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Arab World: Thank You Mohamed Bouazizi! Thank You Sidi Bouzid! · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.
Netizens around the world today commemorate the first anniversary of the Arab revolution, sparked by the self-immolation of fruit and vegetable vendor Mohammed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia.
What started as a one-man protest for dignity ignited the Arab world and beyond with a revolutionary fire, that is still raging and yet to be extinguished despite the attempts of dictators and their supporters. Bouazizi set himself on fire on December 17 and died on January 4.
Millions of Arabs have since risen across the region, calling for wide ranging political, legislative, social and economic reforms. Once quashed by their dictatorships, people upped their demands, calling for a change in the regime. Zeine Al Abedeen Ben Ali of Tunisia was the first to fall in January; followed by Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in February; and then Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was toppled and killed in October.
The fall of those three dictators are milestones in this protest movement, started on December 17, 2010, and dubbed by the Western media as the Arab Spring. But the Arab revolutions are far from over.
Today netizens pay tribute to Mohamed Bouazizi, whose action snowballed, putting Arab people, their needs and aspirations at the forefront of political debate around the world. As I write this, protesters are continuing to be killed, persecuted and attacked across the region, with token gestures from world powers calling on dictatorships to show restraint in their treatment of demonstrators.
Thousands of people have since lost their lives, and tens of thousands more have been injured and maimed. Many of the protest movements are showing no sign of slowing down, and dictators, who refuse to face the destiny of Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi and their clans, are showing no signs of giving in.
Mohamed Bouazizi's grave in Sidi Bouzid. Photo shared by Ayman Mohyeldin on his Facebook page
On Twitter, Mauritanian Mouritaniya commemorates [ar] BouAzizi's death saying:
And Tunisian Imen B adds [ar]:
Tunisian Mohammed Ali Chebaane reflects on the occasion in a succession of tweets.
@MedAliChebaane: Today I don't celebrate, today I remember ~ Work, Freedom, National Dignity. #SidiBouzid
@MedAliChebaane: I went to #SidiBouzid over 10 times this year and I know that the same frustration is still alive over there! #DontForget
@MedAliChebaane: One year later, our family still didn't get its financial assets from the old regime thieves. The fight is continuing! #SidiBouzid
Fellow Tunisian Walid Saad notes:
@walidsa3d: This revolution killed 2 members of my family, and hurt me too much in every possible way. But I will always love it #SidiBouzid #Bouazizi
And  Youssef Cherif, also from Tunisia, comments:
@Faiyla: The old times when we were the Global Terrorists are gone; now we are the #Time ‘s #PersonOfTheYear !
Libyan Ismael Zmirli notes:
@ChangeInLibya: Thank you Bouzizi for giving us a sense of pride, our love for our countries back and for making the world realize we're humans too. RIP.
Saudi television presenter Ali Al Dafiri writes [ar]:
Syrian The 47th continues:
@THE_47th: You died.. And so did fear… #RIP #Bouazizi
Yemeni Noon Arabia tweets:
@NoonArabia: Despite ongoing violence & injustice, we're still holding on to the hope, thanks to #Bouazizi who set us free & gave us a reason to resist.
One of Kuwait's 100,000 stateless citizens Mona Kareem reminds us:
@monakareem: Thanks #Bouazizi for reminding us that we have dignity #Arabspring
And Egyptian activist Gigi Ibrahim promises:
@Gsquare86: On this day last year #BouAzizi set himself ablaze igniting a whole world on their road to freedom, we will never go back ! #FreeEgypt
Meanwhile, I ask:
@JustAmira: Isn't it incredible that since #SidiBouzid things just happen in the Arab world? We are never told who does what: Who kills the people?
For more reactions, check out the hashtags #SidiBouzid and #Bouazizi on Twitter.
This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Bahrain: A Bloody National Day, a Funeral and More Suppression · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

This post is part of our special coverage Bahrain Protests 2011.
22 year old protester Ali Al-Gassab who was ran over by a car this Thursday. Image by @ALWEFAQ on Twitter.
The Bahraini regime celebrated National Day, which marks the coronation anniversary of the current King's father, yesterday (December 16). On the same day, a funeral procession was due to take place in Abu Saiba village, along the Budaiya Highway, for protester Ali Ahmed Radhi Al-Gassab, who was run over during the #OccupyBudaiyaSt protests a day earlier.
In response, the Interior Ministry denied responsibility for the protester’s death and said he was injured in a traffic accident that involved a civilian vehicle and that the driver is in custody. Opposition movement, Al Wefaq Society tweeted that Ali was ran over by a civilian car according to his friend's statement.
Blogger Zainab Khawaja as she was getting arrested this Thursday
Thursday has also marked the arrest of blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja, who was brutally arrested, and is now in detention for seven days under investigation. This videos shows how policewomen dragged her on the ground after punching her in the face:
On Friday morning, the “February 14 youth coalition” announced through Twitter:
@ONLINEBAHRAIN: #OccuppyBudaiyaSt will continue today, protests expected across #Bahrain, @COALITION14 announces protest meeting points in all villages
Bahraini Twitter user Eman Alabed (@Eman_Alabed) posted a GRAPHIC picture of Ali Al-Gassab, who was ran over on Thursday:
While protesters were getting ready for Ali's funeral, the government refused to give his family his body:
@ONLINEBAHRAIN: Regime and [Ministry of Interior] MOI playing games by delaying release of martyr body to commence burial procession, fear of “spoiling” “national day”?
Protesters who showed up for the funeral did not let this hold them back and decided to head to the cemetery anyway:
Bahraini Twitter user Mohammed Ashoor (@MohmdAshoor), who has many times covered protests in his country, kept updating tweeps with news from the march:
@MohmdAshoor: Thousands are being exposed to tear gas right now a bit away from the cemetery!
@MohmdAshoor: This time they didn't even let the actual funeral start!
Photojournalist Mazen Mahdi (@MazenMahdi) has also covered many protests with his updates and pictures, including the protests this Friday:
@MazenMahdi: #AbuSaiba have been stormed most taking shelter in homes .. Hundreds were on the street
Protesters getting tear-gassed inside the cemetery
Here's a video, uploaded on YouTube by user BAHCALLUN, showing tear gas inside the cemetery:
As the police were attacking the mourning procession, the King was delivering a speech on TV to mark the National Day, in which he praised the role of security forces. The official Bahrain News Agency tweeted quotes from his speech:
@bna_en: We also praise the role of the national security forces in maintaining the safety and integrity of the country against all threats and risks.
Tweeps commented in disgust at the King's speech, particularly his praise of the security forces, which were attacking Bahraini villagers as he spoke:
@LuluAvenue: Hamad giving prizes to police live now on #Bahrain TV while his forces attacking villages, that's how they apply BICI recommendations.
Security forces throwing rocks on mourners near the cemetery and the martyr's grave
Regime forces on rooftops firing at unarmed civilians in Shakhura
This GRAPHIC video shows three  bloodied protestors, who were allegedly beaten up by police:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5nhDbGTe-Q&feature=youtu.be&skipcontrinter=1
In this video, a YouTube user says security forces were beating 25 protesters on the roof a house in Shakura, also on the Budaiya Highway. The user also states that this incident led to 18 injuries, including knife injuries to the head or stabs in the protester's thighs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dIagZaG3O4&feature=youtu.be
British blogger Marc Owen Jones sourced seven different videos of this particular roof attack incident. In his post, Jones wrote:
While the abhorrence of yesterday’s violence was itself shocking (a group of 13 riot officers on the roof of an apartment beating what appear to be about 20 youths), the fact the act was recorded on at least seven different cameras make it even more incredible. Two of the videos were taken by the youths on the roof after the beating, whilst the other 5 are taken from other onlookers. By combining the two videos recorded by the youths, and the 5 recorded by onlookers, it is possible to verify what happened.
Twitter user Fatema Naser (@iFattema) was a witness on the Shakura incident and she posted many pictures of those serious injuries [pictures in her tweets are GRAPHIC]:
@iFattema: This man was beaten with batons on his head +face & one of the police put his foot on his nose until fracture. http://yfrog.com/esynplj
@iFattema: This young man was hit in his face until his eye disappeared (The doctors were working hard) http://t.co/MJYgrHkF
@iFattema: http://yfrog.com/gzvb2arj
@iFattema: This man was hit on his head. & cut off part of his fingers with a knife!!! But he was really 9UMOOOD [Resistance]!! http://yfrog.com/h7baeqhj #Bahrain
@iFattema: This injured I cried when I saw him!! His skull was broken,His hands&feet were mutilated with knives!!!!! http://twitpic.com/7u2tah
@iFattema: This young man was beaten on his head with batons. (Doctors stitching his wounds) http://twitpic.com/7u2ux0 taken by @Mo7ammedMirza
@iFattema: There were abt 19 injured. All of them were beaten with batons+knives+iron bars after throwing them on the ground &tying their hands.
Last February, when the uprising first started, protesters were getting arrested from the hospitals when they go there to treat their injuries. Medics, on the other hand, were sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for treating protesters. Bahrainis tweeted how protesters and medics are dealing with this now.
@Bahrain_Victory: Serious injuries being treated at homes by nurses, no one can go to hospital bcuz they will be arrested http://t.co/XMbAYIgy
This video shows those beaten on the roof of that house in Shakurah getting treated in a house.
This post is part of our special coverage Bahrain Protests 2011.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mona Kareem


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Bangladesh: A Crowd-Sourced Travel Photography Project · Global Voices
Rezwan

Anil introduces us to Positive Light, Bangladesh's first crowd-sourced photography project.

author: Rezwan


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Bangladesh: Debt Storm Rising? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mukti is alarmed by the steep rise of Bangladesh government’s domestic debt which is triggering downfall of credit growth in the private sector thus stopping investment.


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Bangladesh: Why A Region Is Poor? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Basher tries to analyze why a large region in the north of Bangladesh remains poor.


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Bhutan: Thanking The Armed Forces · Global Voices
Rezwan

Tshering Tobgay, the opposition leader of Bhutan posts translation of a motion of thanks in the parliament praising the Royal Bhutan Army.


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Brazil-Bahrain: Tear Gas for Repression “Made in Brazil” · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff reveals on Twitter that the tear gas devices used for repressing the civilian population of Bahrain is manufactured [pt] in the city of Nova Iguaçu, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and adds he feels ashamed [pt] for his country exporting such weapons.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Bishop Points Out Rape as Women’s Excuse for Abortion · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Luis Soares, from the blog Pragmatismo Político (Political Pragmatism) quotes [pt] Bishop of Guarulhos, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, Luiz Gonzaga Bergonzini, who said that “women lie when they say they were raped”. In the bishop's mind, he adds, women lie in order to have abortions, because the Brazilian law allows it in case of rape.


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China: A Week Later, Wukan Remains Under Siege · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The Nanfang has compiled a day-by-day summary of the recent events in the village of Wukan in southern China's Guangdong province, still under siege.

author: John Kennedy


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China: Pandaman vs. Christian “Batman” Bale Goes Viral · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The news yesterday that human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been sent back to prison for somehow violating the terms of his parole while being held incommunicado for the past 20 months – “We though he was dead,” said his wife He Geng – once again brings us back to the question of whether foreign pressure is beneficial to those held in such extreme circumstances.
The issue has proven to be highly divisive among Chinese activists and public intellectuals in past months, something addressed in this post about Hollywood actor Christian Bale's failed attempt to visit equally incommunicado rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng.
Tom at the Seeing Red in China blog also raised the issue in a post yesterday, ‘Christian Bale visited Linyi – Does foreign pressure mean anything to the Chinese gov’t?':
Many observers worry that foreign coverage will allow the Party to label these incidents the result of foreign involvement, but there is a growing gap between what the gov’t says and what the people believe (as evidenced by the air monitoring debate in Beijing). Claims of “foreign involvement” have already been made in both places, and have been soundly rejected by Chinese activists. In one case, a prominent commentator claimed that Chen had been funded by foreign forces and was met with a lengthy confrontation by a young woman wearing sunglasses, a symbol of Chen’s supporters, demanding proof that he couldn’t provide. The video spread quickly across Chinese forums.
The crux of Chen Min's argument, shared by many, seems to be that domestic Chinese voices have more potential to help improve the situation of political prisoners like Chen and Gao than those of foreigners who don't have all the details.
But in that vein: move along, pepper spraying cop:
Pandaman on a school bus about to crash
Pandaman in Wukan
Pandaman with Ai Weiwei and friends
Pandaman in Times Square
Pandaman ends Batman


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Egypt: Tahrir Square Burning  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Egypt's Military Police set Cairo's Tahrir Square ablaze and forcefully pushed away protesters demonstrating outside the Cabinet on the first anniversary of the Arab revolution, sparked by the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. Egypt's netizens are on hand to provide witness accounts of what is happening on the ground now.
The battle #OccupyCabinet has been raging for two days: eight people have been killed and more than 300 injured as the military attacked protesters who have been camping outside the Cabinet headquarters in Cairo for the past three weeks, protesting against the military appointment of Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal El Ganzouri as the new Prime Minister earlier this month.
El Ganzouri just gave a press conference, stressing that the army would not attack peaceful protesters. Minutes later, a full offensive was waged on the protesters, pushing them away from the cabinet and clearing and burning Tahrir Square. Netizens report their witness accounts live on Twitter as I type.
OneRevolution tweets:
@nagoul1: A massacre is taking place in #Tahrir right #now! #egypt #NoScaf #MediaBlackout
And screams:
@Nagoul1: We lost the square! #Tahrir #Egypt #NoScaf
He explains:
@nagoul1: The army used live ammunition to disperse #tahrir protesters -forcing them back away from cabinet buiding to the mddle of the square.
And pinpoints his vantage point:
@nagoul1: I am three blocks away from where the action is. It was very loud.
On Twitter, Sharif Khaddous shares this image from Tahrir Square now and explains:
Sharif Kouddous shares this picture of Tahrir Square minutes ago on Twitter
@sharifkouddous: Groups of soldiers roaming square. Some people getting beaten randomly. Tents burning. Tahrir looks like a war zone
The journalist adds:
@sharifkouddous: Army soldiers just came into apartment we are at and took cameras from us
As usual, journalists have not been spared in this attack on protesters. Hayat Al Yamani tweets that her colleagues from Al Jazeera Mubashar have been arrested too.
Bel Trew is also on the scene, tweeting live. Here are some of his frantic tweets as the chaos unfolds:
@Beltrew: Tents on fire on the midan [Square]. Army everywhere and extremely violent. Can here bangs not sure if it's gunfire #tahrir a mess
@Beltrew: Protesters being chased down corniche running between the traffic. This is ridiculous #tahrir
And Adam Makary exclaims:
@adamakary: PM Ganzouri SAID violence will not be used on peaceful protesters just ten minutes ago #Egypt
And adds:
@adammakary: The military police have taken tahrir and qasr el aini – they've got it sealed from every rooftop and every road entrance. Painful images
And he shares this image too:
Tahrir Burning. Adam Makary shares this image of Tahrir burning on yfrog
@adammakary: This is #tahrir now, I'm speechless #egypt #occupycabinet
He explains:
@adamakary: Military police setting every tent ablaze in their vicinity, bashing cars, everything.. anything #egypt
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.


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India: Girls and Their Right To A Career · Global Voices
Rezwan

In India, at this modern age, some parents arbitrarily decide the future of their adult children. Fire Crystal writes about a girl, who was denied of her rights by her father to study and pursue a career of her choice.


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India: The INK Conference Concludes · Global Voices
Rezwan

The second INK (Innovation and Knowledge) conference was held during 8-12 December in Jaipur, India. BlogAdda posts a detailed roundup of the conference.


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Philippines: Storm Leaves Hundreds Dead and Missing · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

As of this writing, 440 people are confirmed dead in many parts of Mindanao Island in southern Philippines after tropical storm Sendong (international name: Washi) hit the country last Friday, December 16. The casualties could be worse and may even reach more than 600. Flashfloods swept the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro while the residents were sleeping past midnight. It’s the worst flooding to hit the north part of Mindanao in many years.
On Facebook, Keith Obed Ruiz uploaded these photos of Cagayan de Oro floods.
Children looking for belongings after storm
Flooded houses
Evacuation center
Flooded village
As of this writing this photo was viewed 13,762 times on twitter. @mindanaoan’s message to readers
Warning: graphic photo – A father loses his child to Typhoon #Sendong (my heart broke into pieces coz of this)
Storn Sendong also battered other parts of the Philippines. This video is from a resident of Negros Oriental in the Visayan region
Hashtags #sendong and #prayformindanao dominated the web and were maximized by netizens to call for support
@PaintersWifePH For #Sendong, there's text-in donation, there's Paypal, there's bank deposit, there's no excuse. Any amount, just do it!
@marvin_agustin Father, you are our shelter and our hope. We come to you with hearts full of trust in your love and mercy. we pray for victims of #sendong
@oysterhalfshell We're appealing for old clothes. A number of workers with flooded homes, now taking refuge at my in-laws, and needing dry clothes. #sendong
@melcahmay the pick-up truck in front of us have 2 dead bodies. in my mama's office they found 2 unknown female casualties.
Through Facebook, Abdel Jamal informs friends about a planned relief effort
My friends all over the world,
I know you want to help Iligan City out. So here's how you can.
My high school batch, IDS 2000 of MSU-IIT (MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology), is spearheading a relief operations thru feeding program, gathering used clothing, and supplying manpower. My batchmate, Beatriz Arcinas Cañedo, will open the College of Education (CED) cafeteria in MSU-IIT as of 8am tomorrow to lead the feeding program. Noodles, rice, etc will be cooked there and sandwiches, etc will be prepared there. As of 7pm earlier, there were 400 families (and counting) in the MSU-IIT gym, 1 of 10 evac centers. (This has become 15 already according to the latest news.) So that's a lot of sandwiches, noodles, etc. Just imagine. This will continue for days to come. Other batchmates are also looking ways for us to help out.
Schools are also transforming their campuses into evacuation centers. Even Christmas parties have been canceled. Roberto Yap reports
Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, in Cagayan de Oro City is assisting the National Disaster Coordinating Council in providing food, clothing and medical assistance to the victims of Typhoon Sendong. Its main campus in Corrales Avenue is open for donations in cash or in kind. The University is also hosting some victims of the disaster in makeshift evacuation centers within the campus and is sending out medical personnel and students for first aid and trauma debriefing. The University Clinic is also open to treat patients. The University Christmas Party scheduled for this evening of 17th December has been canceled with the funds and food for this celebration donated instead to the disaster relief efforts. The University is accepting donations at the Helpdesk set up at the University's front gate or at the Relief Center at the Satellite Canteen near the College of Agriculture building (beside the gymnasium). Personnel and student volunteers are being deployed to buy, pack and deliver relief goods all over the City, under the direction of the University Chaplain, Fr Eric Velandria SJ.
In the days ahead, Xavier University is committed to explore and implement various ways of providing assistance to those affected by one of the worst natural disasters to hit Cagayan de Oro City in recent memory.

author: Mong Palatino


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Rwanda: Online Reactions to Reduced Sentence for Genocide Mastermind  · Global Voices
Etienne Mashuli

The Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania has reduced the sentence of Theoneste Bagosora from life to 35 years. Colonel Bagosora, often identified as the “king pin” of the Rwandan Genocide, was the director of cabinet in 1994 when the genocide against Tutsi occurred. Moreover, it is believed that he wielded the  most clout on the Rwandan army during the genocide.
In his defense, Col. Bagosora claimed he was a victim of state propaganda by the current Tutsi dominated government. However, the court maintained that he had failed to use his influence to stop the 1994 slaughter. Bagosora who is aged 70 years will be 89 when his prison term ends.
At the same time, the co-accused, Anatole Nsengiyumva, got his sentence cut down to 15 years, which is the equivalence of the time he has spent in jail.
The reduction of Bagosora's sentence has been met with mixed reactions. Most Rwandans view the sentence as too lenient. President Paul Kagame added his input during the opening of the 9th National Dialogue. He stated:
It has taken them 17 years to try Bagosora a genocidaire and they tried him badly.
Adding that since the international community had failed to deliver justice, it lacked the legitimacy to question his human rights record:
Those who have failed to try genocidaires for 17 years are jokers and liars. Those who come to teach us freedoms are [the] same people letting the likes of murderers like Bagosora free.
The Newtimes, a leading newspaper in Rwanda, observed that the news was “greeted by surprise and shock” by many people including genocide survivors. Jean de Dieu Mucyo, the head of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide, was quoted as saying:
I was shocked by the decision; it’s nothing but an insult to Genocide survivors; however, I need to read the ruling thoroughly to know the exact basis of the judgment.
Rwandan genocide kingpin Theoneste Bagosora. Image source: Theoneste Bagosora Facebook page.
Willis Shalita, a Rwandan American blogger, was similarly offended by the sentence which he described as “a mockery of justice”. He argued:
Theoneste Bagosora, Rwanda’s Himmler was arrested 15 years ago in  Cameroon and later sentenced to life imprisonment for being the chief  architect of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Justice seemed to have  been done then.
But now, this devil incarnate has had his sentence reduced to 35 years.  With time served, Bagosora will be 89, God forbid, when he walks as a  free man. Or will he?
Adding that if Bagosora is ever released it would send the “wrong message”:
The lessons about the genocide against the Tutsi keep unravelling. But  this much we know : a crime against humanity was committed while the  world looked on. That Bagosora can ever test freedom again sends the  wrong message to those monsters who see genocide as the only means of  settling political disagreements.
Ordinary Rwandans who mostly speak in Kinyarwanda  expressed their views on the comment section of Igihe online newspaper.
A commentator identiffying as Mugasa wondered:
Ariko ibi si ukutwendereza ra ?
Drake was equally surprised and angry:
Ndumiwe  kabisa uburyo umuntu nka Bagosora wakoze amarorerwa nkariya wakabaye  akatirwa burundu,umuntu wamennye ndetse akanamenesha amaraso  inzirakarengane ngo yahawe mirongo itatu nitanu birenze ukwemera !
The uproar was also felt on Twitter.
@NastasyaTay: I was on his trial team. #Bagosora deserves life many times over.
@_rachelrichard: You can be a key organiser of a crime against humanity, GENOCIDE and only receive 35 years sentence. This is NOT justice. #Rwanda #Bagosora
@JMunyaneza: #ICTR,what! 35yrs for butcher #Bagosora,a man with blood of a million + innocent souls on his hands!The #Genocide master left with 20yrs in!
Before the appeal, Col. Bagosora had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for his involvement in the genocide. Moreover, he was also found responsible for the killing of ten Belgian peacekeepers by the Rwandan army at the time.

author: Etienne Mashuli


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Sidi Bouzid’s Anniversary: Celebrating One Year of Arab Awakening · Global Voices
Leila Nachawati Rego

This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.
At the beginning of October, about 100 bloggers and activists took part in the third Arab Bloggers Meeting to work, share experiences and celebrate a year of citizen uprisings against oppression and injustice. The meeting took place in Tunisia and the symbolic value of all of us being there, where citizen mobilizations started, made it very special.
Ten months after Mohammad Bouazizi's self-immolation which took Tunisians to the streets of Sidi Bouzid and ended up with a country-wide revolution which overthrew a 30-year-old dictatorship, our host Sami Ben Gharbia, activist and Global Voices Advocacy director, welcomed us “to Free Tunisia”.
Cité des Sciences in Tunis, where Arab Bloggers meeting was held (2012: Free). Image source: @Greendata
We could sense freedom on the streets, on the walls full of pictures of candidates for the upcoming elections, on the news and in video clips mocking ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was the second Arab dictator to be booted out of power after years of  oppressing his people.
The fact that we could all meet in Tunisia, along which some of the Tunisian participants who had been exiled for years,  was proof of how much had changed since December 2010. The fact that most Palestinians invited to the event were denied entry to the country was also proof of how much work there was still ahead in order to achieve freedom and justice across the region.
We honored them by printing their photographs and pinning them to 10 empty chairs where they were meant to be sitting. We also spoke to some of them through Skype, using technology to break the physical boundaries that kept us apart.
Empty chairs for the Palestinians who were denied entry. Image source: @leila_na
Two months later, two of the participants in that meeting were imprisoned by Arab regimes. Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah was arrested on October 30 for refusing to respond to the Military Court that has taken Mubarak's place in ruling Egyptians. Syrian activist Razan Ghazzawi was arrested on December 4, while traveling out of Syria to attend a conference on freedom of expression in Jordan. Both Alaa and Razan are among the most renowned Arab bloggers and have been using words as weapons against their repressive regimes for years.
Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam, who participated in the first Arab Bloggers Meeting together with Alaa and Razan, has also disappeared. Across the region, thousands of other citizens have been killed, detained and tortured in countries, ruled by regimes that consider freedom of expression as an enemy. The list of bloggers and journalists arrested keeps growing.
The fact that so many bloggers, journalists and cyberactivists are harassed and arrested in the region is proof that they have become instrumental in helping channel civil society's demands, influencing public opinion and breaking the wall of propaganda that these governments had been using for decades to legitimize their regimes. Activists from the Middle East and North Africa have attracted worldwide solidarity and citizens from other countries have been inspired by their courage, their taking to the streets and their use of digital tools to organize and share events with the rest of the world.
The mobilizations have become global and reached other regions, including democratic countries where many citizens are questioning whether their governments meet their needs and demands, from Spain's 15 M movement to the United States Occupy Wall Street protest. It has been a year since Bouazizi's sacrifice, and the citizen struggle for rights and dignity is more alive than ever.
To gather reactions to the anniversary of Sidibouzid, we asked this question on Twitter:
If you had to describe this year in one word what would it be? #yearaftersidibouzid.
My word would be Awakening. The year when Bouazizi helped us citizens all over the world wake up and lose our fear and indifference. Following are reactions from netizens:
@Tzarak:  @leila_na ¿Puede ser más de una ? كلمتي حرة
@AliTweel  @leila_na سنة البوعزيزي
This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.

author: Leila Nachawati Rego


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Taiwan: Land Expropriation Revision Fails to Address Farmers’ Woes · Global Voices
Vergil Yeh

In the past two years, a number of farmer protests in Taiwan against land expropriation have taken place. Local farmer groups have requested the government to protect farm land from abusive expropriation by amending the Land Expropriation Act.
As the presidential election is approaching, the politicians in the Executive Yuan have decided to revise the law. However, instead of addressing the farmers’ concerns, on December 13, 2011, the lawmakers in the Legislative Yuan passed a revision of the Act that reinstates the interests of development over human rights.
University Professor Hsu SJ summarized the problem of the proposed bill (translated by Paul Cooper and Drew Cameron via his blog):
First, forced land expropriation involves human rights and is not a simple matter of how much compensation is offered. Forced expropriations are uncommon in constitutional democracies — unlike in Taiwan. This is because these nations view the issue as one involving human rights and one that needs to be strictly observed.
Second, land expropriation is a structural issue and not merely a matter of technical evaluation. Because land expropriation robs people of the constitutionally guaranteed rights mentioned above, expropriation must meet very strict conditions — it must serve the community, be necessarily proportional, a last resort and fully compensated. Not one of these conditions should be ignored.
The old lady is worried that her mother will become homeless. Photo by CHYNG
Independent journalist Shuchuan compared [zh] farmer groups’ proposals and the government's revision in her blog. Quite obviously, the bill  passed has not answered the farmers’ demand for procedural justice:
民間版本明確指出「特定農業區不得徵收」，只容許國防、水利等重大急迫者可考慮例外。行政院版雖也提出「特定農業區農牧用地不得納入」，但卻開了許多後門，例如包含國防、交通、公用事業、水利事業、公共衛生及環保事業、以及爭議最大的「經行政院核定的重大建設所需者，不在此限」。
行政院願在徵收前舉行公聽會，但不願舉行聽證會。(兩者差異甚大，公聽會沒有法律效力，人民在公聽會所提意見是否被採納，全看主辦單位，而聽證會依行政程序法舉辦，各方在聽證會中所言具法律效力)
行政院版從過去的公告地價加四成改成「市價徵收」，但所謂「市價」是由地方政府調查，並提交「地價評議委員會」評定。但許多土地徵收案都由地方政府發動，如果再由地方政府調查、評議，農村陣線認為無法達到公正客觀。
民間版本提出應委託三位以上不動產估價師進行查估，再提出全部估價報告由中央主管機關做為審議的參考。
The Executive Yuan has changed the land expropriation compensation from a fixed price to “market price”. But the so-called “market price” is put forward by the local government to the “Land price evaluation committee”. Since most of the land expropriations are initiated by local governments, it is very unlikely that they can be objective in evaluation of the land price.
The civil society demands an evaluation of land price by three independent consultant firms and a central government authority should be responsible for deciding the “market value”.
如因徵收而無屋可住者的安置措施，行政院版提出的對象僅限於「徵收公告前有居住事實的低收入戶、或無屋可居住者」。
但民間版本提出安置應一視同仁，不必限定。
According to the Executive Yuan's proposal, the government will only relocate the homeless and those low income residents affected by the land expropriation. Civil society demands resettlement for all.
On the night  of December 13, when politicians were debating the revision of Land Expropriation Act at the Legislative Yuan, farmers and activists from the Taiwan Rural Front demonstrated outside the building calling for land justice. Below is a short video uploaded by Taipeicitypost showing the protest scene. Protesters keep calling out, “For land justice, make no compromise”:
Many farmers shared their stories about forced land expropriation on that night. University student, Xie Er-ting shared [zh] what he had heard from the farmers in his blog:
獲選台灣十大經典好米的阿燈大哥，上台說：「各位，我的稻田也被徵收了。」連續三年獲得竹北稻米大賽前三名的農民，土地被璞玉計畫徵收，而規劃中的台大校區，迄今閒置十年。七十歲的阿嬤泛著淚，因為她一百歲的母親，可能隨時流離失所。一位客家老農，在台上講到最後，突然大聲唱起大家都聽不太懂的山歌，彷彿為了召喚什麼，彷彿他已經不知道還能做什麼，能讓他內心平靜。
Xie was very sad and questioned the role of the government:
政府在哪裡？整個晚上，未見任何官員前來關心，制服警察在會場入口森冷地站成一排。立委們將法案逕付二讀，要在房間內「協調」，「分配」好這些人的未來去向。
在這個國家，我的家，可能因為一張莫名的公告，就被廉價徵收；在這個國家，年均收入兩萬美金，是世界的科技重鎮，卻讓一群年邁的老人，在寒風中請求大家幫忙，不要讓他們流離失所。我不知道這個國家進步在哪，我真的不知道。
Indeed, the impact of land expropriation has been pervasive in Taiwan, Food Crisis and Global Land Grab has published a list of expropriation sites.

author: Vergil Yeh


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Bahrain: #OccupyBudaiyaSt Continues  · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.
Bahraini protesters have been continuing with their daily protests despite a government crackdown, from a government that tells the world that it is implementing reforms and not involved in the killing of innocent people. This none forceful confrontation with protesters has resulted in two deaths and countless injuries since Thursday.
On Thursday, Bahrainis started their #OccupyBudaiyaSt protests. On that day, a 22-year-old man called Ali Al-Gassab  was killed and activist/blogger Zainab Al-Khawajah was arrested for taking part in the Occupy Budaiya Street protest. The Occupy Budaiya Street protest aims at pressuring the government to release political prisoners and pay tribute to Bahrain's 40-plus martyrs, killed at the hand of security forces since the unrest started in Bahrain in February.
On Friday, as the regime was celebrating the country's National Day, thousands of Bahrainis packed the streets heading to Al-Gassab's funeral. However, the hospital, allegedly refused to give the body to his family. Despite this set back, the crowds headed to the cemetery, in Abu Saiba village, also on the Budaiya Highway, where they chanted against the regime. Security forces chased the protesters away with tear gas and brutality.
The most notable event was what was so called ‘Shakura Massacre‘; an incident that was caught by seven different cameras. It shows riot policemen on the roof of a building in Shakura village, along the Budaiya Highway, brutalizing around 18 men and leaving them with major injuries. The Interior Ministry tweeted in comment on this incident earlier on Saturday saying:
@moi_bahrain: Legal Affairs at MOI suspended some police personnel to investigate attack case against citizens in Shakhura yesterday (Friday).
Some netizens objected to the Shakhura being dubbed massacre, saying that none of the youth attacked was killed. Here is a video of the incident [WARNING: Graphic content].
Police repression and ministry's promises did not hold protesters back and they took to the streets to mourn Al-Gassab the following day and to keep their #OccupyBudaiyaSt movement alive. Armed with their mobile phones, netizens documented the day's events and relayed them to the rest of the world in real time. Here are some of their observations:
@alhojairy: Now, thousands of mourners chanting: our resistance is peaceful
@ONLINEBAHRAIN: Huge crowds of mourners participating in the funeral in Abusaiba Village
Despite road blocks, massive crowd at funeral. Image uploaded by MazenMahdi.
@anmarek: Women sit-in at the funeral of Martyr Ali Algassab
@anmarek: I asked this mourner why he is wearing a helmet! He said "protection!"
@MazenMahdi: Protest extremely peaceful #occupybudaiyaST roads open hundreds of protesters on side-walk #Bahrain including lots of women children.
Soon enough, the attack started.
@LuluAvenue: In my village there is a protest & it's being attacked by police #Bahrain ,, teargas everywhere !!
@FreedomPrayers: "Down With Hamad" written with flowers
@MazenMahdi: Police stormed #occupybudaiyaST without warning.
@chanadbh: Video of riot police attacking protesters with tear gas at #OccupyBudaiyaSt a little while ago: bit.ly/vATs3I
@FreedomPrayers: Suffocating ppl take refugee in mall. Experience tells me the mall will be stormed soon
@ONLINEBAHRAIN: Tear gas everywhere
@alaashehabi: A unit of 200 riot police. Just entered AbuSaiba village. HUGE explosion sound & lots of shooting
@MazenMahdi: Hundreds remain on the streets off #occupybudaiyaST sporadic clashes .. Youth securing inside roads to prevent storming
@Blackout_X: The police is getting ready with huge numbers to attack us in country mall!!
@chanadbh: Photos of riot police officer apparently beating a woman with his gun yesterday
This video uploaded by (MrBuHaider) shows protesters sitting on the pavement of the street chanting “Somood” (Resistance) when riot police attacked:
Another video (uploaded by kawaranews) shows security forces attacking people who were trying to pray at the site of a demolished Shia mosque:
And this video (uploaded by mmeha89) shows protesters in Abu Subia roundabout getting attacked by riot police:
In this video, BahrainyCitizen7 states that not only did the police fire tear gas at the protesters, police also attacked those standing next to Costa Coffee shop and beat them with their batons. He notes that one of the riot police members broke the glass on one of the tables for no reason.
Here's another video (uploaded by SEARCHMEALL) that shows the police attack on protesters. They had to get into a mall and many of them had injuries or were suffocating:
This video (uploaded by alawy1221) shows women getting attacked by police:
As the day progressed, more photographs were circulated online. Here are two of them which illustrate how Bahrainis inside the villages on the Budaiya Highway have been faring over the previous few days:
A protester being hit by a rubber bullet at the time of impact
@Peacelooving: Gas and sound bombs used by the police for the suppression of protesters in Abu siba village only.
Today, mourners in Bahrain buried another man in Al Muqsha village, also on the Budaiya Highway. As usual, police fired tear gas after the funeral of 73-year-old Abdulali Ali Ahmed, who relatives say died of smoke inhalation.
On Twitter, Al Sahawly shares this video showing part of the protest being suppressed:
Plumes of tear gas are seen rising in the horizon as the police shoot at protesters and passing cars.
Stay tuned for more coverage from Bahrain.
This post is part of our special coverage of Bahrain Protests 2011.


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China: Comments on South Korean Protest Against Coast Guard Incident · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Anne Lee from China Hush blogs about local media outlet Netease's feature story on South Korean protest against the coast guard incident.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: English-only European town in Beijing Suburb · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ministry of Tofu translated a news story about a billion-yuan construction plan of an English-speaking town as large as 60 hectares (165 acres) in Miyun county, a suburban region in the northeast of Beijing city. According to the plan, people can't talk in Chinese inside the walled-city.


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China: Han Chinese student uprising against their Tibetan peers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fiona Smith from China Digital Times translated a witness account of a Han Chinese student about a Han Chinese student attack against their Tibetan peer in the dormitory of Chengdu Railroad Engineering school.


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Egypt: Women Against SCAF – Who Wins? · Global Voices
Nermeen Edrees

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Almost a year into Egypt's revolution in which millions of people took to the streets calling for dignity, freedom and social equality,  the series of violations against women continues. It has been a year during which the Supreme Council for Armed Forces (SCAF), Egypt's military ruler, abhorrently abused Egyptian women sexually, physically, and emotionally – yet not beyond repair.
The world woke up today to see that Egypt had made the headlines again with a photograph of military officers ferociously beating a veiled girl and stripping her off her clothes during the #OccupyCabinet sit in dispersal attempt.
For three weeks, activists have been staging a sit-in outside the Cabinet headquarters in Cairo, protesting against the military appointment of Kamal El Ganzouri as the new Prime Minister of Egypt earlier this month. Ten people were killed and around 500 injured as soldiers battled with protesters in and around Tahrir Square since December 16. The atrocities committed by the soldiers against women shocked the world.
Dalia Ezzat posted a video to show the violent act committed against the veiled female protester I mention earlier:
@Daloosh: And if the picture wasn't enough. Here's the video of #SCAF ‘s outrageous use of violence with a woman
This video showing men in military uniform savagely beating and undressing a veiled woman was widely circulated online and covered by the media.
If not for the stripping act that might have happened unintentionally, I urge you to please watch closely the military officer foot hitting the girl in the face and chest over and over. The amount of rage and violence is unjustifiable.
Last night, there were calls to stop circulating the girl's photograph, in order not to embarrass her. But netizens has said their word, when they emphasised that the shame was SCAF's and not her.
Egyptian columnist Mona El Tahawy challenges:
@monaeltahawy: We will not be silenced. We will tell everyone, who wants to hear or not. The shame belongs to police & #SCAF, not to us women of #Egypt
Amira Aly clarifies:
@FEM4Ever: SCAF reduced her to #BlueBraGirl we shouldn't. She is Freedom and Dignity and Courage. She is the true #EgyptGal
Mona Seif, an outspoken Egyptian blogger and activist who has been detained and tortured along with her sister, confirms that the girl in the video is not detained but is recovering – I suppose physically not emotionally – but her identity will not be revealed [ar]:
Acts of violence against protesters also included an attack on a senior Egyptian woman, in order for this demographic not to feel left out! Here is an image Ahmed Shokeir shared on Twitter with the following comment [ar]:
An Egyptian soldier is seen attacking an elderly woman in this photograph shared by Ahmed Shokeir on Twitter
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Nermeen Edrees


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India, Pakistan: Harmony In Matrimony · Global Voices
Rezwan

The rivalry between India and Pakistan is one of the much talked about conflicts. Quite the contrast The Life And Times Of Two Indians in Pakistan blog highlights cases of cross-border marriages between Indians and Pakistanis and the challenges the bride and groom face.


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Iran: Jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several sites reported  [fa] that Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Iranian jailed blogger stopped his hunger strike after about one week.Hossein is serving a 15 year prison sentence in the security ward of Evin Prison.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Kobe, Japan: Running Through a City Once Devastated · Global Voices
Kazuko Ohchi

Over 1.5 million people were living in the industrial and cultural city of Kobe when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake hit on January 17, 1995. More than 6,000 lives were lost and much of the city was cut off from gas, electricity and water. Many people lost their jobs and/or homes, while vacant lots were scattered everywhere across the city.
While a city cannot regain all of the things it lost, Kobe has re-emerged as a bustling city brightened by new lights in the 17 years since the disaster.
On November 20, 2011, the city held its first ever official marathon event. More than 20,000 runners completed the 42.195 km distance for “Kobe Marathon 2011”, running through famous tourist spots as well as former vacant areas. Among them were 641 runners who came from the Tohoku region, which had been devastated by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake this March.
Capturing the energy of a city that has fought to overcome a disaster rouses the spirits of its people, and encourages those who are in the midst of going through similar difficulties themselves.  The event theme articulates the spirit of the organizers who decided to hold the marathon event at the very place where people had struggled to rebuild their city.
“Event Theme: “Thanks and Friendship”, We would like to express our sincere thanks to the people and communities in Japan and overseas who reached out to us in our hour of need, and are still reaching out to us as we seek to recover from the recent disaster.
Ahead of the start whistle, some runners and supporters expressed their feelings.
A runner from Tohoku answered in a video  interview [ja]:
同じ経験をされた地だと思いますので、それを胸に一緒になって走っていきたいと思います。
A supporter described her pleasure that the formerly devastated city held such a big event:
@juju_fleur：間もなく神戸マラソンスタート!!震災で大きな被害を受けたこの街で、25000人のマラソン大会が実現するなんて、当時を思い出すと感無量です。ランナーもスタッフも頑張って!!応援行きます!!
Runners from Tohoku were running with green ribbons. The PR Twitter account from Kobe City tweeted to increase extra cheering for the green-ribbon runners.
@kobecity0311神戸市広報専門官　松下麻理：
【神戸マラソン】ランナー快走中！緑のリボンをつけて走っておられる方は、被災地から来られたランナーです。大きな声援をお願いします！ pic.twitter.com/5cl5mCgT
A runner from Tohoku
A short video of the event has been uploaded to YouTube, where a runner from Tohoku is expressing his impression of the event.
まだ自分の街が建物も信号もない状態が続いてるんですけど、自分の街も将来復興するというイメージがつきました。
We can also feel the atmosphere of the event from many blogs. This blogger wrote multiple entries on participating in the marathon:
sakaeのniponipoブログ：
『スーパーマンの紛争で
走っておられるランナーと会いました。
真っ赤なマントには、
「　神戸　ありがとう　　東北は負けません　」
と書かれていました。』
『沿道からも、
「　東北、頑張れ～！　」　「　スーパーマン～、頑張って～！　」
「　神戸がついてるよ～！　」
と、多くの方が声援を送っていました。
この神戸の４２kmに、どんな景色が見えたのでしょうか。
どんな思いを胸に走っておられたのでしょうか。
４２kmを走りきった充実感とともに、
大きな希望と、温かい想いと、
前へ向かっていく強い気持を持って
故郷へ戻っていかれたことを願います』
Ryuji Watanabe from Fukushima Prefecture, one of the many people who completed the marathon, wrote down his memories on the website “Koide Dojo”, the runners’ group to which he belongs:
マラソンを通じて「復興run」、東北から元気な発信を少しでも出来たと思います。そして今回の大会で
多くの方々が声かけてくれて、「兄ちゃん太ってるけどがんばりや～」「あごあがってるで～」
「ふくしま頑張れ～」等本当に走っていて、涙が出ました。号泣しながら走っていました。
本当に私は皆さんに支えられて生きてるのだ～と実感しました。
Meanwhile, the revitalized city of Kobe does not mean that people have forgotten the earthquake that hit 17 years ago. They still have scenes of those days clearly in their mind.
@uraimayumi：ヘリが沢山飛んでる。神戸マラソンの準備なんだろうけど、震災を思い出してしまった‥ twitpic.com/7fms8u

author: Kazuko Ohchi


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Puerto Rico: #EnProfundo 51 · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The team behind the podcast #EnProfundo came back unexpectedly for a 51st edition [es], where they discuss, among other things, the bizarre official holiday card of the Mayor of San Juan, Jorge Santini.

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Puerto Rico: Teatro Breve’s Holiday Special · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Mariángel Gonzales writes about the improv theatrical group Teatro Breve's holiday special.


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Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the 2012 Presidential Election · Global Voices
Donna Welles

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
Formerly Russia's richest man, jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky is once again in the political spotlight, as Russian presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov vows to pardon Mr. Khodorkovsky if he's elected next spring. Mr. Khodorkovsky has been incarcerated since 2003, when he was arrested for non-payment of back-taxes as part of the “Yukos Affair“. Many have doubted the validity of the charges against him and view his prosecution as part of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's political agenda.
In a November 16, 2011, post entitled “FC Anzhi and the Yeltsin Era Money,” Global Voices described Russia's economy since the fall of the Soviet Union, the origin of the “oligarchs,” as well as Putin's attempts to control and direct their activities:
The Yeltsin era of the 1990s was characterized by a struggle over who would emerge from the transition with holdings of Russia's major sources of wealth, such as its natural resources. The victors in that struggle are known as the ‘oligarchs’ because they possess a degree of wealth that surpasses most people's ability to conceptualize. […]
Vladimir Putin's rise has had unexpected effects on the power of the oligarchs in that he has been able to enforce limitations on them and to direct their activities.
The early Putin years marked a divide between the oligarchs who fell in line with Putin's wishes and those who didn't. During this time Mr. Khodorkvsky, CEO of the oil giant Yukos, was praised by international organizations for being the first of Russia's elite to make public his financial records; he met with world leaders, he engaged in well-publicized domestic relief efforts, and he mentioned running for president in 2008. Mr. Khodorkovsky was then arrested in 2003 and his assets were seized.
Pavel Khodorkovsky, Mikhail's son, wrote in a blog associated with CNN on November 15 about his father's 2003 arrest and incarceration.
It’s been eight years since Vladimir Putin’s thugs forcibly removed my father, Mikhail, from a plane and took him to prison.
The last time I saw him was a few weeks before his arrest, when he was visiting me at college in Boston. There were already concerns about his safety in Russia; his business partner, Platon Lebedev, had been locked up earlier that summer. And despite the urging of American friends and colleagues to stay here, my father remained firm and returned home.
In the intervening eight years, after enduring two show trials and countless other indignities – all while the international community’s condemnation of his imprisonment fell on deaf ears within the corrupt Russian regime – my father has not given up hope.
Even as the term of his first sentence ended two weeks ago – and, therefore, by all accounts, he should be set free – he remains optimistic.
He is encouraged that in the last few months, the chorus of those who denounce his imprisonment has grown louder. In May Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience. Then the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he was not afforded fair hearings and had been subjected to degrading conditions in court and in prison. This fall the International Bar Association concluded that his second trial was unfair, based on “mistake-ridden and self-contradictory” charges that were at odds with the Russian criminal code.
Protesters at a rally demanding freedom for Mikhail Khodorkovsky outside the Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow. Photo by RFE/RL RFE/RL, copyright © Demotix (12/27/2011)
Khodorkovsky's life story has been immortalized by a 2011 documentary film. Samuel Rubenfeld wrote in a blog associated with the Wall Street Journal about the film:
German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi directed the film, which Corruption Currents saw at a special press screening on Nov. 3. He began with painting a picture of the Wild West landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Graft ruled, and it still does: The World Justice Project’s 2011 Rule of Law Index (pdf) warned of a lack of checks and balances in Russian government, leading to “an institutional environment characterized by corruption, impunity and political interference.”
Such was the case of Khodorkovsky, according to the film, which features the first interview with the man since his detention.
There were issues with finding Russian theaters willing to screen the film, and in the interview Tushci was asked to discuss that process. This post was published on November 29, which was days before the controversial parliamentary elections, and yet this film maker, who had a limited understanding of the Russian language or Russian culture, as he indicated earlier in the interview, seemed to be aware of something ominous. He seemed to be aware of a powerful link between Putin and Khodorkovsky:
I’m very surprised that they are so open-speaking about it. They don’t screen it out of self-censorship. I don’t think…that the Kremlin said, “Don’t do it.” I think the cinema owners fear state revenge if they would do it. [What kind of revenge?] Very simple. Tax inspections. Not enough fire doors, so you get a fine of a million or something silly like that. But maybe it’s just inherited in their genes the authoritarian character.
Not in everybody. I’m very happy people are changing, and the air is changing in the last 72 hours. It changed a lot. [What happened in the last 72 hours?] Something’s happening, and it’s not only the film. The film’s only triggering something that’s already in the air. All the…approval for Putin is going down. People are criticizing and laughing at Putin on live TV, and this wouldn’t have happened before. Something is changing and I’m curious what will happen.
Russian billionaire and presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov at a news conference in Moscow. Photo by RFE/RL RFE/RL, copyright © Demotix (09/14/2011)
In a December 16 post, the Khodorkovsky and Lebedev Communications Center announced how the upcoming Russian presidential election could affect Khodorkovsky's fate:
Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who plans to challenge Vladimir Putin in Russia's presidential election said that his first move if elected will be to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky […].
The post went on to cite a Wall Street Journal article, which quoted Putin's response to whether he would be equally willing to free Mr. Khodorkovsky if he were to win the election:
“Freeing Khodorkovsky is the president's right. For the pardon to happen, Khodorkovsky would have to write an appeal for a pardon, and effectively assume the guilt, which he hasn't done so far. If he writes it, the pardon will be possible by law. If Khodorkovsky writes such an appeal, I will consider it, but I will have to become the president for that first.”
A Russian-language blog devoted to Mr. Khodorkovsky's cause cited a Gazeta.ru article in their December 2 post [ru]:
Самый известный российский заключенный считает основным риском после возвращения Путина на третий срок возникновение новых проблем для бизнеса и экономики и отмечает, что власть в России утрачивает каналы для объективной оценки ситуации.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.

author: Donna Welles


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Sri Lanka: The Undesirables In The National Parks · Global Voices
Rezwan

Uditha Wijesena discusses about the increased number of visitors in Sri Lankan National Parks and the threats they create to the  animals.


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Syria: Blogger Razan Ghazzawi is FREE! · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
UPDATE: RAZAN GHAZZAWI IS FREE!
Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi has been freed after spending 15 days in a Syrian prison. Her sister just announced her release on Twitter.
It's raining Razans… hallelujah :)))))))) <3 It's official, sis is out! hopefully the same goes to all arrested sisters and brothers.
In a later tweet, she wrote:
#FreeRazan #Syria Family is on their way to bring my sister home :))))
*****
The buzz is growing louder online that Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi, arrested on the Syrian-Jordanian border while on her way to a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world in Amman on December 4, 2011, will be released.
Eight days after her arrest, Ghazzawi was charged with a list of crimes – refuted by the blogging community and described as a farce.
Among her accusations were “establishing an organization that aims to change the social and economical entity of the state” and “weakening the national sentiment, and trying to ignite sectarian strife,” reported the Lebanese Daily Star at the time.
On her Free Razan page on Facebook, supporters made the announcement that Ghazzawi would be freed, citing Syrian lawyer and human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh. The post does not say when Ghazzawi is expected to be freed.
The Free Razan poster many supporters replaced their Facebook and Twitter avatars with, calling for the release of Razan Ghazzawi
Razan's sister, responds to the news on the above Facebook post saying:
I will keep u all posted, don't worry I won't keep this to myself :)
And she clarifies on Twitter:
#FreeRazan #Syria Razan is not released yet, we are still waiting to be official, that's why I didn't post anything yet.
Online, netizens and supporters remain hopeful yet skeptic. Mohja Khaf tweets:
@ProfKhaf: RazanZ reports that #FreeRazan Ghazzawi's release on bail has been approved.Approved,not accomplished yet. ‘
Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas says [ar]:
While Syrian Alaa Khangar tweets [ar]:
Dima Khatib sums up all our confusion:
@Dima_Khatib: I keep reading about the release of @RedRazan but I have no real source. Just tweets. Any sources out there? #FreeRazan
In addition to blogging, Ghazzawi is an avid Twitter user, who has contributed to both Global Voices Online and Global Voices Advocacy. She is also one of the few bloggers in Syria who writes under her real name, advocating for the rights of bloggers and activists arrested by the Syrian regime, as well as the rights of gays and minorities.
For more reactions and updates, check the Free Razan Facebook page or the Twitter hash tag #FreeRazan.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.


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Africa: Women4Africa Awards · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Women for Africa Awards celebrates and encourages African women: “‘Women for Africa’ was birthed from a 20 year desire and passion to see women honoured and appreciated in a celebratory way. Everywhere you go in life you see women.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Barbados: debating “the letter” · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados Underground and Barbados Free Press comment on a controversial letter allegedly written to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart by members of his party, expressing a lack of confidence in his leadership, and subsequently leaked to the media.

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Barbados: remembering “Hitch” · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados-based B.C. Pires posts his reflections on the death of writer Christopher Hitchens: “for all his flaws … worth a few hundred pastors and priests to me, perhaps a few thousand.”


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Colombia’s Capital: Dream or Nightmare? · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Rodrigo Sandoval reacts to a column in El Espectador [es] where Carolina Sanin says she hates the city where she was born: Bogotá. In his blog [es], Rodrigo refutes Carolina's arguments and explains why, in his opinion, Bogotá is “a dream city”.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Cuba: Prix Carbet for Padura · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Cuban writer Leonardo Padura has won the 2011 Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe, reports Repeating Islands. The prestigious prize for works of Caribbean literature in French, founded by the late writer Edouard Glissant, was awarded to the French translation of Padura's novel El hombre que amaba a los perros (The Man Who Loved Dogs).


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El Salvador: Environmental Groups Meet to Discuss UN Climate Change Conference · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Voices from El Salvador blogs about climate change in El Salvador and a local forum organized by environmental groups to discuss the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was held in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 11, 2011.


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Iran: ‘Pure comments campaign’ · Global Voices
Hadi Nili

Iranian officials are going to launch a “pure  comments campaign” against blasphemy and pornography. Khoshnevis says [Fa] that 1000 individuals have  been recruited to put comments on “dirty websites and blogs”  to “diss-effect” their content.

author: Hadi Nili


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Iran: Shocking video film from egypt · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several bloggers have published a video film where Egypt's security forces beating brutally a female protester. Xcalibur with irony writes [fa] now I see why Iranian government says the revolution in Egypt is inspired by Iranian one.


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Jamaica: vote or not? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Idle Yout Speeks asks if he should bother to vote in Jamaica's upcoming general election. “I blame my reluctance … on a deep rooted fear that stemmed from  the more violent days of Jamaica's more violent election campaigns,” he writes. “I see some subtle differences in the parties but ultimately they are (in my eyes) all the same.”


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Kazakhstan: Longtime Strike Bursts into Violence; State of Emergency Declared · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

As Kazakhstan was preparing for the pompous celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the country's independence, the seven month-long strike of employees sacked from the national oil company's subsidiary in West Kazakhstan was evolving into brutal clashes with police forces, apparently, with the help of unidentified provocateurs.
The strike began in spring 2011, following demands for higher salaries and better working conditions in several oilfields in the Mangistau province. The government chose to stay away from the labor conflict, regarding it as an argument between the company and its employees. Eventually some of the demands were met and most workers returned to work. Ozenmunaigaz (OMG), located in Zhana Ozen, a town of nearly 100,000 inhabitants, remained the only restless company: its non-oil workers were not satisfied with сoncessions and demanded a pay raise.
The local court ruling arrived, declaring the demands baseless and the strike illegal. Observers commented that the strike leaders were misled by the ambiguous instructions for the salary incease and demanded more than was meant by the legislation. Workers from the town, where OMG is almost the only employer of substance, were fired and the leader of the unregistered labor union jailed. A strike of workers in a tent camp in the township's main square began.
The strike of nearly a thousand fired workers has been gradually aggravating the crime situation in the town, making its implications hardly trackable. On December 14, two days before Independence observances, the “Respublika” newspaper published a call for a rally in Zhanaozen, signed by an anonymous “group of Mangistau province residents”. The letter from the Zhanaozen residents was unprecedented, in that it madepolitical demands; the article was titled “Down with Nazarbayev” [president of Kazakhstan]. Leaflets disseminated around town summoned strikers to a rally on the main square on December 16, Independence Day.
On the eve of the date, according to the strike's official Twiter account, @zhanaozen [ru] the authorities were urging the strikers to clear the square for celebrations. The strikers refused to remove tents and, fearing a forced clean-up under the cover of night, mobilized their comrades. The morning of December 16 nothing happened – the tent camp of strikers was untouched, and the celebrations – a parade and a concert – began.
It is still unclear what happened next, but many eyewitnesses and journalists of “Respublika” newspaper and “K+” satellite TV channel, which became virtually the only news sources from Zhanaozen for the next two days, claimed that further disorder was incited by a group of provocateurs. Both media outlets are funded by M. Ablyazov, a former banker with a vast network of business and political interests in Kazkahstan. In any case, the peaceful rally and festivities ended with violent clashes (video). Men with sticks and “Molotov cocktails” attacked the civilians, and induced strikers to destroy the concert stage, burn the cars and storm the administrative buildings.
In the absence of updates from state-owned news sources, which were overwhelmed by the state anniversary, social media, especially Twitter, Facebook and Youtube with videos from “K+”, quickly emerged as the main tool to deliver information, as well as deliberate misinformation, about the clashes. The #zhanaozen hashtag on Twitter on December 16-17 was filled with sensational, and frequently anonymous, tweets about “civil war in Zhanaozen”, “mass killings” and galloping numbers of alleged victims. Uncertainty only increased with the blocking of Twitter and a number of Russian and Kyrgyz news sites the evening of December 16. The national telecom operator denied the fact filtering. The websites are still accessible with circumvention tools.
Many bloggers suspiciously pointed to [ru] a well-used anti-government information campaign on the Internet, aimed at manipulation of public opinion, especially on Independence Day, as well as the state media focus on this four-day weekend of glorifying the president, who retains power since the country became independent in 1991. The rhetoric of campaign, they thought [ru], probably was meant to draw parallels with the 2005 Andijan massacre in Uzbekistan. The campaign engaged several little-known NGOs and bloggers in Russia, Ukraine and Europe, as well as Irish Socialist MEP Paul Murphy, who was quick to describe the event in the Eur0pean Parliament as a “massacre”. Murphy visited Zhanaozen once earlier this year; the visit was extensively covered by “K+” and “Respublika”.
Official reaction came the evening of December 16 with a press briefing from General Prosecutor Askhat Daulbayev, who admitted the death of 10, and more wounded in clashes with police, who used weapons against  the “hooligans” who burnt police cars, several buildings of the local government administration, a private hotel and the Ozenmunaygaz office, and looted shops and ATM machines. The lack of information provoked unease in the neighboring town of Shetpe and Aktau, the provincial capital. Pete Leonard, an Associated Press reporter in Kazkahstan, tweeting from nearby Aktau, the regional capital, quoted Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered opposition “Alga” party, talking about a “real risk of a provocation” from “drunken young men milling in the crowd holding rocks – not evidently associated with demonstrating oil workers“.
On Sunday December 18, the blockage of Twitter was lifted after president Nazarbayev ordered an investigation into the Zhanaozen violence, and enacted a state of emergency through January 5, or until final settlement of the situation. He expressed condolences to the families of people killed and sought to clearly divide the issue of labor conflict and “bandits, who took advantage of the situation”. Interestingly, the day before that, minister of interior Kalmukhanbet Kassymov named the strikers as organizers of protests when he reported on the stabilization of the situation in Zhanaozen, after detaining 70. The authorities thereby met – albeit somewhat late – some of the public's demands for information, but failed to declare national mourning and to include representatives of civil society in the government's Special Commission for Investigation. The government is inviting journalists and OSCE officers [ru] to visit Zhanaozen in an apparent attempt to show its transparency, but it remains unclear who was actually killed [ru] or the precise circumstances of their death.
The heated propaganda and counter-propaganda debates continue on the Facebook group Zhanaozen [ru], and more updates directly from the site can be found at Twitter hashtag #zhanaozen. Within the debates, observers and commenters are presenting various versions, from a provocation by exiled Kazakh oligarchs to a conspiracy [ru] of foreign states, or both [ru]. Global Voices will keep an eye on the developments.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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South Korea: North Korean Dictator, Kim Jong Il Is Dead · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator who ruled the hermit kingdom for the past three decades, has died at the age of 69. According to North Korean state  television's official report on Monday, Kim passed away from “mental and physical strain” during a train ride on December 17, 2011.
The South Korean Twittersphere erupted with various responses. Although the death of one of the world's most notorious dictators is something people might welcome, most South Koreans have expressed concern about the instability his sudden death might bring to Korean peninsula.
The South Korean public's initial response to the news was pure shock. Son Byung-gwan(@sonkiza), a reporter from the South Korean citizen media site Ohmynews, tweeted [ko]:
북한, 김정일 사망 속보… 너무 큰 뉴스라서 편집국도 어리둥절
Kim Gil-su (@yourKGS) tweeted [ko]:
김정일 사망 소식에 속이 후련한 것보다 걱정이 앞네요. 나이가 들어서인가봐요.
Many on Twitter also worried that the ongoing allegations of election fraud by the ruling party would be eclipsed by the news. @photo_jjang tweeted [ko]:
모든 언론사 홈페이지에 올라온 김정일 사망소식 뉴스…. 그 밑에 이슈들은 다 묻히는겁니다
After the initial wave of shock, many on Twitter started blaming the South Korean government for its slow reaction. It is believed that they had no clue about Kim's death for over 50 hours. For now, South Korean President Lee has ordered a state of emergency. Barry Lee (@barry_lee) tweeted [ko]:
김정일이 죽은게 17일인데 이명박은 17, 18일에 방일을 했군요.정말 몰랐다면 정보력이 개판이라는 소리고 알고도 다녀왔다면 위기 대응 능력이 개판이라는 소리군요. […]
South Korea's Twitter timeline was filled with speculations on the future of North Korea and its impact on the peace of Korean peninsula.Twitterer CafeVine (@CafeVine) tweeted[ko]:
가장 큰 불안요소는 북한 군부의 소요 가능성이 아니라 주변 강대국의 정치 계산에 의한 움직임과 북한 민중의 반응이 아닐까 싶다. 북한 군부가 흐트러지는 틈을 타 대규모 탈북 움직임이 일어난다면… 위험하다.
@trimutri100 expressed concern over North Korea's inexperienced, 27-year-old heir, Kim Jong-un:
북한은 진정 큰일이구나. 그 햇병아리가 정권을 제대로 인수할리도 없고, 차라리 김정남이 긴급 호출되는게 아닐까?
Later he expressed the opinion [ko] that the fact the news was broken by North Korea's state media means that situation is fairly under control:
북한이 발표를 했다는 건, 권력구도가 최소한 어느 정도는 교통정리가 되었다는 이야기다. 문제는, 그게 누구냐는거다.
Follow Global Voices (@globalvoices)  for more updates.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Mozambique: The Irrepressible Facebook Blogger · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

[All links lead to Portuguese language pages except when otherwise noted.]
Mozambique is a country with a few superbloggers and little else to report in terms of consistent expression on the open internet. With dramatic growth of Facebook (via mobile), one brave personality has risen to the fore in this walled, blue and white world.
Edgar Barroso is a 28 year old civil servant in life who has over 1.800 friends on Facebook as the “Apóstolo da Desgraça” (literally meaning the Apostle of Disgrace, a tongue-in-cheek name for those who never tire of denouncing the state of things and a reference to contemporary Mozambican literature). He has become one of the most influential online personalities in Mozambique, using the platform as a kind of blog.
Profile of Apóstolo da Desgraça on Facebook
The Apóstolo has friends in every province of the country – where there are mobiles accessing Facebook, it is safe to assume his updates are read. His posts regularly get over 40 comments, sometimes over 150. He has left his profile open so that it remains a fairly public forum.
The “Apostle” has become a sparring partner and friend of journalists – mostly for his comical and critical running commentary on politics and the ruling elite.
The Apostle has raised the hackles of the ruling party Frelimo (in power since independence in 1975), especially during the recent by-elections in three northern cities. He helped amplify the voices of citizens who commented on the campaign, by sharing and reposting their photos and on-the-ground comments.
Three days prior to the December 7 polls, when the crucial city of Quelimane was under serious dispute by the opposition – see our coverage [en]) Apóstolo shared a letter/post on Facebook which he entitled “CARTA ABERTA AOS MEUS IRMÃOS DE QUELIMANE (por favor, imprimam e espalhem este texto ao maior número possível de eleitores)” or “Open letter to my brothers of Quelimane (please, print and spread this text to the maximum number of voters)”
In the letter he wrote:
É impossível olhar para a cidade e fingir que está tudo bem. Não é o secretário do partido, o ministro tal ou o deputado fulano, que nunca residiram nesta cidade, que saberão mais do que nós mesmos o que é melhor para a nossa terra. Estranhemos a razão de hoje eles estarem todos em Quelimane e de terem largado as suas extra-terrestres mordomias, protocolos e regalias, apenas para pisarem o mercado sujo e mal cheiroso onde vendemos e passamos grande parte da nossa vida, implorando-nos o voto e nos prometendo um futuro paradisíaco que nunca nos foram capazes de proporcionar nestes anos todos que estiveram à frente do município. Onde estavam eles até há um mês atrás?
He posted a number of videos by protest hip hop artist Azagaia in the lead-up to the election, urging his friends to go out and vote, including “Combatentes de Fortuna” (Soldiers of Fortune) and “Povo no Poder” (People in Power).
Self portrait of the "Apostle" courtesy of Edgar Barroso
The Apostle has been bold in his confrontation with ruling party spokespeople online, often citing them by name. In a country where such political expression is limited only the pages of small independent newspapers, this behavior is quite frontal and has exposed him personally.
The death threat
In the days following the loss of the ruling party in the Quelimane mayoral election, Barroso received an extended threat via SMS on his personal mobile. Posting the number that sent the message, he quoted it in its entirety for his readers to comment on.
“EDGAR BARROSO, ED MALUCO OU APOSTOLO DA DESGRACA…. Esperamos que no ano que se aproxima , CONTROLES tudo o que vais escrever… Cuida da tua vida, da tua familia, teu empreguinho, trata de construir uma familia e NAO TE ENGANES COM AS AMIZADES porque gracas a elas sabemos teus passos todos. […]
Within hours, there were almost 200 comments on this threat, the vast majority very supportive. One ruling party troll attacked him and his friends did not hesitate to defend him.
The Apostle responded defiantly to the threat, saying that he would be even more outspoken, that he was not scared to be killed or lose his job, and that he knew who was responsible for the threat. He wrote
Você (ou vocês) meteram-se com o gajo errado. Eu sou o Edgar, não sou nenhum parvo. Da mesma forma que coloquei a OJM ou o CNJ em coma é do mesmo modo que colocarei, eu e os demais servos do povo que comungam dos mesmos princípios e valores comigo, o vosso sistema de mentiras, trafulhices, podridão, hipocrisia, crime e derivados em MORTE NATURAL (OU INDUZIDA).
Burro(s).
You are messing with the wrong guy. I am Edgar, I am not just any old idiot. In the same way that I put the OJM (Organization of Mozambican Youth) and CNJ (National Youth Council) [both youth wings of Frelimo] into a coma, I will, alongside those other servants of the people who share the same principles and values, bring your system of lies, tricks, rot, hypocrisy, crimes and derivatives to its NATURAL (OR INDUCED) DEATH.
Idiot(s).
After the threat, he reports he was interviewed for the first time Mozambican TV, proof of that the Apostle is not planning on going away quietly any time soon.

author: Janet Gunter


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Puerto Rico: Feminist experiences at the “Encuentro” · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Lawyer and blogger Verónica RT writes about her intense and wonderful experiences at two of the most important feminist regional meetings in Latin America and the Caribbean.


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Puerto Rico: Henry Cole on the Drums · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Puerto Rico Indie [es] interviews Puerto Rican drummer Henry Cole on occasion of his first solo album “Roots Before Branches” and his presentations at La Respuesta, Santurce, next December 22 and 23.


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Puerto Rico: Why Don’t You Go Back? · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

In the digital magazine El Punto Es [es], author Nuria Net has convened exiled Puerto Ricans [es] to answer the following question: Why don't you go back to Puerto Rico? The question has already generated some interesting responses.


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Rwanda: Blogging From Rwanda · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Mpenzi2 is a blog by an East African based in Rwanda, his mission is to promote and encourage young Africans from different professional background who are making the difference to build a better Africa.


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Spain: Interview of “Arreglamicalle.com” · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Periodismociudadano.com interviews Idoia Soto from Arreglamicalle.com [es], a website created to help municipalities and citizens collaborate in finding solutions to local problems.


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Trinidad and Tobago: making zines · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Trinidadian artist Rodell Warner posts images from a zine workshop for young artists which he organised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and explains that the experience made him think “of all the people at home who are concerned with actively sharing and making the place richer and more fertile.”


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Zambia: Sata at Close Quarters · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Gershom Ndhlovu blogs about Zambia's new president: “You got to love Michael Sata, Zambia’s fifth president, or hate him—for his abrasiveness bordering on rudeness tinged with crude language—and now as head of state, disregard for protocol.”


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Africa: New Blog: See Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

See Africa is a new blog focusing on Africa: “Every week, I will be updating this blog with beautiful images of Africa which many people have not seen. I admit that Africa faces a lot of challenges but the blog will not be reporting on those because I believe the mainstream media have already done justice to that.”


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Armenia: Policing Christmas · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Unzipped comments on a new festive advert for the Armenian police. A recent Transparency International report on policing placed the force among some of the worst in the world, but the blog nonetheless welcomes the move and hopes that the image promoted will become reality.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Barbados: prime minister’s quandary · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados Underground offers an analysis of the “headache” created for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart by a now notorious leaked letter allegedly demonstrating his party's doubts about the PM's leadership. “Whatever he does must positively feed public perception that he is in charge of his men. The question is: will it be enough to sway the voter?”


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Barbados: tribute to Desmond Bourne · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

The Bajan Reporter posts a tribute to his late father, the journalist and adman Desmond Bourne. “It was not that my father never stood on convention, he acknowledged where he felt it was expected – such as Diplomats and & Ceremony – but for the most part he ignored it….”


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Brazil: How Many Lives Does the Guarani-Kaiowá’s Land Cost? · Global Voices
Yohana de Andrade

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.
Over the last few decades, Brazil has consolidated its position as one of the leading exporters of agricultural goods and biofuels in the world. Mato Grosso do Sul, one of its largest states, is the national leader in soybean and sugar cane production.
Not coincidentally, Mato Grosso do Sul is also the very same area where the indigenous Guaraní Kaiowá people are increasingly disappearing — and not through natural causes. About 250 Guaraní Kaiowá have been killed in Mato Grosso do Sul in the past eight years, as conflicts with the rapidly growing agri-business interests make the state bordering Paraguay the most dangerous for indigenous peoples to live in.
Last November, 42 gunmen [pt] attacked the indigenous reserve in Amambaí, Mato Grosso do Sul, executing Nísio Gomes, 59, chief of the Guaraní Kaiowá and several other villagers. The gunmen then took away the body of the chief, so as to conceal evidence.
Screenshot of The Dark Side of Green documentary
In response to the massacre, Guaraní Kaiowá students from Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) wrote a  public letter of protest [pt] in which they described the current situation:
Parece que o nazismo está presente aqui. Parece que o Mato Grosso do Sul se tornou um campo de fuzilamento dos povos indígenas. (…) Nós  podemos dizer que o estado, os políticos e a sociedade são cúmplices  dessa violência quando eles não falam nada, quando não fazem nada para  isso mudar. Os índios se tornaram os novos judeus.
Just as it happened in many concentration camps during the Holocaust, so now do Indians in Brazil end up working — often in situations similar to slavery — for those who robbed them of their land and killed their relatives. Their ancestral lands have been stolen and they are now forced to work for the sugar mills, cutting sugar cane from sunrise to sunset, to earn “pitiful wages” and being “exposed to inhumane working conditions”, as Survival International reports [pdf].
Screenshot of The Dark Side of Green documentary
Geraldine Kutis, Advisor for International Affairs of the Union of Sugar Cane Industry sugar cane (UNICA), an organization that promotes ethanol as a global commodity was interviewed for À Sombra de um Delírio Verde (The Dark Side of Green) [pt], a documentary about the link between the genocide of the Guaraní Kaiowá and the breakneck growth in the production of sugar cane. In it, Kutis says:
em termos de crescimento, costumamos dizer que o céu é o limite.
The Dark Side of Green documentary from Mídia Livre on Vimeo.
Blogger Leonardo Sakamoto reports [pt] that while the profits from the production and agricultural industries have reached exorbitant levels:
o guarani continua sendo persona non grata em sua própria terra. Do  total de 74 Terras Indígenas homologadas pelo governo federal do início  de 2003 até outubro de 2009, apenas três contemplaram o povo guarani,  uma das maiores populações indígenas do país.
According to a study done for The Dark Side of Green, more than 90 percent of Guaraní Kaiowá families depend on food rations from the Government to survive, and that is not enough to cover the daily needs of the people.
Martyrs for their ancestral lands
Screenshot of The Dark Side of Green documentary
The chief Nísio Gomes [pt] has become one more martyr of the genocide that the Guaraní Kaiowá of Brazil [pt] face, and he has become one more symbol of the struggle for indigenous ancestral lands.
In November 2010, Global Voices reported on the trial of the killers of Marcos Veron, another indigenous chief murdered in 2003. The accused men were released in 2007. The trial was scheduled to begin in May 2010 but was canceled and postponed again to February 2011.
Only now the First Federal Criminal Court of São Paulo finally reached a verdict [pt] in 2011: the accused — Carlos Roberto dos Santos, Jorge Cristaldo Insabralde and Stephen Romero — were acquitted for the death of Veron, but convicted for kidnap, torture, injury and training a gang. The men were sentenced to 12 years and three months in prison, but as they have served more than four years in prison, they have the right to go free pending an appeal, as Survival International reported.
In early December, Ladio Veron, the son of the late chief, in an interview recorded on video, reinforced the need for reporting on the situation [pt] of the Guaraní Kaiowá:
O que se vê hoje nas nossas terras, ali em Mato Grosso do Sul, é uma devastação total, onde o pé de cana vale mais que o índio, vale mais que uma criança indígena. Onde o boi vale mais do que uma comunidade indígena. Onde o pé de soja tem mais valor, e as nossas terras hoje são cobertas de vários outros empreendimentos, por enquanto construíram 18 usinas em cima das terras indígenas (…) mas no total são 40 usinas para ser construídas. Não se vê mais mato além de cana, soja e boi.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

author: Yohana de Andrade


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Chile: Twitter User Organizes Christmas Giving Event in Iquique · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Cristian Nuñez (@HombredeRadio), using the hashtag #Navidad140Iqq [es], invites Twitter users from Iquique (in northern Chile) to gather at 1:30 am on December 25 to hand out Christmas presents to the homeless and to children living in vulnerable situations. He shares more details in online citizen newspaper El Boyaldía [es].


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China: Abandoned Wonderland · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Sven Holler from Ministry of Tofu posts pictures of an abandoned amusement park, Wonderland, at the outskirts of Beijing city .


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China: Guangdong Uprising, Now in Haimen · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Over the past few month, a number of mass incidents have taken place in Guangdong province. While the uprising in Wukan village is about to be resolved as the Shanwei government has agreed to suspend the development plans and return the land back to the farmers, another town, Haimen, near Shantou city has launched its own mass mobilization against construction of the town's second power plant. Thousands of citizens have besieged the town government and blocked the freeway between Shenzhen and Shantou, demanding that the Haimen town government call off the construction project.
With a separate protest in Shantou on December 18, 2011, also over illegal land acquisition, the series of incidents reflects the failure of the current “weiwen” stability maintenance system of control in resolving day-to-day grassroot conflicts.
Sina Weibo user fycanly blogs about the background of Haimen Uprising:
fycanly：海门渔港是国家一级良港和国家中心渔港：坐落在汕头市潮阳区海门镇的莲花峰是国家“AAA”级旅游景区。世代在此生活的海门人以海为生，耕三渔七，代代繁衍。然而，2006年6月开始，海门的生态灾难降临了！
fycanly：海门人都知道，华能电厂为冷却设备而从海上抽水，每次能带上两东风汽车的鱼虾，而这些受到污染的鱼虾都被都不法之徒卖往市场。华能电厂号称绿色发电，但2011年，却因为废水偷排而被广东省环保厅处于罚款2000万元。
fycanly：这些年，有条件的海门人纷纷迁离家乡，而没有条件移民的海门人，只能苦守这片曾经美丽、而今满目疮痍的故土。谁来对十几万海门人民的生计负责？谁来对海门的子子孙孙的未来负责？谁来对海门港这片遭践踏的海洋负责？海门港区水域面积万190万平方米，全港拥有渔船1000多艘，年鱼货卸港量18万吨之多。
fycanly：广东省汕头市潮阳区的海门镇,一个镇两个发电厂，一个以渔业为主的大镇，由于电厂偷排，海洋无鱼可捕。国家已明令控制采用，各级政府文件也明确规定，对于投资项目要严格控制“高耗能，高污染”企业进入，蛤为何顺利通过，电厂对海门造成的生态危机，近年来海门镇人口非正常成亡率高居广东省首位。
A number of Weibo users echo with fycanly's comment:
Fuson-：当年建电厂时，平台坍塌致6死2重伤，然后事到如今，环境污染不断上升，癌症人数不断攀升，先父也是因为这样的病魔在今年去世，现在政府还想建多多一个电厂，那是不可能的，曾经家乡美好的环境，如今乌烟瘴气，环境恶劣，十多万#海门#同胞，我们需要站出来，但是今天的我们不是骚乱，而是我们该愤怒了。
Thousands of people blocked the entrance of an express road. Photos widely circulated in Weibo.
Indeed, Haimen people are really angry. Despite the fact that schools closed their gates and forced students to stay on the school campus and away from today's protest, thousands of Haimen people have taken to the street. Below are Weibo users’ account of the situation in Haimen today:
蕴婷这个娃：今天对海门人来说是不平凡的一天。我没有去现场，但是通过图片，通过微博影响力，也能感受得到人们的团结。再不是敢怒不敢言的社会了，对环境有毁灭性影响的工程，再也啃不下了。买了那么多方便面去学校阻止学生放学，这个最可笑。尊敬民意而不是打压民意的社会什么时候才会到来？海门人好样的！
yaochunjing：#中央电视台#广东省汕头市潮阳区海门镇要建第二座煤发电厂，一座发电厂已经威协到海门了，还要建第二座，十几万海门的民众去围堵镇政府，镇政府不理，教育部通知各校不让学生放学回家，软禁学生。实在是无助啊！！
lin泽平：海门的商家于上午11时罢市，现在满载的矿泉水和食物正纷纷赶往高速现场，免费发放。据目击者说，群众最少有三万人。许多人正在赶往现场。这才是真正的海门人，这就是团结


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China, North Korea: Kim Jong-il Dead, Chinese Netizen Reactions · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fauna has translated Chinese netizens’ reactions over the news of Kim Jong-il's sudden death.


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Cuba: owing obsolete rubles · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Cuba has a longstanding debt to Russia of 20 million Soviet rubles — a currency that no longer exists. Machetera asks: “how and when do you decide what a vanished currency is really worth?”


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Cuba: succession fears · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and the succession of his son prompts Generation Y to think about the Cuban government's own succession plans. “The dauphin over there is named Kim Jong-un; perhaps soon they will communicate to us that over here ours will be Alejandro Castro Espin.”


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Egypt: Women Rally for Dignity · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
Egyptian women took to the streets of Cairo to protest today against women rights violations committed by military officers during the #occupycabinet battle that led to the death of at least 13 protesters over the previous five days.
The protest followed the buzz created by a video that showed men in military uniform, dragging a female protester,  exposing her underwear, and beating her in the chest.
For three weeks prior to the clashes between the army and protesters in downtown Cairo, activists have been staging a sit-in outside the Cabinet headquarters, protesting against the military appointment of Kamal El Ganzouri as the new Prime Minister of Egypt earlier this month. The ongoing battle has so far claimed the lives of at least 13 people, leaving hundreds injured as soldiers battled with protesters in and around Tahrir Square since December 16.
Apart from this, the atrocities committed by the soldiers against women shocked the world, prompting Egyptian women to take to the streets and call for dignity today.
Female protesters gather at #Tahrir Square, photo shared by Yasmine El Rashidi
Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News foreign correspondent, tweets:
@AymanM: In #tahrir, a women's rally in solidarity w female victims attacked by the military #dec17 #egypt
According to Abdeltwab Hassan, about 7,000 women took part in the protests [ar]:
The Marshal is Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the de facto  military ruler of Egypt since the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.
Men join women's cause
Men also joined the protest and formed a human wall to protect the female protesters.
Photo by Abdeltwab Hassan featuring young men surrounding the female protesters shared on Twitpic
Yasmin Galal notes:
@YasminGalal: Proud of all the men joining Egypt's #WomenMarch , physical integrity is a right for all Egyptians
And Randa Ali adds:
@randamali: Men and women of all classes, ideologies , ages here! #womenMarch.
Slogans at the march
The protesters were not only chanting slogans in solidarity with their female compatriots, who have been brutally beaten up by soldiers, but were also calling for the fall of military rule in Egypt. Here are some of the slogans chanted, and shared via the hash tag #womenmarch on Twitter.
@Occupy_Tahrir:The protesters are chanting “hold your head high, every part of you is purer than the one who attacked you” #WomenMarch #OccupyCabinet
@MinaNaguib90:Chant: Come out of your homes, Tantawy took off your daughters’ clothes
@loolyez: Banat masr khat 2a7mar banat masr khat 2a7mar #womenmarch
@farida904: We weren't just chanting for ourselves. We were chanting for freedom, social justice and the respect of human dignity #womenmarch #egypt
The following video, uploaded by sawrageya on YouTube, features female protesters calling for Marshal Tantawi to leave.
According to Egyptian @Egyptocracy, who is  taking part in the protest, at around 5:15 pm Cairo time, the rally reached the #occupycabinet sit in, and then headed back towards Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian revolution, and the site of clashes between protesters and the military for the past five days. She tweets:
@Egyptocracy: 5.55pm: #womenmarch approaching #tahrir.
And adds:
@Egyptocracy: 6.14pm: We are marching in the dark. Lights out in #tahrir. #OccupyCabinet #Egypt
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Afef Abrougui


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El Salvador: National Assembly Passes Progressive Tax Reform · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Tim's El Salvador Blog explains a progressive tax reform passed by El Salvador's National Assembly: “Prior to these reforms, El Salvador had a particularly regressive tax system.”


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Global Voices: Donate Today · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

2011 has been an extraordinary year for online content. Global Voices has been there as revolutions happened, dictatorships fell, and network effects rippled through the cities and neighborhoods of our contributors reporting from around the world.
To celebrate what’s been an extremely exciting year for us, we, along with our friends at Morningside Analytics, have created a limited-edition poster that visualizes “attentive clusters” of bloggers who link to Global Voices and cite similar online content. The resulting image portrays the scope of the Global Voices community, and turns it into a work of art that commemorates an important year in the history and impact of citizen media. The poster is available to anyone who donates US$25 or more. Reserve yours today through this link. We’ll be mailing out posters in January 2012.
Even if you don’t want a poster, we’d love your support. Regular donations are tax-deductible in the U.S, and can be made through our Donate page. And please also be sure to share this post with your networks!
Global Voices is a volunteer community of over 500 writers, translators, and digital media activists who bring you underreported stories and conversations from around the world. Watch our new video highlighting images and quotations from some of our supporters:
Global Voices is at the centre of a truly global conversation, and your support helps keep us there. Thank you!

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Iran: Plunging national currency · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Iranian rial, hit a new low Tuesday, with the US dollar sells for more than 15000 rials (1500 Tomans). khodrahagaran writes [fa] people rushed to banks to exchange their rials into dollars and euros.


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Jamaica: when poets join academia · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

UK-based Jamaican writer Kei Miller muses on the consequences of poets joining the academic world. “Poetry is certainly not known for its plain-spoken-ness and in fact is  accused, just as much as the academy, for its obscurity and its  pretensions. And this is as it should be!”