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Bloggers Get Bad Rap in Trinidad & Tobago as Paid Political Trolls Do Online Damage   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Photo by Dennis Skley; used under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license.
One of the headlines in Trinidad & Tobago's leading national daily, this week was “Bloggers attack”. Blogging has become a dirty word in the twin island republic it seems, but informed netizens’ indignation over The Trinidad Express’ misuse of the term was apparent on various Facebook threads, with some commenters even suggesting that Trinidad and Tobago had managed to redefine what a “blogger” is.
The newspaper article, which highlights alleged cyber bullying behaviour towards journalists, political bloggers and outspoken netizens by what are, according to the description, paid Facebook trolls and not bloggers, attracted quite a bit of attention in the local blogosphere.
Facebook user Rhoda Bharath, who also blogs about political issues at The Eternal Pantomime, said:
The country hot with the bloggers story this morning…
The hate and racism on those walls are but the tip of the iceberg.
Paying trolls to write status updates on Facebook and other social media sites is not a new trend. Back in 2011, soon after the current People's Partnership coalition government was voted into office, a local daily broke the story that students at the University of the West Indies were on the payroll of a group claiming to work for the People's Partnership.
With 2015 being an election year, however, the stakes are higher — and the online commentary is decidedly more vitriolic and heavily race-based. The Trinidad Express report stated that “even journalists themselves, some of whom are employed by the State […] have been spearheading the cyber assault on their colleagues.”
Journalist Lasana Liburd, who blogs at Wired 868, posted a public status update about the issue on Facebook in which he listed some of the important stories investigative journalists have exposed over the last few years and addressed the alleged threats towards reporters:
Is it worth fighting for the right of journalists to bring you stories like these? No matter what your party, race or media affiliation might be, isn't Trinidad and Tobago a (slightly) better place because of such pieces?
If yes, then what have you done to defend their right to carry on providing such work?
PS: If you're employed in the media and don't think an attack on independent journalists is your business, you are in the wrong profession.
Bharath also stood solidly behind local journalists. In a follow-up status update, she posted:
Trinidad must surely be the capital of situational irony.
For the last 5 years female investigative journalists and female columnists have been under special attack by the media professionals of this regime.
Today I see Gender Studies, silent on every gendered atrocity committed by this government, organising a memorial for the fallen students in Kenya.
We see every other country's ill but our own.
Spare me the invites to that event. I standing vigil by Asha Javeed [a female journalist in Trinidad & Tobago who was reportedly targeted in the online attacks] gate instead.
#ICyahMakeThisShitUp
#ForeignCausesAreBetter
#LocalFemaleLivesMatter
Instead of the government addressing the allegations made in the report — proof of which any avid Facebook user can find just by trawling their newsfeed — the Minister of Tourism, Gerald Hadeed, issued a statement claiming that the report is false and that it “show[ed] the true nature of the Express newspaper”.
Hadeed asserted that the newspaper is anti-government and said that the opposition People's National Movement is the party that is actually paying people to “blog”.
Diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch was disturbed by the revelations:
Granted, politics is a dirty game, but this UNC [United National Congress, the main party in the coalition] government is sinking to new lows – or, maybe reaching as high as they can? They are paying bloggers $6000 per month (one in picture) to denigrate the Opposition in general and Keith Rowley in particular. These people have resorted to the nastiest language in promoting sedition and racism.
Now, I'm not above criticising where it is due, and this government has really raised my ire, and to those who blindly support the racist, nasty views of these paid bloggers, I hope that you know your government can lose the upcoming elections.
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers has condemned the “unlawful and defamatory social media attacks on women journalists in Trinidad and Tobago” and the International Press Institute has also voiced its concern about the situation.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Did a Facebook Post Speed up the Rescue of Tajik Citizens from Yemen? · Global Voices
Abdulfattoh Shafiev

Bilqis, 17 months-old daughter of Shahnoza Gadoeva, waiting to board a Russian plane to evacuate from Yemen. Widely shared.
Shahnoza Gadoeva was one of over a hundred Tajik doctors working and living with their families in Yemen when a bombing campaign spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and its allies began last month. As she published an SOS post in a Facebook group asking for a help to be evacuated, she had no idea her plea would go viral.
И кто нас спасет? Мы живем в Йемене ,работаем медиками , нас здесь больше 300 ,400 человек счетая с детьми . Со вчерашней ночи Йеменскую столицу бомбят Саудовские самалеты. Наш МИД молчит … Мы в страхе . Россия пока не соберется отправить самалеты МЧС .
And who will rescue us? We live in Yemen, work as doctors, there are more than 300 of us, 400 if to count children too. Yemen is being bombed by Saudi planes since yesterday night. Our MFA is silent. We are horrified. Russia is not going to send the [Ministry of Emergency Situations] planes yet.
Tens of Facebook users reached out to comfort her psychologically, some linked her to the International Red Cross and the Tajik authorities, others advised her to demand help from the Russian recruitment agencies that found work for the Tajik medics there, while some simply prayed for her and for other Tajiks stuck in Yemen.
Tajik woman headin to the plane evacuating the CIS citizens from Yemen. Photo was provided to Global Voices by Shahnoza Gadoeva.
Shahnoza’s post became the day’s top newsmaker in Tajikistan, with journalists citing her in Russian, Tajik and English while the Tajik Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) was bombarded with media demands for a response.
Luckily for Shahnoza and other Tajiks trapped in Yemen, Facebook — frequently shut down by the Central Asian country's over-zealous communications service — was not blocked that day.
By evening the MFA had publicized President Emomali Rahmon’s order for Tajik missions in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Russia (Tajikistan has no diplomatic representation in Yemen) to mobilise for the evacuation effort.
Russian planes have already evacuated Tajikistan's citizens and other citizens of the CIS republics’ citizens from Yemen in 2010 and arrived this time, too. The first group of evacuated Tajiks arrived in Dushanbe on April 3. To date, about 100 Tajiks have been evacuated from Yemen on at least three separate flights.
Shahnoza was subsequently interviewed by Russian TV. She did not forget to thank all her group-mates on Facebook.
Дорогие земляки огромное спасибо за поддержку. Я счастлива что смогла выбраться оттуда с детьми живой здоровой, в этом заслуга каждого из вас кто звонил, переживал, поддерживал морально, помогал решить нашу проблему. Низкий поклон всем вам .
Dear compatriots, thank you a lot for the support. I am happy I was able to leave there with children healthy and alive. All of you have contributed to this, everyone who called, worried for me, supported morally, helped to solve our problem. Thank you to all of you.
While Shahnoza estimated the number of Tajiks in Yemen at 400 including children, other estimates place the population closer to 800 since many go there without the help of recruitment agencies that are the only reliable source of information on the Tajik total given the state of war-torn Yemen's government.
These medical specialists are considered skilled and experienced with valued diplomas from Soviet universities. The high rate of unemployment and low salaries in Tajikistan force them to go to Yemen and work for average wages of $600-800 for nurses and $1,200-2,000 for doctors, several times more than they could earn in Tajikistan.
While the MFA issued a warning to citizens not to work in Yemen after a Tajik nurse was kidnapped by rogue tribesmen, some Tajik medics, especially those in safer areas of Yemen, preferred to stay and keep their job rather than return to face unemployment.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Abdulfattoh Shafiev


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Fifteen Years After Shootings, No Justice for Gambian Students · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

Omar Joof, exiled former student leader who led the demonstration in April 2000. Photo from his Facebook page.
April 10 and April 11, 2000 remain the darkest days in the history of Gambian student activism. On those fateful days security officials opened fire on student demonstrators, killing over a dozen, plus a journalist and a Red Cross volunteer as scores were left injured. But 15 years on, the perpetrators of those crimes remain at large.
From victims to their relatives and sympathisers, Gambians have taken to the Internet to share their feelings. Some are calling on authorities to investigate and bring to justice the culprits while most people seem to think the victims deserve official recognition in the form of a memorial day.
Some of the victims of April 2000 shooting in Gambia. Photo by Democratic Union of Gambians Abroad (DUGA). Used with permission.
On April 10, the now defunct Gambia Students’ Union (GAMSU) organised a nationwide students demonstration, protesting the death of Ebrima Barry, a student. Barry was reportedly beaten to death by officers of the fire service in Brikama, Western Division (now Western Region). After repeated demands by GAMSU, an autopsy report revealed that Barry died of “natural causes,” which the students dismissed as a “cover up”.
Around the same time, a thirteen-year-old school girl was reportedly raped by “uniformed men,” believed to be officials of the paramilitary Police Intervention Unit (PIU). The demonstrations started off in the Greater Banjul Area but turned violent and spread across the tiny country leading to mass arrests.
Mathew K. Jallow wrote a detailed account of what happened that day. He described how one young female student was shot in the back of her head as she was escaping and the bullet “exited from her forehead above her right eye”:
As students continued their peaceful march, the security forces were bracing for a fight, threateningly showing off their AK 47 machine guns. Soon tensions were high on both sides of the divide. Exchanges of insults between the protesting students and some security forces intensified, yet despite that, the least the students expected was what happened next. Unprovoked and in a deliberate show of brute force, some security personnel opened fire on the crowd of peaceful, unarmed students. When the crackly of machine guns’ fire finally fell silent after five minutes of frightening machine gun fire, small groups of students hovered over the bodies of the dead and dying. It was utter mayhem and pandemonium. One of the students, who lay dying, was a beautiful female student in St. Theresa’s school uniform. She lay sprawled on the ground close to the old Cooperative Union complex where she stumbled and fell trying to escape. A bullet entered the back of her head and exited from her forehead above her right eye. She twittered violently one more time and fell silent. Claesco Pierra was dead. The beautiful young girl with so much to live for was no more. Back at St. Theresa’s School, Jonfolo Ceesay, Ngone Jobe, Elizabeth Jatta and Ndungu Jallow, her four best friends, had no idea what had just happened. When it was over, sixteen lifeless bodies lay dead or bleeding profusely on the streets of Kanifing.
Sainey MK Marenah, an exiled Gambian journalist, called on the government to bring those responsible for the April 10 and 11 killings to justice:
Exactly 15 years since security forces brutally murder 14 Gambian students and a journalist following a peaceful protest by students demanding justice for two of their colleagues. The peaceful protest which turn deadly due to force use by armed security officers quelling the riots.
15 years since uprising, there is no sense of hope for the victims and their families. Therefore, I join various people celebrating the day to remind government of its constitutional responsibility to protect lives and properties of her citizens and ensuring that Justice is done and seen to be done in the case of the murder students. Justice delayed is Justice denied!!
Muhammed Lamin Juwara, who witnessed the shootings but managed to escape, named his fellow students who died:
I will never forget April 10th and 11th 2000 sitting for my final year exam on that fateful Monday at Ice man,  coprative an west field junction when Yahya jammeh oders his agents to pulled the trigger of machine guns AK47 on my fellow students b4 my eyes..I was part of those who were lucky to escape from the bullets that day..these are the students that went to school that mornin an never return back home[1.Reginald Carroll 2.Karamo Barrow 3.Lamin Bojang 4.Claesco Pierra 5.Ousman Sabally 6.Sainey Nyabally 7.Ousman Sambene 8.Bakary Njie 9.Modou lamin Njie 10.Ebrima Barry 11.Wuyea foday Mansareh 12.Bamba Jobateh 13.Modou lamin Chune 14.Abdoulie Sanyang an Omar Barrow jounalist an red cross..may your soul rest in peace..
President Yahya Jammeh, Gambia's serving president, was abroad when the protest broke out, although many of the student survivors blame him for the attacks. A state commission of enquiry into the death concluded that some members of PIU personnel were “largely responsible” for the deaths and other injuries. But to date, no one has been tried for these crimes and no reparations paid to victims or their families.
Whether or not victims of and participants in the deadly April 2000 demonstrations will get justice remains a question for the future but for now they are refusing to let go.

author: Demba Kandeh


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Mexican Beauty Pageant Contestant’s Baffling ‘Chimpanzee’ Answer · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Mariana Torres. Image widely shared on Twitter.
It's well known that every aspiring beauty queen must answer a difficult question in the interview portion of the contest. Also well known are some of the answers that contestants have given, answers that earned them more publicity than their good looks ever did.
The most recent of those answers was given by Mexican Mariana Morres during the semifinal of the Miss Our Latin Beauty 2015, which has circulated online. The question: “Which partner would you choose to preserve the human species in case of a nuclear holocaust?” Torres answered: “A couple of chimpanzees… You know, due to the theory we come from there, so…”
As expected, Twitter users didn't waste any time in commenting:
#MarianaTorres, finalista de #NuestraBellezaLatina, metió la pata al contestar una pregunta http://t.co/gUfIziyzaP pic.twitter.com/5f1jMlnHeE
— Wonderwall Latino (@WWLatino) abril 10, 2015
Mariana Torres, finalist in Miss Our Latin Beauty really stepped in it while answering a question.
¡Qué maravilla! Fan número 1 de la sabiduría de las reinas. Jajaja http://t.co/LQdiWUYkxZ — Biviana Unger (@BivianaUnger) abril 10, 2015
Wonderful! Number 1 fan of beauty queen wisdom. Hahaha.
Mariana Torres hace el ridículo y pierde final de Nuestra Belleza Latina Diario Dom Digital http://t.co/QiGq4fGV6l — DiarioDom Digital (@DiarioDom) abril 10, 2015
Mariana Torres makes a fool of herself and loses the final at Miss Our Latin Beauty.
Although some were sympathetic:
Ni se burlen de Nuestra Belleza Mariana Torres y su chimpancé, en un futuro puede llegar a ser pareja de algún político.
— Compa Fer (@fergarvaz) abril 10, 2015
Don't make fun of Miss Our Beauty Mariana Torres and her chimpanzee, in the future she could become the partner of some politician.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Malaysia’s New Law Targets Online Sedition · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysia's parliament. Photo by Wojtek Gurak. Shared on Flickr.
Some of the amendments  to the Sedition Act of 1948 approved by Malaysia’s Parliament could further undermine freedom of expression.
This is the verdict of media groups, opposition politicians, activists, and even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights after the amendment bill was passed by the parliament on April 10, 2015.
The government made an election pledge in 2012 to repeal the Sedition Act — which targets discourse deemed subversive to the state — but it reneged on its commitment by passing a measure that strengthened the colonial era law.
In the past year, scores of critics, journalists, academics, and opposition politicians have been arrested on suspicion  of sedition. Thus, the decision to affirm the Sedition Act was seen by many as an indicator that the ruling coalition, which has been in power since the 1950s, intends to continue persecuting its perceived political enemies.
One of the amendments gives mandate to the Sessions Court to issue a “prohibition order” on any seditious publication that would “likely lead to bodily injury or damage to property”, or “appears to be promoting feeling of ill will, hostility or hatred” between different races or classes on the grounds of religion.
The court is also empowered to issue an order to remove seditious publications made by electronic means including online publications.
A new section imposes a penalty of between five and 20 years jail for sedition crimes that cause bodily harm or property damage. Another amendment increases the jail term for acts of general sedition to between three and seven years.
A summary of the amendments is provided in this infographic by Malaysiakini, an alternative media outlet:
What is #SeditionAct after all? Here are some salient points about the amendments http://t.co/xLqneSupAw pic.twitter.com/j3HO7ezFbh
— malaysiakini.com (@malaysiakini) April 10, 2015
Perhaps it is good news that general criticism of the government and the judiciary is no longer considered seditious. But the jail term for sedition cases has been increased and the requirements to prove sedition have been relaxed.
This tweet shows the possible consequences for people falling foul of the new Sedition Act — spending more time behind bars.
The amendments to the Sedition Act to deny bail and to get rid of the fine option kinda looks like this. pic.twitter.com/KvGoyLfFQr
— Michelle Yesudas (@chelle_yesudas) April 7, 2015
The Institute of Journalists Malaysia (IJM) noted several ambiguities in the amendments which can be abused by authorities:
The IJM is concerned over the ambiguity of the terms “likely” and “appears” and we fear that these criteria will be open to abuse and misinterpretation.
The IJM finds this an unfairly harsh punishment especially when there is no expiry date for the prohibition order.
The group also warned about the new law’s possible negative impact on online journalism:
The inability to access tools of the trade will mean online journalists’ careers are at risk and threatens the existence of legitimate news portals.
The prohibition on “propagating” seditious speech or their publication also means that online news portals cannot share allegedly seditious remarks on social media and RSS feeds will cease to exist, further silencing discussion on policies and issues which are of national interest.
This latest curtailment of freedom of expression further restricts public discourse and will create a void in Malaysian social media and a deafening silence in news forums.
Syahredzan Johan, a civil liberties lawyer, wrote in the Malay Mail Online about how ordinary Internet users could be affected by the law:
If you tweet something seditious and the Sessions Court issues a prohibition order against you, you will be prohibited from using a smartphone, tablet, desktop and any other electronic device.
‘Propagation’ is not defined in the Bill. For social media users and those using smartphones, this would mean that a person would be liable if he or she shared on Facebook or Whatsapp or retweeted a seditious publication, even if he or she is not the maker of the said publication.
For Janarthani Arumugam, president of EMPOWER, a media advocacy group, the term ‘propagation’ is too broad and can be easily invoked to silence online users:
One assumes that a retweet and a Facebook share would be considered as propagation. Would these broad and vague terms also make it an offence for journalists, activists, and ordinary people to quote allegedly “seditious words” when commenting on or criticizing them in any publication?
Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi admitted that the rise of the Internet was one of the reasons why the Sedition Act was amended:
Last time [1948], there was no Internet and non-verbal communication over social media. The unity of the country remains our topmost priority.
While the government believes the amendments to the Sedition Act are necessary to preserve harmony in society, for many citizens, they are troubling signs of increased state repression in the country.

author: Mong Palatino


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Not Everyone Criticizing the Protests in Brazil Defends the Brazilian Government · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

No tear gas or rubber bullets this time: many demonstrators posed for photos with the police on March's anti-government protests. Photo: DCM
As dissatisfaction with left-wing President Dilma Rousseff grows, the latest in a series of anti-government protests to hit Brazil is scheduled for this Sunday, April 12. In March, Brazilians dressed in yellow and green and carrying the Brazilian flag took to the streets by the thousands. Some demonstrators demanded Rousseff's impeachment, while a minority called for the military to intervene. Many held signs and chanted songs against communism (“Our flag will never be red!”) and the majority condemned corruption.
A social media war has followed the rallies in the streets. Being excluded from the party, some leftists immediately took to the Internet last month. “A fascist festival!”, one Facebook user commented. “No blacks or indigenous to be seen” and “the protest of the elite”, others wrote — despite the fact the many leftists are from the upper classes themselves.
Those who attended or supported the demonstration countered that the gathering was “diverse” with participants making a “multitude of different demands”. They remarked that this was a protest of “the Brazilian people” — though one activist from a homeless movement was expelled from the Copacabana protest with shouts of “Go to Cuba!”
But among the online bickering was a third camp: Brazilians who identify with the left, but refuse to buy into the racial or class divides or defend the Rousseff's Workers’ Party government.
Taking a selfie. Photo: Mídia Ninja, Flickr / CC-BY-NC
Brazil's Worker's Party (PT, in Portuguese), which has been in power since 2002, had its genesis in the working class, like many other leftist parties and organisations in Latin America. Its base was the peasants in the countryside, the big cities’ poor suburbs, and the factories’ workers unions — its founder, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, who was Brazil's president between 2002 and 2010, was a union leader himself.
But after the party came into power, it gradually lost its populist touch. Alliances with conservative politicians were forged and concessions in its historical agenda in the name of “governability” were made. As current lawmaker and one of the Worker's Party founders Luiza Erundina said in a recent interview to Carta Capital magazine, the party has “divorced” itself from its popular base:
O PT deixou de ser um partido de massas, dedicado à formação política das classes populares, dos trabalhadores, dos sindicatos, das periferias. O foco da militância se deslocou. Eles saíram do chão da fábrica, das periferias, dos movimentos sociais e campesinos. Eles entraram para os espaços da política formal. Com isso, o partido perdeu a novidade que carregava. O PT se divorciou de suas bases. Não diria que isso foi intencional, uma ação planejada. A própria dinâmica do jogo político levou a esse distanciamento, a esse divórcio com as bases. De repente, as lideranças populares e sindicais estavam nos espaços institucionais, sem aquela mesma liberdade, criatividade e ativismo que representava o PT. E não havia outro partido que pudesse se aproximar e ser isso que um dia foi o PT.
The Worker's Party has ceased being a party of the masses, dedicated to the political education of the lower classes, of the workers, the unions, the suburbs. Its focus has changed. Its activists have left the factory floors and the social and peasant movements and entered the spaces of formal politics. This led the party to lose its unique original quality and to divorce itself from its base. I wouldn't say this was intentional or a calculated action. It's the dynamic of the political game itself that carried the party toward this estrangement, this divorce. Suddenly, community and union leaders were in the institutional spaces, without the same liberty, creativity and activism that were the Workers’ Party trademark. And there wasn't another party that could become what PT once was.
That base has been feeling largely unrepresented in the formal political sphere for years. Among their demands that the both Lula's and Rousseff's governments have failed to address are land reform and media regulation — demands that have been around since the party's foundation — and more recently, abortion legalisation and civil rights for the LGBT population.
Now, this group is growing vocal. Below are the words of some of them: bloggers, activists and journalists.
Eliane Brum, who is a veteran Brazilian journalist and pens a column in El País Brasil, says the party needs to worry more about the masses that are not taking to the streets than the ones who are. The former, she argues, are the activists and movements the government have forgotten:
O maior risco para o PT, para além do governo e do atual mandato, talvez não seja a multidão que ocupou as ruas do Brasil, mas a que não estava lá. São os que não estavam nem no dia 13 de março, quando movimentos como CUT, UNE e MST organizaram uma manifestação que, apesar de críticas a medidas de ajuste fiscal tomadas pelo governo, defendia a presidente Dilma Rousseff. Nem estavam no já histórico domingo, 15 de março, quando centenas de milhares de pessoas aderiram aos protestos, em várias capitais e cidades do país, em manifestações contra Dilma Rousseff articuladas nas redes sociais da internet, com bandeiras que defendiam o fim da corrupção, o impeachment da presidente e até uma aterradora, ainda que minoritária, defesa da volta da ditadura. São os que já não sairiam de casa em dia nenhum empunhando uma bandeira do PT, mas que também não atenderiam ao chamado das forças de 15 de março, os que apontam que o partido perdeu a capacidade de representar um projeto de esquerda – e gente de esquerda. É essa herança do PT que o Brasil, muito mais do que o partido, precisará compreender. E é com ela que teremos de lidar durante muito mais tempo do que o desse mandato.
Maybe the biggest risk for the Worker's Party, beyond the government and the current mandate, isn't the masses that took to the Brazilian streets, but the masses that weren't there. They are the ones who didn't go to the March 13 protests, when social movements like CUT (Central Worker's Union), UNE (National Student Union) and MST (Land Reform Movement) organized a demonstration that, despite its criticism of the austerity measures recently implemented by the government, defended President Dilma Rousseff. They were also not at the already historic Sunday, March 15 demonstration, when hundreds of thousands of people gathered in many Brazilian cities against Dilma Rousseff in protests organized through social media, calling for an end to corruption, the president's impeachment and even a frightening, despite secondary, return of the military dictatorship. They are the ones who wouldn't leave their homes carrying a Workers’ Party flag, but wouldn't answer the calls of the March 15 forces, the ones who say that the party has lost its ability to represent the platform of the left — and people from the left. This is a legacy of the Workers’ Party that Brazil, much more than the party itself, will need to understand. It's this legacy that we'll have to deal with for a period much longer than this mandate.
Fábio ZC discussed on his Facebook page the impeachment of Rousseff, which most protesters on March 15 were demanding:
1-) Não é golpe. Golpe é destituir um presidente sem o devido processo legal. O impeachment está previsto na constituição e é um dispositivo legítimo.
2-) Ser legítimo não o torna menos suscetível a ser usado como manobra política, pois é isso que ele é: um ato político. A palavra de um jurista não tem muito valor aqui pois se o congresso quiser, ele cassa um presidente sem provas ou mantém alguém com provas de crime. Basicamente todos os presidentes desde Vargas possuem motivos para serem impedidos, só não o foram por razões políticas.
[…]
4-) Não acho que a Dilma sofrerá o impeachment. […]
5-) Porém, se acontecer, não derramarei uma lágrima e não moverei um dedo para defender essa presidência. Tampouco adiantará o que restou do PT e seus militantes chamarem as “ruas” pois quem abandonou as ruas há décadas, não conseguirá mobilizar agora. E nem todo mundo que não se importa com o governo ou com o PT é coxinha.
6-) Ao abandonar as ruas e optar pela luta institucional, o governo escolheu um caminho. E quando esse caminho falha, não adianta choramingar. Quem dorme com cobra na cama eventualmente será mordido.
7-) Vivemos uma nova época, uma nova safra de militantes fora do alcance da institucionalidade, com novas formas de pensar. E isso incomoda. Os movimentos sociais não vão se importar por um governo que nunca se importou com eles.
About the impeachment:
1-) It's not a coup. A coup is to oust a president without due legal process. The impeachment is provided for in the Constitution and it's a legitimate process.
2-) To be legitimate doesn't make it less likely to be used as political tool, because this is what it is: a political act. The word of a jurist isn't worth a lot here because if Congress wants, it will oust a president without proof and will keep someone when there is proof against them. Basically, all presidents since Vargas have had some reason to be deposed, not only weren't because of political reasons.
4-) I don't think Dilma will be impeached. […]
5-) But, if it happens, I won't shed a single tear and won't move a single finger to defend her presidency. Neither will it be worth it if what's left of the Workers’ Party and its activists call for action in the streets because those who have abandoned the streets for decades won't be able to mobilize anyone now. And not everyone who doesn't care about the government or the Workers’ Party is a conservative.
6-) By abandoning the streets and choosing the institutional fight, the government chose a path. And when this path fails, to cry won't help. Whoever sleeps with snakes in their beds eventually will be bitten.
7-) We are experiencing new times, a new crop of activists who are beyond the reach of institutions, with new ways of thinking. And this bothers. The social movements won't care about a government that never cared about them.
Demonstrators wearing the Brazilian flag's colors on Sunday. Photo by Mídia Ninja, Flickr / CC-BY-NC
Bruno Torturra, a journalist and media activist who has more than 20,000 followers on Facebook, observed that the protests had more of a neoliberal than conservative tone, and leftists should pay attention to that:
E enquanto a esquerda se preocupa mais com a demografia branca da turba canarinha, insistindo no erro da desqualificação, algumas lamas correm livres debaixo dos nossos pés.
Não é o golpismo que ganha força. É a agenda liberal. Privatizações, o livre mercado, o dólar, a análise do sucesso nacional baseada em índices econômicos são fatores que, no mundo real, melhor traduzem e aplacam os berros surdos na Paulista. E serão as promessas e plataformas políticas que vão ornar bonitinho com as fotos de ontem. Olho vivo.
While the left is more worried about the white demographics of Sunday's green-and-yellow crowd, insisting on the mistake of delegitimizing them, a lot of mud runs free beneath our feet.
It's not advocacy of a coup that gains strength. It's the liberal agenda. Privatizations, free market, the US dollar, the analysis of a country's success based on economic indexes are factors that, in the real world, better translate and calm down the deaf shouts on Paulista Avenue. And those are the promises and platforms that will beautifully adorn yesterday's photos. Eyes on that.
Giuseppe Cocco, a political scientist and analyst, talks about the left's need to position itself in the new political landscape:
O PT conseguiu fazer como na Argentina e na Venezuela, entregar à direita a hegemonia sobre a justa indignação. Houve sim uma verdadeira e massiva mobilização social, mas com um viés conservador. Para as forças de transformação democrática (ou seja, para a esquerda como resultado dessa prática e não como condição metafísica), o desafio é hoje como conseguir ficar dentro dessa justa indignação (claro, não das manifestações da direita!). Não é simples!
The Workers’ Party did as was done in Venezuela and Argentina: to give away the hegemony of honest indignation to the right. Indeed, there was a real and massive social mobilization, but with a conservative bias. For the transformative forces of democracy (that is, the left as a result of this practice and not as metaphysical condition), the challenge today is how to push itself into this honest indignation (of course, not into the right's demonstrations!). It's not simple!
Gustavo Gindre, a journalist, blogger and a member of democratic media advocacy collective Intervozes, argued this week following the approval of a law that makes labour relations in Brazil more flexible that the left now merely defend the maintenance of the status quo:
A pauta da esquerda é não perder. Enquanto a da direita é mudar.
Assim, a Constituição Federal, que, quando de sua aprovação, foi duramente criticada pela esquerda (alguém lembra do Centrao?), hoje é vista como um bastião de direitos. A CLT, que já foi uma imposição do Estado Novo, hoje é a nossa garantia de direitos. Num mundo em constante mutação, perdemos a pauta das mudanças e a entregamos de bandeja para a direita. Urge retomar a hegemonia do conceito de mudança. Urge ressignificar a mudança.
The left's agenda is not to lose. While the right's is to change. In this way, our Federal Constitution, which when approved [in 1988] was heavily criticised by the left, is now regarded as a bulwark of rights. The CLT [the Brazilian Labour Law], which was originally an imposition of the Estado Novo [“New State”, a 1930s regime], is now our guarantee of rights. In a world of constant transformation, we have lost the vanguard of change and have handed it over on a platter to the right. It's crucial to retake the hegemony of the concept of change. We need to re-signify the change.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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Pakistani University Students Protest Against State Censorship Over Balochistan · Global Voices
Pak Voices

A student holding a placard protesting state censorship
The students of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) came out April 10 to peacefully protest the recent cancellation of an academic session focussed on Balochistan at LUMS.
Using the hashtags #ProudofLUMS and #Stand4AcademicFreedom, students countered the malicious campaign launched against LUMS yesterday.
The hashtags were used to share images of students holding up placards and posters, protesting the state’s decision to have the “Unsilencing Balochistan” session cancelled. The posters were emblazoned with slogans such as “talking about a province is not anti-state” and “you don’t believe in freedom of speech if you don’t believe in it for those who disagree with you.”
As Global Voices noted on April 9, when the event was supposed to be held:
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest, least populated and poorest province is witnessing its fifth separatist movement since 1947. Public discussions on Balochistan's war are rare. Nationalists think silence on Balochistan is their patriotic duty, others self-censor out of fear of Pakistan's powerful military. But few really understand what is going on in the southwestern province, because media coverage and reporting from there is thin.
The talk was meant to highlight the ongoing issues surrounding the restive province and in particular the plight of missing persons there.
By some estimates hundreds of people have gone missing in the Balochistan since 2010. Many of these ‘missing persons’ turn up dead later and in 2013 alone, 116 bodies were found in different locations across the region.
The relatives of many of these missing persons blame the army and their claims have been investigated by Pakistan's Supreme Court, although the Court's intervention failed to recover the missing persons.
Speaking about the cancellation of the LUMS event, a student of the School of Law there, Mirza Moiz Baig said:
The event’s cancellation is a blatant violation of our right to free speech. The whole point of free speech is to protect speech that invites conflict. Our intelligence agencies continue to remain engrossed in such matters and that explains their utter failure to do what their real job is. Silencing dissenting voices and traitor-shaming by those who stopped the talk is the very reason Balochistan is on the brink today.
The key point of the protests was that muzzling academic debate is not an act of patriotism. The campaign attempted to quaff accusations hurled at the esteemed university on social media yesterday, mainly on Twitter and Facebook, which attempted to portray LUMS and the panelists as anti-state and traitorous.
An official statement issued by the university read:
A university is a place for freedom of thought and speech; where critical thinking is nurtured in an academic setting with a view to developing a sense of judicious understanding of public life both past and present. In this regards under the re-mapping justice series, an event scheduled at LUMS for the 9th of April 2015 had to be cancelled on orders from the government, which was most unfortunate indeed. LUMS is committed to working with the government to find a way to allow the university to hold analytical talks on various topics that need to be debated in an objective and unbiased manner.
Unfortunately, there has been no statement from the government explaining its decision to have the session cancelled. Critics of the state's say such arbitrary censorship is unlikely to resolve the Balochistan question and that the country's political elite come to realise Balochistan is part of Pakistan and provide freedom of speech for people speaking up for change.
History suggests nothing else will lead to a sustainable peace in the province.

author: Pak Voices


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This Young Yemeni American Is on a Quest to Bring Coffee From the ‘Land of Mocha’ to the World · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Over the past year, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who lives in California, has worked with Yemeni coffee farmers to promote their beans to the world. Photo courtesy of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Published with PRI's permission
This article and radio report by Monica Campbell for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on April 9, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
About a year ago, a friend of mine invited me to a cupping at the back of a coffee shop in San Francisco. Coffee professionals, several who flew in, sampled the liquid from small cups, spit it out in mugs and consulted each other on the taste.
There were a lot of “Whoas!” and “This is amazing.” But what struck me was talk about the search for beans around the world, spotting “wild coffee,” and, among this speciality trade crowd, the push to work with farmers in different corners of the world to produce high-quality coffee.
This is Mokhtar Alkhanshali’s world. He’s 26, a certified specialty coffee Q grader — or a professional cupper — and is Yemeni American. After years of being steeped in coffee, through his family roots and by working the front desk at places like Hills Bros. Coffee in San Francisco, he co-runs Mocha Mill, his Oakland-based coffee company. I talked with him about how he navigates working in Yemen and what he carried back in his luggage, after a harrowing escape from Yemen’s escalating violence.
Q: What’s your first coffee memory?
In Yemen, the oldest area to grow coffee is where my family is from. When I was younger, going to visit Yemen, I would pick coffee cherries with my grandmother, and dry them with her, and she would take them to the mill, and hull it, and grind it and make coffee from it. So, it’s a part of who I am. From there, I worked at different levels of the business, and eventually became a certified coffee taster. For one of my exams, I had to memorize 36 different smells or fragrances for coffee.
Q: When did you first go to Yemen as a coffee professional and how was that different then visiting family, like you did growing up?
About a year ago, I became fully immersed in the coffee world there. I traveled to 32 areas. Yemenis are also very isolated from each other, so I got to meet people I normally wouldn’t have. Yes, I got to learn about the varietals they had — the elevation, the soil type — but more importantly, I got to hear stories, about how their grandparents grew coffee, and the issues they were facing. The politics, the instability. We connected too. Being Yemeni myself and American, I was able to put on different hats. On the one hand, I’m a certified taster, and on the other hand, I’m a Yemeni tribal person, with a tribe there. So when I go, I don’t go as a foreigner. I wear Yemeni attire, and I talk with the local accent.
Mokhtar Alkhanshali lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and co-runs a coffee company there that specializes in beans from Yemen, where he travels frequently and has family roots. Photo courtesy of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Published with PRI's permission
It’s so amazing to go into these remote villages, where the people have not changed the way they’ve done coffee for hundreds of years, and see how they they are using modern drying beds. I’ve taught them how to make them. They’re now using advanced moisture analyzers that I brought in from England for them to use so they can learn how to dry coffee correctly. These are the latest coffee technologies used in Brazil and Peru and Ethiopia, and now in Yemen.
I also see that the majority of people working in coffee in Yemen are women. So one of my requirements for the cooperative I work with is that half of the board has to be women.
Q: Are there characteristics particular to coffee from Yemen?
It depends on the different varietals, microclimates. But traditionally, Yemeni coffees have a very mocha taste to them. It's the country where the name mocha comes from, after all. It's chocolatey, darker, thicker, syrupy. But one of my coffees, yes, has a kind of chocolate taste, but it also has almost a cherry taste, while another is very light-bodied. But nobody really knows how Yemeni coffee tastes as a whole. It doesn't have one strong characteristic because nobody has been able to get one varietal by itself — one that's not been mixed with another region. I like talking about it. I could talk for hours about this and the history.
Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a Yemeni American who co-runs a coffee company in California, specializes in Yemeni beans, and that takes him to some of the more remote parts of the country. Photo courtesy of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Published with PRI's permission
Q: What about khat, the competing crop in Yemen?
I want to fight khat. It’s a locally consumed stimulant in Yemen. It’s illegal in a lot of countries, in the United States and, recently, England. But it’s also legal in a lot of places, including Yemen. The thing about khat is that it’s a cash crop in Yemen. It’s harvested three to four times a year, and it’s easy to grow. It has taken the place of coffee and a lot of other crops in Yemen. My goal is to make coffee an alternative to that, and bring in a higher profit. In one area, in Haima, we are just now seeing farmers take out the khat plants and move to coffee. The next phase is to bring seedling nurseries to this area and give seedlings away for free to farmers willing to switch.
Q: Yemen has some of the most historic roots around when it comes to coffee, right there with Ethiopia. But we hear more about conflict there than coffee. What do you think about that and how do you work in that environment?
My whole goal is to bridge Yemeni farmers to the world. That’s what I want to do — not to have the things that connect Yemen and the United States be drones and war and headlines, but to have something that we all know and love — coffee.
And instability comes with the territory. I knew this coming into it. But I didn’t know it was going to be this difficult. What’s happening now is a real change in how things were just a few months ago.
Mokhtar Alkhanshali, 26, at his Oakland-based Mocha Mill coffee company, which specializes in beans from Yemen. Photo courtesy of Mokhtar Alkhanshali. Published with PRI's permission
Q: You just escaped the violence in Yemen. Major airports were bombed and the ports are unstable. You left by a small fishing boat from the small port of Mocha to Djibouti. What did you take with you?
My coffee samples. Two luggage bags full of coffee samples, the cleanest samples you’ll ever see from Yemen. Clean green beans, no insect damage, no mold. A year of work with these farmers. I have to take these coffee samples with me and show them this week at this major event in Seattle. So I put them in the luggage bag, we wrapped them in other bags and other bags, and threw a bunch of blue tarps around them.
And we’re going to keep things going in Yemen. Coffee farmers are still harvesting their coffee. My mill is still processing the coffee I have. My hand sorters are working. I have to pretend that everything is normal. I’m hoping that in the next month, the next month and a half, the ports will open up again and I can continue to sell my coffee. I mean, if I looked at all the obstacles I faced, I would have never started this project.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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An Aggressive Turn in Chinese Censorship Practices: ‘The Great Cannon’ · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Simplified logical topology of the Great Cannon and Great Firewall. Screen Capture from Citizen Lab.
Citizen Lab, an advanced, human rights-based research center on Information and Communication Technology at the University of Toronto, has identified that the infrastructure of the man-in-the-middle DDoS attack on the Chinese open source platform hub GitHub is co-located with the Great Firewall. Citizen Lab terms this new technological innovation as “the Great Cannon”.
The finding implies that Chinese censorship practices have made an aggressive turn. Rather than blocking content from overseas, the Great Cannon can “manipulate the traffic of ‘bystander’ systems outside China, silently programming their browsers to create a massive DDoS attack”. Citizen Lab stresses that the Great Cannon is similar to NSA's QUANTUM system, capable of “targeting any foreign computer that communicates with any China-based website not fully utilizing HTTPS.”
Why did the GitHub attack take place?
GitHub has been a target of Chinese Internet censorship authorities since 2013. As an open source hosting platform, GitHub has hosted online dissent tools and contents that the Chinese authorities want to block. In fact, the platform was blocked completely for a moment in January 2013 because of its HTTPS-only setting, which makes it impossible for the Great Firewall to block individual pages, such as that of the Mongol project, an open-source tool hosted in GitHub that tracks the location of the Great Firewall. The 2013 blocking did not last long as it affected open source infrastructures which are essential for other developers.
The strategies to bypass the Chinese Great Firewall hosted on GitHub are termed “collateral freedom” by researchers from the Open Internet Tool Project and a number of sites that have adopted the strategy to create mirror sites and made their content available to mainland Chinese readers.
The Chinese Great Cannon redirected massive traffic to https://github.com/greatfire, the homepage of the Great Fire, a project devoted to circumvent Great Firewall censorship by hosting mirror sites of forbidden contents including New York Times, China Digital Times, Boxun, Free Weibo Project and others. The attack is believed to have been made to pressure GitHub into removing those pages.
Later a number of technical reports explained that the attack came from a man-in-the-middle device which intercepted web requests from other parts of the world to the analytics of China's largest search engine, Baidu.
When the requests entered China, the device inserted a JavaScript to the user's computer browser to attack GitHub. As the attack, the most serious one in GitHub's history, came from massive sources, it was impossible for the company to block the malicious requests.
Baidu, which is listed on the US stock market, denied its involvement in the attack, leaving people to wonder what the role of Chinese censorship authorities in this attack was.
The Great Cannon: State-level cyberattack
The Netizen Lab compared technical details of the Great Firewall and the Great Cannon and concluded that the Great Cannon is operated by the Chinese government. Over the course of testing, the Lab found out that:
1. The Great Cannon is co-located with the Great Firewall.
2. The Great Firewall and Great Cannon have the same type of TTL side-channel, suggesting that they share some source code.
3. Supplementary to the Great Firewall, the design of the Great Cannon allows it to censor any traffic not already censorable by the Great Firewall. It's role is to inject traffic to a specific target, not to censor traffic.
4. The Great Cannon targets Great Fire, which has been referred to by the Chinese authorities as a “foreign anti-Chinese organization”.
The report further pointed out that the launch of the Great Cannon would require the approval of high-level authorities within the Chinese government:
Deploying the Great Cannon is a major shift in tactics, and has a highly visible impact. It is likely that this attack, with its potential for political backlash, would require the approval of high-level authorities within the Chinese government. These authorities may include the State Internet Information Office (SIIO), which is responsible for Internet censorship. It is also possible that the top body for cybersecurity coordination in China, the Cybersecurity and Informatization Leading Group (CILG), would have been involved. The CILG is chaired by Xi Jinping and includes as members senior leaders from across the government; its administrative office is housed within the SIIO.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Another Shark Attack Claims a Teenage Surfer on Reunion Island, Post-Attack Policy in Effect  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Cover photo of Facebook page to remember Elio Canestri – with their permission.
A 13-year-old boy was killed by a shark on April 12 near Les Aigrettes on Reunion island.
Elio Canestri was a promising surfer and a member of the local surfing club. The local community is shocked by the tragic news. A Facebook page was set up to commemorate his life, with already more than 3,500 fans within a few hours.
Soon after the events, the local authorities activated the post-attack measures, which include specific fishing targets in the area.
Unfortunately, shark attacks have become a repetitive event on Reunion island: There have been 16 shark attacks off the island since 2011. In February this year, island authorities extended a law prohibiting swimming and other water-based activities except in special areas in response to the high number of attacks. The measure has resulted in a dramatic decline in tourism.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Are ISIS Fighters in Rakka Infested with Skin Disease Leishmaniasis?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

News is spreading that ISIS fighters in the Syrian town of Rakka have been hit by a skin condition caused by a parasite known as Leishmaniasis.
According to the World Health Organisation, the disease is “caused by the protozoan Leishmania parasites which are transmitted by the bite of infected sandflies.The disease affects some of the poorest people on the planet, and is associated with malnutrition, population displacement, poor housing, a weak immune system and lack of resources.” Newspaper accounts describe it as a “deadly flesh eating disease.”
Thalia Rahme is looking for leads to verify the story at Global Voices Checkdesk, a partnership project with Meedan.
Checkdesk is a liveblogging tool for journalists, with built-in tools to allow citizen journalists and staff journalists alike to make and verify reports. Anyone from the newsroom community can submit a report — a Tweet, a photo, video or other type of media — and add details that bring important context to the report. Staff journalists can then add these reports to a developing story.
To join Thalia's team, send her an email from her Global Voices Online page.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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For Ebola Patients in Liberia, a Way to See the Faces of Those Helping · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Jianjay Potter and Grace Zardon in Monrovia, Liberia. Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission.
This article and radio report by Andrea Crossan for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on April 7, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The West African country of Liberia has been devastated over the past year by an Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands of people.
And for those in hospitals suffering, all they see are masks and robot-looking suits of doctors and nurses caring for them. The medics must wear those protective suits to stop them from coming in contact with a patient. But some humanity is stripped away with the intimidating get-up.
Until now.
Los Angeles-based artist Mary Beth Heffernan saw the Ebola suits on news reports. She thought about how isolating it was for the patients. And she came up with the idea of taking photos of health workers that could be attached to their protective clothing.
In late February, Heffernan travelled to Monrovia, Liberia to do just that.
She brought cameras, six printers, ink cartridges and sticky labels to print the photos on.
Mary Beth Heffernan taking photograph of health worker Morris Zolu. Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission
“I invited the healthcare workers to offer the expression that the wished they could have given their patient if they weren’t covered up with these suits,” says Heffernan. “Most chose to smile warmly for the camera and that is what the patients see in this head shot photograph.”
Health workers Morris Zolu, Kaifouba Kamara, and Joseph Walatee wearing their portraits. Credit: Marco Campos. Published with PRI's permission
The portraits were attached to the safety suits and then thrown out at the end of each work day.
“One of the challenges was that photographs are kind of hard to come by in Liberia and they are expensive to print.” So Heffernan gave staff members a copy of their portrait to keep.
A photo label on the back of an iPad Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission
Heffernan says that it’s better than just having health workers wear name tags.
“An ID is tiny, it’s laminated, and it’s also about authority. It’s about differentiating classes of people with power, and what I wanted was to make the patient more powerful.”
Selina, a Monrovia healthcare worker, wearing her portrait. Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission
And for the workers, it helped them to better relate to each other and their patients.
Health care workers told Heffernan, “we no longer look like scary ninjas.”
Health worker in Monrovia donning gloves. Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission
If all works out, perhaps the medics won't have to wear the photographs on their clothing much longer. The Ebola outbreak has been tapering in recent months and there are hopes that the country could soon be declared free of the disease.
Morris Zolu, Hygienist, entering Red Zone. Credit: Marc Campos. Published with PRI's permission


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For the First Time Ever, Judges in Peru Pass Sentences in Quechua and Aymara · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Cathedral of Puno. Photo by Flickr user Diego Giannoni (CC BY 2.0).
Peru is multicultural and its linguistic profile, complex. Estimates point out that between 43 and 60 indigenous languages are spoken throughout the country. Quechua is the second most spoken language after Spanish, and Aymara comes in third.
In 1975, the Quechua language was declared an official state language. According to estimates, there are three million people who speak it as their native language in Peru, and about half a million Aymara speakers (almost 455,000 people of them hail from Puno). Article 48 of the Political Constitution of Peru establishes:
Artículo 48: Son idiomas oficiales el castellano y, en las zonas donde predominen, también lo son el quechua, el aimara y las demás lenguas aborígenes, según la ley.
Spanish and, in areas where they predominate, Quechua, Aymara, and other native tongues are official languages, according to the law.
Despite this, never before had a judicial sentence been handed down in either Quechua or Aymara until this year.
On March 13, the Consolidated Court of Ilave, in the province of El Collao, in the region of Puno, dictated the first sentence ever in Aymara. A part of the ruling can be read on news agency SERVINDI's website:
La primera sentencia en aymara, idioma originario, marca un precedente de interculturalidad del Poder Judicial y de cómo el juez debe acercarse a los involucrados en un juicio, destacó el juez mixto de Ilave de la provincia de El Collao, Julio César Chucuya, quien fue autor de este hecho.
[…]
Asimismo, el juez Chucuya […] indicó que desde el Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura (CNM) se estableció que para zonas de habla quechua o aymara, se cuente con jueces que dominen estos idiomas, para facilitar el acceso.
The first sentence ever in the indigenous language Aymara marks a precedent of interculturality by the Judiciary and how a judge must approach individuals involved in a trial, the consolidated judge of Ilave in the province of El Collao, Julio César Chucuya, who authored the ruling, pointed out.
[…]
Meanwhile, judge Chucuya […] noted that from the National Council of the Judiciary (CNM) it was determined that for zones where Quechua or Aymara is spoken, there should be judges fluent in those languages, to make access easier.
Legal news website Parthenon.pe also addressed the issue:
En términos jurídicos, la sentencia emitida en Aymara cumple con un derecho formal y material que sigue un principio fundamental: toda persona debe ser escuchada y juzgada en su propio idioma. Si bien este principio se encuentra garantizado en nuestro país en una norma constitucional, poco se ha hecho por su implementación.
In legal terms, the sentence written in the Aymara language complies with a formal and material right that follows a fundamental principle: every individual must be heard and judged in their own language. Although this principle is sanctioned in our country in a constitutional law, not much has been done for it to be implemented.
About two weeks later on March 30, judge Santos Poma Machaca handed down the first sentence in Quechua in the First Court of Preparatory Investigation in the province of Azángaro, also in Puno. News website LaMula.pe explained:
El abogado del imputado, Román Ramos Revilla de la Defensa Pública, ejerció la defensa en el idioma quechua, así como también el juez Santos Poma Machaca procedió a explicarle al imputado los beneficios de la “Terminación Anticipada” en el mismo idioma.
“Nokga kaskani” respondió Chambi Chaucha, que significa “conforme señor juez”, ante la propuesta que le realizó el Ministerio Público.
“Desde el año 2007, cuando fuimos Juez de Paz Letrado, venimos desarrollando audiencias en el idioma quechua porque los justiciables que tienen como idioma original el quechua nos entienden mejor y se sienten mejor atendidos, pero la redacción solo era en castellano. Recién en esta audiencia hemos emitido el documento de la sentencia en quechua”, refirió el juez Santos Poma Machaca.
The defendant's lawyer, public defender Román Ramos Revilla, raised the defense in Quechua language, and judge Santos Poma Machaca went on to explain to the defendant the benefits of an “Anticipated Conclusion” in the same language.
“Nokga kaskani,” answered [defendant] Chambi Chaucha, meaning “I agree, your Honor”, to the proposal made by the Prosecutor's Office representative.
“Since 2007, when I was Judge of the Peace, we've being carrying out hearings in the Quechua language as individuals who speak it as their native language understand us better and they feel they receive better attention, but the documents were written only in Spanish. During this trial, we've issued the sentencing document in Quechua,” said judge Santos Poma Machaca.
Legal news website LaLey posted the whole sentence and called it “unprecedented”:
En una resolución sin precedentes, se dictó – íntegramente en idioma quechua –tres años de pena suspendida al agresor de una mujer. Sucedió en la región Puno, en la sede del Primer Juzgado de Investigación Preparatoria de la provincia de Azángaro, donde las partes y sus abogados condujeron el juicio en la lengua indígena.
In an unprecedented ruling, an aggressor who attacked a woman was sentenced – written up fully in the Quechua language – to three years of a suspended sentence. It happened in the region Puno, in the First Court of Preparatory Investigation of the province of Azángaro, where the involved parties and their attorneys carried out the trial in the indigenous language.
Both sentences prompted discussion on Twitter:
Perú dicta sentencia en lengua indígena: primera resolución redactada en aymara (idioma oficial desde 40 años) http://t.co/557ZlNxgZr
— COST New Speakers (@COSTNewSpeakers) abril 3, 2015
Peru passes sentence in indigenous language: first ruling written in Aymara (official language for 40 years).
“la sentencia emitida en Aymara es un gran logro para materializar la justicia oficial en un país pluricultural.” http://t.co/s0KlyuVCTL
— Parthenon (@parthenonweb) marzo 30, 2015
The sentence issued in Aymara is a big accomplishment in bringing official justice to life in a multicultural country.
@Mauriciomulder la verdadera #InclusiónSocial viene desde el Poder Judicial, sobre la primera sentencia en Aymara http://t.co/QEhLSlPZWp
— Bien Este Eres (@dilmar207) marzo 28, 2015
The real social inclusion comes from the Judiciary, about the first sentence in Aymara.
¿Una sentencia en #Quechua? Conoce este hecho que pasó en #Puno→http://t.co/ijc5qjLg35 pic.twitter.com/eDlZwMVmfl — Enterados (@Enterados321) abril 8, 2015
A judicial sentence in Quechua? Learn more about this event which occurred in Puno.
#Puno: Juez penal de Azángaro dictó sentencia en quechua. La prensa se alucina waoo http://t.co/AlLBLwGu3n pic.twitter.com/6IiSNl9eny — Tu Yunta (@TuYuntaPe) abril 7, 2015
Criminal judge in Azángaro passed sentence in Quechua. The media is amazed.
“Nokga kaskani” frase usada en sentencia en quechua dictada en provincia de Azángaro: Puno, abr. 06. El Prim… http://t.co/TkEwjY9xvf
— El Correo de Prietto (@ElCorreodePriet) abril 7, 2015
“Nokga kaskani”, phrase used in the Quechua-language sentence passed in the province of Azángaro: Puno, Apr. 06.


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How a Celebrity’s Facebook Check-In Brought Down a Brigade in Taiwan · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

The snapshot of Janet Lee's Facebook check-in at the 601 Air Cavalry Brigade with Apache. She said, ‘We are visiting the Apache helicopters, and the boys are crazy and screaming! This is so cool!’
On March 29, Taiwanese celebrity Janet Lee, along with some other people, was brought to see AH-64E Apache helicopters, the latest model of Apache attack helicopters.
These Apache helicopters were delivered to Taiwan in 2013, as part of a $6.4 billion arms deal with the U.S. signed in 2008.
After Lee posted several photos of her posing with the helicopters on Facebook, the Republic of China Army was criticized for letting unauthorized people enter the off-limits zone, where sensitive technology information is stored.
The scandal has led to the sacking of 18 military officials as of April 11. Ten of them belong to the 601 Air Cavalry Brigade.
Netizens made fun of the incident by comparing Janet Lee with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. All of them have taken on armies single-handedly, but while the guys did that in the movies, Janet Lee crushed a real life brigade with her Facebook check-in.

author: I-fan Lin


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Iran’s Minister of ICT Suggests Instagram Will Not Be (Completely) Blocked Until an Alternative Is Found · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Page 15 of Shargh newspaper contained the headline: “The promises of the Minister of ICT to clear the problems of mobile social media. Those responsible at the ministry are preparing a campaign.” Screenshot by author.
Iran's leading reformist newspaper, Shargh, ran an article this past Sunday entitled: “The promises of the Minister of ICT to clear the problems of mobile social media.” The focus of Iran's Minister of Information and Communication Technology Mahmoud Vaezi was the filtering status of popular mobile applications, with a particular focus on Instagram.
He told Shargh the following:
اصلا نگران نباشید. تصمیم مشخص ما آن است که فعلا برنامای برای محدودیت فعالیت شبکهای اجتماعی موبایلی نداریم و قطعا زمانی این موضوع را اعلام خواهیم کرد که جایگزیهای مناسبی برای این شبکها در داخل کشور ایجاد شده باشد.
You should not be worried. Our policy is that we will not restrict the activities of any mobile social media, and when we do announce it, it will be when we find an alternative for this network inside the country.
The popularity of mobile applications has led to some directives from institutions outside of the current administration's hands, such as the Judiciary for filtering. Shargh noted:
بعد از چندیبار تذکر از سوی نهادهای بالادستی به وزارت ارتباطات مبنی بر ارائه برنامای جهت نظارت هرچه بیشتر بر محتوای این شبک ها، «فیلترینگ هوشمند» به عنوان اولویت برنامای دولت مطرح شد زیرا واعظی وزیر ارتباطات معتقد است تمام آنچه از طریق این شبکها منتشر مشود، شامل محتوای نامناسب نیست، بلکه نزدیک به 90درصد مطالبی که روی این شب ها قرار مگیرد، جزء محتوای پاک است.
After a few warnings given to government by higher authorities, the ministry decided to use smart filtering, which will be the priority in the government’s program to monitor social networks, because [Minister for ICT] Vaezi believes all the materials published by these networks are not bad. Close to 90% of the materials publicized on these networks are clean materials.
Current smart filtering of Instagram pages means Iran-based mobile users are blocked from viewing selected pages.
Following the publication of this post, one Internet researcher, Amir Rashidi noted the Minister's statement regarding no viable ‘alternatives’ is a political form of appeasement between hardline elements (such as in the judiciary) and those who support more Internet freedom (such as the Rouhani administration). As noted in the Tweet below by researcher Nariman Gharib, Lenzor exists as a local Iranian alternative to Instagram.
@maasalan there is an alternative right now in Iran. Lenzor
— Nariman Gharib (@ListenToUs) April 12, 2015
@maasalan @ListenToUs i think “alternative” is just an excuse for him to keep hardliner away from blocking those apps
— Amir Rashidi (@Ammir) April 12, 2015

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Japan’s ‘Compassionate Pugilist’ Gives Training and Hope to Poor Filipino Boxers · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Japanese trainer Eiji Yoshikawa (right) and Cirilo Espino (left) who won a boxing championship in Mindanao Island in the Philippines
A Japanese filmmaker known as the ‘compassionate pugilist’ has been providing training and assistance to poor underdog boxers from the Philippines in the hope of inspiring these athletes to become champions like Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao.
After meeting some struggling boxers from the Philippines, Eiji Yoshikawa was moved by their conditions and decided to give them professional training. But aside from sharing his expertise, he also asked some of his friends and other Japanese boxers to donate resources to provide training and financial support to the families of the Filipino boxers. After two years, Eiji has successfully trained two boxers who have played in the national championships.
Eiji told Global  Voices he thinks boxing can help some of his trainees escape poverty:
Boxing doesn't require degrees and certificates. You can't read but can fight. Inside the ring, rich and poor are equal. If you polish your skill, you'd be Manny or Nonito. [Filipino boxing champions].
Obviously, only a handful can reach the world's top, but boxers can learn so much about life like who you are, your strength and weakness, especially from losing fights.
A champion's belt won't last long, but learning about yourself and the world would not only last long but it gets deeper and better.
But he often reminds his trainees that boxing should not be viewed as the only route to escape poverty. That is why he is encouraging boxers to complete their schooling. He also supports the decision of boxers to send their children to schools.
One of Eiji's Filipino players in a boxing match in Tokyo
Eiji’s experience in providing training to Filipino boxers and his mission to promote awareness about poverty in the Philippines is the subject of a film documentary entitled ‘Rumble in the Jungle.’ Check the trailer of the film below:
Eiji has been showing the film in various schools in Japan and the response of the students has been very positive. Many have expressed their willingness to give support to the poor boxers.
One initiative that really made a difference in the community where boxers live was the building of a sports gym that was made possible through a fundraising campaign started by Eiji and his friends.
Building a boxing gym in a Philippine community through a fundraising effort in Japan
Boxing is popular in the Philippines and many young people want to emulate the career of world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. But not everybody can be Pacquiao and there are hundreds, if not thousands of amateur boxers who remain poor and lack proper training. Fortunately, there are ‘compassionate pugilists’ like Eiji who are not only highlighting the conditions of poor boxers but are also inspiring  people both in Japan and the Philippines to offer assistance to these athletes and their families.


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Egypt’s Nationality Laws Are Sexist: Men Can Pass on Nationality to Their Wives, While Women Can’t · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Salma El-Daly with her husband on a vacation in Upper Egypt
Egyptian Salma El-Daly had a rude awakening when she went to apply for a residence permit for her British husband in Egypt. While applying for his paperwork, she discovered that while Egyptian men could pass on their nationality to their wives, Egyptian women didn't have the same right.
The Twitter user and TV presenter poured out her anger on Twitter, vowing to fight the law until it is changed.
In today's world, there are about 230 million international migrants  or people living outside their country of origin. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the one hand states everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, and on the other hand says they have the right to leave any country, including their own. Yet, Teresa Hayter commented that the declaration is silent on everyone's right to enter another country. And this opens the door for governments to come up with new restrictions everyday to close their borders in the face of people willing to relocate to there.
Although, refugees represent much less than 10 per cent of international migrants, media outlets consistently fail to correctly distinguish between economic migrants and asylum seekers or refugees. It is also more common to think of immigration as one way activity from the third world to the first world, and rarely the other way round, thanks to the media.
El-Daly shares her story on Twitter:
قانون الجنسية المصري الذي يعطي الرجل الحق في منح زوجته الأجنبية الجنسية المصرية و يمنع هذا الحق عن الزوجة المصرية، قانون جاحد و ظالم و قبلي
— Salma el Daly (@salmaeldaly) March 23, 2015
The Egyptian nationality law that gives men the right to give their nationalities to their foreign wives, and denies the same right to the Egyptian wives, is an unfaithful, unjust and tribal law.
Salma kept on addressing the issue on Twitter for many days, and vowed in another tweet, that she will not stop fighting for this law to be changed.
We decided to also ask her more questions and give her the chance to address the topic away from Twitter's characters limit.
Global Voices Online: Do you see that you and your husband's life will be easier in Egypt if he gets the Egyptian nationality?
Salma: My British husband and I decided to stay in Egypt for the time being because I don't want to leave my homeland country. I think that my life with my husband will be much easier if I can give him the Egyptian nationality. Also, I think the life of our future child will be much easier and they will be able to gain more rights!
GVO: If men were also not allowed to give their nationalities to their wives in Egypt, would you still fight for the same right for both genders? Or, your main cause is about equality?
Salma: Well, let's take it step by step. It's a clear inequality issue now, giving rights to men and taking them from women. The nationalities laws of the country are being sexiest! If both genders were not allowed to give nationality it would have been a different fight, a fight against the laws of purity!
El-Daly added that this is just one of many laws in Egypt, where women do not have equal rights. She gave the Khula Law as an example, in which a woman can seek a divorce from her husband after renouncing any financial claim on the husband and any entitlement to the matrimonial home. She commented: “You spend years and years in divorce court and stop your life, or we give you an option of giving up EVERYTHING but gaining your freedom! A very bad bargain!” On the other hand, there is another law where a divorced mother can keep her children until a certain age and the father is only allowed to see them for limited visits. She wondered: “How could this be good enough to build a healthy normal relationship between the child and the father?”
Finally, we asked her about her dream world and if there was anything else she would like to add. After jokingly announced that her dream world should have cheaper visas. She added:
I have a separate issue that I would like to address based on the hundreds of responses that I received on Twitter. Many of them where judging my future child's loyalty! Many of the responses claimed that children are usually loyal to their father's country of birth, and it really fascinates me how we think that loyalty must be inherited! Also, it was really sad to see that many people find inequality something very normal, and they pretty much support it! You will be surprised with the excuses they would give you.

author: Tarek Amr


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Snow-Capped Mountains and Rushing Rivers, but No Water to Drink in Nepal’s Capital · Global Voices
Saprina Panday

People lining up for water an hour before it is scheduled to flow, in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 10 2014. Image by Flickr user @Ingmar Zahorsky (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Despite having among the highest water availability per capita in the world and holding about 2.7 percent of the world's total fresh water reserves, Nepal suffers from a chronic water shortage.
Set against a decade of political turbulence, acute mismanagement of water supplies and large in-migration from villages to the capital Kathmandu, the less socio-economically advantaged half of Nepal is increasingly left to fend for itself to gain access to clean water.
In Kathmandu, the Nepalese government’s Central Bureau of Statistics shows that one out of five households do not have a domestic water source, while two-thirds live with a water supply which most probably would fail the standard for being ‘clean and safe.’
Many citizens have adapted. Pinky Gupta, a retailer in Kathmandu was quoted in an article called ‘The Dry State':
The situation in the capital is such that it has almost become a necessity for people to educate themselves on ways to conserve water.
Gupta's situation is very common among poorer Kathmandu residents who do not have the option of buying water.
Mangal Raj, another resident quoted in the article, explains how he goes about conserving water:
It’s been almost five years since we last got water in our original line. We got another line installed but even that isn’t much help. We get water about once every three days. That isn’t enough for our large family. One method that we have adopted is reusing water. For instance, we don’t use fresh water in the bathroom. It’s usually the leftovers from all the washing that we take down to our toilets. It’s an easy and viable method. If we had a garden, we might have used it there as well.
In a short documentary called ‘Troubled Water’, many express their skepticism about the government's ability to turn the situation around. The documentary can be watched here:
This gloomy mood is understandable when taking into consideration the two-decade-long, unfulfilled promise of a water pipeline known as  ‘the Melamchi Project‘ which was meant to inject 170 million liters of water per day into Kathmandu from the Melamchi river that lies on a district bordering China.
15 years behind schedule, the Melamchi Project is likely to be further delayed @MRKENJIKWOK http://t.co/4K7p87SIlU pic.twitter.com/72LaCxZahh
— Nepali Times (@nepalitimes) March 24, 2015
But Madhu Marisini, an official in the Ministry of Finance offered hope via Twitter:
Concluded a negotiation wid ADB $ 90 M., Melamchi water distribution in Ktm. Trying 2 make sure Melamchi no more remains a mere pipe dream!
— Madhu Marasini (@madhumarasini) March 24, 2015
In the present scenario, this project would still not suffice: the government supplies 130 million liters of water per day to the capital, which would leave a shortfall of 100 million liters even if the project was successfully completed, since the capital's daily demand is something like 400 million liters.
A hotbed for Innovation
While private businesses have sought to fill in this gap through the supply of tankers and underground water from tube-wells, there are many who raise concerns about safety. Nepali chemist, Kosh P. Neupane raises fears about the danger of invisible toxic metal ions in the water being sold through these businesses which could potentially lead to cancer and other fatal diseases.
However, despite the challenges in bringing clean and safe water to Nepalis, there are highlights of hope.
In February, a Nepali grassroots organisation called ‘Environment and Public Health Organization’ (ENPHO) won the 4th edition of the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize for the impact of its activities in solving water problems through innovation: drinking water platforms and gender friendly latrines…
Environmental NGO ENPHO from Nepal wins $20K Kyoto World #Water Grand Prize – http://t.co/ikdW8LlPrV pic.twitter.com/UwawhPNK4E
— IRC E-Source News (@ircsource) March 2, 2015
This organisation's involvement in propagating the use of simple technologies to empower communities outside the capital, such as rain water harvesting, may be the way forward not only for Nepal, but for many countries facing a similar water situation.
A wake-up call for the world
According to Rajendra Pachauri the former chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), the world is facing a water crisis which shifting climates will only exacerbate, leading to a grim future which at worst could lead to wars between communities and nations. Currently, more than 2 billion people are affected by drought — a greater number than that for any other physical hazard.
To address this issue, South Korea will be hosting the 7th World Water Forum April 12-17, which will be attended by over 160 countries aiming to discuss water challenges affecting the world, including deaths that result from unsafe water.
According to UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director:
Everyday nearly 1k children under 5 die from preventable diseases attributable to poor sanitation, poor hygiene or unsafe drinking #water
— Yoka Brandt (@yokabrandt) March 25, 2015
Pragya Lamsal, the Kathmandu-based Communications Officer at WaterAid, an organisation which advocates for the essential role of safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation in human development, echoes this sentiment:
One in 5 newborn deaths in #Nepal could be prevented w/ safe water, sanitation & clean hands: http://t.co/Ase7RvIm0t #HealthyStart #WaterAid
— Pragya Lamsal (@pragyalamsal) March 23, 2015
While many are fortunate enough not to have to spend a minute to think about not having water to drink, it is a humbling to note the struggle many make to access a drop of clean water every day. In this video, a village in Nepal celebrates with song and dance after the installation of taps gushing clean water.
In addition to the 7th World Water Forum this week, water is likely to continue to be an essential topic for activists and governments alike at the 21st session of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December 2015.

author: Saprina Panday


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Unseasonal Gaza Hailstorm Draws Attention to Palestinian Refugees’ Plight  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“A hint of #snow in #Gaza no kidding #lol once again I remind U that it's #spring,” tweets @Omar_Gaza, who shares this photograph on Twitter
Netizens are reporting unseasonal snowfall in Gaza today, after heavy rains. Others say it's just hail. But for many the suffering of Gaza's 108,000 homeless and internally displaced refugees comes to mind.
Palestinian blogger Omar Ghraieb reminds us:
Thinking of the homeless, displaced & refugees :( #Gaza
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) April 12, 2015
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory about 108,000 Palestinians out of 500,000 displaced at the height of hostilities with Israel were still homeless by October, 2014, when winter started. At least 2,100 Palestinians have been killed, more than 10,500 injured, and 520,000 displaced, since Israel launched a massive offensive called Protective Edge against the 40-kilometer-long coastal strip on July 8, 2014. Some estimates say 40 per cent of Gaza's urban area has been reduced to rubble. Israel attacked the only power plant in Gaza on July 28, plunging the congested strip of 1.8 million people into darkness while putting its limited water and sanitation infrastructure under crippling stress. On August 26, Israel and the Palestinian factions agreed to halt fighting indefinitely, putting an end to seven weeks of catastrophic destruction and loss of life.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory over 100,000 Palestinians out of 500,000 displaced at the height of hostilities with Israel were still without homes in October 2014.
The cold weather and flooding only makes the situation more unbearable for those without homes.
Son of Palestine explains:
Heavy rain creating floods in certain parts of #Gaza :( for the homeless this is a disaster #PrayForGaza #EndTheBlockade
— Son Of Palestine (@UpdatePalestine) April 12, 2015
According to Ma'an News Agency, the heavy rain “has flooded low-lying areas across the Gaza Strip, including Khazaa and Beit Hanoun where thousands of Gazans displaced by the Israeli offensive last summer are living in caravans.”
Saber Abu Maryam shares photographs of flooded streets at the Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza:
Streets of Al-Shati refugee camp of #Gaza #Palestine are full of Rain's water #PrayForGaza @AyazLatifPalijo @RamAbdu pic.twitter.com/gUx2m5OnRv
— Sabir Abu Maryam (@SabirAbuMaryam) April 12, 2015
From Gaza, Layan Baker shares this photograph of Gaza port:
#Gaza sea port today covered with snow pic.twitter.com/atpRNXNmLg
— Layan.Baker (@LayanBaker) April 12, 2015
Ali Dwedar adds:
Rain and snow on Gaza today Good morning #Gaza pic.twitter.com/j2mLaiOJYQ
— Ali (@alidwedar) April 12, 2015
And Abbas Sarsour shares another photograph:
Gaza snow this morning people. #PrayForGaza pic.twitter.com/r7cZ0n5ALq
— Abbas Sarsour (@iFalasteen) April 12, 2015
Just Aerdt, who is in Gaza, is unfazed. He explains that what netizens described as snow was just hail:
Seriously, what is with all the ‘snow in #Gaza‘ tweets? I have seen an insane amount of hail this morning, but must have missed the ‘snow’
— Just Aerdt (@aerdt) April 12, 2015
He adds:
Hail is linked to severe thunderstorms, which we had this morning. Nothing to do with snow whatsoever #Gaza
— Just Aerdt (@aerdt) April 12, 2015
And Dennis Fetcho explains that such weather conditions are rare for this time of the year:
Apparently snow in #Jerash and northern Jordan last night to go along with the snow in #Gaza. Not unheard of for April but certainly rare.
— Dennis Fetcho (@ItelRadio) April 12, 2015
Also Read:
Help Palestine refugees weather the storm


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Voting Underway in Kenya Blog Awards 2015  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The voting phase of the Kenyan Blog Awards is ongoing and will continue until April 30, 2015:
The Kenyan Blog Awards seeks to reward bloggers that post on a regular basis, have great and useful content, are creative and innovative. These awards represent BAKE’s efforts in the promotion of quality content creation. Organizer The Kenyan Blog Awards are an initiative of the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). BAKE is a community organization that represents a group of Kenyan online content creators and that seeks to empower online content creation and improve the quality of content created on the web.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Ecuador’s Creeping Criminalization of Abortion · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Marita Seara, blogging for Voces Visibles, warns about the growing criminalization of abortion in Ecuador, one of the most difficult countries in Latin America for women to obtain an abortion, second only to Venezuela.
Hay dos únicos casos en los cuales es permitido el aborto: cuando corre peligro la vida de la mujer y cuando se trata de una “violación a una discapacitada mental”. A mi parecer, inaudito. Leo en el medio ecuatoriano, Plan V, y no salgo de mi asombro, el proceso en el cual se trata de despenalizar el aborto en dicho país, un país donde, según se señala en dicho medio, 380 mil mujeres aproximadamente han sido víctimas de violación, un país donde una de cada cuatro mujeres han sido víctimas de algún tipo de agresión sexual, un país en el cual ha aumentado un 74,8% los embarazos de niñas entre 10 y 14 años, muchos de los cuales parecen estar ligados a violación sexual; un país donde más de 3.600 niñas menores de 15 años son madres producto de una violación.
There are only two cases where abortion is allowed: when mother's life is in danger and when it's a “rape committed against a learning disabled woman”. To me, it's outrageous. I read on the Ecuadorian new website Plan V and I'm astonished [about] these attempts to criminalize abortion in that country—a country where, as Plan V points out, about 380,000 women have been raped, where one out of four women has been the victim of some kind of sexual assault, and a country where pregnancy in 10- to 14-year-old girls has increased by 74.8 percent—many of them apparently related to sexual assaults. This is a country where more than 3,600 girls younger than 15 are mothers as result of a rape.
Criminalizing abortion would have profound repercussions for doctor-patient confidentiality, not to mention aggravate the country's already staggering social inequalities.
The criminalization concept could be spreading, too. More than a dozen women now languish in El Salvadorian prisons, convicted of “aggravated homicide” after miscarrying. Some of these would-be mothers are serving out 30-year prison sentences.
You can follow Voces Visibles and Marita Seara on Twitter.

author: Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez


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Finally, a Mobile App for Geolocated News in Latin America  · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

FACTICO is the first mobile media designed in Latin America to geolocate information. But, what is app all about?
FACTICO es la aplicación de noticias e información más innovadora y atractiva de América Latina. Nuestras notas son compactas y fáciles de leer, y todos nuestros contenidos están georreferenciados. La información más importante del día y los mejores eventos están en FACTICO.
FACTICO is the most innovative and attractive app of news and information in Latin America. Our news are compact and easy to read, and all our contents are georeferenced. The most important news of the day and the best events are at FACTICO.
Bellow there is an example of how FACTICO Mexico works:
Todo pasa en la Ciudad de México. Nosotros ponemos el mapa, la pasión la pones tú. #FACTICOteacerca https://t.co/p2DmXd6LOn
— FACTICO (@FACTICO_MX) April 9, 2015
Everything happens in Mexico City. We provide the map, you provide the passion.
In their manifest,o the creators of FACTICP state who they are and what they expect:
Somos lxs que creímos la promesa de la pluralidad en los medios y terminamos viendo la censura explícita y velada. Pero aprendimos a hackear el problema […]
Somos lxs que hemos salido a las calles a observar, a documentar lo que pasa en esta región del mundo poco entendida. Y por eso sabemos que no estamos solos.
Somos lxs que estamos cansados de las “historias oficiales”, de las declaraciones sin sustancia y de los replicadores del discurso que no cuestionan, que no preguntan.
Somos lxs que no aceptamos que se nos diga “ustedes no existen; sus ideas no importan; bajen la voz.”
Estamos aquí. Existimos.

Y estamos diciendo algo.

 Porque nunca como hoy ha existido más gente conectada, con ansias de conocer, saber y cambiar la manera de hacer las cosas.
Porque trabajamos e innovamos en red. Colaboramos. Mapeamos. Documentamos. Observamos. Damos contexto. Y no dejamos de experimentar.
We are the ones who believed in the promise ofmedia plurality and ended up seeing explicit and veiled censorship. But we learned to hack the problem […]
We are the ones who went out into the streets to observe, to document what happens in this poorly understood part of the world. And it is for that reason that we know we are not alone.
We are the ones who are tired of “official stories”, of insubstantial statements and of echo chambers that don't question speech.
We are the ones who do not accept being told “you do not exist, your ideas do not matter, lower your voices.”
We are here. We exist. And we are saying something. Because there have never been so many people connected as today, wanting to know, to find out and to change the way of doing things.
Because we work and innovate online. Collaborate. Map. Document. Observe. Provide context. And we do not stop to experiment.
Keep up with news about the app via the hashtag #FacticoTeAcerca (FACTICO brings you closer), and download the app here, available for Android and iOS.


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Google Denies Russian Media Claims on Data Localization Move · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Images remixed by Kevin Rothrock.
After reports in Russian media alleged that Google was bowing to Russia's demands and moving to store Russian users’ data on servers inside the country, Google representatives denied these claims and told Global Voices these reports were “inaccurate.”
Last week, RBC news agency reported that Google allegedly agreed to comply with the Russian data retention law and had already moved some of its user data storage facilities to data centers on Russian soil. RBC said this was revealed at a conference hosted by the Russian Communications Ministry in late March, for which RBC was able to procure a transcript. RBC reported that a representative of Rostelecom, one of Russia's leading telecommunications providers, claimed they were hired by Google to store their data at a “high-security data-server facility with close ties to the state.” But after the fact, Rostelecom refused to comment on the matter.
Global Voices contacted Google policy staff members to inquire about the claims. They said the reports about Google storing user data in Russia were “inaccurate,” but gave no further details on Google's reaction or actions in regards to the data retention law and its demands.
Google's denial of their collaboration with Russian authorities comes on the heels of reports about other companies, like eBay and PayPal, agreeing to start storing Russian user data in Russia, as mandated by the new data retention law that comes into power on September 1, 2015.
If RBC's sources misrepresented Google's actions in this case, this leaves many questions unresolved. Why would they do this? Who would benefit from such a misrepresentation? Russia certainly wants its new law to be recognized by international Internet companies doing business in Russia, and having an important player like Google on their side would be a definite advantage. But insisting Google agreed to the data localization demands when they did not would help no one, and would only make the Russian authorities look more desperate in their quest to increase control over the activities of Russian users.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Mocking Ecuador’s President Can Cost You Online Anonymity  · Global Voices
Alfredo Velazco

Image by the author, used with permission.
The public battle between social media satirists Crudo Ecuador and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa continues.
Que soy financiado, pagado a tiempo completo, que tengo un software de inteligencia, que soy parte de la restauración conservadora, y todos mis otros “secretos”… escúchelos aquí :)
Posted by Crudo Ecuador on Saturday, January 17, 2015
That I am funded, paid for full-time work, I have intelligence software, I'm part of the conservative restoration, and all my other “secrets” … listen to them here :)
After sending a threatening gift of flowers and exposing the individuals behind Crudo Ecuador, however, the Internet satirists surrendered, using the hashtag #UstedGanó (#YouWon).
Bueno señores, hasta aquí llegó todo.Gracias a todos los que moralmente me apoyaron en este proyecto, pero no puedo…
Posted by Crudo Ecuador on Thursday, February 19, 2015
Well, gentlemen, everything's come to this. Thanks to everyone who supported me morally in this project, but I can not …
On February 25, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights posted a statement urging the Ecuadorian government to protect the rights of the individuals behind Crudo Ecuador, as well as their families’ rights.
Además, la Relatoría Especial recuerda que “[t]anto el derecho a la libertad de pensamiento y expresión como el derecho a la vida privada protegen al discurso anónimo frente a restricciones estatales. La participación del debate público sin revelar la identidad del emisor es una práctica usual en las democracias modernas. La protección del discurso anónimo favorece la participación de la personas en el debate público ya que –al no revelar su identidad— pueden evitar ser objeto de represalias injustas por el ejercicio de un derecho fundamental”.
Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur highlights “the right to freedom of thought and expression, as well as the right to privacy and anonymity against state restrictions. Participating in public debates without revealing one's identity is a common practice in modern democracies. The protection of anonymous speech cultivates individuals’ participation in public debates, as concealing their identity can protect them against unfair retaliations for exercising their fundamental rights.”
Nationally, few civil-society organizations have joined the Manifesto for the Freedom of Expression, Anonymity, and Online Privacy in Ecuador, though several international organizations have signed.

author: Alfredo Velazco