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Simón Bolívar, Esteemed Liberator or Infamous Dictator? · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Simón Bolívar, oil painting by José Gil de Castro. Image from Wikimedia, used under license Creative Commons.
Below is an edited version of a post originally published on the blog Globalizado.
July 24 marked the anniversary of the birth of the “Liberator” Simón Bolívar, a key political leader in Latin America's fight for independence from the Spanish. In his native Venezuela, Bolívar was celebrated with the debut of a movie about his life, but in other countries like Peru, the event was no more than just a protocol ceremony. The reason being that in this Andean country, Bolívar is not held in the highest regard.
Bolívar played a major role in the emancipation processes of five Latin American countries — Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela — and is considered a universal historical figure. He first liberated Venezuela and Colombia, then Ecuador, creating a large country called The Great Colombia. He then went to Peru to assure the defeat of the Spanish forces.
But before we go into Bolívar's time in Peru, let's get to know his personality. Journalist Álvaro Vargas Llosa writes in an article that Bolívar was a better warlord than all the other Latin American leaders from that time, but that warlordism itself is still the heart of the Latin problem:
José García Hamilton, un estudioso argentino de Bolívar, considera que el Libertador fue consistentemente dictatorial: “En su carta desde Jamaica (1815) y en la Convención Constituyente de Angostura (1819), Bolívar postula un sistema político con presidente vitalicio, una cámara de senadores hereditarios integrada por los generales de la independencia… La Convención de Angostura no aprueba este sistema para Venezuela ni tampoco la aprueba para Nueva Granada la siguiente convención de Cúcuta, pero luego Bolívar, en la flamante Bolivia, redacta personalmente una constitución con esas características, que luego es aprobada para el Perú. Luego pretende que ese sistema se extienda a la Gran Colombia, pero Santander rechaza que esa sanción se haga mediante atas populares, por no ser un procedimiento legal. “No será legal”, contesta Bolívar, “pero es popular y por lo tanto propio de una república eminentemente democrática”.
José García Hamilton, an Argentinean scholar of Bolívar, believes that the Liberator was consistently dictatorial: “In his Jamaica letter (1815) and in the constituent convention of Angostura (1819), Bolívar postulated a political system with a life-term presidency, a hereditary chamber made up of the generals who had achieved independence… The Angostura convention did not approve this system for Venezuela, nor did the next Cúcuta convention approve it for Nueva Granada, but then Bolívar wrote a constitution in the brand new Bolivia, that included these elements, which is then approved in Peru. He then tried to extend that system to Gran Colombia, but Santander told him the procedure he was trying to use was not legal, “It may not be legal” replied Bolivar, “but it is popular and therefore right for a republic which is democratic.”
Bolívar's lack of affection towards the indigenous population, bordering on racism, is a controversial issue. On an anonymous blog, a student reflects on an analyzed text he studied in a class taught by professor Cecilia Méndez Gastelumendi:
Antes de llegar a Perú, Simón Bolívar tenía una visión del indigena idealista […]. Pero en 1822, atravesando los Andes, Simón Bolívar se enfrento a la rebelión de los pastusos, que acosaban a su ejército, usando técnicas de guerrillas. Desde entonces su visión cambió radicalmente: el ser apacible se convirtió en bestia salvaje, bruta, despreciada, degradado. “Esos demonios merecen la muerte”: si es que algo siguió constante en el pensamiento bolivariano, fue su visión de los indígenas como seres incapaces de una concepción política. Pero si no se apartaban voluntariamente de la sociedad política, solo la aniquilación podía resolver el problema.
Before arriving in Peru, Simón Bolívar had an indigenous idealistic view […]. But in 1822, as he crossed the Andes, Simón Bolívar confronted the Pastusos rebellion, who were accosting his army through guerrilla warfare. Since that instance, his vision changed drastically: this peaceful being changed into a wild, brutal, despised, degraded beast. “Those demons deserve to die:” if there is one constant thing about the Bolivarian way of thinking, it is his vision regarding the indigenous people as beings incapable of political conception. However, if they didn't voluntarily separate themselves from political society, the only way to solve the problem would be annihilation.
Peru remembers Bolívar as the one who dismembered their homeland. According to the Peruvian historian Hugo Pereyra Plasencia, It is necessary to go straight to the sources (letters, newspapers, official documents) so that it is clear “that we Peruvians were considered extremely dreadful by Bolívar” and he argues that to Bolívar himself, Peru was a threat:
Bolívar tuvo muy clara esta percepción y, de hecho, por eso hizo todo lo posible por crear un hegemón alternativo: la Gran Colombia, que estuvo integrado por las actuales Colombia, Venezuela y Ecuador, con pretensiones sobre Guayaquil y sobre el río Amazonas y su gigantesca área circundante. La Gran Colombia nació así como un contrapeso al supuesto peligro peruano.
Bolivar had a very clear perception, in fact, that is why he did everything in his power to create an alternative hegemony: The Gran Colombia, consisting of the current Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, with claims to Guayaquil and above all the Amazon River and it's gigantic surrounding region. The Gran Colombia emerged as a counterbalance to the alleged Peruvian threat.
During the famous Guayaquil Conference in 1822, between Bolívar and the general José de San Martín, the former had already proclaimed Guayaquil under the Gran Colombia protectorate, which actually meant its annexation, even though Guayaquil was Peruvian territory. Additionally, Pereyra argues:
En 1823, Bolívar llegó al Perú no tanto por dar la libertad a sus hermanos peruanos que sufrían las cadenas del absolutismo (idea que él siempre manifestaba de modo grandilocuente y, por supuesto, hipócrita), sino principalmente por el interés geopolítico de destruir de raíz lo que consideraba como una amenaza para la Gran Colombia, […] Por eso se crea Bolivia, para cortarle las patas al “monstruo” peruano,
In 1823, Bolívar arrived in Peru, not specifically to free his Peruvian brothers suffering from the chains of absolutism (a thought he always manifested in a grandiloquent, and of course, hypocritical manner), but mainly due to his geopolitical desire to destroy the root of what he considered was a threat towards Gran Colombia, […] That is why Bolivia is created, to cut the legs off the Peruvian “monster,”
In addition to his liberation military work culminating in the victory at the battle of  Ayacucho in 1824, there is a great deal to tell about the time Bolívar spent in Peru. Venezuelan Antonio Esclera Busto relates:
Una vez completada la independencia peruana, Bolívar convoca de nuevo al Congreso Constituyente el 10 de febrero de 1825 […] Este Congreso nombra a Bolívar “Padre y Salvador de la Patria” y ordena que se erija la estatua ecuestre en la plaza del Congreso, donde está actualmente, así como el pago, como una “pequeña demostración de reconocimiento” de una recompensa al Libertador de 1.000.000 de pesos, cantidad que representaba, más o menos, la tercera parte del presupuesto anual del Perú de la época.
Upon the independence of Peru, on February 10, 1825, Bolívar once again reconvenes the Constituent Congress […] Congress appoints Bolívar as “the country's Savior and Founding Father” and demands the erection of the equestrian statue in the congress plaza, where it stands today, as payment or “small token of recognition” for the Liberator, worth 1,000,000 pesos, which was more of less one-third of the Peruvian budget during that time.
Once he officially became Peru's Dictator, his government actions were in bad shape and were adversely affecting the indigenous population of Peru, whom he despised, as has already been mentioned:
En abril de 1825, Bolívar, en uso de sus plenos poderes, dispone la anulación de la emancipación de los esclavos que había decretado San Martín […] el 11 de agosto de 1826, Bolívar implanta de nuevo el tributo del indígena, que ya había sido eliminado […] por San Martín el 27 de agosto de 1821.
Algunos autores defienden el decreto de Bolívar por la justificación de proveer recursos a un Estado casi en estado de insolvencia. Que el Estado estaba casi en quiebra es cierto, pero no justifica que se recurriese a un tributo solo por la raza y no por la cuantía de la riqueza del ciudadano.
On April 1825, Bolívar, using his full power, annuls the emancipation of slaves already enacted by San Martín […] on August 11, 1826, Bolívar once again implements the indigenous taxation, which had already been eliminated […] by San Martín on August 27, 1821.
Some authors defend Bolívar's enactment, justifying that resources were provided to a State that was in a state of almost insolvency. It's true that the State was almost bankrupt, but it's not justifiable to regress to taxation solely based on race and not the amount of citizen's wealth.
Because he was aware of the little devotion that Peru showed Bolívar in Peru, Venezuelan Ramón Urdaneta researched different sources and published interesting data in his blog:
[…] el economista e historiador Herbert Morote, lo tilda en calidad de “enemigo público Nº 1 del Perú”, pues “fue un hombre de derecha y no introdujo ninguna reforma social en el país […]. Añade el estado de presión que Bolívar mantuvo en el Perú, mandando a fusilar a sus opositores, hasta por sospechas infundadas […]. A Bartolomé Salom el caraqueño en febrero de 1824 le escribe “Esto está lleno de partidos y todo plagado de traidores. empìezan a tenerme miedo… se compondrá todo esto con la receta de las onzas de plomo…”. A lo que se suma lo escrito por el americano Hiram Paulding sobre que Bolívar le expresó que los “peruanos eran unos cobardes y que, como pueblo, no tenían una sola virtud varonil”.
[…] the economist and historian Herber Morote describes him as “Peru's public enemy Nº 1,” for “he was a man of the law and did not present any social reform to the country […]  He also speaks about the state of pressure that Bolívar had on Peru, demanding the elimination of his opponents, even for unfounded suspicions […]. In February 1824, he wrote to Bartolomé Salom from Caracas that “This is full of many parties all plagued by traitors. they are beginning to fear me… this shall all comprise of a recipe full of lead ounces…” American Hiram Paulding adds that Bolívar expressed that the “Peruvians were cowards and that, as people, they lacked masculine virtues.”
In his blog, Jorge Sayegh reproduced this quote:
Jorge Basadre, el historiador peruano más reconocido, dice que Bolívar fue un romántico en 1804, diplomático en 1810, jacobino en 1813, paladín de la libertad en 1819 y genio de la guerra en 1824. Sugiere el historiador que en los años 1825 y 26 al Perú le tocó el peor de los Bolívares, el “imperator”.
Jorge Basadre, Peru's most recognized historian, says that in 1804 Bolívar was a romantic, in 1810 he was a diplomat, in 1813 a Jacobian, a champion of freedom in 1819 and a genius of war in 1824. The historian suggest that during 1825 and 26, Peru had to deal with the worst on of the Bolívars, the “imperator.”
Not only did Bolivar successfully make congress declare him Dictator, but he also propelled and obtained the odd approval of a life-long Constitution with himself as President for life. Because of Bolivar's travels to Colombia, his government body was short lived and the Cabildo de Lima (Lima's council) in 1827 annulled the constitution that lasted only 50 days. In another post, Antonio Escalera Busto concludes:
Para el escritor peruano Félix C. Calderón el juicio de valor sobre Bolívar es: “El Bolívar que aparece con la lectura de sus propias cartas disponibles es un hombre ambicioso que comete el grave error de manchar su incuestionable trayectoria libertaria con los sueños de opio de una dictadura perpetua, aun a costa de volver a hipotecar la independencia de los pueblos que había supuestamente libertado. No es el santo varón desprendido y desinteresado, ni un demiurgo consumado que solo busca sembrar paz y concordia entre los pueblos; sino un habilísimo taumaturgo del lenguaje que ha descubierto en las palabras la mejor manera de ocultar sus non sanctas intenciones”.
According to Peruvian writer, Felix C. Calderon, Bolivar's collective value judgement is: “The Bolivar who shows up ready to read his own letters is an ambitious man who makes the serious mistake of tarnishing his indisputable libertarian track record by daydreaming of a perpetual dictatorship, even in the expense of jeopardizing the people's independence which he had supposedly liberated. He is neither an unattached and disinterested holy man, nor a consumed demiurge who searches to cultivate peace and harmony between people; but a most capable, language thaumaturge who has found, in his own words, the best way to hide his non sanctas intentions.”
As attorney Freddy Centurión points out: “The defeat of the life-long constitution in Peru was the beginning of the end for the Liberator. From then on, his dream would be demolished like a house of cards, as he was condemned and exiled in Colombia, where he died from tuberculosis in 1830.”

author: Juan Arellano


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Thailand’s Junta Bans ‘Tropico’, a Computer Game That Simulates Military Dictatorship · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Image from Tropico 5 Facebook page
The simulation game Tropico 5 has been banned by Thai authorities after it was deemed a threat to the country’s peace and order situation.
The Tropico simulation game allows a player to be a dictator named El Presidente in charge of a tropical paradise in the Caribbean. It parodies Latin America ‘banana republics’ during the Cold War era. To preserve power, the leader can launch a coup while addressing the needs of his citizens. The Tropico 5 version features El Presidente leading a tropical island nation during the early colonial period up to modern times.
After reviewing the game, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has ordered the Department of Cultural Promotion under the Culture Ministry to stop the game from being sold in the local market. NCPO is the official name of the government created by the Thai army, which staged a coup on May 22, 2014.
After grabbing power, the Thai army has imposed various forms of censorship in the country. It controlled the newsrooms of major media stations and it outlawed the public gathering of five or more people. The army said it will hand over power to the civilian government after implementing various political and electoral reforms.
Thai authorities also rejected the game because it is allegedly offensive to the monarchy. According to the subcommittee of the Video and Film Office, they banned the game because it “allowed players the freedom to name the country and its leader or king as they pleased.” They added:
Playing a game is different from watching a movie, as this game allows all players to express their beliefs without fear of law, so it is inappropriate to distribute such a game, especially during the current situation.
A state-sponsored news release highlighted an option in the game which empowers the dictator to dethrone the monarch. A Lese Majeste case has been filed already against the game's developers and distributors. Thailand implements a strict Lese Majeste (anti-Royal insult) law in honor of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the country’s most beloved public figure.
Nonglak Sahawattanapong of New Era Interactive Media, the official distributor of the game in Thailand, said that officials didn’t specify the objectionable parts of the game:
The officials said some parts of the game are not appropriate for the current situation. They didn't pinpoint clearly which parts are problematic, but we believe it is related to government issues in Tropico 5.
Tropico 5 was made by Bulgarian game developer Haemimont. Kalypso Media, which owns the game, issued a statement expressing disappointment over the banning of the game in Thailand:
We are disappointed to hear that Tropico 5 will not be released in Thailand. ‘Tropico 3 and 4 both enjoyed successful releases in the country and although the Tropico brand does have a realistic political element to it, the scenarios and content are all delivered with a certain trademark tongue in cheek humour.
Even the fictional character El Presidente tweeted about the ban:
Sometimes real life seems to be better than any parody! The governing military Junta in Thailand banned Tropico 5 http://t.co/0jmOCy03sB — El Presidente (@El_Prez) August 4, 2014
I'm feeling a bit blue about the Thailand situation, so my friends @KalypsoMediaUK are giving away some ‘Junta’ DLC Keys for Tropico 4. — El Presidente (@El_Prez) August 5, 2014
Political analyst Saksith Saiyasombut wrote that Thai officials have “horribly misjudged fact from fiction.” He added:
By invoking the ever-sensitive issue of the monarchy the censors are using a theme under which they can easily ban things – but on the other hand neither the developers nor the players probably had originally that in mind and are probably hearing it for the first time!
This latest form of censorship in Thailand has further revealed the worsening state of free speech and expression in the country.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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20-year-old Dalia Alnajjar is Blogging About Life and Death in Gaza · Global Voices
Leila Nachawati Rego

Gaza residents clean after an Israeli bombing. Source: Dalia Alnajjar's blog
“Writing is the anchor I use to keep me from drowning inside myself”. This is how 20-year-old Dalia al-Najjar presents her blog, a diary of life in Gaza.  “I decided to devote my life to telling the story of our suffering because I felt that having survived I owe something to the martyrs.”
At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,000 injured, and 450,000 displaced since Israel launched a massive offensive called Protective Edge against the 40-kilometer-long coastal strip on July 8.
Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank further aggravate the situation in what most of the world and the United Nations considers territory occupied by Israel. This is Israel's third military operation in Gaza in six years.
Despite the tragic reality she lives in, Dalia’s blog is a hymn to life. Her narration of events goes from reactions to the bombing of her university to a recount of the cleaning patrols organized to start rebuilding the city from the rubble. Soaked in dark humor, her writing takes us to the horror of witnessing relentless explosions shake Gaza.
I sat on the couch hugging myself, leaning my head against my drawn-up knees watching my siblings sleeping around me. The scary thing about staying alive is that you keep waiting for death, you can hear the voice of the rocket flying over you before it hits its target.. each time I hear the sound, I shut my eyes, my shoulders go up and my neck sinks in, waiting it to blow me to pieces.. after hearing the explosion, I breath saying ”woah that was close!” ..that happened over a hundred times all night long. I can’t describe the panicky, fears and pain I feel, my hair is falling, I’m pretty sure I’ll be wearing a wig after this nightmare, if I survived.
Dalia also introduces us to her family and closest circle:
My sister, Sara, was already up. I asked her about the news I missed while sleeping for 3 hours.
”You really don’t want to hear about it”  she said with a sad voice.
”What happened?” I violently asked.
“They targeted our university”
“What, when, how WHY WHY WHY !!” I yelled
”I tried to call Mr. Netanyahu to know why, but  he’s not picking up”
Follow Dalia al-Najjar‘s blog for a beautifully-written recount of life and death in Gaza and read about her visit to a crowded make-shift shelter during another 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire under the supermoon here.

author: Leila Nachawati Rego


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Can President Obama Change African Dictators’ Ways? Not Likely, Says Chadian Blogger · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

President Barack Obama with 40 African presidents in Washington DC – via carrapide – Public Domain
As the first 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit came to an end in Washington, D.C. on Aug., 6 2014, many African bloggers were left wondering about the potential impact (or lack there of) of U.S. diplomacy in Africa. This is the first summit in which an American president met with 40 African presidents to strengthen ties between the United States and the African continent.
This initiative is a follow-up on President Obama's visit to Africa in 2013. During that visit, Obama emphasized in his address to the Ghanian parliament that “Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.”
The summit was to be centered around the issue of improving security and bolstering trade and investment on the continent. Yet other current events, such as the Ebola outbreak and various internal conflicts on the continent, made their way on to the agenda. A few African observers were hoping that some of the human rights issues in several countries would also be addressed, but it seems that some topics were put away for the time being.
At the conclusion of the summit, the U.S. pledged $33 billion in new trade and investment commitments and promised to launch a new African peacekeeping partnership with the goal of “quickly deploying African peacekeepers in support of U.N. or [African Union] missions”. Before meeting with African leaders, Obama also addressed a group of 500 young people attending the first Washington fellowship for young African leaders. Here is a video of the exchange between the young African leaders and the president:
It is in that context that blogger Senior Mbary from Chad opined on the impact of U.S.-Africa strategy in a French-language blog post entitled, “Gouvernance démocratique: jusqu’où ira le président Obama avec les dictateurs africains?” (Democratic governance: How far is President Obama willing to go with the matter of curbing African dictators?). The post was published on the blog of Makaila Nguela, another renowned Chadian dissident blogger whom the Chadian authorities are trying to silence after his public criticism of Chadian President Idriss Deby.
Makaila Nguebla, via Global Voices Advocacy
Here is an excerpt from Mbary lengthy blog post:
Quoi qu’on dise, la démocratie présente un aspect universel : un candidat est élu sur la base de son programme (en théorie). Si au prochain mandat, il n’a pas donné satisfaction, sa propre famille politique hésitera à voter à nouveau pour lui si les jeux démocratiques sont respectés, c’est-à-dire si les gens votent réellement selon leurs convictions.
Le constat est que si les citoyens d’un pays se sentent en sécurité, c’est le cœur qui parle lors des votes et non le ventre ou l’appartenance ethnique ou religieuse dès lors que les règles de jeux démocratiques sont respectées.
Le président Obama a donné un avant-goût de l’espoir quant aux résultats du prochain sommet afro-américain  lors de sa rencontre avec les jeunes africains. Mais la question fondamentale que l’on est en droit de se poser est la suivante : Quelles mesures le président américain sera en mesure de prendre pour faire changer les choses ? Cette interrogation est née pour les raisons suivantes :
-    Lors de sa première tournée africaine lors de son premier mandat, le président Obama avait déclaré au Ghana que l’Afrique n’a pas besoin des hommes forts mais d’institutions fortes, ce qui revient à dire que l’Afrique a besoin d’un ancrage démocratique fort, nécessaire à son développement. Plus de cinq ans après cette déclaration, rien n’a changé. Bien au contraire, la liste des présidents qui ont changé leur constitution ou qui sont sur le point de le faire pour se maintenir au pouvoir ne fait que s’allonger,  même si la plus part de ces dirigeants ont déjà  plus de dix ans au pouvoir;
-    Les intérêts mafieux dans le pré carré français. Quel est la capacité réelle du président Obama à influencer le président Hollande qui soutient aveuglement les dictateurs comme Idriss Deby du Tchad, sachant que celui-ci a des soutiens très solides au sein de l’armée française, le vrai patron de la politique africaine de la France;
-    Au Togo et au Congo-Brazzaville, ces mêmes milieux mafieux sont prêts à tout pour convaincre Hollande de supporter ces présidents dictateurs en place au nom de la stabilité et de la sécurité comme si sans ces gens, les pays allaient disparaitre. Quelle est la stratégie de Mr Obama pour contrer et neutraliser ces milieux ?
Que des interrogations sans réponse pour le moment.
Whatever one's opinion about democracy is, it holds one universal aspect: a candidate is supposed to be elected on the basis of its program (in theory). If during their term, they do perform satisfactorily, the process should allow an alternative option to be chosen if the democratic process is respected, that is to say, if people actually vote according to their convictions.
The fact remains that if a citizen of a country feels safe in his own nation, he will choose the candidates that better fits his values and not his ethnic or religious affiliations.
President Obama gave us some hope about favoring such a process at the end of the Africa-America Summit by meeting with young African leaders before the summit. But the fundamental question remained: What steps can the American president take to change things around? This question arose because of the following reasons:
- During his first tour of Africa, President Obama said in Ghana that Africa does not need strong men, but strong institutions, which means that Africa needs a strong democratic support that is necessary for its development. More than five years after that statement, nothing has changed. On the contrary, the list of presidents who have tweaked their constitution in order to stay in power had increased, although most of these leaders have already stayed more than ten years in power.
- The issue of France's lobby in her former colonial territories. What is the actual capacity of President Obama to change French President Hollande's blind support of dictators such as Idriss Deby of Chad? Everyone knows that Deby benefits from strong supporters within the French army, the real decision maker of the African policy of France.
- In Togo and the Republic of Congo, the mafia would do anything to talk Hollande into maintaining those ruling dictators in place in the name of stability and security as  if without these people, the country would disappear. What is Obama's strategy to counter and neutralize these networks ?
For the moment, those three questions still remain unanswered.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Killers Roam Free After Brutally Murdering a Defender of India’s Untouchables · Global Voices
Rezwan

Protesting the authorities’ inaction about a rape case of Dalit women in the village of Bhagana, in Haryana. Image by Rajeev R Singh. Copyright Demotix, 11 May 2014.
Almost 25 percent of the Indian population belongs to the Dalit caste, a stratum regarded as outside the social hierarchy. The country's government has increased its efforts to protect minorities like Dalits and indigenous peoples (known as Scheduled Tribes or adivasis), but these groups continue to face discrimination, exclusion, and acts of communal violence. In recent years, a grassroots team of “Video Volunteer” correspondents began recording and reporting crimes against Dalits across India.
In a recent post, Video Volunteers’ Communications Coordinator, Kayonaaz Kalyanwala, revealed:
Statistics from different sources reveal that crimes against Dalits are on the rise. The State Minister for Employment Guarantee Scheme, Nitin Raut made a statement in May 2014 that, compared to previous years 548 more cases of atrocities were registered in Maharashtra during 2013-14.
On the morning of May 17, six people attacked Sanjay Khobragade, a Dalit rights activist from the Kaulewada village, in the Gondia district of Maharashtra. The reason for the brutal assault was a caste-based dispute about land. Khobragade was sleeping in his courtyard when when assailants set him ablaze, dousing him with kerosene. Khobragade succumbed to his injuries 6 days later at the Civil Hospital in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Khobragade recorded a video testimony before he passed away. (A warning to readers: this video contains graphic imagery.)
Based on Khobragade's statement, police arrested 6 men. The suspects have strong political connections to the ruling Bharatya Janata Party, however, and managed to fabricate a story that Khobragade’s wife, Devakabai, and her so-called paramour, a poor rickshaw-puller named Raju Gadpayle, killed him when he discovered their affair.
As the men Khobragade fingered for his murder went free, police arrested his wife and Gadpayale, torturing them until they confessed to the crime. Today, the 6 men Khobragade named in his dying declaration are free on bail, while his wife remains in jail.
Khobragade's son, Pradeep, has launched a petition titled, “My Mother Didn't Kill My Father. Investigate the Murder of Dalit Rights Activist, Sanjay Khobragade,” which says, “We all know that by killing my father, the ‘higher-caste’ community wanted to set an example that Dalits should not speak up.”
Video Volunteers has highlighted discrepancies in the police investigation of Khobragade's murder:
It seems, the police and District level administration have conspired to cover up this case of Dalit atrocity and have therefore carefully plotted to highlight this as a murder plot hatched out of an extra-marital relationship.
Nilesh Kumar, a researcher at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, has studied a fact-finding report by the NGO Round Table India and concluded:
The Dalit woman, her body, her character has always been an easy target. In cases of caste atrocities, it is always a Dalit woman who is worst affected. A similar pattern was seen here. To shield the real accused, the police targeted Devakabai. They wove a fictitious story and accused her of having an illicit relationship. A 48-year-old woman was accused of getting sexually involved with her 41-year-old neighbor. The police, cleverly, got a few villagers from the dominant caste to testify in its support.
According to Round Table India, Khobragade lost his life over a dispute about land. He was involved in leading Kavalewada's Dalits in a campaign to build a Buddhist community center on land the government granted them in 2012. Members of the area's “higher-caste” Hindu community have opposed this plan, wanting instead to build their own temple on the same spot.
If life for Dalits and other “undesirables” is ever meant to improve, the public will have to take a greater interest in horror stories like Khobragade's. Unfortunately, India's mass media has devoted very little coverage to his brutal murder. If laws and constitutional protections alone were enough to absolve Indians of untouchability, Sanjay Khobragade would be alive today.

author: Rezwan


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Iran’s Internet Users Outsmart Government in Cat-and-Mouse Censorship Game · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Photo by Frederic Jacobs, used with permission.
Tor, a popular online anonymity tool used by many Iranians to bypass Internet censorship, was blocked from late July until the beginning of August. The block prevented 75 percent of the network's estimated 40,000 daily users in Iran from connecting to Tor.
The Iranian government periodically releases new filtering rules intended to block Tor traffic, to which the Tor community typically responds with a same-day antidote for the block.
Tor has been of particular sensitivity since it was widely used by activists, protesters and citizen journalists during the 2009 Green Movement. The software, used by digital activists worldwide, allows users to reach their target website by tunneling through a network of intermediary servers, a process that anonymizes the users along the way and makes their identities indecipherable for ISPs, thus allowing them to circumvent government-imposed censorship. Tor is an open source software and has a large community of users and developers who work to detect and eliminate security flaws and bugs, along with filtering by governments.
On July 30, the Tor project reported users couldn't access regular Tor connections in Iran. Tor metrics also showed a drop in the number of users connecting to the service on a daily basis.
In an email to Global Voices, Tor Project Executive Director Andrew Lewman explained on Aug. 4 that authorities were “throttling” or severely slowing down network traffic that appeared to be encrypted. “Iran is throttling any protocol which looks like encryption or SSL traffic,” he said. “This includes native Tor, but pluggable transports work just fine.”
Lewman identified a key challenge that users of Tor and other anonymization tools face: While governments generally cannot decode anonymized traffic online, they can easily distinguish traffic that is anonymized or encrypted. And if they want to, they can block it — this is what the Iranian government did a few weeks ago.
What Lewman identifies as a solution is the “pluggable transport”, a type of Tor connection that connects to the network using a hidden pathway known as a bridge. This mechanism makes it more difficult for governments to see traffic, and thus more difficult to block it.
“The key thing is,” explained Jacobs, “even though Tor is used for anonymity, it doesn't hide the fact that you're using Tor if you're not using pluggable transports.”
Tor metrics show a significant increase in the number of Iranians using Tor bridges since the temporary block on native Tor.
On Aug. 5, London-based Internet researcher Nariman Gharib reported on his Twitter page that the connection to Tor had been restored.
دسترسی مستقیم به سرویس #تور رفع فیلتر شد. Direct access to #TOR Is Unblocked Again in #Iran. #Filternet pic.twitter.com/fVPSUbBFsu
— Nariman Gharib (@ListenToUs) August 5, 2014
Since 2011, the Iranian government has been known to engage in a cat-and-mouse game with Tor in order to block connections to the country.  For now, the game continues.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


text:
Jamaican Women Are Speaking Out Online Against the ‘Widespread Sickness’ of Public Sexual Harassment  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Statue at Emancipation Park, New Kingston, Jamaica. Photo by Dubdem e FabDub, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
A guest newspaper columnist in Jamaica decided to tackle the pervasive social problem of public sexual harassment (known elsewhere in the world as Eve teasing) by writing an article about her experience. Karen Lloyd's column met with interesting public fallout, particularly from men.
In one response, a male reader challenged Lloyd's assertion that her private parts were not for public consumption by making the point that vaginas are public property on ‘Back Road’ (a reference to an area in Jamaica that is known for solicitation).
Literary scholar Dr. Carolyn Cooper took notice of the column and the public's reaction to “the persistent problem of verbal and physical abuse of girls and women in Jamaica”. She fiercely deconstructed the “Back Road” argument by saying:
Unlike Ms Lloyd, the women on ‘Back Road’ are selling sex. Even so, the vagina of a female sex worker is not public property. Cleverly marketed or not, the vagina of a female sex worker is a private body part. And its owner has the right to determine its use and value. She is entitled to pick and choose her clients even in desperate economic circumstances. Sex workers have rights. They have the fundamental right to be protected from sexual abuse. And selling sex does not mean you give up all claims to be treated with dignity.
Lloyd's column, which began with a personal account of how she slapped a man for squeezing her breast, only to be met with his ridiculous explanation (he only did it because she looked so good), put in focus the largely male-held assumption that women ask for what they get by dressing or looking a certain way.
“Presumably, an attractive woman must take full responsibility for provoking unwanted attention,” Cooper wrote in her blog post. Sadly, many members of the opposite sex seem to hold that view. Take one man, whose letter to the editor in response to Lloyd's column asked: “Vagina [is] not public property, but are women asking for it?” Cooper responded:
The old fogey ends his letter with an irritating question: ‘Do the ladies have a responsibility to be more modest in their attire?’ It’s not about how women dress. Even in societies where women are covered from head to toe, sexual abuse is a constant threat. Men have a responsibility to exercise self-control and keep their hands and penises under manners.
Instead of falling into the trap of thinking that unwanted sexual attention is a compliment, women must fight back. We cannot passively see ourselves as victims. We have to let men know that they are not entitled to romp with us against our will. And an unexpected response to sexual harassment – whether verbal or physical – can be a most effective deterrent. […]
Across the board: uptown and downtown; black, white and brown; every single ethnic group. All our talk of independence, both national and personal, means absolutely nothing if we can’t cure this widespread sickness.
The discussion is getting quite a bit of traction on social media as Jamaican Facebook users have been sharing links like this one, which explain how street harassment is harmful to women and what men can do to help eradicate it.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
My Super Hero Wore Suspenders. Life With Robin Williams. · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Robin Williams performing for US troops in the Middle East in 2003. Photo by Milosz Reterski. CC-Public Domain
In this guest post San Francisco-based Christina Noyes pays tribute to her hero, Oscar-winning comedian Robin Williams, who changed her life many times. Williams died in a suspected suicide at his home in Tiburon, 20 miles from where Christina lives. He was 63.
Most kids have a cape or a mask and run around pretending that they are Batman or Superman; well this wasn’t the case for me. My super hero wore suspenders.
Christina and her brother with Mork & Mindy pins on their suspenders. September 1979.
At the age of 8, I was deeply enamored with an alien called Mork. He was kind, childlike and would get into trouble for not always knowing the right thing to do. He was funny, really funny. He would sit on his head, wear his clothes backwards, talk really fast, and he had a special handshake that took me years to master. Where did this man come from? Planet Ork of course. At the age of 8, I was still mystified by what I saw on TV. Was it real?
When Mork first appeared on Happy Days, it didn’t make sense to me. He was so different from that cast and time period that had been so established. It made so much more sense when he appeared on his own TV show. My brother and I spent a good chunk of our childhood running around with our Mork suspenders and buttons, saying “Nanu Nanu” and repeating silly Mork sayings.
Robin Williams, the actor
As I got older, Mork was no more, but he had become Robin Williams, an actor who touched my heart in The World According to Garp, Dead Poet’s Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Patch Adams, and my favorite, “Goooooooood Morning Vietnam.” He was no longer just funny. He was really good at acting. He was still funny, but when he slowed down and got that soft sweet voice, he was letting you into his heart. And this is when I loved him the best.
As a teenager, I came to know him quite well, not officially, but in a way that only he could understand. I memorized his funniest monologues from Good Morning Vietnam. Not just memorized, I learned his rhythm, his timing, his multiple voices. I embodied his character. I did this for forensics class. I wasn’t good at debate. No one took me seriously. So when I found out about the division of Humorous Interpretation in forensics class, where students would compete with other students I decided that this was the piece for me.
The day I performed the Good Morning Vietnam monologues, my life changed. People no longer discarded me as the class clown. I was now winning the class trophies. But more importantly, I began to understand Robin Williams on a much deeper level. I understood the way he would go in ten directions at once, how improvisation was his mind exploding onto the world, how fast his brain worked.
Robin Williams, the mentor
At the age of 17, my once childhood hero was no longer a funny alien, but a genius of words and perspectives that my eyes were just opening too. The Good Morning Vietnam monologues then became my audition piece. I landed my first play. Why this is important was that I was a very shy girl or in other words very insecure. I loved to perform, but not in front of my peers. At this point, my life was changing and I was finally beginning to share myself with the world. I was finding my voice.
Later in life, I became a theater teacher in a public school in San Francisco. I didn’t learn much in the credential program. The type of teacher I wanted to be was John Keaton, “O Captain! My Captain.” He truly felt his students and wanted them to feel the emotions of being human and being alive. I titled my class, Expressive Arts. My hero had helped transform me again.
One day in my classroom, I shared two bucket list goals. They weren’t anything grand like jumping out of plane or traveling the world. I simply wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and to meet Robin Williams. Little did I know, I was sharing my dreams with a friend who could actually make the later come true.
Robin Williams, the dream
A few days went by and my friend Peter Sloss magically made it happen. It was top secret: Robin was planning to try out some new material he was working on before he took his show to New York. He was planning to secretly show up at a small hole in the wall theater, The Marsh. He would watch the first act, which was an unknown comedian, and if he liked the audience, he would do a surprise performance. I felt like I had won the lottery!
My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, came with me. We watched the other comedian do his act. To say the least, I was a bit anxious. I couldn’t sit in my seat. I decided to go to the bathroom and see if I could find Robin. I spotted him at the bar. Instead of being bold I darted to the bathroom. I reapplied my lipstick, took a deep breath and got ready to meet my hero! By the time I made it back out, he was gone. I was devastated. Had he not liked the audience? Had he left the building? Did I lose my chance? Why did I go to the bathroom? Damn!
Disappointedly, I went back to my seat and watched the comedian end his show. At this point, the owner of The Marsh got on stage and announced that Robin Williams was in the house. My heart jumped. There was literally fifty people in the audience, maybe seventy-five. It was small. In these split seconds, I knew that I had to make myself known or I might never get a chance again. What was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. This was my hero for the past two decades. He was real. He was in front of me, just inches away.
As the crowd’s massive cheers of utter shock slowly quieted, I knew it was now or never. I did it. I shouted out, “I LOVE YOU!” And everything stopped. He looked at me and said, “I love you?” But it was with one of his ridiculous voices. His face was contorted. His eyes were crazy and he repeated with a slur, “I looooooove you.” Robin went on to do a twenty minute improv about how my boyfriend took me on a date, first to Thai Food, brought me here hoping to get lucky, but then his date yells out, “I love you” to some strange man on stage. Robin pointed out that he could be crazy. But of course he did it in the funniest of ways. My eyes were filled with tears because I was laughing so hard.
A once in a lifetime experience. I, Christina Noyes was the focus of Robin Williams’ performance. Multiple times throughout the hour, he would stop his train of thought, look at me and say, “I looooove you” and then go back into his act.
After the show, I was determined to meet him. My friend had told me that there were no backdoors at The Marsh, and that he would have to come out the front door. My boyfriend left to get the car and told me to take my time. I did just that. Slowly the place cleared out. I stood at the bar with some other older crazy lady and nervously chatted with her. I had gone through this moment of meeting him in my head multiple times. I thought maybe I would do the Mork handshake, a little “Nanu Nanu” or even better a quick Good Morning Vietnam! As time ticked by, I started to feel ridiculous standing there like a silly fan. Was he ever coming out? I finally asked the bartender about there not being a backdoor. He laughed and said that there were three backdoors. How did my friend get it wrong? Should I give up? The other woman and I slowly let go of the idea of meeting him.
Walking out the door, I was saying goodbye to a dream. I walked across the street and talked to my boyfriend who was sitting in the car. I was sad, but grateful, but also not wanting to get in the car. And then it happened, Robin walked out the front door. Ha, there were no backdoors! I asked my boyfriend, should I go? I felt ridiculous, but I made myself walk back across the street.
Robin Williams, the super hero
So right there on Valencia Street, in San Francisco, at 11pm at night, I met my hero. He was so kind. He kissed my hand. He spoke with his soft sweet voice. He tried to deflect the attention I was giving him to the other comedian that was with him. At this point, I knew what I needed to do. I needed to thank him for changing my life. I did just that. I shared that pivoting point in high school of Good Morning Vietnam. I walked away feeling on top of the world. My hero now knew that he was my hero.
Years later, I was alerted to two more surprise performances that I luckily attended. But nothing was as small and intimate like my night at The Marsh. He still made me cry with laughter on those nights. The last time I saw Robin was at his performance on Broadway in 2011 in the Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, set amid the American invasion of Iraq.
On occasions, I have taken my son to Robin’s house for Halloween in hopes to see him, but with no luck. For the past two years, my four-year-old daughter and I have been signing, “Prince Ali, Fabulous he, Ali Babwa.” I have to admit, it is difficult to sing it today. As she grows older, I will someday share more of my hero with her. But today, I cry, not tears of happiness, but tears of deep sadness knowing that someone I cherished so much, someone who made such a difference in my life, was so depressed and deeply unhappy. I wish I could have helped him the way he helped me.
I will always be grateful that I didn’t give up, that I walked across that street, and let my hero know that he was my hero.
Christina Noyes is an instructional designer and a digital media specialist. Since the 1990’s, Christina has shared her passion for visual and performing arts by leading workshops for children and families who live in the San Francisco’s Mission District. She blogs here.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
Nine More Political Dissidents Are Stripped of Their Nationalities in Bahrain · Global Voices
Noor Mattar

Bahrain going through the third year of an uprising calling for civil and political rights. Photograph by: Sayed Baqer. Copyright: Demotix
Bahrain has ordered that the nationalities of nine political dissidents be revoked, almost a year after 31 dissidents including two former lawmakers were stripped of their nationality.
A law that makes it easier to take away the nationality of anyone found guilty of “destabilizing the security of the country” was ratified by the king of Bahrain in 2013.  One of the previous 31 was deported from Bahrain; Lebanon has accepted to let him in. Four more have been accused of violating the terms of their stay and are facing the danger of deportation. Two ex-lawmakers are seeking asylum in the U.K. after their nationality was revoked while receiving medical treatment there.
Oil rich Bahrain has witnessed an ongoing humanitarian crisis since an uprising began in 2011 that called for civil and political rights in the country, which is ruled by the Al-Khalifa family. They control more than half the crucial positions in the country.
The judges ruling on cases like these are appointed by the king after they are chosen by the minister of justice, who is the cousin of the king. Some judges are also relatives of the king.
The Bahraini judicial system has received a lot of criticism for targeting the government's political opponents. “Bahrain’s criminal justice system fails to deliver basic accountability and impartial justice,” a Human Rights Watch report said.
A special commission found that Bahrain tortured and mistreated opponents of the regime, and the Bahraini government has postponed indefinitely a visit by Juan Mendez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture.
On Twitter, the sister of one of the dissidents whose nationality was stripped tweeted about the experience. Rawan Sanqoor wrote that her brother Ali Sanqoor was tortured before the sentencing. Sanqoor is accused of planning to attack the Dry Dock detention facility with 12 other and forming a “terrorist group”.
Rawan Sangoor tweeted:
ان الحكم الا لله صدر الحكم الظالم في حق شقيقي في قضية العملية المسلحة “محاولة اقتحام الحوض الجاف” 15 سنة و اسقاط الجنسية عنه .. #علي_صنقور
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 6, 2014
Only God can judge us. My brother was sentenced in the attempt to attack the Dry Dock detention centre. 15 years and his nationality revoked
حكم أخي باﻷمس في قضية “العملية المسلحة” وهي محاولة الهجوم على الحبس الاحتياطي، و قبل ان يحكموه و يسقطوا جنسيته تم تعذيبه ﻷجل الاعتراف! #BH
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 7, 2014
My brother was sentenced yesterday in the case of planning to attack the Dry Dock prison. Before he was sentenced and his nationality was stripped he was tortured to confess
تم نقل اخي الى جهة مجهولة و في داخلي كنت اعلم ان الجهة المجهولة ما هي الا وكر التعذيب و التسليخ “التحقيقات الجنائية” . #العملية_المسلحة
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 7, 2014
My brother was taken to an unknown location and deep down I knew that the unknown location has to be the torture dungeons, the central intelligence directorate
تم احتجاز شقيقي في وكر التعذيب لمدة 6 أيام وضع في غرفة انفرادية لا يصل لها النور، مقيد اليدين و الرجلين. #العملية_المسلحة
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 7, 2014
My brother was held in the torture dungeons for six days. He was put in solitary confinement in a room which the sunlight never reaches, with his hands and feet tied
تم تعذيبه و التنكيل به لمدة 6 أيام متتالية بأساليب لا اقوى على وصفها، عشنا اسبوع من الخوف على مصيره بين ايدي من لا فلب لهم. #العملية_المسلحة
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 7, 2014
He was tortured and humiliated for six straight days in ways I can't find the strength to describe. We lived a week of fear for his life while he was in the hands of heartless people
مرت 6 أيام مخيفة إلتقيته بعدها في الحوض الجاف كان لا يقوى الوقوف على قدميه .. لم افكر بشيء آخر سوا احتضانه لحد البكاء .. #العملية_المسلحة
— Rawani Sangoor (@Rawani46_) August 7, 2014
Six days of horror passed. I met him after that in the Dry Dock. He couldn't stand on his feet, I thought of nothing but to hug him till I cry
Lawyer Reem Khalaf, who represents some of the defendants, tweeted:
احكام جديدة لا تكتفي بالسجن..بدأت اليوم بسحب الجنسية عن7متهمين حكم على4منهم بالسجن15سنة واحدهم10سنوات و3منهم7 سنوات #bahrain
— Reem Khalaf (@lawyereemkhalaf) August 6, 2014
New sentences that are not limited to imprisonment have started today, with the nationalities of seven [updated later on to nine] defendants revoked, four of which were sentenced to 15 years in prison, one to 10 years, and three to seven years
Lawyer Fatima Alhawaj commented after reading the sentence:
عندما يقرر النظام سحب الجنسية من المواطن / قرار سياسي تحكمة الظروف السياسية وهي متغيرة / أما سحب الجنسية بحكم المحكمة فهو انحدار خطير للهوية
— فاطمة الحواج- محامية (@fatimaalhawaj) August 7, 2014
When the regime decides to revoke a nationality / a political decision driven by variable political circumstances / but revoking nationality by a court ruling is a dangerous downfall
Forming tribes was an important part of the human evolution — the need for food, shelter and safety made it necessary to group and start tribes. The tribe then became more structured, and the leader punished those who didn't conform to the ways of the tribe by expelling them. Being expelled from the tribe was like a death sentence, abandoned to face the dangers of the world by yourself without your family.
Some dissidents in Bahrain complain that the country is run in a tribal way. With this latest round of nationalities being revoked for not agreeing with the regime, it's not hard to see why the comparison is made.

author: Noor Mattar


text:
On the First Day of Gaza’s Ceasefire, a Visit to a Shelter Under a Supermoon · Global Voices
Dalia Alnajjar

Along with 3,000 other displaced Gazans, 32-year-old Ghadeer has been living in a makeshift shelter with her three children ever since Israeli forces bombed the house she was staying in. The bombing left her in a wheelchair. Photo by author.
As the bombs go silent in Gaza during another 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire, 20-year-old Dalia Alnajjar ventures out to meet some families living in a crowded make-shift shelter. At least 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,000 injured, and 450,000 displaced, since Israel launched a massive offensive against Gaza on July 8.
August 11, 2014: Three days of fighting and three days of firebreak. This is how it goes. We civilians don't have a say; we are just killed and our houses destroyed. We silently suffer.
It is as if, Israel and the fighting brigades in Gaza are playing some video game. They pause it whenever they want to talk; talk that brings us nothing but more despair.
Immediately after this ceasefire took effect, quietness enveloped the 25-mile narrow strip, quietness only punctured by buzzing drones.
Within a few hours, the streets started to come alive again. Children finally stopped clinging to their mothers and were allowed to go out to play.
You could see a cautious optimism in everyone's eyes.
Young people in Gaza want to do something to help, even though they too, are in desperate need of help and psychological support. Most seek out shelters to help children. Some go to repair their partly destroyed homes and others go to help in the devastated areas.
I decided to use the last few hours of the first day of the ceasefire to visit one of the many schools that has become a make-shift shelter. Currently more than 220,000 of Gaza's total 1.8 million population are registered in 89 UN-run shelters, most of which used to be schools.
I had agreed to go with a friend later in the week, but who knows if the ceasefire is going to hold or not. I didn't want to miss the chance of visiting the displaced and sharing in their suffering.
It was 7pm when I decided to go. My mother tried her best to prevent me by saying it's late and it's crazy. All her attempts failed.
As the sun left Gaza to light other places, it also left us to sink in the darkness of injustice and the darkness of the night. Power has been rare in Gaza, since Israeli warplanes attacked the only power plant here on July 28.
Maybe the sun went to shine bright on people somewhere else in the world, cheerful kids enjoying their summer vacation.
Children playing in the dark outside the shelter. Photo by author.
When I arrived, the school was really crowded, full of sad faces and agitated hearts.
The first thing that caught my eye was children playing on a make-shift seesaw, made by putting a wooden plank between the fence. I talked to them, they kept asking if I was from a relief organization; they were disappointed when I said I wasn't.
Then I moved up to room 8, where eighteen families were staying. There I spoke to Heba Abu Taiema, 34, a mother of two girls and four boys. They have been in the school for more than 30 days. Only her face and eyes can describe her painful suffering.
“We had just had lunch then suddenly the artillery bombs started to fall like rain on our house and neighborhood. We called the Red Cross and the ambulances to come and get us out but they couldn't reach due to the continuous shelling,” Heba said. “We couldn't bear it, the children were crying and really scared so we left walking cautiously from house to house till we made it to a safer place.”

She went on to explain that some injured men were left behind, and some women decided to go back to help them. They took a white flag and walked towards the men, they saw the men moving but then the Israeli soldiers started to shoot at the women, so they were forced to return.
Four days later the men were found dead, according to Heba. They bled to their last breath. One of the dead was Heba's brother-in-law. He had spent six years captive in the Israeli prisons. He was a father to five girls, the youngest is 11-months-old. His brother died of cancer in Egypt. He got to Egypt late because the Rafah border was closed. Heba said her mother-in-law lost her sight from crying. She has lost all her sons but one.
She described living at the school as a nightmare.
“There's a severe shortage of water. I go every day to the hospital to bring water. I carry the water for 500 meters under the burning sun. Whenever we want to shower we go to the hospitals. There's no electricity. My phone has been out of charge for ages, and I cannot contact my family in Jordan.” Heba continued, “they must be really worried because I'm their only daughter.”
A child sleeping on a make-shift pillow made of a bag of clothes in Heba's room. Photo by author.
They all sleep on the floor except for pregnant women, people above 65 years and disabled people, who sleep on mattresses.

I thanked her for telling me her story and moved on to room 5 which is home to 98 people.
Ghadeer's daughter Nisyona's insulin shots. Photo by author.
There I met a lovely woman in a wheelchair. Ghadeer Abu Latifa, 32, a mother of three, was injured after the two-story house her family was taking shelter in was bombed. Her husband is in Belgium getting treatment for an injury he received in an earlier offensive by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Her only daughter, Nisyona, is diabetic. She was diagnosed with the disease when she was five-years-old. That year Israeli bulldozers destroyed their home while they were in it. “Don't kill me, don't kill us,” Ghadeer recalled her daughter screaming that day.

She told me that the school staff are trying their best to help the 3,000 people in the school, but it's hard to please them all.
She thanked me and all the young volunteers for trying to help Gaza's displaced people.
“Seeing you here smiling at us, willing to hear our sad stories and giving support is what gives us hope. We know that Gaza will be fine as long as it has ambitious caring youth like you,” Ghadeer said with a smile on her sad face.
I left the school at 10pm. I had some trouble with transportation and then I walked alone under the distractingly gorgeous super moon, thinking of their suffering.
Finally, the saddest things are the hardest to say because words diminish them.
My words shrink their suffering to something tangible, but their sadness is actually limitless. Words can never describe the pain these people feel and live. My words can only give you a small insight into their suffering.
Dalia Alnajjar is studying business administration in Gaza. She blogs because she feels “being Palestinian means I have to tell the world what life is like in Gaza” and “no one can translate our feelings better than us.” Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank is why most of the world and the United Nations considers this territory occupied by Israel. This is Israel's third military operation in Gaza in 6 years. More in our in-depth coverage Another Ceasefire in War-battered Gaza.

author: Dalia Alnajjar


text:
Peru Plans to Catch Public Transport Gropers With Undercover Female Cops as ‘Bait’ · Global Voices
Alex Pashley

Passengers ride in a ‘combi’ in Lima, Peru. Photo by Flickr user gpoo. CC BY 2.0
Peru and Colombia's 930-mile long border running deep through the Amazon often sees the Andean neighbours collaborate. That could now extend to sexual molesters.
To stem a rise in harassment of women on its packed bus services, Peru’s government is mooting plans to put up an elite force of undercover female cops as ‘bait’ to catch offenders.
It follows a successful pilot program in Colombia, where a team of women wearing “tight trousers, miniskirts and low-cut tops” and operating with concealed radio devices has caught 129 men this year, according to a Colombian police deputy in Peru’s El Comercio newspaper on Aug. 6.
“Sexual harassment has always existed. Today the technology exists to record such cases,” Interior Minister Daniel Urresti told reporters. “It’s possible we could be doing it soon.”
The move comes after Peru’s dire harassment record was propelled to national front pages in June, after a famous Academy Award-nominated actress caught a man masturbating behind her on Lima’s metropolitan bus line. A senior female minister said at the time that women should carry scissors and needles to use in self-defense if “authorities are slow to react” to such incidents.
Only half of the 40 registered cases on Lima’s Metropolitan bus line this year resulted in victims pressing charges, women’s rights organisation Warma Wasi said. “It was like a superhero film,” was how one Colombian woman described the intervention of one of the so-called “angels of the Transmilenio”, the Colombian capital, Bogota’s public transport network, in the newspaper report.
“I felt someone touch my bum and began to insult the aggressor. Nobody defended me, in fact people began to move away […]. Suddenly a girl arrived and went for the guy that was touching me, she pulled him to the ground and held him there until we arrived at the next station were the police took him away. When we realised she was a policewoman, everyone clapped.”
The women are highly-trained in self-defense and carry electric shock devices, the police deputy said.
Peruvian legislators passed a law this week making sexual harassment in the street a crime. Though public attitudes may be lagging.
According to a survey by Peru's Insitute of Public Opinion, 77 percent of men and 74 percent of women believe that “women who dress provocatively expose themselves to a lack of respect in the streets.”
Some reactions can be found on Twitter also:
Autoridades montaron esta táctica para frenar manoseos a mujeres en el sistema de transporte http://t.co/r0GPT10gQM
— Cesar Villena Vera (@cd_1988) agosto 4, 2014
Authorities mount this tactic to stop women being groped on public transport
Así atrapan a mañosos en “Metropolitano” dColombia http://t.co/r33StZ34wK / mujeres guapas y entrenadas son anzuelos, ya cayeron 120 cerdos
— ana trelles (@anatrelles) agosto 4, 2014
Beautiful, well-trained women are bait. 120 pigs have already fallen.
In response to the new law against street harassment, some feared it could lead to complaints at any opportunity:
@RPPNoticias #acososexual ayer en la combi una chica rozo sus senos en mi hombro me miro y sonrió , la denuncio por acoso?
— PEATONES LIMA (@peatoneslima) agosto 7, 2014
Yesterday on the bus a girl grazed her chest on my shoulder, looked at me and smiled. Should I report her for harassment?
Ridiculez..puedes ir a la cárcel por mirar demasiado tiempo a una mujer, mejor te vuelves terruco y te liberan. #acososexual
— Horacio Benavides (@chome) agosto 7, 2014
Ridiculous…  you can go to jail for looking at a woman for too long, better to be a terrorist, then they'll free you.
This refers to the release without charge this week of six linked to the political wing of the Shining Path terrorist group. Peru President Ollanta Humala criticised the judges’ decision, which released the lawyer of former Shining Path leader, Abimael Guzman.
ESTA ES UNA BUENA NOTICIA!”@pcmperu aprueba que #acososexual callejero sea considerado delito http://t.co/mqodwDeq8A pic.twitter.com/eq1vyCtin8“
— Annely (@annelyruiz) agosto 6, 2014
This is good news. The Cabinet of Peru agrees to make sexual harassment on the street a crime.
UPDATE – Tuesday Aug 12. 8:30p.m. EDT
Peru's police force has confirmed it has now discarded the idea as it would expose its women police officers, according to local media reports. “No lady of any profession or occupation should be touched,” said head of the elite Terna Group police force, Jañovi Chuquiyanqui in a television interview.
Chuquiyanqui redoubled his commitment to stepping up police operations to catch gropers.

author: Alex Pashley


text:
One of Russia’s Richest Men May Be Its Most Tortured Patriot  · Global Voices
Sean Guillory

Gennady Timchenko, one of Russia's richest men and a close ally of Putin, got hit by American sanctions in March. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Since he landed on an American sanctions list in March, life has gotten tough for Gennady Timchenko, a Russian oligarch and one of Putin's closest allies. But Timchenko, now a Finnish citizen with business interests in Western Europe, says he still considers Russia his true home.
The world learned a lot about Gennady Timchenko, one the richest men in
Russia and close friend of President Vladimir Putin, in his recent tell-all interview (translated into English here) with ITAR-TASS. We learned about his Labrador (the spawn of Putin's own dog!), his Socialist Realist art collection, his computer illiteracy, his citizenship (Finland and Russia), and where he pays taxes (Switzerland and Russia). We were also given a detailed record of how the US sanctions are affecting Mr. Timchenko’s life. For example, he claims that he was unable to pay for his wife’s back surgery in Switzerland because his credit cards were blocked. He’s since ditched his Visa and Mastercard for Chinese plastic. He’s unwilling to leave Russia and be with his family in Europe because of “possible provocations by the U.S. secret services.”
But Timchenko is steadfast in his loyalty to the motherland. He asserts that the sanctions, which Western leaders hope will make Russian businessmen pressure Putin to stand down, won’t work. “[Pressure on Putin] can be ruled out. Vladimir Vladimirovich is only thinking about the interests of Russia. Full stop. There can be no compromise here. And it won't even cross our [businessmen's] minds to speak out about this subject [. . .] It is naive to think that with such methods anyone will scare us or force us to retreat.” To show his devotion to the Russian state, and by extension, Putin, Timchenko declares that he and his wife don't really need all those billions. “I can speak for myself clearly and definitively: if it is necessary, then tomorrow I will give it all to the state. Or to charity. So it can be useful.” Timchenko wants the world to know that despite his hardships, he remains a Russian patriot.
Unsurprisingly, Timchenko’s interview generated a lot of commentary on the RuNet. There wasn’t much sympathy, to say the least.
Ivan Kolpakov, a former reporter for Lenta.ru, spewed vitriol on Facebook about having read the interview, and even snuck in a Game of Thrones reference:
Утро напрочь испоганено ИТАР-ТАССом и Геннадием Тимченко — как будто говна поел, буквально. Вообще, мы живем в эпоху невероятного, поразительного по масштабам бесстыдства; где хочу пописаю, где хочу покакаю; какая-то бесконечная оргия в заповедном лесу [. . .] Самое неприятное в этой ситуации — ощущать себя Теоном Грейджоем, который попал в плен к жестокому психопату Рамси Сноу. Что этот изобретательный Рамси придумает сегодня или завтра — одному богу известно. В любом случае все мы уже Вонючки.
ITAR-TASS and Gennady Timchenko completely fucked up my morning. It was as if I ate shit, literally. In general we live in an age of incredible and astonishing scale of shamelessness. I piss where I want and crap where I want. Like some kind of perpetual orgy in a forbidden forest [. . .] The most annoying thing about this situation is that I feel like Theon Greyjoy, who was a prisoner of that brutal psychopath Ramsay Snow. What this resourceful Ramsay could come up with today or tomorrow—God only knows. In any case we are all Reek.
Ekaterina Vinokurova, who writes for Znak.com, also went on Facebook to comment on the interview and what it revealed about Putin's relationship with Russia's oligarchic class:
Из интервью Тимченко мы должны понять, мне кажется, важную вещь.
Одним из важных пунктов госпропаганды все нулевые было сравнение с 90-ми, в частности – с “семибанкирщиной”. Путину ставили в заслугу “равноудаление” олигархов от власти и политики.
Из этого интервью мы видим, что ничегошеньки на смао деле не поменялось.
При Ельцине были Березовский, Гусинский, “семья” и прочая.
У Путина – Тимченко, Ковальчуки, Ротенберги.
[. . .]
А олигархат остался олигархатом.
I think we need to understand one important thing from Timchenko's interview. One of the important points of state propaganda in the 2000s was constant comparison to the 1990s, in particular, with the “Cabal of the Seven Bankers.” Putin has been credited with keeping the oligarchs equidistant from both power and politics. From this interview we see that nothing has actually changed.
Under Yeltsin there was Berezovsky, Gusinsky, the “Family,” etc.
Putin now has Timchenko, Kovalchuk, and the Rotenbergs.
[. . .]
And the oligarchy remains an oligarchy.
Opposition politician Boris Nemtsov reasoned that the “patriot” Timchenko gave the interview to suck up to Putin in preparation for the next skimming of the state budget. Nemtsov observed on Facebook:
[. . .]
Патриот имеет финское гражданство, а налоги патриотично платит в Швейцарии.
Сейчас из за санкций бедолага не может отдохнуть на Лазурном берегу, а дети вынуждены приезжать в Россию.. Какой кошмар! На какие муки обрекли патриота Тимченко проклятые американские супостаты !
Зачем Тимченко дал это интервью? Зачем кокетливо заявил, что в любой момент готов вернуть миллиардный бизнес государству? Моя версия- готовится очередной распил бюджетных средств на ЧМ-2018, на Крым и инфраструктуру. Нужно глубоко и сладострастно лизнуть, чтобы конкуренты- Ротенберги, Ковальчуки, Чемезовы не опередили. Так что ничего личного.
Только распилы, только бизнес..
[. . .]
The patriot has Finnish citizenship and patriotically pays his taxes in Switzerland.
Now because of the sanctions the poor guy can’t chill out in Côte d'Azur, and his children must come to Russia. What a nightmare! The damned American enemies have condemned the patriot Timchenko to such torment!
Why did Timchenko give this interview? Why coyly say that he’d give up his billion dollar business to the state at the drop of a hat? My version: He’s preparing for the next siphoning off of the budget funds for the World Cup 2018 and the infrastructure in Crimea.  You need to deeply and lustfully lick so the competitors—the Rotenbergs, the Kovalchuks and the Chemezovs—don’t get ahead of you. So it’s nothing personal.
It’s only kickbacks, only business…
Opposition activist and politician Ilya Yashin poked fun at Timchenko the martyr. He tweeted:
Мученик-олигарх Тимченко: санкции разлучили его с любимым псом http://t.co/dhckEgLOCB А домом этот гражданин Финляндии всегда считал Россию
— Илья Яшин (@IlyaYashin) August 4, 2014
The martyr-oligarch Timchenko: The sanctions separated him from his favorite dog. And this citizen of Finland has always considered Russia his home.
Similarly, journalist Andrey Konyaev sneered at Timchenko's patriotic statements:
Гражданин Финляндии убеждает нас, что всей душой болеет за Россиюшку. Особенно теперь, когда санкции прижали http://t.co/CSINVOmpPr
— Андрей Коняев (@a_konyaev) August 4, 2014
The citizen of Finland convinces us that his soul aches for Russia. Especially now when the sanctions are pressing down on [him].
Life for Mr. Timchenko is apparently hard under Western sanctions. And the RuNet weeps for him.

author: Sean Guillory


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Russia’s Trojan-Transformer Convoy to Ukraine · Global Voices
Aric Toler

Trojan transformers. Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
Just hours after NATO warned of a “high probability” that Russia will invade Ukraine on the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid, Moscow announced a humanitarian mission to Eastern Ukraine. Russia's decision raised tensions in the region, but Ukrainian President Poroshenko soon announced that he spoke with President Obama regarding a humanitarian mission, revealing that the Red Cross will participate. Russia—along with the United States, Germany, and other nations—would be part of an international group delivering aid to Luhansk.
With a broad coalition of nations ready to help the suffering people of Luhansk, this is uncomplicatedly happy news, yes?
Unfortunately, nothing lately has worked out smoothly between Ukraine and Russia. This morning, Ukraine has said it will deny entry to Russia's convoy of 280 trucks, said to be carrying thousands of tons of humanitarian aid. The Ukrainian military is suspicious of Russia’s intentions, saying it will wait for the Red Cross to verify of the contents of all parcels.
This mystery over the endless line of white trucks headed for the Ukrainian border has led many on the RuNet to imagine what is in the trucks—or what the Ukrainian military suspects is in them. Many have pointed to a possible “Trojan horse attack”—an idea easily suggested by the similarity of the Russian words for convoy (konvoi) and horse (kon’).
Гуманитарная помощь – троянский конь pic.twitter.com/nzwr5krasE
— Олекса Лютий (@tendertorg21) August 12, 2014
Trojan Horse 2014: Humanitarian Mission from Russia to the Donbas.
Гуманитарный конвой из России pic.twitter.com/F94cfDSbfX
— Mikhail Golub (@golub) August 11, 2014
The humanitarian convoy from Russia.
Popular Internet user Russian Market, known both for his commentary on Russia and Ukraine and on financial markets, thinks the West is being paranoid:
This is how the West sees the Humanitarian aid from Russia pic.twitter.com/XAOeyuhAtV
— Russian Market (@russian_market) August 12, 2014
Finding inspiration in more recent popular culture, Andrei Maksimov jokes that Ukraine's military experts seem to believe Russian trucks possess the abilities of Transformers:
Тын-дын, военспецы Тымчуки уж разгадали коварный план Кремля pic.twitter.com/cOtVfsaJdM
— Андрей Максимов (@maximus2575) August 12, 2014
Ding! Ding! The Tymchuk military experts have unraveled the Kremlin’s cunning plan.
Others have looked to unverified posts in Russian social media for evidence of an actual Trojan horse strategy. LiveJournal user Andrei Malgin collected photos from a now-deleted profile page on VKontakte, which showed military vehicles painted white. The user posted the photos with the message, “Humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Luhansk,” alongside other photos that clearly show a military presence in the area. The photos are not quite a smoking gun, but it does suggest that Russian soldiers are slow learners when it comes to appreciating the importance of discreteness in social media.
While the likelihood of an actual Russian invasion through the humanitarian convoy is quite low, the timing of NATO’s warning and the heavy buildup of Russian forces on the border has been more than enough to captivate RuNet users and encourage a variety of jokes and fears, from ancient Greek history to Japanese action toys.

author: Aric Toler


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Local Chinese Government Bars Hijabs, Long Beards and Other ‘Abnormal Appearances’ From Public Transport · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

“Five abnormal appearances” are banned from public transport in Karamay city in Xinjiang during the 13th Xinjiang Sport Games. Image via Twitter user @uponsnow
The Karamay city government in China announced a ban on “abnormal” clothing and hairstyles associated with Muslims from public transport last week to combat potential terrorist activities during the 13th Xinjiang Sports Games between Aug. 8 to 20, 2014.
The announcement was released on Aug. 4 with a poster depicting the so-called “five abnormal appearances”. Twitter user @uponsnow highlighted the news with a copy of the poster:
蒙面纱、穿戴里切克、穿戴吉里巴甫服、穿星月服和蓄留大胡须的“五种人员”禁止乘坐公交。禁止任何人穿戴星月服。 pic.twitter.com/bjwAkYwPxn
— uponsnow (@uponsnow) August 5, 2014
Face veils, hijabs, burqas, outfits with crescent moon and stars and men with long beards — the above five types of people are forbidden on public transport. Outfit with crescent moon and stars are banned.
The relationship between the Uyghur people in China's western Xinjiang region and the Chinese government is tumultuous. Ethnic tensions have at times resulted in deadly clashes between Uyghur activists and authorities. The current clampdown came after bloody ethnic unrest broke out in Kashgar city on July 28. Thirty-seven civilians were killed, while police gunned down 59 suspected assailants, according to the government's official account.
Charles Liu from Nanfang.com noted that it is likely the “temporary measure” will become a long-term policy. As early as June 4 this year, authorities in Xinjiang began pressuring the public to stop wearing Muslim outfits because it is “not normal”. Last month, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Xinjiang government even banned its civil servants from the religious practice of fasting.
The news on the ban of the “five abnormal appearances” was highlighted in major news portals and social media. Public responses were rather extreme. On the one side, many have shown their support for the policy, with some even suggesting that the ban be extended all across the country. Below are some frequently seen pro-government comments (via Chongqing morning post's Weibo comment section):
- 不止克拉玛依，全国都该禁止
– 很多国家早就禁止公开场合穿着极端宗教主义服饰了
– 毫无疑问支持，要求铁腕落实
– 穆斯林必须世俗化，不然他们根本没出路！
– 就该这样，宗教回家回寺庙去，到公共场所就遵守世俗的规矩
- The ban should not be restricted to Karamay City, the whole country should ban [such outfits]
– Many countries have banned wearing such extreme religious outfits in the public.
– Support without any doubt, iron fist is needed.
– Muslim should become secular or they don't have any exit!
– This is the right way. Religious practice should be restricted to temples. The public space should be secular.
On the other side, many have questioned the effectiveness of the ban. Below are picks from the comment section of Weibo user Dapeng777's news highlight:
- 人为制造矛盾，换谁都不爽
– 我並不喜歡暴恐分子，也反感那些穿星月服的人，有時候在街上碰到穿著黑壓壓的衣服的新疆人，自己也會被嚇一跳。但是我覺得大鬍子並不能代表什麼，不能和恐怖分子聯繫起來，如果因為留了大鬍子就不然人坐公交車的話，一些傳統的新疆人自然會心生不滿。
– 非我族类，其心必异。多少年了，就没点长进。民族主义的歧视，只会让矛盾越积越深。
– 马克思觉得冤枉啊，他也是年轻时就蓄大胡子的
– 让人想起南非种族隔离
- [Such a policy] is man-made conflict, anyone would be pissed.
– I don't like terrorists and feel uneasy about those wearing moon and star outfits. Sometimes I am also frightened by those Xinjiang people wearing black dresses. But long beards don't mean anything and should not be connected with terrorists. If they are banned from public transport, the more traditional Xinjiangese will be frustrated.
– Loyalty defined by ethnicity. After all these years, same attitude prevails. Discrimination based on nationalism will only deepen conflicts.
– Karl Marx also had long beard since he was young…
– [The ban] reminds me of the racial segregation in South Africa.
Judging from the prosecution of moderate Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, who advocates for ethnic reconciliation, and this recent extreme policy targeting Muslim outfits, the vicious circle of violent protests and repression will carry on. As Henryk Szadziewski, a senior researcher for the Uyghur Human Rights Project told Foreign Policy, “Chinese officials seem to be holding a line that ‘you are either with us or against us’, and punishing accordingly”.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Ancient Epic ‘Mahabharat’ Comes to Life on Indian TV and Social Media · Global Voices
Alka

The “Mahabharat” TV serial is using the web to drive viewership. User engagement methods include wallpaper downloads, such as the one pictured from the Mahabharat website.
The Mahabharat is the world’s longest poem and one of two major Sanskrit epics in India. Possibly dating back to the eighth or ninth century BC, it tells the story of the Kuru clan of India and primarily focuses on the antagonism between the cousin brothers of the family, which eventually leads to a civil war.
The epic has been inspiring and entertaining Indians for several centuries now. Twenty-first-century Indians are no exception to this rule, and many have been glued to their TV or computer screens over the past year, watching the half-hour “Mahabharat” TV serial on the Hindi channel Star Plus, every weekday.
TRP rating estimations place the viewership at 9.3 million a week, putting it in second place in the crowded Hindi TV serial space. But as befits this day and age, the serial has taken on multiple “avatars” to promote and market itself. Social media is a major aspect of its strategy, aiming to pull in the younger demographic.
The series debuted in September 2013, and Star Plus began their social media campaign prior to the launch with targeted Facebook and Twitter ads. Moneycontrol.com reports that Star Plus “bought trends for two days and ensured #AajKaMahabharat stayed on top of Twitter’s chatter charts. According to a source at a rival channel, Star reportedly paid Rs. 300 million ($5 million) for this partnership with the site.” The channel also roped in well-known mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik for a Twitter Q&A with fans. Here’s a sample of one of his conversations:
@Ak4nksha @StarPlus the #Mahabharat war marks the end of Dvapar yug and the start of Kali yug
— Devdutt Pattanaik (@devduttmyth) September 16, 2013
Mobile apps were also launched, allowing fans to listen to chants and view the family tree of the main characters. The app was well received with a rating of 4.3, over 3,000 reviews, and between 50,000 to 100,000 installs.
The Mahabharat website featuring the app.
The social and online promotion has continued throughout the program’s run. Each episode is promoted with a teaser on the Star Plus YouTube channel, and once the episode airs, it is made available online. The channel also ran promos for key points in the story such as the introduction of significant characters. Here’s the promo for the warrior Karna, one the more complex characters in the story.
Star’s unique take on the characters was noted by many. In regard to Shakuni, who is traditionally seen as an antagonist, the Annapurna International School of Film and Media, a non-profit media school, writes:
The ads overturned the conventional perspectives about characters and thus shook up the viewers.
For example, Shakuni has always been known as the evil uncle. The channel portrays him as a brother who is trying to avenge the injustice meted out to his sister.
The show’s fans have also jumped in on the hype. Official and unofficial fan club Twitter handles keep followers updated about the latest buzz surrounding each actor. Here’s a tweet from the fan club of Saurabh Raaj Jain, who plays Krishna on the show:
Pic ~ Different look and avtar of @saurabhraajjain in #Mahabharat pic.twitter.com/CdSNq8qH4O
— SaurabhRaajJain OFC (@SRJ_maniaFC) June 17, 2014
There are a few voices taking a dig at the serial though. A Facebook page titled Mahabharat Ki Galatiyan, which translates to “the Mahabharat’s mistakes”, lists out where the show deviates from the traditional Mahabharat story. The page has nearly 11,000 likes.
With the plot entering the climactic stage of the Kurukshetra war, the massive conflict that brings the story more or less to a close, there have been rumors of the serial coming to an end soon. But the show’s producer hinted at some sort of a sequel:
“We have a lot in store. I can’t reveal what it is at this moment. Expectations really put a lot of pressure on everybody and that isn’t a way to live life.”
It makes good commercial sense for the show to carry on in some format because of mythology’s enduring success on Indian TV. For example, “Devon ke Dev… Mahadev”, a TV show revolving around the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, is still going strong three years after its launch. So it’s quite possible that social media will remain abuzz with Mahabharat chatter for a while to come.

author: Alka


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Brazilian Presidential Candidate Eduardo Campos Killed in a Plane Crash · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

“We are crying and in mourning for the death of our leader who could have changed Brazil.” Banner from the Facebook of the PSB branch in Franca, São Paulo.
Eduardo Campos, 49, died today at 10:15 a.m. in a plane crash in the city of Santos, São Paulo. The former governor of the state of Pernambuco was a presidential candidate in elections set to be held in October.
The private jet crashed as it was preparing to land in bad weather, killing Campos and the six other crew and passengers.
Campos placed third in the polls, running for the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). Campos died on the same day, Aug. 13, as his grandfather Miguel Arraes, one of the most prominent socialist political figures of Brazilian politics in the 20th century.
He leaves a widow, four sons and a daughter.
His death was a shock for many in the country, which has been rocked by anti-government protests throughout the last year. People reacted and offered their condolences on Twitter:
Brasil chocado de norte a sul com a morte de Eduardo Campos
— Alcinéa Cavalcante (@alcinea) agosto 13, 2014
From north to south, Brazil is shocked by Eduardo Campos’ death
Nao posso acreditar o que aconteceu com Eduardo Campos, Brasil ta chocado, meu Deus!!! Muita foda acontece.
— Leonardo Gabriel (@Lebito) agosto 13, 2014
I can't believe what has happened to Eduardo Campos, Brazil is shocked, my God! What the hell, this happened
Estou chocado com a noticia da morte de Eduardo Campos. Grandíssima perda. Sem palavras.
— Diego D'Ermoggine (@diegoder) agosto 13, 2014
I am shocked by Eduardo Campos’ death. Immense loss. I have no words.
Eduardo Campos foi um grande lutador das causas democráticas. Estou chocado. Hoje é um dia muito triste.
— Sergio Amadeu (@samadeu) agosto 13, 2014
Eduardo Campos was a great fighter of democratic causes. I am shocked. This is a very sad day.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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China’s Soldiers Have Instant Noodles Cooked With Muddy Water. Political Performance? Or Not? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Offbeat China reported on state-run media, Global Times’ report and self-denial response on a photo feature showing soldiers eating instant noodles cooked in muddy water in Yunnan earthquake zone.


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100 Young People Are Vying for the Title of World’s Best German Language Student · Global Voices
Anne Hemeda

Logo of the International German Olympiad, used with permission.
Young German Olympiad competitors from all over the world arrived at Frankfurt airport on 3 August 2014. They had made their way from Afghanistan, New Zealand, Cameroon, China, Romania, Iran and many other countries in order to put their German knowledge to the test over the following two weeks in the Goethe-Institut's German Olympiad.
It's the world's largest German-language competition which takes place this year from 3-16 August in Frankfurt am Main under the slogan “German opens new doors”. The approximately 100 students from 49 countries on all five continents are aged between 14 and 19. They are the winners of national preliminary rounds held by the local Goethe-Instituts and are now representing their countries in the competition in Germany. They're accompanied by their German teachers.
The competition's tasks are to create and illustrate a wall newspaper and to give a presentation. As well as their knowledge of the language, an international jury also judges the participants’ intercultural competence and ability to work in a team.
The programme also includes walks around the city, trips to museums, days out and sports activities, as well as a Jahrmarkt der Kulturen, or Culture Fair. By taking part in games nights and attending parties and concerts – including one by the band Revolverheld – they're not only deepening their knowledge of the German language, but also making new friends.
The Goethe-Institut posted on YouTube the following video of the preliminary rounds in Romania:

author: Anne Hemeda


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Spanish Radio Report Captures History of ‘the Freaks’, Havana’s Biggest Metal and Punk Fans · Global Voices
Luis Trelles

In most Latin American cities, listening to “metal” was not uncommon, but it was a different story during the 80's and 90's when this musical genre really took off. Last February, I had the opportunity to visit Cuba to produce an audio story about this music scene, and what I discovered was a powerful and vital movement, along with a long history of agreements and dsagreements with the revolution.
The outcome of that particular visit is the piece “Cuando La Habana era friki” or “When Havana was Freaky.” It is a radio chronicle in collaboration with Radio Ambulante, a radio project which highlights stories throughout Latin America and Latin American immigrants in the United States. Made up of an international production team, Radio Ambulante relies on the leadership of Peruvian novelist Daniel Alarcón and Carolina Guerrero.
What emerged from this process was the history of the “freaks,” Havana's biggest metal and punk fans. During this process, we discovered that the soundtrack to the city goes far beyond the son, trova and the rumba rhythms.  This is the music of an entire generation who pushed aside the values of socialism in order to play the music that they desired, and to dress as they pleased, regardless of the consequences.
Listen to the story in Spanish here: “When Havana was freaky”
Daniel Alarcón, Camila Segura and I managed the production and sound design, Camila Segura and Daniel Alarcón took care of editing.

author: Luis Trelles


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Human Kidney Trafficking in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A recent court case in Jianxi province revealed the insider story of human kidney trafficking business in China. Charles Liu from theNanfang.com curated the local investigative report on the operation of the underground business.
… a 21 year-old man looking to prove to his family that he was financially independent. After learning from a QQ contact that he could earn RMB 25,000 for selling a kidney he decided to go to Nanchang.


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Human Rights Experts: Pakistan Could Become a “Police State” Under Protection Ordinance · Global Voices
Bolo Bhi

I. A. Rehman speaks at a event honoring his work. Photograph from I. A. Rehman Facebook page.
Written by Yelmaz Mujtaba, Legal Research Associate, Bolo Bhi. The original version of this post was published on Bolo Bhi's blog. It appears here as part of Global Voices Advocacy's partnership with Bolo Bhi.
Policymakers in Pakistan have proposed a new law that seeks to to strengthen security forces including the Army, Frontier Corps, Police and Rangers in the battle against terrorist groups in Pakistan. But critics see the new “Protection of Pakistan Ordinance” as an attempt to turn the country into a police state, where the abilities of law enforcement will disproportionately increase, with little or no checks on their powers.
Passed by Parliament as an Act on July 3, 2014, PPO was first introduced by the President of Pakistan under the recommendation of the ruling party on October 20, 2013. The law’s proponents argue that it represents a necessary step in curbing security threats in the country, where acts of violence driven by political, sectarian and religious interests have increased steadily over the last decade. Supporters of the Bill also say that it stands in line with anti-terrorism laws such as the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in the U.S. only weeks after 9/11 in order to strengthen local law-enforcement agencies in combating home-grown and international terrorist threats to the US. They also cite the UK’s the Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act of 2001.
But both the government and supporters of the Bill have ignored the implications that it could carry for fundamental rights online. If implemented in its current form, the consequences of the law on citizens’ rights will be far reaching. A competing draft of the original Ordinance, which has since been amended by the Senate and passed Act of Parliament (henceforth known as the “Pakistan Protection Act”), attempts to address some of the concerns raised by critics, but questions still remain.
Bolo Bhi asked legal experts and human rights activists for their views on the legislation. Human Rights Commission Chairperson Mr. I. A. Rehman, a long-standing advocate for human rights in Pakistan, spoke to us about the law’s journey from Act to Ordinance and its implications for free expression online.
Bolo Bhi: How different is the Pakistan Protection Act (PPA) from the Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) when it was first tabled? Does the PPA address the concerns raised regarding the PPO?
I.A. Rehman: The text as given in the original ordinance hasn’t been radically revised. A few of the concerns have been met. For instance, the period of detention on remand has been reduced from 90 to 60 days, though preventive detention for 90 days and more is allowed. Appeal from the special court’s decision now lies with the High Court instead of the Supreme Court. No police officer below BS 15 can order firing; the rules have to be placed before parliament and some sort of inquiry into death by firing has been proposed. But the final version does not meet our concerns regarding the possibility of abuse by targeting political dissidents, the retrospective application of the law to legitimise illegal detentions (especially in Balochistan), and legitimisation of safe house. The definition of ‘Enemy Alien’ was better in the Ordinance. A new section allows the government to add new offences to the schedule which violates the parliament’s authority.
BB: The PPO was critiqued for its vague definitions. Are terms such as insurgents, cyber crimes etc., clearer in the amended version?
IAR: Insurgent and cyber crimes are not defined at all. The other definitions are vague and liable to subjective interpretation.
BB: Is the current iteration of the PPA in line with constitutionally protected rights & guarantees afforded to citizens of Pakistan?
IAR: By making detention beyond 90 days subject to judicial review under Article 10 of the constitution, an attempt has been made to stay within constitutional limits. However, the PPA impinges on the people’s basic rights and hence it is in violation of the basic law. An equally important issue is the open possibility of the abuse of the law in view of the situation not only in the conflict zone but also in Balochistan and Sindh. The proposals regarding enemy aliens seem to be in conflict with the international laws of war.
BB: Does the PPA follow constitutionally proscribed due process standards vis-a-vis detention, warrant-less searches, burden of proof and evidence? Are they adequate?
IAR: There are deviations from due process regarding searches, use of fire power, presumption of guilt – that the state has been justifying through special laws (Anti-Terrorism Act, for instance).
BB: Is there scope for misuse of this law, especially with regards to the powers conferred upon law-enforcement agencies?
IAR: Great scope for misuse of law is there.
BB: What in your opinion still needs to change in this piece of legislation and what should be the way forward?
IAR: This legislation is not needed. Many of its objectives can be secured through the Anti-Terrorism Act. The authorities should give up efforts to legitimise disappearances and make a law to deal only with armed insurgents and a different law for alien combatants. [end quote]
The Protection of Pakistan Ordinance was seen and criticized as a deeply flawed attempt at solving a serious problem in Pakistan. The opposition in Parliament promised change, and for once, the people of Pakistan trusted in those promises when the PPO was first blocked in the Senate back in April 2014.  But those promises of change now seem to ring hollow.
We now have in place the Protection of Pakistan Act, passed by both the Senate and the National Assembly. Its much heralded amendments, as highlighted above, do little – if nothing – to rectify the flaws that existed in the original document. Arguably, they seem to enhance the scope for violations that were present within the PPO. If Pakistan is to take the war against terrorism and crime seriously, it must ensure the State does not become the same criminal it is locked in a fight against. We should not have laws that compromise the fundamental rights of citizens. As far as the Protection of Pakistan Act is concerned, a serious rethink is required in order to reassess the state’s strategy in combating crime and terrorism.
*Under Pakistani law, the head of the executive (the President) can, by executive order pass into law any legislation for a duration of six months. Such executive laws are called ordinance’s and only attain status of Act of Parliament once the Parliament passes them at the end of their six month period.

author: Bolo Bhi