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Ghanaian President Vows Not to Shut Down Social Media During Elections · Global Voices
Kofi Yeboah

Ballot boxes. Photo by Sheila Rouge, labeled for reuse.
There has been much debate among major stakeholders as to whether social media should be banned during the upcoming elections in Ghana. Inspector General of Police (IGP) John Kudalor hinted in May 2016 that Ghanaian authorities might consider shutting down social media platforms during December 7 elections to “maintain peace”. The IGP argued that the intention to shut down social media platforms during elections is based on the fact that some people abuse the space during voting. However, Ghanaian president John Mahama declared on the 14 August that social media will not be shutdown during the upcoming elections that “the government has no intention to shut down social media on election day.”
Various African countries have developed a routine of blocking social media platforms before, during and after elections citing “security concerns”. During the recent elections held in Uganda, the government ordered telecommunication companies to block access to popular social media platforms. Social media platforms were also blocked ahead of Ugandan President Museveni's inauguration. Uganda and Nigeria have recently indicated their intentions to impose stricter controls over social media.
Most recently, the government of Gabon blocked access to the Internet shortly after protesters began contesting results of recent presidential elections in which incumbent President Ali Bongo appears to have won by a narrow margin. The shutdown persisted for five days.
Following the remarks made by the Inspector General of Police, the Centre for Constitutional Order (CENCORD) brought together participants from the Ghana Police Service, security experts, representatives of political parties and a section of the public to discuss the theme “Banning Social Media in General Election 2016: Security Implication versus Legal Justification.”
An article published after the forum indicated that the 2016 Peace Ambassador and Security Analyst Irbard Ibrahim said that “misuse of social media to share false information could disrupt peace during elections if not properly guarded.” Richmond Ofosuhene was in agreement with the comments made by security experts:
However, the executive director of the civic technology organization PenPlusByte, Kwame Ahiabenu, was a of a different opinion and was not in support of the ban of social media during elections. He pointed out:
Social media in itself is not a threat to national security. Rather, it is the users of such media, and so if there is any potential threat, it is the people and so what we need to do is to do proper policing, not a shutdown of the social media platforms.
The statement made by the president put to rest speculations about the banning social media during elections. The statement has been received positively by social media enthusiasts and advocates. Ahiabenu shared his view, saying:
The president’s statement is commendable because the ban posed “a threat to the electoral dignity the country has attained,” adding that a shutdown would have put in question “our democracy and the rule of law.” Instead, he noted, “the presidency, as the highest political office in the country, has reassured us that there would be no cuts to online communication in December.”
In an article published by GhanaWeb, IMANI Ghana think tank president Franklin Cudjoe commended the President for stating that there will be no shutdown of social media during the upcoming elections. He said:
Thankfully this has been laid to be rest by the President and I think even though he deserves commendation, I think this election should not be allowed to have any tense moments that could be exploited by provocateurs. The police should instead “begin to use the medium to educate people on social media and they can even do it on WhatsApp and all the other social media platforms.” It is not a question of having an advantage or disadvantage. The Police “should enlist professionals who could teach them how to use Social Media for positive results. I think that is the way to go.”
However, Spy News Agency (@SpyNewsAgency1), an online news agency commented that a section of Ghanaians supported the ban of social media use during elections:
Some people have agued that considering the abuse of social media in Ghana it would not be bad to ban it for just some few hours. #techsalon
— Spy News Agency (@SpyNewsAgency1) August 23, 2016
Regardless of how the nation reacted negatively to the ban of social media during the election period, some journalists such as Jojo Bruce-Quansah (@BruceJojo) tweeted in support of the ban saying:
For peace,Police can & must do anything.If social media will give us chaos, then so be it, temporary ban is in order https://t.co/H6UnapJmxj
— Jojo Bruce-Quansah (@BruceJojo) May 27, 2016

author: Kofi Yeboah


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Havana Is a City That Lives and Breathes Beyond the Limelight · Global Voices
Periodismo de Barrio

A family in a building in Havana. Photo: Mónica Baró, Periodismo de Barrio.
This story marks the beginning of Global Voices’ collaboration with Cuban digital media Periodismo de Barrio. With this partnership, we hope to bring our readers stories about Cuba that are different than those normally found in traditional media.
On December 7, 2014, at a ceremony in Dubai, the Swiss foundation New7Wonders revealed the results of an international competition organized to nominate “Seven Wonder Cities“. Among the favorites, out of more than 1,200 candidates from 220 countries, was Havana. Against somewhat skeptical, conservative forecasts, the Cuban capital won over iconic cities such as Barcelona, London, Athens, Kyoto, Prague and Mexico City to represent “the achievements and aspirations of our global urban civilization” along with six other cities. Havana, which is almost always portrayed negatively, is a city with enormous contradictions.
Ten days later on December 17, while Havana was still basking in the glow of the New7Wonders decision, the governments of Cuba and the United States — Cold War archenemies — announced the thawing of diplomatic relations. The island returned to the top 10 topics of discussion in the media. The secret negotiations between Raul Castro and Barack Obama perplexed many. The announcement generated uncertainties, hopes, disappointments, joys, ambitions, or curiosity, depending on how the discourse was interpreted. It also started a tourism boom on Cuba's side of the ocean.
The 2014 Statistical Yearbook of Cuba states that from 2009 to 2014, the number of visitors to Cuba increased by over half a million. In 2015, the country received 3,524,779 people, indicating a growth of 17.4 percent. In other words, the same amount of people visited Cuba in one year that had in the previous five, before the restoration of diplomatic ties between the US and Cuba on December 17 (referred to in Spanish as “17D”). Such growth brought in above 3 billion pesos in gross income (about 113 million US dollars), according to an article by economist José Luis Rodríguez and information from Cuba's parliament, the National Assembly of People's Power. So far, 2016 is breaking records. A publication from the National Office of Statistics and Information revealed that in January alone 417,764 visitors arrived in Cuba, nearly 47,000 more than in the same month of 2015. No wonder state media recognize tourism as “the most dynamic sector of the economy.”
Cuba has become fashionable, and Havana is a star in the world market. It is Cuba's largest city and capital, and attracts the most visitors. People do not visit just for its beaches or for its nature. Other Cuban cities are far more beautiful in this. Nor do they visit because it's the capital. They visit for the same reason that has inspired songs in different eras and genres. It has been the muse of Los Zafiros, Joaquín Sabina, Fito Páez, Carlos Varela, Gerardo Alfonso, Habana Abierta, Los Van Van, and Manolito Simonet. It is rare for anyone to remain indifferent to Havana. A visitor will either hate it or love it. Or both at the same time. The city is quite temperamental. Often complex, dysfunctional, unpredictable, and troubled.
It would be unfair to attribute all the credit to the boom to “17D”.
Before the thawing of US-Cuba relations, well before the Swiss foundation's announcement, Amercian singer Beyoncé Knowles and her husband Jay-Z, a rapper and noted music producer, came to Havana to develop an educational exchange. It was in April 2013, when Cuba was still on the US State Department list of countries sponsoring terrorism. The fact that famous public figures visited Cuba, especially famous US citizens, was more of a low-profile jab than a trend promoted by the market and government policies.
But the couple, very consistent with their vocation of putting on a show, made sure not to go unnoticed. They walked through the historic center. They were photographed. They dined in private restaurants. They visited schools and artistic troupes. Beyoncé even took selfies with local fans, danced guaguancó and shared the stage with the illustrious Cuban cabaret showgirl, Juana Bacallao. Jay-Z almost always maintained the demeanor of a tough guy who should not be disturbed, although after returning to the United States he responded to a flurry of accusations from US Republican congressmen with a song about his experience (“Open Letter”), in which he said: “I'm in Cuba, I love Cubans. This communist talk is so confusing, when it's from China the very mic that I'm using.”
That, arguably, was one of the events that began to establish Cuba as a fashionable destination among celebrities who frequently appear on magazine covers. The power of the stars came before the White House. Although we must admit that Beyoncé and Jay-Z could not compete with Barack Obama's visit with his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia in March 2016. Not even superstar Barbadian Rihanna, who dazzled in the role of femme fatale on the streets of Havana, with her hair painted like fire and models of cars just as hot, while photographer Annie Leibovitz immortalized her image for the cover of Vanity Fair.
But indisputably the events that have mobilized the city in recent months are the free concerts of Olga Tañón, DJ Diplo, Major Lazer, and The Rolling Stones. Art, with its insurmountable power to summon, has legitimized the changes in political relations.
The Rolling Stones concert in Havana. Photo by Mónica Baró, courtesy Periodismo de Barrio.
Among all the cameras and big headlines, it is sometimes overlooked that this city of contrasts is neither the picturesque collage promoted in advertising campaigns, nor the world constructed in so many photographs. It is a city that has lived. All of the buildings mortally wounded in their war against time were homes with families before they became another metaphor of decay.
Havana is the smallest province of Cuba and the most densely populated: 2,121,871 people reside in its 728 km², according to 2014 statistics, which do not include the directionless immigrant population in the capital — and these people, legal and “illegal,” are those who shape it.
“The city is made by the people who inhabit it and is defined by the interactions between those living in urban areas, which are, as we all are, social constructions,” according to The Many Havanas: Strategies to Understand its Social Dynamics, published in 2014. Architect Mario Coyula, winner of the National Architecture Prize, argues in the epilogue of this book that “the city is the largest and most important form of cultural labor that unites the historical and architectural with everyday practical uses for all social sectors.”
In November 2019, the capital will turn 500 years old. What will be celebrated will reveal the city created in recent years. What could be celebrated might include the conservation of the historical center, the presence of fish, pelicans and gulls in the Bay of Havana after reducing the levels of pollution in its waters, the increase in accommodation capacity with new hotels built in partnership with foreign investors, the visits of three popes, a US president, and global celebrities, or the luxuriant Ceiba tree that was planted in El Templete, coincidentally days before the Obama phenomenon, in order to replace the moribund landscape.
But what ought to be celebrated, first of all, would be if once and for all housing in Havana be recovered, remodeled, and made habitable for residents. Otherwise, any tribute would be a sham, even if the restoration of the capitol building is completed — the future theater of the Cuban Parliament — or if the pretentious figure of 10 million visitors in one year is achieved.
This article is an exclusive extract for Global Voices. The full-length original version of “La Habana que se habita” can be read in Spanish here. Read more articles by Mónica Baró here.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Periodismo de Barrio


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Netizen Report: In Cuba, Text Messages With Controversial Content Are Disappearing · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

“The Internet is shit! Let's see… whoever wants Internet, raise your hand.” Cartoon by Lázaro Saavedra, reproduced with permission.
Journalists in Cuba have evidence that the Cuban government is monitoring and selectively blocking mobile SMS messages based on keywords such as “human rights”, “hunger strike”, “plebiscite” and “state security”. According to a report by journalists Yoani Sánchez and Reinaldo Escobar, who run the Havana-based media outlet 14ymedio, text messages containing a range of sensitive keywords along with the names of various high-profile anti-Castro activists, are not reaching their destinations. However, the messages still appear as ‘sent’ on the sender’s telephone.
According to technologist and opposition blogger Eliécer Avila, at least 30 keywords have been identified as triggers for the blocking mechanism. It is not clear how long this has been in place. The journalists have not yet shared a full list of terms tested, nor did they indicate whether they believe the blocking targets specific users. Sánchez, Escobar and Avila are all very high-profile opposition voices.
The discovery comes at a moment in which Cuban bloggers and independent journalists are facing increasing scrutiny and, in some cases, public condemnation, by leading government and Cuban communist party officials. Diario de Cuba writer Maykel González Vivero, who is also a vocal advocate for LGBT rights on the island, was fired from his job with state radio station Radio Sagua two weeks ago, for collaborating with “private media”. In late August, the well-established Uruguayan blogger and former BBC journalist Fernando Ravsberg, who has lived in Cuba since the mid-1990s and has a family there, was publicly condemned on television by the vice president of Cuba’s Press Workers’ Union, charged with offending the sentiments of “decent Cubans.”
Ruslan Sokolovsky was jailed in early September for playing Pokemon Go inside a Russian Orthodox cathedral and posting a video of this on YouTube. Police are investigating the 21-year-old video blogger for committing extremism, offending religious people and “violating the right to religion in a house of worship.” If convicted on those charges, Sokolovsky could go to prison for up to five years. The video (now with English subtitles) has garnered more than 1.3 million views on YouTube.
On September 7, Sokolovsky complained that a prison psychiatrist had threatened his life, warning that he could be institutionalized “where they don't let the lawyers in.” Investigators have also revealed that they discovered a camera-pen at his home—technology that is illegal in Russia. The media is describing the device as a “spy pen,” complementing allegations by pro-government bloggers that Sokolovsky's atheist activism online and in the media is part of a larger, coordinated campaign by nefarious forces designed to weaken Russia's traditional values. He has since been released and placed under house arrest.
An Algerian appeals court upheld the conviction of activist Slimane Bouhafs, decreasing his jail sentence from five to three years. Bouhafs originally was sentenced to five years in jail and a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars for “offending the Prophet” and “denigrating the creed and precepts of Islam” for linking to a cartoon by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting the Prophet Muhammad crying.
Chilean-Venezuelan journalist and lawyer Braulio Jatar is being held by Venezuelan authorities on charges of money laundering. Jatar, who is the director of the investigative news site Reporte Confidencial, was detained during a protest in the locality of Villa Rosa that forced President Nicolas Maduro to leave the city. Jatar’s supporters believe his coverage of the protest are the real reason he is in custody.
Turkish journalist Özgür Öğret has been working with the Committee to Protect Journalists to produce a weekly report called the “Turkey Crackdown Chronicle,” describing ongoing government threats against digital and traditional journalists reporting on politics, violence and corruption in Turkey. Read this week’s installment here.
The Indian government, which champions internet access as a basic human right, is blocking mobile internet in Kashmir. The government shut down mobile internet about two months ago, when protests erupted following the killing of a separatist militant leader by the Indian military in early July. The shutdown of the mobile internet network leaves most Kashmiris, who rely on mobile internet to access the web, “anxious and isolated”, writes journalist Hasit Shah: “It is difficult for journalists to report on what is happening. Vital information is missing. Kashmiris in India have been transported back to a pre-digital era.”
The Saudi government added LINE to the long list of VoIP services and messaging apps blocked in the country, which includes Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and Skype. Responding to the block, Saudi users took to Twitter to protest the government’s strict Internet censorship policies, asking “what’s the point of having Internet?”
The Intercept released new documents from the Snowden leaks that reveal how the NSA aided “‘a significant number of capture-kill operations’ across the Middle East and North Africa, fueled by powerful eavesdropping technology that can harvest data from more than 300 million emails and phone calls a day.”
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, James Losey and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Skopje Authorities Bulldoze Roma Families’ Homes, Then Ignore Their Plight · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Roma kids left homeless after Skopje city government bulldozed their homes. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
The government of Macedonia's capital city Skopje evicted 31 Roma families with children from a settlement under the historic Kale fortress over the summer. Authorities not only razed their home for the last nine years, but also reportedly left the families without any realistic support.
Photo-activist Vančo Džambaski published a photo album on Flickr to try to draw attention to their plight. In it, he described the families’ situation:
Без никаква помош од државните институции тие сега престојуваат во импровизираното живеалиште покрај Вардар. Без струја и вода, со голем ризик од заразни болести поради поплавите и немањето ни минимални услови за хигиена, со страв ја чекаат зимата.
Without any help from the state institutions, they now reside in an improvised dwelling by the Vardar river. Without electricity, water supply or sewage, with high risk from infectious diseases due to the floods and lack of minimal hygiene conditions, they dread the coming of winter.
In 2011, the state sold the land, which is a prime piece of real-estate, to a private company, the Amadeus Group, for about 100 dollars per square meter. The location is a few minutes walk from the center of Skopje, and the new owners say they intend to build a hotel.
Authorities so far haven't been moved by the protests of those affected. They have offered to move the homeless group to the dilapidated camp Čičino Selo outside of the city, which the families have refused because it does not have space to house all of them, and the living conditions are worse than living in the open. Most of these people make a living by collecting discarded plastic bottles and food from garbage containers, which then they transport on bicycles. Distance-wise, relocation outside of city limits would severely impede their ability to gather enough plastic bottles to sell to recycling plants to make it through the day.
Hard honest work. Main source of income of homeless Roma is recycling plastic bottles thrown away as garbage. It's also very dangerous, as the same garbage also contains glass shards, metal pieces and wires, and various toxic waste. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Some activists have pointed to the lack of concern by the government and the media as a sign of ongoing discrimination of Roma in Macedonian society. Ljatife Sikovska, from the Roma Education Center Ambrela, explained the gravity the situation with the homeless group in a statement for Global Voices:
Град Скопје со багери ги сруши импровизираните живеалишта на 1 август, само неколку денови пред поплавите, без претходно да ги згрижи луѓето во друга локација. Се работи за 121 лице од кои 64 се деца, а најмалото има само 2 месеца. Бездомните лица невремето го преживеаја под отворено небо и за жал сè уште се под отворено небо…
The City of Skopje metropolitan local government tore down the huts on August 1, just a few days before the heavy downpour that caused the recent deadly floods. The authorities made no provisions to temporarily shelter the 121 affected persons, including 64 children. The youngest child at the time was a 2-month-old baby. The homeless people survived the worst storm in recent memory under an open sky, and unfortunately they still have no roof over their heads.
These Roma have received aid from NGOs in the meantime. Foundation Open Society – Macedonia (FOSM) donated around 4,500 dollars worth of supplies.
Оваа ургентна мерка вклучува донација на храна и вода за пиење, хигиенски средства, детски пелени и основни намирници за живот на триесетина ромски семејства (околу 130 лица) останати без домови. Меѓу нив има лица без документација, бремени жени, болни лица и деца. Целта на оваа акција која ФООМ ја реализира со помош на Здружението за здравствена, социјална и образовна поддршка „Иницијатива за развој и инклузија на заедниците“ (ИРИЗ) е да одговори на моменталните потреби на овие граѓани во очекување надележните институции да пронајдат трајно решение на нивниот проблем.
This urgent measure includes donation of food and drinking water, hygiene products, children’s diapers and other basic products for around 30 Roma families (nearly 130 people) who are now homeless. Among them, there are people without ID, pregnant women, ill persons and children. The objective of this action, which is implemented by FOSM in cooperation the Association for Health, Social and Educational Support “Initiative for Development and Inclusion of Communities” (IDIC), is to meet the current needs of these citizens while they are waiting for the institutions to find a permanent solution for their problem.
Civil society organizations continue to demand that authorities, primarily the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the City of Skopje, provide shelter for the homeless before the cold months add exposure to their already rudimentary living conditions. Life in the improvised camp resembles a post-apocalyptic setting characteristic of major natural disaster, such as a devastating earthquake.
Man stands in front of his tent, located 3 km from the main square in Skopje. Photo Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Mexican Protesters Have a Message for the President: ‘Resign Now’ · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Banner used to promote the protest. “More than enough motive. The nonpartisan march.” Image: event page on Facebook.
With social discontent reaching a boiling point in Mexico, the country's social media users started sharing the hashtag #RenunciaAhora (Resign Now) to mobilize people for a massive march on September 15, 2016, demanding the resignation of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
In Mexico City, the march began at 5:00 p.m. local time, assembling at the Angel of Independence and continuing to the Zócalo. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the president's customary “Cry of Independence” at the the National Palace, when the government remembers the beginning of the Mexican war of independence, marking the occasion with nationwide festivities.
Peña no va a gritar.
Va a renunciar.
Motivos sobran. #RenunciaYa
15 de septiembre – 5pm Ángel al Zócalo pic.twitter.com/g7kUskv9oD
— Valeria Hamel (@valehamel) September 8, 2016
Peña is not going to cry.
He is going to resign.
Reasons abound. #ResignNow
September 15: 5 p.m. Angel to Zócalo.
The march drew demonstrators from outside Mexico City, as well, including people in Guadalajara and Baja California Sur. On Facebook, organizers stressed that all kinds of people were welcome to join:
Esta es una marcha pacífica y apartidista. Bienvenidos movimientos sociales, ONGs, individuos, familias, periodistas, mascotas. Si eres militante de un partido, acude al llamado como ciudadano, sin hacer proselitismo partidista. Esta es una marcha por México y para México.
This march is peaceful and non-partisan. We welcome social movements, NGOs, individuals, families, journalists, [and] pets. If you are a member of a party, attend the call as a citizen, without campaigning. This is a march by Mexico, for Mexico.
Under the motto “reasons abound,” organizers emphasized stressed that the march enjoyed the support of a diverse array of civic groups and independent media, including the National Center for Social Communication, Coordinadora 1DMX, Morethan131, and others.
The #ResignNow movement's focus on civic, non-partisan activism in some ways resembles the #IAm132 movement, which emerged in 2012 in response to perceptions that the Mexican news media showed favoritism in its coverage of Peña Nieto's presidential candidacy.
Sólo una vez vi tan cerca la caída de @EPN y fue cuando (RE)nacimos con #YoSoy132 hoy se vuelve a respirar el espíritu de lucha #RenunciaYa
— Nancy Bautista (@NaanBaar) September 7, 2016
Only once I saw the fall of @EPN so close and it was when we were (RE)born with #IAM132 today the spirit of the fight returns #RenunciaYa (Resign Now)
Invitations to join this week's march in Mexico City started circulating on social media on September 2, a day after Peña delivered his fourth State of the Union address as president. He adopted a new format, holding a question-and-answer session, but many in the public nonetheless said the event seemed phony and mostly scripted.
According to Dario Brooks for BBC World:
El encuentro pareció una ceremonia bien planeada, con poco espacio para la improvisación.
Un dato: la primera pregunta, la que abrió el diálogo, fue de un joven de Campeche (en el sureste del país) que dijo: “Gracias a usted tenemos, pues, todo. Yo quiero preguntarle ¿qué otras buenas noticias nos tiene?”.
Y así durante hora y media.
The meeting resembled a well planned ceremony, with little room for improvisation.
Fact: The first question, that which opened the dialogue, was from a youth from Campeche (in the southeast of the country) who said: “Thanks to you we have, well, everything. I want to ask you, what other good news do you have for us?”
It went on this way for an hour and a half.
The president's poor performance came just two days after he controversially welcomed US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on an official visit for private talks. The invitation was enormously unpopular with most of the country.
Last month, the ratings for Peña Nieto's administration slipped to a new low, according to the journal Reforma: barely 23 percent of the country approved of his presidency, while a whopping 74 percent expressed disapproval. No Mexican president in the past 20 years has been so disliked.
In the following image, circulated online by Peña's critics, shows some of the most significant mistakes and scandals that occurred during the first four years of his presidency.
Van 4 años. Faltan 2. #mexico
Una foto publicada por Pictoline (@pictoline) el
2013: Approving energy reform that was strongly criticized for considering the privatization of the oil industry and attacking the rights of villages and indigenous communities. 2014: The disappearance of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa, as well as revelations about the “White House,” showing that the president and his wife acquired a luxurious mansion, valued at 7 million dollars, through a government contractor.
2015: The devaluation of the Mexican peso and the escape of “El Chapo” Guzmán.
2016: A report emerges arguing that he plagiarized at least 28 percent of his Bachelor's thesis, as well as and the controversial invitation that he extended to Donald Trump to visit Mexico
Four years have passed by; two to go.
Before the march even took place, civic organizers were working to determine how best to mobilize for what would follow.
“No queremos que esta sea una marcha más” Dinámica de trabajo para la marcha #15s en el Zócalo. #RenunciaYapic.twitter.com/7HEgl2qOBh
— Másde131 (@masde131) September 14, 2016
“We do not want this to be just another march” Work dynamic for the march #15s in the Zócalo. #RenunciaYa (Resign Now)
The #RenunciaYa (Resign Now) movement makes it clear that a large number of people in Mexico are eager to express their frustration with the presidency and the country's political class, as a whole. So far, crowds have demonstrated their readiness to reclaim, if only temporarily, major public spaces.
Whatever the president decides to do, the more important precedent could be the powerful deomonstraton of civic spirit. Columnist Adrián López Ortiz writes that “citizen power is scattered” but “real.” Ortiz says Peña will come to realize this, but Mexicans should be patient.

author: Giovanna Salazar


text:
Parents’ Group in Greece Says No to Integrating Refugee Children in Schools · Global Voices
Elaine Rigas

University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. Photo: Flickr / Nikos Pappas, Yannis Voutsalas / CC 2.0
September is usually a calm period in Greece, as schools swing back into session, but this year's fall season has been marked by unprecedented measures taken by a parents group.
Following the government's decision to integrate more than 15,000 children from refugee and migrant families into the national education system, members of the Parents and Guardians Association of the 5th Primary School of Oreokastro in Thessaloniki declared they would not allow their children to attend classes. The group even threatened to protest the government's plan by occupying school buildings, if refugee children are allowed to enter Greek classrooms.
Critics of the parents’ association say the group has embraced racism.
Το #oreokastro παραχωρήθηκε το 1922 σε πόντιους πρόσφυγες…οι παππούδες μας μετανάστες εμείς ρατσιστές… pic.twitter.com/5CBfeLEfvb
— Nastia (@Nastia1890) September 13, 2016
Oreokastro was given to refugees from Pontos back in 1922. Our grandparents were refugees, but we are racists…
The parents’ group says its main concerns are based on health risks posed by unvaccinated children from refugee families, warning that they will bring diseases into the Greek school system. Dr. Asterios Gavotsis, the mayor of Oreokastro, supports this position, staking his medical reputation on claims that refugee children carry “dangerous and communicable diseases, such as hepatitis and malaria.”
Parents also warn that supposedly unbridgeable linguistic, social, and cultural differences would lead to serious communication problems. Coexistence with local children, under the same school roof, is simply not an option, the association insists.
Attitudes online about the controversy are naturally mixed, with Internet users debating the issue fiercely online. Supporters of the parents’ group cite the unique entitlements of citizenship, the need to keep refugees from establishing roots in Greece, and the risks of “degradation.”
Οποιος θελει τα παιδια των τζιχαντιστων να πηγαινουν και σχολειο αντι να φυγουν απο την Ελλαδα ας τα διδαξει ο ιδιος #Ωραιοκαστρο
— GreekWarrior (@HellenicProud) 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2016
Whoever wants the jihadists’ children to attend school instead of leaving Greece, let him teach them himself
User egrammes clarifies that free education is obligatory only for Greek citizens:
Η δωρεάν παιδεία είναι υποχρέωση του κράτους μόνο για τους Έλληνες πολίτες (Σύνταγμα άρθρο 16, παρ. 4) #Ωραιοκαστρο pic.twitter.com/TOVGC3df3w
— Ελληνικές Γραμμές (@egrammes) 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2016
Free education is a state obligation granted only to Greek citizens (Constitution Article 16, par.4)
While user FainaretiRom firmly supports the Parents Association's actions and decisions in Oreokastro:
Μακάρι να είχαμε άλλα 10 #Ωραιοκαστρο !
Δε θα χε φτάσει σε αυτή την κατάντια η χώρα!
— Φαιναρέτη Ρωμανού (@FainaretiRom) 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2016
I wish we had 10 more [towns] like Oreokastro. Our country wouldn't have such a degradation.
Others, meanwhile, have condemned the racism they say is inherent in the idea that the refugee children should be turned away from Greek schools, pointing out that most people now wanting to slam the door on these people are themselves the descendants of migrants and refugees.
As a local website writes:
[…] In this area, between current Paleokastro, know previously as Daout-Bali, and the edges of Asprovrysi, Ak Bournar, at the northern residential end of the current municipality, the establishment of the settlement of Pontian refugees was decided. These refugees came from the villages of Argyroupolis province, Mouzaina Tsimera, Xats, Agios Fokas, Kromni, Sourmena, Sistan, Lauria and the villages of Matsoukas. The installation process began in 1922 and ended in 1930, with the attendance of other refugees from the Pontian Stavrin and Caucasus. A total of 183 families were the first inhabitants of the region, who kept hiding deep inside their bitterness and nostalgia for their unforgettable home and began struggling for survival and integration into the National trunk of their new homeland. Along with them came their customs and symbols of the local collective identity. The area in which they settled, at Krioneri location, was named Oreokastro (which means “beautiful castle”) after the Beautiful Castle between the villages Xats and Agios Fokas […]
User nikrtrah reminds the citizens of Oreokastro that they were once refugees as well:
Κατοικοι του #oraiokastro απομονωστε τους λιγους ακραιους ξενοφοβικους
Καποτε υπηρξατε και εσεις προσφυγες πολεμων
— niktrah (@niktrah) 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2016
Residents of #oraiokastro, isolate those few extreme xenophobic people.
You were once war refugees as well.
While users ChrisSs_T_ and epan_e_kinisi heavily criticise them:
Ζουμε στη χωρα που οι εγγονοι των ελληνων μικρασιατων προσφυγων εκβιαζουν τον κοινωνικο αποκλεισμο των προσφυγων.#oraiokastro#mpanania
— Captain C. #OXI (@ChrisSs_T_) 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2016
We live in the country where the grandchildren of Greek Asia Minor refugees are threatening refugees with social exclusion.
Είναι ντροπή στο #Ωραιόκαστρο που κάποτε κατοίκησαν Ελληνες πρόσφυγες, ένας σύλλογος φασιστο-νεόπλουτων γονέων να απειλεί την δημοκρατία μας
— ₯M@rios (@epan_e_kinisi) September 13, 2016
It's a shame that an association of fascist, nouveau riche parents at Oreokastro, which was once inhabited by Greek refugees, is now threatening our democracy.
Others online say the backlash against the supposed health risk posed by refugees in schools is ironic, in light of studies showing that Greek parents are widely skeptical about the necessity and even the benefits of vaccination.
25% των Ελλήνων δεν εμβολιάζουν τα παιδιά τους & ύστερα ανησυχούν μην κολλήσουν τίποτα απ'τα προσφυγόπουλα.
#oraiokastro
— Leonidas ToEat ♎ (@Lchristou) September 14, 2016
25 percent of Greeks don't vaccinate their children and yet they are concerned they will be infected by refugee children.
An official announcement by the Ministry of Health has offered some much-needed clarity on the vaccination issue, stating that refugee children are “healthy in general and free of infectious diseases.” The government also says it's now implementing a vaccination program for children in refugee shelters. Officials caution against “unfounded fears” like those expressed by the Parents and Guardians Association.
According to recent reports, local prosecutors have even opened cases and initiated a preliminary investigation against Oreokastro's Mayor and the Parents’ Association to confirm any offence against racist violence law.
Art by Panos Zacharis. Cartoon circulated in various social media.
Don't be afraid! You escaped from missiles in your country. Are you really scared of these? Let's go!

author: Elaine Rigas


text:
That Time Russia Banned Online Porn (Again) · Global Voices
Yulia Savitskaya

Photo: Pixabay.
The two pornographic metropolises of the Internet, PornHub and YouPorn, were banned in Russia this week.
This wasn't the first time the Russian authorities targeted porn-streaming services: last year, state censors added the website’s Russian-localized version, ru.pornhub.com, to its blacklist. Officials later unbanned it.
At the time, the decision to block one of the most popular sites online provoked a flurry of jokes on social media, but genuine concern appeared to be minimal, as the site’s English-language version never went offline in Russia, and the drive for adult content was sufficient motivation to overcome the linguistic barrier.
But this time, Pornub has been blocked for real. Russian ISPs are required to comply with the state’s blacklist within 24 hours.
On the legal side, the decisions to block PornHub and YouPorn were made in Voronezh and Vladivostok, respectively. Both courts’ verdicts say PornHub and YouPorn “contain information that is forbidden to disseminate” in Russia.
The information in question apparently includes child pornography or anything “justifying the molestation of children.”
Russia’s definition of child pornography has always been strict. Videos where actors merely pretend to be underage, dressing in school uniforms and so on, can qualify, and judges have even said certain forms of illustrated and animated porn, such as Hentai, amount to child pornography.
When they searched for “hentai” on PornHub, Russian authorities identified more than 16,000 pieces of content that justified blocking the entire website.
The news site Meduza spoke to Vladimir Panasenko, the judge in Voronezh who says he doesn't remember the details of the case in which he banned PornHub. In the interview, he said he assumed that it “had something to do with children, maybe. There were no age restrictions [on the website].”
On social media, Russians were eager to discuss the consequences of life without two of the Internet’s biggest repositories of pornography.
Some people readily admitted their beliefs that marriage and procreation are the decent alternatives to watching porn and masturbating at home—a notion that surely brings a satisfied smile to the faces of conservative public figures like Yelena Mizulina, Vitaliy Milonov, and Anna Kuznetsova, whose passion for “traditional values” is itself almost primal.
One common thread in jokes about the censorship decision riffs on the concept of “import substitution” and protectionism.
Дмитрий Медведев поручил создать отечественный аналог заграничному сайту Порнхаб pic.twitter.com/kglBvOSRlf
— Партия Придурков (@Pridurky) September 15, 2016
Dmitry Medvedev requires the creation of a domestic equivalent to the foreign website PornHub.
блокируя порнхаб и юпорн, власти поддерживают отечественного производителя pic.twitter.com/egItkr5hpB
— Nadya Tolokonnikova (@tolokno) September 14, 2016
By blocking PornHub and YouPorn, the authorities are supporting domestic producers.
The journalist Sergey Erzhenkov shared a personal aside:
Моя репортерская мечта – отыскать актеров из первого советского порно под названием “Ребята из Чертаново” (1990 г.). Работая на НТВ, я приложил много усилий к тому, чтобы их найти. Но единственное, что мне удалось узнать, – ребята вовсе не чертановские, как следует из названия, а выхинские. И сейчас им, по моим прикидкам, чуть за 50. То есть импортозамещать еще могут.
My reporter's dream is to find the performers from the first Soviet porn movie “Guys from Chertanovo” (1990). While working for NTV, I've made a lot of efforts to find them. The only thing I learned is that the title was misleading, and the guys were actually from Vykhino. They should be, according to my guesstimate, just over 50 now, so they are capable of import substitution.
Many online pointed out that Russia already has a thriving rival to big porn sites like PornHub: the social network Vkontakte, Russia’s Facebook equivalent, which hosts enormous amounts of pornography uploaded by ordinary users. Some say that the lion’s share of what exists on PornHub and YouPorn can also be found on Vkontakte.
A quick tip for those desperate souls looking for “lesbian orgy” or “naughty cop” on Vkontakte: you can't find these videos using the website’s search function; all the adult content is tucked away and uploaded to closed groups.
And there are several popular conspiracy theories now making the rounds, offering explanations about the truth behind the porn ban.
На самом деле Порнхаб в России прикрыли из-за опубликованной им статистики про то, что самый популярный жанр порно в России – анал.
— Тролль-каратель (@trollgnet) September 14, 2016
Sure enough, they blocked PornHub in Russia because of the site’s stats show that the most popular genre among Russians is anal.
Others on Twitter mixed in a little election humor, in light of Russia’s parliamentary elections this Sunday, September 18.
@vkovall @vesti_kpss Говорят, порнхаб будет ловиться только на избирательных участках
— ариана (@ariana19811) September 14, 2016
The word is that PornHub will only be available at the polling stations.
Теперь, когда Pornhub заблокирован, у многих появится время сходить на выборы.
— Дядюшка Шу (@Shulz) September 14, 2016
Now, with PornHub blocked, many people will have time to vote.
The good people at PornHub, known for their edgy presence on social media, tried their best to save the day. First they reached out to Russian censors. (The response was an awkwardly unfunny insinuation that masturbation threatens Russia’s demography.)
@Pornhub sorry, we are not in the market and the demography is not a commodity.
— Роскомнадзор (@roscomnadzor) September 15, 2016
PornHub then appealed to Barack Obama with this bombshell:
.@BarackObama please pardon @Snowden. Russia just blocked https://t.co/ukBPXIE2PX, he needs out ASAP!
— Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) September 15, 2016
The White House has yet to respond.

author: Yulia Savitskaya


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The Bitter Aftertaste Left by Donald Trump’s Visit to Mexico · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Peña Nieto's and Trump's press conference after their private meeting. Image: YouTube.
US Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump made a short visit to Mexico’s capital last month for a private meeting with President Enrique Peña.
Peña had invited both of US race's main candidates, though Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton declined.
This is how the Mexican president’s official Twitter account reported the news:
Invité a México a los candidatos a la Presidencia de EEUU, para conversar sobre la relación bilateral. Mañana recibo a Donald Trump.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) 31 de agosto de 2016
I invited the American presidential candidates to Mexico to discuss bilateral relations. Tomorrow I welcome Donald Trump.
The backlash on social media against Peña's decision to invite the controversial candidate was swift.
During his campaign, Trump has fueled animosity from Mexicans and Mexican Americans with regular disparaging comments about Mexicans. Trump's promise to halt undocumented immigration by building a wall along the southern US border has also angered people in Mexico. Many viewed the invitation as a foul move that underestimated Trump's disrespect for Mexico, while others saw it as yet another bad decision in a series of scandals now plaguing President Peña:
NOSOTROS NO TE INVITAMOS.
Miércoles, 11 am.
Ángel de la Independencia.#FueraTrumpFueraEPN #TrumpNoEresBienvenido pic.twitter.com/YXrglcuNrB
— Berenice Rodríguez (@berenice_rj) 31 de agosto de 2016
WE DID NOT INVITE YOU
Wednesday, 11 a.m.
Angel of Independence. Get Out Trump Get Out EPN [Enrique Peña Nieto]. Trump You Are Not Welcome. pic.twitter.com/YXrglcuNrB
Me siento ofendida realmente por la invitación de @EPN a @realDonaldTrump#TrumpNoEresBienvenido#FueraTrumpFueraEpnhttps://t.co/QQPJttF5f8
— Joyce Mac Naught ♕ (@joycemacs) 31 de agosto de 2016
I feel truly offended about @EPN‘s invite to @realDonaldTrump. Trump You Are Not Welcome. Get Out Trump Get Out EPN https://t.co/QQPJttF5f8
Podría ser buena estrategia traer a #Trump a México para exponerlo, pero pues sabemos que #EPN no es un gran estratega y pues… fin.
— Hannah Sotelo (@Hanniux) 31 de agosto de 2016
It could be a good strategy to bring #Trump to Mexico to expose him, but we know that #EPN is not a great strategist and so… the end.
Writing to his more than 75,000 followers on Twitter, columnist Gabriel Guerra argued that the invitation could be understood from two perspectives:
Para #Trump este es un acto de campaña, golpe propagandístico. Para #EPN es la apuesta más arriesgada de su sexenio. https://t.co/gilRVTqZgP
— Gabriel Guerra C (@gabrielguerrac) 31 de agosto de 2016
For #Trump, this is a campaign event, a propaganda stunt. For #EPN, it's the riskiest gamble of his administration. https://t.co/gilRVTqZgP
The meeting caught many off guard, leading to broad speculation about why it was happening at all.
Solo falta que anuncien como logro de conversación con @realDonaldTrump que muro fronterizo lo va a construir una empresa mexicana como Higa
— Agustin Castilla (@agus_castilla) 1 de septiembre de 2016
The only thing that is missing is that they announce the accomplishment of the private  conversation with Trump is that the wall will be constructed by the Higa Group.
(The Higa Group is the conglomerate that has benefited from public construction contracts since Enrique Peña was governor of the State of Mexico. It is also the same corporation that transferred ownership of a lavish property to Peña's wife in a scandal known as “Casa Blanca.”)
JoseLo Herrera, for example, thought Trump would stick to his plans for a border wall:
Donald Trump viene a México para ofrecer una oportunidad de empleo a todos los mexicanos. CONSTRUYENDO EL MURO.
— JoseLo Herrera (@Paco_Rabane) 1 de septiembre de 2016
Donald Trump is coming to Mexico to offer employment opportunities to all Mexicans. BUILDING THE WALL.
Trump landed in his private jet (often referred to as “Trump Force One”) at Mexico City International Airport around 1:30 p.m. on August 31, despite an apparent ban on private planes at this airport. He then traveled in an official helicopter operated by the Mexican government to Los Pinos, the presidential residence, for his meeting with the Peña.
While “the Don,” as Trump is known to some of his compatriots, stayed in Los Pinos, a small demonstration took place at the monument of the Angel of Independence, where about 30 people protested the arrival of the US billionaire.
Protests in Mexico against the US Republican presidential candidate's visit. Images from the author.
After the meeting at Los Pinos, Peña and his guest held a press conference. According to the mainstream domestic media, Peña had asserted that “Mexicans deserve everyone's respect,” while the foreign media focused on the US candidate's response to a question about his infamous plans for a border wall: “The United States has the right to build a wall to stop illegal immigration, but who will cover the costs was not discussed.”
Journalist Jorge Ramos thought the visit changed nothing about Trump's ideas for immigration policy:
Trump se va de México sin disculparse, sin prometer respeto a los Mexicanos y sin cambiar en lo más mínimo su plataforma anti-inmigrante.
— JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) 31 de agosto de 2016
Trump is leaving Mexico without apologizing, without promising to respect the Mexican people, and without changing his anti-immigration platform in the least.
Ricardo Anaya, the leader of an opposing political force to that of Enrique Peña's party, said the following:
En lugar de exigirle una disculpa, el Gobierno permitió que @realDonaldTrump consumara la humillación hacia los mexicanos. Es inaceptable.
— RicardoAnayaC (@RicardoAnayaC) 31 de agosto de 2016
Instead of demanding an apology, the government allowed @realDonaldTrump to top off his humiliation of Mexicans. It is unacceptable.
Robert Valencia, a political analyst and Global Voices contributor, had this to say about the Mexican president's role during the meeting:
.@EPN perdió la oportunidad de poner a Trump contra las cuerdas, ahondando así su imagen de líder sin caracter.
— Robert Valencia (@rvalentwit) 1 de septiembre de 2016
@EPN missed the opportunity to put Trump's feet to the fire, thereby furthering his image as a weak-minded leader.
In addition to the controversial invitation he extended to Donald Trump, Peña has also recently faced criticism after journalists published evidence suggesting that he plagiarized his university thesis. But in this case, the scandal claimed a high-profile casualty: Finance Minister Videgaray, a close aide to the president and who played a key role in orchestrating the meeting with Trump, resigned shortly thereafter.

author: J. Tadeo


text:
Zimbabweans Can’t Stop Giggling About a ‘Hideous’ Statue of Longtime President Mugabe · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, First Lady Grace Mugabe and sculptor Dominic Benhura standing next to the statue. The image has been shared widely on Twitter. This one was shared by @Quables.
Zimbabweans online are mocking a new statue of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe designed by a popular Zimbabwean sculptor Dominic Benhura.
The 92-year-old president has been facing street protests and sustained anti-government campaigns on social media by citizens frustrated by corruption, unemployment and cash crisis. The mocking of the statue is seen as an extension of internet-based opposition to his continued stay in power — he has served as president for 30 years now.
Lance Guma envisioned the future of the statue when Mugabe falls:
Good thing Dominic #Benhura made this ugly statue of #Mugabe. Citizens will enjoy knocking it down when he falls. pic.twitter.com/vQswJS5cH8
— Lance Guma (@LanceGuma) September 10, 2016
Twitter user Asura suggested that a dictator needs to have a better statue:
Seriously Mugabe,if your gonna be a dictator demand only the best statues to showcase you megalomania #MugabeStatue pic.twitter.com/g4giqhakh3
— Asura (@ClivePilusa95) September 10, 2016
The next statue will probably be designed by a non-Zimbabwean, @ali_naka suggested:
Mugabe doesn't trust ZIM doctors, he will no longer trust ZIM sculptors after getting abused in this manner #MugabeStatue
— African (@ali_naka) September 10, 2016
Mugabe is known for traveling to Asian countries for medical treatment.
Another user compared the statue to one of the characters from American animated sitcom The Simpsons:
Man made Mugabe look like a Simpsons character😂😂😂😂 #mugabestatue pic.twitter.com/oMEIhnq6OS
— future millionaire (@_vxlery_) September 11, 2016
African jokingly said the statue is “sculptor terrorism”:
This statue is UnAfrican – Mugabe is a victim of Sculptor Terrorism pic.twitter.com/OEbEkiUr9y
— African (@ali_naka) September 10, 2016
@chimurengamusic quipped:
Mugabe's statue story tells us abt how his appetite for being hero worshipped has backfired. He gets lively at evry praise sign. Now watch
— Dr. Thomas Mapfumo (@chimurengamusic) September 10, 2016
Mduduzi thought it was a miracle that the statue was approved:
We credit ‘effort’ in any endevour, but Benhura's statue of President Mugabe is so hideous it's a miracle it was approved
— Mduduzi Mathuthu (@Mathuthu) September 10, 2016
The sculptor, Dominic, did not survive the mocking:
The native who did the #MugabeStatue will heading for exile very soon
— African (@ali_naka) September 10, 2016
The poor chap is probably at Chikurubi prison by now #MugabeStatue pic.twitter.com/UPk8BgUlDH
— Public Protester (@Pasco_e) September 11, 2016
Chikurubi is a maximum security prison in Harare.
Grace Mugabe, the first lady, was not spared either:
I have no idea. Grace might have created this. Matches her dress sense 😂😂 #MugabeStatue #ThisStatue https://t.co/RW9FQmbyYp
— Trevor Ncube (@TrevorNcube) September 10, 2016
Apparently, the first lady dressed for misdirection:
When u know the sculpture ugly so you ask yoyr wife to dress uglier just to confuse the haters😎 yolo #MugabeStatue pic.twitter.com/sV3FnuH5y2
— SIX (@Nomie_fied) September 11, 2016
And what about a ring for each finger?
I showed my sister the picture of Mugabe's statue and the first thing(s) she noticed was the fact that the lady is wearing 10 rings.
— P.Sigenu (@PSigenu1993) September 14, 2016
In this photo, the first lady appears to be wearing a ring in all her 10 fingers.
Kgopolo Phil Mphela, however, came to the defence of sculptor Dominic Benhura:
#MugabeStatue debacle is unfortunate but Dominic Benhura is a talented African sculptor. Abstract art!! pic.twitter.com/lWY4xqcxUh
— Kgopolo Phil Mphela (@PhilMphela) September 11, 2016

author: Ndesanjo Macha


text:
A 10-Year-Old Girl Makes Her Pitch to Western Powers for Peace in Yemen · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Yara, 10 years old, lives in Sanaa. She wants the violence there to stop, now.
This article by Stephen Snyder originally appeared on PRI.org on September 6, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Yara is a 10-year-old girl living in Yemen's rebel-held capital city, Sanaa. The sound of fighter jets, rockets and bomb blasts have kept her awake at night since she was 8 and a half.
Recently, she decided it was time to do something. So she made a video.
“I don't want it to be my turn to die,” she says, in a message recorded in her bedroom on her mom’s cell phone. “I want to live all my life, I want to be a doctor, I want to be an engineer,” she tells the camera. “I want to grow up and be something important in this world.”
Yara encouraged her parents to share the video on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Within a week, it had been viewed more than 15,000 times.
Fighting in the Yemen war had paused mid-year to coincide with peace negotiations. But the talks broke down at the beginning of August, and since then Yara's city has been pounded most days and nights by fighter jets from a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led (and US-backed) coalition is trying to break the rebels’ hold on Sanaa and restore the exiled Yemeni president, whom the rebels displaced.
In other parts of Yemen, the war looks different. In the city of Taiz, for example, the same Houthi rebel group that governs Yara's hometown is viewed as the aggressor. Saudi Arabia supports local fighters there who are defending the city against the Houthis.
It is hard, even for Yemenis, to gauge whose interests are being served by the fighting that has spread across their country. To date, nearly 4,000 civilians have died in the war. And more than 1,000 of them were children.
Like many residents of the rebel-held capital city, Yara blames Saudi Arabia for dragging out the war that has destroyed hospitals, markets and schools.
She delivers her video message in English. That way she can reach viewers in the UK and the United States — the ones who, in her view, hold the keys to ending the conflict.
“I want America to stop helping [the Saudis] so the war can end,” she said in a Skype interview from Sanaa. “If [Americans] can't stop the war against Yemen, I'd like them to stop helping Saudis and stop selling them weapons, so the war can stop.”
The United States has sold billions of dollars in aircraft, weapons and support services to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. From the beginning of the bombing campaign in Yemen, US personnel have been assisting the Saudis with targeting information. They fly airborne tankers to refuel Saudi fighter jets between bombing raids. And they assist the Saudi navy with its coastal blockade of Yemen’s commercial seaports.
Yara, 10 years old, lives in Sanaa. She wants the violence there to stop, now.
Yara remembers when the air strikes began, at midnight on March 26, 2015. It was the night before her fellow students at the Sanaa British School were to celebrate the end of the academic term. “I was really excited to attend the party,” she recalls, “but unfortunately, war started.”
Her school did not open the next morning, nor would it for months.
“Mommy told me that war against Yemen [had] started, and tons of people are dying, and all people lost their jobs,” she remembers. “My dad lost his job, also.”
She recalls how her family first adjusted to daily — and nightly — air strikes. “We all slept in one room in the basement, and our backpacks were ready — they had money, our passports even.”
Yara still sleeps in the basement next to her mom, dad and brother. Their packed bags still rest there too, in case the family needs to leave quickly. But Yara knows there is little chance for her family to escape the war. The Saudi-led coalition controls the airspace, the seaports and Yemen’s long border with Saudi Arabia.
“I really was crying every day to tell my mom I really want to travel [out of Yemen],” Yara says, “but she told me, ‘Where will we go? Your dad can't work at any country because we are Yemenis.’ And embassies are closed so no visas … and the airport was shut.”
With the closing of Yemeni airspace, there have been few commercial flights in and out of the Sanaa airport. The only aircraft in the skies over the capital are war planes.
“Before war we used to hear the airplanes and try to go and catch them,” Yara says. “And now, when we hear the airplanes, we go and hide.”
Yara hopes to return to school for the fall term in October.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
It’s September, and That Means It’s Time for Software Freedom Day · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Over a hundred registered events across the world for Software Freedom Day 2016. Screenshot from SFD website
Software Freedom Day (SFD), which celebrates the use of free and open software, is just around the corner on September 17. When the day first started in 2004, only 12 teams from different places joined, but it has since grown to include hundreds registered events around the world, depending on the year.
Supported by several global organizations like Google, Canonical, Free Software Foundation, Joomla, Creative Commons and Linux Journal, Software Freedom Day draws its inspiration from the philosophy promoted by people like Richard Stallman who argue that free software is all about the freedom and not necessarily free of cost but provides the liberty to users from proprietary software developers’ power and influence.
SFD encourages everyone to gather in their own cities (here's a map of places where SFD is organized this year), educate people around them about free software, and promote the cause on social media (with the hashtag #SFD2016 this year). There's also hackathons (hacking free software to modify the code and create what one wants to have in it),  running free software installation camps, and even going creative with flying a drone running free software.
From South Asia, there are 13 celebratory events in India, eight in Nepal, one in Bangladesh and four in Sri Lanka.
South Asian countries have seen adoption of both free software and open source software by individuals, organizations and the government. The Free Software Movement of India was founded in Bengaluru, India, in 2010 to act as a national coalition of several regional chapters working to promote and grow the free software movement in India.
The Indian government has launched an open data portal at data.gov.in portal for sharing large datasets like the census data under free licenses. The government's new policy emphasizes on adopting open source software. Moreover government's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology asked vendors to include open source software applications while making requests for proposals.
Similarly, there are several free and open source communities and organizations operating from the subcontinent, like Mozilla India, Wikimedia India, the Centre for Internet and Society, Open Knowledge India, Mozilla Bangladesh, Wikimedia Bangladesh, Bangladesh Open Source Network, Open Knowledge Bangladesh, Mozilla Nepal, Wikimedians of Nepal, Open Knowledge Nepal, Wikimedia Community User Group Pakistan, and the Lanka Software Foundation in Sri Lanka.
Mohammad Jahangir Alam, a lecturer from Southern University Bangladesh, argues in a research paper that the use of open source software can help the government save a enormous amount of money that are spent in purchasing proprietary software:
A Large amount of money of government can be saved if the government uses open source software in different IT sectors of government offices and others sectors, Because government is providing computer to all educational institute from school to university level and they are using proprietary software. For this reason government is to expend a large amount of many for buying proprietary software to run the computers. Another one is government paying significant amount of money to the different vendors for buying different types of software to implement e-Governance project. So, the Government can use open source software for implanting projects to minimize cost of the projects.
Check more ideas for celebrating Software Freedom Day, and a few more here.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


text:
Malaysian Animal Lovers Launch Online Petition Against Malacca State Law Banning Dogs at Terrace Houses · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Malacca Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said the law is forcing many owners to give up their dogs. Photo from the Facebook page of SPCA
An online petition is asking the Malacca state government to withdraw a law which bans dogs in terrace houses.
The petition, which was initiated on September 14, has already gathered more than 27,000 signatures.
Malacca is a state in southern Malaysia.
Responding to the appeals of dog owners, the Malacca chief minister announced that owners can keep their dogs while the local government is drafting a new measure that will be acceptable to all stakeholders.
Carol N started the petition at Change.org. She criticized the decision of the State Housing, Local Government and Environment Committee to ban dogs in terrace houses except corner lots after some residents complained of noisy dogs and stray dogs in their community.
This blanket ruling will result in most dog owners being forced to give up their dogs, most of which will end up in overcrowded shelters, abandoned to become strays, or at the local council dog pounds where they will be put to sleep or die slowly of diseases due to the pathetically unclean state of Malaysian local council dog pounds.
Carol N urged authorities to focus on the few irresponsible dog owners instead of punishing the majority:
Take action only [against] dog owners who do not comply through fines or means other than forcing them to give up the dogs, which should be the last resort unless the dog owner is found to be abusing the dog.
Carol N also expressed doubt if the local government can enforce its law banning dogs in terrace houses:
If your local councils lack the resources to take action only [against] the few errant dog owners that allow their dogs to create disturbances, then how will they enforce this ruling on an entire state of dog owners, most of whom do not wish to comply with your cruel demands to give up their furry family members?
The message of the petition was endorsed by several animal rights groups such as the Malacca Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Penang Animal Welfare Society, Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better, and Furry Friends Farm.
According to the petitioners, Malaysia already has a notably restrictive policy on dog ownership since dogs are not allowed in high-rise residential buildings.
For its part, the Malacca state government clarified that the law banning dogs has been in effect since 2013. It vowed to consult various groups on how to address both the complaints of some residents and the appeals of dog owners.

author: Mong Palatino


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‘Convenient Outrage’ in Trinidad & Tobago Over Demolition of Dance Pioneer Beryl McBurnie’s House · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The remains of the residence of Beryl McBurnie, the “mother of Caribbean dance”, St. James, Trinidad. Photo by Rubadiri Victor, used with permission.
A portion of Trinidad and Tobago's artistic community is up in arms about the demolition of Beryl McBurnie‘s house, a property that was shortlisted by the National Trust — the organisation charged with safeguarding the country's heritage sites — to be considered for protected status. The house was bulldozed to the ground on September 16.
Affectionately called by her stage name, “La Belle Rosette”, McBurnie, who died in 2000, was one of the pioneers of Caribbean dance and the founder of The Little Carib Theatre, which she used to promote the arts and culture of both Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean region.
While The Little Carib Theatre is widely recognised as McBurnie's legacy, the razing of her home has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many netizens accustomed to seeing historically significant landmarks in the state destroyed.
Nearly two years ago, Greyfriar's Presbyterian Church in Port of Spain was demolished by the site's new owner.
Cultural activist Rubadiri Victor was the first to break the news on Facebook:
They bulldozed to the ground the home of Beryl Mc Bernie […] the Mother of Caribbean Dance, the co-creator of Best Village, the preserver of our Folk traditions, the first choreographer of our Independence Festival, the founder of the Little Carib Theatre, the godmother of literally thousands of performers, companies, and performances here and in the diaspora. Her house. They bulldozed it. With things in it.
We cannot be serious as a people. Cannot. We must confess now that the whole Independence thing, the flag, the anthem, everything, was just a big joke. A flam ting [a local term for ‘show off’] and we’re ready to move on now to Mc Donald’s, the Union Jack, Trump, the Star Spangled, whatever Reality Show boat-ride that comes along. Anything! But this Civilisation called Trinidad and Tobagp [sic]? We flunking dat exam. Cause we aint serious as big people, as Independent people, as heirs to one of the richest cultural traditions on planet Earth. WE CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!
He went on to explain:
The tragedy in Beryl’s Home is this. This was a facility that could have been earning millions of dollars. […] A proposal was drafted by the Artists’ Coalition of T&T (ACTT) [which Victor himself heads] to turn the abandoned house into an Adaptive-Use Heritage Site which would have featured: an interactive Beryl Mc Bernie and Caribbean Dance multi-media Museum; an office for the Beryl Mc Bernie Trust; a working artist studio and small dance studio; and living quarters and working space for Residencies for top international dance practitioners. The Site would have been a pilgrimage point for students and nationals locally and for curious international tourists. Now that dream is no more […]
Of course the contempt didn’t begin today. The house lay abandoned and overgrown for years whilst billions of dollars were being spent on fireworks, champagne, and box-drains… […] Upon her death the lack of any active Heritage legislation and the possession of completely zero National Cultural Policy or National Heroes Policy (which would have had protocols for the treatment of the homes and Legacy items of National Heroes) meant that everything she left behind was ripe for ruin.
Journalist and blogger Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar was so disillusioned by the demolition that he ranted:
You know what? This place deserves to die a painful death. […] No respect for a woman who basically created T&T dance culture? This is a new level of disgusting in a landscape that has far too many examples of disgusting.
“The Foundation Stone” — part of the debris left behind at McBurnie's demolished residence. Photo by Rubadiri Victor, used with permission.
In reality, McBurnie's legacy has not been disregarded; it is being looked after by the board of The Little Carib Theatre, and any items of worth or cultural significance were removed from her residence years ago.
The theatre space is in operation and has been recently renovated, but it is no secret that fundraising for the arts in Trinidad and Tobago can be an uphill battle. Thus, the board took the decision to sell McBurnie's residence, reportedly to fund more pressing projects.
According to the property's new owner Dexter John, who organised the demolition, the house had been listed for sale a while ago.
While he understands that the artistic community may be upset over the action, he told the TV6 News that any blame lies with the board of the Little Carib.
But journalist Franka Phillip made the argument that responsibility for the demolition was, in fact, collective:
There's lots of outrage over the demolition of Beryl McBurnie's home on Panka St, St James. But what's the point of outrage now if you didn't actually give any thought to the deterioration of this historical building over the years? How many people actually listened to and supported those who pushed the cause? People talk about what ‘the government’ doing and they're right but more importantly what are we doing to help preserve our treasures?
On Twitter, netizens shared their disappointment at the loss of the home.
I remember cleaning Ms Beryl McBurnie's house as a little boy going to St. Agnes Primary School. Sad to see the house demolished.
— Jayvon Sparta George (@JayvonGeorge) September 16, 2016
I sure Beryl McBurnie rolling her in grave at that stupidness that went on.
— RkSeabrun (@ReginaKSeabrun) June 27, 2016
However, Rudylynn Roberts, an architect who specialises in restoration, noted that “Beryl McBurnie's legacy is actually the establishment of The Little Carib Theatre and her memory will always be kept alive there.”
While she was saddened at the news of the demolition, and suggested that the site could still be acknowledged as her home — via a plaque of some sort, for instance — she noted that even casual observation showed serious structural issues and that the building itself, though eclectic, had no real architectural merit.
The lobby of The Little Carib Theatre, where a framed portrait of Mc Burnie hangs on the wall. Photo by the trinidad+tobago film festival, used with permission.
In a telephone interview with Global Voices, writer Rhoda Bharath called it “convenient outrage”, saying, “It is a masquerade of us being civic-minded when we are really not.”
While experts and laypeople alike continue to debate the architectural and heritage merits of McBurnie's now-destroyed home, some good may yet come out of the episode.
Rubadiri Victor, President of the Artist Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT), promised to launch “a major Heritage initiative that we hope will galvanise the public around the idea of preserving and honouring T&T’s incomparable heroic Legacy and creating an industry out of it that can employ many– from the roots to the branches.”
Whether the public will rally behind Victor's initiative remains to be seen.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Iron Maiden and Turkish Folk Music? That’s What Inspires This Cretan Musician. · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Stelios Petrakis backstage during stop in New York earlier this year Credit: Marco Werman
This article by April Peavey originally appeared on PRI.org on September 6, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Crete, the Greek island between Italy and Turkey, is a crossroads of sorts — a place many migrants have passed through en route to Europe, and more recently the site of large refugee camps.
It’s also where composer and musician Stelios Petrakis finds his inspiration.
“My music is deep. It has emotion. My lyrics are mainly for love and some for the respect of the environment. For kindness of people and for the beauty of Crete,” he says.
It is impossible not to feel for the refugees staying on his home island, Petrakis said in an interview earlier this year. “We're all sensitive, especially the artist,” he says. “I try to not be so immediately affected.”
Petrakis plays the lyre and lute — some of the oldest continuously played instruments in the world. He also builds them.
Petrakis went to law school, even though today he's a professional musician.
At a critical moment in his life he had to make a decision: law or music. “I had a concert [on] the same day as some exams,” he says. “I preferred to go [to] the concert instead of the exams.”
So today, Petrakis is a traditional musician navigating the modern world — and finding inspiration all over the place.
“I'm a big fan of the British band Iron Maiden,” he says. “I listen a lot to flamenco music from Spain and [to] a lot of music from Turkey, folk music and classic Ottoman music.”
Iron Maiden? Yeah, he says it's “in the power.”


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Japan Finally Gets Free Public WiFi… Just Not For Japanese Residents · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

If you're searching for free wifi in Japan, these stickers advertising the availability of subscription-based wifi will leave you briefly hopeful, and then bitterly disappointed. Image adapted from original by Flicker user nicolasnova. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Japan's government has recently promised to address one of the greatest scourges of modern life in that country: the almost complete lack of public WiFi hotspots. Unfortunately for Japanese residents, the fix will only be available for tourists. If you live in Japan, you'll still be out of luck. And this has left some Japanese Twitter users disappointed.
While open WiFi hot-spots are quite common in many Western countries such as Canada and the United States, in Japan, until recently, WiFi access at coffee shops, malls and other public places could only be accessed as part of a pre-existing mobile phone contract.
Foreign visitors to Japan will almost never come equipped with a smartphone plan, so getting access to Wifi has been a major challenge, and figuring out how to access WiFi is one of the most common questions tourists have when planning their visit to Japan.
As part of its preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese government has been working on deploying free WiFi hotspots all over the country. At the moment free public WiFi exists in a patchwork of locations, mostly in major airports and in larger cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, or major tourist destinations such as downtown Kyoto. If you're visiting anyplace more-or-less off the beaten track, it's tough to find free WiFi hotspots.
On September 16, the Japanese government announced it would work with Japanese telecoms provider KDDI to provide WiFi hotspots all over Japan.
無料Wi-Fiが全国で登録が簡単に使えるようになったら便利ですね。
海外遠征に行く国で日本程、Wi-Fiが不便な国に行った記憶がないです。
飲食店もWi-Fi完備は早急に！ウェブがあれば雑誌置かな…https://t.co/NBgEXsOZo5 #NewsPicks
— shinya aoki ９月8日新刊発売 (@a_ok_i) September 15, 2016
It'll be really convenient when tourists to Japan can easily sign-up for and access WiFi all over the country. Now, no one will leave Japan with bad memories of trying to connect to  the Internet. Can't wait for more hotspots in restaurants and coffee shops. If there's web access they won't have to buy any more magazines!
Japanese Twitter users were feeling left out however:
これはよいサービス。我々も使えるようにして欲しい！＞ 無料Ｗｉ－Ｆｉ 一度登録すれば全国的に利用可能へ | NHKニュース – https://t.co/Ty8rp960YQ
— KatsumasaShirai (@KatsumasaShirai) September 17, 2016
This is a good idea. However I want them to make this service available for (Japanese residents), too! Article: Free WiFi Access Across Japan Via Registration
日本人も使えるようにしてください。テザリング使えるようになってからはかならましやけど、困ることある / 無料Ｗｉ－Ｆｉ 一度登録すれば全国的に利用可能へ （NHKニュース）https://t.co/3U3HWqkXJP #NewsPicks
— 先輩薬剤師　浦田優 (@usenpai1) September 15, 2016
Make this available for Japanese people, too. I guess I can tether from my phone but sometimes that's not good enough!
The decision to expand WiFi across Japan has been a long time coming. On one discussion board News Picks, the top-ranked commenter said:
[…] 日本はかなり後進国という印象を受けます。広がるといいですね。
「オリンピック」というお題目が付いた途端、あらゆることが進む状況ってなかなか凄いなと、改めて思う次第。なんなら、毎年なんらかデカいイベントやればいいと感じてしまいます。
Until now (when it comes to free public WiFi access) Japan as a country really looks like it's living in the past. Increasing free public WiFi access (across the country) is great. The only reason (a number of issues like WiFi) are being addressed is because of the Olympics… We ought to hold giant events like the Olympics every year just so we can get anything improved at all in Japan.
Still, for many visitors to Japan, the initial high-speed WiFi rush of the airport is a revelation in and of itself:
Okay, I knew Japan was the first country in the world for internet, but their airport wifi is INSANELY FAST. <3 pic.twitter.com/WdvEhm7ehg
— All-in-one Mighty (@pb_ee1) September 10, 2016

author: Nevin Thompson


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Meet the Street Kids of India Who Have Their Own Paper · Global Voices
Palash Ranjan Sanyal

Street kids playing in Ahmedabad. Image from Flickr by Sandeep Chetan. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A Delhi-based newspaper written and published by street children has been telling their stories in their voices and struggling for their rights for over a decade now.
The newspaper named Balaknama, meaning ‘Voice of Children’ in Hindi, has built up a solid reputation over the years thanks largely to its bitingly authentic features.
In circulation since 2003, the eight-page tabloid covers seven cities and has become part of the lives of around ten thousand street kids.
#Balaknama: an 8 page quarterly newspaper BY children, FOR children living and working on the streets @k_satyarthi https://t.co/TRQBGp5NSN
— Meena (@mgrg7) December 29, 2015
Balaknama has not only made the street children independent & aware of their rights. its a tabloid run by street children. @MadisonMondell
— subhi madan (@subhi_madan) July 25, 2016
The topics Balaknama cover are not new, but are tackled from a fresh angle. Issues like sexual abuse, child labour and police brutality, are told from the perspective of real-life victims.
Homeless youth also tell stories of hope about positive things that are happening at street level.
The kids who work for the popular paper come from different backgrounds. Present editor, Shambhu, 17, washes cars during the day for a living, for instance.
For children like him, Balaknama is a way to tell people about the problems they face in their daily lives.
Since its inception, Balaknama has been edited by volunteers of Childhood Enhancement through Training and Action (CHETNA), a NGO which works with street children and children forced into work by their circumstances.
Chetna is a public charitable trust that was founded in 2002, when it helped form a federation of street children called Badhte Kadam (Stepping Forward).
The following year CHETNA organised a workshop for street and working children where participants concluded that they had all suffered abuse and neglect, but had always lacked a voice to amplify their problems.
Thus, a question was posed: “Can we have our own newspaper?”.
Journalist Bipasha Mukherjea writes about how the newspaper binds together the street kids who work on the stories:
Together they work on stories that only a child living on street can find and report. The newspaper binds them and supports them.
Nearly all children involved in Balaknama are students of National open school centres run by Chetna.
#balaknana team in action. New issue of Balaknama news paper in making. RT@chetnango pic.twitter.com/0KHXZyoLps
— CHETNA NGO (@chetnango) July 24, 2016
According to the estimates of the Indian government there are just over 400,000 street children in India, with 314,700 street children distributed over cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Kanpur, Bangalore and Hyderabad and around 100,000 street children in Delhi alone.
Most experts, however, view these figures as being very conservative.
Many of the children whose stories run in Balaknama cannot read or write themselves. Their friends and colleagues transcribe their stories on their behalf for the newspaper.
Due to their lack of access to internet or fax, most reporters narrate their copy to colleagues in the Delhi office via the telephone.
They have an editorial meeting twice a month to discuss what stories will be published.
Arijit Bose provides more information on Balaknama in his blog:
Each paper is priced at a token 2 rupees and over 8,000 copies, most of them in Hindi, are published every month. The paper makes no profit and is entirely NGO-funded.
The paper's ex-editor Chandni was studying for her class 10 examination when she spoke at a TEDx event in Bangalore last year.
She received a standing ovation following her 18-minute speech on how the newspaper had shaped her life.
Chandni talking about unconventional #journalism. The story from being a child labourer to a successful journalist for #balaknama at #tedxbangalore 2015 (click on the image to play video)
RegalUnlimited transcribed some parts of Chandni's speech:
Do media think what a child thinks? Do you know what children want? Do you ever consider these questions? They want our empathy, not sympathy…
This is our workplace @balaknama1. Our journey not that easy. It took us 13 years to establish Balaknama newspaper pic.twitter.com/mUXybmP7ts
— balaknama (@balaknama1) September 14, 2016
Many of the children who tell their stories for Balaknama are rubbish collectors or do odd jobs at roadside cafes, bus stations, and railway stations.
The paper visits them at their workplaces to listen and collect their stories.
RT MinistryWCD: #Balaknama, set up in 2003, is a monthly newspaper run by street children.… pic.twitter.com/OrlYdVp4UX pic.twitter.com/fTbuW1LTJc
— Swapnil Pathre (@iSwapnilpathre) May 9, 2016
For those interested in finding out more, Balaknama's story is on YouTube, in a video uploaded journalist Bipasha Mukherjea:

author: Palash Ranjan Sanyal


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Nursery Rhymes Like the Incy Wincy Spider, Animated and Translated Into the Yoruba Language · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Culture Tree TV is a new YouTube channel that transforms popular English nursery rhymes and traditional Nigerian songs into animated videos in the Yoruba language, encouraging young children, especially those living in the diaspora, to learn their maternal language.
The idea behind the project comes from a Nigerian mother living in London, Gbemisola Isimi, who observed that her 3-year-old daughter enjoyed watching children's videos on the iPad. However, when Isimi sought to find videos in her native Yoruba language, her YouTube search results came up empty.
So she thought, why not create the videos herself? As stated in the introductory video, Isimi saw the need to “keep our heritage alive, we need to keep our culture alive, we need to keep our language alive,” and decided to do so, taking advantage of technology and the reach of the internet.
With the help of friends skilled in animation, she started to create and record new videos and upload them to the new channel. This was her contribution to ensuring her children — and others elsewhere in the world — maintained their Yoruba roots despite living thousands of kilometers away.
Yoruba is one of approximately 520 Nigerian languages in the culturally and linguistically diverse country. It is spoken primarily in Nigeria and neighboring Benin by an estimated 20 million people worldwide. That figure includes many millions of Nigerians living abroad. The diaspora community includes a large population in London, so much so that the southeastern Peckham district is affectionately known as “Little Lagos“.
Making children's videos available in the Yoruba language helps make the language more visible and entertaining for young children. Culture Tree's YouTube channel features universal nursery rhymes translated into Yoruba with bilingual subtitles, such as Old MacDonald or “Baba MacDonald” featured above, or the Incy Wincy Spider or “Rondo Rondo Alantakun” in Yoruba.
And Bingo the Dog in Yoruba:
According to Isimi, the analytics provided by YouTube indicate that the largest number of visitors to the channel arrive from the UK, the United States, and Nigeria. Thanks to this new project, parents and educators will not find the same empty search results when looking for educational videos in the Yoruba language on YouTube.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Singapore Debates Whether Paralympic and Olympic Gold Medalists Should Receive the Same Rewards · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Paralympic swimmer Yip Pin Xiu won two gold medals in Rio. Photo from Yip Pin Xiu's Facebook page
Singaporean swimmer Yip Pin Xiu, who was born with a muscular dystrophy, won two gold medals in the 2016 Paralympics. She is assured of receiving 200,000 Singapore Dollars (146,000 USD) for each gold medal she won in Rio de Janeiro.
But her supporters are asking the government to give her at least $1,000,000, the same amount received by swimmer Joseph Schooling, who won a gold medal in Rio last month. Aside from defeating the legendary swimmer Michael Phelps, there was the small matter of Schooling's gold medal being the country's first at an Olympics.
Some Singaporean netizens want equal treatment for Olympians and Paralympians. Some even reminded authorities that it was Yip Pin Xiu who gave Singapore its first gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
At that time, Senior Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck explained why the reward money for Paralympians is smaller than what is given to Olympic champions:
One of the things that we have to look at is that the Olympics competition level is actually quite different. The Olympics competition is a free world competition. Paralympians can join Olympics. Olympians cannot join Paralympics. That is one thing you look at – the level of competition.
The base of competition within the Olympics is a lot broader and the base of competition for Paralympics is smaller and is segmentised because Paralympics is based on the disabilities which are classified differently. So that is a different scale of competition.
Former journalist Claire Leow disagreed with this line of reasoning in her Facebook post pushing for greater rewards for Paralympians like Yip Pin Xiu:
I am glad it was a smaller field — I am glad because each of those six competitors had a disability no one wishes on them. But it is also a bigger field – the six only represented the many others with more severe disabilities that could not possibly have gotten them into competition.
In the end, we cannot measure (or reward) human endeavour by money alone but withholding it sends a wrong message to society too. After all, as a taxpayer, I pledge my share of it to all society and to that end, in principle, I want Yip Pin Xiu and other disabled athletes to get the same rewards.
The opposition Workers’ Party also supports the clamor to improve the compensation for Paralympian champions:
The smaller pool of competitors at the Games should not be reason to deny our Paralympians the recognition and compensation that is due to them. It is only right that they should receive equal treatment as any Singaporean athlete who competes at the highest international levels.
For her part, Yip Pin Xiu is not bothered by the smaller amount of money she is going to receive but she rejects the argument that athletes like her are inferior to those who competed in the Olympics.
In an interview published by Today newspaper, Yip Pin Xiu said:
There are also people being negative and saying that (my Paralympic gold medal) cannot be compared (to Schooling’s Olympic gold) because they don’t think para—sports is the same as able—bodied sports.
My answer to [critics] is that we put in the same amount of effort to get to where we are and it’s not easier being in para—sports.
So, people who are comparing are missing the point here. Because sports has the ability to unite people. Joseph’s gold medal brought Singaporeans together. Hopefully, with this Paralympics gold medal, it would also be able to do the same. That’s the magic of sports.
On Twitter, many demanded more recognition for Yip Pin Xiu's incredible achievement:
Funny how #YipPinXiu isn't getting the glory she's supposed to get despite clinching two gold medals at the Paralympics.
— JRDN (@jrdnrighthere) September 17, 2016
Yip Pin Xiu deserves more recognition than Joseph Schooling tbh. she broke her own world record. why isn't anyone talking about her.
— mayonnaise (@pasteItattoo) September 10, 2016
Why are they not streaming Paralympic on tv? WHY? Why are they not showing re-runs of Yip Pin Xiu's Gold medal & World record race?
— Kristel Castles (@AquaBread) September 10, 2016
Public pressure may yet persuade the government. After winning a gold medal in 2008, Yip Pin Xiu was only supposed to receive $100,000 but it was increased to $200,000 after the government yielded to popular opinion.


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Why Do So Many Eritreans Risk Their Lives Fleeing the Country? · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Screen shot  of a video from Africa News showing exiles protesting following the UN's report on human rights in Eritrea.
In 2014, Eritreans ranked as the second largest group of immigrants arriving in Europe. They also ranked third in terms of the number of migrants arriving on the continent via the Mediterranean in the summer of 2015, while of those who perish attempting that crossing, Eritreans account for more than half.
On June 8, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea published its latest report exposing the totalitarian nature of the Eritrean government and the scope of the crimes against humanity that have been systematically perpetrated in the country over the past 25 years.
In a press release presenting the report, the Commission's president, Mike Smith stated:
Eritrea is an authoritarian State. There is no independent judiciary, no national assembly and there are no other democratic institutions in Eritrea. This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity to be perpetrated over a quarter of a century. These crimes are still occurring today
There is no genuine prospect of the Eritrean judicial system holding perpetrators to account in a fair and transparent manner.
Map provided by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In red: formal advisory against travel; in orange: advisory against unnecessary travel; yellow: high degree of caution advised; green: normal precautions advised). National service has transformed Eritrea into a collective prison, and those who attempt to flee the country risk being shot. Source diplomatie.gouv.fr- Public Domain
The report uses language that is unusually blunt for the UN in exposing human rights abuses:
The crimes also include imprisonment, enforced disappearances, persecution, murder and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a campaign to instill fear in, deter opposition from and ultimately to control the Eritrean civilian population since Eritrean authorities took control of Eritrean territory in 1991.
The following report from France 24 English seeks to explain why so many Eritreans risk death to escape the country:
Kubrom Dafla Hosabay, former head of the Eritrean Tax Administration, who fled the regime in 2009, explains:
People are escaping because they are stifled. They are not free anymore… you know… without the freedom to work, the freedom to have a family, the freedom to travel, the freedom to go to education, what life do you have?
The young people see that they cannot do any activity as long as that national service obligation exists. It's endless. There's no legal way of going out of the national service.
In the following video,  refugee coordinator for Amnesty International, Denise Graf, explains the living conditions in Eritrea, the uncertainty that families face, and the challenges in obtaining refugee status in Switzerland:
En 2014, ils ont été près de 7000 à demander l’asile en Suisse. Les Erythréens forment aujourd’hui le plus gros contingent de réfugiés en Suisse. A l’échelle européenne on totalise 46000 Erythréens demandeurs d’asile. D’après les chiffres de l’ONU, les départs se comptent en centaines de milliers. Une fuite massive qu’il est difficile d’évaluer, tant l’Erythrée est un pays mal connu. C’est un pays jeune qui a acquis son indépendance en 1993 après trente ans de guerre avec son grand voisin, l’Ethiopie. Mais le pouvoir en place depuis l’indépendance est considéré comme l’un des plus répressifs du monde. Les arrestations arbitraires se multiplient et les jeunes sont astreints à un service militaire parfois interminable.
In 2014, nearly 7,000 Eritreans requested asylum in Switzerland, and today form the largest group of refugees in the country. Throughout Europe, this number reaches 46,000. According to the UN's statistics, the number of Eritreans having fled the country is in the hundreds of thousands but is difficult to evaluate as the country is not well known. It is a young country that gained its independence in 1993, after thirty years of war with its larger neighbor, Ethiopia. The current regime is considered to be one of the most oppressive in the world. Illegal arrests are on the rise and young people are forced into military service which is sometimes endless.
In turn, Amnesty International also explained the burden of the national service system on the population and the plight of children in the country:
Mandatory National Service continued to be extended indefinitely in a system that amounts to forced labour. A significant proportion of the population was in open-ended conscription, in some cases for up to 20 years. Conscripts were paid low wages that did not enable them to cover their families’ basic needs, and had limited and arbitrarily granted leave allowances which in many cases disrupted their family life. Conscripts served in the defence forces and were assigned to agriculture, construction, teaching, civil service and other roles. There was no provision for conscientious objection.
Children continued to be conscripted into military training under the requirement that all children undergo grade 12 of secondary school at the Sawa National Service training camp. There they faced harsh living conditions, military-style discipline and weapons training. Some children dropped out of school early to avoid this fate. Children were also conscripted into training in round-ups conducted by the military, in search of people evading National Service.
In an article translated from Italian to English, published in September 2004 as part of the Looking Beyond project, Stefania Summermatter describes the experience of Eritrean refugee Mebrathon:
Mebrathon a été enrôlé dans l’armée à 16 ans. «Au début, j’étais de garde sur la frontière avec l’Ethiopie. Nous avions l’ordre de tirer sur quiconque tentait de passer. J’ai travaillé jour et nuit pour un salaire de 450 naktfa, soit environ 30 dollars». La première fois qu’il a cherché à s’échapper, il avait un peu plus de 30 ans. Mais les soldats l’ont pris, mis dans une cellule souterraine et torturé. Mebrathon allume une cigarette et l’on peut voir que ses poignets portent encore la marque des menottes.
Mebrathon was enrolled in the army at 16 years of age. “At first I was guarding the border with Ethiopia. We had orders to shoot anyone trying to cross. I worked day and night for 450 naktfa, which is about $30 (CHF28).”
The first time he tried to escape he was just over 30. Soldiers caught him, he was put in an underground cell and tortured.
Ordinary citizens and soldiers are not the only ones risking their lives attempting to flee at all costs. In a post published in 2014 on amnesty.fr, Franck Gouéry recalls:
Il y a deux ans, le coureur de fond et porte-drapeau érythréen Weynay Ghebreselasie prend la poudre d’escampette en plein Jeux olympiques à Londres. En 2012, le ministre de l’Information profite d’un voyage d’affaires en Allemagne pour fuir son pays. Cette même année, deux pilotes de l’Eritrean Defense Force font défection avec l’avion présidentiel qu’ils posent en Arabie saoudite.errestre
En 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, ce sont des membres de l’équipe nationale de football qui se mettent hors-jeu à l’occasion de compétitions internationales, pour atteindre un tout autre but : l’asile politique. Ceux-là ont fui l’Érythrée dans des circonstances exceptionnelles. Mais tous les Érythréens n’ont pas la chance de partir si facilement.
Two years ago, Eritrea's flag-bearing medium-distance runner Weynay Ghebresilasie defected during the Olympic Games in London. In 2012, the Minister of Information took advantage of a business trip in Germany to do the same. The same year, two Eritrean Defense Force pilots defected using the presidential plane that they landed in Saudi Arabia. In 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, several members of the national soccer team attended international competitions with the ulterior motive of political asylum. Although these individuals have managed to escape, their circumstances were exceptional; not all Eritreans have the chance to leave so easily.
Eritrea is in a permanent state of war with its only two neighbours by land, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

author: Abdoulaye Bah