text:
For Nepal’s migrant and daily wage workers, lockdown is more dangerous than the coronavirus · Global Voices
Benju Lwagun

A man sits on the shores of Tilicho lake, Khangsar, Nepal, holding a Nepali flag. Image via Pxfuel, used under a Creative Commons Zero – CC0 license.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
The Himalayan country of Nepal is facing an enormous challenge in trying to arrange the safe return and protection of thousands of Nepalese migrant workers who are stranded in the border area between Nepal and India, and in other parts of the world.
The country has been under lockdown for almost a month, with public spaces, transportation services and airports shut down and the borders with India and China completely sealed. Travel into and out of the country, including for Nepalese citizens, is restricted. The lockdown has not impacted everyone in the same way, and migrant workers and daily wage labourers are among the hardest hit by the restrictions.
In the past few decades, many Nepalese have travelled to countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, South Korea and neighbouring India to find work. Close to one-third of Nepal's economy is supported by the remittances sent home by these workers. The government has initiated a process to track down the estimated 4.5 million Nepalese currently living overseas as migrant workers.
Nearly 500 Nepalese migrant workers are stuck at Nepal-India border desperate to get back home, as they have no shelter or food. Many of them are sleeping on the street and some are risking their lives to cross the border illegally.
Migrant labourers stranded at Indo-Nepal border town of Dharchula, UP due to the lockdown amidst Coronavirus outbreak. The Central govt has ordered all the states to seal their borders & to keep a tab on the movement of people#coronavirus #21daylockdown pic.twitter.com/GB44l16IwT
— Dr.Jitendra Awhad (@Awhadspeaks) March 30, 2020
Nepalese migrant labourers living overseas in countries such as the United Arab Emirates also find themselves at considerable risk. Amidst the pandemic and lockdown, Qatar has suddenly deported hundreds of Nepalese without any backup support, while thousands of workers are still living in the camps of Qatar without jobs and proper shelter.
Chandar Kumar from the Kathmandu Post tweeted:
The human rights advocacy group has accused the Qatari authorities of rounding and expelling dozens of migrant workers after telling them that they were being taken to be tested for Covid-19 in March.
I reported. @amnesty @amnestynepal
https://t.co/FAP6VIW9NA
— Chandan Kumar Mandal ??? (@CK_Mandal) April 16, 2020
In addition, more than 655 COVID-19 cases are Nepalese overseas migrant workers. Many migrant labourers are seeking the government’s support to return home, but the government of Nepal is neither willing nor ready to facilitate their safe return.
Migrant workers in the Middle East live in fear of more layoffs and deportation. Journalist Dewan RAI writes on Twitter that:
An impending challenge for Nepal govt to bring home Nepali migrant workers from the Middle East. The UAE wants migrant workers to be repatriated and considering quota for workers from countries that refuse to repatriate their citizens @NepaliTimes reports https://t.co/K36bmankrC https://t.co/gJ3RYfASEa
— Dewan RAI (@rdewan) April 14, 2020
In an op-ed on the Nepalese news site My Republica, social scientists Prakash Bhattarai and Rajendra Senchurey outlined the challenges they believe Nepal will face if many migrant workers eventually returned home as a result of the fallout from COVID-19:
A growing negative narrative on migration and migrants is identified as another significant impact with the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. [..] It is quite important to create new narratives to challenge these stigmatizing narratives. [..] Post-COVID-19 development policy should also emphasize making use of the knowledge and skills that returnee migrants have brought along.
According to reports, since the lockdown thousands of people, including stranded students and jobless day-labourers, have been returning to their villages from big cities like Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan. Many domestic migrant workers were faced with a dilemma as transportation services were shut down, making it difficult for them to return to their home districts. Many started making the journey on foot.
#covid_19 #covid19nepal Read the story of 17 laborers who walked 575 KM from Kathmandu to Rajapur, Bardiya after the lockdown. #Nepal #coronavirus #CivActs #campaign #Bulletin #Labor #issues #Nepallockdown pic.twitter.com/aIyNii5hAM
— Civic Action Teams (@CivActs) April 16, 2020
Record Nepal, an independent digital publication based in Kathmandu, published an interview with a migrant construction worker who was asked why his fellow workers were fleeing the capital:
Why are migrants fleeing Kathmandu? #lockdownspecial
Rohinda Manda, a construction worker from Sarlahi #Interviews #TheRecordbites pic.twitter.com/xDEDWl2puL
— The Record (@recordnepal) April 13, 2020
Rohinda Manda: We have no jobs since the lockdown began, and it’s extending every week. We are staying at home, running out of food and money. We don’t have any other friends or support systems like in the village. The situation is very uncertain and it’s difficult for us to survive in Kathmandu. Therefore, we are obliged to walk home on foot even though the journey is long and difficult. We are in a group of 10 friends going in the same direction. It will take at least 4 days to reach home. But we will slowly make our way home because there’s no option left for us.
Record Nepal also published the story of one man who died while making the journey back home on foot.
#Nepal‘s first #COVID19 related death – not because of the virus but because of desperation. Important read @recordnepal. Nepali state has once again failed its most vulnerable citizens! https://t.co/D53YTV3rD7
— Subina Shrestha (@ShresthaSubina) April 17, 2020
On April 17, 2020, the Supreme Court of Nepal passed an order mandating the government to repatriate vulnerable migrant workers abroad and to arrange free transportation for all citizens heading home to ensure they travelled safely. The order included a requirement that people suspected of having COVID-19 be quarantined before they are sent home.
Nepal Supreme Court tells govt to use its embassies to identify Nepali migrants working abroad to ensure they are getting COVID-19 treatment per WHO rules, w/o discrimination, and to bring back any vulnerable migrant workers: https://t.co/VsanEhIPUd
— ILAWnetwork (@ILAW_Network) April 17, 2020
It may be too soon to determine and how efficiently the government implements these mandates, given the country is under lockdown.
According to the statistics, since the first case of COVID-19 was detected on January 24 Nepal has had only 30 confirmed cases and two recoveries at the time of writing. The list includes 13 people who had recently returned from countries including the UK, certain parts of Europe and Dubai, and 12 Indian nationals who came to Nepal to attend a religious conference. While the number of cases reported inside Nepal is relatively small, there is still fear of an outbreak as there are concerns that the testing taking place in the country is insufficient.
The Nepalese government is focusing primarily on immediate health needs, but in order to save the country from a larger socio-economic crisis, it should also address the issues of vulnerable citizens. The government should also be preparing long-term strategies in consultation with experts for how the country can be released from the current lockdown.

author: Benju Lwagun


text:
COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: Volunteers collect help messages during the pandemic · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

Project: The undocumented people. Volunteers collect help messages during the pandemic. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
The following post is the seventh in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth part of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
This installment was written between February 28-March 2, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.
疫情中的家暴正在浮出水面。疫情期间的封锁增加了受害者求助的难度，也增加了反家暴的支持工作的困难。
我也接到一些家暴的求助，有几个求助者是因为疫情不能上学的孩子，他们要天天面对父母的争吵和暴力而不知所措。即便有困难，受害者还是在求助，那我们要尽力让她们看到有人在支持她们。
下午，团购的水果到了。我买的是一份8斤的砂糖橘，50元。大家都说物业团购的水果质量很好，纷纷表示感谢。有人在家里做了炸鸡腿，拍照发到群里，外焦里嫩的，旁边还洒着胡椒面，大家都被馋得不行。
Domestic violence is emerging in the pandemic. The pandemic makes it more difficult for the victims to call for help and for us to help these victims.
I received some messages from the victims of domestic violence seeking help. Some of the victims are children who cannot go to schools due to the pandemic. These children feel helpless when they see the quarrels and violence between their parents every day. Despite the difficulties, these victims are still reaching out for help. We need to try our best to let the victims know that we are ready to help them.
In the afternoon, the fruits from group buying arrived. I bought 8 catties of sugar tangerines. It cost RMB 50 yuans (7 US dollars). All of us express our appreciation as the quality of the fruit is very good. Some people made fried chicken legs at home and sent photos to our group. The fried chicken legs were burnt outside but soft inside with black peppers sprinkled around. All of us were craving for it.
明天缺货需要等值交换的品类如下：
1 五花肉3斤换成腊排骨3斤（退差价30）
2 瘦肉5斤换牛肉5斤
3 冻脊骨2斤换筒子骨2斤（补差价10）
大家今天收到了吐司，明天早上烤起啊，千万不要浪费每一口。
4 苹果，梨，砂糖橘，沃柑，不足的等价互换
5 小番茄8斤换耙耙柑4斤
6 火腿肠1箱换腊排骨1袋（退差价10）
你家有没有酵母呀？
7 牛奶12盒1箱换速溶咖啡40支
8 煎饺1斤换烧麦1kg（补4元）
9 番茄5斤 换随机等价值水果
The list of food exchange items on an online group due to shortage of food supply:
For those who received the toast today, do not forget to bake it tomorrow morning. Please do not waste any of it.
Anyone has some yeasts?
今天，我想讲一讲那些在努力发声的人。
下面是我跟一个志愿者的对话
我：这次费盐对你有什么样的影响？
志愿者：很幸运的是，我和我身边的人都没有感染。但是我觉得这次费盐对我的影响很大，封锁是一个强制性的措施，将每个公民原子化，让我们在感到无力和绝望的时候不知道该如何求助。
另一方面看到那些绝望的求助的声音，我非常害怕人们会在一切结束之后忘记这些，就像我们一直以来做的那样，所以我很希望能够找到一种方式，让大家记住。这也是我个人想做这个项目的原因之一。那种行动的欲望很强烈。
我：你们开始做这个项目后，你的状态有变化吗？
志愿者：其实没有太多变化，尤其是每次整理那些求助信息的时候，都很想大哭一场。而且我好怕我在做这样琐碎的工作时一不小心就把他们当成了一个信息、一个数据 ，害怕自己看不到或者忘记背后这些家庭的挣扎，害怕自己麻木，害怕自己把它当成一项琐碎的工作。但好在，还没有。
只是我发现行动本身似乎并不能改善状态，行动不是一种自我救赎，行动可能甚至并改变不了什么，但是我们仍然需要行动
这个志愿者已经复工，在家办公，每天再花一个小时收集信息。这个项目志愿者人数也不多，目前搜集了一百三十多个案例。有兴趣的朋友可以加入TA们。
未被记录的TA们
https://shimo.im/docs/jj3wR6h6jCpKGDjX/read
Today I would like to talk about those who have tried their best to make a noise.
Below is my conversation with a volunteer (V).
I: How are you affected by this pandemic?
V: It is lucky that I and the people around me are not infected. However, I think this pandemic has affected me a lot. The mandatory lockdown has atomized individual citizens. We don't even know how to reach out for help as the sense of powerless and despair is too overwhelming.
On the other hand, when I read the messages sent by those in despair, I am afraid that we might forget what has happened after the pandemic ends, just like what we have gone through before. Therefore, I want to find a way to make all of us remember. This is one of the reasons why I want to do this project. I have strong desire to do something.
I: Have your condition changed after you started this project?
V: Actually my condition does not change much. Whenever I take a record of those help messages, I always want to cry. And whenever I do these seemingly trivial work, I am afraid that I would treat these messages as a piece of information or data and become indifferent or fail to see their struggles behind their messages. I am afraid that I would numb my feeling and trivialized the work. . But thank goodness, I did not.
However, I found that action itself cannot change our situation. While action should not be a kind of self-salvation. It might not change anything, but we need to act.
This volunteer has returned to work. He works from home, and he spends one hour every day to collect these messages. There are not many volunteers joining this project, but they have collected around 130 cases. If you are interested, please feel free to join them. The project is called “The undocumented people”
小区已经封了近两个星期了，依然有新增病例，昨天武汉市新增565例，这确实令人心慌。问题是，我们并不知道新增的病例究竟为何感染，大家就会猜测，觉得都是出门导致的。希望卫健委除了统计确诊的数字，也开始分析新增病例感染的原因，以减轻公众的恐慌。
It has been two weeks since residential districts have been locked down. However, we still have new confirmed cases. Yesterday we had 565 new confirmed cases in Wuhan. This makes us very worried. The problem is that we do not know how these new cases were infected. We have started to speculate and think maybe going out is the cause. In addition to the infected number, I hope our health administration can analyze how new cases were infected so that people will feel less panic.
今天，物业的主任在小区群里发了一个紧急通知，内容是：即日起居民购药必须由所在社区指定工作人员或志愿者代购，禁止对个人售卖，销售前必须核对社区代购人员相关证明，代购感冒药、退烧药，必须查验身份证，同时药店按要求做好销售登记及上报。无法提供证明材料或身份证的，一律不得销售。
今天翻看了一下那个群，群里有一百多个人，每天都有人在买药，大家的需求各种各样，有买口罩和酒精的，还有很多慢性病人买降血压的药、痔疮膏、治皮肤病的药、控制糖尿病的药、治鼻炎的药，还有买维生素、眼药水、消炎药的。
社区工作人员是否能够承担得了那么多工作吗？团购蔬菜如果不及时，可能不会威胁到生命。可是，如果有些慢性病人不能及时拿到药物，可能会出现危及生命的情况。我有时候想这是不是一场试验，测试人可以被管控到什么程度，人类可以的承受极限是什么。
我到院子里走一下，小区的清洁工对我说“我看你也是关不住，天天都下来。”我笑着说：“是呀。”她说：“我也是关不住。”
她在做清洁，她女儿在医院做护士，她也不太担心，说：“生死是一定的，没有什么好怕的，有的人得病就好了，有的人得病就死了。”
Today, the director of estate management sent us an emergency notice. The notice said that starting today, the residents cannot buy drugs on their own. We need to ask the designated personnel or volunteer to purchase the medical items for us. The pharmacy will check related credentials before selling drugs to the designated buyers. If we ask them to buy drugs for common cold or fever, the designated person will take record of our IDs and hand it over to the pharmacy, the real name purchase record would then be sent to the government. No one can buy drugs from pharmacy without a credential or ID.
Today, I checked a group (which coordinates drug purchase). There are more than 100 people in the group, and there are people buying medical items every day. We have different needs. Some people buy face masks and (sanitizer) alcohol. Some people with chronic diseases have to buy drugs for hypertension, hemorrhoids, skin diseases,  diabetes, and rhinitis. Some people buy vitamins, eye drops, or anti-inflammation medication.
Can the community staff do this amount of work? If they cannot buy our food on time, it is not life threatening. However, for those with chronic diseases, if they cannot get their medication on time, their lives are at stake. Sometimes I imagine us being placed in some kind of experiment, which tests how much humans can accept being controlled and how much we can bear.
I went to the yard to take a walk. The cleaning lady of our community talked to me, “I see you come downstairs every day. You cannot stand staying at home all the time, can you?” I smiled and said, “yes”. She said, “I cannot stand staying at home all the time, either.”
She is a cleaner, and her daughter is a nurse working in a hospital. She is not worried about it. She said, “to live or to die is already determined. There is nothing to worry about. Some people were infected but recovered. Some people were infected and died.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Winston Chiu


text:
How to protect Nigerians’ personal information while combating COVID-19 · Global Voices
Tomiwa Ilori

Editor’s note: The following post was co-authored by guest writers Tomiwa Ilori and Adeboye Adegoke. Ilori is a researcher, policy analyst with the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Adegoke is a digital rights advocate, policy analyst and program manager with the pan-African digital rights organisation, Paradigm Initiative.
A Nigerian using his mobile phone. Image credit: Muhammadtaha Ibrahim Ma'aji via Pexels [Free to use].
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
On 5 April 2020, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum partnered with MTN Nigeria — a telecommunication and internet service provider in Nigeria, — to deliver a range of services to combat COVID-19. Using subscribers’ information, the goal is to conduct contact tracing, deliver palliative measures and services and other needs related to COVID-19.
The Forum is made up of Nigeria’s 36 state governors with a vision that “actively and effectively promotes inclusiveness, democratic values, good governance and sustainable development.”
This move has raised concerns over information sharing, privacy and the protection of human rights. How can Nigerian citizens minimise risk and optimise results while also complying with extant laws?
COVID-19 has challenged societies to find innovative solutions that are legally permissible to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Optimising government access to citizens’ information presents a range of challenges for governments, private companies and civil society groups alike.
Out of Nigeria’s teeming population of more than 200 million, over 184 million people use active mobile connections in their daily lives, as of December 2019. In terms of combating COVID-19, the potential reach is quite far in terms of preventive education and contact tracing measures.
However, these measures rely on the government’s ability to access subscribers’ central databases. The 2011 Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulations creates a framework for registration of subscribers’ information and creates a central database for such purpose. This regulation is the legal framework for mandatory registration of mobile phone subscribers despite the several risks of misuse, function creep and insecurity associated with mandatory registration.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulatory agency for the telecommunications sector in Nigeria, has powers to make subsidiary legislation including regulations to further its objectives.
Regulation 2(b) states that “the Central Database shall be domiciled within the Commission and shall provide a platform for the central processing and storage of subscribers information.”
These databases contain personal subscriber information including “biometrics and other personal information of a subscriber recorded and stored by licensees or the Independent Registration Agents.”
Information used especially to combat the spread of COVID-19 will be personal information that was not originally shared or intended for this purpose.
While the regulations allow for the use of this information through the NCC’s Consumer Code of Practice Regulations, 2007, this must include fair and lawful use and accuracy of information that respects consumers’ other rights.
Perhaps the most relevant of these regulations details how licensees — especially service providers — can ensure accountability under regulation 35(2). It states that subscribers should receive notices on the information collected and for what purpose; subscribers must be presented with choices on the collection, use and disclosure of such information; and the subscriber must have access to such information and security measures in place to protect it.
While the legal landscape in Nigeria on data protection is largely disconcerted considering how key government agencies seem to duplicate policies on data protection — both regulations discussed above seem to be directly related to access to subscribers’ information in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
This duplication of policies is largely due to the lack of a multistakeholder-sourced, comprehensive and primary data protection legislation in Nigeria.
The principles in the regulations mentioned above have also been highlighted by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) in their mobile privacy principles for COVID-19 in April 2020.
One of the practical ways to implement these regulations is to establish an ad-hoc multi-stakeholder committee. Despite the provisions of Regulation 5 of the Telephone Subscribers’ Regulation that the central database is the property of the Nigerian government, it is held in trust for Nigerian citizens and does not absolve the government of any likely claims on misuse in that regard should such arise.
A committee that oversees responsibility and compliance with the letter of the law within a practical time frame could help citizens protect their privacy while also combatting the novel coronavirus.
Here are some points to consider:
Representation: The committee must draw its members from diverse stakeholders in the ICT sector, including government agencies, civil society, the private sector, research and development, policymakers, etcetera. This creates the possibility of mainstreaming accountability into state policy on access to citizens’ information and combating COVID-19.
: The bulk of this committee’s responsibilities would be to comply with extant laws while also implementing others on access to subscribers’ information. Subscriber consent is critical. However, most Nigerians are not immediately available to give such consent given the present circumstances. To mitigate negative effects, it is important to design more inclusive and accessible tools like USSD codes with opt-in and opt-out options that may be used to secure subscriber’s consent. USSD, which means “unstructured supplementary service data,” is an interactive and menu-based technology supported on nearly all mobile phones. Its codes allow users the possibility of accessing confirmation and consultation services through dialing.
Also, to prepare for the possible fallout from the inability to secure consent from subscribers, the committee must ensure the publication of periodic audits on the use of subscribers’ information in major newspapers online.
: This committee could create diverse mechanisms for seeking redress if and when subscribers feel aggrieved. There should be systems in place to address grievances with respect to data collection, uses and disclosures.
: An important step toward accountability is transparency and to this end, the committee must inform the public on its scope, powers and functions. It must also disclose information about data usage, security measures and available means of redress. The committee can also determine the period of time for which such data will be used.
Combating COVID-19 through all available legal means is urgent. However, such means need not be at the expense of protecting human rights — including the right to privacy.
Using the central database for COVID-19 related measures requires the best designs to mitigate against the risk of privacy breaches.
The government’s recent call for data protection legislation seems late but it is still a welcome call in light of the current COVID-19 challenges. This is an opportunity for the Nigerian ICT sector to use a multistakeholder approach to harmonise its various laws toward a more unified front for COVID-19 — and future emergencies.
While the options suggested above do not foreclose other legally permissible approaches, it shows how human rights protections are not mutually exclusive of public emergencies.

author: Tomiwa Ilori


text:
Russians launch mass virtual protests using satnav application · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

A “digital protest” in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, April 20, 2020. Screenshots via Yandex.Navigator / Facebook. Fair use.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Russia is the midst of a strict COVID-19 lockdown. Although protesters cannot take to the streets, they are still holding mass demonstrations — digitally.
Today, residents of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don gathered outside the local government building to protest the strict self-isolation regime, which has been in force in the region since early April. They also demand the payment of social benefits to those who have lost their jobs as the country fights to contain the pandemic.
These “gatherings” are being conducted through Yandex.Navigator, an application run by one of Russia's biggest digital giants. The popular SatNav tool allows drivers themselves to report on the traffic situation on roads in real time. That feature has allowed users with an axe to grind to tag themselves in politically symbolic locations and write protest slogans in their comments. Many are enraged at the financial losses they have suffered as a result of self-isolation, and blame the state for not offering enough support. “No money to pay off loans! What are we supposed to do?” reads the comment in the left-hand screenshot in the image above. “OK, so cancel taxes, loans, and so on,” and “declare a state of emergency or stop restrictions on people,” read those on the centre and right.
Local media, such as the Don-TV television channel, soon picked up on the protest:
#ростов В Ростове устроили виртуальный митинг из-за введения новых пропусков https://t.co/HfKYtz2GFt pic.twitter.com/8HoWx3In9h
— Вести Дон (@vesti_don) April 20, 2020
A virtual protest is being held in Rostov due to the introduction of new permits [i.e. quarantine regime restrictions]
Just a few hours later, these “rallies in absentia” had spread across the country, from Moscow to St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhny Novgorod. Suddenly, the application was showing the empty squares and streets of cities in lockdown as “congested”. By the time the feature had arisen in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, the popular blogger Alexander Plushchev asked the following on his Telegram channel:
Чувствую, к вечеру цифровые митинги охватят всю страну. В Кремле еще ничего не поняли?
I feel that by this evening, digital rallies will have taken over the whole country. Don't those in the Kremlin get that?
Alexander Plushchev, Telegram, 20 April 2020
These rallies are even more resonant given the notorious bureaucratic difficulties of holding protests “in person” in recent years. In Russia, mass protests require prior authorisation from the police — without it, citizens must protest alone, which has made “lone pickets” a staple of Russian political demonstrations in recent years. Under these conditions, online protest is an attractive alternative, particularly when there has been much to protest against of late. In space of a year, Russia has seen mass protests against the exclusion of independent opposition candidates from local elections and most recently against proposed constitutional changes which will permit President Vladimir Putin further terms in office. The No! movement has declared an online protest against the latter, to be held on April 28.
There are no legal obstacles per se to today's “online rallies”. But it may be too early to gloat.
While Russian social media users are increasingly at the mercy of the authorities for strongly expressed oppositional statements online, the comments left on the Yandex.Navigator app were initially not moderated at all. The platform is, admittedly, not the most obvious one for political dissent. However, by late afternoon a Yandex spokesman told the daily newspaper Vedomosti that “any messages which do not concern the situation on the roads or contain profanity are always deleted,” and added that the large number of such messages could interfere with loading the app and therefore navigation.
Yandex eventually started to “disperse” the online protests by deleting the comments. Here Oleg Stepanov, a coordinator for the headquarters of prominent opposition campaigner Alexey Navalny, suggests writing more, with renewed vigour:
Прямо сейчас Яндекс разгоняет «несогласованный митинг» против Путина на Красной площади!
Москвичи оставляют сотни комментариев, но администраторы их мгновенно удаляют. Попробуйте сами https://t.co/RCrZAqosdp pic.twitter.com/yYmpvYzqMH
— Олег Степанов (@olsnov) April 20, 2020
Right now Yandex is dispersing an “unsanctioned protest” against Putin on Red Square!
Muscovites are leaving hundreds of comments, but administrators are deleting them in multitudes. Try for yourself.
Yandex, like Russia's other digital giants, has come under increasingly strong influence from the government in recent months. It is required to keep data about Russian users in Russian jurisdiction and transfer these data to the security services upon request. Sarkis Darbinyan of Roskomsvoboda, an NGO monitoring online freedoms in Russia, pointed out today in comments to Kod Durova that while Russia's protesters may have been particularly cunning in finding another platform for dissent, that didn't necessarily make them safer:
Конечно, лавочку эту могут быстро прикрыть. Всем понятно, что Яндекс уже давно на короткой ноге и если будут соотвествующие указания из АП, то Яндекс либо просто выключит «Разговорчики», либо начнёт ручками своих модераторов всё чистить. При этом не забывайте, что информация о пользователях, кричащих про некого Хутина, что он Пуй, может быть передана в правоохранительные органы для принятия процессуального решения о возбуждении уголовного либо административного дела.
Of course, they can easily put a stop to all this. Everybody understands that Yandex is on a friendly footing with the presidential administration, and if it issues the appropriate orders, then Yandex will either simply switch off these “little chats” or start cleaning them up manually with the help of its moderators. Furthermore, don't forget that any information about users shouting about a certain “Dutin” who is a “Pick” can be handed over to law enforcement agencies, who can then consider whether to bring a criminal or an administrative case against them.
Against the backdrop of this colourful story, it's important to remember that some Russian citizens are violating the self-isolation regime and are protesting for real. Today, several hundred residents of Vladikavkaz, capital of the Republic of North Ossetia, took to the streets to demand the resignation of the governor of the impoverished region in Russia's North Caucasus. They argue that they cannot afford to self-isolate, and demand financial compensation. Theirs is no virtual protest — and mostly worryingly of all, some prominent protesters entertain conspiracy theories about the pandemic, and believe that the virus poses no threat to their health.

author: Maxim Edwards


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COVID-19 spells disaster for Brazil’s overcrowded prisons as first inmate death recorded · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Rural penitentiary Monte Cristo, in the northern state of Roraima, Brazil. Photo: Luiz Silveira, CNJ Agency. Used with permission.
Brazil registered its first COVID-19-related death in a jail on April 17, stoking fears that the disease could devastate the country's overcrowded, unsanitary, and large – the third-largest in the world, in fact — prison system.
According to Brazil's National Prison Department, by April there were currently 125 suspect cases of COVID-19 in Brazil's prisons. On March 31, the number of suspect cases was 74. The first three confirmed cases of the disease in the prison system were recorded on April 9.
By April 20, Brazil had registered 2,575 deaths and over 40,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. Numbers could be a lot higher as testing capacity has been limited.
A study by Imperial College London released in late March estimates that between 44,000 (if social isolation is enforced) and 1.1 million (with no restrictions) people could die from the disease in Brazil, a country of 210 million.
Brazil's prison system has long faced criticism for its severe overcrowding and unhealthy conditions. Bug infestations are common, as well as chronic shortages of hygiene products and healthcare – 31 percent of the country's prison units don't have in-house doctors, according to data by the Prosecutor's Office, obtained by newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. Experts estimate that there is a 300,000 vacancy shortage in the prison system overall.
The Prison Pastoral (Pastoral Carcerária), a branch of the Catholic Church that provides social, legal, and health assistance Brazil's jails, did a survey with its employees, inmates’ family, prison workers, lawyers, judges, public defendants, and members of social organizations about the new coronavirus. Their conclusions were published on April 9:
377 pessoas (31,35%) responderam que sim, há suspeitas de casos de coronavírus nas prisões, enquanto que 207 (17,2%) alegaram que não. 621 pessoas (51,5%) não sabiam responder se há ou não suspeitas.
Em relação a casos confirmados, 245 pessoas (20,4%) afirmaram saber da existência de pessoas no sistema penal com o vírus, enquanto que 222 (18,5%) disseram que não sabem de casos concretos. Mais uma vez, um grande número de pessoas respondeu não saber: 736, ou 61,2%.
377 people (31,35 percent) said that yes, there are suspected cases of coronavirus in prisons, while 207 (17,2 percent) claim there aren't. 621 people (51,5 percent) didn't know how to answer whether such cases exist or not.
Regarding confirmed cases, 245 people (20,4 percent) claimed to have knowledge about people inside the prison system infected with the new coronavirus, while 222 (18,5 percent) said they didn't know concrete cases. Once again, a significant number of people replied they didn't know how to answer the question: 736, or 61,2 percent.
Justice and Public Security Minister Sergio Moro, the former federal judge who became famous for heading Operation Car Wash, said on April 13 that “everything is under control” inside Brazil's prisons. In March, he had assured the population that there was “no reason for unfounded fears [when it comes to] prisons”, and added:
Há ambiente de relativa segurança para o sistema prisional em relação ao coronavírus, pela própria condição dos presos de estarem isolados
There is an environment of relative safety in the prison system regarding the coronavirus, because of the prisoners’ very condition of being isolated.
Central prison in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in the south of Brazil. Image: Luiz Silveira, CNJ Agency. Used with permission.
Brazilian prisons have long been prone to epidemics. According to an exclusive report by Agência Pública, a non-profit media outlet from Brazil, there were more than 10,000 confirmed cases of tuberculosis in the country's prisons in 2018. That means there were over 1,400 cases of the disease per 100,000 people inside prisons – while outside, there were only 40 per 100,000 at the time of the research.
Professor Carla Machado, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, who was interviewed in the article, says that it is only a matter of time until the new coronavirus starts spreading uncontrollably in the prison system. Her colleague, professor and physician Dirceu Greco, added:
A superlotação é a condição ideal para qualquer agente biológico de transmissão aérea. A falta de insumos é outro fator: falta água e sabão para essas pessoas. E claro, faltam cuidados de saúde, atendimento de médicos, enfermeiros e equipe de assistência social.
Overcrowding makes for the ideal conditions for any biological agent transmissable by air. The lack of supplies is another factor: people don't have water and soap. And, of course, the lack of healthcare, medical care, nurses and social assistance.
To avoid such a deadly scenario, governors of almost all 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District have granted home arrest to prisoners who are under “semi-open regime” (a type of arrest regime in which the inmate goes out to work but sleeps in the prison), and to those who belong to at-risk groups.
They have also suspended all visitation and delivery of food and hygiene kits by families. Initially, that measure triggered revolt among inmates – hundreds fled a São Paulo prison on March 16 – as many Brazilian prisons rely on supplies provided by the inmates’ relatives. On a statement, Prison Pastoral denounced that prisons in the northern state of Amazonas had provided rotten food to its inmates, and added:
Questiona-se: como prevenir a entrada de doenças no cárcere, como o coronavírus, ou reduzir os sintomas – ou permitir a cura – sem alimentos saudáveis, materiais de higiene e produtos de limpeza?
We ask: how do you prevent diseases from entering a prison, such as coronavirus, or how do you reduce symptoms – or allow the cure – without healthy food, hygiene and cleaning products?
Brazil has long struggled with coming up with alternative criminal punishment to stop prison overcrowding. With the pandemic, measures such as revaluation of preventive arrests — 253,963 people currently in jail in the country still haven't had a trial — are among the recommendations by the National Justice Council (CNJ) in order to avoid a disaster.
A note by the Criminal Justice Network (Rede Justiça Criminal), a group of several organizations, emphasizes the importance of adopting precautionary measures:
O crescimento alarmante de novos casos de contágio do coronavírus, a nível mundial, expõe a intensidade das vulnerabilidades sociais, raciais e econômicas no Brasil. No cárcere, a situação se agrava exponencialmente.
The alarming growth of new cases of coronavirus, in a global level, expose the intensity of social, racial and economic vulnerabilities in Brazil. In prison, the situation aggravates itself exponentially.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Liberia’s President George Weah sings his fight against COVID-19 · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

President George Weah at the US Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. Photo by US Embassy, public domain.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Liberian President George Weah — winner of 1995 Ballon d'or in football — has turned to his talent as a singer to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
As of April 22, there are 101 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Liberia and 8 confirmed deaths.
Together with renowned Liberian gospel and secular musicians, Weah recorded his song to spread  “the message of unity in the country in order to halt the spread of the virus,” writes Gary Connaughton:
We're all in this together. The main message being preached throughout the world is that regardless of your own health status, we can all do our bit to stop the spread of the coronavirus. That means staying at home when possible, practicing good hygiene, being able to spot potential symptoms, and staying away from high risk people. It's fairly straightforward stuff, but it can save lives.
The upbeat song encourages citizens to get together to “fight corona,” with Weah singing “everything is possible. …. let's stand together to fight this deadly disease, now!”
It is not the first time that Weah has tapped his singing talent to address the nation. In late 2019, shaken by violence, protest movements and strikes, Weah released a song called “Peace In Our Nation, Peace In Our Land,” in which he called for peaceful solutions to the nation's problems.
On April, 8, Weah addressed the nation, recalling the establishment of the Committee on Coronavirus (SPACOC) two months earlier. He also declared a three-week State of Emergency throughout Liberia, starting April 10, 2020, and renewable until the COVID-19 threat ends.
Among other measures, Weah confined four counties to stay-at-home orders. He added:
Hundreds of thousands of persons around the globe have been infected by [the coronavirus], thousands have died as a result of contracting it, and many more thousands are predicted to die. The disease has overwhelmed more advanced health care systems in many countries, and has brought the economies of several developed nations almost to a complete halt…
Throughout this period, residents may leave home only for essential journeys for reasons of health and food, which should be restricted to your local community only, and be limited to a single person per household for a maximum of one hour.
Exceptions were made those deemed “essential workers.”
On Friday, April 17, 2020, members of the Liberian Senate and House of Representatives endorsed Weah's declaration of a state of emergency.
Writer Jonathan Browne wrote about Weah's emergency relief fund to assist those struggling with these new measures:
They call for creation of a COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund that would solicit private donations from individuals, group of individuals, local and international private organizations, business enterprises and any other person interested in assisting the most vulnerable populations of the Republic against the scourge of COVID 19.
According to journalist Leroy M. Sonpon, III, lawmakers went beyond the president's request by granting an initial $25 million United States dollars for a food support program that will include all of 15 counties in Liberia, with the caveat that locally produced food get prioritized — along with vulnerable populations such as youth, homeless, orphanages, senior citizens, people with disabilities and health workers.
A strong solidarity movement has swept through the country that knows first hand the scourge of highly contagious viruses such as Ebola in 2014-2016.
Liberians have generated donations to support COVID-19 interventions and several campaigns to promote education and awareness.
The World Bank also swiftly approved a $7.5 million USD International Development Association (IDA) to finance Liberia's response to COVID-19.
Christopher C. Walker reports on the production of locally-made, reusable face masks in Liberia through the Liberia Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE):
The mask, which is produced in Liberia, would be distributed to hundreds of Liberians and non-Liberians who are residing in Liberia to be used to prevent the virus…
Megan Beare, a volunteer working for Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide, could have been evacuated but chose to stay:
I am also young and healthy. I feel that staying here is just the right thing for me to do so that we can help as many as we can and try prevent any further spread of COVID-19. It is just four years after Liberians celebrated being free from the Ebola virus that killed 4,800 people here in the first year of that outbreak in 2014.
Journalist Andrew Green reported on January 10 that these protests were “the most significant protests in Liberia in over a decade,” according to Elizabeth Donnelly, deputy head of the Africa Program at Chatham House. “President George Weah, having inherited a difficult economic situation, has quickly descended from hero to let-down in the popular imagination,” said Donnelly.
Protesters had demanded that Weah fire his entire team of economic advisers.
Indeed, while Weah has been commended for his singing talents and economic measures in response to COVID-19, Smart News Liberia finds that troubling, new restrictions imposed by Liberian authorities on independent media could undermine public health.
“Only state broadcaster ELBC is granted unhindered access to report what the regime wants,” according to Smart News Liberia.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Beijing stages crackdowns on Hong Kong’s opposition amid COVID-19 pandemic · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Mass arrests on April 18, 2020: Leung Yiu-chung, Avery Ng, Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, Martin Lee, Figa Chan, Jimmy Lai, Sin Chung-kai, Cyd Ho, Au Nok-hin, Margaret Ng, Yeung Sum, Raphael Wong, Leung Kwok-hung, Richard Tsoi. Image from Hong Kong Free Press.
The following post is published on Hong Kong Free Press on 20 April  2020 and is republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
With the world’s attention focused on the coronavirus pandemic and protesters off the streets, Chinese and Hong Kong authorities stepped up their efforts to crack down on the pro-democracy movement in the semi-autonomous territory.
Over a span of just five days, the city saw its legislature, judiciary, legal system and civil society come under threat culminating in the arrest of 15 key opposition leaders. HKFP summarises key events of the past week.
On April 14, Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) and the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong launched a rare attack against the city’s opposition lawmakers, accusing them of “malicious filibustering” in an attempt to stall the election of the chairperson for the Legislative Council’s House Committee.
The job of the House Committee, which consists of all lawmakers, is to scrutinize bills tabled at Council meetings for approval. As pro-Beijing lawmakers are in the majority, pro-democracy lawmakers have been using “filibuster” as a means to stop legislation. As the chair of the House Committee election meeting, legal sector lawmaker Dennis Kwok followed procedural guidelines and gave time for other lawmakers to raise questions. As a result, after 15 meetings, the House Committee has yet to elect a chairperson.
An implication of Beijing's accusation is that the Council could invoke Article 79 of the Basic Law to disqualify a lawmaker condemned for misbehaviour, or a breach of oath, by a vote of two-thirds of the council members. A number of pro-democracy lawmakers have been disqualified over their oath taking since 2016 after Beijing handed down a controversial ruling to “interpret” Article 104 of the Basic Law to state that public officers must swear allegiance sincerely and solemnly.
Following the April 14 statements, the Bar Association urged the Offices to exercise restraint. Meanwhile, Chief Executive Carrie Lam dismissed public criticism that the Offices had attempted to interfere in the Legislative Council.
Also on April 14, news agency Reuters reported that Hong Kong’s judicial independence and rule of law had been threatened by Beijing’s interference, citing three anonymous senior judges as sources. It also claimed that Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Geoffrey Ma had to contend with Communist Party officials’ stance that “the rule of law ultimately must be a tool to preserve one-party rule.”
Geoffrey Ma was appointed as the Chief Justice in 2010 and the legal sector believes that Ma has contributed to Hong Kong's judicial independence in the past decade. However, Ma is set to be replaced by Andrew Cheung who has overseen a number of controversial appeals, including one which ousted democratically elected lawmakers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-Ching from the Hong Kong legislature over oath-taking controversy. Beijing has stepped in to reinterpret the Basic Law to provide legal support for the disqualification of lawmakers in 2016. Facing Beijing's direct intervention, the incoming Chief of Justice said it would be “arrogant and ignorant” for Hong Kong’s courts to say what Beijing can or cannot do under a different legal system.
In response to the Reuters report, Ma said in a rare statement that he had not “at any stage encountered or experienced any form of interference by the Mainland authorities.”
Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng dismissed the Reuters report as “misleading” and cited Ma’s statement as evidence that Beijing did not meddle with Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
Meanwhile, all 30 representatives of the legal sector of the Chief Executive Election Committee, including the Bar Association Chair Philip Dykes, expressed “grave concern” over the allegation.
On Wednesday, the China Liaison Office Director Luo Huining urged the Hong Kong government to step up its efforts to safeguard national security by strengthening legislation and enforcement.
Beijing’s top man in the city claimed that foreign forces had “deeply interfered” in the city’s affairs, though cited no evidence. He said the city’s legal system should be enhanced to avoid becoming a national security risk.
Carrie Lam also said that the Hong Kong government had a constitutional responsibility to protect national security.
Echoing Luo’s remarks, pro-China figures called for the implementation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which requires the Hong Kong government to enact laws to prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against Beijing. Ever since its legislation failed in 2003 following mass protests, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have periodically attempted to reignite talks over Article 23.
On Friday, the China Liaison Office declared that it was not restricted by Article 22 of the Basic Law. The provision of the mini-constitution forbids any “departments of the Central People’s Government” to interfere in the internal affairs of Hong Kong. It also states that any offices set up by such departments must abide by local laws.
The Liaison Office claimed that it, and the HKMAO, were offices set up by the central government had the right to supervise and comment on the city’s affairs.
Although Hong Kong government had explained in official documents that the two Beijing organs was indeed set up under Article 22, it changed its position and stated in the early hours of Sunday that it is now fully adopting the China Liaison Office’s view.
On Saturday, Hong Kong police arrested 15 high profile pro-democracy politicians, advocates and activists on suspicion of organising and participating in a series of unauthorised assemblies against Hong Kong government's proposal to amend the extradition law between August and October 2019.
Veteran politicians and senior counsels Martin Lee and Margaret Ng, former chair of the Democratic Party Albert Ho, the Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan and media tycoon Jimmy Lai were among those apprehended. The round-up also marked the first time that Martin Lee, 81, and Ng, 72 – both longtime critics of the Chinese Communist Party – were arrested.
The unauthorised assemblies the group were accused of organising were part of a months-long “leaderless” movement against a now-axed bill that would have enabled Hong Kong authorities to extradite suspects to their mainland counterparts. As of mid-March, more than 7,800 people had been arrested and over 1,200 prosecuted in connection with the mass protests and unrest, according to police figures.
The latest arrests drew strong criticism from human rights groups and international observers.
“With the world’s attention focused on the COVID-19 epidemic, Beijing and its subservient government in Hong Kong have taken yet another step towards burying one-country, two-systems,” Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s last colonial governor, said.
“This is not the rule of law. This is what authoritarian governments do. It becomes ever more clear, week by week and day by day, that Beijing is determined to throttle Hong Kong.”

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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COVID-19 is also affecting Venezuela’s indigenous migrants · Global Voices
Sabrina Velandia

A child with their family in one of Unicef's three temporary rest tents in Rumichaca, Ecuador, on the other side of the border with Colombia. Photo: UNICEF Ecuador/Flickr, under CC license.
Check out Global Voice's special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Much has been said about the Venezuelan migration crisis and the increase in Venezuelan “walkers,” but often sidelined is the fact that some of those immigrants are indigenous – most of whom are from the Wayuu, Warao, Yukpa, and Pemon ethnic groups.
Since 2015, the so-called “Complex Humanitarian Emergency” in Venezuela has driven out more than 4.7 million Venezuelans from the country. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has described this forced migration as the largest exodus in the region's recent history.
What's more, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Venezuela's borders with Brazil and Colombia have been closed since mid-March, thereby worsening the situation of indigenous migrants.
By not being able to use the border crossings — including that of Cúcuta in Colombia — to pick up medicines, food, and other basic products on the other side, the use of illegal paths and crossings has increased, with its related dangers.
More than 100,000 indigenous families in Colombia are currently facing new risks in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from El País.  As stated by the Colombian Ministry of Health, two indigenous people from the Yukpa ethnic group have been diagnosed with COVID-19 on the Colombian-Venezuelan border by early April. According to a report by the local news medium LaFm, around 174 inhabitants in North Santander — including pregnant indigenous women and children — were isolated as a preventive measure.
Although indigenous women represent a small percentage of the millions of migrants, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warns that they are part of one of the most vulnerable groups.
Dozens are accompanied by their young children or are pregnant. Human Rights Watch says that during their journey they have been walking for an average of 16 hours a day for approximately 13 days.
The other obstacles that they have to face, according to UNHCR, include language barriers. Many of them only speak their indigenous languages and rely on bilingual indigenous men to communicate. There is also a lack of identification documents, thereby preventing access to public policies that could be of benefit to them
Although Colombian authorities said they were actively on the lookout for symptomatic patients in order to prevent it from spreading, they have warned of difficulties, including when the Yukpa people — those living in poverty in approximately 15 Colombian towns — are semi-nomadic, thereby making it difficult to implement the lockdown.
According to Fraternidade — International Humanitarian Federation, migrants experience restrictions, theft, and abuse on the part of the authorities and armed groups throughout their journey. They mainly arrive in Colombian and Brazilian border towns, frightened, tired, hungry and in dire need of assistance. Upon arrival, they explain how their children died due to poor access to health as well as food and basic hygiene products in Venezuela, according to an International Organization for Migration (IOM) report.
According to investigations by the UNHCR and the Venezuelan Program of Action Education in Human Rights (Provea), indigenous migrants have been forced to leave their ancestral homeland in Venezuela because of hunger, disease, violence, and threats related to the use of their habitat and resources.
Eligio Tejerina, an indigenous leader of the Warao ethnic group, now in Boa Vista, Brazil, told UNHCR:
Decidimos venir a Brasil porque nuestros hijos estaban muriendo de hambre. Ellos lloraban por el hambre. Solo comían una vez al día, por la noche. Únicamente una pequeña porción.
We decided to come to Brazil because our children were dying of hunger. They were crying from hunger and were only eating once a day in the evening. It was only a small portion.
According to the Human Rights Committee of la Guajira, the mass migration of indigenous people has led to the break-up of families and communities, thereby creating feelings of emptiness and loneliness that are difficult to cope with, given the collectivist structure of their societies.
Johanna Reina, a UNHCR protection assistant in Colombia, says that:
Se enfrentan a desafíos de pérdida de identidad, incluyendo su idioma, y un dramático deterioro de sus estructuras organizacionales.
They are facing challenges of identity loss, including their language, and a drastic deterioration in their organizational structures.
At night, migrant children and mothers come together in a temporary UNICEF rest tent in Rumichaca, on the Ecuadorian side of the border with Colombia. Photo: UNICEF Ecuador/Flickr. Under CC license.
Although the risks are lower when they arrived at their destination, they still exist. The IOM and Provea have noted the concerns and discomfort of certain authorities and host populations regarding the presence of indigenous Venezuelans, which has led to an outbreak of xenophobia and violence.
Both organizations also warn that indigenous migrants could be victims of poverty, labor exploitation and may be sent back to Venezuela without due compliance with legal regulations. By being an ethnic and linguistic minority, and given the proximity of their shelters to human trafficking networks, they run a greater risk of being subjected to prostitution and child abuse.
Added to this are the difficulties that precede this migration crisis. The relationship of host countries with their indigenous communities has historically been complicated, particularly because of the ongoing stereotypes, whose origin goes back to the systematic assimilation policies, according to the IOM.
For all of these reasons, the United Nations Human Rights Council recommends that the authorities punish xenophobia and racism against migrants and adopt a gender-based approach, whilst the IOM suggests adapting the care of indigenous migrants to their ethnic and linguistic minority and gender status.
Indigenous communities have fundamental rights, which include the right to a life free from discrimination and violence as well as the right to free movement.
They also have special rights related to their binational indigenous identity, like Venezuelan and Colombian for instance, including the right to equal and non-assimilationist treatment, to land and autonomy.
Despite these difficulties, indigenous migrants told UNHCR in 2018 that their new situation in Brazil and Colombia was better than the one they experienced in Venezuela, since they are managing to meet their basic needs thanks to the coordination between the governments and organizations.

author: Sabrina Velandia


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Malaria vaccine may offer respite from Africa’s greatest health scourge · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A woman with her children near her home in Sahre Bocar, Senegal. Pregnant women and children are most vulnerable to death by malaria. Image by Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images/Images of Empowerment, August 11, 2014. (CC BY-NC 4.0)
The world continues to reel from ravaging deaths caused by COVID-19. Over 2.2 million people have contracted the virus and nearly 180,000 people worldwide have died from it.
As of April 23, nations in Europe bear the global burden of deaths caused by the novel coronavirus. In the same period, 1,199 virus-related deaths have been reported in Africa.
Meanwhile, Africa has continued to live with the heavy burden of malaria — a much more deadly disease that has plagued communities in Africa for centuries. In 2018 alone, 405,000 died of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, reports the Centers for Disease Control.
Malaria is preventable and curable, but with a tropical climate responsible for all-year malaria transmission — compounded by poor socio-economic conditions — it makes it difficult to effectively control and treat malaria cases.
Now, a new malaria vaccine called Mosquirix offers hope to communities in Africa who have battled the deadly disease for years.
Malaria, a tropical disease transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito, is caused by the plasmodium falciparum parasite. The sickness typically manifests with symptoms like fever, fatigue, vomiting and body aches.
Every 60 seconds, a child dies from malaria in many African countries; out of every 10 malaria patients, nine deaths occur, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Most malaria-related deaths occur among pregnant women and children. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) states that every two minutes a child under the age of 5 dies of malaria — which translates into 730 children dying daily of the disease.
Sub-Saharan Africa, together with India, holds the global malaria burden with about 85 percent of cases in 2018. WHO further asserts that these six African countries account for more than 50 percent of all global malaria cases: “Nigeria (25 percent), Democratic Republic of Congo (12 percent), Uganda (5 percent), and Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Niger (4 percent each).”
In 2018, countries in sub-Saharan Africa spent $12 billion United States dollars in managing malaria cases, according to UNICEF.
Mosquirix malaria vaccine in World Youth International's Odede Community Health Centre Kenya. Image used on permission.
Mosquirix —also known by its scientific name, RTS,S — is a pre-erythrocytic malaria vaccine, which refers to the stage of malaria transmission before the victim manifests clinical symptoms that usually present at the erythrocytic stage, according to a study conducted by Ashley M. Vaughan and two other colleagues from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute in the state of Washington, USA.
The idea is for RTS,S “to trigger the immune system to defend against the first stages” when the parasite first enters the bloodstream after getting bitten by an infected mosquito.
The surface of the malaria parasite (plasmodium falciparum) contains a protein or antigen which causes the body's immune system to produce antibodies. Mosquirix, an attenuated form of the parasite, precipitates the same reaction from the body, thereby producing antibodies that fight malaria, according to a 2004 research conducted by a team of scientists headed by Dr. Pedro L. Alonso of the Centre de Salut Internacional, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain.
Scientists working with the British pharmaceutical laboratory, GlaxoSmithKline, created the vaccine in 1987. The first clinical trials were conducted in 1995 with volunteer adults living in the United States and Belgium. In 1998, the vaccine was tested on volunteer adults in The Gambia.
The second series of clinical trials ran between 2004 and 2007 in Mozambique. The 2004 vaccine trial involved 2,022 children aged between 1 to 4 years, while the 2007 double-blind randomized trials had 214 infants as participants.
The third clinical series of trials began in May 2009 and ended in early 2014 with 15,459 infants in seven African countries; Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
WHO launched the first pilot study of RTS,S in Malawi, followed by Ghana and Kenya in April 2019.
Following the results from the third clinical trials, professor Peter Aaby of Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau, and four other colleagues identified three safety concerns regarding the RTS,S vaccine: “higher risks of meningitis, cerebral malaria and doubled female mortality.”
Aaby and his colleagues recommended that “the pilot implementation” investigation of the vaccine which began in 2019 should employ “overall mortality” to evaluate the performance of RTS,S and that “study populations are followed for the full 4-5 years of the study before a decision on rollout is made.”
However, in January 2016, WHO reported that it had already recommended further evaluation of RTS,S in “a series of pilot implementations” with the aim of “addressing several gaps in knowledge” before the vaccine is certified safe for the general public.
Malaria Vaccine administered by a nurse at Odede Community Health Centre. Image used with permission.
Kenya's cabinet health secretary, Sicily Kariuki, flagging off the pilot implementation of RTS,S on September 13, 2019, stated that the vaccine will be deployed to counties with “highest malaria burden of up to 20 percent” namely: Kakamega, Vihiga, Bungoma, Busia, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Migori and Siaya.
Odede Health Centre, located in Siaya county, is one of the rural hospitals chosen by the country's ministry of health to implement the malaria pilot vaccination in Kenya.
Gabriella Ocenasek of World Youth International, an Australian nongovernmental organization, informed Global Voices via a press statement that the vaccine is administered three times to children at 6, 7, and 9 months old and this is repeated at the age of two. As of March 2020, over 250 children have received the vaccine at the health centre.
One mother at the health centre expressed initial fears that her son would “react to the vaccines“:
When I brought John in for his first jab, I feared he was going to react to the vaccines as many people had believed, but he took it well and he never cried or fell sick due to the vaccine. I have been letting my community know that this is good for our children, everyone needs it.
Nonetheless, WHO has not yet given approval for this vaccine to be deployed for public use. This will depend on the results that emerge at the end of this pilot implementation stage.
If the results are positive without debilitating side effects, the RTS,S vaccine will be the key to drastically reducing infant mortality associated with malaria.
This will be an unprecedented game-changer in malaria management in sub-Saharan Africa — a region overburdened with this scourge for centuries.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
Nepali cartoonists illustrate the country’s COVID-19 crisis · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Locals barricade their locality in Lamahi of western Nepal to intensify the lockdown imposed by the government to limit the spread of Coronavirus. Photo by Vivek Chaudhary. Used with permission.
Since March 24, Nepal has been under a nationwide lockdown meant to last until April 27. As in so many countries, the COVID-19 outbreak is exposing social inequalities and testing the capacity of government infrastructure.
As all movement has ground to a halt, Nepalis are being confronted with enormous changes to their daily lives.
Some of these include: hordes of people forced to leave the Kathmandu Valley for their villages on foot, online education and online businesses on the rise, accusations of police brutality while shopping for essentials, among many others.
In response, Nepali cartoonists are using satire and comedy to draw attention to alarming social issues as well as everyday life.
Rajesh KC, a Kathmandu-based political cartoonist, commented on reports of police crackdowns shows on citizens allegedly in violation of the lockdown measures. The security personnel in the cartoon says: “I killed 5 crore [1 crore = 10 million] coronavirus on his back.”
भाइरस मार्ने तरिका ?
via @12khari pic.twitter.com/X7CoCcBpdz
— PHALANO™ (@phalano) April 3, 2020
Ways to kill the virus
As the government was responding to the criticism about its virus response on social media, KC posted this cartoon representing Nepal's government fighting with the social media channels.
? pic.twitter.com/exd7ieM6aN
— PHALANO™ (@phalano) April 8, 2020
Rabi Mishra, a cartoonist with news outlet Naya Patrika Daily, illustrated the woes of low wage workers returning to their villages on foot after vehicles were banned on highways. He adds a line by singer and social activist JB Tuhure.
फेरीपनि,
“लाखौंकोलागि उजाड छ यो देश
मुठीभरलाइ त स्वर्ग छ ।”
-जेवी टुहुरे । pic.twitter.com/Ydyd5X851W
— Rabi Mishra (@rabimishra) April 18, 2020
Once again,
“Deserted is this country for lacs (1 lac = 100,000),
But heaven for handful.
– JB Tuhure
Basu Kshitiz, a cartoonist and artist with the Annapurna Post, criticised the Government of Nepal's response to the virus by drawing the three wise monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
#cartoon अन्नपूर्ण पोस्ट फुर्सद pic.twitter.com/nHTuQpXz6O
— Basu Kshitiz (@basukshitiz) April 18, 2020
Speech bubble 1: Government, we are stranded on the way.
Speech bubble 2: Government, we didn’t get any relief material.
Speech bubble 3: Government, address the public complaints.
Kshitiz also commented on people who were performing relief work in order to get a selfie:
pic.twitter.com/xYtJ6wd3sX
— Basu Kshitiz (@basukshitiz) April 5, 2020
Corona relief distribution ceremony!!!
Rabin Sayami, a cartoonist with news outlet Nagarik, shows three men with suitcases stuffed with bribe money heading towards Singha Durbar, the administrative helm of Nepal.
सिंहदरवारतिर social distance !#nagarikdaily
# https://t.co/IFQF2kfMG7 pic.twitter.com/3hgfBH3vp6
— rabin sayami (@rabinsayami1) April 4, 2020
Towards Singha Durbar [maintaining] social distance!
Rabindra Manandhar, a cartoonist with Nepal magazine, takes a jibe at the misinformation being spread by Indian media which alleges that a group of coronavirus-infected Muslims were trying to enter India from Nepal.
छिमेकतिर यस्तो भैरहेको छ रेन्त । pic.twitter.com/euoX7Coozw
— Rabindra Manandhar (@Robindarr) April 11, 2020
[They say] this is what is happening in the neighbourhood.
Abin Shrestha, a cartoonist with news outlet Kantipur, pokes fun at certain types of men who lazily spend their days at home while complaining about the lockdown.
लकडाउन डायरी… pic.twitter.com/L0ptbWlmWc
— Abin Shrestha (@abinshrestha) April 16, 2020
Lockdown diary…
Top blocks (from left to right):
1. Son, get me a glass of warm water! – Ask (your) daughter-in-law!
2. The kitchen is so dirty! – Ask (your) daughter-in-law!
3. Daddy, the television is not working! – Ask (your) mom!
Bottom blocks (from left to right):
1. Daddy, what does this mean? – Ask (your) mom!
2. Hello, listen! – Oh, my phone is ringing!
3. Hello! …There’s no work, my friend! It’s getting frustrating, this lockdown!
And finally, in a scathing critique of the government of Nepal's response to the virus, Shrestha posted an editorial cartoon depicting desperate citizens being turned away:
सोमबार कान्तिपुरमा प्रकाशित सम्पादकीय कार्टुन @abinshrestha pic.twitter.com/qtjeoFf5vP
— ekantipur (@ekantipur_com) April 20, 2020
Editorial cartoon by @abinshrestha published in Kantipur on Monday.
The man knocking on the door: “Government! Government!!”
The voice from inside the door: “There is lockdown! Can't get out!”

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


text:
Six false statements by Serbian government officials on COVID-19 · Global Voices
Istinomer

Government of Republic of Serbia in session, March 28, 2020. Photo by Government website, CC BY-NC-ND.
This story originally appeared at Istinomer (Truth-O-Meter), a fact-checking initiative of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), and was translated to English by Filip Stojanovski. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
The developments involving the arrest and release of journalist Ana Lalić for “spreading panic and inciting unrest” after she reported on the lack of protection equipment at a hospital in Novi Sad, led to a decision by Istinomer team to publish this analysis of Serbian officials’ recent statements on the pandemic.
According to covid19.rs, Serbia's official website tracking COVID-19 in the country, the total number of cases in Serbia is 6.890, with 130 deaths by April 22.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated on March 11 on national TV that the media was spreading a lie when claiming a state official had referred to the new coronavirus as “the funniest virus.”
But videos show pediatrician and professor Dr. Branimir Nestorović, a member of Vučić's crisis committee, saying that sentence in the president's presence at a government press brief on February 26:
Ne mogu da verujem da se narod koji je preživeo sankcije, bombardovanje, svakojaka maltretiranja, uplaši najsmešnijeg virusa u istoriji čovečanstva, koji na Fejsbuku postoji…
I can't believe that the people who survived sanctions, bombing, all kinds of mistreatment, would be afraid of the funniest virus in the history of mankind, which exists on Facebook…
At that time, when Serbia didn't yet have any confirmed cases of the disease, the doctor used his peculiar kind of “humor” to assure the public that there wasn't any reason to worry.
Istinomer evaluated the statement by President Vučić as false.
At the same press conference, Dr. Nestorović joked that women were “especially resistant” to the COVID-19 “because of estrogen,” and that they “could go do their fashion shopping in Milan” (where the epidemic was raging at that time). President Vučić then did his own quip when he said that alcoholic beverages could prevent the disease (which isn't true) and that he now had an excuse to drink every day. Videos criticizing those gaffes vent viral in the region at that time.
Serbian Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar said on February 26:
Do sada, po svim karakteristikama koje pokazuje ovaj virus, on je dosta slabiji i od ovog sezonskog gripa.
So far, according to all characteristics shown by this virus, it is far weaker than this usual seasonal flu we have.
But that isn't true according to information by the World Health Organization (WHO) released around that time:
Globally, about 3.4 percent of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected.
WHO noted that while many people around the world have developed immunity to influenza, nobody has immunity to the virus causing COVID-19. That means that many more people are susceptible to becoming sick and from suffering more severe forms of the disease.
On March 13, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić stated (minute 12:50 of the video) that the government must not reveal the number of ventilators in use in Serbia because it's “a state secret in all countries.”
She was speaking in the context of an urgent public procurement released by the Ministry of Health for new ventilators.
Istinomer has confirmed that the number of total ventilators in use is publicly available information in many European countries, as well as the US and Canada.
On March 23, the president of the Serbian Parliament Maja Gojković falsely claimed that the parliament can't be convened during the state of emergency.
On the contrary, the Serbian Constitution clearly states that the parliament can't be dissolved during a state of emergency.
Neither the Constitution nor any law stipulates that a government decree (like the ban on public gatherings) can suspend the work of the national assembly. There's no formal or legal ground that prohibits the parliament from holding sessions.
After the state of emergency was declared on March 15, pet owners were still allowed to walk their dogs during the curfew. However, a few days later the government decided to withdraw that permission.
“Based on the expert opinion, the government of the Republic of Serbia decided to withdraw the decision allowing walking of pets for 20 minutes between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.,” the government stated on March 30.
However, on a press conference on March 30, epidemiologist Predrag Kon, a member of the government's COVID-19 crisis group, denied this. He said that the experts at the group had not issued any recommendations against walking pets, but that authorities decided to prohibit it anyway.
The government's way of framing it seems to have been an attempt to blame an unpopular measure on the doctors who were part of the crisis response group.
Istinomer therefore evaluated this government claim as untrue.
On April 14, Doctor Kon announced that he plans to resign from the government's team of epidemiologists. But after meeting with the president and the prime minister shortly after, he seems to have decided to stay in the group.
Goran Vesić, Deputy Mayor of the capital Belgrade, stated on April 1 that “on March 31, Spain enacted a ban on movement during the whole 24 hours of the day.”
This is not true. The state of emergency declared on March 14 in Spain stipulates a 24-hour quarantine, but doesn't include a 24-hour curfew. While the movement of Spanish citizens is indeed limited, they can still shop at supermarkets and pharmacies before 9 p.m. and walk pets near their homes.

author: Istinomer


text:
Top Japanese pop stars upload music to YouTube to boost spirits during lockdown · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

B'z vocalist Inaba Koshi. Screencap from “B'z LIVE GYM 2019 whole lotta NEW LOVE” YouTube video.
After spending several weeks of appearing to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 crisis, on April 16 the Japanese government enacted a country-wide state of emergency which included a voluntary stay at home order for citizens. Employees who could do so were encouraged to work from home, and people throughout the archipelago were discouraged from congregating in public, with mixed results.
With their spring and summer stadium tours canceled, a variety of Japanese pop superstars decided to help lift the spirits of fans who were now largely confined at home by releasing full concerts and music videos that are free to watch on YouTube.
Japan's best-selling music act of all time and one of the top music acts in the world, B'z is made up of duo Inaba Koshi and Tak Matsumoto. With a style of hard blues rock heavily influenced by Aerosmith and similar American bands of the 1970s and 1980s, the B'z are famous for their high-energy live shows.
To help their Japanese fans deal with the stress of the coronavirus, the band has uploaded multiple “live gym” full concert videos to their YouTube channel, including their newest release, “LIVE GYM 2019 whole lotta NEW LOVE,” which covers their 2019 concert series.
Another of Japan's most popular music groups, since forming in 1989 Mr. Children have thirty consecutive #1 singles on the Japanese charts. The band's Beatles-inspired pop act frequently sells out giant stadiums across Japan, but with no tours lined up because of COVID-19 the band has uploaded twenty music videos to YouTube, as well as a two-part concert video.
Relatively unknown outside of Japan, veteran singer-songwriter Okuda Tamio‘s reputation as a musician's musician has resulted in replicas of his classic Gibson guitar. While best known for blues and pop-rock, Okuda has uploaded “Simple Virtual” (カンタンバーチャビレ) to YouTube. The series of acoustic sets to YouTube incorporates a simple Zoom-like fake backdrop.
A popular, if manufactured boy band created and managed by kingpin talent agency Johnny's & Associates, Arashi (嵐, meaning “storm”) is due to retire by the end of 2020. The band has uploaded a variety of concert videos to YouTube. To help fight COVID-19, the band has also recorded and a video to promote hand-washing.
Hikawa Kiyoshi, one of Japan's most popular enka singers, has released a playlist of 21 songs to mark his 21 years in the music business, and to support his fans during the COVID-19 epidemic. His trademark song is “Tokimeki Rumba” (Fluttering Rumba), from 2009.
Like Arashi, NMB48 (“N.M.B. Forty-eight”) is another manufactured, but wildly popular, pop band. The group's core audience of supporters in Namba, Osaka, in western Japan. The group had planned to release a new single in May, but COVID-19 forced them to postpone their plans. Instead, NMB48 is encouraging their fans to “stay at home” by uploading several playlists that feature dozens of music videos, including “Because, Because, Because” (だってだってだって).
Defunct since 2007 following the death of charismatic leader singer Izumi Sakai, pop band ZARD has sold at least 37 million albums. The band's label has released 17 songs, including signature tune “Don't Give Up!” (負けないで) on YouTube to support fans living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Trinidad & Tobago photographers commemorate Earth Day 2020 with online challenge · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot of an image by Devon Concepts, submitted to the Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago's Facebook page as part of its Earth Day challenge. All photos have been republished in this post with the permission of the Guild.
Earth Day, celebrated every April 22, looks very different this year from its previous incarnations. With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting movement and gatherings worldwide, this year's celebration has moved entirely online. The event's website describes it as “far more than a day”:
It must be a historic moment when citizens of the world rise up in a united call for the creativity, innovation, ambition, and bravery that we need to meet our climate crisis and seize the enormous opportunities of a zero-carbon future.
The Trinidad and Tobago Photographers Guild is doing its part to heed the digital call to action, via an ongoing photo challenge that began nearly six weeks ago, around March 12, when Trinidad and Tobago recorded its index case of COVID-19.
Under the theme “(Stay) Focused”, the social media-based challenge invites photographers to share their work on the Guild's Facebook page. Thus far, topics have covered everything from fireworks to “macro” challenges to, well…Earth Day!
Guild President Antony Scully spoke with Global Voices by telephone and said that given the country's stay-at-home instructions, photographers are encouraged to take photos in their homes and gardens or dig into their archives for uplifting images:
We're trying to keep the topics upbeat in order to keep people focused, and steer everyone's mental state in a positive direction while practising social distancing. … This can be a depressing time for creatives. There is very little work and it's very restrictive.”
The response from photographers has been fantastic, and Scully notices a lot of interaction, encouragement and growth among community members — not to mention the joy they are bringing to the wider public by sharing their amazing shots.
On this very special Earth Day, when our natural world is beginning to heal itself thanks to the massive drop in human activity, these photographs are a blissful reminder of our precious environment and the responsibility that rests on our collective shoulders, post-pandemic, to be good stewards.
Photographer David Singh posted a beautiful shot of mangroves, with the hashtag “#protection for our coastlines”:
#photoguildtt #earth#mangroves#protection for our coastlines
Geplaatst door David Singh op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
Mangroves are critical in shielding against coastal erosion and helping to protect small island developing states (SIDS) against the ill effects of climate change through its effective absorption of carbon dioxide.
There were several pics of birds, symbolic of new life and regeneration — including baby birds in a nest and one hummingbird feeding another, both by Razia Hasin-Racha:
#earthday #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#earthday2020 #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Razia Hasin-Racha op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
There were a lot of pristine beach — and beach clean-up — scenes, which really spoke to the Caribbean spirit.
#EarthDay2020 #Photoguildtt#SocialMediaChallenge
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#EarthDay2020 #Photoguildtt#SocialMediaChallenge
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
A Man-o-War adding a stinging beauty to the landscape of Manzanilla .#earthday #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Devon Concepts op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
Perhaps because of their tranquility, waterfalls were also a popular subject — and Trinidad and Tobago has some beautiful locations that really shone on camera, like this one by You Ng:
#earthday2020 #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Photographers Guild of Trinidad & Tobago op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#earthday #healtheworld #photoguildtt#stayfocused
Geplaatst door Bissoon Parasram op Woensdag 22 april 2020
#earthday2020 #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Nicholas Dumplin Bhajan op Woensdag 22 april 2020
One unique photo captured a mud volcano, which is something of a tourist attraction in south Trinidad:
Bunsee Trace Mud Volcano#earthday #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Devon Concepts op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
No matter the subject, however, the photographers’ messages surrounding Earth Day 2020 had a similar thread: even in the midst of utter desolation, there can be renewal, growth and hope:
#earthday2020 #photoguildtt
Geplaatst door Raoul Yeates Jr. op Woensdag 22 april 2020
#earthday #photoguildtt #tobago
Geplaatst door Shastri Brainz Sieusankar op Dinsdag 21 april 2020
#photoguildTT #earthday
Geplaatst door Shameel Hosein op Woensdag 22 april 2020

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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A high-profile funeral highlights a double standard in Nigeria under lockdown · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Chief of Staff Abba Kyari's funeral was attended by many people, which violated official guidelines on COVID-19 burials. Screenshot via TVC News Nigeria on YouTube.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Abba Kyari, chief of staff to Nigeria's president, died on April 17, 2020, from COVID-19 in Lagos, Nigeria. Kyari, 68, was buried the next day in Abuja, in accordance with Islamic rites. The funeral was televised throughout the nation.
He tested positive for the coronavirus on March 24, following a trip to Germany and Egypt, BBC reports.
Kyari's high-profile burial in the midst of COVID-19 highlights a double standard when it comes to state guidelines on best practices to mitigate the spread of the deadly disease.
The Nigerian government issued stay-at-home orders in three key states, Lagos, Abuja and Ogun, that began on March 30, 2020, for 14-days, which was later extended on April 13 for an additional two weeks.
Kyari’s burial did not observe the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) safety procedures for the burial of a COVID-19 patient:
In the event a ceremony is held, the number of attendees should be limited. The ceremony should be held in a well-ventilated structure, attendees should be advised on social distancing throughout the event, ensuring practice of hand and respiratory hygiene.
The hundreds of mourners, family members and top government officials, who attended the prayers for the deceased at Nigeria’s Defence House guesthouse far exceeded the limited number stipulated by the NCDC.
There was evidently no social distancing, as people mingled freely. The ceremony went on despite NCDC’s advice that funerals “should be postponed, as much as possible, until the end of the pandemic.”
The government on April 20, apologized for the “violation of the principles and protocols” of the NCDC during Kyari’s burial.
But the political elites are not the only group that flaunts the law at will.
On April 5, Nigerian actress Funke Akindele held a house party to celebrate the birthday of her husband and songwriter, Abdulrasheed Bello (Skillz or JJC Skillz) — also a violation of the lockdown laws.
The House Party Funke Akindele and her Husband JJCskillz did with the likes of Naira Marley, Eniola Badmus.. why this during this total lockdown? ????♀ pic.twitter.com/fNVMEIgZHd
— M i a ? (@sisimiaa) April 5, 2020
Akindele was at the forefront of public awareness on COVID-19 measures, including the importance of social distancing to slow the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Apparently, Akindele didn’t live by that mantra for the party.
Here’s NCDC Health Advisory Video by Funke Akindele pic.twitter.com/w8Bf7wYpPj
— DANNY ? (@Danny_Walterr) April 5, 2020
Akindele later apologized for hosting the party.
A Lagos court on April 7, sentenced the actress and her husband to 14 days community service and a fine of 100,000 naira ($260 United States dollars).
Akindele and Bello were prosecuted with lightning speed, a deterrent to all who may break the COVID-19 regulations.
It was rather surprising, by Nigerian standards, for one to be in court barely 48 hours after an offence had been committed.
But the actress’ plight was nothing compared to that of Abuja cab driver Emmanuel Imhoudu who was arrested in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital for flouting the stay at home order.
– “hunger virus pass corona virus” .- Angry taxi driver says as he strip naked in protest after his car was impounded in Abuja.
{?: AITNews} pic.twitter.com/MDj2Cj0HqX
— The Viral Trendz (@TheViralTrendz) April 13, 2020
In the video, Imhoudu stripped naked in protest to his arrest saying:
I dey provoke. I get children. I get wife. Na money I dey find, money to chop. No money. You tell us to stay for us. Nothing. No food.
I am angry. I have children. I have a wife. I’m looking for money to feed. No money and you tell us to stay at home. Nothing. No food.
Imhoudu was sentenced to six months imprisonment or a fine of 10,000 naira ($28 USD) by an Abuja court on April  16, reports Premium Times, an online newspaper.
Throwing a party during a lockdown is wrong. Flouting the regulations for a funeral during this pandemic is also equally wrong. Akindele apologized for breaching the pandemic regulations and the Nigerian government has also apologized for flouting the COVID-19 funeral rules. Driving a taxi to fend off hunger during a pandemic is also wrong.
But none of these infractions is more “wrong” than the other. The only difference is that when Nigerian politicians in power break the law, there are hardly any consequences.
There seem to be two types of laws: one that the political class breaks with impunity and another that punishes the unprivileged.
Little wonder, Nigerians are demanding an apology for Akindele and Imhoudu, because political officials also broke the law and are yet to be prosecuted.
Apology not accepted until @funkeakindele Bello and the Abuja Taxi Driver's sentences are reversed and apology offer to them as well. In this country, we cannot continue to have two laws; one for the rich/elites, and another for the poor masses. Enough of these doublestandards!
— King for freedom (@KingShyner) April 21, 2020
There should not be different standards for the application of the law for Nigerian citizens.
The basic principle of a democratic society is that all citizens are equal before the law, irrespective of class and social status. But it seems that Nigerian political elites are not only above the law — they are the law.


text:
COVID-19 creates more uncertainty for migrant workers in India · Global Voices
Anumeha Verma

A highway in Karnataka, India. Image via Pxfuel.com. Used under a Creative Commons Zero – CC0 license.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
There is an eerie silence on the streets of Delhi as India's usually bustling capital remains under lockdown. Since March 24, businesses have shut down, construction sites have been abandoned and housing societies have closed their gates to everyone but residents.
COVID-19 has ground the country to a halt creating more uncertainty for the already vulnerable population of domestic migrant workers and their families.
.@VijaytaL and I walked down the Yamuna in Delhi and found hundreds and hundreds of migrant workers lying abandoned and hungry.
No food served for two days, they say.
This, 10 km from the offices of India’s prime minister and Delhi’s chief minister https://t.co/eE0p0FuhmU
— Supriya Sharma (@sharmasupriya) April 15, 2020
The construction industry, manufacturing, trade, transport, and hospitality sectors are major employers of migrant workers. Many also work as domestic helpers, handymen and street vendors. These workers usually end up in the informal economy, earning $2 on a good day.
Post COVID-19, their situation has worsened. Devoid of homes and food, many of them have been forced to take shelter in government-run relief camps. Kerala, so far, has the largest number of government-run relief camps for migrant workers (15,541 out of the 22,567 across India), followed by Uttar Pradesh (2230), Maharashtra (1135) and Tamil Nadu (175). Apart from the existing camps, the government has given orders to set up additional relief camps to prevent the mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to villages. However, camps and government shelters are just interim solutions.
In an interview with Global Voices, Aarti, who lives in one of the housing societies in Delhi, shared that her 46-year-old house helper, Shaila, a migrant from Kolkata, has called her twice to know if she can resume work. Unfortunately, domestic helpers are no longer allowed inside the housing society.
Shaila’s story is echoed in the stories of many of the 45 million migrant workers in different parts of India. Living far from their homes, migrant workers find themselves between a rock and a hard place, with no work and no option to return to their villages. Uttar Pradesh remains the only state that has arranged for transportation to Delhi for migrant workers to be taken home.  However, the fear that returning migrants would spread the virus further has led the central government to take a more stringent view on interstate travel, leaving a large number of workers stranded in various parts of India. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed by Jagdeesh S. Chokkar, former Director of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, to allow the workers to return home.
UP is allowed to send 300 buses to Kota to carry UP students in Kota back amid lockdown. Gujarat is allowed to carry 800 pilgrims stranded in Hardwar back to Guj during lockdown. But migrant workers stranded w/o jobs, money&food are not allowed to go back!https://t.co/WZV4a8JRI2
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) April 18, 2020
The Indian government has unveiled a 23 billion US$ economic stimulus plan which would cover around 800 million people over the next three months. The package entails 5kg of wheat or rice per person every month, a gas cylinder per month for poor families, and some cash subsidies; however, these will likely not reach many migrant workers who are far from their registered addresses. In addition, over 100 million people are possibly excluded from enrollment in the public distribution system (PDS) because the state-wide numbers of eligible persons for subsidised foodgrains have not been updated to reflect population increase. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the per-state allocation is still being calculated on the 2011 census figures.
The #lockdown has caused a serious crisis in the lives of #migrantworkers. While the govt has announced some relief measures for migrant workers, they have not yet reached the public due to deficits in their implementation. #COVID
Tune in to our ep to know more. @ayesha_minhaz https://t.co/HQ08jpwywg
— SunoIndia (@SunoIndia_in) April 16, 2020
Neeta Lal at The Diplomat criticises the government's response to the crisis and explains why many migrant workers are going home:
Social distancing doesn’t work without social security. And as state governments and urban municipal bodies have evidently failed to take care of them, going back to their villages, even on foot, is their only option.
Left with no choice, a large number of workers and their families have been travelling enormous distances to reach their homes. The mass exodus of workers from Delhi and Mumbai, two of the states that receive the largest number of workers, revealed the palpable fear among the migrants and their families.
It took him seven days to cycle nearly 1,700km, roughly 242 kms a day.
“I was sure that I would meet ghosts,” he said. “I did not see a single one.”
Quite a story this, by @debabrata2008 and Rudraneil Sengupta. #lockdown #migrantworkers #India https://t.co/cVyPBvUeQY
— Soutik Biswas (@soutikBBC) April 19, 2020
Data from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has already revealed a large rise in unemployment — from 8.4 percent on March 22 to 23.4 percent on April 5.
Even though no one can say with absolute certainty what the current pandemic will spell for the Indian economy, the present conjecture points to a world where the future for migrant workers looks grimmer by the day.

author: Anumeha Verma