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The Oil Spill in the Adriatic Sea Is a Sneak Peek at Looming Natural Disasters · Global Voices
Elena Nikolovska

Kostrena, Rijeka, Croatia. Photo by Goran Kovačić, used with permission.
An equipment malfunction at an oil refinery caused an oil spill in the Adriatic Sea off the coast in Croatia last week, wreaking havoc on the local environment and creating panic among locals.
On the afternoon of May 12, in Kostrena near the coastal Croatian city of Rijeka in an area known as Urinj, parts of the Adriatic Sea and its coastline turned black after a pipeline from the local oil refinery, INA, began leaking oil, causing an ecological disaster.
Locals took photos and reported the incident to the authorities, who assembled teams to try and repair the damages. Due to inclimate weather and the sheer size of the spill, however, even initial cleanup operations are expected to continue into next week.
In the meantime, the oil refinery released an official statement apologizing for the spill and promising to repair the damage within 24 hours (a time period that passed long ago).
According to Eko Kvarner, a local environmentalist group, the equipment at the oil refinery is old and not maintained properly, which is why, they say, it malfunctions frequently, endangering the health and safety of the environment and people living in the area.
Kostrena, Rijeka, Croatia. Photo by Goran Kovačić, used with permission.
The spill occurred in an area when environmentalists were already campaigning against plans to develop further oil exploration in the Adriatic Sea.
At COP21 in Paris last December, just three days after world leaders signed the Paris Agreement and pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent before 2025, Montenegro announced plans for oil exploration off the coast of Ulcinj, in the Adriatic Sea. The former Croatian government abandoned plans for oil and gas exploration on the entire Adriatic Sea, including even the coast offshore Dubrovnik, national and nature marine parks, after facing serious pressure from the public and both Croatian and Italian NGOs. But the question of allowing oil drilling in the country still remains open, given that plans included 29 exploration blocks across the Adriatic for 30 years of offshore exploration and production of hydrocarbons (concerning both oil and gas).
Global Voices asked Vladimir Bajzec from the nonprofit civic initiative NAŠ Jadran, which opposes the plans of new exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the Adriatic, if he thinks the Balkans have the capability and means to deal with the oil spill on their own:
Of course our local governments neither have the capability to deal with the big incident, nor are they really interested to deal it for real. They only care for their own (part of the corporate) profit interests. The way of promotion any new oil projects is the same as everywhere in the rest of the world, especially in crisis hit economies – so-called ‘the highest environment and nature protection standards’, according to ‘the world’s best praxis’, promising the economic growth and welfare to incompletely or falsely informed citizens.
The Adriatic Sea is identified as a hotspot of great ecological importance, with its high concentrations of endangered, threatened, and vulnerable species, Bajzec explained:
Just the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea is home to more than 7,000 wildlife species, many of which are protected by Croatian and international laws of nature protection, while some are even on the edge of extinction. The Adriatic Sea is comparatively small, shallow, and also semi-enclosed, which makes the risk of permanent pollution by oil and gas drilling activities disaster and wildlife extinction even more serious.
Tourism is also the main source of income for local population in these Balkan cities by the Adriatic Sea, and locals fear losing their livelihood if the sea and coast become polluted with oil.
Fears like these are far from unreasonable. Halfway across the world, Shell’s offshore Brutus platform only recently leaked 2,100 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, endangering an already fragile ecosystem.
With the world facing record high temperatures this spring and extreme weather conditions that are leaving thousands of people without homes or water, the significance of climate change is only rising. In an effort to promote lower reliance on fossil fuels, thousands of people around the world have joined the Break Free campaign, urging nations to move away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy.
Both Montenegro and Croatia are countries with an abundance of sunny days and a high potential for solar and wind energy. With these natural assets, the region faces certain disadvantages, if it remains dependent on fossil fuels. In December 2015, for example, Germanwatch gave the Balkan states a high-risk climate index (mainly because of the floods and severe weather that swept the area in the past couple of years). Demonstrators worry that the greatest risk to the region is inaction, when it comes to these major environmental issues.

author: Elena Nikolovska


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A Japanese City Uses Frightening CGI to Teach Residents Tsunami Survival · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screencap of the Kamakura tsunami survival simulation. Image taken from Kamakura City official YouTube channel.
The Japanese city of Kamakura has created a tsunami simulation to help its residents understand the danger they face and be able to plan an escape route that leads to safety.
Kamakura is small city on the Pacific Ocean located less than an hour by train from downtown Tokyo. The city crowds along the coast of a curved bay, just above sea level, and there is little to no protection from a tsunami should one occur.
The tourist town is often packed with visitors, and is threatened by at least two massive earthquakes that are due to happen at any time. There's up to a 5% chance of a magnitude.8 earthquake in the Sagami Trough occurring over the next 30 years; there's a 70% likelihood of a magnitude 7 earthquake occurring over the same period of time.
The Nankai megathrust fault, which lies to the southwest of Kamukura, is also predicted to experience a massive earthquake at any time.
Any such earthquake would generate a massive tsunami that would inundate and destroy Kamakura. In 1703, the epicenter of the powerful Genroku earthquake, which occurred just to the east of Kamakura, created massive tsunami waves that destroyed Kamakura and other parts of Japan's Pacific seaboard.
The detailed simulation released by the city warns that tsunamis can travel at 36 kilometers per hour as they approach land:
It will be impossible to flee from an oncoming tsunami on foot. We are utterly powerless against the devastating might of a tsunami. The only option is to evacuate before a tsunami arrives.
It also identifies bottlenecks and escape routes in different parts of the city. The full video with English subtitles can be viewed here:

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nevin Thompson


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Incessant Rain Triggers Deadly Landslides and Massive Flooding in Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

Image courtesy Sri Lanka Red Crescent Society's Facebook Page
On Tuesday, May 17, three villages in a hill in Kegalle District, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, were hit by massive landslides, with hundreds of families reported missing. Rescuers have recovered 17 bodies from the mud and debris, bringing the death toll to more than 40 by Wednesday. The Sri Lankan Red Cross said that more families were unaccounted for.
Heavy rains and storms have been creating havoc in central Sri Lanka. May is usually the rainiest month in the South Asian country, with an average of around 382 millimeters. This past Sunday, however, saw around 305 millimeters of rain alone. A tropical depression is aggravating the situation. Recent floods have displaced around 100,000 families.
#SriLanka experiencing worst flood situation in 60years.
part of Colombo city area drowned making number of residents homeless.#SriLanka
— Vajira Sumedha (@vajirasumeda) May 18, 2016
Images of mother nature's destruction made the rounds online. New media site Roar Lanka posted some powerful images of the deadly landslide, while on website Yamu writer Shifani published shots of flooding that happened across Sri Lanka.
Blogger Indi Samarajiva explained in a post on Yamu why there has been rain in Sri Lanka incessantly:
Why is it raining so much? This is the Yala Intermonsoon. Honestly, we should just call it the monsoon but the term is more defined by when the rains hit India. Sri Lanka gets it in between.
The blogger also informed that forecasts predict the rainfall will decrease over the coming weekend.
Meanwhile, many are posting updates on Twitter:
BREAKING -Those Living in Surrounding Kelani River Areas Requested to Move to Safer Locations Due Rising Flood Waters-DMS #lka #SriLanka
— Farhaan Nizamdeen (@greatgalle) May 18, 2016
Need your support to save these flood victims.Recent video from Kolonnawa,Wellampitiya, #Srilanka @SriLanka #lka pic.twitter.com/hZqSgMkSGK
— M.RISHAN SHAREEF (@Rishan_s) May 18, 2016
There are many user-generated videos of the floods uploaded to different social media platforms. Here is a video published on YouTube by Trufriend:
Some expressed frustration at the lack of attention the issue was getting in worldwide media:
Paris attack : 15 killed,10 injured
Sri Lanka flood: 40 deads, 1000+ suffering.
Where is #PrayForSriLanka? 😑💔#LK #SriLankaFloods
— Ahamed Sizan (@barfigas) May 18, 2016
While others were in awe of how quickly the situation can change:
What a difference a day makes, from a flood selfie to mass burial of 100's in a landslide #SriLanka #lka pic.twitter.com/e3rLK0NM8Z
— Amantha (@AmanthaP) May 18, 2016
Many Facebook users across the world were surprised to learn about the Sri Lankan floods after they were notified of their friends or acquaintances marking themselves safe using the newly activated Facebook Safety Check feature:
my friend just marked herself as safe on fb during a flood in srilanka… is there currently a flood in srilanka? 😱
— fn (@tabiyong) May 18, 2016
Cassandra Doole at Roar Lanka posted information about emergency contacts and relief efforts.
The president's message in Facebook
Maithripala Sirisena, the president of Sri Lanka, who has close to a million Facebook follower, urged those who need help to report their situation to authorities by phoning the Government Information Center:
If you are a victim of the prevailing adverse weather condition, and hasn't been given any assistance even after contacting a government official, inform ‘Tell the President’ through 1919 as soon as possible.

author: Rezwan


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Mexico Launches National Transparency Platform · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Screenshot of Mexico's new National Transparency Platform.
Mexico's National Transparency Platform is a new tool that helps promote the right of access to public information and transparency in Mexico. The platform portal allows anyone with Internet access to obtain government information already available, or request data that is not yet available.
The National Transparency Platform launched on May 6, 2016, by the National Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data Institute, which is charged with guaranteeing the fundamental right of access to public information in Mexico. This portal was created as a result of controversial reforms of the country's constitutional law on transparency (see past reports on Global Voices Advox), which now includes new legal obligations for political parties and unions to ensure the transparency of their information, among many other issues.
Óscar Guerra, one of the seven commissioners of the National Transparency Platform, commented:
Esta plataforma es el mejor ejemplo de la aplicación de las tecnologías de la información al servicio y exigencia de los derechos de las personas. Será un referente para todas aquellas naciones que pretenden desarrollar soluciones electrónicas similares para facilitar y garantizar su derecho de acceso a la información.
This platform is the best example of the application of information technology in the service and exercise of the rights of individuals. It will be a reference point for all those nations that seek to develop similar electronic solutions to facilitate and ensure the right of access to information.
None of this, however, means that accessing government information in Mexico has actually improved. Since 2002, when the now-defunct Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection (IFAI) was created, there was a portal called INFOMEX through which all people with Internet access (regardless of their place of residence or their citizenship) could request information free of charge from federal agencies. Those who accessed the portal could even appeal to the IFAI when their requests were not met or when the information provided did not correspond with their requests. Perhaps the best example of the usefulness of such a system was in 2015, when a citizen requested and gained access to the investigation file on the Ayotzinapa case, in which 43 students were victims of a mass disappearance and probable murder.
Among the innovations that characterize the new platform is a feature that allows users to verify themselves in order to gain access by using social-network accounts like Twitter and Facebook. The platform also was designed to be accessible to people with special needs. In its next stage, the platform will be accessible from smartphones and tablets using a mobile app.
Once fully operational, the National Transparency Platform is intended to be a powerful ally in the fight against corruption in Mexico. But its effectiveness in practice remains to be seen.

author: J. Tadeo


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Netizen Report: Two of Egypt’s Leading Human Rights Defenders Face Legal Challenge · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Gamal Eid (left) and Hossam Baghat. Images shared by IFEX network.
Two human rights defenders in Egypt are scheduled to appear before Cairo’s criminal court on Monday, May 23 in a case that could have broad implications for journalists and activists throughout the country.
The court will determine whether or not to freeze the assets of both Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and a legal attorney specializing in media freedom. Bahgat and Eid are two of the country’s most influential voices in pushing to uphold rule of law and enforce Egypt’s commitments to international human rights doctrine. Both lead organizations that, despite increasingly difficult circumstances and regulatory efforts undercutting civil society activities, have managed to stay afloat and continue defending journalists and human rights activists both on and offline. Both have been banned from travel outside of Egypt since February 2016.
Although the judiciary has released little information about Monday’s hearing, it has been linked to a 2011 case in which numerous foreign NGOs were prosecuted for receiving and using foreign funds without a license. Neither Bahgat nor Eid were formally charged at that time.
In a statement on the case, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director Nadim Houry said:
The Egyptian authorities have moved beyond scaremongering and are now rapidly taking concrete steps to shut down the last critical voices in the country's human rights community.
The case comes at a time when the need for lawyers like Eid and Baghat seems overwhelming. At least 33 journalists have been detained in Egypt over the past four weeks alone, most of them while attempting to cover political protests. Most, but not all, have since been released. Among those still held are Yanair news website journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud al-Sakka, who have been committed to 30 days’ detention, and El-Fagr news website photographer Ali Abdeen, who was sentenced two years in jail after being convicted of inciting illegal protests, obstructing traffic, and publishing false news. The Egypt-based Journalists Against Torture Observatory and the Committee to Protect Journalists are following their stories and publishing the most up-to-date information on their cases.
Ethiopian blogger and activist Zelalem Workagegnehu was sentenced by the Federal High Court of Ethiopia to five years and four months in prison following his conviction for “supporting terror” by helping to facilitate a course on digital tools and safety. He was initially charged in October 2014, and has spent over a year in jail. He and co-defendants reported experiencing extensive torture in detention, and were forced to sign confession letters. Zelalem is expected to appeal the decision.
The blackout on social media in Uganda finally ended on May 15 after a ban “for security reasons” during the days following President Yoweri Museveni’s inauguration ceremony. During the shutdown, only people using VPNs – and the State House of Uganda – were able to circumvent the blackout.
Iraq followed Uganda’s lead in shutting down its Internet, though not for security reasons. The shutdown, which occurred in all regions of the country, coincided with official exams for secondary and high schools, which has led some to believe the blackout was intended to prevent cheating. It lasted for approximately three hours.
A facial recognition tool called FindFace has become popular in Russia, allowing users to photograph people in a crowd and identify them with 70% reliability by comparing these images to profile pictures on the Russian social network Vkontakte. The software has considerable implications for the invasion of privacy, and has already been used to uncover the social media profiles of female adult film actors in order to harass them. In early April, a young artist named Egor Tsvetkov highlighted how invasive the technology can be, photographing random passengers on the St. Petersburg subway and matching the pictures to the individuals’ Vkontakte pages, using FindFace. “In theory,” Tsvetkov told Global Voices, “this service could be used by a serial killer or a collector trying to hunt down a debtor.” Currently the app’s creators say the technology can work with any photographic database, but it does not work with Facebook.
Chinese censors have turned their sights to video, targeting live-streaming platforms that show unauthorized broadcasts of shows, vulgar language, “inappropriate” clothing, and even eating and posing with bananas in a “provocative” manner.
Eight people were arrested in Iran for posting their photos online. Among them were multiple models who posed with their hair uncovered on Instagram. Mehdi Abutorabi, who managed a publishing tool called Persian Blog, was also detained. Modeling is technically illegal in Iran, and the country’s laws require all women cover their hair.
Kenyan blogger and photographer Msingi Sasis has gone missing after being arrested last year while taking photos of Galleria Mall in Nairobi at night. He was held on “suspicion of terrorism” and then released with no charges. He later reported experiencing loss of his livelihood and emotional and physical turmoil resulting from his arrest.
A Bulgarian environmental activist is facing trial for insulting the head of a copper mining company on Facebook. The case could illustrate the fragility of free expression in the country, according to Global Voices’ Nevena Borisova, as social media may be covered within Bulgaria’s criminal code penalizing defamation or insult.
The government of Mozambique is extensively spying on its citizens, according to an investigative report by local news oulet @Verdade, listening to their phone calls, reading text messages, email, chat, and monitoring their social media activity and web browsing activities. The monitoring was carried out using a technical system reportedly built by the Chinese technology company ZTE Corporation, and has been managed by military command.
The Intercept released a new batch of documents (originally made public by Edward Snowden) that includes 166 editions of the internal newsletter of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, SIDtoday.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, James Losey, Sherif Mansour and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Protests and Banners Await High-Ranking Chinese Official on Visit to Hong Kong · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The paper graves erected by Neo Democrats at Timar Park outside a government office. Photo: Neo Democrats via Hong Kong Free Press.
Zhang Dejiang (the chairman of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress and a top official in the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo responsible for Hong Kong and Macau Affairs) arrived in Hong Kong for a three-day visit on May 17. Upon arriving, Zhang stressed that he would “look, listen, and speak” on his trip, saying he brought with him the “care and love of the Central Government.”
Despite this promise of care and love, his visit has been accompanied by roughly 8,000 police officers, who vow to take “decisive action” against protesters during Zhang's “One Belt One Road” summit on Wednesday, May 18.
Police transformed the Wan Chai district, where Zhang resided, into a “core security zone” and sealed off the area with huge water-filled and metal barriers.
Wanchai district was sealed off with huge water-filled barriers. Photo by PH Yang. Non-commercial use.
To prevent Zhang from seeing protesters’ banners, police officers even camped on top of Lion Rock Hill, a highly symbolic spot representing the city, to make sure that no one could approach. Demonstrators from the political party the League of Social Democrats nevertheless managed to hang a huge yellow banner calling for Genuine Universal Suffrage on Beacon Hill as a message to Zhang.
The banner reads, “I want genuine universal suffrage.” It was hung on Beacon Hill by the League of Social Democrats. Photo from Apple Daily via Hong Kong Free Press.
Another protest team from the same group managed to hang a huge black banner calling for an end to CCP's dictatorship. The signed appeared on the express road from the airport to downtown when Zhang's vehicle passed by. More groups followed the initiative by hanging yellow banners in public areas to greet Zhang.
A banner calling for an end to CCP dictatorship hung on the express road. Photo from League of Social Democrats.
Another political party, the Neo Democrats, set up a hundred paper tombstones at Tamar Park outside the Central Government offices to mourn those who died in the SARS epidemic in 2003. Zhang Dejiang was then the top official in Guangdong province and was responsible for withholding information about the outbreak. The epidemic spread from Guangdong to Hong Kong, resulting in the deaths of 299 people in the city.
A major public event during Zhang's visit took place at the One Belt, One Road Summit. In his keynote speech, he stressed that the central government fully support Hong Kong's involvement in the country's cross-border development project. Pro-democracy protesters who were barred from coming near the venue criticized Zhang for not “listening” to local demands and chanted “No to One Belt One Road, Zhang Dejiang get lost” in their rally outside the core security zone. The Independent news site Hong Kong Free Press reported from the demonstration:
In addition to organized protests, people also staged individual acts to make their voices heard. For example, Anthony Lam glued a banner on his car that read, “Zhang Dejiang get lost, I want genuine universal suffrage!”
Car banner reads, “Zhang Dejiang get lost. I want genuine universal suffrage!” Image from Anthony Lam's Facebook.
On the express road to Tseung Kwan O New Town, residents put up this welcoming sign reading, “Tseung Kwan O residents welcome Zhang Dejiang for causing traffic jam”:
Welcoming sign at Tseung Kwan O New Town. Photo: Facebook page

author: Oiwan Lam


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‘Activists’ Attack St. Petersburg Bordellos, Forcing Women to March Nude to Police · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Women forced to walk nude through the streets en route to a police station. “Activists” captured them for practicing prostitution. Image: Life.ru
In the midnight hours between May 17 and 18, a group of men led by the former kickboxer Viacheslav Datsik forced their way into a brothel in St. Petersburg, smashing a hole in the front door. They then rounded up the women (and one man) they found inside the building (about 11 people, altogether), before shoving them outside and making them march through the streets, completely nude, to a local police station.
When the group arrived at the station, all the officers on duty reportedly stopped what they were doing, hurrying to find clothes for the women and make sense of what was happening. Datsik quietly filed a formal report and slipped out. He and his accomplices then attempted another attack on a second establishment, that same night.
Asked why his men forced their prisoners to walk the streets naked, Datsik sarcastically told the news website Fontanka, “The country should know its heroes.”
According to Fontanka, Datsik even forced his hostages to listen to a lecture about the ills of “paid love,” while ordering them to remove their clothes.
Datsik’s invasion spree ended at a motel, where he was finally subdued by security guards and turned over to law enforcement. While prostitution is illegal in Russia, the only reported charges now being prepared by St. Petersburg police are against Datsik (for hooliganism and intentional property damage).
One of the self-described “activists” working with Datsik filmed the group’s raid on the first bordello, and later turned the video over to the tabloid Life.ru (formerly Lifenews). The news network published that footage (accessible here, though readers should be aware that the content is extremely disturbing), blurring only the women’s bodies, but not their faces. At one moment in the video, a nude woman is caught trying to escape Datsik’s gang. One of his men holds her by the throat against a wall, as she pleads, “Please leave me alone. Please.”
Life.ru broadcasts footage from an attack by Viacheslav Datsik and his men on women at a presumed brothel. (Faces blurred by Global Voices, not Life.ru.)
Alexey Kovalev, a Russian journalist and the creator of NoodleRemover.news (which uncovers dirty dealings and dishonest reporting in the Kremlin-controlled Russian media), drew attention to Life.ru's decision to show the women's faces, writing on Facebook:
Нельзя работать на Лайфньюс. Нельзя даже за руку здороваться с теми, у кого пресскарта Ньюсмедиа. Нельзя говорить “ну да, упыри, зато хорошие профессионалы и Габрелянов выстроил эффективный медиахолдинг”. “Фёлькишер беобахтер” тоже был эффективным медиахолдингом.
Don't ever work at Lifenews. If somebody carries a press pass from Lifenews, don't even shake their damned hand. And don't ever say, “Yeah, those are are monsters, but they're professionals and Gabrelyanov [the news agency's founder] put together an effective media group.” Völkischer Beobachter [the newspaper of the German Nazi Party] was an effective media group, too.
Viacheslav Datsik is a former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. Calling himself the “Red Tarzan,” he is a convicted criminal, having served time in prison for robbery, belonging to an organized criminal group, money forgery, and more. Datsik has obsessive anti-Semitic and anti-Christian views, calling himself a Slavic pagan. During a mixed martial arts match in 2001, referees had to restrain him with a forearm choke hold, when he didn’t respond to the bell, signaling the end of the fight. In August 2010, he even escaped prison and illegally crossed into Norway, where he was eventually captured and ultimately deported back to Russia. In March 2016, just two months ago, Datsik was released.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast: The Disappeared · Global Voices
L. Finch

The Week That Was podcast takes a look at some of the stories that we’ve published recently on Global Voices.
This week, we take you to Ecuador, Uganda, Bangladesh and Ukraine. We also speak to Pakistan editor Sana Saleem about Zeenat Shahzadi, a journalist who has been missing there for nine months.
Many thanks to all our authors, translators and editors who helped make this possible. This episode features stories by Juan Arellano, James Propa, Pantha Rahman Reza, Aric Toler and Tetyana Lokot, and Sana Saleem.
We also feature Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0); Orange Juicier by Podington Bear (CC BY-NC 3.0); Analog by Jon Luc Hefferman (CC BY-NC 3.0); Giga Lounge by Gigaboy (CC BY-NC 4.0); Dancing on the Edge by Kai Engel (CC BY-NC 4.0); and WTS by Cory Gray (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Expect to hear our voices again in two weeks. Happy listening!
Image in SoundCloud thumbnail is from Wikimedia Commons/UTR News, CC BY 3.0, and Luis Prado/the Noun Project, edited by Tetyana Lokot.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: L. Finch


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Brazilian Musicians Mount an Orchestra Against Brazil’s Interim Government · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Musicians organized a “Concert for Democracy” at an occupied government building in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Shared on Facebook
A few weeks ago, a famous Brazilian musician and critic wrote a poignant article pointing out how the events that have recently rocked Brazil lack a soundtrack, a musical dimension as in previous political upheavals in the 1960s and 1970s, when Brazilian popular music was at the center stage.
Well, perhaps no more: Brazilian musicians are occupying and organizing in social media classical concerts in buildings owned by the Ministry of Culture, which was recently extinguished by Brazil's interim president Michel Temer.
Check out this one, which took place in Rio de Janeiro at Palácio Capanema on May 17, in which the late German composer Carl Off's “Carmina Burana” was turned into a chant of “Fora Temer” (Temer Out):
Organizers say a thousand people came to the event. This was the second concert organized by the group — the first was at a public square on May 5, before Dilma Rousseff was impeached and therefore before the Ministry of Culture was dissolved. Therefore the event had a whole significance this time.
Despite its interim character, Michel Temer's government already announced drastic changes in Rousseff's administration, from replacing the entire cabinet ministry to shifts on foreign policy. It has also announced a series of austerity measures like slashing cabinet posts, privatizing and outsourcing public companies, implementing changes in pension laws, and dropping more than a few hints that it wants to make worker protection laws more lax and downsize the public health care system. In his inaugural speech, Temer said he is committed to taming inflation and capping a budget deficit to put the economy back on track.
On May 12, the Brazilian Senate decided in favor of opening an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly committing fiscal trickery to hide a growing public deficit. She has to step aside for six months until a final trial, also in the Senate and presided by the president of the Supreme Court, will finally decide whether to unseat her. In a dramatic process that has engulfed Brazilian society as much as its politicians, Brazilians seem divided between those who campaigned for her ousting and those who see the process as a “soft coup”.
The extinction of the Ministry of Culture infuriated the arts world of Brazil. At the moment, artists of all stripes are occupying 18 state buildings owned by the office in 12 cities. Famous Brazilian singers and musicians are putting on concerts in some of them. Another orchestra concert is scheduled in São Paulo on May 25 — this one, however, at the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP), a major location of protests for and against the government since 2013.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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Chinese Demand Harsher Laws to Stop Bullying After a Teenager’s Beating Death · Global Voices
Liu Willow Jiang

Zhang's mother talked about her son's death on CCTV. Screen capture.
A 15-year-old boy named Zhang Chaofan from Yun Cheng county of Shan Xi province in China was beaten to death on 23 April. The six suspects were his schoolmates.
The police detained the six as part of their investigation. While their results haven't been officially released, the victim’s mother discovered by reading a group chat between members of her son's class that her son had allegedly been a victim of bullying.
She described the case in an interview with state-owned China Central Television. According to her, her son's schoolmates had been extorting money from him. Eventually, he stopped attending school and started working at an Internet cafe. It's there that he was beaten for hours, allegedly by the same schoolmates who had been bullying him. The teenager died of a cardiopulmonary rupture and injuries to the brain.
There have been similar instances of school-age violence that have captured the public's attention in China in the past three months. In Rizhao city, Shandong province, a teenage boy was beaten by five other schoolmates and forced to eat feces in a high school toilet. A few dozen schoolmates witnessed to the incident, cheering for the bullies. Someone videotaped it too and uploaded the footage to the Internet on May 16. The local police told that media that the case was settled privately between the families of those involved without criminal investigation.
On April 25, two videos went viral on social media showing a teenage girl in Anxin being forced to knee down. Another girl dressed in black slaps her on the face, pulls her hair, kicks her and beats her with a rod, forcing her to take off all her clothes. A number of people apparently cheered the violence on and videotaped the incident. Local police arrested two girls, but there haven't been any follow-up reports on any criminal charges being filed.
And on February 17, three Chinese young people attending high school in the United States were sentenced to 13 years, six years and 10 years in prison there for torturing two teenage girls. The bullies forced the two to strip off their clothes, burned their nipples with cigarettes, slapped them across the face and cut their hair.
For many Chinese, the last case showed that authorities don't take teenage violence seriously, especially in comparison to the US. It also drew public attention to the Chinese Minor Protection Law, which was enacted in 2007. The law defines individuals under the age of 18 as minors and says that law enforcement units should adopt the principle of education rather than punishment when dealing with juveniles by reducing or even exempting their liability (Article 54).
Given that authorities in China are not immune to corruption, many believe that the law, rather than protecting juveniles and helping them correct their behavior, has provided a grey area for police to take bribes from the wealthy family members of bullies to escape criminal liability.
In one of the news threads on popular social media platform Weibo about Zhang Chaofan's death, one netizen pointed to the potential problem of corruption in the investigation:
好想知道打人者判了什么刑，还有打人者父母的态度，是否赔偿了呢？！就连学校都在回避问题，逃避问题了，后台很硬嘛！
I really wonder what kind of penalties will be imposed on bullies, how their parents react and if they compensate the victim’s family! Even the school is avoiding commenting on the issue. It seems that bullies have very strong backup.
Another commenter questioned the Minor Protection Law:
我只想问一句：未成年人保护法到底保护了谁？又该保护谁？为什么现在这个法律变成了未成年人犯罪的保护伞！！！那些受害的也很多都是未成年人啊，他们在未成年人保护法保护不了他们的情况下，又该用什么法律来保护自己？！甚至因为这条法律，他们连应有的公平都没有了，这法律还有什么意义！！！
I just want to ask: Who exactly does the Minor Protection Law protect? Who should be protected? How come the law has become an umbrella to protect juveniles, while most of their victims are also underage but are not protected by the Minor Protection Law. What should they rely on to protect themselves [from being harmed by their peers]? Because of this law, they don't even seek justice. What's the use of this law?
有 < 未成年人保护法>也应该设立< 未成年人惩戒法>，不能总是仗着是未成年人逃避法律责任，现下多少案件都是未成年人犯下”
We have the Minor Protection Law, but we should also make a Minor Penalty Law, because being a minor can’t always be an excuse to be exempted from punishment and responsibility, look at how many cases are committed by minors.
More and more people believe that more retributive punishment is needed to stop teenage violence. According to an online poll conducted by Weibo, more than 99% of respondents, among the 1,920 people who had participated as of 12 pm, May 18), believe that more severe punishment is needed.
Under one of the Weibo posts on the poll, people continued to discuss the topic. The most popular comments are those calling for retribution, such as:
故意杀人，不管是精神病还是未成年，既然有能力杀人就应该有能力去偿命
Murder with intention. Regardless of the mental status and age of murderer, as he is capable of murder, he should be capable of taking the responsibility.
Some suggested a new law to deal with the school bullying culture:
还在长草拔草？校园凌霸、青少年凌霸各种不文明行为是有社会和家庭根源的，难道就不能加强反凌霸立法和宣传，将具体执行规定和反馈途径落到每个学校老师家长学生身上？只有易受害群体和可保护受害者群体共同参与和监督，凌霸现象才能得到控制。单独惩罚每起案件的犯罪人对社会整体是不起作用的。
We can't clean out the weeds by pulling them out one by one. School bullying, teenage violence, all these uncivilized behaviors are rooted in society and family. We should have anti-bullying laws and education and enforce the law onto teachers, parents and students. The involvement of those who are victims of bullying and their protectors is necessary if we want to stop the bullying culture. We can't deal with the situation case by case.
Some also reflected upon the root cause of teenage violence:
国家经济发展的代价就是留守儿童太多，社会起不到监管，孩子的心理有暴力倾向最后发展都极点！人多时好时，但是解决不了生活未必就是好事，我可爱的祖国要解决民生问题从点滴做起来，不要再让悲剧发生了
This is the price of our country’s fast development: Being left at home, those teenagers lack supervision from their parents, and their violent personalities burst forth after they've been suppressed for a long time. Being large in population can be a good thing, but the unsolved problems of livelihood are not, I hope my lovely homeland can solve such problems and never let such tragedies happen again.

author: Liu Willow Jiang


text:
Creating a Space for Guinea’s National Languages on the Internet · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Tasfir Baldé. Used with his permission.
2015 and 2016 have been crucial in terms of elections in Africa. Over the course of these two years, there have been 14 elections to date.
Internet users have developed a range of initiatives to empower the people to exercise the full range of their civic rights. In Guinea, for example, where 65% of the population is illiterate, the Guinean Bloggers Association (l’Association des blogueurs de Guinée, or ABLOGUI) launched a campaign to raise awareness and address the use of ethnic differences as a political agenda, to avoid clashes within the population. (Full disclosure: The campaign has funding from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa; Global Voices receives support from Open Society Foundations).
ABLOGUI is doing so in Pulaar and Malinke (Maninka), two languages widely spoken in Guinea. While French is the official language of government in Guinea, two-thirds of the country's people don't speak or understand it, so making information available in these languages is important.
Global Voices asked Tafsir Baldé, head of the commission for the promotion of national languages within the Guinean Bloggers Association, to give his thoughts on this experience.
Global Voices (GV): Mr. Baldé, can you introduce yourself again to our readers?
Tafsir Baldé (TB): Je suis Tafsir Baldé, chercheur en langues et cultures africaines et blogueur en #Pulaar sur www.misiide.net, membre fondateur de l’Association des blogueurs de Guinée (ABLOGUI), et responsable de la commission promotion des langues nationales au sein de la dite association.
Tafsir Baldé (TB): I am Tafsir Baldé, a researcher of African cultures and languages and a blogger in the #Pulaar language on www.misiide.net, founding member of the Guinean Bloggers Association (ABLOGUI), and head of the commission for the promotion of national languages within this association.
GV: What is the #GuineeVote hashtag? What relationship does it have with the national languages Pulaar and Nko (the alphabet on which Malinke and other languages is based) ?
TB: #GuineeVote est une plate-forme web participative autour des élections en Guinée. Un projet citoyen porté par l’Association des Blogueurs de Guinée (ABLOGUI). Sur cette plate-forme, une rubrique des langues nationales a été créée pour traduire l’essentiel de l’actualité électorale en langues nationales #Pulaar et #Malinké.
Depuis sa création, notre association s’est fixé comme objectif fondamental de s'impliquer sur la façon dont les leaders des partis font la politique. Pour atteindre ce but au-delà de toute position partisane, nous avons pensé qu’il était nécessaire de réformer le discours politique en poussant les candidats à parler de leurs programmes et non des sujets à caractère ethnique. Nous avons donc établi un système pour comparer leurs programmes et pour que ceux-ci soient compris par la majorité d’une population qui ne maîtrise pas dans son ensemble la langue française nous avons introduit cette partie des langues nationales.
Notre commission de langues nationales a donc traduit et publié sur www.guineevote.com dans ces deux langues expliquant le code électoral, l'importance de voter, les fonctions d’un élu, la comparaison des programmes des différents candidats, etc.
TB: #GuineeVote is a participatory web platform based around the elections in Guinea. A citizen project led by the Guinean Bloggers Association (ABLOGUI). This platform includes a section for national languages, created in order to translate the gist of news on the current elections into national languages #Pulaar and #Malinke (based from Nko.
Since its creation, our association has had the fundamental aim of involvement in the way in which party leaders set policy. To achieve this beyond any partisan position, we felt that it was necessary to reform the political discourse by urging the candidates to talk about their political agendas and not about subjects relating to ethnicity. We therefore established a system to compare their agendas and, so that they can be understood by the majority of a population — not everyone is fluent in French — we introduced this national languages section.
Our commission for national languages has therefore translated and published on www.guineevote.com in these two languages explaining the electoral code, the importance of voting, the role of a councillor, the comparison between the agendas of the various candidates, etc.
GV: What were the results?
TB: Nos résultats ont été remarquables. D’abord nos lecteurs se sont satisfaits parce qu’avec les publications dans ces deux langues, ils pouvaient mieux comprendre le processus électoral et son importance dans la vie de chaque Guinéen. Un lecteur nous a écrit dans un commentaire en Pulaar: “A weltaanama seydi Balde! Golle maa ɗen no labaa fota”  (traduction: Nous sommes très fiers de tes travaux remarquables, Monsieur Baldé). Sans oublier que nous avons amélioré la visibilité de nos langues nationales par le biais de ce projet.
TB: Our results were remarkable. Firstly, our readers were satisfied because with the publications in these two languages, they could understand better the electoral process and its importance in the life of every Guinean. A reader wrote a comment to us in the Pulaar language: “A weltaanama seydi Balde! Golle maa ɗen no labaa fota” (translation: We are very proud of your remarkable work, Mr. Baldé). Not to mention that we have raised the visibility of our national languages through the project itself.
GV: Do you know of other examples of initiatives for the use of national languages through the engagement of bloggers in West Africa?
TB: En ce qui concerne la participation des blogueurs, à part  notre initiative, je ne connais pas d’autres initiatives de ce genre dans la sous-région! Toutefois, de nombreuses télévisions, mais surtout de radios diffusant en langues nationales sont disponibles online.
Il faut signaler aussi que dans le cadre d'une participation démocratique plus large, le Burkina Fasso vient de traduire son code électoral dans ses principales langues nationales.D'autre part, en 2014, l’assemblée nationale sénégalaise a introduit la possibilité pour les parlementaires d'intervenir à l’hémicycle dans six langues nationales.
Voilà des exemples à suivre pour permettre aux gens de mieux s’intéresser et exprimer leurs opinions.
TB: With regards to the participation of bloggers, I don't know of any other initiative of this type apart from ours in the sub-region! Nevertheless, various television stations, but above all radio stations that broadcast in national languages are available online.
I should also stress that, as part of a wider democratic participation, Burkina Faso has just translated its electoral code into its main national languages. On the other hand, in 2014, the Senegalese National Assembly made it possible for members of parliament to speak in parliament in any one of six national languages.
These are examples worth following to allow people to develop more interest and express their opinions.
GV: What are the obstacles in your eyes to a greater use of new information communication technology in the electoral process in Guinea and in West Africa as a whole?
TB: Il faut mettre en évidence que les NTIC peuvent être efficaces pour l’expansion de nos langues nationales. On a réalisé des avancées significatives dans ce sens pour le pular et le n’ko. Je pense que limiter ces actions citoyennes en langue française ne sert pas grand-chose! Car selon les statistiques, environ 65 % de la population guinéenne ne comprend rien de la langue officielle de l'Etat et de toutes les institutions. Il va falloir donc que cela soit pris en compte dans le système d’information que nous blogueur mettons en place; qu’ils ne se sentent pas marginalisés parce que ne comprenant le français que peu ou prou.
Nous n’avons rien contre l'usage du français, mais il nous revient la lourde tâche d’informer ces milliers de lecteurs dans leurs langues respectives.
TB: It should be highlighted that the NTIC can be an effective expansion of our national languages. We have made significant progress in that respect with Pulaar and N’Ko. I don't think it's very productive to limit these civic actions to the French language! According to the statistics, around 65% of the Guinean population have no understanding of the official language of the government and state institutions. We must therefore take this into account in our work as bloggers; we must not make anyone feel marginalised because they have little or no understanding of the French language.
We have nothing against the use of French, but it leaves us the onerous duty of informing thousands of readers in their respective languages.
GV: How do you see the future of use of national languages on social media?
TB: Une étude réalisée par Gilles Maurice de Schryver et Anneleen Van der Veken, nous affirmait que ces langues apparaissent sur la Toile beaucoup plus comme des objets d’étude.
Les langues africaines sont présentes sur les réseaux sociaux de deux manières distinctes. La première manière est caractérisée par des hashtags sur des sujets d'actualité nationale ou qui font référence à des éléments linguistiques régionaux. C’est le cas par exemple de #lwili (en langue mooré, l’une des principales langues du Burkina Faso), qui fait allusion à un pagne national, le lwili-peendé; porté depuis le temps colonial.
Ce hashtag évoque naturellement toute la symbolique de l’oiseau, emblème de Twitter. Aussi, dans la culture ivoirienne du réseau social, l’expression « #Kpakpatoya » (en nouchi) indique le fait de relayer l’actualité nationale ou internationale pouvant intéresser les suiveurs du fil. Nous bloggeurs de Guinée, sommes en train de chercher un hastag à l’instar des ces pays de la sous-région.
La deuxième manière se distingue par l’introduction des langues africaines sur les réseaux sociaux comme langue pour les utilisateurs. De plus en plus, les principaux acteurs des réseaux sociaux et des sources de référence offrent de la place aux langues africaines.
TB: A study carried out by Gilles Maurice de Schryver and Anneleen Van der Veken confirms that these languages appear on the web as much more than the subject of research.
African languages are present on social networks in two different ways. The first is characterised by hashtags relating to national news topics or making reference to regional linguistic elements. This is the case, for example, for #lwili (in Mooré language, one of the main languages of Burkina Faso), which refers to a traditional loincloth, the lwili-peendé,  which has been worn since colonial times.
This hashtag naturally evokes the symbolism of the bird, which is the emblem of Twitter. Also, in the social media culture of Côte d’Ivoire, the expression ‘#Kpakpatoya’ (in Nouchi) means to share national or international news with the followers of a thread. As bloggers in Guinea, we are on the lookout for a hashtag like these in other countries in the sub-region.
The second method is defined by the introduction of African languages in social networks as a user interface language or display language. The main players on social networking and resource reference markets are increasingly offering their product in a range of African languages.
GV: Which main players are you talking about? Can you show us what they do?
TB: Wikipédia, par exemple, propose des contenus dans quelques langues africaines, dont le peul et le bambara, une langue très proche du malinké. En outre, cette source de contenus a créé Afripedia en partenariat avec l'Institut français et l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie depuis juin 2012.
Même si ce n'est pas son objectif premier, le projet Afripédia visant à favoriser l'accès aux contenus sur les réseaux en ligne au plus grand nombre d'utilisateurs ne disposant pas facilement de connexion Internet, peut aussi contribuer à une plus grande utilisation des langues africaines dans les NTIC.
Après le tamazight en 2013, Facebook a tout récemment adopté dix (10) autres langues africaines sur son réseau social comme langues d’utilisation. Personnellement, j’ai intégré le groupe des traducteurs de facebook en pular. D'après l'équipe en charge de veille sur nos travaux dénommée “Facebook Translations Team”, nous avons traduit le réseau en pular à 85%.
A noter que depuis 2014, des jeunes africains se sont mis à concevoir des réseaux sociaux  purement africains. C’est le cas par exemple de « #Ilemba » (la marque en gabonais) basé à Libreville.
Tous ces facteurs améliorent la visibilité des langues africaines sur les réseaux sociaux.
TB: Wikipedia, for example, offers content in certain African languages, dont Fula (Peul) and Bambara (Bamanankan), a language very close to Malinke (Maninka). Furthermore, Afripedia has been developed in collaboration with the Institut Français and the Francophone University Association since June 2012.
Although not its primary objective, the Afripedia project aims to promote access to online content to the greatest number of users who do not have reliable internet access, and can also contribute to a greater use of African languages in the field of New Technology of Information and Communcation (NTIC).
After the Berber language Tamazight in 2013, Facebook has just recently introduced ten other African languages as display languages for the social network. I personally formed the Pulaar translators group on Facebook. According to the Facebook Translations Team, which oversees our work, we have translated 85% of the social network into Pulaar.
Since 2014, young Africans have even wished to develop a purely African social network. This is the case for example with ‘#Ilemba’, a social network from Libreville in Gabon.
All these factors improve the visibility of African languages on social networks.
GV: What do you anticipate will follow the elections with regards to the promotion of the use of these two languages amongst Guinean web users?
TB: Dans l’agenda de nos principaux des activités de l’année 2016, nous comptons organiser une conférence débat sur la place des langues nationales dans les TIC. La rencontre vise à valoriser l’usage des langues nationales dans les technologies nouvelles. Au cours de cette conférence débat, nous allons mettre l'accent sur les innovations technologiques dans les langues locales afin d'inciter les citoyens et l'Etat à se servir des ces outils du web pour lutter contre l’analphabétisme dans notre pays.
TB: We plan to organise a debate-conference in 2016 to discuss the place of national languages in information and communication technology. The meeting aims to promote the use of national languages in new technologies. Within this debate-conference, we are going to place an emphasis on technological innovations in local languages in order to urge citizens and the government alike to arm themselves with the tools of the web to fight against illiteracy in our country.
GV: A final word?
TB: J’invite mes amis bloggeurs, à prendre en compte les langues africaines dans leurs activités de blogging. Cela en vue d’une seule finalité, promouvoir la diffusion des langues africaines par les outils du web 2.0.
TB: I invite my blogging friends to include African languages in their blogging activity. There is a single important objective to doing so — to promote the spread of African languages through the tools of Web 2.0

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Global Voices Partners With Groundviews From Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from Groundviews website.
Global Voices and Groundviews have launched a new partnership that will combine Global Voices’ focus on citizen media and Groundviews's analysis and expertise to bring our readers original and in-depth coverage from Sri Lanka.
Edited by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Raisa Wickrematunge, Groundviews is an award-winning citizen journalism website, and the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.
The website was launched in November 2006 and has been publishing compelling stories, in the form of text, audio, video and photos in English, Sinhala and Tamil, for ten years. Its powerful and provocative articles on governance, human rights, the arts and literature, and peace-building push the boundaries of traditional media forcing Sri Lankan readers to think outside their comfort zones.
Groundviews has won international awards for its journalism, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. Freedom House noted in its 2013 annual report on the global media:
Web-based media and blogs have taken on a growing role in the overall media environment, with outlets such as Groundviews and Vikalpa providing news and a range of commentary, even on sensitive stories and events that are barely covered by the mainstream media.
Groundviews on Twitter maintains three Twitter lists on Sri Lanka – leading bloggers, journalist sources and media and official Twitter accounts of Sri Lankan politicians and the government. Groundviews is also available on Facebook.


text:
Leading Russian Independent Newspaper Suspends Deputy Editor After Blackmail Scandal · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

The Novaya Gazeta newsroom and its close “cooperation” with Russian federal police. Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Dmitry Muratov, the chief editor of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s oldest independent newspapers, has suspended his deputy chief editor, Sergey Sokolov, following revelations that Sokolov instructed his staff to blackmail suspects in an investigation the newspaper recently carried out about online communities that allegedly pressure youths to take their own lives.
Sokolov has already issued a public apology for his actions, saying he made the error under the stress of continued reports about minors dying by suicide. “I’m sorry for the extreme form of my indiscretion,” he said in a statement published by Novaya Gazeta.
The catalyst for Sokolov’s suspension (which will remain in effect pending an internal investigation) was an interview published on May 20 on Lenta.ru with the administrator of the Vkontakte community “Morye Kitov” (A Sea of Whales). The anonymous young man told Lenta.ru that he spoke to Natalia Sokolova, an editor at Novaya Gazeta TV, who implied the newspaper’s “cooperation” with the police’s apprehension of another Vkontakte community administrator (the arrest turned out to be fictitious).
Vkontakte messages between the Morye Kitov administrator and Novaya Gazeta's Natalia Sokolova. Image: Lenta.ru.
In direct messages over Vkontakte, Sokolova suggested that federal police would be likely to go easier on him, if he agreed to a certain “arrangement” proposed by Novaya Gazeta’s Sergey Sokolov, which required that he speak only to Novaya Gazeta and no other media outlets:
Твоя жизнь и безопасность гарантируется только сообщением новой газете. Если хочешь без срока, то нужно говорить с нами.
Your life and safety are guaranteed only if you talk to Novaya Gazeta. If you want to get out of serving prison time, you need to talk to us.
In a conversation with the “Morye Kitov” administrator, Sokolova admitted that Novaya Gazeta’s May 16 investigative report on Vkontakte communities pressuring youths into taking their own lives could lead to the deanonymization of the RuNet (creating an “Internet by passport”), though she said she personally opposes such changes. Just as she warned, St. Petersburg state investigators opened a criminal case on May 20 under a federal law against inciting others to suicide. Convictions carry a five-year maximum prison sentence.
According to the “Morye Kitov” administrator, Sokolova threatened that police might charge him under a different law (belonging to an organized crime group), which could land him behind bars for up to 15 years.
Novaya Gazeta’s chief editor, Dmitry Muratov, says Sokolov instructed the news company’s staff to use “unacceptable methods to collect information.” The chief editor promises to make public the findings of Novaya Gazeta’s audit of Sokolov’s work.


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On Not Becoming a Buddhist · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Raikoji Temple, a Jodo Shin temple in Matsushima-cho, Tsuruga (Fukui Prefecture). Photo by Nevin Thompson.
Shortly after my oldest son was born in September 2002, I found myself kneeling before a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the bodhisattva of healing. Was I making an offering, I wondered, a prayer, or a plea?
We were living in Fukui Prefecture, on the Japan Sea coast, just north of Kyoto. A few days after birth, our newborn son developed a fever, and, eventually, sepsis, a serious infection of the blood. The hospital was not very optimistic. When I saw the doctor actually run with our child to initiate some life-saving treatment, I realized that we were nearly out of options. (Our son recovered, and, now nearly 14 years old, has never been sick since).
So, sitting outside the hospital, near six stone statues of Jizo, the bodhisattva of children and guide of the dead through the underworld, for the first time in my adult life, I decided to pray for help.
“…sitting outside the hospital, near six stone statues of Jizo, the bodhisattva of children and guide of the dead through the underworld, for the first time in my adult life, I decided to pray for help.”
I went to Tada-ji, a temple nestled under a wooded hill a short drive from my son's hospital in the small fishing town of Obama. The hondo, or main hall, was cool and dark after the walk from the car under the torrid late summer sun. Like every other Buddhist temple in Japan, the interior was dim and smelled of incense. Accompanied by the abbot, I crept in bare feet across creaky hardwood floor to the space front of the altar, which was covered in ratty green carpet.
Tada-ji's object of veneration is a two-metre statue of “Yakushi Nyorai the healer” that is more than a twelve hundred years old. The statue dates back to a time before modern medicine, when illness resulted in a quick death or lifelong debilitation.
At the time the temple was established and the statue carved, it would be another 500 years before Dogen would bring Zen meditation and the concept of “extinguishing the self” to Japan. In a pre-literate age, when Buddhism in Japan was reserved for the privileged few who could read, everyone else relied on Yakushi Nyorai, Jizo and other bodhisattvas for any and all help.
As I was doing now.
At first glance, Tada-ji's statue of Yakushi Nyorai is just a hunk of wood, not ornate at all, and, in the dim light of the hondo, almost crudely carved. I had paid a token amount of money to the abbot who had inherited the stewardship of the temple.
Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru) amulet from Tada-ji Temple, in Obama, Fukui. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
As I kneeled before the statue, the spry, white-haired abbot, recited a darani or mantra associated with Yakushi Nyorai. As part of his job the abbot led tours when busloads of visitors arrived at the temple, conducted funerals, and recited a prayers for solitary visitors like me. I had no idea what he was saying, and I focused on the statue's rough, blocky features, hewn out of wood nearly 1200 years before.
Growing up in secular 1970's Canada, I was unfamiliar with the concept of prayer. I didn't even understand how or why someone might pray to a Bodhisattva. “There is no god in Buddhism,” I had read. So why ask a statue for help?
I had driven to Tada-ji and other temples in Obama many times before over the previous ten years I had spent living in this rural part of Japan. While wars and natural disasters can sometimes destroy antiquities in Japan, isolated Obama's cultural heritage has remained largely intact for more nearly 1500 years. Many of the temples and their treasures had been purposefully located in Obama, about two days’ journey by foot from Kyoto, to save them from the wars that frequently razed the old imperial capital. The temples of Obama provided me with a good chance to learn more about art history. The stories behind the architecture, statuary, and relics I encountered got me interested in “learning about Buddhism.”
But even living near hundreds of temples in Obama and Kyoto, I discovered learning about Buddhism was not easy. “How do you become a Buddhist?” I would sometimes ask people I thought really ought to know the answer to that question, such as teachers at the high school I taught at who, on weekends and holidays, ran the family temple. When I asked them that question, they looked at me as though I was crazy. “Why do you want to be a Buddhist?” they usually asked me. “You're not even Japanese!”
“When I asked them that question, they looked at me as though I was crazy. “Why do you want to be a Buddhist?” they usually asked me. “You're not even Japanese!””
And there wasn't really any other way to learn. Generally speaking, mainstream Buddhist denominations held no Sunday services. There was no Sunday school, nor really anything resembling even a Bible that Japanese people rely on to learn scripture.
And yet there appeared to be a methodology in Japan for “practicing Buddhism.” Funerals and annual memorial services are observed according to strict and formal rules. Families visit the graveyard for higan, the equinox in spring and fall. I had even seem a woman prostrated in front of a massive statue of Yakushi Nyorai in the Tokyo National Museum of Art, on loan to the museum from its home at Daigoji. But no one could tell me how to “become” a Buddhist.
And then, by chance I came across an English language book about Zen meditation. It turned out the book was written by the abbot of Hosshin-ji, a small Soto Zen monastery in Obama (Fukui Prefecture is also home to Eiheiji, one of the great Zen centres in Japan), and then translated by Daigaku Rumme, an American Buddhist monk who had lived at Hosshin-ji, in Obama for more than thirty years. I phoned him up, and we became friends.
My first question to Daigaku: “What books should I read to learn more about Buddhism?” His answer: reading books to learn about Buddhism can be dangerous. His recommendation was to learn how to sit instead, and I eventually spent a week at a Zen seated meditation retreat at Hosshin-ji in Obama with other lay practitioners.
The Zen tradition, “to forget the ‘small’ self and be enlightened or verified by all things” was tremendously appealing to me. The Zen approach discarded all of the contradictory teachings of the various schools of Buddhism people belonged to in Japan. There wasn't much more to enlightenment than learning to sit or breathe mindfully. You could even achieve enlightenment while washing the dishes.
And yet just a year or two after I met Daigaku I found myself kneeling in front of Yakushi Nyorai, appealing for some sort of help for my son.
The temple priest finished reciting the mantra, and completed the ceremony by shaking a haraegushi, a wooden wand outfitted with paper streamers over my head as a form of purification, and then handing me a small gold amulet of Yakushi Nyorai on my way out to the car.
Our newborn son recovered from sepsis a few days after my visit to the temple, although the odds were against it. Did my visit to Tada-ji and Yakushi Nyorai help? It's hard to tell, although we will forever keep the skilled doctors and staff of the hospital in Obama in our hearts. And we have kept the amulet safe as well.


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Saint-Exupéry’s ‘Little Prince’ Can Speak Aymara Now · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Cover of “Prinsipi wawa”. Image widely shared online.
For the first time, Aymara speakers will be able to enjoy in their native tongue Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's book “The Little Prince”, the story of the encounter of a pilot whose plane breaks down in the middle of the African desert and a mysterious boy.
According to estimates, Aymara has about 2.2 million speakers who hail from the Central Andes, in areas of Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. Aymara becomes one of more than 240 languages into which The Little Prince has been translated since it was originally published in 1943.
The Aymara translation was carried out by college professor Roger Gonzalo Segura:
Bajo el título de “Pirinsipi wawa”, la traducción de esta novela universal corrió a cargo del profesor de quechua y aymara de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) Roger Gonzalo, quien aseguró a Efe que el trabajo le tomó alrededor de dos años.
With the title “Pirinsipi wawa”, the translation of this universal novel was in charge of Quechua and Aymara professor from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) Roger Gonzalo, who told Efe news agency that the translation took him about two years [to be completed].
According to Gonzalo, he had no difficulties telling the story within the Aymara world view:
“En el mundo [aymara] tenemos muchísimas historias para imaginar, incluso asustarnos. Hay animales y seres que no existen y muchas aventuras”, asegura. No obstante, había elementos del mundo occidental, como el ferrocarril, que tuvo que refonologizarlos, es decir, adaptarlos a la gramática de la lengua. En otros casos, no fue necesario crear nuevas palabras. Por ejemplo, palabras como ‘avión’ y ‘motor’, solo cambiaron a ‘aviona’ y ‘motora’.
“In the [Aymara] world, we have many stories that make us imagine, or even to be scared of. There are animals and beings that don't exist and also many adventures,” Gonzalo notes. However, there were elements from the Western world, such as railroads, that we had to rephonologize, that is, that we had to adapt to the language grammar. In other cases, it wasn't necessary to create new words. For instance, words such as ‘airplane’ [avión in Spanish] and ‘motor’, were just changed to ‘aviona’ and ‘motora’.
Gonzalo was born in the community of Chatuma, located in the district of Pomata, in the Punean province of Chucuito. Describing the recently translated book, he said:
Es una obra universal. El mensaje (que puede llegar a las poblaciones andinas) es la manera cómo una persona puede conceptuar la vida, explicar las cosas de su alrededor y qué significado pueden tener para la vida los personajes de El Principito. Estéticamente es fantástica.
This is a universal book. The message (that can be conveyed to Andean communities) is the way how someone can consider life, explain things around them and the meaning this may have for the life of the characters in The Little Prince. Aesthetically, it's fantastic.
On Twitter, you can find images and links related to Gonzalo's translation and the work behind it:
https://t.co/8MDoCMETc7 https://t.co/TTUuxdAXv5
— elcallejonensintonia (@Calleensintonia) 9 de mayo de 2016
The Little Prince can now be read in Aymara language.
Quechua and Aymara languages professor, Roger Gonzalo Segura, was in charge of the translation.
Un profesor peruano tradujo “El Principito” al aymara – Nodal Cultura – https://t.co/ZIvSP3B00z
— miriam sofia sassone (@sofiasassone) 8 de mayo de 2016
Peruvian professor translated The Little Prince into Aymara.
“El Principito” fue traducido al aymara. ¿Cuánto tiempo duró este trabajo? Te lo contamos ►https://t.co/znRmqcLvyn pic.twitter.com/WBZ4mhmF63
— CORAPE (@corapesatelital) 6 de mayo de 2016
The Little Prince was translated into Aymara. How long did this work take? We tell you about it.
‘Pirinsipi Wawa – El Principito’ es traducido al aymara https://t.co/TE2bdLFV4b #Aymara pic.twitter.com/zFmzvdHYPl
— Bolivia informa (@Bolivia_informa) 9 de mayo de 2016
Prinsipi Wawa – The Little Prince translated into Aymara.
Professor Gonzalo is also a speaker of Quechua, a language family spoken in the Central Andes with over 10 million speakers. Besides his work as translator of The Little Prince, he is in charge of Quechua Rimarina, a program broadcast on a university YouTube channel that teaches Quechua.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Trinidad and Tobago Reconsiders Marriage Act After Push to Recognise Child Marriage as Abuse · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Photo of the Global Child magazine issue about bringing an end to child marriage. Image by flickr user RubyGoes, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
Trinidad and Tobago is a society of contradictions: just about a year ago, the legal age of sexual consent was raised from 16 to 18, even as an archaic law — the Marriage Act of 1923 — remained on the books, citing the legal age for marriage as 12 for girls and 14 for boys.
Child marriage is sometimes practiced in the country's Muslim and Hindu communities — and certain religious leaders seem intent on holding onto it. Earlier this week, Brother Harrypersad Maharaj, the leader of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), a group that brings together representatives from the country's diverse religious groups and claims to “speak to the Nation on matters of social, moral and religious concern”, said that the state should not amend the Marriage Act because “age did not determine maturity”. Maharaj added that the IRO members’ stance on the matter was unanimous. He was supported by Shouter Baptist Archbishop Barbara Burke, who said that the IRO would vigourously fight governmental interference in the Muslim and Hindu Marriage Acts. She did acknowledge, however, that only 18 representatives of the country's 25 religious denominations were present at the meeting.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Joseph Harris, who did not attend, later called forcing children into marriage “legalised statutory rape”. The Anglican bishop also called for a review of the existing marriage legislation, although the popular sports and current affairs website Wired868, which referred to child marriage as “state-sanctioned pedophilia”, thought the bishop was rather wishy-washy on the issue.
In 2011, the country's Central Statistical Office confirmed that more than 8,400 girls and 1,300 boys under 19 were married between 1997-2007. It is worth noting that Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which defines minors as “every human being below the age of 18”. Under the convention, signatories agree to protect children from harm and abuse and look out for their best interests.
In practice, however, the reality is very different. There is an off-colour joke that many people make — “After 12 is lunch” — meaning that once a girl is older than 12, she is no longer off limits sexually. Locally, and in many instances regionally, the reasons for marrying off a child can be economic; they can also be tied to the concept of honour — better to marry off a pregnant teen than have her bring shame to the family. In some cases, a sexual predator may choose to marry the victim as a way of avoiding prosecution. This most recent debate is also taking place against the backdrop of high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault against women, including minors. On May 18, police detained a 36 year-old man after two naked, intoxicated girls were rescued from his vehicle. The parents of the girls confirmed that the man was a friend of the family.
Naturally, there has been a lot of public pressure over the issue; the government has stated that “the time has come for the age of marriage to be the same [as the legal age of sexual consent] to protect a child’s right to enjoy life” and the country's attorney general has promised to make a statement on the matter very soon. The Prime Minister's Office released a statement which may offer a glimpse into the direction the current administration may take on the issue, saying:
The gap between the age for marriage (currently 12, 14 and 16) and the age of consent to penetrative sexual conduct (18 years) has increased since the proclamation of the Children Act, 2012 in May 2015 and must be harmonised.
Early marriage can expose a child […] to: Decreased opportunity for education; Serious health risk such as premature pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections since the child cannot abstain from sex or insist on condoms; High risk due to early pregnancy such as death during delivery, endangering the health of young mother and their babies; and
Increased likelihood of being subjected to gender-based violence.
Moreover, early childhood marriage terminates many of the elements associated with a healthy and enjoyable childhood and creates a cycle of poverty by curtailing the educational opportunities of the children involved.
UN statistics for the period 2002-2012 in Trinidad and Tobago show that the percentage of children who were married by age 15 was 1.8 percent and by 18, 8.1 percent. Interestingly, the dynamic Hindu Women's Organisation supported the government's position, calling for an end to child marriage and for sex education to be taught in schools (something which many religious leaders are also against).
The outcry on social media has been swift. There is an online petition advocating for an end to child marriage in the country, which has already got over 3,000 supporters. On Facebook, netizens were vociferous about their views. Rhoda Bharath said:
On 102.1 IRO President Harrypersad Maharaj says sex education should not be taught in school.
He asked who would be teaching the practicals.
He says that ending child marriage has led to an increase in the divorce rates.
He says the IRO made a unanimous decision. The IRO is the IRO. 17 religious groups of 25 were present at the meeting.
You see the level of ignorance we dealing with?
Child Marriage is Child Abuse!
#ProtectOurGirls
Many social media users called for the head of the IRO to step down, sharing this meme on Facebook:
Meme; widely shared on Facebook, which promotes the hashtags being used to advocate for an end to child marriage in Trinidad and Tobago.
In response to statements by certain members of the IRO for the state to stay out of religious matters, social media user Mark Lyndersay said:
Yes, the State should stay out of the Church. And the Church should stay out of the State. Start with building your own halls of worship.
Trinidad and Tobago has an awkward history of religious sects being granted state funds to build churches.
Members of the diaspora also weighed in. Cherise d'Abadie, who now lives in the United States, said of the debate:
It's like watching the live birthing of a T&T Tea Party.
Trinidadian Facebook user Charlene Thompson, who lives in Africa, shared a link about Theresa Kachindamoto, the chief of a Malawi tribe who has annulled hundreds of child marriages, saying:
This amazing woman will be speaking this weekend at TEDxLilongwe. Child marriage is a violation of the rights of a child. Please do some research, read and understand just how harmful child marriage is. #endchildmarriage #childrights #notasubjectfordebate #betterdandattrinidadandtobago
The satirical website The Late O'Clock News couldn't resist weighing in on the issue, either, posting an outlandish story about the country's controversial children's hospital being repurposed as a nightclub for the IRO to “have a safe space with their child brides”. On Twitter, though, netizens were much more stern about the issue:
Shout out to the Catholic Church for for once being progressive on a controversial religious issue #protectourgirls end child marriage in TT
— Rachael Espinet (@raesay2407) May 18, 2016
Child marriage is a social ill http://t.co/Q0KzwVnXYm Nope! It's an obscenity legalising pedophilia! #childmarriage #Trinidad #Tobago
— Catherine hidalgo (@CaterineHidalgo) October 5, 2015
And so the public debate about an issue that many feel should not be up for debate, continues.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Andacollo, The Chilean City Surrounded by Mine Tailings · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

The Andacollo town square. Image by Wikimedia Commons and published under the terms of a GNU Free Documentation License. Photo by Katja Radon.
Relaves.org is a group whose mission is to make the Chilean government take responsibility for abandoned mine tailings (ore waste of mines) and promote their mitigation. Lately, the group has been drawing attention to the case of Andacollo, a mining city and region of about 10,000 inhabitants in northern Chile. According to the group's website, Andacollo “was declared an ‘area saturated with contamination’ by particulate matter PM10 [‘which could be ash, soot, metallic particles, cement or pollen’] in 2009. In addition to this, there are more than 18 tailing heaps located right in the city, which has caused serious health impacts”:
Conoce el #CasoAndacollo, zona saturada de contaminación y donde se ubican más de 18 relaves https://t.co/bVdd91Os8Apic.twitter.com/OaSIWZwEd1
— Relaves (@relaves_org) May 16, 2016
Image: Yes, this is a tailing heap.
The Case of Andacollo
Tweet: Find out about the #CaseOfAndacollo, an area saturated with contamination and where more than 18 tailing heaps are located
YouTube user Bastian Salfate uploaded a video made by students from the Journalism School of the Universidad de la Serena featuring interviews with Andacollo locals about the regional mining issue.
When asked about the overall impact of mining, one Andacollo resident answers:
[Yo lo encuentro] negativo. Porque no deja ningún beneficio acá. Todo lo compran en otro lado. La gente de Andacollo no se ha favorecido en nada.
[I think it is] negative. Because it doesn't leave any benefits here. They buy everything elsewhere. The people of Andacollo haven't seen any benefits.
Another resident points out the origins on the mining companies:
La gente le tira mucho a la minería, pero desgraciadamente pero ya no se puede […]  Porque la minera acá, según dicen, que han comprado todo Andacollo. ¿Y de qué nos sirve a nosotros? De nada. Las empresas son canadienses. ¿De qué nos vale a nosotros? No sé.
People expect a lot from mining, but unfortunately we can't anymore […] Because here the mining companies, so they say, they've bought up all of Andacollo. And what good is that to us? None at all. The companies are Canadian. What value does that have for us? I don't know.
Mining is a complicated issue in this region, and some companies are declaring bankruptcy and laying off workers in Andacollo, threatening a local economy that relies heavily on this industry. As companies withdraw, it also becomes more difficult to mount efforts to mitigate the environmental damage already done by extractive operations.
But the problem of mining waste isn't limited to Andacollo. There are approximately 449 tailing deposits in Chile according to 2010 figures, and it's estimated that mining companies in the country produce around 1,400,000 tonnes of waste every day. We should also remember the case of the El Soldado mine, where a deposit of toxic tailings collapsed after an earthquake in March 1965. More than 200 people died and hundreds of kilometres were contaminated by the waste.

author: Juan Arellano


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How a Self-Taught Translator Created a Literary Masterpiece One Word at a Time · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Deborah Smith. Screenshot from ARIRANG NEWS video on YouTube.
This article originally appeared on PRI.org on May 18, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The Man Booker International Prize for Fiction came out this week, and South Korean writer Han Kang got the brass ring for her novel “The Vegetarian.”
It's about a woman who believes she is turning into a tree. Critics have called the story “lyrical and lacerating.” It's also pretty erotic.
But the thing many people are talking about isn't the book itself. It's the translator.
Deborah Smith, the 28-year-old Brit behind the novel's masterful translation to English, only started learning Korean six years ago. So how did she manage to interpret the book so well?
“If you're asking for the secret, I'm afraid I'm as ignorant as you are,” she says. “Looking back now it feels like I must have looked up almost every other word in the dictionary. That's probably an exaggeration, but that's what it felt like at the time. It was a bit like climbing a mountain.”
She says her newness to Korean was actually a boon. “I really knew that I needed to double-check everything and be extra careful,” she says. “I also had to question the dictionary translations of certain terms.”
Plus, with literature, direct translations don't always work best. “Just because it's the literal equivalent doesn't mean it's the right word to use if you are aiming for some kind of literary effect,” she says.
A Korean friend also provided Smith with help. Smith says she imposed many an annoying question upon this friend, a fellow student in a PhD program. (In exchange for help with the translations, Smith would proofread all of her friend's coursework.)
Deborah Smith and Han Kang. Screenshot from ARIRANG NEWS video on YouTube.
The book's prose holds up in English, but it also passes a much harder test: Smith says that people who speak both fluent Korean and English cannot tell that a non-native speaker did the translation. “Nobody has really commented on that from having read it,” she says. “People certainly talk about it from hearing my story from other channels. But the strength of the translation and the skill of a literary translation is how well you know the target language, not really how well you know the source language.”
The key, according to Smith, was really knowing English and how to use it to recreate the Korean novel's style and voice. For that skill, she is overqualified. She reads about 200 books a year. “And I have so for as long as I remember,” she says. “So on that end, I was pretty confident.”
“The Vegetarian” was unlike any other book Smith had read, and she was the one who approached a publisher back in 2013 about doing a translation. “I think it's one of those books where you can really see what is exciting about contemporary Korean literature. It is quite distinctive from a lot of other countries’ [literature],” she says.
And that's the big reason she chose to tackle a project in a language she spoke imperfectly. “I think that is kind of the point of translation, to make something available in a language or a culture that is new and that wasn't there before.”
Check out an excerpt of “The Vegetarian” here:

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
He’d Never Seen Jukeboxes Before Immigrating to the US. Now He’s a Master at Repairing Them. · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Magdi Hanna, from Alexandria, Egypt, runs one of the few workshops in the United States dedicated to saving jukeboxes. Credit: Saul Gonzalez. Used with permission.
This article by Saul Gonzalez originally appeared on PRI.org on May 19, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
It’s easy to think of how technology has left some products behind. After all, when’s the last time you used a pocket calculator or made a call from a pay phone?
And then there’s the jukebox.
But if you head to Los Angeles, and the 2000 block of Pico Boulevard, look for a shop run by Magdi Hanna. He is one of a handful of people left in the United States dedicated to fixing jukeboxes. His mission? To save the machines for future generations.
Hanna is from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria and, until arriving to the US, he had never seen a jukebox. Now, he calls the decades-old machines, which he has repaired since 1980, a slice of American history.
Hanna says that he fell in love with jukeboxes right away and quickly decided to devote himself full-time to repairing them. In the 20th century, jukeboxes could be found in nightclubs, bars and diners — icons of American life, right up there with Marilyn Monroe, the Corvette or Elvis (his music is featured on one of the jukeboxes in Hanna's shop). But a machine that played a limited selection of records could not compete with technological progress, from the transistor radio to CDs to now, of course, music over the internet.
Jukeboxes at Magdi Hanna’s workshop in Los Angeles. “We didn’t have jukeboxes in Egypt,” he says. Credit: Saul Gonzalez. Used with permission.
So jukebox companies like Wurlitzer and Seeburg faded along with many jukebox repair experts.
“I know a few,” says Hanna. “But I don’t know of new people coming into the jukebox business.”
Not surprisingly, Hanna has little affection for new ways to hear music. “If you hear Elvis Presley on a 45, it's completely different than you hear it on the radio or on the CD or on the computer.” He says a 45-rpm single just conveys more “feeling.”
The day I visited Hanna, he had just finished weeks repairing a Model 850 Wurlitzer jukebox from 1941. He showed it to me, opening the handsome wood exterior with peacock figures etched into glass. “Look how big the motor is,” he says. “It’s like the alternator from a car.” The jukebox, which holds 24 records, takes 5 cents to play one song, two songs for a dime, and four songs for a quarter. It also only plays one side of a record (later models, built in the 1950s, could eventually flip the record and play both sides).
Tools Magdi Hanna uses to repair jukeboxes at his Los Angeles workshop. Credit: Saul Gonzalez. Used with permission.
Hanna’s customers are often collectors, bringing in broken jukeboxes they’ve found at garage and estate sales. Each one, he says, is like a musical time capsule with records in them untouched for decades. “Some people have had jukeboxes in the garage for 20 years, and it has records from the '50s and '60s. Original records.”
When asked what it was like to bring such machines back to life, Hanna says, “Oh, you feel like you want to dance!”
As I wrap up my visit to his repair shop, I ask Hanna if I can select a song from one of the jukeboxes he’s repaired. Sure, he says. And having not used a jukebox since sometime in the '80s, it was a bit thrilling (I selected “My Special Guy” by The Six Teens).
After listening to that music coming out of a 60-year-old machine, iTunes and Spotify just did not seem nearly as cool.
A jukebox in Magdi Hanna’s workshop in Los Angeles. “I don’t know of new people coming into the jukebox business,” he says. Credit: Saul Gonzalez. Used with permission.


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A Celebration of Sri Lanka’s Musical Diversity, From Traditional Drumming to Urban Rap · Global Voices
GroundViews

Photo from GroundViews
This post was written by Amalini De Sayrah for Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The skies overhead were overcast. Strong winds played with the hair of those walking along the ramparts. A light drizzle came and went as it pleased.
Far away, there was music.
It was coming from the recent Galle Music Festival, which brings together performers from the Northern tip, the Southern belt, the Eastern coast, the Western metropolis and the Central hills of Sri Lanka to a single stage in the city of Galle.
The diversity of the local performers is given the spotlight, and the event is a celebration of the talents and traditions that have been passed down from one generation to the next, through conflict and poverty. The performers that day, a few of whom are featured below, each brought with them histories of their people and were filled with the pride that comes with mastering and adapting their craft, whatever the genre.
They have travelled far, across a significant stretch of the country, from the town of Irakkamam in the Ampara district. The men are mostly old and graying, possibly telling of the fact that the group is yet to draw younger members of the community into the musical practice. One hopes this is not the case.
Photo from GroundViews
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Their accompaniments are minimal – a few small drums, shakers, a tambourine, cymbals and a flat instrument reminiscent of the sarpina, producing a tune similar to something from the string family. It is their voices, in a devotional song based on the writings of ancient Sufi poets, that rise in volume and energy, their connection to the words and movement of the piece evident in the movement of their bodies.
Clad in black, an air of confidence emanating from them as they prepare to take the stage, the young students from the University of the Visual and Performing Arts make up what is one of Sri Lanka’s few all-female drumming ensembles.
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Aside from school-level bands, local percussion performances are a male-dominated category. Trained by Dinusha Sandamali Wijenayake, a young woman with a vast experience in local music, the Sandasi Drummers have ventured forth to make their mark as a force to be reckoned with. The girls speak with a passion for their music, telling of the time and commitment that has gone into perfecting the performance they gave.
The costumes catch your eye instantly, even as the performers are waiting in the wings for the show to begin. Two young men dressed as leopards, in bright orange overalls, and two more dressed as a man and woman, complete with long hair, a bow and a quiver of arrows. The skit begins with the leopards hiding in the forest – in this case, the patchy grass of a sports ground muddied by the day’s rain – and the antics that follow when two humans stray into the wild on a hunt.
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Koothu is a community artform that involves a small skit, accompanied by chanting voices and drumming of a small group of musicians. A dying practice that is seen along the Eastern coast, all the way up to the Northern peninsula, it is generally used to depict the stories from ancient Tamil epics but is not strictly limited to that. It takes on the character and practices of the village that is performing it, giving each performance distinct details. The young costumed actors are an indicator of the fact that slowly but surely, koothu is being taught to new generations.
The downpour has stopped for now, and the women are doing their best to prepare for the item. Makeup is brushed on, pottus are placed on foreheads and drums are quickly held to the flames of a fire lit on the damp ground, a quick quality-control measure for the sounds they are about to ring out. Their performance is fast-paced, smiles beaming on their faces as they beat their drums while, light on their feet, dancing to the rhythm of the song.
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Kaveri Kala Manram, a women’s arts and cultural movement, began with the hope of using drama to begin conversations with those marginalised from society. Thirteen years and many displaced families later, it has expanded to address the needs of families resettling and rebuilding their lives in the North, scarred by years of fighting between government forces and guerrillas there. This process would be difficult enough for an individual, so the group brings the community together through song and dance, rebuilding both the individual spirit and the community strength.
The loud flute, closer in sound and strength to a trumpet, accompanied by a single drummer, cuts short to allow the narrator to drawl out the story being told. Standing along one edge of the stage are green and yellow faces with unblinking eyes that seem to stare beyond the soul. You’re disoriented for a second, shaking your head to remind yourself that it’s a face hewn out of wood.
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The drive down to the festival, if one had chosen to take the longer scenic route, cuts right through the birthplace of the mask and mask dancing culture in Sri Lanka. Tukkawadu Gunasena and his ancestors are identified as the pioneers of mask dancing in Ambalangoda, and this particular troupe can be traced 250-300 years back. This makes it one of the first kolam dancing groups in the area, and creations made by the carvers who crafted these masks can be seen at the National Museum for their iconic historical value.
The little girl balances precariously on the man’s shoulders. The pot of flowers balances on her head yet even as he turns, she sways her hands to the music, never once faltering in her step, the vase barely shaking on her head. Once lowered to the ground, she and her fellow dancers continue in their steps, all displaying the same light-footed confidence and balance in their movement.
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Karagam is a century-old form of dance that originated in the central hills, first created and performed by someone named Marimuttu. This group was missing the drums that they would traditionally use to accompany the dancers, having lost them in the movements and troubles that affected their communities in the last three decades. Having been able to find recordings of the music, they have now been able to resume their practices and performances of their art.
The crowd is invited forward, promising engagement and interaction with the rappers who are going to perform in the Sinhala and Tamil languages. The local youth mutter among themselves, not believing yet that good Sinhala and Tamil rap is possible. They are pleasantly surprised. OJ begins the set; hailing from Nuwara Eliya, he is dedicated to rap in his mother tongue, a connection that shows in his words and the passion in his performance.
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Pamuditha ‘Zen’ Anjana, a vocal online activist from Dematagoda, unapologetically expresses his views on current issues. Shafni, of the duo Krema Diaz, speaks about the life of a young person in Galle, accompanied by a catchy beat that gets the audience going.
Imaad Majeed, a poet, singer, rapper, songwriter with a heavy focus on social issues, joins the three for a collaboration titled ‘The Ballad of Wednesday Night’; a love song, essentially, one that talks about the social barriers that keep people apart. Class, race, religion, language divisions that they hope the younger generations will be aware enough to overcome.

author: GroundViews