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Ex-Guerrillas Threaten Political Stability in East Timor · Global Voices
Marisa Gonçalves

[All links lead to pages in Portuguese except when indicated otherwise.]
Anxiety has plagued East Timor in recent weeks after national police moved in on two groups led by ex-freedom fighters accused of fomenting political instability.
On March 3, 2014, the Timorese parliament unanimously approved a measure [en] that authorized national police to put an end to the activities of the Maubere Revolutionary Council (KRM) and the Popular Democratic Council of the People's Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, commonly known as CPD-RDTL or CPD.
KRM members had been spotted marching in uniforms with military symbols on a football pitch in Laga in the Baucau District in November 2013, provoking [tet] a wave of unease among Timorese and the political class.
Mauk Moruk and L7 escorted by the PNTL after a hearing in Dili, March 14, 2014. Photo by António Dasiparu shared on the site sapo.tl with reuse license
Ex-guerrilla Mauk Moruk (nom de guerre of Paulo Gama), leader of the recently created KRM, had only returned to East Timor a month earlier after living for a long time in Holland. Moruk had fought in the resistance movement against Indonesia's 24-year-long occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999. A referendum in 1999 lead to the country's independence, and the first democratic government was elected in 2002.
But Moruk was expelled from resistance forces in 1984 after a power struggle with current Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão.
In statements to the media upon his return, Moruk said that he wanted to lead a revolution in order to pull the Timorese people out of poverty. He called for the resignation of the government, the dissolution of parliament and the reestablishment of the 1975 constitution (the first unilateral declaration of independence).
Following parliament's approval of action against the KRM and CPD-RDTL, Moruk and fellow KRM leader Labarik Maia, accompanied by L7 (nom de guerre of Cornélio Gama, Moruk's brother), negotiated their surrender to police over the course of several hours in the group's general headquarters in Dili on March 14. At the end of negotiations, L7 declared to the media that the group would cooperate with the government to guarantee the peace and well-being of the people, but warned that if he wished, “All of Dili would burn”.
Moruk and Maia were detained and not released on bail, while L7 was held under house arrest.
Days before, a police operation in Lalulai, a village in Baucau District where KRM members were living, resulted in a shoot-out between police and the revolutionaries. One officer was wounded by a Molotov cocktail. A video circulated by newspaper Tempo Semanal, which appears to show police burning homes as well as shooting into a house where seconds afterward a woman carrying a child is seen leaving, alarmed many Timorese.
CPD-RDTL leader and ex-freedom fighter António Ai-Tahan Matak turned himself in to authorities and is also being held under house arrest.
The CPD-RDTL is an organization founded in 1999 by a dissident faction of opposition party FRETILIN (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor). Over the years, this organization has been accused of using military uniforms and illegally occupying land for communal farming against the will of local populations.
Both organizations are linked to the group Sagrada Familia, a clandestine resistance group created in the 1990s by L7. Cornélio Gama, L7's real name, is a well-known ex-guerrilla and benefits from a considerable base of popular support, having been elected to parliament for one term by his party UNDERTIM. In spite of his brother Moruk's relative lack of popularity in the country, some analysts [en] see in his kinship with L7 potential for him to drum up a stronger support.
Shortly after his return to the country, Morak had challenged Prime Minister Gusmão to a debate on the history of the armed struggle against the Indonesian occupation. The debate took place on November 11, 2013 at a convention center in the country's capital of Dili, but Moruk didn't show up. Gusmão and other ex-members of the resistance debated [tet] events and divisions among the guerrilla forces in the 1980s, and this was transmitted live on public television.
Historian Matheos Messakh explained the origin of the conflict between Prime Minister Gusmão and Moruk in a post on the blog Satutimor [id]. According to his analysis, KRM's actions are an attempt to capitalize on the growing discontentment with the lack of economic development, especially among young people:
Sangat mungkin strategi Mauk Moruk adalah untuk menargetkan para pemuda yang semakin kehilangan hak-haknya dan gampang dieksploitasi. Moruk mungkin ingin mengisi kekosongan yang diakibatkan oleh larangan terhadap kelompok bela diri dengan warisan klandestin dan keterlibatan dalam kekerasan tahun 2006.
It is likely that Mauk Moruk's strategy is to captivate young people who feel increasingly marginalized and who can be easily taken advantage of. Moruk is trying to fill a void left by the prohibition of martial arts groups that were created during the clandestine resistance and involved in the violence of 2006 [editor's note: a conflict that started between elements of the military and expanded to general gang violence throughout the country, leaving dozens of people dead and thousands displaced. The crisis of 2006 led to the resignation of the then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri (FRETILIN). Read Global Voices post “Riots in East Timor” (April 2006).]
Meanwhile on social media, Timorese have expressed a total lack of sympathy with the illegal character of KRM's and CPD-RDTL's activities and defended democracy and respect for the law.
In spite of this, corruption and growing inequality between elites and the rest of the population are issues dogging the current political establishment. Gani Uruwatu, a member of the Facebook group “Emerging Leadership in Democracy“, wrote on March 19:
Husu Parlamento sira atu bele hasai mos Rezulusaun ba Koruptor sira !!!! ema hatai Farda deit hasai ona Rezulusaun maibe ida nauk osan tokon ba tokon nee nusa laiha rezulusaun ???
Ask parliament to pass another resolution against the corrupt!!! Only those who wear [military-style] uniforms provoke fast resolutions, but those who steal millions and millions get no resolution??
The return of Moruk to the country nearly 30 years after his surrender to the Indonesian military is, according to some, an attempt to gain recognition for his historical role in the Timorese resistance and to win a position of power in the political arena.
Recent events show that actors from the resistance generation still dominate the contemporary political game in East Timor.

author: Marisa Gonçalves


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Global Voices’ Admission That It Reported on a Fake Country for Six Years Will Blow Your Mind · Global Voices
Allen Smithee

Fuldya wasn't on Google Maps, but that wasn't proof it didn't exist, says Global Voices. The service makes mistakes: like “Coolie Block”, the area circled on this Google map of Trinidad and Tobago that nobody in the country has ever heard of.
According to its profile on the Global Voices web site, the nation of Fuldya, like so many other countries, struggled to keep its economy afloat, its politicians honest, its press free, the rights of its people unviolated, its environment unsullied. Fuldya, in fact, sounded like a reporter's dream beat—if only it actually existed. For six years, however, Global Voices reported vividly on events in Fuldya, a situation Executive Director Ivan Sigal calls “beyond embarrassing.”
The error came to light after Global Voices was sued by the parents of a 14-year-old student from Pennsylvania, who was rejected as a delegate to the US National Model United Nations after he applied as a representative of Fuldya.
“Global Voices has destroyed our son's future,” the student's father said when contacted by phone. “He had a perfect Grade Point Average before he encountered their nefarious web site with its fake countries and who knows what other kinds of false information it's peddling. Now all he does is smoke pot, and Global Voices is responsible.”
How did a reputable international citizen media network like Global Voices come to report on a fake country?
Managing Editor Solana Larsen recalls that in 2008, she received an e-mail from someone called Jóquesonyou Yomàma, volunteering to cover the Fuldyan blogosphere. She admits she never checked to see whether Fuldya actually existed. “I'd never heard of it before, but it's not like I'm a geography expert. I assumed it was just some place that didn't get much international news coverage, like many of the smaller countries Global Voices covers. Who are we to tell somebody they come from a country that doesn't exist?”
Larsen adds that since the discovery of Fuldya, she makes sure to read the name of every new applicant out loud to a colleague as part of the vetting process.
Managing Director Georgia Popplewell says she once did a search for Fuldya on Google Maps, but didn't worry too much when she couldn't find it. “Google Maps is rife with mistakes and omissions,” says Popplewell. “On the Google Map of my own country [Trinidad and Tobago] there's an area prominently labelled as “Coolie Block” that nobody I know has ever heard of.”
Things might have turned out differently if “Jóquesonyou Yomàma” wasn't a fine writer who quickly became one of the site's most prolific and popular contributors. Yomàma regularly turned out four to five articles per week on Fuldya, building a riveting narrative of a small nation grappling with corruption, crime, gender inequality and government censorship, against the backdrop of a thriving tech innovation landscape and a cultural scene that included a flourishing young film industry nicknamed “Fuldywood”. According to Deputy Editor Sahar Habib Ghazi, Global Voices’ Fuldya posts figured consistently among the site's biggest drivers of traffic, often ahead of articles with “sex” in the title.
“I think that in some ways we fell in love with Fuldya, and so did our readers,” says Habib Ghazi. “We cheered when Fuldya's evil dictator, Navi Lagis, was overthrown by a popular uprising. When right-wing rebels in the north of the country captured a child activist, we lobbied—successfully, we believed—for her release. We even spearheaded a fundraising drive for victims of the Fuldyan tsunami of 2010. Who knows where that money went?”
In addition to being the source of many articles, Fuldya was the prototypical emerging nation. “In retrospect, perhaps too prototypical,” says Solana Larsen. “It was just all a little too neat. How could so many things happen in one small country? But every time I looked at our traffic stats those doubts and questions evaporated into thin air.”
Perhaps the more important question to ask would relate to the glaring factual inconsistencies discovered across articles on Fuldya by the committee set up, post-discovery, to audit the site's content. How, for instance, does one square an article headlined “Oil Spills Matter, Even in Landlocked Fuldya”, with one about a corruption scandal involving beachfront development in the south of the country? And what about that tsunami? And how come Global Voices covered two Fuldyan democratic elections before the overthrow of the evil dictator Navi Lagis?
And who was Jóquesonyou Yomàma? Global Voices contributor Billery Eddle, who was assigned Yomàma as a roommate at the 2010 Global Voices Summit in Chile, recalls that “Jóquesonyou and I talked long into the night, discussing politics and drinking Fuldyan vodka—or maybe it was wine.” Yomàma, however, does not appear in a single photo from either event, and Eddle cannot recall what she—or he—looks like, nor can she find the “I Heart Fuldya” t-shirt Yomàma brought her as a present.
Global Voices’ Fuldya coverage was pulled from the site pending the outcome of the lawsuit brought by the 14-year-old student's parents. Executive Director Ivan Sigal, however, says they have all intention of restoring the content once Global Voices has been cleared of responsibility for the US teen's pot-smoking habit.
“We're not going to be held ransom by some little stoner who's stupid enough to base his Model UN application on a country that was mentioned on only one web site on the entire Internet,” says Sigal, who asked not to be quoted as saying that.
“Fuldya was the best thing that ever happened to Global Voices,” adds Sigal. “Traffic to the site has now plummeted to one-third of what it was when we had Fuldya. Maybe we should have done our homework better, but our mission is to cover underrepresented stories, and even though Fuldya isn't real, in a sense that makes it more underrepresented than ever.”
Happy April Fool's Day!

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Allen Smithee


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Maoming Residents in China Rally Against PX Chemical Plant   · Global Voices
Owen Guo

http://youtu.be/EwZx65qoDpA
A massive protest in Maoming, a city in affluent Guangdong province in southern China, on March 30, 2014 against a chemical project ended in scuffles with police, leaving some protesters injured.
An amateur YouTube video showed hundreds of protesters marching through a city street on Sunday in the latest case of growing environmental activism in China. Flanked by cheering and chanting onlookers, the crowd steadily moved along and then gathered in front of what appears to be the local government headquarters. Many punched their fists into the air and unfurled white banners calling for the project, which produces paraxylene (PX) – commonly used for producing plastic bottles and fiber – to be scrapped.
In the wake of the protests, censors have moved quickly to scrub photos and posts circulating on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. Some images captured by overseas Chinese media purportedly showed a few protesters lying on the ground bleeding from the head alongside the presence of paramilitary police. Unverified photos also documented clashes between police and protesters.
A statement released by Maoming municipal government labeled the protest “unlawful”; local government said no one died in the protest. It accused a small group of protesters of hurling stones and water bottles at police and public facilities:
2014年3月30日，市区少数市民未按照《中华人民共和国集会游行示威法》的规定，未向主管机关提出申请并获得许可，就针对拟启动的芳烃项目举行集会游行示威，属严重违法行为，严重影响了社会秩序，市政府坚决反对这种违反《中华人民共和国集会游行示威法》等法律法规的行为。针对广大市民表达的意见和诉求，市政府在项目论证的过程中，一定会落实群众的知情权、参与权，如实向国家有关部委和专家反映情况，切实做到项目建设实事求是、依法依规。茂名人关心茂名这座城市，说明我们的城市发展大有希望。
On March 30, 2014, a minority of residents flouted the Demonstration and Convention Law of the People's Republic of China and took to the street to protest against the soon-to-be-launched PX project without submitting requests to the managing agency. It has severely violated the law and seriously affected social order. The municipal government sternly opposes such acts that violate the Demonstration and Convention Law of the People's Republic of China. The municipal government will take into account public concerns and opinions, and we will ensure people's right to know and report to relevant ministries and experts in a realistic manner. We will strive to build the project in accordance with facts and regulations. The fact that Maoming citizens show great concern for the city has shown that our city's development has great hope.
The right to demonstrate is enshrined in the Chinese constitution, but authorities often clamp down on such acts of public defiance lest they embarrass or pose challenges to local governance.
In recent years, China has seen at least of four PX protests in major cities. Some scored rare victories by successfully forcing authorities to move the projects, while others had no such impact.
China became the largest producer and consumer of PX in 2010, registering an annual output of 7.5 million tonnes last year. Caixin, a respected Chinese magazine, quoted an industry executive as saying in 2011 that the country is planning to build ten more PX refineries with a yearly output of 800,000 tonnes.
On Sina Weibo, a search for “Maoming PX” yielded the standard notice that said “According to relevant laws, the results can not be displayed”.
Some users, however, did manage to bypass the censorship, such as “MYyipee”, who posted this message:
茂名正在流血，一座正在死去的城市。由于当地执政者的盲目，喜大好功，专横跋扈，践踏民意，正在加速它的死亡， 要上PX项目本是一件荒唐，官方连连出下策甚至把学生赶回课室关起来！要知道今天是双休日啊！凭什么把无辜的学生作为筹码？作为施压的对象？此举实在证明执政者的无能与无为证明政府的冷漠
Maoming is bleeding, it's a dying city. Because of officials’ blindness and thirst for greatness and grandeur, they just act arbitrarily and trample on public opinions. They are accelerating the death of Maoming. To build a PX project is ridiculous. Authorities have resorted to tactics such as forcing students into classrooms and confining them! It's a weekend day today! What gives you the power to use innocent students as a tool and suppress them? Such acts only point to the coldness and impotence of local authorities.
Tianming Zhigao wrote on Weibo:
鄙人觉得 单一一个反对PX 不可能聚集到这么多人，可能更多的人是出于对现实不满才参与进来的吧
I think the opposition toward the PX project can't possibly draw so many people. Perhaps more people joined because they are not satisfied with the reality of life.
Laobusi de Feiyuji gave her account of the story:
PX项目环评没有通过，就逼着多个单位职工还有学生签同意书，怕人游行还让学生周末回校。不满这一做法的群众还是进行了游行，但混进了一些特地赶来捣乱的外地人与当地小混混。游行过程中警察出手打了人，激化成了群体事件，政府连忙调来了周边市县的武警开启了屠城模式，然后发公告说是聚集闹事。
The PX project hadn't passed the environmental appraisal, then the [local government] forced staff at many local work units to sign an agreement and forced students to return to school to [prevent them] from protesting. Residents went ahead with their display of dissatisfaction with the government's actions, but non-Maoming residents and some local gangsters joined in. Police beat up certain protesters, which enraged the crowd, then local government deployed police in the neighboring county to begin encircling the town. Later, it issued a statement labelling the incident as a mob gathered to disturb social order.
Cai Shufang, a Hongkong-based human rights activist, wrote on Twitter:
茂名市民31日继续抗议PX项目 警方再次投掷催泪弹 http://t.co/4bcgJnF8vj 31日下午市民在茂名市委员会门前抗议茂名PX项目，口号包括“文明抗议PX项目”“反对PX还我净土”等，抗议人群中很多年轻人，当地政府也出动大批警力维稳，晚间警方发射催泪弹驱散民众
— 蔡淑芳 (@sfchoi8964) March 31, 2014
Residents of Maoming continued to protest against the PX project on March 31. Police have again used tear gas. On the afternoon of March 31, residents gathered in front of Maoming city government to protest. They chanted slogans like, “Rally against the PX project in a civilised manner” and “Oppose PX and return my clean land”. Many protesters are young people. Local government has deployed a large number of police, and they fired tear gas to disperse the crowd last night.
Vito-fun from Guangdong wrote:
我相PX项目的本身是没有问题的，但让一个腐败完全没有公信的茂名政府去操作这个项目，我们都没有信心！茂名这么好一个地方，不管是地理位置、物质资源资源还是劳动力，我觉得茂名这块土地不比珠三角差多少！试问沿海城市中，还有哪个地方的政府的贪污腐败能比得上茂名和湛江？
I believe the PX project itself is fine, but to have a corrupt government with no credibility run the project, we all have no confidence! Maoming is such a good place and its location and abundance in resources and labor is practically no different than the [rich] Pearl River region! Among the coastal cities, which city has more severe corruption than Maoming and Zhanjiang?
Echoing the same sentiment was Wuyue Sanren, a well-known online commentator. He wrote:
我早说过，那个建那里、那里就抗议的劈叉化工项目与转基因一样，都不是科学问题，都是政治问题、社会问题，最终归结到政府公信力问题。还是那句话：没人不相信科学，只是很多人不相信“政府的科学”。
I've made this clear early on that the PX project built there and the protest is no different than genetically modified food, they are not scientific issues but rather political and social issues. It all comes down to the issue of government credibility. I'd like to say it again: It's not that people don't believe in science, it's that many people don't believe in “the science preached by the government”
Rainsir complained about a lack of information:
When I opened twitter, too much information about people against Maoming PX came into my eyes, what makes me feel horrible is I didn't know.

author: Owen Guo


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Muslims Don’t Lie .. Ever  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Muslims don't lie .. No to April Fool's. Photo credit: @al_tarb_al_a7mr
Despite warnings, that jumping on the April Fool's bandwagon would lead to an eternal hell as Muslims don't lie, many netizens across the Arab world, decided to use the day to criticise their governments.
From Saudi Arabia, Abdelrahman Al Kanhal jokes:
#كذبة_إبريل مشروعي الملك عبدالله لتطوير القضاء وتطوير التعليم
— عبدالرحمن الكنهل (@A_Alkanhal) April 1, 2014
King Abdulla adopts two new projects to develop the judiciary and education
And adds:
الدولة تتخذ قرار تاريخي باتخاذ مواقف جادة لوقف الفوضى المرورية #كذبة_إبريل
— عبدالرحمن الكنهل (@A_Alkanhal) April 1, 2014
The Kingdom takes serious measures to end traffic chaos
And in reference to the ban on women driving in the absolute monarchy, he writes:
#كذبة_إبريل المجتمع وحده يقرر حق المرأة في قيادة السيارة .. ولا نمنع قيادتها ولكننا نسجنها بسبب ارادة المجتمع الرافض
— عبدالرحمن الكنهل (@A_Alkanhal) April 1, 2014
Society itself decides on the right of women to drive. And we don't oppose women driving but send them to jail if they do because society refuses their driving
Meanwhile, Egyptian Adham Morad lies about the return of ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi:
#كذبة_إبريل موورسي راجع ههههه
— adham morad (@adham_morad) April 1, 2014
Morsi is back!!
And, still in Egypt, Adilovic is in a wishful thinking state of mind. He tweets:
الحكومة المصرية تقرر رفع الأجور.. و زيادة الدعم.. و زيادة ميزانية التعليم والصحة.. وتوفير العيش والحرية والعداله الإجتماعيه #كذبة_إبريل
— Adilovic (@adilovic4a) April 1, 2014
The government of Egypt decides to increase wages, support state subsides, increase the budget for education and health services and provide Egyptians with a decent living, freedom and social justice
From Bahrain, Ammar Al Aradi, tweets a series of April Fool's jokes, which some people took seriously. He notes:
Ok apparently some ppl are taking my last few tweets too seriously. It's first of April. Let's stop before someone gets in trouble lol.
— ammaro (@ammar456) April 1, 2014
Among his jokes are:
#Kuwait considering legalizing hashish for medical uses after studies show more than 60% of the youth in the country already use it.
— ammaro (@ammar456) April 1, 2014
Back to Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Al Maani concludes:
سيكون هذا الأمر مرهقاً للعرب لأنه لا يوجد شيء غير اعتيادي يمارسونه في هذا الشهر.. #كذبة_إبريل
— احمد المعني (@rhal84) April 1, 2014
April Fool's will be exhausting for Arabs as it isn't something they don't do

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Songkran Water Festival Goes Waterless in Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Singapore will hold a Songkran festival this month but it will be literally dry. This is quite strange since Songkran is Thailand’s New Year celebration which features a lot of water throwing. The water symbolizes cleansing.
Singapore's ‘Celebrate Songkran’ website still features water splashing despite the announcement of organizers that the event will be waterless to emphasize water conservation
Instead of water splashing, organizers of Songkran in Singapore will emphasize water conservation. There will be a bazaar, Thai boxing, Thai music and food during the event.
Some Thai officials are not happy with the Songkran celebration in Singapore since it’s the first time that it will be conducted in another country without the sponsorship of either Thai communities or Thai authorities. They are also worried that the event in Singapore would deviate from the essential cultural meaning of Songkran.
Musings From the Lion City criticizes the Singapore Tourism Board for cancelling the ‘the most fundamental part of the festival’:
I’ll be honest. I have no idea Singapore had a “Celebrate Songkran 2014” festival planned and after hearing this news, I wish I had continued my ignorance. What in the world was the Singapore Tourism Board thinking when they decide to hold a foreign festival in Singapore and then cancelled the most fundamental part of the festival?
I’m all for conserving water but what’s a Songkran festival without water? That’s like chicken rice without the chicken! Water conservation and the Songkran festival do not go together.
The Singapore Songkran website is misleading because it has a photo of water splashing, according to Stranger in Bangkok:
If I can give my 2 cents worth to the organising committee, I feel that all backdrops and information regarding water pistol fights on the website need to be removed immediately in case more paying attendees (as not all events are free) are misled, and that the name of the festival needs to be carefully reconsidered, at least for future versions of the same event.
No water, no Songkran. Period.
Everything Also Complain also rejected the idea of a waterless Songkran:
If you want to enjoy REAL Songkran without some event organiser messing it up and turning it into a poor man’s foam party (without the foam of course), yet don’t want to be seen wasting water, you can do it at a pool or beach where you can splash all you want. More importantly, it’s FREE…
Barry reminded Singapore organizers that Songkran is more than just a commercial festival in Thailand:
And so the very meaning of Songkran has been diltued (pun intended) before it's even got of the ground. You see the use of water isn't just a frivalious activity, no, it is meant as a blessing and a sign of respect. In fact it is the most fundamental element of the festival itself, so without it there can be no Songkran.
In my opinion Singapore simply cannot compete for this Thai festival and it's attempt to do so it quite frankly laughable. It will be the LAST place anyone with any interest in Songkran would want to be. You see Thailand doesn't celebrate Songkran in a tiny little field with no water, no, it's a Country wide celebration involving every member of the community because THAT is what Songkran is really about.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
The Joke is on the Media: April Fool’s in Ethiopia · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Ethiopians on Twitter are celebrating April Fool's day with fake news headlines that imitate the lies of state owned media. Says one Ethiopian tweep: “They broadcast black deceptions 365 days a year, and we are giving back to them dozens of false headlines as much as we can”. Follow and retweet #ETvDay.

author: Solana Larsen


text:
Vkontakte’s Pavel Durov Departs: Genuine or Joke? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Pavel Durov leaves Vkontakte for good? For real, or is it an April Fools’ joke? Images mixed by author.
In what is either a bombshell for Russian social media or a daring April Fools’ Day joke, Vkontakte general director Pavel Durov has announced his resignation. (For what it's worth, The Moscow Times reported this story earlier today without any hint that it could be a holiday prank.) The news came today in a post on Vkontakte, Russia's largest online social network, where Durov explained his departure as the result of a year of internal bickering, rebuking but not naming the company's minority shareholder, United Capital Partners. “The general director's freedom to manage the company has decreased significantly,” he wrote, complaining that UCP's meddling has made it increasingly difficult to uphold the website's “founding principles.”
In a nod to fellow geeks, Durov also posted a photograph of two dolphins jumping into the air, with the caption, “So long, and thanks for all the fish”—a reference to the comedy science fiction series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.
A parting message from Pavel Durov?
While the timing of Durov's announcement makes it entirely possible that it is merely a prank, the website TJournal claims to have three independent sources who days earlier verified that Durov would indeed resign from Vkontakte. Having said that, speculation about Vkontakte's chief stepping down has been a regular feature of the news for a year now. When TJournal asked Durov about the rumor on March 26, 2014, he denied any plans to leave, calling the idea “just another attempt to cause a stir.”
Currently, Vkontakte's press secretary is declining to comment on Durov's announcement. Majority shareholder Mail.ru Group, however, confirms the resignation. UCP representative Nafisa Nasyrova also corroborated the story, telling Interfax News that Durov formally resigned a few days ago. While this would seem to end any confusion about whether or not Durov really is leaving, Nasyrova added, “If this isn't some April 1st joke, then Durov by law should give a month's notice before he actually leaves office.” In other words, UCP isn't sure, after all, that Vkontakte's founder is in fact quitting.
Durov is certainly an audacious man, but would he spoof the people who own his company like this? Hopefully, April 2 will bring answers.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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We Love to Talk, But Do We Speak Out?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

I was an idealistic teenager when I first paid the price of speaking my mind. Considering that the backdrop was religion class in a prestigious, all-girls Catholic school, I suppose I should not have been surprised. Long story short, I was playing devil's advocate on issues like divorce, abortion and pre-marital sex. The teacher didn't appreciate it. My classmates did, but usually only told me so once the teacher was well out of earshot.
Soon, I noticed my grades dropping in another subject that she happened to teach me. I didn't want to believe I was actually being victimised, so for a while, I doubted myself and went along with the extra lessons – aka the conversion attempt – that the teacher thought would help. What did help was my eventual decision to walk into the principal's office armed with proof, in the form of comparative test papers, that my outspokenness in religion class was costing me elsewhere. The principal's decision to remove the teacher from religion class restored my faith in justice, the value of independent thought and the importance of speaking out.
Fast forward (quite) a few years. We've got the Internet. And social networks. And microblogging services. These tools should make activism easier; take it into a limitless online space – but in Trinidad and Tobago, it has mostly amplified what people discuss in their living rooms. So we know all about what folks are eating for dinner and what their Carnival costumes looked like, but the serious discussions are more difficult to find, and even when Trinidadians do share their opinions on weighty issues, they tend to do it in the perceived safety of the virtual world – usually, on someone's “private” Facebook wall.
Trinidadians are often described as Carnival people, but in reality, we're bystanders. Spectators. Very few of us leave the stands to actually play a ‘mas – and the ones who do end up in a bacchanal, usually involving some level of vilification, for bucking the status quo. Back in the 1960s, Gene Miles shot to notoriety as a whistleblower about widespread corruption in what became known as the Gas Station Racket. She lost her job, her reputation and eventually died, betrayed and alone. More recently, Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh, who went on hunger strike to protest the construction of a billion dollar highway project in southeastern Trinidad, which threatened rural communities and the neighbouring environment, was publicly ridiculed by politicians.
Yet, as Trinidad and Tobago grapples with more brazen instances of corruption, Miles’ story is being retold – truthfully, this time – in the theatre and in Carnival. Dr. Kublalsingh and the Highway Re-Route Movement have been winning the battle through the actions of civil society and the workings of the legal system. So I wonder, in an age where citizen media has proven that it can help return the reins of power to actual citizens, why are Trinidadians still so reticent to take a stand?
I think it begins with the way we are socialised. Rather than encourage individuality, schools reinforce the outdated notion that children are empty vessels waiting to be filled and more disturbingly, that they must toe the line. We have an entrance examination to secondary school that has worsened over the years – even the Minister of Education calls it “dreadful” – yet, parents continue to accept the anachronistic teaching approach, relentless standardised testing and “learning” that quicker resembles regurgitation than a satisfaction of curiosity or a feeding of interest.
And should students dare to be different – or even ordinary, in the case of several teens who recently got sent home from school for sporting (gasp!) facial hair – they risk getting penalised at the whim and fancy of those in authority. The real story, of course, and the one that should be directing the narrative, is the outstanding show of solidarity from one clean-shaven student, who drew a beard on his face in permanent marker to make the point that the decision was coercive and that the student body wasn't prepared to stand for it.
Good for him. As Activized says, “if [young people] are not first standing for their own identities in the communities that they are actively a part of, then how are they expected to stand for anyone else? It might not be a march or hunger strike, and it might not be against rising crime rates or an evil capitalist structure, but it’s just as meaningful in my view. It’s about people owning their identities and feeling like credited parts of their communities. It’s an example of camaraderie, unity and willpower in a place where it made sense to sit down and shut up. And that’s where true revolution begins.”
That statement gives me hope that young voices, rational voices, measured voices, intelligent voices will begin to drown out the cacophony of those who seem to be doing all the talking, getting all the media attention and making as if they are speaking on behalf of the majority.
In response to Trindadian visual artist LeRoy Clarke's ludicrous, non-factual connection between homosexuality and everything that plagues Trinbagonian society, Activized calls out the ignorance of the dialogue, saying: “We empower certain opinion leaders to make [statements] regardless of evidence. It’s what the voting public want to hear. The nation’s right-wing politics is one of socially acceptable ignorance; saying things than run counter to reason and information, as a tool to maintain a group of people. It’s a form of societal growth-stunting that ensures that people don’t spend enough time analyzing issues to come to any real truth.”
To me, that's what the right to speak out affords us – the opportunity to arrive at the truth. And I wonder when Trinidadians are going to come to the realisation, like Dorothy in the Land of Oz, that we always had the power, but were relinquishing it out of fear and ignorance. I'm clicking my heels together.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Authors Shortlisted for 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Regional litbloggers are sharing the news that “two writers from Jamaica and one from Trinidad and Tobago have made the shortlist for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.”


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Five Urdu Bloggers From Pakistan Everyone Should Know  · Global Voices
Faisal Kapadia

Pakistanis like me blog and tweet in English because that is our comfort zone.
Pakistani private schools, many of which were legacy British colonial institutions (or pretend to be) had a bias for English. We were left to learn our Urdu skills by ourselves. Blogging in English also allows us to connect with an international audience and share views that counter the image of a singular “Pakistan” projected by international mainstream media.
There are however, tens of thousands of Pakistanis conversing on the Internet in Urdu, our other national language. These bloggers are the most popular within the country. Unfortunately, due to Google indexing and the difficulty of typesetting and coding Urdu's Nastaʿlīq alphabet, English language blogs from Pakistan dominate search.
English blogs will give you plenty of perspective on Pakistan; it is after all one of our official languages. But it misses the charm, linguistic depth and humor that exists in Urdu social media and blogs.
In Pakistan, English is spoken in the corridors of power, in the courts, and is the language of the rich or upwardly mobile. But Urdu, the other official language in the country, is spoken as a second language and understood by most Pakistanis.
Urdu blogs you should know about
Urdu blogging, despite the many technical difficulties it faces, is alive and well. The following five Urdu blogs and the amazing people behind them should give you a taste of the variety and depth of Urdu blogging today. (To prevent Urdu script from being distorted I included screenshots from these blogs, with translations, of course.)
1. Omar Bangash | Sila-e-Omar
Used with permission. From Omar's blog.
The most popular posts on Bangash's superb blog Sila-e-Omar are short stories, called afsanay in Urdu. Narrative fiction has a strong tradition in Urdu, and Bangash captures his readers with youthful, vivid imagery, strong command of prose, and personal characters. Written Urdu can be a very formal language but Bangash's afsanay capture the the bluntness and rawness of colloquial speech.
Here's an example from a recent afsana [ur]:
Screenshot from Sila-e-Omar
Translation: Only a few people knew Shabana’s real name. Everyone knew her by her stage name Shab Chaudhry.  She was always over-embellished with gold-plated ornaments, in snugly-fit silk clothes, with a smile on her face. One time, she was gracefully returning an escaped hair strand to the right place, the other moment she played with her golden bangles, while listening attentively to the producer. Whenever she listened to the producer she transformed herself; no one can know what was really going on in her mind.
2. Shoaib Safdar | بے طقی باتیں بے طقے کام
Used with permission. From Shoaib's blog.
At بے طقی باتیں بے طقے کام  (pointless talk and pointless work) [ur] Shoaib Safdar blogs about issues pertaining to culture, religion and the state of affairs in Pakistan. He also writes satirical and spiritually focused  posts about the online world.
The following excerpt from his blog [ur] is a conversation between two friends. One friend invites the other, to a road trip to Thar, which is supposed to be part recreation and partly to help victims of a recent drought:
Screenshot from Shoaib Safdar's blog.
Translation: “Be ashamed. People are dying there and you are going to have fun.”
Sorry I asked you man. Please forgive me.
“You are no less than the people who went there for a fishing feast.”
Go and volunteer there if you want to help. But please stop acting like Geo TV and ARY News, because I know you, you'll just be passively watching them report in full volume tonight.
3. Duffer D | Dufferistan
Duffer D's avatar. Used with permission.
This is the funniest Urdu blog I have ever read. Dufferistan is hilarious whenever you click. From blogging on social media and its antics in Pakistan to more serious political topics, Duffer D pokes fun at it all, in exemplary Urdu. Duffer D uses an alias, so he is not known by his real name online.
Duffer D writes as dishes piles up in his sink in this post called Dirty Boy [ur]:
Screenshot from Dufferistan.
Translation: Just thinking about washing the dishes gives me tension. When I eat, I convince myself to leave a few bites in my plate and put it in the fridge; justifying my action, by telling myself that wasting food is a sin. If two or three of my total collection of four plates need to be cleaned, then I get so tense that my mental condition is unstable for the next three days, at least. I start seeing Scotch Brite (sponge) and Vim (detergent) in the form of witches in my dreams, and it's like the horrors of the grave.
4. Fahd Kekar | Cricnama
Fahd from his blog. Used with permission.
In a country bonkers about cricket, Fahad created cricnama, the most comprehensive online forum about cricket in Urdu. The blog carries international and local opinion pieces and news features on this great sport. There is also an English version of the site. Unlike the other bloggers featured into this post who use Naskh, Fahad stays true to Urdu's Nasta'liq script.
Here's an example [ur] from a recent post about the T20 Cricket World Cup, “Hails stormy century helped England sink Sri Lanka”:
Screenshot from Cricnama
Translation:
While cricket fans were waiting for Gayle Storm in the T20 world cup, “Hails Storm” came out of nowhere and wiped out Sri Lanka. England with the help of Hails and Morgan gunned down the record total of 190, where Hails scored a century. England’s victory in such fashion is an answer to all the critics who declared England the weakest team in the tournament. After their horrible performance in fielding and losing two wickets on zero; England pulled this unpredictable victory off.
5. M Bilal M | M Bilal M
M Bilal M
This site is a treasure trove for anyone starting out in Urdu blogging. M Bilal M provides links to softwares that enable you to map your keyboard in Urdu, gives tutorials on Facebook in Urdu, and offers a variety of resources which enable you to establish your online Urdu publishing status within a few hours. The author has a pretty sharp pen when it comes to current affairs as well.
Here's an example [ur] from a recent post titled King of the Internet Google [ur]:
Screenshot from MBilalM's blog.
Translation: Google is famous for searching on the Internet. Because of its ability to search anything, there are lots of jokes on its very power to search, for example, a father tries to search for his lost son on Google, because Google can find anything. Well jokes apart, Google indeed has done many unique things. For instance their head office “Googolplex” is more of playground than a workplace. Indeed Google is the king of Internet and the Internet seems incomplete without Google. However, now Google's throne is in danger, because Google is spying for the U.S. government.
Bonus: Eight fun facts about Urdu
An introduction to Urdu Bloggers without an introduction to the language seems incomplete:
1. Urdu is spoken and understood by most Pakistanis and is the dominant second language in the country. According to the numbers, regional languages Punjabi, Pashto, Sindi, Saraiki and Balochi dominate as first languages in Pakistan.
2. When Pakistan was carved out of united India in 1947, it was decided that Urdu would be made the national language to unite all the different Muslim ethnicities in the new country, although it was only spoken by 10 million people at the time.
3. Urdu borrows heavily from Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish.
4. Everyday spoken Urdu and Hindi are intelligible with one another, but the written alphabet is completely different. Some linguists consider them to be a single language.
5. The origin of Urdu is disputed by linguistics. One popular story, which some call a myth, is that Urdu (which means army camp in Turkish)  was created as a “camp language” by soldiers in the Mughal army that spoke Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hindi so they could communicate amongst themselves.
6. Urdu is written in right-to-left alphabet. It is a modification of the Persian alphabet, which itself is derived from the Arabic alphabet. The 38 letters of the Urdu alphabet are typically written in the curvy calligraphic Nasta'liq script. Arabic is more commonly in the Naskh style.
7. Nasta’liq is notoriously difficult to typeset. The last handwritten newspaper in the world is in Urdu.
8. Nasta’liq is also difficult to code. Which is why Naskh is quickly pushing Nastaliq off the web. Most credible Urdu sites – BBC-Urdu, Dawn.com Urdu, Geo.tv Urdu, Urdu Voice of America, Alarabiya Urdu – use Naskh rather than Nastaliq. The same is true for social media sites -Facebook, Twitter, and most blogs – all use Naskh.

author: Faisal Kapadia


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Indigenous Research at the College of the Bahamas  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As a follow-up to her post about “the absurdity of cutting the budget for the College of The Bahamas”, Blogworld says:
Not only is the College the national tertiary level institution, but it’s the only indigenous public institution that is engaged in any form of ongoing Bahamian research.


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Ministers’ Firing Sparks Debate about Women, Race & Politics in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Political longevity has always been a tricky business in the Caribbean, but in the wake of two recent scandals, ministers in Trinidad and Tobago's coalition People's Partnership government are finding out just to what extent.
First came former Minister of the People and Social Development Glenn Ramdharsingh‘s unruly behaviour on a domestic flight, which the blog Wired868 summarised like this:
According to a report lodged by CAL flight attendant Ronelle Laidlow, Minister of the People Glenn Ramadharsingh drank a bit too much, got a Napoleon complex, thought the cabin was his living room, mistook Laidlow’s breast for the suggestion box and threatened to have her sacked.
The minister subsequently apologised, but Wired868 didn't find his effort to make amends sincere:
Ramadharsingh gave a qualified apology. He insisted that he was not drunk, did not touch the flight attendant’s breast and never threatened her; but he was sorry for everything else.
In short, the Minister’s apology was like ordering a chicken roti with extra pepper and getting dry paratha instead.
In a follow-up post, the blog called the whole display “the most ridiculous dismissal in local politics after the sack race also-ran lost his job for effectively mistaking a CAL plane for his living room and incorrectly reading the future of a flight attendant that he took for his night nurse”:
Ramadharsingh, like most self-indulgent tykes, got cranky, wailed at the authority figure in the room and then, allegedly, reached for the nearest tot-tots.
Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha general secretary Sat Maharaj called for Ramadharsingh to be immediately rested from his Cabinet portfolio and, within hours, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar fired him.
Perhaps the public should send future suggestions on Persad-Bissessar’s Cabinet to the Maha Sabha.
The post went on to list “the Prime Minister’s dirty dozen of replaced Cabinet members”:
Ramadharsingh is the second Cabinet member to be forced out due to foreign intervention.
Former National Security Minister and ex-FIFA vice-president Jack Warner did not survive a meticulous investigative report tabled by former Barbados attorney general Sir David Simmons.
Mary King, the Irish-born ex-Transparency International head, was first to go after she was involved in awarding a $100,000 IT contract to a company she jointly owns with her husband.
Collin Partap, minister in the Ministry of National Security, took a joyride with flashing police lights and then refused a breathalyser test.
Justice Minister Herbert Volney went for failing to sneak through Section 34 on Independence Day.
Communication Minister Jamal Mohammed was not smart enough to hide his stupidity; and Brigadier John Sandy could not get a handle on Reshmi Ramnarine let alone dangerous crime.
And Warner was just an absolute fire-trucking disgrace who was allegedly involved in everything from ripping off poverty-stricken Haitians, wishing death on a respected environmentalist, facilitating bribes and possibly money laundering for a Qatari FIFA colleague, cheating World Cup players and Chaconia medal winners of promised bonuses and arguably using taxpayers money to solicit political favours from the local football body.
Thanks to the revelation of a former girlfriend, Sacha Singh, bloggers would soon have another name to add to the list of dismissed Ministers of Parliament – Minister of Tourism, Chandresh Sharma – who allegedly assaulted her during an altercation early last month and is now the subject of a police probe surrounding the incident.  As the blogosphere erupted in commentary over the issue, Sharma “took in front”, as Trinidadians say, and tendered his resignation.
Mr. Live Wire was one of the first to follow the developments:
Mr Live Wire read the police report filed by Sacha Singh against Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma, gasped at the perfect alignment of what is surely the most important yet inconsequential story in local politics and passed out.
He then supplied background information, which he felt provided valuable context about the minister's penchant for this sort of behaviour:
The Sharma story started ten years ago with a storm and a teacup. Literally.
In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada and, along with over a dozen fatalities, cost the island an estimate US$900 million in damages and prompted nations and well-wishers all over the world to dip into their pockets. The Trinidad and Tobago government, then led by the PNM, was among the contributors.
In the Parliamentary tea room on 15 September 2004, Sharma, no doubt as versed on Caribbean affairs as his current colleagues, allegedly told Rowley that the PNM’s assistance to Grenada was racially motivated; and all hell broke loose. Well, at least a teacup was smashed.
Sharma spent another two hours debating in Parliament before he decided to file a police report in which he claimed that Rowley hit him with his hand, a teacup, two remotes and everything in the room but the television.
Sharma was represented by present Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in the matter.
The case from the MP and the PM SC was so unconvincing that it was thrown out by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee and the DPP Geoffrey Henderson while UNC MP Gillian Lucky broke ranks with her party in disgust at the whole episode and Sharma himself did not appear before the High Court to give evidence. The matter cost taxpayers $5 million in legal fees.
He continued:
Fast forward to 12 March 2014, when Sacha Singh supposedly regained consciousness at the Grand Bazaar Mall in Valsayn after Sharma allegedly shoved her to the ground. This from a man who went under drips at the Port of Spain General Hospital because a teacup broke in a room that he was in.
Apparently Singh…decided to lure Sharma into a confrontation with [another] former lover and young child at 7.45 pm on a Wednesday night.  Sharma caught a look at the child and bolted; the [mother] caught Sharma and the MP allegedly begged her not to hit him since he was ‘a Brahmin boy.’
Since then, Sharma and his former attorney, Persad-Bissessar, have been incommunicado. Live Wire cannot confirm that young women all over the country are dying to put the sweetman minister in a caste anytime they get their hands on him; and an increasingly large number of voters are demanding a new caste-away from the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, political blogger The Eternal Pantomime interpreted the whole affair as a form of poetic justice. Referring to last general election through which current Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar rose to power, she said:
In 2010 it was woman power….remember that? Ironically, or maybe justifiably, since Kamla’s tenure has done nothing to improve the lot of women, it seems that women are going to be the downfall of her govt. Last week it was Glen Ramadharsingh, the Hamper Man, breaching civil aviation rules, threatening a CAL flight attendant and grabbing at her breast in the process of issuing his threats.
This week we have an equally lurid scandal downing Sharma. Sacha Singh, his now ex-girlfriend, forced a confrontation between Sharma and a woman with whom he allegedly had a relationship and a child. The child is now 12 years old, and the implications are that he has not met his responsibilities where the child is concerned.
You have to pause for a moment and understand the shame this must be causing the orthodox Hindu community and UNC supporters. For the orthodox Hindu community, it is knowing that a pundit, indeed, a self-proclaimed Brahmin (imagine in the Caribbean Brahmin and caste are still used), fell from such a great height. Theirs is a community known for publicly espousing strong family values and kin ship ties.
She called out what she saw as overt racism by some supporters of the main governing political party:
Generally, UNC supporters, people who described themselves as openminded, inclusive and intolerant of racism and corruption in 2010, spend most of their days defining the Afro-descended community of Trinidad and Tobago as ghetto rats, prone to violence, poor, always seeking handouts, deadbeat dads etc. So imagine the irony, when a government minister, who claims to be of the highest possible social caste in Hindu society, turns out to be a hitter of women, a philanderer and possibly (if the child is his) a dead beat dad? It makes us realize that dysfunction doesn’t belong to a race, it can happen in virtually any ethnic community and at all economic levels…
You see, MP Sharma, you hurt women, several women. The first of whom was your wife. I suspect if you have any daughters you have hurt and violated their trust as well. In not providing full disclosure to Ms Singh, you hurt her as well. And then, as a man, and alleged upstanding member of the community, you brought your office into disrepute by assaulting citizens of the country.
On that note, CODE RED posted what it considered “the Top 10 sexist and heterosexist moments in Caribbean Politics” – the two disgraced former ministers, Ramdharsingh and Sharma, tied for the Number 1 spot.
Finally, The Eternal Pantomime looked at the issue in the context of next year's general elections:
Between Glen and Chan Kamla is now limping to elections 2015 like a cripple with a stone in he right shoe. It isn’t pretty. And no matter how much she tries to make these firings and resignations put her in the light of a strong leader they don’t. The constant abuse of women under her tenure tells me that she doesn’t have a gender policy and that the men under her don’t respect us. We have seen far too many young, articulate women bullied by this government: Asha Javeed, Denyse Renne, Anicka Gumbs Sandiford, the women of the Highway ReRoute Movement, and now, Ronelle Laidlow and Sacha Singh. In the midst of this, the feminists who loudly and proudly supported Kamla’s 2010 bid for office are deafeningly mute.


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RuNet April Fools’ Roundup · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Image remixed by author.
Like everywhere else in this globalized world, in Russia April 1 is mostly a day of bad jokes and lame attempts to trick your loved ones into thinking that you are getting married or moving to Australia. Some RuNet gags do work, however. RuNet Echo has collected the best ones for your amusement.
Weather
Well, this one wasn't quite a gag, but literally hundreds [ru] of Russian Twitter users thought it would be funny to joke about the spring snow that covered Moscow this April 1st. This tweet sums up the general sentiment:
1 апреля – День, когда даже погода решила пошутить pic.twitter.com/okUz3SIds4
— Какой сегодня день? (@today_okay) April 1, 2014
April 1 – the day when even weather decided to make a joke
And this one sums up the annoyance other users felt at the ubiquity of the joke:
День еще толком не начался, а шуточки про первое апреля и погоду уже жутко надоели
— nika (@lastrealbitch) April 1, 2014
The day has yet to start, but jokes about April Fool's and weather have already become horribly annoying.
Bloggers taking government jobs
At least two popular RuNet bloggers announced they would be turning a new page in their lives, working for the Kremlin.
Famous designer, popular blogger, traveler and scandal monger Artemiy Lebedev updated his blog saying [ru] he would be leaving his lucrative design studio and selling all his shares, all to start a new job with the Moscow Mayor's Office:
Сергей Семенович Собянин предложил мне новую должность – главы вновь создаваемого Департамента дизайна Москвы. Фактически – это должность главного дизайнера города. Взвесил все и согласился.
[Moscow Mayor] Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin offered me a new position – the head of a new Moscow Department of Design. In effect this position will be the head designer for the city. I've considered everything and have agreed.
The joke works particularly well, because anyone who follows Lebedev knows his obsession with urban planning and design. If he got such an offer in reality, he would indeed spend some time seriously considering it. But, he probably wouldn't leave his studio.
Science Fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko (author of the Night Watch series), who blogs under dr-piliulkin, had a similar idea, writing [ru] that he got a call offering him the position of Crimea's new Culture Minister. He wrote that the offer came for several reasons, one of them being that “only sci-fi writers have shown the proper amount of patriotism in the current situation.” Over the past weeks Lukyanenko had strongly spoken out for the annexation of the peninsula.
Political Humor
In Soviet Russia, politics jokes about you!
Russian anti-virus developer Dr. Web, for example, announced [ru] that they found a new Trojan virus that infects bank terminals and credit card readers. When someone uses a credit card issued by Visa or MasterCard, the virus supposedly rewrites the data on the card and makes it part of the “Russian Payment System.” The reference is to Visa and MC stopping to service Bank of Russia transactions because of US sanctions. In the aftermath, Russian politicians have spoken about switching to a national payment system as an alternative to Western credit card companies.
Russia's Slashdot, Habrahabr, posted an “interview” [ru] with Dmitriy Medvedev on their website. In this faketerview Medvedev tells us that Russian government employees are ambiguous about new IP legislation because they also like to share books and movies. But, they have their own torrent tracker, and so are somewhat safe from the new laws. Medvedev also supposedly advised Habrahabr readers to create website mirrors on the anonymous Tor .onion service to avoid censorship, letting slip that the infamous Silk Road was a mirror of GazProm.
Meanwhile, the official Facebook page of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted [ru] the following, somewhat sinister, status update:
Поздравляем всех с 1 апреля 2014 года! Шутки кончились. ;)
Happy April 1, 2014 everyone! Joke's over. ;)
Random
Popular social network VKontakte had a gag of its own — and no, it wasn't VK founder and CEO Pavel Durov leaving the company [Global Voices report]. Instead, for the space of 24 hours, every time one clicked a “Like” button, Doge would appear on the lower right of the screen:
Doge says WOW to this joke. Screenshot.
Yandex, Russia's main domestic search engine, went the classic direction with a fly-swatting mini-game on their main page:
Find the fly. Screenshot.
Finally, Artemiy Lebedev's studio “designed” [ru] a mock product — “Retroreflector Glasses.” These glasses purport to keep you anonymous in any unwanted photo, by reflecting the flash back at the camera, because the lenses are surrounded by bicycle-style reflective panels:
Retroreflective glasses in action. Screenshot.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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South Korea Launches Probe of Violence and Rape Culture in Sports World · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Image of curling rink by Sarah0s on Flickr and Fotopedia (CC BY NC ND 2.0)
Following the firing of South Korea's women's national curling team coach for sexual, verbal and financial abuse of team members, the country's sports ministry has launched an investigation into the sports world.
It has long been an open secret that South Korea's sports world is home to a culture of rampant violence and rape. A detailed 2009 Korean Human Rights Commission report [ko] found about 64 percent of junior players between 13 and 18 years old have experienced sexual abuse, including sexual molestation, sexual harassment and rape, by their coach or director.
Last summer, a national Judo team coach stepped down [ko] amid allegations that he touched a female player's hip area; he maintained that he had merely given her a massage.
This week, Hwasung female short-track team and their coach sued each other [ko], with players accusing the coach of needless physical contact. The coach, who failed to renew his contract because of the controversy, claimed that he was falsely accused.
Prominent blogger Impeter wrote an in-depth post [ko] on the violence prevalent in sports:
사실 스포츠계에서 성추행 문제는 어제오늘만의 문제가 아닙니다. 지속해서 스포츠계에서는 성추행 논란이 끊이지 않고 벌어졌습니다[…]”감독이나 코치가 여자선수가 말을 잘 안들을 때는 일부러 강간을 한다는 것이다. 그래야 그 다음에 말을 잘 듣는다고 한다. 그것이 통제의 수단으로까지 활용되고 있는 말도 안되는 일까지 벌어지고 있다.” (법률 행정 교수)[…] 한국 스포츠계에서 폭력과 성범죄가 난무하는 까닭은 체벌이나 기합, 성범죄 여부에 상관없이 성적만 좋으면 된다는 사고방식이 만연해 있기 때문입니다[…]멍이 들고 코뼈가 나가고 고막이 터지도록 때리고서 고작 하는 소리가 ‘너희 성공을 위해서'라는 코치와 감독의 말은 늘 폭력을 정당화하는 이유로 인식됐습니다.
To tell you the truth, sexual harassment in the sports world has been a lingering problem, with controversies arising continuously […] One administrative law professor says, “In some cases, when a female player does not do as the coach says, he intentionally rapes her. Then, she becomes docile. Rape being used to wield control over players – such outrageous things do happen.” […] The reason why violence and sexual crimes are rampant is because everything can be pardoned once they win big no matter what, whether it be corporal punishment or sexual crimes. Beating and bruising a player, breaking their nose and rupturing their eardrum, then they come up with a lame excuse that “all this was done to [motivate them to] success”, and they think that it is a good enough justification for the physical abuse they inflicted.
Twitter users expressed their anger and frustration against the fired coach, the Korean sports world, and some of the media coverage of the case:
여자 컬링 대표팀 파문… 짧은 생각…: 오늘 아침부터 분노에 떨게 만들었던 뉴스… 어느정도 예상은 했지만, 이게 사실로 드러난게 참… 어이없고 분합니다. 동계스.. http://t.co/ow3vVhLMKm
— 불로동 허씨 (@hjm1122) March 28, 2014
The women's national curling team fiasco. This is my two cents on it: This news made me shake with anger early this morning. I was aware of such things, but the scope of the truth has rendered me speechless and furious.
개소리 한다… 상대가 기분이 조금이라도 나쁘면 무조건 희롱이다. 너네가 판단할 문제가 아니다…＂女컬링 코치, 유대 강화하는 스킨십 한 것＂ http://t.co/tnxGM9XzkQ 출처 : 네이버 스포츠
— 浪漫MaCHo (@monster4810) March 29, 2014
The women's curling team coach said, “It was merely friendly touching to boost camaraderie.” That is such bullshit. If the touching is unwanted on the receiving end, it is a definitely harassment. You are not the one to decide [whether it was friendly or not].
[속보]여자컬링팀 성추행, 폭언 등 사실로 확인 돼 http://t.co/rPgisePPuG 이건 구속감인데 해임조치하면 땡인가.
— 누군가의 변호인이고픈 성우 권창욱 (@KwonCW84) March 28, 2014
It has been confirmed that the women's national curling team has been abused, sexually and verbally. The matter is grave enough to land him in prison, yet it seems they want to end this by merely firing him.
SBS가 컬링 국가대표 성추행 파문이 사실로 드러났다고 보도하며, 피해자인 선수들은 노출시키고 가해자인 코치는 모자이크 처리했습니다. 누구의 인권이 중요한 나라입니까? http://t.co/aQYu811Wwt pic.twitter.com/Gx3rQ8BYdb
— 샤우트 #바보가꿈꾸는세상 (@187Centi) March 28, 2014
SBS [Seoul Broadcasting System, the nation's network TV], when reporting that the national curling team's sexual harassment allegations were proven to be true, reveals the faces of the victims, but blurred the coach's face. Whose human rights are more important in this country?

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Powerful Earthquake Hits Northern Chile Triggering Tsunami Evacuation · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

A strong 8.2 earthquake hit northern Chile at 20:46 and generated a tsunami that triggered the alarms across the country as this video shows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg6du5bhVqE&feature=youtu.be
The epicenter was located 89kms Southeast of Cuya, in front of Tarapaca's coast.
Mapa: Epicentro del terremoto magnitud 8.2 en el norte de Chile pic.twitter.com/dENbEwaeoS
— Breaking News Chile (@BreakingNewsChi) April 2, 2014
Map: Epicenter of the 8.2 magnitude earthquake in Northern Chile
The government asked for an immediate evacuation of the entire coastline as the first waves hit Iquique.
In this Storify collection by Nacion.cl, there are several pictures of people moving to higher ground and some damages caused by the earthquake.
Some Twitter users shared important information, including the government's Emergency National Office (ONEMI):
Durante una Alerta de Tsunami realiza la evacuación a pie y dirígete al punto de encuentro más cercano.
— onemichile (@onemichile) April 2, 2014
During a Tsunami Alert, evacuate by foot and go the nearest meeting point.
No se olviden de sus mascotas, ellos deben evacuar con ustedes. porfavor #AlertaTsunami #Tsunami #Terremoto #Iquique #Arica
— Verónica Rivera E. (@Vero_Animalista) April 2, 2014
Don't forget your pets, they should be evacuated with you. Please #AlertaTsunami #Tsunami #Terremoto [earthquake] #Iquique #Arica
Others compared the government's response to the one during a major earthquake in 2010:
Aprendieron de sus errores: alerta de tsunami, evacuacion y milicos a las calles. Al fin se pusieron los pantalones
— Hugo Alcivar (@hugoalc) April 2, 2014
They learned from their mistakes: tsunami alert, evacuation and the army to the streets. Finally, they put their pants on.
This is a developing story, watch this space for more details.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Syria: My Mother, Alive  · Global Voices
مرسيل شحوارو

This post is part of a special series of articles by blogger and activist, Marcell Shehwaro, describing the realities of life in Syria during the ongoing armed conflict between forces loyal to the current regime, and those seeking to oust it.
Marcell Shehwaro and her mother in a poster made and shared by Jordanian blogger Mohammed Al Qaq on Facebook.
Time and time again, I keep putting off writing this article. For someone who lost her mother to a lethal bullet, writing about mothers, and about Mother's Day, is not completely therapeutic. Even if we agree that writing has magical powers, some kinds of pain are simply too colossal. They wear down your body and soul, and are immune to medication.
I tell myself that I would write about my mother before Mother's Day (observed this year in Syria on March 21) as I would then be more objective and neutral. I don't know who it was, exactly, that told me I had to convey to you the burning reality of Syria with a professional coldness. Of course I am not neutral in any of my positions. I am a daughter of this land, I have a mother buried in it, and I also have a memory. And I have friends in prison, whose dreams have been shattered by a tyrant. Shards of those dreams have pierced me too.
I postpone writing about Mother's Day in order to take advantage of the emotions that consume me on this day, which  enable me to describe my pain. Perhaps, in this new and violent state of sadism, I might experience some happiness, should one of you tell me that my article brought tears to your eyes.
I fail miserably. Finally, I tell myself—in order to escape writing—that this celebration is a made-up day. Hafez Al Assad replaced International Mother's Day with this day in order to put an end to Norooz celebrations, which mark the beginning of Spring, by the downtrodden Kurds in my country. And then we are accused of being obsessed with politics. How can we not be so when even our family celebrations are imposed upon by a dictator?
My friend Amira asks me about the topic of my next article. Without even thinking, I respond: My mother. And I force myself to write.
You have every right to hate what I am about to relate, for it was written as an attempt to confront my sadness. I approached the task planning to smack it down, but it faced off with me, and left a residue of sorrow in my language, which I might transfer to you.
My mother, Marina, was a housewife, who attempted many times to turn my sister and me into proper society ladies. With my sister, she succeeded.
Mother married my father after an endearing courtship in which they exchanged letters which still lie in a corner of our house in the occupied part of Aleppo, and which, as you know, I cannot reach.
My mother was an only child, of parents who got married late in life, and I used to joke with her that an only child is usually spoiled by her parents. That was far from the truth. Her parents died early, leaving her completely alone, with no siblings or relatives. This made my father, my sister and me all she ever had in terms of family.
My mother, who was used to life as the wife of an Orthodox priest who always insisted on values, good manners and loving relations, took loving care of the details that were important to him. She cared for us lovingly as well, through all the arguments she had with me, and all the small decisions she had helped my sister make.
My father died young, after a heart attack which wouldn't even give him a second chance. In the blink of an eye he left my mother, alone and with two girls to take care of. My sister Leila was about to start a family, while I was difficult, always independent and argumentative about everything. I would be expelled from school for not assenting to the teacher's requests, or for writing an essay about how violent our school was.
After my sister got married and left home, for nine years my mother and I lived together by ourselves. Our relationship flourished during this period, until the start of the Syrian revolution, when she read a blog post I had written entitled “Our people deserve freedom.” At that point she started enforcing her role as a mother, advising and arguing with me. And I, in turn, began enforcing my role as a rebel refusing to succumb to family pressure.
My activist friends and I had started photographing ourselves during protests with our backs to the cameras, but my mother could still pinpoint me among the crowd of backs, even in a hazy photograph taken with a cell phone camera. “Marcell, is that you at the Salahuddin protest?” she would ask. I would lie and say it wasn't me. And she would pretend that she believed me.
My mother would cry every time she heard the revolutionary song, whose lyrics went: “I am going to the demonstration, with my blood in my hands/I will come back a martyr, mother/Do not cry for me.”
Yet she lived the revolution with me. She remembered the names of friends who got arrested and prayed for them. She helped fix the shoddy stitching on the new revolutionary flags, which we would distribute secretly, and in our social and family circles she would defend me, taking the blame and the blows on my behalf.
Each time the volatile security situation forced me to travel abroad, my mother would pack my bag. And she would stick a snapshot of me on the corner of her computer screen. One week before she was killed, she said to me: “You and your sister are all that is left of my world. If you leave, half my world will end. Do you realise that?” And although I understood well why she was so afraid, I'd get angry. Once I selfishly uttered a response I regret to this day: “I am not more dear than the children of other people, and you are no different from the other mothers. If I was in prison, wouldn't you want my friends to protest for my release? Isn't this what you brought us here to do?” She closed her eyes and wept. Then she said: “Memo, do you know how proud I am of you?” And I smiled. I believe it is those words that makes me the strong person I am today.
A week later, officers at a military checkpoint decide that the car in which my mother is traveling, on her way back from a friend's wedding, is somehow suspicious. They shoot at the car, and a military bullet hits my mother directly, killing her. It killed my mother. My mother—the woman who believed in love, beauty, family and the right of Syrian mothers to live a life free from fear and anxiety.
One bullet ended everything. It went through her body, also killing much of me and my soul. A police office says to me, reflecting the regime's callousness when it comes to our souls: “It was the mistake of one person. Don't take it personally.”
One day I will write for you about her death, her funeral, and my loss; but today I wanted to introduce you to my mother alive.
To you my mother, every year you continue to be alive in my memory. And I hope you are as proud of me today as you were back then.
Marcell Shehwaro blogs at marcellita.com and tweets at @Marcellita, both primarily in Arabic. You can read the first three posts in this series here and here and here.

author: مرسيل شحوارو


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Talk Show Hosts In Pakistan: There is Nothing Holding the Showman Back · Global Voices
Rezwan

You can imagine the irony when talk show hosts take over primetime news broadcasts and become more relevant to the pursuit of “facts” than their colleagues in the newsroom or out in the field.
“Talk show hosts and TV anchors are the stars of the media revolution” as per Hassan Belal Zaidi, who posts a satirical review of the new phenomenon in Pakistan.

author: Rezwan


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VIDEO: ‘Happy’ in El Salvador · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Salvadorans have created their own version of the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. Blogger Mildred Largaespada praises the video on her Facebook page [es]:
It's beautiful. And yes, as in real life, this is also real: During most of the day, women and men of El Salvador are happy rather than distressed by the bad news that some media outlets report and pretend to make more real than the reality this video shows.
The video was uploaded by YouTube user El Salvador Happy:

author: Silvia Viñas


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Cameroon Demolishes 3,000 Houses and Render 15,000  Homeless  · Global Voices
Dibussi Tande

Blogger Mathias Mouendé Ngamo gives an eye-witness account [fr] of the demolition of about 3,000 houses in the Nkomba neighborhood in the city of Douala in Cameroon. It is estimated that over 15,000 squatters live in this squatter camp established on land owned by the Industrial Zones Development and Management Mission, a public corporation responsible for creating industrial zones in Cameroon:
Des policiers et gendarmes empêchent aux habitants de franchir le cordon de sécurité. Plus de 150 éléments des forces du maintien de l’ordre encadrent l’opération des casses. Ils sont constitués des policiers de l’Equipe spéciale d’intervention rapide (Esir), du Groupement mobile d’intervention n°2 (Gmi2), des gendarmes et des forces spéciales de la Misca. Les hommes en tenues sont armés de fusils, de matraques et de bombes à gaz lacrymogène. Des camions antiémeutes de la police et de la gendarmerie sont garés dans un coin. Une bombe à gaz lacrymogène est lancée pour repousser les sinistrés qui défient les forces de l’ordre. La foule se disperse…
C’est la troisième journée des casses au quartier Nkomba. Les déguerpissements ont débuté mercredi 26 mars 2014, vers 5 h. Les maisons ciblées sont celles établies sur le terrain de la Mission d’aménagement et de gestion des zones industrielles (Magzi).
Police officers and gendarmes are preventing inhabitants from breaking through the security cordon. Over 150 forces of law and order are overseeing the demolition exercise. They are made up of police officers from the special rapid intervention unit (ESIR) and the Mobile Intervention Unit No. 2 (GMI2), gendarmes, and special forces who are part of the International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA). The men in uniform are armed with guns, truncheons and tear gas. Anti-riot trucks belonging to the police and gendarmerie are parked in the corner. A tear gas canister is fired to push back the evicted squatters who are defying the police. The crowd then disperses.
This is the third day of demolitions in Nkomba. Evictions began on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 around 5:00 am. The targeted houses are constructed on land belonging to the Industrial Zones Development and Management Mission (MAGZI).

author: Dibussi Tande


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Environmental Emergency: Drought Kills Thousands of Animals in Colombia · Global Voices
Lully

[All links lead to Spanish pages, unless otherwise noted.]
Capybara. Photo from Pierre Poulquin on Flickr under the Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 2.0).
A drought that has left more than 20,000 animals dead —among them capybaras, spectacled caimans, and cowsin Paz de Ariporo in the Casanare Department, has shocked the world and alerted activists as well as environmental associations.
The Latin American Voice published a letter where activists are denouncing the Colombian State and oil companies before the international community, the Organization of American States [en] and the United Nations [en], deeming them responsible for the environmental degradation. The letter concludes as follows:
Solicitamos lo antes posible se lance una alerta mundial para proteger nuestros derechos humanos y animales, en especial de los habitantes de Casanare, Colombia, y le exija al gobierno colombiano tome cartas en el asunto y brinde una solución pronta y efectiva a este desastre ambiental, exigiendo a las petroleras la responsabilidad con el ambiente y reduzcan su impacto ambiental, e inste al congreso colombiano a legislar en favor del medio ambiente y moderen el modelo extractivista que tanto daño le hace a la humanidad.
We request that a global alert be launched as soon as possible to protect our human and animal rights, especially those of the inhabitants of Casanare, Colombia, and demand that the Colombian government take action on the matter and provides a prompt and effective solution to this environmental disaster, requiring that oil companies take responsibility for the environment and reduce their environmental impact, and urge the Colombian Congress to rule in favor of the environment and oversee the extractive model that causes so much damage to humankind.
Other associations, including Avaaz.org, are carrying out a global campaign to reject the environmental catastrophe with this argument:
Han muerto cerca de 20 mil de animales.
El hydrochaeris hydrochaeris conocido como Chiguiro o Capibara esta catalogado en peligro de extinción y con la sequía se van a extinguir totalmente.
Están acabando con nuestro país.
Las petroleras deben: Hacer excavación de pozos artesanos
Sembrar… arboles nuevamente
Ser responsables socialmente, están matando nuestros animales.
Haz clic aquí para ver el texto completo
About 20,000 animals have died.
The hydrochaeris known as the capybara is considered endangered and with this drought it will become completely extinct.
They are destroying our country.
The oil companies must: dig artesian wells
Plant trees again…
Be socially responsible, they are killing our animals.
Click here to see the full text.
Las 2 orillas announced [es] that oil companies that operate in the sector are responsible for environmental damage:
La población afectada le atribuye el daño ambiental a la intervención de las compañías petroleras como Pacific Rubiales, Geo Park, Cecolsa, Ecopetrol, Petrominerales, Parex y New Granada; a propósito los estudios arrojan que para extraer un galón de petróleo se necesitan 10 galones de agua y que para refinar un galón de petróleo se necesitan 7000 mil litros del preciado liquido.
The affected populations attribute the environmental damage to the intervention by oil companies like Pacific Rubiales, Geo Park, Cecolsa, Ecopetrol, Petrominerales, Parex, and New Granada; the studies purposely show that in order to extract a gallon of oil, 10 gallons of water are needed, and to refine one gallon of oil, 7 million liters of the precious liquid is needed.
YouTube user Daniel Felipe García replicated a video from Caracol Television where viewers can see mud deposits converted into pits where animals die. The video also shows how the community tries to take out the animals that are still alive:
http://youtu.be/Yggln7368Q0
At the same time, different environmental associations are expressing themselves on Twitter to call attention to this emergency:
La sequía en Casanare es efecto del cambio climático causado por las actividades económicas irresponsables con el medio ambiente.
— FUNDACIÓN AMBIENTAL (@BOSQUESECOSDEC1) marzo 25, 2014
The drought in Casanare is an effect of climate change caused by irresponsible economic activities with the environment.
Andrea Padilla called a demonstration on March 25 that was repeated on the 28, at the same time, in front of the Ministry of the Environment:
Martes 25, 2pm, protesta en @MinAmbienteCo por tragedia animal en #CasanareSeMuere @NoticiasCaracol @chivasdellano pic.twitter.com/AMtvlevAW8
— Andrea Padilla (@andreanimalidad) marzo 25, 2014
Tuesday the 25th, 2pm, protest at the Ministry of the Environment for the animal tragedy in Casanare.
Gracias @Lullyp por DF. Se repetirá el Jueves 28, 2pm en @MinAmbienteCo No podemos bajar la guardia @chivasdellano #CasanareSeMuere
— Andrea Padilla (@andreanimalidad) marzo 26, 2014
Thank you, @Lullyp for DF. It will repeat on Thursday, the 28th, 2pm at the Ministry of the Environment. We cannot let our guard down.
Citizens on social networks have also spoken out in indignation, like Luis Alfonso Yepes:
Indigna la crisis ambiental del #Casanare, indigna la respuesta del Estado, indigna el “aporte” de las petroleras. Vergüenza total.
— Luis Alfonso Yepes B (@luisyepesb) marzo 24, 2014
Outrageous is the environmental crisis in #Casanare, outrageous is the State's response, outrageous is the “contribution” from the oil companies. A complete disgrace.
Anibal Osorio denuncia a petroleras por el desvío del agua:
Mientras que las petroleras desvían las aguas, miles de chiguiros y muchas especies mueren de Sed en Casanare. pic.twitter.com/1OK0SX9ebC
— Aníbal O§orio® (@anibalosorioc) marzo 24, 2014
While the oil companies are diverting water, thousands of capybaras and many other species are dying of thirst in Casanare.
The President of Colombia also spoke up on Twitter:
Con el Consejo Nacional de Desastres pondremos en marcha medidas adicionales para mitigar efecto de la sequía en el Casanare
— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) marzo 24, 2014
With the National Disaster Council we will put forth additional measures to mitigate the effects of the drought in Casanare.
While some media sources are announcing that the Attorney General's office is conducting investigations in addition to solutions announced from various entities and a plan to mitigate the problem is being promoted, the blogosphere continues to generate content and promote digital activism.

author: Lully


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Ethiopians Mock National TV’s ‘Lies’ for April Fools’ Day · Global Voices
BefeQadu Z. Hailu

Ethiopians marked April Fools’ Day on Twitter with a steady stream of fake news headlines that imitated the “lies” of state-owned Ethiopian Television (ETv), the only national TV station in the African country. Using the hashtag #ETvDay, netizens accused ETv of “telling lies 365 days”.
It all started with the image below:
ETv made it to the UN international days list. #ETvDay in #EtvStyle. By @jomanex pic.twitter.com/8hMK76uWS8
— BefeQadu Z Hailu™ (@befeqe) March 31, 2014
Jomanex noted in Amharic:
አፕሪል ዘፉል የፈረንጅ ነው ኢቲቪ ግን <<የኛ>> ነው፡፡ ከስተማይዜሽን #EtvDay
— Jomanex Kassaye (@jomanex) April 1, 2014
Customizing: April Fools’ is for foreigners. “Ours” is ETv.
Soli joked about the next general election in 2015:
The coming 2015 national election is fair, free and democratic. #ETVday. #Ethiopia
— Soli ሶሊ (@Soli_GM) April 1, 2014
The disputed 2005 Ethiopian election ended in street protests, with 193 people killed and more that 30,000 people detained by security forces. In 2010, the election ended in a landslide victory for the incumbent Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, taking 99.6 percent of parliamentary seats. The opposition rejected the results and international observers said the election fell short of international standards.
Apparently, Ethiopia will meet one of its Millennium Development Goals – a set of development goals agreed upon at the United Nations’ Millennium Summit in 2000 – in record time:
“ኢትዮጵያ የንፁህ መጠጥ ውሃ አቅርቦትን ከምዕተ አመቱ ግብ ቀድማ እንደምታሳካ አንዳንድ ውስጥ አዋቂ ምንጮች ገለፁ” #ETvDay (Photo Arsi/Ethiopia – 2013) pic.twitter.com/GZ7iF9JvFx
— Zelalem Kibret (@zelalemkibret) April 1, 2014
Sources revealed that Ethiopia will provide a supply of clean water before the Millennium Development Goals deadline
#Etvday በጉለሌ ክፍለ ከተማ የሚገኙ ነዋሪዎች ከ20 ቀናት በላይ የመጠጥ ውሃ ማግኘት ባይችሉም፥ ልማታዊው መንግስታችን ያለ መጠጥ ውሃ እንዴት መኖር እንደሚቻል አስቀድሞ ስልጠና ስለሰጠን ተጎጂ አልሆንም ሲሉ ገለፁ።
— Tewodros Belay (@tewodros_belay) April 1, 2014
Gulelle sub-city residents who couldn't get drinking water for the past 20 days said they were not affected because they had been given training on how to live without water.
On the Crimea referendum, in which that region of Ukraine overwhelmingly voted to be annexed by Russia:
ሩሲያ ክሬሚያን የራሰዋ ግዛት ማድረግ ፤ ኢትዮጵያን ከእድገትና ትራንስፎርሜሽን እንደማያደናቅፋት አንዳንድ የአዳማ ነዎሪዎች ተናገሩ #ETvDay
— Yassin Nuru (@yassinahmed1) April 1, 2014
Some residents of Adama [a city in central Ethiopia] said that Russia’s annexation of Crimea won’t affect the Growth and Transformation plan of Ethiopia.
Mahlet categorized news into two types:
There is news and there is ETV news. #ETvDay
— Mahlet (@Mahlet_S) April 1, 2014
BefeQadu added:
የዓለም ሕዝብ በሁለት ይከፈላል፤ ኢቴቪ በየቀኑ የሚያይ እና እግዜር ያተረፈው። #ETvDay
— BefeQadu Z Hailu™ (@befeqe) April 1, 2014
There are two types of people in the world: those who watch ETv daily and those who were saved by God from having to watch it.
Using the Ethiopian Tourism Commission’s former motto, ‘13 months of sunshine’, Saleh said:
13 months of sunshine & 13 months of government lies on a state-owned TV station. #ETvDay = April the fool @BBCAfrica @AJStream
— saleh (@2zworld) April 1, 2014
How many days does ETv own a year?:
In response to allegations by activists that today is #ETVday, ETV announced today is the only day of the year that it does not own. #April1
— Bon Bon (@BonayaBonso) April 1, 2014
Oromo Network's wished:
I expect mass resignation by ETV journalists today. #ETvDay #13monthsofEtvlies
— Oromo Network (@Oromo_NT) April 1, 2014
Enjoy the rest of the #ETvDay tweets here.

author: BefeQadu Z. Hailu


text:
Mozambique Wants to Criminalize ‘Insulting’ Texts, Emails and Internet Posts · Global Voices
Jornal @Verdade

Citizen reporter and the use of SMS, email and social networks in the newsroom of @Verdade newspaper. Photo by Sourcefabric on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This article, published by @Verdade Newspaper on April 2, 2014, was originally written by Alfredo Manjate (@AlMero05) in Portuguese and translated into English by Francisco Chuquela (@chuquela).
The Mozambican government is pushing a bill that would criminalize text messages, emails and other types of online posts that are considered “insulting” or that “jeopardize the security of the state”.
Approved by the Council of Ministers [pt] (the executive government of Mozambique made up of the president of the republic, the prime minister and all other ministers) on April 1, 2014, the bill will next be submitted to parliament. Minister of Science and Technology Louis Pelembe explained that the tough penalties proposed in the bill would ensure consumer protection and increase confidence in electronic transactions as a means of communication and provision of services.
Free WiFi area at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo in June 2013. Photo by Sara Moreira
Besides the provision on insulting content, the law would cover fraudulent access to the Internet, databases and financial transactions.
Concerning the specific case of text messages, Pelembe pointed out that “in the very recent past” they have “created a lot of turmoil in our country”.
He was referring to what became known as the “Bread Riots” – protests against the rising costs of bread, water and electricity that were organized via SMS in Maputo in September 2010. Following the protests, the government issued a ministerial ordinance that forced prepaid mobile phone users [pt] to register their SIM cards and identifying information with the two mobile telephone companies operating in the country at the time, amid other restrictions imposed on text message services.
The law would fill the need to create a legal framework to regulate and discipline these kind of activities, according to Pelembe.
If approved by the parliament, it would be the first of its kind in Mozambique.
Evidence of a surveillance state
In early 2014, the country's Criminal Investigation Police contacted President of the local Human Rights League Alice Mabota to clarify if she was the author of a call to protest that was circulating via text message. It read:
Família moçambicana, acordem!!! Guebuza não nos quer ver vivos. Melhor acabarmos com ele do que ele connosco. Apelamos à manifestação imediata para a retirada dele do poder antes que seja tarde. Colabora com a ideia passando a mensagem para os outros. A sms é da Dr. Alice Mabota.
Mozambican family, wake up!!! [President] Guebuza doesn't want to see us alive. We better finish with him before he does with us. We call for an immediate protest for him to leave power before it is too late. Collaborate on this effort by passing this message to others. This SMS is from Dr. Alice Mabota.
When Alice Mabota left the police station, she told reporters:
só foram perguntar se a mensagem é da minha autoria e eu disse que não era. Eu forneci-lhes os meus três números de telefone para eles investigarem e ver se a mensagem foi enviada a partir de um deles.
They only asked if I was the author of the message and I said I wasn't. I provided them with my three telephone numbers for them to investigate and see if the message was sent from any of them.
An extensive report on human rights in Mozambique recently published by the U.S. State Department points out that the Mozambican government has been phone tapping members of political parties and human rights activists without warrants.

author: Jornal @Verdade


text:
Powerful Quake Shakes Chile and Peru · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Image taken from @24HorasTVN Twitter account
[All links lead to Spanish-language webpages unless otherwise indicated.]
A powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake hit northern Chile and southern Peru, as well as neighboring areas in Bolivia, during the early evening of Tuesday, April 1, 2014, triggering a tsunami warning for the coastline.
Six people died in Chile, including one Peruvian man. In Peru, there were no reports of significant damage in the three cities where the temblor shook with the most intensity – Tacna, Moquegua and Arequipa.
Peruvians took to Twitter during and after the shaking. There, some said the city of Tacna was without electricity due to electric poles falling over:
En la ciudad de #Tacna se sintió fuerte el movimiento, la ciudad esta sin energía eléctrica #AlertaNoticias
— Danitza Lawless (@danitza_pf) April 2, 2014
In the city of Tacna, the movement was strong, the city has no electric power.
A report from La Linterna Radio provided more details:
Reporte desde #Tacna a raíz del fuerte sismo que se ha sentido hace instantes https://t.co/WsgiyWVooG
— La Linterna Radio (@LalinternaP) April 2, 2014
Report from Tacna as a result of the powerful earthquake felt seconds ago.
Reportedly, there was no electricity or mobile phone service in Moquegua:
Regiones Tacna y Moquegua sin luz. Servicios de telefonía celular de Movistar y Claro se han caido tras terremoto… http://t.co/l2J5EiECHW
— Pulso Noticias GG (@pulsonoticias_G) April 2, 2014
Regions of Tacna and Moquegua without electricity. Movistar and Claro cellphone services have collapsed after the earthquake…
From Chile came reports of evacuation from cities along the northern coast in anticipation of a possible tsunami:
LO ÚLTIMO – Evacuación en el norte de Chile se realiza con tranquilidad, según reporta corresponsal en Arica. pic.twitter.com/2Rm7qgKPqb
— 24 Horas (@24HorasTVN) April 2, 2014
LATEST NEWS – Evacuation in northern Chile carried out calmly, according to our correspondent in Arica.
EN FOTOS: Así se evacuan las costas de Chile ante Alarma de Tsunami: http://t.co/pr3wv1hlQB pic.twitter.com/uSYH8KTwYB
— 24 Horas (@24HorasTVN) April 2, 2014
PICTURES: This is how Chile's coasts are being evacuating due to the tsunami alert.
Likewise, there was also an evacuation order in Peru for several cities in the south of the country:
URGENTE: Ordenan evacuación de costa sur peruana: Arequipa, Ica, Tacna #Tsunami #Terremoto
— Ferjok Josp (@Ferjosp) April 2, 2014
URGENT: Order of evacuation for Peruvian coastline: Arequipa, Ica, Tacna.
URGENTE – SISMO EN CHILE: Autoridades de Perú le dicen a la agencia AFP que se está evacuando a población en el sur del país.
— World News Update (@AlertaNews24) April 2, 2014
URGENT – EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE: Peruvian authorities tell AFP that they are evacuating the population in the country's south.
URGENTE – SISMO EN CHILE: Cerrados accesos a Costa Verde desde San Miguel, Magdalena, San Isidro, Miraflores y Barranco en Lima.
— World News Update (@AlertaNews24) April 2, 2014
URGENT – EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE: Access closed to the [Lima coastline] Costa Verde from [the districts of] San Miguel, Magdalena, San Isidro, Miraflores and Barranco in Lima.
The first tsunami waves were reported to be arriving to the coasts of Ilo and Tacna in southern Peru:
Olas de Tsunami llegan a La Punta Callao a las 8:31 pm, Ica 7:39, a Tacna y Moquegua ya están llegando
— Patricio Valderrama (@patriciov) April 2, 2014
Tsunami waves arrive to La Punta Callao at 8:31 p.m., Ica at 7:39, Tacna and Moquegua already arriving.
Meanwhile in Chile, there were reports of aftershocks:
#CHILE: Al menos 5 réplicas de 5 grados tras el fuerte terremoto. Estos son los países con alerta de #tsunami: pic.twitter.com/9oKaJKsGVY
— C5N (@C5N) April 2, 2014
CHILE: At least five 5-magnitude aftershocks after powerful earthquake. These are the countries with tsunami alert.

author: Juan Arellano


text:
Quantifying Russia’s Traitorous Media · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Russian disloyalty by the numbers. Images mixed by author.
A pro-Kremlin website says it has conducted a quantitative study that ranks Russian media outlets according to disloyalty. Without revealing its full methodology or sharing any raw data, Politonline.ru on March 31, 2014, published a list of the top-20 most “negative” news sources on the Russian Internet. The research apparently involved isolating key words and phrases in content produced by mass media outlets, and then performing lexical and semantic analysis, to determine “emotional sentiment and tone.”
The study treated words like “Anschluss,” “annexation,” and “green people” (a jab at militia troops in Crimea widely suspected of being Russian soldiers incognito) as evidence of a negative attitude toward Russia, whereas words like “unification,” “support for Crimea,” and “polite people” (an approving euphemism for Crimea's militia troops) signified positive opinions. Politonline.ru also tested language surrounding words like “Maidan” and “Right Sector” to judge whether texts offered positive or negative sentiments.
Topping the list of “mass media rated by negativity toward Russia” is Echo of Moscow, followed by TV Rain, Novaya Gazeta, and so on. Curiously, Politonline.ru actually hyperlinks to every media outlet—even the two publications that the Russian government officially blacklisted on March 13.
Politonline.ru's top-20 list of disloyal Russia media outlets.
Also noteworthy is that fact that the Russian nationalist website Sputnik & Pogrom failed to make the list by virtue of the website's vociferous support for Russia's absorption of Crimea. According to Politonline.ru, S&P would have taken the seventh spot on the top-20 list, until Crimea announced its separatist referendum on March 16. After that watershed, the site—which welcomed Russian sovereignty over Crimea—”broke even,” meaning that measurements of “negative” and “positive” sentiments toward Russia balanced out.
Politonline.ru is notoriously critical of Russia's liberal opposition, regularly attacking protest leader Alexey Navalny and others. The website's editorial bent is also openly patriotic and decidedly anti-Western. It's no surprise then that regime-friendly scholars like Aleksandr Dugin and Sergey Markov have drawn attention to “top-20″ study, sharing the research on Facebook. Dugin advocated using the findings as a hit list, suggesting that the rankings of “negativity” should be the order in which the government closes down all the websites. Markov, on the other hand, expressed suspicions about Politonline.ru's methodology, remarking that the banned news portal ej.ru (which placed 14th) should have scored higher.
As we at RuNet Echo and countless others elsewhere have reported for months now, Russian patriotism in the midst of Ukraine's turmoil has reached a fever pitch, accelerating a crackdown on speech, protests, and the press that has been underway since mid-2012. Politonline.ru's attempt to quantify disloyalty is amusing for its apparent utilization of social science, but any entertainment value is sure to evaporate the moment Russian censors ban the next media outlet on the list.