text:
DREAM Helps Reduce AIDS Cases in Africa · Global Voices
Bah Abdoulaye

Cristina Cannelli [it], leader of the DREAM programme in Guinea, granted us an interview [en] which was published in the  7 Billion Actions [en] series, commissioned by UNFPA, the UN agency for world population issues, to celebrate the population reaching 7 billion. She told us about the objectives of the programme and its achievements in September 2011. Since then, the results of various studies would seem to confirm these positive results, giving way to new approaches in the fight against the AIDS epidemic.
This time we have interviewed Paola Germano, head of the DREAM programme for all Africa.
Global Voices (GV): According to recent reports from various sources, it would seem that AIDS cases are declining. Can you confirm this based on your experience with Comunità di Sant'Egidio's DREAM programme?
Paola Gemano: Yes. In most of the countries we work in, the epidemic has stabilised, and in some countries we are even seeing a reduction in the number of new cases. According to UNAIDS predictions, in the entire Sub-Saharan Africa, in 2010 we had 16% fewer cases compared to 2001.
GV:Could you explain how we achieved such positive results?
PG: The reduction in cases is due to a combination of factors: it is in part due to the natural cycle of the epidemic, but it is also a result of the recent efforts, with precautionary measures; the increased awareness of governments and citizens; and above all the increased coverage of antiretroviral treatments. We know that, in countries with low or medium development levels, more than 6 million people benefit from the antiretroviral treatment. When the DREAM programme first started, there were very few centres where the treatment was offered. Today the treatment is available in most of Africa, even if much work is still needed to reach everyone!
GV: Is there a reduction in the number of cases in all the countries where there is the DREAM programme?
PG: We have had particularly good results in Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania. For example, in Malawi the percentage of people affected by the epidemic has gone from 15% to 11.5% in just a few years.
African mother with her child – photo from the website of the DREAM project of the Comnità di Sant'Egidio
GV: Why has there been such a positive result in Malawi?
PG: The population is small and the epidemic was not as diffused. The government, together with the organisations operating in the country, including DREAM, responded actively to the epidemic, putting thousands of people through therapy in just a few years. In 2011 an innovative approach to taking care of HIV-positive pregnant women was introduced: an infected pregnant woman quickly begins HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) and this approach guarantees better results in preventing the baby from becoming infected and reducing the risks for the mother.
GV: The DREAM programme had put together mobile teams that visited areas of certain African cities to offer better assistance to the AIDS suffers. How is this progressing?
PG: It's continuing, and increasing! We are intensifying the service both for people who live in rural areas like Kenya (where we have bases in the eastern regions of the country) or like Malawi (where there are few health centres and the villages are spread far apart), and to reach those who live in the suburbs of big cities like Conakry or Kinshasa. By visiting the places where our patients live we can better understand the difficulties, the problems, and together we can work out ways to overcome them.
GV: What can you tell us about Prof. Felipe Garcia's AIDS vaccine [it] that has been much talked about in the last couple of years and that, according to the media, has been shown to be effective for a certain period in reducing the development of the virus in the initial phases of the illness?
PG: Over the last few years, as well as continuing to research a vaccine, we are also researching the possibility of making a partially therapeutic vaccine, one that can improve the immune system of people who are already infected and are receiving antiretroviral therapy. However, this treatment needs to be alongside the antiretroviral therapy. In other words, they cannot replace the antiretroviral therapy. Breakthroughs have been made but for the moment they are still at the experimental phase. Research is nonetheless continuing and we hope to bring something useful to the infected people!
GV: The DREAM programme does not limit itself to only identifying and helping HIV-positive people. Could you please tell us about the other work you do in Africa?
PG: Firstly, there are, let's say, cultural activities. In other words we inform people in the countries where we haves bases about HIV, about its prevention and treatment and about the rights of HIV-positive people. An important aspect is the fight against the stigmatization of infected people. In some countries associations of people who fight against the stigma and for the right to treatment have developed around DREAM.
Often the DREAM centres are in suburban areas that lack basic services. We try as much as possible to meet the most urgent needs of the population. For example, in some of our centers, we have installed water pumps because we noticed that the people of the area did not have sufficient access to drinking water.
On the other hand, in Mozambique (Maputo and Beira) and in Malawi we have opened feeding centres for children to fight against childhood malnutrition, which is very common and has serous consequences on the life and general development of the child. Every day in these centres approximately 500 children receive a full, balanced meal.
GV: We heard that the programme also distributes food to the families of the people affected by AIDS.
PG: Yes. In many African countries people suffer because of an unstable food supply, and malnutrition aggravates the effects of HIV. Also, when people are in the advances stages of the illness, they no longer have the energy to work and so they have less money to buy food; for this reason we have identified certain categories of people who have greater need, and we try to give them a food pack for a certain period of time. Amongst the people who benefit from this are pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding: in fact giving them food reduces the risks of malnutrition for the baby; Then there are the AIDS sufferers who arrive at the centre already showing signs of malnutrition to whom we offer basic food pack for the first 6 months of treatment. It is usually long enough for their health to return and then they get their strength back and can work. We offer nutritional aid in all the countries where we work, however, it must be said that with the economic crisis it is becoming ever more difficult to find partners who will help and sustain us in this area.
GV: What does the BRAVO! (Birth Registration for All Versus Oblivion) [it] programme do?
PG: BRAVO! is a programme run bu Sant'Egidio which is integrated with DREAM, but it is another programme.
GV: Is there anything you would like to add for our readers?
PG: For us DREAM is not only about offering medical aid but it is also an important human and spiritual experience: we have seen how uniting many people's efforts we can face problems that seem insurmountable, changing the destiny of many people. This encourages us to not give up when faced with the impossible, and to overcome it!
Sant'Egidio's website says that BRAVO!'s aim is to guarantee children's registration at the moment of birth, though improved registry services, making parents and children aware of this and by collaborating with the ministries and government institutions in charge. Talks are underway for another interview with the leaders of BRAVO! to illustrate the results they have achieved, the difficulties they encountered and what the future has in store.
The publication of this interview was made possible thanks to Marisa Petricca, who reviewed it and helps gather appropriate references, photos and videos.

author: Bah Abdoulaye


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Italian Appeals Court Upholds Guilty Verdict in Historic Eternit Asbestos Case · Global Voices
Bah Abdoulaye

[All links lead to Italian-language webpages unless otherwise noted.]
An appeals court in Turin, Italy has affirmed a previous court's landmark ruling [en] finding Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny [en], former owner of cement manufacturer Swiss Eternit Group, responsible for nearly 3,000 asbestos-related deaths.
The court, presided over by Alberto Oggè, even upped the damages on June 3, 2013 that Schmidheiny must pay to the victims and local authorities.
There should have been two defendants, but the very day that the first conviction was handed down, the other defendant, the Belgian Baron Louis De Cartier De Marchienne [en], died aged 92 – a matter of days before the end of the appeal process. For this reason, the court declared his case settled.
Many sources have called [en] this the biggest trial for environmental damage in the history of Europe with more than 2,890 injured parties – both workers and citizens – of whom more than 2,000 have died or are suffering from serious illnesses.
Biagio Chiariello wrote on the community blog fanpage.it:
La pronuncia della sentenza d’appello era attesa con trepidazione da almeno 500 persone, arrivate a bordo di sette autobus. Le parti lese sono circa seimila tra familiari dei lavoratori morti per tumore o semplici cittadini residenti nei luoghi in cui c’erano le fabbriche che producevano le fibre di amianto a Casale Monferrato, in provincia di Alessandria, a Cavagnolo (Torino), Bagnoli (Napoli), Rubiera (Reggio Emilia). La sentenza estende la responsabilità dell'imputato anche per le vittime di queste due ultime fabbriche, per cui invece in primo grado era stata dichiarata l'intervenuta prescrizione. Schmydheiny è stato assolto per il periodo che va dal giugno del '66 al '76 per non aver commesso il fatto.
The appeal verdict was eagerly awaited by at least 500 people, who arrived on seven buses. There are about 6,000 offended parties from family members of workers who died due to tumours to citizens of the areas where the factories produced the asbestos fibres in Casale Monferrato, in the province of Alessandria, in Cavagnolo (Turin), Bagnoli (Naples) and Rubiera (Reggio Emilia). The sentence extends the accused's responsibility to the victims of the last two factories, for which, instead of first time around, a limitation period was declared. Schmidheiny was acquitted for the period from June '66 to '76 for not having committed the crime.
On the same blog fanpage.it, in another post, Antonio Palma provided details of the amount the Swiss billionaire will have to pay to the victims:
La somma più rilevante stabilita dal collegio giudicante presieduto da Alessandro Oggé è per il Comune di Casale Monferrato in provincia di Alessandria, uno dei più colpiti dal terribile disastro ambientale della multinazionale dell'amianto e dove vivevano circa la metà delle vittime. Come ha stabilito la sentenza eternit, all'amministrazione cittadina andranno 30,9 milioni di euro, una cifra lievitata rispetto ai 25 milioni stabiliti nella sentenza di primo grado e corrispondenti alle richieste dei legali del Comune. Ad ogni familiare delle vittime invece è stato riconosciuto un risarcimento di 30mila euro.
The most significant sum established by the panel of judges presided by Alessando Oggé is destined for the Council of Casale Monferrato in the province of Alessandria, one of the worst hit by the terrible environmental disaster caused by the asbestos multinational and where almost half of the victims live. As agreed by the Eternit ruling, the local authorities will receive 30.9 million euros (41.2 million US dollars), which has risen from the 25 million (33.3 million US dollars) set out by the judgement of first instance, in line with the requests of the town's lawyers. Every family member of the victims will instead receive damages for 30,000 euros (about 40,018 US dollars).
The author continued:
a cui sono stati attribuiti 20 milioni di euro. La sentenza eternit ha poi stabilito 100mila euro per ogni sindacato ammesso come parte civile e 70mila euro ciascuno invece alle due associazioni ambientaliste, Wwf e Legambiente. Unica eccezione in fatto di risarcimenti nella sentenza eternit è quello dell'Inail. All'istituto per gli infortuni sul lavoro la Corte non ha riconosciuto il diritto al risarcimento anche se l'ente aveva già promosso nei confronti della multinazionale azioni di recupero molto dispendiose.
for a total of 20 million euros (26.7 US dollars). The Eternit ruling also established 100,000 euros (133,400 US dollars) for each union admitted as a civil party and 70,000 euros (93,400 US dollars) each to the two environmental organisations, WWF and Legambiente. The only exception in terms of compensation in the Eternit ruling is that of Inail (Italian National Institution for Insurance against Accidents at Work). The Court did not recognise any right to compensation for Inail even if the institution had already begun a very expensive recovery operation with regards to the multinational.
Asbestos kills and causes serious illnesses in every corner of the world. However, in many other parts of the world, the victims have not yet had the satisfaction of seeing the perpetrators brought to justice. On scienze-naturali.it, Massimo Gigliotti wrote:
E se l’Italia ha una legge scritta in cui si bandisce l’uso dell’amianto e che in Europa l’Eternit sia stato messo al bando, sono solo 44 le Nazioni che l’hanno bandito, mentre ci sono Paesi dove viene ancora utilizzato, come Russia, Canada, Cina, India, Brasile, Thailandia.
And although Italy has a law that bans the use of asbestos and Europe has banished Eternit, only 44 nations have banned it. There are countries where it is still used, such as Russia, Canada, China, India, Brasil and Thailand.
Unfortunately, there is still some asbestos littered around the country: in schools, in homes or scattered in the environment. Dario Scacciavento noted on aamterranuova.it
Anche se l'estrazione e la commercializzazione di eternit e amianto è stata bandita nel 1992, gli esperti epidemiologici prevedono il picco dei malati di tumori intorno al 2020.
Even if the extraction and marketing of Eternit and asbestos was banned in 1992, experts in epidemics foresee a peak in cancer patients around 2020.
Even in Africa asbestos is costing lives. The two most contaminated countries are South Africa and Zimbabwe. This video available on YouTube dramatically describes the ordeal of some victims waiting to die in the town of Prieska:
The ruling in Turin has given a colossal boost to the associations of victims, of family members and in general civil society all over the world to continue fighting against industrial pollution, particularly that caused by asbestos.
On the site articolo21.org, Santo Della Volpe wrote:
Infatti a Casale Monferrato si sono già riunite le associazioni contro l’amianto di Francia, Belgio, Svizzera, Brasile ed altri paesi sudamericani, per concordare l’uso di questa sentenza nei loro paesi, dove l’Eternit e le micidiali fibre di amianto, non solo si usano, ma si continuano a produrre.
In fact associations against asbestos from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil and other South American countries have gathered in Casale Monferrato to agree on the application of this sentence in their home countries, where Eternit and deadly asbestos fibres are not only in use but continue to be produced.
Before leaving Turin, victims’ associations from France (ANDEVA), Belgium (ABEVA), the United Kingdom (AVSGF and others), the USA (ADAO), Brasil (ABREA), Spain (FEDAVICA), Australia (ADSA), Canada (CANSAV), Korea, India (OHSA and others), South Africa, Peru (APEVA) and Germany as well as Italy's AFEVA, issued a press release requesting that the United Nations include asbestos in their list of chemical products from the Rotterdam Convention [en] that regulates the import and export of certain dangerous chemical products and pesticides.
In Spain, asbestosinthedock.ning.com announced [es]:
Durante los próximos días 10 y 11 de Junio, a partir de las 9,30 horas, tendrá lugar, ante el Juzgado de lo Social Número 5 de Sevilla(Edificio NOGA, en Avda. de la Buhaira), la celebración del primer juicio colectivo de afectados por el amianto, contra la Empresa URALITA, que casi durante 60 años desarrolló su actividad industrial de fabricación de materiales de fibrocemento en esta Ciudad, concretamente en el conocido Barrio de Bellavista.
On 10 and 11 June from 9:30 am at the Labour Court #5 of Seville (NOGA Building, Avenida de la Buhaira) the first collective proceeding of asbestos victims against the company URALITA will be held, a company that for over 60 years has produced fibre cement materials in this city, in particular in the district of Bellavista.
The thirst for profit must not override the worker's right to health. As the prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello declared, the ruling represents “a tribute to life”.

source: news-globalvoices

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


text:
Senegalese Literacy Contest Winner Turns Down French Visa in Protest · Global Voices
Anna Gueye

[All links forward to French-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
For several decades, African people wanting to go to France have run into problems obtaining visas, a consequence of current immigration policies.
Now, one woman from Senegal is speaking out.
Bousso Dramé, the winner of the French Institute of Senegal's 2013 spelling contest as part of their Francophonia competition, was awarded a return plane ticket between Dakar and Paris, and a CultureLab training course in documentary filmmaking at the Albert Schweitzer Centre.
But faced with the degrading behaviour of the French consulate's staff in Dakar, Dramé stood firm and refused to use her French visa – a symbolic act of defiance in the name of all the Senegalese who are denied the respect they deserve by the French delegation to Senegal, a former colony of France.
Since June 20, her open letter to the French consulate in Senegal has been widely circulated on the Internet, agitating the African community. Similarly, it aroused the indignation of netizens throughout the world.
In her letter, she described the actions of the consulate staff:
Cependant, durant mes nombreuses interactions avec, d'une part,  certains membres du personnel de l'Institut Français, et, d'autre part, des agents du Consulat de France, j'ai eu à faire face à des attitudes et propos condescendants, insidieux, sournois et vexatoires. Pas une fois, ni deux fois, mais bien plusieurs fois! Ces attitudes, j'ai vraiment essayé de les ignorer mais l'accueil exécrable dont le Consulat de France a fait montre à mon égard (et à celui de la majorité de Sénégalais demandeurs de visas) a été la goutte d'eau de trop, dans un vase, hélas, déjà plein à ras bord. … Renoncer au nom de tous ces milliers de Sénégalais qui méritent le respect, un respect qu'on leur refuse au sein de ces représentations de la France, en terre sénégalaise, qui plus est.
However, during my numerous exchanges with the French Institute's personnel on the one hand, and staff members of the French Consulate on the other hand, I have had to deal with condescending, insidious, snide, and vexing behaviour and remarks. Not just once, or even twice, but many times! I have genuinely tried to disregard this behaviour, but the French Consulate's loathsome treatment towards me (as well as to the majority of the Senegalese lodging visa applications) has proved to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. … Renouncing in the name of the thousands of Senegalese who are denied the respect they deserve by these French representatives, and in Senegalese territory on top of that.
A chronicle on channel Africa N°1 is devoted to her open letter:
http://youtu.be/AkC_CI8bnwU
In the video, the host celebrates Dramé's initiative and describes the letter as a massive middle finger salute to its former colonial power. She adds that African political leaders could learn a thing or two from the way Dramé stood up for herself and her country's honor.
In 2008, the French government had asked from its consulates in Africa that they “pay particular attention to the issuing of visas” to African people “with occupational activities in the artistic, cultural, higher education or research sectors”. However, this did not seem to bring about much change, and in 2009, some artists created a visa committee for artists.
French visa controversies continue to be a regular occurrence in African news.
In July 2012, the denial of visas to two African personalities, Burkinabe Halidou Ouédraogo, the honorary chairman of the Burkinabe Movement for Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights (Mouvement Burkinabè des Droits de l’Homme et des Peuples: MBDHP) and Senegalese academic Oumar Sankharé were splashed on newspaper front pages. Subsequently, in October 2012, Black Fashion Week was marred by visa problems.
The French Consul responded to Dramé in the media. His reply revealed that:
Le consulat traite 32.000 demandes de visas par an, chaque préposée reçoit 35 à 40 personnes par jour.
The Consulate manages 32,000 visa applications every year; each employee receives 35 to 40 people a day.
Le consulat traite 32.000 demandes de visas par an, chaque préposée reçoit 35 à 40 personnes par jour.
On his blog, Hady Ba summed up that Senegal brings in visa revenue of nearly two million US dollars to the French:
Un visa coûte autour de 30 000 Francs CFA. Cela veut dire que les visas rapportent à l’ambassade de France au Sénégal 32 000×30 000 = 960 000 000 de Francs CFA = 1 476 923, 08 d’euros.
A visa costs around 30,000 Francs CFA. This means that visas bring in: 32,000 × 30,000 = 960,000,000 Francs CFA = 1,476,923.08 euros to the French Embassy in Senegal.
He noted us that this money is not refunded when the Consulate denies someone a visa:
la plupart des demandeurs se voient refuser leur visa de manière arbitraire par un Consulat qui gardera quand même le fric.
most of the applicants are denied their visas on arbitrary grounds by a consulate which will keep the money anyway.
Map of the countries with visa requirements for French citizens – on Wikipedia. CC-BY-3.0
Although Dramé's message has generated support across borders, with people from various nationalities identifying with her because the offensive treatment of French consulates towards visa applicants is widespread in Africa, there has been some criticism deeming Dramé to be pompous, condemning the mention of her degrees in her letter:
Quelque chose me dérange: Bousso Dramé me fait penser à ces gens, habitués aux 1ères classes et qui pour rien au monde ne voudront s’asseoir en classe éco. Elle n’a pas eu besoin de ce concours pour connaitre la France (où les comportements envers les africains dans les préfectures sont encore pire que dans les ambassades)… et il est plus que certain que dans quelques semaines elle fera le tour des plateaux télés français pour expliquer le ras-le-bol de l’Afrique quant aux traitements « inhumains » de la France etc…
There is something that bothers me: Bousso Dramé reminds me of these people who, used to travelling in first class, would not go second class for anything in the world. She did not need this contest to get to know France (where the administration's behaviour towards African people is far worse than in embassies)… and it is highly likely that in a few weeks, she will be parading on French TV shows to expose Africa's discontent with France's “inhumane treatment”, etc.
Hady Ba concluded his post asserting that:
Mme Dramé contribue à redéfinir les termes de l’échange et c’est une bonne chose. Nos autorités devraient en prendre la graine.
Ms. Dramé contributes to the redefinition of the terms of trade, and it is highly beneficial. The authorities should learn from her.
To conclude, Jacques Enaudeau, a Global Voices contributor and an author for the blog “Africa is a Country”, wrote [en]:
As far as Senegal is concerned, this is all very good news and confirmation that the Nouveau Type de Sénégalais called forth by Y’En A Marre comes in all shapes and sizes. It is however a pity and an outrage that France has not yet come to terms with such a simple reality.
From July 1st, 2013 onwards, Senegal will gradually establish visa reciprocity.

author: Anna Gueye


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South Sudan Releases Detained Ugandan Journalists · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Two Ugandan journalists and their fixer were detained in South Sudan for four days for reportedly filming without permission in the country's capital.
The Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) held two visiting Ugandan journalists, Hillary Ayesiga and Justin Dralaze, and their South Sudanese fixer and driver, Sunday David Tut. They were released on July 31, 2013 but banned from entering the country.
Reporters Without Borders reported that the three were arrested on the airport road in Juba on 27 July, supposedly for filming along the road without permission. After their arrest, they were reportedly taken to National Security Headquarters, disreputable for the appalling conditions.
Ayesiga was on assignment in Juba for independent broadcast agency Feature Story News (FSN) of the United States to  to “cover the security and political situation after President Salva Kiir’s decision to fire his entire cabinet on 23 July and impose a curfew in the capital,” according to Reporters Without Borders. Tut works for the South Sudanese radio station Liberty FM.
Throughout the journalists’ detention, Ugandan journalists and media workers took on to Twitter to send a message to South Sudan President Salva Kirr, launching a campaign using the hashtag #FreeUgandaJournos to call for their release.
Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) appealed to the Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi to talk to the president of South Sudan:
@AmamaMbabazi pls call on President Kiir to release Ugandan journalists held since saturday #FreeUgandaJournos pic.twitter.com/K5IHi9O06Z
— Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) July 30, 2013
Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond), a Ugandan journalist, made a plea with Ugandans to support the cause:
Ugandans the least you can do to show solidarity under the hashtag #FreeUgandaJournos, we cn fight kenyans bt cnt fight 4 our journos?
— Qatahar Raymond (@qataharraymond) July 31, 2013
Javie Ssozi (@jssozi), a new media consultant, called for more support:
The Union of Journalists in #SouthSudan (UJoSS) have added their voice #FreeUgandaJournos – demanding immediate release of @JZiras & Hillary
— Javie Ssozi (@jssozi) July 30, 2013
Blogger Maureen Agena (@maureenagena) wrote:
When journalists continue to be aressted an humiliated, the society is robbed off its mouthpiece. #freeugandajournos @JZiras & Hillary.
— Maureen Agena (@maureenagena) July 29, 2013
She added:
#Journalists deserve better b'se they r society watchdogs. @JZiras & Hillary need their FREEDOM 4m s.sudan. #freeugandajournos #mediafreedom
— Maureen Agena (@maureenagena) July 29, 2013
Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) called for support to have the journalists released:
Pls support our call for release of 2 Uganda journalists + driver held in #SouthSudan #PressFreedom #FreeUgandaJournos @africamedia_CPJ
— Rosebell Kagumire (@RosebellK) July 29, 2013
Grace Natabaalo (@Natabaalo), a Ugandan media consultant, announced their release:
South Sudan has finally released the two Ugandan journalists who were being held in Juba since Saturday. #FreeUgandaJournos
— Grace Natabaalo (@Natabaalo) July 31, 2013

author: Prudence Nyamishana


text:
Tunisia: Political Crisis Escalates After 8 Soldiers Killed in Ambush · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Tunisians are in shock following an ambush which left eight soldiers dead and three injured near the Algerian border. The incident took place on Monday, in the mountainous area of Chammbi in the Governorate of Kasserine, some 290 kilometers south of the capital Tunis. According to media reports, five of the soldiers killed had their throats cut.
le plus petit des soldats a 21 ans et le plus âgé a 31 ans..Tout à l'image d'une jeunesse Tunisienne sacrifiée #RIP
— aymen ferchichi (@aymenferchichi) July 30, 2013
The youngest of the soldiers is aged 21, the oldest is 31. This reflects the image of a Tunisian youth being sacrificed. #RIP
For several months Tunisian armed and security forces have been hunting for Islamic militants believed to be related to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), on Mount Chammbi. Land mine explosions in the months of April, May and June left two soldiers dead and at least 14 injured among the security and armed forces. Interim President Moncef Marzouki described the ambush as a “terrorist attack”. “We have entered the period of terrorism. We are going to pass through a difficult period but we shall overcome it”, he said in a televised speech.
Names of soldiers killed on Mount Chaambi.
With news of the tragedy spreading, speculations and accusations on social media started to multiply:
Les théories complotistes sur #Chaambi se multiplient en #Tunisie certains évoquent un coup de l'ex-RCD, de Nahda ou des services algériens
— David Thomson (@_DavidThomson) July 31, 2013
conspiracy theories about #Chaambi multiplying in Tunisia. Some blame the RCD (former ruling party of Zeine el Abidin Ben Ali), others Ennahdha (the Islamist movement leading the coalition government) or the Algerian intelligence services.
@_DavidThomson Les #Tunisiens sont devenu plus parano que les américains. Vous oubliez la piste du mossad aussi? Manque plus la piste alien
— Tunisie (@tunisie) July 31, 2013
@_DavidThomson Tunisians have become more paranoid than Americans. You did not mention the Mossad. The last thing we need is to have the aliens as suspects.
When asked about who he thinks is behind the bloody ambush, Tunis-based France24 journalist, David Thomson answered:
@SoulSoundProd je pense qu'il s'agit d'une cellule jihadiste isolée, indépendante de toute organisation mais je n'exclue pas de me tromper
— David Thomson (@_DavidThomson) July 31, 2013
I think it is an isolated jihadist group, independent from any other organization. I could be wrong, though
As with the assassination of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi and leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid, the three-party coalition government led by the Islamist Ennahdha Movement was blamed. Opposition figures and activists have often accused the government of not taking matters of terrorism seriously and of tolerating religious extremists.
Le message que #ennahdha fait passer est clair, si vous nous dégagez, on brûlera la #Tunisie… Ca me rapelle un certain #Zaba
— Tounsi (@T2Tuniz) July 30, 2013
Ennahdha's message is clear, if you make us leave [power], we will set #Tunisia on fire. This reminds me of ZABA [former president Zeine el Abidin Ben Ali, whose ouster on January 14, 2011 led to a wave of violence and acts of vandalism]
La contre-révolution au pouvoir qui n'a jamais envisagé de combattre le terrorisme, est responsable de tout ce qui s'est passé au #Chaâmbi.
— Boukornine (@BoukornineBlog) July 30, 2013
The ruling counter-revolution which never sought to fight terrorism is responsible for what happened in #Chaambi
Nous sommes tous émus par ce qui s'est passé à #Chaambi, mais accuser immédiatement #Ennahdha d'avoir organisé l'embuscade c'est con.
— Habib M. Sayah (@Habsolutelyfree) July 29, 2013
We are all moved by what happened in Chaambi. But, quickly accusing Ennahdha is stupid
Monday's bloody ambush is deepening the political crisis Tunisia is already facing following the assassination of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi on July 25. Thousands have been taking to the streets demanding the fall of the three-party coalition government, led by the Islamist Ennahdha Movement. A sit-in demanding the dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), tasked with drafting a new constitution is under way. According Marsad, a civil society group which tracks the work of the NCA, 60 MPs withdrew from the NCA.
List of MPs for (red) and against (green) the dissolution of the NCA. Source: Marsad.tn
Tunisia's largest labor union has called upon the government to resign and put in place a technocratic one. The union opposed the dissolution of the NCA and suggested the formation of a committee of experts to revise the latest draft constitution in two weeks before submitting it for a vote in the NCA.
Après une déception de la part de l’ #UGTT , il ne nous reste que la rue. Continuons le combat. #bardo #ra7il #brahmi
— Ahmed Farhat (@farhat_amd) July 31, 2013
Following the UGTT's deceit, the only way left is the street. Let's carry on the battle.
L’#UGTT peut paraitre mou pour bcp, mais c les décisions les moins populistes et les plus réalistes qu'il ait pris depuis le #14jan #fb
— Nizou (@nizouu1) July 30, 2013
For many, the UGTT can appear soft. But, these are the least populist and most realistic decision, the UGTT took since January 14
As anti-gov protests continue, a military operation in underway to clear Mount Chaambi from suspected Islamic militants.

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Abre Latam: Developers and Solutions for the Region  · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Abre Latam [es], an event on Open Data and transparency in Latin American governments that took place in Montevideo, Uruguay on June 24 and 25, did not only bring together hackers and civil society activists from Latin America, along with other people from the region interested in spreading open data and the applications that use them, but also organizations and people from other parts of the world with the same interests.
For example, Alla Morrison, writing for the Open Data blog at the World Bank comments on what she had in mind before the event took place:
Does open data have economic value beyond the benefits of transparency and accountability? Does it have the power to fuel new businesses and create new jobs? Does it have the potential to improve people's lives by powering new services and products? If so, what should the World Bank be doing to help this along? These were questions we had in mind as we set out to bring together open data entrepreneurs from across Latin America for an Open Data Business Models workshop in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Abre Latam: An open meeting for an open region
As mentioned in a prior post, people from the Open Knowledge Foundation were present to launch the Spanish version of School of Data: Escuela de Datos [es]. They had previously been in Santiago and Buenos Aires and their mission was to promote the launch of the School of Data, but also to try to find and meet the people that participate and drive the topic of open data. According to what they wrote in their blog, it was a magnificent experience:
The initiative [Escuela de Datos] was received enthusiastically and we’re looking forward to see the network grow. […] After the two intense days all of us left with big smiles and new ideas in our minds. Big congratulations to the team at DATA for organising the event and bringing together such a great group of people from all around the region!
Photo from the ABRE LATAM Facebook page
Jen Bramley, of MySociety.org, one of the organizations present that is dedicated to developing software that will empower people in their civic and democratic aspects (FixMyStreet, for example), wrote that “it was extremely interesting to hear the social, cultural, and political experiences of other people in relation to technology,” and also mentioned that:
For me, the most important part was seeing the projects other people work on to strengthen transparency, citizen participation, and civil liberties in their own countries. It’s a humbling experience to realise that some things we take for granted are the subject of intense campaigning in other countries. Each day we had a series of workshops around different topics. I facilitated one, trying to learn what people want from open source technology to make it more globally usable.
Javier Ruíz of the Open Rights Group, an organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression, privacy, innovation, creativity, and consumer rights on the Internet, believes that it is interesting that among the attendees at Abre Latam there was a genuine concern that open data was not only playing with technological toys. He also wrote about his participation in the event:
ORG’s proposed session on privacy brought up many interesting examples of conflicts and difficult choices. Among others we heard of exam results being published in Mexico and the electoral register with Google indexed photos in Argentina. The consensus was that the privacy and open data nexus is very important but we lack the framework to analyse it. This is particularly complicated with the diversity of legal and cultural contexts we find in different countries. Many activists asked for more information and capacity building.
Photo from the ABRE LATAM Facebook page
Although Fabrizio Scrollini is Uruguayan and a member of D.A.T.A., one of the organizers of Abre Latam, he wrote a post in English as a guest for the Sunlight Foundation's blog, where he makes a series of reflections on the event as well as on the state of open data, transparency, and open government in the region. Among other things he says:
Community matters. This is hardly a surprise but community can mean different things. Indeed people are interested in open data for all sorts of reasons, but when it comes to a particular area or group of datasets, and the aim is social change, the need for different skills and common goals becomes crucial. Some of the greatest sessions were about how to link the different worlds of technology, communication, policy and social problem solving. Open data (or the lack of it) is sometimes a great excuse to put minds together working to achieve better outcomes.
Susannah Vila, a Global Voices collaborator, kept a live-blog for TechPresident, which she begins with a bit of history about the initiatives with open data in the region:
When Ciudadano Inteligente was launched back in 2011 it was perhaps the only initiative in the region using technology to enhance civic information, engagement and transparency. That same year a regional hackathon, Desarrollando America Latina, was created. Soon after, a community of civic technologists that rivals Chile’s emerged in Mexico, and then in Argentina, Perú, and elsewhere. Uruguay’s DATA launched less than a year ago. As bellwethers like Ciudadano Inteligente grow, and newer projects emerge, a convening designed to consider what has worked and what hasn’t is propitious. It’s also the first of its kind for the region, where civic technologists have come together (plenty) for hackathons, but never to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the hackathon and open data projects.
Photo from the ABRE LATAM Facebook page
In another post, Susannah identifies three tendencies that emerged in Abre Latam to answer the question: How do we engage the right people at the right time to use data from the government and turn it into policies for lasting change?
1. Top-Down Solutions: Donor-funded strategies that bring technologists together with NGOs, journalists, activists and other interested groups.
2. Bottom-up solutions: Workshops that develop political autonomy and engagement at the grassroots level.
3. Realistic Solutions: Engage deeply with niche groups.
In conclusion, we are sharing a quote from the blog of Raquel Camargo, a Brazilian journalist who attended the event and also presented the project where she works, Movimento Minas [pt]. After writing about the initiatives that impressed her the most, she reflects the following:
A mensagem que fiquei com todos esses projetos é que, quem quer faz. A grande parte desses projetos contam com poucas pessoas, mas muita vontade. São independentes, são alimentados de determinação e ideologias. Dinheiro? Nem sempre rola. Mas tem paixão no meio. Isso é, para mim, emocionante e faz total sentido ao momento do Brasil. A gente quer mudança? Então vamos fazer a mudança. Esse pessoal aí sabe o que é isso.
The message that all of these projects gave me is that, whoever wants to, does it. A big part of these projects have very few people, but a lot of will. They are independent, they are fed by determination and ideologies. Money? Not always. But passion is in the middle. That is, for me, exciting and makes a lot of sense in Brazil's present moment. We want to change? Then let's make the change. These people here know what that is.
Photo from the ABRE LATAM Facebook page
Related post:
Abre Latam, an Open Conference for an Open Region.

author: Juan Arellano


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Brazil Accused of Railroading Indigenous Rights in Proposed Land Bill · Global Voices
Luciane Salles

[All links lead to Portuguese-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
The Brazilian government has brought a bill that would void the rights of indigenous people over part of their lands to an emergency vote before the full senate, alarming indigenous groups and supporters.
When an emergency bill is filed, it goes directly to the full senate for a vote without being debated by other committees. Complementary Bill (PLP) 227/2012 would in practice allow the state to exploit indigenous lands to suit various economic interests.
The urgency vote on PLP 227 is expected to take place at the end of August, though the President of the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Indigenous Rights, Padre Ton, promises to prevent it until then.
In an article written by Márcio Santilli, the coordinator of the Socio-environmental Institute (Instituto Socioambiental) and ex-president of the National Indian Foundation, the Brazilian governmental agency for indigenous affairs, he says the government will “legalize large landholdings, deploy land reform settlements, open roads, construct dams and cities and conduct mineral and other natural resource exploitation on indigenous lands”.
The specialist  accuses the government of political maneuvering and damaging the Brazilian Constitution in relation to indigenous people:
Mas, se é que é possível, a aberração no processo legislativo em curso é ainda mais grave que o conteúdo de verdadeiro estupro aos direitos constitucionais dos índios.
However, if it is possible, the aberration in the ongoing legislative process is even more severe than the content of the real assault on the constitutional rights of the indigenous people.
In a letter delivered to the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff through the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil), the indigenous people answer:
Somos totalmente contrários a quaisquer tentativas de modificação nos procedimentos de demarcação das terras indígenas atualmente patrocinados por setores de seu governo, principalmente a Casa Civil e Advocacia Geral da União (AGU), visando atender a pressão e interesses dos inimigos históricos dos nossos povos, invasores dos nossos territórios; hoje expressivamente representados pelo agronegócio, a bancada ruralista, as mineradoras, madeireiras, empreiteiras, entre outros.
We are totally opposed to any attempts to modify the procedures for demarcation of indigenous lands currently sponsored by sectors of your government, mainly the Chief of Staff and the Office of the Solicitor-General of the Union (AGU) [the authority in charge of the legal advising of the Executive Branch and the judicial and extradicial representation of the State of Brazil, according to Wikipedia], aiming to give in to the pressure and interests of the historical enemies of our people, invaders of our territories; today significantly represented by agribusiness, the rural caucus, mining companies, logging companies and construction companies, among others.
In the document, the indigenous people reject the government's plan for a model of unsustainable development that disrespects the original and fundamental rights of peoples and nature, “guaranteed by the Magna Carta, Convention 169 and UN declarations”.
Many people protested on social networks using the hashtag #GolpePLP227Não (No to the Complementary Bill 227 Coup). Ex-senator Marina Silva (@silva_marina) tweeted on July 16:
Em curso no Congresso, grave investida contra os direitos indígenas #GolpePLP227Nao Entenda aqui: http://t.co/g6kZwfjaio
— Marina Silva (@silva_marina) July 16, 2013
Underway in Congress, a major assault on indigenous rights #GolpePLP227Nao Understand here: http://t.co/g6kZwfjaio
Environmental organization Greenpeace (@GreenpeaceBR) and Xingu Vivo (@xinguvivo) also commented:
O PLP 227 pretende revogar, sem qualquer discussão, o capítulo “Dos Índios” da Constituição brasileira. #GolpePLP227NÃO
— Greenpeace Brasil (@GreenpeaceBR) July 17, 2013
PLP 227 seeks to repeal, without any debate, the chapter “On the Indians” of the Brazilian Constitution. #GolpePLP227NÃO
É isto que parlamentares estão querendo derrubar:a força do movimento indígena e os acordos firmados http://t.co/c4nxviC6qo #GolpePLP227NÃO
— Xingu Vivo (@xinguvivo) July 16, 2013
This is what lawmakers are trying to bring down:the strength of the indigenous movement and signed accords http://t.co/c4nxviC6qo #GolpePLP227NÃO
Opposite the defenders of indigenous rights, federal representative Moreira Mendes, one of the main representatives of the rural caucus, criticized the social media protests on his Facebook:
Os comentários feitos nas redes sociais estão completamente desprovidos de conteúdo. Esses ongueiros, essa quadrilha de antropólogos, como já foram denunciados inúmeras vezes por aí, não têm interesse nenhum em regularizar a terra indígena. Querem, na verdade, usar o índio como massa de manobra para os seus interesses escusos.
The comments made on social networks are completely devoid of content. These NGO-ers, this gang of anthropologists, as they have already been reported to be numerous times, have no interest in regularizing indigenous land. In reality, they want to use the Indian as a pawn for their vested interests.
Belo Monte dam licensing
While the spotlight was focused on the bill that would hurt the constitution and indigenous rights, another defeat for the indigenous community came on July 16: The federal court authorized the licensing of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon region.
“Workers next to a sign that marks the construction site of the Belo Monte dam in the Xingu region of Pará state – the Pimental site.” Photo by Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento [Growth Acceleration Program] on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Claiming an attack against public order and the economy, the court dismissed the claim brought by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionário), which demanded work cease on the dam until the elaboration of a law specific to the regulation of the exploitation of energy potential in indigenous areas. The organization underlined the existence of environmental impacts for indigenous communities surrounding the project (see illustration).
Article 176 of the Brazilian constitution outlines that potential hydraulic energy resources belong to the federal government of Brazil, legally known as Union, and exploitation by Brazilian corporations must set specific conditions when they are in the border zone or on indigenous lands. The Solicitor-General of the Union argued that the project and the resulting environmental impact is outside indigenous territory, but the legal arm of the Indigenous Missionary Council should appeal the decision.

author: Luciane Salles


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An Extensive Review of North Korea’s Latest Tablet Computer · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The love of tablet computer is universal, and North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive countries, is no exception to this tech trend. North Korea Tech blog wrote a detailed review of the country's latest tablet model based on information he gleaned via extensive email exchanges, phone calls and Skype video chats with a tourist who purchased one.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


text:
From Heartfelt to Hysterical, Twitter Parenting Poems Go Viral in Japan · Global Voices
Mari Wakimoto

[All links lead to Japanese-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
Japanese Twitter users recently peppered the site with tweets about childcare. But it wasn't about how fewer Japanese workers are making use of legally guaranteed childcare leave. Nor was it about the much-debated education policy in the platforms of the island's political parties in the recent 23rd election of the House of Councilors [en].
Departing from politics, Japanese netizens simply wrote poems about parenthood, sharing their personal experiences under the hashtag #途中から育児の話になるポエム, which means “Suddenly A Poem About Taking Care Of a Child”.
Among the messages under the hashtag were both the troubles and the pleasure of parenting. Mothers and fathers expressed their experiences in various styles of writings, from parodies of well-known songs to humorous or self-deprecating posts.
One mother expressed her loving thoughts to her sound asleep children, with a sincere wish:
隣で眠る君の寝顔 切ないほど愛しいよ ずっとそのまま穏やかに 朝まで絶対目覚めないで #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— よく眠りたまに色々考える主婦 (@toppinpararin) July 25, 2013
Your sleeping face beside me looks so sweet. Please stay calm and never wake up until the morning.
Another user @wandayou_　wrote about the support a parent can give to a child while it goes unnoticed by the child:
できるよ。君ならできるよ！って、何度も背中を押した。 何度も何度も、背中を押した。 それでも君は静かに笑っていた。 諦めて寝かせたらやっぱりミルク吐いた。 #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— 氷室専用わんだゆー (@wandayou_) July 25, 2013
You can. Yes, you can. I gave you a supportive pat again and again. Over again and again, I pat your back, and you still smile gently until I give up and put you on the bed… I knew it! You spew out milk.
Ukey offered a humorous poem of fatherhood:
イヤよダメ/乱暴しないで/私の胸をまさぐらないで/お父さんはおっぱい出ないんだから #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— ゆーきー (@Ukey_) July 25, 2013
Oh no, please / Please be gentle to me / don’t grope my breast like that / Daddy can’t feed you milk from my breast.
Green_daram, a mother to a young child, wrote about the special touches of a child:
どんなに私が疲れた顔をしていても あなたは私に笑顔を向けてくれる そして励ますように私の髪に触れ そっとおかゆをなすりつける #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— すらりん@かーちゃん (@green_daram) July 25, 2013
However tired I look, you smile at me. Then, you touch my hair encouragingly and softly daub it with porridge.
More users joined in to talk about everyday experiences of parenthood with whimsy:
お願い ずっとこの手を離さないで いつかは去っていくと分かっていても お願いよ今だけはそばにいて ねえ ふりほどかないで せめて同じ道を歩かせて 死ぬぞお前 #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— 志乃★陣痛なう本 発売中☆ (@shinoegg) July 25, 2013
Please don’t ever let go of my hand.
I know you will leave some day, but please stay with me for now.
No, please don’t pull out your arm. Please walk with me on the same road.
Or are you trying to kill yourself?
言葉に出来ず ただ抱きしめる ただ抱きしめる 洗濯機から なんでダンゴムシ 出てくるの #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— Erinko (@erinkoinko) July 25, 2013
A feeling beyond words. All I can do is just hold you, just hold you. Why does a pill bug appear from the washing machine?
やめて　聞きたくないこんな時に　聞きたくないこんな場所で　いつになく真剣な瞳で　あなたが言いたい事はわかってる　U・N・TI　トイレなんてないのに　#途中から育児の話になるポエム
— 青蟲 (@aomushisann) July 25, 2013
Stop. I don’t want to hear now. I don’t want to hear your words. You stare at me with unusually serious eyes. I know what you want to say…p-o-o-p-i-e. Oh my, there is no restroom around here.
User @fumipol referenced “Soiled Sorrow” [en], a famous poem written by Japanese poet and translator Chūya Nakahara [en]:
汚れちまった悲しみに 我が家は賃貸なの そこに落書きしないで #途中から育児の話になるポエム
— リュック (@fumipol) July 25, 2013
Soiled sorrow. We rent this house. Please don’t scribble there.
The tweets were collected and organized by topics on Togetter and Naver, a service that allows user to construct stories with aggregated social media quotes. Readers posted their impressions:
夫への愛と、夫の子供への愛は、かくも異なることがまざまざとわかるポエム集（笑）やらかしたのが夫だったら、絶対許せねえww / “途中から育児の話になるポエム – Togetter” http://t.co/ag46NMO0IN
— Mayumi MIURA 三浦真弓 (@mayumiura) July 25, 2013
This collection of poems makes it clear that the love for a husband and the love for a child is that different. LOL. If my husband made these, however, I would never forgive him XD
これは面白い。どこの子も同じなのね（笑） → お母さん必見！「#途中から育児の話になるポエム」傑作選 – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/ACIIXH5ZVX
— ProductionSC (@sc_pro) July 26, 2013
This is interesting. Every child does the same things. LOL. →Don’t miss it, mothers! #途中から育児の話になるポエム, the best sellection – Naver

author: Mari Wakimoto


text:
Mali Looks for Fresh Start with Presidential Race Down to Two  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

A second round of elections [fr] will be necessary to determine who will be the next president of war-torn Mali.
The next vote will decide a winner between former Prime Minister Ibrahima Boubacar Keita [fr], who received about 48 percent of the first vote, and Soumaïla Cissé [fr], who gained about 24 percent.
Mali has been plagued with a conflict with different rebel groups in the northern region for the last year and a half. At the peak of the crisis, a military junta led by Captain Amadou Sanogo removed then-president Amadou Toumani Touré in 2012 and took over as a governing body.
Political affiliations aside, the overall voter participation is already cause for celebration. This election is a first step towards a return to normalcy for a country that also faces a refugee crisis and food shortage. The second round will take place on August 11.
The contenders
The early returns from the first round indicated that Ibrahim Boubacar Keita [fr] was the frontrunner to become the next president, with 55.93 percent of votes cast for him early on. Keita was prime minister of Mali from 1994 to 2000 under the presidency of Alpha Oumar Konaré. He then was the president of the National Assembly of Mali from 2002 to 2007. He is also the leader of the political party, Rally for Mali (RPM).
Ibrahima Boubacar Keita from his Facebook page – Public Domain
His main opponents in the race are Soumaïla Cissé and Dramane Demblé, among others. There were some concerns that the elections would come too soon as some parts of the country in the north are yet to be controlled by the army instead of rebel groups.
While a few candidates have already congratulated Keita on his success, some candidates have already signaled some irregularities in the electoral process. Souamalia Cissé, also a presidential candidate in 2002, claims that some ballots were filled with fraudulent votes. On Koaci blog, Cissé's party stated [fr]:
L’URD, Union pour la République et la démocratie, parti de Soumaila Cissé, est monté au créneau ce mercredi pour dénoncer “un bourrage des urnes”.
The URD, Soumaila Cissé's party, has denounced on Wednesday (31/07)  some instances of ballot stuffing.
Cissé's party added:
Malgré ce bourrage, selon nos chiffres, un second tour est inévitable pour départager notre candidat, Soumaïla Cissé, et Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta [..] Le ministre a annoncé un taux de participation de 53% selon des résultats partiels. Cela donne à peu près 3 600 000 électeurs qui ont voté. Cela veut dire qu'il faudra au minimum 1 800 000 voix pour passer au premier tour, or, à ce jour, aucun candidat n'a plus d'un million de voix
In spite of the ballot stuffing and according to our numbers, a second round is all but guaranteed to sort out the winner between Soumaïla Cissé, and Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta [..] The minister announced that the participation rate was at 53 percent from the early returns. It means that just about 3,600,000 voters have gone to the poll. Therefore, at least 1,800,000 vote is required to win in the first round, yet, as of today, none of the candidate has collected more than a million votes.
An important milestone for Mali
Because of the conflict with the rebels, many Malians were displaced from their homes and took refuge in neighboring countries. In the following video available on YouTube from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR, Jarrou Ag Ahmed, a Malian refugee in Burkina Faso, explains why the president election is an important step for Mali's recovery:
We want to have a president in order to have peace in our country
Others concur, such as Sean Gallagher, Catholic Relief Services country representative in Mali:
The elections are seen as an opportunity in Mali, and people hope that the newly elected leaders can take advantage of this opportunity and address the deep seated problems that have held the country back from working on behalf of the Malian people. There is a sense, also, that the elections will now move the country beyond the coup.
Dr. Christos Kyrou, an expert on peace and conflict resolution, is not quite as optimistic about the new start that the elections may provide for Mali. He explains in the news platform The Fair Observer what lies ahead for Mali and the important challenges it still needs to tackle:
The original causes of the conflict, including poverty, corruption, and the last few years’ persistent drought in northern Mali, are the greatest long-term challenges that the country faces. Also, a lack of elementary infrastructure, job opportunities, water, and basic microeconomic components such as available credit, suggest that unless the international community responds swiftly and provides aid that will target these areas of concern, it will only be a matter of time when the next rebellion takes place.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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News Websites Indicted over Land Grab Report · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

News Websites Rue89 and Basta Mag are indicted [fr] following charges by French investment and industrial holding group Bolloré over a report in which they implicate Bolloré [fr] in land grab activities [fr] in Africa. The report lists the group's  activities in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Politis, a weekly analysis website, reacted to the news on twitter :
Liberté de la presse : Basta ! et Rue 89 mis en examen suite à une plainte du groupe Bolloré: Nos amis de Bast… http://t.co/alwE9XJBwU
— Politis (@Politis_fr) August 2, 2013
Freedom of Press : Basta ! and Rue89 are indicted following charges by Bolloré Group : Our friends at Basta…
Rue89 is a partner of Global Voices en Français.


text:
Police Backup for McDonald’s in Local Burger War? · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Protest against McDonalds in Tecoma on July 28, 2013. Photo by Mike Pickard (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
McDonald's may soon be turning up the heat against angry online and offline protests against the opening of a new restaurant in the Tecoma suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Independent media website Crikey reveals leaked handwritten notes from conversations with police, allegedly by a McDonald's executive.

author: Solana Larsen


text:
Trinidad & Tobago: Emancipation Means Freedom for All   · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean bloggers seemed to hardly pay attention to Emancipation Day yesterday (although Twitter was full of snippets and photos chronicling the celebrations and many Facebook users were sharing status updates about how they spent the holiday).
In Trinidad and Tobago, however, freedom of a different kind was on the minds of bloggers as they shared their thoughts about the attempted 1990 coup (the 23rd anniversary of the foiled uprising was marked on July 27).
The United Voice blog noted that there are still questions concerning the coup attempt that need to be answered:
Up to now, we still have no completed investigation into this travesty. The perpetrators, or those still alive after their own internal bloodlettings, still walk free among us, arrogant and calling their own terms to appear before the still ongoing, albeit very belated Inquiry into the treason and murders of those days. But we have hope that we will get answers in the expected Report of the Inquiry into that event.
Plain Talk was incredulous over the fact that the perpetrators could have been granted a license to march on the day before the anniversary, ostensibly to remind people of the reason behind the insurrection:
When the Acting Commissioner of Police gave the Jamaat al Muslimeen permission to march through the very city they attacked so violently twenty three years ago, did he not possess the presence of mind to imagine how it would come across to the survivors of that horrific event and to law abiding people everywhere?
Talk about rubbing salt in a wound, many of the same businessmen on Frederick Street who rebuilt their businesses out of sheer determination after losing everything to the looting…had to look on in quiet anger as those responsible sauntered by. Many were left with debt that carried on long after those who committed this atrocity managed to squirm free of justice, and it is dark irony indeed that it is only though their determination that the very city these anarchists marched through today rose from the ashes of their violence.
What of those who lost loved ones, to whom the anniversary of this horrific event is a fresh opportunity to mourn?
He continued:
In our zeal to appear all things to all people we sometimes lose perspective of the trees for the forest. These victims are all people, and they were wronged in 1990, and they were wronged again on a Friday evening in 2013.
Can you imagine Al Qaeda terrorists being granted permission to march through New York City to commemorate 9/11? Or even being interviewed at the end of that march as to why they did what they did?
Phillip Edward Alexander ended his post by saying:
Granting them permission to march as conquering heroes through the capital city they so brutally attacked was an unforgivable abandonment of reason.  The Acting Commissioner of Police, he had a choice. He could have said no. He should have said no.  Make no mistake, this march was a slap in the face of every law abiding citizen of this country, and the fact that they got permission so to do makes it that much more abominable. As if we needed another clear demonstration of how badly off course we as a nation are.
Mark Lyndersay, who covered the coup as a photographer back in 1990, held a different view:
As someone who personally had a Muslimeen gun pointed at his head on July 27, 1990 while in pursuit of my duties as the first Picture Editor of the Guardian, I've got to say that watching Yasin Abu Bakr and his cronies stroll along the streets of Port of Spain escorted by the police, I felt a real annoyance and resentment.
But then, that's what we fought for back then. Whether it was manning a large gun in response to the insurrection or publishing a newspaper from a building frequently peppered by gunfire, the only civil response to terrorism is ultimately the practice of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, which include those that allow us to gather and represent our points of view, as unwelcome as they may be.
So Yasin Abu Bakr applies to the Police Commissioner for permission to march in the city, not only gets permission, but a protective escort. You may see affront. I see a success for democracy and free speech. We win.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Tunisian FEMEN Activist Amina Released from Prison · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

On August 1, a Tunisia court ordered the release of FEMEN activist Amina Sboui, arrested in mid May after she wrote the word FEMEN on a cemetery wall in Kairouan, central of Tunisia. On May 30, she was ordered to pay a fine over the ‘non-authorized’ possession of pepper spray. However, she remained in custody on additional charges, including “belonging to a criminal organization” [FEMEN] and “undermining public morals”. These two charges have been dropped. Although a defamation case against the 19-year-old activist was dismissed on July 29, Amina is still charged with “cemetery desecration”.
#Femen activist #Amina has been released from jail. All charges dropped except one. She will appear before court again at unknown date.
— Tunisia Live (@Tunisia_Live) August 1, 2013
Enfin hors de prison mais on serra satisfait a l acquittement #amina
— leyla jD (@leyla81) August 1, 2013
Finally, out of prison. But, we will be satisfied with her acquittal.
Photo of Amina as she walks free. She was released on Thursday afternoon. Photo via Tunisian Girl's Facebook page
As the news of Amina's release spread, a number of number of Tunisian Twitter users thought of Jabeur Mejri, sentenced to seven and half years in prison last year over the publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons.
#Amina est libérée now place à #FreeJabeur ne l'oublions pas !
— Eglantine (@pink_eglantine) August 1, 2013
Amina is free. It's the turn to “freejabeur. Let's not forget him.
#Amina libre! On ne va pas bouder son plaisir mais le combat pour la liberté d'expression et de conviction continue: #FreeJabeur
— IlyesA (@Nadhim66) August 1, 2013
Amina is free. We are not going to refuse her release but the battle for freedom of expression and conscience continue. #freejabeur


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Bloodied Dolphin Prop Gets Activists Kicked Out of Hong Kong Aquarium Protest · Global Voices
Ronald Yick

[The author of this post is a volunteer for the news site inmediahk.net, which is quoted multiple times in this report.]
A demonstration against the captivity of marine animals at Hong Kong Ocean Park ended in bad blood between the protest's organizers and a number of local activists who were asked to leave for bringing along a dolphin sculpture made to look bloodied.
The rally was part of the Empty the Tanks global day of protest against marine mammal facilities on July 27, 2013, organized by network of animal right activists in 24 cities through Facebook. Several activists attended the protest in Hong Kong, holding a banner and posters on a staircase near the back of the park.
But three activists coming from a group called the Dolphin Family were kicked out by the organizers of the Empty the Tanks protest because they were exhibiting a blood-stained dolphin sculpture to the displeasure of the park's public relations staff.
Peg, a member Dolphin Family, was one of the protesters forced to leave during the protest. She wrote her personal account[zh] of the story on citizen journalism site inmediahk.net:
其實決定參加這活動前，已疲於向舉辦者在 chat room 周旋。起初是勸告我們幾位不要用 Dolphin Family 身份出席「棄缸救友」的活動，我們答應後，又改口叫我們連個人身份也不要去，強調他們是和平表達訴求，日後要爭取跟海洋公園對話，我們在場會令海洋公園盛智文不悅。
Actually we had been negotiating with the organizers via chat room before the protest. At first we were told that we could not attend “Empty the Tanks” under the identity of “Dolphin Family”. We agreed. But then they changed their position and asked us not to attend on individual base. They stressed that the protest is peaceful and they have to talk to Ocean Park in the future. Our presence will make Allan Zeman (the CEO of Ocean Park) not happy.
Blood-tainted dolphin sculpture via inmediahk.net (CC: AT-NC)
Peg described how they were kicked out from the protest scene:
到場後，我們把「血海豚」放到後面，自己也坐在後排做示威群眾。不過，在場有些參與示威的人，覺得展品很配合主題，把它推到前台。這時海洋公園的公關不悅了，說展品「嚇壞細路」，要求主辦方請我們離場，結果他們一起找來幾個警察，把我們帶同展品逐出示威區… 我們雖然知道這是打壓言論和表達自由，心裡有萬分委屈，但不想真的應主辦方「預言」我們「不合作、不和平」，「有心破壞」他們的示威行動等，跌跌碰碰的帶著「血海豚」，走到示威區對面的路旁慢行。
After we had arrived at the site, we put the bloodied dolphin to the back. We also sat at the back of the whole protest group. Some thought the sculpture fit the theme and brought it to the front. The Ocean Park public relations staff was unhappy and said our dolphin would “scare the kids” and they demanded the organizers kick us out. Then the two parties called in a number of police officers who asked us to leave the protest area with the dolphin… Even though we know that such action was against freedom of expression and we felt so frustrated, we didn't want to “fulfill” the “prediction” of the Empty the Tanks organizers that we are “not peaceful, not cooperative” with “malicious intention” to destroy the protest, so we carried the blood-stained dolphin and slowly walked along the road opposite to the protest area.
不過，即使我們離開了示威區，海洋公園和主辦單位仍然窮追猛打，結果我們被警方、海洋公園保安、主辦單位一共十幾位人士包圍，要求我們離開海洋公園範圍
However, even we had left the protest area, the Ocean Park PR and organizers followed us and around a dozen police officers and security staff surrounded us, asked us to leave the public space which is under Ocean Park management.
Ho Loy pointed out that the blood-tainted dolphin was not even visible to the public if the protesters were not told to leave. Uploaded by Ho Loy to inmediahk.net (CC: AT-NC)
Zoe Ng, one of the organizers, responded to the criticism in an interview [zh] with Housenews [the interview was conducted in English and written in Chinese, below is a back translation according to the written Chinese version]:
海洋公園的公關要求我叫他們移走該藝術品（即血海豚），因為它令到他們的顧客不高興，因為這便不是和平示威了。如果我不跟從，我便會有麻煩。理解甚麼叫『和平』十分重要，請查一下這個字的定義。
我不記得我曾經叫過任何人不要來參與示威。但我設定了一些規則要遵守。… … 我花了很多時間開會並取得批准。我與海洋公園有很好的溝通，現在全都沒有了。謝謝『豚聚一家』摧毀了我的努力。
The Ocean Park PR asked me to removed the artwork (the blood-stained dolphin) because it made their customers unhappy. In that case it would not be a peaceful protest anymore. If I did not follow the demand, I would get into trouble. It is important to understand the meaning of “peaceful”, please check its definition.
I don't remember having ever asked anyone not to participate in the protest. But I had set up a number of rules to be followed… … I had spent a lot of time preparing to get the protest approved. The park and I had good communication. But it all got ruined. Thank Dolphin Family (the name of Peggy’s group) for destroying my effort.
The business of marine mammal captivity
Hong Kong Ocean Park opened in 1977 and is funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club while the land was provided by the government at nominal premium.
Riding on the individual visit scheme policy that allows residents from major mainland Chinese cities to have multiply entries to Hong Kong with a simple procedure, the Ocean Park is determined to compete with Hong Kong Disneyland for the amusement park business. Dolphin performance is one of the major tourist attraction. Another way they attract customers [zh] is to introduce rare animals and create an environment that allows tourists to have close contact with animals, including sea mammals. In 2014, the park will launch a new attraction Shark Mystique which will exhibit 100 sharks in captivity representing 15 species.
Even though the Park is registered and managed by Ocean Park Corporation, a non-profit statutory body, it has generated huge profit in the past few years. The annual attendance numbers for Ocean Park from June 2011 to June 2012 is more than seven million, an increase of 20 percent on the previous year. About half of the tourists come from mainland China.
The income generated was 1.6 billion HK dollars (about 200 million US dollars) with a 103.3 million HK dollars (about 13 million US dollars) net surplus for for fiscal year ending June 30, 2012.
The activists behind the Empty the Tanks Worldwide initiative believe the confinement of dolphins, whales, and other sea creatures to aquariums like Ocean Park is cruel, as they explain in a campaign video available on YouTube:
So does Dolphin Family, who shortly before the protest at Ocean Park organized a press conference to announce [zh] the results of an online survey that indicated 90 percent of the respondents opposed dolphin performance as tourist attraction. Currently, the park has an average of four dolphin theatre shows [zh] per day.
Ho Loy, a guest speaker for the Empty the Tanks protest, argued with one of the organizer about the decision to remove the blood-stained dolphin and some of the protesters.Uploaded by Ho Loy to inmediahk.net (CC: AT-NC)
Ho Loy, an animal right activist who was a guest invited by the organizers of the “Empty the Tanks” day, could not stand the organizers’ decision to kick out Dolphin Family members and decided to speak out. She described her interaction with the Ocean Park Public Relations staff and organizer Zoe Ng in inmediahk.net:
〔公關〕不理我是來支持終止海洋劇場的公眾身份，硬要我同意她的：「血海豚」雕塑太迫真了，嚇到小孩子的說法。… … 被我拒絕了她的謬論後，一個惡形惡相的海洋公園保安圍了上來，重複著我腳下踏著的地方都是海洋公園的管理範圍，請我離開。我提醒她，我是公眾，我有權站在海洋公園的公眾開放空間上… … 這時Zoe Ng衝了上來說這活動是她的「show」，我提醒她現場出席人士都是義工或朋友，沒有一個是她的僱員，地方也不是她的，活動是公眾的，不是她的。她説活動的批文是她的名義，我提醒她，批文的活動範圍是那後樓梯，不是我們站著的地方。這裡發生著的事跟她無關。
[The Public Relations staff] ignored my position against the ocean theatre, forced me to agree to her argument that the bloodied dolphin was too real and will scare children… I rejected such reasoning and a fierce-looking security officer stepped in, saying that the spot I was standing on is under the management of Ocean Park, and asked me to leave. I reminded her that I am a local citizen and I have the right to stand in any public space… … Then Zoe Ng came forward and said the activity was her show. I reminded her that all attendants were volunteers and friends, no one was her staff. She does not own the place and the event is public, not her private event. She stressed that she had applied for the protest approval document from police, I reminded her that the spot where we were standing was not the protest area she had applied for. Her event site was at the backside staircase. What happened here had nothing to do with her.

author: Ronald Yick


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China’s State-Run Media Invokes Specter of USSR Collapse · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Intellectuals are taking aim online at China’s state-run Xinhua [zh] news agency for an article it published on August 1, 2013, warning that if China ever made political reforms toward democracy, the consequences would be worse than the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The long front-page piece referred to such political reform as “turmoil”, arguing that Russia has been reduced to an unimportant economy due to its democratization.
The article begins:
微博上的天使、导师、公知们天天造谣传谣制造社会负面新闻，诋毁现有的社会主义体制，宣扬欧美的资本主义宪政模式。在此过程中不断煽动民众怨恨现政权，并痛骂中国人奴性十足，赤裸裸地煽动民众当炮灰引发中国社会动荡。
Many “angels”, professors, public intellectuals were making rumors on Weibo about the negative news in society, slandering the current socialist system while promoting the capitalism political system, which ignites resentment towards the current power and provokes social unrest.
The piece claims China would be in a worse situation if it chooses democracy. It concludes:
A screenshot of Xinhua's piece: If turmoil ever happens to China, it would be worse than Soviet Union
俄国媒体的民意调查，民众普遍怀念过去强大的苏联！这就是苏俄人民的觉醒。中国人自己选择的社会主义制度虽然不是最好的，但肯定比欧美强加给中国的要好，至少我们现在在发展前进，这就是中国人的觉醒！
Russian media polls shows that people generally miss the powerful Soviet Union! This is the awakening of the people in Russia. The socialist system that Chinese themselves have chosen, although not the best, is certainly better than what Europe and the United States imposed on China, at least we are now moving forward, this is the awakening of Chinese people!
The piece also says:
居心叵测的天使、导师、公知们，你们若想在中国通过掌控舆论煽动乱局，就必须在我身体上踩过去，我若有一口气，都要让你们功败垂成！
Those “angels”, mentors and well-known people who have malicious motives, if you want to provoke turmoil in China by controlling public opinion, you’ll have to step over my body, I won’t let you succeed as long as I live!
The article was soon shared on China’s most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo and was lambasted by many intellectuals. Voice of Russia [zh] questioned on Weibo: ” How can such article be published on Xinhua?” The critical question towards Xinhua was soon censored. Voice of Russia then announced plans to translate it into Russia and send it to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Chinese netizens argued that the article avoids the real social issues that would lead to the turmoil of China.
Yu Jianrong [zh], a professor and director of the Social Issues Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, questioned:
先讨论谁会让中国动荡。难道不是那无节制的权贵资本对民众的掠夺，使贫富差距加大？！难道不是那无约束的公权力对法治的肆意侵犯，使公平公正缺失？！难道不是那贪官污吏大行其道，使社会道德流失？！这些视而不见，只责公知批评，不知安的何心？
Let’s talk about who will lead China into unrest first. Isn’t it the reckless bigwigs that made the large gap between rich and poor?! Isn’t it the uncontrolled political powers that create social injustice?! Isn’t it corrupt officials that ruin morality?! You don’t look at all this, but only criticize people’s speech. What’s your motivation?
His post was shared and supported by thousands of netizens. Journalist Hua Xiangbing wrote [zh]:
我就是你们咒骂的汉奸公知。但我深爱着生我养我的这块土地，更深爱着生活在这土地的兄弟姐妹。我之所以批评强拆，批评劳教，批评豪华军车，希望落实宪法之选票，希望官员财产能公开，正是希望这个国家不走向动荡！
I am the public intellectual, the traitor you are talking about. But I love this land and love the people in this land. The reason why I criticized the demolitions, the labor camps, and the luxury military cars and hope for constitutionalization and public disclosure of officials’ property is because I don't want any turmoil to happen to this country!
“Murong Xiaohe” wrote [zh]:
先不讨论这文章的正确度有多少。动荡是人来制造的吧？如果拼搏有公平的平台, 如果食品安全，空气无污染，住房医疗教育有保障。试问谁会去动荡？安定还来不及呢。要说动荡的主力就是对人权的漠视。对自由的打压。
Let's not discuss if the piece is correct. Turmoil is the work of human beings. If we have a fair society, safe food, no air pollution, secure housing, medical insurance and education, who will create social unrest? Who doesn't want stability? The main motivation for turmoil is the disregard of human rights and the suppression of freedom.
Netizen Lin Ping [zh] tried to explain Russia's real situation:
俄罗斯现在有多惨？：1.全民公费医疗 2.免费教育，教科书由学校提供，并提供免费早餐或午餐；3.供水供热免费，电费房价低；4.男60岁，女55岁，就可领养老金，不分工人农民干部；5.各种福利如生育补贴食品补贴等；6.人均收入达12700美元。
Please look at how miserable Russia is: 1. Universal free medical care; 2. Free preschool, elementary, and secondary vocational education, plus free lunch; 3. Free water and heat, low cost of housing and electricity; 4. Women can receive pensions at 55 years old and men at 60 no matter if you are a farmer, worker, or an official; 5. Different kinds of social welfare 6. 12,700 US dollars per capita income.
Former Google China head and China's Weibo guru Kaifu Lee wrote [zh]:
最近有人说：“中国如果变革，会不会比苏联更惨”，但是为何不想：“中国大陆如果改革，会不会和台湾一样幸福？”
Recently someone said: If reform ever happens in China, would it be worse than the Soviet Union? But why don't we imagine that if mainland China begins reform, would it be as happy as Taiwan?

author: Abby Liu


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Stop Black Sand Mining in Biodiverse, Idyllic Philippine Island! · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

College students created a Facebook page to oppose black sand mining operations in Camiguin Norte, located in the northernmost part of the Philippines
Imagine a serene, idyllic isle where humpback whales breed, where corals and rare marine biodiversity thrive. This is Camiguin Norte.
The very existence of this island is threatened by Black Sand Mining – the process of extracting magnetite from beaches having rich deposits of it. Black Sand Mining leads to coastal erosion, sea pollution, loss of habitat for marine life and reduced protection from natural calamities. This must be stopped before it's too late!

author: Mong Palatino


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Singapore Media and Censorship · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

After working for three years as sub-editor in a leading Singapore newspaper, Mark Fenn explains how censorship is enforced in the country:
Control at the paper is exercised both overtly and through more subtle means. Self-censorship, meanwhile, is ubiquitous.
…it was not uncommon for reporters to alter their stories at a very late stage because the “newsmaker” or a government department wanted to alter the wording of a quote or headline.


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16 Passengers Travel in One Rickshaw In Rural India · Global Voices
Rezwan

Cramming 16 people in an auto rickshaw. Image by Kiruba Shankar. Used under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Blogger and entrepreneur Kiruba Shankar writes how in rural India an auto rickshaw built to take four passengers, now transports 16 people:
Here’s how the math works. Three in the front (including the driver). Four in the back seat. Three in the small wooden seat opposite the rear seat. Two who cling on the sides. And finally four in the trunk. Welcome to village life!

author: Rezwan


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Will Vietnam’s New Internet Decree Ban Sharing of Online News? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Vietnam’s new Internet decree made public on July 31 instantly generated controversy after it purportedly contains several provisions that would ban the sharing of news stories in various social networks. But the government clarified that the decree is aimed only at protecting copyright. The regulation will take effect on September 1.
Decree 72/2013/ND-CP or “Management, Provision, Use of Internet Services and Information Content Online” was signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on July 15. It consists of 6 chapters and 46 articles covering these topics:
…internet services and resources, the management, provision, and usage of online information, the establishment of websites and social networks, information about telecommunication networks, online games, and online information safety and security.
An internet cafe in Vietnam. Image from Flickr page of mikecogh (CC License)
But the controversial 20.4 clause of the decree bothered many people for banning ‘compiled information’:
…personal information webpage is a webpage created by individual on their own or via a social network. This page should be used to provide and exchange information of that individual only; it does not represent other individual or organization, and is not allowed to provide compiled information
What exactly is a ‘compiled information’? Tuổi Trẻ newspaper quoted Vietnam’s Broadcast and Electronic Information Department which interpreted it as a reminder for individuals not to “quote or share information from press agencies or websites of government agencies.”
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said the new decree is to prevent misuse of the Internet to spread false information. It is also intended to help users “find correct and clean information on the internet.”
Personal webpage owners are only allowed to provide their own information, and are prohibited from taking news from media agencies and using that information as if it were their own
As expected, the law also enumerated some prohibited acts (Article 5):
…information that is against Vietnam, undermining national security, social order, and national unity […] or information distorting, slandering, and defaming the prestige of organisations, honour and dignity of individuals.
The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, which described the decree as “is fatally flawed and inconsistent with international human rights law and standards,” mentioned another potential dangerous provision in the decree:
Article 25 requires the filtering of any information on the Internet based on the interpretation that such information is amongst the “prohibited acts” outlined in Article 5. Foreign Internet Service Providers will have to provide information about their users when requested by investigative bodies.
Vietnam authorities immediately held a press forum to correct the ‘misunderstanding’ caused by the publication of the decree. They claimed that the decree would facilitate the development of Internet standards in the country:
The decree generates conditions for the development of internet information forms by licensing websites, social networks, and service supply registration
They also insisted that the decree has no provision prohibiting individuals to share information on social networks:
Decree 72 has no word or sentence prohibiting individuals from using social networks to share and collect information, so it has never been a threat to online reporters and bloggers
According to the decree, individuals have the right to collect and share information on social networks. It stipulates that individuals are allowed to cite information and attach a link to the source information so other people can refer to the original, full information. The decree aims to protect intellectual property rights and the copyright of press agencies. In fact, many press agencies are concerned about copyright and author rights.
Indeed, rising cases of copyright infringements has alarmed many companies and businesses. But Steven Millward of Tech in Asia thinks that Vietnam’s new Internet decree is not fixing the problem:
Vietnam seems to be striking at social media and individual sharing rather than fixing the cause of the problem: content piracy by lazy news sites. Surely media industry regulation would be a better move than this kind of ban.
Reporters Without Borders criticized the decree as “the harshest offensive against freedom of information”:
The announced decree is nothing less than the harshest offensive against freedom of information since Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed a decree imposing tough sanctions on the media in 2011
If it takes effect, Vietnamese will be permanently deprived of the independent and outspoken information that normally circulates in blogs and forums.
The decree is both nonsensical and extremely dangerous. Its implementation will require massive and constant government surveillance of the entire Internet, an almost impossible challenge. But, at the same time, it will reinforce the legislative arsenal available to the authorities.
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch is worried that the decree will be used for ‘selective persecution’:
This is a law that has been established for selective persecution. This is a law that will be used against certain people who have become a thorn in the side of the authorities in Hanoi


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Changes In Indian Economy And The Customers · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blogger and entrepreneur JP Rangaswami looks back at the changes in Indian economy, from a mixed economy combining features of capitalism and socialism (1947-1991) towards liberal and free-market principles (1991 onwards) and how the changes and the pace of change evolved around the customer.


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Japanese Users Break Tweets Per Second Record · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Japan's netizens broke the world record for tweets per second on August 2, 2013, flooding Twitter with the magic word “balse” [バルス] from the 1986 anime film Castle In the Sky as the movie was broadcast on television in Japan on August 2, 2013.
Users set a new record of 143,199 tweets per second tweeting the word “balse”. It's a recent tradition to post the magic word “balse” on Twitter during reairings of the movie as the characters in the film spell it to destroy the castle.
In cyber world, the huge traffic triggered by netizens publishing the word “balse” online has caused website servers to crash several times in the past. Twitter's server, however, survived the “balse” inundation without an appearance of the “Fail Whale”.
Screenshot from Google Trends for the word “バルス” [balse]

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Pregnant Woman, Husband Charged in Teen’s Brutal Murder in China · Global Voices
Valentina Luo

A pregnant woman allegedly abducted a 17-year-old girl so her husband could have sex with her, and then helped him kill the girl to cover up their crime, according to police [zh] in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province on July 25, 2013.
On the afternoon of July 24, Hu Yixuan, a 17-year-old student nurse, passed by the Forestry Compound in Jiamusi on her way to a schoolmate's house when she spotted a pregnant woman squatting on the ground. The pot-bellied lady, clearly in pain, asked Hu to help her upstairs to her home.
“Helping a mother-to-be home. Just arrived.” Sent at 15:18, the text message she sent to a friend from Wechat, a mobile text and voice messaging service, turned out to be a farewell message.
According to Dbw.cn [zh], the biggest local news portal in Heilongjiang, Mrs Tan allegedly led the girl inside and gave her a bottle of yoghurt to which she added some sleeping pills. A source told the website that the couple later allegedly tried to rape the girl but failed when they found out that she was menstruating. According to the website, although the woman wanted to let her go, her husband refused and allegedly suffocated Hu with a pillow.
The couple was then allegedly seen carrying the case that held Hu's body into a car and drove away. The police received a call from the victim's family on July 26 and the couple was arrested two days later. The woman, eight-months pregnant, was put into a hospital.
Picture of the victim Hu Yixuan, from Sina Weibo.
The woman's motive was highly disputed. A local policeman told the state media Global Times that the suspects confessed to the abduction as an attempt to make up to the husband for his suspicions that the wife was cheating on him.
Dbw's source, however, seemed to differ. “That's not true. She's pregnant, and as they can't have sex, she wanted to find a girl for a man (to have sex with). She's been having that idea for a long time.”
The couple's brutality triggered not only outrage among Chinese users of popular microblogging website Sina Weibo, but also discussion about self-defense.
Wang Zhuo [zh], a member of the Standing Committee of People's Political Consultative Conference, was outraged:
必须严惩这对狗男女
This unchaste couple must be punished severely.
Shanghai based lawyer Wang Yinyi [zh] felt it was a shame that the death penalty cannot be applied to the woman:
老婆怀孕，帮老公找个处女发泄性欲，还是一个好心帮助他们的少女，之后再先奸淫后杀，我无法想象这还是人类社会做出来的事情，萨特曾说，他人即地狱，在这里每个人都可能成为你的地狱，通往地狱的道路有时候竟然是那人性中最真善美的怜悯之心。真可惜了那个女犯罪嫌疑人是个孕妇，不能适用死刑。
A pregnant woman finds an outlet for her husband's sexual desire in a girl that tried to help her, before killing her brutally. I cannot imagine this is done by human beings. Sartre said “hell is other people”, but here hell can be anyone, and it may even be kindness that leads you on the way to it. Such a shame that the woman is pregnant and can't be sentenced to death.
Internet company CEO Ma Yan [zh] begged to differ:
开错药。应该开放色情业
Wrong solution. It's prostitution that needs to be legalised.
Chinese Go master Nie Weiping [zh] was highly disappointed with humanity, or the lack of it:
一个孕妇都能做出这种事来，令人发指。冷酷无情、人性无存的法盲，犹如禽兽，防不胜防，实在可怕。
It's unimaginable that a mother-to-be would do this. Cruel, heartless, legally illiterate and inhumane. You can't guard yourself against them.
Historian ‘Shanshui You Yan’ [zh] expressed his concerns:
这种事的结果，就是街上孕妇求助不会有人敢帮忙了……
The consequence of this tragedy is pregnant women on the street won't be able to get any help in the future…
Writer Bai Xiaofan [zh] recommended that girls learn from the popular American TV series “Criminal Minds” to stay safe:
这就是为毛我总推荐妹子们看CM。看完以后自身防御体系UP好几个等级。比如遇到迷路的小孩，抱着垂危宠物求救的主人，看似不舒服的孕妇，正确的做法都是——报警+联络家人+在足够热闹的地方等待+求医。不要送他们到指定的地点，切记切记。
This is exactly why I recommend girls watch Criminal Minds. It improves your safety consciousness by so many levels. For example, when you see lost children, or people with their injured pets, or painful pregnant women, the right way to respond is call the police, contact their family, wait at an area with enough crowds and send them to a hospital – not to a place they ask you to. Bear that in mind.

author: Valentina Luo


text:
China Blocks Wall Street Journal’s Chinese Version  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Wall Street Journal's Chinese-language edition has been blocked in China since Aug 3, 2013. It was not clear why the whole website was blocked. The English-language version of the site remains accessible and the Chinese Wall Street Journal's Weibo is still active. Shanghaiist has more details.


text:
Hong Kong Sex Workers Forced to Pay for Good Reviews Online · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Many believe that the Internet has empowered individuals and social minorities by giving them a voice. For sex workers, however, it is another story. As Hong Kong law criminalizes “the exhibition of advertisement on sexual service” and “conspiracy to live on earnings of prostitution of others”, they cannot run their individual websites and are exploited by those who are capable of running sexual service promotion sites overseas.
Mavis Siu for Hong Kong-based inmediahk.net investigates the manipulation of sex workers by website sex141.com, which is the biggest portal website for sexual services in Hong Kong. Her article originally appeared on inmediahk.net on July 24, 2013 in Chinese. The trimmed English version has been translated by Alpha Au and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
JJJ association set up counter to help local sex workers at TST district. Photo taken from inmediahk.net (CC: AT-NC)
A number of newspapers have exposed that sex141.com has taken advantage of “Money-Drop Review”, a customer review of service, to scam money from sex workers who were smeared by anonymous Internet users and ghostwriters unless they paid to get good reviews from the website-recommended ghostwriters. JJJ Association [zh], an organization defending the rights of sex workers, has debriefed the situation to local journalists.
Yet many still wonder: Why do exploited sex workers continue to register and have their profile shown on sex141?
Monopoly of the online sex industry
The scams that exploit sex workers are related to the monopoly of the porn site business in Hong Kong.
There are three major porn sites in Hong Kong, with sex141 being the most active with its index on “One-Woman Brothels”, the term for sex workers working out of small, often one-room apartments in the city. sex141 was created in 2002 by a local university graduate [zh]. The website allows sex workers to publish ads as well as offers a forum. Originally, it was based in Hong Kong, but after the owner was convicted of “conspiracy to live on earnings of prostitution of others” in 2006, the web server has moved to the US, managed by a company called Black Lotus Communications. In recent years, it has expanded to other Asian regions such as China, Taiwan, and Macau.
The site that targets the Hong Kong market has a “VIP girls database”, which categorizes the registered sex workers according to location of their workplace to make the search results more convenient to customers. A campaigner from the JJJ Association said the porn site is very resourceful. For example, they have a legal team to back up their work.
Their web ranking and popularity is high and thus has established their monopolized status in Hong Kong. According to alexa.com, sex141 was ranked 126th in web traffic in Hong Kong, while two other similar porn sites “Miss 148″ and “161 Sex” were ranked 1,088th and 1,638th respectively.
Miss Ho, a sex worker registered on sex141 for more than a year, believes that the high popularity of sex141 is a result of its marketing techniques. Other than the main site, sex141 also runs an online forum [zh]. The forum's content is no different from any other public forum, except it has a lot of ads from sex141 and other sex-related products and services. The forum ranks 148th on Alexa.
Just like other porn sites, sex141 comes with a “paid member” system, under the name “Sponsored Member Scheme”. Members who donate $300, $1,000 or $8,800 have different user rights, such as taking or viewing the sex workers’ photos, reading service reviews, watching online videos and using search and other functions. Members could also earn credits in the forum to obtain more user rights.
Miss Ho pointed out that sex workers are the biggest source of income for sex141. “We pay 1,300 Hong Kong dollars [about 180 US dollars] each month for putting up ads,” she said. Currently, there are more than 3,000 sex workers on the site. It's estimated monthly income is in the millions.
The high cost of bad reviews
Miss Ho agrees that sex141 is an effective platform for advertising their services. It helps her business. “I cannot explain why clients are so dependent on the site, anyway it helps us get more clients,” she said.
Yet sex141 wants to extract more from the sex workers in addition to their monthly ads fee. Miss Ho pointed out that sex141 has “many different tricks to exploit sex workers”. For instance, there is a “Star of Today — Flower Box” on the main page. The website has a function that allows clients to buy virtual flowers for the sex workers. But in most of the cases, the sex workers are paying 300 HK dollars (about 40 US dollars) to get themselves 30 virtual flowers from the system for self-promotion.
“These things are tricky, but none is worse than “Money-Drop Review”, she said.
“Money-Drop Review” is a recently added feature. It encourages members to write bad reviews, such as the service was terrible or even that the sex worker has sexually transmitted diseases. The writers are not responsible for the reviews, nor do they have the responsibility to offer proof. The reviews smear the sex workers, and they have to pay for good reviews.
“It costs $200 to delete a bad review. If the smeared sex worker was not a paid member of sex141, she has to pay 1,300 HK dollars [about 180 US dollars] to become a member, and another 1,000 HK dollars [about 130 US dollars] for FeiLung [a ghostwriter recommended by the website] to write three good reviews in order to maintain a positive image and business”, Miss Ho added.
This “Money-Drop Review” not only forces the paid sex worker members to pay more, but also forces others to join the site.
“141 could have raised the ads fee to, say, 3,000 to 4,000 HK dollars [about 400 to 520 US dollars], the sex workers could then choose whether or not to continue using their service,” Miss Ho indignantly said . The current bad review system has caused emotional stress as much as financial burden.
Miss Ho heard that one sex worker spends 10,000 HK dollars (about 1,300 US dollars) per month on ghostwriting, and some even get depressed and suicidal because of smearing. When a bad review accuses a sex worker of having sexually transmitted disease, her business will go down immediately.
Given the nature of their work, sex workers have no way to look out for bad reviews or refute untrue allegations. If they want to get laudatory words, they have to use the ghostwriter service. Miss Ho questioned why sex141 does not protect their sex worker members: “After all, we are the ones who pay for the ads! Why does the Money-Drop Review only target us? The other ads on the site like finance companies, sex products, and sexual hotlines do not have a similar review feature.”
The website defends their review feature citing freedom of speech. However, the “bad reviews” cannot be proved right and the review writers are not responsible for their untrue remarks. The “freedom” has undoubtedly hurt the sex workers. Miss Ho questioned, “When the information includes the workers’ addresses, names and phone numbers, how would its influence be unrelated to the real world?”
The admin of sex141 forum suggested that “the recommended reviewers “FeiLung” and “GwatZingKoeng” are chartered writers and are not employees of the site … no one is allowed to charge in the name of sex141.”
But Miss Ho questioned, “If there is no embedded interest, why does the advertising department of 141 recommend the two ghostwriters to us?” Inmediahk.net's contributing reporter tried to contact the staff of sex141, but received the reply, “You know the nature of our website. We don't accept media interviews. No comment.”
A member of the JJJ Association said that they have introduced other websites of similar nature to local sex workers, but the lack of popularity and view count cannot help them to attract clients. The association once considered setting up a new platform, but once they were confronted with legal risks and technical problems, they were forced to drop the idea. It appears that the workers have no other choice but to keep on “paying for their own discomfort” if the monopoly situation continues.