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The Caribbean Is Stuck in a ‘Blame the Victim’ Mindset · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A sign from the Men Against Violence Against Women (MAVAW) project at the Live and Learn Offices. Photo taken by Irene Scott for AusAID, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
Sexuality in the Caribbean has been fraught for some time, with several recurring themes: rape and gender violence, public sexual harassment, a sexist culture that at once objectifies and demands modesty from women, and a startling lack of gender equality.
Add homophobia, gay rights issues and sexual abuse of minors to the mix and you have an idea of how mired in controversy sex can be.
A couple of recent developments have revealed that one of the most disturbing aspects of sex and gender in the region — the “blame the victim” mindset — is alive and well. In a blog post that is being widely shared, Jamaica-based Annie Paul discusses the problem of sexual harassment at the university where she works. She accuses the top brass of burying their heads in the sand and not tackling the problem, noting the responses of two spokespeople — women no less — who refute the claims that gender-based violence is widespread on campus.
Paul explains:
The denials come in response to a study […] quoting Taitu Heron, currently National Programme Coordinator at UN Women Jamaica, who chronicled some of the reported cases of violence against women on the campus in her 2013 study Whose Business Is It? Violence Against Women at UWI, Mona. The study, conducted while Heron was a lecturer at UWI’s Institute of Gender and Development Studies, used data compiled from incident reports made to the Office of Security Services on campus. Records showed 67 reported incidents including stalking, physical assaults and domestic disputes.
Astonishingly this was categorically denied by the UWI registrar who stated in the media ‘…while the university cannot say sexual violence does not take place on campus, the university has never had a report of sexual harassment on any of its six halls of residence.’
Such a categorical statement is at odds with Paul's personal experience:
I still remember a women’s group on campus in the early 90s putting up posters inviting concerned individuals to a forum to discuss the many violent incidents female students were facing on campus with a view to forming some sort of strategy that would provide women with better support than was then available.
Before the meeting could be held an edict was issued by the administration. There was to be no such forum and all posters advertising it were to be taken down forthwith. Organizers were reprimanded for jeopardizing the ‘good reputation’ of the university by holding such a discussion in public and ordered never to do it again.
In 2007, according to Paul, “the attacks grew so flagrant that another women’s advocacy group took the matter of female security on university campuses to parliament”, adding that Heron, the researcher, concluded that “the primary concern was not that the incidents of violence against women occurred but rather that speaking about it in an open forum made the University look bad.” Paul cites several instances of such censorship in her post, saying:
What is consistent in all of this is the University’s tactic of demanding and imposing silence on victims and potential victims of sexual harrassment on campus while at the same time doing very little to secure the safety of its female students. […]
Also striking is the emphasis placed by senior UWI management on the lack of reportage of sexual harrassment incidents as some sort of vindication of its reputation rather than recognizing it as an extraordinary situation that requires immediate investigation.
Attitudes in Grenada towards recently leaked nude photos of teenage girls are not much different. Groundation Grenada maintains that the sharing of the images on social media further compromised the minors:
Together with the images came the expected commentary and Facebook statuses, much of which made the girls out to be the villains and blamed them for the leaks (as opposed to the the [sic] people who violated their privacy). […]
The comments revealed a cultural disrespect for data privacy and deep-rooted hypocritical values around sexuality and in particularly teenage sexuality. They also revealed some assumptions that we have internalised without thinking too hard about them: that teenagers are not supposed to be sexual beings and they are bad if they are, and, that wise people don’t keep or share sexual images of themselves. The debacle in general revealed very obvious holes in children and teens education, holes concerning comprehensive sexuality education, holes that many children and teens fall through to hurt themselves.
The post refers to interesting statistics that call into question pervasive religious attitudes and the dire need for responsible sex education in the country, saying, “In revealing themselves the girls revealed much more than themselves. They revealed an educational policy gap that we must address”:
Recent statistics from the WHO and the OECS Behavioral Surveillance Surveys (BSS) show that in Grenada about a quarter of young persons between 13-15 are having sex, many of them with multiple partners, many of them without protection. The BSS survey shows that those who attend church are having a lot more sex than those who don’t. Also, 1 in every 8 live births in Grenada is to a young woman, aged 15-19.
Groundation also makes the point that the teens’ online privacy has been compromised, which adds insult to injury:
We pelt stones at the victims while the real wrongdoers skin teeth on the side. I would be very happy to see charges and convictions under the Electronic Crimes Act coming out of this. Maybe then people would begin appreciating the value of respecting people’s privacy.
I get the sense that for a lot of people sharing the images with commentary is about shaming the girls. A shaming that is meant to punish girls particularly for crossing lines that we have told ourselves girls must not cross.
In a region where religious leaders still make sweeping statements about women for allegedly doing nothing more than wearing a bikini — on a beach — in a effort to shame or embarrass them, intelligent debate about sex in the Caribbean still has a long way to go.


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Déjà Vu? New Zambian President Sparks Health Speculation With Holiday · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

President Edgar Lungu on a helicopter ride viewing the South Luangwa National Park during a holiday he took two weeks into office. Picture used with permission of Salim Henry/SHENPA.
Barely two weeks in office, newly elected Zambian president Edgar Lungu surprised the nation when he took a holiday, fueling speculation about his health — a topic that came up in the campaigns leading up to the January 20 elections to replace President Michael Sata, who died in office on October 28, 2014.
Just after winning the election to replace Sata, Lungu underwent medical tests at Lusaka Trust Hospital and Maina Soko Military Hospital, both of which are within a short distance from the presidential palace in the Woodlands district of the capital city. Departing from his predecessor’s practice of not announcing his health-related matters, Lungu’s press aide Amos Chanda said in a statement:
His Excellency Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu, President of the Republic of Zambia has today undergone two medical examinations at Maina Soko Military Hospital and Lusaka Trust Hospital respectively.
President Lungu undertook a Baseline Health Parameters routine check-up at Maina Soko and attended the dentistry at Lusaka Trust Hospital. Doctors have given him a clean bill of health.
Nevertheless, his holiday, which began after his first international assignment on a trip to the African Union (AU) summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, raised eyebrows. Lawyer-turned-politician Lungu, who went to the South Luangwa National Park, one of Zambia’s prime tourist destinations, had not finished picking his Cabinet at the time.
President Lungu, quoted in The Post, defended his decision to go on what he called a retreat:
I told you that I will have no honeymoon. There is a difference between a holiday and a retreat, I was looking at the dictionary this morning and I said, ‘do these people know?’
I am going for a retreat, I am not on holiday. You don’t go on holiday with the full complement of office staff. The Secretary to the Cabinet is going and some of my ministers and State House officials are not going to nurse me, but help me think through the appointments I am making.
He added:
I know my priorities; some cheeky fellows are saying ‘Lungu doesn’t know his priorities’. My priority is the people of Zambia. How I treat my work is not anybody’s prerogative, it is mine.
In the run-up to the January 20 election, Opposition United Party for National Development Vice President Canicius Banda, a medical doctor, said that the burden of proof lay with ruling Patriotic Front President Lungu to convince the nation that he was well because a medical report his party had seen indicated that the now head of state allegedly suffered from a kidney problem.
Banda later recanted his claim about seeing Lungu’s medical report.
Blogger Elias Munshya Munshya, in response to Banda’s claims of having seen Lungu’s medical report, wrote:
I do see why some Zambians should be concerned about the health of presidential candidates. But demanding medicals for candidates is as ridiculous as demanding that candidates be of a certain level of education. If indeed we should be caring about medical reports, then the next questions to deal with would be: where are we going to draw the line? Does evidence of a disease of the lung affect a person’s ability to rule? This is why our constitution only states that one should not lead if they are “incapacitated”. It does not say that one must not rule if they are sick, for such a requirement would be impossible to meet by mere mortals.
It is understandable why Zambians are concerned with the health of their presidents or those aspiring to be presidents. The country has experienced the death of two sitting heads of state — Levy Mwanawasa, who died in 2008 in France after suffering a stroke while on African Union duties in Egypt, and Sata, who had been ailing and was evacuated to Britain for a medical check-up, but died while there. Former President Frederick Chiluba, who served as the country's second president, died in Zambia following a series of trips to South Africa for treatment and check-ups for heart-related complications.
Lungu beat 10 other candidates, scraping by just 1.66 per cent over the nearest rival, opposition UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema, to become Zambia’s sixth president since independence from Britain in 1964.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


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#Douma_Exterminated as the World Turns Its Back on Horrific Attacks on Ghouta in Syria  · Global Voices
Nour Al Ali

The horrific aftermath after five days of shelling in Ghouta, Douma. Photograph shared by Syrian activist Maher Bouidani (@Ghota_Damas) on Twitter
At least 143 civilians were killed, including 28 women and 29 children, and 370 civilians injured, 75 of which women and 60 children, following a five-day military operation led by Assad forces targeting the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta province in Douma, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said in a report.
The report attributed the attacks to the government's military forces, alleging that they have been perpetrated in retaliation after the “Al-Islam Army targeted various areas Damascus with missiles.” The report, which also based its content on 35 videos and 50 photographs it received, documenting the loss of human life and destruction, said the attacks were excessive and the use of force was unjustifiable. The human rights organization said that they:
[F]ound out that there were no rebels’ presence or any military centers or gatherings in any of the areas that was targeted by government forces. The operation didn't have distinguishable or known target[s] as neighborhoods, hospitals, markets were all targeted and citizens were killed regardless of their beliefs.
The sanguinary attacks came after a recent BBC interview with Assad. He stated that any attack perpetrated by his forces is aimed at terrorists to protect civilians.
He's trying to convince monkeys and donkeys on humans planet.#دوما_تباد pic.twitter.com/qlPUZSEbLY
— Abdulhadi Almutairi (@Hadutchi) February 10, 2015
According to the report, aerial strikes, primarily barrel bombs and missiles, destroyed dozens of residential buildings, two ambulances, schools, mosques, and the central and main medical point in Douma city.
Ambulances in Douma were reportedly targeted by government forces and destroyed on February 5 Photo source: Damascus Media Center Facebook Page
A graphic video released by Shaam Network News on YouTube shows a distorted and bloodied young girl sitting on a hospital bed against a poorly sanitized wall. A man is heard telling the medics in Arabic that “her entire family is gone [and that] she was the only survivor.”
The attacks, which received little to no recognition from mainstream media, prompted users on social networking sites to spread awareness using the hashtags #Douma_Exterminated and #دوما_تباد in both English and Arabic interchangeably.
Twitter user Mudar Shanwan, who currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey, tweeted a photograph of civilians in Douma helping each other while walking on rubble, with the caption: “we just want to be human again.”
Doesn't aspire to much .. just we want to be Human again #Here_Doma #دوما_تباد pic.twitter.com/E4vrMCkUxN
— mudar shanwan (@MudarShanwan) February 11, 2015
Twitter user Omar Halbooni also shared an aerial shot showing complete destruction:
Horrible scenes might not be seen since world war , destroyed by Assad . #Douma_Exterminated #دوما_تباد pic.twitter.com/UVzjL6hskj
— عمر (@OmarHalbooni) February 11, 2015
Syrian journalist and writer Dr Ahmad Muaffaq angrily protested the global community for not adequately reacting to the news:
سوء ما فينا هو أفضل من أفاضل من فيكم ..دوما تباد ولا تتحرك فيكم شعرة ..عالم قذر حقير #دوما_تباد pic.twitter.com/mNkhhHgm7T
— د ـ أحمد موفق زيدان (@Ahmadmuaffaq) February 11, 2015
Our worst beats the best of yours, Douma is being exterminated and you do not react. The world is despicable.
Many users also shared graphic content of the attacks’ horrific aftermath, sharing photographs with rows of children's bodies lined on the ground for family members to claim them. Photographs of those who survived showed children covered in blood, some with body parts missing, barely recognizable.
Sharing a graphic photograph of a child with a defibrillator pressed against her chest in an attempt to restart her heart, this Twitter user said:
Little hearts stopped beating #Douma_Exterminated #دوما_تباد pic.twitter.com/2hDNERX2Pm
— jasmine rose (@JasminroseRose) February 10, 2015
Rawia Alhoussaini shared photographs of her destroyed family house:
#دوما_تباد My family. . . pic.twitter.com/27sM5iapku
— Rawia Alhoussaini (@souriastrong) February 10, 2015
This Twitter user said that the hashtags provide the world with a grim view of what is happening in Damascus suburbs:
#دوما_تباد (Arabic for #Douma_Exterminated ) gives grim window into ongoing destruction of the Damascus suburb.
— Known Gnomes (@UnknownUngnomes) February 10, 2015
Twitter user Omar also added:
unspeakable horrors were committed in Douma. if you'd like to see for yourself click on these hashtags: #دوما_تباد #Douma_Exterminated
— عمر (@MidEasternist) February 10, 2015
In a Facebook post, acclaimed Syrian artist Tammam Azzam asks:
هل أفرغ العالم كل عواطفه في مشاهدة قتل رهينة، وحرق طيار، ثم صمت عن دوما؟!!!
Did the world exhaust its emotions after watching ISIS footage killing hostages and burning pilots, and only knew silence when it came to Douma?
Dubai-based Khaled Akbik questioned the world's priorities:
While everyone's busy following Jon Steward & ISIS news.More than 150 ppl were killed by regime forces in Duma. #Syria. #Douma_Exterminated
— Khaled Akbik (@Khaledtron) February 11, 2015
Karam Foundation Director of Innovative Education Kinda Hibrawi asked where humanity went:
I dare you to look up the hashtag #Douma_Exterminated on twitter. Then let me know what happened to humanity.
— Kinda Hibrawi (@KindaHibrawi) February 10, 2015

author: Nour Al Ali


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From the Global Voices 2015 Summit, Moving Onward and Upward · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Perhaps we weren't visible from space, like the Great Wall of China. But fortunately the drone-mounted camera that filmed us in front of Cebu City’s grand Provincial Capitol building on the afternoon of January 25, 2015 hovered only a few hundred feet above us, a fraction of the Global Voices community assembled into a very respectable-looking—considering how quickly we did it—column-and-circle formation representing the 10 years of our existence.
We turned 10 in December, so the sixth Global Media Citizen Summit in January in Cebu City, Philippines, was another moment to celebrate, our only regret being that we weren’t able to do it with the entire 800-plus active members of the community present.
As the only times our virtual community gets to meet face to face, our biennial Summits are extremely important for the development of the organisation. The 2015 Summit included four days of internal meetings, and culminated in a public conference at the Cebu Provincial Capitol on the theme of The Open Internet: Local Perspectives, Global Rights. The proceedings opened, movingly and appropriately, with a statement read by Global Voices members calling for the release of jailed online media workers and activists. Also announced at the Summit were the winners of the essay competition supported by Google.
We have many to thank for helping making our 2015 Summit such a success:
Our speakers, for generously sharing your expertise during the Summit sessions (see reports and videos on the Summit site).
Our attendees, who came from near and far within the Philippines, and from other parts of the world, to be part of the event.
Our international sponsors: Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Google, Open Society Foundations, Knight Foundation, Yahoo! and Automattic.
And the Summit would not have been the success it was without the tremendous support we received from our host location. Our heartfelt gratitude to our media sponsor SunStar Publishing, and our tech sponsors Globe Telecom and Smart Communications. To the Province of Cebu for letting us have the run of their grand Provincial Capitol Building for two whole days. To the Philippine Department of Tourism for the warm Filipino welcome and the epic closing party at the Museo Sugbo. And to Doris Isubal-Mongaya and her team at PRWorks for their extraordinary organisational skills and expert touches that made our time in Cebu special in so many ways—and for the gift of the drone video.
And onward and upward we go.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Iran, Beyond The Headlines · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Iran's iconic Peykan – “a common, locally manufactured car that hasn’t had an update since 1960.” Image by Fabien Dany (CC BY-SA 2.5)
Some names have been changed to protect anonymity.
The new, white, all-leather-interior, French-made Peugeot hatchback I’m riding in is one of the many cars zooming along Sari’s Shoonesh on a hot and humid April evening in 2010.
Sari, a few hours north of Iran’s capital, Tehran, is a small city with a population of 200,000. If you’re young, privileged, and bored in Sari, Shoonesh is the place to be on a Friday night. Racing through the narrow streets, you need only a passing glance of consent from a neighboring driver to signal that they’re down for a challenge.
Within minutes a black BMW X5 cuts off the Peugeot. It’s the perfect partner for the group I’m with this evening.
“Girls, I think he’s the one. Let’s see if he looks,” says Sima, the Peugeot’s driver. The others giggle—there’s a rush of excitement. Is the X5’s driver going to race-flirt back? He makes a left turn at the next intersection, and our hopes subside. “Damn, did you see his car, though? Dr. Habibi just imported one like that from Dubai.”
A moment later an orange Peykan—a common, locally manufactured car that hasn’t had an update since the 1960's—honks at us. “Ah-hh [the Persian equivalent of eww], he’s straight out of the da-hat [ghetto]. He’s borrowed his uncle’s car.” Sima quickly cuts off the Peykan and we lose sight of him.
Sima is a second-year architecture major at Daneshga-eh Noor, a university one hour north of Tehran. A daughter of one of my uncle’s co-workers, I had met her the night before at a party held by one of my uncle’s friends. “If there’s an enghelab [revolution] tomorrow, believe me, we would be the next Europe,” Sima tells me, in a conversation not about politics, but shopping. Her Marc Jacobs dress and black Christian Louboutin pumps help her argument.
The next night we’re in her car, Sima’s Chanel headscarf is dangling around her neck instead of covering her hair, as dictated by Iran’s mandatory hijab policy. When I ask her if it’s fine to be driving around the streets without her hijab, she replies, “I just got these highlights today. I don’t want to hide them.”
Sima has a frank and free attitude toward life that detaches from most Western, media-oriented perspectives of Iran. There was a long list of issues brewing in Iran during the spring of 2010: a boorish President, a budding nuclear program, human rights violations, continual unrest after a corrupt 2009 presidential election, and ongoing international sanctions. Yet for a 20-year-old upper middle-class girl like Sima, her concerns don’t involve politics: western headlines don’t define her Iran.
The city of Sari is where I spent much of my trip. It’s a small rural city in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, where my mother’s family lives. Sari is known for a lot of things: scenic mountain ranges, some of Iran’s most fertile shalizars (rice fields), and probably the biggest pool of hospitals and medical doctors in the entire country.
Rice fields (shalizar) in Iran. Image by Juybari (CC BY-SA 3.0).
My dayee (uncle) Farhad is a pharmacist and medical supplier for Beemarestaneh Shafa [Shafa Hospital], with supply links to the 10 other hospitals located in Sari. His vast network of business and social ties worked to my advantage by providing me with an invitation to a party attended only by Sari’s medical practitioners. This is where I would meet Sima. Almost every specialist and surgeon who was not on call in Sari that night was at that party.
My immediate impression of the luxurious marble-floored apartment, where the soirée was held, was of an image out of The Stepford Wives. The women and men were segregated. The men huddled around the bar where the male host urged his guests to drink. In another room, elegantly poised and groomed ladies sat socialising on big French antiques. I felt a little disappointed when the host sat me in the French antique room. The corner with the alcohol looked like it would lead to a much better night.
Once I met Sima things started to turn around. I got a quick explanation of who all the guests were. It turned out the party was no ordinary gathering, and the stylish women were more than pretty powdered faces. There were a variety of dentists, family doctors, and plastic surgeons among the guests. The most impressive of all was Sepideh, dressed head-to-toe in black, in typical Persian fashion.
At 35 years of age, Sepideh is the head of the Department of Gynaecology at Imam Khomeini Hospital, Sari’s largest, and one of the most prestigious medical centers outside of Tehran. Something along the lines of Johns Hopkins, Imam Khomeini is the training ground for the country’s best medical students. Sepideh is the youngest doctor to attain such a position. She’s also happily married with two young daughters. Naturally, this woman who seems to have it all intrigues me. Not bad in a country that has a codified law that views the worth of women to be exactly half of that of men.
Under Iran’s strict gender policies, the fields open to female doctors are quite limited. There is no conscious effort by the Iranian regime to promote professional female doctors. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a quota of only about one-third of all medical students in Iran’s medical schools are allocated to women.
The party ended up exceeding my expectations, especially after I discovered huddling around the bar was unnecessary—the alcohol was served to the ladies on silver trays. However, this was only a glimpse at how a small group of Iranians live. The vodka-cranberries served to me as I marvelled at the successful and beautifully groomed ladies around me, were only part of my enlightenment process.
While I read and listened to music on a swing chair in my grandparents’ house that spring, Olliyah, the 20-year-old housekeeper my grandparents had hired sometimes joined me in her spare time. Help around the house is typical for most Iranians among Iran’s middle class. Needless to say, the Iran Olliyah inhabited is a completely different country than Sima and Sepideh's.
Our conversations over a bowl of zeyton parvardeh (tiny Iranian olives) on the porch were the only instances where I saw Olliyah without her headscarf. She tells me it’s inappropriate to walk around my grandparents’ home without her hijab when a man she isn’t married to is present. Without the headscarf she was barely recognizable to me. She resembled Sima and the female doctors in terms of Persian beauty, but Olliyah’s style was of a different nature. Her uniform around the house was a long bronze silk skirt, a long-sleeved cotton blouse, and a synthetic purple scarf with black beads stitched all over.
She sewed her skirt herself and bought her scarf for 1,000 toman (CAD $1). Our first conversation revolves around how it feels to be 20 years old. I told her about university and my plans for grad school. She tells me about her husband and her plans to sign up her three-year-old daughter for day care in their deh [village], 40 minutes away. It wouldn’t seem like we would have much in common, but we managed to find common ground discussing clothes and opinions of President Ahmadinejad.
She confessed that she did’t know how to read or write. Her 11-year-old brother died in a highway collision riding on the back of a motorbike when she was 14, and she never recovered from the trauma of losing him. She quit school and stayed at home to help her grieving mother take care of her younger brothers and sisters. At 17 she was married off to her husband, Shahban, who was 27. For cleaning my grandparents’ house, she and her husband get free room, board, and food. She told me she was saving her money to buy her daughter a new dress for her mother-in-law's next party.
A dominant headline from Western newspapers that summer was about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian widow from the Northwest province of Azerbaijan who was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery with the man who murdered her husband, after the murderer walked free. Cases like this expose the tragic circumstances for women and justice in Iran.
But for others like Sima, Sepideh, and Olliyah, life goes on in much the same way it does in the rest of the world. There was nothing overtly political about these women’s lives when I encountered them in 2010. The prospect of new sanctions imposed on their country didn’t seem an immediate concern.
In 2010, discussions about Iran often centred on the fact that the country had one of the world’s most active civil societies and usually referenced the Green Movement that evolved in 2009 to protest the rigged re-election of President Ahmadinejad. I spent a few weeks in Tehran during the summer of 2009, and was very much enraptured by the arrests, activists and green wristbands, and the fervor of the aftermath of the movement that surrounded me in the capital. None of the three women I met in Sari in the summer of 2010, who left such a strong impression on me, had any particular attachment to those protests.
Sepideh was a doctor at a state-owned hospital—any overtly political stance would compromise her job. When I asked Sima about the protests, she said it was great fun and that she was a supporter of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad’s political adversary. The way she talked about taking to the streets of Sari, it seemed like she protested more as a pastime than a political statement. She had little to say about the policies of the candidates.
Part of Ahmadinejad’s campaign in 2009 involved visiting dehs and giving cash donations to those in need, in an unspoken exchange of political support. Olliyah’s parents were among the recipients of these cash giveaways. In our conversations that summer, Olliyah told me she was sure Ahmadinejad was the rightful winner of the election, and that the protests weren’t anything more than a disturbance of the peace. “People our age are out of control. The way the girls were dressed when they were protesting, they might as well have forgotten about their hijab. People are upset they threw them into Evin [a prison in Tehran that houses political prisoners], but I’d rather have crazy things happen in the jails than out there on the streets.”
The death of one protester, Neda Agha-Soltan, captured on video and posted on YouTube, was a violent image of the state's repression of protests. How could we not rally behind the cause of the Green Movement? Olliyah didn't care much for these images. She did not watch the news footage of Neda on repeat on CNN in June 2009; those ideals of reform and rights fought for by the green activists had little meaning for her. Providing for their families’ day-to-day needs was her main concern.
A couple of weeks after my trip I had a conversation with my Iranian friend Shervin in Toronto. We were discussing the 2009 elections, and I told him about the possibility that Ahmadinejad had won the elections fairly, relating Olliyah’s experience with campaign donations in the dehs. He immediately jumped on me. “So what do you mean? You’re for Ahmadinejad? What has the Green Movement been for, then?”
I felt a little taken aback. Was it really that hard to see the situation from a different perspective?  I mean, I stand for human rights, and fair elections, and I have no particular affinity for an Islamic state (and by no means Ahmadinejad). I considered myself “Green” in 2009, but I have no definitive answer about Iran’s political future, and hardly think I can speak for that future given that I don’t currently live there. But is it possible to dream of an Iran where no election fraud occurs? Where Olliyah’s family is provided for? Where Tehran could be considered as fashionable as any other European city by someone like Sima (and maybe it has a little bit now in 2015)? Where gender and politics never jeopardized Sepideh’s medical career? It's now the 36th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and these questions from five years ago still fill my head as I reflect on the last time I was in Iran.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Latest ISIS Propaganda Video Features Some Curious Reporting by British Hostage John Cantlie · Global Voices
Nour Al Ali

A screen-shot of the latest ISIS propaganda video, highlighting British hostage John Cantlie as its reporter.
British journalist and photographer John Cantlie, 46, who has been held captive by ISIS since 2012, appeared in the group's latest propaganda video, released on February 9. The Al Qaeda off-shoot ISIS has come to control larges swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.
Cantlie described the film as the last of its series, and spoke about life inside Syria's Al Bab district, located northeast of Aleppo, like education and Sharia law. In the video, he also interviews two militants about the deaths of ISIS leaders and the recent attacks on Charlie Hebdo in France.
The documentary-style film is very different from their earlier ISIS propaganda series that Cantlie appeared in. The two-part “Lend Me Yours Ears” lecture series showed Cantlie sitting on a table with a black background, wearing an orange jumpsuit, as he delivered several messages about intervention in Syria.
Now, in the new film, “From Inside Halab,” ISIS has seemingly given Cantlie a bigger role in its propaganda films, presenting him as a free man who is able to tour the open markets, riverside sceneries, and report from the front lines, as a documentary filmmaker would. This time around, Cantlie wears a fitted brown leather jacket and black trousers, and pronounces Arabic terms with fluency.
Produced by Al Hayat Media Center, which dubs itself the “Media wing of IS Englesh,” the film opens on Cantlie climbing and walking among the ruins of Al-Bab district in Aleppo. Cantlie begins by saying:
We're in a city that's been at the heart of the fighting since summer 2012. Used to be home to more than two million people, and housed some of the most ancient architecture all of the Middle East. But now after two years of bitter fighting, much of the city lies in ruins, and many of the people have fled.
He also notes that the 12-minute video's purpose is to prove that Assad's bombing, which is now joined by coalition air-strikes, has not stifled the group's advances:
What we're gonna find out, is if all this fighting, all this destruction, has even slowed down the advance of the Islamic State.
The film's next scene shows a group of underage boys, who wear the state's flag as head bands, studying and reciting the Quran in a mosque setting. The film then shows an old man writing verses of the Quran on a board that says, “Prohibition of Injustice,” in Arabic. Cantlie says the young boys, “with any luck, will form the mujahideen of the next generation in the region.”
Nevertheless, Cantlie takes viewers outdoors, where he points to drones hovering in the sky, and says that the “mujahideen really don't care how many eyes in the sky are looking down on them.”
In a later scene, Cantlie sits in a Sharia court waiting room, and describes the “remarkably simple” rules of Sharia. The waiting room plays the group's videos, which Cantlie says are “a lot more entertaining than watching the 6 p.m. news.”
Cantlie then interviews a militant speaking in Arabic who says the deaths of their leaders would not deter them from fighting, and it instead “emboldens and motivates us upon this path, by Allah's permission.” Later, as Cantlie's narration describes the West as an aggressor invading the peace that people are trying to achieve in the city, the video shows scenes of ordinary life: A young boy eating fruits in front of a grocery stand, a baker aligning pastries for the oven, and a street vendor pushing his cart through a busy street.
According to Cantlie, the group's media outposts are scattered across several towns, where they hand out news pamphlets to passersby. The reason behind this, he explains is:
That it counters the news that comes out from the west. It gives people here on the ground an idea of what the Islamic State is really doing, and not the distorted view that people get from the western media.
A scene of a media outpost run by the center Al I'tisam segues to video's final topic: the attack on Charlie Hebdo in France. The fighter Cantlie interviews says in French that the attacks “only make us happy,” and issues renewed threats to the country.
More than just propaganda: Questions arising after the facts
The video, which suggests locals have acclimated the ISIS's presence in their home, raises questions about the group's expansion plans within the region, as well as the fate of the British hostage, who was reportedly captured on the Turkish border, along with the late James Foley. The lack of women in the video is also worrying, leading to concerns about the role women do play in Aleppo's new social order.
Linking to the video [warning: graphic content], Amnesty International's Joanne Mariner points out that the education Cantlie boasts about is empty of girls:
In new #ISIS propaganda video, John Cantlie visits a school in Aleppo – empty of girls. http://t.co/T91nw3m0vN pic.twitter.com/cIvzJSZXFE
— joanne mariner (@jgmariner) February 10, 2015
Jon Williams, foreign editor at ABC, remarks that Cantlie is the last remaining Western hostage of the known 23:
And then there was one.: Brit John Cantlie now only one of #ISIS‘s 23 foreign hostages from 12 countries remaining. pic.twitter.com/nK1LAinLMz
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) February 10, 2015
Jean Pierre suggests that Cantlie is attempting to survive the only way he knows how:
His strategy to survive his talent in journalism: John Cantlie #ISIS #Syria pic.twitter.com/SofKqAnjBK
— Jean Pierre Duthion (@halona) February 9, 2015
Kriszta Satori of the BBC reminded everyone that Cantlie remains a hostage under duress:
to all who retweet the latest ISIS agitprop: John Cantlie is a hostage under duress. just saying.
— kriszta satori (@fulelo) February 9, 2015
Answering someone who asked why Cantlie would offer his services to an extremist group, Twitter user Oscar says Cantlie was most probably filming at gunpoint:
@OssFM89 خدمات مين؟ إذا ما في 4 ورا الكاميرا حاملين RPGs ومصوبينها عليه أنا ما بعرف شي. هو بأول مقابلة حكى إنه “يمكن يتم إعدامي بعد الحلقات”
— Oscar (@awni_inwa) February 9, 2015
What “services”? If four people from behind the camera aren't pointing RPGs at him, then I'm a monkey's uncle. He said in the first interview that he could be executed after the interviews come to an end.


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5 Communities Sticking It to Fossil Fuel Companies—and Winning · Global Voices
350.org

No Fracking Falkirk: Peaceful Protest “The People's Voice” on Sunday 7 December 2014. Photo by Flickr user Ric Lander. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
This article was written by Thelma Young for 350.org, an organization building a global climate movement, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In January, communities around the world saw victories in long, hard-fought struggles against fossil fuel companies. Here are five of them.
The community fought for years, and in January the California Resources Corp. decided to pull their proposed project of 200 oil wells. Here’s the story.
“We don’t have to worry about our water that we drink, we don’t have to worry about our air quality that we breathe.… We’re talking about a way of life for us.” –Dianne Thomas, Carson Coalition community group
Yup, you heard this right — Scotland announced an indefinite ban on fracking. Scots understand there is no such thing as safe fracking — for people, the planet or the climate.
However, the move is not comprehensive as it does not include stopping underground coal gasification – this is where coal is set alight underground and gas collected at the surface. But still, this is a big win!
“The Government’s decision today is testament to the perseverance of people and communities around the country who have tirelessly fought this industry in recent years.” —Friends of the Earth Scotland
The 750-megawatt coal-fired power plant was first proposed in 2007, and since then a diverse citizens’ movement, the Citizens Action for the Defense of the Maule Coast, has been fighting. They fought it long enough that the company, AES Gener, lost their permit and the project is dead.  Here’s the story.
“The community was organised, was active and was emphatic in defining their own development path.”–Rodrigo de la O, convener of the Maule Itata Coastkeeper and a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance
A judge granted an injunction suspending the gas exploration process in west São Paulo, as well as halting plans for fracking. Read the story in Portuguese.
On January 27,the Marrickville Council, a city in New South Wales, voted to offload its investments in fossil fuels. As a first step, the council will be ensuring over $15 million dollars are no longer invested in fossil fuels, with an aim to increase this amount. Here’s the story.
“Marrickville Council has a strong commitment to combating climate change, with programs aimed at cutting emissions. By adopting this motion we will prefer financial institutions that avoid funding fossil fuels, such as coal ports on the Great Barrier Reef, or coal seam gas projects in Camden,” says Councillor Max Phillips, who moved the fossil free motion.
The fight isn't over. On February 13 and 14, Global Divestment Day will be taking place with close to 500 events in 58 countries across six continents. People around the world will be standing up to the fossil fuel industry, sending a clear message that it's time to end the era of fossil fuels and transition to clean, renewable sources of energy to protect people and planet.


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A Tennis Star’s Twitter Conversation with an Argentinian President Parody Account · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Photo by Flickr, CC 2.0.
A famous tennis player thought she was talking to Argentina's president on Twitter last week, but she actually engaged a popular parody account. Martina Navratilova, a retired Czech and American tennis player and coach, got into it with someone pretending to be Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
What did @MiaFarrow and @Martina do during Argentine dictatorship? Act in silly movies, play tennis? My husband an I were guerrilla fighters
— CFK Gelatina (@CFKGelatina) febrero 5, 2015
Martina Navratilova. Image on Flickr by user Andrew Campbell, (CC 2.0.
Unaware of the parody Twitter handle, which uses in its name the word “Gelatina” (“jelly” in Spanish), Martina replied with two tweets:
@CFKGelatina @MiaFarrow well at least you didn't say I played silly tennis, so there is that:). Really? You are questioning me about what?
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) febrero 5, 2015
@CFKGelatina @MiaFarrow and what did you do about the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, eh? Come on…:):) did you tweet about that?!?:)
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) febrero 5, 2015
The Cristina Fernández parody account tweeted back:
Come on @Martina your tennis was lousy! The only man you defeated was Vitas Gerulaitis who played after partying three days in a row.
— CFK Gelatina (@CFKGelatina) febrero 5, 2015
President Cristina Fernadez's real Twitter handle, it so happens, is @CFKCristina. Some Twitter users rushed to draw Navratilova's attention to her mistake, hoping to spare her any more embarrassment:
no seas boluda @Martina, @CFKGelatina es un fake, sacate para protegerte
— Bruno Correa (@br1correa) febrero 5, 2015
Don't be silly, Martina, @CFKGelatina is fake. Get out for your protection.
@MiaFarrow @Martina Ms. Farrow , @CFKGelatina is fake. Please do not respond. Cristina Fernandez's official account is @CFKArgentina
— Victor Tutú (@victorfyt) febrero 5, 2015
The whole incident prompted mockery and reactions by other users:
La pobre @Martina cayó en la joda, pero quién puede culparla, si @CFKGelatina es indistinguible de la otra…
— Pablo Flores (@pablodf76) febrero 5, 2015
Poor thing! Martina believed this was serious, but who can blame her, if @CFKGelatina is indistinguishable from the other…
La cuenta @CFKGelatina es más seria que la original, imaginate.
— El Cayetano (@Silloness) febrero 5, 2015
The account @CFKGelatina is more serious that the original, go figure.
@CFKGelatina @SalvajeUnitario ya me parecía raro leer a la PLESINDENTA escribiendo english, si ella solo habla “chino” y muuy malamenteee!!
— Flaca® (@Flaca_70) febrero 5, 2015
I was considering it odd to read the PLESIDENT [sic] writing English, she only speaks “Chinese” and veeerry badly!!
This last tweet refers to the uproar caused by a recent tweet—considered by many to be racist—that Fernández published during a visit to China, where she seemed to mock of the way Chinese people mistake the letter “R” for “L.”

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Afghans Relishing Their First Cricket World Cup · Global Voices
Samea Shanori

Afghanistan's national cricket team is preparing for its first World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand from February 14 to March 29. The team, coached by Andy Moles and captained by Mohammad Nabi Esakhi has already touched down in Australia and will face Bangladesh on February 18.
Demotix image ID: 4058137. Afghan cricket fans wave flags during the match against Bangladesh in Asia Cup 2014 at Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah, Narayanganj. Image by md Manik.
Despite a stark lack of funds and facilities, cricket's popularity at home is peaking, providing a tool to unify the country.
The 2015 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup consists of 14 teams including Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, West Indies, and Zimbabwe.
Afghan national cricket team with President Ghani. Image taken from Afghanistan Cricket Board's Facebook page.
Thousands of Afghans took to the streets to celebrate their team's victory over Nepal in a qualifying round. The game is not new to the republic, which shares borders with cricket-mad Pakistan and India, but during decades of war, sports took a back seat.
This was especially the case under the Taliban, who famously banned football and used the national stadium for public executions. Cricket was one of the few non-violent physical activities the radical regime favoured, but little was done to develop the sport.
On Twitter, Bilal Sarwary shared an image of people in the country playing their favourite sport:
#AFG Impressive : Growing popularity of cricket in Afghanistan. Courtesy Mohmmad Nabi. pic.twitter.com/yFrS0gyJre
— Bilal Sarwary (@bsarwary) June 8, 2014
Shaista Sadat Lameh, an Afghan journalist, wished the team success:
خپل تیم ته د بریالیتوب په لوړو کې د آسمان هیله کوم! د افغانستان د کرکت ملي تیم نن آسترالیا ته سفر وکړ! #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/nZvwimEGD2
— Shaista Sadat Lameh (@ShaistaLameh) January 30, 2015
I wish success to my team! Today, Afghan national cricket team left for Australia
And a well-to-do businessman apparently announced a reward for the first Afghan batsman to make a century in their first game:
Abdul Yasini , an Afghan announced 15,000$ reward for any cricket player who make 100 runs against Bangladesh in… http://t.co/PSkNp0XD0L
— Wais Barakzai (@WaisBarakzai) February 2, 2015
مدثر اسلامی concluded that the days of proxy-supporting were over, now the country had a team it could be proud of:
Those days are gone when we used to cheer for #Pakistan against India in cricket. Today, we are excited for our #Afghan team. Good luck Afg!
— مدثر اسلامي (@mmodaser) February 10, 2015
Despite losing a warm-up match against India, the Afghans secured victories against both Ireland and Scotland as they prepared for the tournament. Those wins have led to a surge of optimism ahead of their first Cricket World Cup fixture against Bangladesh. But for many ordinary Afghans, after years of watching international sporting tournaments from a distance, it is being there that is most important of all.

author: Samea Shanori


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Goofy ‘Go Shopping Every Day’ Video Makes Serious Social Commentary About Hong Kong · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Ah Wah believes humor can help people understand society better. Photo from inmediahk.net. Use with Permission.
“Gau Wu Every Day” or “Go Shopping Every Day” is a song and music video styled after a pop song performed by Andy Lau in 1990s. The new lyrics were written by netizens from Hong Kong Golden Forum, a popular online forum, as a theme song for the “Shopping Revolution” that took place after the clearance of the Mong Kok pro-democracy sit-in protest site. The Occupy Central Movement, which took place between September and December 2014, demanded genuine democratic election of the city's top leader.
Production team Mocking Jer and netizen Ah Wah later turned the revamped song into a music video and uploaded it to YouTube. The video went viral overnight, with more than 670,000 views thus far. The original catchy chorus “Go cheating alone, I reject your [girlfriend's] monitoring” is rewritten as “Gau wu every day, I reject your [police] monitoring” in the new version, and has been popping up in all corners of major social media platforms.
Contributing reporter Yeung Zikang of citizen media platform inmediahk.net interviewed Mocking Jer and Ah Wah. The article was first published in Chinese on January 26 and translated into English by Cheung Choi Wan. The trimmed English version is published on Global Voices under a content-sharing agreement.
Ah Wah has skyrocketed to fame following his appearance in “Go Shopping Every Day”, in which he spoofs actor Andy Lau in his 1990s film role as heroic gangster Wah Dee.
There's a whole production team behind him on and off camera: Mocking Jer. In addition to Ah Wah, Mocking Jer is now composed of Ah Tin and Ah Sau, both graduates of the Hong Kong Academy of Performance Art (HKAPA) and founders of Mocking Jer.
“Go Shopping Every Day” is not the team's first production. Their first video, “Chan Ho Nam, the Teacher”, makes use of a popular movie to ridicule Hong Kong police for their abusive use of force.
Screen capture from YouTube video “Chan Hoi Nam, the Teacher”.
The idea for that short film came from a conversation during a shopping protest in Mong Kok, Ah Tin explained:
One day we went to Mong Kok together to go shopping. We chatted about a scene in the movie “Young and Dangerous'”, in which the main character Chan Ho Nam [who is a heroic gangster] acts as teacher in a school. It dawned on us that we could adapt the story and change gangster Cha Ho Nam into a police officer. So we recruited people and made our first film.
Netizens and HKAPA students took part in making the teacher film. Ah Sau introduced Ah Wah, who is an APA graduate, to the team, and Ah Wah became one of the actors. The three of them have been working together since then, and each has his own role. Ah Tin is responsible for behind the scenes planning. Ah Wah acts and Ah Sau covers everything else on and off camera.
“Go Shopping Every Day” captures the Hong Kong public's resentment towards police's excessive use of force, and it quickly became a big hit, with nearly 700,000 views to date. The music video is actually a by-product of the first video as netizens spotted Ah Wah singing the catchy line of the chorus of the Shopping Revolution theme song written by netizens from Hong Kong Golden Forum and urged him to perform the whole piece. They never expected the retro music video to become so popular. Ah Wah saw this as fate:
Since we are into it already, we hope we can continue to make films and to employ black humor to record what’s happening in our time.
Mocking Jer has started producing its third video, which will also challenge police brutality. Ah Wah believes a humorous approach can help people understand better what's happening in society.
Even though Mocking Jer's videos are amusing and funny, they clearly criticize the police authority and spread the idea of gau wu — a form of protest in which participants “go shopping”, which police view as “unlawful assembly”. Did Mocking Jer feel any political pressure? Ah Wah said they were anticipating political persecution, but would continue to press their luck and keep on with what they are doing. He admitted that he was a bit nervous when they performed on the streets of Mong Kok for the first time during the video shoot because there were many police and police cars around them. Ah Wah stressed:
We do not want to impose anything on the audience. We only want to show what’s happening in our society and to help Hong Kong people understand what’s happening. I remember reading a post which left me with a deep impression. It says: The most terrible people are those who live in a parallel universe [without sharing a common understanding of the reality of society].
All three of Mocking Jer's videos are about the Umbrella Movement. When asked if they only make films on politics, Ah Wah said that ideas about their films come from what is happening in Hong Kong society:
Since September 28 [when the police fired tear gas on peaceful protesters] the whole society of Hong Kong has changed. There are political messages everywhere. You see the yellow colour on every street. If you do not touch on the subject, it would look as though you are running away from it. If there would ever be genuine universal suffrage in Hong Kong, there would probably be no need to talk about it!
Most people find it hard to choose between ideals and reality. However, like it or not, a choice must be made. Mocking Jer have been funding its own films and have remained independent, both in terms of human power and other resources. Apart from making films, they have to make a living. Ah Wah shrugged and smiled:
We have to earn a living too. The audience wants us to produce short films that are marvelous, but that means production cost. We have been doing it out of our own pockets. If in the future we have the opportunity to produce films for advertisers, we would let the audience know. We also hope they would understand. No matter what, we would do our best in every production.


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Hungry for a Meme? Try Japan’s ‘English French Toast’ · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The original English Toast. Photo by Flickr user Hajime NAKANO. CC BY 2.0
A local Japanese delicacy is causing consternation on the Internet. “English French Toast,” a version the “English Toast” snack popular in Aomori, Honshu's northernmost prefecture, has left some people scratching their heads over the mash-up of nationalities.
Japanese prefectures typically produce their own local treats that are hard to get if you live anywhere else. In this case, the concept of English French Toast seems to be hard to understand for people living outside of Aomori.
青森には定番おやつとして「イギリストースト」という物があるのだが、近年ＴＶで取り上げられてからいい気になって期間限定のバリエーションを増やしている。それがとうとう「イギリスフレンチトースト」なるわけのわからない食べ物に進化した。 pic.twitter.com/XDZKzfgpW6
— 須藤ミツアキ＠五月雨改lv.145 (@tokiwayu1991) November 8, 2014
“English Toast,” a standard Aomori snack, has been popularized in recent years all over Japan as a must-have treat with a slight twist. The Aomori original has been transformed into something unrecognizable: “English French Toast.”
The original English Toast popular with Aomori residents consists of two slices of plain thickly sliced white bread covered in a thin layer of margarine. Sugar is sprinkled on the margarine and two slices are then folded together to make a sort of sandwich.
Aomori's English Toast serves as the basis for several different varieties of convenience store snack:
私が今まで見つけたイギリスフレンチトーストの数々。 pic.twitter.com/rH5wtYYf5O
— Rika Ebina (@ebi_twit) November 18, 2014
Here are all the different kinds of English Toast I have been able to find so far.
What makes English French Toast different is that it includes custard, but not granulated sugar. It doesn't always appear to be savoury.
イギリスフレンチトースト プリン風味 が発売されたので明日の朝ごはん用に買ってみた。 pic.twitter.com/U9L6o2pmpA
— 桜 (@cherry_aozora) November 5, 2014
They're selling pudding-flavored English French Toast. I'm having it for breakfast tomorrow!
Even in monolingual Japan, English French Toast doesn't seem to have translated well outside of Aomori:
若干ネットで話題になった、青森限定？のパン。 イギリストースト 色々種類がありますが、イギリスフレンチトーストとか思わずどっちだよとかツッコミたくなりますね(＾ω＾) pic.twitter.com/BKb2lpGgMN — てんじょー (@_tenjo) November 15, 2014
This Aomori-only (?) bread is becoming a bit of an Internet meme. There are a bunch of different legitimate varieties of Aomori's English Toast, but English French Toast just seems comical.(＾ω＾)
The somewhat contradictory nature of the treat's name seems to have become a minor Internet meme.
工藤パンの代表的製品イギリストーストを実は生まれて初めて食べる。私が青森県民だった頃はなかったよな。「イギリスフレンチトースト」というイギリスなのかフランスなのかの分からないネーミングのを選んでみたw。ちなみにトーストはされていない模様。
A photo posted by Tsutomu Notani (@smart_boy) on
This is the first time I have ever eaten Kudopan's English Toast. Even though I'm from Aomori I've never eaten it. With English French Toast,  it's like they decided to name it without being able to decide if it's from England or it's from France. BTW, it's not actually toast, either.

author: Nevin Thompson


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One Simple Infographic to Understand Political Repression in Thailand · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Infographic published by Prachatai, used with permission.
The infographic above, created by the independent news portal Prachatai, offers a snapshot of the current situation in Thailand, where the army has been in power for the last year, after staging a coup.
Thailand’s army, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, grabbed power in a coup last May, later imposing martial law nationwide. The army also suspended the constitution, detained political leaders, placed strict controls on the media, and banned public protests.
The army claimed the coup was necessary to restore stability and end the intense street clashes between various political forces. It vowed to restore civilian rule, but only after implementing certain political and electoral reforms.
An interim constitution was approved last August, followed by the appointment of military-backed civilian authorities led by General Prayut, who is now the country’s prime minister. A legislative body was also established, though all its members are all appointed by the military.
Since day one of the coup, Thai activists have resisted the military dictatorship. Ordinary citizens have since joined the country's devoted activists in demanding the restoration of elections and other democratic rights. The junta's response has been to detain protesters and subject supposed critics to “attitude-adjustment” treatment.
But Thais have resorted to creative means of expressing dissent. Because public gatherings of five or more people are banned, individual protesters have delivered their messages in subtle ways, such as reading George Orwell’s novel 1984 aboard trains, imitating the Hunger Games‘ three-fingered salute, and playing the French national anthem.
Prachatai‘s infographic lists some of the ordinary activities the authorities have suppressed over the past nine months. People who've “committed” these acts have been arrested for “undermining Thailand's national security.” The junta's paranoia runs deep.
According to Prachatai, the junta’s suppression of the right to free speech has further alienated the public from the regime:
Although these anti-junta actions have resulted in intimidation, arrest, detention, and lawsuits from the military, the junta’s draconian measures to suppress people who simply want to exercise their basic rights only drive more people against the regime.

author: Mong Palatino


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How the War in Ukraine Tears Apart Families and Friends Online · Global Voices
Natalia Antonova

Natalia Antonova's mother, Tatiana (right), and Tatiana's twin sister, Natalya, in Crimea in the 1970s. Photo by Yuri Nifatov. (Used with permission.)
“The final blow was them posting bloody pictures of the Donbass dead on my Facebook, with comments like ‘This one’s on your conscience. Sleep well at night?’ I could have responded with pictures and accusations of my own, but that’s what idiots do. So I started blocking my relatives.”
Nina is originally from St. Petersburg. She married a Kievan and settled down in Kiev years ago. Now she finds herself in conflict with a bunch of people she used to be close to back home, including her stepfather, over the crisis in Ukraine.
It was social media in particular, which provides ease of communication and immediacy, but doesn’t provide the opportunity to look the other person in the eye, that made such an enormous, lasting falling-out possible, according to Nina.
“My stepfather is still very pleasant on the phone,” Nina says. “He calls regularly, asks how the grandchildren are doing… We don’t talk about the fact that I blocked him on both Facebook and VKontakte [Russia’s most popular social media platform].”
Eleonora, a Muscovite and Facebook user in her 30s, recently posted online about wishing to donate to help civilians in separatist-held areas.
“I used to work in Kiev, and the post attracted the attention of some of my old colleagues,” Eleonora told me. “Apparently, they no longer perceive the difference between armed separatists and regular people trapped by the conflict, because they began accusing me of supporting terrorists in the Donbass.”
Like many people who get suddenly caught up in a bitter fight online, Eleonora saw a new side to the people she thought she knew.
“A girl I used to grab coffee with after work told me ‘I hope you die’ and blocked me,” she said. “I wanted to explain myself, but I never got the chance.”
Eleonora considers herself a Kremlin critic and believes that Russia has spearheaded the separatist movement in Ukraine’s east. “I’m not stupid, I know that none of this would be happening without Russian weapons and personnel,” she says.
But Eleonora’s criticism of the Kremlin over Ukraine is not enough to provide common ground with some of her old friends in Kiev. “I don’t mind disagreeing,” she says. “I do mind it when people lash out hysterically.”
The information war currently waged over Ukraine has included revelations that there are many Russian trolls-for-hire working to skew the discourse. Most of the time, they can be spotted easily, due to their sheer unoriginality and, frequently, poor grammar.
Dismissing the paid-troll phenomenon as merely ridiculous out of hand is, perhaps, dangerous. If you’re a writer who still reads the comments on your own articles (out of masochism, maybe), it can be very taxing to encounter reams of cruel insults and wild accusations.
Professional trolls also provide an illusion of a society wholly united behind a particular idea. If you encounter hundreds of Russian commenters saying things like “Russians couldn’t care less about sanctions!” (as I have), you might begin to suspect there is genuine consensus on this issue. Reputable polls, however, paint a very different picture—with a poll by the independent Levada Center saying that 47 percent of Russians are worried that sanctions and their effects could mar their future prospects.
Professional trolling, in that sense, is just another manipulation tool. It presents a conveniently skewed picture.
Natalia Antonova.
Still, having talked to a lot of Russian and Ukrainian social media users about the issue of the Ukraine crisis, it’s obvious that it is personal, as opposed to professional, trolling that takes the biggest toll.
“I was used to people being mean on the Internet a decade ago, you know?” Nina told me. “I don’t care if it’s some loser I don’t know. I do care when it’s my own stepdad.”
Denis is another Muscovite who has had the Ukraine crisis throw his family into turmoil. His parents split up long ago, and his father has since remarried to a woman from Ukraine.
“My dad would post some innocent picture of my stepmom on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki [another popular social media platform in Russia], and his brother would come along and call her, in all seriousness, a Banderite [a word derived from the name of Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera, accused of mass war crimes in WWII],” Denis says.
“The funny thing is, my stepmom is not just apolitical, I would say that she has a lot of mistrust for the government in Kiev,” Denis told me. “And I think if my uncle bothered to actually talk to her about her views, they might even get along. But it’s too easy for him to leave an insulting comment. So now my dad is not speaking to his own brother. Yay.”
Denis admits that arguments between his dad and his uncle began long before the current conflict, but says that the conflict “made all of the issues in this family sort of snowball.”
Russian psychologist Lyudmila Petranovskaya, who has been an outspoken critic of what she says is Russia’s reckless triumphalism on Ukraine, wrote last year about the growing level of aggression in society, including aggression online.
According to Petranovskaya, Russian television propaganda on Ukraine is bad enough to be labeled a kind of “mass emotional abuse,” and, as she points out, the sheer number of fake news stories on Ukraine serves as an assault on the nation’s critical thinking, inspiring many to lash out blindly.
In one of her follow-up articles, Petranovskaya talks about how the current chapter in Russian history is best described as a time of disillusionment—for everyone from pro-democracy protesters to conservative supporters of imperial conquest and glory. And the disillusionment, as Petranovskaya points out, is not limited to politics and politicians, it extends to loved ones, as well.
A similar disillusionment, I would argue, is also abloom in Ukraine, where after a violent revolution caused by desperation, and following months of deadly fighting, corruption still flourishes. And so thousands of Ukrainians are paying with their lives to allow a small group of bureaucrats to continue where ousted president Victor Yanukovych left off. It’s no wonder that the print version of this story on corruption by the news paper Novoye Vremya was heralded on their front page with a simple, succinct headline: “BASTARDS.”
Bitterness is in the air, and bitterness affects personal relationships, as well—so I wasn’t even surprised when Eleonora told me a story of how a formerly friendly Kiev colleague wished death upon her in a Facebook post.
What do you do in this situation? What do you do when it affects your bonds with the people who matter?
I suppose anyone who tells you they “hope” you just go ahead and “die” probably wasn’t a very good friend to begin with. And even some of our relatives don’t turn out to be very good or loyal friends, in the end.
But Petranovskaya, who argues that now is not the time to burn bridges but to start getting realistic about the current situation and what can be done about it, is right, of course. Eventually, people have to start being constructive. Assuming they don’t kill each other.
Perhaps the best advice on all of this comes courtesy of Denis, though.
“You have to have a sense of humor about it,” he says. “Even if my dad’s not talking to my uncle, I still talk to my uncle’s kids, my cousins. And they’re like, ‘Is your dad still a crazy Banderite?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, does yours still have a mancrush on Putin?’ And then we can move on topics that are actually worth discussing.”

author: Natalia Antonova


text:
In Putin’s Russia, a Retweet Can Lead to a Jail Term · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Russia's crackdown on free expression online has been especially severe over the last twelve months, with legislators passing laws that directly threaten Internet user rights and abilities of tech companies to maintain open, privacy-protective platforms in Russia. Regulations signed into law thus far include the infamous blogger law, requiring anyone with over 3,000 daily views on their website to join a state registry and the data retention law (slated to come into power on September 1, 2015) mandating that all online services operating in Russia store Russian users’ data on servers inside the country.
But beyond these new laws, there are even more insidious ways that the Kremlin is stifling civic organizing and political dissent both offline and online.
According to a recent report by the Association of Internet Users, a Russian digital rights organization, the number of cases where citizens’ Internet freedom was limited in the country increased 1,5-fold in 2014 (from 1832 instances in 2013 to 2951 in 2014.) The authors of the report note that while the number of criminal cases filed concerning Internet activity actually dropped, they observed more extralegal administrative pressure on users (e.g., unofficial threats to fire or expel) and more restrictions on access to certain content online.
The report also notes that punishment for extremism-related crimes has become more severe. Charges of “incitement to extremism,” coupled with increasingly restrictive public assembly and unsanctioned protest regulations are what tends to land RuNet users in hot water. Even a retweet of an image or a republished post can cost Russian citizens unfettered access to the Internet—and their freedom.
RuNet Echo has collected some of the more resonant cases of Russian Internet users detained, investigated, and prosecuted for republishing content online. The majority of these cases involve comments and conversation on VKontakte, a popular Russian social network similar to Facebook.
Dmitry Semenov, Cheboksary
Dmitry Semenov reposted an image on his VKontakte page featuring Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev in a traditional North Caucasian headpiece with an Arabic caption roughly translated as “Death to the Russian snake.” Earlier in 2013, he had also reposted photos from a football (soccer) match, which depicted fans waving a flag with a swastika. He says that after he was issued administrative charges and a fine for the images, criminal charges followed.
Смысл текста, сопровождающего картинку, был в том, что пока госпропаганда говорит о защите русских на Украине, почему-то все молчат о правах русских в Туркменистане, на Северном Кавказе, то есть все разглагольствования о «русском мире» – это не более чем пыль в глаза для прикрытия действия российской власти на Украине.
The point of the text under the image was that state propaganda talks about protecting Russians in Ukraine, but everyone keeps mum about the rights of Russians in Turkmenistan, in the North Caucasus, so all this talk of “the Russian world” is nothing but a distraction from what authorities are doing in Ukraine.
Dmitry Semenov. Photo from VKontakte.
Legal proceedings:
On January 29 Semenov was visited by FSB officers who showed him the court-issued search warrant and said he was under criminal investigation for “public calls to extremist activity” under Part 1 of Article 280 of the criminal code, based on the fact that the image he reposted online contained “extremist content.” Semenov himself believes the criminal proceedings are connected to his civic and political activity, which had largely moved online in recent years.
Sentence:
The maximum sentence under Article 280 is four years in prison. When Semenov was formally charged and questioned as a suspect on February 2, he refused to testify since his lawyer was not present at the time. He was then banned from traveling outside the city and is waiting for further court proceedings.
Oksana Borisova, Saint Petersburg
Om January 23, Oksana Borisova, a student from St. Petersburg, reposted another user's post about an unsanctioned people's rally planned for January 26 in the town of Mineralnye Vody, in memory of a spec ops fighter Dmitry Sidorenko, who had recently been killed in a bar fight. On January 24, both the VKontakte group for the rally and the posts about it on Borisova's wall were blocked on orders from Roscomnadzor, the Russian telecom watchdog. Borisova's LiveJournal blog was blocked as well.
Legal proceedings:
On January 29, Borisova was detained as she attended classes at her university and arrested on charges of organizing an unsanctioned protest rally. The next day a local court found her guilty of “violating the order of organizing or holding a rally, march, demonstration or picket” (Part 2 of Article 20 of Russia's administrative violations code.)
Borisova told Novaya Gazeta she did not expect such attention—or such a harsh sentence.
В университет пришли пятеро сотрудников полиции. Я объясняла им, что завтра у меня экзамен, не отпустили. Отвезли в 32-й отдел полиции, досмотрели, составили протокол по статье 20.2 КоАП – за скрины из соцсети! Я даже не знала – такое реально вообще?!
Five police officers came to the university. I tried to explain to them that I had an exam tomorrow, but they wouldn't let me go. Took me to the 32nd police precinct, searched me, wrote up a protocol for Part 2 of Article 20 of the admin code—for screencaps from a social network! I don't even know—how can this be real?!
Sentence:
Borisova was sentenced to 24 hours of administrative arrest. Since she had already spent most of that time in a police headquarters, she was released shortly thereafer. Her lawyer, Tatyana Myzgina, told Novaya Gazeta the case has no basis in reality, since there was no event, place, or action where the “unsanctioned organizing” could have taken place. However, the judge had decided that “agigation, even in the form of a repost, constitutes organization.” Myzgina says they plan to appeal Borisova's sentence.
Darya Polyudova, Krasnodar
On April 4, 2014 Polyudova went on a single-person picket with a banner that said “Not war with Ukraine, but revolution in Russia! Not war, but revolution!” and later posted a photo of herself with the banner on her VKontakte profile page. On July 16, Polyudova reposted a text on her VK page that contained the words “People, wake up!.. Why can't we remove Putin, and then create a socialist revolution?!!! Enough sleeping! Time to go out to the square and topple this regime!” Polyudova herself says she only reposted others’ words and provided no comments of her own. On August 5, 2014 she posted another text on VKontakte calling “to fight Putin with his own weapons” and mentioning the Russian Kuban region as a historically ethnic Ukrainian territory.
Darya Polyudova. Photo from VKontakte.
Charges issued:
At the end of January, the FSB brought formal charges against Polyudova. The investigators found Polyudova violated parts 1 and 2 of Article 280 of the criminal code respectively, by “calling the public to violently overthrow the constitutional order of the Russian Federation” (also known as calls to separatism) and “calling publicly for extremist activity using the Internet telecommunication network.” Polyudova's lawyer says the charges are essentially based on expert analysis of the woman's posts and reposts on her social network accounts.
Sentence:
Both parts of the articles are classified by the criminal code as “crimes of average severity” and could get Polyudova a prison term of up to five years. Since August 2014, Polyudova has been in pre-trial detention. During this time, the language expertise of her posts and the court hearings took place. During the most recent court hearing, her detention was prolonged until February 28, while the investigation continues.
Andrey Teslenko, Barnaul
Teslenko republished a text on his VKontakte page called “A Russophobia Post” and signed by “Anonymous.” The post claimed that “Russianites are shit-people, beast-people, a cancer” and further criticized Russians for their actions in Ukraine. A friend of Teslenko's on VK asked him to delete the post, explaining that it was offensive to him. When Teslenko refused, the friend in question complained to the Prosecutor's office.
Teslenko, a liberal activist and a one-time candidate for the Barnaul city council, had already been fined in the fall of 2013 for “mass dissemination of extremist materials” when he reposted a video by Alexey Navalny, titled “Remind the Crooks and Thieves About Their 2002 Platform!” on VKontakte.
Legal proceedings:
On April 17, 2014 Teslenko was detained by four masked men as he exited his house. The anti-extremism department of the local interior ministry searched his home and confiscated computers, a telephone, USB flash drives, and a copy of Rostislav Antonov’s 2011 book about the Primorsky Partisans (a guerrilla group responsible for a series of attacks on police officers in 2010.) Teslenko was taken in for questioning and told he was being formally charged and facing a criminal investigation based on Part 1 of Article 282 of the criminal code, “incitement to hatred or violence, as well as violation of human dignity.”
The SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, a Russian nonprofit organization, examined the content and the charges against Teslenko. SOVA experts say Teslenko’s “Russophobic” post does have a “clearly anti-Russian bent (in an ethnic sense),” but believe the charges brought against the activist are dubious, since the post was shared with a small audience, was only a re-publication, and since it's unclear if calls to discrimination should be prosecuted when they were made in Russia, but addressed to the authorities of a foreign country. SOVA also note that the post did not contain any calls to violence, negating the investigators’ claims.
What lies ahead:
According to the criminal code, Teslenko could face up to five years in jail for violating Article 282. The day after he was charged, he left the city of Barnaul, along with his wife and 18-month old daughter. He first went to Novosibirsk, where he shaved off his beard and cut his hair, and then, before he was announced missing and wanted, flew to Kyiv. Teslenko and his family remain in Ukraine and are living in Mezhyhirya, the residence of former President Yanukovych, now refashioned as refugee housing. Teslenko says they were unable find work in Kiev and have plans to move to the US, after winning a green-card lottery.
Konstantin Zharinov, Chelyabinsk
Zharinov, a member of the Democratic Choice opposition party and the author of two books on the history of terrorist and extremist organizations, shared a post with his VKontakte friends in March 2014. The post quoted an address by the Ukrainian right-wing organization “Right Sector,” branded extremist in Russia. The organization's text said that Russia's fate was being decided in Ukraine, and that Russians now were also able to fight “Putin's Chekist regime.” The post called for mass protest actions, creating partisan groups, and blocking roads.
The next day Zharinov went to a single-person picket with a piece of paper that said “No to War”. On March 4 he was taken to the prosecutor's office by anti-extremist law enforcement officers. The historian claims the case against him is the result of “an absurdly oversized police force struggling to justify its own existence.”
Legal proceedings:
At first Zharinov was given a warning and cautioned not to violate the law. A month later he was called to the FSB for questioning. Two months later, he was facing a criminal case based on part 1 of Article 280, charging him with “public calls to extremist activity.”
Zharinov himself says his interest in “Right Sector” was strictly academic, but in their formal charge document, the investigators concluded that he “intentionally and deliberately found materials of oppositional nature online” and posted them to his page. One of the experts also noted that “there can be no accidental repost, since in order to achieve it one must perform a series of sequential variable actions.” Zharinov subsequently learned that the security service had wiretapped his phone and was listening to his conversations.
Sentence:
If Zharinov is found guilty of “public calls to extremist activity,” he will face up to four years in prison.
Stanislav Kalinichenko, Kemerovo
Kalinichenko, an opposition blogger, retweeted a photo taken on May 6, 2013 at Patriarshie Prudy in Moscow, of a leaflet that said “Stop going to rallies and start acting!” and was signed with “First resistance brigade.”
Legal proceedings:
In July 2013 Kalinichenko's home was searched as part of a criminal investigation which accused him of extremism: his hard drives, voice recorder and phone were all taken. The blogger himself, who was previously designated a witness in the case, was asked to proceed to the local security service headquarters for questioning, which he refused to do. On November 6, 2013 three security service officers in civilian clothes detained Kalinichenko and delivered him to a pre-trial detention facility. He has been formally charged with “public incitement of extremist activity” in violation of Article 280 of the criminal code. The human rights organization “Memorial” has analyzed Kalinichenko's case and found it to be “politically motivated” persecution. “Memorial” also said Kalinichenko's charges were selective, since over a hundred other users who also retweeted the photo had not been charged.
Станислав не был ни автором листовки, ни автором ее фотографии, его обвиняют лишь в ретвите сообщения, содержащего фотографию. Он не призывал к какой бы то ни было деятельности, но лишь разово распространил информацию. Поскольку листовка официально не была признана экстремистским материалом, на наш взгляд, нет оснований даже для административного преследования
[…]
Политический аспект преследования выражается в самом посягательстве на свободу распространения информации, явно связанном с ее оппозиционным содержанием. Этот случай уголовного преследования вписывается как в общую тенденцию „закручивания гаек“ — ограничения свободы высказывания в интернете […]
Stanislav was not the author of the leaflet, not the author of the photo, he is accused only of retweeting the message that contained the photo. He did not call to any activity, he only disseminated the information. Since the leaflet has not been officially recognized as extremist material, we believe there is no ground even for administrative persecution.
[…]
The political aspect of the case is in the violation of the freedom to share information, obviously connected to its oppositional nature. This criminal persecution case is an illustration of a larger trend of “tightening the screws”—limiting freedom of expression online […]
Sentence:
Kalinichenko could face a prison sentence of up to four years. The blogger is currently under a travel ban and is trying to sue the officials who had detained him. His first court hearing took place in November 2014, and no final sentence has been delivered so far. Meanwhile, activists following Kalinichenko's case are blogging about it on LiveJournal.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
Tajik Official Calls His President ‘the Sun’ · Global Voices
Censored Voice

Rahmon has Tajikistan under his heel. Demotix ID: 968180. A photo from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon's speeches at a conference. Taken by Riccardo Valsecchi.
For his political dependents, Tajikistan's president is the great ball of burning gas around which lesser stars must gratefully rotate.
The head of the State Religion Committee of Tajikistan, Abdurahim Kholiqzoda, recently epitomised this consensus  by calling Tajik President Emomali Rahmon ‘the sun’ and ‘the star of happiness’ in his article in a government-owned newspaper. Praising Rahmon as ‘the glory of the nation,’ and ‘the founder of the modern Tajik state’, Kholiqzoda believes that appreciating Rahmon means appreciating Tajikistan.
Listing the president's achievements, Kholiqzoda mentioned that Rahmon had brought the Tajik nation back into world politics after more than a millennium of obscurity, rescued people from the turmoil of the post-independence civil war, amnestied criminals, brought back refugees and united the population as part of a prospering state. The author concluded that the decision of the Members of Parliament to choose Emomali Rahmon as the country's leader during those dark days had been vindicated.
Not satisfied with galactic comparisons, Kholiqzoda likened Rahmon's reform efforts to those of Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi.
Curiously, Kholiqzoda, who will most likely leave his post for a seat in the parliament in March, gave special attention to the importance of a law restricting excessive spending on weddings and other ceremonies signed by Rahmon in 2007. Those belt-tightening measures did not apply to Rahmon's son's wedding, which took place that very year and was rather lavish.
The article created much discussion in  the comments under RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, Ozodi. Generally commenters condemned Rahmon's growing personality cult in Tajikistan.
Mahmud wrote:
Таклидро мо точикон хеле ва хеле дуст медорем. Ин кадар бардор бардориро ба мисли рохбарони Кореяи шимоли нарасонед. Худо аз варианти Корея нигах дорад Точикистонро.
We, Tajiks, love to imitate. Do not make a personality cult like there is in North Korea. God forbid Tajikistan from becoming North Korea.
Mehrob, another commenter, echoed the narrative that dominates among the political elite in Tajikistan, whereby Rahmon is forgiven everything simply because Tajikistan is no longer at war with itself:
Бародари беном! солеки чанг буд оё нонро ба сери медидед? солеки ноором буд оё бе парво дар ними шаб ба кучахо баромада метавонистед? оё агар ин мамлакатеки бесарусомонихо буд дар як мухлати кутох аз соли саюз ободтару зеботар гардид ин бас нест? хай чи кунем боз бар зидди давлат чанг кунем? боз модаронро бе бача, фарзандонро бе падар ва занхоро беваю фохиша карда дар кучахо сар дихем????????????
Did you have enough bread when we experienced civil war? Could you go outside at night during that time? Is it not enough that our country that was destroyed has now become better than it was during Soviet times? Should we again fight against the government? Should we again leave our mothers without their children, making our children orphans and turn our wives into widows and prostitutes living on the streets?
Haydar, however, ridiculed the new levels of sycophancy Kholiqzoda had stooped to in his article, and linked it to a recent story on Tajik state television wherein a man that allegedly declared himself ‘the last prophet’ was detained on polygamy and land-grabbing charges:
э кандата зан раиси кумитаи дин. ва боз ба фикрам фаромуш кардаи илова куни ки чаноби оли хамон махдии охири замон ва пайгамбари бархак аст…….
худо хохад 2 даври дигар раиси кумитаи дин мешави
Good job, Mr head of religion committee. I think you forgot to add that His Highness (referring to President Rahmon) is the last and true prophet…You would then be head of the religion committee for another couple of rounds.

author: Censored Voice


text:
The Honest, Controversial Profile of a Cuban Nurse Who Died Abroad · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

Reinaldo Villafranca. Photo from OnCuba and republished with permission.
Cuban nurse Reynaldo Villafranca died in Sierra Leone at the age of 43 on January 18, 2015, a victim of cerebral malaria. Villafranca had worked at the Ebola treatment center in Kerry Townsince October 2014. The news was announced in a brief from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, and broadcast by the media.
A recent article by young journalist and blogger Carlos Manuel Alvarez in OnCuba magazine highlights the difficult circumstances of Villafranca’s life and sexuality, relying on interviews with family and friends. It offers an intimate, human glimpse of Cuban medical international cooperation beyond the official (and simpler) narrative of heroism.
But the piece's honesty didn't sit well with everyone. Among the more than 70 comments posted on the OnCuba site, some attacked the author of the piece: “scribbler, pseudo-journalist, sarcastic, unjust, evil, vulture, degenerate.” This has fueled a debate on the limitations and shortcomings of journalism in Cuba today.
On his blog, journalist Rafael González wrote:
Al parecer, estamos ante un típico caso de respuesta del lector cosechado. La vergüenza de tener una audiencia aberrantemente deformada, incapaz de leer la belleza del elogio de Carlos Manuel Álvarez en su texto sobre Villafranca no es más que el triste resultado de la no existencia de medios de comunicación en Cuba capaces de hacer periodismo.
Apparently, this is a typical case ofseasoned reader response. The shame of having an abhorrently deformed audience, unable to read the beauty of Carlos Manuel Alvarez’ praise for Villafranca in his text, is nothing more than the sad result of the absence of a Cuban media capable of doing journalism.
During his reporting, Alvarez paid a visit to Villafranca’s mother Justa Antigua, who “breaks down in tears without consolation, and requests to have her son returned to her,” and to her neighbor Alicia Cordero, where Villafranca used to go “to confess and to eat whatever Alicia has in her pots or in the refrigerator: a chicken, croquettes, a smoothie, a fruit juice.”
There, he discovered that Villafranca studied nursing in 1997 as part of some courses offered by the Cuban government and specialized in intensive care. He worked for a year in the local hospital's therapy room, and then was transferred to the San Diego polyclinic, about 20 kilometers from Los Palacios.
Casa de Villafranca. Photo from OnCuba and republished with permission.
Sigue pasando cursos de la salud y cursos de inglés [….] Atiende también a los vecinos de la cuadra (una práctica común entre los médicos y enfermeros cubanos, trabajar incluso fuera de horario). Siente predilección por los pacientes de la tercera edad. Colostomías, cánceres. Y siempre, según todos los que lo recuerdan, muy jaranero, muy divertido, repleto de facundia. No esconde su homosexualidad. Se mete con los vecinos y bromea. Es libre, quizás hasta demasiado libre para un pueblo tan pequeño.
He passes health and English courses [….] He also cares for the neighbors on the block (a common practice among Cuban doctors and nurses, even working after hours). He prefers to care for elderly patients. Colostomies, cancers. And always, according to all those who remember him, he was very boisterous, very fun, full of eloquence. He does not hide his homosexuality. He teases and jokes with the neighbors. He is free, maybe even too free for such a small town.
The last time Alicia Cordero managed to talk to Villafranca was on December 30. “Alicia says he was happy,” explains the journalist, “because they had saved three children”.
En la mañana del 17 de enero, presenta los primeros síntomas diarreicos, y en la tarde lo asalta una fiebre de 38ºC. Le hacen la prueba de Malaria. La prueba da positivo. Le inician tratamiento antipalúdico por vía oral. La fiebre sube. Pierde el sentido del tiempo y el espacio. Lo trasladan al hospital de la Armada Británica. Allí lo ingresan. La prueba de Malaria vuelve a dar positivo, y la prueba de Ébola, negativo. Le aplican la última generación del tratamiento antipalúdico por vía endovenosa.
Durante la noche y la madrugada, el cuadro clínico se agrava. Presenta dificultades respiratorias, toma neurológica. Lo acoplan a un equipo de ventilación pulmonar. Pero no responde al tratamiento, y horas después fallece.
On the morning of January 17, he presents the first diarrhea symptoms, and in the afternoon he has a fever of 100.4°F. He is tested for Malaria. The test is positive. They start oral antimalarial treatment. The fever rises. He loses his sense of time and space. They move him to the British Navy Hospital. He is admitted there. Once again the Malaria test is positive, and the Ebola test negative. They apply the latest generation of intravenous antimalarial treatment.
During the night and early morning, his condition worsens. He has breathing difficulties, neurological problems. He is put on pulmonary ventilation equipment. But he does not respond to treatment and dies hours later.
Casa de Villafranca. Photo from OnCuba and reproduced with permission.
According to journalist and blogger Disamis Arcia, one of the main achievements of Alvarez's article “is that, while I was reading this piece, I felt that I could touch Villafranca with my hands, and understand him, his motivations and frustrations, his dreams, and especially the quiet heroism of his tremendous love of neighbors.” For photojournalist Kaloian Santos, “until now, before reading this post, based on the impression that I had when I learned of his death in the news given sparingly by our media, the Cuban health collaborator was just a man who had the grim reaper knock on his door.”
Manuel David Orrio, a former agent for the Cuban State Security agency, was critical. He believed that the piece “contravenes all codes of journalistic ethics in force in many countries worldwide, and contains elements, judgments, assessments, which would not only be judged as ethical violations, but that would be of interest for the courts,” although he does not specify the alleged charges under which the journalist would be accused.
The journalist González concluded that:
El texto de Carlos, sin los afeites típicos de las loas con las cuales se suele abordar el tema del internacionalismo en Cuba, logró conectarnos a muchos con la tremendísima condición humana de ese enfermero, que pudiera ser cualquier otro brigadista, pero era este. Un maricón. El menor de un montón de hermanos delincuentes. Un tipo que a pesar de los tantísimos pesares quiso estudiar y ser enfermero para ponerse al servicio de otros. Porque los contextos importan. Los contextos, que, entre otras cosas, formaron a Villafranca y nos dicen a nosotros lectores -crónica de Carlos mediante- que estamos ante un ser de carne y hueso que lucha y sangra, y no ante otra postal de la Revolución.
Carlos’ text, without the compliments of the praises normally used to address the topic of internationalism in Cuba, managed to connect many people with the human condition of this nurse, who could be any other brigade member, but was this man. A “faggot”. The younger brother of many criminal siblings. A guy who despite so many sorrows wanted to study and be a nurse to be at the service to others. Because context matter. A context that, among other things, formed Villafranca and that tells us readers -through Carlos’ piece- that we are in the presence of a man that is made of flesh and blood, who fights and bleeds, and not just another postcard of the Revolution.
Villafranca is the second Cuban collaborator who dies in Sierra Leone.

author: Elaine Díaz


text:
Argentinian President Goes to China, Mocks Chinese Accents on Twitter  · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

Sorry. You know what? There is such an excess of ridiculousness and absurdity that can only be digested with humor. Otherwise, it's all very, very toxic. Image from Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's Twitter account.
In a now infamous tweet, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner mocked the accent of Chinese people speaking Spanish during an official visit to the People's Republic of China, upsetting media and social media users around the world.
The president, who was accompanied by Argentinian entrepreneurs, intended to forge a strategic economic agreement with China while there, according to an official press release:
“La alianza estratégica y el intercambio comercial con China tendrán una fuerte participación del empresariado argentino”, afirmó la presidenta Cristina Fernández, ante empresarios chinos y argentinos, al cerrar las deliberaciones del Foro Empresarial Argentino-Chino.
La presidenta realizó su discurso este mediodía (la madrugada argentina), ante más de 100 empresarios argentinos y 400 chinos, al cerrar las deliberaciones del Foro Empresarial Argentino-Chino en el hotel Shangri-La, en Beijing, China.
“The strategic alliance and the commercial exchange with China will have the strong participation of the business world,” President Cristina Fernández told Chinese and Argentinian entrepreneurs at the close of deliberations at the Corporate Argentinian-Chinese Forum.
The president delivered her speech this noon (Argentinian early morning hours) in the presence of more than 100 Argentinian and 400 Chinese entrepreneurs at the end of the Corporate Argentinian-Chinese Forum at Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, China.
The same day, the president published a tweet on her Twitter account making fun of the Chinese accent, in which she switched out the letter R in the words arroz (rice) and petróleo (petroleum) for an L:
Más de 1.000 asistentes al evento… ¿Serán todos de “La Cámpola” y vinieron sólo por el aloz y el petlóleo? …
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) febrero 4, 2015
Over 1,000 people attended the event… Are they all from “The Campola” and did they only come for the “lice” and the “petloleum”?…
Kirchner also stuck an L in “Campora“, a youth organization that supports Kirchner and supported the government of her husband, Néstor Kirchner, before her.
Only a minute later, she tweeted:
Sorry. ¿Sabes qué? Es que es tanto el exceso del ridículo y el absurdo, que sólo se digiere con humor. Sino son muy, pero muy tóxicos.
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) febrero 4, 2015
Sorry. You know what? There is such an excess of ridiculousness and absurdity that can only be digested with humor. Otherwise, it's all very, very toxic
In Argentina, where people are still reeling over the suspicious death of attorney Alberto Nisman, who was hours away from testifying against Kirchner's government, accusing her and others of corruption, the head of state's tweet generated a whirlwind of reactions.
Journalist Jorge Lanata gave his message to Kircher — “Crook. Robber. Good-for-nothing. Corrupt” — the same treatment:
Chola. Ladlona. Atolanta. Colupta. pic.twitter.com/k4XBdVn7Ku
— Jorge Lanata PPT (@Lanataenel13) febrero 4, 2015
Clook. Lobbel. Good-fol-nothing. Colupt.
Others tweeted:
@CFKArgentina ignorante, estúpida y racista, una joya vamos. Y esta es la representante de un país, pobrecitos argentinos
— Jose Fernandez (@fernanjos) febrero 4, 2015
Ignorant, stupid and racist, a jewel, come on. And she is the representative of a country, poor Argentinians.
@CFKArgentina En China el Twitter esta prohibido asi que me parece de mal gusto hablar mal de la gente que la fué a ver usando un medio que
— Natalia Colman E. (@nataliacolman) febrero 4, 2015
In China, Twitter is restricted, so I think it's in bad taste to speak badly of people who went to see her using a medium that.
Argentinian journalist Andrés Oppenheimer doubted that Chinese people would be pleased with the message.
But messages of support soon rolled in:
@CFKArgentina cuanta razon. A gente tan pesimista y despreciale hay q digerirla con mucha alegria. Admiro tu fuerza!!! Vamos presidenta!!
— Eri (@EriAndenmatten) febrero 4, 2015
So right! Pessimistic and despicable people have to be digested with much joy. I admire your strength!!! Go for it, president!!
@bblaiotta @CFKArgentina Vamos Cris ojala gobiernes varios años mas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— Sergio (@sernic192) febrero 4, 2015
You go, Cris, hopefully you'll be ruling us many more years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the post titled “Like this speak Chinese, Chinese speak like this,” the blog Relato del Presente (Accounts of the present) shared Kirchner's good mood following controversial tweet:
Del mismo modo que la rebeldía, el humor desde el Poder no es humor. Es gastada, tomada de pelo, bullying, falta de respeto; es cualquier cosa, menos humor. No causa gracia. Y esto es así porque el humor es rebelde. Podrá ser anárquico, negro, sucio, inocente, exagerado, simple o absurdo, pero es la forma de sobrellevar las desgracias entre las cuales se cuenta al Poder mismo.
As happens with rebellion, humor from the Power is not humor. It's worn out, it's pulling someone's leg, it's bullying, it's disrespect; it's anything at all but humor. It's not funny. And this is because humor is a rebel. It might be anarchic, black, dirty, innocent, overkill, simple or ridiculous, but it's the way to endure the pains among which there is the Power itself.
Microblogging service Weibo, popular in China where Twitter is blocked, was quick with reactions towards the president's tweet, as well:
阿根廷总统访华期间在推特上对我们老大开了一个极具冒犯性的玩笑。这女人活腻了吗？

author: Laura Schneider