text:
Ethiopia/Lebanon: Online Outrage Over Death of Domestic Worker Turns into Activism · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Alem Dechasa, the Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon whose abuse video sparked anger amongst Ethiopians, “preferred” to commit suicide by hanging herself using her bed sheets last Wednesday 14 March, 2012.
The graphic nature of the video together with the tragic end of the plot left Ethiopians netizens outraged. Ethiopians have been using Facebook and online petition sites to mourn her death and campaign for justice for domestic workers in the Middle East.
Clip art illustration of a maid mopping a floor. Image source: http://jontambek.wordpress.com/.
Zelalem updates his Facebook status with:
All of we share her plight to be dragged in the floor, all of we roar as a relief for our anger but, sadly and badly none of US can save HER life. Forget our government, we have no such.
Shame on Ws ALL!!!
May Peace be Up on You Alem!
Abiye Teklemariam says:
I have no words. Tragic, tragic, tragic.
Another Facebook user comments:
Last week I watched ETV reporting that Ethiopians in UAE pledged to contribute $22million for the renaissance dam. While our sisters are being abused and killed day in, day out in the Middle East, our ETV is delighted to tell us that these same destitute girls have pledged to contribute. Lord, have mercy!!!
Her controversial death has forced netizens to take the opportunity to put the abuse of many Ethiopians domestic workers in Middle East countries on spotlight.
Concerned Ethiopian netizens have created an online petition to stop the abuse of Ethiopian women in Middle-East and seek justice for abused workers such as Alem and Shewaye.
The petition says:
Due to the lack of prospects of a livelihood, lack of education and wrong perceptions of overseas work, thousands of young Ethiopian women continue to go to the Middle East countries every year to work as domestic workers. These young women are full of hope of bettering their lives and the lives of their families. However, once they arrive in their destination country, the hopes of the majority are shattered by what awaits them. In most cases, their passports are confiscated from them, their salaries withheld, they’re beaten and even prone to rape. In addition to ratifying almost all of the international human rights instruments pertinent to the issue at hand, the Ethiopian government has also put some policy and legislative frameworks for protecting the rights of these women. However, enforcement of these laws are very minimal and weak. Thus, until the Ethiopian government upholds its national and international obligations, issue appropriate policies to ensure the protection of human rights as well as re-integration of these women into the society, Ethiopian migrant and trafficked women will continue to commit suicides, face abuses, and remain trapped on foreign soil.
Another campaign page that seeks to stop the abuse of Ethiopian women in Middle East says:
Alem didn’t committed suicide. But she was abused & murdered. She was seeking for help but help did not arrive. Let us stop this abuse and let the killer and the abuser punished
A candlelight vigil is set to take place at Mesqel Square in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 17 March, to mourn the death of Alem and express solidarity with all abused Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle East. One of the organizers announced on Facebook:
Dear Friends, because of the absence of a Lebanese Embassy or Consulate in Addis, the initiators of the ‘Candlelight Vigil for Alem Dechasa’ have decided to conduct the Vigil at Meskel Square. Please spread the news and be there on time so that we can remember our sister and say ‘never again’. tomorrow Saturday March 17 @ 5:05pm.
While the campaign is raging online, Saudi Arabia plans is reported to be in need of 45,000 Ethiopian nationals every month in order to meet its requirement for domestic workers.
Ali Mahfouz – the man seen in the video abusing Alem Dechasa. Photo source: http://www.lbcgroup.tv/.
On 16 March, Ethiopians gathered in front of the Embassy of Lebanon in Washington DC in a silent protest to mourn Alem Dechasa. First Secretary of the Lebanese embassy, Mr Toni Frangie spoke with the protesters.
Mobile phone video footage that shows Alem Dechasa being beaten and dragged by force into a car under the gaze of bystanders outside the Ethiopian consulate in Beirut, Lebanon, sparked outrage online.
Ethiopians organised a social media campaign for justice last year after a CNN journalist, Dan Rivers, revealed the horrifying abuse of Shweya Mullah who was brutally injured after the wife of Gaddafi’s son poured boiling water on her whole body for allegedly failing to keep a crying child quiet.

author: Endalkachew Chala


text:
Bangladesh: A Journey in Photos with Featured Blogger GMB Akash · Global Voices
Rezwan

“I breathe in photography. Without photography I have no existence.” – GMB Akash
Gone are the days when any news by the international media on Bangladesh would invariably contain photos of political disturbances and natural disasters. Thanks to many talented young amateur and professional photographers you will find thousands of photos on Bangladesh online, especially in photo sharing sites like Flickr and Picasa, showing the other sides of Bangladesh. There are also a number of photobloggers emerging from Bangladesh sharing their works and photo essays.
I would like to introduce to you the works of one such photographer and blogger who is making quite an impression in the international arena in portraying Bangladesh. GMB Akash's passion for photography began in 1996. He attended the World Press Photo seminar in the capital Dhaka for 3 years and graduated from Pathshala, the South Asian photography institute in Dhaka.
He has received more than 40 international awards from all around the world and his work has been featured in over 50 major international news and media publications. His awards include the World Press Photo award (2006) and the International Travel photographer of the year award (2009). Read an interview at Tiffinbox to learn more about him.
He writes about his photos:
These images are stories of my won experiences. I am displaying a short view about the tour of my life. These journeys blend me with so many characters of my life. Sometimes I run, sometimes I ride on the top of the roof of the train, I sleep in the flooded floor, I swim, I hang on, spend a long time in slums and above all I meet these souls. I become one of them in a while. These adventures lay in the bed of danger. But after reaching to those people, getting entry to their door and when they take me as friend all my hard work and risks become worthy. I will keep walking, touching every face through my lens. I will show the world those unknown stories of sufferings. If a single hand comes to give them a shade that will be the real honor of my sweat.
Riding the Train. © GMB Akash / www.gmb-akash.com
His exemplary works include photography on Hijras (physiological males who have feminine gender identity). Some excerpts from his blogpost on Hijras:
It was 1999, when I first realized I need to focus stories on helpless communities. For that feeling, there was a story behind. As a child, I was a frequent visitor to my uncle’s house at Narayangonj, some 25 kilometers north of Dhaka. My uncle had a hermaphrodite locally called as Hijra, whose name was “Khushi” -meaning happiness, but that is what she very much lacked in her life.
The life of a Hijra. © GMB Akash / www.gmb-akash.com
Hijras get a mixed reception from the people; the middle class thinks them as bad omen even the sight of a Hijra in the morning is regarded as the same and believed can spoil the whole day. Where as among the lower class they are believed to posses spiritual powers as they are deprived of the joys of a normal life, their prayers are believed to be answered.
GMB Akash is sitting with one of the many sisters from the Tangail brothel. By documenting on them he shares their story of pain to the world. Image courtesy GMB Akash
His photoblog contains stories of pain, sufferings, joy and hope of the ordinary people of Bangladesh. In the photo essay born to work he shares the issue of child labor:
Born to work. © GMB Akash / www.gmb-akash.com
Shilu works separating sand and stone. At least 10,000 people, including 2,500 women and over 1,000 children, are engaged in stone and sand collection from the Bhollar Ghat on the banks of the Piyain River. Building materials such as stone and sand, and the cement which is made from it, are in short supply in Bangladesh, and commands a high price from building contractors. The average income is around 150 taka (less than 2 USD) a day. Jaflong, Sylhet
Watch his TEDx talk in Portugal at TEDxO'Porto 2011 where he discussed his long term project, ‘Survivors’ offering an in-depth understanding of the process and motivation behind this kind of work. Survivors: “The invincibility of human determination to struggle and survive against all odds” is a book by Galleria di Porta Pepice of the photographs by GMB Akash.
You can follow GMB Akash at his Website, blog, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


text:
Iran: Authorities ‘worried’ about social networks · Global Voices
Hadi Nili

Hamid Shahriari, a member of newly-formed Iranian National Council of Cyberspace says [fa]: “Social networks have presented so many threats to the country and we are worried about some parts of these networks”. In recent weeks Iranian authorities have asked some users to ‘stop or reduce’ their online activities. In last 3 years and after 2009 protests, Iran has accused social networks of ‘encouraging unrest’ in that country.

author: Hadi Nili


text:
Iran: I repent that I voted for Ahmadinejad · Global Voices
Hadi Nili

Omid Hosseini, An Iranian blogger who has been actively supporting Mahmoud Ahmadienajd in 2009 presidential election and rejecting the post-election protests, writes [fa] in his blog: ‘I'm sorry that I voted for Ahmadinejad in last election. I repent for that. I'm sorry that I voted for him to justify his law-breaking in the name of me and other voters.’ By Wednesday March 14th, Iran's parliament questioned President Ahmadinejad over a list of accusations, including that he mismanaged the nation's economy and disobeyed the parliament's legislation. Ahmadienejad's answers received negative reactions in parliament and in political scene.


text:
Iran: ‘The button’ in Ahmadinejad remarks · Global Voices
Hadi Nili

Iran's parliament questioned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over a list of accusations, including that he mismanaged the nation's economy and disobeyed the parliament's legislation. Ahmadienejad humiliated those members of the parliament who have signed this questions, saying that they ‘may have received their post-graduate degree just by pressing a button’. Iranian users reacted to this remarks by making jokes about ‘the button’ under the hash-tag of شاسی# in twitter. Bahareh, a Tehran-based user, tweets [fa]: Does Mahmoud even know how to answer a question?


text:
Jamaica: “Dudus” Sentencing · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica Salt blogs about the sentencing of accused drug don Christopher “Dudus” Coke, saying: “There seems to be little change when it comes to seeking out political corruption in Jamaica and the alleged links between drugs, crime, police and politicians…it seems a shame…that there has been little good to come out of the needless deaths of 70…residents in Tivoli gardens.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Macedonia: Peace March – Enthusiasm, Controversy · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Today's March for Peace in Skopje has overwhelming support, evident through the positive uproar in social media. Lone voices, however, warn the initiative is used as a PR opportunity by celebrities, and even as a hypocritical alibi for known hatemongers.
Several videos in which a ‘Band Aid’ cast of local celebrities proclaim they are for a peaceful life together were published by the YouTube user ZaednoZaMir (Together for Peace). They received overwhelmingly positive response by social media users.
On the other hand, Jovana Tozija asked [mk]: “Pardonne moi, sleazeballs, where were you when we asked you to record a video…” as part of the protests against police brutality. She wrote [mk] she was not trying to undermine the March for Peace Initiative, but what she did mind [mk] was that people who did not have the decency to respond by declining were now jousting to get in front of the camera.
Seasoned blogger and human rights activist Zarko Trajanoski wrote [mk] that he would not attend the March for Peace, even though many of his closest friends would:
The reason is: I cannot stand the hypocrisy any more!
At first glance, the statement by the march organizers is enchanting: “We unite Gandhi-style, with the power of pacifism.” With curiousity, I see the famous faces, trying to recognize the Macedonian Gandhi who will unite us in nonviolent resistance to tyranny. I watch the TV screen intently, in vain searching for the Macedonian Gandhi. Instead, the director of ‘Ednooki’, Alek Rusjakov, appears on Sitel TV and says: “This movement is not against anyone. It is not against the government, not against the opposition, not against a race, not against a nation, but for peace.”
“Ednooki” [The One-Eyed] is an animated TV show aired on TV stations owned by the coalition partners of the current government (first Kanal 5, currently SITEL; before it run on A1 while it was pro-government). The show usually includes statements demonizing the opposition, the dissenters from the NGO sector, and foreign diplomats. The show also caricatures  key government figures in a positive, mild-mannered light. The same team also produces an “educational” TV series about the Ancient Macedon for the state TV. One of their “historical” claims is that homosexuality was not practiced by Ancient Macedonians, just by the Greeks.
Trajanoski continued:
Wait a minute. Freeze frame. The director of “Ednooki” as an initiator of peace march? Suddenly, we have to forget that “Ednooki” is a hate-mongering series that incites hate against all who criticize the work of the government?
We have to forget that “Ednooki” promotes ethnic and other kinds of stereotypes and prejudices that create an atmosphere of hate and violence? The last time I watched “Ednooki” the A1 TV journalists were portrayed as violators and criminals, while the special police forces which occupied the TV-station were presented as victims of violence. And at least several people have told me that in the “art” work by Rusjakov, the character representing me has been shown as being shot by gun.
Personal is political. I cannot “march” for peace together with the hate-propagandist Alek Rusjakov. Would the victims of Nazi propaganda join Goebbels if he called for a march for peace between the members of the pure Aryan race and the “degenerics”? Would you join [Latas] if he invited you to march for peace between the “lice,” “cunts,” “savages,” and Macedonians? Would you join Milenko if he called for march for peace between the “guardian” Macedonians and the “treacherous bastards”? Would you join Janko “Jadi Burek” if he called for peace between the believers and the “bunch of gays and atheists” who were [forcefully dislocated from the square]?
Please, I am sick of hypocrisy. I won't march for peace together with hatemongers. I will peacefully protest against the haters – the propagandists of the regime which amnesties war criminals and tortures political prisoners who get 109 years in jail.
Anonymous readers commenting on Trajanoski's post said they would go to the march even though they agreed with some of his arguments. One of them provided a link to an interview [mk] by Rusjakov in which he claims that members of NGOs who disagree with the government's decisions (“Sorosids”) are traitors on the Greek chauvinist payroll who enjoy being sodomized by the Greeks while working on changing the Macedonian identity.
Some pointed out that the protests against police brutality had been joined by some opposition figures, and they still attended even though they were not supporters of those political parties.

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
Mexico: Candidate Vázquez Mota Angers University Students · Global Voices
Andrea Arzaba

Today candidates for the presidency in Mexico have to be very careful about how they express themselves in public, at least until July 2012, when presidential elections will be held. Any mistake or declaration that could be misinterpreted, can push away voters during this election year.
Josefina Vázquez Mota, the only female candidate for the presidency, caused confusion and anger among Mexicans, especially university students, when she referred to the university where she obtained her Bachelor's degree, the Ibero-American University.
The incident happened at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), where she was speaking to students. In her speech she declared that her weakness was that she had studied Economics at “Ibero”: “No soy perfecta, estudié en la Ibero” (“I am not perfect, I studied at Ibero”.) Students from ITAM University immediately laughed and cheered.
Josefina Vázquez Mota during a press conference. Image by Luis Ramon Barron Tinajero, Copyright Demotix.
Pulso Ciudadano explains [es] the incident:
Durante la Conferencia Magistral brindada en el Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Josefina Vázquez Mota indicó que no era perfecta y que había estudiado la Licenciatura de Economía en la Universidad Iberoamericana ¿Cuál es el criterio de la candidata presidencial para determinar qué universidad es más que otra? ¿Ese criterio debería de influir en la forma en que se dirige a los jóvenes universitarios del país?
Social media reactions were swift, with #josefinahumillaylahumillan [es], “Itam” [es] and “Ibero” [es] quickly trending on Twitter.
Fernanda Familiar (@qtf) [es] wrote on the topic:
Y Josefina Vázquez Mota, remata ayer, contra la Ibero… “No soy perfecta, estudié en la Ibero”.
Daliri Oropeza, (@Dal_air)[es], a student from the Ibero-American University said:
Puedes seguir con tu discurso vacío, pero por favor, no lo relaciones con la UIA, @JosefinaVM #Ibero
Some students from ITAM University were neutral on the incident, like @panchparra [es]:
ITAMitas hagamos valer nuestro auditorio, la comunidad @MundoITAM con actitud critica y academica #JosefinaITAM
Marco Antonio Gómez Lovera, blogger at Vivir México [es], affirmed that the candidate was only joking, as this is the type of language commonly used by youth:
Es claro que comentarios como estos pueden llegar a herir sensibilidades, pero también se debe entender que entre jóvenes que se expresan así, el comentario intentaba ser una manera de romper el hielo y conectar con el auditorio. ¿Que lo pudo haber hecho de manera diferente? Sí, también.
Genaro Lozano, (@genarolozano) [es] a professor at both universities admitted that he would also make similar jokes at both institutions, just to make students feel more confident:
Ah y claro, igual que JVM yo también siempre hago bromas con mis alumn@s del ITAM y de la Ibero sobre un@s y otr@s. Para motivarlos. :p
Finally, Josefina Vázquez Mota (@Josefina VM) [es] responded to the criticismfrom her official Twitter account:
Lamento que algunas personas deseen desvirtuar un comentario que jamás tuvo el propósito de lastimar a mi alma máter.
Finally, in a radio program from Ibero's radio station Triste Turno, she said [es] that it was only a joke and that if she were born again, she would study Economics in the same university.

author: Andrea Arzaba


text:
South Korea: Cartoonists Protest against Censorship of Online Cartoon Contents · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Cartoonists rallied against the Korea Communications Standards Commission's recent decision to more tightly censor the online cartoon contents and label innocuous cartoons as x-rated. NoCut_Toon.com blog [ko] posted related photos such as well-known cartoonist Gang Pull one-person protesting in front of the Commission building.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


text:
South Korea: Twitter Photos of One-Person Relay Protest against Jeju Naval Base Construction · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean Tweeters have joined rallies against the Jeju naval base construction that has been blamed for disrupting residents’ livelihood and destroying a rare ecosystem. Each Twitter user has volunteered to take turns to one-person protest against the construction and to tweet the photos, such as user @okeeffe00, @sirdy10 and @yds5921 did in the link.


text:
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: R.I.P. “Rasum” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Abeni pays tribute to the late Gerard “Rasum” Shallow, “a colossus on the Vincentian cultural landscape.”


text:
Trinidad & Tobago: “Bocas” Shortlist · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Bocas Lit Fest blog announces its shortlist for the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.


text:
Trinidad & Tobago: Protests & Parliament  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Eternal Pantomime suggests that the number of protests taking place is the country is indicative of “the population giving…their response to that Pappy Show of a Parliamentary sitting that happened on March 2nd”, adding: “You don’t insult the intelligence of tax payers and feel that because you have a voting base of psychophants that you safe and home free. Tides does turn….ask Manning about that.”


text:
A Love Letter From Israel to Iran · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

A message of love from Israelis to Iranians sounds stranger than fiction in these tense years where Iranian and Israeli governments threaten each other with any imaginable words.
But we see examples of just this in a Facebook campaign launched by Pushpin Mehina (real name Ronny) in his timeline that says: “We will never bomb your country. We love you.”
Israel considers Iran a potential nuclear threat to its existence. Meanwhile Iranian leaders claim that their nuclear program is peaceful, but also call for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Both Israelis and Iranians are now uploading photos of themselves with the logo saying either “Iranians We love You” or “Israelis We Love You” and it has attracted the attention of Israeli media.
For several people it is the first time they have communicated directly with either an Israeli or Iranian, and some Iranians voiced fears of repercussion from their government.
“I never met an Iranian”
Ronny from Tel Aviv in Israel writes:
To the Iranian people
To all the fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters. For there to be a war between us, first we must be afraid of each other, we must hate. I'm not afraid of you, I don't hate you. I don't even know you. No Iranian ever did me no harm. I never even met an Iranian… Just one in Paris in a museum. Nice dude… I see sometime here, on the TV, an Iranian. He is talking about war. I'm sure he does not represent all the people of Iran… If you see someone on your TV talking about bombing you… be sure he does not represent all of us. To all those who feel the same, share this message and help it reach the Iranian people.
Beauty beyond culture
A message from an Iranian lady says:
Hi Pushpin, I am an Iranian lady. I just saw your warm and beautiful message to my country mates. Reading your message brought tears to my eyes and warmness to my heart. Just wanted to ensure you, we all Iranians feel the same, we just want peace and beauty on the earth, we hate war and slaughter, we all are the parts of one body and it hurts when you see a human suffering since she or he is a part of your soul. I have been always curious about you guys if you hate us, because I have been sure that the actual face of Iranians would not be introduced to you guys… All in all, just would like to thank you for your beautiful message and say that we all love you because you are our brothers and sisters. The only thing that matters is your beautiful heart not your culture, language, skin color, religion or homeland.
It seems this campaign is offering a real connection between Iranians and Israelis to share a message we can only dream for: love and peace in the name of mankind.

author: Fred Petrossian


text:
Azerbaijan: A Rare Opportunity for Opposition Youth to Protest · Global Voices
Nigar Hacizade

This post is part of our special coverage Eurovision Azerbaijan 2012.
On 17 March, 2012, opposition youth in Azerbaijan held a rare sanctioned rally in one of the outer districts of Baku, the country's capital. The protest, attended by several hundred people, did not meet resistance or obstruction from the police; uncommon in recent years as most protests have been quickly and sometimes violently dispersed.
As has been customary since the 2011 Arab Spring, those attending shared photos and videos online, using the date's #17Mart hashtag on twitter.  Pro-government voices responded with their own: #teessuflenirem (I find it regrettable) which criticized the protest as well as the opposition in general, and #Mart17dubl2, referring to last year's failed protests on 11 March and 2 April.
The Facebook event page for the “March 17 – Demonstration by youth for their future,” which was set up weeks prior to the gathering, listed three demands: the release of political prisoners, no corruption in the education system, and an end to the 20-year old conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh and the restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
Organized by the Movement for Protection of Youth Rights, the rally featured many Azerbaijani flags as well as those of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. A local photographer and activist tweeted one of the most striking banners of the picket:
@HuseynovaTurkan: Bize #eurovision yoX #Garabag lazimdi #17mart #Azerbaijan http://twitpic.com/8xfsi8
Other placards highlighted the problem of corruption, especially evident in the educational system, sarcastically parodying government slogans claiming incomparable achievements in such areas.
@HuseynovaTurkan: analoqlu tehsil isteyirik #Azerbaijan #17mart #azadliq #tehsil http://twitpic.com/8xll07
A Facebook album by Habib Muntezir features more photos from the protest, with some of the other banners reading “The President is good, those surrounding him are bad,” and “I sold my house to the government and bought a ticket to Eurovision,” which referred to the recent controversial eviction of homeowners as part of preparations for the international music competition.
Protesters also held banners referencing the recent attempt to intimidate through blackmail RFE/RL investigative journalist Khadija Ismailova. This young protester holds a banner that reads “Turn off the cameras. We are having sex.”
Blogger Aziz Karimov posted a link to video from the protest on Twitter:
Meanwhile, pro-government users urged their followers to instead gather around the Park Bulvar shopping mall for a petition campaign supporting Azerbaijan's 2020 Olympics bid. Others used the “regrettable” line.
@gunelibrahim: Azad media, azad internet, azad vetendash olan olkede “azadliq yoxdur” deyen genclere gore #teesuflenirem #17mart #mitinq
Another was the President of Integration of Azerbaijani Youth into Europe, as well as her deputy:
@GulselSafarova: Azerbaycan gencliyi olkesini sevmeli ve deyerini bilmedir.Sabah cixacaq genclerin bele olmadiqlarina gore #teesuflenirem
@NargizXelef: Yeni gencler proqrami qebul edildi, gencler fondu yaradildi, her il gencler siyasetine yeni tohveler olur. Mitingdeki genclere #teesuflenirem
A member of the pro-government youth organization İreli (Forward) also questioned the motive behind holding a protest ahead of Eurovision even though the opposition has already made it clear that they are aware of the increased visibility the international music competition, as well as its hashtag, gives them.
@niyazaliyev: Maraqlidir, aktivleshme Avroviziya oncesi mushahide olunur,Avropanin diqqeti bizde olduqda… #teesuflenirem #mart17dubl2
While the rally was largely peaceful, police did however detain several people, a musician scheduled to perform at the protest among them.
@turkhankarim: Musicians Natiq Karimov and Jamal Ali have been arrested by police. Also young blogger Etibar Salmanli #17mart #Azerbaijan
Nevertheless, even if sparsely attended, the demonstration was arguably development for criticism in the oil-rich country after last year's protests were quickly suppressed by police. Indeed, subsequent refusals by the city administration to allow new demonstrations, as well as the arrest of young political activists such as Jabbar Savalan, had appeared to have dissuaded activists from taking to the streets again.
But, with Savalan released in December on presidential amnesty, and others on the occasion of Nowruz (also known as Persian New Year and one of the most important holidays in Azerbaijan) as well as the increased attention Eurovision is bringing, there could be some possibility for change. Certainly, with the spotlight on Azerbaijan, both opposition and government supporters are leaving nothing to chance.
This post is part of our special coverage Eurovision Azerbaijan 2012.

author: Nigar Hacizade


text:
Brazil: Solidarity March for Syrian Revolution · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
Syrian revolution support reached Sao Paulo, Brazil, on March 18, 2012. Hundreds of activists in Sao Paulo rallied to show their solidarity with the Syrian struggle on its first anniversary. The event took place as part of Global March Against the Syrian Dictator and in support of Palestine against Israeli occupation.
The activists shared photos and videos on Twitter and YouTube, for example Nadine Bekdache (@NadineBek [pt]) who posted:
fotos da passeata hoje em #SaoPaulo apoiando a revolação #Siria – A #palestina estava em todas as palavras ditas
Brazilian committee to support Syrian Revolution. Via @NadineBek on Twitter (used with permission)
Although the protest numbers did not reflect the whole Arab community that exists in Sao Paulo, people from different cultures, origins and backgrounds gathered to demonstrate: Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Brazilians, human rights activists and a leftist representative from a party from Argentina. The march started from Shopping Paulista to the MASP art museum and went via the Paulista avenue.
A video posted on YouTube [ar] described the actions of the protest:
واحد واحد واحد الشعب السورية واحد، بعد هذا الهتاف تأتي هذه الكلمة الذي يقول فيها المتكلم أن في سورية هدف واحد وهو إسقاط النظام ونحن هنا نتعلم من الثورة ورغم الصعوبات سنعمل كي نبقى موحدين. بإختصار: ثم يعتذر عن إنفعاله ويقول أن قضيته هي فلسطين وبأن ثورات كل البلدان العربية هي من شأنه وبإنه يؤمن أن من خلال حرية العالم العربي نقضي على إسرائيل. وينتظر أن يتغير النظام في الأردن أيضا ويحيي المغرب على حراكهم
The march stopped at the Syrian and Lebanese consulates (although they were on their day off) chanting and requesting Lebanese officials to treat the Syrian refugees with respect, to provide them with necessities, and to open the borders for Syrians who are escaping the tyranny of the Syrian regime.
"Absolute Support to Syrian Revolution."  Via @NadineBek  on Twitter (used with permission)
Speeches focused a lot on Palestine, free Syria, occupy Golan heights, and called for a united Syria while rejecting foreign intervention.
"For a united nation, secular and democratic. Palestine will be free." Via @NadineBek  on Twitter (used with permission)
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.

author: Rami Alhames


text:
Egypt: RIP Pope Shenouda III  · Global Voices
Nermeen Edrees

Yesterday, the sun set on Egypt with a somber note – Pope Shenouda III, the Head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, had died after a long severe battle of illness at the age of 89.
Following the sad news, thousands poured to Abbaseya Cathedral Chruch to pay their condolences and respect.
(Update: This post was previously illustrated by a photo that was misidentified as showing the body of Pope Shendoua III)
Following his death announcement, vapid posts started spreading over the Internet about the Pope's political stand, and Pro government/SCAF positions. Many commented particularly on his stand during Maspero's massacre. Yet comments and criticism were denounced and disdained by netizens who said the Pope, regardless of his political stands, was a spiritual leader who had a strong influence over the lives of millions of Coptic Egyptians.
Wael Eskander commented in a blog post he wrote as a response to slander against the late Pope:
Numerous ‘activists’ commenting either on Twitter or on Facebook have been slandering the Pope based on his political stances. The main problem with comments condemning the Pope other than being insensitive, which they are, is that they reflect a great deal of ignorance. It is disappointing to see some people narrow minded enough to react to Pope Shenouda III only from a political perspective. It reflects a very shallow outlook on what his passing means.
Wael then continues to explain the significance and the influence of Pope Shendoua among Copts:
It would be a mistake to think that Coptic criticisms of Pope Shenouda III meant resentment or dislike. Pope Shenouda was not a controversial figure among Copts, he was a revered and respected leader that garnered much love. In his role as the head of the church, there was great satisfaction and little desire to change him. The criticisms regarding some of his actions meant to bring his attention in order to correct his course rather than a complete rejection of his person and his ideas.
Along the same lines, Gamal Asaad (@Gamal_As3d) wrote on Twitter:
@Gamal_As3d: مهما إختلفنا مع البابا سياسيا سيظل هو أبونا الروحى ومعلمنا العظيم الذى تعلمنا منه المسيحية
The body of the Pope is currently placed on the Papal Chair inside the Cathedral for people to come and pay their respect and bid farewell for the coming three days until his burial.
Pope Shenouda's will was to be buried at Wadi El Natrun Monastery, one of the monasteries he has been exiled to during President Anwar Al Sadat's era for condemning the Camp David Treaty and his infamous refusal of visiting Jerusalem under the Israeli Occupation. Adam Makary (@adamakary) finds it ironic:
@adamakary: Interesting that #PopeShenouda chose to be buried at the same place he lived in house arrest under Sadat for almost 4 yrs, Pishoi monastery
Pope Shenouda III Funeral will be held on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Bakhomious will serve temporarily until the elections. Bassem Sabry (@Bassem_Sabry) clarifies:
@Bassem_Sabry: Metropolitan Bakhomious will serve in place of the late Pope #Shenouda for two months, the end of which a new #Coptic Pope will be elected.

author: Nermeen Edrees


text:
Iran: A poem dedicated to a blogger who died in prison · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Leila Farjami has dedicated a poem to Omid Reza Mirsayafi,a blogger who died in prison three years ago.Read more here.


text:
Philippines: Noynoying is the New Planking · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

Once fashionable and popular, planking has been eclipsed by a new sensation that has gripped many Filipinos around the globe. Planking was last year’s standard pose in youth and student protests against education budget cuts. Noynoying is the new planking in the Philippines.
Introduced in response to the President Noynoy Aquino regime’s inaction on oil price hikes, Noynoying is derived from the root word Noynoy, the nickname of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. It is described as “doing nothing when in fact you have something to do.”
The pose first hit the public in last Thursday's (15 March) anti-oil price hike protest after government officials threatened to arrest those who will do planking during the protest actions. Despite efforts by the Palace to shrug off noynoying by saying it won’t have any effect on the public, it has in fact now gone viral online.
Noynoying Twitter Trends
It has inspired a Facebook fan page which gained over 800 likes in a day and various internet memes. The hashtag #noynoying, Chantal’s Doodle points out, was top nine in the Philippines trends in Twitter the day the pose came out in public.
To counter the notion that the President is not doing anything on people’s concerns, the Philippine government Official Gazette released a photo of the President supposedly busy at work:
But netizens like the Momblogger has pointed out discrepancies, like the presence of TV and DVD remote controls, in one of the photos supposedly showing the president at “work.”
Freedomwall.net user Ian points out that President Noynoy has no one to blame for the growing popularity of noynoying but himself:
Portrayal of Noynoying made me remember the not so distant past. Partying while half of the nation is being ravaged by Sendong and reacted only when the public noticed of such inaction was making him the push-button president. He is the man who had written or worked the least while he was still in the Congress or the Senate. Being a chain smoker is not a good example and making a promise to stop when he’ll win the presidency but then finally broke it is a worst one.
Blogger Pat Mangubat of the New Philippine Revolution describes noynoying as the new form of governance:
What better way to describe what this government is doing than parody the very popular photo of Noynoy in a pensive mood? That photo, which was used during the 2010 elections, became somewhat a symbol, an attraction if you wish, to convince the middle classes that Pnoy is the “one”, a some sort of Pinoy Obama, who has the skills and the wherewithal to push this country into progress. Now, two years and a half into office, and nothing seems to move at all, except perhaps the cash registers of Big Business who is now cashing in on the somewhat catatonic state of this government.
Some tweet reactions on noynoying:
@ang_mungo: A word for not responding until after 10 days from a disaster or crisis, e.g. a super typhoon or a hostage crisis. What is…?
@vhongcrimson: lacierda: #noynoying di bebenta~ ~hellow? bentang benta kya ang #noynoying hahaha~ mura lng ksi to eh, at di pa nag tataas ng presyo~ ^^v
@chriscahilig: In fairness, “noynoying” is a self-explanatory word. The first time I read “noynoying” in a sentence, I knew right away what it meant.
@momblogger: Indeed @PresidentNoy is a working president. Question: for whom? Whose interest is this President interested on fulfilling? Big Oil firms?
@gangbadoy: That's funny, yung “Noynoying” sa amin, verb din na ang ibig sabihin ay “date ng date ng date, pero hindi nagpapakasal.” #VocabHomework
@MangPandoy: That's a good idea. Today, I will go #noynoying! May hostage crisis ba kamo? Kakain lang ako. May bagyo? Pa-party ako! [There's a hostage crisis? I'll just eat. There's a storm? I'll party!]
@dee_knees05: It is not just “noynoying” that young Filipinos are adopting from President Benigno Aquino III's known habit. More young Filipinos smoking.
@dudeinterrupted: Just like Imeldific, the word #Noynoying will soon find its way to the LEXICON.
The youth activist group Anakbayan has released a guide on “How to Do the NOYNOYING” and called for more pressure on the Aquino government to act on people’s issues like the oil price hike.
Here's one of the noynoying memes making the rounds online:

author: Karlo Mongaya


text:
Puerto Rico: The New Greece? · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

The financial analyst Cate Long(@cate_long), a columnist and guest blogger for the news agency Reuters, made some observations about the Puerto Rican economy that were not very reassuring. In her blog MuniLand, she published an article, in which she stresses the similarities between Puerto Rico's and Greece's economies:
Puerto Rico could be described as America’s own Third World country. It has a per capita income of $15,203 — that’s less than half the level of the poorest state, Mississippi, where it’s $31,046 — and the official unemployment rate is 15.5 percent. Forty-five percent of Puerto Ricans live below the poverty line, and 20 percent of personal income in the commonwealth comes from federal or Puerto Rican public funds. In short, it’s an economy going nowhere.
But it’s Puerto Rico’s massive debt load that makes it resemble another crisis-stricken country that’s been in the news lately: Greece.
What motivated her to write the article was the recent issuance of municipal bonds by the Puerto Rico government, which has been remarkably successful for Long, since, according to her, in the future Puerto Rico could become insolvent due to its economy not growing fast enough to ensure compliance with its long term public debt payments.
The analyst Sergio Marxuach from the Center for the New Economy agrees:
At a more fundamental level, neither country has control of monetary policy, so neither can devalue its currency to jumpstart the economy; neither has a strong productive base it can bootstrap to ignite growth; and perhaps more important of all, both economies are economic mirages based on consumption that has been sustained by a monetary illusion, that is, by having access to a stronger currency than their fundamentals warrant. So, in my view, the fundamental similarities outweigh any superficial differences between both countries.
This information is not new for economists. Nonetheless, Long's article prompted strong reactions on the Internet. The website Alerta Progresista [es] (Progressive Alert), one of the official pages of the New Progressive Party's campaign, the party headed by current governor Luis Fortuño, accused Cate Long of being an Occupy Wall Street activist, of not being a true financial analyst, and of being ordered to write the article as part of an agenda against governor Fortuño's administration. However, several people came to Long's defense on Twitter.
The blog Latino Rebels created a Storify story that sums up well the discussion on the social networks.
Long was surprised by all the controversy her article created and the strong negative reactions she received from the Fortuño administration. Be that as it may, she realized that those who paid the most attention to her article were people who were not involved with the bond market:
But it turned out the attention my piece was getting was from people outside the bond market. Those who were responding to it were those who love Puerto Rico and are concerned about its future, namely its citizens. They seized on what I wrote and passed it around on Facebook. Newspapers like elnuevodia.com [es] and blogs [es] picked it up and debated the fine points of the island’s unemployment rate and deficit spending. I’ve never seen anything like it in the United States.
A week later Long published an open letter to the Puerto Rican Governor in which she reaffirmed her original statements and expressed her displeasure with respect to the personal attacks she has received. However, she did admit that she committed an error in her first article:
… I made one mistake in that piece, which I did not discover until I read the rating agencies’ reports about the commonwealth. Your constitution requires that bond principal and interest be repaid before your government can make any other expenditures. That means bond repayments take precedence over payments for education, healthcare, government-worker wages and pensions. Bond markets cheer for this, of course, but I’m not sure that your citizens are entirely aware of it.

author: Ángel Carrión


text:
Slovakia: Corruption, Parliamentary Elections, and SMER’s Comeback · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

The March 10 victory in the Slovak parliamentary elections is not the first one for the SMER-Social Democracy party. Formerly a communist, now a social democrat, the party's leader Robert Fico has won for the third time in a row already.
In 2006, SMER had 29.1 percent of the popular vote (50 out of 150 seats). To form a government, however, Fico needed two coalition partners; one of them happened to be the Slovak National Party (SNS), whose leader, Ján Slota, was notorious for his anti-Roma and anti-Hungarian comments. Because of this partnership, Fico ended up having problems with the European social-democratic structures.
In 2010, SMER won even more votes (34.8 percent), but since it had “cannibalized” its former partners, it ended in the opposition. (One of the partners failed to enter the parliament at all, while the other was saved by extra votes earned by a political newcomer, a former hockey star Vincent Lukáč.)
Other right-wing parties refused to cooperate with SMER, accusing its politicians of corruption and overspending that “leads to Greece.” Fico, who had publicly declared shortly before the elections that he would never accept the role of an opposition MP, became one.
Before the 2010 elections, a recording of Fico's 2002 secret speech was made public: in it he declared that he had made significant amounts of money for unofficial funding of the party ‘with his own head.’ Because of the way in which Fico later denied the authenticity of the record, it is common to refer to him jokingly as “a voice similar to Fico's.”
When at the end of 2011 the right-wing government fell because of disagreements over the European bailout fund, it was expected that this would be the main topic of the election campaign.
But just a few weeks later, the so-called Gorilla Scandal broke out, due to the publication of the transcripts of secret meetings between the head of Penta, a Slovak investment group, and people from various governmental structures, which allegedly took place before 2006, when nearly the same right-wing government as in 2011 was in office. The transcripts featured discussions of state economy-related topics and expensive offers.
The recordings were made by the Slovak intelligence service (SIS), as part of an operation that had begun accidentally, because one of the SIS agents happened to live in an apartment next door. The text version that was made public is not the exact transcript, and it is not clear whether all of its parts correspond to the original. It is also not known when, if ever, the participants of the secret meetings realized [sk] their conversations were being taped. And it is not clear who made the transcripts public, although it is now obvious that some media, as well as some politicians, knew about it, but were afraid to deal with it.
Fico's visits are mentioned in the recordings, too. He refused to clearly admit that he had been to the mentioned apartment. What is clear is that during the time of “his reign” the investigation of the case stopped, the “neighbor” agent was fired from SIS, and the original voice recordings were reported to have been erased (they were expected to re-surface just days before the elections, but never did).
SDKU, the main right-wing party affected the most by the affair, started its “suicide ride” by simply denying everything. The party's leader Mikulas Dzurinda declared that he had not even read the transcripts to the end. In one of the latest pre-election surveys, SDKU wasn't getting enough votes to get into the parliament.
Penta, too, denied everything, and unleashed its lawyers, who achieved a very fast court ban of the book about the Gorilla case. For a while, they also tried to take action against Facebook as one of the places where the papers had been published.
SMER, refusing to comment on any possible links between the party and corruption, focused its election campaign on social issues, declaring that “people deserve certainties” – a statement that, on the web, quickly got paired with Benjamin Franklin's words, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Benjamin Franklin: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”; Robert Fico: "People deserve certainties." (An anonymous image widely circulated online.)
(More election-inspired graphics can be found here and here.)
The publication of the transcripts caused protests across the country, the last one of which took place the day before the elections. The numbers of the protesters in Bratislava ranged from over 10,000 to just a few hundreds, with the unusually cold weather being an obstacle to making the protests more numerous. A few conflicts with the police took place [sk] during the protests as well. At the beginning, the organizers had quite unrealistic demands, such as postponing the March 10 elections until autumn, when, as they expected (somewhat naively, perhaps), the newly-started investigation would bring results.
The vote, however, took place as scheduled, and this cartoon conveys the voters’ mood very well.
Because of many right-wing voters who did not come to vote (and many left-wing ones who did come), SMER now has over 50 percent of the seats and can form a new government on its own. SDKU lost two-thirds of its voters, but did get into the parliament.
Below is a short selection from a web discussion that followed this article [sk] about voter preferences on the eve of the elections.
TimmyA:
The rescue of SDKU = the rescue of the Dzurinda-[Miklos] duo. And such persons perhaps today no sane man can rescue. They do not deserve rescue. I gave them my vote in 1998 and 2002. … But a party that is spitting at its voters and even in the last days their nominees care about their own bussiness … such a party does not deserve support.
mfpvr (in reply):
I consider myself sane, and imagine, I plan to vote for SDKU, even for the first time right now. … If someone does not want to vote for SDKU just because of Dzurinda, then he's an ox, because right now there is a chance to finally send him to well-deserved retirement. … Now [the voter] has a unique chance … to get Dzurinda away [using preferential votes].
TimmyA (in reply):
A chance. So I have to BEG for any chance? It's them who have to BEG for MY VOTE… Dzurinda does not care about any preferential votes … The only chance is he will be forced to leave.
Lucia Jannovska (in reply):
Dear TimmyA
let me draw attention to myself. I personally will vote for SDKU…. Are you asking why SKDU? I got from them what I am thankful for. And I would like to continue with the reforms. The countries around [Slovakia] are envious of them already.
Kvantovy mechanik:
… The idea that “I have five rotten apples, so I have to choose one” is still relevant.
JaM:
Slovakia, Slovakia…
We had four years of Fico and it ended so that we once again had to tighten our belts. The problem was that the government that came after him had big promises but they delivered almost nothing of what they had promised…
Martin1984:
It is not necessary to save corrupt parties. It is just necessary to save Slovakia from them by not giving them our votes again and again.
And here are some comments from a discussion that followed this Pravda.sk article [sk] about the election results:
Zaza:
Congratulations to the winner of the elections. The people decided and we, who did not vote for him, will carefully watch how the idea of a welfare state is promoted. … And when SMER succeeds and, more importantly, has no scandals like those in the past … it can be that in the future I will vote for them. It would be nice, but seeing what the first statements of Mr. Fico are, in terms of PPP projects and the planned progressive taxation, I am afraid that it will be exactly what we had here two years ago.
kohinor:
People chose SMER in a democratic election. They know very well that even SMER is not doing miracles and they can also expect (!) austerity and asceticism. They also know that in case of right-wing victory they can expect just(!) austerity and asceticism. And that makes the main difference.
cerveni_koncia_2:
It is sad that the policies of those socialists are based on short-term devastation of the state budget and spreading the utter crap whose result is only Greece. Probably it would be best if Fico ruled not for four years, but for eight … Slovakia has to go through hell to let these people – Fico-voters – understand the basic principles of functionality of the economy.
Brehy:
Now I will wait for the program of the government, I will give them 100 days, during which I will be interested how they bring order to the tax mess and whether they keep promises of progressive tax and how they work to keep the prices of gas and electricity from rising….
tesa:
Gorillas remain in the parliament. Who will drive them out from there?
contris (in reply):
no one, because we are all gorillas. I would steal, you would steal, everyone would steal if [we] had a chance.

author: Tibor Blazko


text:
Syria: When Assad Falls  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.
Like all Arabs protesting against their dictators, Syrians have many hopes and aspirations for life after the toppling of their dictator Bashar Al Assad. On Twitter, Syrians are sharing their dreams under the hash tag #WhenAssadFalls.
For Syrian Kareem Lailah, the dream is a personal one:
@KareemLailah: #WhenAssadFalls I'll be able to see my beloved mother again.
Zainab wants to see the smile on children's faces:
@_Zazo_: #whenassadfalls i want to take a toy for every child of the martyrs children! maybe it will make them smile for 1 minute only #syria
And the 47th wants to take revenge on men of religion, blamed for spreading sectarianism among Syrians:
@THE_47th: #WhenAssadFalls I'll be after religious figures.. No one is getting away
Meanwhile, Syrian Freedom takes a stab at Syria's censorship and monitoring of the Internet. He laments:
@SooriMadsoos: So #WhenAssadFalls who will control #Syria the Facebook activists, the LCC, the FSA, or the foreign opposition???
Abu Hatem cautions:
@abuhatem: #WhenAssadFalls huge major problems are going to arise in transition harder than Tunisia, Libya, Egypt combined.
And Mishael Shamsi reminds us [ar]:
@Mishael_Shamsi: Bashar will become a past, cursed in history books
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
Turkey: Police Attack Kurds Celebrating Newroz · Global Voices
Ruwayda Mustafah

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.
Thousands of Kurds took to the streets in celebration of Newroz, in a pre-planned event, but were dispersed with water cannons, tear gas and kettled across Turkey today. Despite the brutality they faced in Diyar Bakir, Kurds continued to march towards the square where Newroz celebrations, which mark the first day of Spring, were to be held. In the past, they were not allowed to exert their Kurdish identity in public, but since the 1980s, Newroz has become a symbolic event in highlighting Kurdish culture, and identity.
Newroz is usually celebrated between March 18 and 21, but the official date for Newroz is March 21. During Newroz, Kurdish people dress up in traditional dresses, and partake in folklore dance. Unfortunately today, violence was escalated by the presence of Turkish riot police, and the barricading of entrances towards the Square.
Kurdish Women mark Newroz in the Turkish capital Ankara. Photo credit: Jiyan Azadi posted on Twitter
Yekbun Alp from Amed (Diyarbakir) tweeted:
@YekbunAlp: Turkish police have locked Amed and doesnt let anyone leave the city to celebrate Newroz.
In a poor attempt to disperse Kurds that were making their way to the Square to celebrate Newroz, unnecessary force was used by Turkish riot police. Alp explains:
@YekbunAlp: Turkish police is using teargas against the celebrators!!!
Violence continued, and led to the killing of one Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) executive in Istanbul. BDP co-chair Gültan Kışanak confirmed the death of Haci Zengin on her Twitter account.
Reuters reports on this incident:
Turkish police used water cannon, tear gas and baton charges to break up Kurdish demonstrations across the country on Sunday and one local politician died in the protests, a sign of rising tension ahead of the Kurdish New Year next week.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.

author: Ruwayda Mustafah


text:
Yemen: Remembering the Friday of Dignity · Global Voices
Noon Arabia

This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.
Friday March 18 is a a tragic day in Yemen's history, a date that is engraved in every Yemenis’ memory, better known as Friday of Karamah, or the Friday of Dignity. On this date back in 2011, security forces built a wall near Change square in Sanaa, filled it with tyres and petrol and immediately after Friday prayer they set it on flames to block the protesters. This occurred as [former President Ali Abdullah] Saleh's supporters posted on rooftops, allies and houses, opened fire on the massive march and caused an unprecedented atrocious and brutal bloodshed.
Around 52 protesters were killed on that day and close to 100 were reportedly injured, according to witnesses and medical staff. It was a turning point in Yemen's revolution, which made many people, statesmen, diplomats, and soldiers defect and join the ranks of the protesters.
The tragic events of Friday of Karamah was captured through the lens of three cameramen and recounts of eyewitnesses, in a powerful documentary appropriately called “Karamah Has No Walls.” It is a collaborative work of Yemeni youth from the heart of Sanaa's Change Square, which successfully conveys to the viewer the emotions, fears and calamity of that bloody day. The documentary is beautifully directed by Yemeni female director Sara Ishaq – @yemyogini.
The two parts of the documentary are uploaded by OfficialSuhailTV [Warning: Extreme graphic content].
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i04i8u_koFM
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTyxtSemoY0
As I described the documentary in my blog post:
It is a profound humanitarian message that reflects the enormity of the plight, the magnitude of the suffering and the dimension of the sacrifices of the Yemeni revolution. It also resonates the resolute, steadfast and commitment of all Yemenis to the revolution and it's demands. Above all it is a powerful incriminating piece of evidence documenting one of the regimes’ many brutal atrocities & crimes against humanity.
The month of March started with the dignity march, calling for change and freedom, turned into a massacre, and sadly ended with the GCC-brokered deal and the rest is history.
Meanwhile, Yemenis remember this day with remorse for the lives lost and what could have been achieved and was not. Yemeni neitzens commiserate on Twitter.
@SummerNasser tweeted:
#Mar18 will be put down in history: It will be the day we remember how carelessly our people were killed b/c they called for freedom. #Yemen
Yemeni photographer Abdulrahman Jaber tweeted a set of photographs that he captured through his lens on that tragic day:
@ARJaber:
18 March photos in Sanaa, pictures from the memory ..part of unforgetable memroies 18+ http://www.flickr.com/photos/someart/sets/72157627747752035/show/ #yemen
@Afrahnasser tweeted:
Today #Yemen mourns 52 ppl who were killed last year because they were defending freedom & change #Yemen
Despite the bad weather condition in Sanaa today, young and old men, women and children gathered in 60 Street to attend the commemoration of the 1st anniversary of March 18 Karama massacre day.
@yemen_updates tweeted:
Regardless of the heavy sand/dust storm in #Sanaa, dozens of thousands continue arriving at 60 St to commemorate the Karama Day. #Yemen
@ichamza cynically tweeted:
#March18th more than 50 young men were killed in cold blood and the murderers were caught b4 our eyes! but r still unknown! #Yemen
@Afrahnasser asks with remorse:
What shall we tell the 52 ppl killed after we allowed the #GCCDeal & gave ammunity to #Saleh !! #Yemen
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basendwah announced a donation of 50 million riyals for the benefit of the families of the martyrs on the anniversary of Karama Day. (video uploaded by belaquood).
The change the lives the martyrs on this day and others throughout the year of revolution readily sacrificed for has not been achieved and justice has not been served and this governmental gesture, albeit a year later, certainly is not the solution Yemenis were looking for!
This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.

author: Noon Arabia


text:
Zambia: Government Deregisters Former Ruling Party · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Zambia’s biggest opposition party, the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) which was ousted from power by the Patriotic Front (PF) after the September 2011 elections after 20 years in power, was on March 14, 2012, deregistered by authorities for allegedly not paying statutory fees for the period it was in government now amounting to over  K 300,000,000 or USD 57,034.22.
Registrar of Societies, Clement Andeleki, a known PF cadre who once appeared in court for allegedly forging a letter in the name of the late President Levy Mwanawasa, first threatened to deregister the former ruling party a week earlier but changed his mind. Immediately after the deregistration was announced, the MMD filed an injunction to stop the deregistration of the party which has just over 50 members of parliament, nearly a third of the 158 member legislative assembly.
Ironically, President Michael Sata served as MMD national secretary, the party's chief executive officer, between 1995 and 2001 when he left the then ruling party to form PF.
MMD logo. Image courtesy of Lusaka Times.
Netizens on various social media networks did not take kindly to the news of MMD's deregistration whose party leader and former republican president Rupiah Banda, coincidentally, stepped down on the day the action was taken.
On the Zambian People’s Parliament Facebook group page, one of the questions that was asked was the issue of by-elections that would inevitably follow after the deregistration of the opposition party.
Jude Moraes wrote:
Mr Speaker Sir, Now that the Registra of societies has de-registered the MMD what happens to all the MP's on the MMD ticket? Are we going for a 55 Bye elections?
An MMD member of parliament on Facebook, Moses Muteteka wrote:
Let me assure zambians that the deregistration of MMD is a failed coup and legally its a non startter hence relax and all is safe MMD will continue participating democratically.
On the 90 days (Government thumbs up/down every 90 days) Facebook group Kelvin Kings Mulembe lamented the deterioration of democracy, saying:
It's a “Sad Day” for Zambia and democracy in Africa! whether politically motivated or not, such a move stinks and does not register well in our country's history. I am afraid, Zambia is quickly losing its position as an example of a promising democracy in Africa. This is very disappointing. One foolish man is to blame for all this. And, I can't blame a simple Registrar.
Nicholas Mutalama, however, blamed the MMD for its predicament:
Where has this society been in the last 20yrs? Let's call a spade a spade… MMD used is political influence and ignored the fees and the registrar obviously did not want to bite the finger that fed him…okay! Now that the tables have switched round, the same registrars office is doing this to serve it's current master except only this, Pf has influenced this initiative to be the only Political Party standing! This is a sad day for Zambia and we are going to need more than a miracle to survive….!?!
On the Lusaka Times, some of the reactions were as follows:
Mphangwe wrote:
THIS REFLECTS AN OFFICIAL RETURN TO A ONE-PARTY-STATE. If this development is badly handled or mismanaged, the ensuing political events may lead to the dissolution of Parliamen,t in which case Sata will have to seek a fresh mandate to retain his Republican Presidency in Zambia. The best Legal Constitutional brains are needed to resolve this self-inflicted suicide by the PF govt. The workers murmurs will precipitate loud protests. Hence the doctrine of “DONCHI KUBEBA [Don't tell them, a PF pre-election slogan]” may also be applied by other parties to inflict negative results for the PF. GOD HEAR OUR PRAYERS.
Another contributor, GUNDIX wrote:
Why are you people complaining? What are laws for? MMD made fun of laws they were supposed to have safeguarded.
When I was a pastor in a small rural Zambia, my congregation prepared and remitted annual returns to the Registrar’s Office. Why should a huge body of people, let alone a ruling political party not be exemplary by adhering to the laws of the country?
They had it coming. The rule of law must be promoted by all Zambians whose interest is national development, which the rule of law guarantees. If this is unacceptable to some, why do we even bother to talk about a new Constitution? So that after it is written we can ignore it?
Come people, let us get serious!
On Facebook Brian Matambo wrote:
MMD blues… well, I dont believe it will be a one party state. First we are not fools just because we are Zambians. Secondly, there is NAREP, UNIP, UPND, Heritage, and Magande's party whatever its called.. and many others out there. To me MMD is expendable. If they can't even lawfully exist, they don't deserve to exist anyway.
On Twitter, Zambians also expressed various views:
@ErasmusMweene: Our economy has just been downgraded to B-minus. Do we have the money to hold 53 by-elections? #PF #MMD #Zambia.
On concerns that the PF government wanted to create a one-party state, one tweep wrote:
@livilodge: @missbwalya #Zambia I have lived here for more than 30 years, almost all of that time it has been a defacto one party state #whatdemocracy?
This was after one tweep mourned the potential demise of democracy in the country:
@missbwalya: Our democracy is on shaky ground if MMD de-registration is upheld after appeals. #Zambia
The MMD won Zambia's first multi-party elections for parliament and the presidency since the 1960s. The party controlled an absolute majority in parliament between 1991 and 2001.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


text:
Bahamas: The “Get Ahead Syndrome”  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Rick Lowe thinks that the only thing that's consistent about Bahamians is their inconsistency.


text:
Bahrain: When is a Molotov Cocktail Acceptable?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Marc Owen Jones collects videos allegedly showing Bahrain police forces throwing molotov cocktail (petrol bombs) at protesters and property in this post. Meanwhile, Bahrain has just charged 28 civilians with “attempted murder” for throwing molotov cocktails at policemen.


text:
Bolivia: Remembering Domitila Barrios de Chungara · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Emily Achtenberg, in the blog Rebel Currents, profiles Domitila Barrios de Chungara, “long-time social activist, union leader, feminist, revolutionary, and national heroine who died March 13 in Cochabamba at age 74. She is best known as the miner’s wife who led a hunger strike in 1978 that brought down the dictatorship of General Hugo Bánzer, paving the way for the return of Bolivian democracy.”

author: Silvia Viñas


text:
Brazil: Cyclist’s Death in São Paulo Sparks Protests and Debate · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

On the morning of March 2, 2012, 33-year-old Juliana Dias was killed by a bus while riding her bicycle on her way to work along São Paulo's main street, Avenida Paulista. Her story shocked cycling rights activists, sparked spontaneous protests across the city and opened a national debate.
The blog Beirut Walls [ar] described the sad accident:
كانت جولي تسير على الجهة الصحيحية كما تفعل كل يوم وهي في طريقها الى العمل، بين الجهة المتعارف عليها للباص والجهة المخصصة لمرور السيارات. ضايقتها سيارة وكسرت عليها. فعل معها الأمر نفسه سائق باص، فاحتجت. أصرّ سائق الباص بالمضايقة فأوقعها أرضاً عن قصد، ليأتي باص ثاني ويدهس رأسها.
يقول أهالي منطقة باوليستا أن السائق الذي دهسها، ولم يكن ذلك ذنبه، كان صديقها بالسير؛ فهم كانوا يتبادلون التحية كل صباح عند ما يلتقون في الطريق.
تم سجن سائق الباص الأول بتهمة القتل الغير متعمد.
Tribute to Juliana Dias. Source: Beirut Walls blog (used with permission)
Julie was cycling on the correct side as she did every day on her way to work, between the bus and car lanes. A car harassed her and steered over to her lane. The same thing happened with a bus driver, and she protested. The bus driver insisted on harassing her, and made her fall down, and the next bus ran over her head.
Paulista area residents say that the driver who ran over Juliana (which was not his fault) was her friend; they exchanged greetings every morning when they met in the street.
The first bus driver has been arrested, accused of non-intentional homicide.
According to São Paulo’s transit authority data [pt] from 2010, one cyclist a week dies in a traffic accident in São Paulo.
Leonardo Sakamoto, a professor of journalism at São Paulo's PUC university, wrote on his blog [pt]:
Mais uma ciclista morreu atropelada em São Paulo. Novamente por um ônibus, novamente na via que é o símbolo do progresso, novamente gerando um protesto de pessoas que defendem que a cidade pertença a todos. E, novamente, criando indignação pelo congestionamento que tudo isso trouxe.
Cars are not the owners of the roads
Cars are not the owners of the roads. Source Beirut Walls blog (used with permission)
Beirut Walls [ar] blog wrote a summary of the last events concerning the legalisation and municipalities approval of cycling rights on streets:
في العام ٢٠١١ أخفض كساب الميزانية المخصصة للنقل العام الى نصف ما كانت عليه في الـ ٢٠١٠ ومع ذلك وعد كساب عندما تولى منصب رئيس بلدية ساو باولو في عام 2009، ببناء 100 كيلومتر من مسارات الدراجات والممرات. حتى الآن، تم فتح 76 كم، ولكن 20٪ فقط من لهم علاقة بالبنية التحتية محددة لراكبي الدراجات وذلك في خامس أكبر مدينة في العالم حيث عدد السكان يتجاوز العشرة ملايين، وحيث عدد السيارات الخصوصية عالي جدا بالنسبة للمدينة مما يؤدي إلى عرقلة حركة السير وتأخير المواصلات العامة. في 7 مارس/آذار 2012 أقر كساب القانون الذي يؤسس لإنشاء نظام سير للدراجات الهوائية يتضمن طرق، ممرات ومسارات خاصة للدراجة وأماكن مخصصة لركنها.
Moreover, on February 17, the blog Eu vou de Bike (I'm going by bike) [pt], published some good news for cyclists:
A melhor notícia da semana para quem mora em São Paulo foi divulgada sem muito alarde na última quarta-feira. Segundo reportagem da Folha de S. Paulo, a cidade vai receber um sistema de compartilhamento com TRÊS MIL bicicletas espalhadas por 300 estações
A set of photos was posted on the Beirut Walls blog as a way to protest and promote the case of cyclists in São Paulo city:
Let me use the bicycle as a means of transport / Only bikes save / Your car and your hurry can kill / 60 km per hour in Paulista is a crime. Source Beirut Walls blog (used with permission)
Furthermore, the blog Cidades para pessoas (Cities for the people) [pt] suggests a creative idea for raising awareness about bicycle rights in the city, by mapping bicycle accidents in São Paulo:
A proposta de criação desse mapa colaborativo foi postada na plataforma Cidade Democrática, onde podemos recrutar mais ajudantes para aperfeiçoá-lo. Com o tempo esse mapa vai se tornar um documento informal e pode ser usado como instrumento de demanda por mais segurança para os ciclistas ao poder público – além de ser um importante registro democrático e transparente dos acidentes na cidade. Em uma pesquisa encontramos mapas existentes que já mapearam os acidentes fatais envolvendo ciclistas em São Paulo nos anos de 2006, 2007 e 2008. Por isso é importante que juntemos esforços para tentar levantar os acidentes a partir de 2009.


text:
Brazil: Should Pinheirinho Eviction go to the International Criminal Court? · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Brazilian blogger and Amnesty International fellow Carlos Alberto Ungarzo argues [pt] about the need to take the case of the violent eviction of Pinheirinho, which took place on January 22 in the state of São Paulo, to the International Criminal Court.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


text:
Cambodia’s First IPO · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Sihanoukville Journal writes that the Cambodia Stock Exchange opened last year but no company has been listed yet. But three state corporations will soon trade stocks which are being keenly anticipated by global investors

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Cuba: Bloggers Uncomfortable as Pope’s Visit Looms · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

As Pope Benedict XVI‘s controversial visit to Cuba draws closer, online discussion is heating up, even as the country plunges into what Havana Times describes as “Catholic fervor”, ostensibly in an effort “to bring renewed preferential status to a once ostracized institution and gain new devotees.”
The post explains:
The renewed status of the Catholic Church in Cuba comes at a time when the government has sought allies to implement its economic reforms while maintaining strict Communist Party political control over the population.
The resurgence of the Catholic Church of Cuba represents a big change over the first decades of the Cuban revolution when being an outward follower of the Catholic Church or any other religious institution meant being blacklisted at work places, educational centers and in neighborhoods.
Since 1992, Cuban citizens who practice a religion have been allowed to be members of the Communist Party and are no longer discriminated against by the government because of their religious beliefs.
But it is that apparent partnership between communism and Catholicism that is upsetting so many netizens, especially in light of reportedly ongoing human rights abuses and other surreptitious methods of curtailing personal freedoms. To emphasize this point, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo at Translating Cuba, republishes the Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Christ and Communism, which he calls “obligatory reading”.
The actions of the Cuban government have not gone unnoticed by babalu, who says that over the weekend:
The Castro dictatorship sent throngs of violent and insulting thugs to attack prominent dissidents on the island. The home of one of the leaders of the Ladies in White Laura Pollan was surrounded by a government controlled mob to threaten and intimidate the Ladies in White to make sure they do not mess with the theatrical performance the regime, the Church in Cuba, and the Vatican have planned for the Pope's visit. As of yesterday, their leader, Berta Soler, along with several other Ladies in White, have disappeared.
The closer the date of the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba comes, the Cuban dictatorship is becoming more nervous and aggressive.
This, on the heels of Cardinal Jaime Ortega's stance against 13 church protesters, makes several bloggers uncomfortable. Of the Archbishop of Havana's action, Without Evasion says:
I don’t understand how you can serve Christ, defender of his people and indeed dissident in his time, while protecting only the powerful. Doesn’t the Cuban Catholic Church grant privilege to those who suffer the most? Aren’t dissidents precisely who are most in need of protection under dictatorship conditions? Why haven’t senior representatives of the clergy never dedicated a Mass in memory of such a worthy and admirable Cuban, Laura Pollán, or to Orlando Zapata or Wilman Villar, and have instead made fervent wishes for the health of that other bellicose and foreign leader, Hugo Chávez? Doesn’t that amount to taking political positions?
At this point, it is too hypocritical to pretend that all is well in Cuba, whether the Pope visits or not. It is also a childish lie to deny that the church is a political and not just a religious institution that has survived, though not in vain, powerful for nearly two millennia. The Bishopric’s note seems to respond more to an official demand of the Cuban government than to a feeling of true Christian faith. And just in case I’m wrong and faith calls for remaining quiet and look away; if, by virtue of that faith, Benedict XVI’s visit should be surrounded by a solemn choreography and by a cloak to hide the reality of our country, I don’t think that is the faith that Cuba needs, and may God forgive me.
Similarly, the action makes babalu come to the conclusion that the Vatian is “tripl[ing] down on Cardinal Ortega and Castro dictatorship”:
Double Down:
The Vatican stood by Ortega in a terse statement from Rome.
‘We approved of the position of the cardinal and the diocese,’ said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Holy See. ‘I have nothing else to add.’
Triple Down:
(Reuters) – The Vatican on Friday condemned the U.S. embargo against Cuba ahead of Pope Benedict's trip there next week and said the pontiff was willing to meet Fidel Castro.
The Vatican's statement on the US/Cuba embargo is proving to be just another irritant to the online community, with babalu noting the marked difference in the Vatican's stance when it came to trade embargos against South Africa:
As a public service by Babalu blog we'll again compare Apartheid South Africa's ‘crimes against humanity’ to Castroite Cuba's:
According to Anti-Apartheid activists a grand total of 3000 political prisoners passed through South Africa’s Robben Island prison in roughly 30 years under the Apartheid regime. Usually about 1000 were held. These were out of a South African population of 40 million. In its day, the regime responsible for these incarcerations weathered a relentless campaign of vituperation from every political, press and academic pulpit on the face of the earth until economic sanctions by practically every nation on the face of the earth battered, crippled and finally finished it.
According to the Human Rights group, Freedom House, a grand total of 500,000 political prisoners have passed through Stalinist Cuba's various prisons and forced-labor camps, mostly during the 60's and 70's. At one time in 1961, 300,000 Cubans were jailed for political offenses. This was out of a Cuban population in 1960 of 6.4 million. Among these people are THE LONGEST SUFFERING POLITICAL PRISONERS IN MODERN HISTORY.
In the meantime, crackdowns are apparently continuing. Babalu says that:
Yesterday, over seventy members of Cuba's Ladies in White, a peaceful human rights group made up entirely of wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of Cuban political prisoners, were arrested by Cuban State Security as they silently marched down the streets of Cuba. It was the final culmination of an oppressive and despicable operation launched by the Cuban regime beginning on Saturday against the women and other prominent dissidents on the island. With the much heralded papal visit just over a week away, it is an amazing display of intolerance and malice by the Castro dictatorship, and no doubt a manifestation of their fear the pope's visit may become a public triumph for Cuba's courageous human rights activists instead of the public relations coup they are hoping for.
Referring to the same incident, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter wonders whether actions like these could be indicative of “another Cuban Black Spring“:
Today, nine years later thanks to the sacrifice of the Ladies in White the men unjustly imprisoned in 2003 are no longer in prison. Most of them were forced into exile while a small number remain on the island. The founder of the Ladies in White, Laura Pollán, died under mysterious circumstances on October 14, 2011. The new head of the Ladies in White ‘Laura Pollán‘, Berta Soler was arrested today and remains detained tonight. They continue to demand the release of the remaining political prisoners in Cuba and that human rights be respected.
Elements within the Catholic Church in Cuba have been accused of not defending human rights on the island and on occasion siding with those in power there or ignoring evils perpetrated by the regime which has led to frustration in some opposition circles.
Hopefully, in addition to his important pastoral message, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will address the importance of human rights as he did on April 18, 2008 in his address to the United Nations General Assembly…
Hopefully the arrest of 70 nonviolent women attempting to attend Mass and march peacefully through the streets of Cuba on the ninth anniversary of the crackdown that brought the Ladies in White into existence will serve as a bright beacon for all observing the situation in Cuba.
Blogging from Havana, Iván's File Cabinet notes that Cuba is preparing to receive the pope with a “bath of masses”, which he explains is “something exclusive to the olive-green revolution”, ending by saying:
The papal visit has aroused wide register of opinions in Cuba: indifference and applause, reviews and dislikes in a sector of the opposition and Afro-Cuban religions, because the Holy Father is scheduled to meet with them.
Whether Benedict XVI’s visit will make history, as his predecessor John Paul II’s did, remains to be seen. But you can be assured that this Vicar of Christ will be treated to a bath of masses. And sound. As only a regime that has made the public acts a registered trademark knows how.
From his Popemobile and in the two masses he will officiate in Cuba, the Pope will see hundreds of thousands people. While on the island only 10% of the population practices Catholicism. One detail that the German pope should not overlook.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Egypt: A Stranger in my Own Country · Global Voices
Eman AbdElRahman

Egyptian blogger and science journalist Dr Nadia El Awady discussed the different dreams people had when they participated in the Egyptian revolution on 25 January, 2011, and how she is shocked that these dreams turned out to be different from hers.

author: Eman AbdElRahman


text:
Ethiopia/Eritrea: Netizens Denounce Winds of War as Ethio-Eritrea War 2.0 Looms · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought one of the most gruesome wars in the world between May 1998 and June 2000. Following the attack on Eritrea by Ethiopian troops on 17 March, 2012, Ethiopian netizens are voicing their opinions rejecting the winds of war in the renewed conflict between the two countries.
Amidst reports of Ethiopia’s second assault on Eretria, Abe Tokichaw, Ethiopian columnist and exiled blogger, set the tone for most netizens as he satirized Ethiopia’s attack on Eretria in his regular blog post in Amharic:
እንግዲህ ዳግም ጦርነት ሊጀመር ይመስላል… በርግጥ ኤርትራ “ጦርነት የሚፈልገው የጦርነትን ዋጋ የማያውቅ ነው” ብላ የጦርነት ‘ሀፒታይት” እንደሌላት ብትገልፅም ኢህአዴግ ግን ጦር አውርድ እያለ ነው። ከዚሁ ጋር ተያይዞ “ውድ እና ጉድ የሆናችሁት የኢህአዴግ ባለስልጣኖች ሆይ ይቅርታ አድርጉልንና “ከሽራሮ ያቺው የማትረባ ሽሮ ትሻለናለች!” እና ዝመቱ በላችሁ እንዳትጠሩን አደራ! (በማለት አንዳንድ የህብረተሰብ ክፍሎች መልዕክታቸውን አስተላልፈዋል)
We Want Peace – a painting by Eritrean student Filmon Measfun. Image source: Habesha People Facebook page.
Writing at Merkato Blog, Yilma Bekele argues that war defines the Ethiopian government:
War is upon us again. War defines the Ethiopian Government. Since it came to power it has been at war with its citizens. No region or ethnic group has been spared from this infection. The regime is always at war with opposition politicians, journalists, publishers, intellectuals, and business people to mention a few. The regime has fought in Gambella, Hawasa, Ambo, Arba Minch and other localities against its own people. The Ethiopian Government is at war with our Somali-Ethiopians in the Ogaden and has been accused of war crimes.
Ethiopia's attack on Eritrea is a tactic for distracting Ethiopia's public opinion:
In an ideal world no country will sell weapons to this rogue regime. The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea have seen too many wars. The generation that cultivated and nurtured hatred and animosity is on its way out. This is its last gasp to save itself from its internal enemies. The Ethiopian government is using the Eritrean threat to justify its war on all Ethiopian people. The two poorest economies on planet earth are wasting their precious resource to kill each other. There is no one closer to an Ethiopian than an Eritrea. Eritreans have no one closer to heart than Ethiopians. Instead of building a great East African trade and technology Zone we are listening to those that peddle hate and violence. It is a new day. It is a new generation void of hate and violence.
A regular Facebook user, Zelelem,  mocks Ethiopia’s government by sharing news from government’s news agency site [in Amharic]:
የአገር መከላከያ ሠራዊት በወሰደው የማጥቃት እርምጃ የኤርትራ መንግሥትና ተላላኪዎቹን የጥፋት ተልዕኮ ማዕከላትን ዛሬ ማውደሙን አስታወቀ።
Zelalem continues:
What ? But, What does ሠራዊቱ በወሰደው የማጥቃት እርምጃ የኤርትራ መንግሥትና ተላላኪዎቹን የጥፋት ተልዕኮ ማዕከላትን አወደመ mean? Anyway አስታጥቁን አታስጨርሱን እኔ በበኩሌ ጦር እና ጋሻየን አራግፌያለው፡፡
ዝማሬየንም ወደ፡ ኧረ ጎበዝ ይሙት፣ ፈሪ ይሩጥ ቢሻው፣ አተላ መሸከም ይችላል ትከሻው፡፡ ቀይሬአለሁ hahaha እኔም ብሎ ጎበዘ
The same user comments:
If it happen, I think this one is not (http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57223/gail-m-gerhart/brothers-at-war-making-sense-of-the-eritrean-ethiopian-war)'Brothers War’ rather “Dictators War.’ At least for me because I have no relationship with Meles's Ethiopia. He ruins my life, he ruin million's life. So what a war is am supposed to fight? I have No Deal with a Dictator. I hope most of you also…
Kiflu Hussein, a human right defender based in Kampala, cites the Greek poet Homer:
No one is so foolish as to desire war more than peace. For in peace, sons bury their fathers but in war fathers bury their sons.
Another comment on Facebook reads:
We don't need war, we don't need unification, we just be a normal neighbors like Sudan. War is not good and those who advocate for unity have never understood the mentality of Eritrean. Eritrean nationalism is built on anti-Ethiopia, period.
Some Facebook users even even decided to create a community page called “Habesha people can’t live with them can’t live without them.” Most people leaving comment on the page reject the talk of war by illustrating the brotherhood of the two nations. One community member shared a picture drawn by an Eritrean kid and wrote:
“we need peace” painted by filmon measfun.. zagre junior school (eritrea). i decided to poste this pic cause I am sick and tired of seeing people starting political SHIT in Facebook and YouTube.. we need to celebrate our similarities and respect our differences !! hate leads to nothing so stop hating !! one love y'all
Ethiopians online refuse to get carried away Ethiopian government's reasons for attacking Eritrea.  Reports are repeatedly emerging from Eritrea accusing Ethiopia of planning to remove the current Eritrean government. Eritrea has also accused the United States for being behind Ethiopia’s provocative attacks.

author: Endalkachew Chala


text:
Hong Kong: Indie Music Made Illegal by Contradictory Policies · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hidden Agenda has been rated as one of the best live music venues in Hong Kong by CNNGo. The indie music space has been in the industrial neighborhood of Kwun Tong for many years, as the factory district is planned to be a hub for local cultural and creative activities.
However, contradictory to the government's policy to promote cultural and creative industries, since 2010, some government departments have kept harassing performance venues and live concerts, as autonomous creative space in Hong Kong is unprotected by existing law. In the past two years, Hidden Agenda has been harassed by the police at least twice, before and during their music shows.
The latest police harassment happened during the weekend of March 18, 2012, when two overseas indie bands, Israeli “Art Rock” Eatliz and Turtle Giant from Macau [zh], were about to perform in the venue.
Quncy Lau posted more than 30 photos showing the police officers “carrying out their duty” on Facebook:
Police entering the building. Photo by Quncy Lau.
Quncy Lau explained [zh] the situation in the comment thread:
Hidden Agenda. Mar 18.
楝岩開show 時間來查消防，幾十個警察陪一個消防上去
Hidden Agenda has been forced to relocate twice because of the lack of legal protection on their creative activities. Wong Chun Kok explained the background [zh] at inmediahk.net:
2010年一月，在政府活化工廈政策刺激底下，孕育Hidden Agenda的工廠大廈被財團整棟收購，並被要求在限期內遷出。臨行前舉辦了一連兩天的「馬上封音樂會」，超過二十隊樂隊與及街頭藝術界的好朋友參與。遷出至今兩年，舊址仍然空置。…
兩年以來，大家投放的心血漸漸被外界肯定。除被評為最佳音樂展演場地外，更令我們驚訝的是法國文化協會、康樂及文化事務署等都開始使用此場地，儘管這裡沒有適用的牌照可以申請。在現行政策底下，工廠大廈裡所有的音樂展演空間、展覽、劇場等等都違法。一方面Hidden Agenda主動聯絡政府部門商討對策，另一方面，地政署、食環署，甚至連屋宇署都不斷作出滋擾。
Back in January 2010, under the stimulation of government's policy on revitalizing the industrial buildings, the warehouse where Hidden Agenda was founded was bought up by a developer and we were forced to leave. Before we left, we organized a series of music concerts under the title “About to be Blocked” and more than 20 local indie and street performance groups joined us. Two years later, the old venue was still empty…
In the past two years, we gained recognition from society and have been rated as the best music performance venue in Hong Kong. Even the France Culture Association and the government's Leisure and Cultural Services Department have started renting our venue despite the fact that we do not have any license that authorizes us to run the space. According to existing regulations, all music performance, art exhibitions and theatrical performances in factory buildings are considered illegal. We have tried contacting the government to deal with the problem actively, but the Land Department, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and even the Building Department keep on harassing us.
The second relocation happened in September 2011, this time under the pressure of the government's Land Department. Before they left, they organized another series of indie music concerts under the theme “East Kowloon Industrial Space” [zh] to ally with other artists in the industrial district. Below is a video recording one of their show:
Leung Lai Yin, an indie musician and a fan of Hidden agenda got fed up [zh] with police harassment:
事實就是這樣 搬去邊都摷你出來
Hidden Agenda搬到新竇 今晚警察又再來騷擾
如果我們都真的認為香港需要有HA這間Live house
甚至要更多更多分享和孕育出創作的空間的話
我們做觀眾的 除了俾錢入埸支持HA捱貴租都要撑落去外
我們是否應該組織起來做行動?
媒體的報道夠多了 結果還是這樣子被欺負
一起想像一下行動 然後組織起來去實踐吧
向社會回應我們的聲音、態度
藝術歸於人民
Police crackdown on a rooftop indie music concert in September 2011. Photo from inmediahk.net
Indeed, Hidden Agenda is not the only victim of the policy contradiction. Back in September 2011, another indie music performance in a more remote industrial district in North West Kowloon was subject to a crackdown by police officers.
Wong Chun Kok described the situation [zh] at inmediahk.net:
9月3日，朋友於寂靜無人的葵涌工廠區，挑了一天台位置舉辦音樂會。此舉靈感來自美國樂隊Jefferson Airplane於1968年的天台音樂會，也就是英國Beatles傳奇性天台音樂會的前一年。最大分別，就是Jefferson Airplane的音樂會是在紐約曼克頓市中心，Beatles那一次是在利物浦鬧市，從大白天開始。但是，我們都已習慣深夜走到沒人逗留的工業區玩音樂。
因為多數香港人，對音樂活動是不理解的。
經驗告訴我，其實無論你去到多麼偏遠，警察都會說有人投訴噪音而會強行終止音樂會。就算你有一千人、一萬人享受音樂，只要有一個警察口中說的投訴，你便要乖乖識趣。…這次，為保護音樂會，觀眾築起人牆。結果警察連防暴盾牌也出動了，可能天太黑，誤以為結他是牛肉刀。然後警察強行拘捕觀眾，禁錮其他人於天台。有朋友怒罵：「玩音樂嗟，駛唔駛咁呀？」然後遭到警察怒目相向。
On 3 September, my friends picked up a remote spot in Kwai Chung Industrial District for a rooftop music concert. They got the inspiration from the American band Jefferson Airplane's 1968 roof top performance, a year before the Beatles’ rooftop performance. The biggest difference was that Jefferson Airplane's concert was in the center of Manhattan, the Beatles’ was in the center of Liverpool and they started in broad daylight. But we are used to hearing our music in remote industrial districts at night.
Because most Hong Kong people do not understand music.
My experience has told me that no matter how remote your concert spot, the police will stop a music concert by force whenever they received complaints about the noise. Even though more than 1,000 or 10,000 people are enjoying the music, one complaint would ruin the whole thing. And you have to obey whatever the police say… This time, in order to protect the concert, the audience formed a human shield, then the police brought their anti-riot shields. Maybe it was too dark and they mistook the guitars for some huge swords. Then the police officers arrested the audience and locked them up on the rooftop. Some of my friends were yelling: “we are just playing music, do you have to do this?” The police officers only returned angry stares.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Jamaica: Corresponding with Vybz Kartel  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica Woman Tongue shares a letter she received from Adidja Palmer, aka Vybz Kartel, who is in prison on murder charges, as well as her response.


text:
Jamaica: The Tivoli 73 · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Active Voice blogs about an art exhibit that references the 73 Jamaican citizens killed during the 2010 Tivoli Gardens occupation: “The 73 flags were suspended with clothespins from a simulated clothesline. You couldn’t help think…were the 73 hung out to dry by the Jamaican government?”


text:
Peru: Abancay Under Alert Due to Heavy Rainfall · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Juan Arellano gathers [es] photos, tweets and reports on the state of emergency in Abancay, the capital of the Apurímac region in southern-central Peru, due to heavy rainfall.