text:
A Femicide in Mexico Prompts Women to Imagine ‘If They Killed Me’ · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

“Violence”. Photo from Flickr by Bianca Cardoso. Used under license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The body of 22-year-old Lesby Berlin Osorio was discovered on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on May 4, 2017. Shortly afterward, the Twitter hashtag #SiMeMatan (If They Kill Me) exploded online in Mexico in anger over statements made by Mexico City authorities in charge of finding justice for Berlin Osorio.
The officials failed to give any information about the possible motive of the crime or advances in the investigation, but did offer details about the victim's personal life that seemed to insinuate she was to blame for the violence that took her life.
Twitter users shared the screenshots of the public prosecutor's office's tweets:
Son nuestras autoridades una de las principales razones por las que la violencia persiste. BASTA de culpar a las víctimas. #SiMeMatan pic.twitter.com/oHAWRH6OFe
— Bárbara Terremoto (@TorresBrbara) May 5, 2017
Tweet: Our authorities are one of the main reasons why the violence persists. ENOUGH with blaming the victims.
Image: Tweets from the Mexico City Public Prosecutor's Office:
-Around 04:00 hrs he [Lesby's partner] decided to leave and was followed by the woman [Lesby] with whom he had an argument. It was the last thing he knew of her.
-On the day it all happened, the couple hung out with some friends at CU [UNAM's campus], where they consumed alcohol and drugs.
-The boyfriend, with whom she lived, says he works in the maintenance department of High School #6
Independent news site Sopitas summarized how the public prosecutor's office released information about Berlin Osorio's death and cited two more of the official statements:
La narrativa en que se revictimiza y minimiza a la joven Lesby vino desde nuestras propias autoridades capitalinas. En la cuenta de Twitter de la Procuraduría General de Justicia de la Ciudad de México (PGJCDMX) se publicaron varios mensajes sobre el caso: sin tacto, echándole la culpa a la víctima y como justificando lo que le pasó. “La mujer hallada sin vida en jardines de las instalaciones de la UNAM fue identificada por familiares”, inició el lamentable relato. “Su madre y novio aseguraron que ella ya no estudiaba desde 2014 y dejó sus clases en CCH Sur, donde debía materias”, continuó la dependencia dirigida por Rodolfo Ríos.
The narrative which revictimizes and minimizes young Lesby came from our own capital's authorities. The Mexico City Public Prosecutor's Office Twitter feed posted different messages about the case: tone-deaf, blaming the victim and justifying what happened. “The woman found dead in the gardens of the UNAM campus was identified by relatives,” began the deplorable thread. “Her mother and boyfriend confirmed that she had not studied since 2014 and left her classes at the College of Sciences and Humanities South Campus, where she was failing some courses,” continued the report delivered by Rodolfo Ríos.
In response, women began to tweet using #SiMeMatan, anticipating with irony the “faults” that they thought authorities and the media would use to blame them if they were murdered. The hashtag trended globally with tens of thousands of messages.
Several hours into the wave of criticism, the city's public prosecutor, Rodolfo Ríos, posted on his Twitter feed that the tweets published by the agency were “inappropriate” and added:
He instruido se retiren de inmediato de las redes, toda vez que son contrarios a protocolos y principios de la @PGJDF_CDMX
— Rodolfo Ríos (@rodolforiosg) May 5, 2017
I have instructed that they be removed immediately from all social networks, since they are against the protocols and values of the Mexico City Public Prosecutor's Office.
The #SiMeMatan reaction had made its point clear. Below are several of the tweets:
#SiMeMatan Vivo en concubinato desde hace 9 años,tengo 3 hijos de 2 diferentes hombres.Bebo mucha cerveza y siempre he sido dueña de mi vida
— Ixchel Cisneros (@Chelawuera) May 5, 2017
If they kill me. I've been cohabitating for 9 years, I have 3 kids with 2 different men. I drink a lot of beer and have always been the boss of my life
#SiMeMatan dirán que aborté, que mis hijas nacieron x cesárea, que las dejaba en la guardería todo el día, que vi por mi y no sólo por ellas
— Mala Madre (@malamadremx) May 5, 2017
If they kill me, they will say that I had an abortion, that my daughters were born by a cesarean section, that I left them at daycare all day, that I look after myself and not just for them
#SiMeMatan dirán que me lo busqué, qué hacía allí, mira sus tatuajes, sus cicatrices, le gustaba la mala vida, no es nadie, solo una mujer.
— Fernanda Melchor (@fffmelchor) May 5, 2017
If they kill me, they'll say that I was looking for it, what was I doing there, look at her tattoos, her scars, she liked the thug life, she's nobody, just a woman.
#SiMeMatan fue por feminista, por usar leggings, porq me gusta caminar sola en la tarde y porq tengo amigos hombres. Andaba en malos pasos.
— Malú (@maluflores) May 5, 2017
If they kill me, it was for being a feminist, for using leggings, because I like to walk alone late and because I have male friends. I was up to no good.
#SiMeMatan me van a difamar y criminalizar. Va a ser por algo que hice o que no hice, da igual.
— Eréndira Derbez (@erederbez) May 5, 2017
If they kill me, they will slander and criminalize me. It will be for something that I did or did not do, it does not matter.
Some compared how crimes against women and men are treated:
La diferencia es que cuando matan a un hombre no sale el procurador general a decir que fue por borracho, por fiestero y por mal estudiante.
— Virginia ?? (@Huishte) May 5, 2017
The difference is when they kill a man, the public prosecutor does not come forward to say that it was because the man was drunk, a party animal, and a bad student.
#SiMeMatan y estoy borracho y solo en una calle oscura, no me van a hacer culpable de mi propio asesinato, porque no soy mujer.
— Manuel Iris (@manueliris65) May 4, 2017
If they kill me and I'm drunk and alone in a dark street, I am not going to be to blame for my own murder because I am not a woman.
Others talked about what they hoped would happen beyond simple reactions:
#SiMeMatan ojalá la policía (y los medios) se enfoquen en mi asesino y no en mi ropa, mis estudios, mi trabajo o con quién me acuesto.
— Paola Villarreal (@paw) May 5, 2017
If they kill me I hope the police (and the media) focus on my murder and not on my clothes, my studies, my job, or who I sleep with.
#SiMeMatan busquen justicia para mí, no importa que tenga el cabello plata, que use lipstick rojo, que me guste el pogo y monte a caballo.
— ·Tristana Landeros· (@holatristana) May 4, 2017
If they kill me, find justice for me, without it mattering that I have platinum hair, that I use red lipstick, that I like pogo sticks and riding horses.
Journalist and scholar Gabriel Warkentin took note of the other Spanish-language hashtags against gender violence in Mexico that have trended globally:
#SiMeMatan #MiPrimerAcoso#NosQueremosVivas
O de cuando las mujeres (y los hombres aliados) deciden hablar.#Gracias
— Gabriela Warkentin (@warkentin) May 5, 2017
#IfTheyKillMe. #MyFirstHarassment. #WeWantUsAlive.
Or when women (and male allies) decide to speak. Thank you.
Same with women's rights group Luchadoras (Fighters), who invoked the call of the Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) feminist movement: “We want us alive.”
#SiMeMatan dirán que andaba en marchas gritando “Vivas nos queremos”.
— Luchadoras (@LuchadorasTV) May 5, 2017
If they kill me, they'll say that I went to marches yelling “We want us alive.”
Other women reflected on the significance behind every tweet:
Cada #SiMeMatan, aunque sea irónico, es un grito de miedo, angustia y rabia. Es real y está presente todo el tiempo.
— Karla Motte (@karlamotte) May 5, 2017
Every #IfTheyKillMe, although ironic, is a scream of fear, anguish and anger. It is real and it is present all of the time.
¿Saben qué es lo peor del HT #SiMeMatan? Detrás de cada tuit hay una mujer aterrada porque sabe que sí la pueden matar.
— ana gé (@anag_g) May 5, 2017
You know what's worse than hashtag #IfTheyKillMe? Behind every tweet there is a scared woman because she knows that she can be killed.
For her part, Twitter user Madame Déficit noted that on the UNAM campus — being a school that prides itself on its non-dependency from the government — it is difficult to have police presence. On other occasions, the arrival of police forces on campus (known as the Ciudad Universitaria, or University City) has provoked rejection and anger amongst some sectors of the student body.
#SiMeMatan en la UNAM será porque de acuerdo a la muy cacareada autonomía, la policía no entra a vigilar el campus. Piénsenle!
— Madame Déficit (@Alessia_mx) May 5, 2017
If they kill me at UNAM it will be because in accordance with its very boastful autonomy, the police don't come to patrol the campus. Think about it!
In 2016, Global Voices published a series on articles to explore the problem of violence against women in Mexico, and in the capital city in particular. One of them told the story of a sexual assault — that has gone unpunished for 14 months — against American journalist Andrea Noel. On that occasion the government said they would attend to the problem, or rather create more offices that cost a lot and offer little to no tangible results.
After that case came to light, lawyer Fabiola Higareda, who specialized in gender and justice, pointed out in an interview for Global Voices that violence against women is in part due to the lack of strategies that focus on the perpetrators:
Es necesario que las estrategias tomen en consideración que la violencia de género no es un asunto exclusivo de mujeres violentadas, sino también de hombres generadores de violencia.
It's necessary that the strategies take into consideration that gender violence is not just exclusive to women who are victims of violence, but also men who generate such violence.
Beyond the legal gibberish of Mexican criminal investigations, Mexican society appears to be sending a message with all the tweets under the #SiMeMatan hashtag: Impunity already plagues the cases of women who experience or, like Lesby Berlin Osorio, die of violence. Let's not revictimize them too.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


text:
Where to Find the Best African Food in Paris, According to the African Diaspora · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Chicken Yassa, by Karimovitch. Republished with his permission.
The African community has a healthy presence in Paris, and you needn't look any further for proof than the city's wide array of gourmet restaurants serving African cuisine. In the coming months, Global Voices will be bringing you reviews of the best African restaurants in the Paris region, tried and tested by natives, as well as those discovering African food for the first time.
We'll start off with the city's most popular restaurants and their signature dishes. Without further ado, here's a list of the best spots in the Paris region to experience authentic African cuisine:
The Waly-Fay is the epitome of the cuisine in Senegal — a country famous for its teranga (hospitality). In this cozy atmosphere, you'll find a range of traditional West African dishes: accra, maafe, thiep, yassa, n'dole, and so on.
Blogger Dje S, from Senegal, writes:
Installés rapidement, on découvre le cadre très agréable, ambiance tamisée, un bar central , des miroirs en pied, pas de déco tape à l'oeil. Ça commence bien!
J'ai craqué pour un soya en entrée  (3 brochettes de boeuf mariné et chapelure de semoule de manioc) c'était délicieux avec sa sauce moutarde à côté, j'ai pu aussi goûter les pastels poissons ainsi que l'alloco , bien mûres et sucrées.
You settle in quickly and notice the very pleasant, soft lighting, a central bar, full length mirrors, and no flashy decor. A great start! I fell in love with a soya starter (3 marinated beef skewers and cassava semolina breadcrumbs) it was delicious with its side of mustard sauce, I also tasted the fish pastels as well as the alloco which was very ripe and sweet.
Ndole with beef, very bitter spinach variety with fresh peanuts – via riodos.fr
The restaurant Rio dos Camaraos was created 15 years ago by Alexandre and Vicky Bella Ola to celebrate the traditional recipes of black Africa. Alexandre explains:
la Cuisine d’Afrique Noire est absente du paysage culinaire mondial. Nous sommes encore nombreux et cela quelque soit la couleur de notre peau, à croire que le meilleur et authentique mafé ne se mange qu’au Mali…Pour moi, la cuisine est comme la musique : une partition musicale peut s’interpréter par n’importe quel musicien de mille et une façons.
Black African cuisine is absent from the global culinary landscape. There are still many of us, regardless of skin color, who believe that the best and most authentic maafe can only be found in Mali … For me, cooking is like music: a musical score can be interpreted by any musician in a thousand and one ways.
The Ndolé is the Cameroonian dish at the Rios. Mi Cbou from Yaoundé explains why she particularly loved this place:
J'ai retrouvé les goûts typiques de la cuisine africaine déjà dégustée en Cote d'Ivoire et au Sénégal, avec la même variété de plats.En plus, accueil très chaleureux de la propriétaire des lieux. Le Ndolé, servi avec des plantains frits, est excellent.
I rediscovered all the classic tastes of African cuisine I had already tried in the Ivory Coast and Senegal, with the same range of dishes. What's more, I received a very warm welcome from the owner of the place. The Ndole, served with fried plantains, is excellent.
A Franco-Nigerian lounge restaurant located in the heart of Paris, African Kitchen Paris was created on February 1, 2012. Nigerian cuisine rarely receives praise abroad, but this restaurant wants to right that wrong. Sylvie D wasn't familiar with Nigerian gastronomy, but she discovered it with great pleasure:
It is truly exotic. Dishes categorized by sauce, with a choice of meat: chicken, beef, but also tripe, ox, and goat feet. I tried a sauce made with spinach and shrimp paired with goat — a real treat.
Unlike the other places featured, the Snack Bamako is not a restaurant but a fast food outlet where Mama Bintou welcomes you with a smile. Traditional dishes from Mali and all over West Africa are served at affordable prices: Maafe, Tieb, Yassa, brique, grilled chicken, and Alloco.
A five-minute walk from the Porte d'Orléans, this little restaurant has been paying homage to the little Lemur for many years, but also to the cuisine of this island, which is not well represented in Paris.
Peggy D was a fan:
The coconut fish was good with just the right amount of spice. The coconut pie, which is rather like a coconut financier with a coco ice ball, was not bad at all. Friendly welcome. Would go back for a sausage rougail.
Smells and sounds of Madagascar. Captivating decorations. For a romantic meal or an evening with friends. The place lends itself to a “factory” setting where everyone is equal and where you aren't just another “customer.” You can easily lose track of time here. Pros: excellent food and real authentic flavors of Malagasy dishes.
In the next installment of this series, we'll include a more detailed review of each of these restaurants by members of the African diaspora.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rakotomalala


text:
Chronicles of a Concerned Venezuelan: The Scars of History · Global Voices
Aglaia Berlutti

“For my friend and many others like him, Venezuela is nothing but a clear example of the breakdown of a country’s essence, of that coexistence of difference that could sustain a society and perhaps even a cultural approach. What is Venezuela right now? Who are we, the Venezuelans who have survived this historic defeat?” Screenshot of the documentary “Caracazo en Venezuela” available on Vimeo.
This post is the first of a series originally published by the author on Medium. Read the second installment here.
A few days ago, one of my lifelong friends told me that after emigrating, he discovered that he hated being Venezuelan. That was the exact phrase he used. I didn’t know what to say, looking at his face on the Skype screen with a vague feeling of concern and bitterness.
“That’s. . . very harsh.”
“It’s true. You just have to leave the country to understand how miserable we are.”
I blinked, with a knot of fear and fury in my throat. My friend seemed to notice my discomfort and shook his head in sympathy.
“I know you don’t understand.”
“What I don’t understand is that notion of a country of disaster and chaos that involves your nationality, your history, who you are. It’s not that I deny what’s going on here, I never do. But what you tell me is something else.”
“Are you more nationalistic than you thought?”
The question both infuriates and discourages me. A rare mixture of feelings that relates directly to how I still understand the country and, above all, the way I live it. I feel a sense of sheer anguish at the thought that Venezuela, the country where I was born and raised, has become a kind of symbol for the pain, frustration and disappointment that afflict most Venezuelans. As if our nationality—that confusing personal abstraction that defines us as part of a broader idea of the place we consider ours—were also broken and lost, like so many other things that could define us. Maybe it was true, I think nervously. Perhaps being Venezuelan is no longer about who we are, but something more like a fear, a reflection of all the small misfortunes we bear.
“It’s not about nationalism,” I say, “but about the fact that the combination of the crisis we are experiencing and the way we perceive ourselves seems to me unfair. An extreme that makes us despise everything that Venezuela can be, beyond this crisis. That’s what I mean.”
“We are this crisis,” my friend says, almost with resignation. “Don’t you see? It is not only about a political system that turned out to be a historical scam, but also about a general resignation, an acceptance of the situation that has a direct relationship to what Venezuela is and has become in the last years. Don’t tell me that the Venezuelans bear no responsibility in this crisis. That it’s not their apathy, irresponsibility, indifference, that has brought the country to this abyss. You can’t be that innocent!”
I’m not. But you perceive things in a different way when the crisis is part of your daily life. Whether it’s the fear you carry everywhere, the persistent sense of frustration and helplessness, it is not easy to understand the scope of the overall situation in the country while you’re in the midst of it. However, the idea of being responsible for what we experience merely because we don’t know how to face it seems scandalous. Yes, I admit that perhaps I do not have a concrete or elaborate vision of the political and economic monster we face. I think there is a sometimes escapist, even simplistic, perspective of the increasingly complex situation we face. But there is a difference between our perception of what we’re experiencing—and how it affects us—and the fact that that this perception of what we suffer destroys everything else. It even robs us of historical memory.
“Venezuela was an ideal breeding ground for a guy like Chavez to do exactly what he did,” my friend insists. “Don’t you see? Chavez turned Venezuelan social resentment, envy and apathy into a political weapon. This made it okay to hate, to single out and stigmatize the other. Chavismo made hatred profitable.”
My friend emigrated from the country ten years ago, fleeing from the mere possibility of what Chavismo could do. At that time, the country still maintained a certain normalcy, a deceptive appearance of perfectible democracy. But it was already quite clear that the decisions of a charismatic and irresponsible leader were leading to the devastating crisis that, ten years later, would affect everything. I remember the last conversation we had before he left the country, how I feared the mere idea of what a failed system based on control could do. And, even more worrying, what the fact that the majority of the population repeatedly and sincerely voted for a political leadership obsessed with building a political system on the ashes of the country could mean.
“Communism does not forgive anyone,” he had told me, “much less Venezuela. The Venezuelan is digging his own grave, his own interpretation of a statist socialism. And he is doing this because of his way of understanding the country as a project.”
It would take me a decade to understand that phrase. And to deal with its magnitude and suffer the direct consequences of a political project whose main objective is the State’s control of every part of the citizen’s life. An autocracy based on hatred, exclusion and the punishment of difference. Even so, I can’t admit that the country—as an entity and vision of the future—is the “culprit” in an intolerable situation. That the historic disappointment of Chavismo is an indictment on what Venezuela was and is, and, above all, what can be.
“You don’t believe it because for you the Venezuelan’s “creole” excitability, the dependence on the state, the vulgarity and the tackiness are normal. You consider it inevitable for the country to be part of that old tradition of understanding power as subservience. A ‘slave’s soul’, some analysts call this. Even I ended up believing it. This is an interpretation of the country that is based on entrapment, conflict and hatred. It is inevitable and it gets worse and more worrisome. What do you think Chavismo is but a reflection of the worst of what we are?”
My friend’s reasoning would be considered insulting and arrogant were it not for his tone of sincere concern. And perhaps the dilemma is not solely based on an idea of the country as a project involving many, but on that failed attempt to accept what Venezuela can be based on who we are. For my friend and many others like him, Venezuela is nothing but a clear example of the breakdown of a country’s essence, of that coexistence of difference that could sustain a society and perhaps even a cultural approach. What is Venezuela right now? Who are we, the Venezuelans who have survived this historic defeat? I don’t know, I say, trying to contain my tears, and maybe that uncertainty is the most painful aspect of a situation that gets worse every day, and that becomes unbearable on a more radical level.
“Venezuelans created Chavismo in their image and likeness, not the other way around, as people usually believe” my friend concludes, in a low, regretful voice. “What is, in fact, Chavismo? It is each of the defects and pains of being Venezuelan translated as politics. It is rentierism brought to a new and dangerous political dimension. It is that climate of latent hatred that Venezuelans always considered a stigma. If Chavismo continues like this, it is because many Venezuelans are incapable of fighting against their own hardships. Because Chavismo embodies the monster inside the monster. A very complex idea about how we understand each other and the country. Venezuela was a Chavist country even before Chávez existed.”
I keep thinking about his words for hours; surely I will for weeks. With a mixture of pain and fear that’s difficult to explain. How do you perceive and understand your historical responsibility when the worst things about your native country are part of the perception of power?

author: Aglaia Berlutti


text:
How California’s Greenhouse Gas Laws Can Better Serve Disadvantaged Communities · Global Voices
Ensia

Refineries in Los Angeles’ Wilmington neighborhood. Photo by Chris Richard Photos CC 2.0.
This post by Chris Richard was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
It was a time of year that should have been perfect.
Warming temperatures marked Southern California’s gentle return to spring. The grass had shifted from drab to glowing green. The sky, which can be pale and hard in winter, had softened to a gentler blue.
At the John Mendez Baseball Park in Los Angeles’ Wilmington neighborhood, the air rang with the sounds of batting practice. Nearby, people had brought their children to run on the green grass and play.
Still, the day fell short of a Californian idyll.
Over the outfield fence sat an oil rig. Not looming, exactly. It was just there, huge and pumping fumes — and this was just another moment, another swing of the pump, another gust of oil-sodden air. It was doing its job: moment by moment, day in, day out, year after year, a moment last year, a moment just now, doing its job.
The spring breeze stank.
“I think about it every day,” says Esteban Esqueda, coach of the Cubs, a Shetland League baseball team for 5- and 6-year-olds.
Wilmington is a blue-collar neighborhood adjoining the busiest seaport in the US and includes four refineries. It is dotted with oil wells and storage tanks, many right next to houses.
“When I smell that smell, I think about the people who get sick,” Esqueda says.
That’s Sandra Sepulveda’s worry, too. “We’re breathing this air,” says Sepulveda, who has lived in Wilmington for more than a decade and has two young sons. “Who knows what it could be doing to our bodies?”
As California lawmakers move to make their state a national policy leader on atmospheric emissions and global climate change, environmental activists want that question answered closer to home.
In September 2016, state governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 32, which requires the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
The state already was on course to cut carbon emissions since the passage in 2006 of Assembly Bill 32. That landmark legislation required the state to reduce its carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
AB 32 fostered a host of new regulations and green policies, from California’s cap-and-trade industrial carbon emissions law to rebates for solar power installations and electric or fuel-cell car purchases.
Experts say SB 32 will require much more sweeping change. “The effort required of industry will be herculean,” says Jim Sweeney, director of Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center. “In addition, you’d have to have very invasive rules requiring people to retrofit their homes or change the kind of car they drive. Who’s going to pay for all that? How are working people ever going to afford that?”
Similarly, people like Esqueda and Sepulveda increasingly are asking how they fit in to California’s effort to turn back climate change. Up to now, some California environmentalists have successfully argued that laws aimed at cutting greenhouse gases also benefit the state’s low‐income, largely minority communities by reducing respiratory disease in areas where air pollution is the worst. Historically, these Californians have supported tougher environmental rules. But while Esqueda and others still welcome the steps their home state has taken to reduce the pace of global warming, they want to see more environmental improvement, much more, in their own neighborhoods. And they want more programs to make it affordable for people in their communities to meet increasingly stringent greenhouse gas regulations.
At the core of California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is the state’s cap-and-trade program. The “cap” is a statewide limit on greenhouse gas emissions from certain industries, which becomes stricter over time. In order to meet state restrictions, companies have three choices: reduce emissions, buy allowances to continue releasing greenhouse gases or get “offsets” that let them make up for high emissions in one area with reductions somewhere else.
With that third option, though, there’s no state requirement that the environmental benefit be in California.
A University of Southern California study found that in the first two years after cap and trade began in early 2013, more than three-quarters of the offsets were for projects outside the state. Meanwhile, factories that bought the right to continue emitting greenhouse gases release proportionate amounts of “co-pollutants.” In fact, the study found that in the first years of cap and trade, emissions increased in communities surrounding industrial sites.
Under California law, proceeds from allowance auctions must be used for programs that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2012, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 535, which allocated a quarter of auction proceeds to subsidies for projects providing environmental benefits to “disadvantaged communities.” Last year’s Assembly Bill 1550 tightened that requirement, requiring that the 25 percent of auction funds be spent in those communities.
The state identifies such areas with a computerized assessment tool that evaluates environmental, health, demographic and socioeconomic data, census tract by census tract, across California. The money is supposed to go to environmental programs in the hardest-hit areas. But some have questioned the distribution.
“My district has some of the worst air pollution in the state, and yet that district gets some of the state’s lowest levels of cap-and-trade money to help us solve our problems,” says state assemblywoman Cristina Garcia. “That can’t continue.”
Garcia, chair of the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources, is a leader in the campaign by a new coalition of lawmakers from heavily polluted communities throughout California to expand subsidies more broadly in support of environmental justice.
Late in April 2017, Garcia’s committee passed Assembly Bill 378, which would formalize air pollution regulation as part of the state’s cap-and-trade program. It would require the state’s Air Resources Board to set factory-by-factory limits on air pollution.
“We’ve had very deep concern as to whether cap-and-trade auction revenues were being invested in communities that are disproportionately bearing the brunt of these co-pollutants,” says Kevin de León, president pro-tempore of the state senate. “As we move toward extending cap and trade, it’s very important that these communities are provided the resources they need to combat these harmful emissions.”
Increasingly, elected officials like de León and Garcia are citing that argument in discussions over SB 32. Governor Brown contends that continuing cap and trade is essential to that goal. Tax-limitation activists, meanwhile, say the program is unconstitutional because state legislators initially passed it with a simple majority vote, not the supermajority ordinarily required to impose a tax. But a state appeals court recently rejected that argument, saying cap and trade isn’t a tax at all because buying offsets or purchasing special pollution allowances is voluntary. Brown expects more challenges and is seeking a two-thirds ballot in the state legislature to approve an extension of the cap-and-trade program.
That kind of supermajority is hard to attain. Legislators representing heavily polluted communities are using their votes as bargaining chips to promote programs that can benefit their constituents.
“The state’s climate change laws have been called ‘trickle-down environmental policy,’” says state assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, who last year won the passage of legislation that ties the state’s new greenhouse gas regulations to new oversight by state lawmakers and requires more emphasis on pollution around industrial installations, rather than simply seeking a statewide reduction in emissions.
“Maybe before the environmental benefits did trickle down, but not far enough. We’re kind of turning trickle-down upside down so it benefits all Californians,” Eduardo Garcia says.
Broadening participation in the state’s environmental programs is another way Californians are working to ensure environmental programs reach all people. In 2014 de León led passage of legislation that directed state regulators to create programs increasing access to clean transportation in low-income communities. The law aims to have 1.5 million electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles on the road by 2025.
“If we’re going to make a real dent in carbon emissions, which [are] global, we have to make sure that working families can find these cars to be affordable,” de León says.
The law is at work in a pilot program offered by the Richmond, California–based Community Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) that extends financing for used hybrid, electric or fuel cell vehicles to low-income residents of six Northern California counties. CHDC program manager Vivian Rahwanji is working on expanding the service throughout the state.
Similarly, the environmental nonprofit Valley Clean Air Now uses cap-and-trade money to fund a car trade-in program for low-income residents of the San Joaquin Valley. Executive director Tom Knox says he regularly helps clients exchange old internal-combustion vehicles that are expensive to maintain with much newer and more reliable used electric cars.
Knox says he could easily see similar exchanges operating nationwide.
“We’re not dealing with Santa Monica coastal types here,” he says, referring to one liberal section of the state. The culture and economy of the San Joaquin Valley are much more comparable to, say, Kansas or other more conservative parts of the country than to liberal enclaves, he says.
“The difference here is that we do have cap and trade, which has been a subject of debate in the country as a whole,” he says. “But whatever the funding source, I can say having funding for these voluntary incentive programs is incredibly effective.”
In Los Angeles, Bahram Fazeli, policy and research director at the nonprofit activist group Communities for a Better Environment, wants to see such programs dramatically expanded.
“It’s true that when you go to Sacramento today, it seems like everybody’s got legislation promoting an electric vehicle program. But it’s still incremental, and we need to have programs that are transformational, especially in South Los Angeles,” he says. “If we’re going to reach our 2030 targets, we can’t continue with business as usual.”
Amy Vanderwarker, co-director of the activist group California Environmental Justice Alliance, wants to take that transformational message to a broader audience. “What we’re really hoping, especially in the context of the federal administration, is to show that what climate leadership looks like today, in California and across the country, is policy that puts environmental justice and equity issues at the center. That’s how California can continue to lead,” she says.
Aiko Schaefer, coordinator of Washington state–based Front and Centered, a coalition of environmental and economic justice groups, says California’s example inspired her own group’s support for carbon tax legislation that includes direct financial support for neighborhoods most demonstrably hurt by pollution.
“This idea of reinvesting carbon revenues into communities that have higher rates of pollution that was modeled in California is something we’re seeing find its way into state policies across the country,” Schaefer says.
Rafe Anderson, who lives next door to Wilmington in San Pedro, attended a recent climate march near an oil refinery that has announced plans to expand. He says it seems only reasonable to make the company deal with the pollution it creates.
“If you live here, you wake up in the morning and you go outside and you see the horrible grime on your car, for example, and you know you’re breathing that stuff,” he says. “I can’t imagine why you would tell these polluters, ‘We’re going to keep track of some of the mess you’re making of this planet, but not all of it.’”
A few blocks away, near the Wilmington baseball park where the oil rig looms, Sandra Sepulveda smelled the air. It was a Saturday, and for now the cargo trucks that usually back up on Harry Bridges Boulevard had thinned out for the weekend.
There was no traffic jam that day. You couldn’t smell the diesel fumes. A brisk wind had blown away the stench from the well.
You could smell the ocean. It smelled pretty good.
Proponents of the new blend of green policies and social justice hope for environmental reprieve that is permanent and that transforms their communities, much more than a breath of fresh air that depends on a shift in the wind.  Code Embed v2.2.1    End of Code Embed code
Chris Richard is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist. He writes about criminal justice, health and the environment. His work has appeared in The California Report, The California Health Report, Grist and The Christian Science Monitor.
.postContent

author: Ensia


text:
How Photography Shaped Our Narratives of the Vietnam War · Global Voices
Loa

Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of children fleeing a village under attack during the Vietnam War was featured in a public seminar. Source: Flickr / LBJ Library photo by Gabriel Cristóver Pérez (Public Domain)
This edited article by Quyên Ngô is from Loa, a news website and online radio project of Viet Tan that broadcasts stories about Vietnam. It is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Meet Nick Út, one of the most internationally recognized photographers of the Vietnam War. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist just retired in March after 51 years of working for the Associated Press news agency.
Út became famous for a photo of a young girl (Kim Phúc) nearly burned to death by a bomb dropped by a South Vietnamese plane, taken in a village being overtaken by North Vietnam forces. A photo that many credit or blame, depending on whom you ask, to have changed the tide of the Vietnam War. The black-and-white photo is loud and shocking. When viewing it, we first grapple with the naked, crying young girl in the foreground, her singed skin against the backdrop of napalm smoke. The cries from running villagers in the photo become nearly auditory.
Út captured the photo on January 8, 1972, when South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped a napalm bomb on Trảng Bàng, a village that had been attacked and occupied by North Vietnamese forces.
The story is one that has been widely featured in media all around the globe — and the photo was the perfect depiction of the horrors of war. Perhaps so perfect, that it was easily used as propaganda. Út explained:
Both the North and the South used the photo of Kim Phúc as propaganda. The North would say, ‘This is a photo of America dropping a bomb to murder the innocent.’ And in the South, “This is a photo of the communists shooting missiles.’ To me, I am telling the truth. And the propagandists, well, they’ll say what they say.
Út is revered by many who feel his photo helped lead to America's withdrawal and the war’s end, and resented by others who feel his photo played a key role in helping the North, thus holding a natural bias against the South Việt Nam forces.
Nick Ut holds a copy of his prize-winning Vietnam War photo. Source: Flickr / LBJ Library photo by David Hume Kennerly (Public Domain)
From disturbing images to ones meant to document triumph, he also said that staged photography was common practice. One example is another famous Vietnam War photo of a tank rolling through the presidential palace in Sàigòn. The tricky part of understanding the photo, as well as its presence in history books across the world, is that there were multiple photographers behind variations of the photo with soldiers on a tank, coming through the gates — a depiction of the North’s victory. He says photographers of the North, who he calls employees of the Vietnamese government, the Communist Party, stood in a different position in documenting these types of moments.
That photo is the result of multiple re-staging — that’s how they were able to get that photo. In truth, they did not just capture the tank as it rolls into the gate. They had to back up, go out, come back in multiple times so that they could take a beautiful photo.
Skipping ahead, this tank rolled through the Presidential Palace in Saigon signaling the fall of South Vietnam.#vietnamwar pic.twitter.com/uYZASAlVC1
— Andrew J. Higgins (@thetrooper9220) October 10, 2016
Visual image plays a powerful role in helping us understand history, reminding us that different lenses are at play in shaping narratives of war. Út says narratives are most easily imposed and reinforced when people don’t know what they don’t know. It’s how impressions and interpretations are strengthened.
In light of an extremely complex war history, perhaps the takeaway is simple: what you see, very possibly, is not what was or what is. Út says that, regardless of one’s field of work, it’s crucial for each person to do their due diligence to understand their medium.
He shared a story about how he learned the art of photographing baseball to emphasize the need to be knowledgeable about a topic in order to practice better photography:
Journalists should read a lot of news, watch a lot of news. Just like filmmakers need to watch a lot of films. That’s how you get good. You know in 1977, AP told me to go shoot a baseball game. I was stumped, I thought, what’s baseball? I went to my first baseball game and I thought, what is this? Why does it look like the Viet Cong running after American soldiers? Why’s everyone running? So I watched all the photographers snapping away, but I came away with nothing. I was frustrated. The next way, I opened a bunch of newspapers and looked at the photos: second base, home plate, home run. This is easy! Then, I was able to shoot just like that.
It’s safe to say that war is tougher to understand than the game of baseball. And as wars and violence continue to persist in our world, the need to look critically at how the narratives are shaped is just as imperative as it ever has been.
To learn more about photography and propaganda during the Vietnam War, listen to the podcast On the Record:

author: Loa


text:
Iran’s Upcoming Local Elections Are an Opportunity for Women · Global Voices
Nabz Iran

Nabz Iran's animation explains the various ways women can participate in local electoral politics. Screenshot of Nabz Iran animation used with permission.
This text was originally published on Nabz Iran.
On May 19, Iranians nationwide will vote for president and for candidates in local elections, selecting representatives for city and village councils. The public's attention has been focused largely on the presidential race, but local elections offer citizens a unique chance to make a direct impact on their communities by choosing officials with their local interests in mind. The elections also present Iranians with the chance to reshape their government by putting more women in politics.
There are 287,425 registered candidates in Iran's local elections this year, including 17,885 women. This means women candidates make up 6.3 percent of all candidates — a slight increase since the 2013 elections, when they made up just 5.4 percent.
According to a study published in 2012, more women in elected office tends to result in state policies that emphasize quality-of-life issues and the priorities of families, women, and ethnic and racial minorities. When women are empowered as political leaders, countries experience higher living standards, improvements in education, infrastructure, and health, and the government generally becomes more responsive to the immediate needs of its citizens.
Under former President Mohammad Khatami’s government, women held 13 of 290 seats in Iran’s Majles, the largest number of women in parliament since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. During this period, steps were taken for the greater integration of women in leadership and decision-making positions within government. The first women joined cabinet since the establishment of the Islamic Republic: Masoumeh Ektebar was appointed as vice president and Zahra Shojaei was appointed as an advisor to the president and head of the newly established Center for Women’s Participation. This coincided with support by the Khatami administration for the growth and expansion of civil society, the freedom of expression, and legislative reforms to support women’s rights.
Under hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, however, the number of women in government positions fell, while restrictions on free expression and civil society increased. In addition, lawmakers enacted legislation to restrict the rights of women, such as the Family Protection Law that favored the rights of men in polygamous and temporary marriages, and regulations further diminishing the rights of women in divorce proceedings.
The Growing Representation of Women in Parliament: Comparing Iran with Neighboring Countries and North Africa (July 2016). This infographic was created from data gathered by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The shades of blue reflect the levels of women’s representation in a parliament for the given years, and below the names of the countries are the numerical percentages of women’s representation (the proportion of women representatives relative to the total number of seats in the lower house). The infographic tracks the process of change from 2000 to 2016, which covers five sessions of the Iranian Majles (the Sixth Majles to the Tenth).
Under President Hassan Rouhani, there have been new efforts to support women's participation in politics. Marzieh Afkham was appointed as Iran’s first Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Elham Aminzadeh was appointed as vice president of legal affairs, and former vice president Masoumeh Ektebar was appointed to serve as the head of Iran’s Environmental Protection Organization.
Following Iran’s parliamentary elections in February 2016, a total of 17 of 290 seats went to women — the highest number of women in the Iranian parliament since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. This increase represents a broader victory for supporters of women’s greater political representation, including those from within the Rouhani administration.
Apart from the national level, Iranian women have also been active locally, directly addressing issues impacting their communities and working to find solutions to improve the quality of life for citizens in their district. Homeyra Rigi, the current governor of the city of Qasr-e Qand in Sistan and Baluchestan and who is known to wear traditional clothing from the region, was central to peace and reconciliation between two tribal clans in the province. She has stated that although women in her province have limited opportunities, her presence as a local representative has given them hope and self-confidence.
Fatemeh Eskandari, a member of the Karaj city council campaigned on the slogan, “Happy citizens — a city full of hope.” She advocated halving the price of tickets for women at sporting events in an effort to encourage their public participation and supported the establishment of art and vocational courses for women in her district. Mina Eskandari, a council member in the city of Mohajeran in Iran’s Hamadan province and the first woman to serve as a city council member there, has supported the repair of roads leading to the city and the establishment of a medical clinic. More stories about Iranian women in local office and their impact on their communities can be found here.
Women globally tend to be less represented than their male counterparts in politics at the local level, and it's at this level where elected officials are able to interact directly with their constituents and to understand and address issues that impact them. The number of women registering to run as candidates in Iran's May 19 local elections is encouraging. While there is undoubtedly much more needed to safeguard the growth of women’s political participation in Iran, this level of desire to run for office, along with the record number of women with seats in Iran’s Majles represents a greater shift towards ensuring that women have a voice in Iran’s future at both the national and local levels.

author: Nabz Iran


text:
Law Enforcement’s Selective Crackdown Curbs Indie Music Space in Hong Kong · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hong Kong police arrested seven people during a raid on Hidden Agenda, a indie music live house on May 7. Photo from Hidden Agenda Facebook.
An underground indie music house called Hidden Agenda was raided by undercover immigration officers and police in Hong Kong on May 7. Seven people were arrested during the crackdown in the factory building, which is located in the Kwuntong district, including Hidden Agenda's founder Hui Chung-woo and members of British band This Town Needs Gun and US rock band Mylets over alleged visa offences.
While Hong Kong gives visa-free entry to citizens of the majority of countries in the world, the city's law does require visitors who come to participate in conferences, seminars, exhibitions or performances to apply for a work visa. However, as an international city which encourages business travelers to participate in conferences and exhibitions, the law has seldom been applied to prosecute those who come on a short business trip without a work visa.
In that context, many Hong Kongers viewed the crackdown against Hidden Agenda as selective. Below is video showing the police raid on May 7:
The three overseas performers have been released on bail and have to report back to Hong Kong police in one month. Four locals have been charged with obstructing law enforcement, and Hui Chung-woo, Hidden Agenda's founder, has been charged with four other counts related to hiring overseas workers without a work permit.
The bands This Town Needs Gun and Mylets responded on Facebook to their arrest:
After last night’s event, we have learnt that it is extremely difficult for musicians to thrive in Hong Kong. It requires an incredible amount of strength and passion to persevere. Hong Kong as we know as an international city with freedom and diversity, should give greater room for creative works and performance to flourish.
That said, we shall not be discouraged, instead we will continue to travel and share our music with the world. We sincerely hope that we will be welcomed by more fans and music lovers rather than law enforcers at our possible future performances in Hong Kong.
Hidden Agenda has been a target of police harassment for many years because of Hong Kong's contradictory policies regarding the restoration of industrial buildings. Since 2010, the government has started encouraging the “revitalization” of these spaces, but it has not amended the law to allow cultural activities in them. Therefore, many cultural groups are conducting workshops, exhibitions and performances in legally grey areas.
In a statement, Hidden Agenda (HA) explained how local laws have eliminated its survival space:
HA嘅場地屬於工廈單位，按照1967年及1973年訂下嘅租契法律——「工廈場地不能作工業／貨倉用途以外的任何用途」；所以一日我哋係工廈使用者，一日我哋個場地都係違規；但凡有外國團體以「HA」作演出地方作申請工作簽證，都極有機會被入境處拒絕申請。
HA租用工廈嘅原因又要返去香港租金問題等，一切都係一個萬劫不復嘅循環：租用工廈 → 工廈演出 → 違規 → 外地樂隊無工作簽證 → 外地樂隊演出犯法 → HA同樂隊有法律責任 →（究竟仲會點？）
HA is located in a factory building unit and according to the rental contract [of industrial buildings] enacted in 1967 and 1973 “factory building units cannot be used for purposes other than industry and warehouse”. If we continue to stay in industrial buildings, we are illegal and all work visa applications related to HA would most likely be rejected by the immigration.
The reason why HA has to rent industrial space is related to the problem of expensive rent. We are trapped in a vicious circle – renting industrial space –> performance in industrial space –> illegal –> overseas bands cannot get a work visa –> illegal performance –> legal consequences for HA and overseas bands –>(what else is next?)
Hidden Agenda is not the only cultural groups making use of industrial spaces, so the implication of the crackdown are worrying, musician Simone Fassan argued on Facebook:
I think it would be misleading to see the latest Hidden Agenda raid as an isolated episode. You could easily believe the HA guys are wrong, for not providing the bands with the required visa for performing.
In reality, if you are familiar with the situation in Hong Kong, the latest raid seems more like part of a well planned campaign aimed at crashing every business that does not belong to the big business.
This is normally done through insanely expensive rents and sudden rent increases, that often become unaffordable for the average shop/bar/club owner that does not belong to the usual big corporations. […]
Hidden Agenda seemed to be a case on its own, a venue in an industrial building that still attracts many followers. A fairly successful model of alternative business.
It’s right to expect people to follow the laws, but if it’s true what the lawyer declared, that the government would not issue working visa for artists if the venue is in an industrial building, what other choices would HA have? Only the one of stop organising any concert.
Imagine if every single participant of Hong Kong business fairs would be required to own a working visa. Would Wan Chai convention centre be raided with anti riot squads and dogs, and the businessmen that do not own a working visa brought to jail?
As the crackdown involves the arrest of UK and US performers, the international indie music sector has also voiced their support for Hidden Agenda. Oliver, a Taiwanese music festival curator, pointed out:
失去 HA，不單是失去一個展演空間，連帶關係到整個本地獨立音樂圈的生態，甚至不止本地、大陸台灣日韓歐美過往常到 HA 演出的獨立樂團，也定必因此卻步。香港會變成怎樣，我不敢想像，很多人說香港終究會變成大陸城市一樣，我覺得事實是：比大陸城市更差，看看大陸一線城市，北京上海廣州深圳我還有一大堆 live house 選擇，正常途徑報批申辦工作證光明正大演出，香港有的是甚麼？紅館、博覽館、會展、九展，是嗎？果真國際大都會喔，好棒喔！
Losing HA is not just losing one live music house, it affects the ecology of indie music. Not just the local, but indie bands from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Europe and the US will hesitate to perform in Hong Kong without HA. I can't imagine what Hong Kong will be like. Many say that Hong Kong will be turned into an ordinary mainland Chinese city — I think it will be worse than other cities in mainland China. Look at the first-tier cities in China, there are still many live music houses in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. They have normal channels to process work visas and can hold public performances. Hong Kong has what? Hung Hom Stadium? Wanchai exhibition center? Kowloon exhibition center? That's so great, what an international metropolis!
Europe-based indie band Arm and Sleepers also expressed solidarity with Hidden Agenda on Facebook:
It’s a DIY venue inside of a large industrial complex, unmarked (speakeasy style), and requiring you to take an industrial elevator to get there. And once there, you’re in this incredible room that feels exactly what you would imagine underground live music and culture should feel like. The staff are friendly and funny, the show goers love and fully support independent music, and you walk out of there feeling incredible about what this whole thing we do is about. Hidden Agenda is 100% DIY, independent, underground spirit.
And of course, because of that spirit, they’ve had constant issues with authorities and law enforcement in Hong Kong.[…] this is a shame and another blow to underground art and culture. I can only hope that Hidden Agenda comes back strong because it is one of the best places I’ve ever performed in as an independent musician. In the end, art will prevail because it always has. Stay strong Hidden Agenda and HK music scene.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Netizen Report: Draft Laws in Egypt Could Lock Down Social Media · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Mahmoud Abu Zaid, aka Shawkan, has been imprisoned for more than 900 days whilst covering the clearance of Cairo's Raba'a el Adaweya camp in support to ousted president Mohamed Morsi. Photo shared on Twitter by @Ciluna27.
The Egyptian parliament is reviewing a bill that would require social media users in Egypt to register with a government authority in order to use social media websites including Facebook and Twitter.
Within six months of the law's adoption, users would have to register on the authority's website with their real names and state ID numbers to be able to use social media networks. Failure to do so could bring punishment of up to six months in jail and a fine. The bill, which has been endorsed by 60 members of parliament, is awaiting discussion by the parliament's legislative and constitutional committees before it is referred for plenary debate.
On 8 May, another MP submitted a draft law that would introduce harsher penalties for those convicted of insulting the president and high ranking officials. Egyptian law already criminalizes insults to the president and state institutions, however the proposed draft law would impose jail time and harsher fines, according to legal experts at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. The law’s approval could mean those convicted of insulting the president would face up to three years in jail.
If approved, these laws would undergird a political climate in which rights to free speech and assembly have already been under persistent threat for many years.
One prominent example is the case of popular photographer Mahmoud Abu Zeid (known as Shawkan) who was arrested in August 2013, while photographing Egyptian security officers using undue force against protesters who were opposing the military coup that removed elected president Mohammed Morsi from power.
Shawkan has been in pre-trial detention for nearly four years, awaiting trial alongside more than 700 protesters who were arrested in the same incident. The trial was most recently postponed to 20 May, due to prison authorities’ failure to bring the accused from jail to the courtroom, rights groups reported. Shawkan could face the death penalty for what rights groups widely agree are trumped-up charges, including weapons possession, illegal assembly, murder and attempted murder.
In another case, a criminal court in the city of Giza acquitted journalists Hany Salah-el-Deen and Mosad Al-Barbary, who were arrested for their coverage of a pro-Morsi sit-in at Raba'a Al-Adawiya square in Cairo. The court also reduced the sentences of Abdullah al-Fakharany, Samhi Mustafa, and Mohamed al-Adly–all arrested in the same incident, from 25 years to five years.
On 3 May, Tunisian authorities spent six hours interrogating Sami Ben Gharbia, co-founder of the independent media platform Nawaat and of Global Voices’ Advocacy project. Ben Gharbia was questioned primarily about a leaked action plan from the Presidency of the Republic, which indicated strong support by the president for a controversial draft law that would grant amnesty to business people and officials accused of corruption during the regime of former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, provided that they return any unlawfully obtained funds.
Nawaat published the document, which sheds light on the presidency's strategies to lobby support for the bill, on 21 April. Ben Gharbia has refused to reveal his sources in accordance with Article 11 of the country’s press code, which grants journalists source protection. However, on May 9 he appeared before a primary court in Tunis, as a witness in the case.
Chinese social media users may need to obtain a permit before writing or distributing news on social media, according to new regulations issued by the State Council Information Office. The regulations also contain a real name registration provision, which several analysts speculate are intended to eliminate anonymous commenting from social media news threads. It is unclear how authorities plan to implement the regulation–it seems nearly impossible to do so at scale. On social media, Chinese netizens suggested that the rules will be enforced only selectively, to restrain independent and citizen journalism.
On May 4, Russia’s federal censor blocked WeChat, China’s largest mobile messaging app. According to Roskomnadzor, WeChat failed to register with the federal government as an “information-dissemination organizer.” This designation is part of a 2014 law under which the Russian government manages a list of online services that “organize the dissemination of information” and can hold them responsible for removing content and disclosing user data at the request of authorities. Today, this list includes websites like Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki (Russia's two most popular social networks), the image board 2ch.hk, the email client Mail.ru and dozens of other services.
A Turkish court ordered Wikipedia blocked in Turkey after site administrators refused to remove two English language pages that claimed Turkey channeled support to jihadists in Syria. According to the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, the site was blocked for “becoming an information source acting with groups conducting a smear campaign against Turkey in the political arena”. This is the first time that the country has fully blocked the site, joining China as one of a few countries in the world to block Wikipedia entirely.
The UK government is in the midst of a ‘targeted consultation’ regarding increased surveillance powers that would force ISPs to monitor communications real time and install backdoors to break encryption, according to documents leaked this week. The government has consulted with telecom companies and intelligence agencies on the draft, but not with other tech companies or civil society. Despite this, the consultation remains open through 19 May, and responses from members of the public may be sent to the Home Office.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Pakistanis Are Outraged Over a Washing Machine Ad That Makes Light of Domestic Violence · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Video still from leaked ad making light of domestic violence
A leaked advertisement being circulated on social media in Pakistan has stirred up anger over its casual attitude toward domestic violence, forcing the electronics company behind the video to apologize.
While promoting a Kenwood brand washing machine, the ad shows a group of male friends having a laugh over the main character's story about a fight with his wife. The man brags about not tolerating his wife's “attitude” and resorting to “dhulayi,” which literally means “washing” but is used as a slang for “beating up.”
The ad wasn't officially released, but a Facebook group called “Whatsapp Videos” posted the leaked video and it didn't take long before the criticism started trickling in. Facebook user Wafa Zafar called it:
Disgusting ad….giving concept that a man should be proud among his friends on beating his wife
Another comment by Facebook user Kookie Malik detailed a complaint made to the parent company in the US:
I have made an effort to speak to Kenwood USA and Kenwood Japan and have asked a simple question: Why is it OK to use such crass and potentially violence inciting crap to make money and promote your company or your brand?? Our women and ALL women for that matter are scared and any of you that find this funny should consider a man beating your mother, sister or daughter …and you laughing and thinking it is OK. Shame on Kenwood and its Executives that allowed this to take place – Their Disclaimer is also another eyewash and stinks of the same corporate nonsense that Delta Airlines demonstrated recently. This is not over yet.
Hurmat Riaz from Mangobaaz, which describes itself as an entertainment website for Pakistani millennials, wrote that the ad is the latest in a series produced by the company showing the husband being intimidated by his wife:
Domestic violence, whether the wife is the victim, or the husband, is not a matter to be joked about. It is a serious problem, one that many people in Pakistan, and beyond, are victims. Not only is making a joke about such a thing insensitive to them, it perpetuates the idea that it’s apparently okay to not only make jokes about hitting your spouse but also doing it in practice.
The human rights commission of Pakistan reports 1,843 cases of domestic violence in Pakistan between 2004 and 2016. This doesn't include other instances of violence like honor killings, kidnapping, rape and acid attacks. The figures only represent the number of reported cases, which tend to be far lower than the actual number of incidents.
The company has since apologized for the leaked ad admitting that their “judgment was flawed” and have requested that “all social media pages remove this ad as it has not been officially released or endorsed by Kenwood.” After all, that's said and done, the outrage over a leaked ad makes it clear that corporations will have to be cautious if they plan on using misogyny to sell their products.

author: Sana Saleem


text:
The Russian Journalist Responsible for the Trump-Lavrov Photo Speaks Out · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Photo: Alexandr Scherbak / Russian Foreign Ministry / Instagram
According to reports in the U.S. media, Washington is furious that the Russian state media published photographs of President Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.
“The White House did not anticipate that the Russian government would allow its state news agency to post [the] photographs,” CNN reported on Thursday. “They tricked us,” an angry White House official told the news network. “That's the problem with the Russians — they lie,” the official added.
This Thursday, TASS photojournalist Alexandr Scherbak, the man who took the controversial pictures in the Oval Office, responded on Facebook, accusing the U.S. government and media of “hysteria,” arguing that the Russian Foreign Ministry was entirely transparent about Minister Lavrov’s meeting with President Trump.
RuNet Echo translates Scherbak’s message below:
Мое обращение к американским СМИ.
Признаться, для меня это нонсенс. Я непубличный человек и никогда прежде не комментировал свою работу, но эта истерия в отношении моей съемки в Белом Доме заставила меня написать эти строки лично.
Работаю в пуле Министра с 15го года, куда я периодически привлекаюсь для освещения поездок и встреч Министра иностранных дел С.В. Лаврова наравне с другими коллегами по цеху. Освещал практически все встречи, которые проходили в США, Франции, Германии, Швейцарии и многих других странах, в коих удалось побывать за время моей работы. Это были закрытые и открытые встречи, саммиты и форумы, много всего, что приходится делать по долгу своей профессии. Списки представителей СМИ, которые освещают поездку, всегда подаются заранее, все знают, кто и где работает, кого представляет и т.д.
По условиям совместной работы МИД России и агентства ТАСС я отдаю часть фото материала в МИД для бесплатных публикаций на официальной странице и в других источниках, часть материала идет в наше агентство ТАСС, далее фотографии распространяются так же, как и в любых других фото- и информационных агентствах.
В съемке встречи Д.Трампа и С.Лаврова не было ничего необычного, все в штатном режиме. После встречи с Р.Тиллерсоном меня забрал представитель со стороны американцев, привезли в Белый Дом, я прошел обычную проверку на сканере, личный осмотр, затем обнюхали собачки. Далее провели в Белый Дом, где я в одной из комнат ждал приезда нашей делегации. Познакомили меня с девушкой-фотографом, которая там работает, сказали держаться ее, так как она знает весь протокол и т.д. На саму съемку я пошел только с двумя фотоаппаратами, все вещи, включая мобильник, я оставил в другом помещении – так, как мне заблаговременно про это сказали. Съемка обычная, хендшейк со всей делегацией, обмен слов, далее началась встреча, минуту поработали, потом мне сказали «все». Вышел из Овального кабинета и проследовал в помещение, где до этого и находился, встреча закончилась, и я уехал вместе с делегацией в Посольство России на пресс-конференцию. И на этом все, мы улетели.
Я обращаюсь к американским журналистам с просьбой не терять чувства профессионального достоинства и не перекидывать свой провал в организации съемки и прохода своих СМИ на других людей. Работаю профессиональным фотокорреспондентом много лет, и, признаться, впервые приходиться сталкиваться с таким абсурдом и бредовыми обвинениями.
My message to the American media:
I admit that this is all nonsense to me. I’m not a public person, and I’ve never before commented on my work like this, but the hysteria surrounding my photographs in the White House compels me to say what I’ve written here.
I’ve worked in the [Foreign] Ministry’s press pool since 2015, and periodically I’m asked to cover cover trips and meetings with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts. I’ve covered almost all his meetings in the U.S., France, Germany, Switzerland, and many other countries, which I’ve managed to visit during my work. These were closed meetings and open meetings, summits and forums, and a whole lot more throughout the course of my career.
The lists with the names of press members who are covering a trip are always submitted well in advance, and everyone knows who is working, where they’ll be, who represents whom, and so on.
Under the work terms between Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the TASS news agency, I turnover part of my photo materials to the Foreign Minister for free publication on its official website and on other resources, and part of my report goes to the TASS newsroom, and then the photos are distributed the same way any other news agency uses its photos.
Nothing unusual happened while photographing the meeting between Donald Trump and Sergei Lavrov. Everything went as planned. First, after the meeting with Rex Tillerson, an American representative brought me to the White House, where I underwent a routine scan, was patted down, and then I was sniffed by police dogs.
Then I was taken to another part of the White House, where I waited in a room for the arrival of our delegation. I was introduced to a woman photographer working there, and they told me to stick to her, because she knew all the protocol and so on. I only brought two cameras to photograph the [Trump-Lavrov] meeting. I left all the rest of my things (including my cell phone) in another room — just as they instructed me in advance.
The photoshoot was ordinary. There were handshakes with everyone in the delegation, an exchange of words, and then the meeting began. I worked for a minute, and then they told me, “That’s all.” I left the Oval Office and walked back to the room where I’d waited before. When the meeting ended, I left with the delegation and went back to the Russian Embassy for the press conference. And with that we all returned to the airport, boarded a plane, and flew away.
I’m appealing to American journalists not to lose their sense of professional dignity and not to pass onto other people their own failure to organize a photoshoot with U.S. press access. I’ve worked as a professional photojournalist for many years, and I confess that this is the first time I’ve encountered such absurd and ludicrous accusations.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
What the Resistance to Trump Can Learn From Latin America · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Photo: Emergentes. Used with permission.
This article was written by written by Jeff Abott originally published on Waging NonViolence under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
It is hard to deny the authoritarian tendencies that Donald Trump has shown in his first 100 days as president of the United States. These tendencies have drawn comparisons to the classic image of a Latin American dictator, and more specifically the caudillo—or strongman leader—by commentators from across Latin America. From his taste in decor and his adversarial relationship with the media, to what critics say is his fundamental assault on human rights, the similarities are hard to contest.
Americans’ neighbors to the south have a long history of resisting authoritarian and fascist regimes, which often were supported by the U.S. government. They were able to survive under difficult situations and, thanks to social movements, move the region in a more progressive direction. After decades of struggle, here are four lessons that movements in Latin America can teach those in the United States organizing against their own authoritarian leader.
Today, as Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos move to dismantle the public education system further and impose a neoliberal model of education, the Chilean mobilization against the U.S.-imposed dictatorship offers a guide for the defense of public services in the United States.
In 1973, the CIA sponsored a coup d’état led by General Augusto Pinochet against the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Following the coup, led by economists who studied under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, Pinochet began to implement the first neoliberal economic reforms to the economy, privatizing public institutions like education, healthcare, and pensions.
María Loreto Muñoz Villa was just a year-old baby when Pinochet seized power. By 13, she became the president of her class, and eventually participated in the student movements of the 1990s. Today, she continues to work to challenge neoliberalism in Chile.
“Neoliberalism creates an illusion of well-being that is really not there. In Chile, the debt and the long work hours require that people mobilize,” Muñoz Villa said. However, it's difficult for people to “mobilize because of debt, because if they stopped working, they couldn’t pay their debts. Since 2000, the movement has worked with people to see this as the product of neoliberal politics.”
Pinochet's neoliberal reforms led opponents to organize around certain slogans, such as free education. In 2011, tens of thousands of students took to the streets to demand a free public education. The movement challenged the privatized educational system that was established by the Pinochet dictatorship that denied an affordable quality educational system to the majority of Chileans.
Chile’s student movement has produced concrete changes in Chile’s educational system, as well. In 2013, socialist Michelle Bachelet won the presidential election and delivered free higher education for half of the country’s poorest citizens, funding the program with a 25-percent corporate tax.
Faced with increasing poverty, pensioners and other community activists also began organizing during Bachelet's administration to demand an end to the Pinochet-era privatized pension system, arguing that the current system provides very little to pensioners, while the companies that manage the pensions earn massive profits. Massive protests drew hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, prompting the Bachelet administration to announce recently that it will begin overhauling the pension system.
These campaigns and movements all arose from a shared understanding that neoliberalism is at the root of social inequalities in Chile. According to Muñoz Villa, the rise of Trump means that movements must organize against both his more overt repressive policies and the social impacts of neoliberalism.
Efforts to defend public services like education are already well established in the United States. Teachers of the Chicago Teachers Union have led the charge to protect the public education system, and their movement has grown stronger thanks to connections with teachers in Mexico and South America. These relationships need to be stronger still, and they need to spread more across the U.S., as the struggle to defend public services heats up in the coming months.
The historic dispossession of indigenous lands and territory in the United States has continued into the 21st century. In just the first few weeks of his administration, Trump systematically dismantled legislation to protect the environment from extractive industries. He has also repeatedly expressed his interest in expanding mining activities, pipelines, and hydro energy, which will continue to threaten indigenous land. These assaults on indigenous territory in the U.S. reflect similar trends in Latin America, where indigenous communities have spent the past 30 years building movements across the hemisphere to defend their lands from the expansion of mega-projects.
These indigenous communities are empowered through international agreements on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples, such as the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, as well as the United Nation’s 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. These accords have galvanized the resistance of indigenous communities to the expansion of extractive industries.
The defense of territory has also generated new means of communal power and fueled major social changes. Groups in South America, such as the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, have worked to create autonomous, horizontal forms of education within their communities’ classrooms. Other movements, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico, have utilized their territorial autonomy to construct an autonomous educational system, as well as healthcare systems that incorporate ancestral medicinal practices with modern medicine.
The movement at Standing Rock began to build bridges to many of these communities. At the height of the encampment, indigenous leaders from countries like Guatemala and Mexico traveled to South Dakota to share their experiences and lessons from their movements. Indigenous leaders stressed that communities in the U.S. and throughout Latin America share the same struggles and enemies. Despite the camp’s destruction in February, the foundation for sustained resistance to protect indigenous lands is now in place.
Politics as usual has failed most rank-and-file workers in the United States. Despite the support that Trump received from the working class, his election means disaster for workers and organized labor. Trump’s war on unions has included nominating an outspokenly anti-union lawyer to the National Labor Relations Board, and putting forward a number of anti-union candidates for Labor Secretary. As neoliberalism continues its assault on workers, the lessons from South America can also provide organizers with another means of how to organize in the workplace at times of crisis.
The 2001 economic crisis in Argentina that forced millions out of work and led to the collapse of financial services triggered the piquetero, or picketer, movement. This mobilization brought together vast numbers of impoverished unemployed workers to demand and obtain a sustainable livelihood. They were forced to construct alternatives to the neoliberal capitalist system.
Protesters adopted the slogan “Que se vayan todos,” or “They all must go,” and sought to replace the corrupt political system that led to the 2001 crisis. In the course of two weeks, four presidents were forced to resign due to the popular protests. Furthermore, the movement contributed to the emergence of direct democracy on street corners, where neighbors would come out and work together to resolve problems within their neighborhoods.
“The piquetero movement did not only resist neoliberal politics, it created productive ventures,” said Raul Zibechi, a Uruguayan journalist, author, and social-movement analyst. “They ended their dependence on the state, and began working on autonomy — not an ideological autonomy, but a practical autonomy.”
Employees recuperated their workspaces when they returned to work and found locked doors and shuttered businesses. Following the crisis, workers formed more than 180 cooperatives. By 2014, this number reached 311 businesses employing 13,462 workers.
The rise of this movement eventually helped Néstor Carlos Kirchner win a narrow presidential victory in May 2003. His administration’s first steps were to renegotiate the country’s debt, and to break ties with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Argentina's history also serves as a warning to Americans fixated solely on winning electoral battles, without also building alternative forms of power beyond the state. Zibechi argues that the rise of Kirchner led to the decline of the piquetero movement and is an example of how a movement can be co-opted by politicians seeking power above all else.
“Kirchner’s policy consisted of simultaneously enacting strategies to integrate, co-opt, and discipline the piquetero organizations,” wrote sociologist Maristella Svampa.
Kirchner spoke out against popular protests, stating that the piqueteros should use more traditional democratic means, such as voting, rather than blocking roads and picketing. Furthermore, many middle-class voters, who made up many of the neighborhood associations, were taken in by the Kirchner campaign, believing that it was an anti-neoliberal administration. But his administration never led to a move towards a social and economic alternative.
The failure of the subsequent administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to transform the political situation led to the eventual return of the neoliberal influence in Argentina, and the election of right-wing politician Mauricio Macri in 2015.
A key lesson from the piquetero movement in Argentina and the movements against neoliberalism in Chile is that finding a means of constructing new forms of social relations outside the neoliberal and traditional political structure is a necessity for those organizing against Trump. These local solutions can provide communities with the means to build sustainable movements to resist the draconian policies of any government.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
Bangladesh’s LGBT Community Launches a Blog Commemorating Slain Activists · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

The local LGBT community participating in a rainbow parade to celebrate the Bangla New Year. Image by Nahid Sultan via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0
Just over a year ago, Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine, and LGBT activist Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy were hacked to death in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.
On April 25, 2016, they joined the long list of secular thinkers and religious minorities who have been murdered in Bangladesh since 2013 (see Global Voices special coverage).
Ansar al-Islam Bangladesh (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent) claimed responsibility for their murders in a tweet. The police have so far arrested two people in connection with the murders, but more than a year after the killings, investigators still have not issued charges against them.
Advocates in South Asia and around the world contended that Mannan was a clear target for Islamist extremists because of the continued criminalization of homosexual relations and intolerance toward the LGBT community in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh penal code article 377 criminalises sexual activities “against the order of nature”, including consensual homosexual acts such as fellatio and anal penetration, with the most severe possible punishment being life in prison. The provision was introduced by British colonial authorities in the 19th century and was used as the model for sodomy laws in many other British colonies.
On the first anniversary of the killings, Boys of Bangladesh, the largest network of self-identified Bangladeshi gay men from home and abroad, launched a Bangla-language blog called Dhee to commemorate the victims and raise awareness of the plight of the LGBT community in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.
The literal meaning of “Dhee” in Bangla is talent or intelligence. The blog is part of a larger advocacy project for lesbians which includes a comic strip released in September 2015 that tells “The Story of Dhee,” a fictional young lesbian discovering her sexuality. Over the past year, the Dhee project has also hosted awareness events on gender and sexuality in seven towns in Bangladesh.
The blog features pieces by members of the LGBT community remembering Mannan and Tonoy and explaining the fear they now live with since their deaths. The authors are kept anonymous, and even the email address of the commenters are withheld for safety reasons. A statement on the blog reads:
জুলহাজ মান্নান ও তনয়ের নির্মম হত্যাকান্ডের ঘটনাটি ধী এর মত যাদের জীবনে প্রত্যক্ষ কিংবা পরোক্ষভাবে প্রভাব ফেলেছে তাদের বলা কিছু লেখা/কথা/ছবি/ভিডিও সংরক্ষণ করে রাখার প্রাথমিক উদ্দেশ্য নিয়ে এই কমিউনিটি ব্লগের যাত্রা শুরু হচ্ছে। আমাদের এই আহবানে সাড়া দিয়ে বিভিন্ন মানুষ, যারা নানা সময়ে জুলহাজ আর তনয়ের সান্নিধ্যে ছিলেন, তাদের লেখনী আলোকচিত্র দিয়ে জানিয়েছেন তাদের মনের অব্যক্ত সেসব কথা। বাংলাদেশের সমকামীদের আন্দোলনের বর্তমান পরিস্থিতির ঘোলাটে এক টুকরো ছবি মিলবে ধী ব্লগে।
The brutal killings of Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy have directly or indirectly affected a lot of activists and ordinary people. This blog archives their experience and comments in text/audio/images and video formats. Many people close to Mannan and Tonoy responded to our call to submit texts and images and expressed their feelings and memories about them. You can catch a glimpse of the current confused state of the LGBT movement in Bangladesh on Dhee blog.
Xulhaz Mannan worked as a foreign service national for USAID in Bangladesh and was the co-founder and publisher of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine Roopbaan (see Global Voices report). The magazine was launched in January 2014.
Before the publication, the LGBT movement in Bangladesh was mostly underground and led by a handful of people who connected with each other on social media. Shakhawat Hossain of Boys of Bangladesh wrote on news and commentary site Wire.in:
Mannan believed in visibility. All his life he worked to provide a safe space for people to come out and be who they were. He opened up his house, spent all his earnings and dedicated his spare time towards mobilising the community and giving us a sense of belonging. He had a unique way of encouraging us to speak up and be assertive of our rights – of our right to love. How ironical it is for the merchant of love to succumb to such hatred and violence.
Tonoy used his theatre experience to produce and act in various short dramas to spread awareness about LGBT issues.
Xulhaz and Tonoy. Images from their Facebook profiles.
On Dhee blog, one anonymous blogger recalled his experience learning of their deaths:
২৫শে মার্চ আমি শেষবারের মতো জুলহাজ ভাইয়ের বাসায় পা দিয়েছিলাম। এক জন্মদিনের উৎসবে। [..]
ঠিক এক মাস পর তার মৃত্যু হল।
মাঝেমধ্যে আমি হিসাব করতে বসি। কতো দিন হল? ১০ দিন? ১৫ সপ্তাহ? ৬ মাস? আর কতো মাস পর এক বছর হবে?
প্রথম প্রথম ঘোরের মধ্যে ছিলাম। ঠিকমতো বুঝতে পারছিলাম না জীবনে কতো বড় পরিবর্তন চলে এসেছে। যখন ঘোর কাটিয়ে একটু-আধটু বোঝার চেষ্টা করতে শুরু করলাম তখন বড় বড় দীর্ঘনিঃশ্বাস বুকে জমতে শুরু করলো। আমাদের পুরো জগত বদলে গিয়েছে। আচমকা এক ঝড়ে সব লণ্ডভণ্ড করে গিয়েছে।
On 25 March 2016, I last entered Xulhaz's house to attend a birthday party. […]
He was killed one month later.
I contemplate it sometimes. How many days [since the murders]? Ten days? Fifteen weeks? Siz months? After how many more months until the anniversary?
During the first months, I was in a trance. I couldn't fathom how this would impact my life. When I finally realised what had happened, the reality came sinking into my heart like a heavy stone. My whole universe had changed. A storm had destroyed everything.
Another blogger wrote about working with Mannan on the LGBT magazine Roopban:
অন্যান্য ম্যাগাজিনের মত রূপবানের প্রথম সংখ্যার পর দ্বিতীয় প্রকাশ কিছুটা মসৃণ হবার কথা ছিল। কিন্তু কপালে শনি, চারপাশ থেকে অক্টোপাসের অশুভ শুঁড় আমাদের আষ্টেপৃষ্ঠে বেঁধে ফেলল। প্রধানমন্ত্রী নাকি মন্ত্রীসভার স্ট্যান্ডিং কমিটিতে রূপবান দেখে নাখোশ হয়েছেন। এদিকে ভোরের কাগজে বড় করে রিপোর্ট বের হয়েছে গোয়েন্দা বাহিনী রূপবানের পেছনের লোক খুঁজছে। … রূপবানের প্রথম সংখ্যা বের হয়েছিল যে ছাপাখানা থেকে, ভোরের কাগজের রিপোর্ট বেরোবার পরের দিনই জানিয়ে দিলো তারা আর আমাদের ম্যাগাজিন ছাপাতে পারবে না।আমি তখন নিতান্তই ভেঙে পড়েছিলাম। রূপবান ছাপানোর শোকে না, ডিবি পুলিশের ভয়ে! বাসায় কলিং-বেল বাজলেই মনে হয় পুলিশ।
Like any other magazine, the publishing of the second edition of the Roopbaan magazine was supposed to be lot less complicated than the first. But bad luck had engulfed us like an octopus. The prime minister had learnt about Roopban in a ministerial meeting and she was unhappy about it. The daily Bhorer Kagoz published a report that the detective branch of the police was looking for the people behind the magazine. The printing press, which printed the first edition of Roopbaan magazine, told us the next day that they were unable to print the magazine in the future. I was literally heartbroken. Not that Roopbaan wouldn't be printed, but out of fear of the police. Hearing my doorbell, I would cringe in fear.
He also wrote how Mannan stood beside him during those trying times:
পুলিশ আসলে কোনো ঝামেলা করবা না। কোনোকিছু অস্বীকার করবা না। চুপচাপ থানায় যাবা। ওখানে গিয়ে সবার আগে আমার নাম বলবা। বলবা জুলহাজ মান্নান সব নাটের গুরু।
Don't make any trouble if police come looking for you. Don't deny anything. Go to the police station with them. Tell them my name. Tell them that Xulhaz is the kingpin of this magazine.
One person wrote about a recent experience that showed authorities’ negative attitude toward LGBT people:
গত সপ্তাহে আমি বৈষম্য বিলোপ আইন বিষয়ক একটা আলোচনায় অংশ নিতে গিয়েছিলাম। টেবিলের আরেক মাথা থেকে আমাকে পরিষ্কার বলে দেয়া হল সরকার এমন কিছু করতে পারবে না যা ৩৭৭ ধারার বিপক্ষে যাবে। এই অশান্ত পরিস্থিতি মোকাবেলা করতে না পেরে তারা এলজিবিটি শব্দটা শুনতেও এখন নারাজ। সবকিছু এখন কেমন যেন অনেক অন্তঃসার শূন্য মনে হয়। আরেকটু বেশী সম্মান কি রাষ্ট্রের কাছে তোমাদের প্রাপ্য ছিল না?
Last week I went to a round-table discussion on the gender-equity law. The government representative from the other side of table warned me that we cannot do anything that goes against section 377. To deal with the threats against LGBT people they don't even want to hear the word LGBT. Everything seems to be so empty now and the future looks bleak. Don't you deserve at least a bit of respect from the state?
Bangladeshi society can be intolerant of LGBT people. A person on Dhee blog wrote how Tonoy faced trouble at home because of his sexual orientation:
তনয়ের বাসার পরিবেশটা একটু অন্যরকম। বাসার সবাই জানত তাদের ছেলে একটু আলাদা। পাড়ার আর দশটা ছেলের মতন নয়। ছোটবেলা থেকেই সে নিজেকে লুকাতে চাইতো না। ছেলে হয়ে মেয়েলী স্বভাব, মেয়ের কাপড়ে পারিবারিক উৎসবে নাচ, এসব কারণে বহুবার তার বাবার দ্বারা শারীরিক নির্যাতনের শিকার হতে হয়েছিল ওকে অনেকবার।
The situation at Tonoy's home was different. They knew that their boy was a bit different, not like other boys in the neighbourhood. He did not want to suppress this difference. He used to have a liking for feminine things, engaged in cross-dressing and he suffered domestic abuse because of that.
Mannan and Tonoy's murders struck fear into the heart of Bangladesh's LGBT community. Many activists have now closed their Facebook accounts and changed phone numbers in an effort to hide their identities for their own safety. A female activist explained on Dhee blog:
এই ঘটনা ঘটার পর আমার কাছের যে কয়টি মানুষ আছে তারা সবাই আমাকে বলেছে দেশ ছেড়ে চলে যেতে। আমি ছোটবেলা থেকে অনেক বড় বড় স্বপ্ন দেখেছি কিন্তু নিজের দেশ ছেড়ে চলে যাবার স্বপ্ন কক্ষনো দেখিনি, কক্ষনো না। আমি ছোটবেলা থেকেই ভালো ছাত্রী ছিলাম। ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় থেকে পাশ করেছি, ছাত্রাবস্থা থেকেই সামাজিক নানা কাজে যুক্ত ছিলাম। এখন ভালো চাকরী করছি। আমি সবসময় দেশের জন্য কিছু করতে চেয়েছি। সুবিধা-বঞ্চিতদের সাথে কাজ করবো, দেশের ইকোনমিতে কন্ট্রিবিউট করবো। অনেক আশা ছিল আমার। কিন্তু আমি কেমন করে এ দেশে থাকবো যেখানে আমার বেঁচে থাকার নূন্যতম গ্যারান্টিটুকু নাই? আমি কেমন করে থাকবো এদেশে যেখানে আমি জানি আমি মরে যাবার পর হোমপেইজ, চায়ের-কাপ সবখানে সোল্লাসে ঝড় উঠবে বেশ হয়েছে মরে গিয়ে দেশটাকে সাফ হয়েছে! এ কেমন মাতৃভূমি? যার বুকে আমার জন্য এতোটুকু জায়গা নাই?
After that tragic incident, people close to me told me to leave the country. I dreamt about a lot of things since my childhood, but none involved leaving my homeland, never. I was a good student since childhood. I graduated from Dhaka University, the country's leading public university. I have been involved in many social services and now am at a decent job. I always wanted to do something for the country, contribute to the economy, working for the poor. But how can I live in this country where there is no guarantee of my life? How can I live in this country, where if I were to be killed people would rejoice over a cup of tea that there is one less LGBT person? What kind of homeland is this, where there is no place for me?
By August 2016, investigators had identified five suspects who they say took part in the killings. The police have arrested two of them, who have since testified under Section 164 of the penal code.
But after more than a year since Mannan and Tonoy's deaths, police have failed to submit charges despite having made these arrests, and having stated that they “are quite sure who did it.” The court has granted them 12 extensions since the arrests. Most recently, the report and the charge sheet of the investigation were supposed to have been submitted on May 8, 2017, but the date has once again been postponed. The new submission has been rescheduled for June 6, 2017.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Calls for Boycott After Pizza Hut Israel Mocks Palestinian Hunger Strikers on Facebook · Global Voices
Marwa Fatafta

A graffiti in support of political leader Marwan Barghouti on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier wall. Photo by Eman via Wikipedia. Public domain.
Palestinians stormed social media calling for a global boycott of Pizza Hut restaurant after its Israeli branch ran a provocative Facebook ad that mocked Palestinian prisoners who have been on a mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons since 17 April.
Pizza Hut Israel posted on its Facebook page a photo of Palestinian leader Marwan Bargouti, allegedly breaking his hunger strike secretly in his cell. The company photoshopped a pizza box and a pizza slice into the picture, with the cynical comment: “Barghouti, if you are going to break your strike, isn't pizza a better choice?”
“Barghouti, if you are going to break your strike, isn't pizza a better choice?” Screenshot of Facebook.
More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, of the 6,500 in total incarcerated in Israeli jails, are on their 26th day of an open-ended hunger strike to protest against ill-treatment, medical negligence, solitary confinement, administrative detentions and to fight for better conditions.
Angered by the mockery of the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners for their rights in Israeli prisons, Palestinians used the social media hashtags #Boycott_PizzaHut in both Arabic and English to call for a boycott of the global chain.
.@pizzahut, because human dignity is much more precious that your pizza!! #Boycott_PizzaHut #قاطعوا_بيتزا_هت @pizzaHut pic.twitter.com/d7RxAe6Qrg
— Maha Hussaini (@MahaGaza) 10 de mayo de 2017
Pizza Hut is making fun of the Palestinian Hunger strike of dignity #boycott_pizzahut#dignitystrike #اضراب_الكرامة #إسناد_الأسرى pic.twitter.com/4PozafWwxH
— Razan Halabi (@Razan_Halabi) 9 de mayo de 2017
Mocking & Making ads from a humanitarian cause like the Palestinian Dignity Hunger Strike is disgusting ! Good reason to #boycott_pizzahut pic.twitter.com/KQri2dCub0
— Salah Charkaoui (@SalahCharkaoui) 11 de mayo de 2017
Making fun of Palestinian heroes going on a hunger strike in Israeli prisons is such a big shame.@pizzahut #boycott_pizzahut
— هيلين (@helenzo1) 8 de mayo de 2017
Yes I support #boycott_pizzahut , you can not make jokes about hunger strike!! It's not funny!!
— Lamia Abdulrhman (@Lma_30) 9 de mayo de 2017
The ad was quickly removed from Pizza Hut's Israel Facebook page thereafter, and the company apologized on Facebook for “any offence caused by a recent post on Pizza Hut Israel’s Facebook page”:
It was completely inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our brand. The local franchisee in the country removed it immediately and the relationship with the agency that posted it was terminated, and we truly regret any hurt this may have caused.
The offensive ad plays sarcastically on recent footage released by the Israeli prison authorities on 7 May which allegedly shows Marwan Barghouti, an imprisoned leader of Palestinian political faction Fatah who is leading the hunger strike, snacking secretly in the bathroom of his cell.
The Palestinian National Committee for Freedom and the Dignity Strike, a group which endorses the current hunger strike, denounced the allegations and said that the footage dated back to at least 2004. In a statement, the committee added that Israel is “waging a serious war of lies and misleading information to create a state of confusion in the Palestinian public and among hunger striking prisoners.”
Bargouthi's wife, Fadwa, also rejected the allegations in a press conference in Ramallah, stressing that Israel was “resorting to despicable acts” and that “the prisoners are familiar with Israel's lies and games and the video they released signals the beginning of its fall,” and will only make the prisoners more determined.
Such mockery of the Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike is nothing new. In the early days of the strike, dozens of Israelis started a barbecue outside of Ofer prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where a number of Palestinian prisoners had joined the strike. The Israeli right-wingers in attendance said they hope Palestinian hunger strikers would “enjoy breathing in the smoke and suffer from the smell of the meat.”

author: Marwa Fatafta