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South Indian Singer Prosecuted for Song Critical of State Government · Global Voices
Lakshmi Sarah

Screenshot of Kovan Singing. Click image for the video.
Arrested for singing a song critical of the government of the South Indian state Tamil Nadu, folk singer and activist Kovan has now been released on bail. His arrest is part of a larger crackdown on activism and freedom of expression.
At the end of October 2015, the 52-year-old singer S. Kovan was arrested at his home in the Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu. After nearly two weeks of imprisonment, he was released on bail.
Kovan’s arrest came after his music video went viral on social media. Watch “Shut Down Tasmac” below with English subtitles:
The song, “Shut Down Tasmac,” criticises the state government for profiting from state-run liquor shops at the expense of the poor. The video shows a street play in which a woman dressed similar to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is pouring liquor into a glass. According to The Hindu, a national newspaper in India, unidentified police sources claim that “while one has the right to criticise drinking, those doing so should not cross the limits.” The limits are unclear.
Kovan was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 124A, sedition and “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot” and 505 part 1, b and c for “publishing and circulating rumours with intent to cause fear or alarm among the public and induce them to commit offence against the State or a class or community,” according to Chennai Central Crime Branch sources.
Shortly after his arrest, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that the arrest was “a misguided attempt” to shield Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa Jayaram from criticism, and demanded his immediate release. “A law that is repeatedly used to arrest singers, cartoonists and writers has no place in a democracy – and should be repealed,” Ganguly said.
No ordinary folk singer, Kovan is a leader of the People’s Art and Literary Association (PALA), an anti-imperialist protest organisation which uses art and culture to organise around socio-cultural issues. According to their Facebook page, PALA releases music including 11 audio cassettes of revolutionary political songs fighting against issues such as Brahminic terrorism and recolonisation, publishes a monthly magazine named ‘Puthiya Kalacharam’ (New Culture) which has been in print for more than 20 years, and organises with groups such as the New Democratic Labour Front (NDLF), Peasant Liberation Front (PLF), and Revolutionary Students Youth Front (RSYF) to advocate against globalisation, the Anubhav plantations, Coke plants, seizure of retail trade from small vendors, and other struggles around Tamil Nadu.
“We have sung about Koodankulam, illegal sand mining and various other social evils,” said M. Sathya, a member of the group and a close associate of Kovan for the past 25 years. In a message posted on Sanhati, the People’s Art and Literary Association “calls upon all democratic forces to fight this fascist oppression by spreading this message and the songs.”
In the Sanhati statement, A. Saravanan, a PALA spokesperson, suggests that the state government is taking action because of the organisation’s campaign against The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) shops. TASMAC is a company owned by the Government of Tamil Nadu, which has a monopoly over alcoholic beverages in Tamil Nadu. Kovan sings about the rising cost of food and the difficulty of accessing kerosene versus the ease of buying alcohol: “She supplies kerosene only once a month, but this menace of a shop closes only after midnight.”
Overall, the song is part of a broader movement to reinstate a liquor prohibition. The alcohol debate in Tamil Nadu and prohibition has a long history dating back to the 1930s. Protests against liquor stores flared up in August 2015 after 59 year-old Gandhian Sasi Perumal allegedly committed suicide in protest calling for the shutdown of a TASMAC shop in Kanyakumari. The protests, many of which are led by students and women, have at times escalated, leading to destruction of property.
Kovan’s case is not out of character for the administration. In the past four years of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime alone, over 110 cases of defamation have been filed by government. In her last regime, between 2001-2006, the Jayalalithaa-led government filed close to 120 defamation suits.
On Twitter, Shreesha Reddy a journalist with India Today TV posted a comment from Kovan’s son:
Folk singer Kovan's son to @IndiaToday : If the govt thinks this arrest wil stop us, its their stupidity. We thank them for popularising it
— Shreesha Reddy (@shreeshareddy) October 31, 2015
M.K Stalin, a politician with the opposition (DMK party) posted a statement on Facebook that received over 3,000 likes and 300 shares:
Tamil Nadu is in a state of unannounced emergency. After arresting folk artist Kovan for criticizing the Jayalalithaa government, the atrocities continued at Egmore court yesterday. The police manhandled and assaulted media personnel when they attempted to cover the case. Tamil Nadu is seeing an unprecedented situation where human rights have become non-existent, there is no respect for law and order or the Constitution, and corruption has reached obscene levels. Neither Jayalalithaa nor Sasikala seem to be the least bit worried about the disproportionate assets case pending in the Supreme Court and are forcing businessmen to sell their assets to them. The recent Jazz Cinemas exposé by the media is one such instance that has come to light.
Representatives from DMK state political party in Tamil Nadu say that this is an example of intolerance and an attempt to stifle democracy. “My father’s arrest is a threat to the people of Tamil Nadu and not just the organisation he worked for,” Kovan’s son Charuvahan said.
Kovan’s lawyer Jim Raj Milton argues that there is nothing seditious in his songs. “There is an anger in Kovan’s songs, but there is also a logic behind that anger. This is an art form. It can only be seen as art. Even defamation cannot stand,” he said.
Kovan’s arrest came in the wake of the decision of nearly 25 writers to return their literary awards in protest against intolerance under the federal government. Hindi writer Uday Prakash started the trend on 4 September 2015 protesting against the murder of Kannada Sahitya Akademi winner M.M. Kalburgi who was a progressive scholar of Vachana literature. As of 23 November 2015, at least 42 authors, essayists and playwrights have returned their awards, including Arundhati Roy.

author: Lakshmi Sarah


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Treatment of ‘Butch’ Woman at Trinidad Nightclub Feeds Discussion on Gender Identity · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Sign at a bus stop in Washington, DC — part of the DC Office of Human Rights TRANSGENDER & GENDER IDENTIY RESPECT PSA Campaign. Photo by Elvert Barnes Photography, used under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Somewhere along the line, Trinidad and Tobago gained a reputation for being something approaching a utopia for diversity. The country's national anthem boasts that “every creed and race find an equal place”, South African social rights activist and Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu once famously referred to the twin-island republic as “rainbow country”, and annual Carnival celebrations see all ethnicities, ages, and sizes enjoying the biggest street party in the world in perfect harmony.
But there is a flip side to all this bliss. Far from being an inclusive paradise, the country suffers from underlying racial tensions, intolerance, and an elitism that is apparent even at Carnival's all-inclusive’ parties and masquerade bands. Given this reality, Trinidad and Tobago surprised many with its latest scandal on social media, where there's an outcry against a popular nightclub that refused to admit a young woman. With gender in the mix, an otherwise familiar story of intolerance has become unexpectedly new ground for Trinbagonian netizens.
Here's what happened. Shannon Jacob Gomes tried to get into Aria Lounge last Friday night, December 12. She was refused admittance at the door and wrote about her experience in a public Facebook post:
She [the hostess] reiterated that because I do not ‘project the image of a female in heels/flats’, she cannot and will not allow me free access to Aria because I am ‘not a normal girl’ and since I project the image of a man, she has to charge me the Male price. I responded that that is my personal business and if Aria released an advertisement stating that females between 9.30-10 pm (never stating females in heels/appropriate flats), and if I fit the legal requirement of a female, how can she not permit me. […]
I directly stated that she was discriminating against me because legally and biologically my sex is female and if you have an ad stating females in general, then you are discriminating against me because I do not have on a dress and high heels. To which she responded ‘I'm not discriminating against you. I cannot let you in for free as a female to my event because of the look you are portraying’.
Gomes demanded a public apology from the nightclub. In response, Aria denied any discrimination, saying that the decision was impartial:
Our staff had no intentions of discriminating against Ms. Gomes. They simply were treating her in a manner that was equal to a man, given our strict dress code. […]
Ms. Gomes attempted to enter the club wearing male clothing and we did not deny her entry however, she must pay the relevant costs as it will attribute to a male dressed in male clothing…The sole purpose being that, we cannot deny another female entry for wearing flats and in the same breath let Ms. Gomes wear flats and obtain entry. […]
Our club welcomes all types of people, who would like a night out of fun and entertainment, regardless of what ethnicity, background or sexual preference they may have.
Facebook user Rhoda Bharath commented:
I see a gendered identity storm brewing.
Good time to start a much needed discussion.
On Aria's Facebook page, that discussion quickly grew heated. Vedesh Singh commented:
I just had to let you all know that your reply with respect to Ms. Gomes incident and wanting to charge her the cover charge of a male because she was dressed in ‘male attire’ is such a SHAME. It's is untrue that you all were not discriminating because you all would never let a guy dressed in female attire into the club or charge him a no cover or the cover charge for ladies right!!! You all are such a big SHAME to our diverse country in trying to move forward.
Mel Amanda B agreed:
Exactly and it's disrespectful to Ms. Gomes. Apparently all females are supposed to dress in short clothes exposing themselves with high heels on and a mask of makeup. I'm not trying to bring sexuality into it but it appears as if the people at the door were homophobic. They assumed that because Ms. Gomes was dressed a certain way, she was automatically gay and thus they responded to what they believed and disrespected this woman.
Thecarterfilez was incredulous:
Wait so Aria lounge saying if u dress in men clothes but is a woman.. u will have to pay even though it's ladies free ? u hearing yourself. u sound stupid…
Facebook user Keron Strawz Lewis agreed, saying:
The response didn't seem very well thought out, bess yall did just say sorry and done.
On LoopTT's comments thread, ndelamiko quipped:
You can't charge a woman more money because she is dressed like a man. That implies you're going to charge men less if they dress like women and I'm pretty sure this is a can of worms they're disinclined to open.
If a brother shows up ‘elegantly casual’ in female clothes, are they going to find a way to charge him more for that? Or is it less they're charging? See, it makes no sense.
Aria Lounge's ‘weak excuse’ for talking and doing foolishness, is compounded here by the most ridiculous equivocation of institutionalised gender assumptions and prejudices.
Making the point that “the VVIP Syndrome” has been going on in public spaces for a long time, The Eternal Pantomime blog noted that “the thing about discrimination is that while it defeats some, it benefits others”:
And while clubs are free to implement their rules and guidelines on their admission policy, morally and ethically, if not legally, it is wrong to promote discrimination as a way of conducting business. Particularly in a multi-ethnic country.
Still, the blogger placed as much blame on the establishment as she did on the patrons:
Now herein is where the story gets interesting. All clubs and bars here have a discriminatory door fee that women never object to. Men have to pay, and women get in free by a particular time, or sometimes even all night long. No public fuss about this type of gender discrimination. […]
However, the hostess at the club chose to decide that Ms Gomes, despite being in obviously female, was not feminine. The hidden implications of Aria’s discrimination is that Ms Gomes is butch lesbian or at least appears to be butch lesbian. As such, the hostess chose to interpret her appearance as masculine. Ms Gomes insists that she is female, and identifies as female. And you know what, she is right. Aria doesn’t get to tell people what gender they identify as. Aria also doesn’t get to change its admission policy the spot. […] Which of course brings us full circle to discriminatory practices in business places here. And how happy we are to participate in them, until they stop benefitting us.
Since the incident, Facebook users led by the feminist group Womantra have been lending their support to a public call for action, asking women to come to the nightclub on Friday, December 18 — in “male” clothing — the protest the enterprise's dress code:
We cannot allow nightclubs in Trinidad & Tobago to tell women they are –
not women
not real women
not a ‘normal’ woman
not woman enough
too male
or exist too far left of femininity for the sexualization of the male gaze (as is our duty) […]
We will NOT STAND for body policing, gender policing, body shaming or discrimination OF ANY KIND. […]
COME OUT >>> ALL BUTCHED UP. Men feel free to wear a dress!
Naturally, satirical websites like The Late O'Clock News weighed in on the issue:
After making a young woman who was ‘dressed like a man’ pay the male price for entry into their club, a beautiful dog wearing a pink dress and a matching pair of pink high heel shoes was allowed to enter Aria Lounge free of charge last Friday night after meeting all the club’s dress code requirements. […]
Shannon Gomes, forced to pay the male price for deciding to dress less femininely, protested:
‘First of all, she is a bitch. A real, actual, bitch. I thought this was a club for human beings only!’
Aria responded to the scandal, arguing that ‘ladies free’ does not only refer to human ladies.
Facebook user Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar thought he'd shed some light on what Aria's dress code really means:
To Shannon Gomes, however, the situation remains as serious as ever:
You cannot pre-judge me if I fit the criteria except for your so called discriminatory policies on what a female should look like. There is no legality to that. […] I am not debating the way I dress, I am simply stating that if I meet the requirements of being listed as female and arrive on time you cannot deny me based on your bigotry, prejudice or intolerance.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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A Year on From the Peshawar School Attack, the Wounds are Still Fresh · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Candlelight vigil in London for the victims of the Peshawar school siege. PHOTO: Kashif Haque (CC BY-SA 4.0)
By Amber Shamsi
A year ago, my daughter Hira told me about a dream she had. She was the only child left in her school. All around her was silence, as she hid behind a slide in the blood-stained playground, except for the creaking of a swing, as if someone had just left it. Her breath came in rapid puffs of vapour; it was cold, for the sun seemed to have been half swept away by a terrible wind. The grass beneath the thick splatters of blood seemed leached of colour, frosted, almost. She didn’t know where everyone had gone, or what she was running from. A nameless, shapeless terror was stalking her school..
She told me about this dream a few days after I returned from Peshawar. I had not been there to comfort her because I had been reporting on real stories of horror and terror on December 16 and afterwards. I could only offer her a few words of comfort and security, cold comfort, as meaningless as the hangings, military operations and rhetoric against militants and militancy are for the parents who lost their children in the most brutal way possible at the Army Public School on December 16, 2014.
This year, I am too ill to report on the year that has passed. I cannot ask questions about why children needed to die before the country could understand the cost of our follies of strategic depth, or whether the Taliban are monsters. Good Taliban, Bad Taliban? It is like the Syrian child washed up on a European shore, or the Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture. The world does not awaken until children are dead. The world is not outraged until the images of small corpses are repeatedly broadcast and printed.
Oh, those tiny coffins. At the hospital in Lady Reading, the emergency ward was reeling with the injured, the shocked, the relatives desperately crowded around lists of the dead. And the doctors went about their business like zombies, unable to cope with the pain but by working. In a room to the side, the small coffins were stacked one on top of the other, waiting to be claimed.
While on 16 December—late as the misty cold gripped the night—Warsak Road reverberated with the sounds of battle and detonating mines, the funerals had already begun. The next morning, the city of flowers had become the city of funerals—a place where old sites of bomb blasts had become part of a kind of grim terrorist tourist tour.
“In a room to the side, the small coffins were stacked one on top of the other, waiting to be claimed.”
Mourning, grief, anger, multiplied by a hundred. We could feel the crushing weight of it all over the city, in the home we visited where a funeral was taking place. “We don’t want to talk to any one,” a mother told me, so furious, so overwhelmed. Why should she? What is there to say? Empty words, still empty a year on.
We thought we were lucky to be amongst the first group of journalists to gain access to the Army Public School auditorium. It was a small group at first, personally escorted and showed around by Lt Gen. Asim Bajwa. Just an hour before, we had heard the last of the mines being set off. Before we went in, while we were outside the school doing TV lives, young boys associated with APS had already shown me pictures on their mobile phones of the auditorium and the bodies of the terrorists. But grainy, mobile footage is almost unreal, almost incomprehensible.
On the steps of the auditorium I saw a drops of blood splattered here and there. As I took pictures, one of the army escorts told me, “Wait till you get inside.”
Butchery. The auditorium smelt like an abattoir. “This is where the most children were killed,” we were told. It hadn’t been cleaned up yet, to show us the full scale of the terrors that had taken place here. We photographed, we filmed, we interviewed. But like the doctors at Lady Reading, we were like zombies. How could a person maintain objectivity and composure in the face of the enormous amount of blood—still sticky—covering half-torn books, shoes left behind, socks, shattered glass, pens rolling on the floor beneath our feet. The apparatus of an ordinary school day juxtaposed with those red tokens of viciousness.
I spoke to a major with the bomb disposal unit, and we both cried, standing just underneath the stage and podium, near where a teacher had been burnt alive, the walls stained like a black wraith. “We couldn’t protect them,” he said, over and over again.
“How could a person maintain objectivity and composure in the face of the enormous amount of blood. . . covering half-torn books, shoes left behind, socks, shattered glass, pens rolling on the floor beneath our feet. The apparatus of an ordinary school day juxtaposed with those red tokens of viciousness.”
I write all this because I have not been able to write about it before, unable to confront it. Reporting is different: we’re supposed to maintain some semblance of separation of fact from feeling. I went home to my children after the work was done, painfully aware that mine were safe, theirs were not. My children had made it home, untouched by fear and blood and loss.
That answers another question I often ask myself: why this terrorist attack pierced so deep that, a year later, the wounds are still fresh, like the blood in the auditorium. Because the idea of dressing your child in a school uniform and sending them to their death is such a universal fear it cuts through. It should not have come to this. The realisation that Pakistan needs to take the fight against militancy seriously should not have come at so bloody a price.
In April, I was at another school in Khyberpakhtunkhwa, filming a more positive story on using technology to aid learning. In the staffroom over tea and biscuits, talk turned to 16 December and I started to cry copiously. I cried profusely again when I read the Dawn special report on the 144 who lost their lives in the attack. I cried again at a garden in Dubai where red flowers were fashioned into a flowing waterfall and all I could smell was the flesh and blood of the APS auditorium.
For many of us perhaps, the trauma has lain coiled underneath the surface of our everyday lives. But a year on, we still don’t have to live with it as the survivors and the families of the victims do. A year on, the commemorative ceremonies and wall-to-wall coverage of the anniversary seem hollow.
It should not have come to this.
Amber Shamsi works with the BBC World Service as a bilingual correspondent based in Islamabad and is a mother of two girls.

author: Guest Contributor


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Fears for Hong Kong’s Press Freedom Follow Alibaba’s Purchase of the South China Morning Post · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Image from Hong Kong Free Press.
This post was written by Vivienne Zeng and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on December 14, 2015. The edited version below is republished on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
Chinese Internet giant Alibaba will buy Hong Kong’s largest English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, and other media assets belonging to the SCMP Group for HK$2.06 billion (about US$265 million), the Group said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 14 December.
The deal, which was confirmed on Friday following weeks of speculation, has drawn concerns about press freedom in the city.
Co-founded by Tse Tsan-tai, one of the earliest Chinese revolutionaries of the late Qing Dynasty, and veteran journalist Alfred Cunningham, the South China Morning Post was first published in 1903. Tse turned the paper into a platform for advocating reform and a “printing house for the Chinese revolution“. Its revolutionary nature has eroded overtime, in particular after it was privatised by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1987 and sold to Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok in 1993. In recent years, the paper was criticized for its pro-Beijing editorial stance and accused of self-censoring political news. Many predict the shift of ownership to Alibaba will transform the paper into another mouthpiece of the mainland Chinese government.
The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association issued a statement saying it worried that the ownership change would mean the paper would make even more compromises on China coverage.
The association was especially concerned about comments made by Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, who said he hoped the South China Morning Post could provide an angle different from mainstream Western media in reporting China.
Meanwhile, Chinese netizens lamented that the deal could mean “death” for the century-old newspaper. Some users on the popular social media platform Weibo lit candles for the South China Morning Post, while others said the newspaper would become “government media.”
The SCMP-Alibaba deal was one of the hottest topics over the weekend after the South China Morning Post published the news on its website on the night of December 11, followed immediately by an Alibaba statement, an in-depth interview with Tsai and Tsai’s letter to readers, in which he vowed to preserve the newspaper’s editorial independence.
China’s BAT (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent) Internet giants. Photo: Hong Kong Free Press.
While most Western media reports compared the deal with Amazon chief Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the Washington Post, Chinese reports examined the domestic media landscape. Many noted Alibaba was improving its media portfolio to counter the other two Internet giants in the famous BAT club – Baidu and Tencent.
Both Baidu and Tencent have their own established web news portals and are influential in the entertainment and social media industries. Coming relatively late to the game, Alibaba has made a wise strategic move by buying an influential English media outlet, which has for decades reported on sensitive topics seen as taboos in China, new media outlet Jiemian said.
Bloomberg noted the purchase was a good deal for Alibaba business-wise too. The e-commerce company acquired the South China Morning Post for less than twice the media business’s annual revenue last year, while Business Insider was sold to Axel Springer SE for six times its estimated revenue for 2016, Bloomberg said. In the same report, Peter Schloss, managing partner of CastleHill Partners LLC, a Beijing-based advisory and investment company, noted Jack Ma was “doing the central government a favour by ensuring that the South China Morning Post is in friendly hands.”
However, Tech In Asia said the deal was a big public relations mistake for Ma. “Alibaba is buying the South China Morning Post to spread a positive narrative about China. That’s a terrible idea,” editor Charles Custer said, “The problem – and this is the big mistake Alibaba is making – is that now Alibaba becomes the scapegoat for any and every instance of pro-Beijing bias found in the paper.”

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Flora and Fauna Signal the Visible Effects of Climate Change in Nepal · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Rhododendron and Himalayas. Image by Andrew Miller. Annapurna Sanctuary, Nepal. CC BY-NC
The world is gaga over the final deal agreed on by 195 countries at the Paris Conference of Parties (COP) 21. The governments agreed to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions to prevent temperatures from rising above two degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels, after which scientists fear the consequences of climate change could become catastrophic.
The agreement emphasizes support for developing nations and the least developed countries like Nepal, which have made nominal contributions to global warming, but which are already victims of the visible impacts of climate change.
Nepal’s Mustang, the Himalayan district famous for its apples, has not seen any apple production in the orchards of Lete and Kunzo Village Development Committees for the last six years. Experts connect it to the effects of climate change.
Republica : Apple orchards vanish in #Mustang villages due to climate change |… https://t.co/yZBnnD60oN pic.twitter.com/fpDeo7CNX8
— Nepal News English (@Nepal_News_En) November 21, 2015
This October, the vultures found in the southern plains of Nepal were seen in the hilly Myagdi district. According to ornithologists, to evade the increasing temperature in the plains the birds might have flown in search of cooler climate.
Tarai bird spotted in Kaski wetland http://t.co/l2gem64pQT pic.twitter.com/MfA4W4sJls
— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) October 5, 2015
Likewise, birdwatchers sighted yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) at an altitude of 900 metres in the hilly Kaski district for the first time. The migratory bird is found at 250 metres above sea level in the plains.
Similarly, a brown-headed gull found at sea level was sighted at the Phewa Lake of Kaski district recently.
The country's rhododendrons also started flowering early last year, starting in mid-January, while they generally bloom around mid-February, reported Gorkhapatra daily.
But even the mid-February marker for the national flower of Nepal was a change: it has been blooming in the month of February in recent years, although it used to bloom in March and April in the past.
The blooming of a flower in the Himalayas has long heralded the onset of Spring, but now, it's flowering too early http://t.co/HjtEFtl5Hc
— GlobalChangeBiology (@GlobalChangeBio) July 5, 2014
Not to mention, the untimely blooming of rhododendron in the Himalayas has been linked to climate change.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) research on the migration of the Apollo butterfly and pika to higher reaches in the Himalayas due to global warming has alarmed scientists, too.
Did you know that pika are a climate change indicator species? They're also adorable. http://t.co/qrMCubqAEY @CitSci pic.twitter.com/bptjFUOLWT
— Beers at the Bottom (@Beersatb) March 29, 2015
The Apollo butterflies found at 3,000 metres above sea level have moved to 500 metres above their normal habitat, while the pikas have moved to 100 metres higher in the Langtang region of Nepal.
The research also highlighted the movement of the Pieris species of butterflies to 2,200 metres from 1,800 metres as well as a discernible shift in the life cycle of butterflies.
These visible impacts of climate change are like canaries in a coal mine, but the government of Nepal, to cope with the unofficial Indian blockade (see Global Voices report), has been rampantly distributing fuel wood from the forest, drawing the ire of conservationists.
World leaders are in Paris for #climatechange. At the same time #Nepal govt. is distributing firewoods as an alternative #energy #COP21
— Sanjay Paudel (@HimalayanSanjay) December 1, 2015

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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In US Republican Politics, ‘Hating on Iran Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry’ · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

GOP candidate Donald Trump was the first to attack Iran early on in the December 15 debate, calling it a “terrorist nation.”. Screenshot from CNN broadcast.
The relationship between Iran and America is tenuous at best, and there is no better forum to exaggerate this difficult relationship than the debates held for the nomination of the 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
Recent fears of violence in the wake of the 13 November Paris attacks and the 2 December San Bernardino shooting have resulted in a series of policy decisions and discussions in the United States that seem to center around demonizing Muslim countries that are not “natural” allies of the US, such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
One example of this is the proposed Visa Waiver Legislation (or H.R. 158), which passed the House of Representatives, but will still need the Senate's approval and President Obama's signature (or in the case of a presidential veto, a second vote in which two-thirds of Congress approve) before it becomes law. The law would require citizens of the 38 member countries currently exempt from obtaining visas to enter the United States to request visas if they have travelled to “terrorist hotspots” such as Iraq and Syria or countries “supporting terrorism” such as Iran and Sudan.
Many Iranians and non-Iranians alike have taken to social media to express discontent at this misplaced targeting of Iranians and Iran within the context of Daesh (also known as ISIS), the brutal Al Qaeda offshoot that has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria. While Iran does maintain strong ties to groups designated by governments as terrorists such as Hezbollah, they are also one of the countries that have been fighting Daesh since early on in the conflict.
This critical commentary became most evident in tweets reporting on the often demonizing rhetoric toward Iran that the candidates vying for the Republican Party (also known as GOP) nomination were taking during the televised debate on 15 December.
Indeed, much of the debate was concerned with issues related to the Muslim world.
Does the president of the United States have any responsibilities other than killing Muslims? They've been discussing it for an hour.
— Matt Bors (@MattBors) December 16, 2015
The debate took a turn towards anti-Iran sentiment when candidate Donald Trump labelled Iran a “terrorist nation.” As I watched the debate with Iranian friends, their level of indignation at this was palpable:
Friend on Trump's “Iran a terrorist nation”. “Huh, when did we last attack America. Chiiiiii?” #GOPDebate — Mahsa Alimardani (@maasalan) December 16, 2015
At one point, George Pataki, the former governor of New York who is also running for the nomination, was also quick to attach the term terrorism to Iranians.
Former Gov. of NY just called Iranians jailed in US for sanction violations “terrorist leaders” #GOPDebate — Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) December 16, 2015
Candidate Marco Rubio, a junior Florida senator, was not afraid to fall into strong polemics, casting “the Shia of Iran” (Iran is a majority Shia Islamic nation) as the “mortal enemies” of the United States.
Rubio: “the Shia of Iran are our mortal enemy” – is anyone listening to this shit! If you thought Trump was bad; this guy is fucking crazy. — Leith Abou Fadel (@leithfadel) December 16, 2015
At one point, the debate moderator even started depicting Iran as a threatening adversary to the United States, alluding to the 15 July nuclear deal as something that could still go awry and allow for the development of Iranian nuclear weapons.
#CNN moderator says “#Iran is winning every where” will come as suspense to leadership in #Tehran. #GOPDebate — Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) December 16, 2015
“if we step back #Iran goes nuclear” says the #GOPDebate moderator. Chris Christy jumps on the chance to say we need to focus on Iran.
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) December 16, 2015
Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, had one moment of understanding with Iran by agreeing with the Iranian notion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not be removed. However, he later (falsely) lumped Iran together with Daesh as both having declared war on the US.
Sen. Cruz agrees with #Iran. Says toppling #Assad is a bad idea. #GOPDebate — Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) December 16, 2015
This WAS said: “ISIS and Iran have declared war on America.” Cruz #GOPDebate. — Mahsa Alimardani (@maasalan) December 16, 2015
When these clowns conflate ISIS & Iran, just rmmbr this is the party that invaded Iraq when Saudis attacked us from Afghanistan. #GOPDebate — banafsheh ghassemi (@IAmBanafsheh) December 16, 2015
When I asked my Twitter followers what they thought was the most “batty” comment on Iran, one user pointed to this fabricated statement of Iran's war on the US by Cruz.
@maasalan how about Ted Cruz saying Iran has declared war on the US — :D (@Ivaban) December 16, 2015
Another notable moment was when Carly Fiorino, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, explained her intention to undo the work of the nuclear deal signed this past July between Iran and the P5+1 countries, and ask Iran's supreme leader for a “new deal.” BBC journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted the supreme leader's likely reply:
Fiorina wants to call #Iran’s Leader and say “New Deal” I am guessing Iran’s leader won’t take the call but if he did he’ll say: #NoDeal — Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) December 16, 2015
Iranian-American journalist Hooman Majd had a ready quip to summarize the Republicans negativity toward Iran:
Hating on Iran means never having to say you're sorry. #GOPDebate #CNNDebate — Hooman Majd (@hmajd) December 16, 2015

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Here’s What Russian Internet Users Googled in 2015 · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

The A321 plane crash was among the top events Russians searched for on Google in 2015. Screenshot from YouTube.
During the past year, Russian Internet users cheered on Eurovision and hockey, but also mourned prominent Russians who passed away and followed the tragic events in Egypt and France, according to Google search data.
As part of its annual Year in Search report, Google gave an overview of the most popular search queries on the RuNet.
In a short video, Google Russia offered a bird's eye view of the most frequently searched items on the Russian Internet in 2015.
Google also provided some charts of top trending items that Russians took an interest in during the past year.
Top events of the year included Eurovision and the World hockey championship (where Russia won silver), as well as the solar eclipse and the 2015 Oscars. Sadly, many of the year's top events were tragic ones: the A321 plane crash and the terrorist attacks in Paris also made the list.
Russian users were most curious to find definitions of or more information about things like ISIS (aka Islamic State), Leviathan (the hit Russian film that also won a Golden Globe), and the #PrayforParis hashtag, among others.
Top searches for personalities included several prominent Russians who passed away in 2015 or earlier, including pop star Zhanna Friske, politician Boris Nemtsov, ballet legend Maya Plisetskaya, actor Lev Durov, and film director Eldar Ryazanov. But Eurovision participant for Russia Polina Gagarina also got her cut of fame and ended up in second place among most searched individuals in Russia.
Top searches for popular memes in the RuNet included the Carl meme from The Walking Dead series (which Russians took to with gusto), the “what color is the dress” meme, and the hardly translatable “Ничоси” meme born on the Russian VKontakte social network.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Indonesia Mourns Scholar Benedict Anderson, Who Helped Expose the 1965 Anti-Communist Purge · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

Benedict Anderson delivering a lecture in Indonesia. Photo from @BSL_Forum.
Professor Benedict Anderson, author of the book “Imagined Communities” and an expert on Southeast Asia at Cornell University, passed away on December 12, 2015,in the Indonesian city of Malang in East Java.
Anderson is best known for “Imagined Communities,” which addresses the rise of nationalism and how it's shaped world history. Less famous but highly respected is his research on Indonesian culture and history.
In Indonesia, Anderson is famous for coauthoring an essay that challenged the government's narrative about mass killings in 1965. The 1971 Cornell paper, titled “A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965, Coup in Indonesia,” debunked claims by Suharto's “New Order” regime about why a massive and bloody anti-communist purge took place between 1965 and 1966. Suharto blamed the communists for staging a failed coup, which he says forced the army to retaliate. The purge claimed at least half a million lives, the majority of whom were suspected communist sympathizers.
Because of the paper in 1971, Indonesian officials refused to let Anderson back into the country for the next 26 years. He finally returned in1998, when the Suharto regime fell.
In a recent interview with “Loka Magazine” (World Magazine), Anderson talked about his upcoming autobiography, his observations on young Indonesians, and his thoughts on Indonesian studies.
Indonesian author Goenawan Mohamad wrote an obituary, titled “Mas Ben” (Brother Ben), praising the scholar’s passion, dedication, and empathy for Indonesia's struggle as a nation.
Thanks to his long and extensive scholarly work on Indonesia, Anderson inspired several generations of academics who look up to him as “Pak Ben” (Sir, or Father, Ben). Some of his former colleagues shared loving tributes on Facebook:
For example, Sandra Hamid recalled one of Anderson's recent lectures in Indonesia:
RIP Ben Anderson. One of his last messages from
the widely attended public lecture in the University of Indonesia, just last Thursday: you can be a nationalist AND be ashamed of your country.
Thanks, Pak Ben.
Listen up, Indonesia!;
listen up, USA!; listen up, Australia!
Film Senyap and Jagal wrote about Anderson's legacy in clarifying a controversial event in Indonesia's modern history:
Dari Ben Anderson kita belajar untuk meragukan kebenaran sejarah versi Orde Baru. Dari makalah lain yang berjudul “How Did The Generals Die”, dengan menelaah dokumen otopsi, kita diajak mengenali adanya propaganda hitam mengenai penyiksaan para perwira tinggi Angkatan Darat di Lubang Buaya dan mengenali bahwa penyiksaan itu sesungguhnya tidak pernah terjadi. Terima kasih dan selamat jalan, Ben.
Through Ben Anderson, we learned to question the New Order's version of history. Through Ben, we learned that high ranking army officers were never tortured [by communists].Thank you and so long, Ben.
On Twitter, mourners are using the hashtag #RIPBenAnderson:
Turut berduka cita berpulangnya Intelektual Indonesianis #RIPBenAnderson. Karya utamanya “Imagined Communities” hrs byk dibaca generasi skg.
— ridwan kamil (@ridwankamil) December 13, 2015
My condolences for the passing of Indonesian Expert Ben Anderson. Imagined Communities is a must read for the current generation.
Kita boleh setuju atau tidak dg kesimpulan2nya. Tapi data dan argumennya selalu menggerakkan hati & pikiran kita. Thanks! #RIPBenAnderson
— Ihsan Ali-Fauzi (@ihsan_AF) December 13, 2015
We can agree or disagree about his conclusions, but his data and arguments always managed to move our hearts and minds. Thanks!
#RIPBenAnderson, kuliah terakhirnya di UI 10 Desember 2015. https://t.co/FR7hqnzO9V
— Muammar Fikrie (@fikrie) December 13, 2015
His final lecture at UI [University of Indonesia] on December 10, 2015.
#RIPBenAnderson beristirahatlah di negrimu yg kaucintai ini, trimakasih untuk tulisan2 mu yg mnjadi warisan hebat buat kami
— Henny Vidiarina (@vidiarina) December 13, 2015
RIP Ben Anderson, may you find your rest in your beloved homeland, thank you for your work.

author: Juke Carolina


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Netizen Report: Tales of Torture from Ethiopia’s Jails · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Aerial view of Maekelawi detention center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Source: Google Earth, courtesy of Human Rights Watch.
A group of Ethiopian netizens returned to court this week to face charges under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. The defendants, who include human rights advocate and academic Zelalem Workagenehu as well as his friends Yonatan Wolde and Bahiru Degu, have already spent 1.5 years in detention for allegedly applying to attend a workshop on communication, social media and leadership, which was later cancelled.
Members of the group have faced violations of their human rights and due process over the course of their detention. After judiciary officials revoked the license of their attorney, who had previously defended journalists, politicians and religious representatives who had also faced terrorism charges. This left them with little choice but to defend themselves in court.
They also have faced inhumane treatment and torture while behind bars. Bahiru reported being beaten, stripped and forced to drink his own urine in detention, while Zelalem was detained for 41 days in an extremely cold room known as “Siberia”. Both were apparently forced to confess under duress. Bahiru also stated that the investigators threatened him, saying: “We will cut your blood vessels and kill you. We are the police, the prosecutors, the judges, the intelligence and all are ours; you will be jailed for 20 years.”
Their case provides more evidence that the human rights violations faced by the Zone9 bloggers, who were jailed for 18 months under the anti-terrorism law but ultimately acquitted,  were not unique. The Ethiopian government continues to abuse its power by using this law not to fight violent extremism, but to silence those citizens who are working to improve the human rights conditions in their country.
UN Special Rapporteur for freedom of expression David Kaye is speaking out against a cybercrime bill that will soon be brought to a vote before Pakistan’s National Assembly. He is joined by leading human rights organizations worldwide. A coalition statement authored by Human Rights Watch explains that the bill “empowers the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to order service providers to remove or block access to any speech, sound, data, writing, image, or video, without any approval from a court. By omitting judicial oversight, the Bill, if passed, would write a blank cheque for abuse and overreach of blocking powers.”
This week saw an uptick in the use of sedition charges by Southeast Asian nations to quell dissent on social media platforms: in Thailand, a factory worker was detained and charged under the country’s anti-sedition law for sharing on Facebook an infographic pointing to evidence of corruption in a government building project. Authorities added to this a second charge under Thailand's infamous “royal insult” or lèse-majesté law, alleging that the man had mocked the king’s dog on Facebook. Following his arrest, the 27-year-old was held incommunicado in an unknown location, until a stranger believed to be a security officer informed his mother of his whereabouts. He could face up to 27 years in prison if found guilty.
Local media report that the man belongs to Thailand's Red Shirt group, one of the political groups demanding the restoration of civilian rule in the country. Supporters have reason to believe that hundreds of members of the red-shirt Facebook group will also be charged with the lèse-majesté law for clicking ‘like’ on pictures and content allegedly defaming the Thai monarchy.
Since the military coup in 2014, offences under the lèse-majesté law have been judged by military courts, which allow no appeal. In August 2015, a Thai military court sentenced a man accused of defaming the Thai monarchy on a social network to 30 years in jail. The ruling is the heaviest jail term ever recorded for a lèse-majesté case.
In a separate case, a Malaysian man was arrested in a police raid for posting insulting on Facebook the royal family of Johor state, reportedly expressing his unhappiness with the Johor sultan’s decision to ban vaping in the state by the start of 2016. If found guilty, he faces 18 months in jail or a maximum fine of US $460 for sedition.
China’s second World Internet Conference is currently underway in the city of Wuzhen. In the wake of recent violent extremist attacks in Paris and elsewhere, it is anticipated that China will use the event to discuss cybersecurity, and to promote “Internet sovereignty”, or the idea that governments have the right to control their country's Internet space and regulations.
Reporters Without Borders has called for a boycott of the conference. “These conferences have had no credibility ever since the first one, whose real aim was to ensure that Internet companies wanting to operate in China fall into line,” said RSF’s Asia-Pacific lead Benjamin Ismail. Indeed, with global tech giants including Alibaba, Baidu, Apple and Google in attendance, there will likely be plenty of off-record negotiating alongside formal conference events. Bill Bishop, author of the Sinocism blog speculated on the real value of the event for technology companies, asking: “Which US internet execs will be bootlicking at the Internet conference in Wuzhen?”
Bangladesh brought its four-week ban on social messaging apps to an end this week. Over the course of the ban, a lack of coordination between agencies led to confusion, resulting in a 90-minute Internet outage nationwide that the telecommunications minister chalked up to a ‘misunderstanding’. The various bans have also been harmful for Web-based entrepreneurs who rely on platforms like Facebook for marketing and outreach.
The Internet was critical to public discussion about candidates in Venezuela’s landmark parliamentary elections held December 6, in which voters turned out overwhelmingly in favor of the opposition. Despite low bandwidth and reported Internet outages, digital platforms including YouTube and Periscope facilitated the circulation of information, according to Global Voices’ Marianne Diaz, making digital connectivity more essential than ever to helping Venezuelans organize, communicate and defend their rights and freedoms.
Mary Aviles, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Singapore Couple on Trial for Allegedly Starving Filipina Maid for 15 Months · Global Voices
Kirsten Han

Facebook profile photo of Thelma Oyasan Gawidan
An ongoing trial involving a Singaporean couple and their treatment of the migrant domestic worker they employed has shone a light on the exploitation and disempowerment that many female migrant workers face in the wealthy city-state.
Lim Choon Hong, a trader, is being charged with contravening the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012 by failing to provide Thelma Oyasan Gawidan with adequate food. His wife Chong Sui Foon is charged with abetting the crime.
Gawidan says her employers mainly fed her plain bread and instant noodles, and her weight fell from 49kg to 29kg in just 15 months.
Singapore has long been seen as a desirable destination by many in nearby countries seeking a chance to earn a better income for their families. As of June 2015, there are 993,900 work permit holders in Singapore, including those working as domestic workers in homes and construction workers on sites across the country. Many of these men and women come from countries such as Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar.
On top of denying her sufficient food, Gawidan also testified in court that she had been constantly monitored by her employers, to the point of Chong monitoring her showers. Although the family lived in an upmarket condominium in near Singapore's main shopping belt, she said she was only allowed to shower once or twice a week in a public toilet in the condominium compound.
The couple also allegedly kept her mobile phone locked away, leaving her unable to contact her family in the Philippines. Her salary was largely withheld from her, Gawidan said; her employers claimed that it was for safekeeping. Attempts to communicate with others would attract scoldings.
“Every movement I do in the house, they are always watching me, scolding me if I make a mistake,” she told the court.
If convicted, both Chong and Lim could face a fine of up to S$10,000 (US$7,110), 12 months’ imprisonment, or both.
Migrant domestic workers in Singapore are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. They are excluded from the Employment Act – which deals with labour conditions such as overtime, and provides the legal option of appealing unfair dismissals, among others – and are required to live in the homes of their employers. Although Singapore requires that domestic workers be given a day off a week, many are still denied this right.
Commenters on social media have emphasised the structural issues that lead to the abuse of domestic workers. Kokila Annamalai pointed out that the charges faced by the employers aren't framed as a violation of Gawidan's rights, but a failure to “maintain” her:
Watching her shower, starving her, overworking her to the point of torture (including once that was close to 72 hours at a stretch), sleep deprivation, denying access to basic hygiene – and the perpetrators are charged with failing to “maintain” her. In the eyes of MOM [Ministry of Monpower], the police and the courts, this isn't abuse or a gross violation of her human rights. The crime is failing to oil your machine.
It is easier to believe that the abusers are monsters, and that putting them away for a long time will solve the problem, but until there is widespread recognition that migrant domestic workers in Singapore live and work under state regulations that place them squarely in the position of indentured slaves, and more people with a voice use it to demand reform, domestic workers will remain vulnerable to the most inhumane abuse.
Others added that Gawidan's treatment was not an isolated case. Commenting on local newspaper The Straits Times’ Facebook feed, Christopher Shelley wrote about how the domestic worker he employs had to provide help to another worker in the neighbourhood:
This is not isolated…When we lived in Singapore in Rochalie Drive a few years – a very wealthy road- our maid used to pass food over the fence secretly to our neighbours maid who was being made to pay for her food and earned half the rate we paid ours…she refused to let us report the employers in case she was thrown out of Singapore…
Photojournalist Sim Chiyin responded to arguments that the treatment of migrant domestic workers can be much worse in other parts of the world:
Of course there are far worse cases of physical, sexual, emotional abuse elsewhere, particularly in the Middle East — another common refrain I heard as a labour beat reporter. There's no shortage of examples in the press, and I documented a number of them at the end of my book.
But surely we want to compare ourselves to the best and not the lowest common denominator. Surely we can do better?

author: Kirsten Han


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The Complexities of Adapting to Climate Change in Benin · Global Voices
Chiara Ronca

Ouando Market, in Porto-Novo, Benin via Babylas CC-BY-SA 30
Before the recently concluded climate change talks in Paris known as COP 21, a different conference on environmental worries took place in Benin. On 2 December, experts gathered in the country's largest city, Cotonou, to discuss development in the face of climate change, in an event organized by the French Agency for Development.
A few days before in the same city, on November 29, people rallied for the Marche béninoise pour le Climat (The Beninese March for Climate), organized by environmental advocacy groups as well as the global civic NGO Avaaz and the Belgium Consulate in Benin.
Environmental challenges are present as ever even in this African country nestled in the gulf of Guinea, considered to be a nonpolluting country by COP 21 standards, according to Raphaël Edou, former minister of climate change in Benin and current special adviser for the environment, who participated in the Cotonou conference. While Benin has emitted low levels of CO2 overall during the past decade, its emissions have kept rising in recent years, according to World Development Indicators, and the country is experiencing the effects of climate change.
But adapting to the changed environment and making efforts to prevent further change is sometimes easier said than done.
The theme of the Cotonou conference, held at the French Institute of Research, was: “Can climate change really represent an opportunity for development? And for the benefit of whom?”
The talks revolved around whether humankind can adapt to the new reality of climate change and take advantage of it. In Benin, this adaptation — other would call it constraints — is seen in the attempts of some Beninese to make productive soil out of spoiled soil by using pesticides. Benin actually isn’t able to satisfy its domestic food demand on its own, as the data collected by FAO show. Farmers prefer to use pesticides to maximise their production, despite the dilemmas existing at the environmental and public health levels. This massive of use of pesticide occurs despite the mobilization of agroecological NGOs to raise awareness of the risks of its use.
Conference on Climate Change in Cotonou, Benin. Photo by Chiara Ronca. Used with permission.
During the conference, Raphaël Edou argued that one of the greatest problems in Benin regards the implementation of sound environmental strategies and projects. However, he did not explain what the involvement of political actors and various institutions in making those strategies would be, and who should take the lead: governments, the private sector or civil society.
How can you make the Beninese people pay attention to their individual pollution if their first priority is to try to get out of poverty? That was the question put forth by the Unicef representative in Benin, Anne Vincent.
Benin is one of the poorest countries in the world: in 2013, the United Nations ranked Benin 165th out of 187 in the Human Development Index. This makes it is very hard to push for changes in people's behavior. The NGO Pro-environnement in Benin is one example of an organization pushing to raise people's awareness and advocacy on behalf of the environment.
Benin, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean till the Pendjari park at the border with Burkina Faso up north, faces several climate challenges. Increasingly frequent severe storms have increased the total amount of annual precipitations. Intense hours-long downpours flood the roads in most urban areas. It gets worse in villages: during the rainy season, agricultural production is reduced — intense rain often ruin crops — while the lines of communications are cut off and people have trouble reaching markets to sell their products.
Trash in Benin. Photo by Chiara Ronca. Used with permission.
Aside from the frequency of extreme weather, many experts — among which Yves Du Penhoat, a researcher at the French Research Institute for Development, who participated in the Cotonou Conference — report that sea levels have steadily increased for the past few years. For a country whose most important cities, Porto Novo and Cotonou, are located near the laguna or along the seaside, the potential for catastrophic scenarios cannot be dismissed.
Furthermore, trash is mounting in the country. Just when you think you are getting used to it, your eyes can't help but be impressed by the large amount of plastic bags everywhere, even along the most beautiful sea coasts and, in particular, on the wonderful scenic Route de Pêche (Fishing Road).
Benin sent a delegation of 100 people to participate at COP 21 change in Paris. “Think globally, act locally” was their main message. They argue that civil society by itself cannot act locally without the involvement of all the national actors, especially political institutions.
If people's living conditions are improved, it would make it easier to face the upcoming environmental and health issues. It is a very long process that necessitates a little more than just good intentions and slogans.– what's need is political engagement over the long run.

author: Chiara Ronca


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The Liberation of Dhaka and the Whitewashing of Pakistan’s History · Global Voices
Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman

Map of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh drawn by an Indian high school student. Image from Flickr by dawpa2000. CC BY 2.0
Imagine yourself advocating for the absolution of the masterminds behind the Peshawar Army public school attack. Imagine that those killers have been given the highest medals of honor and are being celebrated as heroes— brave soldiers who killed for the sake of their country. Now imagine that it is not a single person, but a whole nation standing together to justify such a brutal act.
I can’t, and I don’t want to imagine a world like that for either myself or for anyone else. Unfortunately, the truth is that I am part of such a world, community and nation that stands proudly and defends firmly war crimes that were committed against their own fellow citizens. Do you remember the “fall of Dhaka“, on December 16 1971?
We are all bloodthirsty, closet war lovers. We justify wars, violence and atrocities for our own convenience. If this premise is untrue, and if it is still unimaginable to endorse a world where killers and looters are allowed to walk freely, then why is it that we have still been silent for decades about our Bengali brothers and sisters demanding justice?
When I look at my newsfeed today, on December 16, it is full of grief for the children who lost their precious lives in the Army Public School attack one year ago today. Everyone is being explicitly kind towards the victims’ families and condoling with them on the anniversary of their children’s deaths. Messages and special songs, courtesy the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR), the public relations wing of Pakistani army, are being shared to show that the entire nation stands united against terrorists. The message of the day is that no kind of terrorism will be tolerated.
“Pakistan’s education system is a smokescreen designed to alter the course of history for the upcoming generation. It fails to mention a single word about the atrocities and war crimes committed by the country’s armed forces in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971.”
ISPR’s “heart-warming” music video, “Mujhe Dusham Key Bachon ko Parhan hai” (“I want to take revenge and educate enemies’ children”) is one such “beautiful” attempt. The concept of sending books instead of bullets to our enemies’ children makes my heart melt on the one hand, but on the other, my mind still poses questions. Shouldn’t we do some soul searching before we send books that are filled with hatred? The irony is, the enemy referred to in this song is not from other lands, but our own—being created and nurtured in our very own religious education facilities, or madrassas.
Education that furthers ignorance
Pakistan’s education system is a smokescreen designed to alter the course of history for the upcoming generation. It fails to mention a single word about the atrocities and war crimes committed by the country’s armed forces in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971. Our curriculum cites Indian-backed “Mukti Bahini” as the culprits. The Al-Badr, Al Shams and Razakar militia are referred to as “armed volunteers” of Jamat-e-Islami supporting West Pakistan’s armed forces.
The other side of the story, in which these “volunteers” allegedly acted as the Pakistan army’s death squad to kill off the left-wing intellectual elite is conveniently absent from our textbooks. The same books also cite “lack of resources” as one of the main reasons for the loss of Pakistan’s eastern province, and do not highlight the fact that it was in fact the economic and cultural repression of Bengalis by the Punjabi ruling elite that led to the separation.
One example of such cultural repression was the ban imposed in 1967 on playing the works of the great Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore on Radio Pakistan. Tagore was the first non-European to win Nobel peace prize in Literature in 1913.
These perceptions are evident not only in our text books but in our political and social opinions as well. Pakistanis, for instance, have expressed great concern and have deemed the trial of former Al-Badr leader Mujahid “deeply flawed”. Time and again, Pakistanis have opposed judgments against the Jamat-e-Islami leaders for war crimes committed and proven.
Feed lies, breed violence
Pakistan’s school and college textbooks are full of hate speech and convenient lies. The official narrative whitewashes war crimes and endorses jihad as a noble act in religious history. The National Commission of Justice and Peace has discovered blatant religious biases in textbooks used in English, Urdu, Pakistan studies and social studies classes.
K.K. Aziz’s Murder of History: A critique on History textbooks used in Pakistan is an insightful book that raises pertinent questions about the education system and challenges the conspiracy theories being taught. It was published in 1985, and is a solid source of information for those interested in examining the divide between historical evidence the information presented in our textbooks. In one of the chapters, Aziz questions the false account of 1971 war, according to which the Pakistani armed forces are celebrated as setting new records for bravery, and Indian forces are portrayed as the defeated. As a child, I’d always found it  confusing and wondered what really happened.
In addition to Aziz’s book, there are war museums full of historical evidence and international newspapers, books and journals with pictures and videos that prove what the Pakistani military did in 1971 in Bangladesh was not brave, but heinous.
“…And the students at the university
Asleep at night quite peacefully
The soldiers came and shot them in their beds
And terror took the dorm awakening shrieks of dread
And silent frozen forms and pillows drenched in red…
Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Bangladesh, Bangladesh
When the sun sinks in the west
Die a million people of the Bangladesh”
From “Song of Bangladesh” by Joan Baez, performed live at the concert of Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, 1 August 1971, in front of 40,000 people.
44 years have elapsed since these crimes were committed, since the Pakistani army raped Bangladeshi women and murdered their country’s children and youth. In 2002, one of Pakistan’s military rulers, Pervez Musharraf, expressed regret for the harm done, and was the first to offer a subtle apology.
Earlier this month, however, Pakistan suddenly retracted that stance, and categorically denied that any war crimes were committed in 1971. The statement came after one of the Jamat-e-Islami leaders was executed in Bangladesh for those crimes in November.
By issuing this denial, is Pakistan sending a clear message of support to killers, and stating that military boots are still stronger than any democratic force? Back then no one dared to question the army, and it looks like no one will question them for their failures now. The 195 Pakistani war criminals handed over in 1974 under the tripartite agreement were supposed to be tried under Pakistani law, but were—and remain—protected.
My thoughts are with the families who lost their children last year in Peshawar, but I also can't stop thinking about those Bangladeshi families who suffered at the hands of Pakistani army. Those families know their enemies and want justice for their loved ones, and their pain must also resurface every year, just as it does, and will continue to, for the families of APS victims.
I just wonder how long the combination of pain of loss and sense of injustice will have to be endured by those on both sides.

author: Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman


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What the Paris Climate Change Agreement Does and Doesn’t Do · Global Voices
350.org

As world leaders in Paris were finalizing the text of the deal, thousands defied the ban on public protests implemented in France under the State of Emergency and gathered by the Arc de Triomphe on a climate demonstration. Photo: © Kristian Buus
This article is based on a piece written by Thelma Young for 350.org, an organisation building a global climate movement, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The representatives of 195 countries agreed to a much-lauded deal to combat climate change on December 12, 2015 while gathered in Paris. Some people are still trying to figure out what this climate agreement will really get us. Here’s a rough (unofficial) overview of some different parts of the agreement.
One of the biggest battles at COP21 has been the goal of how much we let our planet heat up. Vulnerable countries fought hard for the goal of 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels, after which scientists fear the consequences of climate change could become catastrophic. This wasn’t even on the table to begin with, but it’s now in the agreement (well sort of), and even a recognition of it is great. Much is owed to island nations and climate justice groups
Here’s what the text does say:
Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.
2°C will be the binding part though, so getting countries to really aim for 1.5°C will require a lot of pressure in the years to come. Aiming for 1.5°C could mean a world of difference to countries and communities vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather. Read more about 1.5°C and what that means here.
Whether it’s 2 or 1.5°C – what’s clear is we have to move to get off of fossil fuels fast.
Demonstrators drew red lines along Avenue de la Grande Armée to honor the victims of climate disasters and express their fight for climate justice. Photo: © Kristian Buus
These have been moved to sections of the text where they aren’t legally protected or operationalized. Read a joint response from indigenous groups about the talks.
This is stuff we already knew coming into the talks. Countries submitted beforehand their plans to curb or cut emissions, and it will only limit temperature increase by (around) 2.7 – 3.7°C. That’s down from the 5°C or so represented from business as usual. Progress, but more can be done.
While environmental advocacy groups, among others, pushed hard to make 2050 the goal for when the world would be 100% off of fossil fuels, the final text reads:
Parties aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, recognizing that peaking will take longer for developing country Parties, and to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with best available science, so as to achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century.
People are still figuring out what “a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases” actually means. Experts are saying it means getting to “net zero emissions” between 2050 and 2100, which could open the door to risky geo-engineering schemes.
However, full decarbonization by 2050 would give us a good chance of keeping global warming below 2°C (staying below 1.5°C or getting back there quickly would require bolder action). That means breaking the power that the fossil fuel industry holds on our political and energy systems.
We won’t always have Paris. One of the good things about this agreement is the five-year review mechanism. Right now, the contributions from each country will not usher in a safe world, but this agreement would “force countries to come back to the table every five years to review their emissions reduction targets and make new, more ambitious cuts.”
Often called the “ratchet mechanism,” it could push countries to keep stepping up and help bridge the gap between policy and science. Countries have been asked to start reviewing their pledges in 2018 so that new commitments could be ready to go by 2020.
Indigenous representatives from around the world took part in the December 12 ‘Red Lines’ demonstration. Photo: © Jan Levy
Will the nations most affected by climate change get the support they need? Not nearly enough, some say:
Ethiopian activist Azeb Girmai, speaking for LDC Watch, which keeps an eye on the least developed countries in Africa and elsewhere, described it as “the saddest day for all the poor people in the world facing loss and damage day-in and day-out” while their representatives in Paris were “bullied” by rich countries.
Read more.
What will happen if countries don’t fulfill their promises and pledges? Well, nothing really. There are no review mechanisms if countries do not comply.
Two one hundred meter long banners were unfurled, calling to keep fossil fuels in the ground and “stop climate crimes”. © Jan Levy


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As Russia Insulates Itself from Human Rights Bodies, State Surveillance Decision Looms · Global Voices
James Slater

The ECHR has ruled that Russia's SORM surveillance system, which intercepts telephone and Internet communications, “does not meet the ‘quality of law’ requirement and is incapable of keeping the ‘interference’ to what is ‘necessary in a democratic society.'” Image by Tristan Schmurr on Flickr. CC BY 2.0.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously last week that Russia's electronic surveillance practices violate regional human rights doctrine.
On December 4, 2015, in a case brought by human rights advocate Roman Zakharov, the court found that the Russian Federation had violated Article 8 (right to respect for private life and correspondence) of the European Convention of Human Rights by permitting unrestricted interception of telephone communications by security services without prior judicial authorization under its national law.
While this may come as no surprise to most readers, the implications of this decision for Russia may have even less impact than they did before, thanks to a new legal mechanism that enables the government to systematically ignore such decisions of international and regional human rights courts.
Under the new policy signed by President Putin on December 15, Russia's Constitutional Court now has official supremacy over judgments issued by international human rights bodies. In a case like this one, if there is a conflict between a European Court of Human Rights ruling and the Russian Constitution, as interpreted by the Court, the Russian Constitution will win out.
Roman Zakharov v. Russia (appl. no. 47143/06), was brought by Roman Zakharov, the director of a regional center for the Glasnost Defense Foundation in Saint-Petersburg, whose mission is to protect freedom of expression in Russia. Zakharov maintained that under Russian law, his fundamental rights were being violated because authorities, under SORM-2 (System for Operative Investigative Activities-2), were broadly intercepting his telephone communications.
Zakharov rested his claims on multiple laws including the Operational-Search Activities Act of 1995, the Code of Criminal Procedure of 2001, and Ministry of Communications Order No. 70, which requires telecommunications networks to install equipment enabling law enforcement agencies to engage in broad surveillance.
The Russian courts rejected Zakharov's claims, finding that “he had failed to prove that his telephone conversations had been intercepted or that the mobile operators had transmitted protected information to unauthorized persons” (emphasis added). This is not a shocking revelation for anyone familiar with the NSA surveillance challenges in the United States. Due to the massive nature of government surveillance, Zakharov couldn't prove that he specifically was targeted by the government.
This did not undermine Zakharov's standing before the European Court of Human Rights, however. The Court held that Zakharov “is entitled to claim to be the victim of a violation of the Convention, even though he is unable to allege that he has been subject to a concrete measure of surveillance in support of his application.” In a press release issued with the opinion, the Court expanded upon its findings:
Given the secret nature of the surveillance measures provided for by the legislation, their broad scope….and the lack of effective means to challenge them at national level […], the Court considered that it was justified to examine the relevant legislation not from the point of view of a specific instance of surveillance, but in the abstract. Furthermore, the Court considered that Mr Zakharov did not have to prove that he was even at risk of having his communications intercepted. Indeed, given that the domestic system did not afford an effective remedy to the person who suspected that he or she was subjected to secret surveillance, the very existence of the contested legislation amounted in itself to an interference with Mr Zakharov’s rights under Article 8 [of the European Convention on Human Rights].
The Court ultimately held “that Russian law does not meet the ‘quality of law’ requirement.” This requirement “implies that the domestic law must not only be accessible and foreseeable in its application, it must also ensure that secret surveillance measures are applied only when ‘necessary in a democratic society,’ in particular by providing for adequate and effective safeguards and guarantees against abuse.”
The decision outlined the lack of adequate and effective safeguards and guarantees against abuse in the Russian law. Among others, it noted that Russian procedures currently allow broad surveillance with minimal oversight, without targeting specific individuals and/or telephone numbers. Unlike many other surveillance regimes around the world, the policy does not require authorities to provide strong justification for surveillance. It does not ask them to limit the duration of such surveillance, nor does it make specific requirements regarding the storage or post-factum destruction of collected data.
The Court also emphasized the fact that when challenged before court, remedies are only available to those who can prove interception, a nearly impossible feat given the Russian government's tendency towards surveilling entire populations, as opposed to targeting unique individuals.
Zakharov was not awarded damages by the Court, but was granted EUR 40,000 for costs and expenses. The Court noted in its press release that “the finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage sustained by [him].”
Zakharov's lawyer from the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, Kirill Koroteev, believes that this decision will help shed light on the need to reform wire-tapping laws in Russia. Unfortunately, however, the more likely result of this decision within the Russian Federation will see it nullified after a constitutional review.

author: James Slater


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Do You Know the Story of Brazil’s First Black Female Legislator? · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Image of the documentary “Antonieta” (2015). Published with permission, Magnólia Produções
Antonieta de Barros was a young girl when she wandered around her mother's boarding house trying to learn the letters of the alphabet. Sneaking among the students, she as well as her sister Leonor learned to read and write little by little. Antonieta couldn't have imagined that studying the alphabet would set her on a course to become the first black woman legislator in Brazil's history. The year was 1934 and slavery had been abolished less than 50 years prior.
Few people know Antonieta's story or even know who she was. In Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, streets, schools and tunnels all bear her name. There is even a memorial dedicated to her. However, like so many other names on street signs, for many she's just an address — something filmmaker Flávia Person decided to change.

Born in São Paulo, Flávia lived in Florianópolis for seven years. She discovered Antonieta while researching the history of black people of Santa Catarina, the Brazilian state with the smallest proportion of that population: only 15% of the catarinenses declare themselves black or part black. In the elections of 2014, it was the only state that didn't elect a black person. Still, it was there where 82 years before, a black woman took office after being elected through popular vote.
Flávia became fascinated, as she told Global Voices:
Fazer um filme sobre a Antonieta me pareceu urgente. Depois que descobri que ela foi professora, diretora do instituto de educação, cronista dos jornais mais importantes do estado, a primeira mulher a ser eleita deputada em SC e primeira negra no Brasil, e mesmo assim, nem os nativos de Florianópolis conhecem bem a história dela, pensei que era o momento de fazer um filme e propagar a história dela para o máximo de pessoas possível.
A film about Antonieta seemed urgent to me. After I found out she was a teacher, director of an educational institute, columnist of one the most important newspapers in the state, the first woman to be elected in Santa Catarina and the first black woman to be elected in Brazil, and still, not even Florianópolis natives know much about her, I thought it was the moment to make a movie and spread her story to as many people as possible.
Her short documentary premiered in October, after a year of research. To make “Antonieta”, Flávia searched academic dissertations and public archives, but she was saved by the personal files, with never before seen images, of a relative of Antonieta.
Florianópolis, capital of the state of Santa Catarina, at the time of Antonieta's childhood. Published with permission, Magnólia Produções/Treatment by Yannet Briggiler
Antonieta's mother, a freed slave, became a widow early on and supported her daughters on her own by working as a washerwoman. Catarina always considered education the most precious legacy she could leave her girls. She ended up raising two teachers. At 21, Antonieta had already founded her own school, the “Antonieta de Barros Tutoring Course”, dedicated to teach illiterate, poor adults. For her, “illiteracy is what keeps people from being people“. Flávia adds:
Antonieta fez da educação sua luta de vida. Ela acreditava na educação como único caminho possível para a emancipação feminina e dos pobres. Ela sempre defendeu a educação para todos, independente de raça, credo ou sexo.
Antonieta made education her life struggle. She believed in education as the only possible way for the emancipation of poor people and women. She always advocated education for all, regardless of race, faith or sex.
Writing was another means though which Antonieta carved out a space for herself. As journalist Ângela Bastos noted in a profile of Antonieta published in 2013, she wrote a column under the alias Maria da Ilha (Maria “of the Island”), defending women's civil rights — at a time when almost nobody did in Brazil, especially outside of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo:
A sensibilidade de Maria da Ilha derramava-se em textos variados sobre educação, civilidade, religiosidade, virtudes morais, éticas e cívicas. Abordava também questões relacionadas às relações de gênero e à vida política e social dos anos 30, no Brasil e no mundo.
Maria da Ilha's sensitivity spilled into different texts about education, civility, religiosity, and moral, ethical and civic virtues. She would also tackle issues of gender relations and the political and social life of the 1930s in Brazil and the world.
Brazilian women were officially granted the right to vote only in 1932. Two years later, Antonieta, who had held high-up positions and debated with men and intellectuals as equals, would become one of the first women elected as a legislator, winning a seat in the state's assembly (in that same year, the doctor Carlota Pereira de Queiroz, who was white, was elected federal deputy for the state of São Paulo).
Antonieta knew that the marginalization of women in the political world “didn't represent a natural fact”, but she also knew this happened in other spaces too. As Flávia explains it:
A Antonieta sempre teve um viés político. Logo que se formou, ela fez parte da Liga do Magistério, entidade que defendia os direitos das professoras. Eu descobri que, até meados da década de 30, as professoras do ensino público eram proibidas de contratar casamento, havia uma lei que impedia. A justificativa era que as crianças poderiam fazer indagações indevidas sobre a sexualidade das professoras.
Antonieta was always politically active. After she graduated, she was part of the Teaching League, an organization that defended female teachers’ rights. I found out that, until the mid 1930s, female teachers in public schools were forbidden to marry, there was a law that banned them from doing so. The justification was that the children could ask inappropriate questions about their teachers’ sexuality.
Antonieta with a group of politicians and intellectuals from her time. Published with permission, Magnólia Produções/Treatment by Yannet Briggiler
Antonieta made it into politics with the help of Nereu Ramos from the Liberal Party of the Santa Catarina, who would be become the 20th president of Brazil. Her mother had worked at his father's house, Vidal Ramos, who was also a politician, and had a good relationship with the family. Flávia explains:
O partido, sentindo a mudança de pensamento da década de 30 e querendo imprimir uma ideia moderna, viu na Antonieta, já muito respeitada pela elite por causa de seu trabalho na educação, uma oportunidade. Com certeza, ela deve ter enfrentado preconceito tanto pela cor quanto pelo gênero. Na década de 30, ainda havia discussões sobre a pré-disposição biológica da mulher que a impediria de assumir cargos públicos. Na época, apenas o trabalho de professora e outros relacionados à vida doméstica eram aceitos socialmente.
The party, sensing that society was changing in the 1930s, and wanting to display an image of modernity, saw an opportunity in Antonieta, already very respected by the elite because of her work in education. Certainly she must have suffered discrimination because of her skin color and because of her gender. In the 1930s, there were still discussions about women's biological pre-dispositions, which would make them incapable of taking public office positions. At that time, only the work as a teacher and others related to domestic life were socially accepted.
The school created by Antonieta continued operating for almost 10 years after her death. And the discussions initiated by her in the state assembly are still relevant. For Flávia Person, this shows how history often forgets women, even when they're protagonists.
The name of the first black deputy lives on in other ways too. In Santa Catarina, a group of black female teachers debate education, equality and public policy in a blog called “Other Antonietas“. This year, the federal government's Department of Promotion of Public Policies for Racial Equality launched the Antonieta de Barros award for young and prominent black communicators .
When asked what Antonieta would think of today's Brazil, where governors fight students who ask for more schools, women are still a minority in politics and have their rights threatened in Congress, but where also the gender discussion is blossoming, Flávia replies.
Certamente ela também estaria gritando “Fora Cunha”.
For sure she would also be shouting Fora Cunha [“Cunha, out”; Eduardo Cunha is the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Brazil's Congress]
For more information about the documentary “Antonieta”, check out the film's official page (in Portuguese).

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Mapping for Niger, as Told by One of the Project’s Volunteers · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

The OpenStreetMap Niger team. Photo by Fatiman Alher with her permission
Niger, like its neighboring countries, struggles against the harmful impact of militant group Boko Haram in the region. However, its youth want to show that they can rise to power despite the circumstances — in this particular case, the Nigerien OpenStreetMap community.
The Mapping for Niger Project is a Rising Voices project set up jointly with the OpenStreetMap Community. Much of rural Niger is not well-represented online, but thanks to this collaborative open-source humanitarian mapping project, these communities are now part of the digital landscape.
Below is a report from one of its members, Fatiman Alher, a geography student who recently shared her experience mapping the vast territory of Niger.
Since its first appearance, the OpenStreetMap Niger community has conducted activities promoting the project with NGOs, international organizations, local authorities, academia, and at conferences. The community organizes “cartoparties,” open training courses, and completes the OpenStreetMap database through volunteer projects (for example, mapping the cities of Dosso, Zinder, Agadez and Niamey as well as its university) paired with remote data production using satellite imagery and field data collection. Mapathons (mass date creation workshops on areas of interest) are also organized in close relationship with the OpenStreetMap West Africa and World communities.
The project is faced with limited logistical, financial, and human resources as well as a political situation occasionally under pressure (especially on the Malian border) and a general ignorance of Open Data, making each activity realized a feat of volunteer passion and activism.
Since mid-2014, the initiative Espace OSM Francophone has supported the development of OpenStreetMap in Niger. This translates into members of the OSM_NE community participating in capacity-building ( training newcomers the basics of mapping) missions organized in the sub-region by Espace OSM Francophone. In this way, members of the OSM_NE community participated in five-capacity building missions: in Burkina Faso and Togo in 2014; and in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and Togo in 2015. The missions, in which OSM countries gather together, last for three weeks and take place in a mapping community host country, including France and communities in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina-Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast).
Cartography training workshop. Photo by F Alher with her permission
The objectives of  EOF courses are mainly aimed at training the OSM_NE community  about the organizational structure and technical skills required for mapping. These training courses are organized at the University of Niamey (UAM)  and at Search for Common Ground (SFCG).
Open Street Map Niger – National Youth Conference on Climate Change 19 November 2015
Cartoparties are regularly organized by the OSM_NE community. Generally, the participants remotely map from 8 am-12 pm. Then, they carry out a field survey and edit collection data in the evening.
Mapathons (mass data creation workshops on areas of interest) are regularly organized in relationship with West African and World OSM communities; particularly in response to humanitarian crises: Ebola, Boko Haram, or even the earthquake in Nepal.
The city of Niamey is the OSM_NE community nerve center. An ongoing mapping mission has taken place there since the beginning of the OpenStreetMap project in Niger. Members take advantage of their travels and free time by charting the country's capital, remotely or in the field. The mappers focus on the road network, buildings, and points of interest (such as health, education, public buildings, stores, health facilities, etc.). However, other localities are also targeted.
During school vacation from June to September 2013, the OSM_NE community focused on the Madaoua area, specifically in the Tahoua and Zinder regions. Every weekend for one month, the members gathered together to remotely map these localities.
It took one week of mapping to put all of the information into the database. Now you can see the work that was carried out by three youths with limited means by viewing the OpenStreetMap Dosso map.
West Africa OSM Community – Photo by F. Alher with her permission
In a network with other West Africa OSM communities, through missions with Espace OSM Francophone and various events in the sub-region such as annual Innov'Africe forums, the OSM_NE community works especially with communities from Benin, Burkina-Faso, the Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Senegal, and Togo.
The interactions include joint mapping efforts as well as the proactive sharing and exchange of certain aspects of technical and organizational communication. These collaborations were especially strong during the organization and facilitation of the State of the Map (SOTM, or Etat de la Carte) conferences such as the one that was held in Burkina Faso (2015) or the current one in Togo. These two SOTMs were organized during actions taken by the Espace OSM Francophone. The community's mapping efforts contributed to the Map4Ebola initiative that enabled a better fight against the epidemic.

author: Rakotomalala