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The Internet, a Space for Information on Sexual and Reproductive Health · Global Voices
Yarisa Colon

Female sexual and reproductive health is key to development. However, prevention and monitoring services are not always accessible and, in the worst cases, disregarded. As a result, innumerable feminist organizations have taken to the Internet to encourage discussion and activism, to address doubts and share information. The effectiveness of these sites is certainly inspiring.
We dedicate this post to four sexual and reproductive health programmes that are currently using online networks to reaffirm the value of basic rights.
Saludpromujer (Pro-women health) and Taller Salud (Health Workshop) in Puerto Rico, the Latin America and Caribbean Women's Health Network based in Chile, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) in New York.
The double CD "We Don't Talk About That," made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Saludpromujer, can be listened to on their website.
1. Saludpromujer [es] began as part of a study about women at the Cayey Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, and was transferred to the Gynocelogy and Obstetrics Department of the Medical School of the University of Puerto Rico, under the direction of Yamila Azize Vargas. Part of its mission is to encourage “curricular changes and investigation of female reproductive health issues that are excluded and stigmatized in the education of the science of health, such as sexuality, contraception and abortion.”
Saludpromujer also coordinates the Caribbean Initiative on Abortion and Contraception, a network that promotes research and the training of health professionals in more that 15 Caribbean countries. It also maintains the Rosa Gonzáles Documentation Centre which houses books, magazines and videos [es]. On their website you will find scientific research, and radio broadcasts recorded under the name “De Esto No se Habla” [es] (We Don't Talk About This), in which health professionals discuss essential issues in medical school classrooms.
2.  Taller Salud  is based in Loíza, Puerto Rico and it was founded in 1979 by  Carmen Guzmán and Eugenia Acuña who worked in New York against the widespread sterilization of poor Latin American women who were mainly Puerto Rican. Once they returned to Puerto Rico they continued to condemn the excessive sterilization of women, and they have focused on guaranteeing the right to contraception and abortion. Today, this organisation, coordinated by Alana Feldman, integrates into their work awareness of issues including reproductive health, sexuality,  vaginal health, the impact of violence of women's health and the health of young girls.
Also, as part of its mission to “create safe spaces sharing experiences essentials for the body and comprehensive health” it regularly organised workshops that are accessible to  the community and health professionals. On their Facebook page there is a calendar of the next workshops about, among other things, empowerment, eating disorders and HIV/ STD prevention strategies for young people. On their blog Desde el el barrio de Adolfina (From Adolfina's Neighborhood), which is dedicated to the heroine, Adolfina Villanueva [es], the available resources from their Documentation and Information Centre are listed.
Last year, Taller Salud launched the project El Tenderete Fotográfico [es] (Clothesline Photography), an art competition to commemorate the International Day of Action for Women's Health (celebrated on 28 May). In the video below, the work of the finalists and the winner (Dora Irrizary) is shown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcX7sARnbyA&feature=player_embedded#!
Even though the recent ecomomic cut-backs have made the print-version of the Women's Health Journal impossible, it is still being published in its digital format on the RSMLAC website.
3. On 28 May, 1984 the Regional Women's Health Meeting was held for the first time in Colombia. During the six-day workshop a diverse group of feminists decided, among other things, to create the Latin America and Caribbean Women's Health Network (RSMLAC). In the beginning, the network was coordinated by Isis International, a non-governmental organization based in Chile, but from 1995 it began functioning autonomously. The General Coordinator is Nirvana Gonzáles Rosa, a feminist with extensive experience in the defence of women's human rights, both in her country, Puerto Rico, and the region in general.
The current counselors are Télia Negrão (Brazil), Natalia Pineda (Colombia), Lise Marie Dejéan (Haiti), María Eugenia Romero (Mexico), Alma Odette Chacón de León (Guatemala), Norma Benítez (Paraguay), Sergia Galván (Dominican Rupublic).  RSMLAC organise the Itinerant University, from 1996 to 2004 it followed the implementation of the agreements made at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and it works in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in Chile, as well as other projects. On this site you can see their most recent campaigns, join discussions on the blog [es] and access the Women's Health journal.
4. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) works to “ensure the fundamental human right to reproductive health and justice for Latinas, their families and their communities through public education, community mobilization and policy advocacy.” This is what their website tells us. The access to abortion, immigrant rights, the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community LGBTQ are also included in their work agenda.
This organisation, established in New York City in 1994, also offers the workshops, or “webinars” Latinas Organizing for Leadership and Advocacy (LOLA) via the internet, with the aim of encouraging Latina leaders who wish to get involved in the development of fair and inclusive public policies. On joining their electronic mailing-list or their Facebook page, you will receive information about the next local and national training sessions and activities.
Below, the video explains the vision of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, directed by Jessika González-Roja:

author: Yarisa Colon


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Trinidad & Tobago: Government Partnership a Leaky Ship?   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A handful of Trinidadian bloggers seem disillusioned with the People's Partnership government and are being rather vocal about their reasons.  aka_lol, for instance, noted yesterday that:
There is a a 16-page color pullout in all the daily newspapers today boasting of the accomplishments of the Government over the last two years. This pullout is funded by taxpayers. Didn’t we vote against this foolishness? Nothing has changed.
The blogger continued:
I thought any political party that replaced a corrupt and vindictive regime like the Manning administration would have at least appeared, without even trying, competent and  honest during its first two years in office. Sadly, that has not been the case. All the Peoples Partnership has appeared to have done was to replaced  once set of corrupt, vindictive and incompetent people with another set…the lack of performance is due to fighting at all levels of the party and parties for the spoils of the land.
He also referred to yesterday's anniversary celebration of the party's two years in office:
The anti-productivity, falsely self-righteous MSJ [Movement for Social Justice], a nearly severed arm of the PP [People's Partnership], has cited favoritism and nepotism as two of the reasons for not celebrating tonight with the other Parties that make up the PP – UNC [United National Congress], COP [Congress of the People], TOP [Tobago Organisation of the People], NJAC [National Joint Action Committee]. Regardless of the reasons the MSJ gave for pulling out of the celebrations (and not the Partnership as yet), the main but unsaid reason is probably the massive failure of the TCL [Trinidad Cement Limited] strike – the failure of the OWTU [Oilfield Workers Trade Union]. Next to the Government, the OWTU might be the biggest bully in the country and bullies tend not to get along well together.
The big celebration was also top of mind for The Eternal Pantomime.  Yesterday, she wrote:
The Prime Minister is saying this is not a fete in here…She maintains that this is actually the Government (sans the MSJ [Movement for Social Justice]) coming to account to the people…This is the same Government that won’t answer our questions in the Parliament, or when the media interrogates them in post-cabinet meetings or over the phone. But tonight, yet another year later…the PM plans to account to the country for her government’s achievements in the past year.
You will no doubt hear about the numerous mini-projects that they put on fast track in the last month to allow them to have things to report.
She went on to document all the topics that would (and would not) be covered at the event:
What you…won’t hear is a proper comparison of crime statistics between last year and this year (minus the lull period of the SoE) and a breakdown of how the removal of certain National Security infrastructure has led to murders and gang activity once again being on the upsurge.
You will hear about all the sweeping changes being planned for SEA. You won’t hear why the indecent haste to change this exam in this way and the impact it’s likely to have on our failing education system.
You will hear talk of how the trip to India and all the other numerous trips have yielded trade and investment possibilities. You will never get details on what those possibilities are or what the trips really cost us…you also will not hear that they met a stable economy, and a treasury that was not in debt and they have now managed to screw the entire economy up.
I wish I could think of all the other areas they are going to list as achievements, but their numerous and glaring failures are far too apparent to me.
The blogger had a slightly different perspective from aka_lol‘s, however, when it comes to the legacy of the People's National Movement (the country's first post-independence government, now occupying the opposition bench in Parliament) – especially against the backdrop of Trinidad and Tobago's upcoming 50th anniversary of independence:
The architect of this nation will always be recognised as Eric Williams…it is Williams’ ideas, programmes and implementation that built and developed the idea of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago: for better or for worse. And this is where every other political party will always stumble!
The PPG [People's Partnership Government], the UNC [United National Congress], the COP [Congress of the People] will fail simply because none of their leaders or any member of leadership is the calibre of historian that Williams was. In this year of our 50th anniversary the PPG have tried to avoid all mention of Eric Williams, because it will mean having to mention the PNM and therefore having to acknowledge that much of the infrastructure they have come and met, and regularly use and abuse was developed under Eric Williams, and then maintained under Chambers and then Manning. Indeed every government since 1981, whether it was PNM-led or not, has been coming to terms with the Williams legacy. Every regime we have had lives under his shadow….both in terms of his achievement and his failures.
An important part of any nation’s imagination is its Independence story. Last year the SoE [State of Emergency] denied us a celebration. This year’s celebration will be a disappointment. Mark my words. The country is frustrated, disillusioned, broke and bitter. Come August the people’s minds will turn to Eric Williams, which invariably means they will turn to the PNM and their thoughts will force comparisons. Many will still recoil at the thought of Manning,  but many more will continue to think of Williams and what he stood for…no country forgets the architect of their Independence.
In today's follow-up post, The Eternal Pantomime gave an update on last night's celebration:
The PP [People's Partnership] dropped two bombs last night, but one was more obvious than the other and will be talked and beaten to death over the water coolers today, while the other bomb, might well remain in stealth mode for a while.
The overt bomb was of course the appearance of Sugar Aloes at the Eat Ah Food Fete. And if Aloes’ presence didn’t emphasise for use the extent of trough feeding going on under this regime then we are truly misunderstanding the ethos of this government. The whole point of producing Aloes onstage was of course to undermine the confidence of PNM supporters. It was the PP’s way of saying, ‘Look, even all yuh biggest critics joining us.’  Then I get up this morning and see a Guardian story that says the Calypso Revue is looking for a home… this is the tent Aloes belong to…I wonder if land for the tent owners was part of Aloes’ contractual arrangement last night? The battle for Elections 2015 is well underway folks. Indeed it never stopped. This is a government that has not yet begun to rule, and has certainly never stopped campaigning.
The other bomb though, got lost in the fireworks of Aloes’ presence….and that was Prakash Ramadhar’s speech…but Ramadhar’s COP [Congress of the People] made a bold move last night and dropped some fighting words.
The blogger republished the speech in her post.
Facebook and Twitter were busy today with commentary about the event (and extensive marketing thrust surrounding the government's second anniversary), with @IamCoffeedude saying, tongue-in-cheek:
There is a remote controlled parachute flying over the Queen's Park Savannah towing a massive picture of Kamla. We real reach boy. #Trinidad
WUZDESCENE echoed his sentiment in a post titled “Wha really goin’ orn in T&T bwoy?!”, at the end of which the blogger commented:
all ah dat tralala goin’ orn ….. while Kamla an’ she Pee Pee …. in Central ….. galleryin deyself …. in celebration of …. two years …. of ….. screwin’ de country!!!!!!
aka_lol made a prediction about what citizens should expect from the People's Partnership government for the rest of its term:
Over the next three years I expect an increase use of  the smoke-and-mirror technique while there will be more pick pocketing of the taxpayers’ purses by those who are friendly with those on the top…there will be no improvement in the way the country is governed…”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Trinidad & Tobago: Same Sex Issues  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Globewriter comments on a Senate debate about a clause of the Children's Bill “involving a clause that includes buggery”; B.C. Pires adds: “The People’s Partnership of UNC [United National Congress] MPs [Ministers of Parliament] yesterday refused, despite urgings from Independent senators, to decriminalize same gender sexual activity between minors – even while ploughing ahead with decriminalizing the same activity between boys and girls.  If ever there were a plain human rights issue, sexual orientation is it.”


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Video: Defying the Stigma of Speaking Indigenous Languages · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.
Al Jazeera's Living the Language video series brings us the stories of indigenous activists and communities throughout the globe who are standing up against stigma and are proposing solutions to recover the spaces for indigenous languages.
In Bolivia, the majority of the population is Aymara or Quechua, but due to colonization the Spanish culture and language became official and mainstream. In recent years, initiatives have ramped up to remove the stigma many Bolivians had that speaking Aymara was for ignorant people and lower classes. Efforts precede the election of Evo Morales, the first Aymara descendant as President who put indigenous issues back in the political agenda.
Examples are cultural events including rappers and hip hop artists singing in Aymara, schools for Aymara education teaching language and also Aymara culture as well as activism. Their goal: to make indigenous languages more prominent and encourage young city dwellers, who may be shamed or teased for speaking indigenous languages, into proud  representatives of their language and culture.
The story of the Mayan people in Guatemala is similar to that of the Aymara: The conquest, slavery and colonization periods relegated the Mayans to a status of foreigners in their own lands.
The fields of education, politics and the media all belong exclusively to the Spanish language, while smiling white faces and messages in Spanish look down on the Guatemalan people from billboards across the country.
“Our languages and culture are not being included [in public life],” says Saq'chen Roberto Montejo. “This is one way of making us invisible.”
The Maya communities speak more than 20 different languages – each of them is technically accepted by the state, but little effort to promote them takes place in practice.
In New Zealand, efforts to revive Maori started 30 years ago. The episode video follows through the efforts of activists and linguists who came up with a way to not only bring back the language, but also the Maori culture through Language Nests where very young children and their parents learned from the elders in their community. The first students of those nests and Maori immersion schools and programs are now adults, many who are not only using Maori in their daily life and work, but also passing along their traditional values to their children at home and also through the Language Nests. Following is the promo for the episode, which can be seen on the Al Jazeera site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdJIumMsM70
Other episodes in the series are Canada: The Ktunaxa, Australia: The Aboriginal People and comprehensive episodes Language: At threat of extinction and Over the Airwaves.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Africa: Hands Off Africa Event in London · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Hands Off Somalia blog announces hand Hands off Africa! meeting: “Join us at 2pm on Saturday 16 June at the Horn of Africa Community Group centre to listen to speakers discuss the recent new scramble for African resources by Britain and its imperialist allies in Europe and around the world.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Africa: Kwani? Manuscript Project Announces Literary Prize · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

“To celebrate the African novel and its adaptability and resilience, Kwani Trust announces a one-off new literary prize for African writing. The Kwani? Manuscript Project calls for the submission of unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the Diaspora,” Nana reports.


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Africa: Music From Saharan Cellphones · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chris Kirkley presents “Music From Saharan Cellphones”: The music on the compilation was collected from cellphones in the Northern Malian town of Kidal. In much of West Africa, cellphones are are used as all-purpose multimedia devices.


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Azerbaijan: Rewriting The Geopolitical Narrative · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Following concern expressed in some quarters with how the international media has covered the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, East of Center looks at the geopolitical issues behind Western engagement of the oil-rich former Soviet republic, arguing that policy towards Azerbaijan might not solely be confined to energy interests.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Brazil: TV Humiliation of Young Man Opens Media Regulation Debate · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

At the beginning of May, a televised feature from the programme ‘Brasil Urgente’ was aired in which a young man, poor, black, and whose face showed the marks of a violent attack, was “interviewed” by the reporter Mirella Cunha [pt], who accused him of trying to rape a woman.
In the video, the journalist from the Bandeirantes Network in Bahia jokes about the lack of schooling of the young man who, in tears, admits in despair that he tried to rob a woman, but that he would never have tried to rape her – or any other woman.
The journalist Renato Rovai gives the details [pt]:
Uma repórter loirinha, com rabinho de cavalo à la Feiticeria, coloca um jovem negro, com hematoma aparente de uma agressão recente, numa situação absolutamente constrangedora. Julga-o antes da Justiça, humilha-o por conta de sua ignorância em relação aos seus direitos e ao procedimento a se realizar num exame de corpo delito e acha isso tudo muito engraçado.
“Spectacularisation of the news” versus presumption of innocence
In Brazil, even a person caught in flagrante for robbery or any other crime has the right by law to defend him or herself before being accused. Paulo Sérgio, accused publicly on TV for a crime which he says he did not commit, is a poor young man who lives on the outskirts of the city. He is black and is a preferential victim in a country marked by racism and prejudice.
Cases like this ignite or reignite the debate over the necessity of regulating the great Brazilian media and of imposing limits on the custom of stereotyping minorities and vulnerable people.
The journalist Marco Antõnio Araújo observes [pt]:
Antes de mais nada: não estamos aqui para defender bandido. O desgraçado da “reportagem” assume seus crimes e nem protesta quando, de passagem, narra ter sofrido prováveis agressões físicas. Só insiste com veemência que umas das acusações não procede, a de estupro. Tudo isso, a veracidade ou não do discurso do marginal, é irrelevante diante da postura da pretensa entrevistadora.
Evandro Cruz, editor of Café e Analgésicos (Coffee and Painkillers), dismisses [pt] the journalism practised by the programme:
Still from the YouTube video of the programme Brasil Urgente in which Paulo Sérgio appears with a wounded face
A imprensa é um dos órgãos mais poderosos que uma sociedade dispõe, um programa de televisão de grande audiência – como o Brasil Urgente o é – consegue formar a opinião sobre um caso em poucos minutos de uma matéria e é por isso que não se pode praticar jornalismo dessa forma: ao expôr ao ridiculo uma pessoa em rede televisiva, a imagem que fica é essa: “O garoto é ridiculo, um ladrão e provavelmente um estuprador” pronto, o garoto passa de ladrão reincidente para criatura hedionda, tem sua imagem destruída e a sua resposta não será ouvida por quase ninguém.
Journalist and professor Laurindo Lalo Leal Filho, who specialises in media regulation, expresses [pt] his surprise:
“neste tipo de programa policialesco violações aos direitos humanos são comuns”.  […] “mas eu nunca vi o comportamento de uma repórter que chegasse a este nível de humilhação. Ela extrapolou todos os limites éticos da profissão. Inclusive, acredito, infringido normas legais ao colocar em situação vexatória uma pessoa em situação de fragilidade. Foi além de todas as barbaridades já cometidas por esse tipo de programa”.
The journalist Cristóvão Feil advocates [pt] the fact that “a regulatory framework is necessary in the Brazilian media, so that rubbish like this is not presented as a programme for entertainment and education”. He still asks himself whether “the journalist would have acted in this way, and felt so at ease, so brazen, if the young man was white and a middle or upper class daddy's boy?”.
Blogger Alexandre Haubrich argues [pt] that “an analysis of the general state of affairs in the Brazilian media, added to a concern for constitutional precepts and universal human rights, is the most complete and complex manner by which to demonstrate the absolute necessity for regulation of the Brazilian media, moving forward within a new framework for communication in the country” and he adds:
O que temos ali, além de preconceito, covardia e desumanidade, é tortura. Mirella tortura o acusado durante três minutos. Tortura verbal, não física, mas não menos humilhante. É a espetacularização da notícia, o circo dos horrores em rede nacional. Nada de notícia, nada de informação, nada de prestação de serviços, nada de interesse público.
Twitter campaign #SensacionalismoForaDoAr (Sensationalism Off Air). Open access image
Thales Barreto, from the blog Simulações (Simulations), thinks similarly, but also adds [pt] that those who watch this or similar programmes are equally responsible:
Em nome da liberdade de expressão se permite coisas absurdas como essa. Que penalidade terá a jovem Mirella? E a rede Bandeirantes, ficará de impune nessa história? Já a audiência também tem sua participação nesse show de horrores. Não podemos esquecer se esse tipo de programa sensacionalista tem público vasto, que aprova esse tipo nojento de jornalismo.
The journalist Altino Machado published an open letter [pt] signed by more than 50 journalists condemning the Bandeirantes network, the journalist Mirella Cunha and the programme Brasil Urgente and asking the state government and the Public Ministry to intervene in this and in other programmes which promote the abuse of human rights:
Pedimos ainda uma ação do Ministério Público da Bahia, que fez diversos Termos de Ajustamento de Conduta para diminuir as arbitrariedades dos programas popularescos, mas, hoje, silencia sobre os constantes abusos cometidos contra presos e moradores das periferias da capital baiana.
On May 22nd, a Twitter campaign #SensacionalismoForaDoAr [pt] (Sensationalism Off Air) was held to protest against the human rights violations promoted by sensationalist television programmes.
The Federal Public Ministry of Bahia opened [pt] a representation against the journalist for signs of the violation of Paulo Sérgio's constitutional rights on May 23rd. And on the same day, the Bandeirantes Network stated [pt] that the journalist Mirella Cunha would be dismissed without, however, taking any responsibility whatsoever for the editorial style of the programme.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Bulgaria: President’s Gift to Pope Provokes Questions · Global Voices
Ruslan Trad

On May 24, the Day of Bulgarian Education and Culture, and Slavonic Literature Day, the Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev visited the Vatican. At a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, President Plevneliev presented a huge Easter egg to him, the work of the Bulgarian sculptor Georgi Andreev.
The egg is made of inox steel and is gold-plated, studded with crystal stones (2,000 ruby-red crystals) in the colors of the rainbow, and consists of 11 sections in the form of diamonds, in the middle of which there is an inscribed cross. The egg is 2.3 meters high and weighs 200 kg – and is also engraved with the letters of the Bulgarian alphabet.
No one in the Bulgarian media wrote about the price of this precious gift. Bulgarian netizens, however, responded to the news with many questions.
On his blog, Bulgarian journalist Ivan Bedrov posted a picture of the Pope and the Bulgarian President standing next to the egg, and commented [bg]:
[…] At first glance, the thing is bigger than the President and the Pope combined. A golden cone? No, a Christmas tree? There was an egg, right? A huge “Fabergé” on the gear of an office chair, with an antenna stuck on top of it. But what is inside, will anyone reveal? […]
In the social media, the gift has become an object of jokes and humor. Here's a small selection:
#Terribly tasteless…
#What does Bulgaria have in common with an egg or Fabergé? What's the message? Maybe that we roost with hens?
#Huge kitsch. Literally.
#Such grandiosity… Looks like the Pope was frightened by the size of the egg.
[…]
#Seriously! Who made it? How much does it cost? Who paid the bill?
[…]
The good news is that the great gift is not paid for with the public funds. The question is what it symbolizes and what exactly Bulgaria is saying to the world with this gift. Because there's no doubt the photo has made an impression around the world. My first association was with Bulgarian weddings where there it is always more impressive to give a huge washing machine as a gift rather than a small picture. In English, this is called “excessive” […]. Such a gift would be a perfect fit for a visit of Georgi Parvanov [Rosen Plevneliev's predecessor at the President's post] to [Turkmenbashi]'s successor […].
Freelance journalist Martin Ivanov wrote this on his blog [bg]:
[…] In the past, the Vatican had tacitly refused to accept an ambassador sent by the [Bulgarian] President. If Plevneliev has decided to do diplomacy through such Kindersurprises, we can only speculate about what he would give to, say, [the German President Joachim Gauck], to [the U.S. President Barack Obama], or to the French President François Hollande. […]
Journalist Ruslan Yordanov commented in his column [bg] in Pogled.info that the “Vatican ‘Fabergé’ amidst the [strongest earthquake] in our country is a sign that the president has completely lost.”
On Facebook, people are discussing another photo of the Bulgarian President, the Pope and the Egg:
Miguel Blank: I really do not understand why there is a giant fake Fabergé with letters?
Kockata Slavov: I wonder where they got the money from to buy this “ovule”? From the Bulgarian people, no money for children and pensions – but we have money for such things. I can't stand these politicians……………
On the Facebook page “Kvartala.bg,” there was this criticism [bg] of the President's gift:
None of our business…. but Plevneliev gave the Pope a 200 kg egg, on the eve of May 24. The giant gift has been handcrafted for two years by 15 artists. Eheeee, that means that Plevneliev had planned and prepared his gifts before he became President, for the time when he would became President. How prescient, how profound.
In the comment section of the Dnes.bg's article [bg] about the President's gift, one reader commented:
Hopefully, there will remain some living space for the people in the Vatican after the installation of the egg…
On Twitter, there were reactions, too.
@bang_limited wrote [bg]:
Plevneliev – A Kindersurprise of the Bulgarian diplomacy: President Rosen Plevneliev gives a 200 kg egg […]
@ssstto wrote [bg]:
Plevneliev has given the Pope a giant egg which will hatch Lady Gaga.
@PolinaPaunova wrote [bg]:
Kitsch as national policy. Plevneliev sharp like a school girl….
And a tweet [bg] from HBO Bulgaria:
Is President Plevneliev a fan of Game of Thrones, that he gave the Pope a dragon egg?

author: Ruslan Trad


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Cameroon: Announcing Cameroon Startup Challenge · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

VC4Africa announces Cameroon Startup Challenge: The competition offers a cash prize of USD $5,000 for the most innovative web, mobile or hardware-based business venture in Cameroon.”


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Cuba: The State of Human Rights  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The recent request for information by the United Nations‘ Committee Against Torture with regard to alleged human rights abuses in Cuba has got bloggers talking.
Diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense said that despite the fact that “the United Nations has far from a pristine history when it comes to holding the Castro dictatorship accountable for its 50-plus years of repression…the UN's Committee Against Torture deserves applause…”  Why, exactly?  For causing the Cuban government to deny that anyone “has been persecuted or sanctioned for exercising their rights, including those of free expression and association” – to which the blogger responded:
No one, except the thousands of political prisoners, past and present, who have languished in the Castro gulag because they exercised the rights given to them by God.
No one, except the activists who every day risk what little liberty they enjoy to ensure that one day they and their successors enjoy those rights freely.
No one, except those Cubans, like Zapata and Villar, who were permanently silenced, who were murdered by the Castro regime because of the threat that they, and their commitment to those rights, posed to the dictatorship's survival.
That one of the dictatorship's flunkies would stand before the world and deny the undeniable, is evidence enough that whatever action the UN takes against Cuba as result of the latest inquiry, the Castros live in fear that their time is up.
The Cuban government's position is at loggerheads with two different reports, one by the U.S. State Department and the other by Amnesty International, about the human rights situation on the island.  Havana Times blogged about Amnesty's findings, reporting that:
According to Amnesty, the Cuban government continued its ‘repression’ on freedom of expression, association and assembly with hundreds of arrests and brief detentions, although it freed the last 11 prisoners of conscience who had been held since 2003, as well as another 62 ‘political prisoners,’ some of whom had been in jail since the 1990s.
The NGO human rights defender, which hasn’t been allowed to enter the country since 1990, also expressed its opposition to the US embargo and highlighted the negative impact the measure has on the health of the Cuban population, especially marginalized groups.
Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter, meanwhile, addressed “two (of the many) misstatements by the Castro regime at the Committee Against Torture”:
First false statement, the claim that “the persons mentioned in these questions and the rest of the list of questions are supposed ‘human rights defenders’, do not qualify as established in the The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations” on December 9, 1998 citing article 3.
The Cuban Black Spring of 2003 in which the majority of the organizers of the Varela Project, an initiative that sought to reform the current Cuban constitution to bring it into line with international human rights obligations, were imprisoned and sentenced in summary trials to up to 28 years in prison for engaging in a legal right recognized by the Constitution. The claims made by Rafael Pino Bécquer are demonstrated as patently false by the above mentioned crackdown and the numerous cases of dissidents being imprisoned with the sole purpose of the dictatorship enforcing political conformity.
Second false statement, the regime's representative claims that the facts have been misrepresented in order to serve a shadowy conspiracy. At the same time the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture was formally invited by the regime on January 28, 2009 and  to the present day  the dictatorship has not agreed on a date for the visit. International human rights organizations have requested permission to visit the island and be able to study the situation on the ground to be able to arrive at their own conclusions on the human rights situation, but the Cuban regime has denied  them all permission to visit the island. Human rights organizations are relying on reports from human rights groups operating inside and outside of Cuba that are slandered and libeled by the dictatorship.
The United Nations and human rights watchdog organisations may be waiting for answers, but diaspora bloggers continue to highlight instances of persecution and repression.


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DR of Congo: General Ntaganda Back on the War Path? · Global Voices
Passy Mubalama

This post is part of our special coverage Refugees.
North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is under pressure once again, after two years of relative peace. It all began on March 14, 2012, just days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Thomas Lubanga – a key player in the Ituri conflict (1999–2007) – guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ituri, Orientale Province, and of enlisting children under the age of 15 in his army.
The verdict will have concerned Bosco Ntaganda, former chief of the Congolese rebellion of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), who has been under an ICC arrest warrant for similar crimes since 2006.
This video by Human Rights Watch explains Bosco Ntaganda's background:
Defection in the army
Just days after the conviction of Thomas Lubanga, former CNDP soldiers responding to General Bosco Ntaganda's orders, defected from the national army. These soldiers had joined the ranks of the FARDC (Armed Forces of the DRC) in 2009, following a peace agreement signed between the CNDP and the Congolese government. In the same agreement, Bosco Ntaganda was also promoted to the rank of general in the armed forces of the DRC.
Mélanie Gouby in Goma  writes [fr] about these defections:
Une défection des plus de 300 soldats appartenant à l’ex rébellion du CNDP Congres national pour la défense du peuple CNDP ont désertés les rangs des Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC) L’armée régulière de la RDC en répondant vraisemblablement à L’ordre du General Bosco Ntaganda Commandant des opérations des FARDC au Nord Kivu.
While the defections of soldiers in the regular army continue, the Congolese government is under a lot of pressure from the international community to stop Bosco Ntaganda. Human rights NGOs in North Kivu have also pushed for his arrest, but the Congolese government has remained firm about not seeking Bosco Ntaganda's arrest until recently.
Indeed, he was perceived by the government as a stabilizing factor [fr] in the ever evolving situation in eastern DRC:
Surnommé “Terminator”, le général Ntaganda est visé depuis 2006 par un mandat d'arrêt de la CPI pour enrôlement d'enfants quand il était dans une milice au début des années 2000. Le gouvernement de RDC a toujours refusé de l'arrêter, estimant que la paix dans la région du Nord-Kivu déchirée par une succession de conflits prévalait sur la justice internationale.
Before the conflicts began, the President of the Republic Joseph Kabila claimed during his visit to Goma that he would “never give in to pressure from the international community to arrest Bosco Ntaganda.” Nevertheless, for the first time, he has expressed his intention to hand over Ntaganda.
This statement by Kabila was the tipping point for Bosco Ntaganda's decision to avoid risking a trial. In fact, to emphasize his discontent with Kabila's decision, Ntaganda has decided to go back to the jungles and start a new rebellion. This new turn of events has created a great deal of anxiety among the population living in North Kivu.
Civilians under duress
People displaced by war. Photos by the ENOUGH project on FlickR license (CC-BY).
New clashes have begun in the Masisi and Rutshuru territory, where thousands of displaced persons (IDPs) now find themselves homeless, seeking refuge in non-conflict zones such as Mumbambiro and Goma.
The villages of Sake and Mugunga and even the city of Goma, are currently housing thousands of IDPs living in deplorable conditions. The MUGUNGA III camp, near the city of Goma, shelters more than 6,700 IDPs from Masisi, Rutshuru and Walikale, where fighting continues, according to the head of this camp, Bikorera Claude. He added that on May 4, this same camp came under attack by armed men who left at least five injured.
These movements have also resulted in movements of Congolese refugees into Rwanda [fr]:
Plus de 20.000 Congolais, pour plus de la moitié des enfants, ont fui au Rwanda pour échapper aux violents combats opposant depuis le début du mois l'armée aux soldats ex-rebelles dans l'est de la RD Congo.
Radio Okapi reports that [fr]:
Les réfugiés congolais continuent à affluer au camp de Nkamira, à plus ou moins 20 Km de la ville de Gisenyi au Rwanda. Leur nombre est passé, en l’espace de quatre jours, de cinq mille à plus de sept mille, ont indiqué, ce vendredi 11 mai, des sources locales. Au moins deux mille personnes se sont rajoutées, depuis dimanche dernier, aux cinq mille autres réfugiés congolais enregistrés à Nkamira au Rwanda. Ces derniers ont fui les récents affrontements de Masisi au Nord-Kivu entre les militaires des FARDC et les déserteurs jugés proches du général Bosco Ntaganda.
But according to the testimonies of some IDPs in Mugunga, some of the IDPS who are fleeing all the way to Rwanda are actually from Rwanda and were seeking to return to their home communities.
After the massive displacement of population following the conflicts, the Congolese government has regained control of some of the different communities that were already under control of the loyalist army of CNDP rebels. But will it be possible to find Ntaganga and deliver him to the ICC under these conditions?
This post is part of our special coverage Refugees.

author: Passy Mubalama


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Egypt: No, the Revolution is Not Over · Global Voices
Rayna St.

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/2012.
On May 23 and 24, the eyes of the whole world were once again on Egypt as the country held its first presidential election after the huge popular uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak a year and a half ago.
Around 660 candidates attempted to get approved (which led blogger Bassem Sabry to come up with a humorous list of those who were not running for presidency). The candidates included not only members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), but also prominent members of the former regime (who are known as “felool” or “remnants”).
There ended up being 23 official candidates, ten of whom eventually got disqualified. Thus, 13 candidates in total, ranging from the “revolution's candidate” Khaled Ali to Mohamed Morsi, FJP's “spare tyre”, stood on May 23.
Egyptian presidential election in a nutshell. Cartoon by Carlos Latuff.
The final results are to be officially announced on May 29, but there was frenzied interest as polling stations were closing. Counting started immediately afterwards and results were released in real time on various TV channels and through several liveblogging outlets.
Reporting and counting
As during the parliamentary elections, widespread citizen monitoring of irregularities took place. Reports were constantly filed on various social networks. The claims of irregularities such as illicit campaigning were mainly attributed to supporters of FJP candidate Mohamed Morsi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik.
Interest on Twitter, under the hashtags #EgyPresElection, #EgyElections, #EgyPresElex, was so great that people were already discussing and arguing while only 2% of the votes had been counted.
This led to jokes about the frenzy and the sleepless hours to come:
@bassem_sabry: Breaking: Hosni Mubarak wins by 99.9% of the votes.
@vicosalama: @bassem_sabry aahh the good old days. no stress involved :-)
Twitter users @Iyad El-Baghdadi and @GalalAmrG set up a collaborative document to keep track of results. I helped curate the final results by gathering the numbers released by news outlets Ahram Online and Aswat Masriya.
As the results were coming in, Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafik were showing up as the candidates most likely to take part in the runoff on June 16 and 17. Unexpectedly, the Nasserist Hamdeen Sabahi made a spectacular leap:
@HaniShukrallah: URGENT URGENT: Sabbahi leaps to second place!
The high number of votes he received has been one of the biggest surprises in this election, especially as Alexandria (generally a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold) and the Imbaba district in northern Cairo (traditionally a Salafi stronghold) voted heavily for Sabahi. He later dropped back to third place, where he remains according to the final count.
No kidding! Free election in Egypt??? Cartoon by Carlos Latuff.
However, many boycotted the election because they felt it was undemocratic and would simply strengthen the hold of the military on the country.
The fears of many were confirmed by a statement allegedly made by Ahmed Shafik's spokesperson that “the revolution is over”.
The revolution isn't over
As the final counts were announced on the evening of May 25, reactions erupted on Twitter:
@MohAbdElHamid: If today proved one thing it would be that our predictions are bullshit. This revolution can't be predicted.
@DaliaEzzat_: Egyptians are forced to choose between two forms of fascism. For many, this won't be an easy decision. Huge consequences for both.
@Gsquare86: Organization is the key!! if we learned anything from Ikhwan [the Muslim Brotherhood] is that even if they are unpopular in the streets, their machine is working!
@shadihamid: The Brotherhood is always obsessed about preservation of the ‘tanzim,’ or organization. In that sense, it can already claim victory.
Many of the discussions were focused on a boycott of the runoff:
@glcarlstrom: Seems to me turnout will be even bigger factor in #egypt runoff – imagine there will be lots of unenthusiastic voters?
@RawahBadrawi: If there is ever a time to boycott, it's now. Voting for Morsi as a way of fulfulling the goals of the Revolution is an oxymoron.
And although some have already decided to boycott the runoff vote as “unethical and shameful”, others believe this will be a huge mistake as it would mean votes silently going to Morsi.
Second round of Egypt election – any options? Cartoon by Carlos Latuff.
In addition, the question has been raised about how much of the Shafik vote was made up by voters from Egypt's Coptic Christian minority. Although the Coptic church did not officially endorse a candidate, many Copts are fearful of the possibility of a Muslim Brotherhood member becoming president. Some people believe that Christian votes have pushed Shafik to the top, an idea dismissed as “misleading” and countered  in a number of comments [ar].
As Aboul Fotouh, former Muslim Brotherhood member and in fourth place, seems to have denied backing Morsi, suggestions have spread about the possible coalitions that will form. Many have called for the recently amended political rights law (the “anti-felool” law) to be implemented, and for Shafik to be barred from running:
@Amany90: All Egyptian lawyers must unite NOW to get Shafiq out using the isolation law or the corruption charges. Get to work
@mfatta7: Shafiq's presence on the candidate list is legally controversial and he can be well disqualified by a court ruling before the run off.
@mfatta7: The SCAF [military] holds the key to the constitutional court which holds the key to banning Shafiq from race.
Right now many are oscillating between shock and fear, contemplating their worst-case scenarios, but others have been calling for the country to move forward in the name of all those who gave their lives for the revolution. And no, despite the possible outcome of this election, the revolution is not over: percentages show that 75% of Egyptians voted against a Muslim Brotherhood president and 60% against the return of the old regime.
This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/2012.

author: Rayna St.


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Russia: Alexander Semin – Insight into NHL/Post-Soviet Relations · Global Voices
Donna Welles

An acute sense of euphoria spread across the nation on Sunday, May 20, when Russia defeated Slovakia 6-2 in the Gold Medal match of the 2012 World Hockey Championship. As a whole, the tournament provides insight into the modern interrelationship between the Western Hemisphere's National Hockey League and post-Soviet Russia. Additionally, Russian professional hockey player Alexander Semin provides an example of an instance where these two cultures diverge.
One reason Sunday's victory generated euphoria among Russians is that the 2012 Russian national team was the first to remain undefeated in the World Hockey Championship in the post-Soviet era – the last team to do so was the Soviet Union in 1989. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, political borders nullified the possibility of regular East-West hockey collaborations. The post-Soviet era marked a reorientation of both the NHL and Eastern Leagues.
The 2012 World Hockey Championship provides insight into the interrelationship between the Western Hemisphere's NHL and post-Soviet Russia. The example of Alexander Semin illuminates an occasion where a Russian player has faced opposition within his NHL team, but is highly valued by Russian coaches.
Mr. Semin Released from NHL Obligations
When Alexander Semin left to join the Russian national team after he was released from his obligations to the Washington Capitals, both Russian- and English-language news outlets reported that, as a result of conflicts between Semin and the Capitals’ coaching staff, he was not expected to renew his contract.
Mark Gandler, Mr. Semin's agent, made a statement contextualizing the interests of the parties concerned:
“It was good while it lasted. With the lack of playoff success, with the direction they are going. They decided to change directions. That's within their rights. Alex doesn't fit into that system obviously. It just doesn't make any sense to him. He plays, he did the best he could under the circumstances and he earned his right to be a free agent.
“I think the issue is with the organization, not necessarily with the coach,” Gandler said. “They told us Alex is not going to play short-handed, he's not going to play in the last minute. He's going to get the same icetime as everybody else … Alex is not ready to be a role player. He wants to be a full-time player. It's important to him.”
A comment to an English-language On Frozen Blog post titled, “Pride, Regret, and Questions” suggested that the Capitals’ coaching staff was in fact responsible for the team's playoff performance:
[Why] does it not surprise me that Caps “fans” are blaming Ovechkin & Semin for the playoff failure? These so-called “fans” are an embarrassment to the whole Washington DC area! The team’s superstars bought into Hunter’s system wholeheartedly. That system put a major leash on their offensive freedom. Also, on most nights, the Caps 4th liners got more ice time than the 1st liners. Why is no one asking why that 4th line didn’t put out more on offense? Someone has to score and someone on the ice that much HAS to do more! Hunter’s system was a failure.
Mr. Semin Joins Russian National Team
RuNet Echo discussed in a post titled “NHL Stars Return to 2012 World Hockey Championship” that, in addition to discussing Mr. Semin's future in the NHL, the Russian-language internet was filled with eager tweets, status updates, and mainstream articles pertaining to Mr. Semin's role on the Russian national team.
A Lifesports.ru article was quoted in the publication's LiveJournal blog, which discussed how the Russian national team's coaching staff was eager to add Mr. Semin to the lineup – specifically, he was to join superstars Alexander Ovechkin's and Pavel Datsyuk's line:
Овечкин сыграет с Семиным и Дацюком – Тренерский штаб определился с партнерами для российского суперфорварда.
Mr. Semin then made headlines all over the internet when he scored two goals and earned an assist in the Gold Medal Match of the tournament.
LJ user chipstone captured the Russian reaction to Russia's 2012 Gold Medal:
Я не являюсь ни хоккейным фанатом в частности, ни любителем занятия спортом по телевизору в принципе. Но вчерашняя игра нашей сборной поразил. Это был просто фантастический хоккей. Корректный, на огромных скоростях. Комбинационный. Это действительно была не игра отдельных звезд, но звездной команды, жившей на поле единым организмом. Слава нашим ребятам!
Aware of the apparent contradiction, RuNet Twitter users passed around a Russian-language NHL.com article titled, “Semin – not the [Stanley Cup], but the Gold,” which discussed how Washington Capitals’ management allegedly perceived Mr. Semin's play as inconsistent, whereas Russian coaches seemed to view his style as dynamic. The article went on to speculate that Mr. Semin's character might be more compatible with another NHL team, such as the Detroit Red Wings.
Hockey World Blog quoted Mr. Semin himself upon his arrival in Europe to participate in the World Hockey Championship:
“This is all just talk. Words can get twisted,” Semin said. “There was no talk at all that I am not going to sign with the Capitals for sure. I have not talked to them [the Capitals] about leaving. And please don’t ask me questions about the next season anymore.”

author: Donna Welles


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Slovakia: “God Can Cure You” · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

On May 26, approximately 50-60 opponents of the upcoming Gay Pride gathered [sk] in Bratislava for a rally organized by the Association for Protection of Family, together with the Citizens’ Association for Christian Values and Traditions. The main organizer, Jozef Dupkala, offering a helping hand to homosexuals, said: “Your current pride … will end the moment you stand before The Last Court.” He also said: “We came to offer hope to all those who suffer from this condition, homosexuality, to be able to turn to God in order to accept the cure.”

author: Tibor Blazko


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Syria: UN Report Shows Powerlessness of Observer Mission · Global Voices
Rayna St.

As the situation in Syria worsens, and more terrifying reports arrive from the Homs district of Houla, Foreign Policy-hosted blog Turtle Bay summarizes a report [PDF] from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the UN observer mission. This “gloomy” account clearly shows that measures recommended by Kofi Annan have not been implemented, and a viable peace plan is not yet in place despite diplomatic pressure. Ban Ki-moon notes that “while many fear the implications of a further militarization of the conflict, some have doubts that peaceful change is possible.”


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Tunisia: First Local Open Data Website Launched · Global Voices
Salah Almhamdi

Local open governance activists in Tunisia have launched the first open data website showing the municipal budget [ar, fr] of the city of Sayada for the current fiscal year. The Tunisian open governance community [ar, fr] has had some success in increasing the government's transparency; they have already convinced the Tunisian presidency to reveal its budget.

author: Salah Almhamdi


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Zimbabwe: On “Look East Policy” · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Rumbdidzai Dube discusses “Look East Policy” in Zimbabwe: “I am told the “Look-East Policy” is a lucrative alternative to the West, it is supposed to be about fighting neo-colonialism and resisting Western Hegemony over our sovereign affairs and welfare as a society.”


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Egypt: The Resurrection of Ahmed Shafiq · Global Voices
Salah Almhamdi

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/2012.
The initial results of the first stage of the Egyptian presidential election indicate that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq will take part in the runoff vote on June 16 and 17.
There has been widespread shock at the reemergence of Shafiq, one of the “feloul”, or “remnants” of Mubarak's regime. It seems that a majority of Copts as well as many others chose to vote for Shafiq fearing the Islamization of the country and seeking stability.
Netizens have been strongly divided over Ahmed Shafiq's success.
Ahmed Shafiq press conference, 14/5/2012. Image by Virginie Nguyen (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
In a blog post entitled “It is Time of Silence”, Zeinab Mohamed wrote:
My only consolation is that from 90 million Egyptians only 50% of the eligible voters in the country (50 million) participated in this election so we are speaking about 25 million voters only, the historical elections that reminds me of the Six-Day War defeat.
I do not have any words, it is like choosing between two hells: the Muslim brotherhood or Shafiq!!!
We are all to blame especially the #Jan25 Revolutionaries who sat back in bubbly Cairo ‘that voted for Shafiq’ and in their closed social networks realms. We are responsible for this without doubt.
I do not want to speak now but one thing for sure I feel my generation has the same feeling that the 1967 generation felt and I am afraid of that feeling.
Hafsa Halawa tweeted angrily:
Shafiq campaign poster near Shafiq headquarters sprayed with "feloul". Image from Al Jazeera Live Blog (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
@Hhafoos: #mubarak is pissin his pants from laughter right now…
Caricature artist Ahmed El Massry expressed his disappointment:
Egyptian-American journalist Reem Abdellatif warned:
@Reem_Abdellatif: Political experts i've talked to expect #Egypt to head toward collision w/ “demos, violence, claims of fraud” if #Shafiq wins.
Other people, on the other hand, support Ahmed Shafiq and celebrated his win. Expatriate businessman Ashraf Ismail explained why he supports Shafiq:
Mr Shafiq has a both conservative and liberal way of thinking and is known to be a very practical person aiming to bring stability to the country and solid investments. Whereas Mr Morsi is an Islamist hardliner with an affiliation to a group that has a deceitful history full of violence.
In terms of future investments and socio-economic development programmes, it is widely envisaged that Egypt’s economy will rapidly grow under Mr Shafiq’s development progamme. Others do have reservations and fears about the state of affairs that Egypt will go through should Mr Morsi wins this race.
Ranya Khalifa pointed out:
@RanyaKhalifa: Stop blaming Copts for #Shafiq's rise!! If you want a “democracy” then don't take it piecemeal..Egyptians are free to choose whom they want!
Journalist Rawya Rageh quoted Shafiq:
@RawyaRageh: #Shafiq: No such thing as I'm affiliated to the old regime, if we say so, then the whole of #Egypt is. We need to grow up, drop this issue.
Although some revolutionary factions warned they will take to the streets if Ahmed Shafiq wins, the leader of Al Nour Party, Egypt's major Salafist party said that they would not protest.
This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/2012.


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Eritrea: Visit Eritrea Blog · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Learn about Eritrea from Visit Eritrea blog: “The Visit Eritrea blog is designed to provide readers with a regular update on issues relevant to Eritrea.”


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Iran: Deprivation of Medical Care Jeopardizes Blogger’s Life   · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, Iranian blogger, is in dire condition serving 15-year prison term. Father says months-long torture caused kidney failure.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Mozambique: Music clips with a regional perspective · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Youtube user Niassatim uploaded a series of music clips by artists from the northern interior of Mozambique, in the Yao language, also spoken in Malawi and Tanzania. The videos depict a mixture of local realities and musical influences, and global elements. (To date, Niassa province's biggest musical export is Massukos.)

author: Janet Gunter


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Somaliland: Sectors for Potential Investment · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

John identifies sectors in Somaliland that are attractive for potential investment: “Although not blessed with mineral wealth, arable land, or a large population, Somaliland does have a few sectors that might interest seasoned investors or savvy entrepreneurs. Infrastructure is one major area.”


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Tajikistan: Can Drug Money Be Used to Build Mosques? · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Islamic authorities in Tajikistan are unanimous in condemning the use and sale of drugs, writes [tj] journalist Kayumars Ato in his blog. At the same time, some religious leaders argue that using drug money to finance the construction of mosques is okay.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Tajikistan: Persons with Disabilities as “Unwanted” People · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

In an interview on Mahbub-TJ blog, Ibrohimi Ismoilzod, Tajikistan’s most successful blind singer claims [tj] that persons with disabilities are often treated as “unwanted” people in the country.


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A Social Network for Wikileaks Supporters · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Friends of Wikileaks (FoWL) is an independent social network for worldwide supporters of Wikileaks. People who join the site are paired with twelve others who speak the same language. FoWL groups from different countries have issued a statement of support for Julian Assange in advance of a United Kingdom supreme court judgement on May 30, 2012.

author: Solana Larsen


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Belarus, Russia: An Online Charity Auction with People for Sale · Global Voices
Teplitsa

The idea of auctions as a fundraising tool is not a new one in the charity world — everything from paintings to exclusive trips are sold this way. Sometimes, there is even a market for people: dinners with celebrities and business-breakfasts are sold under the hammer, too. Warren Buffet, for example, has auctioned lunch dates with himself since 2000. The most recent one (in 2011) sold in an open auction on eBay for 2,626,411 dollars [ru]. But that kind of fun is not available to everyone.
Ma Sense [ru], a Belarusian project, aims to introduce to philanthropy two new categories of people that, as a rule, have not been active in charity: young members of online social networks and fans of dating sites. In a nutshell, Ma Sense is a hybrid of a charity auction-house and a dating site. Anyone interested may come and register as a ‘lot,’ proposing to go get a coffee or take a trip to the cinema with the highest bidder. Whoever likes the proposal can place a bid and buy the ‘lot.’ Four months into its existence, 11,200 people have registered with the project, raising more than 450,000 rubles (14,000 U.S. dollars). Apart from the average date, there are also business meetings, and even more ‘exclusive lots’ (with celebrities and businessmen), now appearing on the site.
Screenshot from goodwillion.ru, 29 May 2012.
The charitable foundation Nastenka [ru], which has been helping children with cancer for the last ten years, has become the new partner of the date auction site GoodWillion [ru]. All proceeds raised from the sale of a date go to the treatment trust fund for Diana Cherbadzhi and Andrewshi Onikienko.
One of the most tempting auction lots [ru] belongs to Pasha Kiriloff, a Radio Maximum discjockey who sells meetings with himself, as well as time in the Radio Maximum studio during his evening show, ‘Pashkov and Kiriloff.’
What do you get out of it?
People get to know one another, have a good time, and enjoy pleasant surprises (and any company that wants to present gifts to the the project's participants is able to become a partner) — all while helping sick children.
It makes sense for everyone!
Original

author: Teplitsa


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Brazil: Sex Abuse Revealed by Children’s TV Presenter Provokes Debate · Global Voices
Paula Góes

An interview with children's television presenter Maria da Graça Meneghel, or Xuxa as she is more widely known, has hit Brazil like a bombshell after being shown last weekend on TV Globo's Sunday programme “Fantástico”. Xuxa, 49, spoke about her 26-year career, her success, her family, her relationships with football legend Pelé and racing driver Ayrton Senna, and the late Michael Jackson's marriage proposal. She took the country by surprise when she revealed that she was a victim of sexual abuse until she was a teenager.
The interview has since been transcribed and published [pt] on various blogs:
Na minha infância até a minha adolescência, até os meus 13 anos de idade foi a última vez. Pelo fato de eu ser muito grande, chamar a atenção, eu fui abusada, então eu sei o que é. Eu sei o que uma criança sente. A gente sente vergonha, a gente não quer falar sobre isso. A gente acha que a gente é culpada. Eu sempre achei que eu estava fazendo alguma coisa: ou era minha roupa ou era o que eu fazia que chamava a atenção, porque não foi uma pessoa, foram algumas pessoas que fizeram isso. E em situações diferentes, em momentos diferentes da minha vida. Então ao invés de eu falar para as pessoas, eu tinha vergonha, me calava, me sentia mal, me sentia suja, me sentia errada. E se eu não tivesse uma mãe, se eu não tivesse o amor da minha mãe, eu teria ido embora, porque o medo de você ter aquelas sensações de novo, passar por tudo isso, é muito grande. Só que eu não falei pra minha mãe, eu não tinha essa coragem de falar com ela. E a maioria das crianças, dos adolescentes, passa por isso.
Screenshot of Xuxa in a dramatic moment of the interview
The revelation triggered an avalanche of comments on the internet, and until the following morning the presenter's name and several associated terms were still among the most popular on Twitter.
Luisa Clasen [pt] provides an overview of the reactions:
O quadro foi ao ar ontem, 20 de Maio, e no mesmo instante os trending topics foram tomados por várias hashtags relacionadas. Quando eram 20:30, a hashtag Xuxa já tava começando a decolar, com quase três mil mentions, e teve o pico às 22:39, com mais de 50.000 tuítes. […] Mesmo o assunto sendo sério, a rainha dos baixinhos já tinha conquistado a antipatia de vários tuiteiros por causa da conta dela (hoje administrada só pela assessoria), por isso os tuítes se dividem entre os que comentam, defendem e os que zoam, mas a maioria dos manolos queria mesmo era fazer piada. Na internet inteira, as opiniões se dividem.
Whilst opinions differ as to the presenter's motives, few would deny that the prime-time interview has raised a serious issue. According to Sueli, “Xuxa pressed her finger firmly on the wound”:
Infelizmente muitas mulheres tem casos de abuso sexual para contar, vividos na infância e na adolescência. Não raro se sentem culpadas, com medo e com vergonha de falar sobre um assunto que é tão íntimo, avassalador e que na maioria das vezes deixa sequelas por toda a vida. A violência sexual praticada contra crianças e adolescentes é um crime covarde principalmente porque cometido contra quem não tem condições de se defender. Além disso, na maioria dos casos é praticado por um adulto que faz parte da família ou que integra os círculos de amizade e de confiança da família. Xuxa em seu depoimento falou sobre três homens: todos conhecidos e de alguma forma frequentadores da sua casa. E geralmente é assim mesmo: padrinhos, pais, padrastos, noivos da tia, amigos do irmão.
Confrontation
Between January and April of this year, Disk 100 received 34,142 [pt] complaints of sexual abuse against children. Disk 100, a telephone service provided by the Special Secretariat for Human Rights, allows complaints to be reported by dialling 100 and is open every day from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. There has been a 71% increase in complaints compared with the same period in 2011, which indicates an increase in awareness.
The mobilisation of society should only increase (with or without Xuxa's help) following President Dilma Rousseff's approval of law nº 6719/2009 last Friday, known as “Joanna Maranhão's Law”, which extends the time frame for legal action against perpetrators of sexual exploitation in Brazil. The date it was passed, 18 May, is symbolic: it is the National Day for the Fight against Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents [pt]. Xuxa was invited to be the spokesperson of the Campaign against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Teens.
Xuxa with a poster from the Campaign against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Teens. Photo: Gustavo Velasco
Statements from famous victims aid child abuse campaigns by provoking debate on an issue that is much more commonplace than many people realise. Deputy Manuela D’Ávila [pt] says that it is time to set aside dogmas and preconceptions, and asks that Xuxa and others like her be allowed to talk without feeling guilty:
Para quem atua na área de Direitos humanos a confissão de sentimento de culpa pela violência sofrida é quase um atestado de veracidade. Por que? Porque a sociedade faz com que crianças e mulheres sintam-se responsáveis pelo abuso sofrido. Sedutora, assanhada, jeitinho de p_ _ _, assim dizem. E infelizmente, a repercursão debochada, irônica de muitos confirmou a tese. Independente da reação da vítima, se teve medo e calou, se gritou, se … Vítima é vítima!!! […] Sei que é muito bom para quem luta contra a exploração de mulheres que ela fale, que a sociedade debate, que se tire da escuridão crianças violentadas dentro de casa. a maior parte dos abusos são idênticos ao dela: dentro de casa, gente conhecida, anos de dor e silêncio, vítima sentindo-se culpada.
Moreover, revelations from famous people give other victims the courage to speak up. After being greatly affected when reading difficult stories on social networks, Sofia [pt] tells her own story of childhood abuse:
Agora, para tudo e pensa: mesmo que tenha sido por audiência ou por uma causa nobre, estamos todos hoje falando sobre algo importante – não exatamente a Xuxa, mas o abuso infantil. Poucos que não passaram por isso conseguem ter ideia de como isso pode ser doloroso. E aí é bem fácil fazer comentários imbecis e pejorativos. Quero falar sobre isso não só por ter passado por esta situação, mas por ter filhos e para poder alertar outras mães. […] E, por mais que ninguém queira falar sobre isso, por mais que todos finjam que isso não acontece na própria casa, o risco existe e muito pior é deixar que um filho carregue essa dor.
Aline [pt] believes that the interview allowed many girls who suffer sexual abuse on a daily basis to have their voices heard:
Através de seu depoimento Xuxa pode ter salvo milhares de vidas que também se viram na mesma situação, mas superar é a única forma de mostrar a esses criminosos que apesar das adversidades e da impunidade, ser feliz e contar com o apoio da família, é o que mais importa.
"Make it right. Protect our children and teenagers," says the slogan of the National Day for the Fight against Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents.

author: Paula Góes


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Hong Kong: Living in High-rises · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated a feature story showing German photographer Michael Wolf's collection of “Architecture of Density” which reflects the living condition of ordinary Hong Kong people in high-rises.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Kenya: #NairobiBlast Rocks Nairobi, Trends on Twitter · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

An explosion struck one of Nairobi's major roads, Moi Avenue, in Kenya's capital Monday afternoon. Initial investigations suggest that the blast resulted from electric fault in the area. Kenya's Police Commissioner has refuted rumors of bomb attacks linked to Al-Shabaab.
Kenya has been hit with a series of bomb and grenade attacks in Kenya since the country's military incursion into Somalia against Al Shabaab dubbed “Operation Linda Nchi” (Swahili for “Operation Defend the Country”).
On Twitter, netizens use the hashtaga #NairobiBlast and #MoiAvenueBlast to discuss the tragedy and share information.
The scene of the blast in Nairobi. Photo shared on Twitpic by @JoeWMuchiri.
Please stay away:
@__RamzZy__: Unless you're the press, If you've no business near the scene stay away. Let the Police & Rescue teams do their work. #MoiAvenueBlast
@cobbo3: Dangerous for pple to gather on Moi & Kimathi St after #MoiAvenueBlast. If terror bomb, usuallly a 2nd bomb is nearby to hit crowds.
Media responsibility:
@jaydab: @mckenziecnn,we r waiting to see n hear what ul say about #nairobiblast. report as it is and dont exaggerate.
@CyrusNjoroge: When social media landed in town,we all became ‘experts’.We never wait for facts. #Nairobiblast
@saddiqueshaban: I sincerely hope @MediaCouncilK is keenly watching the conduct of media houses as they report on the #nairobiblast. Resposibility a must
@Kevin2Tek: #NairobiBlast now trending globally.Please watch what you tweet,dont spread panic or pander lies!
What caused the blast?:
@iAMneshynsky: people should stop jumping into conclusion and say its an al shabaab atack..it could be anything at this point #NairobiBlast
@careywinnie: oh God,i hope my movie stalls friends are ok and everyone else!! #NairobiBlast #moiavenue wtf happened?
@jowac50: RT #NairobiBlast Police boss Mathew Iteere says explosion caused by electrical fault – Reports
@Fionaakumu: The words “blasts” and “explosions” need to be re-examined. Since when did they become synonymous to each other? #MoiAvenueBlast
Government irresponsibility:
@tonybkaranja: We really need a disaster management plan that's not just on paper #nairobiblast
@MisterAlbie: Again our lack of proper disaster awareness and preparedness bites us in our behinds. #Firehydrants etc #MoiAvenueBlast
@TeamKonshens1: Just shows how incompetent our Emergency response teams are!! Looks like a movie on live TV! #NairobiBlast
@iCabway: #MoiAvenueBlast reminds us why fire hydrant installation MUST be enforced in this troubled age. African cities are hopeless in that regard.
Looting amidst tragedy:
@iAMneshynsky: Looters doing what they know best on moi avenue #NairobiBlast
@rmunene: Kenyans “siphoning” shoes and clothes from the stalls at the scene of the blast. #nairobiBlast #KTNLiveStream
Police inefficiency:
@ArybaStacks: I don't know why police are still allowing people along the whole Moi Av. stretch… What if there is a second blast? #MoiAvenueBlast
@Mwanikih: Cops making a bad situation worse by forcefully trying to evacuate the crowds. Now guys are shouting “Mlikua wapi?” [where were you?] #NairobiBlast
Kenyan police say 27 people who were injured in the blast were undergoing treatment.


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Mapping the Australian Twittersphere · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Queensland University of Technology academic Dr Axel Bruns presents research findings into the Oz twittersphere with graphic slideshow and audio presentation in Many Maps of the Australian Twittersphere.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Mozambique: Diving and Defending Marine Life · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Tourists come from South Africa and all over the world to relax on Mozambique's beaches, go on sports fishing expeditions and dive in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
It is estimated two-thirds of the Mozambican population lives on the coast and many depend on the ocean for a livelihood from fishing – and often communities near large tourist destinations do not feel money from this tourism circulating. So involvement of Mozambicans as dive professionals, tourism professionals and conservationists is crucial to a sustainable future for Mozambique's coastal areas.
Whale shark in Mozambique. Image by Flickr user gigi_h (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Enter the Bitonga Divers – an NGO championed by Mozambique's first dive professional, the inspiring Carlos Macuacua, based in Tofo, a town in Inhambane province.
Quoting their website
In 2006, when Bitonga Divers was formed, there were no Moçambican divemasters or instructors. Since that time, in partnership with Ocean Revolution and foreign owned dive centers,  Bitonga Divers now has trained eight Mozambican Instructors and 11 divemasters.
Image courtesy of the Bitonga Divers
The Bitonga Divers also invest in outreach to communities, showing megafauna and underwater scenes to people living near the coast, many of whom have never been underwater or seen these animals alive. At first the response was weak, but after years of tireless work, the Divers say they bring together 250 people easily for a night-time session. Community leaders participate too.
Through this kind of outreach, people begin to make positive links between protecting sea life, tourism and economic development.
Alarm over overfishing
Recently Tofo-based tour operators and community associations have raised the alarm that government programs intended to boost commercial fishing have resulted in overfishing of rays, sharks and dolphins in the area.
As travel writer Aaron Gekoski explains in the online travel magazine Go World Travel
The biggest threat facing Tofo, sadly, is a familiar one. Overfishing has had a dramatic effect on these waters over recent years. Only five years ago, divers could be treated to schools of devil rays 300 thick. Now they are lucky to see 10 at a time. Gigantic, unforgiving walls of gill nets frequently ensnare manta rays.
Casa Barry, one of the big dive-oriented lodges in Tofo, discusses conservation and brings attention the issue of illegal fishing on its blog, like this post on the rescue and successful release of a loggerhead sea turtle.
The most contentious allegation (made in a recent article in Canal Moz newspaper [pt]), is that the World Bank is financing these government programs, that are designed to help local fisherman to catch more and bigger species.
Mozambican fishermen. Image by Flickr user stignygaard (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Márcia Horst responded on Reflectindo Sobre Moçambique [pt]
Isto eh inacreditável…alguém acredita que o Banco mundial financiou barcos a motor e redes aos pescadores das zonas turísticas, sem uma previa formacao, sem capacitação nenhuma, sobre as espécies mais importantes destas praia, que nós todos dependemos delas para o nosso desenvolvimento turistico, e hoje, a cada dia esses pescadores só pescam essas espécies que o povo depende delas..EU ESTOU EM ESTADO DE CHOQUE, e me pergunto, onde estavam essas ditas associações de preservação, concernência, whatever se chamam, quando o banco mundial fez essa entrega?
Dead shark. Photo by Flickr user anaadi+ (CC BY-NC-SA)
Irrespective of the alleged involvement of the World Bank (which has not publicly commented on the issue), it is safe to say economic incentives are driving this kind of fishing.
Marine Mega Fauna Foundation, an organization working with Bitonga Divers, explains
Inshore fisheries are extremely lucrative by local standards, with the fins from a single shark being worth around 3000 Mets (approximately US$120).
The documentary “Shiver” was filmed last year with Macuacua and the Marine Mega Fauna Foundation, and goes into depth about the shark fishing problem.
Much of what is caught in Tofo is actually processed and exported out of Maputo to China and Asian markets. Centro Terra Viva, a Mozambican environmental NGO, describes a bust of a Chinese-occupied house ‘illegally processing’ marine products last year [pt]
Apesar do inventário das quantidades e espécies encontradas ainda não ter finalizado a STV publicou imagens, adiantando que foram encontradas grandes quantidades de barbatanas de tubarão, entre as quais algumas ainda estavam no processo de secagem, holotúrias (também designados por pepinos-do-mar e localmente por megajojos), diversas conchas, cavalos-marinhos secos em sacos de serapilheira, cágados vivos em tanques e carapaças de tartarugas marinhas. As autoridades acreditam que estes produtos conservados seriam exportados para a China ou outros mercados asiáticos.
The government of Mozambique has repeatedly stated locally, nationally and internationally that it is combating illegal fishing – but it seems that its efforts, and those of dedicated conservationists like the Bitonga Divers, are not enough to stop the problem.


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Palestine: Remembering the Nakba · Global Voices
Salah Almhamdi

May 15 is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the displacement and dispossession that took place at the time of Israel's establishment in 1948. In this post we look at how the day was marked by Palestinians on blogs and Twitter this year.
“Nakba” means “catastrophe”, and refers to the process of mass expulsion of Palestinians from their villages by Israeli forces both before and after Israel declared itself a state in 1948, creating a large Palestinian diaspora around the world.
Palestinian blogger Rana Baker told the story of Hajj Othman who was expelled from his home village during the Nakba:
Hajj Othman Sa’d Aldeen al-Habbash was born on 29 June 1941 in a small Palestinian village west of present-day Ashkelon known as al-Jura. On November 4 and 5 1948, the village was mercilessly depopulated of its native inhabitants who numbered just under 3,000 in 1948. Just like the rest, Hajj Othman, seven years old at the time, fled to Gaza. […] “I left my schoolbag at my house in al-Jura, we thought it was temporary. They raided us from their planes. Eighty-six were murdered in a matter of few minutes.”
Mural in Rafah, Gaza Strip on theme of Palestinian refugees returning to their homes. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib, copyright © Demotix (8/05/2012).
Iyad El-Baghdadi tweeted:
Blogger Sami described what happened to his maternal grandfather:
64 years of a catastrophe called Israel. Cartoon by Carlos Latuff.
My mother’s father was born in the town of Ramleh. He lived there for the first decade and a half of his life. […] In 1948, my grandfather and his family were among the 70,000 Palestinians who were forced to leave Ramleh, the neighboring town of Lydda, and the surrounding villages. He died in 1987, having returned only once in the 1970s for a brief visit with family members who had remained in the town. A Jewish family now lives in this house. Neither my grandfather’s parents, nor he or any of his siblings ever received so much as a cent in compensation. They certainly never received acknowledgement for their losses.
Blogger and anthropologist Jhshannon narrated the story of Nidal's family:
Nidal’s family traced its origins to the Palestinian city of Safed – a religious and commercial center in Galilee in the North of Palestine. Her grandfather, a certain Marwan al-Safedi, had been a wealthy merchant as well as local religious leader during the first half of the twentieth century. He and his wife, Faidah Sharabi, bore two children, Rashid and Fatima, and they lived in a spacious home toward the edge of the southern part of the city. Then came the Nakba, the “Calamity.” The family was forced to flee Safed in May, 1948, following Operation Yiftah, a plan by Jewish paramilitaries to take over Safed as part of the broader conflict that resulted not only in the establishment of the State of Israel, but also in the flight and exile of many of thousands of Arabs from Safed and neighboring villages.
Palestinian activist Yousef Munayyer said:
@YousefMunayyer: On the Nakba in 1948, Ben Gurion said “The old will die and the young will forget” yet #WeWillReturn48 trends worldwide in 2012
And journalist Dima Khatib tweeted:
@Dima_Khatib: It was 64 years ago, on a day like today, that many like my grandmother, started the journey of refugees, for the rest of their lives #Nakba


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Philippines: Military Bombings Create Refugees · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Despite the commitment of the Armed Forces of the Philippines of having “zero” human rights abuses for 2012, peasants and indigenous peoples in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao have been forced to flee their land in the past few months because of increased military presence and activities in the area. The residents have become bakwits – the local term for refugees.
The destructive tropical storm Sendong and a spate of flash floods and landslides hit Mindanao last year, thus creating scores of refugees. Mindanao has also been home to thousands of people fleeing from heavy fighting between Muslim secessionist rebels and government forces.
There are no grave calamities, but many have been forced to leave their communities lately as a result of intense combat operations and bombings by military forces in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Surigao, Agusan, Cotabato, Davao, Compostela Valley, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Bukidnon.
These communities are known to be sitting on top of mineral-rich areas eyed by multinational corporations. But the military has also pinpointed these areas as strongholds of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed group, the New People's Army (NPA).
The human rights alliance Karapatan has warned that more communities are threatened to be displaced to make way for the entry of large-scale mining operations in the island, with the military serving to drive away the people in favor of big business.
The people's livelihoods are displaced. Their children have stopped schooling. Dislocated from their homes, they have sought temporary shelter in evacuation centers. Here are some of the stories documented by Karapatan and circulated in email groups:
Antolin Gimo, member of KAMASS-KMP, a local organization of peasants from Mahaba, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur. Antolin’s peasant community is targeted for coal and nickel mining operations that is reportedly going to start soon. The people of Bgy. Mahaba went through a series of forciblee vacuation from their homes in 2006 and yearly, from 2009 to the present. On March 2011, elements from the 29th and 23rd IBPA launched air and land reconnaissance missions against the NPA, shelling the areas around the communities.
Bebeth Calinawan Enriquez, member of Butuan City-RTR-Cabadbaran City-Tubay Intermunicipal Mamanwa Organization (APOGAN), a local Mamanwa organization from Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte. She is among the 215 families who fled their homes in March this year due a series of bombings and strafing. Canons were stationed in the middle of the fields, only about 20 meters away from the houses. The Mamanwa are still in evacuation centers in Butuan City, and neighboring barangays, away from their homes and livelihood.  On September 2011, Bebeth Calinawan was shot at by the military, detained, and was presented by the military to the media as a victim of the NPAs landmines. Bebeth is also a witness to the hard life in the evacuation centers: of post-traumatic stress, the lack of food, of sleeping on cold cemented floors, of sickness affecting the evacuees, of the government’s lack of response and rejection of their pleas.
Maritess Bulawan, chairperson of Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Kibawe (Namaki) in Kibawe, Bukidnon. Maritess is among the peasant leaders in Kibawe who actively oppose the building of the Pulangi mega-Dam-V that will drown peasant communities. She was involved in the negotiations with local traders from whom they get their farm inputs and to whom they sell their produce. On April 1, 183 families from the town of Maritess evacuated when the military, using two tora-tora planes, dropped 14 bombs that affected three barangays. One civilian, according to Maritess was wounded by bomb splinter. The military also occupied a public elementary school. Maritess believes that the military operation was a retaliation to the previous encounter with the NPA. But as in many other instances, the military train their guns against the civilians. As an active peasant leader, Maritess has caught the ire of the military.
The latest forced evacuations involve at least 80 families from Trento, Agusan del Sur who fled bombings and military operations last May 7, 2012. Karapatan has documented at least 6,556 victims of forced evacuation under the Oplan Bayanihan counterinsurgency plan of the Noynoy Aquino administration.
Indigenous people's groups, environmentalists, and human rights advocates held protest actions at the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) last April to condemn militarization. Here is a video of the protests:

author: Karlo Mongaya


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South Korea: Support for Castration of Repeat Child Rapists · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korea's justice system has decided to enforce the chemical castration of repeat child rapists, an official announced on May 23, 2012. A majority of South Korean net users expressed support for the newly implemented law. There were also public requests for harsher punishments for a wider range of sex criminals, and a hint of disappointment with current law enforcement, which many define as ‘generous to sex criminals with excuses’.
A sex offender and pedophile who raped children under the age of 10, known by the surname Park, would be the nation's first case to receive the castration punishment. According to an AFP news report, Park will be given an injection every three months for the next three years to reduce his sexual urges.
Twitter user @kbyeongchae tweeted [ko]:
딸 키우는 사람으로서 화학적 거세 아주 찬성입니다.
'Freaky dream digital rework' by Lisa Yarost on Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)
Quite many people half-jokingly tweeted that they would vote for ‘physical’ castration in stead of ‘chemical’. Another twitter user @addapapa22 tweeted[ko]:
화학적거세 돈도 많이 든다던데 물리적 거세에 한표 던집니다.
Jung Kyoung-hee (@sophie_style) elaborated on [ko] why there is a slight disappointment to the law.
[…] (화학적거세) 첫 대상사도 확정되었는데, 년간 1인당 500만원정도가 든다고 합니다. 본인이 경제적능력이 안될 시 국가에서 지원한다고 하네요. 인권은 둘째치고 그런 인간들한테 들어가는 국세가 아깝다는 생각이드네요.
Twitter user @sedona326 argued [ko] that such measures should be applied to all child rapists, not only repeat ones:
어린이대상 성폭력범 화학적거세 초범부터 시행해야…..어린이에 대하여 재범, 2범, 3범의 성폭력을해야 화학적거세를 시행 한다는 것은 있을 수 없는일이다.
A human rights violation?
Although public support of the government's decision appeared strong, the chemical castration itself is a highly controversial issue, especially if one approaches it from a human rights perspective. However, many still showed unyielding support for the measure and even went as far as denouncing human rights groups for ‘siding with criminals’.
Twitter user @bk007kim added this comment [ko]:
피해자 인권보가 범죄자 인권을 더 생각하나? 추가범행으로 인한 잠재적 피해자를 위해서라도 화학적 거세에 찬성…생각 같아선 영구적 거세가 더 좋지만.
Relatively light sentences for sex offenders over the years have enraged the South Korean public and the law authorizing chemical castration is believed to have been implemented to meet public demands for stronger law enforcement.
Twitter user @wooriming's tweet [ko] reflects public concerns over the nations's lenient law enforcement against sex criminals:
[…] 4세7세아이를 수년간 성폭행 했는데도 불구하고 6년형 선고 재범우려가 없는 초범이기때문에 차후 전자발찌도 채우지 않는다네요..우리나라 법은 가해자에게 관대한 나라예요!! 착한사람만 억울한 세상!!!
The most frequent excuse of sex offenders and criminals is that they have committed their crime “under the influence of liquor” and have no recollection of it. In some cases, these excuses result in a more lenient punishment.
South Korea's famous comedian, Nam Hee-suk (@Brlove12) tweeted [ko]:
주변에 싸움 걸어 놓고, 또는 성폭행 하고나서…아주 G-ral을 하고나서 다음 날. 술에 취해 그런거다. 기억이 안난다? 아니되는말쌈..그럼 술병을 징역 보내리?
Chemical castration is already in use in Germany, Sweden, and some states in the United States. South Korea would be the first country in Asia to implement such a measure.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Syria: Houla Massacre Creates International Outcry · Global Voices
Ammoun AAY

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
On May 25, anti-government protestors in Houla, northwest of Homs, took to the streets at midday, little expecting that their demonstration would be eventually answered by a massacre of unprecedented savagery. At least 116 people were killed by pro-government forces.
That day, a video [GRAPHIC] emerged on YouTube of men running from what appears to be heavy shelling. Reports say that tanks, artillery, rocket-propelled grenades, and heavy machine guns were used in the attack. The cameraman films the entrance of a building where bodies are laying on the ground, as he shouts the name of the city Houla. The light suggests that this is the beginning of what was a seven-hour-long shelling.
Armed gunmen wearing military uniforms then went into homes and started shooting people, including many children.
Another video [WARNING: GRAPHIC] shows what seems to be a room where corpses – mainly children – are covered with blankets, while a man shouts, accusing the Arab world of silence.
Victims
In Houla, activists such as Hadi Abdallah reportedly called for UN observers to come immediately and witness the events – but in vain:
@Thanku4theAnger: Hadi Abdallah called head of UN monitors about Houla massacre. His reply “Regime does not allow us to travel at night”
@Thanku4theAnger: Hadi Abdallah : We have more than 300 injured dying in front of us & we can't even provide basic emergency care
UN observers finally arrived the following day, and confirmed the death toll.
Mass burial of victims' bodies, Houla, Syria. Photo by Sniperphoto Agency, copyright © Demotix (26/05/2012).
There were immediate reactions of shock and horror worldwide:
@acarvin: The photos being shared via the #HoulaMassacre hashtag are bloody, graphic and heartbreaking. So many beautiful children, dead. #syria
@NMSyria: The UN security council has unanimously condemned the use of heavy weapons in #HoulaMassacre that left 108 people killed. Oh really?
@Hamadx: #AlHoulahMassacre I don't wanna have kids anymore. This world is not safe, not human.
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia reacted on her blog:
Whoever did this horrible massacre got no human feelings, brainwashed to the level that he became a killing machine that does not differentiate what about what is right or wrong as a human to kill a child in that way.
On May 27 the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson denied that the Syrian military was responsible, blaming the massacre on Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. Lebanese blogger As'ad Abu Khalil (“Angry Arab”) was cynical:
How can I comment on developments in Syria anymore? I simply disbelieve the Syrian regime and the exile Syrian opposition groups: both have a proven record of criminality and massacres and lies and fabrications. […] Of course, the government given its bloody and war criminal record (under Hafidh and now under Bashshar), can easily be responsible for this massacre. It has no moral scruples or ethical factors that would prevent it from perpetrating such a crime.  But as one friend (Amer), wrote to me about it: “No version I heard makes sense, the amount of lies makes it impossible to know the truth: bombing? slaughter? army? villages raiding each other? these things cannot happen all at the same time.”
Blogger Maysaloon criticized Abu Khalil's ambivalent view:
@Maysaloon: The Angry Arab's position on Syria is clear: no to the opposition and regime, but mainly opposition, and regime, but mainly opposition.
Ruwayda Mustafah commented on Russia's position:
@RuwaydaMustafah: This just came in. ‘Russia says both sides are involved in Houla massacre’. Why would protesters kill their own children?
Some even compared the Syrian government to Israel (which was reponsible for a massacre in 1948 in a Lebanese village coincidentally called Houla):
@SultanAlQassemi: Massacre of innocents – Bashar Al Assad is the new Ariel Sharon
Strikes have been taking place around Syria in solidarity with the victims:
@HamaEcho: General strikes in the main markets of Damascus today condemning the regime's massacres.
@ZainSyr: Shops in the old souq of Medhat basha & Hareqa r closed! 4 the 1st time they participate in a strike! Damascus! We r getting closer
Blogger Yorikirii has commemorated the massacre in a poem:
There are places in war
That become Sacred Places
Massacred Places. turning points
Who did it? we all know. who asks?
The realities on the ground speak their own truth
My Sacred Places. on a day in May. this was Houla
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.

author: Ammoun AAY


text:
UAE: Some Savoury Questions · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Krista, from the collective blog Muslimah Media Watch, shares her family's passion for “ridiculous and tacky” salt and pepper shakers. Their latest acquisition, a gift bought in Dubai, has raised a lot of questions in Krista's mind.

author: Hisham Almiraat