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Shelling of a School Where Gazans Had Taken Shelter Kills Women, Children and UN Staff  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A UN-run school in Beit Hanun, serving as a refugee centre for Gazans, was shelled, killing 15 Palestinians and leaving more than 200 injured.
“All of [Hussein]'s family members with him at shelled UN school died. His mother, 2 brothers, sister and stepmother,” tweets @sharifkouddous
Women, children and UN staff were among those killed, according to a statement from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A total of 800 Palestinians have so far been killed and more than 5,200 injured since clashes between Israel and Gaza started 18 days ago.
Israel and the Palestinians are exchanging blame on who hit the school, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza. It is the fourth time in four days that a UN school was struck by explosives, according to the agency. As civilian death tolls mount, Israel’s military says it warned Gazans living in targeted areas to leave, but Palestinians have no where to go.
The vast majority of Gazans cannot leave Gaza. The narrow 40-kilometer-long coastal strip is surrounded by fences and concrete walls along its north and east with Israel and on its south border with Egypt.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010 called Gaza “an open-air prison.” Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank is why most of the world and the United Nations considers this territory “occupied.”
The UNRWA has 83 shelters across Gaza, where 141,338 Palestinian civilians are currently displaced.
The UNRWA reports on its official Twitter account:
In the 3rd such incident, an UNRWA school in Deir Al Balah sheltering approx. 1500 people took a hit from Israeli fire yesterday morning.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 24, 2014
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, who is based in Jerusalem, says Israel knew of where the UNRWA shelter was. In a series of tweets, he explains:
Precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun had been formally given to the Israeli army RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) July 24, 2014
And he adds:
Over the course of the day UNRWA tried 2 coodinate with the Israeli Army a window for civilians 2 leave & it was never granted RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) July 24, 2014
While journalist Kristen Chick, who is in Gaza, tells her more than 19,300 followers what Israeli Defense Forces are saying:
IDF has implied a Hamas rocket may have misfired and hit school at Beit Hanoun. Witnesses described multiple explosions from tank shelling
— Kristen Chick (@kristenchick) July 24, 2014
On Twitter, ITN cameraman Sean Swan shares this heart-breaking photograph of children wounded in the attack while a paramedic treats them:
Scores killed in attack on a school being used as a shelter #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/kAJEefoQvA
— sean swan (@Irishcamera) July 24, 2014
He shares another photograph of a 3-month-old baby being treated after suffering from shrapnel wounds during the attack on the school:
3 Month old Baby with Shrapnel wounds being treated after school being used as Shelter is attacked #gaza. pic.twitter.com/o5FR229Kzt
— sean swan (@Irishcamera) July 24, 2014
Independent journalist Sharif Kouddous shares this photograph with his more than 76,000 followers on Twitter of a young Palestinian, Hussein, who lost his entire family in the attack:
All of Kamal's family members with him at shelled UN school died. His mother, 2 brothers, sister and stepmother pic.twitter.com/vg4vxItbsZ
— Sharif Kouddous (@sharifkouddous) July 24, 2014
This photograph has been retweeted more than 1,200 times at the time of writing.
Many journalists have laid the blame on Israel, doubting its version of events that a Hamas projectile fell on the school. Journalist Deema Khatib tells her more than 280,000 followers:
لا بالله عن جد؟ لهون وصلت؟ قال الجيش الاسرائيلي إنه ليس متأكداً إن كان هو من ضرب مدرسة الأنروا أم حماس! ليكون حماس صار عندها إف١٦ وهيك شغلات
— Dima Khatib أنا ديمة (@Dima_Khatib) July 24, 2014
Seriously? Is this what we are supposed to believe? The IDF says it is not sure whether it has hit the UNRWA school or Hamas! Is it possible that Hamas has F16s and similar weapons?
However, according to NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, the UNRWA says it has “no evidence to suggest” the school was being used by militants as human shields — Israel's excuse to bomb facilities.
In a follow-up tweet, Engel wondered:
IDF suggests Hamas rocket/rockets hit school. it would mean five inaccurate rockets all hit a small location in rapid succession. likely?
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) July 24, 2014
Meanwhile, the death toll across Gaza continues to pile up.
Ahmed Al-Faraa from Gaza tweets to his 5,121 followers:
#Breaking | 6 martyrs including Child and 30 injuries and #Israeli warplanes raids on #GazaStrip #GazaUnderAttack
— Ahmed Al-Farra (@AhmdFarra) July 24, 2014
Omar Ghraieb tells his more than 22,000 followers:
Children r being killed, viciously, every day, latest was Ibrahim Omar, 2.5 years, may he #RIP <3 #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) July 24, 2014
And WhateverInGaza describes the situation as follows:
One thng Israel is practicing & enjoying is attacking many areas by different weaponry at the same minute. #GazaUnderAttack #terroistisrael
— WhateverInGaza (@WhateverInGaza) July 24, 2014

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Iraq Moves Toward a New Government With Fouad Masoum’s Election as President · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Kurdish Fouad Masoum has been elected as the new president of Iraq. Source: @RadawEnglish (Twitter)
Iraq finally has a new president. Fouad Masoum, a 76-year-old Kurdish politician, has been elected to the post, following a deadlock over forming a new government since elections in April.
The appointment aims to create a new government to counter the Sunni insurgency in western Iraq, which has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) since the terrorist group took over Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and its surroundings, last month.
London-based Iraqi Chatham House associate fellow Hayder al-Khoei tweets:
Fouad Masoum won 211 votes in 2nd round of voting. He will be Iraq's next President.
— Hayder al-Khoei (@Hayder_alKhoei) July 24, 2014
Mustafa Kadhum, also based in London, explains:
Electing the kurdish politician Fouad Masoum as #Iraq president may ease political tension between Baghdad & kurdistan regional gov
— Mustafa Kadhum (@mustafakadhum) July 24, 2014
Meanwhile, Iraqi journalist Mina Al-Oraibi, who has 19.6K followers on Twitter, comments:
While Presidency in Iraq is largely ceremonial,it is important for what's left of national sentiment&what little vision there is for country
— Mina Al-Oraibi (@AlOraibi) July 24, 2014
But Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt welcomes the move. He tweets to his 307K followers:
I warmly welcome election of Fouad Masum Hawrami as new President of Iraq. Should pave way for inclusive and broadly based government.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) July 24, 2014
The next hurdle for Iraq is an agreement on who the next prime minister for Iraq to replace Nouri Almalki should be.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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Indian Prime Minister Modi’s First Budget Promises Lots of Change, Including an Expensive New Statue · Global Voices
Nikhil Dhingra

New Finance Minister of India Arun Jaithly, in the Narendra Modi-lead NDA government, arriving at Parliament house to present the general budget for the year 2014-15. Image by Ranjan Basu. Demotix (10/7/2014)
Narendra Modi has unveiled his first budget as India’s new prime minister for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. This was India’s first glimpse at the type of leader he intends to become, and while some are applauding his plans for India's development, others aren't happy with the inclusion of a ‘wasteful’ $34-million statue.
When Modi was first elected to serve as India’s prime minister a few months ago, he promised the country that important political issues would be tackled. These changes included creating jobs for all Indian youth, expanding India's industry, and encouraging foreign investment. With a prediction of 1 million people entering the job market each month over the next 15 years, about 12 million jobs per year, Modi's government has high expectations to significantly increase India's industry in order to allow this growth to occur.
However, up until July 10, 2014, when his budget was released, the majority of those promises were solely vocalized during Modi’s campaign trail. Mayank Jain at Youth Ki Awaaz opines, “The budget is government’s show of commitment to things which could definitely come much lower in our list of priorities.”
In a nutshell, the budget detailed plans with a general theme of drastically increasing India’s annual growth both economically and agriculturally through practices such as implementing a more uniform national sales tax and increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio (in light of the recent task force created by Modi charged with locating India’s black money). In addition, Modi announced the construction of numerous infrastructure projects such as railways, airports, and roads, which he promised to build during his campaign trial.
The budget showed the world that he intended to bring the change to India that he promised to during the campaign trail. Subsequently, there were numerous mixed reactions throughout social media regarding different aspects of Modi’s budget. Some felt that the budget illustrated the progress that Modi promised during the campaign trail, while others believed that there were certain aspects of the budget which were unnecessary and a waste of funds.
For example, the budget detailed plans to begin the construction of the world's tallest statue in Gujarat, India, where Modi formerly served as governor. The statue, called the “Statue of Unity,” was set to be about 600 feet tall and feature a museum along with an underwater aquarium. While Modi’s budget stated that the construction of the statue would cost about $34 million, a report from Scroll India states that the construction could cost up to $415 million.
According to Modi, “The taller the statue will be, the more India will be known at the global stage.” Half a billion dollars certainly isn't pocket money, and for a country that strives to become more developed, there are a more than a few people who are unhappy with the decision.
Being Indian, a blog which strives to give a firsthand perspective of being from India, feels that the construction of the statue is simply a way for Indian politicians to profit off of its failure:
The politicians and builders stand to gain though. So who are we to stop them from milking the nation dry?! We all know what’s gonna happen. This monument will take years to build, after which it’ll start cracking or even collapsing due to use of substandard materials. More money will be pumped into the project in the name of repairs. And it won’t stand a chance against the Statues of Liberty and the Eiffel Towers of the world.
However, there are some Indians such as Satvik Patel, a doctor from Mumbai, take pride in the statue. Patel feels that India should learn to respect their own country before others:
We Indians go abroad, spend lacs of rupee & admire their monuments! But our #StatueOfUnity is wastage of money! #NaMo pic.twitter.com/NmK5p4Z1x5
— Dr.Satvik Patel (@DrSatvikPatel) July 12, 2014
Despite the widespread controversy over the construction of the Statue of Unity, there are still many who support Modi's new budget and feel that he is a necessary change in order to transform India into a developed country.
Equinox Logic, a local think tank which aims to provide solutions in city planning, tweeted their support regarding the direction that Modi is taking the country in:
#modibudget One of the best budgets presented in 6 decades Wishing the benefits reach the right hands #mypmnamo reaching out to the best
— equinoxlogic (@equinoxlogic) July 16, 2014
Anurag Singh, a general manager at Ingram Micro, praised Modi’s plans towards tax exemption in India: “The increase in tax exemption and PPF savings is a very good move and it shows that Modi’s government is moving in the right direction.”
Ranjan, and Indian online journalist, also went on to praise Modi’s tax exemptions by comparing his budget to Delhi’s:
@DDNewsLive #DelhiBudget brings relief to the middle classes! Much in line with the #ModiBudget 2014.
— Ranjan (@RanjanSri2001) July 18, 2014
While there are many mixed feelings regarding the implications of Modi’s new budget, the world will simply have to wait and see if he will follow through on his campaign promises and transform India into a more developed nation. What do you think? Is Modi’s new 2014 budget as effective as it could be?

author: Nikhil Dhingra


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Video: ISIS Destroys Prophet Jonah’s Mosque in Mosul, Iraq · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which took over Iraq's second largest city of Mosul and other territory in western Iraq last month, continues to destroy ancient religious shrines and Shia mosques.
On Twitter, Iraqi Hayder al-Khoei, a Chatham House associate fellow based in London, UK, just tweeted a video showing the destruction of Prophet Jonah's mosque in Mosul:
ISIS demolish the Nabi Younes (Prophet Jonah) mosque, one of the most historic places of worship in Mosul #Iraq https://t.co/qtDQ4o7JxX
— Hayder al-Khoei (@Hayder_alKhoei) July 24, 2014
The video, which is being shared on social media, has been uploaded on YouTube by Murtada Al-Yusuf.
The organisation of Sunni extremists considers the veneration of saints apostasy and Shia Muslims as heretics.
The Daily Mail recently published this report, with photographs and videos sourced from social media, on the destruction of at least 10 ancient shrines and Shia mosques in territories under ISIS control.


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Photo: Watching Rockets Fly Over Gaza from Space  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

From outer space, astronaut Alexander Gerst watches as Gaza erupts in flames. He tweets:
My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel pic.twitter.com/jNGWxHilSy
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) July 23, 2014
This photograph has been retweeted 33K times so far.


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PHOTOS: Typhoon Glenda Left Trail of Destruction in the Philippines · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Typhoon Glenda (International name: Rammasun) damaged many structures in Southern Luzon, located south of Manila in the Philippines. Photos shared by Citizens’ Disaster Response Center.
Impact of typhoon Glenda in the Philippines. Photo from Facebook page of Citizens’ Disaster Response Center

author: Mong Palatino


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Russia Offers 4 Million Rubles to Crack the Tor Network · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Tor logo used with permission. Image remixed by Kevin Rothrock.
The Russian government is offering almost 4 million rubles (about USD $100,000) to anyone who can devise a reliable way to decrypt data sent over the Tor anonymity network. A mounting campaign by the Kremlin against the open Internet, not to mention revelations in the United States about government spying, have made Tor increasingly attractive to Russian Internet users seeking to circumvent state censorship.
Developed as a project of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory more than a decade ago, Tor anonymizes Internet traffic by sending it through a unique configuration of nodes known as an onion routing system. Now in the hands of a nonprofit group, the project continues to receive federal funding but boasts approximately 4 million users worldwide, among them many tech-savvy digital activists in countries where technical censorship and surveillance are prevalent. Even the U.S. State Department supports programs that train foreign political activists to use Tor to protect themselves from the watchful eyes of authoritarian governments.
Tor has encountered problems in Russia before. Indeed, the country’s principal security agency, the FSB, lobbied the Duma last year to ban Tor. Deputies expressed support for the initiative, but it never got out of committee.
Russian Pirate Party leader Stanislav Sharikov says the Russian government’s renewed interest in cracking Tor might have more to do with genuine police concerns than political repression. The $100,000 contract (a relatively small amount of money by global industry standards) is being offered not by the FSB but the Interior Ministry, which according to Sharikov is more interested in fighting child pornography than anti-Putin dissidents.
Of course, Tor is a “dual-use” technology. By providing people with the means to escape censorship and spying, the network is also used by people engaged in organized crime, drug trafficking, and the exchange and sale of child pornography. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden prove that the U.S. National Security Agency has devoted significant resources to hacking Tor, in order to grab personal data about the people who use it.
The U.S. government cites precisely these worrying uses of Tor when justifying its own efforts to decrypt users’ data. But the anonymous nature of the network makes it difficult to know precisely who uses it, and for what, at a global scale.
Although unlikely, should Russia’s decryption project succeed, it could endanger millions of Internet users whose interest in online anonymity is far from nefarious.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Timeline of Israeli Air Attacks on Gaza in 2014  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Screengrab from Crowdvoice.
CrowdVoice, a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world, lists a timeline of Israeli air attacks on Gaza in 2014. Here's an excerpt from their “explore the backstory” section:
A series of abductions and murders has inflamed age-old tensions and sparked armed unrest in Gaza. It began on May 15, 2014, when two Palestinian youths were shot dead during clashes with Israeli security forces during a demonstration in the West Bank. Outrage grew when video footage of the killings emerged, showing that the unarmed teens were shot with live ammunition, despite Israeli assertions that only non-lethal munitions were used against protesters. Later, on June 12, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped as they hitchhiked home from the West Bank. An Israeli military operation was launched to find the missing teens, and on June 30, their bodies were recovered. The government of Israel has blamed Hamas for the murders, and vowed swift retaliation. Hamas praised the kidnapping, but did not claim responsibility. In an apparent act of retribution, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, aged 16, was abducted near his home on his way to morning prayers and burned alive. Israeli authorities have arrested six people in connection with the teen's death. Tensions from the murders have boiled over into indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks into Israeli territory, and relentless aerial bombardment of Gaza.


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Gaza Survivor’s Twitter Timeline Reveals the Slow Horror of the Massacre at Khuza’a · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

From the Israeli Red Cross Twitter account, “Yesterday we helped hundreds of people to evacuate from affected areas in #Gaza #BeitHanoun #Shujaia #Khuzaa”
Reports of an apparent massacre and massive destruction in the cut-off Palestinian town Khuza’a, 500 metres from to the Gaza-Israel border, have been coming in since Tuesday, July 22.
Most reporters covering the Israeli operation in Gaza have not made it to Khuza'a, a town of 9,700 people. This area in the south is cut-off from the eyes and ears of the world, but one young resident – Mahmoud Ismail, has been tweeting horror stories in Arabic from the village.
One tweet said “snipers are centered on top of buildings in Khuza'a, targeting anyone trying to leave his home.” Another said, “Khuza'a is gone, there are hundreds injured and bodies all over the streets and under ruins. No one knows numbers.” Later he tweeted, “Red cross ambulances standing two kilometres away from Khuza'a. Injured are running two kilometres to get treatment.”
Many people have retweeted his words hundreds of times, while translations of his tweets have also been retweeted dozens of times.
A total of 800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,200 injured since Israel launched an operation in Gaza 18 days ago. As civilian death tolls mount, Israel’s military says it is warning Gazans living in targeted areas to leave, but Palestinians have no where to go. The narrow 40-kilometer-long coastal strip is surrounded by fences and concrete walls along its north and east with Israel and on its south border with Egypt.
Khuza'a has no water, food and safe shelters, according to a first-hand account published on the progressive Jewish news site Mondoweiss. The Palestinian Center of Human Rights which has been publishing daily reports of the Israel offensive said in their July 23 report: Israeli forces maintained their incursion into Khuza’a village, east of Khan Yunis, and there are reports that there are dozens of Palestinian casualties in the village, and medical crews were denied access to them.  When many civilians attempted to leave the village, Israeli forces fired at them, killing 4.
On July 24, Red Cross ambulances were finally allowed to enter the village and an Al Jazeera crew accompanied them; this Al Jazeera video shows bodies lying on the street and rescue teams searching through rubble.
Here are the haunting tweets Mahmoud Ismail has been posting from Khuza'a since Monday:
في بيوت انقصفت ومش معروف إذا فيها ناس أو لأ. المنايك بيستهدفوا كل شي بيتحرّك. محدّش قادر يساعد حدا. والصواريخ وشظاياها بتضرب كل شي. حرفيًا
@Ibn3arbi: There are houses that have been bombed and we do not know whether there are people inside them or not. The f***ers target anything moving. No one can help anyone. Rockets and shrapnel are hitting everything. Literally.
القصف على خزاعة مستمر من 13 ساعة. حول بيتي بس في 10 شهداء تصفى دمهم بسبب عدم إسعافهم. عشرات العائلات محاصرة والجيش بيضرب نار ع كل حدا بتحرك.
@Ibn3arbi: Non-stop shelling on Khuza'a for 13 hours. Around my house alone, there are 10 people killed. They were bleeding to death because they were not rescued by ambulances. Tens of families under siege and the army is shooting anyone moving.
الدبابات محاصرة البلد من جميع الجهات بدون ما تتعمق لجوّا لكن القنّاصة متمركزين على أعلى عمارات بخزاعة وبيستهدفوا أي شخص بيحاول يخرج من بيته
@Ibn3arbi: Tanks are surrounding the town from all sides without getting deeper in but snipers are centered on top of buildings in Khuza'a, targeting anyone trying to leave his home.
أسماء شهداء أستطيع تأكيدها: سليمان قديح وابنه أكرم قديح، تيسير قديح وابنه محمود، حلمي أبو رجيلة وابنه عبّاس، جهاد قديح، ابراهيم أبو رجيلة.
@Ibn3arbi: Names of martyrs I can confirm: Slaiman Qadih and his son Akram. Tayseer Qadih and his son Mahmoud. Hilmy Abu Rjila and his son Abbas. Jihad Qadih and Ibrahim Abu Rjaila.
منايك الصليب حكولنا إنهم واقفين ع أول البلد مستعدين يخلونا ولمّا كل الناس راحوا هناك مكانوش ولقوا الجيش وفتح نار وتصاوبوا عشرات.
@Ibn3arbi: The Red Cross told us they are at the entrance of the town and are ready to evacuate us. When everyone went there, they didn't find them. There was the army who started shooting at them and injured tens.
خزاعة راحت
@Ibn3arbi: Khuza'a is gone
أنا وأهلي طلعنا. إصابة طفيفة. في مئات الإصابات وجثث في الشوارع وتحت الأنقاض. محدّش بيعرف العدد
@Ibn3arbi: My family and I got out. I got a small injury. There are hundreds injured and bodies all over the streets and under ruins. No one knows numbers.
بيوتنا إنقصفت ع روسنا. بيوت كل أهل خزاعة
@Ibn3arbi: Our houses are bombed over our heads. All the houses of Khuza'a.
إسعاف الصليب واقف 2 كيلو بعيد عن خزاعة. المصابين بيجروا 2 كيلو علشان يتم اسعافهم.
@Ibn3arbi: Red cross ambulances standing 2 kilometres away from Khuza'a. Injured are running 2 kilometres to get treatment.
الكثير من شهداء خزاعة كانوا أصيبوا ونزفوا حتى الموت في انتظار اسعافهم. راقبت من شباك غرفتي ولساعات كل مراحل موت فتى في العشرين من عمره
@Ibn3arbi: Many martyrs in Khuza'a were killed after being injured and bleeding to death, waiting for ambulances. I watched from my room's window for hours all the death stages of a man in his 20's.
طبيب واحد في البلدة، كمال أبو رجيلة، بذل جهد جبار مع الاصابات التي كانت تصل عيادته بإعجاز حتى بعد أن تم قصف عيادته وإصابته واستشهاد والده
@Ibn3arbi: One doctor in town, Kamal Abu Rjila, made great efforts with injuries coming to his clinic. Miraculous. Even after his clinic was hit and he was injured and his father killed.
الجيش استخدم حوالي 10 عائلات كدرع بشري ضد نيران المقاومة. كل البيوت التي سيطر عليها منع سكانها من المغادرة أو تحصين أنفسهم في غرف أفضل
@Ibn3arbi: The [Israeli] army used 10 families as human shields against the resistance fire. They did not allow anyone to leave the buildings they controlled. They did not even allow them to move to safer rooms.
تم قصف البيت الذي كنت أحتمي فيه مع 50 رجل وطفل وامرأة. نجوت وعائلتي بمعجزة ولا أملك أدنى فكرة عما حل بالآحرين لكن حذائي ابتل تماما بدمائهم
@Ibn3arbi: The house that I was seeking refuge at with other 50 men, women, and children was hit. I survived with my family in a miracle. I have no idea what happened to others but my shoe is soaked with their blood.
أمام عيني سقط طفل صغير كانت تحمله أمه بيد وباليد الثانية ترفع راية بيضاء. ابنها مات. استخدمت الراية ككفن وأكملت طريقها مع باقي أطفالها. رعب.
@Ibn3arbi: With my own eyes, I saw a woman holding a small child in her hand and a white flag in the other. Her son died and she used the flag as a shroud and continued walking with the rest of her children. Horror.
في الطريق الذي سلكناه وجدت جثة عمي وابنه ملقاة في الشارع بجانب بيتهم. كان القناصة يستهدفون الناس في أقدامهم في محاولة لمنعهم عن الهروب
@Ibn3arbi: On the way we took out, we found my uncle and his son dead on the sidewalk by their house. Snipers were targeting people's feet to prevent them from escaping.
خزاعة ما فيها كهربا من 60 ساعة. والجيش (وشظايا قذائفه) استهدف خزانات المياه على أسطح المنازل. الأطفال معنا بكوا حتى الإغماء بسبب العطش
@Ibn3arbi: Khuza'a has no electricity for the past 60 hours. The [Israeli] army and its shrapnel targeted water tanks on roofs. Children were crying and fainting because of thirst.
القصف المدفعي كان يتم بشكل عشوائي ولا أي شيء في العالم يمكنه أن يقنعني بعكس ذلك
@Ibn3arbi: The bombing was being done randomly. Nothing in the world can convince me otherwise.
ابن عمّتي استشهد أثناء محاولته إنقاذه أخيه المصاب والملقى في الشارع. الاثنين استشهدوا فوق بعضهم.
@Ibn3arbi: My cousin was killed when trying to rescue his injured brother in the street. They died together.
الوضع كان مرعب ومأساوي وأي محاولة لوضعه بكلمات ستكون مبتذلة ولن تعطي المجزرة حقها. أنا وأهلي خرجنا أحياء لكنني لا أملك أدنى تفسير كيف وليش.
@Ibn3arbi: The situation was horrifying and tragic. Any attempt to put it in words won't describe the massacre enough. Me and my family got out alive but I have no explanation how and why.
كل هذا الموت وهذه الاصابات هي من تعداد ما بقي من السكّان أي حوالي 3 آلاف. 70٪ من أهل خزاعة كانوا قد هربوا وأخلوا بيوتهم قبل المجزرة بليلة.
@Ibn3arbi: All this death and injuries happened to the 3,000 people left in this town. Seventy per cent of Khuza'a's inhabitants escaped and evicted their houses a night before the massacre.
ولسّا في جثث في الشوارع. ولسّا في مصابين بيستنوا يصيروا جثث. ولسّا في ناس عالقة مش قادرة تطلع
@Ibn3arbi: There are still dead bodies in the streets. Still injured people waiting to become dead bodies. Still people stuck and cannot get out.
If you scroll back a few months on Ismail's timeline, he was tweeting inspirational videos, some featuring Maya Angelou, lots of football and music videos,  including a hypnotic Yemeni blues song and stories about the troubles Gazans go through trying to cross the Rafah border into Egypt.

author: Mona Kareem


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Images of Air Algerie AH5017 Plane Wreckage in Mali Reveals Violent, Abrupt Crash  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

VERY FIRST images of #AH5017 #AirAlgerie trickling out, via @AirLiveNet http://t.co/4pKox7rgjn pic.twitter.com/rngGTv7Rbs
— Jason Morrell (@CNNJason) July 25, 2014
The first footage of the plane crash are now available thanks to a Burkinabe soldier present on the site of the wreck near Gossi, in Northern Mali. There are no survivors among the 118 people on board, including more than 50 French nationals. Algerian website Algérie Focus reports in French that:
Cette vidéo montre des débris éparpillés et broyés. La zone sablonneuse a été noircie par le crash. Sur cette vidéo, il est pratiquement impossible de repérer les pièces maîtresses de l’avion au milieu des débris.
The video shows scattered and crushed debris. The sand at the site was blackened by the crash. In the video, it is virtually impossible to identify the key components of the aircraft amid the debris.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Russia Is About to Lose “Fake News,” But the Internet Freedoms Going with It Are Real · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

TV Rain owner Aleksandr Vinokurov posted on Twitter that Vladimir Putin was on his way to Ukraine to negotiate with President Poroshenko. That wasn't the real story. Images mixed by author.
The owner of a prominent TV news channel caused an uproar this week when he tweeted a fake news story about Vladimir Putin rushing to Kyiv for emergency peace talks. Aleksandr Vinokurov, owner of TV Rain, exploited the public's heightened interest in Ukraine to shock Russians into considering the potential harm of new regulations on the blogosphere, which take effect next month.
In the midst of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash investigation and the continuing tensions in Eastern Ukraine, RuNet users are hanging onto every new bit of news and gossip about the actions of Ukraine, Russia, and the West. Any innocent tweet or post can set the news agenda aflame, especially if it mentions Vladimir Putin.
On the morning of July 20, three days after the MH17 crash, Vinokurov tweeted the following news:
Президент Путин позвонил Порошенко и вылетел в Киев, чтобы обсудить с украинским коллегой варианты мирного разрешения конфликта на Донбассе
— Винокуров Александр (@Vinokurov12) July 20, 2014
President Putin called Poroshenko and flew to Kyiv to discuss the options for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Donbass with his Ukrainian colleague.
He made no other comment, did not provide links or sources, and did not post follow-ups. There was no confirmation of the visit on either of the official Presidential websites. Internet users were at first surprised, then skeptical, then disbelieving.
Twitter user MaryEl immediately questioned the story:
@Vinokurov12 Правда?
— MaryEl (@maryel2002) July 20, 2014
Really?
Owner of the parody account Navalny's Cat joked that the tweet was actually authored by Aram Gabrelyanov, CEO of the intensely pro-Kremlin publishing house NewsMedia:
@Vinokurov12 Арам Ашотович, перелогиньтесь!
— Кот Навального (@navalny_cat) July 20, 2014
Aram Ashotovich, please login under your own name!
Some users, like Russian fun, were inclined to believe in Vinokurov‘s credible reputation, but wanted to see other sources:
@yesfree33 Винокуров вроде нормальный журналист. Ну посмотрим, что скажу остальные СМИ.
— Russian fun (@Russianhumor) July 20, 2014
Vinokurov seems to be a decent journalist. Well, let's see what the other media will say.
Vinokurov stayed conspicuously silent on social media for the next four hours, while speculation raged among Russian and Ukrainian netizens. Finally, around 10:30 in the morning, Moscow time, he appeared on Facebook. Vinokurov did not directly debunk the information, but instead presented it as a case study in what he called “intellectual provocation.” He explained that his earlier experiment in posting a fake news story was to show how it could go viral — and how such things would no longer be allowed in Russia, after a new “Law on Bloggers” takes effect in August.
“Интеллектуальная провокация” — новый жанр для медиа. Мог бы быть довольно перспективным. Хорошая цитируемость, высокая виральность. Вовлекает аудиторию в тему лучше, чем обычная колонка (opinion). Мог бы. Но с 1 августа 2014 года запрещен в РФ для использования в социальных сетях в соответствии 97-ФЗ.
“Intellectual provocation” — a new genre for the media. Could be a very promising one. Great citation rate, highly viral. Engages the audience in the topic a lot better then a regular opinion column. Could be. But starting on August 1, 2014, it's banned in the Russian Federation for use in social networks in accordance with [Federal Law] 97.
Although Vinokurov claimed his actions were essentially demonstrating the constraints of new Internet laws in Russia, the audience did not take kindly to his “intellectual provocation.”
Facebook user Dmitri Kojevnikov did not enjoy the euphemism:
“Интеллектуальная провокация” — пиздеж на либспике?
“Intellectual provocation” — is that “bullshitting” in liberal speak?
User Tatiana Kulichik accussed Vinokurov of being a simple internet troll:
Чем отличается от троллинга?
How is this different from trolling?
Another Facebook user, Vladimir Lazutkin sarcastically pointed out that he fails to see the harm in banning lies online:
Врать запретили! Какая досада!))
Lying is forbidden! What a pity! :)
In his didactic post about the whole affair, Vinokurov refers to one of the several new laws aimed at regulating (and censoring) the Russian Internet. 97-FZ, also known as the “Law on Bloggers,” was adopted in May and comes into force on August 1, 2014. Besides requiring popular bloggers to assume what is basically the status of a mass media outlet, the law demands that these people “verify the credibility of the published information available to the public before it is published and immediately delete published information that has been proven false.” (You can read the full text of the law in Russian here.)
Was Vinokurov's stunt cruel in such a fraught situation, given the already jittery state of media, bloggers, and Internet users? Probably. Was it successful at making a point about the harshness of the new Russian Internet regulations? Maybe. Will it help change the situation and promote the freedom of speech and responsible sharing of information? Probably not.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Russia’s 4-Million-Ruble Procurement Order to Crack Tor Is Suddenly Revised · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Rewriting a procurement order to hide the scary stuff? Image edited by author.
The Russian Interior Ministry has revised the language in a procurement order offering 3.9 million rubles (about USD $100,000) for developing a way to decipher user data on the Tor anonymity network.
Federal authorities published the original announcement on July 11, 2014, but Internet users and the media only became widely aware of the tender yesterday, July 24, following a report on the website TheRuNet.com. Earlier today, July 25, government officials changed the description of the procurement order, removing language about breaching individuals’ digital privacy.
The original name of the procurement order read as follows:
«Выполнение НИР «Исследование возможности получения технической информации о пользователях (пользовательском оборудовании) анонимной сети ТОR», шифр «ТОР (Флот)».
Implementation of research: “Researching the possibility of obtaining technical information about the users (the users’ equipment) of the TOR anonymity network,” codename “TOR (Fleet).”
The new description now found on the state procurement website says simply:
Выполнение научно-исследовательской работы, шифр «ТОР (Флот)»
Implementation of research, codename “TOR (Fleet).”
It is unclear why the Russian government codenamed the Tor network “TOR (Fleet).” Perhaps this is because Moscow originally assigned the codename when Tor, originally known as “the onion routing network,” was still sponsored by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Perhaps not, however, as the word “fleet” (also translatable as “navy”) appears in other procurement announcements that have nothing to do with Tor or the United States.
What is clear is that someone in Russia’s procurement office thought it wise to soften the language in the Tor decryption order, presumably to make the government in Moscow seem less bent on violating individuals’ privacy.


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Tajikistan Still Blocking Popular Russian Social Network · Global Voices
Anna Schetnikova

Screenshot of the main page of Odnoklassniki. The Russian social network has been blocked for the last week in Tajikistan.
Tajik officials are heavy-handed in their regulation of the Internet, regularly blocking websites that publish critical content. Social media suffers the same fate — both YouTube and Facebook have been blocked several times in recent years. On July 9, YouTube was blocked once more, and remains blocked. But recently, one of the most popular social networks in country, Odnoklassniki, was blocked for the first time.
Odnoklassniki is a Russian social network, in which more than 300,000 citizens of Tajikistan are registered. (By way of comparison, there are only 60,000 registered profiles on Facebook from the Central Asian state). Many Tajiks use Odnoklassniki to connect with their families working as labour migrants in Russia. On July 18, some users of the website discovered access was blocked. Later some Internet Service Providers confirmed that they had blocked access, but didn't say why.
Asomiddin Atoev, the chairman of Tajikistan's Association of Internet Service Providers, told the press that providers block sites when they have orders from the state Communications Service, and that nowadays these orders take an oral form. However, representatives of the service, headed by the unpopular Beg Sabur, deny involvement in the blocking.
While the reasons for the blocking aren't clear yet, experts and netizens believe it is connected with the activity of oppositionists and, possibly, Islamic radicals. Odnoklassniki user Mahmuddzhon Ismail told Radio Ozodi, the Tajik branch of Radio Free Europe:
Ҷавонони тоҷик, ки дар Сурия ҳастанд, наворҳои худро дар ин ҷо нашр мекарданд. Тамоми гурӯҳҳои ифротӣ бо забони тоҷики фикру ақидаҳои худро дар «Одноклассники» нашр мекунанд. Аз вақте, ки Ютюб баста шуд, дигар ҳама аз ин ҷо истифода мекарданд. Ин ҷавонони ифротӣ бисёр ҳарфҳои нохуб мегуфтанд, ки фикр мекунам, ки ба дигар ҷавонон бетаъсир набуд. Тахмин мекунам, ки ба ҳамин хотир ин шабака маҳдуд шудааст.
Guys from Tajikistan who are fighting in Syria post their videos on this site. All extremist groups use this network to propagate their ideas in Tajik language. As soon as YouTube was closed, they moved over to Odnoklassniki. I think they influenced many young people. This I believe, is the reason for blocking the site.
In the past, the Tajik government has had plenty of more self-serving reasons to block social networking and video-sharing websites, including President Emomali Rahmon's vocal performance at his son's wedding, which led to a YouTube block, and the persistent thorn in its side that is Platforma, a Facebook group with over 15,000 followers that criticizes the government and promotes opposition leaders.
But until recently, Odnoklassniki was not regarded as an opposition mouthpiece. One user, Mihalich, took the block very emotionally:
В чём [Зло Одноклассников]?? В общении с друзьями по всему миру,возможность смотреть фото друзей и т.д, в этом зло)))))??? Всё правильно,нужно как и раньше ходить на почту отправлять телеграмму и ждать ответ или письмо месяц))))))) И далой скайп!!!! На фиг это лёгкое общение,вернёмся к голубиной почте!!!!!
What [is Odnoklassniki's evil]?? In communication with friends all over the world, in the possibility of viewing friend's photos and so on – is there evil in this)))))??? Alright, you have to now go to a post office as before, send a telegram and wait a month for an answer))))))) And down with Skype! For what do we need this easy communication? Let's return to pigeon-mail!!!!!
Others, like Bekor, muse on a now long-standing tradition of website-blocking in Tajikistan, and what that tradition says about the government:
Маразм крепчает. Как только что случится- интернет блокировать. Страна под пятой идиотизма
Insanity grows stronger. Once something happens, the Internet is blocked. The country is under the heel of idiocy
Dilovar jokes bitterly:
В Таджикистане в 2015 году заблокируют и отключат всех людей
In 2015, in Tajikistan, they will block and shut down all people
Some netizens, like Islom, believe the blocking is a senseless strategy:
можно зайти на одноклассники через обходные пути, почти 75% населения знают как. Нету смысла закрыт сайт через провайдеров.
You can work around the block and visit Odnoklassniki, and nearly 75% of the [Internet-using] population knows how to do this. There is no sense in providers blocking websites.
Sergey_I, meanwhile, compares Odnoklassniki with alcohol:
одноклассники – это зло. Но это как алкоголь, сигареты и прочее, вредные привычки
Odnoklassniki is evil. in the same way as alcohol, cigarettes and other pernicous habits are.
Jagonhir from Dushanbe, like many others, complains of the “obscene” information, one can find on Odnoklassniki:
очень хорошо что закрыли доступ к сайту оно отнимает очень много времени и там очень много пошлого
It's very good that they blocked access to the site, it is very time-consuming and there is a lot of vulgarity there
But many go further and write that Odnoklassniki is a public threat and a potential agent of revolution:
Очень хорошо что вы закрыли эти сайты через них люди портятся и наши дети ,экстремисты пользуясь этим служат всяким иностраным провакаторам чтобы они имели у нас своих агентов вербуя через интернет ресурсы ,мне как жителю родного таджикистана не нужны всякие сатанинские арабские революции
It’ very good that you have blocked these sites, they spoil our people and our children, extremists use them to serve foreign provocateurs who have their agents among us, recruited via means of the Internet. I, as a citizen of my dear Tajikistan, don't need any satanic Arab revolutions
Some netizens also appreciate the timing of the block, since currently it is Ramadan, the Islamic holy month:
Это разумный поступок тем более во время священного месяца Рамазан. Лучше всего думать о безопасности наших детей и родных.
It is a reasonable action especially during the holy month of Ramadan. It is better to think of the security of our children and family.

author: Anna Schetnikova


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Being A Black West Indian in Britain · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican author Kei Miller's blog post about “the anxieties of being a black poet in Britain” draws from several personal experiences, leading him to the conclusion that “the act of writing certain black experiences has to be one of translation – as surely as we translate from one language into another”:
Blackness itself is still seen to exist in a place outside of language, or at least outside the refined language of poetry…And I do not know whether the old dictum about the economy of translation is true – whether or not something is always lost…But this much seems to be important, that we keep blackness in check. In this way, the anxieties of being a black poet in Britain are obviously part and parcel of the broader anxieties of being black in Britain.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Colombian Sentenced to Prision and Fined for Comments Online · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

On a judicial ruling that sets a dangerous precedent in Colombia, the Supreme Court of Justice refused to reconsider an appeal taken on the verdict that orders 18 months of imprisonment and a 9,5 milon pesos fine (about US$5,1000) for netizen Gonzalo López for comments published on El País newspaper website, in the Colombian city of Cali.
On 2008, López called Gloria Lucía Escalante, former officer at a public utilities company, a “rat”.
Newspaper El Espectador wonders if this is not a threat against the freedom of expression and shares opinions by lawyers who consider there is a confunsion between information and opinion.
11/2 año de cárcel sin recurso de casación de Gonzalo López para tumbar condena por injuria pic.twitter.com/T7s2Zf6fCJ http://t.co/fNUwtdUSNe
— Nosepasedelaraya (@Nosepasedelar) July 22, 2014
One and a half years without cassation by Gonzalo López to dismiss verdict for slander.
Y Su derecho a expresarse libremente? Corte Suprema de J. condena a Gonzalo Hernán López por un decirle a Gloria Escalante lo q piensa, mal!
— Juan Becerra (@Dipolitician) July 21, 2014
What abot his right of free expression? Supreme Court condemns Gonzalo Hernán López for telling Gloria Escalante what he thinks. Wrong!
Some netizens have sarcastic opinions that the decision should be for former president Alvaro Uribe:
Uribe acusaba a Santos sin aportar pruebas, está libre. Gonzalo Lopez acusa a Gloria Escalante en internet y paga 18 meses. Igualdad?
— Hugo Gómez (@hugo_gomez87) July 22, 2014
(Former president Alvaro) Uribe accused (former president Juan Manuel) Santos without producing evidence, he is free. Gonzalo Lopez accuses Gloria Escalante on the internet and he serves 18 months. Equality?

author: Juan Arellano


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Hollaback’s AtréveteBA Fights Street Harassment in Buenos Aires · Global Voices
Periodismo Ciudadano

A screenshot of the AtréveteBA website.
This story was written in Spanish by Paula Gonzalo and originally published on Periodismo Ciudadano, a website dedicated to citizen journalism.
AtréveteBA is the Buenos Aires branch of the Hollaback movement, which was created to document and fight street harassment. Its Spanish-language site includes a digital map, blogs, and resources to bring visibility to the problem, giving a voice to more than 150 victims of street harassment in Argentina. Hollaback Buenos Aires is coordinated by Inti Tidball, founder and an activist in the foundation since October 2010.
Hollaback is a nonprofit organization with a presence in 79 cities in 26 countries and in eight different languages. It is an international movement made up of a network of activists whose mission is to end street harassment, encourage social debate, and develop innovative strategies to ensure equal access to public spaces.
The group has developed a mobile app that enables live tracking and reporting via text messages. User reports of street harassment incidents are compiled on a map. Hollaback also offers free training for those who want to create a site for their own city or neighborhood. To facilitate this, they offer “educational workshops to schools, universities, and community groups, and engage citizens through traditional and social media.” The objective is to build an international movement that breaks the silence surrounding street harassment, which Hollaback considers to be the gateway to sexual violence. The organization provides technical training to support the development of new branches.
A poster made available by AtréveteBA reads, “A message to women: There's no reason why you have to put up with the comments made about your body in the street. It's okay to tell men to leave you alone. Ask them if they would like it if their sisters or daughters were treated like this. Ask them to have respect. If they touch you or follow you, report them!”
The organization's Buenos Aires website features a wealth of useful resources in Spanish on confronting street harassment, including data on the international fight against street harassment, myths about harassment, information on personal self-defense, statistics and definitions of harassment, support services for victims of violence, and a map that displays areas where harassment is most frequent and features the stories uploaded by site users.
Latin America is already home to Atrévete Bogotá Colombia, Atrévete México DF, Atrévete Puerto Rico, Atrévete Querétaro México, and Atrévete Santiago de Chile.
Verbal harassment has become an important frontier in the fight for gender equality and especially the fight against gender violence. Street harassment, which directly inhibits women's freedom to move safely in public spaces, is already a crime in Belgium, where a pioneering law has made sexist comments and sexual propositions punishable by a fine of 50 to 1,000 euros (about $70 to $1,350) or even up to one year in prison. Approval of this law was spurred by the documentary film “Femme de la rue” by Sofie Peeters, a young resident of Brussels, which shows the quantity of catcalls, vulgar comments, insults, and even insistent sexual propositions that she suffers in her city.

author: Periodismo Ciudadano


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Indians Are Using Social Media to Tackle Racism Against Northeasterners · Global Voices
Tejasvini Prasad

A protest in Delhi against attacks on Indians from the northeastern states in several places of India. Image by Rajesh Tandon. Copyright Demotix (18/8/2012)
In a recent promo for the hugely popular game show “Kaun Banega Crorepati,” India's version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” Bollywood superstar and host Amitabh Bachchan asks a contestant from the northeastern states which country the Indian city of Kohima belongs to. The options are China, Nepal, India or Bhutan.
She requests to use a lifeline, and some viewers laugh, thinking the answer is obvious. Bachchan tells her 100 percent of the audience says India. “This is something everyone knows,” he tells her.
“Yes sir, everyone knows about it, but how many believe in it?” she replies.
Many people from the India's northeastern states, a region called the “Seven Sisters,” face racial discrimination in the rest of the country mainly because of their East Asian features and different culture. One commenter wrote under the video on YouTube:
I think we Indians are racist towards every region or state (of course its wrong), but just because our fellow north eastern people look unique they are easy targets.
Recent cases of hate crime, reported more regularly as people migrate to and from many states, have reawakened the country's debate on racism. Last week, a 30-year-old man from India's northeastern state of Manipur was allegedly beaten to death by a group of men in the Kotla area of South Delhi.
And in January, a student, Nido Taniam, from the northeastern state of Arunanchal Pradesh was also beaten to death by shopkeepers who made fun of his hair.
In response, the government set up the Bezbaruah Committee to explore racism and other issues faced by people from Northeast India. It submitted its report on July 11 and the Ministry of Home Affairs is studying the report but no results or new measures have been announced so far.
However, awareness about the problem is growing and grassroots activists are trying to address it using social media and Internet.
In one YouTube video, Indian prankster TroubleSeekerTeam conducted a “racism experiment” of a man in a park calling a northeastern woman “chinky” (a derogatory term for a Chinese person) and using racist language. Some passersby ignored the altercation, some intervened on behalf of the woman, and no one sided with the man.
Enxie Nemi Guite, a YouTube user from the northeast, thanked the team for the video:
I've faced uncountable incidents such like the one in the video, although I have never been defended. It gives me so much pleasure that there are people who care.
I became immune to comments like these from having received it so many times, but now…. I will not be silent.
On Facebook, ‘Stop Discriminating People From the North-East India’, which protests against such racial discrimination, has nearly 63,000 likes and features regular discussion on the page.
Elsewhere, a thread on question-and-answer site Quora looked at why people from the northeast are negatively perceived by other Indians. Vijay Singh from India advanced the following causes of discrimination:
Map of the Seven Sisters.
1. Its Geographically separate from mainland India
2. They represent only 3-4% of India’s population
3. Low participation in Indian politics and agenda
4. Features of the Mongolian race – this causes them to be labeled as ‘Chinese’
5. Clothing – despite India’s huge cultural diversity; the traditional dress all over India for women would be either a ‘salwar kameez’ or a ‘saree’. Only in the North Eastern states, the traditional dress is completely different from these two forms.
6. There is also huge linguistic diversity between these states, and the rest of the nation
The ethnic and cultural differences result in a misunderstanding of the northeastern people, captured by this word cloud posted on the thread by Anup Chakraborty:
Screenshot from Quora
East Asian features are not the only observable traits that lead to discrimination in India. Skin color, weight and accents all play into a person’s social, familial and workplace status.
For instance, a recent article on IndiaCSR, a sustainable responsibility portal, reported violence against African students in metropolises. Editor of Delhi-based Hardnews magazine Sanjay Kapoor tweeted:
How can India be racist? reports of students from Africa getting beaten up in Delhi or Bangalore are sickening. Need to fight this mindset.
— sanjay kapoor (@sanjaykpr) July 20, 2013
Self-awareness is part of the solution. A broad, introspective examination of Indian racism on ScoopWhoop, a news and opinion portal, has resonated with many on social media:
Indians are racists. To foreigners, To each other and to themselves: http://t.co/cCvvSTAgT1 #Fact of #India, often kept under the carpet.
— Sushovan Chaudhuri who is a cartoonist states, (@mesushovan) July 13, 2014
Through social media and networking, the collective conscience against racism is evolving. But there has to be many more sociopolitical campaigns and discussions from mainstream media and other agencies to tackle this grave issue. The talk has started, and the walk must follow.

author: Tejasvini Prasad


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Palestinians Accuse Israel of War Crimes, Push for ICC Trial Gets Support Online   · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Thousands of people from around the world lent their support to put Israel on trial in the International Criminal Court in The Hague for committing war crimes in Gaza.
Legal proceedings have started by Palestinian Justice Minister Saleem Al Saqqa and Gaza Court public prosecutor Ismail Jabr through a Paris-based lawyer – but commentators say the gesture is symbolic and the ICC may not have jurisdiction as Palestine, which only has observer status in the United Nations, isn't a full UN member.
Today is Day 19 of an Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, which has claimed the lives of at least 1,000 Palestinians and injured 6,000 others to date.
The hashtag #ICC4Israel has been trending worldwide for the past eight hours, generating more than 334.6K tweets at the time of writing.
Palestinian doctor Belal, who lives in Gaza, tweets to his 40.5K followers:
Home targeting is the utmost form of collective punishment Gazans had to endure during the 3 wars Israel waged against #Gaza. #ICC4Israel
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 26, 2014
Seventy-five percent of the Palestinians killed are civilians, which has raised questions about the tactics and targets being used in Israeli strikes. Israel says the assault is targeting Hamas, a group that has ruled the territory since 2007, for firing hundreds of missiles across the border into Israel. Two Israeli civilians and 33 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far.
Palestinian Zaki Safar, who has 31K followers on Twitter, notes:
Israel has the right 2 defend itself, they say! From who? Defenseless, harmless, & helpless civilians? #ICC4Israel pic.twitter.com/isdHA29Ic1
— لورد زاك 6092065 (@zaki_safar) July 26, 2014
Hamas’ rockets into Israel are mostly homemade and reaching further than ever before, but most of them are picked off by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system and rarely cause damage. Sirens warn Israelis of incoming missiles, and they can take shelter in one of the country's many bomb shelters. In Gaza, there are no sirens or bomb shelters, the Israeli Defense Forces have been using one-minute missile tap warnings on residential houses in this offensive.
Palestine Social tells its 33.1K followers on Twitter Israel should be put on trial in the ICC for its attack on hospitals:
Beit Hanoun hospital after being shelled yesterday. #GazaUnderAttack #AJAGAZA #ICC4Israel pic.twitter.com/iauqswLtJm
— Palestine Social (@PalestineSocial) July 26, 2014
Bahraini doctor Nabeel Tammam, with 20.4K followers, also lends his voice to the campaign saying:
Attacking medical ambulance & staff in #Gaza necessitate the #ICC4Israel #PalestineUnderAttack #MedicalNeutrality pic.twitter.com/YzNicZbKBb
— Nabeel H. Tammam (@ntammam) July 26, 2014
Gaza's poorly equipped over-worked hospitals and medics have had another problem – shelling from Israel during this offensive. The Palestinian Ministry of Health explains:
One of Gaza’s hospitals has been totally destroyed, a paediatric hospital so severely damaged it is unusable, and another six have been severely damaged. Four health professionals have been killed and 14 injured. Two medical clinics and 14 ambulances have been completely destroyed, and seven other clinics have been damaged.
And Palestine Campaigns, which kicked off the move, calls on journalists to pick the cause they were campaigning for:
Dear journos, It's been 8 hours & #ICC4Israel is still trending worldwide: with ~340,000 tweets. Sounds like a story. pic.twitter.com/XCrcCP6R9i
— Palestine Campaigns (@PaliCampaigns) July 26, 2014
Meanwhile, Walaa Al Ghussein, from Gaza, laments:
#ICC4Israel hashtag is trending # 1 worldwide. – only if it's about hashtags.
— Walaa Al Ghussein (@WalaaGh) July 26, 2014
The vast majority of Gazans cannot leave Gaza. The narrow 40-kilometer-long coastal territory is surrounded by fences and concrete walls along its north and east with Israel and on its south border with Egypt. UK Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010 called Gaza “an open-air prison.” Excessive restrictions from Israel in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank is why most of the world and the United Nations considers this territory “occupied.”


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PHOTO: Palestinians Teach Life  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian Sayel tweets to his 1,800 plus followers on Twitter the following photograph of Gazans planting flowers in Israeli shells. He notes:
Palestinians from the Gaza planting flowers in Israeli shells being thrown at their houses.We teach life,Sir! #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/V04x0nVXTa
— صايل (@Falestinianism) July 26, 2014
Today is Day 19 of an Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, which has claimed the lives of at least 1,000 Palestinians and injured 6,000 others.


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Spanish Congress Comission Approves AEDE Tax or Google Tax · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

The Spanish Congress’ Commission of Culture approved the so called AEDE Tax (for the Spanish name of the Association of Editors of Spanish Newspapers), also known as Google Tax as part of the draft bill of the Law of Intellectual Property.
GurusBlog explains what is this tax about:
A tax by which an inalienable right is created so every journalistic update website automatically generates a collection right on any other website that links to it. An organ like a SGAE (for the Spanish name of General Society of Authors and Publishers) will be in charge of the collection and the distribution among its associates.
On Xataca they note:
Unlike Germany, the media group that is lobbying for this legislation -AEDE- gets the “inalienability” to be added so as to avoid to be self-evident: if Google has to pay a medium for linking from Google News, it would suffice to take it out, and after realizing the sudden loss of traffic, that medium might request to get back without any fee.
After some tweets, some netizens are upset:
“@gallir: .@edans está más cabreado que yo con el #canonAEDE pic.twitter.com/0nc8Q5Ru4L” #FAV überfav, lamentablemente.
— Afrika Winslet (@AfrikaWinslet) July 22, 2014
Angrier than me with the AEDE tax. Überfav, unfortunately.
@Amandysha @gallir el #CanonAEDE es un absurdo que contraviene la naturaleza de Internet !ENLAZAR NO ES UN DELITO! pic.twitter.com/afT3bFjvbq
— Hiddekel Morrison (@IngMorrison) July 22, 2014
This AEDE tax is ridiculous and it goes against the nature of Internet itself! LINKING IS NOT A CRIME!
Other users are promoting not linking to the media:
Plugin de WordPress para bloquear las URL que enlazan a #AEDE y CEDRO http://t.co/epOV1dDrTe @CanonAEDE_NO @CanonAEDE pic.twitter.com/XS8GY4x0Ld
— Ialza (@Ialza) July 22, 2014
WordPress plugn to block all URLs than link to AEDE y the Spanish Center of Republishing Rights.


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Trinidad & Tobago Minister Passes the Buck with Failed LifeSport Programme · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister has shut down the controversial Life Sport programme following the results of an audit, which uncovered the ministry's inability to account for millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money. The programme was originally intended to provide disenfranchised youth with options to a life a crime through sport, but ironically, the Minister of National Security alleged that funds from the programme were being paid to criminals. In a satirical post about the issue, Wired868 says:
Persad-Bissessar [the Prime Minister] said the contents of the Auditor General’s report into Life Sport would be forwarded to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and Integrity Commission, which do not have their own investigators, and the Police Service that, based on its record, could not find sand at the beach.
Roberts [the Minister of Sport] followed the Prime Minister’s lead by suggesting that the criminal activity was done by his employees and the buck stops with them, which…is arguably the equivalent of a motorist pleading innocent to a fatal accident because he closed his eyes just before impact.


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Venezuela Suspends -and Brings Back- Flights to Netherlands Antilles · Global Voices
Estefanía Salazar

On Friday June 25, 2015, Venezuela government announced the suspension of all flights between Venezuela and the Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Curazao, Bonaire, Saint Marteen and other islands).
According to Venezuelan newspaper El Universal, the action would be a consequence of the detention of Venezuelan Army general Hugo Carvajal –former director of intelligence between 2004 and 2009– by request of the American government, due to Carvajal's alleged ties with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as FARC) and with drug trafficking. Carvajal was appointed as consul in Aruba, but he didn't have the blessing of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, that is in charge of Aruba's foreign affairs.
Note: later, the decision was revoked, and flights between the two countries were resumed.

author: Estefanía Salazar


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Doctors and Translators Are Working Together to Bridge Wikipedia’s Medical Language Gap · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Wikiproject Medicine
Subhashish Panigrahi is a volunteer contributor for Wikipedia and has worked in the past as a community and program support consultant for Wikimedia Foundation.
Internet users from around the world often turn to Wikipedia to answer questions of all kinds. The information offered there includes medical subjects, especially important in parts of the world where access to medical professionals may be limited.
However, much of this information can be unreliable because it hasn't yet been vetted by the community — a process that is ongoing. Many articles are also only available in the most oft-spoken languages.
A group of experienced Wikipedia editors and medical professionals is trying to change that with the Medicine Translation Project, an effort to improve health care-related topics in English Wikipedia and translate them into other languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Persian, Tagalog, Indonesian and Macedonian.
Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Individual Engagement Grant (IEG), a microgrant supporting work on Wikipedia-related activities, granted 10,000 US dollars to the Medicine Translation Project Community Organizing project, which aims to enhance communication and coordination among the team.
Medical student and Wikipedian User:CFCF along with two advisors, Dr. James Heilman (User:Doc James) and Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi) lead the group. We spoke to founder CFCF over email.
Medical translation by CFCF (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Rising Voices (RV): How did the project get started? What inspired it and how did you identify the needs it would fulfill?
CFCF: […] The project itself started off in 2011 when Dr. James Heilman and a number of translators from Translators Without Borders: Enrique Cavalitto and Ildiko Santana teamed up in an effort to translate medical articles. Since then, the project has exploded into a larger translation forum with hundreds of translators translating articles into almost a hundred different languages.  […]
For Wikimedia projects with a large pool of editors, we have been taking help from editors to assess what is needed, and what should be translated. On smaller projects we have simply set the goal to get anything on World Health Organization (WHO)’s list of essential medicines, as well as anything about neglected tropical diseases, also from a list by the WHO. As for these articles the project is still in an early phase, but we want to cover basically anything that might be relevant to readers, from cancer to emergency medicine.
RV: How is the process of translation going?
A flow diagram illustrating the article flow process of the WP:MED journal collaboration and translation project. Flow of Article Creation by James Heilman, MD (CC BY-SA 3.0)
CFCF: […] The problem is that there are so many layers of complications in the translation process. After an article has been written and been subject to review to ensure its quality, the article needs to be prepared and proofed for translation, after which translators need to be found.  […] Many of our translators are medical professionals and have in-depth knowledge in their native languages. On the top of it, they dedicate plenty of time on the content creation and translation. This helps to get good quality translations. What this also means is they they seldom have any knowledge of Wiki markup or Wikipedia. Someone else who knows the language in question has to go through links, templates etc. and fix them, proofread the translated content so it is up to scratch and readable.
RV: How do you address this?
CFCF: To fix all this, it is best to have a local Wikipedian who can integrate the text. Most of the work has already been done. But, getting these things right is very crucial, especially on Wikipedias with vast content, where there already is a lot of content to link in.
I think the resistance we met early in the project's life was not against translation of content. But, because we did not spend enough time getting the translated articles up to shape before sending them live on the target Wikipedia.
What we saw on the Polish Wikipedia was that much of the issues were down to how they used different templates, and after I commissioned a bot to fix this, the articles started going live very quickly. After this, more and more editors became interested in helping out […]
RV: Are you in conversation with the Wikipedia Zero team — a mobile data project focused on Wikipedia access in the developing world — about popularising this with their partners in the developing nations?
CFCF: Currently we are not in touch with the Wikipedia Zero team specifically, even though our works target the same communities. The difference between us and them is that we target developed countries as well as countries where there barely is any mobile connectivity at all, such as Burma where I do not know if we will be seeing Wikipedia Zero in the foreseeable future […]
RV: What are your plans to engage with the larger Wikimedia communities that are multilingual and totally diverse?
CFCF: We aim to get high quality content in as many languages as we can. It is difficult to translate such deeply technical content, so we are really looking for professional translators, or individuals with some form of medical background so that information loss and corruption of content in translation is minimal.We recruit translators either off-wiki, or on the medical WikiProjects. We are still looking for translators who feel they are comfortable with such topics, and we especially need them in smaller languages. We are also searching them at Babylon on Meta Wiki.
WikiProject Med Foundation was the first attempt to get a truly global organization of medical Wikipedia editors. Most medical professionals are fluent in English, and we really try to engage in discussion in other languages when we can, so I think there is a real benefit in creating a global community for medical editors.
We are not large enough yet that we have all the relevant people on English Wikipedia, and we will probably never be because there are always specialists in other countries with very specific knowledge that we can leverage. That makes international collaboration really great.
As for the local language integrators, the idea is to have editors who are willing help out and be an intermediary between that community and our translator community. We have a page where all our finished translations are added. An integrator would patrol that page on a regular basis, inform the respective language Wikipedia that the new translation is ready. The language Wikipedia’s reader community share feedback on the translation quality and suggest for improvement. For us, it is really easy to just add articles without going through them thoroughly. But, that would not work at all. For things to work, we need someone who both knows Wiki markup and the target language so that the integration can go smoothly.
To stay up to date, follow the project's grant page.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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Macedonian Authorities Claim Social Networks ‘Have Always Been Blocked’ in University Dorms · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A screenshot of a YouTube video showing the living conditions at Goce Delchev dormitory in Macedonia.
Censorship of freedom of expression by Macedonian authorities is nothing new, but seems to be developing in the small southeast European country. Earlier in 2014, when the residents of a state-run student dormitory in Skopje began an online campaign to expose the horrific living conditions in the dorms, access to Facebook and other websites for the residents of the dorm was cut off.
Albanian-language news portal Portalb.mk was the only media outlet from Macedonia to publicly ask [sq] the Ministry of Education and Science for explanation. The ministry claimed that it never blocked access to all of the Internet, but “only to social media in the dorms”:
“Probleme me internetin nuk ka pasur, nuk është bërë ndonjë ndalesë në konviktin ‘Goce Dellçev’, sa i përket ankesave të studentëve, ato faqe dhe rrjete sociale gjithmonë kanë qenë të bllokuara si për studentët ashtu edhe për shkollat e mesme dhe fillore. Atyre u mundësohet qasja në internet për të mësuar dhe jo të hynë në faqe me përmbajtje që nuk ka lidhje me mësimin”, thonë nga sektori për informim i MASH-it.
“About the student claims, regarding blocking the Internet, we have never done that and there have not been any problems with the Internet in the “Goce Delchev” dorm. On the other hand, those Internet pages and social networks [in question] have always been blocked, the same way they have been blocked in high schools and primary schools. We enable students to use the Internet for studying purposes only, and not to use pages which have no connection to education,” stated the Ministry representative.
None of the student representatives or media ever claimed that access to all of the Internet was restricted. Prior to the students’ online campaign going viral on social networks throughout the region in March, the residents of the dorm had unrestricted access to Facebook within and outside of exam seasons.
The campaign to raise awareness about the unhealthy living conditions the the state had provided for them drew international interest in the matter. At the time, some media and Twitter users even went as far as to compare the living conditions to those in prisons:
A prison? No, a student dorm in Macedonia: Fed up with living in squalor, students in Macedonia have shared sh… http://t.co/1vTi1il5py
— Taylor (@spaceheaterdeal) March 27, 2014
This drew much unwanted attention to the state-run facility, and during the break-out of bad publicity for Macedonian authorities, Facebook and some other websites were suddenly off-limits to them.
As a result of the internationalization of the scandal, the Macedonian government promised to repair that particular dormitory in Skopje and improve living conditions for students. Living conditions in other dorms remain substandard.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Twitter “Blocks” Access to Russia’s Most Infamous Hackers · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Twitter screen capture.
Russia's Twitter users no longer have access to @b0ltai, an account belonging to a hacker collective that has leaked several internal Kremlin documents to the Internet over the past seven months. The hacker group, which RuNet Echo profiled last month, has published stollen emails belonging to high-profile members of the Russian government, inside reports on the state of Russian politics, and the Kremlin's instructions to state-controlled TV news channels.
Asked to explain why Twitter removed Russians’ access to @b0ltai, a Twitter spokesperson told RuNet Echo, “We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons.” Elsewhere, however, Twitter has confirmed the takedown of @b0ltai for Russian users. Twitter is one of only two companies (the other being Google) to post actioned takedown orders to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, a project of EFF and several law schools, to promote transparency.
Dated July 25, Twitter logged a “Russian request to block [a] Twitter user,” attaching a letter from Russia's federal communications agency, Roscomnadzor. The letter cites a decision by a St. Petersburg court, banning b0ltai's blog and microblog in accordance with a lawsuit by an unnamed individual concerning “personal data.” Little is known about the lawsuit that resulted in b0ltai's blacklisting. According to Kommersant newspaper, neither the Russian courts nor Roscomnadzor has elaborated on the trial that banned from the Internet Russia's most infamous hackers.
While Twitter's “Country Withheld Content” policy does stipulate that the company may “reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time,” if Twitter receives a “valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity,” it is still very easy for Twitter users inside Russia to access @b0ltai. Indeed, Russians have been tweeting the circumvention instructions all day.
Внимание! Те,кто хочет видеть заблокированные в РФ твиттер-аккаунты(напр. @b0ltai ) в настройках поставьте любую страну кроме РФ и worldwide
— Roman Dobrokhotov (@Dobrokhotov) July 27, 2014
Attention! For those of you who want to view the Twitter accounts blocked inside Russia (for example, @b0ltai), just go into your account settings and change your country setting to anything but “Russia” or “worldwide.”
Toggling a user's country is just 3-clicks-deep in the Twitter account settings. For now, that's all it takes to defeat the Great Firewall of Russia.


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“Shrinking Democratic Space” in Myanmar · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The new United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, has concluded a visit in the country and issued an initial report about Myanmar's human rights situation:
The opening up of democratic space for people to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to freedom of assembly and association is widely acknowledged as one significant achievement in Myanmar’s continuing reform process. Yet, in recent months many of my interlocutors have seen the shrinking of that space for civil society and the media.
There are also continuing reports of the excessive use of force by the police and the authorities in breaking up protests.
Yanghee Lee also expressed concern about the “spread of hate speech and incitement to violence, discrimination and hostility in the media and on the Internet, which have fuelled and triggered further violence” against minority ethnic groups and Muslims.
The Special Rapporteur stressed that Myanmar “needs further encouragement and understanding in order to address these challenges and to continue on the path of reform.”


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‘Terrified’ Founder Decides to Shutter Hong Kong Pro-Democracy News Site ‘House News’ · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen Capture of the House News’ Facebook Page. The site had more than 230 thousand Facebook followers before it shut down.
The House News, a popular pro-democracy news site in Hong Kong modeled after the Huffington Post, was shut down without warning on July 26.
Tony Tsoi, a House News co-founder and key investor, announced the closure in a note posted to the site at 5 p.m. He explained that political pressure against critical voices and a lack of advertisers drove his decision to shutter the site.
Launched in July 2012 as a news curation and blog site, The House News grew to become one of the most popular online media outlets in Hong Kong, ranking 57 in traffic from Hong Kong on Alexa with 300,000 unique visitors per day. Yet over the past two years, the news platform failed to attract enough advertisers to keep afloat.
Tsoi, who supports protest movement Occupy Central's plans to peacefully take over central Hong Kong and demand the right to choose candidates for the city's next chief executive election, said in the shutdown announcement that he is “terrified” by the political atmosphere:
我恐懼
原來今天的香港已經變了，做一個正常公民、做一個正常媒體、為社會做一點正當的事，實在不容易，甚至感到恐懼 — 不是陌生，而是恐懼。由於當前政治鬥爭氣氛令人極度不安，多位民主派人士，被跟蹤、被抹黑、被翻舊賬，一股白色恐怖氛圍在社會瀰漫，我亦感覺到這種壓力。還有，作為一個經常往返內地公幹的商人，我得承認，每次過境都會提心吊膽，但這是我過分疑神疑鬼嗎？那種感覺，根本不可能向外人説得清楚。
令我最不安，是家人也感受到這股壓力，終日替我擔心。隨著社會氣氛逐漸緊張，這股壓力在我身邊蔓延的程度令我日益困擾。
I am terrified.
Hong Kong has changed. To act as a normal citizen, a normal media outlet and to do something right for society is becoming difficult, or even terrifying — not that you feel alienated, but fearful. The ongoing political struggle makes people very anxious — many democrats are tracked and smeared. Their past records have been dug up. A sense of White Terror lingers in society and I feel the pressure as well. As a businessman who travels frequently to mainland China, I admit that every time I walk past the border, I am scared. Am I being paranoid? It is difficult to explain the feeling to outsiders.
My family feels the pressure and they are worried about me. As the atmosphere gets more tense, the pressure around me becomes more disturbing.
A former British colony, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of communist China and enjoys a high level of autonomy from the communist country under the idea of “one country, two systems.” Relations between the two have become tense in recent months. China has promised Hong Kong a direct vote for the next chief executive in 2017 for the first time, but insists that a committee approve the candidates.
The mainland considers “love of country” to be important criteria for Hong Kong's administrators, according to a white paper released by the government. Some Hong Kongers suspect they will only have pro-Beijing candidates to choose from, defeating the purpose of a direct vote.
Businesses aren't keen to advertise with pro-democracy media for fear of souring their relationship with the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, making it nearly impossible for sites to develop a sustainable business model based on advertising. Tsoi described the market in Hong Kong in his shutdown note:
從開始，我們當一盤正常生意來做，可是，在不正常的社會及市場氣氛下，主場新聞的廣告收入跟它的影響力，不成比例。主場新聞小本經營(很多熟悉我們的博客可作證)，但創辦至今，每月從未達至收支平衡。最大問題是在可見將來，香港社會氣氛只會更見緊張，從生意角度，主場新聞實在看不到曙光。有人問我，主場新聞有沒有出現抽廣告情況，答案是沒有，從未落，何來抽？香港不單止核心價值被扭曲，市場也被扭曲。
At the beginning, we had a business model in mind. But in an abnormal society and market, the revenue generated from The House News advertising is not proportional to its impact. Our budget is not big, but since our launch, we never have had a balanced budget. The biggest problem is that in the near future, the atmosphere in Hong Kong will become more tense. We can't see any hope from a business point of view. Some people asked me if any of our clients withdrew their ads. My answer is no. They never advertise on our site in the first place. Our core value has been twisted, and now the market is also twisted.
Soon after the closure was announced, all of the site's content became inaccessible. The abrupt decision sparked wide speculation among netizens that Beijing is tightening its grip on Hong Kong's media. Wen Yunchao, a mainland Chinese blogger who is now based in the U.S., commented on Twitter:
《主場新聞》即时关闭，显然是恐惧多于运营问题，且这个恐惧应该还不是来自于环境的恐惧气氛，而是某种直接的威胁——不马上关闭就会如何如何一类的威胁。如果只是运营的问题，至少会先寻求合作或是出售待其他解决办法。
— 北风（温云超, Yunchao Wen） (@wenyunchao) July 26, 2014
The major cause of the abrupt shutdown of The House News is more likely related to fear than business considerations. The fear most likely stems from direct threats rather than the political atmosphere — the imperative kind of threat in the form of “shut down or else you will face certain consequences.” If it is business considerations, they should at least look for a business partner, sell the business or seek another solution.
Au Ka Lun, a former journalist and columnist at The House News, wrote on his Facebook (republished on citizen media platform inmediahk.net with the writer's permission):
影響力漸見，既喜亦憂。我們這城市，遊戲規則是這樣的，你搞得無聲無息，無人問津，縱使「反動」，說話不中聽，有關方面會隻眼開隻眼閉，無時間關心你。若媒體影響力大，引人注目，還要搞串連，自然會有人搞你。
搞，有很多方式。結業，是政治原因、經濟原因，還是「誤判恐懼」，又怎能分得清楚。
I felt happy and worried about the impact [of The House News]. In this city, the rules of the game are like this: If you don't have impact and no one cares about you, even though you are “politically on the wrong side” and say something unpleasant, authorities will play dumb as they don't have the spare time to pay attention to you. If the media outlet becomes influential, attracts attention and turns into a nexus for the progressive community, naturally they will “do something”.
There are different ways to “do something”. It is hard to distinguish if the shutdown is due to political considerations, business considerations or “fear and wrong judgement”.
A few days before The House News’ shuttered, pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai's donation to the democrats led the headlines in six major newspapers in Hong Kong. As Lai is the chairperson of the Next Media Group, current affairs commentator Yip Yat Chi hypothesized on inmediahk.net that Beijing is launching a major crackdown on pro-democracy media in Hong Kong, including the Next Media's Apple Daily News and major online media platforms:
在其他傳媒歸順下，成為「真理部」的工具時，如果能成功消滅蘋果，在親共傳媒的操作和篩選下，一切反駁聲音便會消失泰半。[…] 因此，不難看到，對蘋果的打擊是如何全方位進行中――先是商戶抽廣告，繼而是黑客攻擊，現在是利用所謂政治捐獻(還被扭曲為「黑金政治」)，在資源上削弱(斷其資金)，在運作上打擊(增加成本)，並在道德上抹黑(撲滅同情)，全方位開動，誓要殺之而後快。
當然，今天還有互聯網。網媒越來越多，網絡成為「第五權」，不單協助監察政府，連傳媒也成為監察對象。網媒眾多，個別更甚具影響力。但正因如此，可以預期，中共在宣揚歪理和統戰傳統傳媒有了初步成效時，必會針對網絡開戰[…]
As all other media outlets are cooperative and are turning into a tool of the “ministry of truth” [Chinese Communist Party propaganda], if they can eliminate Apple Daily News, opposition voices will be cut down by half. […] The crackdown against Apple Daily is so obvious — advertisements were withdrawn, the news site had been attacked by hackers. Now they turn the story of political donation into “corrupt money politics.” There are multiple dimensions to the crackdown: resources (cut its revenue), technical operations (increase its operational cost) and moral smearing (alienate it from public sympathy).
Of course today we still have the Internet. There are more and more online media outlets and the Internet has become the “fifth estate” serving the function of monitoring the government alongside mainstream media. Some online media has become influential and it is predictable that once the Chinese Communist Party has succeeded in building a united front among conventional media for propaganda purposes, they will start the online battle. […]
Yip Ya Chi explained that just as he was finishing up his piece, the House News announced its shutdown.
Which online media platform will be the next target of this suspected crackdown? What can be done to protect the media freedom environment in Hong Kong? Many Hong Kongers are wondering.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution

author: Oiwan Lam


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The Philippines’ ‘Anti-Corruption’ President Is Facing Impeachment Calls Over Accusations of Corruption · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Photo from the official Facebook page of the government
Philippine President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III won on an anti-corruption platform in 2010. Four years later, some are calling for his impeachment for what they see as systemic corruption and patronage politics.
At the center of the criticism is the 177-billion-peso (US$4.086-billion) Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), created shortly after Aquino took office. The program, which was supposed to stimulate the economy, allowed the executive to transfer funds from different agencies and branches of the government into other projects that is favored by the executive.
The implementation of DAP was stopped after the Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that it is unconstitutional. Under the law, Congress has the exclusive power to allocate funds. Critics assailed the DAP as another form of pork barrel under the sole discretion of the president. Opposition Senator Jinggoy Estrada exposed DAP as the source of money used to bribe senators to impeach former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
The first impeachment complaint was lodged in Congress on July 22 by 28 people coming from anti-corruption groups. The second complaint, filed on July 23, was signed by 25 student leaders coming from various universities. A third impeachment complaint, which was lodged by activist groups to Congress on July 24, has also been filed in connection to the government’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States. Complainants said violates constitutional prohibition of the presence of foreign troops and bases in the country.
President Aquino aggressively defended DAP in a live televised speech on primetime TV, saying the program is legal and beneficial to the public as a stimulus to drive economic growth. This infographic below, released by the government, identifies some of the DAP projects which allegedly boosted the country's disaster preparedness:
But Ibon, a progressive think tank, used government documents to show that DAP projects have little contribution to the economy:
Many observers are asserting that pushing the impeachment case forward is difficult because of a solid administration majority in Congress, the branch with the power to formally charge a government official for impeachment. Yet former legislator Teddy Casino said that impeachment will hold the president accountable for DAP and other issues:
This is to be expected. After all, the SC decision categorically states that the President violated the Constitution and the law. The logical next step would be to hold him accountable. Since the President is immune from suit, the only way to exact accountability is to impeach him first, then file the appropriate criminal charges after.
According to veteran activist Carol Araullo, the president has become more unpopular by the day because of the DAP controversy with majority of the people feeling betrayed by another elite government that promised reforms with populist rhetoric:
Mr. Aquino is deluded if he thinks he can muster a spontaneous outpouring of support from the people who may have been earlier hoodwinked into believing his anti-corruption/good governance rant… His plea for people to “tie a yellow ribbon” to show their support for his administration has fallen on deaf ears so much so that his spokesman has had to tell the public not to take it seriously.
Nevertheless, the president still has defenders. The blog Perspectives in Development and Evaluation, for instance, believes that DAP is perfectly legal and is beneficial to the public.
The Executive Branch needs some funds or access to funds in order to realize it’s set objectives. I’m not in agreement to the proposal that the Executive (or the Legislative) run absolutely without funds. It’s simply unrealistic. Even company CEOs are provided some funds.
Meanwhile, an online campaign has been encouraging netizens to post photos of themselves with messages for President Aquino regarding DAP. Many are asking why they have not benefited from DAP despite the repeated claims of the government that the program boosted the domestic economy and improved the lives of the poor.
“The education budget is insufficient. Where is the DAP Mr. President?”
“Where is the DAP for [super typhoon] Yolanda victims that you boasted about? We don't feel it.”
“Why are many still unemployed these days when you said we are your boss? Where did DAP go?”
A Radical Nut, an activist researcher, notes that the handling of the impeachment process by the President’s political allies in Congress will determine the shape of the brewing political crisis.
The Aquino administration firmly controls the lower house and, like the Arroyo regime, will surely use all its influence and resources – including massive presidential discretionary funds – to dictate the outcome of the impeachment… But for the people, all these only highlight how rotten the prevailing political system is.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Under Bombs, Gaza’s Doctors Are Saving Lives and Tweeting Heartbreaking Stories Between Shifts  · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Al Shifa hospital's Dr. Bassel Abuward sarcastically tweets, “6m old (terrorist) infant being treated by Drs to remove shrapnel from his back.”
Eight hospitals, nine medical clinics and 14 ambulances have been bombed since Israel launched an offensive in the densely populated, narrow 40-kilometer-long coastal strip Gaza. Home to 1.8 million Palestinians, the U.K.'s Prime Minister David Cameron has called Gaza “an open-air prison”.
According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, in the last 20 days four of the 1,000 killed were health professionals and 14 of the 6,000 injured were health professionals.
Israeli military warplanes and tanks have also hit residential neighborhoods, schools and shelters. The U.N. estimates that more than 74 percent of those killed are civilians.
Under the threat of bombs, doctors like Bassel Abuward, Belal, Saeed Kanafany, and Mads Gilbert are performing miracles at Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa.
Just Now in Gaza, a baby born from dead mother who has been killed by Israeli army A LIFE FROM DEATH #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/0bAEKynrd4
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 25, 2014
Hundreds of civilians are seeking help from Al-Shifa, the U.N.'s June 20 Gaza report explains:
The situation could not be more dire for the collapsed health sector in Gaza, with this latest conflict only adding to the burden on overwhelmed doctors and medical staff.
This is the third war in five and a half years endured by the people of Gaza. As with previous conflicts, there is nowhere for women, men and children to escape to. The Strip is densely populated and the seven-year Israeli-imposed blockade means that people’s movement to and from Gaza remains virtually banned.
Doctors at the overcrowded Al-Shifa hospital are witnessing immense tragedy. Multiple people are being treated on the same bed in emergency rooms. High-risk newborn infants are dying because of lack of specialized care.
Israel is trying to destroy #Gaza future by killing most of our children & making the rest disabled #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/KlP3BPJMBJ
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 24, 2014
On a particularly bloody day of the offensive targeting Shejaiya, one of Gaza's most congested neighborhoods, NBC's correspondent tweeted this from Shifa:
In 13 years, I have never seen or smelt death the way I have seen and smelt it on bodies dragged from Shejaiya into the Shifa morgue today
— Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) July 26, 2014
The doctors aren't just saving lives they are also telling the scale of the tragedy in Gaza to the world, by tweeting in between shifts about stories from the emergency rooms and the sights of destruction they see shuttling in between work and their homes.
Blogger and doctor Belal has been tweeting from @Belalmd12 between shifts and under bombs. He also appeared on the U.S. independent TV show Democracy Now and wrote a heartbreaking post for Electronic Intifada, an online news site that focuses on Palestine and its people:
Dozens of people arrived to Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, where I was on shift that night. Some arrived torn to pieces, some beheaded, some disfigured beyond recognition, although still alive and breathing […] The medical staff were lucky to get a break of less than half an hour. Some spent it watching the flares and bombs Israel was raining on the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City, while others refueled with coffee or lay down for a few moments.
Some of his tweets:
My shift ended as of 9 am and I am free to tweet as much as I desire, as long as I am still alive of course.
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 24, 2014
A casualty arrives at the hospital. The doctor discovers it's his martyred son. He takes one last photo. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/naBiWJhrzx
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 25, 2014
They tell them to evacuate, and they target them when they do. Israel has just targeted a UNRWA school where people were taking shelter.
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 24, 2014
IDF spokesperson brags, says 120 bombs fell on Alshujaeya, each one of them weighing 1 ton of ezplosives. Save that tweet for ICC.
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 23, 2014
Red Cross bailed on people and stopped responding to their phone numbers. What are you here for then? Organizing picnics? #GazaUnderAttack
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 20, 2014
After four young Palestinians boys were shot and killed by sophisticated Israeli aerial weaponry while they were playing on the beach, he tweeted:
8 of their few years on this earth were lived under siege. They never had a chance to see the world; the world never cared or waited.
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 16, 2014
This is Beit Hanoun hospital, it had the same fate as European Gaza hospital, Al-Aqsa hospital and Al-Durra hospital. pic.twitter.com/5prKX22ezf
— Belal – Gaza (@Belalmd12) July 26, 2014
Dr. Bassel Abuward has been tweeting photos from the hospitals, devastation around Gaza and retweeting messages of solidarity and support around the world.
Thousands of people demonstrated for #Gaza on the streets of Chicago today Thank u #GazaUnderAttack #ICC4Israel pic.twitter.com/OoX8lt5F0w
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 27, 2014
I remember being shocked by Syria's devastation. What I saw today in Gaza was virtually indistinguishable #ICC4Israel pic.twitter.com/rUHCETbGsh
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 26, 2014
A father & his son went to check their house and found this!!!! This picture worths a thousand words #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/75kTd458tU
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 26, 2014
The WORST experience in my life was: to tell a mother looking for her children that they r all DEAD #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/Djvhogbn2w
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 25, 2014
AlDurrah Children's Hospital in #Gaza severely damaged by nearby airstrike Yesterday 30injured,1dead #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/llCtCsFHva
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 25, 2014
Due to the high numbers of injuries, more than one patients r treated on the same bed CHILDREN again #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/26XV6TCHZJ
— Dr.Bassel Abuwarda (@DrBasselAbuward) July 25, 2014
Dr. Saeed Kanafy has been tweeting about the tragedies and realities medical professionals have been enduring.
Paramedic martyr Mohammed Al Abadlah now between God hands :( As i said all red lines are crossed #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/RiMo7hRzTg
— saeed (@drsaeedkanafany) July 25, 2014
Beit Hanoun Hospital under attack now. Israel cross all red lines even the Hospitals #SupportGaza #AJAGAZA
— saeed (@drsaeedkanafany) July 25, 2014
This is how doctors in Gaza drink water #GazaUnderAttack #SupportGaza pic.twitter.com/Aqv5HcDIxk
— saeed (@drsaeedkanafany) July 25, 2014
“The moment you see Doctors crying , Is the moment when you realize all red lines have been crossed” @DrBasselAbuward
The U.S. gives Israel about $3.1 billion in military assistance every year. Each time the Israeli military launches a destructive and lethal offensive in Gaza — this is the third one in six years — the UNRWA, a U.S.-funded humanitarian agency, deals with the aftermath.
Norwegian Dr. Mads Frederick Gilbert, who works with Bassel, Saeed and Bilal at Al-Shifa hospital, published on open letter to President Obama on July 17, which has since gone viral and been republished on many websites:
‘Mr. Obama – do you have a heart?
I invite you – spend one night – just one night – with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.
I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.
Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Victory Speech of Indonesia’s New President · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesia's President-elect Joko Widodo or Jokowi delivered a victory speech recognizing the spirit of voluntarism among citizens:
This presidential election has sparked new optimism for us, for this nation. Free souls and political responsibilities blossom within the souls of the new generation. The long-lost voluntarism is now back with a new spirit.
And in the spirit of promoting “volunteer participation”, Jokowi asked Facebook users to vote and choose the 34 Cabinet ministers he should include in his government.


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What Owen Arthur’s Resignation Says About Barbados’ Politics  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Owen Arthur has resigned from the political party he led for 14 years – a move which Barbados Underground thinks should give Barbadians pause:
The incapacity of a former Prime Minister…to carve out an effective role to serve his political party in the twilight of his career leaves a sour taste. If our leaders are unable to find ways to resolve conflict to the greater good of country what message does it send to the general population?