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Malawi: Actor’s Arrest Reminiscent of Past Dictatorship’s Censorship Laws  · Global Voices
Steve Sharra

Malawi police on Sunday afternoon December 18, 2011, stormed a stage on which a play was being performed, and led the play's main actor away into a waiting police van.
According to posts on Facebook, where the news first broke and reactions came in fast and furious, the play is titled “Semo” produced by Lions Theatre. The lead actor in the play is Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza, son of Malawi's best known playwright and actor, the late Du Chisiza Jr. The play was being performed at Nanzikambe Amphitheatre in the commercial capital, Blantyre.
First to break the news was Brian Banda, Malawi's leading radio host who works at Capital FM Radio. He was in the audience when the arrest happened and he posted pictures on his Facebook page. Banda's status update, a little after 3.05 pm Malawi time, read [the content is currently only available to friends]:
Actor Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza being led away for questioning. Photo courtesy of Brian Banda.
Police have just stopped a play ‘Semo’ by Lions Theatre at Nanzikambe Amp Theatre.
Reactions flowed in immediately with people wanting to know the police's motive. Banda responded:
The play is reported to be too critical of Mutharika regime.
He later added:
We are all here. Nobody is moving.
For most people commenting on Facebook the scene was reminiscent of the one-party dictatorship when “president for life” Dr. Hasting Kamuzu Banda ruled Malawi for 30 years, from 1964 to 1994. The one-party era was characterized by heavy-handed censorship through a government agency known as the Censorship Board.
The end of one-party rule in 1994 brought democratic changes, and the Censorship Board no longer played its public censorship role. However despite Malawian activists questioning the presence of the board in post-1994 Malawi, censorship laws have remained, and the board continued existing, albeit in a low profile. It was renamed the Malawi Classification Board, but Chisiza's arrest and charging shows the law governing the board remains stuck in pre-1994 Malawi.
Commenting on Brian Banda's update, Joseph Nkhoma wrote:
Fast descending into a police state. Tiziopanso kutchula dzina la munthu. [Should we go back to being afraid to even mention somebody's name?] Wasn't 30years enough for this?
Another comment, on a separate thread, also alluded to the dictatorship era [the content is currently only available to friends]:
I heard of more or less similar stories from my late father, but i never thought I could live in similar times. Was his vote in 1993 and 1994 a waste? I am hurting bro.
Some went even further and alluded to the colonial era when Malawi was under British rule:
Bola welesnkey anali wobwera [At least Wellensky was a foreigner]
That reference was to Raphael Roy Wellensky, the last colonial Prime Minister for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The federation was fiercely hated and opposed by Africans, who fought it and won independence as modern day countries of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Another netizen wondered why arrest an actor when a play is authored by a playwright, but online newspaper Nyasatimes reported that Chisiza co-authored the play together with Robert Chasowa, a University of Malawi Polytechnic student activist who was found murdered on campus on the morning of September 24, 2011.
Blogger Ananiya Alick Ponje commented, also on facebook [the content is currently only available to friends], about the paranoia that seemed to be gripping the Malawi government:
By now, we all know what an insecure and pessimistic regime is like: it has to arrest anyone who rebukes it
More reaction appeared on a Facebook group known as Malawi at 50: Towards a New Crop of Malawian Leaders [Malawi at 50 is a closed group]. On Malawi at 50 the first update on the arrest appeared at 7.40pm Malawi time, from Taweni Gondwe Xaba. She wrote:
Playwright and actor Thlupego Kaluli Mgawa Chisiza being led away by Malawi Police for questioning on the “subversive” substance of the creative material in his new play. I'd call it a great opening run;-) Free publicity provided by Malawi Police.
Later Xaba alluded to her fears about what happened to a young Malawian political activist when the police questioned him, a reference to University of Malawi Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa who was murdered after getting involved with police intelligence gathering. Xaba wrote:
I understand he was frogmarched off stage by police 11 minutes into the performance. I'll post the rest of the pics just now. He appears unperturbed by the whole thing but I am worried guys. The last time these people questioned some youth he ended up “committing suicide.” I also recall a recent Nation newspaper interview with him which mentioned that some of the content or lines in the play were contributed by Robert Chasowa who was also into drama and acting etc. I have no idea if these issues are linked.
A Malawian human rights lawyer, Habiba Osman, who created the group Malawi at 50 responded:
I am not surprised that they'd do such thing..it pisses me off that the Police are the ones perpetrating such acts when in fact they know that they will never win this battle..and that others who are limiting this constitutional right will leave office and this right will remain with us..
A subsequent post from Habiba Osman suggested action, making references to another court case on Monday for five human rights activists who were arrested on October 14 for staging a protest in the Malawi capital Lilongwe:
Taweni, I need more information..we need to mobilise fast..we are in court tomorrow. So hopefully, we can address others too.
While the reaction was quickest on Facebook, online newspaper Nyasatimes published the story on their website on Sunday evening. On Monday the print media also carried the story. As of Monday evening Brian Banda reported on his Facebook page about Chisiza's charge and release on bail:
Thlupego Chisiza fined K5000. He has paid and he is free now.
Facebook page Towards Malawi Elections 2014 also posted on Monday evening and stated what Police charged Chisiza with:
Chisiza convicted and asked 2 pay K5,000.00 or face 2months for staging a play without permit
Other comments on Facebook have pointed out how Chisiza's arrest is now backfiring and giving free publicity for the play “Semo,” its main actor Thlupego Chisiza and the drama group Lions Theatre (until this incident on Sunday afternoon, I had never heard of the play, the actor nor the group). On Monday night Dannie Grant Phiri posted on his facebook page:
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the police and the censorhip board because without their actions some of us would've been blissfully unaware that Thlupego Chisiza had produced a play that has powers that be very very uncomfortable.
Now we're seriously looking for the script.
His friends reacted to his observations. Peter Namphande said:
I used 2 pay less attention to plays, but now my interest has been rekindled. I have 2 watch this one!
Taweni Gondwe Xaba wrote:
one young man has shaken Bingu and his cronies in a way opposition has failed to do!
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword, noted Taweni Gondwe Xaba:
the pen is mightier than the sword… proven true yet again!! i love what is unfolding;-)
Thlupego Chisiza was on Monday found guilty of staging a play without a permit from Censorship Board and was fined K5,000 (approx. US$30) or in default six months imprisonment with hard labour. He paid the fine.
After his release, Chisiza asked his Facebook friends:
Now that am out WHAT NEXT?
According to Nyasa Times reporter, Semo is a Moses-like leader who saved a historic nation from oppression. The play is set in the increasingly undemocratic Republic of Kwacha which is plagued by learned advisors who praise an increasingly oppressive king to safeguard their positions.

author: Steve Sharra


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Arab World: Global Voices Bridges on Twitter · Global Voices
Gilad Lotan

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011 and Tunisia Revolution 2011.
This past year has been eventful to say the least in our merry little Middle East and North Africa region. As a part of our end-of-year coverage we look back at some of the major events we covered during 2011. The following post highlights the role of the Global Voices Online community in spreading information on Twitter during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.
The data that feeds this visualization is taken from “The Revolutions were Tweeted“, an International Journal of Communication article mapping out prominent information flows during the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions. The study uses two datasets of tweets. The first includes 168,663 tweets posted between January 12 and 19, 2011, containing the keyword ‘#sidibouzid’ or ‘tunisia’. The second includes 230,270 tweets posted between January 24 and 29, 2011, containing the keyword ‘egypt’ or ‘#jan25′.
As a part of the study, the authors classified users into actor types, with the goal of tracing the prominent paths in which information spread, along with inherent preferences between user types. Unsurprisingly, the authors found homopholy playing a dominant role in retweet behavior (journalists tend to retweet other journalists, bloggers retweet bloggers, etc…).
If we zoom into the the network, we can see the intricate relationships and connections between users tweeting and retweeting content. For example, the image below is a screenshot taken when the graph focus is on @ircpresident (our very own Mohamed ElGohary). The other nodes that light up and display names represent ElGohary's immediate “neighborhood” – folks that either he retweeted or who had retweeted him.
The larger a node is, the more times it was retweeted. The thicker an edge, the more retweets that connection generated. The green nodes are Global Voices contributors. Light blue are journalists employed by Mainstream Media organizations, dark blue are bloggers and purple colored nodes are activists.
Nasser Weddady (@weddady) is central to this graph in terms of both number of times he was retweeted, but also the wide array of users who reposted his content (over 800 times within this dataset, which represents a tiny fraction of the actual content posted during the events).
The graph has 71,525 nodes representing the different Twitter users posting content about Egypt and Tunisia, with 190,814 edges – configurations of who retweeted whose content. Amongst the users, there are 140 Global Voices contributors, posting and retweeting content relevant to the events in both Egypt and Tunisia.
When we take all of the Global Voices author nodes and places them outside the main cluster, how they interconnect with the rest of the network becomes much clearer.
It has been an intense and inspiring year. Global Voices has been doing a phenomenal job tracking and covering perspectives highlighted in blogs and within social media across the globe and it is an absolute honor to be part of the team.
For our full coverage on the Tunisian Revolution, check out our Special Coverage page and for a snapshot of the ongoing revolution in Egypt, tune into our Egypt Revolution Special Coverage page.
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011 and Tunisia Revolution 2011.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Gilad Lotan


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Mexico: The Results of a Racism Experiment with Children · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

The video by 11.11 Social Change is simple: Mexican children sit in front of two dolls identical save for two things: one is light skinned and blue-eyed and the other is dark skinned and brown eyed. Then they are asked to pick which one of the dolls is ugly, nice, pretty, good, bad and finally, which doll looks like them. Their candid and honest answers show a discouraging panorama.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Mexico, USA: Border Cities Juárez and El Paso Growing Apart · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The blog Just the Facts reports on what three WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) staff members saw in the El Paso-Juárez border zone: “We found two cities that, while separated only by a narrow river, are rapidly growing further apart.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Nepal: Challenges For Citizen Media · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhumika Ghimire discusses about the challenges citizen media platforms are facing in Nepal.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Journalists Are Intimidated Not To Report  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Referring to Pakistan Army's propaganda war in 1971, The Terrorland comments: “Pakistani generals have never learned from the past! Today, they are repeating the same criminal strategy in Balochistan as journalists from other parts of the country can’t go in that province for reporting.”


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Palestine: Planning a Virtual Funeral · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

It is extremely difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit Israel, and for political reasons it is impossible for most other Arabs to do so, because Israel is not recognised as a state by the majority of Arab countries. At the same time, Palestinian citizens of Israel (approximately 20% of the population) are unable to travel to much of the Arab world, because they have Israeli passports.
Rasha Hilwi, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, has been reflecting on how these restrictions on movement will affect her – after she dies.
In a post on her blog, Zaghroda (which means “ululations”), Rasha writes [ar]:
Akka sunset. Image by Flickr user yanivba (CC BY-SA 2.0).
She continues:
Rasha wonders:

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Responses to the Death of North Korean Dictator, Kim Jong-il · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-il, died on December 17, 2011, from a heart attack. North Korean state television has shown North Koreans mourning and sobbing hard at the news.
There are looming concerns that the death of Kim Jong-il could  destabilize the Korean peninsula; the country's military has reportedly conducted short-range missile tests. Unsurprisingly, the South Korean Twittersphere has lit up with numerous responses to the news. The reactions vary from criticism of the South Korean government's poor risk management, and public complaints about the media who used to brag that they had classified information on North Korea, to careful predictions on the future of Korean peninsula.
South Korean Twitter influencers have posted numerous messages about the news. Reporter Go Jae-Yeol (@dogsul), who has 150,000 followers,  tweeted [ko]:
우리 정부와 국정원이 김정일 사망을 모르고  있었던 것은 기정사실이고, 관건은 김정일 사망을 CIA나 미국은 알고 있었나 하는 점이다. 알고도 우리 정부에 알려주지 않은  것인지. 그들도 몰랐다면, 이것은 북한 내부가 고의로 지체했다는 것인데.
Mr.Go also tweeted [ko]:
김정일 사망이 12월17일(토요일) 오전 8시30분이었는데… 발표를 오늘 한다? 사망 시점과 발표 시점 사이에 무수히 많은 일들이 벌어진 모양이네요. 장례식장 서열을 보면 그 결과를 알 수 있겠군요. 흠…
Best-selling author and one of South Korea's top 3 most influential Twitter users, with 1.1 million followers, Lee Oi-soo (@oisoo) tweeted [ko]:
북한 김정일 국방위원장 사망을 계기로 살을 에는  추위 속에서 전군이 비상사태에 돌입했습니다. 군인들은 고난이 배가될 수밖에 없습니다. 접경지역인 화천경제도 급격히 얼어붙겠지요.  하지만 온 국민이 지혜롭게 한 해를 마무리할 수 있기를 빕니다.
Another bestselling writer Gong Jee-young (@congjee) tweeted [ko]:
죽고나서도 바뀔 가능성이 없는 체제는 그 자체로 이미 지옥이다. RT @GoEuntae: 죽어야 물러나는 독재자란 얼마나 끔찍한 체제인가.
Many South Koreans are still grumbling about the government's slow response and its lack of preparation. Bak Chan-hong (@mindgood) commented [ko] on a link to one citizen media report:
MB, 대북라인 절단으로 김정일 사망 사흘간 몰라…“북한중앙방송 상복입고 나오자 경악” j.mp/v6vqE6 아찔한 일입니다.
Ricky (@NextBlade) reported [ko] via twitter that some people from the military were not at all ready for such an emergency:
현재 한 골프장에 헬기뜨고 난리도 아니란다. 알고 봤더니 평일 한가하게 골프치던 군 장성들 모셔가는 헬기란다. 이틀이 지나도록 아무것도 몰랐다는 증거… 천문학적인 군비는 대체 어디로 가는걸까.
@52c criticized [ko] the mainstream media who used to boast that they had inside information about North Korea. These media have denounced the public protest as a commotion incited by “pro-North Korean leftists”.
남한에서 촛불집회가 일어나도록 북한에서 조종했다는, 그 엄청난 비밀을 알아 냈던 조중동의 북한 소식통들은.. 김정일이 사망한 건 전혀 몰랐구나.. 소식통 좋아하시네..
While North Korea has entered a national mourning period which will continue till Dec 29 [ko], some South Korean media came under fire for misusing a certain term in their news reports. Some media have used an honorific term reserved for highly-respected figure in describing Kim Jong-il. Jay H. Lim (@Narciman) tweeted [ko]:
김정일 국방위원장의 사망에 대해서 ‘서거'라는 표현은 왠지 어색합니다. 북한 주민들에게나 대한민국 국민들에게나 그는 ‘서거'라는 높임말이 어울리는 인물이 아닙니다. 그냥 ‘사망'이라고 표현하면 좋겠습니다…
But still, people asked the government to be extra careful and sensitive in responding to Kim's death. Yu Chang-seon(@changseon) tweeted [ko]:
북한은 지금 상중이다. 거기다 대고 ‘적의 도발시 응징’ 운운하는 것은 예의가 아니다. 자신들이 상을 당해 슬퍼할때상대가 어떠했는지는 두고두고 기억에 남게되어있다. 정부는 지혜롭게 대처해야 한다.
Seo Eun-ah(@eunah386) commented [ko] on North Korean responses:
CNN에 북한주민들의 반응이 나오는데, 넘 슬프게 운다. 갑자기 중학교때 박정희가 죽었을 때 수업 들어오자 마자 미친듯이 통곡하던 윤리선생과 나도 모르게 미친듯이 울었던 내가 떠오른다. 공통점이 있지 않을까?
A North Korean economy specialist, Yoon Jae-won (@yjw23_kseri)  tweeted [ko] his analysis (the following is the second, of two points he made):
2) 그러나 김일성 사망당시에도 대부분의  외부전문가들이 북한붕괴 월단위로 계산했던 것 생각하면 속단하긴 어렵습니다. 당시 소련붕괴, 고난의 행군, 김일성 사망이라는 3대  악재에 북한 붕괴가 자연스러운 현상이었으나 북한은 붕괴하지 않았습니다.
As people tweet and blog increasingly about the death of Kim, the South Korean Communications Standards Commission has warned [ko] that they will start censoring pro-North Korean comments or posts.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Russia: Alexey Navalny Released From Jail · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Everyone's waiting for Navalny ) 5 more minutes! pic.twitter.com/3BRHiuGa,” tweeted [ru] @varlamov a short while ago, posting a picture of the crowd waiting outside a Moscow prison for activist Alexey Navalny‘s release. @plushev tweeted [ru]: “Absolutely fantastic numbers. In the middle of the night, some 5,000 people are viewing [the live broadcast] of @navalny's release.” @sidorenko_intl reported that “about [18,000] viewers from around the world” were watching it. Finally, this tweet from @sidorenko_intl: “#Navalny is out. Everyone chants ‘hooray’.” @varlamov posts Navalny's picture; @sidorenko_intl quotes Navalny: “it's great to get into jail in one country, spend there 15 days, and get out in another country.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Street Vendor Life in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tricia Wang shares her research field note about the everyday life of street vendors in China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Garlic Wars · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

As Armenia and Turkey come to blows over a UNESCO decision to enter a meal eaten in both countries into its list of Intangible Heritage, the dispute over food now appears to have spread to once again include Azerbaijan.
Locked into a bitter stalemate over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, around 25,000 died in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the early 1990s and a million forced to flee their homes. A lasting peace remains elusive.
As a result, Armenians and Azerbaijanis naturally prefer to overlook the many similarities they share, but inter-ethnic rivalry over culture and tradition is perhaps most fiercest over food. Kebabistan sets the scene.
Feeling burned by UNESCO's decision, another group of Armenians is now taking steps to safeguard what they believe to be the Armenian lineage of tolma, stuffed grape leaves or other vegetables, which are frequently also served in Turkey, where they are known as dolma.
[…]
The Azeris, meanwhile, appear even more focussed on protecting their cuisine from what they believe are Armenian efforts to encroach on their culinary territory. Azerbaijan has its own culinary watchdog, an organization called the National Cuisine Center, whose director, Tahir Amiraslanov, appears to spend most of his time on an effort to teach the world that Armenian cuisine is actually Azeri cuisine. […]
Stay tuned. In this food fight, there is clearly more to come.
Arthur Chapman on Flickr
And it wasn't long before more did come, albeit in an unlikely form after one local historian in Armenia reportedly discovered that garlic from Azerbaijan was on sale in his local supermarket. Despite one local trader saying that the garlic was the tastiest as well as cheapest available, some local media responded hysterically.
Tamada Tales explains.
Armenians are constantly on the ball for possible attacks from implacable foe Azerbaijan, but who would have expected an enemy infiltration so unspeakably vile in nature? Garlic, grown on Azerbaijan’s hostile soil, apparently has found a way to penetrate the two countries’ sealed border, and then had the effrontery to appear on vegetable stands in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
[…]
A concerned citizen, Karapetian sounded the alarm, and reporters hurried to the scene. “Garlic of the company based on [President Heydar] Aliyev Street in Baku is gleefully sold in… an Armenian supermarket,” the puzzled historian said.
[…]
Apparently, some fear that the garlic could be an early sign of more deadly forms of warfare. Investigators have already whisked off the offending bulbs, but did they act in time before unsuspecting citizens added the Azerbaijani garlic  to dolma or khorovatz sauce? Wrote one publication ominously: “Today it’s garlic, tomorrow it will be something else.”
Ironically, however, this isn't the first time that Azerbaijani produce has been available to Armenians. At the end of November, for example, Ianyan blogger and Global Voices author Liana Aghajanian discovered another example in an Armenian Supermarket in the United States.
Unlike the Armenian media, however, her Tumblr blog was more enthusiastic about the unexpected find.
Pomegranate diplomacy: Pomegranate juice, product of Azerbaijan, bought at my local Armenian market that is probably in many Los Angeles-area Armenian homes right now. Also, you can’t see it but the juice brand is called “Real Deal.” Too good.
Meanwhile, in Nagorno Karabakh itself, Armenians still have a fondness for Azerbaijani cuisine while there is also a demand for Armenian products in Azerbaijan too, as one Karabakh journalist explains on the Caucasus Circle of Peace Journalism.
Azerbaijani dishes are still in high demanded at the restaurants of Karabakh. All over the region people speak about the Azerbaijani cuisine with respect. Despite a conflict that is ongoing between the two nations for more than twenty years, in many restaurants patrons can taste typical Azerbaijani dishes alongside the rich offerings of Karabakh cuisne.
[…]
Despite a great choice on offer at stores nowadays, Igor Davtian does not change his habits: he definitely drinks only Azerbaijani tea, which is sent to him by his relatives from Russia.
“I brew tea in a very particular way. I do not trust my wife in this matter at all. She just cannot brew it to the same taste. I order tea and my relatives send it to me from Russia – but they themselves order it from Baku. At the same time, and my relatives told me that their neighbors in Russia are sending Armenian cognac to Baku. What can we do, that’s just what our lives came to,” Igor Davtian says.
[…]
Armenia and Azerbaijan do not only have territorial disputes: there is also much argument about music, patterns of carpet weaving – and surely about the origins of dishes as well. Armenians and Azerbaijanis still discuss who of them came up with the song “Sari Gelin” and who invented tolma. As of the “ethnic origins” of shashlik [GV Note: Barbecue], even Georgians enter the debate. But that is a different story…
With tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan the highest they've been in years, the heated debate over cuisine will likely continue to overshadow any possibility for a sometimes shared culture, or even trade, to bring the two sides together. Certainly that seems to be the case for some media outlets in the region.

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Bhutan: First All-girls High School  · Global Voices
Rezwan

Penstar introduces us to Bhutan's first all-girls high school.


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Brazil: Protest and Sit-in Against Belo Monte in Sao Paulo · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Journalist Leonardo Sakamoto posts [pt] a picture and video of a protest in São Paulo, Brazil, against the construction of the Belo Monte Dam [pt], on December 17, 2011.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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Brazil: Blogger Murdered in the State of Rio Grande do Norte · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Tiago Aguiar denounces the assassination of the blogger Edinaldo Filgueira, from the small town of Serra do Mel, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Edinaldo, who believed in “information as a form liberation of humanity”, was allegedly murdered due to a survey on public education he posted on his blog.


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China: Censorship and Kim Jong-il’s death · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Southeast conversation looks into the discussion about the death of Kim Jong-il and makes some observation on how portal websites censor the news and netizens’ comments.


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China: Qingdao’s Real Estate Bubble · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Steven Dickinson argues that China's real estate market has bursted by sharing his observations in Qingdao, where new residential real estate projects in have fallen an average of 30% within 6 months.


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Cuba: thinking about the film festival · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Havana Times asks whether the Havana Film Festival has strayed from its original ideals — “Much has happened since its inception in 1978, since which time its revolutionary and emancipatory ideals have faded considerably” — and wonders if the festival could once more “encourage revolutionary and popular cinema (in the best sense of those words), not one that was for the enlightened elites or the urbane educated middleclass.”

author: Nicholas Laughlin


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Egypt: Free Maikel Nabil Sanad – A Prisoner of Conscience · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.
When Egyptians took to the streets at the start of their revolution last January, their chant “The People and the Army are One Hand!” was heard around the world. The army, many said at the time, was the protector of the people's revolution. Today, after the Egyptian Army showed Egyptians and the rest of the world it's true colours, after turning its guns on citizens, netizens are remembering the words of one blogger who had warned that the army and the people were never one hand.
This blogger is Maikel Nabil Sanad, aged 26, who is serving a two-year prison sentence for a blog post he wrote on March 7, warning [ar]:
Freedom for Maikel Nabil. Photo credit: Mark Nabil, shared on Twitter
As a result of his detailed post [English translation available here], in which he says that Egypt got rid of a dictator but not dictatorship, Sanad became Egypt's first blogger to be arrested and charged by a military court, just days after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as president. Sanad was sentenced to three years in prison, for writing that post on his blog, which the military said was insulting, making him Egypt's first prisoner of conscience, after the toppling of Mubarak. He is one of 16,000 Egyptians who have been sentenced by military courts since the the Higher Council for Armed Forces became the de facto ruler of Egypt.
The charges against Sanad are: insulting the armed forces, publishing  false information on his blog and disturbing public security. In October, the Supreme Military Court of Appeals annulled the conviction but continued to hold Sanad, who had started a hunger strike, transferring  him to a mental health facility.
Back in prison, Sanad continued with his hunger strike and his defiance to accept being subjected to the trial of a military court.
Last week, the military court reduced Sanad's sentence to two years – and fined him 200 Egyptian Pounds, or the equivalent of US $33, which Sanad refuses to pay.
This sentence resulted in another alarming development, which his brother Mark Nabil announced last night [ar] on Twitter:
@mark_nabil: Maikel today stopped taking liquids and medicine and has no intention to stop his hunger strike. This is the 119th day since he has stopped eating. His psychological state is deteriorating and he has been moved to solitary confinement for 24 hours, in a cell with no bed
Sanad, who is in El-Marg General Prison, stresses he will continue with his hunger strike in a note posted on his Facebook page. He writes:
[The Military Court has] sentenced me last Wednesday to 2 years in prison (as if I’ll live all that period on a hunger strike)… They also fined me with 200 Egyptian pounds, I won’t pay it off because I don’t recognize this ruling from the first place and I won’t contribute in funding the occupying army of Tantawi…
Before yesterday, I started a medicine strike and abstaining from drinks, except water. Today, I complete 119 days without food… I don’t intend to retreat form my strike till death. I don’t stand life with the continuous violations against me in prison, as well as, I’m not less that those who lose their lives in Tahrir square everyday.
He concludes:
I won’t provide appeals, pleas or requests to the militarists… I don’t recognize their rule, their legitimacy or their judiciary… I consider myself abducted hostage and a prisoner of war for the military which occupied my homeland.
According to activists, those notes are handed over to family and supporters, when they visit him, and are translated and posted in both Arabic and English on social media afterwards. This same message is posted on a blog, Maikel Nabil Sanad's Writings from Prison, which has all the messages Sanad had sent from his cell.
On Twitter, netizens continue to rally for his freedom, remembering his words and warnings from the military, particularly after 11 months of military rule.
Menna Alaa sums up the situation in a tweet:
@TheMiinz: Reports: 2286 killed, 7811 injured, 324 lost their eyes, 27 virginity tests, 16,000 tried in military courts. It's been 11 months. #Egypt
And she adds [ar]:
@TheMiinz: I want my brother Maikel Nabil back. He has been terrifying the military since February.
Noor Ayman Noor explains [ar]:
مايكل نبيل اتحكم عليه بالسجن العسكري مارس اللي فات علشان كان بيوثق جميع انتهاكات الجيش المصري من قبل ٢٥ يناير حتى آخر مارس ٢٠١١ #FreeMaikel
And he adds [ar]:
Mina Naguib laments:
@MinaNaguib90: Still, the first blogger who warned us from the army was #MaikelNabil who is still on a hunger strike no one asking about him! #FREEMAIKEL
And Salah Jaheen concludes [ar]:
Egypt: We are All Maikel Nabil
This post is part of our special coverage Egypt Revolution 2011.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Jamaica: debating Caribbean art publishing · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

The ARC magazine blog reports on a recent panel on art publishing in the Caribbean, hosted by the National Gallery of Jamaica, with video clips of the discussion.


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Kuwait: Stateless Protesters Attacked for Demanding Rights  · Global Voices
Mona Kareem

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.
There are more than 100,000 stateless in Kuwait struggling to have the rights to documents, education, health care, employment, and most importantly naturalization. Back in February and March, hundreds of them took to the streets to demonstrate for those rights, where they faced  police brutality and arrests.
This month, after the replacement of Kuwait's Prime Minister, following public pressure due to protests, Kuwait's stateless population felt more encouraged to protest again. Last week, there were several small protests in reaction to the trials of protesters. On Friday, the protest led to the arrest of 20 men, later released on Sunday.
On Monday, a bigger protest took place in Taimaa, where protesters gathered, in which police used tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, and smoke bombs to disperse them. Later on in the evening, Kuwaitis wanted to protest side by side with the stateless for their rights in front of the parliament, but security forces decided to not let anyone inside the Erada Square, unless they showed a valid civil ID card, which proved they were citizens.
Monday also marked the arrest of around 30 men who entered a hunger strike on that same day. I tried to cover the protest through Twitter, translating the observations of activists on the ground, tweeting in Arabic.
Here is a run down of some of what happened on Monday.
@monakareem: Activist @NawafAlbader says #Kuwait riot police using rubber bullets, smoke bombs, & water cannons against (est. 500) #stateless protesters
@monakareem: Activist @NawafAlbader says security is using dirty discriminatory language with #stateless protesters & chasing them between houses
Rubber bullets and smoke bombs used against stateless protesters in Kuwait. Photo credit: Shared by @tayartaqadomi on Twitter
Stateless protesters get water-cannoned. Photo shared by KhalefaAlwatan on Twitter.
Protesters marching towards Freedom Square in Taima. Photo shared by @al_saher_666 on Twitter.
Marks of rubber bullets on the back of a stateless protester, who was earlier arrested. Photo shared by @m_f7 on mobypicture.
Kuwaiti citizens lashed out at the treatment of their stateless brethren. Ali Al Saibie tweets:
@AlSaibie: I'm Kuwaiti & I refuse to see ANYone oppressed or disrespected in my country. This is a land of freedom & dignity.
Despite this sentiment, shown by many Kuwaitis, the crackdown continued:
A stateless protester getting arrested. Photo shared by @Alshee3ly78 on Twitter
Security vehicles in Taimaa. Photo shared by @althuwaini on Twitter
Leftist political group “The Progressive Movement” was present to cover the protest and reported violations [ar]:
Kuwaiti activist Khaled Al-Fadala was one of the few citizens who went to Taimaa to protest and tried to help. He reported through Twitter [ar]:
Security forces attempting to block entrances between houses. Photo shared on Twitter by @fares_albalhan
On Twitter, @nashmiq8 posted this photograph saying it is tear gas. Others said it is more likely to be a smoke bomb.
Protesters marching. Photograph shared on twitpic by @nashmiq8
On Twitter, @faisalalmana shares this photograph showing the arrest of Al-sabah TV correspondent
Moe Qasem reacts:
@MoeQasem: the attack was savage n cruel! Even animals won't be treated like that! Special forces would literally say: move u shit !
Others shared videos they took at the protests. Among them is Althuwaini, who tweets a video he took of the attack on the stateless protesters:
@althuwaini Storming #Bidun protesters in video yfrog.us/28uhsbz
This video (uploaded by Fares AlBalhan) shows the security attack on protesters:
While this video footage (uploaded by a stateless netizen nicknamed 7mgan) puts together different scenes from police attack on protesters:
Other netizens shared still photographs of the attack. Here are some of them:
The attack by security forces begins. Photo credit: @bodalal2, shared on Twitter
Hot water cannons used on protesters. Photo credit: @bodalal2, posted on Twitter
Stateless protester trying to stop forces from attacking the protesters. Photo credit: @bodalal2, shared on Twitter
A close up shot of protesters getting doused with water by riot police using water cannons. Photo credit: @Mohd_AlSalem, shared on Twitter
This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.

author: Mona Kareem


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Mauritania: Bloggers Call for the Boycott of Government-Sponsored Conference · Global Voices
Hisham Almiraat

Mauritanian media has reported [ar] this week that the country's authorities are preparing a major meeting in the capital Nouakchott of prominent Arab bloggers and activists. The gathering, which will take place from 25 to 28 December, will be featuring “major bloggers who played a significant role in the revolutions against dictatorships in their countries.”
The Mauritanian newspaper El Mohit [ar] explains that President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz is overseeing preparations for the meeting and has appointed senior officials to ensure the organisation of the event.
President Ould Abdel Aziz is a high-ranking military officer, who came to power in August 2008 following a coup that toppled then-President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
February 25 Movement Rally – Picture by Dedda Ould Cheikh Brahim
The announcement of the meeting comes less then two months after local independent bloggers and members of the pro-democracy February 25 Movement were forced to cancel a similar gathering in Zouerat, northern Mauritania. The website, Mauri-Culture, reports [ar] that bloggers had experienced administrative “harassment” at the hands of the authorities and were forced to postpone their meeting to “avoid a confrontation with the regime.”
On Tuesday, Mauritanian bloggers reacted to the announcement of the upcoming government-sponsored conference by publishing an open letter to fellow Arab netizens and activists asking them not to attend.
Ahmed Ould Jedou is among many other Mauritanian bloggers who published [ar] the open letter. Following is the translation of excerpts of the document:
قبل شهرين  أعلن عن تنظيم  “اللقاء الوطني حول تقنيات التواصل الاجتماعي “,في مدينة “الزويرات “الموريتانية و,الذي كان يهدف المنظمين من خلاله إلى ربط الصلاة بين النشطاء العرب وإخوتهم الموريتانيين لتبادل الخبرات
[…]
إلا أن النظام العسكري في موريتانيا قام بمنع تنظيم هذا اللقاء رغم أن الهيئة التي دعت له مرخص لها لدى السلطات الموريتانية ولم يبدى النظام أي تبرير إلا أنه يعترض على مشاركة بعض النشطاء الموريتانيين في هذا الملتقى .
واليوم توجد أخبار عن عزم النظام العسكري في موريتانيا على  تنظيم ملتقى شبابي سياسي يحضره بعض نجوم الربيع العربي.
ولهذا نوجه رسالة إلى كل المدونين, والنشطاء العرب مفادها أنه عليهم أن لا يشاركوا في هذا النشاط الذي يحاول هذا النظام العسكري القمعي تجميل صورته به ,فهذا النظام وقف ضد الثورات العربية  فدعم القذافي حتى بعد سقوطه دعمه باستماتة ودعم بشار وبعث له رئيس وزرائهم ليؤكد وقوفه معه في حربه ضد شعبه  .
وهذا النظام يقمع التظاهرات السلمية في موريتانيا فقد قمع مظاهرات حركة 25 فبراير وقتل أحد نشطاء  حركة “لاتلمس جنسيتي”,ومازال يقمع كل التحركات السلمية ويحرم الموريتانيين من حقهم في التظاهر ,ويضيق على النشطاء الحقوقيين .
وهذا النظام حرم الشعب الموريتاني من تجربته الديمقراطية الوليدة التي أبهرت العالم فقام رأسه بإزاحة أول رئيس مدني منتخب في موريتانيا .
لذالك نرجوا من كل أصحاب الضمائر الحية من” المدونين” و”لنشطاء”  العرب عدم المشاركة في هذا الملتقي كي لا يجملوا وجه نظام عسكري قبيح ويشاركوا في قمع شعب مقهور .
المدونون الموريتانيون
However, the military regime in Mauritania blocked the organization of the meeting, despite the fact that the organizers had met all legal requirements. No justifications were given by the regime as to why it didn't allow the event to take place other than the fact it was opposed to the participation of some Mauritanians activists.
Today, we learn that the military regime in Mauritania is organizing a political meeting and inviting the young and most active stars of the Arab Spring […]
That is why we are sending this message to all Arab bloggers and activists to tell them that they should not participate in this event, which is an attempt by this repressive, military regime to embellish its image. This regime has stood against Arab revolutions, in support of Gaddafi [in Libya]. It has supported Bashar [al-Assad in Syria], sending him the Prime Minister in a show of support for his war against his own people.
This regime is suppressing peaceful demonstrations in Mauritania. It has suppressed demonstrations led by the February 25 pro-democracy movement. It has killed an activist from the “Touche pas à ma nationalité” movement [an anti-racism group created following the exclusion of black Mauritanians from a national census]. It has repressed all non-violent movements, has deprived Mauritanians of their right to demonstrate, and is constantly harassing human rights activists.
This regime has deprived the Mauritanian people of their nascent democracy. It has toppled the first elected civilian president of Mauritania [Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi in 2008].
This is why we are calling upon all people of conscience among Arab bloggers and activists: do not participate in this meeting; do not help the military regime embellish its face; do not take part in the repression of an oppressed people.
Mauritanian bloggers.

author: Hisham Almiraat


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Nepal: Social Media Diplomacy · Global Voices
Rezwan

The US Ambassador to Nepal, Scott H DeLisi, is very active in Facebook and he comments: “Social media have changed the way the Embassy does business.” Read Ujjwal Acharya's post for more.


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Pakistan: Extra Judicial Killings in Balochistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mureed Bijenzo writes about extra judicial killings in Balochistan.


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Pakistan: Politics 2.0 · Global Voices
Rezwan

Over the last couple of days, people in Karachi were overwhelmed to receive a 30-second phone call from the famous politician Imran Khan inviting them to a political event. Teeth Maestro weighs on this innovative move.


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Peru: Racism Debated on Social Networks · Global Voices
Isabel Guerra

A recent incident at a Lima shopping mall has turned a spotlight on the issue of racism in Peru: Ricardo Apaza, an indigenous man from Cusco, was treated with disrespect [es] by the entrance guards of a movie theater, and was not allowed to re-enter after going to the restroom.
This was reported by some Twitter users [es] and quickly made the local news, generating different reactions from public officials, [es] social media users [es], and local and international press [es]. The movie theater was temporarily shut down by local authorities after the incident.
Twitter user Israel Astete (@Isasbo) [es] writes:
Por que tanta gente se sorprende con racismo en #Larcomar , cuando lo encuentras en todos lados? basta de mucho chamullo y más acción.
Martha Elena Risco Reyes [es] writes in Facebook:
Realmente aún me sorprende que seamos capaces de discriminar, de creer que la diferencia hace que unos sean mejores que otros. Es una lástima lo sucedido en las salas de cine de Larcomar. Es alucinante cuando auténtico poblador usa su propio traje típico lo miramos raro y hasta lo discriminados, pero cuando un extranjero o algun personaje público se pone ese mismo traje “nos sentimos orgullosos”. Y eso que estamos en el boom del Perú y su diversidad. Por eso creo es importante recuperar el verdadero valor de nuestros saberes y sus verdaderos protagonistas.
"All are welcome?" Drawing by Nestor Olivera (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Nao Flores (@nao_flores) [es] comments:
En fin !! Aqui en peru el racismo es muy fuerte ! Ojalaaaaaa algun diaaa se acabe #yodudo! Ojala soÑar no cuesta naaaa
However, a few bloggers, like Carlos Quiroz of Peruanista [es], wondered if this was a real case or some kind of “smoke curtain” to distract Peruvians; but he did not question the fact that the issue of racism in Peru is still very much alive:
La verdadera discriminación ocurre en los Andes con las mineras asesinando nuestra gente y destruyendo el planeta, ocurre en las calles de Lima con tanta publicidad racista.
The issue of racism became very visible during the last presidential campaign, especially after the first electoral round, when it became clear that Pedro Pablo Kuczinsky, the “white” candidate, had not made it to the run-off, losing to the “Indian” [es] Ollanta Humala and the “Jap”, Keiko Fujimori. The polarization was strikingly visible in tweets like this one by MiguelÁngel Cárdenas (@Dragonrampante) [es]:
“Voy a pagarle la multa a mi empleada para que no vote por Ollanta”, le escucho a una ppkausa. Se merecen un Humala! pero nos friegan a todos.
Some of the most offensive posts, like this one [es], were quickly denounced by pages like Vergüenza Democrática [es], which is also currently covering this recent case of alleged racial discrimination.
Peru is certainly a multicultural country with a very complex racial background (Spanish, Indian, African), and immigration (Asians, Europeans) has added to this diversity. Centuries ago, during the Spanish Vice Royalty, the dominant, Spanish/Creole elites needed to clearly state their position of privilege [es], so they established a sort of caste system, where everyone knew “their proper place”. Reviewing some of Peruvian history, it is clear that political power in Peru has been mostly in “white” hands, excluding natives and other non-white people.
In Peru, “white” basically means non-indian, non-native, non-African, non-colored. However, the real meaning of “white” (or “pituco” in slang) in Peru is much more related to economic power and to social status than to DNA, as BBC correspondent in Lima Dan Collyns explains.
As Kelly explains in the blog My Life in Peru:
“…it's not the kind of racism I’ve seen in the US, where you see an actual hatred for those of another race. Here [in Peru], it’s more of a caste type system where it’s typically assumed by people in Peru that you have – or are deserving of – a higher status in society if you have paler skin. In general, lighter skinned people (whether actual gringos or light-skinned Peruvians) are treated with more respect. And in the end, what’s the difference between that and any other type of racism?”
Despite the existence of anti-discrimination laws, including one specifically addressed to fight racial discrimination in the media, racial discrimination in Peru is evident in many places, even in public spaces, such as beaches. To mention just one example, a non-white person may be not admitted into a discotheque in a fashionable neighborhood, unless he or she is accompanied by a wealthy white person, or by a foreign tourist. The excuses will most likely be: “we are already packed”, “we're hosting a private event” or “admission is only for members”.
The blog Estamos Jodidos (“We're Screwed”) [es] asks:
En pleno siglo XXI ¿cómo es posible que sigamos siendo tan trogloditas e ignorantes para discriminar a las personas por su aspecto, origen,  vestimenta o el motivo que sea?
The situation has also drawn the attention of the Peruvian Ombudsman [es], Eduardo Vega, whose office is currently working on a strategy to fight racial discrimination. And things are slowly changing. Many still remember that in 2007 an upmarket restaurant, Cafe Del Mar [es], was shut down for two months [es] and fined US $70,000 after denying admission to a mestizo couple.
However, more initiatives and policies (laws, educational campaigns, etc.) are necessary to fight racism in Peru. The current government has to face many unfinished tasks and challenges to make Peruvian society truly inclusive.

author: Isabel Guerra


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Syria: A Christmas Massacre  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.
More than 250 Syrians have been killed over the past two days, sending shock waves around the world. Reports of “horrific massacres” come from the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), which has urged the Arab League to condemn the killings and the United Nations to take measures to protect civilians.
Rima Maktabi tweets:
@rimamaktabi: The SNC is saying 250 people killed in 48 hrs in #syria, and called for international protection to civilians
Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran, who works at NPR, spends his days (and nights) going through videos of crimes committed against Syrian civilians and sharing them online, on his Twitter feed.
Last night he tweeted several disturbing videos and then exclaimed:
@ahmed: Sick, sick to the stomach.
He explains the reason to Saudi Iman Al Qhatani:
@ahmed: @ImaQh just feeling really disturbed after watching these Syria videos. Don't watch them.
Al Omran, who clearly marks videos he links to with the warnings GRAPHIC and EXTREMELY GRAPHIC, further elaborates:
@ahmed: Videos of the shelling on Bab Amr are outrageously horrifying. I'm not sure I can handle the videos that will come out of Kafarwaid, Idlib.
This horror, and the world's silence as preparations are underway for the holiday season, has prompted netizens to tweet about the developments in Syria under the hash tag Christmas Massacre. The aim is to draw attention to the suffering of Syrian people and the lack of action in the corridors of world powers.
Jana FreeSyria puts the horror Syrians face in perspective. She writes:
@SYRIAslyJana: To grasp how cold blooded this regime is,they murder a whole family but leave one person alive to watch and suffer #Assad #christmasmassacre
SeekerSk quips:
@SeekerSK: While some watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Others live “How Assad Stole Lives” #ChristmasMassacre #Syria
and adds:
@SeekerSk: #ChristmasMassacre Some people are decorating their homes in red and green, Assad has turned our green #Syria red with blood
You sense the bitterness in the following tweet regarding YouTube, where most of the videos showing the atrocities being committed against Syrian civilians are posted.
@SeekerSk: Funny how YouTube deems videos of our dead suitable for 18+ but our dead are themselves below the age of 18 #Syria
Another Twitter user, Syrian Pearl notes:
@March15Syria: As children around the globe ask for Santa to rain on gifts, Syrian children ask for the world to rain on help #ChristmasMassacre
Kareem Lailah reminds us:
@KareemLailah: #ChristmasMassacre is a massacre happens in #Syria now while you are preparing Christmas gifts.
And Malath Aumran adds:
@MalathAumran: once upon a massacre… the world was watching and condemning for 10 months #Syria
I tweet:
@JustAmira: The top video on Twitter when you look up #ChristmasMassacre is the torso of the child with no head. Well done Bashar. Hope you are proud
For more reactions, check out the hash tag #ChristmasMassacre on Twitter.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011.


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Armenia: Activists Demand Controversial Governor’s Dismissal · Global Voices
Liana Aghajanian

Surik Khachatryan, the governor of Armenia's southern Syunik province, has been making headlines in the last month for all the wrong reasons. After allegedly assaulting Armenian businesswoman Silva Hambardzumyan in a Yerevan hotel, Khachatrian avoided prosecution for assault because law enforcement agencies considered that he hit her “only once and did not injure her.”
This week, however, the controversial governor has been filmed in a video insulting and threatening environmentalists, including well-known activist Mariam Sukhudyan, in the village of Kajaran, located 50 miles from the border with Iran. The activists were there protesting a mining project that they say will harm the environment and cause residents to leave, another exodus that Armenia, which is facing an emigration crisis, can't afford.
The mining company on the other hand, says the project will help the country economically, but the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women has initiated a petition on social change site, Change.org, calling for Khachatryan's dismissal:
The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women demands that Surik   Khachatrian, governor of Armenia ‘s Syunik province, be immediately sacked for assaulting a woman.
The public slapping by the governor   of businesswoman Silva Hambardzumian at Armenia Marriott hotel Yerevan   in November, did not even receive public condemnation by our government. And recently, during his visit to Kajaran, Surik Khachatryan has threatened eco-activist Mariam Sukhudyan. This would be unacceptable in any civilized society. When a man, especially a government official   displays such violent behavior and the government does not at least   condemn it or punish it, it is a message to all that violence against women is condoned and an accepted practice in Armenia.
The  Coalition condemns all forms of gender based violence. We  consider  that such acts reinforce a culture of violence and encourages  violence  towards women which is so rampant among Armenian families. We ask that  the governor be sacked for such uncivilized behavior.
At time of writing, the petition had 524 out of 3,000 signatures and was slowly making its way through Armenian social media circles on Facebook, including on the page of a bicycling NGO and that of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women where Lara Aharonian, co-founder of the Women's Resource Center in Armenia, encouraged members to sign the petition:
If we stay silent, this is not going to stop, he needs to leave!
In the public group page Save Teghut Forest, championed by Sukhudyan and created to raise awareness about one of the many urgent ecological issues facing Armenia, group member Nora Kayserian did the same:
Please sign the petition to help throw out this fool!
Meanwhile, the two part amateur video posted on YouTube on Monday has been widely circulated on social networks and has garnered almost 30,000 views combined. With the group in heavy coats as winter settles in,  Khachatryan can be seen engaged in a heated conversation with Sukhudyan and other eco-activists who traveled to Kajaran to protest against the sale of large portions of land to Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC).
When Sukhudyan presses him about standing by the villagers who oppose the mine, Khachatryan tells them to “shut up” and warns them to behave to avoid anything happening to them. “Why have you come here to do my job?” he asks Sukhudyan, who tells him that she does not want his job, but came only to support local residents.
“If you protect the rights of these citizens and force the reversal of the government's decision [to sell the land], which I know you have the power to do, I'll go about my business, but because I see that no one is standing by these villagers, I've come to be by their side,” she says in the video in Armenian.
Khachatrian tells the group in the footage that the homes of villagers homes will not be destroyed, but when another activist steps up to speak, the governor hurls an insult at the young woman, calling her a “dragonfly” and telling her to talk less. And when a Diasporan Armenian activist speaks up, Khachatrian tells him to go to his own country and preach there instead.
“But this is my country,” responds the activist, who has lived in Armenia for more than decade. No wonder then that the footage prompted Yerevan-based artist Kassouny to create a caricature of Khachatrian, complete with a fire-breathing dragonfly and boxing gloves, which he shared on his Facebook fan page.
Rafik Atayan, Kajaran's mayor, resigned last week over the transfer of land to ZCMC while at a press conference held after her assault Hambardzumyan accused Khachatrian of misappropriating more than $200,000 worth of mining equipment from a firm that belonged to her. No stranger to controversy, Khachatryan was also accused of beating up a teenage boy in 2008, but again cleared of charges.

author: Liana Aghajanian


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Bermuda: military mess? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

The United States maintained a military base in Bermuda for 50 years, finally departing in 1995. Who should clean up the pollution that got left behind, asks Catch a Fire? “The Americans … shouldn’t need to be told what to do…. They have no right to come and pollute our island and walk away.”


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Brazil: Blogging on the Archives of the Dictatorship · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Journalist Niara de Oliveira published quotes [pt] from a selection of blogs that participated in the fourth blogging carnival #DesarquivandoBR (Unarchiving Brazil), that took place on December 14, on opening the archives of the Brazilian Dictatorship (1964 to 1985).


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Brazil: Proposal for the Legalization of Abortion Approved in Conference · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Journalist Maíra Kubik Mano comments on the approval of a proposal to legalize abortion in Brazil, during the Third National Conference on Women, in Brasília. She finalizes wondering “what the government will do if the proposed policy becomes part of the next Plan of National Policies for Women”.


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Brazil: Titan Kids and Surfing as Hope · Global Voices
João Miguel Lima

‘Titan Kids’ is a documentary about the kids of Titanzinho, a slum in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil. Birthplace of professional surfers, surfing is perceived as hope in face of “drugs, prostitution, and extreme violence”. Directors Lee-Ann Curren and André Silva (himself a surfer and former resident) released a teaser of the film.

author: João Miguel Lima


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CEE: More on Václav Havel and His Legacy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

More posts on Václav Havel and his legacy from around the region's Anglophone blogosphere: Richard Byrne of Balkans via Bohemia; CzechFolks.com; Petr Bokuvka of The Czech Daily Word – here and here; Jeremy Druker of TOL's East of Center; Tjebbe van Tijen and Mary Kaldor for OpenDemocracy.net; Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa; Chris Johnstone of CzechPosition.com; Gray Falcon.


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Chile’s New Safe Driving Campaign · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Eileen Smith, in her blog Bearshapedshpere, praises a new safe driving campaign in Chile, which she says “feels like a Chile-specific message, something home-grown and applicable here, not borrowed from some bigger and better-funded country.”


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Czech Republic: A Tribute to Václav Havel · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A tribute to Václav Havel, by Luboš Motl of The Reference Frame: “[…] Havel has been an unusually strong moral autority that has influenced even people such as me who ultimately found out that they disagree with him about many pretty fundamental things. He's been proposed for a peace Nobel prize many times; he has never won it even though he deserved it much more than many other folks who did win it. He actually helped to achieve something good and did so very peacefully, too.”


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Guyana: politics and egg-pelting · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Guyana-Gyal gives a wry account of a recent political protest in Guyana, involving an egg-pelting incident. “No-bady, noooobady can do politics like Turd Whirl people. We should call it Frolitics.”


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Iran: Blogger May Face Death Penalty · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several bloggers and news sites reported [fa] that Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari, a jailed blogger , may face charge of ‘Waging War Against God’ (moharebeh). A death sentence can be pronounced in this case. He criticized Islam and Islamic Republic in his blog, Iran Land's Report.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Italy, Senegal: Strong Reactions Follow Murder of 2 Senegalese Men in Florence · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

[All links forward to articles in French, unless otherwise stated]
On December 14, 2011, at the initiative of Mayor Matteo Renzi, the City of Florence, Italy, decided to suspend all commercial activity for ten minutes as a protest against racism. Shop owners closed their stores for the entire day in solidarity. The catalyst for these actions? A tragic event that took place in the day  before.
On December 13, Gianluca Casseri, a 50 year-old hunter, far-right activist and author of books denying the Holocaust, opened fired on a group of Senegalese in two outdoor markets in Florence. The horrific event resulted in the death of two street vendors from Senegal, as well as the perpetrator of the crime, who committed suicide after a brief shoot-out with police. The incident also left three other Africans injured and hospitalized in critical condition.
Anti-racism demonstration in Florence by Antonella Beccaria on Flickr (CC-NC SA-2.0)
According to  reports of the incident published in the media, the incident created chaos and fear in the very heart of Florence. It also provoked vehement reactions and speculation as to the motives behind Casseri's killing of two strangers. Was this a case of racism or insanity?
A video  reviews the homicide and provides one Senegalese man's reactions; in his opinion, this was a case of racism. The video also features comments from members of a far-right group called Casapound, which counted Casseri among its enthusiasts.
Tiziano Rugi commented [it] on the event reporternuovo.it:
Il giorno dopo la strage di Firenze, restano solo mazzi di fiori e  ceri dove ieri sono morti due venditori ambulanti senegalesi. Lì, in  una delle bancarelle del mercatino di piazza Dalmazia tutti i giorni,  dalle otto del mattino fino a tarda sera, lavoravano Samb Modou e Diop  Mor. Uccisi dall’odio razziale di Gianluca  Casseri, cinquantenne pistoiese vicino agli ambienti di estrema destra   che credeva nella purezza della razza bianca.
Samu gives his opinion  [it] in the comment section of  a blog post about the events posted on qn.quotidiano.net:
Provo  orrore per quello che è successo, ma la situazione immigrati in Italia  sta diventando insostenibile e se oggi a fare certe cose è un pazzo  fanatico,un caso isolato, domani, tra qualche anno, non so se certi  avvenimenti succederanno per mano di pazzi. A noi italiani ci viene  chiesto sempre di più e vediamo diminuire i benefici e le nostre  ricchezze,la nostra libertà, i nostri figli non trovano lavoro, e questi  immigrati vengono quà e fanno ciò che vogliono, impunemente, alla luce  del giorno; ”poverini devono pur mangiare” dicono i soliti buonisti.  Bene, quando poverini come loro lo diventeremo anche noi, e se continua  così non ci vorranno tanti anni perchè questo si verifichi, allora  diventerà una guerra tra poveri e non sò come andrà a finire, penso  molto male.
Contrasting opinions were posted in the comments section. One commenter compared the event to a massacre that took place in Liège, Belgium on the very same day, although Maria 1 did not agree with the comparison [it]:
Non  mi meraviglio che tu non capisca in cosa consista la differenza: il  PAZZO in Belgio ha sparato sulla folla , il PAZZO RAZZISTA a Firenze ha  sparato SOLO su persone con la pelle nera!!!
An anoymous commenter agreed [it]:
credo  di no. ma poverini l'unica cosa che gli dice il cervello è che la  violenza sia il giusto mezzo per evadere dall'ignoranza e dalla loro  depressione mentale.
FATE LA VITA DA IMMIGRATO IN ITALIA PER UN SOLO MESE, poi vediamo da che parte state!
o forse credete che solo per essere nati nella parte “fortunata” del pianeta avete più diritti o sentimenti degli altri?
I don't think so…poor people…but the only thing his brain told him was that violence is the way out of ignorance and a mentally depressive state.
TRY LIVING IN AN IMMIGRANT'S SHOES IN ITALY FOR JUST ONE MONTH and then we'll see whose side you're on. Or maybe you think that because you were born as “one of the planet's lucky” you have more rights or feelings then the less-lucky?
On his Facebook page, which has more than 1.5 million fans,  Roberto Saviano, author of the best-seller Gomorra, which inspired a major-motion picture, wrote [it]:
La morte di Samb e Diop a Firenze mi ha ricordato la strage dei ragazzi africani a Castelvolturno di tre anni fa. Ricordo anche, come fosse ora, la morte di Jarry Masslo a Villa Literno nel 1989 e la strage di Pescopagano nel 1990… l'Italia è il Paese europeo con più stragi di africani e questo dovrebbe farci riflettere.
In Dakar, Senegal, an Italian sociologist and expatriate found an original way  to present her apologies to the Senegalese people. According to a video report by Serigne Diaw on the web site leral.net:
Chiara Barisson, an Italian sociologist based in Senegal, handed out 200 flyers in the streets of Sandaga as a way of offering her condolences and apologies, not only to the families of the victims killed in Florence, but to the Senegalese people as a whole. Surrounded by her Italian friends, she insisted on saying “I'm sorry” for the racist act, said The Observateur. Shop owners were said to be very touched by the sociologist's gesture.
However this comment on the video from de  schwarzeraal [en] puts a different spin on the murderer's act:
Africans from the Ivory Coast have been known to burn their Senegalese neighbors at the stake; one Senegalese man killed an African from Mali over garbage and God knows what else while pretending to be in charge… in the street, a Malian killed a man from Senegal over a place in front of a TV screen, etc…crazy people are everywhere…
On December 17, the outdoor markets of several Italian cities organized protest marches, as reported [it] in one opinion piece on the blog corriereimmigrazione:
La manifestazione, che si svolgerà in  contemporanea in varie città, sarà l'occasione per rilanciare i problemi  che attualmente vivono le comunità migranti in Italia: “il bisogno di  una nuova sanatoria, la risoluzione del problema delle truffe, il  rifiuto al permesso di soggiorno a punti, il diritto al voto e alla  cittadinanza per i figli degli immigrati, la problematica di chi è  scappato della guerra in Libia e la denuncia dei centri di detenzione  come luoghi da chiudere”. L'evento sarà inoltre occasione per iniziare  il cammino che porterà verso il primo marzo 2012, lo sciopero degli  stranieri
After Milan, protests are scheduled to take place in Caltagirone, Messine, Florence, Rome, Imola, Legnano and Cinisello Balsamo, in front of CARA di Mineo (CT).
On Twitter, @Doubangar, Félicité Doubangar offered her impression of the number of participants who turned out in Florence:
And this report appeared on the Senegal 24.7 Facebook page:
Senegalese men killed in Florence: protest against racism — At least 10,000 people marched last Saturday in protest against racism in Florence (centre) where a far-right activist shot and killed two street vendors of Senegalese origin last Tuesday, injuring three others.
We want to ring in a new era of hope, so that our two brothers didn't die for nothing, a spokesperson from the Senegalese community, Mr. Pape Diaw, declared to the press.
We must work harder for peaceful coexistence and respect. It has to become a real battle, and not just a façade, he added.
The number of protesters was estimated to be about 10,000, according to police; the figure 12,000 was reported by protest organizers.
Many wondered whether this was a case of political exploitation or proof of compassion. blogunugalsene.com published [fr] posted the following update:
As this goes to press, M Aïssata Tall Sall is taking part in the protest in Florence, to pay tribute to the memory of the two murdered Senegalese men, with the expected presence of the Italian Prime Minister, the President of the Regional Council, the Democratic Party leader (major opposition to the current governing party). The lawyer hired by the Socialist Senegalese party will head up a pool of French and American lawyers who will defend the victims. Tomorrow, December 18th, before leaving Italy, she is scheduled to meet with other Italian lawyers who will also join the pool.
The Italian authorities reacted with strong statements and actions to the tragedy, as did the Senegalese community and Italian civil society.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Jamaica: election language · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

With a general election swiftly approaching in Jamaica, OwenSoft shares an online tool for comparing the frequency of words and phrases in the official election manifestos of the country's main political parties.


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Japan: Life Decisions in the Face of Radiation Fear · Global Voices
Tomomi Sasaki

Fearing long-term health effects of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, some residents in mainland Japan have made the decision to uproot their families and move to other prefectures or countries. Actual numbers are unclear and multiple reasons factor in on these life decisions, but these moves differ in nature from the more reactive evacuations that occurred in the following weeks of the initial disasters.
Blogger Taku Nakajima was one of those who decided to stay. He articulated his thoughts in a post titled I want to be able to respect those who made a different decision (自分と違う決断をした人に敬意を持てるようになれたらいいな) [jp], calling for a more logical understanding of the nuanced undercurrents of our emotional struggles.
Note: This blog post was translated in its entirety with permission from the blogger.
Moving boxes by Flickr user bao_bao (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Let’s say that a friend moved away due to fear of radiation while I stayed, and we ran into each other twenty years down the line. If my family wasn’t facing any health hazards, it means I had “won”.  I would probably feel superior and say something like, “It must have been so difficult for you, then!”. On the other hand, if any of my loved ones were sick, that would be “losing”. I'd most likely spend time thinking about this excuse and that. Either way, it’s a sad situation.
Even though our decisions ended up taking us down different roads, both were very difficult choices made after much deliberation. I want us to genuinely rejoice in our reunion and say to each other, “That was such a difficult time but I’m so happy that we both did our best.” I want to be somebody who can respect others that chose a different path. Right now, I can only imagine my future self stoically holding back any real emotions and giving lip service. Somehow, I want to be in a place where I can be positive about both of our situations, in either of the possible cases.
Him moving away causes my fear of radiation to grow twofold. Of course, there is no reason for me to be afraid – I have very high information literacy and I believe the information from my research to be accurate. Still, no matter how absurd and ignorant I think my friend is being, his was a life changing decision that required overcoming multiple risks. Just the fact that there’s someone like that close by is quite shocking, and I abhor him for causing this distress in me. And, this emotion will cause a dark shadow to fall upon us, when we meet again in the future.
I believe I am a person that can push down that animosity and act in a gentlemanly way – unless something extreme happens – but that doesn’t mean I can stop myself from hating and worrying. Why is it necessary to have such thoughts when others interpret situations differently? Is it useful in any way?
The question should be this  – has each of us done our very best with what we know at that point? I want to communicate my understanding of the situation to my friend, as reference, before he moves away. I also want to listen carefully to what he has to say. I want to do my very best in that. And, if that leads to different actions… well, that would have been based on whatever decision we both thought best. Isn’t that all we can hope for?
Whatever action my friend takes, some bit of fear in me existed from the beginning. That can’t be helped but his moving away shouldn’t be increasing my fear. I want to do away with that added negativity. I certainly don’t want it to be aimed towards him. That’s the kind of person that I want to be.
Low level radiation is a really subtle issue. Moving is an all or nothing discussion but there are a lot of disparities in how to interpret things, such as what to do for foodstuff. Each of these decisions that must be made in daily life create complex chasms.
Even if it looks like your worries increased because someone made a different decision, that anxiety was probably inside you from the start, so we shouldn’t blame them. Of course, if someone believes something that is obviously incorrect, we should tell them. If all of us were more conscious of the fear that we carry inside of us, it will make for better communication all around.

author: Tomomi Sasaki


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Kazakhstan: Reactions to Strike Crackdown as Police Brutality Video Emerges · Global Voices
Adil Nurmakov

Clashes in the town of Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, on December 16-17, 2011, when a labour strike suddenly broke out in violence, looting and arson leaving at least 14 dead and hundreds of civilians and policemen injured, have been silenced, the authorities say.
The country leaders have come out with official statements and offers of condolence to the victims’ relatives – a step that was tensely expected by the country's bloggers. The government has dispatched 1.2 billion tenge (US $8.5 million) for the reconstruction of the destroyed town, whilst the General Prosecutor's office has announced that preliminary data has already pointed to the organizers and instigators of the disorder.
A special governmental commission was quick to offer jobs in other regions to the striking sacked employees, even proposing to cover their travel and resettlement costs – a step that has proved belated after almost seven months of strike.
Debate online
Since the event the debates in blogs and social networks have become slightly less antagonistic, and the pro-governmental agenda has become much more visible in recent online discussions – especially in comments on news articles and blog posts. Positive reactions and praise of the government's response to the emergency have become so overwhelming, that Shali, a commenter on the country's most popular news site Tengrinews, ironically admits that [ru]:
obviously, moderators of this website, as well as law enforcement bodies, switched to the intensive regime of service
On December 21, however, shocking amateur video footage – taken presumably on December 16 – by some Kazakh women (whose lamentous comments can be heard in the background) appeared on YouTube. It was uploaded by user saule540 and shows a brutal crackdown:
A government spokesman had earlier stressed that weapons had been applied only for self-defense (for example, the deputy chief of Zhanaozen police is still in a coma after an injury received on December 16), or that police were only shooting into the air.
Pete Leonard tweets:
Ok, so the “shooting in the air and in the ground” story from Zhanaozen is already proving to have holes in it
Netizens have been divided again, between those who shared a link to this video with laconic descriptions like “Shoot out” and those who saw it an acceptable practice. Among the latter are Marat Shibutov, who says in comments [ru] to a Facebook post:
They were shooting in legs, so not to kill. That's within the limits of riot suppression.
Sadenka tweets [ru]:
This “how people were shot in Zhanaozen” video is missing parts about “how people were looting and setting town on fire” and about “how people in uniform were defending the town”.
Armanitto points [ru] at the continued information war and doubts that the video was totally amateur:
The video is designed to zombify people for lamentations about the massacre. A template scenario for colored revolutions.
Either way, the video fragment seemingly does not reveal signs of police action in self-defense, or for the protection of civilians or property. Ryzhkina exclaims [ru], asking Kazakh Prime Minister Massimov on Twitter:
@KarimMassimov When will we finally get the answer to the question, how legal it is to shoot at people, and who is going to be responsible for that?
Excessive use of force?
Bloggers called on the government to admit excessive use of force, investigate all deaths and gunshot injuries, and punish those guilty of inadequate use of weapons.
At 8pm on December 21, the Commandant of Zhanaozen made a statement [ru] about the video, saying that the Emergency Prosecutor's Office is holding a special internal investigation into use of lethal weapons by police. He also confirmed that the death toll is 14 and that nobody has tried to distort the actual number of victims. To conclude, the official informed the press of “weaponry, confiscated from the rioters”.
This has been seen by many commenters as a positive and timely step, to make sure that both radicals and enforcement structures are clarifying what is permitted, and what is not.
Sergey Domnin writes [ru] on Facebook:
The court must decide if the use of weapons was justified or not. It seems like it was not – the bullets were not made of rubber […] This deserves a criminal case against the policemen. The fact that they were beating up the injured is a shame.
Pacifist says [ru]:
I watched the video and pondered a lot on it. People are wandering around on the square without clear understanding of what to do. It could have been easy to quiet them down without guns. The police were just seeking even easier ways. Alas.
Meanwhile, Arioh calls [ru] on YouTube viewers to watch the video more carefully:
Who was able to identify real lethal weapons on this “amateur” video? The only gun seen on screen is with a person running in the center. This could actually be a pistol with rubber bullets, which commenters are standing up for. The riot squad officers – as far as I see – have shields in one hand and batons in the other. Could they shoot with the third arm then? The beatings are too much, yes. But, on the other hand, it proves that they hardly were using lethal weapons. Because beating up the dead bodies is too creepy even for the riot squad.
Popular blogger Kreich posts another analysis of the video [ru], suggesting that there were two shooting sides:
Many things were left behind the scenes. […] Most part of the mob and stone-throwers are of no interest to the police; the riot squad's target is a small group to the right – a target at which they conduct an aimed fire […] As for me personally, it is clear that this target was armed (otherwise, why so much attention to it?). What you think – you decide.
[It can be thought] that on this video policemen are shooting at the crowd. No, they don't – the crowd has gone far, and there are no victims there. It can be thought that this is an abuse. No, even on this video you can hear that there was an exchange of fire between two sides.
In comments sniprman posted a photo from a Tengrinews update about confiscated guns and explosives, showing police shields with traces of gunshots.
Armanitto reminds [ru] his readers of provocateurs of the riots and of their masterminds:
Zhanaozen blood is on the hands of those who sent the people against police.
Yuri Dorokhov comments [ru] on how divided the journalistic community and wider public are these days:
Journalists that took a trip to Zhanaozen report on the brutality of the police.
Journalists that attended press briefings report on the brutality of the rioters.
Journalists that did not leave their offices report on the brutality of the masterminders from abroad.
Readers do not believe anyone and hate everybody.
Radik-Temirgaliev draws [ru] a bottom line:
The cracks in our society are turning into gaps. People, who yesterday were chatting as friends in social networks, today are battling in fierce disputes […] Seemingly, both sides are telling the truth. The regime supporters are right that Zhanaozen events were completely illegal, and they were to be suppressed in the most resolute manner. Strikers have stained themselves with pure crime, and organizers must be punished.
But those who speak about the government's fault are right, too. In a country with no free and fair elections or responsible state bodies, people really don't have any other chance to get their dissatisfaction to the authorities, but to stage protests. And here it goes – the mob's rebellion is ruthless.

author: Adil Nurmakov


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Kuwait: Online Advocacy for the Stateless Bidoun · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.
Since hundreds of Kuwait's 100,000 strong Bidoun were attacked by police for protesting in support of others detained earlier in the year, a number of bloggers and international organizations have been stepping up their support for the stateless people in the hope of drawing attention to their plight. The United Nations, for example, launched its own campaign to end the ‘limbo” facing stateless people in August.
Bidoun may be lacking certain legal documents or may have failed to register as citizens when Kuwait became independent in 1961.
“Apart from the misery caused to the people themselves, the effect of marginalizing whole groups of people across generations creates great stress in the societies they live in and is sometimes a source of conflict,” Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was quoted as saying in reference to the Bidoun.
Since then, many have also paid tribute to Bidoun activist; Refugees International reports that Global Voices Author Mona Kareem recently spoke at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC:
[…] it was the testimony of three female statelessness advocates that most moved participants. Mona Kareem, a member of Kuwait's stateless bidoun community, told the audience that despite the hardships she had faced because of her status – harassment, legal troubles, travel restrictions – she was “the luckiest of my community.”
“Many of my friends could only hope to marry a good husband,” who might provide them with Kuwaiti citizenship, “or for death to take them away by committing suicide.” She added, “None of them have hope. None of them even use the word ‘hope’. Bidoun women have to confront both the conservatism of their community and the injustice of their country.”
Image from International Calamity: Human Rights Policy Tumblr
The IbishBlog went further by not only interviewing Kareem, but also by praising her use of Twitter to draw attention to the issue:
One of the most interesting people I've come to know through Twitter is Mona Kareem, a poet, journalist, blogger and tweep who also happens to be bidoun jinsiya – “without citizenship” – from Kuwait. First, it's almost impossible to follow events in Kuwait quickly and efficiently in English — and in many cases at all — without consulting her Twitter feed (@monakareem), which does the work of 20 typical Middle East journalists. I'd go so far as to call it indispensable. More significantly, through her tweets and blogs she's introduced me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, to not only up-to-date information but background details on an issue we either didn't know about or, in my case, knew about only very vaguely: the plight of the stateless of Kuwait. […]
Given this extraordinary combination, I sought out the opportunity to interview Mona in person […] about a variety of issues, particularly that of the bidoun in Kuwait, Kuwaiti politics, and the tweeting and blogging scene in her country. […] It began in a most extraordinary manner: she showed me some documents, the like of which I've never seen before. First, there was her silver Kuwaiti travel document, as opposed to the normal blue Kuwaiti passports issued to citizens, which literally identified her as an “illegal resident” of the country. The visas in it were equally interesting, and in some cases almost as horrifying. […] I'm used to seeing the “travel documents,” “permits,” “IDs,” and other inherently insulting documents issued by some Arab states to Palestinian refugees, particularly those in Lebanon. But I've never seen these, and in themselves they told quite a horrifying story.
And, as I write, today the bidoun in Kuwait are again protesting, and again facing not only severe repression which is not meted to out those deemed “citizens” by the Kuwaiti government, but also facing the added insult of continuously having to show their IDs since protesting is, as she points out, a “right” at best reserved for Kuwaiti “citizens.” It's all being barely covered by the media, particularly in English, but this ongoing outrage deserves serious consideration by all of those who care about human rights, particularly in the Arab world. In Mona, the stateless of Kuwait have, as you'll quickly note, a remarkable young advocate.
Refugees International has also been active on Twitter and this week published an eye witness account of the attack on Bidoun protesters on their blog:
We sat down on the ground, with our backs to the police force. There were at least 30 vehicles from the police and Kuwait intelligence force – more than I have ever seen before.
They attacked us without any notice. Some of us stayed where we were, while the rest ran away. I ran away with my friends, and the police force were followed us into the residential area, in between the houses. I ran for almost eight kilometers and was followed by dark-colored GMC Yukon cars.
They arrested and beat many of those who remained at the protest site, and used cattle prods, smoke bombs, tear gas, and hot water cannons against them.
Another major issue was that they refused to send the injured to the hospital only few steps away. Instead, they sent them to the police hospital in order to cover up their mess.
The issue, of course, is not new and activists such as Kareem and others have raised the problem of statelessness before, but in June 2011, Global Voices reported on how Bidoun and their supporters were increasingly turning to social media to advance their demands for citizenship rights. Mona Kareem can be followed on Twitter at @monakareem while Refugees International is at @RefugeesIntl.
Kareem's most recent post for Global Voices on this week's dispersal of a Bidoun protest in Kuwait is here.
This post is part of our special coverage on Refugees.


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Peru: Mass Graves Reported by Locals in Ayahuanco · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In the blog Memory in Latin America,  Lillie Langtry writes about the recent finding of “14 graves containing  about 100 bodies, assumed to be victims of the Peruvian conflict of the  1980s,” in the district of Ayahuanco. She explains that “local people  are generally well aware of the location of such graves but for many  years were too afraid to speak up about them.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Russia: Phone Hacking Case Unites Opposition  · Global Voices
Dmitry Davidov

This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.
The leaking of private phone conversations of a prominent Russian opposition leader to the media has given rise to many issues and left a lot of questions unanswered. Boris Nemtsov, the prominent leader of the Solidarnost opposition group and former deputy prime minister, sounds extremely rude when he talks on the phone. He curses a lot, insults his fellow opposition members and supporters, uses derogatory expressions toward women and belittles anti-Kremlin protesters.
His hacked phone conversations released by LifeNews.ru [ru], an online news tabloid affiliated with the Kremlin, have been widely covered by media in and outside of Russia (see a BBC article and The Moscow Times piece on the issue) and wreaked havoc on the Russian Internet.
No cells. Photo by SXC user mzacha
Not journalism, but something else
Coming soon after the widely discussed “election day DDoS-alypse” [Distributed Denial of Service], the phone tapping issue has attracted the attention of many prominent members of the Russian political elite. Many have rushed to express their thoughts on the subject.
Predictably enough, government-affiliated politicians and media practitioners supported the decision to publish the taped conversations, whereas the members of opposition have condemned it.
Few bloggers have doubts that the government is behind this. Prominent blogger and publicist Andrey Malgin, for example, wrote [ru]:
Откуда  “в распоряжении редакции оказалась” (так они формулируют) запись  телефонных разговоров Немцова и других деятелей оппозиции, нетрудно  догадаться, если вспомнить недавнюю историю, когда за день до  пресловутых ” парламентских выборов” на шереметьевской таможне изъяли  ноутбук руководителя общественной организации “Голос”, а через пару дней  файлы из этого ноутбука были опубликованы в том же самом СМИ.
Sergey Mitrokin, chairman of the opposition party Yabloko, said [ru] that “proslushka” (phone tapping) in Russia is not only about politics, but also about business:
По закону она возможна только по решению суда. Но проверять, есть ли  судебное решение, должны сами правоохранители, которые и являются  «слушателями». Проверка самих себя – это одна из самых распространенных «кормушек» в нашем законодательстве.
The issue attracted attention to the fact that phone  tapping is a harsh reality in the country. Bloggers recollected that the  similar scandals in the West (for example, the recent one with British News of the World tabloid) resulted in the sacking of many people including government officials and the closure of the newspaper.
Journalist Yuri Pronko expressed his outrage [ru] with the way Life News staff handled the information:
Руководители  портала заявляют, что готовы ответить, но “как профессиональные  журналисты” не откроют источники информации – такое впечатление, что  кто-то имеет сомнения, откуда редакция эти прослушки получила. Особенно  после того, как эту деликатную информацию начали тиражировать  государственные СМИ и даже «Милицейская волна». Скажу одно, это не журналистика, а нечто другое. Непотребное, мерзкое, отвратительное по своей сути.
Many other bloggers also condemned Life News’ decision to publish the conversation, noting that intruding into the private life of a person (even a politician) is dirty tactics.
“They live in your sockets”
Another camp of bloggers argued that Nemtsov should have been more careful in his expressions while talking on the phone. Former director of Radio Liberty's Russian service, Kseniya Larina, wrote [ru] on her blog:
Дорогой Boris Nemtsov,  Боря! Ну ты же давно живешь на свете, ты же знаешь , что они живут в  твоих розетках, фене,электробритве и мусорном ведре) впрочем, вся эта  история поучительна для тех, кто родился позже – теперь они знают, как  это происходит.
Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, wrote [ru] on his Twitter account:
Любой политик должен понимать: он находится в центре общественного  внимания и не может рассчитывать на тайну личной жизни и политпереписки
Margarita Simonyan, an editor-in-chief of pro-Kremlin international TV channel Russia Today echoes [ru] Rogozin:
Инфа о ПУБЛИЧНОЙ деятельности ПУБЛИЧНЫХ людей, касающаяся жизни общества, должна быть ПУБЛИЧНОЙ. И ее надо слушать и знать.
United more than ever
Whatever their opinion on the subject, both camps would probably agree that the released recordings had the potential to discredit Nemtsov and split and weaken the opposition. But some observers have noted that the results may be different from what they could have been if the Internet did not exist.
With its obvious advantage of communication with different audiences in real time, the blogosphere has provided millions of Russian with an opportunity to see the reaction of Nemtsov's fellow activists without any edits or distortions. The vast majority of opposition leaders immediately pointed out that Nemtsov's private conversations gone public is nothing more than a provocation from anti-opposition forces. Almost no one picked a fight with Nemtsov himself.
“Personal frictions and ambitions don't matter here,” activist Ilya Ponomarev wrote [ru] on his blog. “We are solving the common problem.”
Another prominent activist Evgeniya Chirikova who was called bad names in Nemtsov's hacked conversations, posted [ru] on her Twitter: “The PCaT [Party of Crooks and Thieves, nickname for pro-Kremlin United Russia party] tries to distract us from the fight against them. We won't give in. And we will come to the meeting on December 24.”
United opposition leaders who are putting their private opinions aside for a common cause, is the message coming out of their various blogs and Twitter feeds. Obviously, something like this would be impossible to convene to the public through the usual government-controlled traditional media channels.
What seems to be bothering people most, is the fact that phones do get hacked and private conversations do get recorded. As Evgeniya Chirikova wisely noted, “sometimes the methods discredit much more than that obtained with those methods.”
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011.

author: Dmitry Davidov


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South Korean President’s Vocal Critic Sentenced to Jail Term · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Jeong Bong-ju, a vocal critic of the President and a show host of the nation's most popular satirical podcast, Naggomsu, was sentenced a jail term for raising allegations of BBK stock price manipulation against the current President. Some citizens have posted this poster on a subway to show signs of support for Jeong.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Barbados: old-time Christmas · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Barbados Underground indulges in some seasonal nostalgia and describes a traditional Christmas “the Bajan way”: “Our young ones are missing that special warmth that we made as children.”


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Bermuda: a blog break? · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Is Bermuda’s blogosphere “taking a general break from blogging”? “Many of the newer blogs that set up in the last year or two seem to have generally been abandoned,” writes Catch a Fire, but he suggests that with a general election on the horizon Bermudan bloggers are likely to pick up pace once more.


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Bolivia: Citizen Journalism Contest Winners Announced · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Ahora Bolivia and the Center for Participation and Sustainable Human  Development (CEPAD) organized a citizen journalism contest which lasted  from October 20 to December 1. You can read the three winning pieces in Ahora Bolivia [es].


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Cuba: talking to Orlando Luis Pardo · Global Voices
Nicholas Laughlin

Along the Malecón posts a three-part video interview with Cuban writer, photographer, and blogger Orlando Luis Pardo of the blog Boring Home Utopics.


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Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges  · Global Voices
Sven Hultberg Carlsson

Two Swedish journalists, Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, were found guilty on Wednesday 21 December, 2011, of supporting terrorism in Ethiopia and entering the country illegally.
The pair entered Ethiopia embedded with forces of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on 1 July this year and were detained by the Ethiopian military shortly afterwards. Schibbye and Persson had traveled as freelance journalists aiming to report from the Ogaden province, the scene of a brutal conflict between Ethiopian armed forces and the ONLF.
Jesper Bengtsson, chair of the Swedish section of Reporters Without Borders, commented on the verdict on Swedish Public Radio:
I had hoped, and I think everyone had hoped, that the Ethiopian authorities had already made an example of Persson and Schibbye by starting the trial process and jailing them for six months. Obviously that wasn't enough of an example.
Journalist Martin Schibbye (right) ©Kontinent Agency AB, used with permission.
Early on Wednesday morning, Judge Shemsu Sirgaga denied the defense's main argument, which held that Schibbye and Persson travelled professionally and had a journalistic duty to report on the conflict from the side of the rebel forces as well as that of Ethiopia's military, and sided with the prosecution.
Sirgaga commented that the Swedes had “used their profession as a cover for terrorist activities” and called for an 18-year prison sentence to be handed down on 27 December, despite Schibbye and Persson's background in reporting from dangerous parts of the world and the testimony by two of Schibbye's and Persson's colleagues, freelance journalists Adrian Blomfield and Phillip Ittner, who had been flown into the capital Addis Ababa to take part in the court proceedings.
The video below shows Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson, filmed by Ethiopian authorities after being detained, uploaded to YouTube by user rug571 on December 16.
During the trial, Schibbye and Persson admitted to entering Ethiopia illegally embedded with the rebels, but denied any charges of supporting terrorism. In November, the pair were acquitted of the third charge against them, of being “members of a terrorist group”.
“Political prisoners”
Mattias Göransson, the editor-in-chief of Filter magazine – the only client of Schibbye and Persson's to publicly acknowledge it had been in touch with the pair before their African trip – was called as a witness during the trial, and expressed disappointment with the verdict when interviewed by Reuters in Sweden:
When the judge read out the grounds it sounded positive, he had virtually nothing against them. Everything he said was speaking for an acquittal, and then he found them guilty anyway. This indicates they are political prisoners and nothing else.
The case against Schibbye and Persson has brought further attention to Ethiopia's vague anti-terrorist legislation, under which over 100 opposition leaders and journalists have been jailed up to 20 years. Three Ethiopian journalists are currently on trial for terrorism charges.
The Swedish section of Amnesty International said it is critical of Ethiopia's arbitrary interpretation of the anti-terror legislation. Lise Bergh, the General Secretary, said she is convinced of Schibbye and Persson's innocence [sv]:
Amnesty International does not believe there is any evidence of the men supporting the ONLF or its operations, nor that they are guilty of any criminal act. We regard Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye as prisoners of conscience, as they have been prosecuted due to their legitimate work as journalists.
Until the day of the verdict's announcement, the Swedish government had been fairly silent on the case. Carl Bildt, the foreign minister, had referred to methods of quiet diplomacy when asked about how the Swedish Foreign Ministry were working for the release of the journalists.
The situation has been further complicated by Bildt's personal history. Until 2006, when Bildt was appointed foreign minister, he served as a board member of Lundin Petroleum, the Swedish oil company whose activities Schibbye and Persson were intending to investigate in the Ogaden province.
Johan Persson prior to his and Martin Schibbye's detainment ©Kontinent Agency AB, used with permission.
After the verdict was announced, Bildt commented on the case on Twitter:
@carlbildt: Sweden expresses grave concern over hard sentence against Swedish journalists in Ethiopia. We will continue to work to set them free.
Bildt's comment was followed by a statement from Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister:
Our position is and continues to be that they were in the country on a journalistic assignment. They must be released as soon as possible in order to be reunited with their families in Sweden.
At an afternoon press conference [sv], Bildt stated that high-level diplomacy was now the prioritized course of action:
We are now making sure that the prime minister's strong message gets through to the Ethiopian government. We will then reason with the parties involved over the formal steps to be taken in this process.
A mellow reception awaited the official statements in social media. Under the hashtag #EthiopiaSwedes, tweets were sent out blaming the Swedish authorities for what is perceived as several months of perceived inertia regarding the case. Twitter user @tommyskot asked:
@tommyskot: When will @sweden and @carlbildt do something to get our journalists home? #EthiopiaSwedes
Below is a sample of reactions from Twitter:
@annalindberg: Now we begin to understand what conditions African journalists are working under. #ethiopiaswedes
@sweden: I'm shocked and appalled by the verdict against #ethiopiaswedes
@hurriya: spread this initiative to build solidarity for #ethiopiaswedes http://www.facebook.com/freejohanandmartin #svpol
Seleshi Ketsela, one of Schibbye and Persson's lawyers, said that his clients would now consider whether to appeal. An alternative route may be to seek a pardon from the Ethiopian state.

author: Sven Hultberg Carlsson