text:
Yet Another Environmental Activist Is Murdered in Honduras. When Will It End? · Global Voices
Lully

La Paz, Honduras. Wikimedia Commons Public Domain Photo.
“Lesbia Yaneth lives, the fight continues! Berta lives, the fight continues!”
With those words, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras, or COPINH) concluded their statement on their blog about the murder of community leader Lesbia Yaneth Urquía in Honduras on July 7. Her body was found in a garbage dump; she reportedly had suffered injuries to the head.
Her death was nationally and internationally condemned as yet another blow to the environmentalist fight in the region. The news came at a time when the country is still trying to recover from the loss of Berta Cáceres, the co-founder of COPINH who was murdered four months ago.
Authorities are investigating, and there was little mention at first of possible political motives behind Urquía's murder. Soon after her death, however, it was revealed that an employee of one of the businesses behind a hydroelectric project, which Urquía had opposed, was suspected of involvement.
The controversies are numerous and the indignation is widespread. However, beyond the debates, Urquía's killing has once again shed light on the grave danger that environmental and human rights activists face in Honduras.
The conflicts between indigenous organizations, the government and multinational companies are rooted in the use of land and rivers. Local populations complain these resources are often exploited without their consent. The Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz (Movimiento Indígena Lenca de la Paz, or MILPAH) is one of many groups that have reported that multinational organizations have illegally obtained environmental licenses without a prior, free consultation. That measure is stipulated in the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (known as ILO-convention 169), a binding international agreement signed by the government of Honduras.
The communities affected monitor development projects to make sure they don’t negatively impact their way of life and demand that they be involved in the decision-making so that residents derive some benefit. They've organized protests and blockades that hinder construction such as the hydroelectric project in La Paz to make their voices heard.
After Urquía's murder, COPINH accused the Honduran government of having her blood on its hands and the military and police forces of being complicit. Likewise, COPINH said all governmental institutions are guilty of keeping activists under permanent threat in the interest of pushing through projects that affect the well-being of local communities.
The Honduran government is facing enormous pressure to do something about the impunity that has created a breeding ground for the country's high number of murders. As the video shared by news channel Hondured 13 demonstrates, the attendance at Urquía’s funeral was high:
Environmental organizations like CENSAT Agua Viva (Living Water) called upon the government to stop the persecution of environmental activists like Cáceres and Urquía:
Hacemos eco de las exigencias del COPINH en búsqueda de justicia para que los feminicidios de Lesbia y de Berta Cáceres no queden en la impunidad.  Hacemos un llamado urgente al Estado hondureño para que adelante las investigaciones pertinentes para castigar a los responsables de estos hechos y a su vez, permita la reacción de una Comisión Independiente de Expertos liderada por la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos que investigue el asesinato de Berta Cáceres.
Exigimos al Estado hondureño que cese la persecución y la violación de derechos humanos de las defensoras y defensores de la naturaleza, que expulse e investigue con celeridad a los miembros de fuerzas policiales y militares involucrados en crímenes en su contra, e implemente todas las medidas necesarias para que sus instituciones cumplan con las obligación de protegerles e impulsar su legítima labor de defensa.
We repeat the demands of COPINH in search of justice so that the feminicides of Lesbia and Berta Cáceres don’t remain in impunity. We make an urgent call to the Honduran state asking that the pertinent investigations move forward in order to punish those responsible for these acts and in turn, that they allow an Independent Panel of Experts led by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights to investigate the murder of Berta Cáceres.
We demand that the state of Honduras put an end to the persecution and violation of environmental activists’ human rights, expel and investigate with urgency the police and military force members involved in crimes against them, and implement all necessary measures to ensure the institutions comply with the obligation to protect them and to encourage their legal work of defense.
On Twitter, the Meso-American Initiative of Female Human Rights Activists (Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos) visually recounted the aggressions against environmental activists that have occurred in the region:
#AlertaDefensoras ¡Basta de agresiones contra defensoras de #DDHH en Mesoamérica! #DefendamosALasDefensoras pic.twitter.com/V99WOYqYCR
— IM-Defensoras (@IM_Defensoras) July 7, 2016
Tweet: #ActivistAlert Enough aggressions against #DDHH activists in Central America! #WeDefendTheActivists
Image on the left: July 7, 2016. MURDERED. Lesbia Jameth Urquía. Lesbia Jameth Urquía was a defender of natural resources, opposed the construction of dams in the rivers of the La Paz department. In 2009, since the coup d'etat, she joined the COPINH, an organization led by Berta Cáceres, who was murdered on March 3. Lesbia Janeth was very active in her opposition to the granting of licenses for the construction of several dams to a company owned by the husband of Gladys Aurora López, the president of the National Party and vice president of the National Congress.
In the same way, the Latin American Network of Female Social and Environmental Activists (Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Sociales y Ambientales) vehemently declared:
Exigimos al gobierno Hondureño que cesen los asesinatos a defensores de la naturaleza. Basta de matarnos por defender nuestros derechos.
Pedimos a la comunidad internacional que garanticen los derechos de los y las Defensoras en nuestro legítimo ejercicio; y en el caso particular de Honduras que los asesinatos ocurridos como el de Berta Cáceres y el de Lesbia Yaneth Urquia se investiguen y castiguen con severidad para terminar con la impunidad.
We demand that the Honduras government put an end to the murders of environmental activists. Stop killing us for defending our rights.
We ask that the international community stand behind the rights of the activists in our lawful exercise and in the particular case of Honduras, that the recent murders of Berta Cáceres and Lesbia Yaneth Urquáa be investigated and severely punished in order to end the impunity.
Throughout Latin America, environmental activists are targeted for persecution and violence in countries like Honduras where multinational corporations have allied with local political or economic powers, seeking to exploit natural resources.
According to Global Witness, Honduras is “the deadliest country in the world to defend the natural world,” and according to their report “On Dangerous Ground,” the numbers are soaring worldwide:
Land and environmental defenders are now being killed at a shocking rate of more than 3 a week. The majority of cases recorded were in Latin American and South-East Asian countries […]
In most cases, the murders remain unsolved. According to the organizations’ article How Many More:
Each week at least two people are being killed for taking a stand against environmental destruction. Some are shot by police during protests, others gunned down by hired assassins. As companies go in search of new land to exploit, increasingly people are paying the ultimate price for standing in their way.
We found that at least 116 environmental activists were murdered in 2014 – that's almost double the number of journalists killed in the same period. A shocking 40% of victims were indigenous, with most people dying amid disputes over hydropower, mining and agri-business. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths we found information on were in Central and South America.
Globally, it’s likely that the true death toll is higher. Many of the murders we know about occurred in remote villages or deep within the jungle, where communities lack access to communications and the media. It’s likely many more killings are escaping public records.
The organization's report “Terreno peligroso” (Dangerous Land) reported that there were 185 deaths of activists recorded in 2015 throughout the world — 60% more in comparison to 2014. Of these murders, 66% (122) occurred in Latin America.
Meanwhile, other organizations like the United Nations and the European Union and individuals on social media continue speaking out. Hondurans are left to wonder: When will these tragedies end?

author: Lully


text:
You Know You’re a Child of the 1970s and 80s in Japan When… · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A bookstore display devoted to Showa period-themed books. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
Twitter users in Japan are using a popular hashtag to share iconic pop culture images of the 1970s and 80s.
The hashtag #昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ (Showa umareppoi hatsugen wo shiro) roughly translates as “tweets that show you're a child of the Showa period,” and people have been uploading their photos for months.
The Showa period in Japan marked the reign of the Showa Emperor (known as Emperor Hirohito in the West) from 1926 until his death in 1989, and was followed by the Heisei period, which continues to this day.
Cartoonist Mizuki Shigeru produced a multi-volume history of the Showa period. While the Showa era included the long Pacific War and Japan's defeat, many Japanese people today recall the boom years of the 70s and the 80s. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
While the Showa period includes Japan's destructive pursuit of war in the 1930s and the country's defeat in 1945, the time period also saw a postwar baby boom. These “Boomers” rebuilt Japan following the war and had “Gen X” children of their own, who grew up in the affluent consumer society of the 1970s and 1980s.
Probably because few people who experienced the destructive opening act of the Showa period are still around today and are active on Twitter, it's the people who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s who are posting using the hashtag #昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ.
One of the most iconic images of the Showa era occurred at its close, following the death of Emperor Hirohito, when Chief Cabinet Secretary (and later Japanese Prime Minister) Obuchi Keizo held up calligraphy announcing Heisei (平成) as the name of the new era.
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
この瞬間を鮮明に覚えていらっしゃる方は皆そうです。 pic.twitter.com/cbwgLGZkbv
— まここ (@0719Makoko) July 14, 2016
I'm sure everyone remembers this exact moment in history.
People born in the Showa era will recall the days when there were no electronic gadgets embedded into just about everything around us:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
彡(^)(^)「車の窓開けるやでー」ｸﾞﾙｸﾞﾙｰ pic.twitter.com/Ig8F6tyG16
— ｱﾀﾗｯｸｽP@滋賀町会議 (@ataraksP) July 13, 2016
You had to open the car window like this.
The postwar period also had its own distinct look and feel known as “Showa style.” This rotary telephone, electric iron and faux wood-paneled air conditioner are good examples of this aesthetic:
現 役 で 使 用 中 #昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ pic.twitter.com/zuJmWfqqsI
— 狭山 (@mizorepe) July 13, 2016
I'm still using all of these.
Some of the nicknames of popular products also reinforce how gender roles were viewed in the Showa period:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
洗濯機　愛妻号 pic.twitter.com/HNoxKM6Vaj
— 鉄狼＠3日目西1ゆ45b (@y_tetsurou) July 13, 2016
The “Wonderful Wife” washing machine.
Cassette tapes, almost unknown today, were an important part of pop culture in the 80s:
@WwUw71 #昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ 　カセットウォークマン　　カセットWデッキ　自分このWU4　もってましたわ＾＾ pic.twitter.com/agkSuoh3Y5
— なにわたこ＠紫族神推同盟 (@kiyotakocyu) July 13, 2016
Sony cassette Walkman, Sanyo cassette tape deck.
Some people still own large collections of cassette tapes to this very day.
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
このテープは永久保存版だから、ツメ折っとこう( ˘⊖˘) 。o pic.twitter.com/xvhZY9hgBY
— Osushi@( GC ･ω･ 8)ﾉ (@osushi5150) July 13, 2016
These cassette tapes are supposed to last forever, so I rotate them from time to time ( ˘⊖˘) 。o
For many Japanese people, the postwar Showa era evokes rich memories of pop culture, such as the often-campy tokusatsu special effects. Here, a Twitter user recalls the goofy transformation of Pink Armadillo from the tokusatsu series “Kikaidar” from the early 1970s:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
変身！pic.twitter.com/ePtPk8hITG
— honnenogod (@honnenogod) June 23, 2016
Transform!
Other Twitter users fondly recall the distinctive design of Japanese cars from the postwar Showa era:
若い頃はたくさん走ってたけどなぁ….#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ (違) pic.twitter.com/rEIX7qmQiY
— すっす/車/ (@X605TWRspaRE) July 14, 2016
Back when I was young I used to go for drives all the time.
Japan's Showa period also saw the debut of video games, some of which could be pretty weird:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
イルカがせめてきたぞっ pic.twitter.com/L7PgDAFOMG
— 芯 (@kami_uta_1971) July 14, 2016
Dolphins attack!
Any Japanese person born in the 70s and 80s will remember the first Nintendo home entertainment console:
ファミコンの四角ボタンコントローラー#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ pic.twitter.com/yoEVAZWSoy
— もびのふ@ちゅらノフ (@mobinofu) July 13, 2016
Here's the original Nintendo controllers with the “plus” button.
Even before the advent of video games, there was more rudimentary electronic entertainment, including this Turbo Driving game:
ドライビングターボ #昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ pic.twitter.com/Hugzbu2TXi
— 164 (@164203) July 14, 2016
Turbo Driving
Other Twitter users recalled pop culture artifacts that wouldn't have been out of place in classrooms in other parts of the world in the 1980s.
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
(本当は色鉛筆の方を用意したかったけどなかった) pic.twitter.com/kL0PbynVLK
— 囚人姉@睡眠強化期間 (@Syuujinnee) July 13, 2016
I was really looking for the multi-color pencil but couldn't find it.
The 70s and 80s also bring back memories of a time when Japan had slightly different morals:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ
観ると親に怒られる pic.twitter.com/QxlHIP1QRz
— クレイドール107号 (@1990Tanbarin) April 29, 2016
My parents would get really mad if they caught me watching this show.
Some people recalled when amphetamine use in postwar Japan was considered a social problem:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ pic.twitter.com/v3DOq5SPvO
— 孝次郎 二世 (@Ko_chan5046) June 23, 2016
Message: Will you quit using speed… or will you quit being human?
However, it seems that every period in pop culture in Japan is fascinated with cats:
#昭和生まれっぽい発言をしろ pic.twitter.com/OGCVkC1cZo
— Buck-Tick Zone (@bucktickzone) April 29, 2016
#TweetsThatShowYou'reAChildOfTheShowaPeriod

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
A Young Liberian Refugee, Educated in America, Chooses to Move Back ‘Home’ · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Jefferson Krua fled Liberia as a refugee at age 5, and eventually settled in Boston, MA. Recently, he's moved back to Liberia to help with re-building the country's infrastructure. Credit: Heidi Shin
This article by Heidi Shin originally appeared on PRI.org on July 12, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Mercy Krua and her son Jefferson are having a disagreement. It’s about whether he should move back home.
We’re sitting on her living room couch in Boston, where she’s eager to show off his childhood photos. This one’s from graduation, another one’s from the refugee camps in Ghana. She’s reminded of what life was like before they fled Liberia, in the midst of its bloody civil wars.
Jefferson was just a small child then, and when he was hungry or tired, she couldn’t offer something as simple as a snack. Tears would follow, and she would panic, for fear of being discovered: “So you need to make sure the kids don’t cry, to bring like, to raise awareness that people or civilians are in the area. Cause they didn’t really care, they were killing everybody. So it was difficult, terrible.”
But Jefferson remembers it differently. He was just 5 years old when they left, and it all felt like an adventure. Hiding in the back of a UN food truck to gain safe passage out of Liberia, escaping through the jungles of Côte d’Ivoire, before landing in the refugee camps of Ghana, where they spent seven years.
Jefferson says when they eventually arrived in the US, that’s when he remembers that life got hard. It was the 1990s, and he was about to start middle school.
He takes me back to the housing projects in Boston where he spent most of his teen years. He reminds me to lock the car door, and points to the street corner where he was jumped and his cousin was mugged, all while the school crossing guard looked on. We hear the sounds of squeaking swings, and kids shouting in Cape Verdean and Creole, so they can be heard over the blaring of the police sirens and ambulances driving by.
When Jefferson was a kid here, he tells me, he was allowed to go from home to school to church, and that was it. He kept his head in the books, and made it to college — to Cornell University, where he met other Africans, who weren’t refugees, but wealthy international students. Here it was cool to be African. The university housed a rare collection of journals, where he learned about Liberia from scholars.
He admits the irony of having come to America, to a remote place like Ithaca, New York, to learn about his family’s roots. He learned to speak the language again, studied civil engineering, and set his sights on going back to Liberia. He’d heard of other young Africans– who went to school abroad—and were returning to the Continent.
So Jefferson moved back to Liberia last summer, just after the Ebola crisis had ended. He remembers what it was like, when first arriving. “Man, I wanted to kiss the ground.  I was so excited,” he says. “It’s like everybody talks like how you talk in your home, and it’s just a nice feeling to not be the other.”
Jefferson launched a digital news outlet in Liberia called the Bush Chicken. Here is a photo he took while on assignment, covering a student protest against proposed tuition hikes at the University of Liberia. Credit: Photo courtesy of Jefferson Krua
He launched a digital news outlet called the Bush Chicken, which trains journalists to report with accuracy. He’s also working on a start-up to bring a bike share program to Monrovia, where it can take hours for kids to get to school.
But his mother worries for Jefferson’s safety, and says all she can do is pray. They no longer have family to look out for Jefferson in Liberia, and the fruit trees, where they ate mangos and avocados from daily — all of these were gone as well. The land isn’t theirs anymore, and so for her, home has vanished, too.
For his mother Mercy, America is the place that’s provided opportunities. In the refugee camps, there were no jobs to be had. But here she worked long hours as a nanny, caring for someone else’s kids, so she would have enough to care for her own. She saved enough to finish nursing school, and now works as a registered nurse.
“Honestly, I’m from Liberia,” she says. “But wherever I am right now I consider it to be home. Wherever you are, where you see that you can make a day-to-day living, I consider it home for me.”
Mercy Krua, and her son Jefferson Krua, on her living room couch in Boston, MA. Credit: Heidi Shin
She doesn’t want to talk about Liberia anymore — the memories make her sad, she says. Instead, she proudly shows me a picture of US President Barack Obama and the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. hanging on her living room wall of the home she now owns.
But Jefferson tells me this story about a run-in he had with the police, just in front of his mother’s house in Boston, when visiting not too long ago.
“They’re questioning me, but one of them is so aggressive,” Jefferson says. The policeman shouts at him, as Jefferson searches for his license: “Why are you taking so long?  Don’t you know it’s cold out here?”
Jefferson admits, “And as a black male in America, I am just scared.”
He continues, “So with something like that, it’s really hard to call America home. No matter how much money I can make in this country, whatever, I’m always going to be a black man in America.”
But in Liberia Jefferson is the 1 percent. He shows me photos of the resorts he frequents, the press badge he flashes that gives him access. He can even put on an American accent whenever he needs it — something that affords you respect in Liberia. He dreams of becoming Minister of Transportation, and he’s chosen not to become a US citizen, so he can be poised to enter politics there.
“All my dreams, everything, all my goals in life they’re focused on Liberia,” says Jefferson.  He continues, “I have these nightmares where, I wake up and I’d just be sweating, and it’s basically Liberia got into another war again.  And that’s a fear for me, because I don’t know what I would do.”
But for now, he’s embraced the opportunities his new home has given him, and he’s committed to helping rebuild the country, so that he says, “things like war aren’t so likely to happen again.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Following Reported Overthrow Attempt Turkish Netizens Ask, ‘Coup or Theatre?’ · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Cartoon widely shared on Facebook.
In the aftermath of what the government and much of Turkey views as a failed coup attempt on the night of July 15 through July 16, one section of the Turkish internet still isn't buying it.
A trending hashtag emerged soon after updates on the alleged military takeover started rolling in on social media — #DarbeDegilTiyatro (Not a coup, theater).
Users posting under the hashtag typically believe that events that saw over 160 people die, the parliament pounded by bombs and military jets fly frighteningly low over densely populated Ankara and Istanbul, were staged by incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in order to expand his already formidable influence over domestic politics.
Trending on @Twitter in Turkey right now are: “I want the death penalty” (#idamistiyorum) & “Not a coup. Theatre.” (#DarbeDegilTiyatro)
— Ayla Jean Yackley (@aylajean) July 16, 2016
Oscar goes tooooooo RTE!!!! #DarbeDegilTiyatro
— Aslıhan AY (@aslihanmarmara) July 16, 2016
And the Oscar goes to… President Erdogan! #DarbeDegilTiyatro #TurkeyCoup #TurkeyCoupAttempt #Turkey #StagedCoup pic.twitter.com/SNKlt4qWmJ
— Tulip28 (@Sev1729) July 16, 2016
According to Reuters full blown upheaval in Turkey began at around 19.30 local time when reports of army personnel closing down access points to the main Bosporus bridge in the country's biggest city, Istanbul, started circulating online.
Around the same time, Istanbul's second bridge was taken over by the military.
Half an hour later, in a notably shaky public appearance, Turkey's newly appointed Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said there had been an “uprising” staged by a faction within Turkey's military, and that the uprising had been supported by a long time personal rival of President Erdogan, US-based Islamic cleric Fetulla Gulen.
Over the hours that followed, gun shots and explosions were heard in Istanbul and Ankara, while military helicopters and F16s roamed the skies in Turkey's major cities.
Turkish netizens reported problems accessing online platforms and VPN-provider TunnelBear offered unlimited data for their “friends in Turkey” to stay connected.
To our friends in #Turkey, you now have unlimited data to stay connected with #TunnelBear #coup #TurkeyCoup https://t.co/nSZn9gxEk8
— TunnelBear (@theTunnelBear) July 15, 2016
Soldiers whose ultimate commander was not immediately identified then took over the Turkish State broadcaster as well as CNN Turk building and other key media outlets.
BREAKING A group of soldiers landed in Dogan Media Center where @cnnturk is based. They have entered the studio. pic.twitter.com/D2QMF6s8Xt
— CNN Türk ENG (@CNNTURK_ENG) July 16, 2016
Amid this chaos, the military issued a statement in which it declared that it had seized control of the government in order to reinstate the democratic order and declared the imposition of martial law and a curfew.
Images showed tanks lined up outside Istanbul airport.
After much speculation regarding his whereabouts — he was reportedly on holiday when the coup took place — President Erdogan broke silence and dispelled rumours he had fled the country.
He addressed the nation via the FaceTime app on an iPhone and openly called on people to take to the streets and fight for democracy.
“Go to the streets and give them their answer,” he said.
Milletimizi demokrasimize ve milli iradeye sahip çıkmak üzere meydanlara, havalimanlarına davet ediyorum.
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RT_Erdogan) July 15, 2016
I invite our people to the squares and airports to stand up for our democracy and national will.
And the people did take the streets, in many cases overwhelming army officers.
According to CNN live blog, the attempted coup resulted in a total of 161 dead and over 1,400 people injured with some 2,839 military officers detained.
And as the government claimed to have rolled back the coup plotters and regained full control, more and more Turks reached the conclusion that despite the vastly ambitious Erdogan's penchant for provocative politics, there had, in fact, been a coup attempt in their country.
Don't buy it. Perfectly plausible story is slowly emerging. You can't easily stage this stuff, with 300 livestreams. https://t.co/BWH9xadvry
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) July 16, 2016
Erdogan brought Turkish democracy to brink of disaster before #coup; coup officers pushed democracy into the abyss. https://t.co/9iWpWtXJLO
— Soner Cagaptay (@SonerCagaptay) July 16, 2016
While Alp Eren Tolpal devised a theory that dismissed the staged coup talk out of hand while also adding a sprinkling of conspiracy:
For the last couple of weeks there were rumors to the effect that a large group of ranked officers in Turkish Armed Forces would be forced to retire by the end of summer. My guess is that last night's move was an organized attempt by this group of officers.
The quite obvious lack of organization and inefficiency observed in the attempted coup can also be explained without resorting to conspiracy theories or theatricality of a staged ploy: The junta prepares for, or at least entertains the idea of a coup but somehow the news of the attempt is leaked and rumor gets around.
Government learns about this. The disappearance of Erdoğan for the last week and the excitement of several foreign embassies in the last few days can also be attributed to these rumors. It is also quite possible that the government, with the comfort of being forewarned and realizing the limits of the junta, may have planned to turn this into an advantage and instrumentalize a potential coup for its own benefit.
They may have also planned to catch all the junta in the act thus making it a more open and shut case.
Obviously the junta would know that its cover had been blown and in return they may have acted prematurely as a last resort, to save their asses and made the last night's gamble. I think, this is the most logical explanation of why the coup seemed like a farce.
As to the the aftermath, I think Erdoğan is most right when he frames this as a providence from God. This coup attempt could not have come at a better time.
The u-turn in foreign policy, the admittance of failure in Syria, the great purge within the party, the issue of Syrian refugees all had brought the party esprit-de-corps to an all time low and alienated Erdoğan to his base.
And as such, it provided Erdoğan a decisive victory in domestic politics. Now he is a victorious leader once again, a veteran.
The people flooding the streets were also united in their leader's defense and this turned into an opportunity to overcome the alienation. Erdoğan will once again acquire the status of rightly-guided leader who is led and provided by by God. And of course there is no doubt that he will use this credit to utmost limits.
Kind of like the Auspicious Affair (Vaka-yı Hayriye) of 1826 whereby the Janissary corps were abolished once and for-all, this failed coup has a facet of auspiciousness. Yet, imagining the aftermath we can also predict that it will have several facets which will prove quite oppressive and burdensome for Turkish citizens.
Turkey, which has one of the world's largest standing armies, suffered coups in 1960, 1980 and 1997.
The rise of Erdogan and his conservative AKP party (Justice and Development Party) in the post-millennial era saw the role of the army in domestic politics weaken.
Erdogan, who has stated his ambition to change the constitution on a number of occasions, is widely viewed as one of the most powerful and ambitious rulers in Turkey's history.
Although his party was initially credited for ensuring a decade of robust economic growth, the country has spiralled into insecurity and war following the government's decision to wade into the conflict in neighbouring Syria and escalate a decades-old conflict with Kurdish militants in the east of the country.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


text:
Myanmar’s Online Community Anticipates Fall of Radical Buddhist Group with Funny Memes · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Meme created by Kyaw Wanna Htun. It says Rest In Peace, Ma-Ba-Tha (bottom text) and features traditional dancers.
Following the statement of Yangon's chief minister that the radical Buddhist nationalist group Ma-Ba-Tha (Association of Race and Religion Protection) is “no longer needed” in Myanmar's former capital, more authorities have come forward to share a similar message.
On July 12, the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee of the government declared that Ma-Ba-Tha — an association of radical buddhist monks that has in recent times exerted significant sway over the government — is unlawful.
The state committee confirmed it would no longer support the group's activities and statements.
The Minister of Religion and Culture also criticized the group and its leader, Wirathu and said that no one is above the law.
In 2012, Wirathu led an aggressive campaign called 969, which urged Buddhists to boycott Muslim-owned establishments.
Wirathu and his supporters actively vilify the country's Muslim minority on Facebook. They also attack politicians, activists, journalists and other moderate voices calling for religious tolerance.
Myanmar has a predominantly Buddhist population.
This is the first time that government officials belonging to the National League for Democracy (NLD) have publicly spoken against the activities of Ma-Ba-Tha.
The NLD led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi assumed power earlier this year.
On July 14, a civil society organization called Thet Taw Saunt (Bodyguard) filed a defamation lawsuit against Wirathu for calling the United Nation's special human rights rapporteur Yanghee Lee a “whore” back in 2015.
Yanghee Lee was simply highlighting the poor condition of the mainly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar.
Reacting to the case filed against Ma-Ba-Tha, Internet users in Myanmar uploaded memes predicting the downfall of the radical group.
The viral meme below demonstrates how people feel about the current standoff:
A meme remixing the movie poster of ‘London has Fallen’ has gone viral. The person on the left is the leader of MaBaTha, Wirathu, referred to as WeWe by the online community. The one in the middle is Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein, referred to as Kwee Pyo, and on the right is Myanmar President Htin Kyaw.
Ma-Ba-Tha was formed in 2014 to protect the Buddhist race and religion in Myanmar from what it depicts as an alleged Muslim plot to dominate the whole country.
Supporters of Ma-Ba-Tha have been flooding social media with hate speech targeting Muslims and the political opposition.
Their religious extremism has been blamed for inflaming religious tensions in the country in the past five years.
Ma-Ba-Tha members have also been a strong force behind the campaign opposing the granting of rights to the long-suffering Rohingya ethnic group in western Myanmar.
They have organized several protests and rallies across Myanmar to call for the expulsion from the country of the Rohingya.
The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants.
Human rights groups have described the stateless group as among the most persecuted minorities in the world.
In 2015, Ma-Ba-Tha successfully lobbied for the passage of the Race and Religion Protection Bill, a set of four laws that seeks to protect Buddhist women by restricting interfaith marriages and religious conversions while calling for monogamy and population control.
Many experts believe these laws discriminate against Muslims in Myanmar.
Below are a few more examples of memes reacting to the possible dissolution of Ma-Ba-Tha:
This meme also used the “London has Fallen” movie poster to predict the dissolution of the Ma-Ba-Tha group. The woman on the right is Aung San Suu Kyi. Meme created by Robert Tony.
Facebook user NayPaing Micheal thinks that Ma-Ba-Tha should receive some punishment for its violent behavior towards Muslims:
“When the referee has showed the player the red card for playing so aggressively…and takes him off the field.” Meme created by NayPaing Micheal.
And finally, Facebook user Via Kingag reminds Myanmar netizens that Ma-Ba-Tha has nothing to do with protecting religion.
“So you are saying that Buddhism, which has been a religion for 2,500 years…will be destroyed if Ma-Ba-Tha does not save it and Myanmar will become a Muslim country?” Meme created by Via Kingag.

author: Juan Cebu


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Recently Discovered Rock Paintings May Change Machu Picchu’s History as We Know It · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Machu Picchu. Image on Flickr by user Dan Doan (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Considered a masterpiece of architecture and engineering, Machu Picchu, declared one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007, never ceases to amaze.
On July 4, Pedro Astete, director of national archaeological park of Machu Picchu, reported the finding of two new rock paintings, close to the ruins of the most famous Inca city in the world:
La figura de una llama, un hombre, y encima de ellos una imagen geométrica, fueron encontradas en la zona de Pachamama, en el camino de acceso a la zona arqueológica de Machu Picchu.
En […] 1912, fueron descubiertas 4 tumbas por la segunda expedición peruana de la Universidad de Yale, bajo la dirección de Hiram Bingham. No obstante, hasta la fecha [las imágenes] habían pasado [desapercibidas].
The image of a llama, a man and above both of them a geometric figure, were found in the area of Pachamama, on the access path to the archaeological area of Machu Picchu.
In […] 1912, the second Peruvian expedition of Yale University, under the direction of Hiram Bingham, discovered four tombs. Until today, however, [the images] had gone [unnoticed].
There are plans to carry out more digs in the area, which for the time being is not accessible to the general public. The images discovered have to be further examined to know for sure, but Peru's Tourism Portal reports that they might be from an era before the Incas:
Este descubrimiento podría cambiar la historia que se conoce del complejo arqueológico, ya que las figuras encontradas dan pistas sobre una población anterior a los incas.
Así lo manifestó José Bastante, responsable del programa de investigaciones del santuario, quien dijo que esto “podría demostrar que el lugar tenía un significado especial para personas anteriores a los incas. Las investigaciones recién están empezando”.
José Bastante, who is responsible for the sanctuary investigation program, said this finding might change the known history of the archaeological complex, as the figures might give clues about populations who lived before the Inca era.
Bastante also claimed that this “may prove that the place had a special meaning for peoples before the Incas. Investigations have just started.”
The news wasn't free of controversy. According to some versions, this is not a new finding at all. One website called Archaeology of Peru claimed photos taken in 2009 of the place show the paintings:
Esas pinturas son conocidas desde hace mucho tiempo y son fáciles de ver pues están a la vera del camino de Intipunku. Nosotros tenemos fotografías de ellas tomadas hace casi veinte años y son varios los guías de turismo que están enterados de su existencia. […] Incluso mencionamos estas pinturas en un informe geológico sobre los deslizamientos de Machupicchu a inicios de este siglo.
These paintings have been well known for a long time and they can be easily seen as they are located near the road of Intipunku. We have photographs taken almost 20 years ago and there are several tourist guides who are aware of their existence. […] We even mention these paintings on a geological report about the landslides in Machupicchu in the early 2000s.
Predictably, the news was echoed on Twitter, such as in a tweet by the US-based Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, which shared a photograph of the paintings:
#Artes Hallan nuevas pinturas rupestres en Machu Picchu https://t.co/OorqYpYu4L pic.twitter.com/xfkNFMAUxb
— Diario Las Américas (@DLasAmericas) 5 de julio de 2016
New rock paintings found in Machu Picchu.
The discovery renewed general interest in all things Machu Pichu online, and news outlets and ordinary Twitter users alike repeatedly made mention of two videos which show different spots within the archaeological site. One of them, produced in the 1940s, collects images from a series of places of archaeological value in Cusco, such as Ollantaytambo, Písac, as well as in Juliaca and Arequipa. The video is part of a collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The user who shared it pointed out the large amount of cultural diversity already seen in the region during the that time period.
The video below is from 1936 and had remain unseen until now. It's a tour around different sites of Machu Picchu with typical Andean musical in the background.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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The Plague of Human Trafficking Reaches Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Atiba Rogers

“NOT for sale: human trafficking”. Photo by Ira Gelb, used under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license.
Even as as the Trinidad and Tobago government has failed, for the second year in a row, to thoroughly investigate and prosecute human traffickers, the U.S. Department of State has been keeping a close eye on the country's law enforcement and immigration officers and their alleged abuses against sex trafficking victims — and it is promising that such crimes will not go unpunished.
According to the U.S. Department of State 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report, “some government officials report that law enforcement and immigration officials received bribes in exchange for protection and sabotaging police investigations […] A national security ministry source said one police station routinely sent new recruits to purchase commercial sex from a local brothel.”
Just last week, it was reported that two directors of a locally registered business appeared in court to answer charges related to sex offences and the trafficking of minors.
The Caribbean island is currently on the Tier 2 Watch List because — according to the report — it “is a destination, transit, and source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor”. The state department judges the human trafficking industry on a scale of good (Tier 1) to bad (Tier 3).
The report also stated that Trinidad and Tobago's government didn't completely meet the minimum standards in order to be bumped up to Tier 1, since women and girls from Venezuela, Columbia, the Dominican Republic and Guyana often end up as sex trafficking victims working in brothels and clubs.
Human trafficking is a difficult crime to fight, especially if the right practices to combat it are not properly put in place, and sex trafficking takes place in spite of a well-developed anti-trafficking system in the United States as well.
According to an article in The Atlantic, over 4,000 sex trafficking cases were reported in the U.S., as stated by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
The article also revealed that victims who have been exploited view themselves as prostitution offenders, which causes them to fear law enforcement and ultimately leaves their cases unreported.
Still, Trinidad and Tobago netizens were dismayed that this plague had reached such levels in their country. Facebook user Stanley Ryan had this to say about the claims:
WHAT A NATIONAL DISGRACE! A Failed Police Service and A Failed Immigration Department! What an INDICTMENT on Trinidad and Tobago! Two critical departments of National Security IMPLICATED IN ONE OF IF NOT the WORST CRIME IMAGINED, HUMAN TRAFFICKING!
Victims are often lured into human trafficking situations in the hope of gaining legitimate employment. As of last month, a local newspaper reported that Trinidad and Tobago had as many as 6,000 people trapped in some form of modern-day slavery.
Melvin Besai chimed on Facebook:
We all live in small country and have knowledge of illegal activities and behind every illegal activity we have Police officers Soldiers Businessmen even Government ministers so who can you turn to for help everything is done for $$$$$$$$$
And Ed Abhi said:
Try to imagine strictly by invitation and there's a small percentage gaining entry when they pass ah lil kakadang for them hungry officers. There's no system invented to stop bribe in this world.
Unfortunately, developing nations have been slow to respond to the scourge and corrupt officials are often complicit.
One well-known instance of this is the 2013 case (still ongoing) of a law enforcement official allegedly responsible for the trafficking of three Columbian nationals, while the government has just reported a new investigation into the activities of a police officer who was allegedly involved in sex trafficking.
Nevertheless, netizens continue to express their distrust in the government.
Antonio Sorzano commented on the Trinidad Express Newspapers Facebook page:
TTPS (Trinidad and Tobago Police Service) only good for locking up old ladies for cussin and weed smokers. They good for nothing. If they do decriminalize marijuana 90% of police, magistrates, lawyers will be out of a job. Thats the only ppl they catch anyways.

author: Atiba Rogers


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Azerbaijani Women Watch #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak from the Sidelines · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Sexual violence. Wikimedia image.
As an Azerbaijani woman it has been fascinating to follow the story of #яНебоюсьСказать (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak) started by Ukrainian activist Anastasiya Melnychenko in order to discuss incidents of sexual, physical and psychological violence against women.
Whether in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, women are not only constantly subject to sexual, physical and psychological harassment, but also seen as the instigators of these attacks on themselves.
A pervasive mentality argues that “she brought it upon herself” and/or “it is her fault”.
This is because rape, violence and harassment are so stigmatised in our cultures, victims often remain silent, attempting to forget their experience, never to discuss it again.
This perhaps applies to conservative Azerbaijan more than most of the other countries in the former Soviet Union.
The persistent “it's women’s fault” mentality explains the behaviour of Azerbaijani female netizens on Facebook, who have largely remained silent about their stories in contrast to the sudden outpour of reactions on the part of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian users.
Like any Azerbaijani woman, this author has been harassed on many occasions.
Many of us have experienced harassment on Baku's busy metros and buses while commuting to work.
It is one of the few places men can find “the space” and the “right opportunity” to touch an ass or rub up against a female body, nearly always from the back, because harassment is an act of cowardice.
Digging through this trove of memories is painful and the silence of #demeyeqorxmuram — what #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak would be in Azeri — tells its own story.
The last time Azerbaijani netizens responded en masse to violence against a woman was the case of Aytac Babayeva (#AytacBabayeva), a recent high school graduate who was stabbed eight times by her former boyfriend in a fit of jealousy.
#CehaletinQurbaniOlma#ProtestIgnorance#AytacBabayevapic.twitter.com/dSyJeEQk1Q
— Mehmet TAYLI (@TurkishClup) March 7, 2016
#ProtestIgnorance #AytacBabayevap
Turks and Azeris express anger online at death of teenager #AytacBabayeva https://t.co/hNyNVMMsug pic.twitter.com/SYUedRmwU9
— BBC Trending (@BBCtrending) May 4, 2015
Just a few months before Aytac’s murder, 20-year-old Ozgecan Aslan was raped and then brutally murdered in Turkey.
But in the event of Aytac’s murder, her case was shared by more Turkish users than Azerbaijani users.
According to a BBC Azeri service story of the time, the number of women killed as a result of domestic violence in 2014 in Azerbaijan reached 721.
Real numbers may be even higher.
Discussion of #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak in Azeri language never really got off the ground, although, ironically, the few posts that did address the topic were widely shared:
Davud Mamedov: Zorakılığa məruz qalmış qadınlar barədə “günah özündədir, gecə vaxtı nə azarı var idi küçədə” deyənlərdən həmişə soruşmaq istəyirəm ki, bəs sizin heyvan ola-ola nə azarınız var insanlar arasında? Soruşmuram amma. Heyvanları durduğu yerdə niyə təhqir edim ki.
#яНеБоюсьСказать
Davud Mamedov: I always want to ask those who say, “it is her fault, what the hell was she doing at that hour on her own on a street” about women who have been victims of violence, “what the hell are you doing being the animal you are, among human beings?” But I never ask this question. Because I don’t want to belittle animals.
#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak
There are stories written in Azerbaijani […] It is just there are not many. There would be stories if someone starts a hashtag in Azerbaijani language. I do not believe there is one woman who has not faced harassment or violence. Not just verbal or physical but there are those who rape you with their gaze. It is a very heavy topic. Many of the men who put themselves in women’s shoes won’t understand this.
One day, perhaps, Azerbaijani women will join in regional calls for mutual respect and freedom from harassment. In the meantime, rides on Baku public transport will still be hell.
See also: #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt: Ukrainian Social Media Users Break the Silence on Sexual Violence and Women Struggle Against Violence in Kyrgyz Society, But How Many Men Will Help Them?


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How a Stolen Student Parliament Is Macedonia’s Political Crisis in Microcosm · Global Voices
Vesna Ilievska

July 1 protest in Skopje, in support of demands of Student Plenum and other youth NGOs against election fraud. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Placing illegitimate representatives in the university senate, having them vote, falsifying elections, violating the right to secret ballot, and excessive use of police force against students.
These are just some of the events that have stirred up a toxic political atmosphere connected to the student parliament of crisis-torn Macedonia's oldest public university in recent weeks.
The student parliament is a very influential institution in Macedonia.
Like elsewhere in the Balkans, it is an ‘heir’ to the former Communist “Student Union,” and has close ties with the ruling party.
By law it formally represents the students in official bodies and collects obligatory membership fees.
The lack of actual democratic accountability on the part of the Student Parliament of the University Ss. Cyril and Methodius (SPUCM), is well-known, however.
At the beginning of June, eleven student and youth organizations announced an initiative questioning its legitimacy, warning that it would compromise the process of electing a new rector at the university.
The initiative demanded a meeting with the university management to resolve the issue of the expired mandates of the SPUCM president and nine other student representatives within the senate.
The university leadership ignored the initiative, despite the fact elections within the SPUCM have been overdue for almost three years.
On June 27, the day of the election of the new rector, members of the initiative blocked the entrance to the rectorate building where the elections were to be held.
Most visible among them were the members of the grassroots Student Plenum, that organized massive protests and occupied public universities in 2014 and 2015, succeeding in averting government attempts to push through legislation that would reduce the autonomy of universities.
Members of the Professors’ Plenum joined the students and together they did not allow anyone to enter the rectorate.
Journalists and activists on the ground provided live streaming of the development which helped spread news about what was happening.
Students standing up to the rector. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
After negotiations, the outgoing Rector Velimir Stojkovski allowed four Student Plenum members to attend the session of the university senate, and students lifted the human shield.
During the session, these students warned the Senate that SPUCM members are illegitimate, submitting ample documentation in support of their argument.
The rector cut the discussion short, dismissed the evidence without examining it, and concluded that all relevant documentation had already been submitted.
Maja Stevanovikj, professor at the Faculty for Drama Arts, warned everyone of the dangers of going ahead with the elections.
If these people vote today, with illegitimate mandates, their vote will be disputed times and times over. In a year, or 6 months, when new information surfaces, the election will be disputed and it will have legal implications […] all of the decisions made by this University will have to be nullified.
Regardless of this warning, the verification commission verified the mandates of the 10 representatives of SPUCM.
With their votes, Nikola Jankulovski was elected as the new rector of the university.
On June 30, three days after the new Rector had been elected, SPUCM organised its long overdue student elections, which were plagued with violations and irregularities.
Firstly, there were no voting booths set up, thus the right to secret ballot was violated.
Secondly, there was no electoral commission and voters and ballots were not properly marked. Also, the elections were organised after the semester had finished and most students had gone home.
The most shocking moment occurred towards the end of the day, when several well-built individuals, whom social media users later identified as ruling party members employed in public administration, entered the university space and forcefully removed ballot boxes.
This was a clear violation of the procedure, which stipulates counting votes on site. The stolen boxes were given to Student Parliament members who ran away to their office.
After the ballot boxes were removed, activists and members of Student Plenum and other organizations arrived at the SPUCM offices and decided to wait for its president, Kiril Spirovski, to return.
They issued a call on social media for people to come and join them in front of SPUCM offices, and also called the police, reporting a robbery.
Some time after 11 pm, the Rapid Response Unit arrived in full riot gear with armored vehicles and escorted the SPUCM president and additional ballot boxes to the building.
By this time Student Plenum members were peacefully sitting in the entrance hallway.
After the attempt to bring the ballot boxes to the SPUCM offices, which plenum members protested, the Rapid Response Unit entered the building and started manhandling and even beating students, who were sitting still on the floor.
Disturbing videos of students screaming were immediately uploaded online causing public outrage.
ЕБР тепа студенти пред канцелариите на СПУКМ. Видео наскоро.
— Ѓаволот (@Gjavolot) June 30, 2016
Rapid Response Unit is beating up students in front of the Student Parliament offices. Video coming soon.
Video: Rapid Response Unit officers in full riot gear confronting and pushing students out of SPUCM offices.
Aleksandra Zivkovic, a member of the Student Plenum, gave the following testimony soon after the incident:
I can't talk, I'm crying and I keep thinking about how they could do something like this to us. All of us, with high GPAs, knowledge, scientific articles and debates in our CVs, honest freedom activists, we were stomped on by a police unit whose job is to deal with terrorists!
Later that same evening, SPUCM announced that they had elected their new president, Davor Popovski, with 3,851 votes, while the second candidate Stefan Vasilevski received 1,275 votes.
They also reported that 138 ballots were invalid, while a total of 5,264 students had voted.
The following day, there were different reactions to the event.
The police claimed there was no excessive use of force and that their engagement was purely “preventative”, as there was a danger of students violating the Law on Public Order and Peace.
As a response to this and the incident itself, human rights expert and activist Mirjana Najchevska, PhD, wrote a facebook post, which was picked up by media outlets, where she stated:
Having someone put on a uniform does not make them a policeman. There has not been such an abuse from the side of the Ministry of Interior since Macedonia's establishment as a country, in the last century.
In addition to these statements, several other organisations, such as the National Youth Council of Macedonia, Highschool Students’ Plenum, Professors’ Plenum, the Youth Educational Forum and the Liberal Democratic Party of Macedonia criticized the excessive use of police force, demanding an investigation into the irregularities and nullification of the election results.
In his reaction, Velimir Stojkovski, still UCM rector at that point, expressed concern over the allegations of SPUCM and police involvement and asked for all students, whether SPUCM or Student Plenum, to refrain from any form of association “not to worsen the situation.”
Despite this, Student Plenum organised a protest on July 1, and demanded the elections be nullified, sending out official statements to the rectorate and all of the deans the University Sts. Cyril and Methodius.
The protest started in front of SPUCM offices, which were once again guarded by police, and ended on the grounds of the University.
#Протестирам пред СПУКМ pic.twitter.com/RHAnXLWFUs
— Jofemk (@jofemk) July 1, 2016
I protest in front of SPUCM
УКИМ да се одважи и да ги чуе барањата на студентите. #уким #спукм pic.twitter.com/aPc0V7CX4x
— Dona Коsturanova (@malaovca) July 1, 2016
The University must show courage and listen to the students’ demands.
As a response to the events of June 30, UCM Rector Velimir Stojkovski called for an emergency meeting.
During the meeting the Student Plenum submitted 2,000 pages of documentation once more underscoring the illegitimacy of SPUCM's mandate.
The Rector declared that a commission should be formed to review the evidence but refused to nullify the election, emphasizing the fact that the University has no jurisdiction over SPUCM.
Activist and student Vladimir Delov, in a July 7 post on Medium, explained why students need to boycott SPUCM and why these elections were so important.
He explained that the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE has spread its influence through SPUCM to university circles.
By doing this, during the past several years, SPUCM, with their votes, have helped elect professors according to the preferences of the party.
Партиската војска во редовите на универзитетот. Од своето постоење тие го оневозможуваат гласот на студентот и решавањето на нивните проблеми. Но овде, врзувањето на партискиот подмладок со студентското претставување ќе го поврзам со една друга, многу пострашна и позагрижувачка асоцијација.
Видовме дека фалсификувањето на изборите не им беше мака, ниту срам. Фалсификувањето е веќе апсолвирано во нивниот светокруг како нормално, дури и како “кул” .Гордо и достоинствено. Со мускули и златни ланци, по рамбовки на факултет. Замислете како ќе биде кога оваа генерација ќе ги спроведува изборите?
They are the ruling party's army in the university ranks. They prohibit students from voicing and solving their problems. Here, intermingling the party youth with student representation has very ominous implications.
We saw that falsifying elections was no trouble to them. Without shame, they do it as something normal, even something “cool.” They do it with pride. With muscle and golden chains, Rambo-vests within the faculties. Now try to imagine how this generation will organize parliamentary elections?
The University Sts. Cyril and Methodius consists of 23 faculties, 5 institutes, and 17 other bodies.
So far, only two of them, the Scientific Teaching Councils of the Faculty of Drama Arts and the Faculty of Dentistry, have stated officially that they do not accept the outcomes of the student elections or recognize the new SPUCM president as a legitimate representative.

author: Vesna Ilievska


text:
Pakistan’s Latest ‘Honour Killing’ Victim Is Social Media Celeb Qandeel Baloch · Global Voices
Muhammad Farhan

Photo courtesy: Rahema Alam  & Words by:  @Sarkhail7Khan
One of Pakistan's most famous social media celebrities, known for her bold, sensual and daring posts, was suffocated to death on July 16 — by her brothers — in what the police are calling an “honor killing” in her native city of Multan, Punjab province.
Baloch was killed in her family home while she was visiting her parents.
Her father registered a police report accusing his two sons of the murder of his daughter.
According to the police report, Baloch's father alleges that his sons murdered his daughter because they believed she brought “shame to the family.” He further said that his sons killed Baloch for her money.
Despite the initial police report, the investigation is still ongoing and the police suspect that the motive may have been a financial dispute, as one of Baloch's brothers, Waseem, was allegedly a drug addict.
Late on July 17, the police announced the arrest of Waseem, who confessed to the murder.
Despite Waseem's claims that his brother wasn't involved, Baloch's father insists that his other son Aslam, still at large, was the instigator of the murder.
Speaking to media he vowed: “My daughter was brave and I will not forget or forgive her brutal murder.”
While Baloch frequently shared videos and photos of herself, there was very little that was known about her private life.
She amassed vicious haters and dedicated followers during the brief period in which she shot to fame, but no-one could dispute Baloch's status as an internet sensation.
An honor killing is most commonly understood as “the murder of a family member by another, due to the belief that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family.”
In 2015, Pakistan's Federal Ministry of Law released statistics noting some 933 honor killings over the past two years.
The slain model attracted controversy as one of the strongest voices speaking out against patriarchal norms and traditional gender roles.
A self-professed ‘one woman army’, the model had posted on her Facebook page of her determination to ‘bounce back’ the day before her death.
Baloch had recently made headlines after she posted photographs and videos posing alongside religious cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi, revealing what she felt was a double standard.
According to Baloch, Qavi had invited her over to meet, claiming to be an ardent fan, despite the fact that his fellow clergy frequently criticised her.
The photos caused quite a stir, resulting in Qavi being suspended from the country's moon-sighting committee which decides when the ongoing holy month of Ramzan begins and ends.
To many Baloch was a complete enigma until recent media reports disclosed her real name, her passport, photographs of her ex-husband and her son who is a minor.
Ushbah Al-Ain, from the rights group Digital Rights Foundation, is appalled by the murder:
Qandeel Baloch, a girl in her twenties, a survivor of an abusive marriage, a mother of a child – and a woman who was taking charge of sexuality has been murdered. It doesn’t matter who killed her, because let’s be honest – we as a nation killed her. Yes! Me and you, us – we killed her and many others who die every single day in Pakistan. The approximately one thousand girls who die every year in the name of honor. And now while every news media outlet tries to capitalize on her death, while members of this society raise her son to hate her mother’s memory – we as citizens won’t be held accountable. We killed her.
Social media reactions that justify her murder are being shamed by others who believe that the killing should be condemned without qualification:
Honour killing of artist @QandeelQuebee celebrated by Pakistanis. #QandeelBaloch
Via @i_k_b pic.twitter.com/Kp4VewWMhF
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) July 16, 2016
Pls stop using caveats while condemning #QandeelBaloch‘s murder: “I didnt approve of her, but…” You sound like a misogyny apologist.
— Neha Ansari (@NhaAnsari) July 16, 2016
In the wake of her death, many are criticising the way in which the media reported her story, especially the fact that they chose to disclose her real name and identity, ignoring the fact that she used a pseudonym precisely for reasons of self-protection.
Maham Ali expressed her grief and frustration in a Facebook post:
To our “free” media who only care about ratings – you are equally responsible for her death. Qandeel came in the limelight as Qandeel Baloch, not as “Fauzia Azeem” which was her real name. But our media really doesn't care about the lives of people. They revealed her name, they revealed her address and other personal details and once they did, her family came in the spotlight as well. When she was not using her real name and identity her life choices weren't being connected to the family. Their “izzat” (respect) wasn't being questioned. But when dangerous anchors like Mubashar Lucman constantly called her on his show along with misogynists like Mullah Qavi, that's when maybe the family also started feeling threatened. The neighborhood in Multan where Qandeel's family lived started taunting the family and her brother when they found out. Even now, media is allowing people like Qavi and Haroon Rasheed to spew hatred against a dead woman.
Journalist Issam Ahmed expressed his shock by sharing the details of his last conversation with Baloch, who was deeply concerned for her security.
So shocked by Qandeel Baloch's murder, literally shaking. We had been on friendly terms since I spoke to her for a couple of pieces in recent months. Yesterday she called to ask me to edit her Wikipedia page because she wanted references to her ex-husband and child removed, I agreed because the child is under 18 and exposed to a high degree of risk. I did it but the Wikipedia editor did not accept the edits despite my comments explaining why. The risks here are all too real.
Reporters from other publications have also come forward sharing how Baloch had expressed fear and concern when her real name and personal details were reported:
I spoke to Qandeel Baloch a couple of days ago to take her comment on her marriage story. She was crying. Said “they'll kill me”.
— Hassan Choudary (@hassanchoudary) July 16, 2016:
An online petition is currently making rounds on social media, demanding that those responsible in media and political circles be sent to trial along with her brothers.
Today, we hold the Pakistani media complicit in her death. We hold those journalists, editors, directors and owners responsible who leaked private details of her life. They publicized her marriage, her child, knowing the dangerously sexist conditions in this country. They berated her and thereby prepared the way for her to be killed.
Condemnations online are now being followed up by demonstrations and protests offline.
Rights activist Nighat Daad posted the following photo from a demonstration at Lahore's Liberty Market:
No country for bold women. #QandeelBaloch pic.twitter.com/oMZbQc9bVP
— Nighat Dad (@nighatdad) July 16, 2016
Civil society in Peshawar also denounced the murder as “inhumane” in a snap protest:
Mirroring the skewed media coverage that plagued her during her time as an online superstar, several Western media outlets have described her as the “Kim Kardashian” of Pakistan in the wake of her death.
Pakistani feminists feel that this couldn't be further from the truth as Baloch was a working class woman who in recent interviews had spoken openly about how she had worked hard to pay for her sister's wedding and bought a home for her parents — the same home she was subsequently murdered in.
As a tribute to her memory, political activist Ammar Rashid penned an ode to Baloch and Pakistani women:
We thrive upon the exploitation of women’s unrecognized labor our entire life, then cite scripture to tell them why they should be happy in their blessed bondage, their divinely-ordained lot in this world and the next.
We are murderously violent because we have nothing to stand on, because our fictions no longer sustain us, because the stories we tell ourselves to maintain our privileges no longer seem to fit with a reality in which women are somehow audaciously beginning to see themselves as fully human. Better, always, to eliminate such impudent threats rather than question the stories we've told ourselves all our lives.
Rest in peace Qandeel. Thank you for showing us the filth we are wallowing in.

author: Muhammad Farhan


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Puerto Rico’s flag Is black and in ‘mourning’ over US-imposed oversight board · Global Voices
Ana Gabriela Calderón

The famous door in Old San Juan now has the Puerto Rican flag painted in black and white, as a sign of mourning and resistance. There is also a small altar. Photo by Marina I. Pineda Shokooh, used with permission.
For many Puerto Ricans, the national flag is a symbol of cultural pride and identity, especially in light of the island's colonial status under the United States’ government. Now, with an artistic tweak, the flag also represents the state of mourning that the island has been experiencing since the US government imposed a federal control board with power over the commonwealth's jurisdiction.
A group of artists have altered a famous door painted with the Puerto Rican flag by changing its original colors from blue, red, and white to black and white to mark the approval of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, also known as PROMESA. Passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama, the act was promoted as a way to manage Puerto Rico's more than $70 billion of debt.
But PROMESA severely undermines the island's political autonomy. Its measures, which include a decrease of the hourly minimum wage to US $4.24 (about $3 less than the US federal minimum wage), have galvanized people to organize daily civil disobedience events and camps.
The flag mural is located on the facade of an abandoned building on San José Street in Old San Juan, and before its makeover locals and tourists alike often took photos of it as a memory of their visit. The door is surrounded by litographs of famous Puerto Rican artists made by the collective Grabadores por Grabadores.
Some people online quickly expressed their disappointment at the color change and described it as an act of vandalism. One comment stated, “They painted the flag on San Jose Street. Any volunteers? To paint the flag back to its original colors.”
Soon, the “flag in mourning” inspired the sarcastic hashtag “Pero que no me pinten la bandera” (“But don't paint the flag”) among Puerto Ricans who reflected on the triviality of lamenting the altered colors. Many social media users proclaimed their support for the new mural, and the flag in mourning has become a symbol of resistance and civil disobedience.
Artistas Solidarixs y en Resistencia (Artists in Solidarity and Resistance), the art group responsible for re-painting the flag, released an open letter on online magazine 80grados explaining their motives:
El arte es un vehículo de expresión que se ha utilizado a lo largo de la historia para transmitir ideas, provocar reflexiones, transformar y (re)crear la realidad. Los símbolos patrios ayudan a reforzar la identidad y valores del pueblo. Desde su origen la bandera de Puerto Rico ha sido símbolo de lucha ante la condición colonial y, durante años fue un delito izarla. Más tarde bajo la ley colonial de 1952 (ELA) se adopta la bandera oficialmente. En la actualidad el triángulo representa las tres ramas del Gobierno: ejecutivo, legislativo y judicial. Las tres franjas rojas simbolizan la sangre que da vida a estos poderes.
Las leyes, los gobernantes y los tribunales, hasta este momento, no han servido a los intereses del pueblo. Reemplazar con color negro (que es la ausencia de LUZ) crea nuevas lecturas. La nuestra es una propuesta de RESISTENCIA, no es pesimista, al contrario, habla sobre la muerte de estos poderes tal cual los conocemos, pero la esperanza sigue ahí representadas en las franjas blancas que simbolizan la libertad del individuo y su capacidad para reclamar y hacer valer sus derechos.
Sirva este acto como una invitación a reflexionar y tomar acción ante el colapso del sistema de educación y salud, la privatización y destrucción de nuestros recursos naturales, el status colonial, el atropello contra la futura fuerza laboral, el pago de una deuda impagable, la imposición de un gobierno anti democrático, el estrangulamiento de las gestiones culturales entre otras. Este acto es una muestra de que hay una comunidad artística que no está de brazos cruzados, que está dispuesta a luchar contra todos los atropellos, contra la imposición de un gobierno absolutista y sus políticas de austeridad, la más reciente: la Junta de Control Fiscal (PROMESA). Puerto Rico está en pie de lucha, fortalezcamos el amor entre nosotros y por el espacio que habitamos promoviendo el respeto, la solidaridad, la tolerancia, la unión, la comunicación y el trabajo en comunidad.
Art as a form of expression has been used throughout history to transmit ideas, provoke reflection, and transform and recreate reality. National symbols help reinforce a country's identity and values. Since its origins, the Puerto Rican flag has been a symbol of struggle against our colonial status, and during several years, hoisting it was considered a felony. Under the colonial act that created the 1952 ELA [Associated Free State of Puerto Rico/Commonwealth], the flag becomes an official symbol. Today, the triangle represents the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. The three red stripes symbolize the blood that gives these branches power.
Our laws, our politicians, and courts have not represented the interests of the Puerto Rican people. Replacing the colors with black (which is the result of the absence of LIGHT) creates a new discussion. Ours is a proposal for RESISTANCE; it is not pessimistic, it discusses the death of these powers, but hope is still present in the three white stripes that symbolize the individual's rights and their capacity to reclaim and create their rights.
This act is an invitation to reflect and take action against the collapse of our education and health system, privatization and destruction of our natural resources, the colonial status, abuses committed against our working force, the payment of an exorbitant debt, the imposition of an anti-democratic government, cuts made to cultural affairs, among other conflicts. This act demonstrates that there exists an artistic community that will not remain with arms crossed, that is willing to fight against any exploitation, against the imposition of an absolutist government and its austerity policies, the most recent: Federal Control Board (PROMESA). Puerto Rico is fighting, lets strengthen the love between us and the space we inhabit by promoting respect, solidarity, tolerance, union, communication, and community cooperation.
The “black flag” has been reproduced by many other artists and activists as a form of protest against the imposed federal control board. Campamento Contra la Junta (Camp Against the Board), a grassroots movement of students and activists, has utilized social media to promote their permanent camp outside the US Federal Courthouse in San Juan. A group of people have established a camp outside the federal courthouse as an act of defiance and civil disobedience.
Street art has become one of the most common forms of dissent for the movement and other political activists, with several new murals produced every week since Obama signed the PROMESA bill:
Photo of mural artwork by local artist Jesús Delgado Burgos, from Campamento Contra la Junta's public Facebook page. Used with permission.
“Rise Up and Fight”. Photo of mural artwork by local artist Jesús Delgado Burgos, from Campamento Contra la Junta's public Facebook page. Used with permission.
Grito de Lares “black flag” in Santurce with the machete, a symbol of struggle and defiance. This is the flag of the town of Lares, Puerto Rico, and it is emblematic of the independence movement of the island. Photo by Spear Torres. Used with permission.
Currently, the Campamento Contra la Junta is also organizing several demonstrations against the spraying of Naled, an insecticide with adverse health effects used to combat Zika. The movement has also inspired diaspora communities to join the struggle, with organizations like the Comité Boricua en la Diáspora holding a public meeting to discuss Puerto Rico's struggle for independence in East Harlem, New York. While it is still uncertain when the control board will be established, activists are finding creative and artistic forms of expressions to convey their opposition and resistance.

author: Ana Gabriela Calderón


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Rappers Put Patriotism on Full Display in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Screenshot from music video “Tajikistan” by rappers Abada, Mr. Skap, and Sam Salamov. Uploaded on YouTube by TAJRAP on April 6, 2016.
In January 2014, authorities in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, banned rap music from public buses.
As they explained at the time, many rap tracks were not only “immoral” but were also directed against the Central Asian country's government.
The country's Minister of Education supported the ban, suggesting that tunes that “do not conform to national culture” should not be allowed in public places.
Some local rappers complained that the authorities were intimidating them into censoring political lyrics.
That homegrown rap hit a raw nerve for officials made sense. Unlike musicians representing other genres, rappers did not shy away from addressing even the most politically sensitive subjects.
The message from above was clear: if rappers wanted to gain acceptance and possibly public approval, they had to find inspiration in “indigenous” musical genres and become more “patriotic”.
And this is exactly what many rappers have chosen to do.
In recent years, the local rap scene has seen a proliferation in tracks professing patriotic sentiment, bragging about the nation's rich cultural heritage and praising the country's larger-than-life president, Emomali Rakhmon.
Although these tracks are still kept off state-owned radio and television for the most part, they are widely shared on social networking sites.
Local rap music websites rap.tj and tajrap.ru, where Internet users download the latest tracks and music videos to share via social networks, are increasingly popular in the country.
Global Voices picked out a few samples of “patriotic” rap widely shared on social media.
Abada, Mr. Skap and Sam Salamov in their 2016 track Tojikiston put their patriotism on full display, urging listeners to be proud of the nation and “raise its flag”.
The track celebrates the country's independence, achieved “with God's help,” and the fact that Tajiks have managed to preserve a nation state despite a civil war and political turbulence during the 1990s.
The patriotic verses are accompanied by the odd image of President Rakhmon, a shot of the national flag flying atop the world's second largest flagpole and key national heritage sites across the country.
In another 2016 track, Mefakhram ki tojikam (I Am Proud to Be a Tajik), MCs Abada and Masani profess loyalty to the Motherland and condemn the regional divisions that continue to plague the country.
The song contains references to a number of “national heroes” — both real and mythical individuals — who play an important role in Tajikistan's national ideology.
The lyrics also recall the civil war fought in the 1990s and praise the nation for choosing unity over violence and division.
In an earlier track Qadri sulh (The Price of Peace), Masani follows the dominant political narrative in the country, praising the virtues of peace over material wealth.
Masani's patriotism also veers into nationalism at certain points.
The rapper alludes for instance to the country's rich cultural heritage as including Samarkand and Bukhara, two cities incorporated into larger neighbour Uzbekistan as part of the Soviet nation-crafting effort in the 1920s.
Several generations of Tajiks have pined after the fabled silk road citadels where Tajik-speakers still live, while openly contemplating the possibility of reuniting them with the rest of Tajikistan.
Many more tracks feature similar narratives.
ViSenT's Tojikiston Vatanum (Tajikistan is my Motherland) and Azia's Tojikistoni yagonam (Tajikistan, My Only One) declare an unending willingness to do anything and everything for the nation.
Shukri obodi Vatan (Thankful for Prosperity in the Motherland) by Fazo and Maryo and Tojikistonam obod bosh (Prosper, My Tajikistan) by Ayz1 featuring Professor M exhibit similarly patriotic sentiments, crediting independence in 1991 and the post-civil war peace deal signed in 1997 as the basis for everything good in the country.
The latter track also stresses that Tajiks should remain true to Islam.
Many rappers demonstrate their patriotism by exalting Emomali Rakhmon, who has led the country since 1992.
In his music video Diyori arjmand (Dear Motherland), Boron (aka Boboi Boron, Behruz Majidiyon) reverently refers to Rakhmon as “God’s shadow” (soyai Khudovand) in the “heaven on Earth” that is Tajikistan.
The video begins with the sleepy rapper waking up to the voice of Rakhmon on a television set.
The president announces that young people are the future of Tajikistan and urges them to prove that they love the country by taking ownership of that future.
Visibly moved by Rakhmon's words, Boron starts rapping. His lyrics are full of references to familiar nationalist themes.
He sings, for example, about the tragedy of the “coarse division” (taqsimoti tabarona) of Central Asia in the 1920s that left Bukhara and Samarkand outside of the new Tajik republic.
This was followed by another tragedy, a civil war that was provoked, according to the rapper, by unnamed “third forces”.
These tragedies, however, did not break the Tajik nation.
Boron suggests that the sixteenth session of the Supreme Assembly in 1992 (when Rakhmon came to power) gave the country its “Leader of the Nation, grandpa Emomali”, who put an end to the fighting, brought home refugees, and created a peaceful and prosperous country.
The lyrics are accompanied by footage showing the president kickstarting major infrastructure projects and unveiling monuments to national heroes, as well as surviving an assassination attempt.
The video echoes government messaging so closely that it has become one of the few rap tracks to make it onto state-owned television so far.
In April 2016, the video was aired on government-run TV Safina.
Another widely shared rap song is simply titled Emomali Rakhmon by Professor M.
The track was apparently recorded just before the 2013 presidential elections, however, it has only become popular in recent months when pro-government youth groups began sharing it widely on social networks.
The track begins with the rapper reminding his listeners that Rakhmon is a “national hero” who had done a lot of great things before most of them could even speak.
Then, the track turns to history, beginning as the national historical narrative begins with the Samanid dynasty.
After the Samanid empire, the first-ever Tajik state according to the country's historians, the rapper notes Tajiks had to endure centuries of “torture” by “alien” rulers, culminating in the Soviet period that deprived them of their history and religion.
But, according to the rapper, God saved the Tajik people in the midst of a civil war by sending them Emomali Rakhmon who has become a “sun” shining onto the nation (a comparison that is rather popular in the country).
The singer, then, lists the “sunny” leader's achievements in service of the nation: building hydro-power plants, roads and tunnels, and, in what may be a surprise claim to some observers of the country, democracy.
The lyrics are repeatedly broken up by a catchy and somewhat ironic chorus, “I Choose Emomali Rahmon”.
In fact the new slew of rap songs in Tajikistan is remarkable for its dogged devotion to a very narrow range of themes.
Rain 104 in Tajikistan claims that the country with all its historical and cultural heritage would not have recovered from the civil war without Rakhmon.
In Tojikiston dorem (We have Tajikistan), Mr. Skap refers to him as the “best king” who deeply cares about young people.
Sektor 4 also confers a royal status on Rakhmon in his song, which once again is titled Tajikistan.
It may take a little longer to find out whether this massive injection of patriotism will help local rap music win full approval from the state, but authorities will no doubt be pleased that these rhymers are moving in the right direction.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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These African and Scandinavian Musicians Create Sweet Sounds in Copenhagen · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Musicians from Scandinavia and southern Africa play a jam session at a Danish café during the Copenhagen Jazz Festival this month. Credit: Sonia Narang
This article by Sonia Narang originally appeared on PRI.org on July 12, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
During the annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival in July, people can hear music coming from street corners, open-air plazas, and iconic jazz clubs across Denmark’s capital. On one Sunday afternoon during the recent festival, I saw a little Danish café turn into a meeting place for global cultures.
Inside Café Blå Time, which means “Blue Hour café” (or “Blue Time café”) in Danish, a crowd gathered to watch a line-up of international musicians: a drummer/singer from Mozambique, Swedish brothers who play the saxophone and piano, a singer adopted from Swaziland who now lives in Denmark, a Finnish bass player, and a guitarist from Namibia.
I caught up with Mozambique-born musician Deodato Siquir before the jam session at the café. I’d seen him perform in front of a packed house at another venue in Copenhagen the previous night, and wanted to find out more about his music.
Siquir moved to Sweden when he was in his mid-20s. “It was a rebirth for me. I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t know any musicians. I had to start from zero.”
Deodato Siquir is a singer and drummer from Mozambique. He moved to Scandinavia in his mid-20’s and plays with musicians from around the world at the annual Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Credit: Sonia Narang
In the 15 years he’s lived in Scandinavia — including seven in Copenhagen — he has built up a large network of friends and supporters.
“I had to learn the language, I had to learn the codes, and all the habits [of Scandinavians],” he says, and at the same time “not break the connection with my roots.” He sings in his first language, Ronga, and writes songs about Mozambican life. One of his most poignant songs, “Para Mutema,” is about his late mother.
In his shows, he brings together what he calls “an all-star” band of musicians who gel on stage despite disparate backgrounds.
“A Swedish guy, and a Mozambican guy, and a Danish guy, they’re speaking one language, which is the music language,” Siquir says. “That’s what we want to reflect to the society, that it’s possible.”
He’s joined on stage by two brothers — a pianist and a saxophone player — from Gothenburg, Sweden. The piano player, David Bäck, is Siquir's good friend and part of his trio.
“When we play the music, people in the audience feel like this is like my kitchen at home with the family, and we talk in a sweet way together,” Bäck says.
He enjoys playing with people of different musical styles, and says, “African music is so rhythmical and ecstatic, so it’s good for me when it takes some breaks and relaxes, and then you go with the energy again.”
While I’m waiting for the jam session to begin, I strike up a conversation with Maria Thandie Stensgaard, who I spotted in the crowd at Siquir’s concert the previous night. I find out she’s a singer who performed 16 gigs at last year’s jazz festival.
“My dad is a Zulu and my mom is from Swaziland,” she says. She was adopted by Danish parents who lived in South Africa during apartheid, and now live in Denmark.
“They’ve been quite a beautiful guidance for me, because they were the Caucasian people in the black world during apartheid and now it’s me, a little black girl in a white world,” Stensgaard says.
Jazz Singer Maria Thandie performed 16 gigs during last year’s jazz festival in Copenhagen. This summer, she says she’s mostly just attending events to support fellow musicians, and pops into a few jam sessions like this one to sing. Credit: Sonia Narang
Stensgaard grew up with gospel and blues, and says she mixed her African inspirations into that music. “I’m really a storyteller,” she says, adding, “I’m a live person. I never wanted to record. That’s my thing. I need the crowd. Whatever they bring, I’ll have that conversation by singing, that’s what I love.”
Today, she takes the stage to sing the jazz classic, “Summertime,” a lovely melody that captures the entire café’s attention.
“We do what we do best on stage, and it’s like we’re having this conversation with our instruments and getting to know each other by what we love the most,” Stensgaard says. “And, for me, that’s magic, yeah. I love it.”
A little later, singer and guitarist Jackson Wahengo adds some more lively flavor to the jam session with his rhythmic blend of African folk and pop. He grew up in the refugee camps of Angola singing freedom songs for his country Namibia, which became an independent nation in 1990.
Today, as Wahengo sings a song in his mother tongue of Oshiwambo with a Swedish band in his new hometown of Copenhagen, it truly feels like a place where cultures mix.


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Vietnamese Protesters Demand Justice Despite Government Settlement on Fish Kills · Global Voices
Don Le

Protesters in Hanoi call for Formosa to cease all operations and be prosecuted by authorities. Source: Facebook page of Nguyen Thuy Hanh
Netizens have quickly jumped online to share their frustration with the investigation process following the Vietnamese government’s media conference regarding the cause of the environmental disaster which led to 70 tonnes of dead fish being washed up ashore.
The mysterious fish kill which destroyed the livelihoods of fisherfolk across central Vietnam was largely attributed to dirty discharge from the industrial plant of Formosa, a Taiwanese company.
The hashtag #toichonca (#ichoosefish) trended after an official claimed that pollution cannot be avoided in the metal industry.
The fish kill issue generated massive protests across Vietnam.
Following the release of the findings and announcement that Formosa had agreed to pay $500 million USD in compensation for the environmental disaster, the Facebook community responded by asserting that the compensation is insignificant in the context of the damage Formosa has wreaked on the environment.
Vietnamese also shared their anguish over the government’s continuous delay of the announcement of the reasons behind the environmental disaster which occurred in central Vietnam starting in April.
Activists and the general online community responded by posting photos on social media which went viral and participated in a Facebook poll with the vast majority calling for Formosa to cease its operations in Vietnam.
Former political prisoner and citizen journalist Paulus Le Son posted a photo on social media saying:
The Vietnamese government and Formosa have committed crimes against the Vietnamese people.
The online community took to social media to count the number of days since the start of the environmental disaster.
Facebookers including Tu Anh Tu posted images and called for Vietnamese to blow a whistle every day until authorities released their findings as a sign of civil disobedience.
Source: Facebook page of Từ Anh Tú
Tu Anh Tu said in another post:
Blow your whistle to demand democracy, blow your whistle to demand transparency, blow your whistle to demand for fish lives, blow your whistle to stop Formosa.
Citizens across Vietnam responded to the call by uploading their photos to express solidarity and demand Formosa stop its operations immediately.
Activists in Nghe An Province participate in the “Blow a Whistle to Stop Formosa” campaign. Source: Facebook page of Hoàng Sa FC
Prominent blogger Huynh Ngoc Chenh expressed widely-held sentiment on his personal blog following the Vietnamese authorities’ announcement of their findings.
Some have suggested that 84 days is too long of a time for the investigating body to determine the causes and perpetrators of this national disaster.
Calls for people to protest in major cities of Vietnam were shared rapidly online.
Users asked authorities to stop cracking down on peaceful protesters and ensure Formosa no longer works in Vietnam.
These calls come shortly after photos of police attacking and detaining protesters speaking out regarding the disaster were distributed online, resulting in public uproar.
#Vietnam: Communist regime suppressed peaceful protesters in #Saigon yesterday.#ichoosefish #toichonca pic.twitter.com/5Pyw1RQs6i
— Anh Chí (@AnhChiVN) May 9, 2016
The United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Acting Regional Representative Laurent Meillan has called upon the Vietnamese government to respect the right to peaceful assembly:
We urge the Government to conduct an independent, thorough and impartial investigation of the reported cases of excessive use of force by law enforcement officers.

author: Don Le


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Meet the Nicaraguan Feminist Group Fighting Gender-Based Violence in Central America · Global Voices
Helena Closa

“The founders of La Corriente” attend a feminist conference organized by the group in June 2016. Photo: Facebook
Launched in the early 1990s, La Corriente has been described as “a type of Central American feminist network consisting of groups and individual activists alike.” Members dedicate themselves to education, publication, and the organization of conferences on the ways in which gender is lived within Central American societies and the ways women can collaborate together. Initially, and for a long time, La Corriente was a movement based in all of Central America, but it later shifted, focusing all its efforts on Nicaragua.
Based in Managua, this program has three areas of focus: education, research, and communication. Activists launch a new outreach campaign every year, aimed primarily at young men and women. They work mainly with issues such as sexual and reproductive rights and the secular state. They have further developed their activism with by staging events like “Las Reinas Chulas” (“The Pretty Queens”), a cabaret theater show and feminist movement that they and another organization created together. The theater has enjoyed great success, and allows La Corriente to reach out to many people at once and transmit values in a clear way. “Los Machos,” seen in the video below, is dedicated to viewing feminine and masculine conventions from a humorist perspective.
Another one of La Corriente's works is the radio show “Cuerpos Sin Vergüenzas” (“Shameless Bodies”), which is broadcast weekly on the Central American University radio network, where it addresses various topics related to sexual and reproductive rights, such as sexual diversity. The show’s objective is to influence the public opinion and create a space to exchange ideas with listeners. The shows are available as online podcasts through Ivoox. The last episode, titled “Celebramos Nuestro Orgullo” (“We Celebrate Our Pride”), was dedicated to LGBTIQ pride:
El 28 de junio celebramos en Nicaragua el día del orgullo lésbico-gay-bisexual-trans-intersex-queer con una marcha nacional que partió del Colegio Teresiano culminando en Metrocentro, en la que participamos diversos colectivos feministas y LGBTIQ así como personas que se sintieron convocadas a demandar respeto en una sociedad donde persiste la discriminación por motivos de orientación sexual e identidad de género.
On June 28, we celebrated the lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans-intersex-queer Pride Day in Nicaragua with a national parade that started at the Colegio Teresiano [Saint Teresa High School] and ended at Metrocentro [downtown], in which various feminist and LGBTIQ groups participated as people who felt called to demand respect in a society where discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity persists.
As a part of its activism, La Corriente defends sexual diversity and has carried out initiatives like “Revivir La Foto” (“Relive the Photo”). This series is the result of a research group called “Transitar Por el Género” (“Transiting [or Crossing] Through Gender”) focused on the binary description of gender and the examination of the so-called “dissident bodies” that challenge the social and sexual order regulated by heterosexual norms. In the video, participants are asked to take a photo from years ago and explain why it was an important event:
In the episode above, Shandi shows a photo of her high school graduation and tells how her top goals were professional training and, even more so, the development of her true identity. In the video, Shandi says she was able to attend university, but the intolerant environment there prevented her from finishing her degree.
The initiatives and projects carried out by this group can be followed in more detail on its website and social-network channels. La Corriente's most-recent activity was a regional feminist meeting at the Central American Feminist Conferences in Managua in mid-June, which you can follow on different social networks. The challenge of women in Central America, the visibility of African women, and the restrictions on abortion in the region were just some of the topics emphasized by participants.

author: Helena Closa