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Lagos’ train acquisition is Wisconsin’s loss  · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his team in the Talgo train factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Image by Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Facebook page), January 19, 2022
On Jan. 18, Nigeria’s Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu purchased two trains from Talgo, a train manufacturing plant based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., for the Lagos Metro Rail project which debuts in 2022. The trains will help ease traffic congestion in one of Africa's busiest cities, while also resolving a bitter conflict between local politicians in a North American country.
Toxic partisan politics between local Democrats and Republicans resulted in a long legal battle between Talgo and the State of Wisconsin. Hence, the trains “originally built for a high-speed rail line between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities” have been unused for a decade.
Christine Hatfield, a journalist with the Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) reports that in 2009, Democrat Jim Doyle, governor of Wisconsin at that time, “announced a deal with Talgo for two new trains to be built in the state and used for a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison.” This came on the heels of a U.S. federal stimulus bill, which awarded $810 million USD to the State of Wisconsin for the deal. However, Doyle’s successor as governor, Republican Scott Walker, scrapped the project.
By 2012, Talgo had built the trains only for the State of Wisconsin to renege on the contract. “The result was the loss of jobs at Talgo’s new plant in Milwaukee and an inevitable lawsuit. The state ended up paying $50 million to Talgo and the company got to keep the trains. That was $50 million in taxpayer money incinerated. We paid $50 million and got nothing for it,” writes Dave Cieslewicz, a journalist with Isthmus, a community-based newspaper in Madison, WI.
A legal settlement between Wisconsin and Talgo saw the state pay “the company a total of $50 million for the trains” with the company still maintaining ownership of the trains, asserts Hatfield of WPR.
Aerial view of the Lagos Rail Line, still under construction. Image by Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Facebook page), January 3, 2022
The Wisconsin trains purchased by Lagos governor Sanwo-Olu will be deployed to the Lagos light rail urban mass transit project. Estimated to cost $1.4 billion USD, the Lagos rail line project is divided into two prominent networks, the 27-kilometre Okokomaiko-Marina blue line, and the 30-kilometre Marina-Agbado red line. The former is being handled by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC).
The Red and Blue lines, each having 13 stations, will decongest the traffic in one of Africa’s most densely populated cities. Lagos’ estimated population of 17.5 million is the sum of that of New York or London combined. The sweltering gridlock of the city is the reason why Lagosians spend 30 hours every week in traffic or “75 percent of a week’s total working hours commuting,” according to a report published in Nigeria’s BusinessDay newspaper.
The net effect of traffic congestion is not confined to the diminished productivity rate of Lagosians. It also “takes a huge toll on workers’ mental and physical health.” The light rail project will significantly “bring a new lease of life to public transportation in Lagos,” Sanwo-Olu said, during the purchase of the trains in Wisconsin.
However, not every Lagosian is thrilled about the project.
These Twitter users complained that former Lagos State governors had acquired trains in the past for an “incomplete” train project:
This light rail is the afternoon food of every Lagos State governor. https://t.co/yY9sf8abkm
— Starving writer (@Olumuyiwa__) January 19, 2022
The skepticism about the completion of the rail line project is understandable. On May 11, 2011, Babatunde Fashola, the Lagos State governor at the time inspected and purchased trains from Canadian's Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) for the yet-to-be-completed Lagos rail line transportation project. Hence, the doubt about Sanwo-Olu's train purchase in Wisconsin.
Another user decried the amount of money spent on the decade-old project without tangible results:
After 13yrs and billions spent, they are yet to complete the Lagos light rail project and he wants to turn Nigeria to Dubai.
Tokunbo Peters
— Sworn Enemy of Convention (SEC) (@drjay247) January 13, 2022
Oladeinde Olawoyin, a journalist with online newspaper Premium Times asserts that “the Lagos light rail has suffered neglect after 17 years of failed promises.” The delay in completing the Lagos train project, according to Olawoyin, was linked to “accountability issue raised in connection with the discrepancies in the funding costs.”
The recent purchase of the trains is projected to be a win for Lagos, as long as the government follows through on its plan.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Clean sweep for incumbent Mia Mottley in Barbados’ first election as a republic · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaking at the 16th Raúl Prebisch Lecture held in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 10, 2019. Photo by Timothy Sullivan (UNCTAD) on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
After Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced a snap election to be held on January 19, 2022 — a year and a half before it was constitutionally due — she was roundly criticised, perhaps most vocally by the opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), which called the move “alarming” to the country's democracy and an attempt by Mottley and her Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to consolidate power. In the wee hours of January 20, however, as the final results were tallied, it became startlingly evident that Mottley's gamble had paid off, with her party sailing to a definitive victory.
In a last-ditch attempt to stop the election, the first since Barbados officially became a republic on November 30, from taking place, one politician, Philip Catlyn of the Barbados Sovereignty Party (BSB) filed a court injunction (subsequently denied) contending that more than 5,000 COVID-19-positive members of the electorate would be unable to exercise their right to vote. Additionally, some candidates accused the Barbados Postal Service (BPS) of failing to deliver their election circulars.
The election went ahead as planned on January 19 with strict COVID protocols in place. As it turned out, in a population of just under 300,000, those alleged 5,000 votes may not have made much of a difference, especially since the main contender appeared to be struggling to connect with the electorate.
While the DLP dangled tax breaks and the regulation of bank fees as part of its election manifesto, Mottley was focused on long-term financial security, food security, housing and renewable energy projects. Her party, which had held 29 of a possible 30 legislative seats going into the election, emerged on the other side with all 30 constituencies under its belt.
Mia Mottley has been sworn in once again as Prime Minister of Barbados, following a projected whitewash victory in yesterday’s snap election.The swearing-in ceremony held today also saw Dale Marshall being sworn in as Attorney General.https://t.co/HDMP7RIKQ2
— Nationwide90FM (@NationwideRadio) January 20, 2022
In her victory speech, Mottley made the point that power resides in the people and that she planned to prepare the country for the “serious challenges” it will face “in the next ten to 15 years.” Those challenges include the climate crisis, an issue she has been internationally vocal about. Mottley said her government will lead Barbados “first to safety and then to prosperity.”
Fellow regional politicians, including Jamaica's Lisa Hanna and Guyana's Bharrat Jagdeo, congratulated Mottley on her “decisive” and “resounding” re-election, while Guyana's president, Ifaan Ali, has been known to serve up a special treat to show his support.
On Twitter, social media users were also aware of the magnitude of her accomplishment:
We salute you; are forever grateful, and it's so inspirational to see Mia, as we Bajans affectionately call her, firmly and proudly seize the baton of progress in our national quest for greater and instinctive greatness!
— Stanley Collymore (@DerAkademiker) January 21, 2022
Reggae singer Maxi Priest joined in the accolades:
Congratulations to
Primeminister Mia Mottley on being reelected for another term to lead Barbados 🇧🇧 Nuff respect Mia 👊🏾 !! You are not only a leader in the Caribbean, you are a traleblazing leader of the 🌎! pic.twitter.com/rgC6FvJYUD
— Maxi Priest (@MaxiPriest) January 21, 2022
However, one Jamaican queried:
As a Jamaican, I was interested to see Barbados Gen Election yesterday gave Mottley second term as PM.
She’s clearly a brilliant politician.
But is it good for democracy if one party holds EVERY SINGLE seat with NO OPPOSITION for 2 elections in a row?https://t.co/mqrSLZbeFy
— MR (@rydermc) January 20, 2022
While another tempered his congratulations with a similar caution:
Andrew Holness wins 49-14 and everybody says that’s bad for democracy and dictatorship will arise etc Mia Mottley wins all 30 seats a second time and it’s all congratulations 🍾 and happy feelings😂We are so hypocritical 😂😂 @miaamormottley congrats you and the BLP
— 👑Chadwik Spence  (@chadwikspencejm) January 20, 2022
As it stands, Barbados does not have an official opposition, but as Mottley noted, its people have “spoken with one voice, decisively, unanimously and clearly.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Internet watchdog finds encryption flaw in mandatory Chinese Olympic app · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A screenshot of the MY2022 app via Citizen Lab.
The Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based internet freedom watchdog, found a “devastating” flaw that jeopardizes encrypted communication in the My2022 mobile app, a mandatory health monitoring app for all Beijing Winter Olympic attendees. The security loophole would make personal data — including audio files, health status, passport information, medical and travel history — vulnerable to third-party exploitation.
Another cybersecurity firm, Internet 2.0, also issued an alert of widespread surveillance practices in China and suggested overseas attendees leave their phones at home and use burner phones inside China.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, dismissed Citizen Lab’s security audit and stressed that the Beijing health app has “no critical vulnerabilities” according to assessments conducted by two independent cybersecurity testing organizations.
Athletes, journalists, and all other Beijing Winter Olympic attendees are required to use the My2022 app 14 days before flying to China. The users are required to submit health and travel information including COVID-19 test results and vaccination certificates through the app. The health tracking app also has news, audio and video messaging, and file-sharing functions.
Published on January 18, the Citizen Lab report points out that the My2022 app could not validate SSL certificates with at least five servers and the loophole would allow attackers to intercept the encrypted communication and steal private data by deceiving the app into connecting with a malicious host. In other words, the flaw has literally disabled the encryption function.
In addition, the research also found that some sensitive data is transmitted through the app to a host without any security protection, and as a result, the data “can be read by any passive eavesdropper, such as someone in the range of unsecured wifi access point.”
The Canadian internet freedom watchdog also found a censorship list with 2,000 keywords, including sensitive terms like Xinjiang, Tibet, Dalai Lama, etc., embedded in the app under the filename “illegalwords.txt.” But the censorship function has not been activated.
The Citizen Lab disclosed its findings to the IOC on December 3, 2021, and issued a 15-day deadline for a substantial response and a 45-day deadline for fixing the flaw. It released its report on January 18 after the 15-day deadline passed.
On the same day, Internet 2.0 issued a paper showing how the Chinese national security legislation had affected corporate behavior in assisting state surveillance through the design of their mobile applications. The cybersecurity firm warned that “all athletes and visitors to China for the Olympics will be exposed to such laws and surveillance culture.”
It further recommends that Olympic athletes and visitors use a new phone with a temporary email account while inside China and warns them against using the “burner” phone after they exit China to prevent private data from their cloud account from being collected by Chinese mobile apps and operators.
While the IOC dismissed the security concern, the US Olympic Committee told their athletes to bring a burner phone to Beijing as they have to “assume that every device and every communication, transaction and online activity will be monitored” in China.
The German athletes’ group, Athleten Deutschland, slammed the IOC, saying that “it is inexplicable and irresponsible of the IOC to require participants to use an app with such glaring security vulnerabilities.”
In response to the international security concern, Chinese state-funded media CGTN quoted tech analyst Andy Mok who dismissed Citizen Lab’s report as “a well-coordinated attack to create negative PR impact for the upcoming Olympics.” To such claim, Oliver Linow  Internet Freedom Specialist at DW responded:
I'm interested in facts and evidence. @citizenlab provides a detailed report, all is transparent. The BOC was informed about security vulnerabilities on 3 December. The IOC claims the #my2022 app has been reviewed by two independent security organisations. Details? #Beijing2022 pic.twitter.com/qhnVXLn4Zp
— Oliver Linow (@OliverLinow) January 19, 2022

author: Oiwan Lam


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What Samuel Eto’o’s ascension to football leadership means to Cameroon · Global Voices
Beng Emmanuel Kum

Samuel Eto’o speaks in Lisbon, Portugal, after being presented with the Web Summit Innovation in Sport Award. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Web Summit via Sportsfile, November 2, 2021, (CC BY 2.0)
On December 11, 2021, Cameroonian star and international football sensation Samuel Eto’o, 40, was  elected president of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT). After the joy of his victory which reverberated on the streets of Cameroon has subsided, the football legend now faces the great task of rejuvenating the country’s football back to its global golden status.
Eto’o won with 43 votes, against incumbent Seidou Mbombo Njoya’s 31 votes, during the general assembly of FECAFOOT. He is the third former footballer from that Central African nation to head FECAFOOT, after Emmanuel Mve and Pascal Owona Baylon.
The Cameroon great has his sights set on achieving his objectives at all cost. Eto’o spoke to this reporter during a short press briefing immediately after his election in Mount Febe Hotel, Yaoundé:
Thanks for making me your 17th president. I want to thank the delegates for bestowing the confidence on me. And to those who didn’t vote for me, I hereby extend my hand for collective work. I sincerely thank and appreciate Seidou Mbombo Njoya for the incredible work he has done so far. We shall start work immediately to ensure that our football is taken to higher heights. I have taken the challenge to give my best and I always deliver.
Yesterday officially marked my first day as the new president of @fecafootofficiel. Thank you to my predecessor @MbomboSeidou for passing the baton. I have high hopes of what can be achieved in this next chapter of Cameroonian football 🇨🇲 pic.twitter.com/AXtRC695bc
— Samuel Eto'o (@SamuelEtoo) January 18, 2022
The former FC Barcelona and Inter Milan star is adored in Cameroon and admired across the globe. The former footballer, now sports administrator, shoulders great expectations. Many are looking forward to great changes after a monumental collapse of Cameroon football.
“This is the time to bring in change. Eto’o has been a great player on the pitch and he has to use that greatness off the pitch this time. So many people are looking up to him. And to whom much is given, much is expected,” Etienne Mainimo, a sport journalist in Cameroon told this reporter in Yaoundé, venue of the FECAFOOT election.
Once Eto’o’s victory was announced, his fans flooded the streets in various cities to celebrate his win.
Exhiliration at the Samuel Etoo street in Nkongmondo, Douala where Etoo spent part of his childhood.
The fans are celebrating his victory after the former Cameroon international won elections at Cameroon's football Federation FECAFOOT #FECAFOOTElections #FECAFOOT pic.twitter.com/cVuogO0OkQ
— Njie Enow: Mr Razzmatazz (@NjieEnow) December 11, 2021
“I am so happy and excited. It is unbelievable; I can’t believe this is happening, I am speechless. They said we could not win. But finally Eto’o has finally been elected president. We knew we would win and today we have,” Otto Bernard, a supporter, told Global Voices, as he dropped to the ground in joy. Although Otto was denied access to the election venue by security officials, undeterred, he waited at the gate till the election ended. “He is the savior of Cameroon football and I have no doubt in the next couple of years, we shall see total transformation. We trust in him and he has all our support,” Otto stated.
Samuel Eto’o takes over management of the Cameroon Football Federation at a perilous time, with the sport undergoing perennial administrative upheavals.
The internal squabbles in FECAFOOT have deterred football from its glorious path. The feud between FECAFOOT and the Ministry of Sport has generated some bad blood among club presidents , causing disunity among football administrators and untold harm to the game.
Raymond Elume, a Cameroonian Sport analyst told  Global Voices that he believes that “Samuel Eto’o is the candidate for unity. That is what he represents to me. Eto’o can bring the football family together.”
Eto’o is reported to have made a lot of enemies during his hay days with the national team. Hence, he appreciates how important reconciliation is in his quest for exemplary leadership.
“You have to bring the various fractions on the table. It is true that these people will not have the same ideology as you, but do your maximum best to see that you bring these parties together. Great leaders don’t live by regrets. They rather live by examples. This is the time we need to move ahead”, Etienne Mengnjo Mainimo asserted to Global Voices, a day after the elections in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Abah Isidore, freelance investigative journalist and strategist told Global Voices via WhatsApp, that “there was a need to change the status quo because people who were calling the shots were politicians and they had nothing to do with football. Footballers are coming back to manage the affairs, it will actually cause a paradigm shift, so that people can get to trust the league and enjoy it,” he said.
Despite satisfactory infrastructural growth, football in the Central African nation is crumbling under the weight of corruption. Football is played more in the offices and courtrooms than on pitches. The sharp decline in the promotion and interest of local football over the years is telling of how the country’s most popular sport has been widely affected.
Atia Tilarius, award winning Cameroonian journalist told Global Voices that “it is very important to have a change in the leadership of FECAFOOT. When a kingmaker becomes king, it is to straighten the things that his protégé could not do. Long stay in power breeds corruption, and complacency. A new leader is bound to perform and secure a fresh mandate. This will go a long way to improve Cameroonian football.”
Anyway, 2002 AFCON.
Cameroun won it without conceding a single goal in open play.
Patrick Mboma, Rigobert Song, Marc-Vivien Foé, Samuel Eto'o…
🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/YIMMGe9Xcv
— You Never (@Side_Effects__) January 19, 2022
Tilarius also believes there is a glimmer of hope with Eto’o's accession to power, “As a former footballer, Eto’o should already know that Cameroonians football has been struck in a time warp mainly due to moribund leadership that increasingly appears to be out of touch with reality. Since Iya Mohamed fell out of power, the management of Cameroon Football has never known good.”
Image: Samuel Eto’o the footballer. Image by mustapha ennaimi, November 14, 2009, (CC BY 2.0)
Samuel Eto’o astronomical rise to the top of his career is enough to inspire a change in the way football is perceived in Cameroon.
“Samuel Eto’o did not play Elite One and Elite Two football, he was an amateur football player. He left from an amateur league straight to Real Madrid. That is the dream that Cameroon Football should now have. If you look at the talent pool of Senegal, and Ivory Coast, is what we should be aspiring for,” Raymond Elume told Global Voices.
The reforms  from Samuel Eto’o’s led team – which will serve as a springboard for better organization and a sponsor-backed domestic championship – didn’t take long to come.
President Samuel Eto’o is in charge and is hitting the ground running. pic.twitter.com/n4h2lv9JkW
— Football Stage (@Football__Stage) January 20, 2022
Kudus to Samuel Eto'o who got to work as soon as he was elected, leaving no room for the Lions to feel the impact of transition and power vacuum before his installation. We thank him for the moral and material booster towards our team!
— ❣Frankline Njume🇨🇲 (@kingsaraboro) January 21, 2022
On January 5, 2022, FECAFOOT announced an increase in the prize money for the Elite One and the subsidies to clubs, after a meeting with the Association of Elite Clubs (ASEC).
The winner of the League one championship will, as from 2022, go back home with 50 million Central African (CFA) franc (about 86,000 USD) as against the 30 million CFA (about 52,000 USD) in previous years. League one clubs will also receive 20 million frs CFA as state subsidies instead of the traditional 10 million CFA (about 17,000 USD). Similarly, the League Two Clubs will receive 10 million CFA instead of the original 5 million CFA (about 9,000 USD). Clubs of the first and second tier championship also receive equipment from the Cameroon Football Federation. Both parties also agreed to start the 2021/2022 Elite One and Two Football Championships in February 2022.
However, Eto’o’s ambition for football goes beyond Cameroon, he wants an African country to win the World Cup.

author: Beng Emmanuel Kum


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As Kenyans prepare for a general election, how will officials combat fake news? · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

“Kenyans Voting” by Antony Njenga is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Kenyans will head to the polls on August 9, 2022, to elect a new president, as well as members of the National Assembly and Senate, county governors, and members of the 47 county assemblies. As the general elections draw closer, fake news and politically-skewed misinformation are becoming a major problem.
Misinformation campaigns have been festering for months.
Kenya’s general elections have been held hostage twice now by fake news machinery. For instance, during the last two election cycles, Cambridge Analytica manipulated young voters by intentionally spreading fake news via social media, undermining Kenya’s democracy in the process. The campaign was revealed by the UK's broadcaster Channel 4 which covertly filmed Mark Turnbull, managing director of Cambridge Analytica Political Global, as he described the company's dominant role in Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s election campaigns in 2013 and 2017.
As some wonder whether this election will be any different, a group of current and former journalists are working to protect Kenya's information infrastructure.
During the last presidential election in 2017, the fake news machinery was deployed both at micro levels through social media influencers hired either by political parties and at a national scale through Cambridge Analytica. So why has social media continued to play such an important role in how Kenyans vote?
Social media is everything in Kenya. From a population of 54.38 million as of January 2021, there were 21.75 million internet users in Kenya, and internet penetration stood at 40 percent. While more than half of Kenya’s population still do not have access to the internet, that demographic is older populations in rural areas.
An estimated 61 percent of the nation's population is 24 years old or younger, according to the UN's 2017 estimates. This is the demographic that is most active on social media. WhatsApp and Facebook are top ranking apps by monthly active users according to the Digital 2021 Kenya report by Hootsuite and We Are Social.
As the sixth most popular platform in the country, Twitter continues to be the primary news and information trendsetter, and has become ground zero of the new flourishing disinformation industry.
In September 2021, research by two Mozilla Fellows, Odanga Madung and Brian Obilo, revealed how malicious, coordinated, and inauthentic attacks on Twitter are undermining Kenyan civil society as  Kenyan journalists, judges, and other citizens are targeted through coordinated disinformation campaigns. The report also revealed how little Twitter was doing to address the issue.
While researchers contacted Twitter during the course of their study, it was only after the report had received considerable national and global coverage that Twitter took action against over 100 accounts that had violated its platform manipulation and spam policy.
In November 2021, the same Mozilla fellows released another report that revealed how hired influencers were deployed in a coordinated attack to discredit the Pandora Papers through Twitter. The papers implicated the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family in shady financial dealings.
An investigative feature by The Star, a Kenyan print and digital news outlet, spoke to a number of social media influencers who masquerade as political think tanks and analysts to set online agendas.
James (not his real name), a social media influencer who agreed to speak to The Star, said, “He doesn’t give a hoot about the impact of disinformation he peddles since ‘poverty is the enemy.’” He admitted to being fully aware of how the disinformation he peddles online could help stir violence, and tried to absolve himself by telling the paper that the politicians, not influencers are to blame.
“That’s my daily bread. I need money. I don’t care this is my brother whom I am tarnishing his name. At the end of the day, I need a plus one in my account,” said James to The Star.
Every five years, Kenya experiences a fake news epidemic that flows even from verified Twitter handles belonging to trusted media outlets where most news breaks.
The latest to join many of the continent’s fact-based organizations that have emerged to take on the fight is Piga Firimbi, a project by Africa Uncensored, an independent Kenyan media house set up by investigative journalists.
Piga Firimbi, Swahili for “Blow the whistle,” is a crowdsourced fact-checking service that is helping Kenyans sift through misinformation on social or mainstream media.
Ever fallen victim of fake news? If yes, here's a chance to share those fake claims with us👉https://t.co/aiw7rZVFG3. Our @pigafirimbi team will sift through and give you facts only!#Saynotofakenews #Shamethefakes pic.twitter.com/bBKitpXiEO
— Africa Uncensored (@AfUncensored) January 19, 2022
Piga Firimbi joins Africa Check, one of the continent’s oldest fact-checking organizations, started in 2012, to promote accuracy in public debates and the media. There is also Pesa Check, which initially started with a focus on finances and statistics but has since diversified to cover all forms of dis-information in English, French, Kiswahili, and Amharic.
These startups have recently stepped up their efforts to counter fake news via their Twitter handles and, in the case of Africa Check and Pesa Check, a WhatsApp hotline and distribution list to grow their reach.
Though the ghosts of  Cambridge Analytica will not rise to haunt voters, whether or not the efforts by these startups to crack down on fake news will pay off really boils down to whether Kenyans will take the time to verify news and information they receive/read before “forwarding as received” or not.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Ibex in the Yemeni civilization: a historical symbolism being revived · Global Voices
همدان العليي

Carvings of the ibex were found in antiquities in Yemen, as the animal was chosen to be an emblem of the region's ancient civilizations. Image used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Yemeni activists and intellectuals called on the Yemeni authorities to make January 22 of each year a national day for the Yemeni ibex and to revive it as a historical symbol in Yemen to curb the hunting of the endangered animal.
The  ibex, is a ruminant and very similar to the goats, in terms of its long neck, but its most important characteristic are the long and curved horns. According to some studies, ibex have existed on the planet for more than 8,600 years, and the most common problem facing this animal in Yemen and other countries of the world today is over-hunting.
Found in many countries of the world, the ibex in Yemen bears historical symbolism. The ancient Yemenis chose it as a emblem for their successive kingdoms, appearing as a symbol of their civilisation as it was depicted in many inscriptions, monuments, statues and coins.
Despite the almost complete interruption of internet service inside Yemen due to the ongoing conflict there, many Yemeni activists, intellectuals and politicians participated in a wide campaign on Twitter under the hashtag #Yemeni Ibex_Daywith the aim of reviving the ancient Yemeni symbol and limiting the extinction of the ibex in Yemen .
In this context, the well-known Yemeni writer and researcher, Adel Al-Ahmadi, says in an article published on the Throne News website:
تقول الآثار اليمنية إن أجدادنا العظماء اتخذوا الوعل رمزاً للقوة والخير والجمال والعفة والوفاء، وخلدوه في نقوشهم وأثرياتهم. إنه كالنسر الجمهوري اليوم ونحن إذ نتمسك بالنسر شعارا خالدا لجمهوريتنا، باعتبار اليمنيين أيضا أول من جعلوا النسر شعارا كما تقول بعض الآثار، فإننا كذلك نُحيي رمزية الوعل كرمز للقوة وكذلك نجعلها مناسبة للحفاظ عليه من عمليات الصيد الجائر الذي قد يعرضه للانقراض.
Yemeni antiquities say that our great ancestors took the ibex as a symbol of strength, goodness, beauty, chastity and loyalty, and immortalized it in their inscriptions and antiquities. It is like the republican eagle today, and, as we adhere to the eagle as an immortal emblem of our republic, considering the Yemenis also the first to make the eagle a emblem, as some antiquities say, we also salute the symbolism of the ibex as a symbol of strength and also make it appropriate to preserve it from over-huntingthat may expose it to extinction.
He also said in the article that “dedicating a day to the Yemeni ibex comes as one of the vocabulary of inspiration for the brave Yemeni self in its splendid vows and its splendid names and symbols.”
Hussein Al-Mashdali wrote on Twitter:
#يوم_الوعل_اليمني
الوعل هو رمز عثتر المقدس و هو يمثل إله المطر و الصواعق و الخصب و الإنماء عند أجدادنا أسلافنا اليمنيين القدماء العظماء .
و هو رمز عريق وجد على الرسوم الصخرية منذ فترة العصر الحجري الحديث وحتى عهد قيام ممالك اليمن القديم وقد كان ايضا هو إله الحرب . pic.twitter.com/TK5vfehcCx
— حسين المشدلي (@lawyer_yemen) January 22, 2022
The ibex is the symbol of the sacred Ather, and it represented the god of rain, thunderbolts, fertility and growth among our great ancient Yemeni ancestors.
It is an ancient symbol found on rock drawings from the Neolithic period until the era of the kingdoms of ancient Yemen. He was also the god of war.
While researcher and political activist Hafez Mutair wrote:
جدنا الملك الحميري / الصعب بن مراثد الحميري المعروف بذو القرنين الذي وصل مغرب الشمس والى مطلعها بعد ان اتاه الله من كل شيء سبباً فاتبع سببا.
وهذه قرون الوعل تزين تاجه ولقب بذو القرنين لإن كان على تاجه قرنين كما هو في صورته المنحوتة.
22 يناير #يوم_الوعل_اليمني pic.twitter.com/YEC682yiL6
— حافظ مطير Hafed Motir (@hafedmotirr) January 22, 2022
Our grandfather, King Himyri / al-Saab bin Marathid al-Himyari, known as Dhul-Qarnayn, who reached [the location] from where the sun rose and where it sat, after God gave him from everything he needed, and he followed a cause.
These antlers adorn his crown, and he is called One with Two Horns, because he has two horns on his crown, as it is in his carved image.
The number of ibexes has significantly decreased during the past three decades, especially in Hadhramaut and some areas of Shabwa (eastern Yemen) as a result of hunting, which threatens them with extinction. Winter is the season for hunting this type of animal. Many Yemenis prefer ibex meat over others, and there are those who consider it a long-standing tradition.
According to some media reports, some areas still hold annual rituals to hunt ibex, which usually conclude with collective celebrations in which the people of the region participate, interspersed with chants and dances in which the heads of the ibexes are raised, and are used as decorations in the end.
In a Twitter post, Abdullah Al-Maalem called on the House of Representatives, represented by the Speaker, to “approve a fine of ten million Yemeni riyals and imprisonment for five years for anyone who kills an ibex, gazelle, oryx or tiger,” which is equivalent to nearly USD 4,000. He added:
اقرار الوعل رمز وطني للجمهورية اليمنية.
Adoption of the ibex is a national symbol of the Republic of Yemen.
Munir al-Omari, founder and director of the Center for Research and Social Development, wrote:
يجب أن يستنفر الجميع وتتضافر الجهود الشعبية والرسمية لحماية الوعل اليمني من الإنقراض، وذلك بمنع اصطياده وتوفير المحميات الخاصة به، ولا بد على الأقيال في كل المحافظات أن يلعبوا دوراً مهماً في حماية رمز الهوية اليمنية ورفع مستوى وعي الجمهور بضرورة الحفاظ عليه. #يوم_الوعل_اليمني
𓃵 pic.twitter.com/ihs0hdG91r
— Moneer Al-Omari | منير العُمري (@Yemen24) January 23, 2022
Everyone must mobilize and efforts, both popular and official, must come together to protect the Yemeni ibex from extinction, by preventing its hunting and providing its own reserves. Leaders in all governorates must play an important role in protecting the symbol of Yemeni identity and raising the level of public awareness of the need to preserve it.
In their bids to protect the ibexes, activists praised the qualities of the creature which they say it shares with the Yemeni citizen, who takes it as a historical symbol and a cultural heritage.
Musa Abdullah Qasim wrote:
أروى، إسم متداول بكثرة في السجل المدني اليمني، عبر التاريخ، هذا الإسم هو لأنثى #الوعل، وجمعها أراوي، وهي تتشابه جدا مع شخصية الأنثى اليمنية، حنان وعطف ورقة ومكابدة في العيش،والملاحظ أن أنثى الوعل لا تمتلك الذقن وليس لها قرون طويلة كالذكر ولا تدخل في صراعات بينية. #يوم_الوعل_اليمني pic.twitter.com/tGK1E40hC6
— موسى عبدالله قاسم (@MousaAQasem) January 23, 2022
Arwa, a name frequently used in the Yemeni civil registry, throughout history, this name is for the female ibex, and plural Arawi, and it is very similar to the character of the Yemeni female, tenderness, kindness, tenderness and hardship in living, and it is noted that the female ibex does not have a chin and does not have long horns like the male Do not enter into inter-conflicts. #Yemeni_Ibex_Day
The Yemeni journalist Muhammad Al-Dhabiani wrote on Twitter that “the significance of the Yemeni man's choice of the ibex as his symbol is due to his ability to adapt high mountains and live on the edge of the abyss with wisdom, steadfastness, poise and composure, standing tall at the top, which enables him to have a comprehensive and panoramic view of the scene. Determining the circumstances of the moment and the requirements of the future.
Broadcaster Hisham Al-Ziyadi added:
لا تستمعوا لأولئك الذين يستهينون بتاريخكم وبرموزكم القومية، ويستخفون بها.
هؤلاء منهزمون نفسياً، يعانون من عقدة نقص، أو على أقل تقدير يخافون الاندثار، أن يتوقف الناس عن الإيمان بانتماءاتهم العابرة للحدود، لأنها ترى الهويات الوطنية منافساً كبيراً لوجودها.#يوم_الوعل_اليمني pic.twitter.com/aK3SqK5STN
— هشام الزيادي 𐩠𐩦𐩱𐩣 (@HeshamAlziady) January 22, 2022
Do not listen to those who belittle your history and your national symbols.
These are psychologically defeated, suffer from an inferiority complex, or at least fear extinction, for people to stop believing in their cross-border affiliations, because they see national identities as a great competitor to their existence.

author: همدان العليي


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Media crackdown continues ahead of coup anniversary in Myanmar · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

From left to right, the journalists killed in Myanmar last month: Soe Naing, Sai Win Aung, and Pu Tuidim
So far, three journalists have been killed this January, and three more journalists were arrested on January 20, as Myanmar’s military authorities continue to silence critical reports ahead of the one-year coup anniversary on February 1.
After grabbing power last year, the junta targeted the media by revoking the licenses of independent news outlets and arresting journalists accused of supporting opposition forces. Even foreign journalists have been detained and charged with spreading disinformation about the coup.
Freelance photographer Soe Naing was killed on December 14, 2021, while in the custody of security forces. He was arrested while documenting the December 10 “silent strike” in Yangon.
Federal News Journal editor Sai Win Aung was killed on December 25 in a junta artillery attack while covering fighting between the Myanmar military and People’s Defense Forces in Karen State in Lay Kay Kaw peace village.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay issued a statement condemning the killing of the journalist:
I condemn the killing of Sai Win Aung. Media workers like Sai Win Aung risk their lives to keep the public informed. Their work deserves to be recognized and their safety protected in line with international humanitarian law, which forbids attacks on civilians.
The funeral of A Kay Sai aka Sai Win Aung, aged 38, an editor at Federal journal who had died of head injury from the shell of the junta troops in the clashes with KNLA in Maekheewar Village, Karen State was held today. #Dec26Coup #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/H446B8CpQh
— Audreyべにお (@WhynEEZyn) December 26, 2021
Pu Tuidim, founder and editor of the Chin State-based Khonumthung Media Group, was killed by junta forces after being abducted on January 8 and reportedly used as a human shield by the military’s 140 Infantry Battalion.
CHIN —Journalist Pu Tuidim, founder of the Khonumthung Media Group, was amongst those found murdered by the military in Matupi after being kidnapped and used by troops as a human shield. pic.twitter.com/G3zFv7nVML
— DVB English (@DVB_English) January 11, 2022
He is also one of the founders of Burma News International (BNI) which recognized his role in defending Myanmar’s independent media:
He was not only one of the founders of Khonumthung Media Group and former Chief Editor who performed his duties for many years but also an experienced ethnic media personnel who helped pave the way for independent news media in Chin State.
BNI recognizes his death is an enormous loss not only for ethnic media but also for the whole media community in Myanmar.
Daniel Bastard, head of Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk, deplored the killing of the three journalists.
Cruelty, cynicism, barbarity – these words seem inadequate to describe Pu Tuidim’s shocking murder. He is the third journalist to be killed in Myanmar in less than a month, in a sign of the absolutely unacceptable practices increasingly employed by the junta. We appeal to the international community to toughen the sanctions imposed on the junta’s members in order to end this headlong escalation in terror.
On January 18, Dawei Watch reporters Ko Zaw and Ma Moe Myint and web designer Ko Thar Gyi were arrested at their homes in Dawei, the capital of the southern Tanintharyi region. The editor of Dawei Watch called for the immediate release of the journalists:
We’re journalists and we’re just doing our jobs. We weren’t breaking any laws. We’re just ethically reporting the news—that is our job.
As of January 24, at least 49 journalists are currently imprisoned in various detention centers across the country.
After more arrests in January, the number of journalists/media staff arrested in #Myanmar has reached 120. Of these, 49 remain in custody, majority being male reporters & photojournalists. A Magway-based journalist was sentenced to 3 years in prison earlier this month. pic.twitter.com/X5fbpmxzgy
— Reporting ASEAN (@reportingasean) January 22, 2022
It is feared that more journalists will face harassment and violence as they continue to report the people’s resistance against the junta and the protests mark the first anniversary of the coup.

author: Mong Palatino


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Belarusian cyberactivists claim railway system hack to protest Russian troop movements · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

The Cyber-Partisans logo. Screenshot from video by Hack Curio / Belarusian Cyber-Partisans on Vimeo.
Belarusian Cyber-Partisans, a grassroots hacker collective supporting resistance efforts against the government of authoritarian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka, have alleged they breached the state's railway system and encrypted some of the Belarusian Railway's servers and databases. The disruption came after the Belarusian railway system facilitated the movement of Russian troops into Belarus.
On January 24, the hacker group's Twitter account released a message taking credit for the hack:
At the command of the terrorist Lukashenka, #Belarusian Railway allows the occupying troops to enter our land. We encrypted some of BR's servers, databases and workstations to disrupt its operations.❗Automation and security systems were NOT affected to avoid emergency situations
— Belarusian Cyber-Partisans (@cpartisans) January 24, 2022
According to the Belta state news agency, the Belarusian Railway service reported on January 24 that electronic tickets were unavailable, citing undisclosed “technical reasons.” A source from the railway company told independent news outlet Zerkalo.io that the systems were “out of control”, but that order has since been restored.
Yuliana Shemetovets, the spokesperson for Belarusian Cyber-Partisans, told Reuters news agency that the cyberattack “had been intended to prevent movements of Russian troops and appeared to have affected rail freight,” but that it was “too early to say if it was successful.” The group said it had deliberately not disrupted the railway’s automation and security systems.
The hacker collective said it would be prepared to hand over encryption keys on the condition that 50 Belarusian political prisoners whose health was precarious were released and the presence of Russian troops in the country was “prevented.”
Cyber-Partisans attacked the network of Belarusian Railways. They encrypted the servers, databases, & workstations to slow down the arrival of 🇷🇺 troops to Belarus. They demand the release of 50 polit. prisoners with hard health conditions, & stop the deployment of 🇷🇺 army. pic.twitter.com/9ImDVrpMan
— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) January 24, 2022
Russia has been moving military equipment and troops into Belarus ahead of what the two countries say are long-planned joint military exercises in February 2022. The plans have added to tensions between Russia and Western powers over neighbouring Ukraine. Multiple reports indicating the accumulation of Russian troops at Ukraine's borders and in occupied Crimea and Donbas have sparked fears of a possible invasion, which threatens to reignite the Russia–Ukraine conflict that has been simmering since 2014 and has already resulted in the loss of over 14,000 lives.
The Belarusian Cyber-Partisans initiative was set up by local IT professionals and other citizens in September 2020 as part of the grassroots Belarusian Resistance (Suprativ) alliance, after mass anti-government protests following a contested election in Belarus prompted a sweeping crackdown by the authorities.
The collective has previously claimed responsibility for compromising multiple government websites, hacking the Ministry of Interior and internal government databases and revealing the names and personal details of members of the state security forces implicated in the crackdown against protesters.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Flights to resume between Turkey and Armenia · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“Pegasus Airlines Airbus A320-251Neo; TC-NBH@ZRH;06.01.2017″ by Aero Icarus is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; “ER00002” by hartlandmartin is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Turkey and Armenia will resume flights on February 2, 2022, for the first time since November 2019. There are currently no direct flights between the two countries. Previously, passenger flights were operated by Atlasjet, an airline company that went bankrupt in 2019. The announcement comes amid attempts to normalize ties between Turkey and Armenia.
The decision was first announced last year by Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. Shortly after the announcement the two countries also appointed special envoys on a reciprocal basis.
On January 14, the two envoys, Serdar Kilic, a former ambassador to the US, and Ruben Rubinyan, deputy chairman of Armenia’s National Assembly, met for the first time in Moscow. Following the meeting, the two countries announced that the charter flights operated by the Turkish budget carrier Pegasus Airlines and Moldovan low-cost airline FlyOne would resume operations on February 2.
According to Reuters reporting, “Pegasus will hold its first flight from Istanbul to Yerevan on February 2 with a return flight on February 3, a spokesperson for the airline said, adding the route would open with three reciprocal flights per week.”
In a statement issued by Turkey's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, FlyOne flights will be landing at Istanbul Airport at 19:50 while the flight for Yerevan leaving Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport will depart at 23:35 local time the same day.
Other positive developments include Yerevan lifting an embargo on Turkish goods in light of positive developments in normalization process last year. The decision was imposed on December 31, 2020 in retaliation after Ankara backed Baku during the 44-day war with Armenia over the Nagorno Karabakh territory.
During the January meeting in Moscow, the parties focused on “boosting trade and transport links as well as appointing diplomatic representatives,” reported FT.
Turkey and Armenia were close to finding some common ground in 2008 when Turkey's then-President Abdullah Gul traveled to Yerevan to watch the first of the two qualifying World Cup matches between Turkey and Armenia. A year later, Serge Sarkisian, the Armenian president, traveled to Turkey's province of Bursa to watch another football game between the two national teams. The game and Sarkisian's visit to Turkey followed the signing of a series of protocols in Zurich that were designed to normalize relations between the two countries. Described at the time as “football diplomacy,” the negotiations eventually fell through after Turkey withdrew due to mounting pressure from Azerbaijan. Armenia formally declared the protocols null and void in 2018.
While there is no date set for the next meeting between Turkey and Armenia, one Turkish news agency reported on January 21, that it will likely take place in Turkey or Armenia as there was no longer a need for a third country involvement, the news agency said, citing diplomatic sources.
The ongoing negotiations are a positive sign, something that is repeated across the board by a number of experts and observers covering the regional developments. However, as International Crisis Group country analysts note in their brief released on January 13, “More such stepping stones will be needed to help rebuild low trust between the sides. A disruption of this effort to establish neighbourly ties – only the third effort in as many decades and an important opportunity for Turkey, Armenia and the whole region – could only make that mistrust sink lower.”

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


text:
Georgian PM gifted his wife part of a state-owned forest · Global Voices
OC Media

A screenshot of the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili addressing the United Nations General Debate, 76th Session, United Nations YouTube channel.
This article was first published on OC Media. An edited version is republished here under a content partnership agreement.
Georgia’s National Agency of Public Registry transferred ownership of nearly 5,960 square meters of state-owned land to Nunu Tamazashvili, the wife of acting Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, on December 28. The request was made by the National Forestry Agency and has angered citizens and environmentalists all over the world.
The transfer was originally reported by the Pirveli TV channel, alleging that the land was Gharibashvili's New Years’ gift to his wife.
The land is a part of the State Forest Fund in the central Georgian municipality of Borjomi.
Pirveli reported that the land was directly adjacent to a house being built by the family. They said the site had previously been entirely fenced off, except for the part connecting the new house with the forest, suggesting it was known in advance that the land would be granted to them.
The land has been leased to Tamazashvili for 49 years, and she will pay GEL 6,256 (USD 2,000) annually for it. According to the terms of the lease, Tamazashvili will be allowed to set up a “temporary gazebo” for “sports and recreational purposes.”
“Resort, recreational, sport, and other cultural-recreational purposes” are among several criteria under which protected forests under the Georgian Forest Fund are allowed to be leased to third parties.
On January 23, the National Forestry Agency issued a statement on Facebook insisting that an auction for the land announced in December was open to everyone and that the lease included a list of obligations for lease-holders.
The Agency added that since 2021, they had leased 256 square kilometers from the State Forest Fund.
This is not the first time, Gharibashvili and his family stand accused of misusing power.
Gharibashvili previously served as prime minister between 2013–2015, before abruptly resigning from his post and politics in late 2015. He was reappointed into the premiership again in February 2021.
While he did not explain his departure from politics at the time, it became apparent that his mentor, ex-Prime Minister and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream Party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, was discontent with some of Gharibashvili’s relatives, hinting at possible corruption.
In April 2020, several months after his return to politics as Defense Minister, Radio Free Europe reported that Gharibashvili had failed to declare his and his wife’s collection of luxury wristwatches, which exceeded GEL 500,000 (USD 160,000) in value.
According to a November 2021 press release by the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), the Human Rights Centre, and the Green Movement of Georgia, the Georgian Forest Fund has lost 500 square kilometers of forest over the last five years.

author: OC Media


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In Turkey, a singer defies threats with a new song · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“Art is Resistance” by charles.hope is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The controversy over the iconic singer, songwriter Sezen Aksu's song lyrics continued last week following fresh remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The president, who spoke after Friday prayers, on January 21, at İstanbul's Grand Çamlıca Mosque, said, while omitting Aksu's name, “no one can defame his holiness Adam. It is our duty, to rip out the tongues of those who do when necessary.”
The president was referring to the lyrics of a song, “It is a wonderful thing to live” written by Aksu which debuted in 2017 and was relaunched by the singer via her YouTube channel ahead of New Year celebrations. Since then, Aksu is being accused of degrading religious values because one sentence in the song reads, “Give my regards to the ignorant Eve and Adam.” The 67-year-old singer-songwriter is also facing a criminal complaint and has been subject to an online hate campaign that has taken Turkish Twitter space by storm under the hashtag #SezenAksuHaddiniBil (#SezenAksuKnowYourPlace). On January 17, a group of men organized a protest outside of the singer's home.
Commenting on these cultural tensions journalist Dr. Kenan Sharpe said, “These moments of rage feel like an attempt to find an eternal enemy of some kind,” in an interview with online news platform Medyaskope TV. Under the current leadership of the ruling Justice and Development Party, much of the country's art and culture scene has been targeted for being blasphemous or inappropriate.
Turkey's media watchdog, the Radio Television Supreme Council (RTUK) warned television channels on January 21, not to broadcast Aksu's infamous song. The warning also concerned all types of music sensitive to national and moral values.
It's been reported that Turkey's media watchdog RTÜK's Vice President İbrahim Uslu personally called music channels to not to play #SezenAksu‘s song titled “Şahane Bir Şey Yaşamak (Living is a Wonderful Thing).” Uslu claimed to have only “warned them about grave sanctions.” https://t.co/qxP3Jrc8Xx pic.twitter.com/QF9jLz6TaS
— MLSA (@mlsaturkey) January 21, 2022
On January 22, Aksu finally responded to the attacks, and specifically to the remarks made by the President. But the response was not a traditional statement. Instead, the singer, shared a new song she wrote, called “The Hunter.”
Sen beni üzemezsin
Zaten çok üzgünüm
Nereye baksam acı
Nereye baksam acı
Ben avım sen avcı
Vur bakalım….
Sen beni sezemezsin
Dilimi ezemezsin
Nereye baksam acı
Nereye baksam acı
Kim yolcu kim hancı
Dur bakalım…
Beni öldüremezsin
Sesim, sazım, sözüm var benim
Ben derken ben herkesim.
Sonuç olarak 47 yıldır yazıyorum…. Yazmaya da devam edeceğim.
Sezen
You cannot upset me
Much upset I already am
Wherever I look there is pain
I am the pray, you are the hunter.
Just you shoot and see.
You cannot feel me
You cannot crush my tongue
Wherever I look there is pain
Who is the traveler, who is the host.
Just you wait and see.
You cannot kill me,
I have my voice, my music, and work
When I say, I, I am everyone.
After all, I have been writing for 47 years. And I will continue to write,
Sezen
Since its publication, the lyrics have been translated into over 50 languages.
şu ana kadar sayabildiğim kadarıyla 51 dil oldu. dilerim dillerin koparıla koparıla bitmeyeceğinin, sesin, sazın, sözün susmayacağının anlaşılmasına ufak bir katkımız olmuştur hep beraber. herkesin emeğine sağlık, sevgiyle. https://t.co/Fv69LpBRsw pic.twitter.com/3BSBrxBdf5
— rober koptaş (@roberkoptas) January 23, 2022
Up until now, I have counted at least 51 languages. I hope, we all contributed to an understanding that languages won't end by getting ripped out, and that voice, music and words won't be silenced. Thank you everyone for their hard work.
In the meantime, some two hundred artists, singers, and writers signed a joint statement in support of Aksu:
We do not want a country where Aksu's freedom of expression is restricted and she is threatened with ‘her tongue being ripped off’. We declare that we are together and in solidarity against this attack.
Opposition lawmakers, journalists, and other artists also criticized the president's comments. Main opposition Republican People Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Özgür Özel tweeted:
Karşımızda artık tükenmiş umudunu hamasete gerilim ve şiddete bağlamış bir Tayyip Erdoğan var.
Sezen Aksu'yu hedef göstermenize sessiz kalacak değiliz.
Türkiye'yi sanatçılarının, aydınlarının, gençlerinin sindirildiği bir 3'üncü dünya ülkesine çevirmenize izin vermeyeceğiz!!! https://t.co/2kjnqkslOj
— Özgür Özel (@eczozgurozel) January 21, 2022
Standing before us, is Tayyip Erdogan who has linked his exhausted hope to hostility, tension and violence. We won't remain silent to your targeting of Sezen Aksu. We will not allow you to turn Turkey into a third world country where its artists, intellectuals and youth are suppressed!
Cem Özdemir, German politician, and currently a Minister of Food and Agriculture tweeted:
Es ist das alte Spiel von autoritären Regimen, wenn sie mal wieder unter Druck stehen: Kriege beginnen, gegen Minderheiten hetzen oder Menschen zur Zielscheibe erklären. Deshalb volle Solidarität mit der großartigen türkischen Sängerin #sezenaksu #Sezen #sezenaksuyalnızdeğildir
— Cem Özdemir (@cem_oezdemir) January 21, 2022
It's the old game of authoritarian regimes when they're under pressure again: start wars, incite against minorities or declare people to be targets. So full solidarity with the great Turkish singer.


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Mourning the death of the Bengali author and publisher who opened a door to world literature · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Collage of covers of books of Masud Rana. Created by the author. Fair use.
Qazi Anwar Hussain, noted writer and creator of Bangladesh's popular spy thriller series “Masud Rana” and the founder of an influential publishing house died on January 19, 2022 at 85 years of age. Better known to readers as QaziDa, he singlehandedly popularised the mystery-thriller genre in Bengali literature from the 1960s. He published translations of world classics covering many genres alongside local stories and gave the Bengali readership a taste of Western, mystery and classic literature from other countries. Hearing the news of his demise, his fans reminisced about the colourful world of their adolescence that the books of Qazi Anwar Hussain and Sheba Prakashani created.
Hussain founded Sheba Prokashoni in 1963 and started his career as a writer with the publication of “Kausha,” the first book in his eponymous Bengali language thriller series, in June 1964. He started writing the Masud Rana series with “Dhongso Pahar (The Hill of Destruction),” which was first published in 1966. In that story, Masud Rana, a counterintelligence agent of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was assigned to protect the newly constructed Kaptai Dam from an evil scientist. The book gained immense popularity among readers and Masud Rana became an icon like James Bond for the younger generation. The series has 468 books over five decades, more than half of which now are also officially credited to the ghostwriter Sheikh Abdul Hakim.
In the Daily Star, Rasha Jameel introduced Masud Rana to readers:
He's mysterious. He's charming. He's strong, skilled and agile. His charisma makes you think of James Bond, or perhaps Jason Bourne.
Except that he's deshi. He's Masud Rana.
The books [Masud Rana Series] gained a cult following in Bangladesh, so much so that Walther PPK pistols, known to be both Bond's and Rana's preferred weapons, became popular as kids’ toys all around Dhaka city [during the 1970s].
Qazi Anwar Hussain singlehandedly popularised the mystery-thriller genre in Bengali literature since the 1960s. Image via Wikipedia by Humayra Ahmed. CC BY-SA 3.0
Hussain was a true genius at creating new readers. Over the decades, the books he published gained numerous “smart” readers, who were drawn to his creations and those of other authors and translators. In the absence of other quality translations of world literature, the readers were able to quench their thirst for world knowledge, to be inquisitive, to run wild in the realm of imagination from their childhood to adolescence and even beyond because they could read these books.
Some of Hussain's fictional characters also found a place to get away from the daily monotonous life of the Bengali readers of the 1970s and 1980s. Journalist and writer Simu Nasser wrote on Facebook, bidding farewell to his beloved author:
বিদায় প্রিয় মাসুদ রানা, প্রিয় কাজী আনোয়ার হোসেন, প্রিয় লেখক।
আপনার কারনেই আমরা একটা প্রজন্ম পাঠক হতে পেরেছি। আপনার কারনেই সেই স্কুলে থাকতে খোঁজ পেয়েছি টম-হাকলবেরি ফিনের, রবার্ট লুই স্টিভেনসনের, আয়েশার, জেকিল-হাইডের। মাসুদ রানাকে সাথে দিয়ে আমাদের ভ্রমণ করিয়েছেন উত্তর মেরু থেকে শুরু করে ইউরোপ-অ্যামেরিকা, আফ্রিকার শহরের অলিতে গলিতে।
বিদায় আমাদের স্বপ্ন দেখানোর, স্বপ্নের দরজা খুলে দেওয়া লেখক। আমার এই ক্ষুদ্র লেখক জীবনে আপনার প্রতি আমার কৃতজ্ঞতার কোনো শেষ নাই।
Farewell dear Masud Rana, dear Qazi Anwar Hussain, dear writer.
Because of you, we became a generation of readers. Because of you, I found Tom-Sawyer-Huckleberry Finn, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ayesha, Jekyll-Hyde (in Bengali) during my school days. Masud Rana took us on a journey from the North Pole to the streets of Europe-America, or in small lanes in many cities of Africa.
Farewell to the wordsmith who showed us the dreams, opened the door to many worlds. There is no end to my gratitude to you in my life as a petty writer.
Twitter user CricketSoccer shared:
Those were the days of books and adventure. Those were the days when a generation became passionate about being fearless, revolutionist and gathering productive knowledge like a detective. Credit goes to Kazi Anowar Hossain for his legendary Masud Rana. Thank You Sir 🙏 pic.twitter.com/UgsBKXXyhG
— cricketsoccer (@cricketsoccer) January 19, 2022
Meanwhile, writer and activist Jannatun Nayeem Prity could not accept the death of her favourite writer:
শৈশবে যে জাদুর বাক্সর দেখা পেয়েছিলাম সেই জাদুর বাক্সের জাদুকর আমার অতি প্রিয় লেখক ও অনুবাদক কাজী আনোয়ার হোসেন আর নেই, তা কেন যেন মানতে পারছিনা। মনে হচ্ছে খুব কাছের এক আত্মীয় মারা গেছেন আর বুকের মধ্যে কোথাও ছিঁড়ে ফুঁড়ে যাচ্ছে! আমার অপূর্ণ আশা থেকে গেলো কখনো তাঁকে বলার- আই লাভ ইউ ম্যান!
লরা ইঙ্গলস ওয়াইল্ডারের প্রেইরি ভূমি অথবা ফ্রান্সের কোনো এক শ্যাঁতো যার কারণে চিনেছিলাম, সেই মানুষতো তিনিই! এতো বই না পড়লে কেমন করে প্রতিবাদ শিখতাম? কেমন করে জানতাম প্রিয় আর্নেস্ট হেমিংওয়ের সেই বুড়ো সান্তিয়াগোর বাণী- মানুষ বারবার ধ্বংস হতে পারে, কিন্তু কখনো হারেনা!
I cannot accept that my favourite writer and translator Qazi Anwar Hussain, the magician of the magic box that I found in my childhood, is no more. It feels like someone very close to me has died and it's hurting me! My unfulfilled dream was to tell him personally – I love you man (the title of a popular Masud Rana book)!
He was the one who took me to the “Little House on The Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder or some château in France! How could I learn to protest without reading so many books from world literature? How could I learn the words of that Santiago character of Ernest Hemingway – “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”!
Qazi Anwar Hossain did not only create readers, but he has also created many writers who were influenced by Sheba Prakashani's publications in their childhood. Young writer Suhan Rizwan writes on Facebook:
যদি প্রশ্ন করা হয়, লিখতে চাওয়ার ইচ্ছের শুরুটা হয়েছে কাকে দেখে, আমার উত্তর চিরকালই কাজী আনোয়ার হোসেন। ভেঙে বলতে গেলে বলতে হবে সেবার আরো কিছু চমৎকার লেখকের কথাও, কিন্তু তারপরেও কাজী আনোয়ার আলাদা করে টিকে যান একটা অনুমেয় কারণেই। অনেকেই লেখক, কিন্তু কেউ কেউ লেখক নামের প্রতিষ্ঠান।
If I am asked, who started the spark in me to write, my answer will always be Qazi Anwar Hussain. To put it bluntly, there are some more excellent writers of the Sheba Prokashani, but even then QaziDa stands out separately for a simple reason. Many are writers, but only a few are institutions.
QaziDa is associated with many first memories of Bengali readers. Journalist and writer Farooq Wasif recalls:
মাসুদ রানা এই ঘাড়কুঁজো বাঙালিকে বৈশ্বিক করেছে। বাংলাদেশি এক স্পাই দুনিয়ার বাঘা বাঘা কিংবা শেয়ালজাতীয় স্পাইদের হারিয়ে দিচ্ছে, টম অ্যান্ড জেরি খেলছে ভয়ংকর কবীর চৌধুরী কিংবা উ সেনের সঙ্গে; এই গর্ব রাখি কোথায়? তখন তো জানতাম না যে জেমস বন্ড কিংবা অন্য কোনো থ্রিলারের কাহিনির ছায়াতেই এই দুর্ধর্ষ বীরের জন্ম। জানলেই–বা কী? প্রথম প্রেমের কোনো দোষ চোখে পড়ে না। পড়েওনি। কাহিনি ধার নেওয়া হয়েছে তো কী, নায়ক তো আসলই।
Masud Rana has made these humble Bengali people valiant and global. A Bangladeshi spy is defeating all the cunning and slew spies from other countries, playing cat and mouse with the notorious Kabir Chowdhury or U Sen (evil adversary characters); Where do I keep this pride?
Little did I know then that this mighty hero was created as an adaptation from numerous thriller stories from the West like James Bond.
What if I knew? One can rarely find a fault of the first love. What if the storyline was borrowed, our hero was real.
Although the plots of the Masud Rana series were original in the beginning, QaziDa admitted he borrowed some elements from foreign stories later. There was a lot of discussion about and criticism of it. Talking to journalists, he also defended the reason behind this.
মূল কারণ, আমার অভিজ্ঞতার অভাব। মাসুদ রানা বইয়ে যেসব দেশের কথা, অভিজ্ঞতার কথা, ঘটনার কথা, জটিল পরিস্থিতির কথা থাকে, সেসব সম্পর্কে সম্যক জ্ঞান ও অভিজ্ঞতা একজন মধ্যবিত্ত বাঙালির পক্ষে অর্জন করা প্রায় অসম্ভব। তাই বিদেশি কাহিনির সাহায্য আমাকে নিতেই হয়েছে।
The main reason was my lack of experience in the espionage world. It is almost impossible for a middle-class Bengali author to acquire a thorough knowledge and experience of the countries, experiences, technical details, events and complexities that Masud Rana's books usually dealt with. So I had to take help from foreign stories.
Movie poster made with popular character Masud Rana of Kazi Anwar Hossain. The first Bengali movie adaptation was in 1974. Image via WIkipedia by Nakib. Fair use.
Traveller Tareq Onu talks in Sachalayatan blog how QaziDa's book and characters inspired readers of all ages:
অনুবাদক তো দুই বাংলা মিলিয়ে কয়েক লক্ষ আছেন, সবার কাজের প্রতি শ্রদ্ধা রেখেই বলছি কাজীদার অনুবাদের বা রূপান্তরের পাশে কেন পিছনে দাঁড়াবার মত অনুবাদকের সন্ধান আজ পর্যন্ত আর মিলল কোথায়! আর সেটি কেবল রোমাঞ্চ গল্প বলে নয়, সিরিয়াস সাহিত্য নিয়েও। [..]
কাজীদা হচ্ছেন আমাদের সত্যিকারের সব্যসাচী- এককালে পেশাদার গায়ক ছিলেন, পরবর্তীতে সুপার হিট গানের গীতিকার, এমনকি পুরস্কার পাওয়া সংলাপ নির্মাতা, দুর্দান্ত মাছশিকারি, গীটার বাদক, আলোকচিত্রগ্রাহক, সেই সাথে একজন দক্ষ ব্যবসায়ী তো বটেই। কিন্তু তার সবচেয়ে বড় কৃতিত্ব বইবিমুখ একটি জাতিকে আস্তে আস্তে নানা ভাবে বই পড়ার দিকে আকৃষ্ট করা এবং জ্ঞানভাণ্ডের সন্ধান দেওয়া।
There are thousands of Bengali literary translators in both India and Bangladesh. Respecting the works of everyone, I can say that there is neither a translator in his calibre nor a good quality author who is can skillfully adapt from stories of other cultures and can captivate the readers. And I am not talking just about thrillers, it's true about serious literature too. [..]
QaziDa is one true ambidexter – once a professional singer, later a lyricist of super hit film songs, an award-winning screenplay writer, great fisherman, guitarist, photographer, as well as a skilled businessman. But his greatest achievement is to gradually influence a nation to read books in various ways and to draw them to a treasure-trove of knowledge.
Leading the journey from one country to another, from one culture to another, from city to city, from hundreds of stories of chill and thrill, the creator of dreams has finally left this world, leaving the fascinated readers stranded. His fans, mourning his departure still, uttered their love with the title of one of his books: “I love you, man.”

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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Passengers stranded at Istanbul Airport stage a protest · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“Airplanes Skidding In A Snow Storm” by Anirudh Koul is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Due to an unusually heavy snowfall that hit Turkey Sunday night, January 23, main roads, inter-city transport, and flights have all been canceled. Although some of the airlines have resumed flights, thousands of passengers have been stranded at Istanbul Airport, prompting some to take measures into their hands.
We’ve been stuck in #IST airport for 30 hours with no help or answers from @TurkishAirlines. Passengers are starting to protest. #getusout pic.twitter.com/e8ytq0Ic8N
— Charlene Yashouafar (@CharYashouafar) January 25, 2022
Des images rares et étonnantes. Le tout nouvel aéroport international d’Istanbul, un des principaux d'Europe, suspend tous ses vols en raison d'abondantes chutes de neige. 🇹🇷 #istanbulairport #havilimani pic.twitter.com/n57DEFQLsY
— Arnaud Bédat (@ArnaudBedat) January 24, 2022
Rare and amazing images. Istanbul's brand new international airport, one of Europe's main airports, is suspending all flights due to heavy snowfall.
It was not just the passengers who were stranded, but flight crews too.
Brutal images from Istanbul airport, billed as the largest/fanciest/most modern (except the only restaurant is, like, Burger King, and there’s no metro access). This shows flight crews as stranded as customers after heavy snow. A microcosm of the product of crony capitalism. https://t.co/TBjglErrfo
— Lisel Hintz (@LiselHintz) January 25, 2022
Scenes from Istanbul Airport @igairport which has been closed due to heavy snowfall. Thousands of stranded passengers had to sleep on terminal benches as roads to and from the airport were blocked from traffic. Pics are from a friend who had to stay overnight and sleep on a bench pic.twitter.com/qDB2JTMYW9
— Ozan Demircan (@ozmuhabir) January 25, 2022
ISTANBUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Flights were suspended for a second day at Istanbul Airport and private vehicles were barred from city streets on Tuesday, as heavy snowfall snarled traffic and left people stranded in Turkey's biggest city and across the country. pic.twitter.com/iMs7iN04HJ
— D® Phil (@philabouzeid) January 25, 2022
On January 23, Istanbul Airport management assured its passengers that “operations continued uninterrupted.” That however changed and on January 24, the airport management tweeted that all flights were suspended until 4:00 am local time, January 25. And once again until 1:00 pm local time. According to Flightradar24, a global flight tracking service some 1,500 flights were canceled since the city's main airport was hit with a blizzard.
Bilal Ekşi, General Manager of Turkish Airlines (THY) announced via Twitter that “flights have gradually returned to normal” and that Turkish Airlines have planned 131 flights between 7 am and 1 pm on January 26. At the time of publication, some travelers are still stuck and waiting for their flights.
One satirical Twitter account joked the authorities were sending riot police to tear gas passengers referring to their typical heavy-handed approach to protests.
Riot police sent in to tackle protesting passengers stuck at Istanbul Airport https://t.co/vMc7EUH8MO
— Ankaralı Jan (@06JAnk) January 25, 2022
Another Twitter user shared pictures of snowman airport staff had made on the runway.
But no matter what happens, creative people are and will always be, even in difficult situations.#istanbulairport #istanbulhavaalanı #İstanbul pic.twitter.com/jljePV3qWw
— Oli3D (@Oli_3D) January 25, 2022
Some blamed the delays on the location where the new Istanbul airport was built. “The costly new airport was built on the Black Sea coast, with fierce northerly winds (107days/year), storms, and intense cloud cover(65days/yr) instead of the safer shores of the Marmara. You cannot fight topography & meteorology,” tweeted Yoruk Isik, the author of the website Bosphorus Observer.
Aviation experts opposed the location from the start of the project in 2016, arguing that the location lacked cover from the northerly winds and was susceptible to disruptions caused by cloud and fog.
“It was obvious from the planning stage that there would be problems with the landing and take-off of the planes. They stated that they were carrying out a meteorological study in the plan, but the stations where they received data were not close to the airport they were building to provide data. Therefore, they did not include in their determination that the north winds would affect the airport very seriously and that there would be problems in the landing and take-off of the planes,” told Bianet, Esin Koymen, the Head of the Istanbul Metropolitan Branch of the Chamber of Architects.
Koymen noted that although Atatürk Airport received the same amount of snowfall, it was still operational. “That was possible, because the location of that airport, considered the climate data provided at the time of its construction was done properly,” added Koymen. On their arrival to Istanbul, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu, landed at the Atatürk Airport instead. Many took to Twitter to demand the Atatürk Airport be reopened to the public in no small part because the conveniently located airport has direct access to a subway.
Others criticized the lack of sufficient transportation infrastructure around the new airport. The only means of getting to the new site are through private cars, taxis, or a shuttle bus company. Journalist Ismayil Saymaz said in a tweet, “25,000 citizens were stranded at Istanbul Airport. Because the government closed the Atatürk Airport, which had metro access, and opened the incomplete Istanbul Airport to public use, to finish the ‘crazy project’ in time for the elections. We paid the bill for this incompetence yesterday and today.”
The Ministers of the Interior and Transportation arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday, January 25, and released a statement encouraging car owners to stay home and if necessary use public transportation instead at least until further notice. Universities sent students home until January 31 following the announcement by the İstanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya. The governor also said, that public servants, workers, and personnel, except for security, healthcare, and transportation workers, were sent on administrative leave, according to reporting by Bianet.


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Philippines’s new vaccine mandate decried as punitive and anti-poor · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

A protester holds a placard which describes the ‘no vaccination, no ride’ policy as a violation of human rights. Photo by Kodao Productions, a content partner of Global Voices.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed movement restrictions for people who have yet to be vaccinated amid a surge of COVID-19 infections that have hit the country since the New Year. The latest wave is attributed to the Omicron variant, which is now considered dominant in the Philippines.
The Duterte government’s new measures forbid unvaccinated people from taking public transport or entering indoor businesses. This new set of orders compel the unvaccinated to stay at home or risk facing arrest. In a January 6, 2022 public address, Duterte himself instructed village (barangay) officials to actively search for unvaccinated citizens and arrest those who defy his orders:
I'm now giving orders to the barangay captains to look for those persons who are not vaccinated and just request them — or order them if you may — to stay put… If [they] refuse, then the barangay captain, being a person in authority, is empowered now to arrest the recalcitrant persons.
A few days later, a government report said seven cities and municipalities in the national capital region have instituted ordinances restricting the movement of the unvaccinated and imposing monetary fines to violators. More local governments have followed suit.
Yet these measures are now being criticized by civil society groups claiming the punitive acts do nothing to effectively curb the spread of the virus, but instead, spawn rights abuses. Renato Reyes, spokesperson of civil society coalition Bayan (The People), says the Duterte government is passing on the blame for its negligent pandemic response to the people:
This measure is punitive. The low vaccination rate should not be blamed on the people especially if supplies are not always available. Vaccine hesitancy should not be blamed on the people especially if government has failed in educating them and providing incentives.
— Renato Reyes, Jr. (@natoreyes) January 12, 2022
A government report shows that only 54 million Filipinos of a population of 110 million have been fully vaccinated as of January 14, 2022. Vaccination is moreover concentrated in the national capital region, Manila, leaving out many people from other provinces and rural areas. Only 3.8 million people have received booster shots.
On January 17, 2022, the first day of the public transport ban for the unvaccinated, news reports of a partially vaccinated commuter who was denied a bus ride went viral on social media.
So heart-breaking to see this. The ineptness and incompetence of this gov’t is too much that a full grown adult would just break down and cry out of frustration. I can feel it and it’s absurd that we have to go through this every day. https://t.co/CaiP8naXkj
— SumShine (@sumshine013) January 17, 2022
The news footage showed a visibly-frustrated Dianne tearfully explaining that she needed to go to work, that she had in fact taken the first dose of her vaccine, and it wasn’t her fault if her second dose is still scheduled for February: “Napapagod na ako. Diyos ko” [I’m exhausted. My God].
It's always like this. From announcing lockdowns on midnight effective the next morning to this. In the end, the poor are the ones most affected. Is it the people's fault that their second dose is still in February? Just reminding the government that we had vaccines late https://t.co/ZV8gxH5QUg
— ):) (@nacho_cheeseyy) January 17, 2022
Another viral video showed a balut  (fertilized duck egg) vendor cursing President Duterte for the new measures that disallowed her from using public transportation and denied her entry from the public market. Gemma Parina said she used to be a Duterte supporter but the government’s anti-poor policies made her change her mind:
You know, President, I am a fan of yours, I voted for you. When you went to Luneta, I was very enthusiastic to see you, I even wore a Duterte shirt. But, president, ever since you imposed the no vaccine, no ride [policy], I felt really bad because the person that I idolize is now making me suffer.
In a follow-up media interview, a teary-eyed Parina is shown apologizing for her remarks against the President, saying that she’s been forced to temporarily leave her residence after police and local authorities had been threatening to file charges against her.
Justice for Aling Gemma!
She has the right to criticize a govt that neglects and fails its people. Aling Gemma is one of many who who bear the brunt by DU30 admin's anti people policies.
The state's response only goes to show that they are cowards https://t.co/lJUaKUi5sO
— Béa | #PassPHRA #CutUSAidToPH (@Beyat0t) January 21, 2022
Meanwhile, opposition Senator Franklin Drilon pointed out the same restrictions had not been applied to unvaccinated Duterte officials like Public Attorney’s Office Chief Persida Acosta.
For many, the Duterte government’s mad scramble to impose movement restrictions only exposes its lack of adequate preparations for the coming of the Omicron variant which had been identified as early as November 2021.
The Coalition for People’s Right to Health says the Duterte government refused to conduct mass testing and other urgent measures for the current surge: “We are basically paying the price for neglecting our healthcare system, neglecting testing and contact tracing for the longest time.”
The neglect is reflected in the Duterte government’s 2022 health budget which had been denounced for failing to allocate funds for health workers’ benefits and slashing the budget of government hospitals while increasing counterinsurgency and military spending.
Philippine health workers have been at the center of protests, demanding the release of unpaid risk allowances, hazard pay, and other benefits last September 2021 amid allegations of misuse of COVID-19 funds.
wala paggawang libre ng mass testing , walang natl effort for more vaccine rollout, walang natl effort para gawin efficient ang contact tracing , kahit messaging ay towards individual response , inutil ampota
— cheese ???? OUST DUTERTE NOW ?? (@imcheeseka) January 10, 2022
No free mass testing, no national effort for more vaccine rollout, no national effort to make contact tracing more efficient, even messaging is focused on individual response, how inutile
As the COVID-19 surge situation continues, more Filipinos are questioning the Duterte government’s reactive and militaristic approach that frames the pandemic as a national security issue requiring punitive measures and repression. Civil society groups assert that what is needed is a more pro-active and comprehensive response countering vaccine hesitancy with education, making vaccines and testing more accessible, and rechannelling much-needed public funds for health and other social services.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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The issue of the Jamaican police allegedly cutting a young woman’s dreadlocks remains unresolved · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Photo of the Rastafarian flag by Corie Bidgood on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Nearly six months after 19-year-old Jamaican nursing student Nzinga King alleged that a police officer had forcibly cut her dreadlocks at a rural police station, where she had been arrested for “disorderly conduct” – including not wearing a mask – during an altercation with a police officer on July 22, 2021, the investigation into the incident remains incomplete.
#JAMAICA: Ras Ivi Tafari, head of Cutting Edge Cultural Inity – a Rastafarian group based in Clarendon, says the Rastafarian community is disgusted by the alleged trimming of 19-year-old Nzinga King while in custody at the Four Paths Police Station on July 22. pic.twitter.com/EvunnDx3sj
— CaribbeanNewsNetwork (@caribbeannewsuk) August 5, 2021
Tired of waiting for justice, several social media users have been pressing for support for King, with one civil society group continuing to stir the pot. The Advocates Network, which focuses on issues of transparency, good governance and human rights, issued a press release criticising the delays in the investigation and noting that King's rights had been infringed during the “traumatic incident,” both as a woman and as a Rastafarian.
Jamaica has a historically fraught relationship with its Rastafarian community. In 1963, on the heels of a violent incident at a gas station in Montego Bay on Jamaica's north coast, there was a concerted and deliberate attack on the Rastafarian neighbourhood of Coral Gardens by the country's police and military forces, which lasted from April 11-13. Though exact numbers were never confirmed, it is estimated that as many as 150 community members were detained over the course of those three days, with many being physically abused and some even killed. In many instances, their dreadlocks, which hold special religious significance, were cut, so the practice has long been used as a means of domination.
Fifty-four years later, in an attempt to make amends for past wrongdoing, Prime Minister Andrew Holness offered an official apology for the attacks, along with promises that six lots of land at a property that holds historical importance to the country's Rastafarians would be declared as a protected heritage site, and that a trust fund worth slightly more than US $75,000 would be established for survivors of the attack.
The Advocates Network meanwhile, noting that Nzinga King is due to appear in court for the offence of violating the country's Disaster Risk Management Act on February 3 – even as the lack of accountability over the infringement of her own rights persists – suggests that old attitudes and systems may be more difficult to change:
Ms. King is symbolic of the ‘have nots;’ in Jamaica, who continue to be neglected and whose human rights are so often disregarded and abused.
Although investigations into the incident have reportedly been undertaken by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) and the Office of the Public Defender (OPD), any outcomes have not been publicly shared, though on completion of its own investigations, INDECOM handed the case over to the Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2021.


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US Congressman in hot water over corruption allegations · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

US congressman Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat from Texas is ensnared in a corruption investigation. “20200310-OSEC-LSC-0235” by USDAgov is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
An FBI search of US congressman Henry Cuellar's Texas home and campaign office on January 19 is the latest move in a corruption investigation against the congressperson, based on alleged shady dealings between Cuellar, a Turkish-American businessman, and Azerbaijani State Oil Company. Although the FBI declined to provide specifics of the probe, a series of subpoenas issued by a federal grand jury two days after the raid indicate that the investigation is connected to trips Cuellar's made to Azerbaijan in 2013 and his subsequent relationship with several Azerbaijani entities, including the state oil company and Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy.
It begins in 2013 when 10 Comgressmembers and 32 staffers took an all-expenses-paid visit to Azerbaijan to attend the “U.S. – Azerbaijan: Vision for the Future” convention. As it later was reported, the trip was financed by Turkish-American businessman Kemal Öksüz who at the time ran two organizations — Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan. Although Congressman Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat from Texas, did not attend that meeting, one of his staffers did.
A few months earlier, Cuellar and his wife, traveled to Azerbaijan and Turkey on a junket financed by the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians. During that trip, Cuellar also met with representatives of the Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) and had dinner with the company's executives.
Cueller's connection to Azerbaijan was not limited to that one trip. The Congressman also served as the co-chair on the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus in recent years. In that capacity, Cuellar reportedly met with Azerbaijani officials, including Elin Suleymanov, the former Azerbaijani Ambassador to Washington who now serves as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Since his 2013 trip, Cueller often praised the country at Congressional meetings, including a reception in honor of SOCAR. He was involved in a number of other initiatives including research and education on oil and gas which Cuellar's office announced in 2015.
It took two years, for the Office of Congressional Ethics committee to investigate the 2013 trip. The final report concluded, “TCAE (Turquiose Council of Americans and Eurasians) and AFAZ (Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan), both under the leadership of Kemal Öksüz, and relying on the financial resources and logistical support of SOCAR, acted as the organizers and sponsors for congressional participation in the trip to Azerbaijan.”
Öksüz was later charged by the grand jury for lying on five separate counts including for concealing “the true nature and extent of funding provided by SOCAR for the trip and Convention; making false statements to the Ethics Committee on a trip sponsor form and post-travel form.” The businessman was handed the indictment in April 2018. Oksuz was arrested the same year in Armenia.
In Turkey, Öksüz's name was linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have blamed for orchestrating the failed military coup in 2016.
After Öksüz's arrest, Cuellar continued to promote Azerbaijan’s interests even as recently as 2020, according to an investigation by The Intercept. “Following the devastating Armenia-Azerbaijan War in 2020, fought over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Cuellar petitioned his congressional colleagues to ensure that any humanitarian aid for the conflict would be “provided through the Government of Azerbaijan or U.N. organizations and not given directly to Armenia,” reported The Intercept.
On Friday, January 21, ABC News reported that the federal grand jury in the Washington DC probe “has begun issuing subpoenas, seeking records about a wide array of US companies and advocacy organizations, many of them with ties to the former Soviet nation of Azerbaijan.”
The subpoena reviewed by ABC News is seeking, among other information, records related to Oksuz, SOCAR, the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, and other entities that the Justice Department mentioned in its case against Oksuz.
THREAD: The FBI recently raided the home of a sitting U.S. congressman as part of a probe into Azerbaijani interests in the country.
OCCRP has previously uncovered several instances of Azerbaijan buying influence abroad.
This thread has a few examples👇https://t.co/LKIymZWrZW
— Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (@OCCRP) January 24, 2022
In its most recent annual Corruption Perception Index, Transparency International ranked Azerbaijan 128 on a list of 180 countries. In the meantime, in a video Congressman Cuellar shared via his Twitter account on January 25, the Congressman said: “he took part in no wrongdoing.”


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Why a writer is on trial for calling Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s son obese · Global Voices
Brian Oduti

Ugandan author Kwakwenza Rukirabashaija was detained on December 28. Image souce: Twitter
It has been close to a month now since Ugandan writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested in his home in Kampala. His last tweet read:
Currently under house arrest. Gunmen are breaking into my house by force.
— KAKWENZA RUKIRA (@KakwenzaRukira) December 28, 2021
Prior to the arrest, Kakwenza had posted a series of tweets critical of President Yoweri Museveni’s son, army general Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is the commander of the Uganda People’s Defence Force's land forces. The tweets have since been deleted.
There has been criticism in Uganda about Muhoozi’s fast rise through the army ranks and positioning in national politics, largely perceived as preparation for the presidency. Kakwenza’s tweets questioned the first son’s ability to follow his father as president.
An unapologetic critic of the Museveni government, Kakwenza rose to prominence in April 2020 when he was arrested and detained for a week by Uganda’s Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, regarding his book “The Greedy Barbarian,” which describes high-level corruption in a fictitious country. He was arrested and detained again in September 2020. In 2021 he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize International Writer of Courage award.
After his arrest on December 28, 2021, Kakwenza was detained beyond the constitutionally prescribed 48 hours. While police initially admitted that he was in their custody, the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the institution constitutionally mandated to investigate human rights violations tweeted that it could not locate where he was being detained.
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The UHRC has over the past days visited various security & detention facilities in & around the Country to locate @KakwenzaRukira.
The Commission has equally been engaging security agencies & relevant government authorities to ensure that justice for Kakwenza prevails.
— Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) (@UHRC_UGANDA) January 7, 2022
Kakwenza’s lawyer Eron Kiiza tweeted that Kakwenza was being held at a Special Forces Command detention facility outside Kampala. SFC is a unit of the Uganda People's Defence Forces that guards the president and his family.
The @UHRC_UGANDA should demand and be told where @KakwenzaRukira is by the security agencies. Why should @GovUganda, @PoliceUg & @updf_ make UHRC wonder around as though Kakwenza is abducted by a criminal gang? SFC has him in Entebbe. https://t.co/vgD3TJiIgq
— KIIZA ERON (@kiizaeron) January 7, 2022
The government ignored a court order calling for the writer’s release, and it took a second court order, issued by the High Court in Kampala to compel the writer’s captors to produce him and charge him in court. Interestingly, Kakwenza was charged in court in the absence of his lawyers and the press, a day after the second court order was issued. Some suggest that the hurried appearance could be because Kakwenza had been tortured, and producing him in court in that condition would have reflected poorly on the state.
A tortured @KakwenzaRukira secretly remanded to Kitalya up to 21/01/2022 around 9:05am in the absence of his lawyers. https://t.co/SnNP4Z86c2
— KIIZA ERON (@kiizaeron) January 11, 2022
Kakwenza was released on bail on January 25, 2021 and rearrested only hours later. He is prohibited from discussing his case with the media.
Kakwenza was charged with offensive communication and his first public trial was on  January 21, 2022. The Computer Misuse Act defines offensive communication as “repeated uses of electronic communication to disturb or attempts to disturb the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person with no purpose of legitimate communication whether a conversation ensues…”
Eron Kiiza, the human rights lawyer defending Kakwenza argued that it is unacceptable for the military to determine what speech is offensive or not.
The Computer Misuse Act has in recent years been used to stifle dissenting voices. Academic and writer Dr. Stella Nyanzi was jailed in 2018 for offensive Facebook posts in which she called the president “a pair of buttocks.”
Other Ugandans have taken to social media to question the role of the president’s family — several of whom have held senior public and military offices. Critics have also noted the country’s deteriorating governance and human rights situation, the state's failed promises, and the taboo issue of political transition from Museveni’s rule after over three decades at the helm. There have been several high-profile cases where citizens were charged with offensive communication because of social media posts about the president and his family.
In a country where legitimate and legally protected forms of expression are increasingly closed off, citizens have fewer options. According to Dr. Nyanzi, rudeness is a form of resistance which “makes the point a polite conversation can’t.” The government’s response to online expression by activists like Dr. Nyanzi is highhanded: arrests, torture, a social media tax, and internet shutdowns. Facebook has been banned in the country since 2021.
In 2019, civil society organisations filed a  petition before the Constitutional Court in Kampala challenging the constitutionality of offensive communication charges.  A decision is yet to be delivered.
#FreeKakwenza has trended in Uganda's social media spaces since his arrest on December 28, 2021. Messages of support and calls for Kakwenza’s release have come from citizens, civil society organisations, the Law Society, and embassies in Uganda.
A tortured @KakwenzaRukira secretly remanded to Kitalya up to 21/01/2022 around 9:05am in the absence of his lawyers. https://t.co/SnNP4Z86c2
— KIIZA ERON (@kiizaeron) January 11, 2022
We are concerned that Kakwenza Rukirabashaija remains in detention, despite the court order on 4 January to release him. Upholding the rule of law is vital to all democracies.
— UK in Uganda 🇬🇧 🇺🇬 (@UKinUganda) January 7, 2022
Uganda is one of the largest recipients of US Government funding. However, in recent years there has been increased scrutiny into Uganda’s worsening governance and human rights record. Consequently, Ugandan  officials have been sanctioned by the US government for “undermining democracy.”
A case like Kakwenza’s confirms that time and again, the US will merely condemn the Ugandan government’s human rights violations while continuing its relationship with a government whose police and military perpetrate said violations. Ultimately, Kakwenza’s tweets have put to the test what freedom of speech and judicial independence mean in Uganda.

author: Brian Oduti