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Non-Violent Activist Razan Zaitouneh and her Team Kidnapped in Syria  · Global Voices
Nour Al Ali

Four activists, among them internationally acclaimed non-violent activist Razan Zaitouneh, from Syria's Violations Documentation Center (VDC) were kidnapped by unidentified masked gunmen from the center's Douma office on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, reported Activist News Association.
Zaitouneh, along with her team made up of Nazem al-Hamadi, Sameera Alkhalil and Wael Hamadah, were abducted on December 9, with no news of their whereabouts, sparking an international outcry.
Following their abduction, Douma's local committee issued a statement condemning the act, adding that the ransacking of the VDC office too was shameful and likened it to the work of Assad's regime [Arabic]:
(Photo source: Douma Local Committee Facebook page)
The statement reads [ar]:
Douma woke up today [Tuesday, December 10, 2013] to the news of an attack on the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) in Syria and the arrest of activist Razan Zaitouneh and her team, who have exerted their efforts in the support of this revolution and who have previously been arrested by the oppressive regime more than once. They have lived with us during our seige, stemming from the belief and true work is conducted from the battle ground and not on the pages of the Internet. We, in the local city council, condemn this cowardly act, which is similar to that of the regime, and call upon all the military groups and revolutionary forces to follow up on this case, which is a stain of shame on Free Douma.
On their behalf, Syria's Local Coordinators Committee, founded by Zaitouneh, demanded the release of all four activists and asked all human rights advocates to join the LCC's campaign. They also said that the abducted activists were highly inspired by Mandela, who recently passed away, adding that:
At a time when the world is mourning the death of Nelson Mandela, we must remember that there are other Mandelas around the world. These activists were inspired and informed by Mr. Mandela’s work, and were promoting concepts of nonviolence and civil resistance in Syria even at a time when the regime has violated every possible tenet of human rights. Failure to call for their release is tantamount to failing in all that Human Rights defenders stand for in the call against tyranny.
According to a decree  issued by Eastern Ghouta civic agencies, Zaitouneh received several threats prior to her kidnapping by both the regime and extremist insurgents while working in the Damascene district.
In a Facebook post, writer Yassin Al Haj Saleh, Alkhalil's husband, said their abduction is an insult to Syria and its revolution. He also asked those who can help to do so quickly.
سميرة الخليل (زوجتي) ورزان زيتونة ووائل حمادة وناظم حمادي معتقلين من البارحة بدوما.
الرجاء ممن يستطيع المساعدة أن يتصرف بسرعة.
اعتقال سميرة ورزان ووائل وناظم إهانة للثورة ولسورية.
Sameera Al-Khalil (my wife), along with Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hamadah and Nazem al-Hamadi have been arrested since last night in Douma. Whoever can help, please take action soon. Arresting Sameera, Razan, Wael and Nazem is an insult to the revolution and to Syria.
Twitter users, too, began mobilizing a virtual campaign demanding the release of Zaitouneh and her colleagues. United States-based Syrian activist Rafif Jouejati marked their abduction as an indicator of humanity's death:
Mark ur calendars: death of humanity. Most prominent NV activists & human rights defenders were kidnapped in #Syria #Free_RazanZaitouneh
— Rafif Jouejati (@RafifJ) December 10, 2013
She also urged the global community to act as being silent is harmful to the cause:
If we let them get away with THIS, the whole world will have failed the cause of human rights. #Free_RazanZaitouneh & other activists#Syria
— Rafif Jouejati (@RafifJ) December 10, 2013
Bahraini activist Maryam Alkhawaja remarked that the least the global community can do to help such a remarkable person is to collectively raise awareness on the act:
Razan Zaitouneh chose to stay in #Syria to struggle against an oppressive regime, least we can do is make noise about her kidnapping
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) December 10, 2013
Executive Director of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement Ibrahim al-Assil added that Zaitouneh is a true revolutionary:
#FreeRazan because she is a true revolutionary.. against #Assad and all other tyrants.. no matter how they look like! #Syria
— Ibrahim al-Assil (@iAssil) December 10, 2013
BBC Reporter Kim Ghattas said that Zaitouneh's kidnapping is a terrible blow to what's left of Syria's secular opposition:
Kidnapping of activist @razanz in Syria is awful news, yet another, terrible blow to what's left of Syria secular/peaceful opposition
— Kim Ghattas (@BBCKimGhattas) December 10, 2013
Zaitouneh's accomplishments are nothing short of daring and courageous. She was awarded the 2011 Anna Politkovskaya award; the 2011 Sakharov Prize; and the 2013 International Women of Courage Award.
(photo source: Metro, 2012)
Her most recent work includes being among the first on site in the August 21 chemical weapon's attack on Ghouta, as Foreign Policy Middle East Editor David Kenner noted:
Shouldn't forget Razan Zaitouneh's groundbreaking work documenting the Aug 21 sarin attack – one of 1st on the scene. http://t.co/S7PHC0neWJ
— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) December 10, 2013
Amnesty International UK Campaigns Manager Kristyan Benedict remarked that their kidnapping happens to coincide with Human Rights Day:
Two sides in #Syria? Maybe too simple but for sure there are those that respect human rights & those that don't. #FreeRazan #HumanRightsDay
— kristyan benedict (@KreaseChan) December 10, 2013
Zaitouneh's work along with her abducted colleagues helped Syrians document their losses and grievances along the country's course of havoc since 2011. The VDC keeps a tremendous track of those abducted and always calls for their immediate release. Their work and contributions are essential not only to the revolution but also Syria's future. Their abduction harms every hopeful and positive aspect in today's misshaped Syria.


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Russian State News Agency Gets a Loyalist Upgrade · Global Voices
Daniel Alan Kennedy

Vladimir Putin upgrades his media support with a reshuffling that favors Kremlin loyalists. Image mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
One of Russia's largest and best known news agencies, RIA Novosti, won't survive the winter. On Monday, December 9, 2013, employees of the state-owned international news agency awoke to discover a new presidential order “liquidating” their organization. Stranger still, this news came as a shock not only to staff on the news desks and to middle management, but to the agency's director, Svetlana Mironyuk. Footage emerged [ru] online of Mironyuk explaining the unexpected news to her coworkers. Visibly shaken, at one point Mironyuk appears to fight back tears as she thanks her employees for their work over the years.
The government plans to reorganize RIA Novosti as “Rossiya Segodnya.” Though Rossiya Segodnya translates to “Russia Today,” the organization will remain separate from RT, Russia's English language television station, which originally bore that name. Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, explained that “Russia pursues an independent policy and robustly defends its national interests. It's not easy to explain that to the world, but we can and must do this.”
News of the “reorganization” of a state media company was more than enough to make liberals cry foul of a Kremlin takeover. The announcement that Rossiya Segodnya would be headed by Dmitri Kiselyov, an enthusiastically pro-Kremlin news broadcaster with a penchant for anti-Western conspiracy theories, seemed to confirm their worst fears. Kiselyov most recently made headlines in the West when he claimed that Swedish liberalism has led to a normalization of sexual intercourse among the Nordic nation's nine-year-olds. Kiselyov has also attracted the ire of Ukraine's ongoing “Euromaidan” protest movement for what was seen as his bias in favor of Ukraine's government. А reporter from his “Rossiya 1″ television station was recently presented with an “Oscar” live on Russian television [ru]. The award-giver explained, “For your channel and for Dmitri Kiselyov. For his lies and nonsense.”
Both supporters and opponents of RIA Novosti's liquidation seem to view the agency's end as a way of curbing its increasing criticism of the government. As Russian nationalist Mikhail Golovanov [ru] prosaically explained [ru] to his friend, prominent lobbyist Yevgeny Minchenko, on Facebook:
…такие вот непростительные вещи: “Скандал идеологическими «закладками», размещаемыми редакторами РИА в англоязычных текстах, ориентированных на западную аудиторию. Так фраза «The case is widely viewed as a political vendetta by Russia's powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin» («…широко рассматривается как политическая вендетта Владимира Путина»), была интегрирована во все статьи с упоминанием дела Ходорковского. В русскоязычных версиях текстов фраза отсутствовала”.
…there were a few unforgivable things: [causing] scandals through ideological “bookmarks,” placed by RIA's editors in English language texts aimed at a Western audience. The phrase “The case is widely viewed as a political vendetta by Russia's powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin”… was integrated into all articles mentioning the Khodorkovsky affair. In the Russian versions, this phrase was absent.
Others were more alarmed by developments. In a blog post [ru] for the liberal Ekho Moskvy, Mikhail Solomatin saw the liquidation of RIA Novosti as signifying a new relationship between the media and the state.
Закрытие РИА “Новости” и передача нового агентства в руки телеведущего Дмитрия Киселева – показательное событие для нового государственного курса, согласно которому государственные СМИ должны обслуживать исключительно интересы правящей элиты без какой-либо оглядки на объективизм. Если прежде для государственных СМИ, во всяком случае для информагентств, достаточно было сохранять лояльность государству, то теперь у них вовсе отнимают функцию информирования, а велят заниматься пропагандой и только ей.
The closure of RIA Novosti and placing of the new agency in the hands of the TV host Dmitri Kiselyov is a telling event for the state's new direction, in accordance with which state media must exclusively serve the interests of the ruling elite without any view to objectivity. If before it was sufficient for state media, оr in any event for a news agency, to maintain loyalty to the state, then now the information function has been taken away and they're to occupy themselves solely with propaganda.
Not everyone was so sad to see RIA Novosti go. Yevgeniya Albats, a prominent liberal journalist and radio host on Ekho Moskvy, had a more droll appraisal [ru] of the situation on her Facebook.
РИА – все-таки это поразительная история. Директор Агенства, в котором работают тысячи человек и на которое гос-во за 10 лет потратило 1 млрд рублей , из СМИ узнает, что компания ликвидирована. Это зачем так?
RIA is an amazing story all the same. The director of an agency, where thousands of people work and where the government has spent one billion rubles in the last 10 years, discovers from the media that [her] company has been liquidated. And why is that?
One comment pointed out that Albats had made a slight error. The government had in fact spent one billion dollars on RIA Novosti and not one billion rubles. Albats’ criticism of Mironyuk paled in comparison to that of former Duma Deputy and left-wing activist Darya Mitina, who was appalled that Kiselyov had been put in charge of Rossiya Segodnya but conceded [ru] certain failings in RIA's work:
РИА в последние годы было огромным, неповоротливым, растерявшим последние остатки профессионализма, крайне неэффективным баблососущим механизмом со странным руководством во главе.
RIA in recent years was a massive, immovable, extremely inefficient, cash-sucking machine, bereft of the last vestiges of professionalism and with a bizarre leadership at its head.
The exact form the new “Rossiya Segodnya” will take is still unclear. Russia's economic forecast is no longer as sunny as it was a few years ago, when Russia was widely seen as more or less having weathered the Global Financial Crisis. Just one day after the Kremlin announced liquidation, the IMF downgraded Russia's growth projections for 2014. The Kremlin was probably never thrilled about financing a critical state news service when it was swimming in hydrocarbon revenues. With money tight and dissent increasingly suspicious, even a staunch loyalist like Kiselyov may end up running a much smaller organization than Mironyuk did.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Daniel Alan Kennedy


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Saudi Airlines Still has Manual Levers for Plane Seats · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Muna AbuSulayman complains about the use of manual levers in Saudi Airlines aircraft seats:
How old are theses @saudi_airlines planes!!!! 3rd time this week I was seated on them . Manuel levers??? Seriously! pic.twitter.com/8lotaiWRke
— Muna AbuSulayman (@MunaAbuSulayman) December 11, 2013

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Syria’s Homs: Once a Great City, Now a Winter Wasteland  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Homs this winter. This photograph has been widely shared online. (Source: unknown)
CBS news correspondent Clarissa Ward tweets the photograph, saying:
There are no words. Winter in #Homs #Syria – once a great city, now a wasteland pic.twitter.com/TTAiUPWVuk via @abumuqawama @borzou @RamiAlLolah
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) December 11, 2013


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The Caucasus Network: Dagestan Blogger Rasul Kadiev · Global Voices
Mari Bst

Rasul Kadiev, 1 July 2013, photo by Sergey Ponomarev.
This article is part of an extensive RuNet Echo study of the North Caucasus blogosphere. Explore the complete report and personal stories on The Caucasus Network page.
Rasul Kadiev is a lawyer, born and raised in Makhachkala, Dagestan. Consistently among the region’s top five bloggers, he writes in Russian and uses LiveJournal. His posts are a mix of legal and political commentary on local current events and Dagestan’s various pressing issues.
Kadiev says he’s never encountered any serious censorship and does not believe that his blogging threatens his own safety to a degree that he must adopt self-censorship. Targeting an audience of local journalists, Kadiev describes his own writing as “literate and well-edited, with a touch of dark humor.” Thanks to his blog, it is rumored, he has become a recognized local figure in Dagestan’s corridors of power, which values his honesty but also disapproves of his temerity. Occasionally, media outlets redistribute Kadiev’s blog posts, expanding his readership and reputation. The KavPolit news site, for example, picked up his LJ post on political developments in Dagestan, catapulting it to over 5,000 views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYYoWgM9Zq44
This article is part of an extensive RuNet Echo study of the North Caucasus blogosphere. Explore the complete report and personal stories on The Caucasus Network page.

author: Mari Bst


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The Caucasus Network: Personable Blogger, Svetlana Anokhina · Global Voices
Mari Bst

Svetlana Anokhina, 1 July 2013, photo by Sergey Ponomarev.
This article is part of an extensive RuNet Echo study of the North Caucasus blogosphere. Explore the complete report and personal stories on The Caucasus Network page.
Svetlana Anokhina runs a blog called “Kavkazkaya Plenitsa” (Кавказская пленница), named after the highly popular Soviet film “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” (a slapstick comedy that portrays individuals from the North Caucasus as ingenious brutes). While some questions remain about bloggers like Hard Ingush, Svetlana Anokhina—a 50-year-old journalist, writer, and community manager from Makhachkala, Dagestan—is as personable and undoubtedly real as netizens get.
Anokhina started blogging somewhat reluctantly in 2008, when a friend proposed that she establish a LiveJournal account to host any work that she could not publish in the professional news media. She resisted, saying she was already an acclaimed and accomplished author, but eventually she gave in and remained highly “plugged in” ever since:
В 2008-ом году в августе мой друг Боря Бергер по пьяни сказал – а давай-ка я заведу тебе ЖЖ. Совершенно не понимала на тот момент, на фига мне это может быть нужно. Спросила – а зачем? Он отвечал – будешь публиковать то, что не напечатали в газете. Ха! – ответила я, – у меня нет неопубликованных текстов я востребованный журналист и прочая звезда! Но перед его напором устоять не смогла. Согласилась. Заводи, – говорю. И понеслось. Сейчас я фактически живу в сети.
One day in August of 2008, my friend Borya Berger said to me, slightly intoxicated: “Let me make you [an account on] LJ.” At the time, I couldn’t understand why on earth I’d ever need [to be on LiveJournal]. I asked, “What for?” He answered, “You’ll publish what they won’t print in the newspaper.” “Ha!” I said, “I have no unpublished texts, and I’m a journalist in demand—a star!” But I could not resist the pressure, and finally I agreed. “Do it,” I said, and so it began. Now I’m practically living online.
Anokhina, who writes in fluent Russian, defines her style as “gentle, unburdensome nonsense” (нежная необременительная хрень). Her posts tell the stories of her family, friends, and colleagues and their experiences living and working in Dagestan. In the spirit of her “gentle” form, Anokhina in her blogging tries to avoid moralism and extraneous pathos, maintaining a nonjudgmental, “it-is-what-it-is” perspective on local life. Anokhina is no fan of analytical prose, believing that an “absence of real characters” neuters any text. She says that her preferred blogging platform is LiveJournal because it allows for personable as well as emotionally charged posts and commentary that often turns into protracted dialogues between groups of individuals. When asked about Facebook, Anokhina says that it is better suited to a “ping-pong game of sharp puns” than serious blogging.
Writing mostly apolitically and without a pseudonym, Anokhina says others have not censored her blogging, though she does practice some degree of self-censorship to remain safe.
On the subject of personal security, she states:
“Безопасность”, как таковая на кону никогда не стояла. Но часто приходится саму себя останавливать и сдерживать, чтоб не обидеть знакомых и друзей. Я очень негативно отношусь к внезапной религиозности соотечественников, у меня накопилось много неласковых слов в их адрес, но в ЖЖ и на Фейсбуке все же выбираю слова помягче.
My “safety,” as it were, has never really been on the line, but often I have to stop myself and take a step back, so I don’t offend my acquaintances and friends. I have a very negative opinion of the sudden religiosity of my compatriots, and I’ve bottled up more than a few unaffectionate outbursts, but on LJ and Facebook I try to choose softer words.
Contrary to Anokhina's own view of her blogging as “irreverent but pleasant,” her work online often generates long and heated debates about religion, politics, and morality. On May 8, 2013, for example, Anokhina entered into a heated dispute on Facebook about an article on PublicPost.ru that addressed Dagestan’s brothel culture. The conversation quickly turned into a personal attack on her.
Angry with the report, Dagestani blogger Naila Dalgatova shared it on Facebook and suggested “punishing” and “adding to a list” the article’s authors. In response to this proposal, Anokhina casually suggested that Dalgatova’s response to PublicPost’s coverage, however inspired, was ludicrous. Anokhina’s tone only further incensed Dalgatova and her supporters, who piled on over 300 comments, many of which were rather nasty ad hominem attacks on Anokhina.
Anokhina says her blogging has had an immense impact on her life. For instance, LiveJournal has brought her much closer to her readers, and even to some of her critics. Before joining the blogosphere, those who disagreed with her work had no way to voice their opinions, but the Web finally offered an outlet for expressing their views directly to the author. Since joining LiveJournal, Anokhina’s online and offline lives have merged. She sees both spheres of activity as integral parts of one another and has befriended in reality many of the people she’s met virtually. In the past several years, Anokhina has created a number of Facebook groups and accidentally published a book of her personal correspondence with another LJ author.
До недавнего времени всем остальным предпочитала Живой Журнал. Самый оптимальный для меня формат. Там можно размещать длинные душевные или стебные тексты. Приходят люди комментируют, ты им отвечаешь… Создается впечатление живого вдумчивого разговора. Но на Фейсбуке удобнее трепаться, насмешничать, язвить, особенно в группах. Да и обсуждение там проходят ярче и экспрессивнее. Так что я разделила сферы.
Для меня текст без участия конкретного человека с именем-фамилией – мертвый. Не верю в аналитику, так как хорошо знаю многих «аналитиков».  Мне необходима не столько объективность, сколько авторский подход, живая личность за буквами. К сожалению, тут я плохой журналист, меня увлекает чужая страстность и если автор талантлив – хочется немедленно с ним соглашаться.
Until recently, I preferred LiveJournal above all other platforms. It’s the most optimal format for me. There you can post texts long, emotional, or ironic. On LJ, people come to comment and you respond to them… It creates the impression of a living, thoughtful conversation. But Facebook is better suited to chitchat, jokes, and quips, especially in groups. And the discussion on Facebook plays out more expressively, with more flash. So I’ve split my spheres.
For me, any text without a concrete individual’s full name is a dead text. I don’t believe in analytical blogging styles, аnd I know many analysts quite well. I’m not interested in objectivity so much as an individual author’s approach—the living personality beyond the words. Sadly, I’m a lousy journalist, I’m drawn to others’ passion, and I want instantly to agree with any talented author.
In addition to being a prolific blogger on LJ, Anokhina runs several Facebook groups, most notably “Journalists of Dagestan,” where colleagues discuss everything from optimal prices to news sources. The group is also dedicated to analyzing the media, identifying bogus claims published about the region.
In addition to her activity on Facebook, Anokhina leads a number of community projects coordinated through social networks. For example, Anokhina curated There Was A City’s 400-hundred-page socio-historical review of Makhachkala, built on content gathered online and offline, that included archived documents, photographs, and select memoirs.
Most of Anokhina’s online activity addresses her local community, earning her regional popularity, but not national acclaim. Her popularity is personality based. And she gets through to readers, because they can easily related to what she says (much like with literature and cinema) and imagine themselves in the situations she is in, even if the content itself does not concerns them or their places of residence directly.
This article is part of an extensive RuNet Echo study of the North Caucasus blogosphere. Explore the complete report and personal stories on The Caucasus Network page.


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Uruguay Becomes First Country to Legalize Marijuana Market · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Uruguay's Senate voted 16 to 13 to legalize the production and sale of marijuana. President Mujica is expected to sign the law, which would become effective starting next year.
Estoy a favor de legalizar la Marihuana pero estaria bueno ser noticia en el mundo por nuestra Seguridad y Educacion
— Colorado # 36.048 (@Colorado7411) December 11, 2013
I'm in favor of legalizing marijuana, but it would be great to make headlines around the world because of our security and education.
Ignacio de los Reyes, the BBC's Argentina and Southern Cone correspondent, tweeted on December 10:
Hundreds of young people already celebrating the inminent legalisation of marijuana in #Uruguay pic.twitter.com/Ac9MLiOBbd
— Ignacio de los Reyes (@BBC_DelosReyes) December 10, 2013
Stay tuned for more citizen reactions.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Visible Discrmination Against Ahmadis in a Shop In Pakistan · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mobile Repairing Shop in Pakistan carrying the hate message. Image courtesy Guppu blog.
Farhan Janjua at Guppu reports a hate speech against Ahmadis. A mobile shop displayed this message “Caution: Qadianis (Ahmadis) are banned from entering.”
The Ahmadi Muslims are religiously persecuted as a consequence of professing their faith.

author: Rezwan


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6 People From Madagascar You Should Know · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

In the current polarized political atmosphere of Madagascar (after elections last month, a presidential run-off is scheduled for December 20, 2013), there are very few personalities who are unanimously revered by Malagasy citizens. Take a closer look at six modern figures from Madagascar who have made a difference in the African island country.
Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga, the Scientific Pioneer
Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga via arom asso CC-BY-2.0
Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga [fr] is by far the most renowned scientist from Madagascar. He was made famous by his extensive work on better understanding the healing properties of the unique endemic flora of Madagascar. He is credited with about 350 scientific publications on topics ranging from the function of the adrenal gland to natural remedies for diabetes.
He said the following about the interplay between nature and the Malagasy population [fr]:
Nous devons avancer à notre rythme, nous devons avant tout avoir confiance en nous-mêmes et dans les vertus thérapeutiques de la nature. Car la nature et l'homme ne font qu'un.
We need to proceed at our own pace, we need to trust ourselves and the healing virtues of nature. In the end, nature and man are nothing but one and the same entity.
In the following video in French, Ratsimamanga explains the body of his work and his passion for research:
The interview notes :
(Rastimamanga) a mis au service de son pays le fruit de ses connaisances modernes conciliées au savoir empirique des guérisseurs malgaches
(Ratsimamanga) served his country by combining his modern scientific methodology with the empirical knowledge of Malagasy healers.
Still, his scientific achievement is only half of his life story. He was also a major contributor to the Malagasy movement for independence from France as the co-founder of the the Association of Malagasy Students (AEOM), one of the pioneer organization in the struggle against colonialism.
Cover of Gisèle Rabesahala's memoir via ocean editions CC-BY
Gisèle Rabesahala, the Patriot
Gisèle Rabesahala was one of the leaders of the struggle for Madagascar's independence. She was a journalist and political activist who founded the newspaper Imongo Vaovao. She was also the first Malagasy woman elected in 1958 as a representative for the city council of Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar. She died in 2011, and the Internet was flooded with many tributes saluting her memory.
Gradiloafo blog noted [fr] her many caritative efforts and her political activism:
Dans le social, Gisèle Rabesahala a été la fondatrice de l'ONG Comité de solidarité de Madagascar ou « Fifanampiana malagasy » qui œuvre, en l'occurrence, dans l'aide aux démunis [..] Militante engagée dès son jeune âge dans la lutte pour la souveraineté du pays, elle était de tous les mouvements de jeunesse solidaires de la libération des pays sous la tutelle coloniale
In her community work, Gisèle Rabesahala was the founder of the NGO “Fifanampiana Malagasy” [Solidarity for Madagascar], which strives to help the very poor [..] She was a committed activist at an early age in the struggle for sovereignty and was part of all the youth movements for the country's liberation from colonial rule.
Jean-Luc Raharimanana. Photo from Flickr user Gangeous CC-BY-2.0
Jean-Luc Raharimanana is a Malagasy writer. By the age of 20, he had already won the Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo Poetry Prize for his early poems. His writings were recognized for their portrayal of the beauty of nature in its native home, but also its poverty and squalor, especially in the shanty towns. In his work, legends and old superstitions are juxtaposed with contemporary political events.
Catherine Bédarida, a literary critic from France, wrote about Raharimanana and his book “Nour, 1947″ [fr]:
“Nour, 1947″ son premier roman, est à la fois livre d'histoire, oratorio, récit poétique, pages battues par les vents, l'océan, le sel, le sang.  1947, c'est l'heure de l'insurrection malgache. La colonie française voit le retour de ses tirailleurs, enrôlés dans la deuxième guerre mondiale, qui rêvent de selibérer à leur tour de l'occupant. La répression fait des milliers de morts. [..] ” Les mots s'en sont allés et nous ont laissés sans mémoire “ : reconstituer la mémoire de Madagascar, telle est l'obsession du narrateur.
“Nour, 1947″ is his first novel. It is all at once a historical fiction, an oral history, a poem battered by wind, sea, salt and blood. 1947 is the year of the Malagasy insurrection against the colonial period. French colonizers in Madagascar saw the return of the Malagasy legion that battled in France during WWII and now wanted to free their own nation from the settlers. The French repression killed thousands [..] He writes, “Words have come and gone and left us without memory”: this author's obsession is to reconstruct the memory of Madagascar
Erick Manana, the Cultural Icon
Erick Manana is a singer and a songwriter described once as the “Bob Dylan of Madagascar”. His professional career as a musician began in 1982 as a member of the band Lolo sy ny Tariny. Manana is the recipient of several awards, and he performed at the historic Olympia venue in Paris to celebrate the 35th year of his career in 2013.
Uli Niebergall writes the following about Manana:
Manana's repertoire gracefully alternates between lyric ballads (e.g. “Tany niaviako”) and pop tunes with irresistibly wild and intricate rhythms (e.g. “Izahay tsy maintsy mihira”), and a grateful audience responds enthusiastically to every tone and syllable. Manana's lyrics often deal with the everyday life of Malagasy people. [..] Manana, however, doesn't limit himself to influences from his home country, but displays a distinct eclecticism in his choice of songs by other artists, both geographically and stylistically. For example, in reverence to Air Madagascar flying the distance between Paris and Antananarivo, he has remodeled “Amazing Grace” into a song called “Vorombe tsara dia” (The plane that flies well). He sings a Malagasy version of Leonard Cohen's “Suzanne” which sounds surprisingly fresh.
Here is a video of one of his most celebrated songs, “Izaha tsy maintsy mihira”:
Jacques Rabemananjara, the Political Prisoner
Jacques Rabemananjara was a Malagasy politician, playwright and poet. Rabemananjara was born in town on the Bay of Antongil, on the Eastern Coast of Madagascar in 1913. Rabemananjara was recognized as the one of the most most prolific authors of the Negritude genre [fr], the literary and ideological movement developed by Francophone black intellectuals that rejected French colonial racism. Senghor, the famed Senegalese writer turned president, is the pioneer of the movement. He was suspected of being involved in the instigation of the failed 1947 Malagasy Uprising against colonial rule, despite the fact that he had urged the rioters to be calm. He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
Green Integer blog recalled his life's achievements:
After leaving school, Rabemananjara became an organizer of the first union of Malagsy civil servants, and co-founded La Revue des Jeunes de Madagascar, a journal which expressed nationalist sentiments at odds with the French rulers, who forced the magazine, after 10 issues, to cease publication. During the war years in France he met members of the negritude group, including Léopold Sédar Senghor and Alioune Diop, who contributed to the African journal Présence Africaine. [..] In 1947, however, Malagasy revolutionaries attacked a French military installation. The authorities retaliated by killing or wounding eighty thousand Malagasies. And, although there is no evidence that his Mouvement democratique de Renovation Malgache party was involved, Rabemananjara was threatened with death, suspected of having organized the uprising. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. His Antsa (Song), published in France in 1956, made him a national hero, and associated him even more closely with Senghor and Cesaire.
Rado, the Poet
Georges Andriamanantena [mg], better known as Rado, is a renowned Malagasy poet who died five years ago. Yet his work has endured the test of time in Malagasy culture, including the Malagasy blogosphere.
Georges Andriamanantena via a Facebook tribute page. Used with permission
Rado is a descendant of the rulers of the village of Amboanana in the Itasy Region, known as the home of the fiercest freedom fighters against French colonization. Tebokaefatra,  a malagasy blogger from Antananarivo,  wrote [mg] about how Rado's origins explained his unwavering patriotism:
“…ilay vohitra kely ao atsimon'Arivonimamo, izay nisehoan'ireo Menalamba sahy nanohitra voalohany indrindra ny Fanjanahantany teto Madagasikara. Araka izany koa dia mba nandova ny ran'ireo tia tanindrazana tsy nanaiky hozogain'ny vahiny.”
…the little village south of Arivonimamo, where the Menalamba, the fiercest and first opponents of colonization in Madagascar, originated. Rado inherited the patriotism of his forebearers who always refused any foreigners’ rule.
He valued his independence: even though he held a well paying job for a time, he resigned from that job and preferred to found his own newspaper called Hehy with his brother Celestin. He published seven books of poems, including Dinitra (1973), ny Voninkazo adaladala (2003) and ny fiteny roa (2008). Many of his poems were set to music by some of the most famous Malagasy artists. Maintikely, Malagasy blogger in Cape Town, RSA,  posted [mg] one of his poems. Here is an excerpt:
Ho any ianao,kanefa….
Aza ataonao fantany izao fahoriako izao
Fa aoka hiafina aminy
Ny ketoky ny jaly
Nanempaka ny aiko,tanatin'ny longoa
Izay namandrihany ahy…
Ny dinitry ny foko manorika ahy mangina,
Fa sempo-tsasak'alina
Misaina ity anjarako,
Aza ataonao fantany!
[..]
Eny e ! Ampy izay.Tongava soa aman-tsara !
Dia akatony mora
Io varavarako io
Fa hitomany aho…
Rado, janoary 1966
You are meeting her, but…
Do not tell her about my suffering,
Let her ignore the bite of pain,
that is tearing up my being,
in the web she trapped me in,
My sweating heart that chokes me silently
at midnight
when I ponder my fate,
Do not let her know !
[..]
This is my message. Please do not forget.
And Adieu !
But before you go,
this hand of yours, do not touch anything with it,
until it links to hers…
Yes, that is it. Have a good journey.
And please do close that door
On my tears.
Rado, January 1996.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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A New Law to Shield Police in Panama? · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

Photo by Garrison Gunter on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 2.0)
[Links are to Spanish-language pages]
Panama's Attorney General Ana Belfon has introduced a bill that seeks to fight organized crime by toughening prison sentences for certain crimes such as contract killing; but the proposed law 651 [pdf] would also punish “those who seek to obstruct prosecution of organized crime by making threats,” according to El Panamá América.
Panamanians seem to interpret law 651 as an attempt to shield police and give them greater authority. The proposed law has provoked concern especially in light of article 42, which states that “whosoever, through the use of physical force or intimidation, threatens witnesses, experts, judges, prosecutors or agents of the security forces will be punished with anywhere from eight to twelve years in prison.”
The concern expressed by Panamanians stems from the fact that the police have been involved in a series of unfortunate incidents in the last several months. The worst example occurred when the police fired at a vehicle, killing two minors.
Article 42 lends itself to interpretations and questions. For example, which actions can be interpreted as intimidation towards a police officer?
The Blog de Panamá has joined thousands of other voices worried about the way in which the law may be applied:
En la actualidad, usted amenaza a un policía y lo llevan a un Juzgado Nocturno o un Corregidor, y el mismo lo sanciona con Multa o Cárcel unos días (DIAS MULTA), NECESITAMOS 12 años de cárcel, para el que se le fue la boca o le recrimina a un agente de policía por el abuso policial cometido? Para el tipo que ofuscado cuando lo separan en una pelea le dice algo al policía ¿? O en un estadio? Para el conductor molesto por una boleta o una prueba de ebriedad? El proyecto de Ley no exige ninguna otra condición “SER POLICIA” y ser “INTIMIDADO” o “AMENAZADO” es suficiente para ganarse 12 años de prisión. Es obvio que el proyecto busca cubrir UNICAMENTE al Policía, pues ya los Fiscales y Jueces están cubiertos en la actualidad en el artículo 388 con penas de “5 a 10 años” (Cosa que ya es un absurdo igualmente).
La pregunta adicional, es Con que probará el policía esa infracción ¿?? Con su testimonio ¿? Con un informe de su compañero ¿?? O un Testigo Protegido ¿?? Pero también la pregunta es EN ATENCION A QUE SE PONE ESA PENA ? Por qué de la nada esos números ¿?? Los penalistas sabemos que cualquier delito con pena mínima superior a 6 años, NO PUEDE SER EXCARCELADO BAJO FIANZA, y adicional la LEY prevé que usted `puede estar detenido hasta el MINIMO de la pena aplicable. Le recuerdo, la pena es de 8 a 12 años. [sic]
At the moment, if you threaten a police officer and are brought to night court or before a magistrate, and the latter administers a fine or prison sentence (a fine payable for a prescribed number of days), DO WE NEED 12 years in prison, for someone who ran off at the mouth or accused a police officer of excessive force? For the guy pissed off when he was pulled aside in the middle of a brawl who says something to the police? Or in a stadium? For the driver annoyed by a ticket or a sobriety test? The bill does not require any other condition be met. “BEING A POLICE OFFICER” and being “INTIMIDATED” or “THREATENED” is sufficient to merit a 12-year sentence. It is obvious that this law aims at protecting ONLY the police, as prosecutors and judges are already covered under article 388 with prison terms of “5 to 10 years” (Something that is equally absurd).
The next question is, how will the police officer prove an infraction occurred? With his testimony? With his partner's report?  A protected source? But the question is WHAT IS BEHIND THE SENTENCE? Why these numbers out of thin air? We experts in criminal law know that crimes that carry a sentence of more than 6 years mean YOU CANNOT BE RELEASED ON BAIL, and what's more, the LAW provides that you can be detained for the MINIMUM duration of the applicable sentence. I remind you, the term is 8 to 12 years.
In addition, on Twitter public opposition to the law was evident.
For example, for Rafael Candanedo this is just further evidence of the dictatorial system Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli wishes to impose.
Con la Ley 651: se formaliza la dictadura, con su dictador.
— PANAMÁ AHORA (@rafaelcanda) December 10, 2013
With Law 651: the dictatorship and its dictator are made official
Mcsuyelis Díaz thinks that before conjuring up this kind of law, ways of preventing police brutality should be found:
Ley 651 OK los policias t matan se confunden disparan 1ero y se disculpan despues y ademas d eso si le dices algo t meten preso #votaCD#fail
— McSuyelis Diaz (@ArlinDiaz1) December 10, 2013
Law 651 OK the police kill you they made a mistake and fired first and apologized later and in addition to that if you say anything, they'll arrest you.
Miguel Antonio Bernal goes even further and sees in the law an elaborate plan that will lead to fraud in the general elections of 2014:
Mientras aspirantes a Presidente callan, RM y la Belfond arman Ley (651) de Palo y Plomo contra ciudadanos. El fraude electoral toma cuerpo!
— Miguel A. Bernal V. (@MiguelABernalV) December 10, 2013
While aspiring presidents are silent, Ricardo Martinelli and Ms Belfond are arming Law (651) to the teeth against citizens. Electoral fraud is starting to take shape!
Despite this, the attorney general, who is promoting the proposed legislation, made it clear on Telemetro that the law is aimed at protecting the public and not shielding police officers: “The Attorney General clarified that this bill addresses contract killing and other crimes related to organized crime; and the goal is to protect the public from those who would commit this sort of crime”.
That being said, Panamanians are not convinced and are raising their voices in protest. The bill is in the second phase of debate, having already been approved in the first and needing to pass through three rounds in order to become law.

author: Ariel Moreno


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Barack Obama and Raúl Castro’s Handshake at Mandela’s Memorial Goes Viral · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

Screenshot of the meeting between Castro and Obama broadcast by the pan-Latin American television network Telesur.
*All links lead to Spanish language web pages unless otherwise stated.
The Cuban president, Raúl Castro, and his American counterpart, Barack Obama, were pictured shaking hands at the memorial event for Nelson Mandela. The image immediately went viral.
According to BBC Mundo, “this is the first time that such a gesture has happened in public between the leaders of these two countries that have been bitter enemies for over 50 years.” Another piece by BBC English is available here.
BBC Mundo described how, during the ceremony at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg in commemoration of the anti-apartheid leader, “Obama shook a smiling Castro’s hand as he walked towards the podium to give his speech in honour of Madiba.”
Reactions to the handshake did not take long to appear on social media. On Facebook, the journalist and blogger, Jorge Legañoa, shared a picture of the handshake while saying:
En Twitter revienta esta foto. Nuestro presidente Raúl Castro y Barack Obama se saludan en el #MandelaMemorial. La pregunta del millón: ¿qué se habrán dicho? ¿solo un saludo, o algo más?
This photo has gone viral on Twitter. Barack Obama and our president Raúl Castro greeting each other at the #MandelaMemorial. The million dollar question is this: What could they have been saying? Just a greeting…or something more?
On the Facebook page of the Caracas based, pan-Latin American television network Telesur, users also made their opinions known:
Un saludo no me sorprende, lo que realmente me sorprendería es que Obama decidiera suprimir el bloqueo a Cuba, consideró Maai Ortiz.
“Such a gesture doesn’t surprise me, what would really surprise me is if Obama decided to end the embargo against Cuba”, was the opinion of Maai Ortiz.
Aún después de muerto Mandela sigue marcando caminos de entendimiento y paz…, dijo Laura Isabel Alemán.
“Even in death Mandela continues to show the way to peace and understanding…”, said Laura Isabel Alemán.
Sin duda es histórico! Y para honrar a Mandela, Obama debería levantar el bloqueo, cree Alejandra Dixon.
“Without doubt this is historic! And to honour Mandela, Obama should lift the embargo”, added Alejandra Dixon.
The event was reported by the Huffington Post (EN), AP, Telesur and the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, including numerous other international news media.
In November, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, stated that common interests existed between his country and Cuba which could lead to future collaboration between the two nations.

author: Elaine Díaz


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China: 100-year-old Buddhist Temple Was Force-Demolished · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Offbeat China translated a local report and some netizens’ reaction on the forced demolition of a 100-year-old Buddhist Temple in Fuzhou city, Fujian.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Five Surprising Benefits of Smog in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China's state-broadcaster CCTV claimed on December 8 that smog has brought five surprising benefits to China: It makes Chinese people more united, more equal, more clear-headed, more humorous, and more knowledgeable. You can imagine how netizens reacted to such comment. (See ChinaSMACK for more.)


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IKEA’s Toy Wolf Lufsig Becomes a Protest Icon in Hong Kong · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

[The author of this post is a contributor to citizen media platform inmediahk.net, which is quoted in this post.]
The banner of the Facebook page for IKEA's toy wolf Lufsig.
A Hong Kong protester threw a stuffed toy wolf named Lufsig from furniture and home goods giant IKEA at the city's Chief Executive CY Leung during a speech on December 7 in a community consultation meeting, accusing the leader of lacking commitment to the city's democratic reform.
Lufsig wasn't chosen to be the protest prop at random. CY Leung was nicknamed “the wolf” in early 2012 during the election of the chief executive. Furthermore, the Cantonese pronunciation of the mainland Chinese translation of Lufsig into Lo Mo Sai (路姆西) resembles the offensive phrase “mom's c**t”, and the word “throw” in Cantonese resembles the word “f**k”, making the action of throwing Lufsig at the chief executive take on a whole new offensive and vulgar meaning.
While the indecency involved in the symbolic action makes it difficult for the mainstream media to deliver the message, the story has gone viral online in less than two days.  That same evening, a Facebook page for the stuffed toy wolf was created to celebrate the protest and collect spoof pictures.
A political cartoon by keyboard fighter via Lufsig's Facebook page.
The day after the protest, Lufsig had already become an Internet meme similar to the Grass Mud Horse, which is a symbolic defiance of widespread Internet censorship in China. Fans of Lufsig scrambled to get a hold of the toy from IKEA and from online shopping platforms. A rumor soon spread that IKEA had taken Lufsig off the shelves; a Facebook event page demanding IKEA “release” Lufsig was set up in response on December 9.
Ruby Lai was one of those hunting for Lufsig. She rushed from Shatin IKEA to Kowloon IKEA on December 9 and was lucky to get her hands on four Lufsigs. She described the craze at inmediahk.net, a citizen journalism platform:
約三時終於到達九龍灣Ikea，走了三四樓兩層，連路姆西條尾都見不著，心裏不禁暗暗吃驚，然後好容易的找到了毛公仔部，但整個路姆西貨架都空了！！是四層架都空了！真心崩潰，那感覺就像掏心吮血追求了很久的女生突然告訴我明天要嫁人一樣。在崩潰的時候，幾位年輕男生也來到貨架前，一臉落寞失望，然後我們眼光相接，竟就心領神會：
我：「妖無晒貨！我係沙田趕黎架大佬！」
男生A阿南：「我係上水呀！」
男生B阿北：「我係黃大仙姐…不過佢話遲D有貨喎。」
我等不及，見到一位Ikea派來的店員，衝前就問：
我：「你係唔係專登黎搞個公仔架？」
男店員：「係呀，四點番貨，你地可以係42號貨架等。」
I arrived at IKEA Kowloon bay branch at 3 p.m. and ran up 3-4 stories, didn't see a single Lufsig tail. Eventually, I found the stuffed toy area only to see that Lufsig's shelves were empty! Four whole shelves were empty! I almost collapsed, as if my girlfriend suddenly told me that she would marry another person tomorrow. I saw a few other young men approaching the cart with the same face of disappointment. We exchanged looks and started talking:
Me: “Damn it, all sold out. I rushed here from Shatin!”
Ah Nan: “Me from Sheung Shui!”
Ah Buk: “Me from Wong Ta Sin… But the sales person said they would replace the stock soon.”
I couldn't wait and dashed to an IKEA salesperson, who were walking toward us.
Me: “Are you in charge of the toys?”
Male sales: “Yes, the stock will arrive at 4 p.m., you can wait near cart number 42.”
A design based on a Japanese Cartoon Attack on Titan. Image from Lufsig's Facebook page.
Three hundred Lufsig arrived, and Ruby and her new friends were lucky enough to each get hold of five Lufsigs. She is generous to sell one of her Lufsigs to a man who had waited for 30 minutes in vain:
百多人的一條隊，數十人買不到，因為原來很多人都買5隻或以上，許多人都向我們趨前問價，我們說，希望是賣給最少排隊超過三十分鐘的人…… 。後來我把我的路姆西賣給了由沙田趕來排隊超過三十分鐘的M先生，而阿南亦把他其中一隻以原價轉賣給另一位苦候的人。走出Ikea門口，還有一位看似是中學生的男生氣乎乎的衝過來問我能否轉賣給他說：「我岩岩由天水圍趕黎！」
More than 100 people lined up, and a few dozen weren't able to buy the toy because many people in the queue bought more than five Lufsigs. Many approached us and asked if we would sell our Lufsigs to them. We replied that we would sell to those who had lined up for more than 30 minutes.[…] Eventually, I sold one of my Lufsig to a Mr. M who rushed from Shatin and lined up for more than 30 minutes, and Ah Nan also sold one to another person in the queue. When we were about to leave IKEA, a boy who looked high school-aged dashed forward and asked if I could sell him one, he said: “I just rushed here from Tin Shui Wai!” [It takes about an hour and a half to travel from Tin Shui Wei to Kowloon Bay].
Yuen Chan, a journalism lecturer, explained the nature of Lufsig mania in her blog from news website Huffington Post:
Lufsig mania has its critics — those who see a bunch of lemmings blindly following the latest fad or view the mass purchasing of the toy as symptomatic of a collective mental illness. I see it more as a manifestation of a Chinese saying, “to find merriment in bitterness.”
Even as I was relishing the dark humor of Lufsig, I was trying to figure out why I found him subversive. It was only after talking with Ruby that I realized that Lufsig, or Lo Mo Sai, had bypassed the very profanity of the phrase its name resembles. The name no longer seems like an aggressive, misogynist insult — it has become a symbol of solidarity and protest. I can't wait to receive the toy, which has so quickly become an icon in our society.
According to the official explanation from IKEA Sweden, the word Lufsig originates from the Swedish word “lufsa”, which is a verb meaning “lumber” or “shamble”. When turned into an adjective by adding the suffix -ig, it means clumsy, shabby and untidy. The latest reply from IKEA to inmediahk.net expressed regret over the unfortunate Chinese translation of Lufsig in Cantonese, and corrected the translation to Lu Fuk Sai. But judging from the reactions from inmediahk's news thread on Facebook, netizens are not happy about the new name.
In response to the craze, CY Leung posted a photo with Lufsig on the government's website on December 11 and said he had bought one for his daughter as a Christmas present.
Chief Executive CY Leung took a photo with Lufsig as a response to the Lufsig craze.


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Infographics on China CCTV’s News Simulcast · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

China Digital Times translated a censored infographics that tells the history, characteristics and public opinions on China Central Television's flagship news program, Xinwen Lianbo (News Simulcast).


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Israel/Palestine: “We Want Peace” · Global Voices
Maya Norton

What happens when a Palestinian is “discovered” on a train in Israel? They send him back home with the message, “Go to your people and tell them that we want peace.” Read Hamze Awawde's inspiring account here.

author: Maya Norton


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Mandela and Mao, Not Much in Common · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jeremiah from Jotting in the Granite Studio comments on the China's state broadcaster CCTV's attempt to draw the link between Mandela and Mao Zedong:
Mandela didn’t really have much in common with Mao.  Mao was an idealist in the strictest sense of the word, a man who believed that how you did something mattered more than the results, often with disastrous consequences.  During his long career, Mandela always kept his eyes on the prize. He repeatedly showed a willingness to compromise tactics to realize his dream of equality in South Africa.


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‘Negreo Inc.’ Tumblr Blog Exposes Demeaning Job Offers in Argentina · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Negreo Inc. [es] is a Tumblr blog dedicated to compiling the harsh working conditions and low wages which Argentine companies currently offer potential employees.
This ad [es], for example, is looking for “an ambitious salesman who wants to work 12 hours a day” for an income “based on results.”
You can help expose demeaning job offers by sending an email to negreoinc@gmail.com.

author: Juan Arellano


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Nelson Mandela’s Death: ‘Left Us in Body, But His Spirit Is Eternal’ · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Since former South African President and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela's death on December 5, 2013, people throughout the world have reflected on the beloved leader's life and the legacy he leaves behind.
Here are six reactions from around the world:
United Kingdom
Musa Okwonga, a poet and author based in London, noted on his blog that Mandela was first and foremost a revolutionary who went to war against injustice in his country before he was a symbol of peace and reconciliation:
Over the next few days you will try so, so hard to make him something he was not, and you will fail. You will try to smooth him, to sandblast him, to take away his Malcolm X. [..] You will say that Mandela was about nothing but one love, you will try to reduce him to a lilting reggae tune. “Let’s get together, and feel alright.” [..] Well, try hard as you like, and you’ll fail. Because Mandela was about politics and he was about race and he was about freedom and he was even about force, and he did what he felt he had to do and given the current economic inequality in South Africa he might even have died thinking he didn’t do nearly enough of it.
Madagascar
Mialisoa, a blogger in Antananarivo, Madagascar, expressed her deep respect and gratitude for the life lessons she's taken from Mandela in a post titled Bonne Route, Monsieur [fr] (Safe Travels, Sir):
Un jour, Monsieur, je m’assoirais près de mes enfants et je leur lirais votre histoire. Un jour, mes enfants s’assoiront près de leurs enfants et ils leur liront votre histoire. Grâce à vous, je sais et grâce à vous, je continuerais à apprendre:
Je sais de qui parler, lorsque viendra le temps d’expliquer à mes enfants ce qu’est un homme de courage et de conviction.
Je sais de quels principes s’inspirer lorsque viendra le temps d’élever les miens.
Je sais l’importance de la réconciliation. Avec soi-même et avec son prochain.
Je sais la valeur du pardon.
Je sais le précieux de l’égalité.
Je sais qu’il est possible de rendre les hommes et soi-même, meilleurs.
Je sais le bien que créent l’humilité, l’humour et l’audace. [..]
Je sais, Monsieur, que je n’en sais pas assez. Je sais bien que je suis loin de savoir. Aussi, la meilleure manière de vous rendre hommage, Monsieur, est de continuer à apprendre et apprendre à agir. Et que Dieu nous vienne en aide, car le temps d’agir est maintenant venu.
Monsieur, merci. Je vous souhaite une bonne route.
One day, sir, I will sit with my children and read them your story. One day, my children will sit with their children and read them your story. Thanks to you, I know and thanks to you, I will keep learning:
I know of whom to speak, when the time comes to explain to my children what makes a man of courage and conviction.
I know what principles to draw on when the time comes to raise mine.
I know the importance of reconciliation. With ourselves and with our fellow people.
I know the value of forgiveness.
I know the value of equality.
I know it is possible to make humankind and ourselves better.
I know the good that humility, humor, and boldness can do. […]
I know, sir, that I do not know enough. I know very well that I am far from knowing. So the best way to pay tribute to you, sir, is to continue to learn and learn to act. God help us, for the time to act has now come.
Thank you, sir. I wish you a safe journey.
Toavina, a political analyst from Antananarivo, recalled on his Facebook page Madagascar's role [fr] in supporting Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), the resistance movement against apartheid and now South Africa's governing political party:
N'oubliez pas chers Malgaches, que MADAGASCAR a aidé le peuple Noir Sud-Africain ! Nous avons hébergé sous la Deuxième Rep la Radio de l'ANC. Piet Botha, Ministre des affaires étrangères de l'Afrique du Sud est venu à Madagascar pour discuter du cas de l'afrique du Sud avec l'ancien président Ratsiraka. De Klerk est aussi venu à Mada dans les années 90.
Do not forget, dear Madagascans, that MADAGASCAR helped the back people of South Africa! We broadcasted ANC's radio station during our Second Republic. Pik Botha, South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs, came to Madagascar to discuss the South African situation with former President Ratsiraka. De Klerk also came to Madagascar in the '90s.
Mali
While it was hard for him to find the words, Boukary Konaté, a Global Voices contributor in Bamako wanted to commemorate the man [fr]:
« repose en paix », car je n’ai pas de mots. Je n’ai pas de mots car tous les mots sont insignifiants pour exprimer ce que je veux dire. Alors, je me tais, je me tais dans mes murmures internes
“Rest in peace,” for I have no words. I have no words because no words are sufficient to express what I want to say. So, I'll stay silent, I'll keep quiet with my inner thoughts.
He added [fr]:
Je suis fier qu'il y ait une Rue Mandela et une Ecole Mandela à Bamako au Mali. Je vais toute de suite pour une interview avec le Directeur de l'Ecole Mandela.
I am proud that there is a Mandela Street and a Mandela School in Bamako, Mali. I'm going to have an interview right away with the Mandela School's principal.
Here is the school in question:
Cet enseignant de l'école #Mandela a commencé ce matin par parler de l'homme à ses élèves de 1 ère année #Mali pic.twitter.com/0gwSg5lrPg
— Boukary Konaté (@Fasokan) December 6, 2013
This teacher at the #Mandela school began the morning by talking about the man with his first-grade students #Mali pic.twitter.com/0gwSg5lrPg
— Boukary Konaté (@Fasokan) December 6, 2013
Niger
Aminatou, a women's right activist in Niamey, Niger shared this thoughts [fr] about Mandela and education:
Mandela est une source inépuisable d’inspiration. Sa phrase sur l’éducation résonne fortement aux oreilles de tous :
« L’Éducation : l’arme la plus puissante que l’on puisse utiliser pour changer le monde. »
Mandela is an endless source of inspiration. What he said about education resonates strongly with everyone:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
France
Archippe, a France-based Cameroonian blogger and president of Internet sans frontières, pointed out a lesson for African countries to take away [fr] on his Facebook page:
Nelson Mandela nous aura enseigné une chose essentielle à nous africains, à nous humains: on peut vraincre par les armes, le nombre, la rhétorique, mais la vraie victoire, celle qui marque les siècles, est celle de l'esprit enchanté. Le corps de mandela n'est plus, son esprit est éternel.
Nelson Mandela will have taught us, us Africans, us humans, one essential thing: We can conquer with weapons, with numbers, and with rhetoric, but the real victory, what leaves its mark for centuries, is that of the soul. Mandela has left us in body, but his spirit is eternal.
An Algerian leader, through Alexandre Adler, a well-known french political blogger, commented on the impact the “Mandela approach” [fr] of inter-ethnic reconciliation could have had in Algeria:
Il y a quelques années, un dirigeant algérien nous confia que la «ligne Mandela» de réconciliation inter-ethnique aurait évidemment mieux convenu à l’Algérie de 1962 que le départ précipité des Européens et des juifs qui fut consommé en moins d’un an. Mais, ajoutait-il, «à cette époque, nous n’avions pas les idées de Mandela, et celles-ci nous serviraient bien aujourd’hui».
A few years ago, an Algerian leader confided that the “Mandela approach” of interethnic reconciliation would have evidently been better for Algeria in 1962 than the sudden departure of Europeans and Jews that came to pass in less than a year. “But,” he added, “At the time, we didn't have Mandela's ideas, and today they would serve us well.”

author: Rakotomalala


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No to Syrian Chemical Weapons Dismantled in Albania · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Reports that Syria's chemical weapons stash would be destroyed in Albania have angered Albanians, who took to the streets to protest the proposal. Following the protests, the Albanian government refused to host the dismantling of 1,300 metric tons of Syria's sarin, mustard and other agents.
Online, Albanian netizens made their views heard.
Environmentalists gathered on November 12th in the Albanian capital of Tirana to protest their country's plan to accept chemical weapons from Syria. Source: PBS Newshour. Used under CC BY 2.0
In an Open Letter to President Obama, Albania Reloaded wrote:
I am a deeply concerned citizen of Albania, who like millions of Albanians is shocked by the news that deadly toxic chemical arsenal of Assad’s regime is landing to Albanian shores. For a small country of 28,000 km2, over-populated, with poor infrastructure, with countless problems in every sector of the economy, health, education, environment, agriculture, tourism, struggling for over two decades to fight corruption and organized crime plagued in every cell of our society, the decision of demolition chemical weapons in Albania is TOXIC. The lethal impact that this potential decision will have in the lives of Albanians and the generations to come is unquestionable.
Robert Kyriakides explained the case in his blog Not In My Backyard – Destroying Syria’s Chemical Weapons in Albania:
Source: Friends of Syria on WordPress. Used under CC By 2.0
We do not hear much about Syria these days. It seems that the agreement to remove and destroy the chemical weapons of Syria has removed the threat of an intervention by the Western democracies which will now not bomb Syria and add their own destruction to the destruction and death that they Syrians are inflicting upon themselves, with a little help from their friends.

author: Rami Alhames


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Political Cartoon on Underground Poor in Beijing · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Instead of helping the poor migrants living in underground wells in Chaoyang District of Beijing, the authorities took action to seal the well.  Artist Kuang Biao criticized the policy with this political cartoon at Sina Weibo. Via China Media Project.


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Romantic Love vs. Gender Equality: An Interview with Coral Herrera · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Coral Herrera
This post is part of our series on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America in collaboration with The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). Stay tuned for more articles.
Reading Coral Herrera is like blowing a blast of fresh air and optimism into the struggle for the respect of diversity. Her blog  [es], her articles, her books [es] and her ideas go right to the heart of what is considered obvious and normal. Coral is mainly interested in gender equality, and in the effect of romantic imaginaries on the way men and women relate to each other and see themselves.
Coral Herrera is also part of a new generation of activists who start with gender equality but refuse to stay there. Her writings analyse structural problems in Western societies, and identify the discomfort that has expanded in the intimate lives of men and women. The idea is to conduct a deconstructive and honest critique of the causes and consequences of concepts that are perpetuated, and the imaginaries that we defend without even knowing why.
Coral Herrera is a great enthusiast of new media, where she shares a large part of her work. But in addition to being a blogger, Coral has a PhD in Humanities and Audiovisual Communication. Born in Spain, she moved to Costa Rica a few years ago, and has worked as a teacher and consultant for UNESCO, the United Nations Latin American Institute for Crime Prevention and Treatment of Delinquents (ILANUD), and the Spanish International Development Agency (AECID), at the Paris-Sorbonne University and in Madrid’s Universidad Carlos III.
Her main specialisation is in gender and her point of departure, romantic love. Thus much of the work that Coral Herrera has published online is focused on the defence of diverse loves  [es], myths  [es] and the political and collective dimension of how we understand love. In Los mitos románticos  [es] (Romantic Myths), for example, she looks to the origins of the images that we have about love, and hits the nail directly on the head:
Through romantic love, inoculating foreign desires, patriarchy also controls our bodies in order to hetero-direct our eroticism, and make us assume the limits of femininity and dream about the arrival of The Saviour (Jesus, Prince Charming…) who will choose us as good wives and offer us the throne of marriage.
Regarding the cultural structures within which this phenomenon occurs, she explains:
In our Western culture, love is constrained, at least in the hegemonic cultural discourse. Homophobia is cultural, transphobia is cultural, racism and speciesism are cultural. Culture is where the fear of the other, of the different, grows; it is in culture where myths, goals, prohibitions, prejudices and social obligations are created.
The author also highlights the importance of the stories we tell ourselves. Part of Herrera’s work is to help us realise the ways in which certain imaginaries, ideals, and goals are passed down from generation to generation, through narratives that are also supported by dominant circles. However, according to many social movements, what is constructed in one direction can take another direction:
The logical thing should be to transform the stories and tell new ones, change the idealised models that have become obsolete, construct flesh-and-blood heroes and heroines, create new myths that help us construct societies that are more just, egalitarian, environmentalist, cultured, and pacifist. Direct our efforts towards the common good, work to propose other realities, fight to construct new ones, instead of fleeing from emotional paradises and individual promises of salvation.
The books are readily available on her blog, where Coral also shares her press articles and her YouTube channel, where you can see some of her conferences and academic talks. Her last book  Bodas diversas y amores queer  [es] (Diverse Weddings and Queer Loves) is “a book that lies halfway between an essay and a story, in which theoretical reflections are mixed with personal anecdotes, life stories and quite a few analyses of alternative romantic nuptial rituals.”
Why do people get married on such a massive scale? Why are there some people who only get married once, while others get married seven times? (…) Why does everyone ask about a baby but it’s frowned upon if the bride is pregnant? Why do we make romantic videos of our weddings and torture our relatives for months? Why do women invest so many resources in finding a partner? (…) Why can’t three people who love each other live together and get married? Why do we get excited when we are offered marriage? Why do we want this so much? Why do people endure conjugal hell for so many years? Why are there people who never get married? What are weddings like in other cultures? What comes after weddings?..
To offer a more thorough reflection on the struggle for gender equality on the internet, we will present Coral Herrera’s work in two parts. We will close this installment with the first part of an on-line discussion we had with Coral, in which we talked about the role of new media in the struggle for gender equality.
Coral Herrera: Traditional media is still stuck in traditional patterns and in a worldview that is completely patriarchal and capitalist, they still sell us hegemonic ideology in the form of entertainment. Advertising and mass culture transmit values that are totally selfish, individualistic, based on fear and on the permanent dissatisfaction of this age of consumption.
That’s why I think that the internet is one of the best things that has happened to us in recent years.
What is not so clear is whether we can live from this, because we have become accustomed to everything being free. I myself can’t support the people I read due to my precarious situation in Spain, first of all, and secondly, as an immigrant in Costa Rica, though I pay the phone company so that I can be connected and access content.
And although I think that we still haven’t found the way to earn an income (though there are some cases of people living from this), I think the crises we are facing are making us more conscious of what we consume, where it comes from, and under what conditions it was produced. The consumption of culture is now (and will be more and more) a political act, a demonstration of support for artists and thinkers who offer us stories in as many formats as possible.
The internet has been beneficial for culture in general because now we have access to choreographies, sculptures, films, news reports, video creations, songs, novels, essays, stories, short films, academic articles, photos… We as creators have more freedom to innovate and offer other models, other heroines, other situations, other forms of relating. I definitely believe we are breaking away from the old narrative structures that reduced us to simplified conflicts.
CH: Thanks to the internet, we are all transmitting content. [This makes us] less vulnerable to the construction of reality to the one imposed on us, because we can refute their affirmations, because we can make visible all those things that are kept hidden so that everything can stay the way it is.
It’s true that we have to assume that privacy is non-existent, that we are being watched, our data is being sold, and we are being censored, but even so I think that we have to be online.
GV: What advantages do you see in the use of new technologies for conversations about gender (especially in Latin America)?
CH: Well I’m very optimistic. In spite of the digital divide that separates us, I think we are creating very important transnational networks of information and collective reflection. These networks allow us to support each other, to make problems visible, to gather signatures and have political impact, to organise actions in the real world that will have an echo in the virtual world. We can create synergies, lend each other ideas, copy models that work in other countries and adapt them to our local realities, we can teach each other, we can contribute to the construction of collective knowledge, and we can modify political agendas thanks to the echo that actions have in social media.
In the next part, which will be published next week, we will discuss with Coral the evolution of the fight for gender equality. In the meantime, we recommend having a look at the Haika editorial project [es], managed by the author, where much of her work can be downloaded.

author: Laura Vidal


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Suriname: Trinidad Artist Wins 2013 Prince Claus Award  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Srananart's Blog celebrates Trinidadian artist Christopher Cozier's winning of the 2013 Prince Claus Award, which “honors individuals and organizations reflecting a progressive and contemporary approach to the themes of culture and development.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Syrian Cartoonist Akram Raslan Reportedly Killed by Regime · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Uncertainty continues over the fate of Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan, winner of the Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013, arrested in October 2012 by the Assad regime. While some report that he was killed by the Assad regime after a show trial, others claim he is still alive.
The cartoonist was  was arrested by the Syrian military intelligence, while he was at the government newspaper Al-Fedaa in Hama, on October 2, 2012. Akram, who is the winner of the Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning for 2013, was reportedly secretly put on trial with no witnesses, no defense attorneys, no appeal, and no hope for justice.
We've learned that on July 26, 2013 Akram Raslan and other prisoners of conscience including journalists, artists, singers and other intellectuals were secretly put on trial with no witnesses, no defense attorneys, no appeal, and no hope for justice.  From unconfirmed and sketchy reports we also learned that they were all condemned to life imprisonment.
Assembly and demonstration by world cartoonists in support of Akram Raslan
05.10.2013, in St Just Le Martel (France). Source: Cartooning for Peace
Other cartoon blogs like Comic box resources blog, Cartoon for Peace, The CAGLE Post and The Daily Cartoonist also quoted the CRNI news and showed concerns over Akram's destiny. One of the comments reads:
Akram, you and your family are in our prayers….Assad you and your ilk are….. !@#$%^&*
On October 18, 2013, Redac_MM wrote: A Brave Cartoonist is Murdered by the Syrian Regime
Source: Facebook page [ar] Detainees and kidnapped are not just numbers in reports. Used under CC BY 2.0
I am saddened to write that Cartoonists Rights Network reports that Syrian cartoonist Akram Raslan has been executed by the Syrian regime after a show trial.
While Syrian Observer quoted a stronger message: Here There Be Dragons: in Syria Akram Raslan is slain:
Tyrants might be able to fight off criticism or an insurrection or even assassination attempt with truncheons, bullets and terror.  But where do they turn their guns to stop their people from laughing at them?  Can there be any more efficient, more powerful, and cost-effective way of empowering a people than dispelling their fears with a courageous cartoon on its way to letting them laugh through their fear?
One of Akram's cartoons that outraged Assad regime. Source: Blog Cartoon Movement. Used under CC BY 2.0
On Twitter, Rime Allaf writes:
Never drop your pens, Assad fears them the most.  RIP Akram Raslan, cartoonist murdered by #Syria regime http://t.co/VZj4j9BmsS
— Rime Allaf (@rallaf) October 14, 2013
On Facebook, Alisar Iram shows  solidarity:
Akram Raslan, dead or alive, we remember and cherish you.
While the Syrian Observer concludes with regret and hope at the same time:
I am sorry I couldn't reach down into the pit and drag you out Akram. Please forgive me. Perhaps your sacrifice will motivate us to look again into the mirror, and ask again where we straddle the line between fear and courage and challenge us, again, to take a new first step.


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The Caribbean Ponders the Legacy of Nelson Mandela · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

With nearly a week gone since the announcement of Nelson Mandela's death, Caribbean bloggers have had time to process their thoughts on his life and his legacy.
St. Lucia-based Caribbean Book Blog noted that the island joined the international community “in celebrating the life of one of the world’s most beloved and revered leaders”:
Among the many virtues for which Nelson Mandela will be remembered is the way in which he was able to transcend politics, race and class, and recast himself in the role of a sagacious elder and father figure to all and sundry, even other political leaders and heads of state…
Nelson Mandela, photo by Festival Karsh Ottawa
The post recalled Mandela's 1998 visit to St. Lucia, to attend the 19th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community:
Mandela’s humility, grace and charisma were evident…During the visit [he] attended a youth rally hosted in his honour. In his typically warm, affectionate style he charmed the youths and embraced them as they came up to greet him. Dispensing with protocol, he laughed and danced with them. He then offered them some inspiring words of wisdom and encouraged them to use education as a tool to become leaders. He urged them not to be discouraged by poverty.
The blog also reiterated Mandela's agreement with the notion that CARICOM has been at the forefront of the apartheid struggle; it ended by quoting Mandela's parting words to the St. Lucian people:
‘St Lucia is one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited. Its beauty is breathtaking. I know that one day I will die for a very, very long time but visiting St Lucia seems to guarantee to me that it will take some time before death prevails over me.’
He uttered those words in all seriousness. Fifteen years later they seem to have been quite prescient.
Jamaican diaspora blogger Can a Jamaican Take Cali? said that Mandela's example helped to shape his own life:
I remember vividly walking around my house singing ‘Free them President Botha’ the song that as a kid I was taught as part of the ‘struggle against apartheid’. Quick history Botha was the head of South Africa in the 80s and his government kept up a brutal crack down on Mandela, his ANC brethren and blacks in general. It has always bothered me that Botha was able to live out his life without ever going to prison – I really believe he should have died in prison, just as many of us feared Mandela would. To my knowledge Botha never apologized for apartheid, I find that hard to stomach but if Mandela could forgive him…maybe I should.
He also hoped that more young people would learn about Mandela's struggle:
Nelson Mandela always struck me as a man of poise, graciousness and strength of character, I sadly do not think enough of today's youths know who he is and honor and respect him enough. Hopefully his death, like much of his early life will renew in young black youth a sense of purpose a sense of internal pride and maybe just maybe a moment of deep reflection.
Mandela statue outside Drakenstein prison, in silhouette; photo by HelenSTB
The synchronicity of honouring Mandela on the occasion of World Human Rights Day was not lost on Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp, while Breezeblog, from Bermuda, commended Mandela for leading by example:
If you or I were imprisoned unjustly for 27 years, much of it in solitary confinement, as Nelson Mandela was, we’d probably come out bitter and hellbent on exacting revenge on those responsible.
In the UK in the late 1970s, when I was in my teens and early 20s, many of my generation were seething at that injustice and the evils of the South African government’s apartheid system. Indeed, at a time when the right-wing National Front was on the rise, we were pretty worked up about racism in general. If we weren’t taking part in Free Mandela marches or concerts, then it was an Anti-Racism or Anti-Nazi League rally. We vilified those businesses or sportsmen who broke  government sanctions and went to South Africa.
But if we believed that Nelson Mandela would one day be released, I don’t think any of us would have predicted that he would become the country’s first black President and that instead of spearheading the ANC in bloody retribution against their oppressors, he would lead an astonishing and courageous reconciliation that helped heal a bitterly divided nation and avoid almost certain civil war.
Nelson Mandela was already a hero of mine before he left prison. His dignity and humility after his release made him, in my eyes and those of millions of others, the greatest human being of our lifetime whose ideals and integrity put every other statesman in the world to shame.
Interestingly, the post also explored other opinions:
There were many other South Africans who viewed Madiba differently, as I found out when I finally got to visit the country in 2010 for the World Cup…As far as Frankie, the tough white lady who ran the guest house just outside Johannesburg where we stayed, was concerned, Mandela was still
‘a bloody terrorist’. Having grown up in a racist family and been violently assaulted in her own home by black criminals, Frankie feared and distrusted all blacks, viewed the ANC government as corrupt crooks and believed South Africa was going to hell in a hand basket.
The blogger, Chris Gibbons, was careful to note that:
Mandela’s Rainbow Nation is an incredibly complex country where racial and tribal divisions will take generations to heal, if at all, and the gap between the manicured wealthy suburbs and the grinding poverty of the townships remains jaw-droppingly vast.
But what Mandela did was to start South Africa on that journey, to offer hope where none existed and show that by working together and putting aside their differences, people can achieve truly remarkable things.
Another Bermudian blogger, Catch a Fire, felt that:
The best way to honour Mandela – the myth if not the man – is to renew the commitment to building a better world and launching a second liberation struggle.
This next liberation struggle is as relevant to Bermuda, the Caribbean and everywhere as it is in South Africa.
This second liberation struggle must overcome the covert and structural racism which still haunts our lands and even at a global level; it must also be a struggle against the colonialism of the mind, of colonial mentalities.
Even more, this second liberation struggle must be against a socio-economic system – capitalism – that threatens to consign whole generations and populations to the dust-heap, that thrives on war and that poisons our very planet, all in the pursuit of profit and not in the pursuit of realising our human potential.
Nelson Mandela sculpture by Marco Cianfanelli; photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Ivan Garcia offered a perspective from Cuba:
Madiba leaves as a legacy a master class of how to do politics in difficult times.
The current statesmen should take note. Mandela was not perfect. He was labeled a communist and disruptive, and until 2008 the FBI had him on their list of ‘terrorists.’ But he knew how to maneuver in the turbulent waters of a nation where state racism prevailed, in the intrigues of his party, the African National Congress, and to achieve the miracle of national unity in South Africa.
The colossal undertaking began in jail. From a cell in Robben Prison, where for 27 years he was behind bars, until 1994 when Madiba became president, he understood that in conditions of political fragility, his mission was to make sure that everyone saw themselves represented in the first democratic government of their country.
He was a president for all South Africans.
In his five years in office, Mandela sat chair of his magnificent policy. His ethics, honesty, and transparency were his hallmark. He was a partner of one and all, without ever compromising his political perspective. A man of diplomacy and respect for others.
His great friend in the Americas, Fidel Castro, retired from power, could also learn some lessons in transparency from Mandela’s conduct.
The post then compared the two leaders:
No one can doubt the sincere friendship that joined Castro with Madiba. But the two statesmen are nothing alike in their methods of achieving national harmony. If Fidel Castro had been like Nelson Mandela, he long ago would have been sitting at the table to negotiate with his political opponents.
First he would have visited with the dissidents. Then with the White House. If Mandela had been Castro, the embargo would be ancient history. That ability of Mandela’s — to adapt to changing times and live with democratic rules — is something the former Cuban president does not have.
In Cuba we would have needed a Nelson Mandela.
Diaspora blog Capitol Hill Cubans agreed that despite the friendship between the two, “Fidel Castro is the anti-thesis of everything that Mandela represents”:
Castro himself heads an undemocratic, apartheid regime.
However, to Castro's chagrin, upon being democratically-elected as President of South Africa, Mandela rejected everything Castro stood for.
Mandela could have taken the path of Castro or Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. He could have become ruler-for-life, confiscated the nation's vast wealth and made it his personal fiefdom.
Yet, Mandela chose the path of human rights, free markets and representative democracy. Moreover, he refused to serve more than one-term.
There is no greater test of a man than when he is given power.
Haitian bloggers were full of praise for Mandela. Le Coin de Pierre [Fr] compared him to Toussaint Louverture:
Ils ont eu le même idéal de liberté et d'émancipation de l'homme noir.
They had the same ideal of freedom and emancipation of the black man.
HaitiRozo called Mandela the leader that “brought the world together” and The Haitian Blogger posted a poem that urged readers to remember Mandela as he was, because the struggle still continues.
Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella wrote a hopeful post, structured around some of Mandela's most famous quotations, which suggested ways in which all of us can live a life more like Nelson Mandela's:
We have lost one of the world’s greatest. We have lost a man who changed the world. We have lost one of the most iconic human beings, a living symbol of freedom and hope and the power of change. The weight of that loss cannot be understated.
He was a troublemaker for peace. He achieved so much and inspired so many. Now that he has passed, we can only pray that he rests in peace and power, and that his life’s legacy will continue to be one of inspiration, greatness and equality for all.
In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, I can’t help but consider the ways we could live up to such a legacy. Mandela’s shoes are so big, you might wonder what a regular person could do to fill them. I say, measure your life in terms of your intentions and your steadfastness, and celebrate Mandela’s legacy by speaking out for what’s right, leading by example, and sticking to your ideals.
Nelson Mandela, by Festival Karsh Ottawa, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license.


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Uruguay Legalizes the Sale and Production of Marijuana  · Global Voices
Guillermo Vidal

Photo shared on Twitter by @T13.
With just the votes of the governing Broad Front left-wing coalition, and after 12 hours of intense debate, the Uruguayan Senate has passed a bill legalizing marijuana. The bill to regulate and commercialize marijuana was approved at 22:38 on Tuesday 10th December, 2013.
The decision has put Uruguay on the front pages of international news media following the session with great interest. Now, all that remains is to craft regulations and put the proposed bill into force. A four month period has been allowed for this process.
At a grassroots level, the parliamentary decision has made waves and stirred up opinion. Among the opposition's arguments given in the Senate are the difficulties in ensuring compliance with the law, and the argument that it isn't a valid strategy in the battle against drug trafficking. The opposition also suggested that, in contrast to the government's position on the subject, the law will actually encourage drug use.
Uruguayan pharmacies, who will be in charge of marijuana sales for medicinal use, are now involved in an intense controversy [es] in which some wish to sell the drug while others do not.
The UN, for its part, has noted that the Uruguayan bill to legalize marijuana violates international treaties that the country has signed. In addition, the Psychiatric Society of Uruguay has warned [es] about the consequences of using marijuana and its rising popularity among youths. Psychiatrists also told newspaper El País that the drug plays a role in school drop-out rates.
According to information collected by Infobae [es], Uruguay's president, José Mujica, has said that he hopes Uruguay will be “lend a hand and that we all learn together, because the idea isn't to establish Uruguay as the land of free marijuana. No. No. That's not what this is about. This is a plague, just like cigarettes are a plague. You'll be offered a legal portion and if you abuse it, you'll be registered and attended to medically.”
Internationally, the bill has generated both expectations and doubts, as the world has observed the events with interest and expressed concerns following the decision.
Opinions have been expressed in social networks such as Twitter. The presidential candidate for the conservative National Party, Jorge Larrañaga (@jorgewlarranaga), said:
Para la seguridad y salud marihuana,para la libertad ley de medios. Para la educación nada.- Las mayorías utilizadas para cualquier cosa. JL
— Jorge Larrañaga (@jorgewlarranaga) diciembre 11, 2013
For security and health; marijuana, for freedom; a new media law. For education; nothing. The majority is used for whatever purpose.
The user @charruasomos, on the other hand, has defended the bill:
@NicoleOrtizCh pues a mi me parece un GRAN AVANCE Y SACAR a los narcotraficantes del medio. Uruguay es un pais de no rehuir a los problemas
— charruasomos (@charruasomos) December 11, 2013
[In response to @NicoleOrtizCh's tweet] [The world's gone crazy, they legalize marijuana en Uruguay.  Where are we headed?]
@NicoleOrtizCh Well, to me it seems like a GREAT STEP FORWARD and takes drug traffickers out of the picture. Uruguay's not a country that runs away from its problems.
The Paraguayan television presenter, Lucía Sapena (@LuSapena), complained about international confusion about their two nations:
Ya son 3 amigos extranjeros a los que tuve que explicar que donde se vende marihuana legal es en Uruguay y no Paraguay!Gente que se confunde
— Lucía Sapena (@LuSapena) diciembre 11, 2013
I've now had to explain to three foreign friends that Uruguay is where they sell marijuana legally, and not Paraguay!  Confused people.
The Venezuelan Yusnay Bleque (@yusnayb) expressed her thoughts on the bill:
Uruguay se convierte en el primer país del mundo en legalizar la marihuana. Que barbaridad. No piensan en la salud de los ciudadanos
— yusnay bleque (@yusnayb) diciembre 11, 2013
Uruguay becomes the first country in the world to legalize marijuana. Just shocking. They don't think about people's health.
The Argentinian activist Alex Freyre (@AlexFreyre) compared the bill with Argentina's laws:
La marihuana NO ES INOCUA, por eso HAY QUE REGULARLA. La actual ley argentina 23737 no sirve y alienta al narcotráfico.
— Alex Freyre (@AlexFreyre) diciembre 11, 2013
Marijuana ISN'T HARMLESS, so IT HAS TO BE REGULATED. The current Argentinian law 23737 is useless and encourages drug trafficking.
Rubèn Jorge Castro (@elojodelciudada) tweeted about moves to legalize marijuana and same sex marriage:
Minoria impuso Matrimonio Gay Minoria impuso Marihuana mientras eso sucede se distraen enormes esfuerzos la Educacion se Cae +iguales+burros
— Rubèn Jorge Castro ® (@elojodelciudada) diciembre 11, 2013
The minority imposed same sex marriage on us, the minority imposed [the] marijuana [bill] on us, and while that happens, they become distracted and education [reform] falls to pieces. More equal. More stupid.
On the other hand, in Luis Alberto Borsari‘s opinion, the same sex marriage act, legalization of abortion, and now, the legal production and distribution of marijuana are causes of pride. In his blog [es] he writes that:
cuando nuestros hijos y nietos estudien todo esto en sus Libros de Historia, los imagino sacando pecho por lo hecho hoy, o cantando “Uruguay es el mejor País…”
I imagine our children and grandchildren all puffed up with pride as they study today's events in their history books, or singing “Uruguay's the best…”

author: Guillermo Vidal


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Video: “Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution” in Syria · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Matthew VanDyke, an American journalist and documentary filmmaker who took part in the Libyan civil war as a foreign fighter against the Qaddafi forces, has resorted to crowd-funding to produce Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution, a short movie which documents the Syrian revolution and what it stands for.
The movie [Warning: Graphic], posted for free on YouTube in September 2013, shows Syrian civilians protesting against the Assad regime and activists singing when a blast happened. The footage takes us through the destroyed city of Aleppo (Homs) and shows armed people who were once civilians but had turned into rebels fighting for the freedom of their country. The director chats with activists in English while some songs and local conversations can be heard in Arabic in the background.
In his words, this YouTube film
[…..] has won more than a dozen awards and is an official selection in more than 75 film festivals around the world. Director Matthew VanDyke has released the film online for free and without any ads on it weeks ahead of schedule because NOW is the critical time for YOU to take action in support of Syria.
This is YOUR film.
“Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution” is a 15-minute documentary film about the war in Syria, directed and produced by American Matthew VanDyke and Nour Kelze (a Syrian journalist who is also the star of the film).
The film tells the story of the Syrian struggle for freedom as experienced by a 32 year old rebel commander, Mowya, and a 24 year old female journalist, Nour Kelze, in Aleppo, Syria.
The film clearly and concisely shows why the Syrian people are fighting for their freedom, told through the emotional words of two powerful characters whose lives have been turned upside down and torn apart by war.
Filming in Syria was dangerous and difficult. VanDyke and Kelze faced aerial bombardment, artillery, mortars, snipers, and the persistent threat of kidnapping. In addition, VanDyke was branded a terrorist by the Assad regime on the Syrian State TV channels.
Here's the short movie for you to watch:


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VIDEOS: Singapore’s First Riot in 40 Years · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A riot erupted in central Singapore last Sunday, December 8, after an Indian worker was killed in a bus accident. Hundreds of rioters attacked 16 police cars and burned down an ambulance in the area called Little India. It was Singapore’s worst riot since 1964.
The death of Sakthivel Kumaravelu which ignited the riot also generated an intense online discussion about Singapore’s policy of hiring foreign workers which many local residents blamed for the country’s rising social woes. Singapore has more than 1.3 million foreign workers or about 25 percent of the total population.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong appealed for calm and insisted that the riot was an isolated incident:
This was an isolated incident caused by an unruly mob. The vast majority of foreign workers here obey our laws. We must not let this bad incident tarnish our views of foreigner workers here. Nor should we condone hateful or xenophobic comments, especially online.
This video shows the bus which killed Sakthivel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-ZK27Me76s
Below is a video documenting the burning of several government vehicles:
And another video of the burning of an ambulance:
Kirsten Han hit news reports which highlighted the drunkenness of the victim:
Revealing and dwelling on the fact of Kumaravelu's drunkenness in isolation suggests that he was somehow responsible for his own demise. He could very well be, but it also smacks of victim-blaming, and doesn’t explain anything about what really happened on Sunday night.
Focusing on Mr Kumaravelu’s drinking reveals a lack of concern for a man who met a tragic end, reducing him to little more than a random drunken Indian who was probably somehow responsible for all this trouble.
Cherian George urged foreign media not to describe the event as a ‘race riot’:
The instinct of some foreign media to frame the Little India Riot as race-related may reveal more about their own prejudices than about the reality of what happened on Sunday evening. It is of course true that ethnic minorities here occasionally face subtle and not-so-subtle discrimination, but it would be a stretch to assume that the riot had much to do with that. The existence of racism doesn’t mean that the racial lens is always the right one through which to view events. If the riot reveals any deeper divisions – and most reasonable Singaporeans know that it does – those divisions are probably ones of nationality and class, not race. Not that this would be a less serious social ill; but it is important to get the diagnosis right if we are to treat it effectively.
Urban geography, not race, explains why the riot was an all-South-Asian affair.
Alisa Writes noted that riots are worse in other countries and that the Little India riot in Singapore should not be attributed to nationality or birthplace:
People also riot over soccer, apparently. Any human being who feels discontentment, frustration and anger has the ability to express it if given the right stimulants and conditions. What happened in Little India is simply a result of human behavior, and can’t be attributed to nationality or birthplace.
anyhowonly praised Singapore police for quickly restoring order in the community:
…I am especially proud of those troopers who demonstrated not only their specialist training but also their discernment and restraint! No shots were fired despite the chaos. The mob was dispersed with nary a shot or tear gas fired.
yawning bread analyzed some factors which led to the riot:
These three factors likely came together Sunday night: Brooding frustration from perceived injustices at work creating hostility to authority, resentment at auxiliary police patrols in Little India, and congestion on a damp night with nowhere to sit.
Vernon Chan advised the government to improve the welfare of foreign workers, especially the need to ease the public transportation woes experienced by workers:
…increase the fleet of public buses servicing Little India, and most importantly, institute heavily subsidised rail and bus passes for the more than 300,000 migrant workers in Singapore’s construction industry.
Yan Naung Oak, a Burmese in Singapore, probed deeper into the situation of foreign workers in the country:
The alienating forces that keep people in their shells of political correctness and civility are the same forces that make people violently break out of them. When the disenfranchised are confronted with something that violates their already narrowed turf, like the death of one of their own, the pent-up anger congeals into a mob.
Jentrified Citizen asked the government to draft a better plan on how to improve the living conditions of foreign workers:
When you have such a large number of lowly paid and over worked transient workers here, you must plan for them as human beings and not as mere digits to fulfill an economical need. Did the government work to ensure that their well-being and welfare is taken care of? Are these poor and powerless workers housed in decent lodgings, fed decent food, and given enough time to rest? Did our government plan for sufficient recreational outlets and facilities to cater to the workers’ interests and different needs?

author: Mong Palatino


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100 Awesome Things From The Indian 90′s · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blogger and SEO expert Mani Karthik takes a trip down the memory lane and lists 100 things an average Indian cherished during the 1990s.