for flashing out the legacy of Brazil's slavery past.
Her extensive body of work includes an 808-page “biography” of Brazil spanning 500 years of history, which she co-wrote with Heloisa Starling, and a popular YouTube channel where she delves into the country's most pressing contemporary issues. Her new book, about the historical roots of Brazil's authoritarianism, will come out in May 2019.
While Austrian author Stefan Zweig marveled, as he traveled in 1936 in the northeastern part of the country, at the country's “racial democracy” in his essay “Brazil: Land of the future”, Schwarcz has shown how the wounds of around 400 years of slavery are still open today.
A recent reminder of Brazil's racial problem happened on February 14 when a security guard killed an unarmed black teen at a supermarket, in Rio de Janeiro. The incident was recorded on a mobile phone and shared widely on social media.
To understand how racism was constructed in Brazil, and how it remains rooted in society, Global Voices interviewed Moritz Schwarcz over the phone. The below interview was lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Global Voices: As soon as the news of a black teen murdered by a security guard in a supermarket spread, part of the public complained that the case didn’t have the same reaction as when a dog was beaten to death, also at a supermarket, in December. How can this be explained?
Moritz Schwarcz: Está gerando, eu vi muita reação. Eu acho que o que explica a pouca reação por parte de alguns setores é isso que chamamos de racismo estrutural. A gente chama de racismo estrutural porque ele pode ser percebido na área da saúde, na área da educação, na área da moradia, do transporte, do lazer, nos índices de mortalidade. Um racismo que é de fato estrutural, ele é tão enraizado, que ele passa a ser naturalizado pela sociedade, no sentido de que a sociedade não se comove mais. Dito isso, acho que estamos mudando. Acho que não são mais tão invisíveis como eram.
Moritz Schwarcz: I’ve seen many reactions to it. I think that what explains the subdued reaction of certain parts of the public is what we call structural racism. We call it structural racism because we perceive it in public health, education, housing, transport, leisure, as well as in death rates. A racism that is in fact structural is so rooted that society naturalized it, in the sense that it is no longer moved [by racist acts]. Having said that, I think we are changing. I think those issues are not as invisible as they used to be.
GV: Do you mean naturalizing in the sense that Brazilian society creates narratives that justify violence against the victims?
Moritz Schwarcz: Nós sabemos que temos índices de violência contra jovens negros nas periferias, como é o caso que vimos agora, de genocídio. Eu faço uma comparação em um livro que vou publicar em maio. Os índices de morte no Brasil são índices da guerra na Síria. O que é a invisibilidade? A população brasileira já pensa: olha, essa pessoa, com essa idade, com esse cabelo, com essa cor, já explica tudo. Não explica! É dessa maneira que a naturalização age. Você acha que é tão natural, que não é preciso nenhuma comoção mais forte. Esse é o lado perverso desse racismo estrutural.
Moritz Schwarcz: We do know that we have violence rates against young black people living in urban outskirts that compare to genocide. I make this comparison in a book I’m going to publish next May. The death rates in Brazil today are the same as those of Syria during the war. What is the invisibility? [It's when] the Brazilian population thinks: look, it's a person with this age, and this hair type, and this skin color, so the explanation is obvious. But it's not! That's how internalization acts. You think it's so natural [that a black person will be murdered], that there's no need for a stronger comotion. That's the most cruel side of sctructural racism.
Moritz Schwarcz: O Brasil foi o último país a abolir a escravidão nas Américas, depois de Estados Unidos, Cuba, e Porto Rico. Se pensarmos que recebemos quase metade dos africanos e africanas que saíram do seu continente de origem, se pensarmos que a escravidão estava tão disseminada que não havia território no Brasil onde não tivesse escravos, a gente vai pensando que um sistema que pressupõe a posse de uma pessoa por outra pessoa já produz uma sociedade muito violenta. Violenta por parte dos senhores, que compunham uma minoria que tinha de oprimir e controlar uma maioria, e também por parte dos escravizados e escravizadas. Desde a época da escravidão, o Estado criou aparatos de repressão às manifestações dessas populações. Nós sabemos que a polícia dá mais flagrantes em negros, quer dizer, as batidas se dão sobretudo com negros. Não vemos negros circularem em alguns espaços de sociabilidade brancos. Eles são abordados em shoppings. O fato de não repararmos que existem espaços de sociabilidade distintos, são facetas disso que chamamos de racismo estrutural.
Moritz Schwarcz: Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery [in 1888], after the United States, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. If we think that we have received half of the African men and women that were taken from their original continent, if we think that slavery was so widespread that there was not a single territory in Brazil without slaves, we realize that a system in which a person is entitled to own another, in itself will produce a very violent society. Violent on the part of the slave owners, a minority who had to oppress and control a majority, and also on the part of the enslaved people. Since the slavery days, the state has come up with tools to repress the expression of those populations. We know that the police is more likely to arrest black people. We don't see black people circulate in white social spaces. Black people are stopped and frisked in shopping malls. The fact that we, white people, don’t notice the existence of different social environments, is an aspect of what we call structural racism.
GV: What is unique with racism as it is experienced in Brazil?
Moritz Schwarcz: O fato de o Brasil ter convivido por tantos anos com um sistema que foi abolido com uma lei curta e conservadora, que não previu a inclusão [dos negros libertados]. Isso criou uma espécie de racismo à brasileira que, todos os racismos são ruins, mas o nosso acomoda a ideia de inclusão cultural com absoluta exclusão social. Isso também fez com que os brasileiros dissessem, durante muito tempo, que aqui não havia preconceito, que vivíamos em uma espécie de democracia racial, quando acontecia o oposto. Esse tipo de preconceito retroativo produz mais dificuldades no que se refere à construção de movimentos sociais, de inclusão, de sociedade, porque se supõe que não existe o preconceito.
Moritz Schwarcz: The fact that Brazil has had, for so many years, a system that was abolished with such a succint and conservative law, one that didn't provide for the social inclusion [of the newly-fred black people], created a kind of a racism that is particular to Brazil. All racisms are bad, but ours rests on the idea of cultural inclusion with absolute social exclusion. This has led many Brazilians to believe, for a very long time, that there was no prejudice here, that we lived under a sort of racial democracy, when the exact opposite was happening. This kind of denial makes it difficult to build social movements for inclusion because supposedly there is no prejudice.
GV: We are now entering a new context, with a new government that is proposing an anti-crime package of bills that, according to experts, will allow the authorities to treat some communities even more poorly. On the other hand, the government endorses the “we are all equal” rhetoric.
Moritz Schwarcz: Essa ideia da igualdade universal só existe se partisse do mesmo patamar. O que não existe. É preciso que existam políticas de ação afirmativa, que não são para sempre, mas a ideia é que é preciso desigualar para depois igualar. Como é que em um país que é campeão em desigualdade social, em concentração de renda, de terra, como você transporta um conceito se a situação é absolutamente distinta? O Brasil entrou tarde na discussão dos direitos civis, no final dos anos 1970, começo dos anos 1980, graças ao ativismo negro, indígena, das mulheres, das mulheres negras, que mostram que é balela legislar igualdade em um país tão desigual quanto o Brasil.
Moritz Schwarcz: That idea of universal equality is only real if everyone started at the same level. That doesn’t exist. It’s necessary to have affirmative action policies, that are not meant to last forever, but we need to treat things unequally before we can treat them equally. How can you introduce such a concept to a country that is the champion of social inequality, of land and income concentration? Brazil entered the debate of civil rights very late, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, thanks to black, indigenous, women, and black women activists, who have shown that is foolish to legislate equality in such an unequal country like Brazil.
GV: And how do you see these issues in light of the government’s package to fight crime?
Moritz Schwarcz: O país é muito violento, não só contra negros, mas que pratica feminicídio, campeão em estupros. É um país onde a violência se apresenta de uma forma disseminada. Acho que esse foi um governo eleito em cima do clamor correto dos brasileiros por mais segurança, por menos violência. Se de um lado é preciso isso, é preciso tomar muito cuidado com o tipo de medida que vai se estabelecer. Eu não sou especialista nessa área, mas a ideia da livre defesa, em um país como o nosso, num país em que um dos grandes medos da população é a polícia, segundo pesquisa recente, que tem números da população encarcerada imensos, não se pode legislar sobre a violência sem pensar com que país você está lidando.
Moritz Schwarcz: Brazil is a very violent country and not only against black people, it also leads in femicide and rape rates. It’s a country where violence is widespread. I think this government was elected on the basis of a justified claim for more safety, less violence. We do need proposals containing the levels of violence we have now, so that Brazilians can go out in the streets safely. However, it is paramount to be careful with what kind of policies we'll adopt. I'm not an expert in this area, but the idea of free self-defense, in a country like ours, in a country where the population deeply fears the police, as a recent study has shown, a country that has an immense incarcerated population, one cannot legislate about violence without considering the kind of country one's dealing with.
GV: Is there a way we can change how Brazilian society perceives black lives?
Moritz Schwarcz: Claro que tem que ser respeitado o lugar de fala, mas acho que a sociedade brasileira também precisa de grupos brancos contra o racismo, porque é uma questão da vida brasileira. Transformar esses episódios em episódios politicamente relevantes é um papel que cabe a todos nós. Evitar que eles caiam no véu do obscurecimento, de uma sociedade que costuma baixar o véu sob essas questões. Acho que esse é um papel de todos nós.
Moritz Schwarcz: Of course we must respect the place from where each individual speaks, but I think Brazilian society also needs white groups taking a stand against racism, because this is a matter of Brazilian life. To transform those episodes in politically relevant episodes is a something that we should all do. [We must] keep them from sinking into oblivion, as a society that usually covers up these issues. I think this is a role that we all have to play.
GV: Can we do this regarding Pedro Henrique‘s death?
Moritz Schwarcz: Eu penso que sim, penso que estamos conseguindo finalmente dar visibilidade a esse problema. Penso que não existe sociedade democrática com racismo. O racismo é uma trava à nossa República, uma trava forte. Quanto mais a população brasileira, de forma geral, reagir a esses episódios de violência, quanto mais politizar esses crimes, melhor para todos nós.
Moritz Schwarcz: I think so, I think we are finally giving visibility to this problem. I think there can be no democratic society when you have racism. Racism is the shackles restraining our Republic, and they're very tough shackles. The more the Brazilian population reacts to violent episodes, the better for all of us.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Hopeful Armenian students make video about studying abroad · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

Photo for illustrative purposes only. Used on Chai-Khana.org.
The following is a story by Chai-Khana.org and is republished by Global Voices under a partnership agreement. Text and video by Christina Soloyan and Davit Avetisyan.
Student migration has become a trend, a positive consequence of globalization. In this experimental documentary, young Armenian professionals filmed their routine while they study abroad, documenting the struggles and the new opportunities they experience in their host countries. The students speak about their lives in a foreign land and their expectations for the future, when they return to Armenia.


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Abandoned church construction site bears testimony to waning Russian influence in North Macedonia · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The construction site of the Holy Trinity Church, near Hotel Russia and Jane Sandanski sports complex, all developed by Samsonenko's companies. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.
The business empire of a Russian tycoon in North Macedonia, built largely on political connections with the former government, seems to be going through a slump — at least if an abandoned church construction site in the capital Skopje is any indication.
Sergei Samsonenko, originally from Rostov-on-Don in Russia, owns a plethora of businesses in the Balkan country, from betting parlors to hotel and construction firms, although he is most famous for the ownership of Macedonia's biggest football club, FK Vardar, and the male and female versions of Vardar Handball club. Samsonenko has promised to sell them in 2017 but hasn't fulfilled his words thus far.
His fortune seems to have waned since the Russia-backed political party VMRO-DPMNE lost the 2016 elections after ruling for a decade. The right-wing populist government combined a particular brand of Macedonian nationalism with an Orthodox Christian identity. The party is so intertwined with the church that its statute even has a clause establishing that, in an event of a dissolution, all its properties would go to the Macedonian Orthodox Church — Ohrid Archbishopric, or MOC-OA.
Research by the Investigative Reporting Lab, a Macedonian outlet that is part of the non-profit, cross-national network The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), revealed that Samsonenko's businesses experienced a boom after he donated 1,8 million euros (over two million US dollars) to MOC-OA. This money allegedly financed the construction of a Russian-style church in the municipality of Aerodrom, in the capital Skopje.
But according to a report by local news site Ako.mk, construction of the Holy Trinity Church, as it's called, ceased in 2016 — shortly before the VMRO-DPMNE was voted out of power. The last residents of the site seem to have been two guard dogs who went without food for days, and their howling disturbed the neighborhood. Without supervision, the left-over building material has been gradually removed by thieves.
Call for donations with a model of the unfinished church kept in nearby Hotel Russia. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.
The church's foundation stone ceremony took place in June 2014. It was attended by the Russian ambassador and high Macedonian government officials, notably the then-Secret Service Chief Sasho Mijalkov. A first-cousin of then-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Mijalkov was considered to be one of the most powerful men of the previous government.
According to the Investigative Reporting Lab, soon after Samsonenko's generous donation to MOC-OA, local authorities granted him a 35-year concession to rebuild and then operate a local public sports center. The center was then upgraded with a new hotel named “Russia”. The municipality facilitated the concession by changing zoning laws, in addition to waiving communal taxes associated with the construction of the sports center, the hotel, and the church.
Investigative Reporting Lab's research revealed that, in 2015, the Samsonenko's company that had donated to the church turned a profit of around 747 thousand euros (around 840 thousand US dollars). And an investigation conducted by independent outlet NovaTV during that year alleged that some of the capital related to Samsonenko's investments moved through shell companies from Cyprus and Belize, which in turn were also connected to other cronies of the regime.
The church site is now abandoned — just like its website, which displays no recent news and is full of unfinished sections. Incidentally, the website doesn't list Samsonenko in the list of donors. Instead, it cites Father Metodij or Mefodii, a Macedonian priest living in Russia who briefly became internet-famous in 2012 after trying (and awkwardly failing) to kiss Vladimir Putin's hand while on camera.
Construction site of the Holy Trinity Church in Skopje. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.
Meanwhile, investigations on the corruption of the former ruling VMRO-DPMNE, which has helped Samsonenko's businesses to thrive, have resulted in several politicians being sentenced in court. That includes the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary in November 2018 in order to avoid a two-year prison sentence. His cousin, former Secret Service Chief Sasho Mijalkov, was sentenced last week to three years in prison for election fraud.
Samsonenko has not been publicly mentioned as a target of such investigations so far. Vardar, the football club which he owns, narrowly avoided suspension from UEFA at the end of January after he paid outstanding debts, including payroll obligations. In February, after the team suffered a controversial defeat, Samsonenko again announced that he will sell the club.
Regarding the Vardar Handball Club, in December Samsonenko said he will remain owner until 2020. The team is a national champion and has good international standing, including winning the European Handball League during 2016-17 season.
Vardar ultras, a hooligan group supportive of VMRO-DPMNE, have played a prominent role in the June 2018 unrest following signature of the agreement between Greece and Macedonia that allowed the latter to join NATO and the European Union as long as it changed its name to North Macedonia.
Similar unrest against the agreement took place in Greece, where another Russian tycoon from Rostov-on-Don, Ivan Savvidis, owns a big football club — in this case, Thessaloniki's PAOK. Another story by OCCRP alleges Savvidis funded Macedonian opponents of the name change, including the football hooligans who have rioted in Skopje. Savvidis denies it.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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As India grapples with climate change, youth groups and startups scout for greener solutions · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Villagers making clay jewellery in Nadsur village in Maharashtra, India. Image by Karishma V. Used with permission
Many Indians, especially in rural areas, are facing the adverse impacts of climate change amid the country's efforts to lower its carbon emissions and switch to renewable sources of energy. This is exacerbated by high-levels of man-made pollution, rapid industrialization, and environmental damage. As students across the world rally seeking better policies to combat climate change, this author spoke to Indian farmers, experts, youth-led groups and social entrepreneurs who are innovating ways to tackle climate change.
A 2018  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has warned of disastrous consequences if current global warming trends are not reversed, with its implications being severe for South Asian nations including India and Pakistan, which are already facing the loss of forest cover, rising temperatures, heat waves that claimed thousands of lives and an increasing sea level. India, with a long coastline, is particularly vulnerable as millions depend on the sea for a livelihood and live near the coastal zones.
India is under pressure to mitigate climate change by controlling deadly emissions. But it will also need to adapt to increased water scarcity, droughts, floods, cyclone, and other natural disasters to prevent premature deaths, United Nations said in its report.  The report titled ‘Global Environment Outlook‘ describes a growing chasm between rich and poor countries with regards to hunger, diseases, and pollution.
An Indian farmer looks at her farm produce in the western state of Maharashtra, often beset by droughts. Photographer: Karishma v. Used with permission
For 44-year-old Indian farmer Sunil Patil, climate change is a severe problem that has destroyed his crops with unseasonal rains, hailstorms, and pollution. Owning a 22-acre land in India's western state of Maharashtra, Patil says climate change has reduced his revenue, affected the environment and made him poorer as he struggles to get his children educated. I spoke to Patil, a second generation farmer:
I've completely stopped producing sugarcane as it is water-dependent and we have droughts in Nashik (region) and agriculture is akin to playing gamble with nature and has led to losses for many farmers. We keep looking for solutions but they are temporary and the government needs to educate us first on how to tackle increasing temperatures or avoid using too many chemicals.
When social entrepreneur Akansha Singh went to a tiny hamlet, Jhabua in India's state of Madhya Pradesh, she was exposed to the social and economic inequalities in India's hinterlands. Farmers who were already beset by climate change were using higher concentrations of pesticides and fertilizers with hopes for better yield output. Their actions had an unwarranted impact on the local soil.
An Indian woman from Maharashtra working in her paddy fields. Photographer: Karishma V. Used with permission
Singh, who spoke to this author, said she witnessed how villagers used cow dung cakes for cooking thereby inhaling toxic gases and polluting the environment. To break this cycle, she established Swayambhu, a social enterprise that built biogas plants, to offer cheaper fuel and bio-electricity, biofertilizers, and biopesticides to reverse the ecological damage. According to Singh:
India is rich in feedstock but lags in producing biogas but imports natural gas and other polluting fuels. At every stage, we created awareness amongst villagers trying to reduce their carbon footprint, bring down levels of methane gas and offer them cleaner sources of electricity, fuel.
Singh says using biofertilizers helped these farmers to have better crop while also slowly reversing the pH levels of soil.
P Sainath, founder of People's Archives of Rural India (PARI) told this author:
Indian farmers are seriously affected by climate change across multiple geographies. The situation is pretty serious and there has been an extreme increase in weather episodes in the last fifteen years. We can't blame nature as what humans have done to the soil, groundwater, forests is having a damaging impact.
India, with 1.3 billion people has a large proportion of youngsters but lack of employment, awareness of climate change and tardy government initiatives are causing harm to the environment. This has created a lacuna that youth-networks are hoping to fill.
To create awareness about climate change, New Delhi-based NGO Youth For Climate Change (IYCN) holds workshops, campaigns and is currently trying to mobilize regional teams as problems associated with climate change intensify across India's hinterlands affecting farmers, tribals and urban centers alike. Manish Gautam of IYCN told this author:
In our workshops, we try to include basic climate science jargons, explain COP [Conference of the Parties] negotiations and involve more youngsters. In 2014, we had conducted nine workshops on climate change and youth survey as well.
Gautam continues:
We are planning more initiatives, workshops and collaborating with many organizations. But, youth participation in India needs to be more and on a larger scale as our problems are much more complex.
Large-scale innovative solutions
India, a developing economy with fewer resources and a huge population needs to invest $1 trillion to address its climate change goals, reports say. While the colossal figures are an indicator of the problem, other startups are using new technologies to convert Indian capital New Delhi's nightmare smog problem into an innovative solution.
Chakr innovations, a New Delhi based startup is turning smog and air pollutants into ink and has capitalized on smoke-belching machines to capture up to 90 per cent of harmful pollutants.
Another Indian company, Selco India has added to the country's existing solar capacity by offering solar-powered lanterns, lights, microgrids, and stoves to rural citizens with a view to building sustainable sources of energy that reduce pollution.
Millions of Indians have no access to cleaner sources of energy and lack financial support to make the transition, Sarah Alexander, senior adviser at Selco Foundation said.
We're hoping to increase the resilience of people to tackle climate change and also offering efficient sources of energy. This will impact their overall well-being.
Another startup, Let's Recycle ia using an innovative program to identify waste generation and collection pattern in India's western state of Gujarat and bringing hundreds of rag-pickers into the formal economy while emphasizing on recycling. As per Sandip Patel, the CEO of Nepra and Let's Recycle:
We use technology to map waste generation pattern across Ahmedabad and are focusing on recycling efficiently. With this, we hope to tackle climate change and expand across India.
While the task of tackling climate change and educating citizens about its impact is huge for India, these groups and startups are doing their innovative bit to address the crucial issues.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


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‘Blood feud’ against Chechen blogger is the culmination of a months-long, unusually frank conversation about a buried past · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Exiled blogger Tumso Abdurakhmanov in a debate with Magomed Daudov, the speaker of Chechnya's parliament. YouTube screenshot, captured by Runet Echo.
On March 12, several Russian news outlets, following by a few North American publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, reported that a top Chechen official declared a “blood feud” against a dissident Chechen blogger in exile in Poland. The blogger in question, Tumso Abdurakhmanov, told AP he was taking the threat “seriously.”
There’s no reason he shouldn’t: the Chechen official, known by his nom de guerre Lord, real name Magomed Daudov, is a former guerilla warlord who switched sides and now supports the Russian government. He reportedly directed the “gay purge” in the strictly Islamic republic, among other things on his less-than-stellar human rights record.
Abdurakhmanov, 32, is no democrat himself. He is a self-described follower of Salafism, a strictly traditional school of Islam, and committed to the failed cause of Ichkeria, the short-lived interwar Chechen proto-state.
The blogger rose to public prominence in 2015, when while driving on a road in Grozny, Chechnya's capital, he supposedly failed to give way to the cavalcade of Islam Kadyrov. The cousin of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s all-powerful ruler, Islam Kadyrov holds various official titles, including the mayor of Grozny for three years. Abdurakhmanov claims Islam Kadyrov confiscated his phone by force and confronted him about the anti-Ramzan Kadyrov and anti-Putin caricatures, videos, and other content from his blog.
Abdurakhmanov, as he described it to reporters, was taken to be questioned by Islam Kadyrov and senior Islamic clerics who accused him of being “hardened Wahhabi.” Following that episode, the blogger fled the country and eventually landed in Poland, where he is currently fighting extradition to Russia. He is sought by Russian anti-terrorist authorities who accuse him of being a member of an “illegal armed group” fighting in Syria — a charge that Abdurakhmanov vocally denies.
While in exile, Tumso Abdurakhmanov took to YouTube to air his anger about Ramzan Kadyrov and his associates, whom he labels as “traitors” to the nation for abandoning the cause of Ichkeria and Chechen independence while swearing loyalty to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Magomed Daudov has long been the target of Tumso’s video missives, enough for the Chechen official to one day call Abdurakhmanov on Whatsapp — in full knowledge that the recording would be made public — and proceed to have a 3-hour conversation with the blogger.
Abdurakhmanov did indeed immediately upload the three hours of tense exchanges in Chechen and occasional Russian, in several parts, to his YouTube channel. The first part attracted 2,5 million views at the time of writing — an astonishing number, given that only 1,2 million people live in the republic of Chechnya. Abdurakhmanov's channel, which goes under the nickname Abu Saddam Shishani, has almost 50,000 subscribers.
Soon thereafter, other senior cadres in Ramzan Kadyrov’s tightly run “royal” court (they refer to Kadyrov as “pachchakh” in Chechen, meaning “padeshah”, or king in Persian) also rang Tumso Abdurakhmanov, knowing that they would be asked tough questions and even insulted in full view of an online audience of millions.
In conversations watched over 3 million times on YouTube, conducted mostly in Chechen with Russian subtitles, Abdurakhmanov and Daudov engage in surprisingly frank debates about Chechnya and Russia’s recent past, the wars that annihilated the small republic and its population and the subsequent restoration under the Kadyrov family rule.
What seems to have stung Daudov the most was Abdurakhmanov’s reference to the fact that the official shares the noble title of the Hero of the Russian Federation with a Russian army general universally reviled in Chechnya for his brutal counterinsurgency campaigns:
Есть такой генерал Шаманов — он Герой России. И ты Герой России. Когда ты эту медаль надеваешь, тебе от себя не воняет?
There is a general called Shamanov — he’s a Hero of Russia. And you are a Hero of Russia. When you’re wearing this medal, can you feel your own stink?
Alexander Chernykh, a reporter for the newspaper Kommersant, notes in his run-down of the online debates that Daudov briefly hesitates, as if he’s never actually asked himself: how indeed did it come to this?
Seemingly at the end of his patience, Daudov responded with a video of his own, where he accused Abdurakhmanov of tarnishing the memory of Akhmat Kadyrov, Ramzan’s father and the first president of the post-war Chechen Republic, assassinated in the capital Grozny in 2004.
What Daudov said then (“blood feud”) is the matter of some linguistic debate. Media outlets focused on the North Caucasus say the term only applies to narrowly defined circumstances of blood revenge, that one family wages on another, for the murder of one of its own. Since this is not relevant in Daudov and Abdurakhmanov’s case, experts say the latter is unlikely to be targeted in a vendetta, although he still must be in considerable danger, given the brutal end of many of the regime's public enemies.
In a subsequent op-ed on the subject, Alexander Chernykh also notes that those heated exchanges provide a rare glimpse into painful and conflicted issues that are burning hot in today’s Chechnya, ten years after the official conclusion of the Second Chechen War. The wounds of war are still fresh in the North Caucasus, but public debates about its consequences are extremely rare.
Most Chechens are still too traumatised to talk about the war, especially to publicly seek answers to questions like: how should we treat those who fought for independent Ichkeria, then switched sides to join the federal military? Are wartime field commanders such as Shamil Basayev hero rebels, or terrorists?
While both Chechen and Russian popular media and societies are busy containing the tender memories of a recent past, the pain surfaces in uncensored online debates watched by millions.


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Caribbean Airlines doesn’t fly Boeing’s 737 MAX, but travellers are still asking questions · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

A Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, the same model involved in crashes of Ethiopian Airlines (March 10, 2019) and Lion Air (October 29, 2018). Photo by Liam Allport, CC BY 2.0.
When the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 went down just outside the country's capital, Addis Ababa, on March 10, 2019, it was the second Boeing 737 MAX crash in five months. In October 2018, a Lion Air flight crashed into the ocean off Indonesia just minutes after takeoff. In both cases, there were no survivors.
The accidents have raised concerns about the integrity of the jet's design and software, with many international aviation authorities taking measures to suspend the MAX from operating in their airspace.
On March 12, two days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration tweeted that its review of the jet “shows no systemic performance issues and provides no basis to order grounding the aircraft”:
UPDATED #FAA Statement regarding @Boeing 737 MAX. pic.twitter.com/HxObBr7qRf
— The FAA (@FAANews) March 12, 2019
By the following day, it had updated its position, ordering the temporary grounding of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft “as a result of the data gathering process and new evidence collected at the site […] together with newly refined satellite data available to FAA this morning.”
The grounding remains in effect pending further investigation, which would include analysis of the aircraft’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders. None of this, however, seems to be doing much to reassure Caribbean travellers, whose concern hinges around the fact that Caribbean Airlines (CAL), the third largest carrier serving the Caribbean and Central America, had previously announced its intention to lease this model of jet.
Following the Ethiopian Airlines crash, the Trinidad Express published a story titled “CAL’s plan to lease 12 jets causing panic”, which no longer appears to be available online. Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, responded to the report via a statement dated March 12:
The first Boeing 737 MAX 8 is scheduled for delivery in December 2019 and CAL therefore has ample time to make alternative arrangements is this model is found to be unsafe.
Calling the article “alarmist”, Imbert noted that American Airlines uses the same aircraft “to service its flights in and out of Trinidad every day” and “if passengers were really panicking, then they would certainly be concerned about travelling […] on an airline which already has the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in regular service”.
The following day, Trinidad and Tobago's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) prohibited both the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 from its airspace until they are deemed safe for use. The newspaper interpreted this as some sort of vindication — but that spat aside, what exactly is the issue with the 737 MAX?
Judging from the similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes, the challenge appears to lie within the aircraft's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).
In this system, there is a sensor designed to detect when the plane stalls. This type of “stalling” has nothing to do with the engine; it means that the aircraft is not producing the lift needed for regular flight. This happens when the wing of the plane exceeds what is called its “angle of attack” — and in the Boeing MAX 8, the system responds by automatically pushing the nose of the plane down to get airflow back over the wing and prevent the stall.
In this Skillshare YouTube video (15:52), a pilot explains why the MCAS system is crucial “to help the pilots in that very particular situation where you're sitting with a high angle of attack, a low speed, with the flaps up — and manual flight — to get the nose down …”
Boeing originally touted this new 737 model as a “seamless” upgrade from its older planes — one that would spare airlines the significant cost of retraining. In earlier Boeing jet models, the cockpit crew is trained to disconnect the stabiliser trim and manually fly the plane should this occur; this involves flipping two switches.
In the MAX 8, the pilot still has the ability to disconnect the automation and regain control of the aircraft, but several international pilots who have flown this model complained about a lack of information from Boeing. However, no definitive conclusions can — or should — be drawn about the integrity of the aircraft until the report into the Ethiopian Airlines crash is made public.
While Boeing has increased the dependence on computerised flight in an effort to make aviation safer and reduce the workload of pilots, erroneous information and faulty readings relating to the angle of attack — as may be happening with its 737 MAX 8 — can make pilots’ jobs more difficult.
The general feeling from industry experts within the region is that Boeing will deal with the issue by making modifications to the design and increasing the level of training. Caribbean Airlines has issued a statement that notes, among other things, its impeccable safety record, that it “does not fly the Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft” and that “if the Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft fails to meet any of the very stringent requirements, it will not, and in fact cannot be added to the fleet”.

author: Flora Thomas


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Cyclone leaves trail of devastation in Zimbabwe and throughout Southern Africa · Global Voices
Kudzai Chimhangwa

Cyclone Idai devastates Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa with massive flooding, rocks, and mudslides. Image of flooding in Mozambique, shared widely on social media.
Tropical Cyclone Idai has left a devastating trail of destruction and death after sweeping through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in Southern Africa.
At least 162 people have lost their lives so far in the devastating storm across region. In Mozambique, the city of Beira has been nearly entirely wiped out.
#UPDATE A cyclone that slammed into Mozambique last week has damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the city of #Beira, the Red Cross says, as the death toll in the country and neighbouring Zimbabwe rose to 157 https://t.co/vZYLj71n4A #CycloneIdai pic.twitter.com/LiWR2MWIsY
— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 18, 2019
This is a map of where the cyclone hit:
Sofala, Manica, Zambezia and Inhambane provinces in #Mozambique have been hardest hit by #CycloneIdai
Initial reports indicate significant damage to Beira and surrounding areas, including destroyed houses.https://t.co/dAj2RpQKar pic.twitter.com/1eTv9wdmso
— OCHA Southern & Eastern Africa (@UNOCHA_ROSEA) March 16, 2019
At least 89 people have died in Zimbabwe alone, amid fears of a higher figure, in Manicaland's Chimanimani district, located 406 kilometers east of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, as homes and bridges were swept away by a tropical storm that began on Friday.
Some people still attempt to cross this bridge in Chimanimani #Zimbabwe despite the danger
Cyclone #Idai pic.twitter.com/sVC6dDW6jr
— harumutasa/aljazeera (@harumutasa) March 17, 2019
More than 300 people are missing according to the government.
The United Nations in Zimbabwe said that more than 8,000 people have been affected by the flooding in the eastern parts of the country.
“Sadly lives have been lost and properties destroyed,” United Nations Zimbabwe said in a tweet:
#UN in #Zimbabwe is on the ground in Chimanimani district and other areas to support ~8,000ppl affected by flooding & landslides caused by #Cycloneidai. Sadly, lives have been lost & properties destroyed. Please take heed to SMS & media alerts by Civil Protection
— UN Zimbabwe (@UNZimbabwe) March 16, 2019
According to the government, Cyclone Idai hit the Ngangu Township are in Chimanimani the hardest where most lives were lost. Over a hundred houses were damaged by falling mud and rocks.
The storm originated in the Indian Ocean and led to a torrential rainstorm which commenced in Mozambique on Thursday, with wind speeds of about 160 kilometers per hour, reportedly causing ocean waves of up to 9 meters high.
We have no idea how much damage Cyclone Idai has caused – human and otherwise – especially in the area around Beira. Roads are blocked, power lines are down, cell phones are offline. It could be much worse than we know so far. https://t.co/sOpkTvbZ6W
— Simon Allison (@simonallison) March 18, 2019
The police and military have been deployed to assist in the evacuation of victims.
Visibility, according to the Information ministry, has significantly improved and this will help airforce helicopters to evacuate more people.
The Airforce of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe National Army are on the ground saving lives.
President @edmnangagwa has deployed an Elite Team from the ZDF, CIO & other security forces to deliver aid & rescue victims of Cyclone Idai
Military Engineers will also assist in rebuilding pic.twitter.com/5D35YO7RRx
— Kudzai Mutisi (@KMutisi) March 17, 2019
Local government minister July Moyo said that bodies are currently being seen floating in rivers and nothing much can be done at the moment.
Roads, bridges and telephones are currently cut off and hundreds of homes destroyed.
Country director for the International Red Cross (IRC) Zimbabwe Paolo Cernuschi said the IRC teams in Zimbabwe are trying to reach communities affected by the cyclone but the infrastructure damage is severe and the teams couldn't reach Chimanimani or Chipinge.
“Urgent road repairs in progress so we will try again in the morning,” said Cernuschi.
Our @theIRC teams here in #Zimbabwe are trying to reach the communities affected by #CycloneIDAI but the infrastructure damage is severe and our teams couldn’t reach Chimanimani nor Chipinge. Urgent road repairs in progress, so we’ll try again in the morning. pic.twitter.com/82VZATHION
— Paolo Cernuschi (@PaoloCernuschi) March 17, 2019
The Zimbabwe government held an inter-ministerial committee on Sunday morning and subsequently set up 10 subcommittees to deal with hard-hit areas.
Committees will deal with areas related to food security, resource mobilization, safety and shelter, transport, water and sanitation among other critical areas.
An official with the Meteorological Services Department said that the cyclone has weakened greatly and shifted from eastern to northeastern areas of Zimbabwe.
“Up to 200 millimeters of rainfall was recorded in Chipinge [located in eastern Zimbabwe], 118 millimeters north of Chipinge, and 102 millimeters in Buhera [southeastern Zimbabwe],” said the official.
He warned that the eastern highlands of the country should still expect floods due to the torrential rains and advised the public to avoid traveling there.
Not much precipitation was expected on Monday, with light rainfall and better weather conditions expected to commence on Monday.
Recovery efforts will be long term and relief efforts are underway.

author: Kudzai Chimhangwa


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DigiGlot Newsletter: AI innovations bring good news and bad news for indigenous and minority languages · Global Voices
Rising Voices

Photo by albyantoniazzi and used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.
There is tremendous interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that can interpret human language in various ways. Chatbots, translation software, and intelligent assistants like Siri or Alexa all depend on an understanding of how we use language.
A few weeks ago, the non-profit research company OpenAI published a paper demonstrating their new approach to computational modeling of the English language. The authors give a number of examples of computer-generated texts from their new model that they say are indistinguishable from what a human might produce. OpenAI has decided not to release the model for fear that it might be misused, e.g. to create malicious bots on Twitter or other social media platforms.
As always, this could mean both good news and bad news for indigenous and minority languages. The good news is that these models don't require any special data to train; they can be built as long as programmers have a sufficiently large collection of text in the target language (e.g. from Wikipedia). Once a model is created it can be used to develop more advanced AI technologies in that language.
A few bits of bad news: first, these models require a huge amount of text to train, many millions or billions of words, and significant computational horsepower. Second, research in this area continues to focus almost 100% on English and there are no guarantees that the same models will work as well for more complex languages. And it is always important to remember that these technologies can be used as easily to benefit the public interest as they can to facilitate data collection by technology companies. Nevertheless, we hope to see more research in this area for under-resourced languages, and eventually AI technologies that support these languages.
A centuries-old Zen riddle asks: What is the sound of one hand clapping? It is intended to free a person from their regular state of mind, in order to allow another way of thinking.
When multimedia visual artist Lena Herzog looked at the world’s linguistic biodiversity, and took measure of the alarming rate at which languages go extinct, she decided to represent endangered languages in a radically different way.
She assembled recordings of nearly or already extinct languages with drone footage of natural sites, to produce what she describes as a “45 minute-long immersive oratorio.” The result, called Last Whispers, is a haunting audio-visual journey in black and white through a forest of sounds articulated in Tehuelche, Nivkh, Nahuatl, Warlpiri, Ainu, Koyukon, Nafsan, Jul’hoan, Surel, Ongota, and Qaqet. When those languages lose their last speakers, listeners find themselves in a dead-silent forest.
First Languages Australia recently relaunched their Gambay online resource that displays preferred names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and their respective locations across the country. The word Gambay means “together” in the Butchulla language. Built on Mapbox, an open-source mapping platform, the map allows users to locate language centers that are on the front lines of language revitalization efforts, along with better options for embedding digital media from a variety of sources.
Screenshot of the Gambay map.

author: Rising Voices


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#FreeSerikjan and the long shadow of Xinjiang’s camps in neighbouring Kazakhstan · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Serikjan Bilash makes a speech at the Ata-Jurt collective's office. Screenshot from video shared by the group's YouTube channel on February 2.
Kazakhstan-based activist Serikjan Bilash has helped more than a thousand Kazakhs advocate for their loved ones who are detained or missing in neighbouring China's Xinjiang region, amid the Chinese government's crackdown against ethnic and religious minorities.
And ever since his dramatic arrest by Kazakh police on March 11, on suspicion of inciting “inter-ethnic hatred”, they have been returning the favour.
For the past week, Kazakhs have been making videos to demand the release of Bilash, whose organisation has made the Central Asian country a focal point of international reporting on Beijing's oppressive “re-education” drive in Xinjiang. A typical video with a corresponding translation is below.
Dear (President) Nursultan Nazarbayev, all Kazakh people depend on you. There are Kazakhs suffering from unjustified repression in China. This situation has lasted for more than three years. At first, there were deep frustrations. But Serikjan taught us how to legally write our complaints. He also attracted more attention from the international community. In short, I'd like you to grant him freedom.
Currently there are around 400 such videos supporting his release, many of which have been viewed over a thousand times. Most are addressed to Kazakhstan's 78-year-old strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Most of the reporting on Bilash's March 11 arrest has focussed on China's “long arm” and its potential to pressure a Central Asian neighbour that depends on it for trade and investment. Although Bilash was arrested and held by Kazakh authorities on March 11, he was put on house arrest the following day by a court in the capital Astana.
There are good reasons to believe China has been embarrassed by Bilash and his informal organisation, known as Ata-Jurt.
Ata-Jurt's campaign, mostly focused on the ethnic Kazakh population of more than 1.5 million in Xinjiang, has done much to reveal the inner workings of the police state there.
UN experts have estimated that around a million ethnic and religious minorities — mostly Uyghurs but also Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Hui — might be interned in facilities that the Chinese Communist Party recently referred to sunnily as being “like boarding schools.”
Ata-Jurt has encouraged both relatives who have loved ones missing or detained across the border in Xinjiang and people who experienced “re-education” there to speak out about their experiences.
Gene Bunin, the curator of the English-language Xinjiang Victims Database estimates that Ata-Jurt has published at least 3,000 video testimonies produced by 2,000 different testifiers.
Bilash's interviews, in turn, have been featured in dozens of internationally recognized media outlets, all of which reported on his arrest. These reports created a storm of negative PR on a scale Kazakhstan could scarcely have anticipated.
Preserving vital ties with China might be a powerful enough motive for authorities to move against Bilash. But Kazakhstan's authoritarian regime had other reasons to view him as a threat.
Bilash's charismatic public speaking and media-savvy approach to community leadership have ensured him a growing following in the last year or so, particularly among Chinese-born, naturalised Kazakh citizens like himself.
Such levels of support for an independent public figure represent a headache for a regime that is failing to tamp down growing dissatisfaction.
These nerves are betrayed by the video above, widely assumed to have been filmed and distributed by police after Bilash's arrest, which has since been subtitled into English.
In the video, the activist implores fellow Oralman (ethnic Kazakhs who have been repatriated to the country) not to participate in rallies organised by Nazarbayev's foreign-based political rival, the fugitive banker Mukhtar Ablyazov.
Since the video was filmed, he has released another statement via voice message confirming that he was pressured by investigators into denouncing Ablyazov, and that he was also told to refuse the services of his preferred lawyer.
Bilash felt uncomfortable denouncing Ablyazov, he said, because he did not know who Ablyazov was. He would be keeping his lawyer despite the pressure, he added.
Bilash's insistence that he is a one-issue activist without political ambitions makes it difficult for pro-government groups and media outlets to smear him.
A Facebook account called “Enemies of the People 2.0″ that regularly attacks opposition figures was flooded with negative comments when it attempted a clumsy hit job on Bilash, likening him to Ablyazov.
One user accused the group of “earning its Chinese money” by “tarnishing the name of a decent person.”
The incitement charges against Bilash relate to a speech he made at a gathering themed on Xinjiang last month, during which he called for a “jihad” against China and its policies in Xinjiang.
During the speech Bilash made sure to clarify that by “jihad”, he meant waging an information war, “not getting a gun and going to Syria.” But Kazakh state media cut the speech early so that this clarification did not feature in footage aired on a evening news segment days after his arrest.
If Bilash is charged and subsequently sentenced for these comments, he could spend between five and ten years in jail.
But his release to house arrest in a country where the vast majority of political prisoners are held in pre-trial detention is already an indicator that authorities are unsure how to handle his case.
Freeing him may look like an embarrassing retreat, not to mention an affront to China, but jailing him could be more costly still.

author: Chris Rickleton


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Japanese stray cats get VIP treatment on Instagram · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Temple cat in Amanohashidate, Japan. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
If you're looking for a new place to discover cats on the Internet, check out the “Backstreet Cats of Japan” (Roji-ura Nyankichi, 路地裏のにゃん吉), an Instagram account with over 100,000 followers.
The anonymous photographer has befriended and taken thousands of snapshots of stray cats from an undisclosed location in Japan.
HAPPY NEW YEAR✨ We live！2019 生きるよ #生き抜け野良猫 #igersjp#ねこ#猫#ネコ#ねこ部#ふわもこ部#野良猫#にゃんすたぐらむ#みんねこ #cats#ファインダー越しの私の世界 #catsofinstagram#ig_catclub#catstocker#instagramjapan##catloversclub#ペコねこ部#ピクネコ #thecatawards#icu_japan#team_jp_西#pleasantcats #고양이#nekoclub #catstagram#japan_photo_now #bestcatclub #balousfriends#備中備後デニムコンテスト2018
A post shared by  路地裏のにゃん吉 (@nyankichi5656) on
Happy New Year! We're living in 2019!
The cats are captured in a variety of poses. Some appear to live or hang out underground, underneath a lonely stretch of asphalt.
ヘイヘイ、おみゃーらキリキリ掃除しろにゃー #真似もいいけど自分の感性で撮りなよ #igersjp#ねこ#猫#猫穴部#ねこ部#ふわもこ部#野良猫#にゃんすたぐらむ#みんねこ #cats#ファインダー越しの私の世界 #catsofinstagram#ig_catclub#catstocker#instagramjapan##catloversclub#ペコねこ部#ピクネコ #thecatawards#icu_japan#team_jp_西#pleasantcats #고양이#nekoclub #catstagram#japan_photo_now #bestcatclub #loves_nippon#balousfriends
A post shared by  路地裏のにゃん吉 (@nyankichi5656) on
Alright, alright I'll get the street cleaned up real quick.
Stray cats are very common all over Japan. About 35% of households have a pet and many of them live lives of luxury as pampered members of the family, with Japanese spending about 3.8 trillion yen (US$3.8 billion) a year to keep them happy.
While pets are popular in Japan, many people purchase cats without fully understanding the implications of pet ownership. When they find out what having a bored, adult, sexually mature cat is like, they may abandon the animal. When an animal-keeping elderly person dies or is put in a home, a once-cherished pet may be abandoned as well.
The result is a large number of strays virtually all over the country. Some receive kindness, food and attention from people like this Instagrammer.
Thank You 2018 一年ありがとうございました ガキ使見て過ごしてます ラインで?良い歳をと書いて怒られかけました 皆さんよいお年を?✨ #igersjp#ねこ#猫#ネコ#ねこ部#ふわもこ部#野良猫#にゃんすたぐらむ#みんねこ #cats#ファインダー越しの私の世界 #catsofinstagram#ig_catclub#catstocker#instagramjapan##catloversclub#ペコねこ部#ピクネコ #thecatawards#icu_japan#team_jp_西#pleasantcats #고양이#nekoclub #catstagram#japan_photo_now #bestcatclub #loves_nippon#balousfriends#備中備後デニムコンテスト2018
A post shared by  路地裏のにゃん吉 (@nyankichi5656) on
Thanks to 2018! […] I hope everyone has a great 2019.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Slovak businessman charged with ordering murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

#AllForJan demonstration in memory of murdered journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in Bratislava, 2 March 2018. Photo by Peter Tkac, CC BY-SA.
Businessman Marián Kočner has been charged with ordering the killing of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in 2018, according to a March 15 announcement by Slovakia's Special Prosecutions Office.
Before he was killed, Kuciak was working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and his outlet, Aktuality.sk, to investigate possible links between an Italian criminal group and its presence in Slovakia. He also wrote about the business dealings of Kočner.
The murders caused widespread shock in the country. Demands for justice led to massive protests which forced the resignation of then Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Kuciak was the real target while Kušnírová was killed for simply being in their house when the killers barged in. They were both 27 years old and had planned to marry in May 2018.
According to the prosecution, Kočner personally threatened Kuciak by phone in September 2017 and then ordered the murder that took place on 21 February 2018 in the village of Veľká Mača.
Slovak law enforcement initially detained four people for the killing of Kuciak and Kušnírová. Kočner's assistant Alena Zsuzsová was accused of paying 50,000 euros (about US $57,000) in cash and the forgiveness of more than 20,000 euros (about US $22,700) in debt to three people – a pizza parlor owner, a former police officer and a former soldier – to organize and commit the murder.
During the summer, Kočner was arrested for financial crimes investigated by Kuciak, but it took authorities six more months to arrest the subordinates of the controversial entrepreneur and directly connect him to the assassination plot.
“The reason for the murder was the journalistic work of the victim,” a special prosecutor, who was left unnamed for security reasons, told reporters at a March 15 news conference near Bratislava.
Protest in Bratislava on 9 March 2018 in response to the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. Photo by Slavomír Frešo via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The indictment was welcomed by media rights organizations and human rights advocates. On Twitter, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Gulnoza Said stated:
We welcome the news that Slovak authorities have charged a suspected mastermind for the murder of investigative journalist #JánKuciak. This is a significant step, and a rare one in murders of journalists. We hope authorities keep their promise to bring all perpetrators to justice, thereby making all journalists in Slovakia safer from violence.
Harlem Desir from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe also noted:
I commend today's indictment against instigator of murder of journalist #JanKuciak in #Slovakia. He paid unacceptable price for investigating corruption at the highest level & has become symbol for freedom of media to tackle mafia & crime. Full statement: https://t.co/BB8bsemt6K
— OSCE media freedom (@OSCE_RFoM) March 14, 2019
In May 2018, Kuciak was posthumously awarded the inaugural award for Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information, by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) in the EU Parliament. Named for slain Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, the award is intended to recognize the work and courage of individuals in exposing corruption and wrongdoing by the powerful.
After Kuciak was murdered, OCCRP and its member centers completed and published some of his unfinished research.
In February 2019, they released a report based titled “Unfinished lives, unfinished justice.” This was compiled by OCCRP, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy, Investigace.cz, and the Investigative Centre of Ján Kuciak (ICJK) based on Kuciak’s reporting about organized crime in Slovakia and its ties to politics and law enforcement.
But ICJK revealed via Twitter how some authorities were not cooperating with them and that they were prevented from attending the press conference announcing the indictment of Kočner.
Today at 13:00, a press conference to the investigation of Martina and Jan’s murder will be held at the Special Prosecutor's Office. We will not be there. According to the prosecution, we are not journalists, just a curious public who can read it in the paper. #justice4jan
— Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak (@icjkuciaka) March 14, 2019
Despite the fact that authorities have now charged the alleged mastermind of the killing, journalists and media advocates insist there are still unresolved questions related to the case, such as the rumored involvement of prominent politicians. In particular, advocates are interested in learning what the former prime minister Fico and Robert Krajmer, former head of the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Slovak National Crime Agency, may have known about the murders.
Friends and family of Kuciak and Kušnírová have already asked authorities to investigate the ties of newly indicted Kočner with powerful officials that protected him over the last two decades. Kušnírová's family lawyer is worried that Kočner's close friendship with Slovakia’s former general prosecutor, Dobroslav Trnka, could affect the progress of the case.


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Activists speak out against Iraq’s cybercrime bill · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Human rights groups and activists are urging the Iraqi parliament to withdraw a controversial cybercrime bill that would greatly restrict freedom of expression online, if adopted.
Baghdad. Photo by MohammadHuzam [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)].
The bill imposes long prison sentences for speech-related offences that are only vaguely defined in the text of the bill. Article 3 prescribes a lifetime prison sentence and steep fines for those convicted of using “computers and the internet” to “undermine the independence, the integrity and safety of the country, or its supreme economic, political, military, or security interests” or to “provoke sectarian strife, disturbing the security and public order, or harming the reputation of the country.”
Articles 4 and 6 impose the same punishments for those convicted of promoting ”terrorist acts and ideas” (Art. 4) or ”publish[ing] or broadcast[ing] false or misleading facts with the intention of weakening confidence in the electronic financial system” (Art. 6.)
Earlier this year, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights warned:
“Without a clear and explicit definition of terrorism, it would be easy to use the law to liquidate the resources of political opponents and other activists.”
Internet-related rights are already on shaky ground in Iraq. Last summer, authorities responded to protests denouncing corruption and dire living conditions in Basra and other cities by shutting down the internet.
If adopted, the bill will only make it harder for Iraqis to exercise their rights to communicate, speak freely and access information online.
Earlier this month, nine human rights groups including AccessNow, Amnesty International and the the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights published a statement urging the Iraqi parliament to withdraw the bill:
…the law will result in Internet users becoming fearful of exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms online, and will empty the right to freedom of expression of its substance. The law would also have far-reaching effects on the enjoyment of the rights to freedom of information as well as the right to participation in public affairs in Iraq.
The parliament was scheduled to debate the bill on March 14, but it was later removed from the day's schedule.
On Twitter, the official account for the Iraqi Council of Representatives thanked those who contacted it to “criticise some laws,” but did not specify which laws. Rights groups and activists welcomed this response, but they remain wary.
Small victory: Campaigning by human rights activists, journalists on #Iraq and local and Intl NGOs successfully removed the draft cybercrime law from @parliamentiq’s schedule. Next step, withdraw the draft law altogether! https://t.co/KWaXABej1r
— Raz Salayi? (@razsalayi) March 14, 2019
It remains unclear if the parliament will introduce changes to the bill or when it will be scheduled for debate again.

author: Afef Abrougui