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Protests Against Peru’s Labour Law Multiply, But Government Holds Firm · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Image by Tomate Colectivo, used with permission.
Ever since the first demonstration against recent legislation in Peru known as Ley Pulpin was held on December 18, opposition has continued to grow. Just four days later, a second youth march took place in the capital city of Lima to protest the government's law No. 30288, “An Act Promoting Youth Access to the Labour Market and Social Protection.”
Lima. 2da Marcha, lunes 22 de diciembre, 5 PM. en Campo de Marte #LeyPulpin… #Régimenlaboraljuvenilesexplotación pic.twitter.com/Cgx8XLlsQO
— Daniel A.Y. Vega (@Danyv21pe) December 20, 2014
Lima. 2nd march, Monday, December 22, 5 p.m. in Campo de Marte #Pulpin Law… #Youth Employment without Exploitation
Image reads, “No to curtailing worker rights. Young people demand decent work. It's only fair!”
The law allows for employers to cut employment benefits, such as social security, life insurance, bonuses, and holiday benefits for young employees between the ages of 18 and 24. The government claims the new law will reduce youth unemployment and help the poorest people with little experience. According to official figures, the unemployment rate for those aged between 18 and 24 is four times higher than those aged 30 to 65.
But critics expect these corporations will use the law to fire older employees and replace them with young people.
In order to avoid accusations of unnecessary violence, the Minister of the Interior had announced that this time police would not carry weapons and would use white gloves as a symbol of peace to maintain order. But he also indicated that for security reasons, demonstrators would have to show their national identity cards, a measure that Peruvian Prime Minister Ana Jara later denied:
Para ejercer Derecho a la Protesta (en forma pacífica),reconocido en la Constitución, NO se requiere previa identificación de participantes.
— Ana Jara Velásquez (@anajarav) December 22, 2014
To exercise the Right to Protest (peacefully), enshrined in the Constitution, NO prior identification of participants is required.
In the lead-up to the demonstrations, the debate over the supposed costs and benefits of the controversial law made headlines in mainstream media, opinion columns, and social media. Positions ranged from business pragmatism, whereby companies should be given certain incentives to hire young, inexperienced workers, to unconditional defense of labour rights by activists and young people themselves concerned about having to compete on an uneven playing field.
The government, however, has not positioned itself for dialogue, offering instead a vigorous and unilateral defense of its legislation.
#Ollanta dice que #LeyPulpin continuará y pide que los jóvenes lean la ley. Alguien le dice que ayer hubo una gigantesca protesta!.
— Adrián Sisniegas (@ADRIANSISNIEGAS) December 19, 2014
[President] #Ollanta says #LeyPulpin will go forward and calls on young people to read the law. Someone tell him there was a huge protest yesterday!
Blogger Marco Sauna writes about the law saying, “Initially I rejected it, until I found out a bit more and accepted it.” He explains:
para empezar esta norma no está dirigida para los jóvenes que gracias a sus estudios, prácticas pre o pro profesionales, intercambios, estudios extracurriculares, entre otras preparaciones académicas, sí son más empleables, en ese sentido ellos sí pueden postular a un régimen laboral de su conveniencia porque quizás las oportunidades y su empleabilidad lo permite. Mientras que para los que no tienen estas mismas oportunidades o ya se encuentran bajo un sistema informal, esta norma les otorgará beneficios sociales y laborales, es decir, horas extras, 15 días de vacaciones, derecho a su liquidación, ingreso a la planilla y con ello al sistema financiero y si bien no tienen los otros beneficios laborales o algunos están recortados, pues estos son compensados por la capacitación, que por su condición y por lo caro que puede ser estudiar en el Perú, compensa en cierta medida este desequilibrio.
To begin with, the regulation is not aimed at those young people who by virtue of their education, vocational studies and training, exchanges, extracurricular courses and other academic experience are indeed more employable—these people can apply for suitable employment because they likely have the necessary opportunities and skillsets. But for those who don't have the same opportunties or who already find themselves working in the grey economy, this legislation will give them access to social and employment programs such as paid overtime, 15 days of vacation, severance pay, payroll registration and, with that, access to the formal financial system. And even if they don't get other employment benefits or only limited ones, they are compensated by on-the-job training, which given the high cost of education in Peru, counteracts this imbalance to a certain extent.
At the other end of the spectrum, Louis Davelouis notes several points made by the government's promotional campaign and responds to each one. In particular, he comments on whom the legislation targets and affects:
La Ley es para todos los jóvenes que estén al menos 90 días sin trabajar o para los que nunca han trabajado, sí, pero también afectará a quienes ya tienen empleo, incluso a aquellos que estén por encima del rango de edad. ¿Por qué? Porque el grupo de jóvenes de entre 18 y 24 años creado por la nueva ley será más competitivo por precio. […] En realidad, la ley afectará a quienes están en planilla en la medida que los contratos no se renueven o se produzcan despidos. En los empleos de baja productividad, los jóvenes mayores de 24 deberán competir con jóvenes más baratos por los mismos puestos. Bajar la valla de un piso afecta a todo el escalafón del empleo de baja productividad…
The law is designed for all young people who have been unemployed for at least 90 days or those who have never worked—correct—but it will also affect those who already have jobs, even those who are above the age range. Why? Because the category of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years, as established by the new law, will be more competitive in terms of wages [ … ] In fact, the law will affect those who are on the payroll already to the extent that contracts will not renewed or layoffs will occur. In low-productivity jobs, young people over age 24 will have to compete against cheaper workers for the same positions. Lowering the bar on labour costs has an impact on the entire structure of low-productivity employment…
All this discussion, which is not limited to the opinions expressed here, seems to have motivated greater numbers of young people to leave the places where they live, study, and work and walk out into the streets to protest the legislation. On December 22, hundreds of demonstrators initially gathered on the Plaza San Martín and Campo de Marte, both located in the heart of the Peruvian capital. As their ranks swelled to several thousand, the young people later began walking peacefully towards the Congress, along Arequipa avenue in the direction of San Isidro and Miraflores.
Marcha llegó a #JavierPrado y la cola tiene varias cuadras, abajo la #LeyPulpin @AlterCreedJam @AnonymousPeru @chome pic.twitter.com/hM2HXrlDp8
— #Noticias del #Perú (@peruenlanoticia) December 23, 2014
The marchers reached #JavierPrado, and the line is now several blocks long, down with #LeyPulpin
Although the young people had also headed towards the neighbourhood of Miraflores in the previous march—something unusual in protests, which are usually restricted to downtown Lima—this time, they decided to add a further stop on their route and wound their way through the streets of San Isidro in the direction of the headquarters of Peru's National Confederation of Private Business Associations (CONFIEP).
Manifestantes gritan a ejecutivos: escucha empresario NO seré tu esclavo. #leypulpin #22D https://t.co/GLQhCLIeUs
— Bruno G. (@Darksillo) December 23, 2014
Demonstrators shout to executives: Listen I will NOT be your slave. #leypulpin #22D
When they eventually reached the Miraflores district, the crowd of eager young people counted some 15 to 20,000 marchers and managed to bring traffic to a standstill along many of Lima's major arteries; this resulted in a few complaints.
#22D video #drone #LeyPulpín- Marcha contra el Régimen Wilson, JavierPrado, Kennedy #NoAlRegimenLaboralParaJovenes http://t.co/QFafQ7hvvd
— Lucero Deyanira (@luceromerma) December 23, 2014
#22D video #drone #LeyPulpín- March against the Regime Wilson, JavierPrado, Kennedy
After a while, the demonstration split along several routes, and one stream returned to Plaza San Martín, some 70 blocks away. In a final gesture, protesters sang the national anthem and dispersed, though a few violent clashes occurred between police and certain elements the police themselves qualified as “infiltrators“.
The political arena has begun to show the first cracks in reaction to these events. Some of the members of Congress who had voted in favour of the legislation have now withdrawn their support; still others have proposed amendments. The executive branch, however, shows no signs of backing down.
The satirical website El Panfleto took a serious turn and more or less summed up what was in the minds of many:
Aunque parezca exagerado, la distancia que separa nuestra carrera universitaria de haber sido peones de una hacienda, a la orden de un omnipotente gamonal, es muy corta. Y […] hubo muchos procesos que nuestros padres, abuelas y bisabuelas llevaron adelante: tomas de tierras de haciendas, creación de escuelas rurales por parte de las comunidades, frentes de defensa, huelgas generales e invasión de barriadas, que pretendieron que las descendencias, nosotros, no suframos lo que ellas y ellos sí. Chibola pulpín, ese Ipad que tienes en las manos, esa pensión universitaria depositada puntualmente, costaron décadas de luchas. No decepciones a la historia, es tu turno de defender los derechos de tu generación y de los que vengan. Deroguen esa ley.
Strange as it may seem, the span that separates our university degrees from our status as labourers on the great estates, at the mercy of an omnipotent tyrant, is in fact very short. And [ … ] many steps were taken by our parents, grandmothers and great-grandmothers to bring us forward: the reclaiming of agricultural land, the creation of rural schools by local communities, militias, general strikes and squatter settlements—all of which were done to prevent their descendants, us, from having to suffer as they had. Chibola pulpín [Peruvian slang for over-indulged young person], that iPad you have in your hands, that allowance deposited regularly, they come at the price of decades of struggle. Don't turn your back on history; it is up to you now to defend the rights of your generation and those to come. Repeal the law.

author: Juan Arellano


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Şanar Yurdatapan’s Museum of Crimes of Thought Takes Aim at Growing Oppression in Turkey · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

Sanar Yurdatapan introducing the Museum of Crimes of Thought in Turkey. Screenshot from an introductory YouTube video produced by Antenna the organisation hosting this online project.
Back in the turbulent 1970s, all Şanar Yurdatapan had was his music and his words to fight oppression and censorship in Turkey. His activism cost him his Turkish nationality and forced him to leave the country for more than a decade. Today the composer and songwriter is still spearheading the fight for freedom of expression in Turkey, which is ever more threatened by the domestic political dominance of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Now Yurdatapan has upgraded his ammunition — still pacifistic in essence — and shifted his battle to the virtual world, where he coordinates the newly-created Museum of Crimes of Thought (Twitter handle @dusuncesucumuze), an online resource available in both Turkish and English.
Global Voices spoke to Şanar to find out more about the two-year-old initiative, which aims to document all violations committed by the authorities against pro-democracy activists in Turkey.
GV: Şanar you yourself have been exiled and stripped of your nationality for quite some time. Doesn't your latest project put you at risk once again?
SN: Maybe, but why not? I am 73 and only risk being imprisoned. I have got used to it. And the state knows very well that they will have to face an international scandal if they put me into prison again. This is a privilege, isn’t it? Such a privilege brings a responsibility too. If I cannot face [risk], who can?
Global Voices (GV): Have you received any threats or warnings so far? If yes, how are you dealing with them?
Şanar Yurdatapan (SN): Not yet. The museum looks like something childish, probably because of its cartoon-based structure, and does not seem to pose a threat to the establishment. But after April 1, 2015 –the starting date for museuming (to be placed in the museum) prominent people because of their silly statements — and placing their busts in the main corridor — we are ready for all sorts of oppression.
GV: Is the website hosted in Turkey? Can it be accessed from there?
SN: It is not hosted in Turkey. We cannot guarantee that any Turkish [hosting] company would resist if Turkish police wanted them to provide information or even cut the servers. The site can be accessed in Turkey freely at the moment. But after April 1, 2015, when political leaders’ busts start emerging in the main corridor, I am sure [the website] will be banned and prohibited. No problem. Many social groups [in Turkey] have experiences in accessing the banned websites via proxies. Youngsters learned when YouTube and Facebook were banned. Businessmen learned when Google was banned and they were not able to access their business documents in the ‘cloud’.
A promotion of the online museum on the Youtube Channel of the Initiative for Freedom of Expression.  Antenna, which is overseeing the museum, is a member of IFEX, an umbrella for many Turkish artists, journalists, activists and Human Rights organisations.
GV: You say in one of the interviews that your aim is to create a network of similar projects like in France, Greece, Chile … have you started yet? Have you heard of similar projects outside Turkey ? (There is one project in Lebanon called the “Online Museum of Censorship)
SN: In the last general meeting of IFEX (International Freedom of Expression Exchange, the international umbrella organization covering similar organizations all over the world, Mahabat Foundation in Lebanon) which took place in Phnom Penh – Cambodia; I had the chance to tell other participants about [the project] and had very positive responses. Keeping our promise, we have declared that this museum is ‘open coded’ which means we are ready to submit the program codes of the museum to any organization that wishes to establish their own museum. At the moment we have received only one response from The Media Foundation of West Africa — based in Ghana. We know that the most important thing is not to open similar museums, but how to keep [the idea] alive: sustainability.
A section of the Online Turkish Museum dedicated to those who lost their lives, murdered or under torture or in any other way, trying to make Turkey a democratic country. A print screen from the website of the Virtual Museum
SN: The Initiative for Freedom of Expression (established on January 23, 1995) is almost 20 years old now. Since 2000, we publish yearbooks, and so we have a good archive which helps us in the museum project.
GV: Is the project open to crowd-sourcing?
SN: It is open to public contribution. Anybody who has some documents/evidence/witnesses about freedom of expression violations may submit them to be placed in the museum. In order to avoid probable conflicts, we have an ‘editorial board’ consisting of seven respected people from diverse social groups, to decide which new contributions might be placed in the museum
GV: You also say that “all opinions can be freely expressed unless they incite discrimination” : can you give an example, have you yourself ever censored a piece?
SN: No, I can proudly say that we haven’t had a similar experience yet. But even if such a problem appears (the line between freedom of expression and insult is very thin) we have another committee, consisting of prominent lawyers (The Legal Committee) to decide if we should or not take this document into the museum.
GV: The website is interactive but is there a way to get a full listing with categories for those seeking quick access to information, or do visitors have to go through each section?
SN: We have MAPs of the museum, which you can have one  — no cost — at the desk of the Guide, right at the entrance hall.
GV: Did the events in Syria have an impact on the state of censorship in your country?
SN: Yes, to some extent. There we some bans declared to prohibit the traffic of information regarding the secret support of the Turkish state to opposition forces in Syria. But they were not successful.
GV: Has the direction of the project changed since it began? How are people reciting to the project and what are your plans for the future?
SN: We are not able to draw great attention to the museum yet, because we were not able to solve the technical and administrative problems of the museum completely, but the main steps have been taken. To celebrate the 20 anniversary [of the The Initiative for Freedom of Expression] we are arranging a day-long forum to discuss the last 20 years in Turkey, at the Bilgi University in Istanbul. At the end of this event (which will take place on the second weekend of February) we will make a short presentation to introduce the museum to the public.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Thalia Rahme


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Welcome to #TheWildEast and Vocativ.com’s Kyrg Republic: A Land That Does Not Exist · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Screenshot from Vocativ.com's documentary on Kyrgyzstan, The Land of Kick-Ass Women, Wild Weed and Rising Extremism. ISIS is taking over.
The independent media outlet Vocativ.com just released a documentary about a Central Asian country whose name they couldn't be bothered to Google search. Predictably, the documentary lacks balance, nuance and other things that traditionally make for good journalism.
To be fair, many people struggle to spell a country mainstream media regularly derides as “vowel-challenged”, but not many of those people are making a documentary about that country called The Land of Kick-Ass Women, Wild Weed and Rising Extremism.
Kyrgyzstan is the name most commonly used for the country Vocativ's host Mikey Kay tells viewers is “not to be confused with Kazakhstan or Kurdistan”, while its official name is the Kyrgyz Republic.
Vocativ gets both wrong, firstly in the website's introduction to the film:
While you may not be able to find it on a map, Kyrgyzstan (aka the Kyrg Republic) faces a crossroads in history. Less than 25 years after achieving its independence, the former Soviet republic is now a prize coveted by the two main forces competing for hegemony in Central Asia: Russian President Vladimir Putin and radical Islam.
And secondly when the producer of the documentary, Joe Stramowski, promoted it on Twitter:
My @vocativ film w/ @MikeyKayNYC from a part of the world that you didn't know you needed to know about: #Krygyzstan. http://t.co/MrkX8oYNB9
— Joe Stramowski (@JoeStramowski) January 6, 2015
Kay also refers to the capital, Bishkek, which he visited for filming, as “Bishek” during the documentary. The documentary is hash-tagged #TheWildEast.
Perhaps Kyrgyzstan should not feel singled-out. After all, some of Vocativ.com's other recently published material encompasses titles such as My Breast Twerking Video Got 30 Million Views, and I'm Appalled, The Oligarch Wanted Sex With His Dog: Tales From Ukrainian Hookers and Mormon Men Wage War Over Beards. Yes, Beards.
But the Kyrgyz Republic has suffered at the hands of dumbed-down documentary-makers before. In fact, Vocativ's documentary on the country succeeded in out-Viceing Vice, whose film on bride-kidnapping has almost 3,000,000 views on YouTube. Vice wasn't particularly respectful of a sensitive subject, but did manage to consistently spell the country's name correctly.
Vocativ's main hook for the video seems to be Islamic radicalism, which Kay fears “is knocking on the door of Central Asia”. The authors of a recent Chatham House paper argue fairly convincingly that this threat is close to a myth, despite the fact that a small number of Kyrgyz nationals — probably slightly more than a hundred — have joined the ranks of the radical ISIS group in Syria and Iraq. Viewers of this documentary might assume that the remainder are all selling marijuana, telling fortunes and bashing gays as they prepare for a future jihad. The fact that “Kyrg” women “kick ass” is a small reprieve in a largely damning portrayal that skips over grey areas for the black and white selling power of the ISIS.
Incidentally, when referring to the “deep data analysis” that provided the research for the documentary, Vocativ.com regularly cite centralasiaonline.com, a resource dubbed Propagandastan by one foreign journalist that writes regularly on the region. Funded by the U.S. Department of Defence, the website is one of the more bizarre attempts by Washington to make friends with the region's authoritarian governments, specifically by helping them exaggerate the threat posed to their countries by Islamic radicalism. This then serves to justify crackdowns on non-traditional Islam, Jehova's Witnesses and anybody else Central Asian administrations choose to certify as ‘extremist’.
Vocativ's documentary can be watched below:

author: Chris Rickleton


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Horrific Hokkaido Bear Attack Repackaged as Cute Japanese Tourist Attraction · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Image source: Twitter user @onoboy2011
The scene of one of Japan's worst bear attacks has been turned into a rather unique — and horrifying — roadside attraction.
In 1915 (Taisho 4) a Japanese brown bear (higuma, or Ursus arctos lasiotus) attacked a small hamlet of Rokusensawa in Sankebetsu, which is now incorporated into the municipality of Tomamae, about 100 kilometers northwest of Sapporo, the largest city on the island of Hokkaido.
The bear killed seven people in what came to be known as the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident. The township of Tomamae has attempted to capitalize on this gruesome part of its past by creating a “bear road” and a detailed reconstruction of the bear attack itself.
Visitors to Tomamae often express their bemusement on social media.
旅先の記録：北海道苫前町の「ベア・ロード」の案内。名称の由来はこの道路の末端にある三毛別集落で100年ほど前に起こったヒグマによる獣害事件にちなむ。なので、こんなほんわかした熊の絵は適切ではないように思うのだが。 pic.twitter.com/5OhZsivNJ1
— （んや） (@shidaeu) May 9, 2014
A sign for the “Bear Road” in Tomamae, Hokkaido Prefecture. The sign marks the outskirts of the village of Sankebetsu where the bear attack took place about 100 years ago. I'm not sure if the warm and friendly image of the bear here is quite appropriate here…
今日は朝から海沿いへドライブに ((=(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ 以前から見学したいと思ってた苫前の町にある『三毛別ヒグマ事件』大正４年 の資料館。吉村昭さんの歴史小説「羆嵐」で題材に、その後映画化もされてます。ベアロードって‥可愛い（苦笑） pic.twitter.com/NxSx0CgNo5
— La mere yumi粉 (@Lamereyumi) July 25, 2014
Took a drive this morning along the coast. ((=(*ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ I was able to visit the Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident Museum, something I've always wanted to do. The bear attack here served as the basis of Akira Yoshimura‘s short story “Bear Attack” (羆嵐), which was later turned into a movie.
Bear Road is sure… cute. /sarcasm
While Bear Road looks cute, visitors report that the actual reconstruction of the bear attack itself is pretty grim:
道北に行ったら必ず寄ると決めていた場所の一つ、三毛別ヒグマ事件復元現場。町の中心部から20kmかつ未舗装路も残っていて雰囲気はめっちゃある。というか、普通に怖い！ pic.twitter.com/lT1yNUu5BF
— りょたろ (@onoboy2011) September 12, 2014
There was one place I promised myself I would check out if I ever made it to Hokkaido: the bear attack museum in Tomamae. The museum is about 20 kilometers from town along an old farming road that perfectly preserves the atmosphere back then when the bear attacked the village. In other words, the ride out was terrifying!
The inside of the display is even more horrifying:
『三毛別ヒグマ事件』とは。 クマに襲われた事件のことです。怖いです。 pic.twitter.com/tC1krMGEGU
— しょうちゃん (@Sho0148) June 2, 2014
The Sankebetsu Brown Bear Incident is when a giant brown bear attacked a village. It's pretty scary.
The museum features a life-size reconstruction of the attack, which occurred over two separate nights. It was launched in 2001, and is likely the local government's attempt to capitalize on a popular book and movie and draw tourists to what is a pretty isolated community in Japan.
Brown bears, once common in northeast Asia from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, are now listed as a vulnerable species.

author: Nevin Thompson


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#JeSuisCharlie: Muslims Have Nothing to Apologize For · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Screen grab from Journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin's Facebook page.
I participated in the online support campaign #JeSuisCharlie and I still support all attempts, by anyone, to highlight the importance of freedom of speech.
I was never a big fan of Charlie Hebdo, but that they have the right to publish whatever they want is, for me, non-debatable. If you’re bothered by something, write about it, ‘complain’, do something – that’s your right. I couldn’t care less if you think that drawing a Messiah or a Prophet (capital M and P are intentional) is offensive. Being offended is not a right, it’s your choice.
Besides the horrific attack, what bothered me the most was thousands of people asking, “why aren’t Muslims condemning this?”
The answer is they are, you’re probably just ignoring them. Muslims, like pretty much anyone else – except the Neo-Nazis who relish it -, have been condemning terrorism since Day 1, which, for most Westerners it seems, started on September 11, 2001.
How is being a Muslim relevant here? If you were a Muslim, I understand the need to do so given the environment you’re living in. Every time a Muslim farts somewhere in the West, there has to be a certain number of ‘fellow Muslims’, preferably in the West and Middle East who condemn them, a scenario exclusive to Muslims, not Christians or Jews. How can ‘we’ connect to the “Muslim World”? Why isn’t the “Muslim World” more tolerant? Just look at these questions, how they’re phrased.
Please, stop it.
There is no such thing as the Muslim World, just as there is no such thing as the Christian World or the Jewish World or the Buddhist World. There are countless Muslim communities in the world, with similarities, as human beings and as part of the same religion, but with many more national, cultural, and individual differences. There are Australian Islams and there is French Islams and there are Saudi Islams and Malaysian Islams. Hell, there’s even a Chinese Islam (would you believe it?!) – fun fact: Aladdin was a Muslim Chinese. What kind of discussion would a Sufi Turk have with a Saudi Wahhabi and with a Twelver Shia Iranian? You’d need an interpreter first of all to translate and I can assure you that yours truly, an Atheist, would have more to talk about with the Sufi and Twelver than the Sufi and Twelver would with the Wahhabi, or even with each other. In fact, I have a feeling that Saudi Wahhabism, which is located where the West’s favorite oil kingdom is located, is the most detested ideology in Islamic history. Where are the ‘Is Wahhabism a threat to Civilization’ debates?
Am I to apologize for the support of State Terrorism by fellow Atheists such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens? Am I asked by Theists “why aren’t you condemning them!”? How many Christians need to apologize for the Terrorism of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda ‘in the name of Christianity’? How many Christians had to apologize for the Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting (the terrorist thought they were Muslims)? Why do Christians get to it’s-politics-not-religion it, but not Muslims?
Netanyahu gets a boner whenever terrorism strikes in the West – he knows how to use that as hasbara (public diplomacy) – and prefaces “we as Jews” whenever he declares that Gazan children are about to be slaughtered. Over 500 children were murdered in Gaza in 50 days last summer – which he called “making noise“. Would Bin Laden have gotten away with calling 9/11 ‘making noise’? Do I message my American Jewish friends every time this Neo-Nazi par excellence makes a racist speech (which happens to be all of his speeches)? Do I message that one Ugandan man I met in my travels and ask him to please speak out in the name of Ugandan Christianity?
This is absurd. It’s collective ridicule. It's collective punishment, and collective bullying of 1.6 billion people who subscribe to the Islamic faith. That’s a lot of people regardless of whether the #KillAllMuslims folks wish to accept it or not (note: a huge number of them seem to be Americans, not Europeans). Why is it that we have debates with the title “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” – debates that don’t necessarily even include Muslims. What kind of question is that? And haven’t you already answered it yourself? The only common denominator in such debates is not Islam itself, but hatred of Muslims.
And any discussion that includes some vilification of that old heterogeneous, not-a-historical, religion is a no-brainer. Think of how insulting it must be to hear the word “Moderate Muslims” describe pretty much every Muslim in the world as though they were a minority in a sea of madness. Imagine, for just a moment, what it must be like to be a Muslim in the post 9/11 West.
Breivik killed 77 in Norway & no-one asked me as a white male of Nordic Christian background if I felt the need to condemn it. #CharlieHebdo
— ChristianChristensen (@ChrChristensen) January 7, 2015
Just to make things clear. This is not a defense of Islam, nor is it a criticism of Islam. Both deal with very vague concepts that are decontexualized and removed of all meaning. Words like ‘terror’ and ‘tolerance’ only mean something when the ‘Other’ is being depicted, not when we talk about ‘Us’. Which Islam should I be defending/attacking? Whose Islam? The Islam of the 21st century? The Islam of Europe? France? Saudi Arabia? Egypt? Turkey? Malaysia? China? Australia? The Islam of Tariq Ramadan? Mehdi Hassan? Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Ash-Sheikh? Rahmi Yaran? Can we put them in a category? Can we put 1.6 billion people in one category? I have absolutely no idea how to do that, and I have yet to read any article by anyone who did. Islam exists in society, with its own context, its own time, its own detractors and supporters.
This is a criticism of a very dangerous game that only benefits the very wealthy who are immune of the repercussions of mindless hatred. It is the average food seller on the street that will be attacked, not the Saudi Grand Mufti – the latter can do whatever the hell he wants (repeat after me: Oil). It is the poor Muslim immigrant from Tunisia who will be punished, not the rich Muslim ‘investor’ from Qatar. This very, very, very dangerous – I cannot stress this enough – game of Othering never ends well, which is exactly what the Neo-Nazis want. As a non-Muslim French commentator, sitting alongside a local Muslim Mufti, said on French television yesterday evening: “this is not just an attack, but a trap.” And let’s not fall for this trap. This terror attack was a terror attack, period. Condemn them, ask them to explain themselves, ask them to apologize.
Based in Lebanon, Joey Ayoub covers Palestine, Lebanon and the Middle East for Global Voices and runs the blog HummusForThought, where this post was originally published. He wishes to push fellow Atheists to speak out against discrimination of all kind, including religious groups. He tweets at @JoeyAyoub

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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Meet Russia’s 369 Kremlin-Registered Bloggers · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Screen capture from a video by YouTube vlogger and Roskomnadzor-registered blogger “Katya Clapp,” where she discusses Kim Kardashian's posterior.
The very first blog the Russian government ever added to its official “blogger registry” was a community on Vkontakte called “Typical Yekaterinburg.” That group, a virtual stomping ground for over 250,000 Internet users, joined the registry on August 1, 2014, the day the blogger registry launched. Since then, another 368 blogs have joined it.
Where the registered bloggers blog
What are the websites that populate Russia’s blogger registry, which is supposedly the Kremlin’s handpicked collection of the nation’s most read web pages? Two-thirds (66 percent) of all the blogs on the list are from Russia’s dominant social network, Vkontakte. Blogs on LiveJournal and Mail.ru each make up another 8 percent. Another 6 percent is YouTube accounts. Three percent of the list is Twitter accounts and just 1 percent belongs to Facebook users. The rest of Russia’s officially registered bloggers hail from other websites, like Instagram, Odnoklassniki, and LiveInternet.
Chart by Kevin Rothrock.
The supposed benefits of the blogger registry
The day the Kremlin started adding websites to its blogger registry, Alexander Zharov, the head of Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal media watchdog agency, granted an interview to the newspaper Vedomosti, where he discussed the new blogger law that was taking effect that day.
When asked why bloggers might welcome the opportunity to enlist with the state, Zharov boasted that registration is a way to “legalize one’s business,” attracting potential advertisers, who, he said, are bound to take an interest in Russia’s “top bloggers.” When asked how he would evaluate the effectiveness of the blogger law, Zharov said he would weigh the extent to which it succeeds in improving the “quality” of Russian blogging, by which he meant lowering the amount “profanity, unverified information, and libel.”
Who's actually registered?
Three of the 369 blogs on Roskomnadzor’s registry contain the word “fuck” in their names. One of these three is the Vkontakte community “Fuckbet,” a sports analysis website that provides “access to the best sports tips in the Commonwealth of Independent States” (presumably as an aid to individuals betting on the games). Another of this trio is “Fuck_Humor,” a Vkontakte group that specializes in amusing memes. One of the community’s most recent posts features a joke about fellatio, depicting what looks to be semen on a young girl’s thigh.
A handful of media outlets have also found their way to the registry. The Vkontakte pages for Russian Esquire and Sputnik & Pogrom are on the list, along with a defunct page that once belonged to the website TJournal.ru. Roskomnadzor’s list includes TJournal’s old vk.com/tjournal page, which has 30 subscribers, but not TJournal’s new vk.com/tj page, which has 350,000 subscribers.
In addition to Sputnik & Pogrom’s Vkontakte page, the registry contains a number of blogs dedicated to a strongly pro-Russia position on the Eastern Ukraine conflict, including the groups “Strelkov_info,” “Anti_USA_news,” and Boris Rozhin’s blog, “Colonel Cassad.” (Read RuNet Echo’s July 2014 interview with Rozhin here.)
In December 2014, all roughly at once, Roskomnadzor added to its registry a handful of LiveJournal blogs belonging to several prominent opposition figures, including economist Andrey Illarionov, journalist Arkady Babchenko, artist Artemy Lebedev, political analyst Andrey Malgin, writer Boris Akunin, and photographers Rustem Adagamov and Ilya Varlamov. Apparently, Roskomnadzor informed none of these men that it added his blog to its registry.
@KevinRothrock u surprised me. I don't have any information about
— Рустем Адагамов (@adagamov) January 7, 2015
American and still out of reach: Facebook and Twitter
So far, Roskomnadzor has added to its list just two Facebook accounts, apparently after the authors willingly registered with the government. (One of those two people, German Klimenko, was involved in efforts to promote the registry, before it officially launched.) When it comes to Twitter accounts, Roskomnadzor seems to have relied similarly on volunteers, as the ten Twitter users who now appear on the blogger registry are mostly pro-Kremlin media figures (plus a few Internet celebrities).
In fact, Roskomnadzor’s desperation with Twitter led it last month to solicit bloggers directly, and rather embarrassingly, for “screenshots” of their analytics data, which Twitter has refused to provide to the Russian government. The authorities’ efforts to rally volunteers among Facebook and Twitter users stand in stark contrast to their policy with Vkontakte and LiveJournal users, whom they don’t seem to notify, let alone petition, when adding their blogs to the registry.
For now, there’s no discernable change in the blogs that have been added to the state’s registry. While the blogger law mandates higher standards for fact checking and imposes limits on the use of obscenities, it does not specify any punishments for individuals who violate these provisions. Roskomnadzor, however, is authorized to ban the websites and their hosts, when faced with noncompliance.
So far, the Kremlin hasn’t exercised this power. Not yet.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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The Mobile Money Revolution Is Transforming Bangladesh · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

A mobile phone retailer in Bangladesh loads a customer’s mobile phone with credit. Image by Shafiqul Alam. Copyright Demotix (18/1/2013)
Mobile financial services are a recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, but they have created a radical change in the country's banking system. On average, 3.33 billion taka (about 42 million US dollars) worth of transactions are made every day via mobile banking systems.
There are more than 50 government and private banks in Bangladesh, yet a lot of people, mosty in remote and rural areas, remained unbanked. In 2010, the central bank of Bangladesh introduced mobile financial services to facilitate services for the country's unbanked people. To date, a total of 28 banks have received permission from Bangladesh Bank for mobile banking; 19 banks have already launched the services.
As per the statistics of the central bank, these 19 banks have more than 23.31 million registered customers as of October 2014. This comes to about 15 per cent of the total population, which is significant because only about 15 per cent of Bangladesh’s population have access to formal financial services. There is great potential in mobile money, as more than 70% of Bangladeshis have mobile phones.
#Bangladesh – 120M #cellphone and 42M #Internet users. Potential for #mobile #banking and #e-commerce are endless http://t.co/9prE8Ih5Gj
— Tonmoy Islam (@boromiya) January 2, 2015
Using mobile technology for banking is the right way to achieve #financialinclusion in Bangladesh http://t.co/bAEqnmbrFT
— Obopay (@Obopay) December 24, 2014
Jhalmoori Blog notes in an overview of mobile banking in Bangladesh:
Mobile Banks are not limited itself with the money transfer service instead continuously introduced various kinds of services for their customers. So far mobile banks come up with buying airtime service, insurance service, bill payment service, money disbursement service etc.
Mobile banking is not only the most common way to send money in Bangladesh, but it also gives strength to the Bangladeshi economy. People are increasingly using these services to pay for electricity, gas and water bills and remit salaries and living expenses to family members far away. This has created new business activities and a lot of new jobs.
It is amazing to see what an impact mobile banking has had on ordinary working class people in Bangladesh! https://t.co/ldyetXtTzS
— Mansur (@sm_hashim) December 12, 2014
According to The Economist magazine's September 20-26 issue, the total value of mobile money in Bangladesh was worth 5.6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) as per a local news report [bn].
American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and inventor Bill Gates has praised mobile financial services program in Bangladesh. In addition, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in mobile banking in Bangladesh.
Mobile financial services were targeted at rural people, but 48 per cent of mobile money users reside in urban areas, according to a study by PI Strategy Consulting in partnership with the CGAP (the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) of World Bank. Another study by the public administration department of the Dhaka University, found that nearly 76 per cent of rickshaw-pullers in Dhaka send money back home to their villages through mobile banking due to its safety and cost efficiency.
Rickshaws are the main means of transportation in Dhaka. Most of them send money to their rural home via mobile banking. Image by Mohammad Asad. Copyright Demotix (6/11/2013)
70 per cent of mobile banking customers who send money in Bangladesh use mobile money transfer service Bkash, a Brac Bank subsidiary. Moreover, BKash's technology allows 98 per cent of the country's mobile users to access its service via very basic handsets. So you hear the phase “Bkash me” frequently in Bangladesh. CGAP tweeted:
“bKash me!” That's what #mobilemoney users are saying in #Bangladesh. Watch the video w/ Kamal Quadir of #Bkash: http://t.co/RRgjJMOqCM
— CGAP (@CGAP) August 4, 2014
According to a study conducted by MicroSave with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, most mobile payment agents in Bangladesh are making profits. Mobile banking has also increased the amount of remittance from expatriates, eliminating traditional middlemen or hundi traders. Aaron Oliver tweeted:
Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain are largest senders to #bangladesh record remit year. #mobilemoney impact. http://t.co/OhyDB7hMbc
— Aaron Oliver (@aaronHSL) July 5, 2013
bKash is one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile money platforms, reaching more than 10 million Bangladeshi users, notes Isabel Whisson.
bKash – fastest growing #mobilemoney platform in world: Making #Remittances Easier in #Bangladesh http://t.co/J8g4xV0uYe @BRACworld
— Isabel Whisson (@IsabelWhisson) August 18, 2014
Not only sending money, mobile money creates an opportunity to make shopping transactions. Maria May tweeted:
buy cricket tickets with #mobilemoney in #bangladesh! What next? #scalefrugal http://t.co/LuL9jqKebt
— Maria May (@MariaMayhem523) January 22, 2014
A large number of people are already benefiting from mobile financial services in Bangladesh, but only 3 per cent have an account. As a result, the transaction does not contain the customer's complete information. Mr. Pial Islam, a researcher from PI Strategy Consulting, told BBC Bangla that if the complete information of a customer were available, it may create security risks and pave the way for fraudulent transactions, risking the economy. Jhalmoori blog quotes from the study by PI Strategy Consulting in partnership with the CGAP:
52% mobile banking transactions are Pure OTC which means this sender and receiver none have the mobile bank account whereas only 3% transaction are Pure Wallet which means both the sender and receiver have the mobile bank account. It increases the opportunity of misusing mobile banking facilities.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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What Drives Blasphemy Charges in the Middle East? (It’s Not Just Religion) · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Cartoon in support of Jabeur Mejri, by Fey
Mauritanian blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed was sentenced to death by firing squad on December 24, 2014, for an online article he published over a year ago. This is Mauritania's first death sentence for apostasy since independence in 1960.
In the article entitled “Religion, religiosity and craftsmen,” Cheikh criticised his country’s discriminatory caste system, linking it to what he identified as similar practices from the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. But he was accused of insulting the prophet.
“[Cheikh’s case] is merely an attempt to muzzle anyone who questions a system based on oppression by using religion as an instrument,” tweeted Mauritanian anti-slavery and racism activist Saidou Wane.
The 28-year-old man appears to be yet another victim of a repressive government in a majority Muslim country that deploys “apostasy” and “blasphemy” pretexts to crack down on those who call for reforms or speak out on political issues. By sentencing Mohamed Cheikh to death, Mauritanian authorities claim that it is Islam or Prophet Muhammad that they are trying to protect. But it is more likely that this punishment will serve only to protect the ruling regime from further political criticism.
Commenting on Cheikh's case, journalist Brian Whitaker, author of the book Arabs Without God, writes that religion has become a “political weapon” in Mauritania:
The strange thing about laws against apostasy and blasphemy is that most of the people who fall foul of them are neither apostates nor intentional blasphemers. In practice these laws have very little to do with theology and are mostly used as a pretext for settling political scores or pursuing personal grudges.
Whitaker indeed points to a broader trend across the Arab world. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, which differ widely both politically and culturally, have seen similar cases in recent years.
Under a theocratic system of government, like that of Saudi Arabia, the lines that separate the religious from the political are blurred. As a result, those who question the status quo or criticize the authorities can face serious accusations on religious (not political) grounds.
How does a regime get rid of political opponents and critics in countries where religion plays an important role in the lives of the majority? One way is to throw them in jail and say they insulted Islam and its Prophet. That way (almost) no one will come to their rescue.
Raif Badawi campaign image by Amnesty International.
Last spring, Saudi Arabia sentenced blogger Raif Badawi to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for “insulting Islam” after he launched Saudi Liberals, a website hosting content critical of the country’s senior religious figures and its religious police. The site did not focus on Islam per se, but rather on specific political and religious figures and their actions. Nevertheless, Badawi was convicted of “insulting Islam.”
Saudi women's rights activist Souad al-Shammari posted tweets critical of her country’s male guardianship system, whereby a woman must have the permission of a male guardian to engage in various aspects of her life such as travel, work, and marriage. She stands accused of mocking religious texts and religious scholars.
In Tunisia, which does not have laws that criminalize blasphemy or apostasy, Internet users Jabeur Mejri and Ghazi Beji were sentenced in 2012 to seven and half years in prison over the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons on the web. It is worth noting that Mejri and Beji were ordinary Internet users — they were not political activists.
Beji was spared imprisonment as he fled the country before his arrest. However, Mejri spent two years in prison before he was released earlier this year when the former interim President Moncef Marzouki pardoned him.
“Blasphemy is not a crime. Freedom of choice is very clear in the Quran; it says ‘let there be no compulsion in religion,’” Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist Ennahdha Movement in Tunisia, said at an event in Washington D.C. in June 2013.
But Ghannouchi made this statement in Washington D.C. — not in Tunisia. Why didn’t Ghannouchi say “blasphemy is a not a crime” when Mejri was thrown in jail or when his party proposed a law to criminalize “insults to the Sacred”? Along with self-proclaimed Tunisian seculars’ and ‘leftists, Ghannouchi did not speak out in favor of Mejri’s release for fear of a backlash from a conservative population and turning away potential voters.
These governments also seem to ignore the fact that while Islam does not encourage blasphemy, it does tolerate it. In fact, the Quran does not prescribe a punishment for it.
Prophet Muhammad and his early followers faced persecution and ill-treatment by their contemporaries, including insults, mockery and defamation. But the Quran instructed them to be patient and simply turn away from blasphemous conversations, rather than to condemn them.
…And you will surely hear from….those who associate much abuse with Allah. But if you are patient and fear Allah – indeed, that is the matter [worthy] of determination. [chapter 3, verse 186]
And when you see those who engage in [offensive] discourse concerning Our verses, then turn away from them until they enter into another discourse. [chapter 6, verse 68]
It is the same for apostasy. The Quran does not prescribe any worldly punishment for those who decide to convert from Islam to another religion or no religion at all. “Let there be no compulsion in religion” and “the truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills – let him believe; and whoever wills – let him disbelieve,” the Quran states.
It seems clear in the Quran that apostasy and blasphemy do not require punishments such as the death penalty or lashing — yet authorities in countries like Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to do the opposite. It seems the motive is more rooted in politics than religion.
“Arab rulers act as if Islam is in danger…maybe they are afraid of the collapse of their thrones,” Tunisian blogger Khaoula Frehcichi wrote in a blog post. “They know very well that criticising the religious institution is the first step to unsettle their regimes.”

author: Afef Abrougui


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Your Guide to Sri Lanka’s 2015 Presidential Election · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sri Lankan election commission workers carry ballot boxes while escorted by police on the eve of presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila KarunaRathne. Copyright Demotix (7/1/2015)
Sri Lankans are going to the polls on Thursday, January 8, in one of the most closely contested, significant presidential elections in the nation's history.
Every six years, Sri Lanka elects a new president and legislature. The parliament has 225 members, elected to six-year terms. It is a multi-party system, dominated by two political groups. There are 15 million eligible voters in Sri Lanka and over 12,000 polling stations have been set for elections. Voter turnout in the previous election was around 75 percent.
In the 2010 presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa of United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won with 58 percent of the vote. Shortly after being elected, Rajapaksa successfully amended the constitution to concentrate political power in the presidency, and remove term limits on the office. This time, Rajapaksa has preponed the elections, holding them two years ahead of schedule. Rajapaksa, the region's longest-serving leader, will try for a third term, amidst criticisms that he abuses his authority and seeks a dynasty.
Police can even shoot to the head if any body attempts poll rigging -Election Commissioner #PresPollSL
— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) January 7, 2015
Legal action can be taken against Private sector employers who don't give leave for workers to vote – EC #PresPollSL pic.twitter.com/hApOvbWFLW
— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) January 7, 2015
The actors
Rajapaksa has the backing of a number of small constituent parties of the UPFA, including the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, and Communist Party. He has the support of the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena. Rajapaksa's platform, titled “Mahinda's Vision—The World Winning Path“, pledges to introduce an entirely new constitution within a year.
Supporters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa cheer during an election campaign rally in Palmadulla, Sri Lanka. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (3/1/2015)
Rajapakse has actively campaigned alongside celebrities like sporting Bollywood megastar Salman Khan, creating no small amount of buzz. Touring the former war zone in the country's North, Khan urged minority Tamils to back Rajapakse in the election, calling him the “known devil”.
Rajapakse's chief opponent and former health minister, Maithripala Sirisena, is a surprise pick by the United National Party, the main opposition party, which is backed by twelve smaller parties. The remaining seventeen candidates are independents or belong to minor political parties.  UNP only revealed Sirisena's nomination on November 21, 2014, after the election was announced.
Sirisena released his platform, titled “A Compassionate Maithri Governance—A Stable Country“, which pledged to abolish the country's presidential government within 100 days of being elected. Under a new parliamentary system, Sirisena says he would appoint UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe as prime minister.
A fantastic infographic on the Rajapaksa empire. Or how one family rules Sri Lanka. http://t.co/qC8UDoBh4S
— Venkat Ananth (@venkatananth) January 5, 2015
Sirisena has launched a campaign attacking Rajapaksa where he is weakest: the President's apparent nepotism. During Rajapaksa's presidency, his three brothers and his son have all risen to positions of considerable influence in the national government.
Maithripala Sirisena, it's worth noting, took a great risk when he left the Rajapaksa Administratiojn. Indeed, the Asian Human Rights Commission recently expressed concern about his personal safety, noting that he's suffered several attempted attacks over the past several days.
Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena reads a newspaper during a campaign rally for the upcoming presidential elections in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (31/12/2014)
Use of social media
#IVotedSL is a trilingual campaign launched by Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) to encourage citizens to exercise their voting rights.
Image courtesy CMEV. Copyright Free.
The campaign calls on voters to take a public pledge that they will exercise their right to vote on January 8th. An individual can signify this pledge by changing their profile/account picture and cover/banner page on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media platform. On election day those who take the pledge can share through social media a picture of the fifth digit (little finger) of their left hand which is marked with indelible ink using the hashtag #IVotedSL.
President Rajapaksa's quite active Twitter account has 92,600 followers. According to an analysis by Groundviews, however, large numbers of these subscribers and admirers might be less than organic.
According to blogger Indi Samarajiwa:
The dominant hashtag for this election is, by far, #PresPollSL (best source for news, in my opinion). CMEV recommends #IVotedSL for voting related stuff.
Samarajiwa also analyses the Facebook engagement of both the campaigns. He concludes that Sirisena's readers seem to engage far more with the campaign's content, despite the fact that Rajapakse has almost twice as many followers.
#IVotedSL infographic: How to vote #PresPollSL #lka #srilanka Please go vote on the 8th, and mark it correctly! pic.twitter.com/C00De6WNL0
— Groundviews (@groundviews) January 7, 2015
Irregularities and violence
Supporters of Sri Lanka's ruling party have faced accusations of violating election laws during campaign. The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) identifies an “unparalleled misuse [by the ruling party] of state resources and media”. According to Human Rights Watch, local monitoring groups have reported numerous acts of election-related violence and intimidation during the month-long campaign.
So far fake ballot papers found from Ratnapura and Trincomalee districts.#lka #PrespollSL
— Mandana Abeywickrema (@Mandana_IA) January 7, 2015
A distinct run on supermarkets on election eve, people stocking up #PresPollSL pic.twitter.com/Be7BcTrLoV
— dharisha (@tingilye) January 7, 2015
Human rights activist Prasanga Fernando who was sent a severed head of a dog the other day receives a death threat today. #PresPollSL #lka
— w ι к ι f я є α к z™ (@AjnabhiiTweets) January 7, 2015
Army personnels are distrubuting leaflets indicating not to vote – north #lka #SriLanka #PresPoll
— Nirosh (@harindrapns) January 7, 2015
Resources
According to the latest opinion survey by the Centre of Policy Analysis (CPA), 86.9 percent of Sri Lankans think their vote can make a difference in the outcome of the presidential election. Let's hope everyone can exercise their voting rights peacefully!

author: Rezwan


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A New Era Begins for Sri Lanka After President Mahinda Rajapaksa Concedes Defeat · Global Voices
Rezwan

Supporters of Sri Lanka's main opposition presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena burst firecrackers at the end of voting in the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
On Friday morning, Sri Lankans woke up to news that was unthinkable only a few weeks ago — President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who took office on 19 November 2005, conceded defeat to 63-year-old former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, the presidential candidate of the main opposition United National Party.
The day before, Sri Lankan voters had cast their ballot in the 7th presidential election in a closely contested presidential election, with incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking a record third term in office. The election was largely peaceful and turnout was more than 70 per cent in most districts.
Rajapaksa tweeted on 9 January, after it was clear he had lost the vote:
I value and respect our democratic process and the people’s verdict, and look forward to the peaceful transition of power. -MR
— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) January 9, 2015
The early results showed that Rajapaksa remained popular among the country's Sinhala Buddhist population, who account for around 70 per cent of the island country's 21 million people. Sirisena was favoured by the ethnic Tamil-dominated former war zone in the north of the country and in Muslim-dominated areas, who went out in large numbers to vote for him.
A screenshot from news portal Adaderana.lk shows the numbers (final results):
Screenshot from Adaderana.lk
Rajapaksa oversaw the end of a bloody civil war in 2009 that had raged for 26 years between government forces and a militant organisation seeking an independent Tamil state. He was reelected in 2010 by a landslide, and afterward successfully amended the constitution to concentrate political power in the presidency and remove term limits on the office. While in power, he has faced accusations of abuse of power, nepotism and human rights violations committed during the final stages of the civil war.
Blogger Indrajit Samarajiva, often a critic of the Rajapaksa government, paid tribute to his legacy:
Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown me things I never thought possible. He ended a war that I thought would never end. He rebuilt Colombo and showed us physical development I never dreamed of. For all of his faults, he has won me over as a citizen. I think he has been a good President, in my opinion Sri Lanka’s best, especially because he is the first President to lose an election and gracefully leave.
I have always been reluctant to call Mahinda a dictator because I never thought he was. As much as he messed with Parliament, with the Judiciary, he was always close with the people and he rose and fell by the vote. He was elected to power, he marshalled popular support to win the war and, in the end, he was brave enough to face election for a third time. Most importantly, and something we’ve never seen from an incumbent, he was brave enough to gracefully lose.
He has truly been a great leader and, though I voted for his opponent, I think he deserves something Sri Lanka hasn’t really afforded its leaders. A comfortable, honored and secure position as the respected and beloved ex-President of Sri Lanka.
Some commenters disagreed with Samarajiva's view on Rajapaksa time as president, such as Reshan Auston:
While we carry the respect for Mahinda for winning the war, I have no respect for him for looting the country. As a leader he failed the country. He had all the opportunity to be the Nelson Mandela of Sri Lanka but instead he decided to be Sadam Hussain. He looted the country with his brothers while his sons enjoyed the life using poor tax payers money. We couldn’t get our day to day activities done at government offices without political influences. Is this the leader we care about?
As a president he failed after finishing the war. I don’t harbour any remorse for his loss. He deserved what he got. I don’t wanna shed crocodile tear.
Sri Lankan polling officers carry ballot boxes into a counting center after the close of polling for the presidential election in Colombo. Image by Chamila Karunarathne. Copyright Demotix (8/1/2015)
Dilrukshi Handunnetti wrote on citizen journalism website Groundviews on why Sri Lankans sought a change:
It is not as if Maithripala Sirisena, a simple villager who has risen within the SLFP ranks to reach top positions, holds the island enthralled. Instead, what he represents in terms of ideas and promises, matter to a large majority of the people who have silently observed an elected president turn increasingly authoritarian and triumphalist. [..]
There may be others who feel that while road and rail connectivity was being achieved, the incumbency has severed connectivity among the island’s communities that lived in harmony for decades, causing serious divisions on ethno-religious lines.
It is that negative difference that has fuelled an electorate’s call for a political change, perhaps at great risk, still with the hope that a new administration may have the political maturity to tolerate dissent and celebrate a plural Sri Lankan identity.
The social media scene was full of buzz:
Welcome, President @MaithriNextPres. Well done, #My3 camp! You've ridden on hopes & dreams of 21 million. #PresPollSL pic.twitter.com/240KL5Ohjv
— Nalaka Gunawardene (@NalakaG) January 9, 2015
Sri Lanka's election results shows how much everyone wanted Rajapaksa out. Many Tamils went out to vote and the results speak for themselves
— Varun Manian (@Varunmanian) January 9, 2015
It was the Minority who sent Mahinda Rajapakasa home! Dont forget that! We owe a lot to the minorities of Sri Lanka! #PresPollSL #lka
— Sanjaya Wijeratne (@skwijeratne) January 9, 2015
Hats off to the coolest Election Commissioner! Much respect for the way he conducted the elections. #PresPollSL pic.twitter.com/wC1gtrmCbE
— Chapa Perera (@chapa_perera91) January 9, 2015
The blood of Tamils, tears of Muslim and the love and courage of Sinhalese ! We have achieved something together #PresPollSL #lka
— Phil rαмpυe↘ (@philgrit) January 9, 2015
President-elect Maithripala Sirisena will be sworn in to office before SC Judge this evening at Independence Square #PresPollSL
— dharisha (@tingilye) January 9, 2015
Sri Lanka's free and fair elections were congratulated by many:
Mahinda Rajapaksa deserves to be complimented for free and fair poll, peaceful transition. Congratulations Sri Lanka.
— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) January 9, 2015
And here is what Sri Lankans are hoping for the future:
Maithripala starts work tomorrow. This is his plan for the next 100 days. I added some Bootstrap to it http://t.co/Fu47UXEdCT #PresPollSL
— Indi Samarajiva (@indica) January 9, 2015
The new generation of Sri Lanka will shape up the country. New media and the vote will be their sword & shield. #PresPollSL
— Udara Dharmasena (@udaraumd) January 9, 2015


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A Year of Offline and Online Activism in Bolivia · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Spraying the “Percy Flies” courtesy La Pública.
The following post gathers and adapts information curated in a Storify by La Pública, a citizen journalism and digital activism platform in Bolivia, and is used with permission.
Throughout 2014, La Pública has been documenting key events in activism happening around Bolivia, both online and offline, related to protests, campaigns, and other topics of discussion in the digital space. These are some of the highlights from their Storify summary.
In Solidarity with Cartoonist
A cartoon (see the image here) by Alejandro Salazar (better known as Al-Azar) printed in the La Razón newspaper caused some discontent among social groups, mining cooperatives, and musical groups, forcing the local newspaper office in the city of Oruro to close its doors. Those offended demanded an apology from the newspaper because they felt that the cartoonist's drawing depicting tragic events that took place during Carnival when a foot bridge collapsed, killing five people, had made light of the situation.
The drawing depicted a Carnival band replaced by a band comprised of skeletons, which comments on how a festive occasion had become an event marked by tragedy. In the face of social pressure, the newspaper distanced itself from the drawing and issued an apology, a move seen by some as censorship or limiting freedom of expression. Other cartoonists and netizens began speaking out in support of the cartoonist. Bolivian artists joined the campaign, creating artwork in support of Al-Azar, which was collected in an e-book and a published version. The support also carried over onto Twitter (@TodosConAlAzar) and a Facebook page, which has since closed.
Todos Con Al Azar by La Pública – Bolivia
The Sexual-Harassing Mayor
Current Santa Cruz Mayor Percy Fernández had been caught time and time again on camera sexually harassing women and being unapologetic about his behavior. The latest incident took place at a ceremony in April 2014, where the mayor placed his hand on the knee of a female journalist.. When she removed his hand without drawing too much attention to the situation, the mayor insulted her and called her a tease, which was caught on tape.
The video was broadcast on the national news and led to an outpouring of support for the journalist, as well as a wave of disgust against the mayor. The hashtag #RechazoALosPercyMoscas (Rejecting the Percy Flies) made the rounds, drawing attention to this and other cases in which Fernández had behaved inappropriately. He eventually issued a public apology, and has announced that he is running for re-election.
Bolivian Health Minister Reveals Private Information on Government Opponent
In a December 2014 press conference, Bolivian Minister of Health Juan Carlos Calvimontes revealed the private health details, including the specific diseases, of a former judge considered to be an opponent of the government, who is now on trial, accused by the government of uncompleted duties. The judge (whose name will not be published here) said that the revelations were politically motivated and that the statements even caused some family members to act differently around the judge, since the family was previously unaware of the health status.
The minister defended his statements, saying that the public had the right to know in order to “protect” themselves from the former judge. Using the hashtag #FueraCalvimontes (Get Out, Calvimontes), netizens called for the Calvimontes’ resignation or for his removal by President Evo Morales, who later publicly expressed his regret over Calvimontes’ statements. Nevertheless, Morales reiterated his support for the minister.
Twitter user Orange (@vpmendi) wrote:
#Calvimontes dijo la verdad rompiendo la ley y destruyendo una vida. El presi lo ratifica y a mi no me cabe un milímetro más de asco.
#Calvimontes told the truth while breaking the law and destroying a life. The president stood by him and there's no room for a millimeter more of disgust.
Exposing Chauvinist Candidates
During the presidential and congressional elections, a series of questionable statements and actions by several candidates demonstrated a pattern of chauvinistic attitudes and behaviors. Most controversial was a declaration by senatorial candidate for the MAS Party, Dr. Ciro Zabala, responding to a question on how to stop the wave of violence against women:
Debemos enseñar a las mujeres a cómo comportarse para no ser objetos y que sea atractivo el objeto para producir muchos de los conflictos que se producen. Ciertos tipos de vestimenta, ciertos tipos de actitudes, a personas que se dedican al alcohol, personas que están borrachas, y lo vemos frecuentemente en muchos de los festivales y demás, van a ser obviamente, con mayor probabilidad atacadas, y van a cometer delitos con ellas
We should teach women how to behave themselves in order to not be objects and to not be the object of attraction that leads to many of the conflicts that take place. Certain types of dress, certain types of attitudes, people who are involved with alcohol, people who are drunk, and we frequently see them at many festivals and other events, they are obviously going to be attacked with greater probability, and they will commit crimes with them.
This was one of the statements that caught the attention of netizens, who started to use the hashtag #MachistasFueradelaLista (Chauvinists removed from the candidate list). Another candidate, Jaime Navarro of the Unidad Nacional (UN) party, ultimately resigned as congressional candidate because it was revealed he had been accused of domestic violence.
Just Say No to Nuclear Energy
When President Morales announced that Bolivia would begin a nuclear energy project for peaceful purposes, many netizens expressed their concern, calling for more studies and even a public referendum on the issue. Several public forums took place in major cities. A Facebook Page called “NO a La Energía Nuclear en Bolivia” (NO to Nuclear Energy in Bolivia) and a group “Digamos No a Central Nuclear En Bolivia” (Let's Say No to Nuclear Power Plant in Bolivia) updated followers with current news on the subject, including the announcement that a Nuclear Energy Agency had been created.
Presenting the Digital Agenda to Candidates
Through a collaborative effort on social media and other digital platforms, citizens put together a “digital agenda” that was submitted to candidates running in the elections held in October 2014. The initiative, which was a project of the citizen group Mas y Mejor Internet – Bolivia (More and Better Internet – Bolivia), collected proposals from all across the country submitted by ordinary citizens and housed them on an online portal.
These proposals included improvements in the Internet infrastructure, considered to be the most expensive and slowest on average in the region, as well as greater attention to how ICTs are used in education. Videos from the various public events were uploaded to YouTube, and updates were shared on its Twitter account (@AgendaDigitalBO).
The final document was presented officially to a variety of candidates in public ceremonies. In addition, the campaign asked netizens to “challenge” candidates by submitting a video and asking “Candidate, what do you think about free and open knowledge and technology?”
Other Campaigns
Other campaigns included #DespenalizaciónDelAbortoYa (Decriminalization of Abortion Now), which included a September 28 march and online campaign calling for the legalization of abortion.
Netizens in Santa Cruz were concerned that trees were being indiscriminately cut throughout the city. Also in Santa Cruz, protests over the planned use of the area surrounding the Christ the Redeemer statue by the MAS party for their campaign caught on among social media users with the hashtags #SePrendioElMechero (The Lighter Was Ignited) and #SantaCruzSeRespeta (Santa Cruz Is Respected), even though the same spot was utilized by other political groups in the past.
Events happening around the world also became a concern to Bolivians, with demonstrations and online communication in support of the people of Gaza. They also demonstrated in front of the Mexican embassy and displayed solidarity by joining in with the hashtag #AyotzinapaSomosTodos (We Are All Ayotzinapa). The urban art collective Arterias Urbanas produced this video from their protest in the main plaza of Santa Cruz in support for the families of the 43 disappeared students.

author: Eduardo Avila


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AIDS Activist Freed After Kidnapping in Honduras · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

Keren Jemima Dunaway González, a teenage Honduran Aids activist who was abducted in the city of San Pedro Sula on Tuesday has been released.
Three unidentified men grabbed Keren, 18, with her mother near the offices of the Llaves Foundation, which helps children with AIDS. González, the head of Llaves, was freed, but Keren remains captive.
Police said her captors had asked for ransom but had released her after her mother assured them the family had no money.
San Pedro Sula remains one of the most violent cities in the world and has the world's highest homicide rate at 187 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2014.

author: Mary Aviles


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Asian Cup 2015 Opener: Australia 4, Kuwait 1 After Poor Start by Hosts · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Rectangular stadium Melbourne – Courtesy flickr user Princess Purple (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Australia has defeated Kuwait 4-1 in the opening game of the Asian Cup 2015 at Melbourne's rectangular stadium.
When Kuwait scored early in the game, some Socceroos fans were ready to blame the coach Ange Postecoglou:
#SackAnge #GoSocceroos #AUSvKUW #AC2015
— RunnaLittle (@RunnaLittle) January 9, 2015
After veteran Tim Cahill evened up, Aussies on the #AC2015 Twitter hashtag became more optimistic:
GOAL! @Tim_Cahill levels it! AUS 1 KUW 1 (33′) #AUSvKUW
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) January 9, 2015
Looks like Australia is a football nation afterall. Beautiful scenes in Melbourne for the #AC2015. #AUSvKUW
— John Smith (@sydneyfcinsider) January 9, 2015
By half time, some humour had emerged amongst sports fans. One tennis fan tweeted:
Roger Federer was in a hurry beating Duckworth, must be keen to watch the 2nd half of Socceroos vs Kuwait #BrisbaneTennis #AUSvKUW #AC2015
— Wahyu (@thewahaman) January 9, 2015
During the break, the account Open Stadiums captured an aspect of the sport where there isn't an even playing field, namely women's participation:
We appreciate any act of solidarity with Iranian women football fans during @afcasiancup #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/ZODiXojxRF
— OpenStadiums (@openStadiums) January 9, 2015
Meanwhile after recent extreme temperatures, Melbourne was putting on a more traditional wet welcome:
Lights at @AAMIPark are green & gold after the 4-1 win #GoSocceroos #AC2015 #AUSvKUW
— Dave (@Davep1984) January 9, 2015
Time Cahill and the official Asian Football Confederation were in agreement after the match:
Who was your man of the match? #AC2015 #AUSvKUW pic.twitter.com/uyqTSt6xHC
— TNC Asia (@TNC__Asia) January 9, 2015
MAN OF THE MATCH: @MassLuongo. #AUSvKUW #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/cetaD2ibYj
— AFC Asian Cup (@afcasiancup) January 9, 2015
AFC's Arabic Twitter account summed up the game:
أستراليا 4 : 1 الكويت ” إنتهت ” ـ إحصائيات المباراة: #AUSvKUW #AC2015 pic.twitter.com/zwuMn9yxRC
— ASIAN CUP 2015 (@ASIANCUP_LIVE) January 9, 2015
Australia 4 : Kuwait 1 – “Final” match statistics

author: Kevin Rennie


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Australian Police Arrest Activist Wearing ‘I’m With Stupid’ T-Shirt · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

I'm With Stupid – image courtesy Judi Jabour @judi_jabour tweet
In Queensland, Australia, online activist Iain Fogerty, who runs a parody Twitter account of the state premier, was arrested and “charged with public nuisance” after standing next to campaigners in Brisbane during the first week of the state election campaign.
Fogerty pokes fun at Queensland State Premier Campbell Newman with his @can_do_campbell account, imitating the politician for humour and satire.
Wayne Jansson aka @Jansant, an Australian citizen journalist and photographer, summed up the feelings of many on social media about the arrest on 8 January 2015:
On a day of international solidaity behind free speech, Campbell Newman's police arrest a man 4 wearing a T-shirt LNP didn't like #qldvotes
— Jansant (@Jansant) January 8, 2015
@EnviroStudent also made the connection with the tragic events in Paris and the @JeSuisCharlie hashtag:
#JeSuisAvecStupide #imwithstupid #qldpol pic.twitter.com/EJ3sL7HyKV
— Je Suis Avec Stupide (@EnviroStudent) January 8, 2015
Fogerty was waving next to a group of people campaigning for the governing Liberal National Party when he was arrested, the Guardian reported:
Queensland man arrested for waving next to LNP campaigners in ‘I’m with stupid’ T-shirt http://t.co/PSuGNOhQw0 and #imwithstupid trending
— Mari R (@randlight) January 8, 2015
It was no surprise that the #imwithstupid hashtag has trended on Twitter.
Inevitably, Campbell Newman became the butt of Photoshop parody:
#ImWithStupid @theqldpremier pic.twitter.com/FiTfFkwJsI
— Alassin Sane (@Lone_Deranger_) January 8, 2015
The premier is wearing the cap:
Looks like those #imwithstupid t-shirts are everywhere. Thanks to @ozbryster pic.twitter.com/ljmQ6qLl0Z
— Anne Carlin (@sacarlin48) January 8, 2015
Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart found himself defending his colleagues actions:
We take appropriate action if individuals break the law. Court decides the lawfulness & consequences. Our focus- keep u safe. @PaulTully
— Ian Stewart (@CoPStewart) January 8, 2015
Earlier in the day he had tweeted:
Again lives lost in attack on our freedoms b criminals in Paris. We can never b complacent! Thoughts with our French colleagues. @QPSmedia
— Ian Stewart (@CoPStewart) January 7, 2015
This image from Atom Smasher was tweeted several times:
Stupid T-shirt sign – courtesy Atom Smasher (atomsmasher.org/construction)
Anyway, as another cliché puts it: “If you didn't laugh, you'd cry!”


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British Islamist Anjem Choudary Doesn’t Represent All Muslims (Someone Tell USA Today) · Global Voices
Jillian C. York

Image uploaded by Twitter user @MlleMaaandy, a communications student at Université d'Avignon.
Right now, the media community—and much of the world—is mourning the deaths of twelve individuals at the hands of masked gunmen. The attack on the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris has sparked a number of divergent discussions about free speech, hate speech, and the “clash of civilizations.”
On Thursday, USA Today—the second-most widely-circulated newspaper in the United States—published an op-ed by Anjem Choudary, a British Islamist who supports Sharia law in the UK has often been called an extremist by his fellow countrymen. In it, Choudary chose to speak for his 1.6 billion co-religionists, stating: “Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression, as their speech and actions are determined by divine revelation and not based on people's desires.”
The idea of Choudary speaking for all Muslims is laughable, and yet the paper seemed to buy it, presenting his as the only opposing viewpoint to their editorial in support of a free press and in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo. As the Daily Dot’s Patrick Howell O’Neill wrote, “Choudary too often gets a microphone as though he does represent all Muslims [and] many other Muslims are furious about it.”
When I pointed this out on Twitter, USA Today’s Forum editor repeatedly pointed to polling in Muslim countries, as if to suggest that Choudary’s view is indeed not that far from the mainstream.
@jilliancyork We labeled guy radical (see bio). Plenty of pple share his views. Look at polling in Muslim countries on stoning adulterers. — David Mastio (@DavidMastio) January 8, 2015
The thing that shouldn’t need to be said is this: Muslims make up about 23% of the world’s population and live everywhere from the United States to Indonesia. Like Christians or Jews, their piousness varies widely, as do their belief systems and practices. Some Muslims support the liberal idea of freedom of speech, some don’t. Just like everyone else.
In France, Juan Cole writes, only a third of the Muslim population say they are interested in religion. Cole argues that the motivation of terrorists to attack Charlie Hebdo was not to silence journalists per se, but to “sharpen the contradictions” by getting “non-Muslim French to be beastly to ethnic Muslims on the grounds that they are Muslims.”
It seems to be working. Since the Paris attack, there have been a number of retaliatory attacks against Muslims. By presenting Choudary’s odious views as representative of the Muslim population, USA Today is feeding into the increasingly popular narrative of us vs. them. We, the civilized Westerners who merely struck out with pens; they, the savages who can’t handle mere speech.
Of course it’s not that simple. There is nothing that justifies the vicious massacre of journalists…there is also nothing to justify the West’s aggression in the Muslim world. Or to paraphrase an excellent line from a blog post I only partly agree with, it’s worth remembering that “Western Civilization’s mighty pens” aren’t the only missiles pointed at Muslims. Speech does not occur in a vacuum.
I’ve spent the better part of the past decade working in the Arab world with some of the most incredible free speech advocates I’ve ever met, many of whom are Muslim. While they hold diverse views on what constitutes “hate speech,” most of them work from the ethos of “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Friends like Alaa Abd El Fattah have spent time in prison for their speech (while getting slandered by the Western media for it). Most live in countries where censorship has historically been heavy-handed and therefore understand first hand what happens when we pick and choose what’s acceptable speech.
Choudary, on the other hand, has lived in the UK—a country that, while by no means ideal when it comes to rights, offers far more speech rights than his parents’ native Pakistan—his entire life. From his perch there, it’s easy for him to purport to speak on behalf of more than a billion Muslims whose struggles he hardly understands.
Jillian is a writer, activist, researcher, and blogger. She serves as the Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Jillian is also a volunteer representative on the Global Voices Board of Directors.

author: Jillian C. York


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How #EuroMaidan and War with Russia Have Changed Ukraine’s Internet · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

Kyiv, Ukraine. 6th December 2014 — The battalion came to honor the memory of those killed during clashes with police. On the pavement the form of the oil lamps is the Emblem of Ukraine. — Kyiv residents welcomed the 12th Territorial Defense Battalion “Kiev”, who returned on rotation from the zone of the fighting with the pro-Russian separatist operations in the Donbas. Soldiers and residents paid respect to those who lost their lives. Photo by Stas Kozlyuk, © Demotix 2014.
Although many European countries had a rough ride in 2014, no country in Europe can claim to have had a more challenging year than Ukraine. What began as a series of peaceful protests against a government decision that displeased many Ukrainians turned into an international armed conflict with Russia, formerly Ukraine's closest ally, that continues to affect Europe and the rest of the world.
Images and posts found on the Internet about Ukraine and the Crimean conflict have left millions around the world in awe. Global Voices takes a look at how the year-long conflict has changed Internet use in Ukraine.
1. #EuroMaidan
#EuroMaidan (“European Square”) was a popular uprising of citizens against the Yanukovych regime. It became the central event of 2013 in Ukraine both online and offline, lasting well into 2014. Beginning as a series of peaceful pro-European protests against the federal government’s sudden decision to turn away from an Association Agreement with the European Union and turn, instead, toward Russia, EuroMaidan gradually escalated into a full-fledged public uprising that ended with the tragic shooting of protesters in Kyiv, the subsequent flight of Yanukovych, snap presidential and parliamentary elections, and a complete reorientation of Ukraine’s geopolitcal course towards the West.
While the role of social media in Ukraine’s EuroMaidan revolution should not be overestimated, Internet-based technology and social networks undeniably had a large impact. The intial protests were sparked in large part by a Facebook post by a well-known journalist. In EuroMaidan’s early stages, protesters used Facebook to organize and Twitter and YouTube to communicate among themselves, and with the outside world. As a mass movement that's still underway, EuroMaidan has a potent online dimension with activists sharing information, discussing reforms, and still organizing to exert pressure on Ukraine’s new government.
Kyiv, Ukraine. 23rd December 2014 — The Parliament in Kyiv was the scene as activists rallied to voice their demands for the MPs new budget for 2015. Protesters came out against the reduction of social spending, the privatization of state property, and perceived banking tyranny. Photo by Nazar Furyk, © Demotix 2014.
2. Live-streaming the revolution
Live video streaming over the Internet became a key instrument for witnessing remotely Ukraine’s 2013-2014 EuroMaidan protests. The practice grew from sporadic single-user generated live streams in late 2013 to dozens of online channels providing 24/7 live coverage of events at the main protest sites in Kyiv.
After the Yanukovych regime collapsed in late February 2014, Ukrainians continued live-streaming key meetings of activists, as well as other public discussions about the future of Ukraine.
Today, the independent and largely crowdfunded “online television” project Hromadske.TV, popularized by its relentless coverage of EuroMaidan, has firmly established itself as one of Ukraine's premier media outlets. The country's primary state-owned national TV channel has since carried Hromadske.TV more than once.
3. A new government on Facebook
By the spring of 2014, in the aftermath of the violence that took place before Yanukovych's fall, Ukrainians’ trust in public institutions—particularly the police—had plummeted dramatically. In this environment, Facebook became one of the key platforms for discussing ongoing political events in Ukraine. Indeed, several key figures of the interim government took to the website to communicate directly with the public.
Most notably, Ukraine’s new Minister of Interior, Arsen Avakov, has famously posted daily reports about his activities on Facebook. In the uneasy period following Russia's annexation of Crimea and the ongoing fighting in the Donbas, where Russia-backed militants battle Ukrainian troops, Avakov's regular blog posts have enjoyed some success, satisfying the public's demand for greater transparency. (Some commenters, of course, do wonder if a government minister should spend so much time on the Internet.)
Kyiv, Ukraine. 2nd December 2014 — Ukraine, Kyiv. 02/12/2014 Parliament deputies attending the 8th convocation, to announce a new government. — After the opening session, speaker Vladimir Groisman adjourned for consultations. Parliament proceeded with approving a new government. Photo by Oleg Pereverzev, © Demotix 2014.
Avakov isn't alone online. Several other prominent state officials have joined public conversations on the Web, making social media presence a new necessity for Ukraine's high-ranking political figures. Some less prominent authorities are also establishing themselves online. For instance, the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv is encouraging its police to join Facebook, to make law enforcement more accessible to ordinary citizens.
4. Russia-Ukraine online “information warfare”
It's become increasingly difficult to find reliable information about Eastern Ukraine, after Russian's annexation of Crimea and its role supporting the militants now fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk. Often, social media reports from the conflict areas have been the only available firsthand accounts of breaking news stories.
In fact, Internet users were the first to note reports of Russian soldiers posting “selfies” and geotagging themselves in Ukraine, while the Kremlin actively denies it's deployed any troops in Ukraine. Such incidents have prompted the creation of special projects for crowdsourcing citizen reports, in English, Ukrainian, and Russian, about the movement of militia and Russian military forces in Ukraine.
Social media investigations have also focused on the tragic downing of the MH17 airliner over the separatist-controlled territory of Ukraine, providing important evidence of what appears to be the Kremlin’s hand in the attack, prompting a rather clumsy denial from Russia's state-controlled media.
Observers have also noted the rise of organized misinformation campaigns by trained and Kremlin-paid Internet “trolls” tasked with discrediting factual data, while at the same time spreading disinformation to legitimize Russia’s actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. In reaction, independent fact-checking initiatives have launched to reveal false media reports about Ukraine and counter Russian propaganda both in traditional media and on social networks.
5. Soldiers on social media
In the spring of 2014, Russia-backed militant groups in Donetsk and Lugansk seized control of large parts of these regions, leading to an armed conflict with Ukraine’s post-Maidan government.
Given the extreme weakness of the Ukrainian army in comparison to Russian forces, the possibility of separatist tensions spreading to other regions, as well as the threat of a full-scale Russian military invasion, led to the creation of volunteer battalions comprised of volunteer troops and the government's regular soldiers. Maidan self-defense troops and the government's regular soldiers are fighting in the first war of Ukraine's post-Soviet existence. Like their separatist counterparts, Ukraine's combatants have eagerly publicized their experiences via Internet social media.
Some report the bleak conditions of war, often with a grain of humor, while others update their followers about the latest developments at the front lines, typically discussing the needs of the army.
Volnovakha, Ukraine. 28th December 2014 — A soldier sitting in the SUV during the control area. In a few kilometers are territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. — Ukrainian military patrols, and carries out inspections near the border areas that were controlled by terrorists, near the town of Volnovakha, 50 kilometers from Donetsk. Photo by Oleksandr Ratushniak, © Demotix 2014.
Such social media reports have been instrumental in drawing public's attention to the desperate conditions in the military, creating public pressure on the government to provide more support to the army.
For example, during the battle of Ilovaisk—the worst fighting of the entire conflict, so far—volunteer battalion members and their commanders turned to social media, circumventing the government in Kyiv and even contradicting several of its public claims about supposedly having recovered the town. The combatants reported the battle's real casualty figures and demanded reinforcements. This act ultimately prompted the government to open a criminal investigation into the battle's management, which led to the resignation of interim Defense Minister Heletey.
6. Crowdfunding the military
When Russia annexed Crimea, Ukrainians were suddenly made aware of their nation's military disadvantage. Since then, Ukraine's armed forces—led by the Defense Ministry itself—have repeatedly solicited donations from the public, to fund the war effort in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Most donations come through civilian-organized Facebook groups, private online initiatives, and individual volunteers, who post appeals for additional military funding on social networks, sometimes collecting more than $850,000.
The process has given rise to several prominent volunteer initiatives, with President Poroshenko awarding the founders of these organizations; he's even invited key volunteers to become his advisors and participate in reforming Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
7. Internet technology for discussing reforms
In 2014, social media and social networks have also hosted an ongoing discussion about reforming Ukrainian politics and society. After the last parliamentary elections and the formation of the new government in late 2014, many new MPs and government officials have turned to Facebook and other social media platforms to solicit proposals from citizens, search for new personnel, and report their activities. In December, activists even launched a new Internet platform for public discussion of draft legislation in the parliament.

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Panamá Calls for Reconciliation, 25 Years After US Invasion  · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

A U.S. Army M113 armored personnel carrier guards a street near the destroyed Panamanian Defense Force headquarters building during the second day of Operation Just Cause. Photo by J. Elliott, public domain.
Panamá is beginning a process of national reconciliation to heal the wounds left 25 years ago by a US invasion, an event that pits supporters of a military action that officially claimed the lives of 500 people (though human rights organizations put the figure at several thousand) against those who say Panamanians must be compensated.
On December 20, 1989, the United States launched “Operation Just Cause” to execute an arrest warrant against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, once a close US ally, whom a Miami court formally indicted on charges of drug trafficking in 1988. During the operation, the US deployed aircraft and 24,000 troops equipped with highly sophisticated weaponry against a country with an army smaller than the New York City Police Department.
25 years ago today the new “sole superpower” US invaded Panama, killing more people than were killed on 9/11. http://t.co/Eorq4Byqv6
— Dave Winer ☮ (@davewiner) December 20, 2014
Last month, Panamá's President Juan Carlos Varela, the first Panamanian president to chair the tribute in honor of the victims of US military intervention, announced the national reconciliation campaign during the commemoration of the US invasion:
We have appointed Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo so that from this moment we start a serious effort and commitment by the state to national reconciliation and healing the wounds.
The announcement was received with mixed feelings. Many Panamanians have expressed a desire to move on from the nation’s troubled past, while others still condemn Noriega for nearly 100 unsolved murders and disappearances that occurred during his rule.
#Panama remembers 25th anniversary of US invasion, Nation prospering as #Noriega, now 80, sits in prison in homeland http://t.co/J5nCp16kL8
— Christina Hoag (@ChristinaHoag) December 21, 2014
yesterday was 25 yr anniversary of operation “Just Cause,” US invasion to restore democracy to #Panama and keep the canal away from Noriega.
— Eric Farnsworth (@ericfarns) December 21, 2014
That said, the invasion of Panamá left an irrevocable mark on the psyche of the Panamanian people. Some demand a day of national mourning, noting the fact that US has neither issued an apology for the invasion, nor revealed the location of the common graves of those killed by US soldiers.
#LRT: Panama invasion is one of the most senseless and ruthless invasions in US history, even if not as grand in scale
— nu-metal dad (@YakovPettersson) December 27, 2014
The blog Memories from the Invasion quotes Panamanian writer Manuel Orestes Nieto:
La vejación a la patria es una página que no se puede pasar. 25 años después es ya demasiado tiempo; al país se le debe una respuesta a la severa y amarga pregunta que sigue en pie y que es un reproche para el invasor y, quizás, más terrible para nosotros los panameños: ¿Cuántos murieron en la invasión a Panamá?  Los cadáveres volatilizados no se podrán recuperar, pero sí los que fueron tirados a fosas comunes. ¿Cuántos son, quiénes son y dónde están?  Los asesinados no pueden quedar en la bruma y el olvido.
The humiliation of the country is a page that cannot be turned. Twenty-five years is too long. We owe the country a response to the bitter question before the invader that still stands and haunts us: How many died in the invasion of Panama? The volatilized bodies can not be recovered, but we can find the people who were thrown into mass graves. How many are there? Who are they and where are they? The victims can not be left in the fog and oblivion.