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‘People Are Getting on Those Boats Because They Want to Live’ · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Screen capture of a rescue operation by SOS Méditerranée via YouTube
With conflict and insecurity plaguing North and West Africa and civil war lingering in Syria, people continue to risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea on makeshift boats to seek sanctuary in Europe.
The human cost of these passages has been dramatically high. In 2015, more than one million people were estimated to have entered European Union countries by sea, five times more than the year before. So far in 2016, the figure stands at more than 240,000. According to the UN Refugee Agency, about 3,500 people who tried to immigrate to Europe died or went missing in the Mediterranean Sea in 2014. In 2015, the number rose to 3,771. This year has already seen 2,944 people perish.
This is where SOS Méditerranée comes in. SOS Mediterranée is an organization aiming to provide assistance to any person in distress at sea, whether they are men, women or children, migrants or refugees, who find themselves in mortal danger while crossing the Mediterranean. The project is financed by private donations and public funding. The funds raised go toward renting the boat and the daily costs of maintenance and rescue.
The MS Aquarius in Cuxhaven, 2012. CC BY-SA 3.0
The ship used for the operation is the Aquarius. SOS Mediterranée was started by German merchant marine captain Klaus Vogel and Sophie Beau of France, who has experience in humanitarian programs. The project was created after the end of the Italian navy's Operation Mare Nostrum, which also aimed to rescue migrants in distress at sea.
SOS Mediterranée‘s blog includes several accounts from those who have made the perilous journey. These are a few of their stories.
Kebba is a 22-year-old welder from Gambia. He fled his country because of the reigning dictator and lack of work:
La seule façon d’avancer est de devenir soldat, et je n’ai pas voulu faire ça. J’ai perdu mon père et il fallait que je soutienne ma mère et mes jeunes soeurs, alors je suis parti chercher du travail ailleurs. En Libye, j’ai été kidnappé. J’ai été détenu dans un camp pendant deux mois. Il n’y avait presque pas de nourriture, pas d’eau, pas d’endroit pour dormir. Ils ont tué six personnes que je connaissais dans les camps. Ils disent ‘donne-nous ton argent ou on te tue’, et ils tiennent parole. J’ai voulu rentrer chez nous mais je n’avais aucun moyen de m’y rendre. Alors j’ai décidé de prendre ce risque de partir en Europe. Les trafiquants nous ont gardé dans un autre camp, pendant deux ou trois semaines. Le jour venu, ils nous ont entassés dans le bateau en caoutchouc. Il n’y avait pas de capitaine, seulement la volonté de Dieu. J’ai deux rêves— de devenir soudeur en mer et d’écrire un livre sur ce voyage. Mais si la vie ne m’accorde rien d’autre, j’espère au moins pouvoir vivre en paix
The only way to get ahead is to become a soldier, and I didn't want to do that. I lost my father and had to support my mother and my young sisters, so I went looking for work elsewhere. In Libya, I was kidnapped. I was held in a camp for two months. There was virtually no food, no water, nowhere to sleep. They killed six people I know in the camps. They would say, “Give me your money or we'll kill you,” and they kept their word. I wanted to go back home, but I had no way of getting there. So I decided to take a risk and go to Europe. The smugglers kept us in another camp for two or three weeks. When the day came, they stuffed us onto the rubber boat. There was no captain, just the will of God. I have two dreams: to become an underwater welder and to write a book about this journey. But if life gives me nothing else, I hope to at least be able to live in peace.
Screen capture of a rescue video on the operation's YouTube channel
Cyrill is a Cameroonian executive who fled the brutality of the militant group Boko Haram in the northern part of the country. He spoke of torture houses, robberies and violence he witnessed in Libya, a launching point for many of the boats headed to Europe:
La Libye est un pays hors du monde, qui a perdu tout sens moral. Un monde revenu à la condition de la chair animale. Ces enfants qui s’entraînent à tirer sur les noirs dans la rue, les rackettent en leur mettant une lame sur la gorge ou apprennent à torturer les migrants sous le regard de leurs parents. Ils parlent du viol systématique des femmes sur la route, de ces passeurs ou geôliers impitoyables qui les battent et leur crachent dessus en leur répétant qu’ils ne valent pas le pain qu’on leur donne.
Libya is in another world—it is a country that has lost all sense of morality. A world that has returned to an animalistic state. There are kids who are trained to shoot at black people in the streets, rob them by putting a blade to their throat, or learn to torture migrants as their parents watch. They talk about the systematic rape of women in the streets, the ruthless smugglers and guards who beat them and spit on them and tell them that they're not worth the bread they're giving them.
Gode Mosle is a 22-year-old Syrian who lived in Damascus. He is now in Sweden but remains traumatized by his memories of his escape:
J'ai dit à mes amis en Syrie de ne pas prendre ces bateaux. Il faut qu'ils viennent par la Turquie et la Grèce, même si c'est beaucoup plus cher.  On était environ 700 dans le bateau mais il n'y avait en fait de la place que pour la moitié .Ces passeurs sont des animaux. Ils crient sur les gens, les volent et les frappent quand ils embarquent. C'était une sorte de torture psychologique qui a commencé avant même le bateau. Deux Africains sont morts dans la cale.  Ils ont été asphyxiés, ils ne pouvaient pas respirer à cause des émanations du moteur. C'était bancal, on ne pouvait pas se mettre debout ou bouger. Dès que quelqu'un le faisait le bateau menaçait de chavirer .Il y avait beaucoup de hurlements. Je ne referais pas ce voyage. Je ne peux pas oublier ce que j'ai vu. Les gens veulent vivre, c'est pour ça qu'ils embarquent sur ces bateaux.
I told my friends in Syria to not take these boats. They should go through Turkey and Greece, even though it costs a lot more. There were about 700 of us in the boat but there wasn't even room for half of us. Those smugglers are animals. They scream at people, steal from them and hit them when they get on board. It was a kind of psychological torture that started even before the boat. Two Africans died in the hold. They suffocated; they couldn't breathe because of the exhaust from the engine. It was so rickety, we couldn't stand or move. As soon as someone did, the boat threatened to capsize. There was a lot of screaming. I wouldn't make that voyage again. I can't forget what I saw. People are getting on those boats because they want to live.
For more on the subject, a French-language documentary by Jean Paul Mari shows the daily challenges faced by SOS Méditerranée over the course of a year of SOS Méditerranée:

author: Rakotomalala


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Russian Artists Reimagine Pokémon Go With Soviet Cartoon Characters · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Who wouldn't want to catch this little dude? Cheburashka, a beloved Soviet cartoon character, placed in a Pokémon Go setting. Image from 2D Among Us.
The Pokemon Go game is taking the world by storm, and although it officially launched in Russia only today, July 18, Russian users have already joined in the fun. And Russian officials have already warned that the game could be used to “spark riots” and could “ruin us [Russians] spiritually.”
Other RuNet users have taken a more light-hearted approach to making Pokémon Go their own. A group of Russian artists and designers from the 2D Among Us community on VKontakte, Russia's largest social network, asked the question: What if the game was situated in the former Soviet Union and populated with characters from old Soviet cartoons? The resulting image manipulations are frankly adorable, bringing Cheburashka and other well-known cartoon figures to mobile screens, and placing monkeys, parrots and cute poltergeist Kuzya in recognizable post-Soviet landscapes, such as shabby garages, decaying playgrounds and industrial backgrounds.
Everyone's favorite big-eared wonder Cheburashka in front of a broken phone booth. Image from 2D Among Us.
The artists also played with other game interface elements, replacing the pokeball device with a children's red rubber ball. The details look so familiar that one VKontakte user remarked they could “almost hear the sound of that ball.”
The Monkey from 38 Parrots cartoon finds herself in a dilapidated factory setting. Image from 2D Among Us.
The 2D Among Us community shares images of cartoon or movie characters edited into images of mundane reality, providing a playful and often surprising look at the things we observe around us every day. See more Pokémon Go-inspired cartoon characters on the 2D Among Us VKontakte page.
The Dude (Muzhychok), a character from the great plasticine cartoon “Last Year's Snow Was Falling.” Image from 2D Among Us.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Tanya Lokot


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O Little Town of Danghara: Tajikistan Facebookers Mock Historical ‘Discovery’ · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

One of the humorous reactions to scholars claiming that a town in Tajikistan is 4,000 years old. The image depicts dinosaurs roaming the earth with two road signs pointing the way to Danghara. Posted on Asia-Plus Media Group's Facebook page, July 16, 2016.
Looking for the ever-more-ancient roots of modern places is an important business in Tajikistan.
The government uses newly discovered historical anniversaries to justify lavish construction projects and massive festivities all over the country.
Historians acquire different perks for extending national history as far back in time as possible.
As for ordinary people, many of them are happy to learn that their towns and villages are older and more significant than they thought.
Yet often the announcements of new historical discoveries in the country draw ridicule.
On July 14, the president of Tajikistan's Academy of Sciences claimed that Danghara (also spelled as Dangara), a small town in the country's south, is more than 4,000 years old.
For many people in the country, this rural location is a synonym for “backwater town”.
However, Danghara is important as a birthplace of the country's president as well as a number of other top government officials and MPs.
Asia-Plus, the country's oldest independent news agency, posted a report about Danghara's updated age on its Facebook page.
The news instantly became a subject of ridicule.
Many people poked fun at scholars by proposing sarcastically that the town is even more ancient than they claim.
Zamira wrote, for example:
Ну зачем же так мелочиться? ученые немного ошиблись, нужно глубже капнуть и окажется, что самая древняя цивилизация на земле.
Why think so small? The scholars have made a minor mistake; if they dig deeper, they will establish that this is the oldest civilization on earth.
Ma'ruf suggested:
Дангара древнее Рима!
Danghara is more ancient than Rome!
Afzalshoh cited an ancient myth:
Дангара это древняя Атлантида
Danghara is the ancient Atlantis
Malika joked:
Адам и Ева тоже были из Дангары )
Adam and Eve were also from Danghara )
Nazar added:
Там была высшая цевилизацыя в эру динозавров еще
They had a high civilization there already in the dinosaur age
Parvina agreed:
Да древнее фекалий мамонта)))
Yes, [the town] is older than mammoth feces )))
And Mubin proposed going even further back in time:
Жизнь зародилась в Дангаре.
Life as we know it emerged in Danghara.
Some internet users have questioned the sanity and motivation of scholars responsible for the discovery.
Kahhorjon asks:
Уважаемые академики, вам что нечем заняться? Мне кажется это не академия наук, а академия тупых!
Dear academicians, don't you have anything better to do? It seems like yours is an academy of stupidity rather than sciences.
Suhrob suggested:
кажется президент академии наук метит на более высокую должность
It looks like the president of the Academy of Sciences has his eyes on a higher post
Muhiddin chipped in:
Экономически мотивированные ученые, на любую глупость могут пойти
With an appropriate monetary incentive, scholars would do anything and everything
It was not clear from the news report whether local scholars had reliable evidence to support their claim.
One Internet user reacted to the report by posting a funny image.
The image depicts the president of the Academy of Sciences as saying that Danghara is 4,000 years old. When asked whether he has evidence to back up the announcement, the scholar responds, “I swear on my mother [that is is so]”.
Farhat sarcastically explains why the ancient Danghara did not survive.
In doing so, he draws an analogy with present-day Tajikistan where the natives of the town fill a disproportionate number of middle-level and senior government posts:
Причина почему древнее население покинуло ясно. Так как история циклична одним из правителей Саразмской цивилизации 4000 лет назад стал житель Дангары и остальные поехали с семьями в центральные города что бы получить должности.
It is clear why the ancient population left [Danghara]. History is cyclical; one of the natives of Danghara became a ruler of the Sarazm civilization 4,000 years ago. The remaining inhabitants of the town moved to the cities in order to get [government] posts.
The abundance of such jokes does not mean that everyone in the country distrusts the official historical narrative.
Many people in the country, perhaps the majority, believe it.
It is also important to note that the Facebook page of Asia-Plus, the news agency that first shared the news of the discovery, is a place that is particularly prone to humorous reflections.
Over the last several months, the agency accompanied many of its news reports shared on the page with caustic comments that drew public attention and set the tone for subsequent discussion.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast: Freedom, Not Control · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

This week we take you to Indian-administered Kashmir, Nepal and China. We also speak with Global Voices contributor Angel Carrion about Puerto Rican opposition to a US fiscal control board, and we chat with Global Voices author Thant Sin about an outpouring of support for an official in Myanmar who dared to speak out against a radical Buddhist nationalist group.
This episode features stories by Kisholoy Mukherjee, Vishal Manve, Sanjib Choudhary, Oiwan Lam, Angel Carrion and Thant Sin. Many thanks to all our authors, translators and editors who helped make this possible.
In this episode of the Week that Was at Global Voices, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar (CC BY-NC 3.0); Rattle Your Cage by Krackatoa (CC BY-NC 3.0); Time's Arrow by Alan Singley (CC BY-NC 3.0); An Introduction to Beetles by the Blue Dot Sessions (CC BY-NC 4.0); Roadtrip by Phil Reavis (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0); and Call In Sick by Cory Gray (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Image used in the SoundCloud thumbnail is by Andres Musta. Uploaded on to Flickr. Taken on January 2, 2012. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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In China, a University Degree Isn’t Always a Golden Ticket to Employment · Global Voices
Ruijun Xu

Chinese graduates at a job exhibition in 2007. Photo from state news agency Xinhua.
Once again, more than 7 million students in China graduated from university in May. If you add in the 300,000 overseas graduates and previous years’ graduates who are still looking for jobs, that means more than 15 million young people were reportedly seeking their fortunes at the same time this year.
As a newly rising economy power, China is considered to have a huge job market. Indeed, when you google “find a job in China”, millions of results pop up. But the reality is many graduates struggle to find work after finishing their studies. In fact, a popular saying that has arisen in recent years holds that “graduation equals unemployment.”
In 2013, the unemployment rate of graduates from colleges and universities two months after graduating was 17.6 percent, according to Times Higher Education; for those in rural areas, it was 30.5 percent. That's higher than the general unemployment rate (or at least what's thought to be the unemployment rate, since data out of China is unreliable). As China's economy has slowed down in the past two years, the graduate unemployment problem only has worsened.
The frustration of China's younger generations is reflected in a number of widely circulated social media and mobile text messages, such as the following:
当我们出生的时候，奶粉里都有毒了，当我们长身体的时候，只能吃垃圾食品了，当我们要上幼儿园的时候，开始乱收费了，当我们大学毕业的时候，毕业就是失业了，当我想努力赚钱的时候股市倒了，当我想努力谈恋爱的时候帅哥都成GAY了，当我想追求一切流行的时候，又开始非主流了！
When we were born, the infant formula was toxic; when our bodies were in development, we could only consume junk food; when we attended kindergarten, the school fee was out of control; when we graduated from university, we were unemployed; when we tried to earn our living via the stock market, it collapsed; when we tried hard to fall in love, we found out all handsome guys were gay; when we started chasing after the mainstream [culture and values], they were no longer mainstream.
所谓大学：管理监狱化，素质流氓化，Kiss公开化，消费白领化，上课梦境化，逃课普遍化，寝室网吧化，补考专业化，学费贵族化，论文百度化，近视全面化，食堂饲料化，求职梦想化，毕业失业化，就业民工化。
What university means: management is like prison, the quality is for hooligans. [Students] learn how to kiss in public, consume like a white-collar worker, daydream in class. Skipping classes is common, dormitories are like internet cafes. Taking exams becomes a profession, only the aristocracy can afford school fees. Thesis looks like Baidu search results. Everyone gets short-sighted. The food in school canteens is for feeding animals. Having a job is like a dream. Graduation equals unemployment. Jobs [available] on the market are for rural-to-urban migrants.
Many believe that part of the problem of unemployment for recent university graduates is related to the policy of higher education expansion since 1999. Back then, only about 35 percent of high school graduates entered post-high school education including colleges, technical schools and universities. But in 2015, the percent was more than 80 percent, and about 40 percent became undergraduates at universities. For big cities like Beijing, the number of students entering university was more than 70 percent.
Some argue there aren't enough jobs for so many university-educated people. On popular social media site Weibo, Lydia commented on the over-supply of graduates:
以后大学生越来越不值钱了，一抓一大把，有什么区别？
Graduates are everywhere, and college students are not worth anything now. How could you tell the difference?
Another Weibo user, “Nomadic hero”, wrote that a side effect of expansion is a drop in the quality of graduates in general:
国家维护学习公平尽力让大多数人享有受教育固然是好事，可整体学生质量一蟹不如一蟹。不是大学生不值钱了，而是大学贬值了
The fight for educational justice to make sure the majority of people have the chance to go to school is good. But it is true that the quality of students is getting worse. It is the university, rather than students, that lose value.
“Ling Yan San Chi” lamented:
毕业两年啦！！！！我竟然还在想着如何找工作，，，为何活的如此悲催。。。
Graduated for two years already, but I am still working on how to find a job!! Why is my life so miserable?
Though it is difficult to find job, many still consider entering university as the best path to obtain specialized skills and climb the social ladder — hence they do not feel regret for the choice. “HaiDe XiaTian” even chose to carry on his studies in postgraduate school:
后悔啊，可是后悔又能怎样 只能硬着头皮走下去，考研是通往理想大学的最后也是唯一的机会
I feel regret [about pursuing higher education], but there is no other way and I have to carry on down this path. Going to postgraduate school will be my last chance to enter an ideal university.
The graduation ceremony is called commencement, which should stand for a new beginning for graduates, but many see it like an individual struggle, such as Weibo user UsedToBe5:
找工作是一件考验人心的事情，不断地失败再爬起，当然这都是我自己选择的地狱模式…
Finding a job is a tough thing because you have to fall down and get up again and again. Of course, I have no one to blame since I choose it myself.
Not everyone is gloomy about the situation. A hashtag on Weibo called #graduation doesn’t mean unemployment# gives the topic a positive twist, and messages try to offer support, tips and personal experiences.
The latest status with the above hashtag was published on July 12 by Weibo user “WanAn Xin XinYu,” who was one of the 7 million newly graduated young people in 2016:
今天又要去面试工作了，希望明天能开始工作 #毕业不等于失业#加油！虽然已经失业快一个月了
I am going to have another interview today, and I wish I could start working tomorrow. #graduation doesn’t mean unemployment# Add oil [a phrase of encouragement]! Although I have been unemployed for a month.

author: Ruijun Xu


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Iranian Hardliners Want to Stop Blocking Twitter — to Defeat Saudi Propaganda · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A screenshot of Twitter being written into the ancient Persian Cyrus Cylinder in an animation film for Farsi Twitter, highlighting the platforms importance for communications in Iran. Watch the video here.
A group of Iranian government hardliners, who typically stand at the forefront of policies curtailing freedom of expression, are demanding that Iran stop blocking Twitter.
This sudden change of tune has very little to do with the rights of Iranian users. Rather, they are making this move in an effort to ensure Iranian dominance in a so-called Twitter war with Saudi Arabia.
The group first took this new position in an article on Tabnak News, a conservative news website founded by former Revolutionary Guards’ commander (and current member) Mohsen Rezaee, in a piece entitled: “Has the time come to remove the filter on Twitter in order to enter into a  “online battle”? The unnamed author reasoned that Twitter's international appeal justified the move:
وییتر یک رسانه کارآمد و یک بلندگوی به شدت قوی در سطح بین‌الملل است که پیش از مسلط شدن سعودی‌ها بر آن، باید توسط ایرانی‌ها کنترل شده باشد. انتظار می‌رود برای حضور وسیع کاربران ایرانی در این «نبردآنلاین» که بخواهیم یا نخواهیم رسماً آغاز شده، بستر لازم در این دوره زمانی فراهم شود و قدرت عمل در اختیار تعداد بالای کاربران ایرانی قرار گیرد.
Twitter is an efficient media and a extremely strong microphone on the international level and before Saudi takes it over it must become controlled by Iranians. The necessary conditions should be provided for Iranian users during this period since the online war is official started whether we like or not.
The Tabnak article argues for the removal of censorship to obstruct a so-called “psychological operation” perpetrated against Iran by Saudi Arabia.
عربستان سعودی، یک عملیات روانی را در توییتر علیه ایران به راه انداخت و با هشتگ #ایران_تدعم_الارهاب_بفرنسا، کوشید تا به استدلا‌ل‌های مضحک حملات نیس را به گردن ایران بیندازد.
Saudi Arabia, has commenced a psychological operation against Iran on Twitter with the hashtag #Iran_Supports_Terrorism_France, trying to blame the Nice attacks on Iran with ridiculous arguments.
These concerns are nothing new, as Saudi Arabia and Iran have a long history of tensions in the region. While Saudi Arabia is often the leader in the Sunni sectarian side of regional tensions, the majority-Shiite Iran leads the other side. This past January, Saudi cut diplomatic ties with Iran when its missions in the country were ransacked following the execution of Sheik Nimr, a Shiite leader who advocated for Shiite rights in Saudi Arabia. Conflicts between the two nations also have escalated with the proxy combatants that both countries maintain in the Yemeni civil war. And last year, Global Voices documented the ongoing social media campaigns of Saudi-led Twitter accounts that fueled Kurdish tensions in Mahabad.
The Tabnak article does mark a departure from the ongoing contrast between the relatively moderate administration of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and more conservative factions of the Iranian government. However, it should be noted that Tabnak and Rezaee form into a hardline faction that are often critical of other hardliners, such as those close to the former conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Before Rouhani came into office, the government's position on Internet content was often articulated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In one speech, he said:
Today, there is Internet, satellite, and many other communication platforms for easy communications. Various thoughts compete to dominate the minds of Muslims. Today however, we are at a battlefield and face a real campaign to influence our minds. This war and campaign is not a disadvantage. In fact, it is to our advantage. I am certain that we will win the war if we enter the battlefield and do what we have to do, taking out and using our ammunitions, which are our Islamic thoughts stored in our barracks of divine studies. We have to do this.
Rouhani came into power in 2013 with promises of increasing freedoms online. While a conservative majority in other parts of the Iranian government has made this promise difficult to keep, they have had some victories.
In January of 2015 they prevented the filtering of popular messaging applications such as Whats App and Viber by blocking the decisions of the hardline judiciary in implementing their filtering rulings. In January of 2016 they also brought the CCDOC (Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content) towards a decision not to filter Telegram. This was no small feat, given that the CCDOC is managed by the judiciary (not to be confused with Iran’s Ministry of Justice), which is typically a conservative body.
Iranian Internet users have often wondered why these decisions have not been extended to unblock Twitter and Facebook, platforms that were censored following the 2009 Green Movement.
What is the the difference between Instagram or Telegram and Twitter where only the latter is blocked in Iran?!
— MAHDI TAGHIZADEH (@mahdi) July 5, 2016
The Tabnak article continues, specifically highlighting Twitter “Trends” as a reason for Saudi Arabia's success in dominating Iran on Twitter:
به نظر می‌رسد با توجه به شرایط کنونی و فعال شدن عربستان سعودی در توییتر برای ایجاد جنگ روانی علیه ایران از طریق «ترند» کردن موضوعات ضدایرانی، باید در این مقطع درباره رفع مسدودیت توییتر در کشورمان بررسی‌هایی توسط نهادهای تصمیم‌گیرنده صورت پذیرد.
It seems that considering the current situation and the active presence of Saudi Arabia on Twitter for the psychological warfare against Iran through “trending” anti-Iran issues, we must at this time gather the deciding organizations to considering the unblocking of Twitter.
The feature of Twitter “Trends” that amplifies certain social media campaigns does not in work in Iran, since the Iranian government blocks the platform, which prevents Twitter from tracking the geolocation of trends inside the country.
It is unclear how far Tabnak's call to re-open Twitter will go. Tabnak founder Mohsen Rezaee himself has been a member of Facebook since his 2013 bid to run for President and on Twitter since 2015.
In a Facebook post from earlier this year, Rezaee stoked Israeli and Saudi tensions with Iran with this statement to his followers:
روزی كه #اسرائیل، دوست امروز #آل‌سعود از ایران شكست بخورد، همه مردم منطقه فریاد زنده‌باد #ایران سر خواهند داد».
The day that #Israel, today's friend of the Al Saud's are defeated by Iran, the people of our region will celebrate with cries of “long live Iran”
A follower responded to Rezaee's post, mocking the fact that he had circumvented Iranian laws and censorship for religious reaons:
ضمنا شما برای استفاده از فیلترشکن حجت شرعی دارید دیگه؟
The day you use a circumvention tool for religious justifications?
The irony of Iranian officials belonging to social networks that are blocked in the country has long been acknowledged by Iranians.
In its conclusion, the Tabnak piece argues that the only dangers Twitter poses to Iran are through Saudi-led efforts:
حقیقت آن است که توییتر دارای ابعاد اخلاقی منفی نیز نیست و تنها ابعاد امنیتی برای آن متصور بود که با توجه به تحرکات اعراب ضدایراتی، این ابعاد پررنگ‌تر می‌شود.
The truth is Twitter does not have a negative moral dimension just a security dimension that was magnified through a anti-Iranian movement led by Arabs.
Previous official reasons given in 2009 linked Twitter to foreign efforts to promote “sedition” with the Green Movement protests.
This is part of a new tide of political figures previously inclined to condemn and censor media such as Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan who took to social media to counter the recent coup,.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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The Lives of Migrant Workers in Thailand’s ‘Little Burma’ · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

A migrant worker is pictured laboring in a construction site in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon, Thailand. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)
This article by Nyein Nyein is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Wandering through Samut Sakhon, just southwest of Bangkok, the image of people wearing the traditional wrap-around sarongs called longyi or tamein while speaking Burmese could make a stranger feel as though they are in Myanmar's largest city Yangon, rather than a Thai city.
For many Burmese migrants in Thailand, Sunday is the only day off each week—a time for relaxation and a brief respite from hard labor; but for thousands of other daily-wage workers, there is no such day of rest.
Those who migrate to the region are often motivated by the hope of earning better salaries. Samut Sakhon is perceived from afar as a safe haven, as the pay here is known to be higher than Bangkok, yet the fishing industry situated in the province remains infamous for its low wages and exploitative conditions.
Known locally as Mahachai, but widely referred to among foreigners as “Little Burma” (Myanmar is formerly known as Burma), the port town of Samut Sakhon hosts between 300,000 and 400,000 Burmese migrants working in some 6,000 factories and fisheries.
Ma Thein Win is originally from Myanmar’s Tenasserim Division, and has been in Thailand for five years. She had previously worked in Bangkok, but in April she moved to Samut Sakhon hoping to increase her income as a construction worker.
The 45-year-old mother of four longs to return to her home village in Dawei District.
“But we have no money and no home; how could we go back and survive?” Thein Win asked softly, all the while tidying a pile of wood next to the construction site, where men worked atop the unfinished buildings.
If there was gainful employment to be had in their homeland, many in Thailand’s migrant community spoke to The Irrawaddy of going back to Myanmar, instead of seeking work in a foreign country in order to survive.
Migrant workers are pictured laboring in the Talaat Kung shrimp market in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon, Thailand. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)
In 2012, Myanmar's then-opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited Thailand—and Mahachai—for the first time. She visited a second time in June of this year, this time as state counselor after her party won elections in November 2015 by a landslide. During that most recent trip, Suu Kyi met with only a small number of Mahachai’s migrants, after Thai authorities blocked access to Myanmar’s de-facto leader for labor rights groups and a large crowd of waiting Burmese nationals.
Thein Win was one of many migrants unable to be present at Suu Kyi’s talks with Burmese workers in Thailand. Reflecting on The Lady’s visit brought her to tears, which she attributed to “mixed feelings.” Suu Kyi, Thein Win still hoped, would work to “bring good” into their lives.
Burmese workers at Talaat Kung, or the shrimp market, also became emotional when discussing the state counselor’s visit and their hopes for better job opportunities, which Suu Kyi recognized during her Thai visit. Their wages are often inconsistent, ranging from 200 Thai baht (US$5.72) to 300 baht ($8.58), the latter of which is the official minimum daily wage in Thailand, but is often not afforded to foreign migrant workers.
Sorting through shrimp on a table, Aye Myat Mon told The Irrawaddy that she earns the Thai minimum daily wage for her eight hours of labor, but that working times vary depending on the availability of shrimp or other seafood. Claiming to be 18, but appearing much younger, Aye Myat Mon arrived in Thailand four years ago from Moulmein, Mon State, and lives with her sister—she said only her parents remain at the family home in southeastern Myanmar.
Securing sources to speak on the record about working conditions in Mahachai was particularly challenging; many of the individuals laboring in the seafood industry dared not make complaints to the press.
Thai employers are reluctant to attract media coverage focusing on the region’s docks, markets or construction sites; workers told The Irrawaddy that if they were discovered as having contributed to a story on Little Burma, they feared they would be later fired.
“As we are working in another country, we keep our patience, as Amay [Mother] Suu has said,” Ye Min, a worker in Talaat Kung told The Irrawaddy, before being interrupted by a superior, ending his interview.
Migrant workers are pictured laboring in the Talaat Kung shrimp market in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon, Thailand. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)
Workers also shared stories of their fear of Thai police scrutinizing their identity documents and employment papers, looking into whether they have permission to legally work in the country.
“The police ask for money to make extra income when they suspect our documents [are incomplete],” said one man working in the shrimp market, in both a hushed voice and on the condition of anonymity.
The number of migrant workers in Thailand is estimated at between 3 and 4 million, but less than half are officially registered. Different policies have been implemented to assist workers from Myanmar in obtaining legal documents, particularly when their current papers expire. This includes registration for a “pink card,” or employment permit, which can be pursued after the expiry of a four-year visa.
“Even if they are documented migrant workers, they are often being preyed upon,” said Sai Sai, a staff member at the Migrant Workers Rights Network, an organization assisting migrants from Myanmar in Thailand.
Sai Sai explained that authorities’ suspicions can be raised by a worker’s lack of Thai language skills, and can lead to an arrest for suspected drug use, or for traveling between provinces within Thailand—the “pink card” does not facilitate freedom of movement and only allows migrant workers to remain in the part of the country in which their documents are registered.
According to a Bangkok Post report, the registration deadline for a migrant work permit has been extended until July 29, after which, authorities say there will be no leniency. But a further crackdown is expected—on those both in Samut Sakhon and throughout Thailand—for whom meeting registration requirements remains difficult.
Migrant workers are pictured laboring in the Talaat Kung shrimp market in Mahachai, Samut Sakhon, Thailand. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

author: The Irrawaddy


text:
A Golden Age for Cow Urine in India · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bottled Cow Urine for religious ceremonies…seen in a super market at Mustafa's Centre Singapore. Image from Flickr by Silke Baron. CC BY 2.0
The practice of drinking cow urine is seemingly on the rise in India, given a boost by the current pro-Hindu government.
The distilled yellow liquid can sell for as much as milk, and demand is so high that Bloomberg news agency called it “liquid gold” in a story published on July 17.
Move aside Mars mission,
With Modi Government, Cow Urine Turns Into Liquid Gold: Foreign Media https://t.co/k0zPmqrKuK
— ☭ Comrade Nambiar ☭ (@DasBolshevik) July 19, 2016
Perhaps the “gold” isn't so exaggerated, if research by scientists at the Junagadh Agricultural University in the Indian state of Gujarat is to be believed. They startled the world when they claimed in June to have found gold in the urine of cow, though their results have come under scrutiny.
There's a National Institute of Ayurveda that says cow urine has gold. Shut them down already! https://t.co/wvvTs5wPcz
— Rajesh Pantina (@pantinaraj) July 10, 2016
We boycott the cow slaughter industry for a year. The saved $ purchases cows. We separate the gold from the cow urine. Hapi economics.
— Caprise Scott (@sunmanpatu) July 7, 2016
They jerk off to Alchemy fantasies and claim they found from ancient literature that cow urine can yield gold.
— Gunasekar Rajaratnam (@crguna) July 4, 2016
The flurry of media attention had people talking on social media, but the truth is that cow urine, or Gomutra, as a product is nothing new in India. Indian culture reveres cows, and the animal's urine has special significance as a drink in Hinduism. Proponents of traditional Indian medicine called Ayurveda believe it has medicinal properties; drinking of cow urine is considered a cure-all, said to be helpful in treating diseases like leprosy and cancer.
Cow urine is also used in products like shampoo and floor-cleaners and plays a role in organic farming. There's even carbonated drinks made from it.
Goodbye Poison; welcome to the divine -
Sikkim shows the way! #Kamadugha https://t.co/Fh8Kca1rmw
— RaghaveshwaraBharati (@Shankaracarya36) July 15, 2016
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party certainly seems to consider cow urine important. The party holds more than a dozen patents related to cow urine and has invested $87 million in shelters for cows. Many Indian states have banned cow slaughter and cracked down on illegal cattle sales to neighbouring Bangladesh.
In 2014, Jayan Divakaran at Cluster of Thoughts blog explained the history of the use of cow urine in India:
Our Ancient Civilization always gave prime importance to Cow. The cow was not only used as domestic animal by which they had milk and various by-products, but the Cow was Respected, Worshiped and Treated like Mother during ancient times which was why our nation was known as a land of milk and honey.
Our Agriculture was solely dependent on Cow Dung and Urine which worked both as fertilizers and Pesticide for cultivation of various crops and vegetables in India. For many Millenniums our farmers use cow dung and urine and hence lands in India were much fertile and productive as compared to west. […] Many legends have been dedicated to this humble creature, Kings, Noble Rishis, Maharishis, Brahmin's, Philosophers and great Ayurveda Acharyas have given great emphasis to Cow, which is why our nation is known as the Land of the Holy Cow.
Cow urine is not only sold in India, but also in a number of countries, and is used in Myanmar and Nigeria as a folk medicine. It's also available on e-commerce sites like Amazon.
BBC News – Cow urine sold alongside food in London shops https://t.co/MyNBRMt0fH
— The Matriot (@DICS131294) July 19, 2016
Below is one of the many videos available online spouting the benefits of cow urine and how to drink it. The man in the video even explains how to distill your own cow urine using a pressure cooker.
However, the available science doesn't seem to back up the health claims. Cow urine is a possible source of harmful bacteria and infectious diseases. One study found that cow urine administered to mice caused excitement in low doses and convulsion and/or death in higher doses.
Will self-proclaimed experts put their claims of medicinal properties of cow urine to independent testing? Or will this remain traditional knowledge, something that people continue to drink on faith? So far, the Ministry of Ayush, which was established in 2014 to promote traditional Indian medicine and therapy after the Bharatiya Janata Party government took over, has not shared anything much about cow urine neither on their official portal or on their Twitter handle.

author: Rezwan


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‘Avocado Talk’ No Longer So Appetizing for Mexicans · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Photo: Shelli Friedberg / Flickr / CC 2.0
Mexico's economic crisis is forcing the country to think about how much people spend on food, and the rising cost of avocados has become a particularly sore point. The devaluation of the Mexican peso against the US dollar, rising energy prices, and a host of other macroeconomic factors mean that Mexicans are especially sensitive about the cost of foods most essential to Mexican cuisine.
The avocado is one of the fundamental ingredients in this cuisine. Avocados can be the base of a dish (guacamole, for example) or something added (to a sandwich, enchiladas, tostadas, flautas, or even soups, as in tortilla soup). Salsa verde, which is used in countless dishes, also usually contains avocado.
Currently, avocados can be found at $80.00 Mexican pesos (approximately US$4.20 or €3.70) per kilo (2.2 pounds), which is slightly double what Mexicans usually pay for this product. Meanwhile, the minimum wage in Mexico is $73.04 pesos per workday—an amount that's supposed to meet all the nutritional needs of a person and their family.
The website Pictoline shared the following infographic to explain the rising price:
Bueno, sí; mucho chiste, mucho meme, pero…
¿Por qué está tan caro el aguacate? pic.twitter.com/F64xM7cJOX
— pictoline (@pictoline) July 5, 2016
[In the image] Yes, lots of jokes but… Why are avocados getting to be so expensive? As you know, products rise in price for many reasons. Demand: If everyone wants avocados, they get more expensive. Supply: If there are barely any avocados, they become even more expensive. Input: If production/distribution costs rise, avocados get more expensive. In this case, [the rise in the prices happens] because Mexico runs out of its biggest harvest and the next one is not ready. [If there are] a lot fewer avocados—[then they're] a lot more expensive. It is expected that by late July a new harvest will arrive and the costs will come back down. Meanwhile…
Some Twitter users have reacted to the price increase with humor. iQueCabr0n, for instance, bragged that he could still afford the new delicacy:
Comiéndome una tortilla y un aguacate, porque cuando ganas en dólares te puedes dar ciertos lujos.
— ¡Ay Qué Cabrón! (@iQueCabr0n) July 12, 2016
Eating a tortilla and an avocado, because when you get paid in dollars, you can afford certain luxuries.
Similarly, Twitter user andii_rz said:
Hoy andamos de manteles largos, me voy a comer un taquito de aguacate 🌯
— andii andii (@andii_rz) July 3, 2016
We're celebrating today, so I'm going to eat an avocado taquito.
Sr.Aguilar, meanwhile, joked about the turning the now-rare avocado into Mexico's legal tender:
Si el aguacate vale más que el dolar; ¿no estaría bien convertirlo en moneda nacional? #nolotieneniObama
— Sr.Aguilar (@G_AguilarGomez) July 3, 2016
If avocados are worth more than the dollar, wouldn't it be a good idea to make it the national currency? #evenObamadoesnthaveit
The newspaper Milenio shared some telling infographics about avocado consumption in Mexico:
¿Cómo comemos #aguacate los mexicanos? 🍴 https://t.co/IrFMly0S5G pic.twitter.com/BYL4SHkouu
— Milenio.com (@Milenio) July 9, 2016
How do we Mexicans eat #avocado?
Nearly four years ago, Global Voices reported about a disruption in Mexico's egg supply, which sent prices soaring. Back then, rising costs led to commercial speculation and malpractice, which in turn cultivated a vicious cycle of distrust with consumers. Mexico's avocado vendors will look to avoid similar bad blood now.

author: J. Tadeo


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Ayatollah Khomeini Died 27 Years Ago, But a Trump Advisor Still Wants Him to Condemn Last Week’s Attack in Nice · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn appears on Fox News. Image: YouTube
Donald Trump's presidential campaign has always advocated “getting tough on Iran,” but the rhetoric escalated ever so slightly last week, when retired Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, one of Trump's chief military advisors and a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, demanded that Ayatollah Khomeini—a man who's been dead for more than a quarter of a century—condemn the attack on July 14 in Nice, France.
Michael Flynn, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, calls on a man dead 27 years to condemn extremism pic.twitter.com/qhtxOYeHce
— Samuel Oakford (@samueloakford) July 15, 2016
Appearing on Fox News with Megyn Kelly, Flynn said angrily, “I want the Imam, or Khomeini, to stand up and be counted and to talk about this radical form of ideology in their bloodstream, in their DNA.”
Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini died in 1989 after establishing the Islamic Republic of Iran, the first modern-day theocracy, following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Flynn either confused the name “Khomeini” with Iran's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, or he is unaware that Ayatollah Khomeini died 27 years ago. Whether the mistake was confusion or ignorance, Flynn appeared on Fox News again the following day, on July 15, and said Khomeini again, insisting that the long-dead man denounce the attacks in Nice.
Internet users both in Iran and the US have shared a few thoughts about Flynn's curious interest in “the Imam Khomeini.” Iranian Twitter user Ameneh Mousavi tweeted:
عقلاي قوم اين درسته؟؟؟
ژنرال مایکل فلین مشاور نظامی دونالد ترامپ از “آیت الله خمینی” رهبر ایران خواسته حمله تروریستی نیس فرانسه رو محکوم کند
— ameneh mousavi (@MousaviSa) July 16, 2016
Wise people, can this be right? General Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's military advisor, wants “Ayatollah Khomeini,” the leader of Iran, to condemn the Nice terrorist attacks.
Iranian-American journalist Saman Arbabi wrote:
On foreign policy #Trump team makes Bush team look like Nobel Laureate winners. https://t.co/AwQkXcLIeg
— Saman Arbabi (@SamanArbabi) July 15, 2016
American Internet users took an interest in the story, as well, after the Huffington Post wrote about it:
“Flynn’s offer to list Muslim leaders was undermined by the fact that his top example had been dead for 30 years” https://t.co/8thyQRxdbQ
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) July 15, 2016
Cool, let's give the codes to ppl who cant tell diff bet. living ppl and really dead ones COME ON https://t.co/MRhPsxayug via @HuffPostPol
— Maude Snuggs (@MillCunningham) July 15, 2016
A parody account satirizing the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, also had some thoughts:
Wonder if he knows that Gorbachev isn't president of Russia.
Trump adviser wants Khomeini to denounce Nice attack https://t.co/hR30iNCypp
— Soviet Sergey (@SovietSergey) July 18, 2016


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PokéStops or Stopping Poké? Iran Reacts to the Pokémon Go Phenomenon · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Post author Mahsa Alimardani imagines playing Pokemon Go in in front of Azadi square in Tehran, holding the game up to a picture of the monument. Screencapture by Mahsa Alimardani.
Pokémon Go has become a worldwide phenomenon with over 30 million downloads since its release on July 6, 2016 in selected countries.
The game uses Google Maps data to superimpose characters from the Pokémon series into your geographic surroundings. As you walk, your smartphone uses GPS to track your position in the world, and it will know if you get close to one of these characters. You can then capture the character on your phone screen, train it, and then deploy it in the “augmented reality” battlefield that is Pokémon Go.
Despite the fact that the game is only available in certain places, the craze has drawn in many players from other countries, including Iran, who have used VPNs to download the game.
How has Iran — the country with one of the most restricted Internet environments in the world — reacted to Pokémon Go?
Many Iranian users have commented on the difficulty of finding Pokémon around cities such as Tehran. A Reddit user in Iran asked the Pokémon Go Reddit feed on 10 July if others have been locating creatures in Tehran.
Hi, I have a quick question. I'm in Iran right now and I was wondering if pokemon go will work? I'm in the middle of Tehran so it's a big city but I can't find any information if the app even works here. I have 4g mobile data but I haven't seen anything special on the map. Thanks
Respondents to the post theorized that the application is blocked, but others noted that they had occasionally come upon some characters, and even indicated Poke stops in Tehran parks or gardens in the city of Shiraz. One Twitter user reported finding Pokemon by the historic Blue Mosque in the city of Tabriz.
یه محل #پوکمون تو #تبریز..
مسجد کبود.. 😃 ✌#PokemonGO #Pokestops pic.twitter.com/vfktAzQ1YQ
— Ziya (@Ziya_Amiri) July 19, 2016
A neighbourhood with Pokemon in #Tabriz…Kabood Mosque.
Another Twitter user in the city of Karaj described feeling happy that Pokémon had given him an excuse to go outside and move.
امشب رفتم پوکمون شکار کردم, بازی باحالیه در کل :)) من که از جام تکون نمیخورم شب ها حداقل به بهانه این میرم یه دوری میزنم :)#PokemonGO
— Erfan Besharat (@erbesharat) July 19, 2016
Tonight I went to hunt Pokemon, it's a very amusing game :)) at least I now have excuse to move since I barely do
A female Twitter user in Tehran jokingly complained that life has become difficult now that she has to hunt for Pokémon while being on the lookout for the country's morality police, who arrest and fine women for improper hejab.
خیلی سخته تو خیابون همزمان هم حواسم به پوکمون شکار کردن باشه هم مواظب باشم گشت ارشاد شکارم نکنه. سخت شده زندگی :))
— Narges (@nargesd) July 19, 2016
It's quite difficult to be in the streets and be focused on both hunting Pokémon and on the lookout that gasht ershad don't hunt me. Life has become hard :))
Notable Iranian game developer Mohammad Mehdi Behfarrad offered some deeper analysis on the appeal of the game, theorizing that it might not have broad appeal in Iran for a number of reasons, including the nation's unfamiliarity with the Pokémon series that has been around since 1995.
نکته اصلی درباره بازی پوکمون داستان اصلی پوکون است که از فضا و ویژگی‌های داستانی آن به بهترین شکل در طراحی بازی استفاده شده است. به تعبیر دیگر داستان واقعی شکل‌گیری پوکمون در قالب تکنولوژی AR تبدیل به یک بازی سرگرم‌کننده شده است که طبیعتا برای مخاطبان هم جذاب است. آدم‌ها اساسا به دنبال تجربه‌های تازه هستند و طبیعتا در کنار هم قرار گرفتن این ظرفیت‌ها توسط کمپانی معتبری همچون نینتندو تبدیل به یک اتفاق می‌شود…از آنجا که داستان اصلی پوکمون خیلی در ایران شناخته شده نیست، شاید سرعت برقراری ارتباط مخاطب ایرانی با این بازی مانند نمونه‌های دیگری مانند.
The main point about the Pokemon is the story and the best usage of the features of the story in the AR [augmented reality]  structure of the game. On the other hand the conversion of the story into this new entertaining technology is what attracts the masses. People are looking to new experiences and naturally when this comes together with a reputable company like Nintendo in this capacity it turns into an event…From knowing that the main Pokemon story is not very known in Iran, it may not have the same speed in connecting with the Iranian players.
Authorities have also commented on the game. Hasan Karimi Ghodosi, the director of the National Foundation for Computer Games (NFCG), said that he has been in talks with the game's developers. In the past, the NFCG has issued bans on games such as “1979 Revolution” a game depicting struggles of resistors of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as well as “Battlefield 3” a game that involved a US military invasion of Tehran.
Ghodosi explained to Mehr News Agency (an organisation owned by the Islamic Dissemination Organisation) on July 17 that the status of the game in Iran would depend on the game developer's cooperation with authorities.
درباره بازی پوکمون ما یک مکاتبه ایمیلی با سازندگان این بازی داشته‌ایم  با این مضمون که اگر قرار است این بازی در ایران توزیع و عرضه شود حتماً باید از فیلتر بنیاد ملی بازی‌های رایانه‌ای بگذرد و هماهنگی‌های لازم در این زمینه صورت گرفته باشد و در غیر این صورت ناگزیر از فیلتر و جلوگیری از عرضه بازی هستیم.
We had a communication through email with the developers of Pokemon Go and with the issue that if the game wants to come to the Iranian market it has to pass through the filtering of the National Foundation of Computer Games along with their cooperation, otherwise we have to filter and block this game in our market.
He further explained that the NFCG already had two conditions for the developer's of the game, which they had not communicated to them yet. These include keeping the game's data servers inside of Iran, as well as cooperating with the government to prohibit the game from targeting locations that could be of national security concerns.
The request to host servers inside the country might be seen as an extension of the demand from this past May by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace to all foreign messaging companies that they have a year to move the data they hold on Iranians onto servers inside the country or face censorship.
برای عرضه این بازی دو شرط را مدنظر داریم که البته هنوز به صورت رسمی به سازندگان بازی اعلام نشده؛ یکی اینکه باتوجه به حجم اطلاعات ثبت شده کاربران در فضای این بازی، سرور اصلی آن حتماً باید در ایران باشد و دوم اینکه نقاط تفریحی و مقاصد هدف‌گذاری شده در سراسر کشور برای تگ شدن در این بازی هم باید با هماهنگی و همکاری بنیاد مشخص شود. نباید نقاطی برای کاربر معین شود که از لحاظ موازین و قوانین کشور منعی برای حضور کاربر در آنجا وجود داشته باشد. مانند مراکز نظامی و امنیتی.
اگر سازندگان این بازی به دنبال ورود رسمی به ایران هستند باید این موارد را مدنظر داشته باشند اما با توجه به نامه‌نگاری‌ای که داشتیم آنچه از واکنش آن‌ها برمی‌آمد به صورتی بود که احساس نمی‌کنیم در شرایط فعلی برنامه‌ای برای ورود به ایران داشته باشند. بازار بازی‌های رایانه‌ای ایران همچنان برای بازِی‌سازان و شرکت‌های جهانی یک بازار پیچیده و ناشناخته است و به همین دلیل کمتر به دنبال ورود به آن هستند، به خصوص که درباره این بازی در همین محدوده فعلی بازار عرضه هم سازندگانش سود سرشاری را عاید خود کرده‌اند.
To supply this game in the country, we have two conditions that are not formally announced to the original game makers. Firstly, with attention to the information users register within the game, the original server has to be located in Iran and second all the targetted locations in the game for tagging around the country has to be coordinated and cooperated with the National Foundation of Computer Games. There should not be locations that users are prohibited to be in, like the military or national security locations.
If the game makers want to officially enter the Iranian market they have to comply with our rules but from their correspondence we see that they don’t have any plans to enter the Iranian market. Iran’s gaming market is a complicated market for developers and global companies and for this reason they are not looking into entering our market.
The director of the NFCG himself recognized that Pokémon Go's developer's were unlikely to cooperate with their demands, and would continue to operate as they have been inside of Iran for the past few weeks, with downloads through VPNs, which are ubiquitous in Iran.


text:
The Murder of Trinidad’s Notorious ‘Robocop’ Leaves the Country Worried About What’s Next · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Riot police in Trinidad and Tobago. Photo by Georgia Popplewell, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Say the word “Robocop” in Trinidad and Tobago and the first thing that comes to mind is not the 1987 American action film, but Selwyn “Robocop” Alexis, a businessman and allegedly a major crime lord. Police had, in the past, arrested Alexis on various charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, extortion, and perverting the course of justice. None of the charges ever stuck, but trouble found “Robocop” on July 17, 2016, when he died in a shootout at a car-wash compound he owned in central Trinidad.
According to reports, two others were killed in the violence. Alexis apparently killed one of the assailants before succumbing to his own injuries, and a random customer also died in the gunfire. A five-year-old boy was shot as well, and is currently receiving care at a local hospital. Police have expressed concerns that the murder could spark a turf war between rival gangs operating in the area.
The news broke quickly on social media. On Facebook, Internet users shared videos from the scene of the shootout. Many people have felt compelled to comment on the murders. Kathryn Stollmeyer-Wight shared her thoughts:
[…] This man, Selwyn ‘Robocop’ Alexis […] How many times has he been arrested & let go for lack of evidence… […]
Today Robocop was shot dead.
Two other men were also killed.
Sadly, there will be reprisal deaths because thats the way it is.
We may not live in Paris, in Nice or in Baton Rouge, but ‘doh fool yuh fat’. We are living in T&T.
In another public Facebook post, Dane S.G. Wilson said:
You live by the sword you die by the sword. That's the only way out from living such a life style. […] An innocent man is dead and an innocent little boy is now fighting for his life! STOP THE KILLING!
On Twitter, photographer David Wears asked:
So here endeth the loooooong story of #Robocop. What all yuh think, #AboutTime or #SorryForTheLoss?#Trinidad#CrimeInTrinbago
— Jack WarnerBe (@DavidWearsPhoto) July 18, 2016
Calypsonian David Rudder, who always has a finger on the pulse of the country's politics and society (and who has a talent for highlighting their outrageous contradictions), tweeted:
‘ROBOCOP SHOT DEAD.’
Trinidad's most ” popular” criminal Selwyn ROBOCOP Alexis goes down in a hail of bullets.
— David Michael Rudder (@DavidRudder) July 18, 2016
In Trinidad and Tobago, euphemisms abound when it comes to describing gang leaders (and there is no court-upheld evidence to suggest that “Robocop” was one) who are often called “businessmen”, “community leaders”, or “entrepreneurs”. But because such figures may assist people in downtrodden communities, they are often revered by residents who have come to depend on them economically.
Alexis’ widow has since suggested that he was killed by “ungrateful” people whom he would continually help. When her husband realised they did not want to work in order to help themselves, she said, he stopped the handouts and this “angered” them. Making the point that “Robocop” played the role of mediator in the community, she implied that the killers wanted him out of the picture so that they could have free reign with crime sprees in the area.
One Twitter user, accustomed to the insensitivity of some local media when it comes to sensationalising violent crime, asked:
@expressupdates @MarkBassant1 I see #Trinidad papers blurring #Robocop‘s body. 1st time Ive noticed censored murder victims pics. How come?
— Khadine (@khadine868) July 18, 2016
Even as Alexis’ son was giving interviews to the media, saying that his father was “a changed man” and only wanted peace, some Twitter users remained unconvinced:
finally ROBOCOP in Trinidad is dead👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
— Leann (@_LeannG) July 18, 2016

author: Flora Thomas


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As Constitutional Referendum Nears, Thailand Intensifies Censorship · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

As Thailand authorities ban public reading of vote-no documents, activists post photo from toilet. Photo and caption by @sunaibkk
Thailand’s military-backed government has authorized the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to shut down TV and radio stations which are found guilty of broadcasting programs that threaten national security. Furthermore, the junta gave NBTC officials immunity from legal accountability.
Human rights groups believe this ruling aims to prevent activists and other political forces from campaigning against the approval of a draft constitution in a national referendum scheduled for August 7.
Several media networks have signed a joint statement expressing concern about the ruling:
The excessive expansion of authority to limit the press freedom and the people's rights to information through the NBTC as a tool might result in the media doing their job in fearful environment and eventually result in the people's failure to receive correct and well-round information.
The statement was signed by the National Press Council of Thailand, Thai Journalists Association, Thai Broadcast Journalists Association, News Broadcasting Council of Thailand, and the Online News Providers Association on July 15.
The army grabbed power in 2014, but its leaders promised to restore civilian rule once electoral and political reforms were implemented. Two years later, the army is still in control of the government. Protests are banned, media is strictly regulated, and dissenting politicians or journalists are given ‘attitude adjustment’ sessions in army camps.
The junta drafted a constitution as part of the normalization process, but critics have pointed out that it contains provisions that will reinforce military control in the bureaucracy.
Activists and academics cannot launch a vigorous information campaign about the constitution because the government has outlawed any discussion that would persuade the people to vote in favor or against it. The junta insists Article 61 of the 2016 Referendum Act only seeks to stop the spread of malicious and wrong information about the constitution, but activists assert that it legitimizes the crackdown on free speech.
In the past several weeks, activists have been arrested for distributing flyers that encourage the public to reject the draft constitution.
A plainclothes police man searches the desk of a journalist at the Prachatai office. Photo from Prachatai
Last week, journalist Taweesak Kerdpoka and several activists were detained after police found information materials about the constitution in their car.
They have since been released. But police then raided the office of Kerdpoka, who works for independent news website Prachatai, a Global Voices partner. Prachatai reported on its website that the police seemed to be searching for evidence to link the news organization to activist groups campaigning against the constitution.
Taweesak is the first journalist to be arrested under a new law that makes it illegal to criticize the ref. #Thailand #PressFreedom @AP
— Sonja Jo (@Sonja_Jo) July 10, 2016
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance emphasized the importance of the media in providing a balanced information about the proposed constitution:
Amid a tightly controlled media and political environment, the media plays a very important role in keeping the public informed about all aspects of the document that will serve as the framework of their country’s governance. Unhampered media reportage of different views and activities is essential for Thai citizens to attain a balanced view about the draft charter’s merits and flaws, in order to vote according to their conscience.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is urging the Thai government to stop intimidating the media sector:
If Thailand's military junta wants its referendum to be seen as credible, it must stop harassing journalists covering the campaign and let information flow freely to the public.
iLaw, a group promoting civil liberties, insists that the Article 61 ban on information that “influences” voters one way or another undermines the credibility of the referendum:
We have observed that public discussions on the Draft Constitution and on the Referendum are unusually muted, even though day of the Referendum is rapidly approaching. People are afraid to speak out, or to take part in debates, or to carry out campaign activities. This atmosphere is not conducive to a free and fair referendum, and therefore the results are unlikely to be fully accepted, either in Thailand or abroad.

author: Mong Palatino


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Chinese Reformist Magazine Shuts Down to Resist Authorities’ Hostile Takeover · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Du Daozheng standing in front of a calligraphy written by Chinese President Xi Jinping's father Xi Zhongxun. The calligraphy is a gift which praises Yanhuang Chunqiu's publishing work in 2001. Photo via Bowen Press.
“Better to be a broken jade than an intact tile.” With that Chinese idiom, which means death is preferable to dishonor, the publisher of Yanhuang Chunqiu announced on July 17 that the reformist magazine would cease publication.
Founded in 1991, Yanhuang Chunqiu was partly state-affiliated, but nevertheless initiated discussions in China about political reform, including “intra-party democracy,” congressional reform and relaxing the government's control over the media.
Authorities’ tolerance for the magazine, however, has waned in recent years amid President Xi Jinping's tightening grip on power and aggressive ideological campaign. On June 12, the China Academy of Art, which comes under the Ministry of Culture, removed all of the magazine's directors and assigned six new people to take over its management. The magazine's editorial committee attempted to file legal charges against the Academy for violating previous agreements, but the effort failed.
Things then escalated dramatically in the days that followed. On July 15, authorities broke into the magazine's offices, seized all the property including bank accounts and changed the password for the magazine's website.
Founder and publisher Du Daozheng condemned the takeover of Yanhuang Chunqiu in the statement announcing the end of operations:
宣佈改組雜誌社領導機構，嚴重侵犯了憲法第35條賦予公民的出版自由，違反了協議書中明確約定的我社人士、發稿和財務的「自主權」。
鑒於此，經過炎黃春秋雜誌社社委會討論並一致決定，自即日起（即7月17日）停刊，此後任何人以《炎黃春秋》名義發行的出版物，均與「本社」無關。
[The China Art Academy]'s announcement of the magazine's new leadership has violated citizens’ freedom of the press, which is protected by Article 35 of the Constitution, and has broken the previous contract, which ensured the editorial committee's autonomy in managing, publishing and financing the magazine.
After Yanhuang Chunqiu's editorial team discussed the matter, everyone agreed that from today onward (July 17), the magazine would cease to operate. Any other person publishing under the name of Yanhuang Chunqiu has no relation to this editorial committee.
All three directors removed by the Academy have strong links to the Chinese Communist Party, suggesting that the decision to intervene came from the party's top leadership.
Du, 73, is the former head of the state press ministry. Hu Dehua is the son of former Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang. And Li Cheng is the daughter of Li Zhuan, the former chief editor of People's Daily, which is the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
Since 2013, the party has made several attempts to intervene in the magazine's editorial autonomy. In January 2013, the magazine's website was taken offline for more than two weeks. The block came after a high-profile incident of censorship at the Guangzhou newspaper Southern Weekly in which authorities replaced discussion of constitutionalism in favor of praise for the Chinese Communist Party. Observers believed that the move against Yanhuang Chunqiu was meant to prevent the magazine from spreading their proposals for political reform in support of their liberal friends.
In September 2014, the magazine's supervision was re-assigned from the Chinese Yinhuang Culture Research Institution to the China Academy of Art under the Ministry of Culture, a change which the editorial committee resisted. They appealed to the magazine's advisory committee, which is composed of senior party members, for support. Eventually, the magazine was allowed to retain partial editorial autonomy, but had to accept the stationing of content supervision staff appointed by the Academy.
In February 2015, the Academy banned the magazine from publishing its spring festival editorial and forbade the editorial committee from organizing its annual spring festival gathering. In June of that year, the extreme leftist wing within the Chinese Communist Party launched an attack on the magazine's “anti-party” mistake in narrating the history of the party, and its chief editor was forced to leave. In May 2016, censorship authorities stopped the printing of the magazine's feature on the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution — the violent purge of people deemed anti-communist during the 1960s and 70s — at the presses.
Moreover, a number of the magazine's editors and advisers have been harassed for their characterization of Chinese history. Hong Zhenkuai, former chief editor of the magazine, was sued in July 2015 for “defaming” the Five Heroes of Langya Mountain — a group of soldiers glorified for refusing to surrender to invading Japanese warriors during the Sino-Japanese War in 1941. They are said to have killed themselves instead by jumping off a cliff. Hong had pointed to historical records that indicated two of the heroes actually died from accidents.
And 93-year-old Chinese Communist Party historian He Fang was put under a party-led disciplinary investigation for criticizing former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in May 2016.
Following the announcement of Yanhuang Chunqui's shutdown, one of the magazine's former managing editors quoted current Chinese President Xi Jinping's own words, as spoken to party magazine Quishi, to explain what has happened to China's media sector:
思想輿論領域大致有紅色、黑色、灰色'三個地帶'。紅色地帶是我們的主陣地，一定要守住；黑色地帶主要是負面的東西，要敢於亮劍，大大壓縮其地盤；灰色地帶要大張旗鼓爭取，使其轉化為紅色地帶。
[Xi said] ideology and the public sphere are divided into three color zones: red, black and grey. Red is our territory and we have to defend it; black represents the negative side and we have to use our swords to minimize its influence; as for grey area, we have to take it over and turn it into the red zone.
Yanhuang Chunqui must then fall into the grey area, according to the ideological battle that Xi is waging.
Currently, the term “Yanhuang Chunqiu” is blocked from search on popular Chinese social media site Weibo. On Twitter, @Zodiac4698 commented on the magazine's “outspokenness”:
《炎黃春秋》不是什么敢言的月刊，它只是当年供党内领导干部了解真实党史，历史真相的一个官方渠道。中共从打压《炎黃春秋》到今天全部大换血，这说明习政府准备对党内也实行“愚官”教育，和民间的愚化一样，体制内的党员干部也必须什么都不知道！ https://t.co/aLEz8V6UkC
— 小悲 (@Zodiac4698) July 15, 2016
Yanhuang Chunqiu should not be considered outspoken. It is just an official channel for party leaders and officials to understand the history of the Chinese Communist Party. The crackdown on Yanhuang Chunqiu and today's takeover indicates that Xi's government wants to educate its officials into “fools” like the rest of the society. Party members and officials should remain naive.
Political cartoonist @thomasycwong gave the situation a humorous spin, imagining how Xi Jinping successfully can make a desk bow to him:
哼！炎黃春秋，一介書呆子，懂個屁！書檯也要你屈膝！ pic.twitter.com/FvqqGDa24k
— 鳩鵪亞黃 (@thomasycwong) July 19, 2016
Hey, Yanhuang Chunqui, a bunch of bookworms who know nothing [about politics]! I can make a desk bow to me!

author: Oiwan Lam


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Netizen Report: What do Zimbabwe, Kashmir, and Turkey Have in Common? Internet Censorship. · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

New York City in a blackout following Hurricane Sandy. Photo by Alex Perkins via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Reports of Web censorship — ranging from blocking specific websites and entire social media platforms as well as overall Internet blackouts — have been so widespread over the last two weeks that we’ve decided to dedicate this Netizen Report to the trend.
Protests across Zimbabwe over an escalating economic crisis have brought on a new wave of censorship in the country: Zimbabweans have reported not being able to access WhatsApp, which was used to organize and circulate images of the protests, and the telecom regulatory authority issued a public notice warning users they were being closely monitored and could be “easily identified,” according to the Washington Post. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and radio station STAR FM also received a warning from the CEO of the Broadcasting Authority not to “broadcast programs that incite, encourage, or glamorise violence or brutality” and to avoid “broadcasting obscene and undesirable comments from participants, callers and audiences”. The government is rumored to be working on licensing an Internet gateway for the country, a mechanism that would force all traffic to pass through a single portal that would be operated by the government and allow authorities broad access to Internet traffic and user data.
Amid unrest over the July 8 killing of Kashmiri rebel leader Burhan Wani, Internet and mobile services were shut down for at least six days. Thousands of Indian soldiers. Thousands of Indian soldiers are patrolling the streets, and have used tear gas and pellets on protesters. Several Kashmiris have also reported having their social media accounts suspended in what free expression advocates Baba Umar and Nighat Dad suspect might be a campaign by trolls to flag their accounts.
Meanwhile, during the attempted coup in Turkey, Internet users reported having trouble accessing a range of websites and services including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. CloudFlare reported an approximately 50% drop in Turkey’s total Internet traffic during the unrest. Yet what at first appeared to be at least a partial blackout typical of past periods of unrest in Turkey soon turned on its head, as President Erdogan turned to Twitter — which he described in 2013 as a “menace to society” — and Apple’s FaceTime in order to address the country. Websites continue to be blocked in the aftermath of the attempted coup, with the Turkish site Engelli Web (Disabled Web) reporting that a judge approved the censorship of 20 websites. And following Wikileaks’ release of nearly 300K emails sent to and from officials of the AKP, Erdogan’s party, Wikileaks was blocked too.
Ethiopian telecommunication company EthioTelecom blocked social media platforms including Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for at least two months in December 2015 and January 2016 in Oromia, where students are protesting government plans to expand the capital city Addis Ababa into neighboring farm lands in the state. The telco also reportedly plans to enforce a new price scheme for VoIP data usage in order to more heavily regulate data plans and what kinds of apps users can operate on their devices. And it intends to track, identify, and ban any mobile devices not purchased from the Ethiopian market, making it easier for the company to track data sent to and from subscribers on the network. The protests in Oromia, which began in November 2015, have become a series of the largest and bloodiest demonstrations against the Ethiopian government in a decade, with at least 400 people killed, more injured and thousands jailed. Facebook and Twitter have been critical for spreading information about the protests.
WhatsApp was also briefly blocked in Brazil for the third time in less than a year following a court order from a judge after failing to surrender user data to police. The Supreme Court accepted an appeal that brought the service back online four hours later, calling the lower court’s decision “not very reasonable and not very proportional.”
A group of Iranian hardliners have demanded the government stop blocking Twitter, in an unexpected change of tune from a group who typically stand at the forefront of policies curtailing freedom of expression. The group wants to use Twitter to counter Saudi Arabian propaganda, which they argue is part of a “psychological operation” against Iran. Propaganda concerns have increased since the recent attacks in Nice, France.
Iranian officials also have responded to Pokemon Go, pledging to censor the game if the developers do not agree to cooperate with Iran’s National Foundation for Computer Games, which has censored multiple games in the past. They say they will seek to keep the game's data servers inside of Iran, along with cooperation with the government to prohibit the game from targeting locations that could be of national security concerns. The request to keep servers inside the country might be seen as an extension of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace’s demand that all foreign messaging companies, within one year, move the data they hold about Iranians onto servers inside the country or face censorship.
In other news, Iran has put Apple on notice, stating the company has just a “few days” to register or “all iPhones will be collected from the market,” according to a report by Tasnim News. Due to sanctions against Iran, Apple had previously not officially entered the Iranian market. Smugglers, however, have brought iPhones to Iran. A 2015 report suggested there were about 6 million iPhones in circulation in the country at that time. This new ban would not affect existing iPhone owners, but would ban further sales of the phone on the market.
The Nicaraguan government is considering a repeal of its Internet tax in order to improve national connectivity. Currently the government charges a 20% tax on mobile terminals, resulting in high costs for Internet users. The announcement followed meetings between government officials and  entrepreneurs in the telecommunications sector to explore ways to improve infrastructure.
The US government is considering a new agreement to allow other countries to directly serve demands for user data and wiretaps on US technology companies, rather than having to participate in the often slow mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) process, wherein the US judiciary must be involved in issuing approval for data requests.
The European Commission adopted the EU-US Privacy Shield, a new framework intended to replace the now-defunct Safe Harbor agreement under which Europeans’ personal data can be transferred to the US and vice versa. Though technology companies seem generally happy with the deal, which allows them to continue their trans-Atlantic business, privacy groups have expressed reservations, saying the safeguards fail to sufficiently protect users’ data and can be easily undermined.
Mahsa Alimardani, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Laura Vidal and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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One Children’s Song, Translated Into Australia’s Many Local Languages · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Languages and cultures may differ, but the joyful sound of children singing is universal. A song called “Marrin Gamu,” created for primary school children and teachers to promote the diversity and beauty of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, is proving just that.
The title of the song combines the word for “body” in two of the languages. Marrin is the word for “body” in the Wiradjuri language of New South Wales, and Gamu is the word for “body” in the Kalaw Kawaw Ya language from the Torres Strait.
The song is also the basis of a friendly contest organized by First Languages Australia and ABC Splash. First, communities are invited to teach local children the lyrics in English.
Verse 1. Eyes and ears, (3 times).
Verse 2. Hand and foot, (3 times).
Verse 3. Leg and arm, (3 times).
Verse 4. Head and belly, (3 times).
Then once the children know the song, the community is asked to translate the lyrics into their own native language. Finally, the community and school work together to create a video to be uploaded to the competition website.
The Marrin Gamu website provides an example to help get teachers and students started. Also included in the website is a range of Australian curriculum-linked classroom activities developed around the project. Conversation starter questions are suggested as a way to facilitate discussions with students about their language:
Questions for the class:
The project will run for the next two years so that all schools have time to develop the necessary relationships to participate in the project. Contest organizers hope to see “Marrin Gamu” sung in many of Australia’s hundreds of first languages.
“Marrin Gamu” fits into a broader strategy to prevent language loss by focusing on schools and students and working with local teachers. Many teachers do not have deep knowledge of these languages, so the website shares cross-curricular programs for use in the classroom. Incorporating an element of digital media and the internet may motivate students when they see their creativity and local language reflected online.
Screenshot from Gurang language video.
The first submission is a video created by a school in Queensland in which students sing “Marrin Gamu” in the Gurang language. As more videos of the song are submitted, we'll be sharing them here.

author: Eduardo Avila


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A Protection Ritual to ‘Close the Body’ Links Different Religious Traditions in Brazil · Global Voices
Adam Lee

Candomblé. Photo by Flickr user Luciano Paiva. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
When the slave trade came to Brazil in the 16th century, African religious beliefs and rituals survived the long and treacherous journey along with it. Over the centuries, such beliefs would come to unify many of the descendants of the estimated four million slaves brought to the country, through the modern-day Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda.
During the same period of colonization, 700,000 Portuguese immigrants settled in Brazil, bringing their own particular kind of Catholicism with them. Some of those settlers would attempt to carve out a home in the unforgiving desert of the Sertão.
The two ethnic groups would come to share not only much of the same region — the Northeast — but also an important aspect between their religions — a ritual known as the fechamento de corpo, or closing of the body.
The fechamento de corpo is based on a protection prayer that results in a corpo fechado, or closed body. The ritual is meant to ward off evil — either spiritual, physical or both. If the insurance sought was physical in nature, the receiver would believe themself safe from attacks no matter the weapon, including knives, guns or even snake venom.
So how did the fechamento de corpo become a common thread running through such different religious traditions in Brazil? The history begins more than five hundred years ago.
In the 15th century, the Portuguese went to Africa in search of a route to India, started producing sugarcane then moved onto the more lucrative business of slavery. During the same period, in Sub-Saharan Africa, missionaries from Portugal arrived with the aim of converting the locals.
The later manifestation of African belief systems in Brazil suggests their mission wasn’t fully successful. Rather than Africans changing their beliefs fundamentally, they ended up supplementing and/or disguising them with elements of the religion of the Portuguese slavers, Catholicism. One of the African beliefs to come under this Catholic cloak was the closed body ritual.
The Brazilian magazine Mundo Estranho wrote about this concealment in a January 2014 article:
Naquela época, chegaram ao país os primeiros africanos de origem iorubá, um povo que ocupava a região onde hoje ficam Nigéria, Benin e Togo. A religião dos iorubás era o candomblé, mas eles aportaram no Brasil como escravos e não podiam cultuar suas divindades livremente […] Por causa dessa proibição, os escravos começaram a associar suas divindades com os santos católicos para exercerem sua fé disfarçadamente. Como os santos católicos são bem numerosos, existem divindades que são identificadas com mais de um santo. Por exemplo: Oxóssi, o rei da caça, é associado a São Jorge e a São Sebastião.
At the time, the first Africans, of Yoruba descent, arrived in Brazil, a people that occupied the region where one finds Nigeria, Benin and Togo today. The Yoruba religion was Candomblé, but they arrived in Brazil as slaves and couldn’t worship their gods freely […] Due to this ban, the slaves started to associate their gods with Catholic saints to practice their faith in secret. As the Catholic saints are numerous, there are divinities that are identified as more than one saint. For example: Oxóssi, the king of hunting, is associated with Saint George and Saint Sebastian.
Candomblé as a religion was formalized in the 19th century. Then came Umbanda in the 20th century, which is mainly a mixture of Candomblé and Spiritism, which itself is a religious movement that believes in the existence of spirits and reincarnation.
The two African-based religions are “comparable to Christianity and Islam” since “they have completely different foundations, rites, visions and interpretations”, according to the blog Tenda de Umbanda Filhos da Vovó Rita, which is run by an Umbanda terreiro (a temple) in Santa Catarina. However, the blog explains that Candomblé and Umbanda do share some commonalities such as devotion to gods known as Orixás and the use of beads and hand drums.
And they both practice the closed body ritual. Interestingly, the ritual — also called ‘kura’, or cure — is usually practiced every year on Good Friday, before the Christian holiday Easter, throughout temple houses across Brazil.
The blog O Candomblé explains the ritual process:
As Kuras são incisões feitas no corpo do Yaô (noviço já iniciado no Candomblé), que por um lado representam o símbolo de cada tribo, como o símbolo de cada Ilê (casa ou terreiro), mas têm o objectivo de fechar o corpo do Yaô, protegendo-o de todo o tipo de influência negativas.
Para isso são feitas as incisões (o que chamamos de abrir) e nessas incisões é colocado o Atim (pó) de defesa para aquele Yaô (iniciado). O Atim tem uma composição base de diversas plantas e substâncias, mas o Atim utilizado para as Kuras, contêm também as ervas do Orixá daquele Yaô em quem ele vai ser aplicado.
The Cures are incisions made in the body of the already initiated novice of Candomblé, which in part represent the symbol of each tribe, like the symbol of each temple, but they have the aim of closing the body of the initiate, protecting it from all types of negative influences.
To this end, incisions are made (what we call “openings”) and in these incisions a powder is placed, for the protection of that initiate. The powder consists of various plants and substances, but the kind used for Cures also contains the herbs specific to the deity of the initiate receiving the application.
Umbanda, on the other hand, generally employs less invasive methods to “close” the body. Instead of incisions, the chief of the temple house will use a mix of herbs and other ingredients and gently do the symbol of the cross over different parts of the body of the person undergoing the ritual.
The ingredients vary. According to the blog Sete Porteiras, elements such as keys, white chalk, herbs, olive oil, chains, amulets, prayers, candles, water, shells, steel chains and garlic are commonly used. Each temple chief will have their own particular way of manipulating the physical elements meant for astral protection.
Afro-Brazilians weren't the only ones practicing the closing of the body. Resident peasants of Portuguese origin, who would go on to be called sertanejos — akin to the American cowboy — also took up the ritual.
Located in the northeastern hinterlands, the Sertão is the Brazilian desert. Low annual rainfall in the region has historically led to droughts as well as to soil that doesn’t lend itself to crop growth. There, life is cyclical, full of sacrifice and daily battles, but despite this, its population survives and continues on. Euclides da Cunha, a Brazilian author and reporter who covered the War of Canudos, a peasant rebellion that happened in the late 19th century in the Sertão, spoke of the rural peasant’s longevity and strength, when he said “the sertanejo is, above all, a fortress”.
Sertanejo home. Photo by Flickr user Wagner Rochink. CC BY 2.0
The region is home to a distinct culture. Over the centuries, oral traditions have blended and given rise to rich literature known as cordel; musical styles such as forró, frevo, xaxado, samba de roda and samba de coco; and winter festivals (during the rainy season) centering around Saint John the Baptist.
Religion in the Sertão also has a unique twist. Peasants created their own kind of rural Catholicism in Brazil, combining “magic, superstition, the presence of amulets, prayers of strength and protection, women of prayer, and the pious”, according to social scientist Max Silva D'Oliveira. This included the closed body ritual.
In the dissertation titled “O Mandonismo do Sertão” (The Despotism of the Sertão), author Luis Carlos Mendes Santiago describes various methods and ceremonies for closing one's body in the Sertão. They sometimes go beyond simple prayers. In one instance, described by famed Brazilian anthropologist Câmara Cascudo, the recipient remains standing, with the right foot over the left, in a bucket of water, while receiving hand gestures made with a key. Another manner includes having a nun sew sacramental bread — considered to be the body of Christ — under one's skin while prayers and ritual movements are undertaken.
One of the most high-profile sertanejos to practice the closed body ritual was Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião. He was Brazil’s most famous bandit leader, operating in the Brazilian Northeast during the 1920s and 30s. American author Billy Jaynes Chandler, who wrote the book “Bandit King”, likens him to United States’ Jesse James, and while Lampião ardently and continuously broke the law, he never broke with his religious beliefs, which extended into the mystical.
The blog Lampião Aceso describes Lampião's beliefs in the era of nomadic banditry:
…onde era comum a crença de que aquele que soubesse alguma oração de corpo-fechado e tomasse seus cuidados, estaria protegido contra a peste e as balas mortais dos inimigos. Lampião e seus cangaceiros recitavam esta oração diariamente. O líder do cangaço acreditava que a força da fé era suficiente para protegê-los dos perigos naturais do Sertão […]. Outro guerreiro, séculos antes, tornou-se símbolo da proteção divina: São Jorge, que corresponde, na mitologia, ao Orixá dos exércitos e dos guerreiros. […] Lampião incluiu em sua oração de fechamento de corpo não só vários elementos da oração a São Jorge, como principalmente a imensa religiosidade que recobre o povo sertanejo.
…it was common to believe that those who knew some closed body prayer and took precautions would be protected against disease and the mortal bullets of one's enemies. Lampião and his gang recited such prayers daily. The bandit leader believed that the power of faith was enough to protect them from the natural dangers of the Sertão […]. Another warrior, centuries before, became a symbol of divine protection: Saint George, who corresponds, in mythology, to the Orixá of armies and warriors. […] Lampião included in his closed body prayer not just some elements of Saint George's prayer, but also the huge religious nature of the hinterland population.
In addition to merely reciting protection prayers, Lampião was well known among both his fellow bandits and enemies for his ability to see “beyond”. Not only that, but his enemies in the Forças Volantes – solders who were contracted to fight the bandits — also took the meaning of their own dreams to heart. In the book “Lampião: Senhor do Sertão” (Lampião: Master of the Sertão), author Elise Grunspan-Jasmin explains further:
Lampião não tinha somente o dom de interpretar os sinais anunciadores de boa fortuna, de perigo ou de desgraça. Dizia-se que era dotado de uma intuição de adivinho e, de acordo com alguns dos seus companheiros, de um ‘sexto sentido': ele ‘via’ o que os inimigos procuravam dissumular e também o que ninguém tinha possibilidade de ‘ver’.
Lampião didn't just have the gift of interpreting signs announcing good fortune, danger or bad luck. It is said that he was gifted with the intuition of a fortune teller and, according to some of his companions, a ‘sixth sense': he ‘saw’ what his enemies tried to hide and also what no one was able to ‘see’.
Despite his daily prayers for protection, Lampião, who must have felt invincible during his 16-year reign as Brazil's top outlaw, was eventually betrayed, leading to his death by police troops. His “closed” body was literally opened and part of it put on public display as a deterrent to others who might take up his cause. It could be said his death is proof that the closed body ritual doesn't work, but perhaps his nearly two decades as an outlaw proves the opposite.
Most interesting of all is not that the closed body ritual lives or dies with certain people, but that it survives culturally, even after centuries, even when practiced by descendants of two completely different social groups.
Even though rituals such as the closing of the body didn't come from Brazil, the fact that they took root there, among those who had it the roughest — descendants of slaves and settlers of the Sertão – seems to be no coincidence. Perhaps the reason it survives can be found in the landscape, both geographical and religious, where it has the most relevance — a point of convergence which just happens to be Brazil.

author: Adam Lee


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Turkey Adds Wikileaks to a Long List of Blocked Websites · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Cartoon rendering of Erdogan riding an email into a pillar of democracy. Cartoon by Carlos Latuff/Wikileaks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn't mind sharing pictures from his daughter's wedding or from his various visits and meetings with international leaders.
But he does seem to mind when his emails as well as thousands of other internal emails sent and received within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) make it into public eye.
Shortly after Wikileaks released 294,548 such emails into the public, the site was blocked countrywide.
RELEASE: 294,548 emails from Turkey's ruling political party, Erdoğan's AKP #AKPemails https://t.co/1Yof7YZpH7 pic.twitter.com/GGzGS8oUrY
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 19, 2016
Erdogan government officially orders WikiLeaks to be blocked after publishing 300k emails from his party, AKP pic.twitter.com/spQfv9XFfk
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 20, 2016
It is now confirmed that access to the https://t.co/yAAOY3vDL5 website has been blocked from Turkey. @wikileaks pic.twitter.com/TzUHr88QN3
— Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights) July 20, 2016
The announcement of the leak read as follows:
Today, 11pm Anakara Time, WikiLeaks releases part one of the AKP Emails. AKP, or the Justice & Development Party, is the ruling party of Turkey and is the political force behind the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with ‘A’ through to ‘I’ containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files. The emails come from “akparti.org.tr”, the AKP's primary domain. The most recent was sent on July 6, 2016. The oldest dates back to 2010. It should be noted that emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.
The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government's post-coup purges. We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state.
A Turkish official told Al Jazeera that their primary motive in blocking the website was to bar local access to sensitive information, such as the personal contact data of public officials, and of private citizens who had emailed government agencies.
It is not difficult to imagine that Erdogan was also seeking to block public access to his own communications with this move.
The government has developed a reputation as one of the world's most block-happy, making regular requests to Facebook and Twitter to suspend anti-AKP and Erdogan accounts.
In the last three or so years the space for independent media in the country has shrunk markedly, with pro-opposition papers and media delving into the conflict in the Kurdish-speaking east teetering on the brink of extinction.
But the relative value of the leak in Turkey's current context is still being questioned by Turkish netizens.
There is no public interest element in relation to what @wikileaks released so far in relation to Turkey leaks. Mailing list messages & spam
— Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights) July 20, 2016
Only 0.2% of Turkish emails leaked by @wikileaks are sent from AKP accounts. The rest is sent to AKP from ordinary citizens.
— Emre KIZILKAYA (@ekizilkaya) July 20, 2016
Lack of interest in the leaks may also be due to the fact that many people are still struggling to make sense of happenings in Turkey after the drama of the failed military coup.
Not to mention the time and patience it takes to parse through 294,548 apparently unremarkable emails.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva