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Vybz Kartel Supporters Threaten Former Jamaican Culture Minister Over Remarks About Dancehall’s Violent Lyrics · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Screenshot of an image from the music video for Shenseea song “Loodi”, featuring Vybz Kartel. Video by YouTube user SHENSEEAVEVO.
The debate over the potentially harmful influence of the dancehall culture on youth and whether it fuels crime and violence is nothing new in Jamaica, but nowhere is this more starkly illustrated than in the life and career of Adidja Palmer. Better known by his stage name, Vybz Kartel, he was convicted for the 2011 killing of an associate, Clive “Lizard” Williams, after being acquitted of an earlier murder charge. Palmer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after a 65-day trial, and will not be eligible for parole for 35 years.
Yet, Kartel's popularity (some call it a cult following) among Jamaican youth has not waned. Kartel continues to release new music, which is played regularly at parties. His album, King of Dancehall, topped the reggae music charts in the United States upon its release in June 2016, and was the highest selling album in that genre for the year. His book, “Voice of the Jamaica Ghetto (Incarcerated but not Silenced)”, co-written by Michael Dawson and published in July 2012, has reportedly been placed in Princeton University's library. In February 2017, the glitzy, fan-based Youth View Awards nominated Kartel in eight categories by popular vote; he won in five.
Imagine the outcry then, when Lisa Hanna — the country's former culture minister (and current member of parliament) — suggested that there may need to be “less of a democracy” when it comes to trying to instill values in youth; values that are at odds with the messages they hear from the music being played on the radio. Even though Hanna did not call his name, she singled out Vybz Kartel when she spoke about “persons we know are incarcerated…persons we know have questionable value systems”.
Her comments soon went viral, provoking an extreme and vitriolic backlash which included death threats. This social media response has caused the greatest shock waves in the public arena. One Twitter user noted:
One is free to agree or disagree with Lisa Hanna's views, but to threaten her for them is repulsive, perverse, and disgraceful.
— Corey (@Corey_WS) February 23, 2017
However, some have accused both Hanna and the prime minister of hypocrisy. A university student tweeted:
During elections both the PM and Lisa Hanna used songs from Vybz Kartel and dancehall in general while campaigning, What makes it wrong now?
— Demoye (@YPWhiteley) February 23, 2017
Another tweeted one of Hanna's Instagram updates during the election campaign:
Quote the #VYBZKARTEL lyrics then turn round bashing him !! Big hypocrite pic.twitter.com/3oU7UPD69n
— IG: willymac_7 (@WillyMac7) February 23, 2017
Hanna, as a former Miss World, famous for her glamorous Instagram account and therefore no stranger to social media, defended her stance in a lengthy Facebook post:
I’m an unapologetic lover of music including dancehall. But there’s no necessity for some artists to use music as a medium for promoting violence and abuse of women. The Data confirms that violent and sexually explicit lyrics have negatively influenced many Jamaican youth’s thought processes through increased feelings of hostility and aggression. These negative influences are exacerbated when we turn a blind eye to radio airplay of new productions by persons we know are incarcerated so may have been abetted by corruption in our prison system. This reality necessitates us being urgently honest with ourselves. We should be prepared to have a national discussion about messages glorifying criminality being conveyed to our children that’ll ultimately bring deleterious consequences. These messages have been pushing us towards a different society from the one in which we all say we want to live. […] I pray that all Jamaicans who value common decency will find the courage to push back against this new normal and defend Jamaica’s true culture. If we lose this battle, however unpopular the battle or its choosing may be, we will have lost Jamaica.
While not advocating a total ban, many Jamaicans are similarly concerned, in light of Jamaica's soaring crime rate this year, with the content of Kartel's lyrics. Columnist Gordon Robinson commented that they are merely a reflection of Jamaica's environment of crime and violence:
Much of Kartel's music (not all) is vulgar, violent and antisocial. Worse, it encourages violence. This is nothing more than a sad reflection on Jamaican society as seen by Kartel. All artistes, from time immemorial, have been social commentators. That artistes like Kartel are rapidly becoming role models for Jamaican youth is a tragedy, but not one of the artistes’ making. It's we who must tackle the societal problems identified by Kartel and reflected in his music…If the content of Kartel's music breaches the Broadcasting Commission's guidelines, as it often does, for public discourse, those recordings should be banned from the airwaves.
Columnist, comedian and poet Michael Abrahams added:
I support freedom of artistic expression, so I defend Kartel’s right to express himself. Even if his songs were to be banned from the radio, our youngsters would have no problem obtaining them from the Internet. What we need to do is look into ourselves and take responsibility for creating an environment in which a dancehall artiste who often spews violent lyrics, and is incarcerated for murder, has one of the greatest influences on our youth..
In contrast, human rights activist Jaevion Nelson wondered:
Why are all these media entities playing Kartel's music? Are they not complicit in promoting a convicted murderer?
— Jaevion Nelson (@jaevionn) February 23, 2017
However, many young Jamaicans agreed that the impact of dancehall on crime and violence is overstated. One shared his personal Twitter poll, in which followers thought politicians were by far the greatest contributing factor:
Which has a stronger correlation to #Crime in #Jamaica?…. #LisaHanna
— It's Me… Saggle (@saggle2012) February 24, 2017
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has taken a measured approach. Having just passed his one-year anniversary in office, he is doing the media rounds. In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, he stressed the importance of education in changing mindsets, explaining, “We have a liberal democracy’, we can’t escape that. And […] we are not a society that holds heavily to censorship. That shouldn’t mean that we allow everything to get in the public space. So the important thing that […] a liberal democracy must develop, if it is not going to censor, is […] literacy and education. In other words, you combat negative information with positive information.”
Damion Crawford, a former government colleague of Hanna's who was once the minister responsible for entertainment, opined on Facebook:
I don't agree that Kartel music should be banned… and all research shows no causal impact of dancehall to violence. However the response to a difference in opinion is a disgrace to Jamaica, Dancehall and Gaza nation. How on earth gunshot, rape, murder, stoning etc reach in a difference of opinion…. you not just state why you think the music should not be banned ? Unuh a make more enemies than friends for dancehall with this BS.
The underlying question, which Hanna also raised, is how and why Kartel is allowed to enjoy a flourishing career while remaining behind bars at Kingston's high security Tower Street Correctional Centre. One young Facebook user asserted:
I personally don't believe someone who is an incarcerated and convicted murderer should be allowed to continue to ply his art of music (especially music for the most part that really adds no value to life in liberating the masses who need direction). Means of rehabilitation my foot. If I'm an architect or doctor I gave up my freedom being in prison and will not be allowed to practice. This country and its justice system is laughable. It is an insult to give Vybz Kartel this opportunity. #Disgraceful breed of hypocrites we are in Jamaica!
Community activist Nazneen Jones agreed. Citing an article  in which one DJ advised the prime minister to “stop putting blame on our music and start holding people accountable for their own behaviour and actions,” she expressed concern over the extremes of the dancehall culture:
Dancehall music is not the sole problem of crime and violence but it has heightened abuse towards vulnerable women. Some dancehall music are tools for violence, the lyrics itself are sharpened weapons. Some will argue that dancehall music is our culture, but then again it depends on each individual's thought or definition of what their culture is. Imitating dogs, spiders and shoving bottles down my throat is NOT my culture.
Meanwhile, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has been actively pursuing malicious, defamatory and threatening social media posts — including those against Hanna — with their search focusing largely on Facebook. The police have been charging Jamaicans under The Cybercrimes Act, which came into effect quite recently. Public relations practitioner Elon Parkinson warned:
Those who are busy deleting threats made against Lisa Hanna will soon find out that Facebook erases nothing. Police investigation now in full effect. You'll need a lawyer, not a new profile.
The debate continues in the media, where the head of Nationwide News Network (which first aired Hanna's statement) described a video for which Kartel won a Youth View Award last month as “porn”. In a few days, the station will broadcast a show hosted by the energetic TalkUpYout media project, in an effort to thrash out the issues with young people:
Don't miss it! #VybzKartel #dancehall #musicandprison #crimeandviolence pic.twitter.com/ZeGIkzZaGW
— IG: TalkUpYout (@TalkUpYout) February 25, 2017
Meanwhile on Twitter, Vybz Kartel Radio may have summed up the adored DJ's feelings on the matter:
#NowPlaying! I Don't Give A (Explicit) by Vybz Kartel #VybzKartel (https://t.co/etSVmZxl6e) pic.twitter.com/OzSOHM9Tma
— Vybz Kartel (@VybzKartelRadio) February 24, 2017

author: Emma Lewis


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An Indian American Muslim Singer Resurrects an Old Civil Rights Anthem · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Zeshan Bagewadi is pictured here. Credit: Courtesy of Zeshan Bagewadi
This story by Traci Tong originally appeared on PRI.org on February 13, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Zeshan Bagewadi is always looking for a new song. Recently, he found a great one — except it wasn't exactly new. It was more than 45 years old, George Perkins‘ 1970 song “Cryin’ in the Streets.”
It was written as a reaction to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. two years earlier.
But Bagewadi was convinced “Cryin’ in the Streets” was a song for today's civil rights struggles, too. So he repurposed it.
“‘I see somebody marching in the street. I see somebody crying in the street. I see somebody dying in the street.’ [I was] struck … how simple it was, how poignant it was, how elemental it was,” he says of the original lyrics.
“Cryin’ in the Streets” also resonated with Bagewadi's own experiences growing up as a Muslim, an Indian American and a Chicago native. He grew up listening to his father's extensive collection of blues, soul and gospel: “Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown … that was sort of the soundtrack of my childhood.”
His father was a freelance journalist, living in India, and from there followed the civil rights movement in America. “He wrote editorials on black expression in literature,” says Bagewadi. “My father was always drawn to the black artistic expression and read Langston Hughes, Zora [Neale] Hurston.”
That made a huge impression on Bagewadi, who has aligned himself with the Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism toward black people. “What needs to be done here is simple. Us Muslims need to ally ourselves with those who have paved a path for us and who has been on the front line of the struggle. So we need to appropriate their struggle. We need to appropriate their pain.”
Music has more power than mere words, he adds. “You listen to Curtis Mayfield sing ‘people get ready, there's a train a comin.’ You listen to Mahalia Jackson singing ‘Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.’ If that doesn't galvanize you, I don't know what will.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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As Starbucks Mulls Entry Into Jamaica, a Look at Coffee Culture (or Lack Thereof) in the Land of the Blue Mountains · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee; photo by Adam Chandler, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Jamaica is the land of Blue Mountain Coffee — the mild and deliciously refreshing brand is generally acknowledged by aficionados as one of the world's iconic coffees. Despite the great reputation of one of its most valuable products, however, Jamaica cannot be called a coffee-drinking nation. At home, Jamaicans habitually drink tea — including a range of herbal teas, peppermint and ginger flavours being perennial favourites — and imported instant coffee.
But is there a growing coffee culture and an accompanying appreciation of indigenous coffee? In the capital city Kingston, at least, new cafés are opening in uptown malls and shopping precincts on a regular basis, in a relatively small catchment area. Elsewhere on the island? Not so much. And in those cafés, are Jamaicans enjoying drinking their own coffee — or are they mainly there for the socialising, business networking and free wifi? At this stage, the café phenomenon is so new that it might be premature to equate it with a coffee culture.
Still, the international chain, Starbucks, is reported to be considering an entry into the Jamaican market, having expanded rapidly in Latin America in recent years. The chain already operates 42 stores in five Caribbean countries.
While Starbucks is mass market, Blue Mountain Coffee is, and always has been, a luxury brand. Grown on fairly small farms at elevations of 3,000 to 5,500 feet, it is expensive and beyond most Jamaicans’ budgets. High Mountain and Jamaica Supreme coffee, grown at lower levels is cheaper.
Coffee itself has a long history in Jamaica, having been brought to the island from Martinique in the 18th century and planted by former governor Nicholas Lawes in Temple Hall, St. Andrew — an area north, west and east of Kingston. Cultivation using slave labour grew rapidly in other areas — including the Blue Mountains — from then until the 1830s. Since then, despite global demand, the coffee industry in Jamaica has had many challenges, including labor shortages, disease, hurricane damage mismanagement and low production. Now, most coffee plantations sell their crops to the government's Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica, which itself has had a somewhat rocky history, very recently firing its lawyer over flood insurance claims. While 70% of Blue Mountain coffee has been sold to the Japanese market for decades, demand has declined due to an increase in local processors’ prices.
The Starbucks news has therefore received a mixed reception among Jamaicans. Some were of the view that local coffee must benefit:
@chsAnthony @Petchary @JamaicaOlympics @Starbucks perhaps, the point that is being lost, is the real need to support jamaican coffee.
— guruZen (@zenras01) February 20, 2017
A Twitter poll with 592 results suggested that Blue Mountain Coffee is the way to go:
How do you feel about @Starbucks coffee ☕ coming to Jamaica ???
— Team Jamaica (@JamaicaOlympics) February 19, 2017
Other Twitter users thought Starbucks could never compare with Blue Mountain Coffee:
@JamaicaOlympics @Starbucks SUCKS, tastes like battery acid… LOVE BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE, it's the BEST
— Keith Banzhaf (@keithbanzhaf) February 20, 2017
Others were more positive, suggesting that Starbucks would bring more variety:
@JamaicaOlympics Blue Mountain Coffee is one brand of coffee done one way. @Starbucks product offering brings VAST possibilities period!
— I Am Me (@chsAnthony) February 19, 2017
Another Twitter user was adamant that did not want her choices dictated by others:
I feel like Jacans want you to like something simply on the basis that it was ‘made’ here. So what about my tastebuds? kmt.
— winsome chambers (@wincee5) February 25, 2017
Most Jamaicans who have reacted negatively to the news of a possible Starbucks invasion seem to assume that its stores will not sell local coffee. However, as a Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee broker noted in its blog, the coffee chain could follow the example of Colombia, where Starbucks sells a range of local coffees. The snag here, though, is the cost of Blue Mountain, which might make Starbucks’ offerings too pricey. Having said that, several local coffeeshops such as Café Blue and Cannonball Café already sell Blue Mountain at reasonable prices.
Social enterprise Deaf Can! Coffee is also making waves, having just won a million Jamaican dollars (just under US $8,000) — as well as the People's Choice Award — to boost its business in the JN Foundation‘s Pitch for Purpose event. Deaf Can! has many fans:
These are so good. Thank you @DeafCanCoffee you just made my morning. @danoxid @DigicelJaFdn @Petchary @PositiveOrgJA #LetsBuildJa pic.twitter.com/H3DIYvSA9W
— The Positive One (@Nevpositivemeds) February 15, 2017
Meanwhile, Starbucks announced recently that its Starbucks Reserve® Jamaica Blue Mountain® coffee will be on sale in February for a limited period in select North American stores and online, noting:
The Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica sets meticulous standards for growing, harvesting and processing their coffee, with each bean being inspected and certified to meet rigorous quality standards before it can earn the Jamaica Blue Mountain name. […] The growing conditions are unique, and the coffee grown on estates [there] produce layers of cocoa and citrus unlike anywhere else in the world.
So what is the verdict? One Jamaica-based diplomat had the final say on his blog:
Jamaican has a long history of coffee farms, but where are the coffee drinkers? I don’t mean to say that no one drinks coffee or there aren’t any coffee shops, but there’s a distinct lack of coffee as part of local tradition and I wondered why? […]
Here at $2.50+ a cup it's expensive and not an every day treat for most people. At work, unlike all other countries we’ve lived, there’s no decent coffee available – despite the fact that coffee is one of Jamaica’s most well-known exports. Therein lies the problem, as its famous coffee is exported for a very high price, very little Blue Mountain coffee is available locally, and what remains is just crazy expensive for most people. Add to that the threats from rust disease, hurricanes and the abandonment of coffee farms in recent years, which have further limited the availability and affordability of the drink…
So, here in Jamaica, I don’t really experience a coffee culture. (Making coffee in my kitchen doesn’t count.)


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In Uruguay, Where Abortion Is Legal, a Judge’s Ruling Grants a Man the Right to Stop a Woman’s Decision · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

A woman holds the sign exof the pro-legal abortion campaign in Montevideo in 2012. Photo by Érico Matos via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 2.0
A girl meets a guy. They have an on-and-off relationship for six months, until they mutually agree it’s not working anymore. It might sound like a common modern-day romance, except for the fact that not long after the girl finds out she is pregnant.
There's where things got complicated.
After considering her options and talking with her former partner, she decides not to continue with the pregnancy, but when she starts the process of interrupting it — something guaranteed by law in her country, Uruguay, until the 12th week of pregnancy — she finds out there's a legal complaint against her.
Her ex-partner wanted “to protect the life of his unborn child,” and with the help of a female judge, it was decided that “constitutionally” the fetus’ rights prevailed over the woman’s rights. The legal order came in a critical moment, when the 12-week period in which abortion is legal was about to close.
Shortly afterward, the woman — whose name has been kept anonymous — said she had a miscarriage. But the debates continue as certain media outlets and some people have cast doubt over the miscarriage (it's important to remember, however, that statistics show miscarriages are not a rare occurrence). For the woman, the fight will be now against the judge:
Me indigna porque su trabajo es hacer cumplir una ley que está vigente, que ya se debatió y que fue votada por los uruguayos.  […] Una decisión así te puede destrozar. Estas semanas fueron terribles, todo el mundo opinando sobre mi cuerpo. Una jueza me obligaba a tenerlo y encima a cargar con la culpa de que luego le dijeran a ese bebé: “Vos naciste porque una jueza lo ordenó, no porque tu madre te quisiera”.
I'm indignant because [the judge's] job is to make the current law be respected. A law that was debated and approved through vote by Uruguayans […] A decision like this one can destroy you. These weeks were awful. Everyone had an opinion on my body. A judge was forcing me to have [the baby] and on top of it all be blamed when someone would tell that baby: “You were born because of a judge's order, not because your mother wanted you.”
The case has Uruguay debating a father’s say in an abortion. Five years after the law that gave women the right to interrupt unwanted pregnancies was passed and signed by then President José Mujica, a legal decision had overruled it. “I’m feeling disrespected, as if your life or your decision, what happens to you, what you feel or how are you didn’t matter to anyone,” the women said in a TV interview for the news outlet Telenoche.
According to the Uruguayan news outlet El Pais, Pura Book Silva, the judge behind the decision that favored the man, justified her ruling by affirming that the “abortion law cannot be interpreted as a math operation” and that justice must intervene to defend “the rights of the child.” The judge also argued:
Toda persona tiene derecho a que se respete su vida. Este derecho estará protegido por la ley y, en general, a partir del momento de la concepción. Nadie puede ser privado de la vida arbitrariamente.
Every person has the right to have his or her life respected. This right will be protected by law and, in general, starting from the moment of conception. No one can be arbitrarily deprived of life.
The case has divided Uruguayans. A judge's ruling versus a constitutional law. A woman’s rights over her own body versus the rights of a fetus. It's important to note that the road towards legalization of abortion in Uruguay hasn't been smooth. The law was not approved unanimously by the Senat in 2012, and a year later, groups attempting to overturn decriminalisation pushed for a referendum that failed to gather popular support in the end.
A parents’ grassroots group, called “Everyone for Our Children,” celebrated the decision for not “giving into the pressure of certain social groups,” according to newspaper El Observador. One of the group’s representatives declared that this was also an issue of equality, pointing at the father's right to decide:
También le tenemos que dar la posibilidad al padre de tomar decisiones en esta problemática.
We also need to give the father the possibility to have a say in this matter.
Former Health Secretary Leonel Briozzo, who was responsible for promoting the law back in 2012, disagrees. He used his Twitter account to air his opinion:
•jueza ha cometido un error inexcusable: ha hecho prevalecer su concepción religiosa, ideológica y política, sobre la aplicación del derecho
— Leonel Briozzo (@LeoBriozzo) February 25, 2017
The judge has committed an inexcusable mistake: she has put her religious, ideological and political beliefs over the law's application
•ningún juez puede desaplicar una ley que ha probado beneficio y que no fue declarada inconstitucional intentando bloquea al equipo de salud
— Leonel Briozzo (@LeoBriozzo) February 25, 2017
No judge can halt a law that is proven to be beneficial and has not been declared unconstitutional, trying to block the work of healthcare workers.
However, the National Association of Magistrates from Uruguay fully supported the judge’s decision. According to El Observador, they justify their position by defending “the independence of the magistrature.” To the Association, all judges’ decisions are based on “facts aligned with the law.”
A study published in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics in 2016 showed Uruguay as the country with the lowest rate of maternal mortality in Latin America. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the country registers 14 deaths for every 100,000 children born alive. In 25 years, Uruguay has decreased the maternal mortality rates by 59.5%. Until 2005, abortions were responsible for 37.5% of these deaths.
The study, authored by Brazilian physician Anibal Faúndes, states that the main cause of mortality for pregnant women in the 1990s in Uruguay was unsafe abortions, caused by “hemorrhages and other complications.” In the first year of legalized abortion, 6,676 abortions were registered in Uruguay and only one death: the case of a woman who went to an underground provider to get help.
Several organizations working on the defense of women’s rights signed a manifesto against the judge’s ruling. The manifesto notes that Uruguay does not have a law ensuring “unborn children’s rights” and that “every obstacle put between women and their right to interrupt a pregnancy under the conditions foreseen by the law is a violation of their rights, for which the State is responsible.”
In her TV interview, the affected woman reflected:
Seguirán abriendo puertas a que la mujer no tenga más derecho a decidir por su propia vida (…) Volvemos a antes, a que las mujeres decidan con una cuchara o con una percha y morirse desangrada. Es un retroceso moral a la mujer de que no sos dueña de decidir por su vida, no sos dueña de decidir por tu cuerpo y la ley está pero no es aplicable para vos (…) ¿Por qué le pueden poner un abogado a un feto cuando ni siquiera ha nacido y ni siquiera es objeto de derecho?
They will continue [to find ways] so that women cannot have the right to decide over their own lives […] We’re back to how it was before, when women had to decide for themselves with a spoon and a hanger and die bleeding out. It’s a moral regression for women, for we are again not masters of our own bodies. There's a law, but it’s not applicable to you […] Why are they allowed to give a fetus its own lawyer, when it’s not yet born and it’s not even an object of rights?

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Reality and Homesickness Meet in Venezuelan Artist Leonardo Gonzalez’s Colorful and Troubling Work · Global Voices
Natali Herrera Pacheco

Lost Childhood (2016) by Venezuelan illustrator Leonardo González. It refers to youth besieged by gang violence in the urban areas of Venezuela. Image used with permission.
Leonadro González is a Venezuelan illustrator based in Berlin, Germany. His work is significant in the way it depicts the suffering of his own country, Venezuela, both from a foreign perspective and from his own point of view, seen from his new home in Europe.
Producer and writer César Elster has described his work as:
[…] a tropical-punk, realistic universe in which carefully written, beautifully drawn-yet-fucked-up characters constantly go through a wide range of gloomy emotions.
“We dreamed together in the light of the billboards. It was glorious. We arrived home to carry on playing…while I thought about our next drive. It's 1993, I'm 12, and I'm watching the billboards pass by on loop.” Illustration by Leonardo González, depicting the ‘Cota Mil’ road that crosses an important part of the city of Caracas.
For González, drawing characters inspired by reality is easier than explaining something using only words. Like many people that have left their countries, he lives in a half-way state between the land he has emigrated to and the past he has left behind; friends, families, the places he misses. When it comes to Venezuela, this sentimentality gives way to worry about the crisis the country is currently facing.
González's images are strong and challenging, inhabited by people that live with instability, nostalgia and a fragile happiness kept alive by paper and ink. González told Global Voices via email:
Ahora estoy creando sobre mi país porque me afecta personalmente y me duele que mi familia y amigos estén mas flacos que antes, literalmente [Dibujar] es lo mínimo que puedo hacer para darles ánimo. Mucha gente ha encontrado su voz en mis imágenes y [eso] me incita a seguir hablando por ellos.
I'm drawing my country now because it affects me personally, and it pains me that my family and friends are weaker than they were before. Drawing is the least I can do to give them strength. Lots of people have found their voices represented in my drawings, and this motivates me to keep speaking for them.
Illustration by Leonardo González evoking Venezuela's food crisis and the redistribution proposed by the state.
While each of González's drawings reflects a complex situation described by the artist in just one image, when we put them together as a series, we see the longer story they tell. This is demonstrated in Night Out (2015), which illustrates the impact that the attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris have on two young people in Barcelona, Spain.
When González's characters talk, they speak in the same way in Spanish as in English, as if for him there were no differences between one language and the other. Taken together, his stories and illustrations about Venezuela and the countries of Europe offer a window into the world as seen through his eyes.

author: Natali Herrera Pacheco


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With Key TV Station Takeover, Is Free Speech in Georgia at Stake? · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Rustavi2 staff members, supporters and prominent public figures, including Georgia’s first lady, Maka Chichua (left), gathered outside the studios of the television network on March 3. (Screenshot of Rustavi2 report).
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Giorgi Lomsadze. Republished with permission.
Journalists at Georgia’s last major opposition broadcasting company are digging in and refusing to comply with a court order altering the outlet’s ownership structure. Doing so, they say, would sound the death knell for independent media in the country.
Defiant supporters pitched tents outside the studios of the television channel Rustavi2, forming a human shield in front of the building in response to a March 2 Supreme Court decision to return ownership of the broadcaster to businessman Kibar Khalvashi. “We will continue our work and we are staying on the air,” said Rustavi2’s General Director Nika Gvaramia, who was flanked by the company’s news crews as he spoke.
The governing party, the Georgian Dream, has long criticized Rustavi2 as a hyperpartisan outlet, supportive of Georgia’s self-exiled ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili. But Rustavi2 also has been a must-watch for its critical coverage of the Georgian Dream’s performance. The station may now be headed toward a standoff with law enforcement officials, given that it has mobilized opposition political parties, civil society groups and prominent public figures to defy execution of the court verdict.
The Supreme Court on March 2 rejected the company’s appeal of an earlier verdict to reinstate Khalvashi as majority owner. The company and its supporters allege that the Georgian Dream party and its founder, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, influenced the Supreme Court’s decision in order to bring the recalcitrant channel to heel. Government officials deny meddling in the case, insisting that the ownership dispute is strictly commercial in nature.
However, Georgia’s leading human rights watchdogs and freedom of information advocacy groups joined forces in criticizing the Supreme Court’s judgment and earlier verdicts by lower courts, describing the decisions as legally dubious. “All three instances of judicial proceedings, as well as the final result, do not meet the requirement of independent court decision-making, and strengthen our doubts about the government’s crude interference,” several of Georgia’s most prominent civil society groups, including Transparency International Georgia, said in a joint statement.
The United States Embassy in Tbilisi said that it “views with concern” the Supreme Court’s decision that “could effectively limit the access to opposition voices to Georgian broadcast media.” Similar concerns were voiced by international media freedom watchdogs – like Freedom House.
Rustav2’s chief, Gvaramia, said that he and his staff are eager to buy the company back from Khalvashi – an offer the businessman was quick to decline. He said such a buyout could land the station back in the hands of self-exiled ex-president Mikhail (Misha) Saakashvili. “So long as there is a Misha menace, I am not selling the TV company,” Khalvashi said.
The businessman claims that he was improperly strong-armed by then-president Saakashvili to relinquish his majority stake in Rustavi2 in 2006. Gvaramia served as a minister of justice and, later, headed the Education Ministry during Saakashvili’s administration. Leaked phone conversations last year suggested that Gvaramia and Saakashvili maintain close contact, including engaging in strategy sessions to stave off what they describe as a government takeover of Rustavi2.
Many media analysts charge that the court decision could mark the final act in an assiduous campaign carried out by the Georgian Dream to neutralize mass media’s watchdog function. Initially, during the early days of its rule, the Georgian Dream was credited with breaking the Saakashvili-era government’s control of the national airwaves, which were at that time dominated by three news channels: Rustavi2, Imedi and Public TV. But observers say that the Georgian Dream later carried out its own takeover of television news broadcasts, via which the vast majority of Georgians obtain information about the doings of the government.
“We have seen the [Georgian Dream] government slowly but surely moving to usurp the media space, focusing primarily on television,” said Nino Danelia, a media studies professor at Tbilisi-based Ilia Chavchavadze University.
Imedi TV dropped two major current-affairs talk shows in 2015 amid claims of government pressure. The network moved to absorb a small, mostly free-wheeling station, Maestro, and then merged with GDS, a station owned by billionaire Ivanishvili’s son, Bera. Imedi TV now leans toward celebrity gossip and infotainment, and is largely government-friendly. In February, Public TV announced controversial plans to suspend political talk shows citing the need to upgrade both the equipment and content.
Rustavi2 has been seen as the last holdout operating beyond the influence of Georgian Dream officials. One opposition group, the Republican Party, went so as far as to warn in a March 3 statement that the court ruling on Rustavi2 marks a pivotal moment in Georgia’s post-Soviet experience, in which a pluralistic system is giving way to the “formation of an authoritarian regime.”
“The Georgian Dream already has full control of other democratic institutions, like the executive government, the parliament and, as we’ve seen, the judiciary, so full submission of the news media is its goal now,” Danelia said.
The Georgian Dream and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili refuted those allegations and called for the court’s decision to be respected. The government will “spare no efforts to protect the freedom of the media in the country,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The dispute over Rustavi2’s ownership dates back to the Saakashvili era, when the company went through byzantine, reportedly government-orchestrated, ownership changes. Founded in 1994 in the town of Rustavi, about a 20-minute drive outside of Tbilisi, Rustavi2 gained popularity for broadcasting exposes on corruption and stagnation during the administration of the late president, Eduard Shevardnadze. Eventually becoming the nation’s most watched news channel, Rustavi2 played an instrumental role in catalyzing the Rose Revolution, which brought Saakashvili to power.
Two of the company’s original founders, entrepreneurs Davit Dvali and Jarji Akimidze, claimed they were robbed of the station by the Saakashvili government in 2004. Khalvashi was then seen as one of the government’s many hand-picked favorites to take over Rustavi2, but he too was allegedly forced to sell his stake under duress after a falling-out with the government.
Khalvashi and the two original founders became unlikely allies in the current ownership dispute, with the businessman promising to give half of his shares to Dvali and Akimidze should the court reinstate him as the channel’s majority owner. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, though, Khalvashi appeared to back away from that promise.
With the court decision in place, many media observers and opposition leaders are painting a dark future for free speech in Georgia. Gvaramia said that what was ultimately at stake was “whether free speech will exist in Georgia, whether democracy will have a chance in Georgia, [and] whether Georgia will become a part of the Euro-Atlantic space.”
Other observers remain guardedly optimistic that the government will be unable to control the flow of information. “No Georgian government has won a battle with the media,” said Danelia, the media studies professor. “It may take a long time, but ultimately the government will lose.

author: Eurasianet


text:
Hong Kong’s Worker News Wins Award for Series Debunking Myths About Refugees · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

World Refugee Day 2016. Photo from Worker News.
A series of news features by Worker News debunking the idea that asylum seekers arriving in Hong Kong are “fake refugees” won the Best Journalism Award in the 2016 E-Citizen Awards organized by civic groups inmediahk.net and the Culture and Media Education Foundation to promote original reporting, political cartoons, video documentary and photography online.
Below is an interview with Worker News’ volunteer reporters conducted by Betty Lau and published on inmediahk.net on December 16, 2016. The English version is published on Global Voices as a part of partnership agreement.
Inspired by a Facebook page that recorded the 40-day strike by Hong Kong dock workers in 2013, a number of supporters of the strike decided to start a news site that gives a platform to ordinary people. Worker News, as it was called, was then launched in August 2013.
The news site is maintained by half a dozen volunteers. Most of them have full-time jobs, and they decided in July 2015 to donate one-tenth of their income to hire part-time staff for the site’s editorial work.
In addition to reporting on local labour conditions, they also translate news related to workers’ rights from other parts of the world.
The work that won them an E-Citizen Award is a series of five stories taking to task the idea, pushed by local politicians and media outlets, that asylum seekers arriving in Hong Kong are “fake refugees.”
The first story is about the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung threatened to quit the convention to stop “fake refugees” from entering Hong Kong last year. In response, Worker News reporters interviewed human rights organizations to point out that doing so would mean that Hong Kong's government would not be obliged to set up an independent committee to investigate police abuse of power.
The second story explains the decade long court dispute on Hong Kong government's failure in setting up a fair torture claimant system for screening asylum seekers. The legal dispute has resulted in the suspension of screening torture claimant application in December 2009. As a result, 6699 asylum seekers were stuck in Hong Kong awaiting for a new screening mechanism. Only by February 2014, the Hong Kong government launched an unified screening mechanism to process  torture claimant. The accumulative number of torture claims had reached 11364.
The third article debunks three false claims spread by local mainstream media and politicians about refugees — first, that they are fake; second, that they come to Hong Kong to enjoy a free meal; and third, that they are criminals.
The fourth article collects the numerous false claims, stereotypes and discriminatory remarks about asylum seekers and refugees by local mainstream media and pro-Beijing politicians.
The last piece is a story about a woman asylum seeker coming from Jos, a city in Nigeria. As a Christian, she said she had became a likely target of attack by Muslim militants in the region. Her plan was to travel to Canada for asylum, but she was held up in Hong Kong by immigration authorities. She has been stuck in Hong Kong now for six years with her three kids.
Tam Kong explained why they decided to follow the story:
近年在香港，只要是外來人口就有原罪。一講他是難民，背後就有一大堆假設：他是來免費食我們的糧食、搞亂香港、污糟、沒有文化……全部都在未經證實的情況下散播… 當政黨和媒體挪用這些虛假印象去獲取利益，惟工的責任就是還原事實。
In recent years, Hong Kong society has developed very strong prejudice against people coming from other countries. If the person is a refugee, people assume that they are dirty and uncultured, they are here to enjoy free food, bring trouble… all these groundless prejudices keep spreading around. When the political parties and media use such false narratives to score political points, it is our responsibility to present a more genuine picture to the public.
Two members of the Worker News editorial team devoted themselves to reviewing Hong Kong's refugee system and history, and they used infographics to help readers understand the issue better:
香港的歷史，就是難民進進出出的歷史。香港人口有一大部份是內地移民，同時也有很多香港人，由於害怕政治不穩而移居別國…在某些情況下，那些人要以政府不容許的方法來到香港，而有些人用政府容許的方法離開香港，去到其他地方，但其實背後的邏輯很相似，就是要逃避不穩定，到一個比較安穩的地方，繼續生活。
Refugees have been coming in and out of Hong Kong throughout history. A big portion of Hong Kong’s population is from mainland China. Many Hong Kongers have been forced to migrate to other countries to escape from political instability [three waves of massive emigration took place after Deng Xiao Ping's announcement of China’s plan to reunify with Hong Kong in 1981, the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 and before the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997]… the motivations of people who escape to Hong Kong through illegal channel sand Hong Kongers emigrating to other countries through proper channels are similar. They just want to carry on living in a stable environment.
Sustainability is a challenge when it comes to a news site. Ah Fei, another member from the editorial team, said:
搞網媒其實不是門檻低的事。現在新的網媒興起，基本上是紙媒那種資本競爭的延伸。你沒錢賣廣告，沒有資源涵蓋更多議題，就會令收視跌。
Running an online media is not as easy as people imagine. The rules of the game are similar to conventional media. If you don’t have the resources to promote the platform and produce enough stories, the outlets will end up with very few visits.
What drives Worker News contributors to carry on with their work is not the number of page views, but the mission to build a grassroots community where workers can learn about and be inspired by one another. To do so, they have been building up a distribution network among labour union organizers and NGOs to channel their news stories to workers and other ordinary people.


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In Kyrgyzstan, Gender Discrimination and Violence Get a Boost from Popular Culture · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

A screenshot from an episode of the show ‘Kelin’ broadcast on Kyrgyzstan's state broadcaster KTR.
To someone that has never been bride-kidnapped or doesn't know that the practice often entails rape and other forms of violence against the non-consenting “bride”, a recent advert promoting the services of a construction company in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan might appear funny.
In the commercial, Eldana Satybaldieva, better known as Eldana Foureyes and the Central Asian country's most popular Instagrammer, is blindfolded by men and driven off in an unknown direction.
Initially, Eldana resists the kidnapping attempt and threatens to have her assailants jailed. But when she reaches the kidnappers’ family apartment, an “elitka”, or elite block of flats built by the Cap Stroy KG firm, she comes to the conclusion that she has married fairly well after all.
The shock advert has proved a hit with many in a country where the latest available research suggests up to a third of Kyrgyz marriages begin without the bride's consent.
But it has also disappointed large swathes of Eldana's traditional fanbase, who delight in her geeky, light-hearted, one-to-two minute sketches focussed on everyday life as a young person living in Kyrgyzstan.
Теперь Эльдана #келинка ?? и живёт в #элитке  @eldana_foureyes  Подписывайтесь на  @capstroy.kg  @capstroy.kg
A post shared by •ТВОЙ БИШКЕК• (@all_in_kg) on
Feminist Nurgul Asylbekova echoed this sense of disappointment when she wrote on Facebook:
Уже написала под роликом на стене заказчиков, что возможно у них не было умысла пропагандировать наше позорное явление ала-качуу, благодаря которому мы прославились как страна, в которой нет верховенства закона и у женщин нет базового права выбора брачного партнёра. Но это лишний раз показывает, что насилие над женщиной является культурной нормой и ни автор, ни актеры, ни заказчики, ни аудитория даже не замечает унизительного и дискриминационного сообщения, которое несёт ролик.
As I noted on the [Facebook] wall of the company that commissioned the advert, it is possible that they did not wish to propagate the disgraceful fashion of ala-kachuu (bride kidnapping) for which we have become famed as a country in which there is no rule of law and in which women do not have the basic right to choose their marriage partner. But it proves once again that violence against women is a cultural norm here, and neither the producer, nor the actors, nor the commissioners, nor the audience, have taken into account the humiliating and discriminatory nature of the message the advert purveys.
The advert might not have caused so much uproar had it not emerged a month after a television show, Kelin, began airing on the country's main state channel, sparking similar fury.
Kelin, which translates as ‘bride’ from the Kyrgyz, is a reality show in which girls from different backgrounds compete for the favour of an actress playing the part of a traditional mother-in-law, by engaging in tasks that range from ordinary domestic chores to more subservient ones such as foot rubs.
Bektour Iskender, the founder of the youth media organisation Kloop.kg wrote of the programme:
Kelin is yet another masterpiece from Kyrgyzstan’s public broadcaster.
For those that do not speak Kyrgyz, the word refers to the bride, the son’s wife. That is the official translation of the word.
The unofficial translation is, basically, slave — the lowest rung in the family hierarchy — workhorse, servant, a person often regarded as barely human and that can be readily ignored.
The Kelin reality show is really quite revolting. I know what I am talking about as I watched the first episode attentively (as much as was possible anyway), and I even compiled a blow-by-blow account that you can read here (in Russian).
This show is nothing more than a bunch of offensive clichés. The women featured in the show compete in a series of tasks that have been performed by unpaid servants (AKA kelinki) over the centuries in Central Asian households.
And this all unfolds to the accompaniment of psychological intimidation from the actress playing the role of the “capricious mother-in-law.” (ugh!)
I do not have the words to tell you how objectionable I find this show, which is paid for out of my taxes, and how unsuitable it is for airing in the prime-time slot.
One contestant apologized to the mother-in-law for serving cold tea and offered to pour her a fresh cup, (which the in-law later complained had something floating in it.)
In fact, feminists have argued, the dynamic between the faux mother-in-law and the contestants as represented on Kelin is just a superficial caricature of a harsher reality.
Many Kyrgyz women, and particularly those who were bride-kidnapped, suffer physical and psychological abuse at the hands of in-laws far worse than anything seen on the show.
Bride-kidnapping, in turn, is a crime in Kyrgyzstan that is very rarely punished with either fines or jail terms. While apologists for the crime and foreign commentators often cite it as a national “tradition” scholars that have studied its history claim that is not the case.
In the past, they note, incidents of bride kidnapping in nomadic Kyrgyz society did occur, but less regularly, and were treated as taboo acts that could spark blood feuds between families.
Feminists fear that such violence against women in modern-day Kyrgyzstan — apparently with a ringing endorsement from popular culture — has become normalised.
Below is a video showing an episode of the Kelin show, shared on the state broadcaster's official YouTube channel:

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
India Bans Two Movies For ‘Being Too Lady-Oriented’ and ‘Glorifying Homosexuality’ · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from YouTube
In India, films on sexuality and feminism continue to fall under the axe of the censor board. In recent times, two movies failed to get permission for screening, which created a lot of debate across the country.
Although the Constitution of India guarantees freedom of expression, it places certain restrictions on content, in order to protect communal and religious harmony and control obscenity. The regulatory film body of India is the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which is usually harsh on film content, especially sex, nudity, violence or any other subjects that may be considered politically subversive.
India is one of the largest and oldest producers of films in the world. Around 1,600 films in various languages of India are produced annually in industries nicknamed as Bollywood,  Tollywood etc. But the industries are fighting irrational censorship on some films which cross the moral boundary, according to the the CBFC. Often, the interpretation of the 1952 cinematography law is vague and the board can ask for multiple cuts and edits in certain films. They had requested, for instance, that the word “lesbian” be muted in the romantic comedy “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”, and asked the filmmakers behind “Udta Punjab”, a film about drug abuse, to make 94 cuts, including the removal of expletives, references to cities in Punjab and any shots of drugs being consumed. The Udta Punjab team challenged the decision in court and the film was finally released with just one cut when the court ruled in its favor.
In January 2017, the Central Board of Film Certification denied a theatrical release to Alankrita Shrivastava’s film about female empowerment, “Lipstick Under My Burkha”. The story is about the secret lives of four women of different ages in small town India and their desire for independence — all while they explore their sexuality.
According to the letter from the board to the producer, national award-winning filmmaker Prakash Jha, “The story is lady oriented, their fantasy above life. There are contanious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused”.
Thank you for all your support for #LipstickUnderMyBurkha against this ridiculous regressiveness. We won't be silenced. #CensorTheCensors pic.twitter.com/sBSSbx5FRy
— ? Under My Burkha (@LipstickMovie) February 23, 2017
The film has already been screened abroad and did well in international festivals. In 2016, the film won the Spirit of Asia award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Oxfam award for Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival. In 2017, it received the Glasgow Film Festival Audience Award.
On social media, some netizens expressed discontent that the movie did not get support from other Indian filmmakers regarding the ban:
Here is the list of Indian film makers who came out in support of the movie, "Lipstick Under My Burkha"
1.
2.
3.
4.
— Professor (@BeerOholic) February 28, 2017
The movie Lipstick Under My Burkha explores sexual fantasies of women. Of course how can we release it knowing how women are potted shrubs.
— Aparna (@FuschiaScribe) February 23, 2017
Others found it too feminist:
I really don't get the 'lipstick under my burka' and 'free the nipple' kind of feminism
— ZohwaKarim (@ZohwaKarim) October 16, 2016
The director, Alankrita Shrivastava, vowed to fight for release of the movie in India:
'I will not shut up. And I will continue to make “lady-oriented” films as long as I can.' #lipstickundermyburkha https://t.co/YH07SbxLtP
— Karuna Nundy (@karunanundy) March 1, 2017
Here is a trailer of the movie:
Another film which was refused by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) was the Malayalam film “Ka Bodyscapes”. On Facebook, filmmaker Jayan Cherian shared the letter he received from the CBFC on March 2, 2017: the film was refused certification for “glorifying the subject of gay and homosexual relationships”. Cherian can appeal before the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal in 30 days.
The CBFC has, so far, reviewed the movie three times, the last by a second Revising Committee. It was initially rejected in July 2016, on the grounds that it has “vulgar and offensive scenes” and it “humiliated the Hindu religion”, accusations which the filmmakers challenged via a writ petition. In a judgement passed in last December by the High Court, Justice PB Sureshkumar had ruled for the film, mentioning that mere references to homosexuality and masturbation of women may not amount to obscenity or vulgarity.
The movie is set in Kerala, India, and the story is about three friends — including a gay couple — who struggle to get their lives going in a community filled with misogyny and homophobia. The traditions and the taboos in their society hinder their search for freedom.
The Indian Penal Code‘s Section 377, which dates back to a British colonial law from 1860, criminalises all forms of “unnatural sex”, with a provision for punishment that could go up to life in prison. However, the Indian censor board has given the nod to several commercial movies like Dostana, Kya Kool Hai Hum and Masti, which have blatant sexual content, objectify women and make explicit references to homosexuality.
The feature film has already been screened at a number of international film festivals and has gained accolades. The filmmaker, Jayan, insists that:
According to the Cinematograph Act, a film can only be banned if it compromises on national security. What security is a romantic film on a gay couple compromising? This is plain cultural fascism by an authoritative state.
He amassed a lot of support on Twitter:
India's CBFC Is Murdering Creative Expression, Says ‘Ka Bodyscapes’ Director https://t.co/lmTrX0gomO
— BenzinNv (@NouriNv) March 4, 2017
Ka Bodyscapes director Jayan K Cherian: CBFC is colonial board of film certification… https://t.co/ZMxv4HR279 #news
— malik khan (@being_malik) March 4, 2017
Certification Denial to #KAbodyscapes is another assault on freedom of Speech&Expression.CBFC must be abolished&CinematographicAct repealed
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) March 3, 2017
#FTII head supports #KaBodyscapes ban by #CBFC head. Govt must believe that art transforms society-why else would they put bigots in charge?
— Apurva Asrani (@Apurvasrani) March 4, 2017
There were adverse reactions about the film too:
#IFFK2016 Naked Lord Hanuman with erect phallus in #Kabodyscapes is CREATIVE LIBERTY!
Reaction of Abrahamic religions if it was their God? pic.twitter.com/7H4JwWixS0
— Atul Subramanian (@SubramanianAtul) December 17, 2016
Recently, the board censored India's screening of “Moonlight”, the winner of three Academy Awards this year, including the Oscar for Best Picture. The censor muted some swear words, ordered removal of a sex scene and a same-sex kiss. This practice of censorship frustrates many Indian movie lovers:
Seriously, what do we have to do to make sure Lipstick Under My Burkha and Ka Bodyscapes get released?
— Anuya (@anuyeaah) March 3, 2017
People are protesting and debating the censorship issue, both online and offline. Meanwhile, as Indian society becomes more open, Bollywood filmmakers are becoming braver and bolder with the cinematic themes they choose to explore — so in the future, we may see fiercer battles with the censor board, unless the age-old laws and acts are revised and updated.

author: Rezwan


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Japanese Art Lovers, New York’s Metropolitan Museum Has 300,000 Gifts for You · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Utagawa Hiroshige, “Picture of the Theatres in Sakai Cho (猿若町芝居の図).” Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, known to locals simply as “the Met,” has released more than 300,000 images of artworks and other cultural artifacts in its collection into the public domain, available for unrestricted use. We at Global Voices wrote about it last month.
According to the Met:
On February 7, 2017, The Metropolitan Museum of Art implemented a new policy known as Open Access, which makes images of artworks it believes to be in the public domain widely and freely available for unrestricted use, and at no cost, in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation.
Anyone can use the artwork for any purpose, as long as they credit the original donors of the artwork, as well as the Met itself.
The Met's collection includes vast amounts of public-domain images of Japanese art. To find exactly what you want, you can search by the name of the artist, such as woodblock print maker Utagawa Hiroshige.
The easiest way to see the collection, however, is to browse according to object type, date, and era.
For example, the collection includes images of Japanese pottery, ceramics, and sculpture from at least the past 2,000 years, including this sculpture that dates to the 5th century.
“Haniwa Hollow Clay Sculpture of a Boar with Bound Feet (埴輪猪像).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975.
This “haniwa” sculpture of a warrior in armor dates from about the same time.
“埴輪武装男子像
Haniwa (Hollow Clay Sculpture) of a Warrior.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
The collection contains many treasures, such as this relief dating back 1,300 years to Japan's Asuka Period, when Buddhism was first adopted in the country.
“Relief tile with Buddhist triad, second half of the 7th century. Japan, Asuka period (538–710).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015.
There are examples of sculpture from just about every period in Japanese history. These statues of six of the twelve “heavenly generals” (Jūni shinshō, 十二神将) exemplify the baroque, highly-detailed style typical of Japan's Kamakura Period in the 14th century.
“Six of the Twelve Divine Generals (Jūni shinshō, 十二神将の内).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015.
The collection also features examples of Japanese scrolls, such as this ink mandala with Rāgarāja as its central figure, dating from the 11th century during Japan's Heian Period.
“Aizen Mandala (愛染曼荼羅).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015.
There are also plenty of unique, idiosyncratic pieces in the collection. This is a portable shrine dating from 1620 during Japan's Edo Period. The shrine is intended to transport a statue of a horse-headed (Batō) Kannon.
“Portable Shrine with the Horse-Headed Kannon (厨子入馬頭漢音坐像).” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Friends of Far Eastern Art Gifts, 1985
The collection also includes more recent artwork, including art from Japan's Meiji Period, which roughly coincided with the Victorian Era in the West. The triptych depicts a scene from the Russo-Japanese War.
“A scene of Sino-Japan war, The Splendid Deed of the Brave Soldier Shirakami.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959.
This cloth-baby carrier is part of the Met's Japanese textiles collection, and dates from the Taisho Era during and following World War One:
“Baby Carrier, Taishō period (1912–26).” Metropolitan Museum of Art, Funds from various donors, 1981.
The collection includes images of Japanese calligraphy, including this scroll by Seigan Soi, who lived from 1588 to 1661, during the Edo Period.
“清巌宗渭 地獄, Hell.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, in honor of Setsu Isao, 2014.

author: Nevin Thompson


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‘There Is a Sense of Hopelessness Among Young People’ in Jamaica · Global Voices
Afifa Aza

A group of young Jamaicans from the Tivoli Gardens community observe the goings-on in their community during Jamaica's state of emergency in 2010; more than 70 civilians were reportedly killed by state authorities. Photo by BBW World Service, CC BY-NC 2.0.
In the last quarter of 2016, an average of 100 people were dying every month in Jamaica as a result of violent crime. As the country's homicide rate continues to rise, the lives of young Jamaicans are coming into sharper focus. In October 2016, 14-year-old Nicholas Francis, on his way home from school, was  stabbed to death on a public passenger bus by a man trying to steal his phone. In January 2017, the body of a 13-year-old was found in a pile of rubbish with gunshot wounds to the head; the following week, the body of  15-year-old Shineka Grey was found bearing multiple stab wounds.
Two men have since been charged with the murders of Francis and Grey, but there have been no arrests in connection with the murder of the 13-year-old boy. Further complicating the aggressive landscape that many Jamaican youth face is the high incidence of domestic violence, which accounts for 30% of violent deaths in Jamaica.
To get a sense of how young people are grappling with this new reality, Global Voices spoke with Marcia and CJ (surnames withheld), who regularly counsel youngsters from disenfranchised communities, and asked them to share their insights into how Jamaican youth are being affected by the news, and are experiencing life as a result. Marcia grew up in the Mona Commons community in Kingston; she still lives there and acts as a mentor for many of the youth in the community. CJ works in the district of Clarendon at a government youth center.
Global Voices (GV): Marcia, how do you feel young people in your community have been affected by the news of other young people being murdered?
Marcia (M): It is always a tragedy to lose our young people violently; to me [this has been going on] for a while. Because of social media and the way information can be shared now, it is highlighting the magnitude of a problem that has been affecting Jamaica for many years.
There is a sense of hopelessness among young people. I don’t know [the background of] the death of the young man…but at 13 years old that is another life lost that could have been better, had there been other measures, other programmes put in place.
Jamaican parents [of] this generation don’t put a lot of effort into monitoring their children. The children are open to too much…I remember when I was growing up, certain times you had to be home from school. We didn’t have any internet, so we weren’t used to meeting strangers and just doing whatever we wanted. It can be a case where the parents do not care; they are out partying or busy living their life. Or it might be another situation where the parent has to be working so hard that there is no one left at home to monitor these children, so there are a lot of factors. It is really crazy: all the deaths; all the young people going missing.
GV: CJ, how are the young people you work with responding to the news of the murder of young people in Jamaica? What in your view is the reality for youth in Clarendon?
CJ (CJ): Since Shanika Grey's death, when you try to [have] conversations [about the situation], it's like, ‘Yow, Miss…that is why mi a try listen to me mother and don’t take no strange taxi.’
In terms of […] the things I see that I would say put youth at risk, I have young persons who do not have any family support. Some of them have mother and father living at the house, but the most common thing I hear them saying is that they feel unsupported. They don’t really feel like they can talk to their parents about certain things — and when they try to talk, the parents don’t really understand. They try to push down their views on them. Sometimes, because they don’t have the support at home, young people go to friends, or sometimes they talk to adults where they feel like they're comfortable with you and they just talk anything around you.
I have to [establish] a lot of boundaries with some of the young people, because you don’t want them to get too attached to you for all the wrong reasons. They don’t feel like their dreams are being supported. I have young people who are bright and their parents say, ‘You decide to take up college […] you have to find a man to help you out with that’ — so sometimes they end up in a ‘situationship’ as I call it.
Either they sit down and ‘boops’ out man to get money or [they find themselves] in a relationship with somebody and get abused. Sometimes they have several different men, and sometimes the young people who have the support they feel like they are [being coddled] so they want to go out there and experience things — and they are the ones who run out to go and stay at a friend's house because they know that their parents will not agree with the things that they want to get up to. This makes them vulnerable as well.
GV: Marcia, what in your experience is young people's greatest challenge?
M: Look at the young man that was killed on the bus — the man that killed him came from my area — he is just another troubled youngster with no real hope. His mother didn’t have [money] to send him to school so he turned ‘a cruff’ on the streets. Because of a lack of opportunities, he turned to violence and weed.
Right now, I am losing most of my young people to the ‘hand middle’ [Jamaican slang for ‘palm’]. It's just the weed in the hand on the corner — and if you follow the trend, the weed in the ‘hand middle’ on the corner goes on to the guns. Another thing I hear them with is that ‘prison is just a place’ — that is the mentality [they] have based on what is happening among young people.
GV: How are they coping?
M: They don’t want to go anywhere; they don’t want to do anything — it's just fear. They are not really talking much. All [the girls] are taking precautions. I remember one of them came to me and said she needed US$600 to get a tazer gun so that she can defend herself. The others are literally scared and they are quiet, so they cling more to their parents. As it relates to the boys, they are in their own little world right now where it is just kill or be killed. That is how they are viewing it. I don’t see any changes in them as in, ‘No, I'm not going to do this or I'm not going to do that.’ The guys are in a revenge kind of mode and the girls are pretty scared.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information has been sending grief counselors to schools to help both students and staff cope emotionally after violent or traumatic events involving members of their school community. Several state agencies have also been working to support children and young people in Jamaica. Quite apart from being a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the country also adopted a National Youth Policy to help young people achieve their full potential by affording them opportunities to develop, participate and contribute to a peaceful prosperous and caring society.
The two most recent initiatives which have been launched in response to the threats which children in Jamaica face have come from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, which aims to “reinforce the collective responsibility towards every Jamaican child”, and the Office of the Children's Advocate, which began a public awareness campaign called “Aria's Story”. It's an online, animated mini-series that is being rolled out across various social media platforms, and highlights the various types of abuse that children experience in an effort to provide victims with information and support.
It will take time to see how these initiatives will improve the reality that Jamaican youth face. Even with the many support services and pieces of legislation designed to protect the country's young people, questions abound about their effectiveness and capacity create safe, nurturing environments for children.
In part two of this series, we will get ask young people themselves how they feel about what is happening around them — and how they think things can be different.

author: Afifa Aza


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US Immigration Raid Alerts Are Coming Soon to Smartphones · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

‘RedadAlertas’, an app that tells you where there are raids against immigrants. Credit: Courtesy Conexión Migrante
This story by David Leveille originally appeared on PRI.org on February 28, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
No abra la puerta! Don't open the door!
That may be the No. 1 piece of advice activists have for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, many of whom fear possible deportation. If the authorities come knocking without a proper warrant, US residents have a right not to open the door.
Advance notice of when an immigration raid on a workplace is about to go down certainly helps, too.
Now there's an app for that, focused on serving Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants. It's called “RedadAlertas” — or RaidAlerts.
“Well, it doesn't work yet. It’s still in development,” says Arizona-based software developer Celso Mireles. “But the way it would work, right now, is we want people to be able to sign up for alerts about raids near them and another group of people that will serve to report and verify the alerts.”
Mireles is part of a team of open-source developers, technology activists and volunteers who are creating the crowdsourcing app.
The RedadAlertas project came out of discussions over the years among people involved in immigrant rights work. “We were brainstorming about how technology can help the undocumented community and this is one of those ideas that was born out of that conversation,” says Mireles.
The app focuses on identifying immigration checkpoints and possible workplace raids. And Mireles is anticipating that those kinds of raids will be happening more often.
Among President Donald Trump's executive orders from January calls for the hiring of 10,000 more immigration officials. At least one White House draft memo, obtained and publicly released by the Associated Press, showed the Department of Homeland Security considered deploying 100,000 National Guard troops to apprehend millions of undocumented immigrants in 11 US states. (The White House denied the report.) That kind of strategy would likely include raids on workplaces such as factories and farms that employ migrant workers, and sweeps of locations where day laborers meet up. It could also include traffic stops in which drivers are required to show a license and identification to pass. Mireles believes it is possible that immigration agents could conduct “blanket raids by walking neighborhoods.”
“It's unprecedented now but I think there are a lot of unprecedented things happening,” he says. “So this is really preparation for a much higher escalation of oppression of undocumented immigrants in the United States.”
Which is not to say Mireles is trying to make people afraid. He wants the information in the app to do the opposite. It will not, for example, alert people to individual home raids, where immigration agents arrive on doorsteps. That would not be helpful, he says, and “would probably only serve to increase the fear in the community which is what this app is just trying to quell.”
There may also be a legal risk incurred by developing software tools that allow undocumented immigrants to evade the law or impede law enforcement efforts. But so far, Mireles says the developers haven't received complaints.
“Nobody from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has contacted me and there are volunteer lawyers involved right now with the legal expertise in terms of privacy concerns and the legalities so I think we are well within the means of the law,” he says.
Users are already anxious to download the app, Mireles says. Some have suggested that the raid alerts should be available in languages besides Spanish, to be useful to as many immigrants as possible. About 13 percent of undocumented immigrants come from countries in Asia, according to estimates by the Migration Policy Institute. RedadAlertas is inviting volunteer translators to help expand access. It's also open-source software.
“Technology is advancing very quickly, and I'm interested in bringing that type of energy to the immigrant rights movement. We hear a lot of things like, ‘Well, you know, undocumented immigrants are loathe to adopt technology,’ and, ‘We need to think about accessibility.’ While some of that may be true, there are also studies that show, for example, that the Latino market is one of the early adopters,” he says.
“Of course we already see law enforcement using technology like a stingray to disable communications at peaceful protests,” says Mireles. But activists are accustomed to adapting. “I think we're trying to be aware of that as developers and just try to architect the tools so that it doesn't compromise and doesn't just create a nice tempting target for the government to infiltrate.”


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A 3-Year-Old Girl Is Reportedly Dying in Russia Because Her Mom Doesn’t Believe in AIDS · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Pixabay
About 1,300 miles east of Moscow, in the city of Tyumen, a three-year-old girl is reportedly dying of AIDS. Unfortunately for the child, her mother, Yulia Yakovleva, denies the existence of the human immunodeficiency virus, and believes instead that her daughter’s illness is the result of complications from a vaccination for hepatitis B.
For that reason, the girl has received no antiretroviral therapy, and her life is now in serious danger.
On March 2, Yakovleva appealed anonymously on Vkontakte to a group of HIV-deniers, asking for help. She described herself as a woman diagnosed with HIV who’s never accepted any medical treatment for the condition.
Yakovleva said she gave birth to a daughter three years ago. After about 18 months, the child became ill and suddenly “stopped growing.” Today, “she doesn’t sit up and she doesn’t move,” Yakovleva wrote.
Last month, her daughter was reportedly hospitalized with anemia and malnutrition. Doctors diagnosed her with several conditions: lung damage, a fungal infection, Epstein–Barr virus, and carditis — all signs of advanced HIV infection.
Yakovleva said she later allowed the doctors to test her daughter for HIV, “so they’d stop nagging,” and the test came back positive.
Nevertheless, Yakovleva says she is sticking to osteopathy and homeopathic remedies. For help, she’s even turned to Olga Kovekh, an infamous HIV-denier who poses as a “doctor therapist.” In Kovekh’s opinion, the three-year-old girl’s immunity and nervous system were “damaged” by antibiotics once prescribed by doctors and by a hepatitis inoculation.
No longer writing anonymously, Yakovleva thanked Kovekh for sharing her expertise.
“HIV/AIDS Dissidents and Their Children,” a Vkontakte group that tracks people who deny the existence of HIV and AIDS, first drew attention to Yakovleva’s story, reaching out to her in a direct message, warning her against trusting Kovekh’s advice.
Yakovleva didn’t appreciate the message, however, and asked not to be bothered again.
In Russia, deliberately refusing life-saving treatment to a child with a chronic illness is grounds for seizing custody.
According to Elena Orlova-Morozova, a senior physician at Russia’s Center Against AIDS, HIV-deniers with children are aware that they might be breaking the law, and they often take steps to avoid the authorities’ attention, either by staying away from HIV centers or by taking the antiretroviral medication from doctors, without ever giving it to their children.
“We had one case where the parents took their child and fled to Ukraine, after we alerted social services,” Orlova-Morozova told the news site Znak.com.
According to the group “HIV/AIDS Dissidents and Their Children,” at least 60 minors in Russia have died in the past several years thanks to untreated HIV infections. Thirteen of those deaths were children under the age of ten, the group says.
The nonprofit “AIDS.Center” — an organization launched last year by journalist Anton Krasovsky — has appealed to Anna Kuznetsova, Russia’s commissioner for children's rights, asking her office to investigate Yakovleva’s case.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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France Sees Sharp Rise in Blocked and De-Listed Websites · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

“Connected in the Developing World” connectivity map by Big Thinking Applied. Labeled for reuse.
Authorities in France ordered 834 websites to be blocked and 1,929 to be delisted from internet searches in 2016. Targeting more than 2,700 websites in total, the actions are intended to fight “child pornography and terrorist content.” These figures have more than doubled compared with the previous year's results.
There is no indication that this rise is due to either a greater police vigilance or an increase in the number of such websites.
Rather, the situation has changed since a decree on February 5, 2015, which implemented the law passed on November 13, 2014. Intended to “strengthen measures for the fight against terrorism,” the law was fully adopted after the attacks in Paris in Saint-Denis, and after photos from inside the Bataclan theatre were uploaded to Facebook during the massacre. Under the law, authorities can now order the blocking of sites which “incite or sympathise with terrorism” without the approval of a judge. In addition, social networking sites such as Facebook can be told to withdraw content.
The official data for 2016 were shared by French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux at the 9th International Cybersecurity Conference in Lille, France on January 24-25, 2017.According to a report published in April 2016 by the CNIL, the official French data protection body, 312 sites were blocked and 855 delisted in the year from March 2015 to February 2016, amounting to a total of 1,167 websites.
Of the blocked sites, 68 pertained to terrorist content and 244 to child pornography. Further, there were 1,439 requests to withdraw content from websites: 1,286 for sympathising with terrorism and 153 for child pornography. Finally, search engines were ordered to delist 855 websites, of which 386 were for terrorist content, and 469 for child pornography.
The first report was issued by the CNIL's “qualified person”, who is responsible for checking routine requests for content withdrawal, website blocks and delisting. In non-routine cases, the “qualified person” may issue a recommendation or refer to an administrative judge. If the illicit content is taken down, then the website will not be blocked.
A special division of the French police monitors the internet and when any content prohibited by the law is identified, the content's host is asked to delete it. If the host does not reply in 24 hours, or is not contactable, the police division contacts internet service providers and asks them to block the relevant website and informs the “qualified person” at the CNIL.
A content owner or host can contest any decision to block or delist online content before a judge, but to date, no tribunal has gone against the rulings of the French Interior Ministry. Moreover, no appeal has exhausted all possible legal avenues.
There is no list of websites that have been subject to withdrawal of content, blocking, or delisting. Such absence of transparency is concerning, despite the esteem in which the CNIL is held. As things stand, the CNIL and the police service check each other, with no additional oversight.
The CNIL report from April 2016 specifies that there have been no instances of sites being blocked when they should not have been, which is known as “overblocking”. Equally interesting is the number of attempted connections to banned sites: 34,000 on average to child pornography websites, and 494 to terrorist content. All connection attempts have been anonymised at the request of the CNIL. Furthermore, the report states that in the case of child pornography websites, after one site has been blocked, new, identical websites regularly appear with a slightly altered address.
Also speaking at the forum was Octave Klaba, the media-savvy founder of OVH, a French and European website-hosting giant. He criticised the rise in censorship, calling it political posturing. Mr. Klaba labelled it “useless given the global nature of the internet.” Previously, he has made clear his opposition to the surveillance measures introduced by the Information Law of July 24, 2015, which creates provisions that legalize listening to and recording certain types of conversations without a judge's authorisation. The OVH founder has threatened to move some of his servers and his company's operations out of France, though he has not done this as of yet.
The content of Interior Minister Le Roux's interventions was published by the Associated Press agency and covered by Le Monde and Métro. They have received little coverage elsewhere. This may be due to the fact that he spoke mainly on the subject of security against cybercrime, which interests governments and businesses alike. Is the lack of media coverage in France a sign that the twists and turns of the presidential race and the attack on the Louvre have swallowed up public and media attention? La Quadrature du Net, a well-known French defender of internet freedoms, also has yet to report on the 2016 data.
It is worth noting that there was ample reaction when these measures were originally brought in to block sites in 2015. One English-language intervention came from European  Digital Rights, a group of European organisations that defend civil and human rights, and the website Islamic News, which was blocked shortly after the law was enacted, wrote this piece criticizing the blocking policy.
It is important to acknowledge that France, together with much of Europe, does not consider freedom of expression to be absolute, unlike the USA. Freedom of expression in France is framed by laws which forbid inciting racial, ethnic or religious hatred, supporting war crimes and terrorism, and infractions result in prosecutions. Nevertheless, these limits do not preclude the need for transparency and oversight in online content policy enforcement.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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India’s Government Plans to Refuse School Lunches to Students Without National ID Cards · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Lunch at a public school in India. Image from Flickr by Trinity Care Foundation. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Beginning this summer, the Indian government will controversially start requiring more than 100 million school children to show their Aadhaar (national identity) card in order to claim their lunches.
Aadhaar is one of the world's largest biometric identification systems. As of last month, 99 percent of adults in India — more than 1.1 billion people — were enrolled in Aadhaar.
In a press release on Feb. 28, India's Human Resource Development Ministry said children at state schools won't receive their free lunches unless they can provide their own unique 12-digit Aadhaar ID number. The new policy is going into effect this summer across the country, except in Jammu, Kashmir, Meghalaya, and Assam.
According to the report:
And, #aadhaar made mandatory across the country for children to get their free hot-cooked meals under the the Mid-Day Meal scheme
— nitin sethi (@nit_set) March 3, 2017
The new policy will reportedly affect students between first and eighth grade. After students have applied for their Aadhaar cards, while they're waiting to receive the physical cards, they will be allowed to use “alternative identity.”
Since 1995, the Indian national government has operated a midday meal scheme in most states across the country to help improve attendance and provide adequate nutrition to potentially malnourished children from lower social strata.
In 2015, India's apex court ruled that the government cannot make an Aadhaar card a prerequisite for access to public services. Today, an appeal is pending before the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court.
The government says the new policy is necessary to keep social services “seamless”:
The use of Aadhaar as identity document for delivery of services, benefits or subsidies simplifies the government delivery process and enables beneficiaries to get their entitlements directly and in a seamless manner.
On social media, critics have responded angrily to the new policy. For example, P. K. Prachi wrote on Facebook:
Making the mid-day meal contingent on an Aadhaar number shows the government cares more about completing its database than filling empty stomachs.
On Twitter, critics have been vocal, as well.
@nit_set ये हो क्या रहा है ?बच्चे खाने से पहले #Aadhar बनवाए जा के ?Who wud have thought party in opposition wud eulogise what they opposed
— यशिका (@MadameYG) March 3, 2017
What's happening? Should kids produce Aadhar card before eating food?
Journalist Anand Ranganathan tweeted:
The cruellest piece of news you'll read today. One knows that governments are heartless, but THIS heartless? Head hangs in shame. pic.twitter.com/VtR2ZxX1lG
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) March 4, 2017
James Wilson, a self-described civil engineer in Kerala, India, called the new policy “Orwellian.”
So our Orwellian Government is more interested in database & monitoring rather than ensuring midday meal to the hapless children..so creepy!
— James Wilson (@jamewils) March 4, 2017
Rather than food, yep, where you have tons of food grains wasted due to lack of storage, you will transfer money to their dads to booze!
— James Wilson (@jamewils) March 4, 2017
The way this Government is obsessed with “snooping” on its citizenry is quite sickening.. But old habits won't die.. Na?
— James Wilson (@jamewils) March 4, 2017
Dipanjan Saha wrote on Facebook:
Linking midday meals with Aadhar card is the most casually cruel policy decision of this government.
Some, however are defending the government. Twitter user “Don Toxique” said tighter measures are needed “to plug leakages.”
@jamewils Aadhar is meant for delivery of essential goods and services to BPL and to plug leakages therefrom. That's the freedom they want
— Don Toxique (@DonToxique) March 4, 2017
Supriya Sharma wrote on Scroll.in:
Making the mid-day meal contingent on an Aadhaar number shows the government cares more about completing its database than filling empty stomachs.
Opposing the Indian government's move, campaigners from “Right to Food” issued a statement, which included the following points:
The right to food campaign strongly opposes the central government’s move to make Aadhaar compulsory for children under the mid-day meal scheme in government schools. This is nothing but an attempt to coerce people to enrol their children under Aadhaar.
School meals are an important entitlement of Indian children, legally enforceable under Supreme Court orders as well as under the National Food Security Act. Numerous studies show that India’s mid-day meal scheme has made an important contribution to higher school attendance, better child nutrition and more effective learning. Mid-day meals also help to break the barriers of class and caste by imparting to children of diverse backgrounds a habit of sharing meals.
No conditionalities can be imposed on this critical entitlement of Indian children. Making Aadhaar compulsory for the mid-day meal would serve no purpose, and is bound to disrupt instead of helping this important programme. Further, this move is a violation of Supreme Court orders.
Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has tried on several occasions to mandate Aadhaar numbers in public schools, colleges, and various state-subsidized programs. Despite the judiciary's opposition, Modi's government presses ahead with its policy, putting it on a collision course with the courts.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


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Japan Tries to Get Workers to Duck Out Early—With Poor Results · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Caption: Aimed at awakening sluggish consumer sentiment, ‘Premium Fridays’ begin today (from February 23, 2017). Screencap from ANN official news channel.
Japanese workers have been slow to embrace a new government initiative called “Premium Friday” that encourages people to work less and spend more money.
“Premium Friday” would allow workers to quit working at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of every month, and then go out and shop, take in a movie or a museum exhibit, or have dinner and drinks with friends and family. If employees across Japan participate in Premium Fridays it's estimated private consumption in Japan could rise by about ¥124 billion (approximately US$1.1 billion) each month.
But the first Premium Friday on February 24 has been declared a bust, with less than 4 percent of Japanese workers taking part. The main reason seems to be many Japanese employees are too busy to leave early.
プレミアムフライデー、実際に早く帰った人は3.7%　すでに死語領域にhttps://t.co/TTonaUDuqw
— 岡三マン (@okasanman) March 3, 2017
[According to this article], just 3.7% of workers left work early on Premium Friday (on February 24, 2017). The initiative appears to be dead on arrival.
Premium Friday was intended to address two problems in Japan: sluggish consumer spending and what is perceived to be a culture of overwork. Generally speaking, consumer spending in Japan has remained sluggish for more than 20 years, especially in the decade since the Great Recession.
And despite Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics that show Japanese workers work slightly fewer average hours per year than their counterparts in other countries, there is the perception that working hours are too long in Japan, and something must be done.
hours worked per worker according to @OECD_Stat
Some interesting figures:
Mexico 2246
Greece 2042
OECD 1766
Germany 1371 pic.twitter.com/0P0wYO3a0E
— DimitrisMakrystathis (@makrystath) January 9, 2017
Blogger Nyokike, writing on Japanese curation site Naver Matome, has collected a variety of reactions to Premium Friday. The biggest problem with it? No one has the time to leave work early.
As one Twitter user sarcastically noted:
プレミアムフライデーの反対語は金曜労働ショー
— プレミアムさわでぃ@かいしゃちほー (@sawadybomb) February 23, 2017
The opposite of “Premium Friday” would be “Road Show Friday.”
“Road Show Friday” (kin'yo rodosho, 金曜労働ショー) is a play on a popular Friday night prime time movie programme on television and the Japanese word for “labor”, rodo (労働).
Another Twitter user, highlighting the results of a poll published in a newspaper, also noted that workload was one of the biggest obstacles to adopting Premium Friday:
実際にプレミアムフライデー利用した人は3.7%。
帰れなかった人の理由は、仕事が終わらなかった88.4%。
で、貴重な3.7%の人の退社後の行動は、自宅で過ごした41.8%。
…何がしたいの？ pic.twitter.com/lRbQNtXn4U
— NOWAR (@666fusei) March 3, 2017
Just 3.7% of survey respondents said they participated in Premium Friday. Reasons for not leaving early were “I still had work to do” (88.4%). Of the 3.7% of people who did leave work early, 41.8% said they spent time at home.
Japanese employers also have not bought into Premium Friday. A survey in February found that 5.8 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees had adopted Premium Friday, while just 2.4 percent of companies with less than 100 employees had decided to participate.
One Twitter user noted that, despite it being early evening on Premium Friday, the lights were still on at Dentsu, one of Japan's most influential white-collar employers.
電通～プレミアム・フライデー～ pic.twitter.com/tdQeyh91qU
— shichi (@shichichaos) February 24, 2017
Premium Friday at Dentsu.
Japan's increasingly precarious labor market may also prevent adoption of Premium Friday. While there currently is a labor shortage in Japan—there are 143 jobs for every 100 job seekers in Japan—the quality of work in Japan is low. Like in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, wages are low and many positions are part-time or on a contract, rather than salaried, basis.
So, marginalized contract workers may have the flexibility to take advantage of Premium Friday, but may not have the financial power to help the government boost consumer spending targets.
One Twitter user wryly summarized the dilemma:
政府「プレミアムフライデー導入する」
社員「3時に退社できる！」
飲食店「プレフラ限定ビール半額！」
97%の企業「うちは導入しない」
社員「ファッ！？」
ぼく(無職)「くぅ〜ww働かずに飲む半額ビールうんめぇ〜ww」
結論:プレミアムフライデーで得するのはニートだけ
— 中退くん (@chuutaikun) February 24, 2017
Government: “We are going to introduce Premium Friday.”
Employees: “We can quit at 3 p.m.!”
Restaurants: “Half-price for ‘limited edition’ Premium Friday beer!”
97% of companies: “We are not going to implement Premium Friday.”
Employees: “Wha – ?”
Me (unemployed): “Aahh, since I'm not working this half-price beer tastes great!”
Conclusion: Only NEETS (those Not in Education, Employment, or Training) get Premium Fridays.