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Algeria: Low Turnout in Legislative Elections · Global Voices
Ahmed Medien

On May 10, Algeria's first legislative elections since the start of the Arab uprisings were held. The National Liberation Front (FLN) and sister party the National Democratic Rally won a majority of seats, defeating an Islamist alliance.
The ruling FLN has dominated Algeria's political life since independence. These elections were seen as a test of the its legitimacy, and the official turnout figure of 42.9%, an improvement on the 35% turnout for the 2007 elections, was claimed by some as an endorsement for recent political reforms. However, despite the fact there have not been the kind of anti-regime protests in Algeria as elsewhere in the Arab world, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the government. Many people expressed their political dissent through boycotting the elections.
#10MaiToz: No dessert for those who don't vote. Image posted by @beautifultango7.
On election day Algerians tweeted under the hashtag #10MaiToz, “toz” meaning nonsense.
Yasmine Bouchène wrote:
@Yaspuppchen: Si dans d’autres pays, voter est un acte citoyen. En Algérie, ne pas le faire l’est apparemment d’avantage ! #10maiToz
Vote here. Image posted by @copi35.
There were widespread accusations of fraud and a “manipulation of the results”.
Yanis Chalouche joked:
@Mister16Five: Les actes de citoyenneté sont tellement ancrés dans notre culture et notre éducation, que même les morts ressuscitent pour voter. #10MaiToz
Blogger Baki 7our tweeted:
@7our: Proverbe algérien: “c'est quand le bureau de vote est vide que l'urne se remplit”. #10MaiToz #Fraude
Bab El Oued polling station. Image posted by @LivefromAlgeria.
Journalist Borzou Daragahi noted the lack of voters:
@Borzou: Algeria: At election center in Larbatache outside Algiers city, very, very few voters; mostly elderly. Where are youth?
A citizen-driven election monitoring website was set up to report fraud. More than 150 infractions were recorded across Algeria.
In the above video [ar], a 23-year-old man called Tarek explains that the Algerian people have had enough of politicians who have failed since 1999 (when Abdelaziz Bouteflika became president) to make life better for Algerians. One of the strongest moments of the clip is when Tarek says that he'd rather be “eaten by fish than eaten by worms (poverty)”.

author: Ahmed Medien


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Argentina: Lawmakers Approve Gender Identity Law · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

[All links lead to Spanish-language websites unless otherwise noted]
On May 9, 2012, after two hours of debate, the Argentine Senate approved the Law of Gender Identity with 55 votes in favor and 1 abstention. The law recognizes the right of transsexual people to an identity that corresponds with their expression of gender.
The publication AG Magazine recounted the history behind the push for such a law:
El proyecto de ley de Identidad de Género ingresó por primera vez al Parlamento argentino de la mano de la Federación Argentina  y la Asociación de Travestis, transexuales y transgéneros de Argentina () en el año 2007. El texto aprobado, que es el mismo que obtuviera media sanción en Diputados en noviembre de 2011, contempla el reconocimiento de la identidad de las personas trans en su documentación personal, así como el acceso a la atención sanitaria integral en el sistema de Salud.
The National Front for the Gender Identity Law (FNLIG), formed in 2010 with the purpose of working toward the passage of the law, commented on the reason why it is so important on their website:
photo: Laura Schneider
Con este paso, Argentina inicia el proceso de reparación histórica y democrática con toda la población trans del país, cuyos derechos más elementales, como el derecho a la identidad y a la salud integral, han sido sistemáticamente vulnerados. El proyecto prevé tanto el acceso a los cambios registrales como el acceso integral a la salud. Este tratamiento no diferido de todos los derechos enunciados fue el logro más importante que sostenemos desde el Frente Nacional por la Ley de Identidad de Género (FNLIG), que elaboró el proyecto en el que fue basado el dictamen firmado tanto por las comisiones de diputadxs como de senadorxs.
Access to comprehensive health care
One of the items in the new law to consider is access to comprehensive health care, which includes access for those over 18 years old to partial and total surgical interventions and/or comprehensive hormonal treatments to alter the body, including genitalia, without the need of obtaining judicial or administrative permission.
The webpage for the Ministry of Health for the Province of Buenos Aires, whose province was a pioneer in sexual reassignment surgery, posted an interview with the Provincial Minister of Health, Alejandro Collia:
“La Provincia es pionera en garantizar, a través del acceso a la salud pública, el derecho de las personas a su identidad de género. La adecuación genital a la identidad de género percibida por cada persona es un derecho que venimos garantizando desde el hospital Gutiérrez”, afirma el ministro de Salud provincial, Alejandro Collia.
El Hospital Gutiérrez de la Provincia es el único efector público, junto con el Hospital Duran en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, en realizar cirugías de reasignación genital.
The Province is a pioneer in guaranteeing, through access to public health care, people's right to their gender identity. The conforming of genitalia to perceived gender identity for each person is a right that we continue guaranteeing within the Gutiérrez hospital,” the Provincial Minister of Public Health Alejandro Collia, affirmed.
The Provincial Gutiérrez Hospital is the only public provider, together with the Duran Hospital in the city of Buenos Aires, to perform genital reassignment surgeries.
One of the first criticisms, [es] before the law's approval, came from Daniel Fernández, bishop of the Diocese of Jujuy, in Argentina:
“La iglesia desde un principio hizo conocer su opinión, creemos que el ser humano es creado por Dios, varón o mujer, que viene constituido con nuestra naturaleza humana y a partir de ahí queremos empezar a dialogar, con respeto, sin ningún tipo de intolerancia, manifestando nuestra opinión, que en este caso, es contraria a la de tantos”, ha manifestado el religioso.
“La identidad viene dada por el sexo que recibimos y por la identidad que traemos desde el seno de nuestra madre”, defendió el obispo argentino, condenando el avance de la Ley de Identidad de Género.
“The church from the beginning has made its opinion known, we believe that the human being is created by God, male or female, and comes established with our human nature and from there we want to start to dialogue, with respect, without any type of intolerance, expressing our opinion, that in this case, it is contrary to that of many”, the bishop has said.
“Identity is given from the sex that we receive and from the identity  that we take from our mother's womb”, the Argentine bishop said, condemning the advance of the Law of Gender Identity.
On the other side, the blog Unificacionistas, in its post “Equality for few” wrote about the rights of minorities in Argentina:
de seguro las minorías irían rápidamente por más y más derechos, ya que se ve hoy día un terreno más que fértil para conseguir esas leyes que durmieron en oscuros cajones por décadas. A pesar de criticar las formas, en mi caso y en el de muchos, avalamos en principio que todo ciudadano tenga derechos y sea contemplado como un igual por otros ciudadanos ante la ley. El problema es que, me temo, esa igualdad no pareciera ser aplicable en todos los casos.
Reactions on social networking sites
Once word spread of the law's passage, users across the social networking spectrum echoed the reactions of the citizenry. Some, such as Juancho (@Juanx1984), want more rights, while Jose Castiglione (@JoseCastiglione) wrote:
Me parece una aberración la Ley de#IdentidadDeGenero. Que me disculpen los q resulten ofendidos por el comentario, pero esto es INADMISIBLE
The Law of #IdentidadDeGenero [Gender Identity] seems to me to be an aberration. To those who are offended by the comment, pardon me, but this is INADMISSIBLE.
However, Paulo Yudewitz (@Pauloyudewitz) celebrated the law's approval:
#IdentidadDeGenero Felicidades para todos! Otro día histórico!
Finally, on Facebook the page “I am in favor of the law of gender identity” celebrated:
Amig@s, es imposible transmitir toda la alegría que sentimos por esta conquista!
Friends, it is impossible to relate just how much happiness we feel because of this victory!

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Laura Schneider


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Bhutan: The King’s Birthday Celebration · Global Voices
Rezwan

Sabrina from USA is visiting Bhutan and she is in love with the country. She blogs about her adventures and here is one post in which she describes how the birthday of the King of Bhutan is celebrated.

author: Rezwan


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Egypt: Disappointment at First Presidential Debate · Global Voices
Noon Arabia

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Elections 2011/12.
On May 10, 2012, people around the region and beyond were pinned to their screens following Egypt's first ever presidential debate, which was between the top two presidential candidates, Amr Moussa and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh.
However, this was not the first presidential debate in the Arab world, as in Mauritania in 2007 a televised presidential debate took place between Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Ahmed Ould Daddah.
The debate was three hours long, moderated by TV anchors Yosri Fouda and Mona El Shazly and aired on Egyptian private channels ONTV and Dream TV – ironically not on Egypt's state TV. Twitters users tweeted about the debate under the hashtag #monazarat.
The two candidates shaking hands. Image by @SultanAlQassemi
The start of the debate was delayed due to traffic. Ben Wedeman, CNN anchor and reporter, tweeted sarcastically:
@bencnn: Aboulfotouh arrival at debate delayed by #cairotraffic? No matter who is running, #cairotraffic always wins. #monazarat #Egypt
Many commented on the long series of commercials which were shown before the debate and during the breaks. Robert Mackey reporter and editor of the New York Times tweeted:
@RobertMackey: Don't know if this #monazarat has inspired Egypt to buy into democracy, but the barrage of ads did just motivate me to buy a Twix.
The candidates were asked questions on various topics such as human rights, health plans, the economy, foreign relations, sharia law, and the role of the military. They were even asked about their financial status and health.
Both Egyptians and Arabs around the region were tweeting the candidates’ replies.
The first question was regarding their vision for Egypt; their replies were tweeted by Emirati commentator Sultan Al Qassemi, and Egyptian Dalia Ezzat:
@SultanAlQassemi: On vision for Egypt – Amr Moussa: A constitutional state that leads the region & serves expectations of its people + Sharia #monazarat
@DaliaEzzat_: Abuel Fottouh : bread, freedom, dignity and social justice. He's basically repeating the slogans of the revolution #Monazarat
Blogger Iyad El-Baghdadi summarized their priorities:
@iyad_elbaghdadi: Abulfutouh vs. Mousa: The first puts democracy, sharia and then security; Mousa puts security, democracy, Islam. #Monazarat
Regarding how they would have managed the Abbassiya events, Amr Moussa's reply was tweeted by Sultan Al Qassemi:
@SultanAlQassemi: On Abbaseya events – Amr Moussa: I didn't wait until I become president, I made calls & demanded police intervene #monazarat
Yet Aboul Fotouh had a more powerful reply, tweeted by Egyptian blogger Bassem Sabry:
@Bassem_Sabry: Fotouh: If I were president, the Abbasiyya events would not have happened at all, would protect right to protests and sit ins – #Monazarat
Regarding Israel, AboulFotouh had a clear and straightforward reply, tweeted by Egyptian professor Rasha Abdullah:
@RashaAbdulla Aboul Fotouh: Israel is an enemy, with 200 nuclear heads and history of occupation and violations #monazarat
Moussa on the other hand had a less confrontational and more diplomatic reply, refusing to answer whether he considered Israel an enemy:
@iyad_elbaghdadi: Mousa: I call for reviewing our treaty with Israel, but insist on a two-state solution. #Monazarat
Finally when asked why voters should elect them, their replies were as follows:
@SultanAlQassemi: AF: elect me because: I bring people from all backgrounds together. Don't elect Moussa because: he didn't stand by the revolution #Monazarat
@ahauslohner: Moussa: Elect me because I'm experienced and I've proven myself. #Egypt is in crisis & it needs an experienced statesman. #monazarat
Both candidates focused on each other's controversial points. Moussa, who was Mubarak's foreign minister and former Secretary General of the Arab League, referred to Aboul Fotoh having been a longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood, while Abou el Fotouh countered with commenting on Moussa being part of the former toppled regime.
Iyad El-Baghdadi and Dalia Ezzat summarized the candidates strengths and arguments:
@iyad_elbaghdadi: Abdulfutouh playing on his ability to unite everyone behind the revolution; Mousa playing on his past experience. #Monazarat
@DaliaEzzat_: The debate in a nutshell : you're Ikhwani! [member of the Muslim Brotherhood] Is that right? Well you're felool [a remnant of the former regime] and part of the regime that the people revolted against. #Fail
Amr Moussa's answers were vague and came across as arrogant and hostile while Aboul El Fotouh's answers were more transparent, and he was more calm and collected. Jenan Moussa, a reporter for Al Aan TV, tweeted:
@jenanmoussa: Moussa is very dismissive of Abu El Fotouh. He feels he is better or sth. I dont like the attitude. #Monazarat
Twitter user The Ess summarized their performance:
@Nadesque: #Moussa : weak answers, strong attacks. #AbulFutouh : good answers, weak attacks. #Monazarat
Many voters had hoped that this debate would help them learn more about their candidates and their plans and vision. Menatallah Essam tweeted her disappointment, and that of many, of how the debate turned out:
@mentos_391: what i really hoped is that each one says his positive plans for the future not mentioning each one's negative points. #monazarat
Some voters changed their opinion regarding the candidate they might have voted for before viewing the debate, and some even considered other candidates. AbdEl-Rahman Khaled tweeted:
Blogger Ruwayda Mustafah compiled the presidential debate tweets: part 1, part 2 and a factcheck. Blogger Mostafa Hussein made a transcript of the debate. The debate can be seen in full on YouTube.
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Elections 2011/12.

author: Noon Arabia


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Ethiopia: Muslims Take Campaign Online for Religious Independence    · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Signs of Ethiopian Muslims online activism are mounting as they protest against government’s meddling in their religious affairs.
Ethiopian Muslims both online and offline have been protesting for over three months against alleged government's interference in their religious affairs. The protests, however, have received very little attention from international media.
Daniel Berhane explained on Facebook why the protests have received less attention from international media:
I ask: Why did the foreign media and NGOs ignored the months long Awelia Muslim school protests/disturbances, while giving extensive coverage to minor events in the right-wing camp?
I answer: That is because, the westerners media & NGO involvement in Ethiopian affairs is tuned on specific ideological agenda.
Ethiopian Muslim women. Photo source: Boyznberry Flickr page (CC BY-NC 2.0)
However, for the past two weeks the protests have generated a significant amount of news on international media as the government made it clear that it will not tolerate any activities by subversive groups that have been using Islam as a disguise to create instability in the country.
The Ethiopian government has expelled two Arabs who flew in from the Middle East after they went to Grand Anwar Mosque and allegedly tried to incite violence in the country. Just a week prior to the deportation of the two Arabs, it was also reported that security forces arrested a Muslim religious leader in the Oromia regional state for calling for Jihad. A group of Muslims who tried to free him clashed with police. Four demonstrators were killed and 10 police were wounded.
Rumours were circulating on Facebook that the government has conceded to one of their demands. Jawar Mohammed, a respected political commentator, wrote:
Rumor has it that Meles has conceded to one of the demands put forward by Muslim activists – removing the current unelected leaders of Mejlis. But there is no official news yet. Two scenarios sound plausible: a) The government has not conceded but is spreading the rumor to create a debate and confusion among the activists. The confusion will distract them from planning and coordinating their actions and could also create division..
b) The government is making such fake gesture in order to prevent this Friday's protest, which is slated to be the biggest yet, because more than 700 foreigners will be gathering in the capital for the World Economic Forum. A large protest in the presence of foreign dignitaries will give the movement more visibility. A visibility that will not only hinder the government's ability to crack down on the protesters this Friday but could also make future such crackdowns backfire.
c) The government is actually removing the Mejlis leaders ( use and throw is Meles well known game) with the hope of sucking the momentum out of the protesters and eventually replacing the Mejlis with other set of puppets.
Following these events, Ethiopian Muslims have turned to Facebook and Twitter to make their voices heard. On one of the Facebook pages created in order to coordinate the protests says [amh]:
ጠቃሚ መሳሰቢያ!!! አንዳንድ ወንድሞች በነገዉ ጁምአ ተቃዉሞን በዝምታ መገለፅ አለበት የሚለዉን መልዕክት ወይም ማሳሰቢያ የግለሰቦች ሀሳብ እየመሰላቸዉ ተክቢራዉ መቀጠል አለበት ይላሉ:: ሁሉም ሰዉ በተክቢራ ተቃዉሞን መግለፁ ጠቃሚ እንደሆነ ይስማማል::ነገር ግን የነገዉን ጁምአ በተመለከተ በሁሉም መስጂዶች ሙስሊሙ በዝምታ ተቃዉሞዉን መግለፅ እንዳለበት ሹራ ተደርጎ እና ከብዙ አቅጣጫ ታይቶ የተወሰነ መሆኑን በመረዳት ይህንን መልዕክት በየመስጂዳችን ተግባራዊ እንድናደርገዉ እናሳስባለን …….አሁንም ይህን የተለመደዉን ታዛዥነታችንን በማስቀጠል በየመስጂዶቻችን በዝምታ ተቃዉሞአችንን እንድንገልፅ በአላህ ስም እናሳስባለን::
Another Facebook group advocating for their cause is Ethiopia Muslims:
The overall development, prosperity and democratization processes of a country can never be realized with a marginal participation of only a segment of its population. Having passed through centuries of systematic and unfair policies, the Ethiopian Muslim community has been struggling to ascertain its very existence.
Finally, there is Nur-Ethio:
The purpose of this group is to fully empower Ethiopian Muslims socially, economically, and politically based on the Ethiopian constitution and International law..
Islam, which arrived in Ethiopia in 615, is the second-most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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Greece: HIV-Positive Sex Workers Brutally Exposed Online · Global Voices
Maria Sidiropoulou

A multitude of reactions have come after the Greek police uploaded photos and personal data of HIV-positive sex workers to its website. NGOs and hundreds of netizens condemned, through social media, the ones responsible for this campaign, as well as mainstream media for their biased coverage.
It all started when, on April 26, 2012, the authorities decided to perform controls on illegal brothels in the center of Athens, resulting in the arrest of a 22-year-old Russian sex worker who was HIV-positive, didn't hold papers and consequently didn't take any necessary health tests. On April 29, the Greek authorities, by the prosecutor's orders, published personal data and a photograph of the prostitute on its official website, claiming that this exposure “aims to secure the social community”.
According to Kathimerini [el] newspaper, almost 1,000 of her clients rushed to call the AIDS hotline and ΚΕEL (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) [el].
In the following days, KEEL engaged itself in performing health controls on illegal sex workers and brothels in the center of Athens, detecting 11 more women who were infected with the AIDS virus. The authorities uploaded once again the personal data and photos of those women, while the prosecutor pressed charges for intentional physical damage. Finally, it was decided that they would be kept in detention, as well as five more HIV-positive sex workers that were spotted later.
Reactions on the web
Hundreds of netizens condemned the act of publicizing the personal data of sex workers as an inhuman mistake by former Minister of Citizen Protection, Mr Cryssochoides, as well as former Health Minister, Mr Loverdos, indicating that this action falls into the category of a tremendous violation of human rights.
The former Greek Health Minister caused reactions when last December he proposed the deportation of foreign sex workers with HIV,  [dead link] that “the disease is transmitted from illegal immigrants to the Greek client, and consequently to the Greek family”.
@CrippleHorse: Αν η οροθετική ήταν Ελληνίδα, δεν θα διαπομπευόταν. Διαπομπεύεται για να αποδείξει ο Λοβέρδος τη φασιστική του θεωρία ότι μας κολλάνε οι ξένες.
@PrinGR: Όχι υπουργός Προστασίας του Πολίτη, αλλά υπουργός Διαπόμπευσης και Εξευτελισμού του (αλλοδαπού) Πολίτη αναδείχτηκε ο Ανδρ. Λοβέρδος.
@Contrabbando: Τα πάντα στο βωμό της υπεράσπισης του Ελληναρά “οικογενειάρχη νοικοκυραίου”, που κινδυνεύει από τις “υγειονομικές βόμβες”, κατά Λοβέρδο.
@zoemavroudi: Minister Loverdos: Violating medical confidentiality by publishing the HIV status of a prostitute encompasses your legacy. @a_loverdos
Dozens of voices were united through the Internet, calling for the immediate arrest of those responsible, the clients of those women, as well as their pimps and all human trafficking circuits that have a strong presence in Greece, even with state and police tolerance:
@Antidrasex: Να βρεις και τους πελατες και τους νταβατζήδες, @hellenicpolice και να δώσεις και αυτών τις φωτογραφίες στη δημοσιότητα. Ντροπή σας!
@thesspirit: Οι καλοί οικογενειάρχες Αττικής που πήγαιναν σε ΠΑΡΑΝΟΜΟ οίκο ανοχής ΧΩΡΙΣ προφυλακτικό με γυναίκα ΘΥΜΑ trafficking δεν έχουν ΚΑΜΙΑ ευθύνη.
@papadimi: Ο πραγματικός δημόσιος κίνδυνος είναι όλοι αυτοί που δημοσίευσαν τις φώτο & πιο επικίνδυνοι εκείνοι που το θεωρούν ηθικό @chrisgr_ @lifomag
Many expressed their concern that publishing those pictures might become the first step of a general targeting against vulnerable social groups:
@LeVoleur: η διαπόμπευση είναι πάντα ένα δείγμα μιας παρηκμασμένης κοινωνίας
@zoemavroudi: The violation of the prostitute's personal data in Greece is only a sign of what's to come for the weak. That is, for all of us.
Current legal framework
Lawyer, Vasilis Sotiropoulos, who also represented humanitarian organizations for their complaint [el] on the issue, noted on his blog that the publication of personal data of HIV positive people is illegal, and that the publication with a simple court order overrdies the Data Protection Authority [el]:
@Sotiropoulos: The publication of information regarding one's health is allowed exclusively after the given permission of the Data protection Authority.
The acthivist blogger also  [dead link]:
Within the recommendations of the International Labor Organization regarding HIV/AIDS in the work environment, it is stated that there is no profession from which people with HIV should be excluded, however, in every work place, as far as prevention and access to information and the health services are concerned, adequate measures should be taken.
Journalist Matina Stevis of Wall Street Journal summarized the legal status:
@MatinaStevis: Publishing private medical records for whatever reason -even public order- is against Greek and European law.
However, there were people that argued on how public health should be considered as a priority:
@P_Vlachos: @MatinaStevis The social right to public health precedes personal data protection (Law 3418/2005)
Reactions by organizations
Citizen's Advocate [el], an independent authority published an official declaration, on 10 May, stating that the publication of data and photos of people with HIV-AIDS is insulting to human dignity and violates patient's rights.
The publication [..] promoted, in a false and misleading way, the protection of public goods as an act that is incompatible to the protection of fundamental individual rights, affecting constitutional and european legal culture. [..] protection measures of public health cannot violate the rights of patients and people with HIV-AIDS.
The feminist initiative for the elimination of violence against women [el] condemned the inhuman and humiliating way those women were treated by public authorities and refers to it as a “racist orgy” and as violation of justice and human rights. There were also reactions by the Greek Union for Human Rights, the Addicts Therapy Center [el]  (Kethea), the  [dead link] and other organizations, while the Daily Newspaper Journalists Union of Attica (Esiea) condemned the publication of the photos [el] by newspapers, channels and websites, that “participate in the public humiliation of certain women, violating every aspect of the deontology code and professional ethics of journalists”.
At the same time, the issue was recognized globally when AWID, an organization for the protection of women's rights, promoted and informed about the incident and the gathering of petitions and signatures via Change.org website, that will be sent to the greek Prime Minister, aiming at institutional pressure.

author: Maria Sidiropoulou


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Greece: Police Violence Against Immigrants on the Rise · Global Voices
Ioanna Panagiotopoulou

Greek social media has been in uproar over a video posted on Facebook and Twitter, showing police officers overtly abusing a detained immigrant in downtown Athens. The incident occured at the end of January 2012, whilst the exact location has not been confirmed.
Motorized police (DIAS in Greek) as well as people in plain clothes, brutalized the detainee, who didn't resist arrest, as the video shows clearly:
According to film director Nikos Soulis, who recorded the incident, the man was burning garbage, endangering the cars parked beside them:
@nikosoulis: @Louki_p he was burning garbage bags..parked cars were endangered. They did well to arrest him, but then what? Why?
Police launched an administrative review over the incident, but the witness stated on Facebook that he wasn't called to testify, although he submitted the video to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Greece. Administrative reviews, often ineffective, have been ordered in the past over similar incidents.
In response to a comment by the Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis (@chrisochoidis), on the occasion of the anniversary of the military coup of April 21, 1967, journalist Damian Mac Con Uladh (@damomac) urged the minister to take immediate action:
@chrisochoidis: Ακόμη και μια τραυματισμένη δημοκρατία είναι καλύτερη από καθόλου δημοκρατία.
@damomac: @chrisochoidis Minister, please assist in helping this “wounded democracy” by dismissing those cops who beat this man!
Although mainstream media mostly ignored the incident, reactions on social media were immediate and intense, and it was also publicized by activists abroad:
@teacherdude: No mention on Greek TV news of savage beating of immigrant in Athens by police caught on video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4Cf1T8bR4 Hardly surprising.
@SykoFantiS: Υπάρχει κάποιος που πιστεύει ότι η ομάδες ΔΙΑΣ προσφέρουν έργο;
@v_emman: Αυτή δεν είναι αστυνομία, είναι συμμορία τραμπούκων. Ντρέπομαι για λογαριασμό σας. http://j.mp/Id5a2W @hellenicpolice
@libertarian: @hellenicpolice στο 4ο είχα δει να βάζουν κράνος σε κρατούμενο και να τον κλωτσάν στο κεφάλι.
Numerous incidents of police violence against immigrants have been documented in the past, while in 2007, the publication of a video showing immigrants being abused in a police precinct caused an international furore. By August 2008, the Greek police had been convicted at least nine times by the European Court of Human Rights for incidents of abuse.
In its trial run, the Network to Record Incidents of Racist Violence recorded 63 incidents during the last 2 months of 2011, of which 18 are linked to police violence, and noted that “racist violence is spreading at a terrifying rate”. In a recent report, in view of the upcoming review of Greece by the United Nations’ Committee Against Torture, international human rights NGO Human Rights Watch called the country's attempts to protect immigrants and vulnerable groups “totally insufficient”, while in it's annual review for 2011, independent research network RED held up Greece as the most typical example of the outburst of racist violence and impunity in Europe.
During his previous tenure as Citizen Protection Minister, Mr. Chrisochoidis had committed to founding a bureau to address incidents of police abuse:
@chrisochoidis: .@asteris Περί ΓΑΠΑ: αναβαθμίστηκε η διερευνητική του δυνατότητα και αποκτά αυξημένη τυπική ισχύ καθώς θα κυρωθεί με νόμο και όχι με Π.Δ.
The ‘Bureau tο Address Abuse Incidents’ was founded by law [el] on March 2011, but has still to become operational. Greek NGO Hellenic League for Human Rights called [el] the legislative act “a clear setback” and “a much worse scenario” than what had originally been announced.
το Γραφείο δεν θα είναι ανεξάρτητος φορέας όπως αρχικά είχε δηλώσει ο Μιχ. Χρυσοχοϊδης και είχε ακολουθήσει μάλιστα και η ανάλογη ηλεκτρονική διαβούλευση, αλλά αυτό που το νέο σχέδιο νόμου προβλέπει είναι μια τριμελής επιτροπή [δικαστικών]. Η επιτροπή αυτή, όπως διευκρινίστηκε δεν θα έχει καμία δυνατότητα διερεύνησης της καταγγελίας αλλά θα κρίνει μόνο αν η καταγγελία θα είναι παραδεκτή, παρεμποδίζοντας ουσιαστικά την ποινική διερεύνηση.
Over 2,400 members have joined a Facebook group [el] created after the brutal crackdown of protests at Syntagma Square, Athens, on June 28-29, 2011, in order to collect documentation on police violence, whilst almost 15,000 members have joined an older Facebook Cause titled ‘Stop Greek police brutality’, created on the day after the police killing of 15-year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.

author: Ioanna Panagiotopoulou


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Indonesia: Soldier Loses His Temper in the Street · Global Voices
Agung Harsya

Early this month, a two-minute video clip of an armed-man confronting a civilian in Indonesia circulated on YouTube and became a trending topic on Twitter.
The video, “Koboy Palmerah”, literally means “Palmerah Cowboy”. Palmerah is a busy street in west Jakarta. It showed a man with white t-shirt confronting a motorcyclist after they were both involved in a crash. The man brandishing a pistol and a stick opened fire into the air more than once. The license plate of the “cowboy” car reportedly belongs to an Indonesian military officer.
Here are some reactions of netizens. Raihan wrote in his blog:
Setelah bolak-balik memutar Video Koboy Palmerah ini, saya menyangka aparat lieur ini habis nonton film The Raid, berambisi mungkin untuk menjadi pemeran utamanya…
…Kalau aparat sudah berlagak koboy begini masihkan bisa disebut Pelindung, Pelayan, dan Pengayom Masyarakat?
After watching the video over and over again, I think the soldier got confused after watching The Raid (a box office action Indonesian movie), maybe he wants to be included in the movie…
…If an officer acts like a cowboy, can we still call him ‘to protect and serve the people'?
Some Twitter reactions:
@dtgbulan: yg namanya menembak sipil itu tetap melanggar hukum
@budiman_hakim: “Kadispen TNI AD: “Tindakan Koboy Palmerah hanya untuk membela diri.” Do you expect people to accept that?
@littlemoodycat: is this what policemen do these days???
@arisetyo: parah, malu-maluin banget kelakuan aparat negara ini..
@asepbs: Wrong man behind the gun in the wrong place
@FadjarArianto: jika bertemu dgn Kapten Arluthfi (Koboy Palmerah), mari kita sama2 pukul kepalanya dgn pentungan! #ArogansiTNI
One day after the incident, police admitted that there's a car grazed in the location shown in the video. According to Tempo, the car driver is a captain in the army and the motorcyclist is a civilian. Because of the incident, the military police came and brought the captain to their station. Military police will follow up the investigation.
Meanwhile, the soldier came up with his version. In a statement given by the head of communication of the Indonesian national army, he said the gun he used was only an airsoft gun. He lost his temper because the motorcyclist yelled at him and banged at his window.

author: Agung Harsya


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Lithuania: Alleged Child Abuse Case · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

At OpenDemocracy.net, Violeta Davoliūtė draws attention to “some of the more sober realities of life in today’s Lithuania,” highlighting a highly publicised case of alleged child abuse that is “being played out against a background of mob rule, support from politicians and complicity on the part of the police.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Mozambique: President Rejects Social Networks · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

[All links in Portuguese unless otherwise indicated.]
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza made waves on social networks in March 2012, with his rejection of the use of online communication tools in a speech before an audience of young supporters of the historic ruling party Frelimo [en]. The speech was delivered at the closing session of the Central Committee of Organização da Juventude Moçambicana (OJM, Organization of Mozambican Youth).
Guebuza stated that tools like Facebook and Twitter have “the potential to be transformed into spaces that produce performances, factories of unattainable dreams and infinite mirages and expectations that can lead to the sidelining of a culture of work, promoting the spirit of dependency.”
Global Voices’ partner newspaper in Mozambique, @Verdade, published on April 19, an editorial that criticized the controversial statement, saying the real motivation of the statement was to silence critical voices:
President Armando Guebuza. Photo by World Economic Forum no Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Guebuza disse que os jovens precisam de deixar de ser fofoqueiros e intriguistas e entregarem-se ao trabalho. (…)
Ao invés de ministrar “palestras de motivação”, onde pudesse dar aos jovens dicas de como se edifica um património económico em tão pouco tempo, o Presidente da República prossegue indiferente ao eleitor, ao povo, aos jovens e à opinião pública, demonstrando o desprezo absoluto por alguns princípios básicos da democracia.
Guebuza said that young people need to stop being gossips and conspirators and dedicate themselves to work. (…)
Instead of giving “motivational speeches,” where he could give young people tips on how to marshal economic resources in a short time, the President of the Republic continues to be indifferent to the voters, to the people, to the young people and to public opinion, showing an absolute disdain for some of the basic principles of democracy.
To which an anonymous commenter responded:
Historian and analyst Egídio Vaz reacted in a note that was republished on Antonio Kawaria's blog Reflectindo sobre Moçambique (Reflecting on Mozambique) on April 17:
Wireless sign on a building in Maputo. Photo by rabanito on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
um abraço a todos jovens que usam o facebook como ferramenta para o exercício dos seus direitos de cidadania (…). na verdade, recorramos as palavras do Presidente Samora Machel que se tornaram em máxima frelimista de então: Quando o inimigo nos ataca é porque estamos no caminho certo. Pelos direitos de cidadania, inalienáveis e não-negociáveis, Viva o facebook
One of the comments left on Egídio Vaz's piece, signed by user Tchaka, added:
na juventude [de Guebuza] não havia internet, redes sociais, etc., ele e o seu partido estão com dificuldades de perceber as tendências modernas da juventude e têm medo do poder que as novas ITC [Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação] trazem para a mente juvenil.
In a meeting with the country's Youth Parliament in Inhambane, journalist José Belmiro, refusing the latent threats against those who would make their voices heard, concluded:
Nós jovens não podemos nos calar (…) Expor ideias não quer dizer que seja do contra ou da oposição. Significa que sou sujeito do meu destino (…) Nós jovens temos a responsabilidade de romper com o ciclo do medo

author: Sara Moreira


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Serbia: May 6 Elections Results · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia sums up the results of the first round of the elections in Serbia and predicts what is to come after the May 20 runoff: “Assuming that Tadić defeats Nikolić by his usual narrow margin in two weeks, a government that looks a lot like the previous one, only less stable and more corrupt, and lots of signs that there is a good number of angry people in a system that remains pretty lopsided and pretty dysfunctional. No signs that things will get much better, but happily no signs that they will get a whole lot worse.”


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South Korea: Continuing Mad Cow Controversy Over US Beef Imports · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Since last week, South Korea has seen continuing protests against importing beef from the United States after mad cow disease broke out in California. The Korean government dispatched its inspection team to the US to quell the public anger incited by the government's unkept promise to halt the beef imports immediately the disease was detected. However, the inspection team's lack of control over the investigation process and the biased member selection process further deepened South Korean's distrust of the government.
South Korea's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a nine-person inspection team that checked infected cattle and meat packing facilities in the United States right after the disease was detected. They returned only to announce on May 11, 2012, there is no real human health threat posed by American beef and concluded that the country will maintain its quarantine inspections regime on the beef without halting imports, a solution that totally contradicts the government's promise made in 2008. The Korean public responded to this result with heated discussions and criticism online.
One of South Korea's prominent political bloggers IamPeter clarified [ko] the reason for public distrust of the government's version of the story:
원래 광우병 미국 현지 조사단은 정확한 실태 파악을 위해 발병 농장 방문, 사체의 조직 검사 등 모든 의혹을 밝힐 수 있는 조사를 하기로 되어 있었습니다. 그러나 지금 광우병 미국 현지 조사단은 미국 측이 허용하는 장소만 가서 구경만 하고 있습니다. 광우병 발병 현지 목장 방문은 아예 하지도 못했고, 광우병 소의 사체 조직 검사도 미국 측에 의해 좌절됐습니다. 도축장 방문도 수출용이 아닌 내수용 도축장에만 갔다 왔습니다. 결국 광우병 미국 현지 조사단이 했던 일은 아무것도 없습니다. 그저 미국이 보여주는 지정된 코스를 충실하게 견학만 하고 있습니다.
A brochure of anti US beef import protest planned on May 12 (left). Image shared by twitter user @hudanchu
Sarcastic comments ridiculing the inspection team inundated blogs and the twittersphere. Lee Hyang-ah commented [ko] below a related news article:
세금으로 미국여행 잘하고왓지뭐…자기들이 미국가서 광우병조사한다고하면 아이고 오시느라고 고생많았습니다. 앉아서 커피나 먹으면서 같이 얘기해봅시다. 이럴줄알앗나?? 뭔 뜻으로 조사단을 보냇는지 모르겟다.
A net user @555773 tweeted [ko]:
[…]농장에도 방문도 못하고 조사한 결과가 이상이 없다며 검역 강화에만 치중하면서 중단은 하지 않고 국민의 불안감만 안기고 있는 정부를 신뢰할수 없다
Baek Chan-hong (@mindgood) tweeted [ko]:
헛물만 켜다온 광우병 조사단 “미국산 쇠고기 안전” 결론…그럴거면 이메일로 조사하지.
Another Twitter user @korea486 tweeted [ko]:
광우병 조사단 귀국,미국 쇠고기 이상 없다고 발표했군요! 광우병 조사단? 관광단 유람단 아니였나? 이 이인간들 미국소 먹을까요? 안 먹을까요?
Cho Neung-hee(@mbcpdcho), a producer at MBC who is also a former chief producer of investigative journalism show “PD Notebook” tweeted [ko]:
조사단장을 맡은 주이석 질병방역본부장은 지난 2008년 4월 미국쇠고기 졸속협상시 협상단 실무담당자였다. 2008년 6월에는 PD수첩 제작진을 형사처벌해달라며 대검찰청에 수사의뢰서를 제출하고 관련 진술을 한 사람으로 조사의 객관성과 공정성이 의심된다.
Some news reports revealed that scientists and scholars who are against the US beef imports were excluded from the team.
The government argues the most recent case in California is a very rare atypical case and the case is unlikely to have caused by animal feed. However, another tweet [ko] by Cho made references to some US officials from the Clinton and Obama administrations who said they cannot verify for the moment whether there is any possible connection between the disease and the animal feed and they can't confirm the origin of this atypical case. Cho added [ko]:
[…] 학자들의이 반론으로 미국정부도 그 원인을 모른다고 후퇴했는데.. 유독 한국 농식품부는 사료가 원인이 아니라고 ‘추정'된다며.. 그러니 안전하다며.. 국민을 설득하려는지 참으로 안타깝군요. 사전예방의 법칙! 어디갔어?
IamPeter added [ko] after his analysis:
“정형 광우병은 없어졌다”고 했는데, 세계동물보건기구(OIE)의 2011년 광우병 통계에는 총 광우병 29건 중 정형 26건, 비정형 3건으로 나와 있습니다. […] 광우병에 대한 과학적인 결론은 100% 진실이 없습니다. 아직 정확하게 규명되지 않은 일들이 많기 때문입니다. 그렇기에 더욱 위험합니다. 과학적으로 규명되지 않았기에 위험하지 않다는 주장은 ‘바다의 깊이를 현재 모른다'라고 말해놓고, ‘그러니 빠져도 괜찮다'라는 말과 다를 바가 없습니다.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Spain: Many Reasons to Take to the Streets on 12M · Global Voices
Lali Sandiumenge

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.
In Spain on 15 May, the first anniversary of 15M will be commemorated. There are a huge number of events scheduled all over the country for the next several days. Some have already begun, like in Barcelona with the Fòrum dels Pobles (The People's Forum) [cat] which opened in Plaça Catalunya at 18:00 hrs with the aim of generating a space for debate, collaboration and sharing among different collectives who are working for change.
On Saturday 12 May (12M), protests are predicted to take place in many cities across Spain. The platform Democracia Real Ya (Real Democaracy Now) [es] and the portal Tomalaplaza (Take The Square) [es] bring together some of the initiatives from not only the local, but also the global sphere, such as videos and images:
There are many different, yet overlapping reasons to head to the streets on May 12. Spanish tweeters have been exposing these reasons for two days over the internet. The hashtags #YoVoy12M (I'm Going 12M), launched on Thursday, and #ALaPlaza (To The Square), launched on Friday, have been Trending Topics (TT) in Spain itself, but also on a globally. @mantaypeli is putting together a  Storify [es] of the tweets.
Here we have a few more:
@Nofwer: #YoVoy12M: Por la busqueda de una Democracia Total! Y no este simulacro.
@Aldana72: #M12 #12m15m: Por nuestro futuro. Por nuestra dignidad. Tenemos que ir #yovoy12m
@qmbx: #YoVoy12M: porque será la mejor carrera que podamos hacer juntos. #15M es sentirse indignado. #12M es sentirse vendido. #12M15M es respuesta.
@pabloskybarbato: #YoVoy12M: porque no somos terroristas al decir que hay algo más en esta vida que ir cada 4 años a las urnas o ir a las urnas
@pabloskybarbato: #YoVoy12M: porque creo que la organización y el debate de la vox populi es la única forma de sacarnos de esta y de cualquier situación
@carlos605486545: #YoVoy12M: todavía no he visto a un político en crisis
@juulia022: Perquè estic farta que es prometin coses que mai arriben a complir-se! #YoVoy12M #12m15m
@Jc36Lj: #YoVoy12M: por educacion por que es sano y me gusta lo publico
@julkfusion: #YoVoy12M: con esperanza, ganas de crear… Aun hay quien pregunta “por qué”?
@andergayamor: #yovoy12m: Porque llevamos en nuestro corazón un mundo nuevo que está naciendo.
@LauraIpunto1 Sin educación, sin sanidad, sin vivienda, sin rescate ciudadano…Españoles la democracia a muerto!!! #AlaPlaza12M
@LauraIpunto1: No education, no health service, no housing, no citizen bailout. Spaniards, democracy has died!!! #AlaPlaza12M
@iaioflautas: #Alaplaza12M: A disfrutar del solecico y el 13-14 unas partidas de dominó por la plaza entre debate y debate
@apardo: #aLaPlAzA12m: porque esto no es una crisis, es una estafa
@gorriato: El año pasado con el #15M les dimos un ultimátum a nuestros políticos. Lejos de mejorar, las cosas han empeorado #AlaPlaza12M #12M15M
@A_Cas: Si el gobierno no cuida de los ciudadanos, los ciudadanos cuidamos de los ciudadanos #AlaPlaza12M
This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

author: Lali Sandiumenge


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Thailand: Grandfather Serving Lese Majeste Sentence Dies in Prison · Global Voices
Aim Sinpeng

The death of Ampon Tangnopponkul, known locally as “Akong”, is described by many Thai netizens as a shame for Thailand. Akong was sentenced to 20 years in jailed for an unproven lese majeste case. The 61-year-old grandfather, who had long battled with oral cancer, was believed to have died as a result of this disease.
Attempts to get bail for Akong, most notably due to his illness, was repeatedly denied. Campaigns by activists and scholars in Thailand and abroad to free Ampon, while rallied substantial popular support, did not alter his situation. This case was hailed as one of “the most severe lese majeste convictions yet recorded.”
Akong with his family. Photo from FACT – Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
This bizarre and tragic story began in August 2010 when Akong was arrested in his home and detained without charge for two months. In January 2011, he was finally charged for sending four SMS messages deemed offensive to the monarchy to then prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's personal secretary and other cabinet members. Akong denied such charges.
During the trial, Ampon admitted not knowing how to send SMS messages and that he did not recognize the numbers belonging to the receivers. He wept throughout the entire ordeal and repeated his love for the king.
Judge Chanatip Mueanpawong clarified the verdict:
The prosecution could not produce a witness to definitively confirm that the defendant was the one sending the messages to the plaintiff's phone. It was difficult to present compelling evidence because the defendant, who committed such acts, would naturally conceal his actions so that others could not observe them. As such it is necessary to rely on circumstantial evidence to indicate the defendant's intentions.
Akong was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 5 years for each SMS message sent.
The mobile phone messages were alleged by the authorities to have contained vulgar language defaming the queen and insulting the honor of the monarchy. According to iLaw, the police relied on phone log by service provider and police witnesses to convict Akong.
The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission agrees the case was circumstantial at best and warns mobile phone users to be especially mindful of their phone activity.
While in custody, the Court of Appeals repeatedly denied Ampon bail, citing the severity of the case as a threat to national security and possibility of his flight.
The death of “Uncle SMS” elicited strong, and polarized, reaction in the cyber community – many were outraged, while some cheerful. Poltahan Manoke Klang Prapan wrote on Facebook:
I wish this country would see justice and freedom, but I could only wish. I wish the ignorant would see the light, but I could only dream. I guess I would have to put up with this reality. After all death is inevitable.
Piangkam Pradabkwan composed a poem on her Facebook page, whose last verse was:
Akong is dead. Who killed the old man? Justice came too late – this is a crime. Human lives are cheap and abundant. They breathe and smell death every day.
Others weren't so upset about the passing of Akong:
“Please make merit for the old man. By now he's probably in hell with fire burning in his mouth,” major181226 responded to the Youtube clip about Akong. “He deserved to die. Our land would now be elevated. When the color ordeal is over, our country could progress. Or don't you agree?” posted Purno5.
On Twitter, @supinya expressed her sadness:
Rest in Peace for Uncle SMS, speechless as always. Sadness from both angles; humanity&human rights. My condolence to his family & friends.
Bangkok Pundit asks why a senior citizen with cancer was viewed by the state as threat to national security:
It is hard to know whether he would have received better treatment outside the prison as we don’t know for sure the cause of death, but having cancer while living on Thai prison food and being reliant on the prison hospital are unlikely to be factors in helping you live longer. The extent though is unclear and will never be known. Nevertheless, one does wonder how much of a national security threat a man in his 60s with cancer is that he needs to be locked up in jail?
For many citizens, the Akong case was about injustice and mistreatment of prisoners. They feel Thailand failed as a society to put political differences aside when faced with such gross human rights violations.

author: Aim Sinpeng


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Egypt: Historical Arabic Manuscripts Put Online · Global Voices
محمد عادل

Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Wellcome Library and King’s College London Digital Humanities Department have recently launched the Wellcome Arabic Manuscript Cataloguing Partnership (WAMCP). The manuscripts collection comprises around 1000 manuscript books and fragments relating to the history of medicine. All content is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0).

author: محمد عادل


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Iran: 28.5 millions have access to Internet · Global Voices
Hadi Nili

According to official statistics,28.5 millions of Iranians are estimated to have access to Internet connection in 1154 cities of Iran. This figures says more than 2.1 millions of this Iranian users have ADSL connection and the rest are connected via dial-up. Iranian government has restricting rules for Internet connection of citizens and only academic and business users can have broadband connections more than 128 kbps.

author: Hadi Nili


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Singapore: Birth Control and Low Crime Rate · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Furry Brown Dog tries to determine if Singapore's birth control policies in the 1970s are also responsible for the country's low crime rates.

author: Mong Palatino


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Singapore: Population, Migration, and Women · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Syahidah Ismail provides an overview of various issues faced by Singapore women in the past half century. The author discussed some of the controversial population and migration policies adopted by the government in the past decades.


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Singapore: Remembering the 1987 ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Several Singaporean groups will commemorate the 25th anniversary of a government crackdown of suspected destabilizers in Singapore. They are accused of being part of a ‘Marxist Conspiracy.’ Human rights groups claim that more than 2,500 people have suffered detention without trial since the ruling party came to power in 1959.


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Spain: The First Anniversary of the Indignant Movement · Global Voices
Lali Sandiumenge

The initiatives to commemorate the first anniversary of the 15-M (15 May) or Indignant Movement keep cropping up. Among them is this video by the group Informatbcn [cat], where several Attac Europe representatives are interviewed concerning this phenomenon. Opinions are gathered from Iceland, France, Greece, Austria, and Germany.
Informatbcn started in Barcelona during the 15-M (May 15, 2011) to promote reflection and critical thinking. Their slogan, as well as their name, is the Catalan word “informa't”, which means “inform yourself”.
Here's the video “15M one year after by Attac Europe”:
Attac (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens’ Action) is an international organization part of the alter-globalization movement against financial neoliberalism.


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Sri Lanka: Buddhism and Violence · Global Voices
Rezwan

Ameena Hussein at Groundviews tries to analyze why there is a growing tendency among Sri Lankan Buddhists to embrace violence and hatred.


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Ukraine, France: The Future of Franco-Ukrainian Relationship · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Odessablogger comments on the statements made by Ukrainian political scientists regarding the future of the Franco-Ukrainian relationship following the election of François Hollande as the President of France.


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‘What’s Eating Singapore’ Data Visualizer · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Singapore's Health Promotion Board uses the What’s Eating Singapore? data visualizer to survey the five most popular foods in Singapore based on social media posts. It's updated every three days. This week's most popular food items are pizza, curry, and sushi


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Zambia: Citizen News Website Hacked · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

On Wednesday, 9 May, 2012, netizens who flock to various citizen-run news websites such as Zambian Watchdog and Tumfweko were met with “page not available” or messages to similar effect. As frustrating at not accessing the websites that have come to be known for their expose stories as it was, the non-technical readers dismissed it as one of those things the internet threw at you once in a while.
A day after the glitch, Zambian Watchdog reported that its website was a target of a sustained attack allegedly by the PF government. Reported the website popularly known as ZWD among Zambian netizens:
PF government agents last Wednesday carried out their most ambitious attack on the Zambian Watchdog website with view of  destroying it.
“The site has been attacked using denial of service and no personal information has been compromised”
The attackers have used Optima/Darkness DDoS botnet that is popular in the Russian-speaking cybercrime black market.
The Attack caused inaccessibility to the news for close to 8 hours.
Other websites like http://www.tumfweko.com were also brought down that day.
President Sata looking at the Facebook page of opposition MMD MP Dora Siliya. Picture courtesy of McLan Mkuni on the Bemba vs Nyanja: Miponto Sha Ci Mbuya group page.
Although difficult to prove that the attack was carried out by the PF government, the relationship between the Zambian Watchdog and the PF has not been all rosy even as an opposition party before the 2011 elections. President Michael Sata’s statement when he swore in Attorney General Mumba Malila shortly after he took up the president did not help matters.
President Sata told Mr Malila who had once held the same position under the defeated MMD government:
“Last year when we were preparing for elections, these so called unregistered internet sites reported that Mr Sata had collapsed, Mr Sata is very sick, Mr Sata has died…
“So, I am not asking for a witch- hunt, but you as Attorney-General, let us enforce the laws of this country because all these internets are all orchestrated by the UPND. Last year the Watchdog website lied that he was dead, he was too sick, when in fact not. “
Chilling though, was a story that was reported earlier this year that the government had released K5 billion or US$1 million to send police and security staff around the world to train them to hack the targeted websites.
The Independent Post, which was also hit by a similar attack, quoting an email it got from Zambian Watchdog  quoted from the Cyber War Zone website, reported:
Watchdog comment: The Watchdog is aware of the hackers sponsored by the PF government to wipe out all Independent news websites in Zambia.
About K5 billion tax payers money has been released to government agents and some have been sent to China and other countries to learn how to hack websites. Even though we hear that most of this money has been used on beer and prostitutes.
Graph of the distribution of DDoS attacks on Zambian Watchdog. Image source: zambianwatchdog.com.
A Wikipedia entry claiming that President Sata had been assassinated did not help matters in the relationship between citizen news websites and the government. It was shortly after that incident that the reported K5 billion was released for the war against recalcitrant news websites.
Commenting on the Zambian Watchdog attack story, Mufana Wamahafu wrote:
The PF will soon run out of cash in their quest to close critical online publications.Even if ZWD is brought down today, another one will immediately be setup by the same owners. The PF will have to subcontract the Vietnamese and Russians at what cost? Because we all know that PF has no capacity to even learn how to go about this whole process.Its a party of thick heards. I mean the president is a grade ZERO ZERO ZERO. Please hear this: ONLINE NEWS IS HERE TO STAY. FINITO!!! This is just a tip of the iceberg, ZWD and the rest of these online newspapers has’nt even reached their optimum. Its too early to press the panic button ba kaponya imwe [you louts].
Reacted a reader calling himself Say What?:
DoS attacks don’t come cheap and are difficult to sustain.
If the PF really is behind this then some great use of our tax money, huh? No price too high to pay for suppressing freedom of speech? Guess I missed that line in the PF Manifesto.
But one reader, Jackson, had a different view:
I DONT THINK A SERIOUS GOVT. CAN LOSE SLEEP OVER A SMALL,BIASED,TRIBAL AND UNETHICAL WEBSITE. THESE ALLEGATIONS ARE TOTALLY BASELESS.
On 2 April, 2012 Zambian Watchdog reported that the government has intensified crackdown on Internet users:
The PF government has heightened its internet crack down on citizens who use to discuss matters that affect them.
But the crackdown on the Internet may land the Zambian government in trouble as it risks being listed as one of the Internet enemies.
The government through its secret service is now monitoring and gathering Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of people who regularly comment on political matters on popular news websites or social media like Facebook and Twitter.
As example, the Zambia Media Forum, a private discussion group has been invaded by state agents who are passing on details of group members to the state.
Zambia Medium Forum is a discussion group whose members are mostly Zambian journalists and Civil Society activists. Some of the members work for government and parastatal companies.
Last week, at least three members of the Forum were interrogated by OP [Office of the Predisent] agents from their respective offices.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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Nagorno Karabakh: Cultural Destruction and Preservation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

During the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azeris and Armenians were displaced. With hundreds of settlements also razed, and thousands of monuments destroyed, Conflict Voices looks at the issue of cemeteries, some of which were destroyed, but also preserved during the war as well as in the 18 years since the 1994 ceasefire.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Armenia: LGBT Community Fears After Yerevan Bar Firebombed · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Le Retour in 3 Parts comments on last week's firebombing of D.I.Y., a gay-friendly bar in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Believed to be the work of Neo-Nazis, the blog says fears are running high in the LGBT community that hate crime is on the increase.


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Brazil: Street Dwellers Share Their Voice on Newspaper · Global Voices
João Miguel Lima

A Laje newspaper features complaints and stories of “street dwellers demanding respect” in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. Produced by the National Movement of Street Dwellers (MNPR) in partnership with students of the group Communication and Education for People at the Federal University of Paraná, the newspaper intends to reach readers also on the blogosphere [pt] and on Facebook [pt].

author: João Miguel Lima


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China: Domestic Violence · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Shards of China blogs about the problem of domestic violence in China. Even though the government has acknowledged the problem, little has been done to protect abused wives.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Foreigner beaten by Beijingers for sexually assaulting a woman in public · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A video, showing a drunken foreigner beaten up by a number of passersby for sexually assaulting a woman in public, has been circulated widely on line. Ministry of Tofu translated some of the online comments.


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China: Mother’s Day · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

David Wertime from Tea Leaf Nation blogs about Weibo users’ expression of love towards their mothers in May 13 mother's day.


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Colombia: A New Home for Campus Party in 2013? · Global Voices
Lully

Campus Party [es], the meeting for the collective creation of knowledge and training in Information Technology and Communication (ICT) will be held this year in Bogotá, as it has been in previous years since its birth in Colombia in 2008. This year the meeting is expected to draw in over 5,000 people. Traditionally the event has attracted the economic support from the Mayor of Bogotá, however, this time around Mayor Gustavo Petro has decided not to support the event.
The lack of financial support from the mayor of Bogotá has motivated Paco Ragageles, co-founder of Campus Party, to post on his personal blog  [es] and on Twitter [es]. He writes that it may be time to think of another venue for the Campus Party in Columbia. At the end of his post he clarified:
Pd (obviamente es mi opinion personal con la info que tengo podría y desearía estar equivocado)
Mayor Petro through his press office [es] confirmed and explained his decision on three points:
En primer lugar, cuando los organizadores de Campus Party se acercaron a la Alcaldía, se les preguntó si podía estar presente ETB [Empresa  de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá] [es] en el evento y respondieron que no, que solo podía estar presente una empresa extranjera, entonces no es razonable que la Administración apoye tal criterio de exclusión del operador de Bogotá.
En segundo lugar, los 600 millones que el Distrito ha dejado de aportar este año solo representan una pequeña parte del costo estimado del evento Campus Party, según manifestaron los organizadores.
En tercer lugar, esos 600 millones la Alcaldía los va a invertir en apropiación social de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en barrios y colegios de estratos populares a través de la semana distrital de TIC que la Alcaldía está preparando para el segundo trimestre de este año, con un impacto social mucho mayor que si se invierten en eventos como Campus Party.
Firstly, when the organisers of Campus Party came into the office we asked them if the Bogotá Telecommunications Company [es] could be a part of the event. They said no, that only a foreign company could participate. Therefore, it is not reasonable to suggest that the Administration support such an exclusion of an operator based in Bogotá.
Secondly, the 600 million pesos that the District has failed to give this year is only a small part of the estimated cost of the Campus Party event, according to the organisers.
Thirdly, the town hall is planning on investing 600 million pesos during the ICT week planned for the second quarter of this year to develop the use of technology in the poorer neighbourhoods and schools. The social impact of this will be far greater than if you were to invest in events like Campus Party.
“Mujer Florestal” maintains [es] that the blog entry published by Paco Ragageles generated misinformation and explains:
Si la Campus Party esta buscando nueva sede, es muy irresponsable relacionar este acto con el apoyo que le brindaba la Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, que como lo mencione anteriormente representa solo un 11% del valor total, no se deben lanzar apreciaciones espontáneas sin exponer las respectivas cifras e impactos.
Image from the flickr user campuspartycolombia  (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The phrase ‘Campus Party’ was a local trending topic on Twitter, where many people were proposing and debating new cities for the event in 2013.
Carlos Gutiérrez (@glomaker)  writes [es] enthusiastically about his proposal for Medellín:
Ojalá Campus Party 2013 sea en Medellín, estoy seguro que sería una buena plaza! #CPCO
Diana Galindo (@dianagalindob) makes a comparison  [es] between Campus Party 2013 and events like the upcoming concert by the singer Madonna:
Campus Party en Medellín, Madona también. Qué sigue, Medellín la capital?
Camilo Galeano (@camilogaleano) says it is a given  [es] that Campus Party 2013 will be in Medellín:
Este será el último campus Party en Bogotá! (Fijo se lo queda Medellín)
Eliana Caraballo (@elianaca) argues the case for Cartagena  [es] as a possible location, where the last Summit of the Americas took place:
CAMPUS PARTY EN CARTAGENA!!! ¿Si pudieron hacer una cumbre de presidentes, por qué no un evento de tecnología tan importante? @AlcaldiaCtg
Cari Isa Vanegas (@Caricilla) suggests [es] Barranquilla:
En Barranquilla no tendríamos problemas en acoger al Campus Party
Sebas R. Sarmiento (@sebas779) regrets [es] that the Bogotá town hall cannot support the event, but asks for it to be held in his city:
Lamentable saber que la alcaldía de Bogotá no apoya un evento como Campus Party, pero bueno, ojalá decidan que ahora se haga en Cali!
Diana Luque, in her blog [es] “Identidad Geek”, considers the possible investment of 600 million pesos and  links to an article [es] written by another co-founder of Campus Party showing the benefits of the event and their strong interest in achieving the investment through sponsorship:
(…)  ¿A cuantas personas llegará la iniciativa de la alcaldía y a cuantos Campus Party? Para tratar de demostrar el aporte del evento, la respuesta de la organización a la alcaldía sobre lo que han hecho en la ciudad no se hizo esperar.
Diana concludes by supporting the idea of relocating:
Me gustaría que se quedara en Bogotá, pero pienso que Medellín o Cali merecen la oportunidad, como lo merece en México Puebla o en cualquier otro país salir de la capital. Mi verdadera crítica es que en medio de la globalización y el acercarnos más a través de Internet, no entendemos que las capitales no son el ombligo de los países.
At the time of writing this post, Paco Ragageles in the last update of his blog [es] clarified:
Pd2 Actualización (en vista de la que se esta liando, aclaro, yo solo digo lo que me da la sensación va a suceder, y añado que es triste para nosotros, es insostenible campus sin el apoyo de la municipalidad y no lo tenemos este año, y respeto 100% la decisión libre y soberana, simplemente tendremos que buscar nuevo hogar y agradecer por los años que nos ayudaron, sin hacer mas lío please)

author: Lully


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Ecuador: Being a Mother is Not Easy · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

On Mother's Day, May 13, Juan Pablo Martínez in the blog Realidad Ecuador [es] wrote about “the reality of being a mother in Ecuador.” Juan Pablo looks at several statistics that bring to light some of the common struggles Ecuadorian mothers face.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Egypt: How do the Presidential Candidates’ Posters Compare? · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/12.
About ten days remain before the presidential elections in Egypt. A few days ago we witnessed the first presidential debate in the country's history, but the candidates’ posters also play a big role in the final decision of the voters.
In an earlier post we saw how Abou Ismail – he's out of the race now – tried to influence people by the sheer number of his posters, but shouldn't the posters’ design, colours and slogans play a role too?
Bloggers Mariam Saleh (@Mariam_Slh) and Mohamed Hussein have tried to analyse the posters of the different candidates.
Abdel-Monem Aboul-Fotoh
Aboul-Fotoh
Mariam Saleh wrote an analysis of Abdel-Monem Aboul-Fotoh'sposter, its colours, font, and so on:
Having the sky and the shining sun in the poster, makes you think that the sky is his limit. Choosing a scene from the revolution to say that he is a revolutionary candidate was not really needed, it's his actions, slogan and program that should say that. Plus, not every person who took part in the revolution will always be a revolutionary. He needs proof other than photos that he is still a revolutionary, that is if he is. The font is a nice and friendly one. Also the fact that his logo has the pyramids gives a feeling of belonging to Egypt as a country and not just to the Islamic Ummah. This is comforts those who want to think that he is different from the rest of the Islamists who don't care about Egypt as much as the Islamic Ummah [nation].
She added:
His father-like look gives a feeling of fondness and comfort. His tiny smile makes me feel his serious but kind to us. Again the fact that he is sitting down and not standing tall is sort of comfortable.
Mohamed Hussein also wrote about the candidates’ posters [ar], and this is what he had to say about Aboul-Fotoh's:
Mariam commented on Aboul-Fotoh's slogan, “The Powerful Egypt”:
A nice slogan that gives a shot of hope. His explanation of a powerful Egypt is one that is economically, politically, scientifically and militarily powerful. One that will give power and dignity to every Egyptian. The fact that his program makes it sound like an impossible dream is not the slogan's problem. The one problem with the slogan is actually a problem within us; the minute I read it I remember the old regime that only showed its power on its people. Of course he means a strong country and definitely not a government that kills its own people.
Hamdeen Sabahy
Hamdeen Sabahy
As for Hamdeen Sabahy, Mariam wrote:
The fact that the part below is black and the part above is white gives a feeling that he'll take us from the dark ages to a better one. The font used for his name and the Qur'anic verse is also a very nice one that says so much about him being connected to the Arab and Islamic world and heritage. The other font that is used for the rest of the sentences is also a friendly and comforting one, and the three sentences summarize his program very well. Focusing on his smiling face rather than his body and his suit again gives the same kind of comfort.
Mariam then added that Hamdeen is a moderate leftist who believes in a secular government, so the use of a Qur'anic verse in his poster can be interpreted in different ways. She moved to the candidate's slogan, “One of us”:
Although it makes us feel that he's closer to us than any other candidate, it doesn't say much. It does mean that he'd feel our pains because he's one of us though, which of course gives his campaign some sort intimacy. Yet, I keep thinking how a taxi driver is one of us, but would probably not make a good president.
Khaled Ali
Khaled Ali
Mariam commented on one of Khaled Ali'sposters:
Very simple with the flag colors. He has a look of a dreamer, this is a problem. I'd rather he looks straight to us, not down and not up. We want a realistic person, yes someone who can make dreams come true, but not a dreamer who looks to the sky and forgets to look ahead
Mohamed Hussein criticised another of Khaled Ali's posters, where he again doesn't look straight to the camera, and added:
Mariam noted that Khaled Ali's slogans are taken from people's chants during the revolution:
Bread, freedom, social justice and We'll make their dream a reality: Khaled Ali's campaign is very poor unfortunately, so the advertising is not very professional. So I found two slogans both are revolution's chants… Sort of lack of creativity, but this is their way of proving that he's one of the revolutionary candidates. Both are nice and revolutionary and since these chants are the revolution's demands they make sense. But they could've done better with creating a new revolutionary slogan.
There are officially 13 candidates in the Egyptian presidential elections [ar]. Mariam has commented on two other candidates, Mohamed Salim El-Awwa and Mohamed Morsy, and Mohamed Hussein has written about [ar] candidates such as Ahmed Shafiq and Amr Moussa.
This post is part of our special coverage of Egypt Elections 2011/12.

author: Tarek Amr


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France: The Little-known Abolition of Slavery Memorial in Nantes · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Website citizen-nantes.com reported that [fr]: “On the evening of Saturday March 24, 2012, the ‘Collectif du 10 Mai’, a group of Afro-Caribbean associations from Nantes, invited the people of Nantes to a ‘Gathering in honour of the victims, the abolitionists and those who fought against slavery’ in the little-known Square Toussaint Louverture. The memorial is so little-known in fact that even its location at the foot of the Pont de Cheviré is unfamiliar to most. In fact,do not even try to find it with your GPS as this square does not show up on there!”

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Gambia: The Glove Project Film · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Matt blogs about a short film showing the work done by the Glove project in The Gambia: “The charity works in a relatively unknown area of The Gambia, north of the river, and seeks to work in partnership with rural village communities, improving health, education and sustainable enterprises.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Georgia: Five Dead in Flash Flood · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

The Young Georgians posts video of this weekend's flash flood in Tbilisi, Georgia. Five people, including two children, are reported dead.


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Ghana: We Must Reject Free Education · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Samuel is against free education in Ghana because “I’m convinced beyond doubt that making secondary education free is not the way to go about improving education in Ghana. Such a move, I dare say, might cause our already fragile education sector to crumble like the Biblical wall of Jericho or at best accelerate the decline in education standards in this country.”


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Global Voices Seeks New Japanese Editor · Global Voices
Solana Larsen

Global Voices is seeking a part-time Editor to oversee our ongoing coverage of Japanese-language citizen media.
The Editor will direct the Japanese-language coverage on Global Voices in English and recruit and coordinate volunteer contributions.
The Editor will produce and/or edit several in-depth stories per week, as well as shorter posts linking and pointing to important topics, events, and writing as it occurs. The work will involve translation, analysis, and editing, to elucidate and identify trends, ideas, and social and political currents within East Asian citizen media.
The Editor will be chiefly responsible for providing as broad and complete coverage as possible of citizen media of Japanese-language media, as follows:
Recruiting: recruiting authors to cover the countries in their region; for managing authors’ output and editing and publishing posts; and maintaining a regional Google Group.
Posting to the Global Voices web site:
• 4-6 posts per week. These can either be written by volunteer authors or the Editor, in recognition of the fact that some posts (especially those which need to be translated) require substantial editing.
• 5-10 “updates” per week. These posts can also either be written by volunteer authors or the Editor. They are short and typically include only one link.
Special coverage: In times of emergency, posting as much as possible, as soon as possible, as needed.
Our Japanese team also sometimes works with translators of the Global Voices in Japanese website to exchange ideas and collaborate on stories.
Interested candidates please send CV and Letter of Interest explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: adminjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org
We will be accepting applications through May 28, 2012.
See our vacancies page for other current opportunities with Global Voices.

author: Solana Larsen


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India: Entertainment Industry Seeks Court Ban on Torrents and Vimeo · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Since the beginning of May 2012, some ISPs across parts of India had been quietly blocking access to the popular video sharing site Vimeo as well as various torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, KickAssTorrents, BitSnoop etc.
According to media reports, this is because a film production house, namely Reliance Entertainment, has (once again) obtained a preemptive ‘John Doe‘ order from the Delhi High Court, prior to the release of some of their upcoming big budget films. The Company insists that this has been done in order to ‘prevent film piracy’.
Vimeo and Pirate Bay facing censorship in India. Graphic by author.
However, there was some confusion about the news because not all ISPs were seen to block access to the aforementioned sites.
On his blog dataReign, blogger Varma provided some more details:
As of now most of the Reliance Communications broadband visitors who try to access the blocked sites are redirected to a custom page saying “The site has been blocked as per instruction from DOT” message when browsing the above file sharing sites.
[…] There has been lots of Govt and private agencies looking for ways to block all illegal site access through internet. Their has been specific orders for all majors ISP’s in the country to block access of users to this website by taking appropriate steps like DNS name blocking on ISP level, IP address blocking via routers, and DPI based URL blocking.
Message that was appearing when trying to access sites like Vimeo on some ISPs
Twitter has been abuzz with reactions and vehement protests against the blocking of the file sharing sites.
@lleshShah: I can not access #Vimeo.com. The emerging face of #censorship by #Govt of India… http://pic.twitter.com/eT8FRrPD
@ajantriks: has @vimeo been blocked in #india or only i am getting crazy error message? @anjakovacs @jackerhack @zainabbawa @geohacker
@jackerhack: @ajantriks Blocked on Reliance and maybe other networks. Reliance got a court order to block piracy before a film release @vimeo @anjakovacs
@kaustubh4evr: Vimeo Blocked in India Along with BitTorrent Sites: Censorship, at the behest of movie studios or music labels, … http://bit.ly/LepfJ4
@mihirfadnavis: Terrorism? Food shortage? Power cuts? Corruption? NO SIR, Vimeo is by far the biggest threat to India!
@varunasingh: @relianceworld Whatever you are doing is pathetic and against the motives of the internet.
@_anshulk: Blocking vimeo is stupid #reliance #censorship #india
@wewakesaynoy: For those of you using Reliance internet: they have blocked TPB, Vimeo & will follow with others. Do you really want an ISP that does that?
@TheBigGeek: @vimeo blocked by #reliance and not by #Bharti and #Tata #VSNL #CRAZY how can a DOT order be only for one ISP :****
The hue and cry over the blocked sites appear to have had an impact. The sites have been unblocked on the Reliance ISP, as this Facebook message by Chai Kadai informs us:
Vimeo is back on for us. Yay! Maybe Reliance Communications got some sense into its head or people found some other ways to download the movie. Whatever the reason. For now, happy to have Vimeo. Still don't understand how they got to block it in the first place.
Some of the tweeple have seconded the information that the sites can now be accessed on the ISP concerned.
@crazyscorpio12: Finally! TPB and vimeo unblocked on reliance india. Whew!
@aditya_bhatt: TPB and Vimeo are unblocked on Reliance now.
However, this appears to be a temporary respite. Until their next big release, that is.

author: Aparna Ray


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Iran: Cartoonist Eludes Sentence of 25 Lashes for Drawing Politician · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Cartoon of Ahmad Lotfi Ashtyani that landed Mahmoud Shokraye in trouble with authorities.
An Iranian cartoonist, Mahmoud Shokraye, was sentenced  [fa] to 25 whiplashes for drawing a cartoon of former conservative member of parliament, Ahmad Lotfi Ashtyani in Amir Nameh magazine in Arak.
A campaign to support the cartoonist was launched online, and several cartoonists drew cartoons in support of Mahmoud Shokraye.
It seems the campaign was successful, since finally the former politician withdrew his complaint [fa] on Monday, May 14, 2012.
Mana Neyestani, a leading Iranian cartoonist who has also been jailed for his cartoons, made a cartoon to support the cause.
Cartoon by Mana Neyestani from Mardomak.org
Vahid Nikgoo drew a cartoon where Ahmad Lotfi Ashtyani looks himself in a mirror and says, “When I take you to court and sentence you to lashes, you will learn not to show me like that.”
An image can be worth more than 1000 words, but in Iran a cartoon can cost you jail and lashes.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jordan: Campaign Launched Against “Rape-Marriage” Law · Global Voices
Ebtihal Mahadeen

In March of this year, 16-year-old Moroccan Amina Filali committed suicide after she was forced to marry her rapist, and Moroccans expressed their outrage at the incident. Now Jordanians are speaking up about a 15-year-old rape victim who has been married off to the man convicted of raping her, whose death sentence has been dropped as a consequence.
The sentence was dropped thanks to Article 308 of the Jordanian Penal Code that allows convicted rapists to walk free if they marry their victims. A campaign has now been launched to get the law abolished.
No to 308 campaign.
Blogger Naseem Tarawnah summarised the case that has angered people:
A 19 year old Jordanian kidnaps a 14 year old girl (with the assistance of his family) – takes her to a location where a tent was set up for him to rape her repeatedly for three straight days before the police roll in. The court sentences him to death by hanging but he manages to produce a very recent marriage certificate signed by a judge. The court then stays the execution but claims that it will be reinstated should the boy divorce her without a “justifiable cause”. A professor of sociology from the University of Jordan was widely quoted by the original article produced by Arab Al Yawm – that “women are different in nature from men” and that the girl should now make her best of the situation and play the role of a good wife, mostly by putting this whole silly rape thing behind her.
Twitter users in Jordan have condemned Article 308 and expressed their outrage at the way criminals are permitted to escape punishment while their victims are effectively punished. Activists and concerned Jordanians have been tweeting about Article 308 under the hashtag #جريمة308  (#Crime308) [ar] in order to raise awareness, and to garner support for a petition that aims to collect 20,000 signatures [ar] against Article 308:
The petition also calls for stricter punishments for sexual assault and for the annulment of the category itself. In Jordan, sexual assault is any forced sexual act save for forced penile-vaginal penetration, which is the only act legally regarded as rape. Consequently, the rape of a male is not legally seen as rape, and neither is the forced penile-anal penetration of a female.
Tweets under the #Crime308 hashtag have mostly focused on the personal and social cost of Article 308 and highlighted its failings.
Zain tweeted:
Abd Ashhab wrote:
Hadeel Abdel Aziz, Executive Director of Jordan's Justice Center for Legal Aid affirmed:
Raffoul H. Abubaida wrote:
Hadeel Maaitah tweeted:
@girl_brainy: Imagine tweeting once a day using #جريمة308 saves one victim! Cumulative effort will save victims & save girls from becoming ones
The campaign against Article 308 was launched just weeks ago, but in this short period the campaign has had two volunteer meetings, gathered over 2000 signatures on its petition, and received considerable media coverage. Active beyond Twitter, the campaign is also present on Facebook.
Its use of social media has enabled it to get the support of prominent figures like the head of the Jordan National Commission for Women, an ex-minister, and an MP. However, Jordanian public outrage at this injustice is yet to bear fruit in the form of the abolishment of Article 308. There are high hopes this will be achieved before Jordan gets its own Amina Filali.

author: Ebtihal Mahadeen


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Kenya: #PayInterns Trending · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

#PayInterns is trending in Kenya. @mainneli writes: “Interns should be paid. they do the same work and same stuff like anyone else in the office,stop exploitation #Payinterns”


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Kenya: To Pay or Not to #PayInterns? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Kenyan tweep @RobertAlai started a lively debate on 14 May, 2012 about the need for companies to pay interns. @RobertAlai wanted tweeps to ask companies, “#DoYouPayInterns?”:
@RobertAlai: If you are an intern and you feel that you are being exploited, please email me on alai @ techmtaa.com. Let's ask #DoYouPayInterns ?
Tweeps immediately took to their keyboards siding with interns:
@madonah12: #PayInterns Is the best Trend Ever I just love the idea that Interns should get Lunch Fare and Pocket money cc @RobertAlai Good work
A banner in support of interns. Photo courtesy: Jeff Howard Flickr account (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
@tyrus_: Aye how come all those KE companies on Twitter who tweet “Good morning and Good night” and sell new products cant respond to #PayInterns ?
@RobertAlai: “Interns” must be paid. Stand up for your rights and you'll find that employers are capable of paying you #PayInterns
@TheMacharia: I wonder how many of those on #PayInterns have actually hired, not selected, but hired interns.
@mainneli: Interns should be paid. they do the same work and same stuff like anyone else in the office,stop exploitation #Payinterns
@tkb: @kainvestor @Worldbank inviting users to wiki is same as @Wikipedia who don't #payinterns Create a global public good with all content open!
@B_Oyigo: @RobertAlai Jamii Telecom Limited #PAYINTERNS btwn 10-15k
@KenyaPolice: Kenya Police does not support the exploiation of Kenyan workers. #PayInterns
However, some tweeps sided with companies using interns without pay:
@Kkaaria: Interns, 5 years into your career, you will realize how little you actually knew when you started off. Be patient.. #payInterns
@TerryanneChebet: My two cents to the #payinterns. I say no. An allowance for food and transport, however is alright.
@mainaalex: ati #payinterns for what?if they are that good, they should start their own companies. show value you get paid.
@Kamungah: @MediaMK Interns contribute, companies gain as interns get required skills. Win – Win. Some employers use them as ‘continuous’ interviews.
Bloggers have also joined the debate. Blogger Dennis Matara argued that labour laws stipulate that interns must be paid after working for three months:
You must wake up! You have been in intern for more than three months? Get alive. Labour laws clearly state that the company that takes you in as an intern is required by law to absorb you as their full time employee, paid in their scale and entitle to leave days among other benefits. If they cannot do that, then your internship should end at the end of your third month there.
It is true and evident that some interns ‘decide’ to stay longer in the hope of ‘acting good’ in order to secure themselves a job. Yes, that is ok but if the company really needs you that much, then they must take you in. Many employers know very well that majority of these interns are straight from college, they do not have money even for their transport to work but still misuse them to the fullest.
Nairobi Wire noted that companies in Kenya paying interns are the minority:
The companies that pay there interns are the minority and they pay peanuts. Reading through some of the tweets, KCB, EABL, CIC, KPLC, KBC, Standard Group, NMG, RMS among many others have been listed as the most exploitative. Equity bank has been attacked for using CSR as a reason to have cheap labour. KBC is the worst of all since interns have to pay to intern there.
There have also been complains of interns been sexually exploited.
This is one of the most lively discussion I've seen on twitter in a long time. Most of the time, people are always rumbling about Kenya Power.
#PayInterns has generated so much interest that at its peak, around 150 tweets were being tweeted per minute. This is considering its only in Kenya. Various corporates have also tweeted responding to allegations that they do not remunerate their interns. KCB tweeted, “KCB Group does not obtain any money from interns. Interns are actually paid a monthly stipend that is above the industry average”


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Mexicans Condemn Massacre in Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

On May 13, 2012, Mexico woke up to see yet another result of the battle being fought as part of the current administration's war against organized crime. The facts occurred in the county of Cadereyta Jiménez, in the Nuevo León state in northern Mexico, just 400 kilometers away from the border with the United States.
The bodies of 49 people, mutilated, were found in the road that leads to Reynosa (Tamaulipas). Ignacio de los Reyes [es] from BBC World referred to the grim finding as follows:
Las escenas de cuerpos decapitados y mutilados en Nuevo León, donde 49 cuerpos fueron arrojados a la carretera este domingo, sacudieron a muchos por la extrema barbarie exhibida por los asesinos. Incluso en México, que después de cinco años de intensa guerra entre cárteles parecía haberlo visto todo.
Según el gobierno del estado de Nuevo León, a los cadáveres de Cadereyta se les había cortado la cabeza, los brazos y, en algunos casos, las piernas. Y de acuerdo al vocero del gobierno estatal, ninguno de ellos presentaba heridas de bala, por lo que podrían haber sido torturados y mutilados a sangre fría, mientras aún estaban vivos.
The scene of decapitated and mutilated bodies in Nuevo León, where 49 bodies were dumped on the road this Sunday, shocked many for the extreme barbarity displayed by the killers. Even in Mexico, where after five years of intense war among drug cartels it seemed like they had seen it all.
According to the Nuevo Leon state government, the bodies [found in] Cadereyta were beheaded, without arms, and in some cases, without legs. And according to the state spokesman, none of the bodies showed gunshot injuries, so [the victims] might have been tortured and mutilated in cold blood while still alive.
Journalist Carlos Puig [es] recalled that this is not an isolated case, and that these sort of violent events have happened in several occasions across the nation:
Se encadena la masacre con los colgados en Nuevo Laredo, o los aventados en Jalisco, o los asesinados en Tamaulipas…
Las bandas criminales siguen jugando su partido y el árbitro no tiene idea ni de las reglas ni de las estrategias de los jugadores. Se repiten las masacres en uno y otro estado porque la impunidad abarata el homicidio.
The massacre is linked to those hanged in Nuevo Laredo, those thrown in Jalisco, those assassinated in Tamaulipas…
The criminal gangs keep playing their game and the referee has no idea of the players’ rules and strategies. The massacres repeat in one state and then another because impunity cheapens homicide.
Also, he related the issue with the current electoral process, arguing that this event would ideally encourage the presidential candidates to present concrete and realistic proposals to solve the problems of insecurity that trouble the country:
Ante lo sucedido el fin de semana en Nuevo León, resulta patético escuchar la falta de imaginación de los candidatos en su propuesta para enfrentar la violencia. Paralizados ante un fenómeno al que parecen temer.
"Stop the Violence". Illustration by Gerardo Obieta, @G_Obieta, under Creative Commons Licence 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
On Twitter, citizens from different profiles condemned the deed, and some questioned President Calderón, like Alessia Corcuera (@top_roping_ale) [es]:
49 cadáveres descuartizados en #Cadereyta.¿En serio crees que el país va bien @FelipeCalderon? ¿O vas a decir que es cuestión de percepción?
49 corpses quartered in #Cadereyta. Do you really think the country is OK with @FelipeCalderon? Or are you going to say it's a matter of perception?
Similarly, Alberto Esteva (@AlbertoEsteva) [es] made a declaration on the implications of the finding in relation to the security policies the current President has implemented:
Las 49 víctimas de Cadereyta evidencian el fracaso de la política de seguridad de Calderón., continuando su discurso de frases huecas
The 49 victims of Cadereyta make the failure of Calderon's security policy evident., continuing his speech of hollow phrases
User José Plata (@pepeplata) [es] qualified what happened in Cadereyta as a pity:
49 cuerpos mutilados en #Cadereyta: 6 mujeres y 43 hombres.. Sigue cerrada la carretera libre a Reynosa. Una lástima lo que ocurre en #NL
49 mutilated bodies in #Cadereyta: 6 women and 43 men… The highway to Reynosa is still closed. What happens in #NL [Nuevo León] is a pity
Analyst and former presidential aspirant, Jorge Castañeda (@JorgeGCastaneda) [es] expressed that the fact is a demonstration that the ‘war’ continues in Mexico:
Los 49descuartizados d Cadereyta muestran q a 5meses d q termine el sexenio d Calderón su guerra no ha terminado ni seha ganado.Hasta cuándo
The 49 quartered of Cadereyta show us that 5 months before the end of Calderon's administration his war has not ended and hasn't been won. How much longer
Also, journalist Julio Hernández (@julioastillero) [es] pointed out Mexicans’ perception when they come across these type of news:
49 o 68 asesinados (depende de la fuente) en Cadereyta y millones de mexicanos ya ven esas noticias como algo casi normal
The Cadereyta massacre is one of the most violent episodes that Mexicans have witnessed amidst the war against organized crime, which currently shows no signs of being close to an end.

author: J. Tadeo