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Transformation through eruption: Vincentian photographer Nadia Huggins captures La Soufrière · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Scorched summit of La Soufrière volcano in background with pyroclastic density current deposit in foreground, May 13, 2021. Photo by Nadia Huggins, used with permission
It is closing in on two months since St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ La Soufrière volcano had its first major eruption of the 21st century. In those long weeks since April 9, about 20,000 people have been evacuated from their homes; the ashfall has been so intense that it has posed a risk to both wildlife survival and human health, even in other islands and eruptive activity, the effects of which were worsened by heavy rainfall, has been consistent, causing the country's alert level to remain at red for most of that time.
Photographer Nadia Huggins has been there for all of it, from the initial eruption when she went out on a boat to get a (relatively) safe vantage point from which to document the volcano's massive ash column, to the subsequent, ongoing fallout.
Her Instagram page powerfully chronicles the island nation's journey in ways that words cannot, telling stories of uncertainty, courage, loss, grief, hope and resilience. In this two-part series, Huggins explains what it meant to her to bear witness, what everyday life has been like under the shadow of La Soufrière (even now, the country is on orange alert), and what she wants her photographs to contribute to the narrative. She spoke with me via a WhatsApp audio call on June 2.
Vincentian photographer Nadia Huggins documenting La Soufrière's second explosion on April 9, 2021. Photo by Nick Spencer courtesy Nadia Huggins, used with permission.
Janine Mendes-Franco (JMF): Your images are emotive and very powerful, yet they feel more intimate than voyeuristic.
Nadia Huggins (NH): I think it boils down to the way you approach the ethics of photography. Especially now, photographers have a responsibility to be considerate about what type of images they put out into the world. It's very easy to photograph a house buried under ash to try and get that gut reaction out of people, but for me, I try to go into the situation asking questions like, ‘If this were my house, how would I feel about somebody photographing and sharing it in this way?’ You really have to think of the intention behind the images. Of course you want people to know that there's all this horrible destruction that's happened, but what do you want [the message to be]? Do people need help? More relief? Long-term assistance? How is it socially impacting people? What is their mental health going to be like afterwards? I try to be very mindful with what I post.
JMF: Your photos often focus on details others might miss, like your shot of pumice floating on the water close to Chateaubelair island on the leeward coast. What elements, for you, constitute a good journalistic photo?
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NH: (Laughs) Sometimes I just wing it! I organically respond to what seems interesting. We all have a very particular range of perception of the world and as a photographer, your responsibility is to kind of zoom in or change your perspective ever so slightly when looking at things. Sometimes the most powerful thing that's going on is about eliminating a lot of the other elements around it—and that decision you make is really based on your own perception and what you might think is important, so it's a very personal approach to photography. I didn't even realise ash floated on the water like that, so if I didn't know that then how many other people out there don't know that?
JMF: Your photography locates itself at the intersection of photojournalism and art.
NH: My practice has always been moving between documentary and conceptual. I'm always trying to question how that fine arts side comes into play, and it's mostly through composition for me, and that's where the perception and perspective also comes into play—what I'm looking at and how I'm looking at it. You still want an element of truth in there; you don't want to completely manipulate what you see to the point where it's unbelievable. People also just want to be pulled in by something that looks different but still feels familiar, and that's always been the roots of my practice: trying to find that universal familiarity in scenes.
JMF: At the same time, many of your photos capture the drama of the eruption; your shot showing the contrast between the clouds and the ash plume comes to mind. What has the experience of documenting these eruptions been like for you?
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NH: I honestly have no idea what I was thinking, getting onto a boat going into the red zone! As soon as the first eruption went off, friends called me: ‘Are we gonna do this?’ We all just made a decision collectively, without even realising it, that we were going to document it and we just went for it and were lucky to know other people who were just as crazy as us: one person to drive the boat, one to be on the phone [with The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre] to make sure that we were in safe range—so it wasn't totally irresponsible.
When we got there, the whole place was just white with ash. You couldn't see anything, just bits of islands and then, as the cloud started to come up, everyone [thought] it was the old ash cloud [but] there was a new eruption happening and as it started to rise quicker, I just got terrified. We had no idea how [high] it was going to rise, if there'd be pyroclastic flow, so we needed to go. As the boat was driving off, it started to rise and I was just in awe. It didn't quite register that what goes up has to come down. Everybody on the island was just taking pictures, taking selfies, and by the evening, when the ash started to come down, falling like snow, you could hear stones. That's when the reality started to sink in and I instantly felt depressed.
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JMF: Some of your images have qualities of still life. Can beauty coexist with bearing witness?
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NH: There wasn't any wind that day, after [the eruption]. The place was entirely still; nothing was moving. You wouldn't even see ash blowing on that first day. The place was just dark; like a black and white photo. You step outside and everything was covered in that grey. When you walked, the ash would move away and the colour would come back into the ground. I was just looking for these iconic symbols of St. Vincent, you know? The breadfruit leaf has been a part of our old flag and we have so many trees here … part of our national dish and I think Captain Bligh brought the first breadfruit tree to the Western world through St. Vincent, so there was some kind of significance in it for me. This is in my mother's garden […] I was walking around and just observing, saw it, and something about it was really striking. It felt kind of poetic. I didn't place the leaves in the image in any particular way; they fell that way, so it's looking for those moments that seem compositionally interesting. With still life, you place things in a particular way, but this is nature just placing things in the way that it intended. I try not to interfere with things.
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JMF: A lot of your previous work, which has been exhibited internationally, has centred around the ocean both as a subject in itself and as a force that helps shape regional cultures and destinies. What do your La Soufrière seascapes communicate? One of my favourites was the documenting of the ball bait with the cruise ship in the distance.
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NH: That was a strange moment. As we were going into the red zone to document that explosion […] my friend Kai just wanted to face some of his fears. He'd never jumped into the ocean so far away from land. There were these massive bait balls around the orange zone because all the fish were now out of the red zone—nothing could survive in there—but the thing with bait balls is that there's something […] below trying to capture the fish. It could be sharks or whales—it's kind of terrifying to think about it—and Kai just jumped into the water with the GoPro trying to see if he could get anything. The cruise ship in the background was for the evacuees but [at the time] it didn't have anybody on it, so it was strange [seeing it] floating out on the horizon just waiting for something to happen. It really just felt like a powerful moment that I wanted to capture.
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NH: When I started taking the underwater images, I was trying to think about looking back at an island in a geological way. How does an island look below the sea? Geologically, what are those structures? Obviously my camera can't capture that scale, but I was interested in that aspect of it. We know that most of these islands are volcanic—that's how the Caribbean was formed—so at one point, we were all under water and over millions of years, these formations happened and now we're living on these islands. This gradual process of the landscape being transformed through these eruptions is interesting to me, so looking at it from the sea is me still trying to get a sense of that transformation.
A post shared by Nadia Huggins (@nadiahuggins)
In the second instalment of this post, Nadia discusses the concepts of change, resilience and hope, and what's at stake for the Caribbean.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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‘We have to find something in ourselves’: Vincentian photographer Nadia Huggins on the fallout of La Soufrière · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The heavy rains St. Vincent and the Grenadines experienced towards the end of April helped bring plants back to life. Photo of a torch lily in the orange zone (May 6, 2021) by Nadia Huggins, used with permission.
Ever since St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ La Soufrière reconfirmed its status as an active volcano on April 9, the country's alert level has been vacillating between red and orange as the effects of the eruptions, ranging from displacement to health risks caused by ashfall, take a heavy toll.
Photographer Nadia Huggins documenting St. Vincent Parrots after the eruption of La Soufrière. Photo by Anusha Jiandani courtesy Huggins, used with permission.
In this second instalment of my two-part interview with photographer Nadia Huggins (you can read the first part here), who has been documenting the event, as well as posting educational information about ash safety, mental health and links to relief organisations, on her Instagram page, we pay homage to photos taken after La Soufrière's 1979 explosion, discuss the areas in which people still need assistance, and explore what resilience means in a Caribbean context.
JMF: It was quite incredible to see the photos of the volcano's dome that you had taken back in 2019. Looking at them in the context of the 2021 eruptions, what do they say to you now?
NH: That we're not in control of anything. I haven't been up to the volcano as yet, but some people have photographed it and obviously it's just grey, gravel, steam…it just goes to show that everything changes at some point; nothing remains the same. It's like a lesson, ultimately, in our lives. We just have to go with the flow and embrace what happens. Natural disasters will happen in the Caribbean; we just have to find ways to adjust and adapt, unfortunately. Even in the midst of that, there's still a lot of opportunity to reimagine [things like] building homes, where we settle; I think we really need to get into problem-solving mode now. I see it as an opportunity for a lot of growth.
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JMF: Many of your images capture the everyday struggles people have been facing: a reliable water supply, being displaced from their homes—in a really personal way. What are some of the areas in which people need long-term assistance?
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NH: Construction, mental health and education to me seem paramount. We already had a mental health system that wasn't very reliable, so I think we need to start figuring out how we're going to put those systems in place. Maybe it's just a matter of setting up organisations that come here specifically to deal with the fallout of disasters and how it impacts people's lives, and help them face that trauma in some way.
You know Caribbean people: something traumatic happens and they just laugh it off and power through, but there are lasting effects and we don't realise that we're bringing our suffering and pain onto other people in the process. [In terms of rebuilding], immediately what needs to happen is major ash cleanup, bulldozers to clear the roads. The road to Sandy Bay [in the red zone, home to the island's indigenous Garifuna community] is crazy. I was so shocked! I mean, that road was horrible before and they get neglected [by government] so I don't know what's going to happen to them.
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JMF: Your images speak to resilience, though. The ash drawing of the Garifuna chief had a really profound effect on me, as did the dominoes photo and shots of new growth sprouting from ash-covered vegetation. Why is it important to you to photograph a narrative of hope?
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A post shared by Nadia Huggins (@nadiahuggins)
NH: We don't want to live in a state of panic and depression for the rest of our lives. We'll never get anything done in that state. I'm not saying it's not important to grieve, of course it is, but if [disaster porn] is the type of imagery I have to share to get people to be empathetic and help people, then I think we don't have our priorities straight. It's also important for future generations to see that this is how people in the Caribbean dealt with [hardships] and there is hope—a way for us to come together in communities, help each other and just keep on pushing forward. We cannot always depend on international aid and our government to do the work; we also have to find something in ourselves [..].
JMF: The infrared series was especially impactful. Tell us about the significance of the history of infrared photos in the wake of La Soufrière's 1979 eruption, and why you wanted to do this homage.
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A post shared by Nadia Huggins (@nadiahuggins)
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NH: Dr. Kirby was one of our main historians. I'd actually put together a photography exhibition of images from the 1902 and 1979 eruptions [and] he contributed a couple of infrared images, done in a similar way. It's a kind of scientific method to figure out where vegetation growth is. There was something striking about it to me because you wouldn't expect to see an image [like this]— landscapes are green, obviously—and I felt like he was an important figure […] he had done a lot of research with Garifuna people, trying to preserve our history and I think a lot of times we forget to honour people like that. I wanted to do images in a similar vein, but I was a little hesitant because it is a drastic departure from my usual colour palette. There are other photographers who use a similar technique and there's always the fear of somebody saying you're trying to copy, so I had to make it very clear where those images were inspired from.
JMF: What do you hope your photographs communicate about the need to think and act sustainably, and what's at stake for Small Island Developing States like the Caribbean?
NH: My main focus was really thinking about food security and architecture; to me, they're the most interesting aspects of this whole eruption. I don't know if the images communicate a need for that but I hope that people who have those sort of skills and who are thinking about these things, can use the images in some way to help fortify their own ideas and their projects in the long run.
How do we incorporate design into these landscapes? How are we maintaining what we have without wiping out acres and acres of forest just to build a town because we think it's going to attract the right kind of tourist? How are we working with these landscapes in a way that maintains our own needs?
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JMF: Are you considering doing a body of work based on the eruptions?
NH: It's definitely a part of it, but it's not the only focus. I have been documenting the volcano [and its environs] way before the eruption, so there's definitely an arc of something going on; I'm just not quite sure what it is yet.
As is usually the case with Huggins’ photography, the truth will reveal itself.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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CDM, NUG, EAO and other acronyms of Myanmar’s anti-coup resistance · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

An anti-coup protest in Myanmar. Photo shared by a citizen journalist, used with permission.
Myanmar’s defiant anti-coup protesters have been consistent in using creative tactics and symbols to sustain the resistance against the military regime. They are also aware that their protest actions are streamed or posted on social media and global news websites which explain why many of their information materials are written in the English language. For those who are monitoring the situation in Myanmar, it may be easy for them to understand the acronyms in the protest placards and banners, but maybe not for those who are unfamiliar with the country’s recent political landscape.
Below are the common acronyms used by protesters, their meaning, and significance to the coup and the democracy movement. We also included the coup-related acronyms that are often mentioned in news reports.
CDM – Civil Disobedience Movement. Doctors and health workers were the first to refuse to work as a sign of protest to the February 1 coup. They were followed by teachers and other public servants. It also refers to various acts of resistance by citizens who wanted to undermine the military regime like boycotting military-owned businesses.
CRPH – Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. A body created by ousted members of parliament and concerned citizens who do not recognize the legitimacy of the military government.
NUG – National Unity Government. CRPH has declared the NUG to be the legitimate government of Myanmar. It is mainly composed of ousted parliament members and leaders of various ethnic parties opposed to the junta. It is seeking global recognition as the government representing Myanmar citizens who wanted the restoration of civilian rule.
Myingyan residents back National Unity Government
Residents in #Myingyan of #Mandalay region showed their support for Myanmar’s newly formed National Unity Government (NUG) on Sunday.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/qIPptu8iff
— The Irrawaddy (Eng) (@IrrawaddyNews) April 18, 2021
NLD – National League for Democracy. It was the opposition party that won in the historic 2015 general election. Myanmar’s ruling party until the February coup. It dominated the 2020 election which reflected its continuing popularity, even if it faced accusations of failing to reverse the repressive laws of the junta era.
USDP – Union Solidarity and Development Party. Myanmar’s military-backed party which ruled the country from 2010 to 2015. It failed to defeat the NLD again in 2020.
GSCN – General Strike Committee of Nationalities. This was established in February to coordinate anti-coup protests representing opposition groups, ethnic forces, and other parties which are resisting the junta.
SAC – State Administration Council. The name of the government whose members were appointed by the military.
MEHL – Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited. A conglomerate owned and managed by Myanmar’s military.
MEC – Myanmar Economic Corporation. Another conglomerate owned and managed by the military. The CDM targets both MEHL and MEC-affiliated companies.
EAO – Ethnic Armed Organizations. Myanmar has more than 100 ethnic groups, some of which have been waging an armed struggle to assert their right to self-determination. During the crackdown launched by the junta, many activists sought refuge in territories controlled by EAOs. Some ethnic parties also vowed to protect anti-coup protesters and citizens opposed to the junta. The NUG included EAOs in order to build a stronger unity against the military government.
PDF – People’s Defense Force. Security force created by the NUG to protect civilians from the junta. It is seen as a precursor to the formation of a Federal Union Army as replacement to the junta’s Tatmadaw (military armed force).
UEC – Union Election Commission. It is the government body in charge of the November 2020 election. The junta accused it of failing to stop the massive cheating in the electoral list which led to the coup. UEC said the military allegations are baseless. International observers monitored some glitches but they concluded that the elections were generally fair and peaceful.
AAPP – Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. A human rights organization monitoring the situation of political prisoners in Myanmar. Since the coup, it has been releasing daily updates on the number of arrested and killed individuals during the conflict.
ASSK – Aung San Suu Kyi. Nobel Laureate, democracy icon who challenged the junta, and NLD leader. Myanmar’s de facto leader known as State Counsellor. She was arrested during the coup.
22222 – Five twos. It refers to the massive general strike held on February 22, 2022 across the country which showed the popular discontent against the junta.
8888 – Myanmar’s uprising on August 8, 1988 which was organized against the junta. It was the inspiration for the ‘22222’ strike.

author: Mong Palatino


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Global Voices’ top stories on biodiversity, as the planet observes World Environment Day · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

A leatherback hatchling heading to sea at Back Bay, Tobago, 2010. Photo by Ryan P. Mannette courtesy SpeSeas, used with permission.
June 5 marks World Environmental Day, the date chosen by the United Nations in 1972 to raise global awareness about the vital importance of the environment.
Global Voices has covered environmental issues extensively over the years, and one focus of our stories has been biodiversity, a key indicator of environmental integrity. The level of biodiversity in an ecosystem is a measure of its state of health, and a drop in biodiversity signals the need for societies to take action to curb overpopulation, overexploitation, and the many other factors driving climate change.
Many of Global Voices’ stories highlight the importance of biodiversity and the numerous achievements and challenges associated with these efforts around the world. Here are the ones that have most captured our attention so far this year:
Jamaica is home to 69 species of bees which are important sources of revenue to people on the island. Jamaican bee activists are also campaigning for more green spaces in the capital, Kingston, to help increase biodiversity in a country seriously affected by climate change.
Whether soft- or hard-shelled, Trinidad and Tobago’s turtles are a pillar of the nation's eco-tourism sector and contribute to biodiversity. But they are all endangered to some degree— harvested for their meat, eggs, and shells and highly vulnerable to plastic pollution and climate change.
May 20 is World Bee Day. Bees’ natural habitats are increasingly threatened by monoculture and pesticides, yet if they cannot play their role as pollinators, food security is at risk. The pandemic also poses challenges to bees’ survival, as beekeepers living under lockdown may have difficulty accessing curfew exemptions to engage in hive spraying, which often happens at night.
In Nepal, the presence of the felines known as fishing cats indicates that wetlands are effectively playing their role in maintaining the health of that ecosystem. But the whole chain of the ecosystem in Nepal's wetlands is now under threat from pollution, draining and overfishing, as well as the hunting of fishing cats.
Encouraging news from Nepal, where, thanks to anti-poaching initiatives and eco-tourism measures, the local population of rhinos has increased significantly.
Animal conservation can be boosted by harnessing technology: this is the idea behind the Motus project, which uses automated radio telemetry to follow the migration of birds, bats and insects.
In Cameroon, forests are not just areas of biodiversity—they are also sanctuaries for chimpanzees and serve as burial grounds for local communities. Logging projects, for this reason, have big repercussions for both the humans and the animals in these areas.

author: Filip Noubel


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How the lack of Brazilian correspondents in China affects perceptions of both countries · Global Voices
Giovana Fleck

Journalists warn for a “homogeniety” and “exoctic” set of narratives to report on China. | Image: Giovana Fleck/Global Voices
“You can't understand China without being in China”, says the journalist Marcelo Ninio. He is the only Brazilian correspondent accredited on Chinese soil. In fact, the only South American. “There is also a Cuban reporter. But only the two of us from Latin America”.
But why so few journalists? Considering that China is Brazil's largest trading partner and so vast and multiple, it is plausible that it is in the public interest to report more about the country to Brazilians. “Do you want the short or the long answer?”, says Ninio, in a call with Global Voices.
The short answer is what is expected: money. He emphasizes that the high cost of placing a reporter in another country coupled with the lack of resources in many newsrooms has meant that one of the first areas to suffer budget cuts was international journalism.
But there is more complexity to this problem. For Ninio, it includes cultural issues and the difficulty of being a journalist in China, a country full of restrictions. “We need more information and good analysis about China, otherwise, we will continue to see disinformation and sinophobia growing in Brazil”, he says. “This shrinks Brazilians possibilities of understanding the world”.
“The reference from Asia to the Brazilian is something very homogeneous. It is common to hear that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are all the same in Brazil”, says the journalist Talita Fernandes, in a call with Global Voices. After more than three years as a reporter for Folha de São Paulo newspaper, one of the main newspapers in Brazil, Fernandes decided to move to Beijing to dedicate herself to studying Chinese. “In the press, the image of China bears no fewer stereotypes; it is commonly quoted from the analogy of a ‘rabid dragon’, for example”, she says.
These clichés were also observed by Folha's columnist Tatiana Prazeres, who is a Senior Fellow at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Prazeres published a column in February 2021 saying that, in Brazil, “there are passionate opinions, categorical positions and definitive views on China,” and there is a lack of information and analysis.
After Prazeres's column, Talita Fernandes went on Twitter to publish her own perspective about the lack of coverage about China:
4) Daqui e agora vejo como somos ignorantes no Brasil sobre a diversidade que é a China: culturalmente, socialmente, economicamente. A gente vê a China como um bloco monolítico e não foi nada disso que eu vi aqui até agora.
— Talita Fernandes 冯清和 (@talitafernandes) February 19, 2021
From here and now I see how ignorant we are in Brazil about the diversity that is China: culturally, socially, economically. We see China as a monolithic block and that’s not what I’ve seen here so far.
- Talita Fernandes 冯清和 (@talitafernandes) February 19, 2021
In order not to be so distant from the journalistic practice, she decided to take on the editing of the Shūmiàn newsletter, a platform coordinated by volunteers that seek to establish bridges of understanding between China and Latin America. The fact that it is voluntary is also a protective measure. “If I were paid for it, I would be practicing an illegal activity since freelance journalism is something that doesn't exist in China “, says Fernandes.
In her work, Fernandes explains that she tries to escape the narratives that she frequently follows in the Brazilian press. “The news outlets are very dependent on wire agencies or global newsrooms, which means that the coverage loses nuances and sometimes ends up being shallow or lacking a connection with Brazilians. Or, when the reporter wants to go deeper, he always ends up presenting China to the reader, in a repetitive tone that sometimes is too critical or too naive.”
Marcelo Ninio says that the community of international reporters in China is united. “We all go through the same difficulties, we created a support network to help each other as we can”.
For him, the coverage of his colleagues represents much of what is common to Western democracies but does not carry ideas that are central to Brazilians. “My challenge here is to make a coverage that escapes the tension between the West and China. There are fights that are not part of the international strategy of Brazil-China and vice versa.”
Ninio also says that the main thing, for him, is to analyze the environment around him and to understand Chinese perspectives without paternalism.
How the Chinese look at human rights is an example. For Brazilians, the concept of human rights is usually associated with freedom of expression, whereas for the Chinese, the discourse is more often about development. “Both things are complementary, but I know that I need to explain that for a Brazilian audience.”
This is Ninio's second turn as a correspondent in China. The first was between 2013 and 2015, also writing for Folha de São Paulo newspaper. An international journalist with experience in the United States, Europe, and conflict coverage, Ninio decided to present the idea of a column from the Chinese point of view, with a Brazilian perspective, to the newspaper O Globo.
“I arrived in China in October of 2020. Besides the pandemic, what became clear to me was that the difficulty to access information was much greater”, says Ninio.
He attributes this to the growing clashes with the Trump administration last year. Ninio explains that accessing official sources from the government is almost impossible, but now citizens are also more reluctant to express an opinion. Besides that, language is a barrier and he has to count on translators to help during interviews. “But all these barriers force us to create mechanisms to handle the work”, he says.
Ninio uses a combination of research and field reporting to cover China, since access to sources and official data is so limited.  “To this day, I hear from Brazilians that China is to blame for the pandemic, that China wants to control the economy… Brazil needs reporters that will cover China addressing those gaps of information”.
The difficulties of covering China are not only shared among Brazilians. Talita Fernandes describes the Chinese citizens who work as assistants at international publications based in China as“invisible heroes”. They are the ones with local knowledge and sources but are hired without the “reporter” title and don't sign their own reporting. This happens because Chinese citizens cannot work as journalists in the country for foreign media outlets.
But this arrangement didn't stop Haze Fan, a news assistant for Bloomberg News, from being arrested in 2020. The accusations that led to her arrest were not made clear by the Beijing National Security Bureau. She remains in detention on suspicion of endangering national security.
In March of 2021, the BBC decided to transfer their Beijing correspondent to Taipei because of threats due to the coverage of the Uyghur people. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China claims that at least 20 reporters had to leave the country since 2020.
1/Statement on Journalist Departures:
The FCCC is concerned and saddened to learn that John Sudworth, the BBC’s award-winning China correspondent for the last nine years, left mainland China at short notice on March 23rd amid concerns for his safety and that of his family.
— Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (@fccchina) March 31, 2021
Such hostility is exactly what specialists advise as harmful to China’s image globally. Trying to address this gap, some independent journalistic initiatives like ChinaFile, Caixin Global, and Diálogo Chino (or its English version, China Dialogue) – in addition to the newsletter Shūmiàn itself – attempt at bridge China to the West. “We need diversity and competition to report on China to avoid false narratives like that of the ‘Chinese virus’ that became so popular in Brazil”, says Fernandes.
This story is part of a Civic Media Observatory investigation into competing narratives about China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and explores how societies and communities hold differing perceptions of potential benefits and harms of Chinese-led development. To learn more about this project and its methods, click here.

author: Giovana Fleck


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Myanmar navy deserters speak out against military regime · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

Two sailors from Ayeyarwady Naval Region Command. Photo from The Irrawaddy, used with permission.
This article was originally published on The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Two sailors from Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Naval Region Command recently contacted the People’s Defense Force (PDF) in Yangon’s Twante Township asking to join the civil disobedience movement (CDM) resisting the February 1 military coup. The township PDF members have taken the two men to a safe place.
The two sailors talked to The Irrawaddy about their motives for joining the CDM and their views on the current situation.
Why did you join the CDM?
We have seen the military bullying the people. For example, when something happens they arrest all the people nearby and then beat them if they can’t confirm who did it. We feel very sorry to see people beaten like that. We didn’t take part in torture. We didn’t beat people. But when we are in uniform, people look at us with disgust. We can no longer stand that. That’s why we have joined the CDM.
What are your views on the coup?
We were told about the takeover only after 8 a.m. on the morning of the coup. They told us the takeover was not a coup and we took that for granted. But we have witnessed how they beat and torture the people who express their opposition to the coup. We don’t think that is fair and it has pushed us to join the CDM.
What do you say about the revolution?
Citizens have human rights. They have the right to express their views. But the soldiers don’t exercise any restraint, they torture them. And they don’t just torture, they shoot the people dead. That is not just.
How is the situation in the military?
As far as I can see there are soldiers who oppose [the killings]. But they have their family members living inside the barracks. So there is no way out for them. They are trapped due to the risk of something bad happening to their families. They know [what the military is doing] is not fair. But they can’t walk away. They are unwilling, but they can’t refuse to obey orders. They have families and children. They are threatened by being told that their families and children will get into trouble if they do something.
So there are pressures and intimidation. Are there any incentives given to them?
No, there are no incentives. I don’t know if there are incentives for higher-ups, but for lower-level personnel, there are only orders. They know it is not fair. Officers are mostly educated. They know it is not fair. But they can’t relinquish their positions.
We heard that stricter rules have been imposed in the military. Is that true? If it is, what are they?
They still give us our salaries. Sentry duty has been increased from two to four hours. And military personnel are not allowed to leave the barracks without permission.
What do you say about the ongoing fighting?
In a revolution you can’t fight alone. In the case of Mindat, the people fought alone and the uprising was quashed. If a revolt is to be staged, it would be better if all people rise up together on an appointed date so that the military can’t use all of its force on a particular town. If one town alone is resisting stiffly, the military will just use a larger force to suppress it. Only when it can quash the town, will it be able to silence the rest of the country. It would be better if a date is chosen and the whole country rises up together on that date. If only a few places are resisting here and there, the military will crush them and people will suffer. It is not effective and only leads to people suffering.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the people fighting the military?
The military has weapons and they are trained soldiers. As for the people, the whole country, young and old, has the will. But they have never received any military training. So even if they have weapons and fight the military, they aren’t very effective.
What do you want to say to the military council?
What is happening is that the lower-level military personnel drink and use drugs. The higher-ups can’t handle those cases. If a civilian is arrested for drug abuse, he will be given long-term imprisonment. But in the military, soldiers are only locked up for two weeks for using drugs. The senior officers can’t even handle cases of drug abuse, so there is no way they can manage a country.
Why did you choose to be a soldier?
The soldiers we saw when we were young were loved by the people. But what they are doing now is just the opposite of what I believe and what I want to be. We can’t stand that. So we have decided to join the CDM and stand by the people.
What would you like to say to your colleagues who want to join the CDM, but can’t because of their families?
I’d like to ask them always to stand by the people without fear. If we remain under the regime’s thumb because of fear, nothing will change. The responsibility of the military is to defend the country. It can’t defend and rule the country at the same time.

author: The Irrawaddy


text:
Nigerian government suspends Twitter after controversy over president’s deleted tweet threatening violence · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

The Official Portrait of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari taken by Bayo Omoboriowo via Wikimedia Commons, 29 May 2015, (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The Nigerian government announced Friday it was suspending Twitter in the country, just days after Twitter deleted a harmful tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari that suggested the state would use violence against the Igbo ethnic group.
Despite removing the tweet, the message continues to circulate on social media, bringing up painful memories of a civil war that left more than one million dead. But the tweet also sparked a movement on social media in support of Nigerians from the Igbo ethnic group.
In a series of tweets posted on June 1, 2021, Buhari threatened to “treat” Nigerians from the eastern part of the country “in the language they understand,” in a reference to Nigeria’s 1967-1970 civil war against the secessionist Republic of Biafra, in southeastern Nigeria.
The tweets came after a series of attacks on government and security installations in the region, which have been blamed on an armed group linked to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a pro-Biafra secessionist movement. IPOB denied involvement in the attack, says the Voice of America.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” Buhari’s now-deleted tweet said:
Screenshot of the offensive tweet by Nigeria's President Buhari
The tweets reiterated comments made by a visibly irritated Buhari in the State House, Nigeria’s capital Abuja, about the wave of arson attacks on electoral officers. “I think we have given them enough latitude. They have made their case, they just wanted to destroy the country,” he said, appearing to reference secessionist agitators:
Buhari made the statement himself. pic.twitter.com/CCX4d78SLk
— Karo (@Karovoni) June 1, 2021
Buhari, a retired general, served in the army during Nigeria’s civil war.
The brutal civil war led to the death of “over one million ethnic Igbos and other Easterners,” according to Chima J. Korieh, a professor of African History at United State’s Marquette University. “For most Nigerians, the war over the breakaway state of Biafra is generally regarded as an unfortunate episode best forgotten, but for the Igbo people who fought for secession, it remains a life-defining event,” asserts Nigerian writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. (Disclosure: The author is from the Igbo ethnic group.)
Twitter policy on hateful conduct prohibits tweets that “promote violence or threaten” people based on “race, ethnicity, national origin.” Such tweets, like Buhari’s, are either deleted by the tech company or the user is compelled to “remove the violating content.”
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of information, described the removal of the president's tweet by the social media company as “very suspect”:
Twitter’s Mission In Nigeria Is Suspicious, Says Lai Mohammed pic.twitter.com/6hbAKsnjVM
— Channels Television (@channelstv) June 2, 2021
An investigation by the social media forensic expert Digital Africa Research Lab (DigiAfricaLab) reveals that Buhari’s abusive tweet is still visible “across numerous timelines” two days after it was deleted by Twitter, “due to Quote Tweets”:
Over 30 hours after Twitter deleted a Tweet by Nigerian president @MBuhari for violating its rules, the deleted Tweet REMAINS VISIBLE across numerous timelines due to Quote Tweets!
[DigiAfricaLab made this observation whilst signed in to different accounts on different devices] pic.twitter.com/KwUIVmzEoP
— Digital Africa Research Lab (@DigiAfricaLab) June 3, 2021
Signing onto “different accounts” through “different devices,” DigiAfricaLab was still able to view the more than 17,000 quoted tweets made by users before the social media company pulled down the offensive tweets from the “timelines of @MBuhari and @NGRPresident,” both verified Twitter handles of President Buhari. Furthermore, DigiAfricaLab was able to click and expand President Buhari’s deleted tweet.
Deleted tweets may still be visible to Twitter users because Twitter's software, also called, Application Programming Interface (API) relies on third-party applications that connect to “Twitter servers via a URL.”
Another reason, according to J. D. Biersdorfer of New York Times, was that deleted tweets “may still be cached away and therefore available to show up in search results — until the site goes indexing again and updates itself with a fresh copy of your Twitter profile and posts.”
President Buhari’s abusive tweet generated a backlash from Nigerian Twitter users who trended the #IAmIgboToo hashtag to express their displeasure. In addition, Nigerian Twitter users from different ethnic groups also adopted Igbo names to show their solidarity with the Igbo people.
An analysis conducted on June 4, 2021 by Global Voices on the Brand Mentions app revealed that in the past seven days, the #IAmIgboToo hashtag had 508 mentions, 319,200 interactions, 457,500 reach, and 313,100 shares on both Twitter and Instagram.
Screen shot of the context of mentions of the #IAmIgboToo hashtag
Human rights activist Aisha Yesufu — adopting the Igbo name “Somtochukwu,” meaning “join me in praising God” — while condemning “the 1967 [civil war] threats from President Buhari to the Igbo people” said that “an attack to Igbo people is an attack on me”:
My name is Aisha Somtochukwu Yesufu#IAmIgbo.
Any threat to Igbo people is a threat to me.
An attack to Igbo people is an attack on me.
I condemn the 1967 threats from President Buhari to the Igbo people
No Nigerian is more Nigerian than any Nigerian pic.twitter.com/VMHeYkWY2e
— Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) June 2, 2021
Nigerian hip-hop recording artist and record producer Jude Abaga (M.I Abaga) expressed his desire for the country to move beyond these hateful statements:
The narrative that “Nigeria hates Igbo people” is an outdated context that will leave with the old and bitter generation
Today let us stand with our Igbo family and say #IAmIgboToo #Ozoemena ♥?? pic.twitter.com/B0xGAjnfMG
— Yung denzL (@MI_Abaga) June 2, 2021
#EndSARS activist Rinuola [Rinu] Oduala, adopting the Igbo name “Ochiaga,” meaning “leader of the armed forces,” recalled with pride the important contributions of Igbo women in Nigerian history, referring to the November 1929 Aba Women Rebellion:
I remember the Aba Women Rebellion where at least 25,000 Igbo women protested against colonial oppression.
I come from the same land with those dynamic women, born of confidence & resilience to years of oppression & social injustice.
My name is Rinu Ochiagha Oduala.#IAmIgboToo
— Rinu #EndSARS?? (@SavvyRinu) June 2, 2021
Blossom Ozurumba, Global Voices Igbo language translator, noted that “violence always starts with dehumanization”:
“The use of dehumanization makes it easier to remove the moral concern associated with killing, discriminating, or torturing others based on their group identity. If they aren’t seen as human, it is easier to justify acts of violence against them.” https://t.co/nW2OPFBqbM
— Chief Ofu Ji (@blossomozurumba) June 1, 2021
Dehumanization, according to Ozurumba, “makes it easier to remove the moral concern associated with killing, discriminating, or torturing others based on their group identity.”

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Remembering Tiananmen in Hong Kong: An increasingly risky act of resistance · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A Hongkonger's t-shirt on June 4, 2021. The slogan reads: People won't forget. Image by Oiwan Lam
Hong Kong police on June 4 deployed 7,000 officers in Victoria Park and across the city to ensure that there was no organized commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre in public spaces.
#HongKongPolice will deploy 7,000 officers at Victoria Park and across the city on #June4th to stop HKers from commemorating the 1989 #TiananmenSquareMassacre. People wearing black, chanting slogans or holding candles may be arrested. https://t.co/KNHU1imGuf#AppleDailyENG pic.twitter.com/sTpjj5sCFD
— Apple Daily HK 蘋果日報 (@appledaily_hk) June 3, 2021
At 7:40 am, four police officers arrested democracy activist Chow Hang-tung outside her office building to prevent her from heading to Victoria Park. There have been no reports indicating that she has been released.
Hong Kong held candlelight vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre for three decades.
In 2020, Hong Kong police banned the event for the first time, citing anti-coronavirus measures. Victoria Park is the park where the vigils were held.
Her crime? Standing up for justice. https://t.co/IF8Z1BHvey
— Maya Wang 王松莲 (@wang_maya) June 4, 2021
Chow is the vice-president of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HK Alliance), the group that organized the annual vigil.
She told press that she would go to Victoria Park on her own and light a candle on June 4, despite the threat of jail time for “inciting illegal assembly”.
Lawyer and activist Chow Hang Tung is fighting to keep the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown alive in Hong Kong, despite facing possible imprisonment for publicly commemorating the event https://t.co/LhBGNiIBvV pic.twitter.com/ps447HiilX
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) June 2, 2021
At least 24 pro-democracy activists were charged with participating in last year’s unauthorized vigil, of whom four have been sentenced to jail terms up to 10 months.
The others are awaiting trials and sentencing.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee warned that under the Public Order Ordinance, offenders could face up to five years in prison for attending the vigil, or up to one year for promoting it.
After the vigil was banned, Beijing's political advisor on Hong Kong affairs Tian Feilong urged Hong Kong security services to investigate HK Alliance for breaching the infamous national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.
He argued that the organization's mission statement, which calls for the end of one-party dictatorship, is in violation of the law, since the Chinese Communist Party's dictatorship is written into the Chinese constitution.
On June 3, Executive Council member Ronny Tong warned that people wearing black clothing and chanting slogans such as “end one-party dictatorship” could be prosecuted for violating either that law or the law against unauthorized assembly.
It would not matter if protesters appeared in different parts of the city, as long as their actions could be viewed as coordinated, Tong said.
He did however state that individual commemorations of the anniversary were not forbidden.
As police mobilised across the city to prevent potential demonstrations, law enforcement units and pro-Beijing groups harassed the public in order to prevent them from attending other potential commemoration activities – even those being held in private venues.
Seven Catholic churches which planned to hold evening mass on June 4 became a focal point for attacks:
As churches offer a safe space for people to remember June 4th, banners are going up outside their premises: “Cult invasion of faith. Antichrist, fake messiahs. Chaos in the name of worship. Subversion of religion, blood on their hands. Churchgoers be aware of violating the NSL.” pic.twitter.com/3HAGOZkJoi
— K Tse (@ktse852) June 3, 2021
On June 2, HK Alliance announced that its June 4 Museum had been shut down after officials from the Food and Environmental Hygiene department accused it of operating as a place of public entertainment without required licences.
Hong Kong’s June 4 Museum has closed temporarily over questions about its license. The space opened a decade ago. It is dedicated to commemorating victims of China's 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. pic.twitter.com/LmeT2nI4tp
— Radio Free Asia (@RadioFreeAsia) June 2, 2021
In spite of all the legal threats, individuals are finding their own ways to commemorate the anniversary in public.
On June 3, a group of artists put on a public art performance at Causeway Bay:
#hk – a group of artists carried out acts in memory of #june4 at Causeway Bay, the night before the banned vigil pic.twitter.com/TuagG7t79t
— Lok. (@sumlokkei) June 3, 2021
A number of individuals went to Victoria Park to hold “one person vigils”:
#TiananmenSquareMassacre ：A few people gather at Victoria park to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre on the eve of June 4.
#June4 #HongKong pic.twitter.com/IuNBLGFeQ6
— Ryan Lai (@ryan_lai1214) June 3, 2021
A large number of June 4 posters were seen in different districts across the city today.
Many citizens wore clothes that conveyed political messages. They said on social media that they planned to light candles at 8 p.m, regardless of where they were in the city.
Image from the Stand News. Used with permission.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Accident on a chemical-laden ship triggers one of the biggest environmental disasters in Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

The pristine sandy beaches in Negombo, Sri Lanka are threatened by plastic and burnt debris from the sinking container ship X-Press Pearl off the coasts of Sri Lanka. Image from Flickr by Amila Tennakoon (2011). CC BY 2.0.
On May 20, 2021, a Singaporean container ship X-Press Pearl had caught fire on the Laccadive Sea, 18 kilometres off the west coast of Sri Lanka near the capital Colombo. After a week of firefighting efforts, the vessel was declared a total loss and had started to sink releasing burnt debris. The X-Press Pearl was carrying 1,486 containers of chemicals and cosmetics, including 28 containers of plastic pellets and 25 tonnes of extremely combustible nitric acid and sodium hydroxide, which were loaded from a port in Gujarat, India. Apart from the burnt debris, it also threatens an oil spill as the ship had more than 300 tonnes of fuel in its tanks.
Explosions were heard as the ship burnt in the fire for the past two weeks and the burnt debris and oil residues have already caused massive damage to the nearby Sri Lankan coastline. The magnitude of the damage makes it one of the worst environmental disasters of Sri Lanka.
Journalist Rangana Shamil Fernando shares footage of the sinking ship recorded by the Sri Lankan Navy:
Latest footage on sinking ship #MVXPressPearl.
Visuals Courtesy @srilanka_navy #lka #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/EiAj15AJ1Q
— Rangana Shamil Fernando (@ranganashamil) June 3, 2021
Reportedly, the ship had a nitric acid leak that had started on May 11 and the vessel arrived in Sri Lanka asking for help after other nearby ports refused to allow it in with its leak.
Journalist Azzam Ameen shares Sri Lankan Air Force footages:
The marine environment impact is severe : Sri Lanka Air Force footage of fire & coastal areas at 13.00 PM today #MVXPressPearl pic.twitter.com/ZEFKKXGl3L
— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) May 26, 2021
The Sri Lankan navy has rescued 25 crew members from the cargo ship after explosions ripped off sections. The Indian navy assisted in controlling the fire breakout.
#OperationSagarAaraksha2 Chemical laden container ship #MVXPressPearl sank and touched bottom. Part Superstructure & fwd portion visible. 3 #ICG Ships including PCV Samudra Prahari standby in PR configuration for response. Assessment by salvors in progress. pic.twitter.com/Ngi9xW7jYH
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) June 2, 2021
Waves of microplastics and charred debris from the burning vessel have already reached the nearby popular beaches of Negombo in the past two weeks.
Ocean Conservationist Maleesha Gunawardana tweeted:
Close to 3 billion plastic pellets may have been released into our waters. With a possible oil spill too as the vessel sinks, we are witnessing the worst marine pollution disaster in our lifetime in Sri Lanka. #MVXPressPearl #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/iTmqs3nDD2
— Maleesha Gunawardana (@Maleesha_G) June 2, 2021
The Sri Lankan authorities have banned fishing on an 80-kilometre stretch of coast which affected over 5000 fishing boats and the livelihoods of fishermen depended on them.
Sri Lankan environmental conservation organisation the Pearl Protectors tweeted regular updates about the disaster.
Sri Lanka's WP coastal belt is now covered in #PlasticPellets
This is an unprecedented marine environment disaster!
All fishing industry in western half of #SriLanka & South of #India will be severely affected for the foreseeable future
Ic: Colombo Gazette #mvxpresspearl pic.twitter.com/H8gswcVOiD
— The Pearl Protectors (@PearlProtectors) May 27, 2021
Stretching from Wattala to Negombo, the coast has become densely polluted. Debris like vessel wreckage, floating container parts, burnt cargo and chemicals along with oil and ash have covered the surrounding sea. The marine env impact is severe. #MVXPRESSPEARL #shipwreck #lka pic.twitter.com/DeZsjWFM8C
— The Pearl Protectors (@PearlProtectors) May 26, 2021
The organisation also highlighted the consequences in a statement on Facebook:
Large areas of the Western Province coast have been affected due to the recent MV X-Press Pearl ship accident. Due to the complexity of its cargo, several environmental challenges have arisen. These include high toxic levels both at sea and on the coast. A bunk oil spill, ashes and ship debris at sea and on the shorelines, high amounts of plastic pellets spilled onto the ocean now covering large swaths of coastline along the western side of Sri Lanka, toxic fumes mixed with monsoon rains resulting in toxic rain and poor air quality.
Hemantha Withanage, the Executive Director of Centre for Environmental Justice Sri Lanka wrote on Groundviews:
Although the impact on biodiversity is yet to be assessed, there are several reefs located in the area and the fauna and flora associated with the reefs will be seriously affected. Turtles, moray eel and stingray have washed up on beaches.
Hundreds of members of armed forces and other personnel are assisting the cleanup to remove debris in dozens of locations across the coast.
Journalist Roel Raymond Tweets:
Cleanup of debris from #MVXPressPearl continues
for the 6th day.
14 priority areas have been identified and MEPA says there is steady progress ?? #SriLanka #lka pic.twitter.com/oYvpoRxb7V
— Roel Raymond ? (@kataclysmichaos) June 1, 2021
The Sri Lankan authorities are devising strategies to mitigate the environmental damage and has started an investigation into the cause of the accident.
MEPA has prepared a strategic plan in case there is an oil spill from the ill-fated #MVXPressPearl vessel – @NewsCenterLkhttps://t.co/MtXdUxBuNE #LKA #SriLanka #XPressPearl
— Sri Lanka Tweet ?? (@SriLankaTweet) June 3, 2021
A video released by the Marine Environment Protection Authority of Sri Lanka on Facebook shows how the small plastic parts from the sinking MV X-Press Pearl ship are being painstakingly removed.
However, the fear is that the currents will take the debris to the West coast of Sri Lanka. Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of the University of Western Australia, shared a projection of the path of the plastic nurdles:
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan authorities decided to sue the owners of X-Press Pearl for marine pollution and launched an investigation.
IT professional Buvini Liyanagamage tweets:
#Breaking
The #MVxpressPearl Captain, Chief Engineer and Second Engineer were barred from leaving #SriLanka by an order of the #Colombo Additional Magistrate's Court.#lanka #colombo #covid19 #marine pic.twitter.com/cPJJWRpio2
— Buvini Liyanagamage (@BuviniL) June 1, 2021
This kicked off a debate on the country’s legal framework for such matters. Kamanthi Wickramasinghe argued in an Oped on the Daily Mirror Online that Sri Lanka lacks a proper legal framework and preventive strategies to tackle a big maritime disaster such as this.

author: Rezwan


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Diversity is key: Speaking with Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, winner of the 2021 World Food Prize · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at World Fish and winner of the 2021 World Food Prize. Photo courtesy Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted, used with permission.
With the climate crisis threatening the world's food systems, now compounded by the economic chasm brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, hunger mitigation and food security are front-burner issues. How do we implement eco-friendly agricultural methods, especially when farmers—many of them women—do not have a seat at the table? In Global South countries, many farmers are also unable to tap into financial support or secure land ownership.
Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted's work in this regard is pioneering, yet her solution is so simple: focus on culturally appropriate fish-based foods to improve nutrition in vulnerable communities and scale it up with support offered through government policies and development funding. Her approach was so successful that it won her the 2021 World Food Prize.
In this second instalment of my email interview with Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted (you can read the first part here), she discusses how her work as Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at World Fish, a CGIAR research centre in Malaysia, has helped to restructure and scale up community agriculture into low emission, high nutrition food systems in keeping with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Janine Mendes-Franco (JMF): How important is it that initiatives like yours get support from governments, funding agencies and both private and public-sector organisations?
SHT: Policies, investments and programmes from governments are key. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, policy makers and government officials need to have knowledge of the multiple benefits of aquatic foods—for people, planet and national development. Global funding agencies can play a role in influencing governments and assisting with aid.
JMF: What types of policies and mindsets are critical to the success of a food programme like this?
SHT: Value the multiple benefits of diverse foods from oceans and inland waters—so, policies that protect and manage water systems and the diverse species of aquatic foods found in different waters. Water systems and aquatic foods must be included in policies from different sectors: education, nutrition and health, mother and child care programmes, school-feeding programmes, safety net programmes for the poor and vulnerable, not just to feed [but] also to nourish the poor and vulnerable, and leave no one behind. Immediate actions are needed as the numbers of those who are becoming malnourished and do not have access to nourishing foods are growing rapidly.
Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted making the keynote presentation at Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition – A Global Event, on November 29, 2018, in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Amanda Mustard for FAO/IFPRI on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
JMF: Most of your work has been done in Asia and Africa. How could your aquaculture initiative potentially be replicated in the Caribbean?
SHT: Aquaculture, nutrition-sensitive pond polyculture approaches, as I have promoted with diverse species of small and large fish, may be suitable for some of the larger islands. Production of some marine species, for example, seaweed [and] mussels may also be appropriate for some islands.
JMF: How did the government of Bangladesh help you scale the rollout from community level to national level? From there, how did the programme spread across Asia and Africa?
SHT: There are around four million homestead ponds in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh banned the poisoning of ponds, [there was a common practice of killing off native fish before stocking ponds with large fish species], promoted the maintenance of native fish in the ponds and stocked micronutrient-rich fish species, using an assessment by BRAC [a Bangladesh-based development organisation] and Copenhagen Consensus that nutrition-sensitive pond polyculture is a cost-effective approach to combat malnutrition.
JMF: Explain how pond polyculture works in providing food and increasing biodiversity, to the extent where you also began to make spinoff foods from dried fish.
SHT: Benefits [include] increased production and productivity (no competition between species); diverse fish species, the small species being micronutrient-rich; increased nutritional content of the total production; increased consumption; increased income from sale; better environment [and] no poison used to clean the pond. [As far as the] dried fish from capture fisheries [goes]—both inland and coastal—sun-drying is a common practice. Dried small fish are very nutrient-dense, as the moisture content is removed and the nutrients are therefore concentrated, [making it] super food for young children: multiple nutrients with no bulk. Children have small gastro-intestinal tracts, and can only eat small amounts.
Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted's pond polyculture system is both an affordable and environmentally sustainable approach to aquaculture, as small and large species coexist in homestead ponds, rice fields and other bodies of water. Photo courtesy Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted, used with permission.
JMF: With pollution levels as they are across the world, there may be some reluctance to prioritise fish in people’s diets, given the high mercury levels in some bigger fish. In the Caribbean and Latin America, much of which has high and unregulated pesticide use, there are also concerns about effluents corrupting waterways and fish life.
SHT: Better management, better regulation, better education of the issues. Limit the intake of large carnivorous species, eat diverse species, eat smaller, faster-growing fish that do not accumulate much, eat seaweed.
JMF: Did your programme have an educational element to it? How were people encouraged to try a predominantly fish-based diet?
SHT: [The programme] included nutrition and health messaging and demonstrations to women, men and youth [as well as] engagement and training of women in the entire approach, [including] production systems.
JMF: Explain how diversity directly impacts equity. Must we shift our value system from one focused on profit to one focused on justice?
SHT: Equity and justice are paramount values that must be included along with monetary values. In food systems [like] pond polyculture, diversity can lead to a combination of multiple values. However, production is only one part of the system. The entire food system's framework must be considered. Trade-offs must be handled carefully, using solutions identified with communities’ [input].
JMF: How does this fit into proper stewardship of our oceans in the context of issues like overfishing, pollution and coral reef degradation?
SHT: Aquatic foods are from oceans and inland waters. Communities which live close to water bodies and depend on them for food, income, livelihoods, culture and identity must be considered and brought into the debate.
JMF: The COVID-19 pandemic has, in many ways, made food insecurity worse, but does it also offer developing nations especially an opportunity to rethink food systems? What can the average person do to bridge that gap?
SHT: There is a lot the average person can do: eat local, traditional, seasonal foods, learn to cook, eat meals with family and friends, reduce waste and loss, buy fresh foods, not foods wrapped in plastic [or] in tins, have a kitchen garden [or] plants in pots. Governments must make sure that the right to food is upheld and no one is left behind. School feeding, mother-and-child and safety net programmes are necessary for the poor and vulnerable—growing in numbers due to COVID-19.
JMF: What’s your ultimate aim?
SHT: Move from feeding to nourishing people, nations and planet. Making space for aquatic foods on the plate of diverse, nutritious, safe and affordable foods. Inspire young women from low- and middle-income countries to study science and take up a career in food and nutrition.


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Global Voices’ top stories on the climate crisis, as the planet observes World Environment Day · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

School climate rally Brisbane March 2019 – Photo courtesy Flickr user School Strike 4 Climate Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
June 5 marks World Environmental Day, the date chosen by the United Nations in 1972 to raise global awareness about the vital importance of the environment.
Global Voices has covered environmental issues extensively over the years, and one focus of our stories has been the climate crisis — and the activists who champion this cause. Here are a few that have most captured our attention so far this year:
Despite the urgency around climate change, the current Australian government refuses to commit to further efforts to meet a zero emission target in the foreseeable future. Yet, the country is regularly affected by devastating fires and droughts, which affect the lives of animals and humans alike.
A group of peaceful activists who had succeeded in preventing the construction of a dam in Cambodia, have been arrested and sentenced for up to 20 months in prison simply for planning a ‘one-woman walk’ to continue to raise awareness about environmental protection in their country.
Is the Jamaican government as committed to fighting climate change as it declares in international fora when, at the same time, it allows for mangrove destruction to accommodate tourism development? All this is taking place when, due to the global pandemic, international travel to the island has been cut by almost 70 percent.
In the Netherlands, climate change activists are demanding that their government stop sponsoring the fossil fuel industry — one of the main sources of carbon emissions — through tax breaks. They are also advocating for greater transparency in deals that have already been made with extraction companies such as Shell.


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How long can Australia protect its diverse rainforests and unique wildlife? · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Forest distribution in Australia, 2018 – Image courtesy Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Agriculture), (CC BY 4.0)
Despite numerous public campaigns and government programs, native forests in Australia, from the hot far north tropics to the cooler temperate south, face a variety of threats. Australians are responding through online petitions, donations to buy back land and direct action.
In Tasmania, protests are planned for World Environment Day on 5 June 2021 as part of an ongoing campaign to protect the world renowned takayna/Tarkine rainforest. There are calls for it to become a World Heritage Area (WHA), similar to the Tasmanian Wilderness WHAs.
In fact, some activists have risked arrest by chaining themselves to mining equipment and other tactics to disrupt operations and highlight the issue:
We will not back down from the defence of these rainforests. We will not succumb to police intimidation tactics, and this action today is one stand of many to come until the bulldozers are out of takayna / Tarkine. #politas #takayna #Tarkine pic.twitter.com/Nc6jGmUit6
— Bob Brown Foundation (@BobBrownFndn) May 31, 2021
This is Susie & Gordon, two successful tourism operators who blocked the bulldozers of #Chinese State Owned #mining company MMG from pushing into rainforest & protected species habitat ?
They were #arrested in the #tarkine #takayna this week ?
Govt must declare Tarkine a WHA! pic.twitter.com/OIsfYUiiXo
— Dr Lilliana Corredor (@Dr_LCorredor) May 31, 2021
Bob Brown is an iconic figure in the Australian environmental movement. Brown was a leader of the Tasmanian Wilderness Society before becoming a State parliamentarian in 1983. Later, he served as a Greens Senator for Tasmania in the Federal parliament for sixteen years until 2012 and their leader for nearly seven years.
The Wilderness Society has its origins in defending Tasmania’s forests, beginning with the successful campaign against the Franklin Dam forty years ago. It is now a national organisation, working on a range of environmental issues. Forests remain a key focus.
Logging is an ongoing issue as highlighted in the Bob Brown Foundation promotional video for its Australian Native Forest Declaration:
Two recent court judgments, which set back conservation efforts, underline the importance of the continuing struggle.
In Victoria, Friends of the Leadbeater’s Possum failed at the Federal Court of Australia in its attempt to stop logging in State forests to protect the endangered possum and the greater glider.
However, as Toshi shows with this tweet, the campaign is not over:
The leadbeater possum is danger because they're logging one of the few old growth forests left in Victoria. Toolangi forest. They were near extinction, started to make a comeback & now under threat once again.
Visit Toolangi forests, tallest flowering trees in the world! pic.twitter.com/k4EUbt5tOT
— ?Toshi (@Tashiwityar) June 1, 2021
In the other court case, the Bob Brown Foundation was unsuccessful in defending the forest habitat of the Swift Parrot, another native species that faces extinction.
The plight of the swift parrot is being taken up on the mainland:
Conservationists call for new logging policies, fearing for critically endangered swift parrot – ABC News #nswpol https://t.co/uLrohH47no
— Nature Conservation Council of NSW (@naturensw) June 1, 2021
It would appear that these judgments and current legislation are at odds with public opinion as three academics pointed out after the decision:
Even before the mega-fires of 2019-20, opinions polls showed that most Australians didn't support native forest logging. After the fires, their worries increased, with a majority expressing concerns that Australia’s unique environment might never be the same.
Mining and logging are not the only controversial issues facing Tasmania’s forests. There is also concern over the privatisation of national parks in that State, intended to promote tourism. Local Cathy Thomson tweeted:
Pave paradise and put up a parking lot – Privatising the wilderness: the Tasmanian project that could become a national park test case https://t.co/UoMxcJFeOx
— ??Cathy Thomson (@tassiedevil) April 11, 2021
Nevertheless, there is some good news on the forests front. In Far North Queensland, fund-raising efforts are helping to preserve the Daintree National Park by buying private land that separates its two sections. Australian not-for-profit Rainforest Rescue, which is part of this effort, explains the need:
With the road to Cape Tribulation now bituminised, settlement of privately owned allotments within the Daintree is escalating, resulting in the on-going loss of habitat and forest connectivity. Between five to ten allotments are developed for rural residential housing every year.
This promotional video highlights their restoration work:
Cape Tribulation is not just a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef but also is a stunning coastal area where the rainforest meets the sea, as shown in this image:
Cape Tribulation Beach, Daintree National Park, Australia, 2019 – Courtesy Flickr user Terry Feuerborn (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Rainforest 4 Foundation is also seeking public donations to purchase two properties in the area.
The Daintree is also the home of the southern cassowary, a difficult-to-spot and endangered bird:
#Cassowary #conservation groups Queensland Trust for Nature and C4 this week bought 17hA of land near Tully to re-vegetate and act as a wildlife corridor for the endangered Southern Cassowary. It will help them move without being hit by cars. Story via @Phil_Staley Pic: Supplied pic.twitter.com/XjthrtrhU6
— Anna Hartley (@Anna_Hartley1) February 21, 2019
Another forests flash point results from the recent bushfires in Australia. WWF-Australia (World Wildlife Fund) and the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) are calling for legal protection of six priority areas of unburnt forests:
WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP.
?Right now, pockets of remaining unburnt forest habitats are AT RISK of being bulldozed.
?Become a defender of the unburnt six NOW : https://t.co/10fb7ZAbCZ pic.twitter.com/Ze0LEtocDq
— WWF_Australia (@WWF_Australia) April 21, 2021
Their online petition explains:
These areas are life rafts for many threatened Australian wildlife species, yet are vulnerable to deforestation and native forest logging.
We’ve already lost so much during the catastrophic bushfires of 2019-20. Defending the remaining pockets of unburnt forest has never been more important. Without your help, we risk losing our remaining forests and most vulnerable wildlife.
On the national stage, the non-government organisation, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), campaigns on a broad range of issues. It was founded 55 years ago and represents 700,000 people. You can meet some of them in this video:

author: Kevin Rennie


text:
Sustainable nutrition: Speaking with Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, winner of the 2021 World Food Prize · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted making the keynote presentation at Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition – A Global Event, on November 29, 2018, in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Amanda Mustard for FAO/IFPRI on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
On May 11, Trinidad and Tobago-born Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, a nutritional scientist who is also a Danish citizen, was announced as the winner of the 2021 World Food Prize, in recognition of her 40 years of ground-breaking work improving the health of millions of people in the Global South.
The foundation that bestows the prestigious honour each year was founded in 1986 by 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and “Father of the Green Revolution” Dr. Norman Borlaug. The prize, worth 250,000 United States dollars, recognises individuals who find ways of improving people's quality of life by sustainably enhancing the global food supply.
Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted was chosen for her “groundbreaking research, her critical insights and landmark innovations” in understanding and promoting the importance of aquatic food. By devising “holistic, nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquaculture” with her network of international collaborators, Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted succeeded in boosting the nutrition of millions of vulnerable people around the world while securing their livelihoods by building more resilient ecosystems into the bargain.
In the 1980s—the same decade that the World Food Prize Foundation was formed—while working at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted was deeply affected by the large number of children suffering from malnutrition; she decided to try improving the nutritional value of their diets by creating a food system using small, native fish as a staple. Her idea soon became a movement: people began raising fish locally and inexpensively, transforming the diets and livelihoods of impoverished communities in Asia and Africa, where food insecurity was a concern.
In this two-part interview post (you can read the second instalment here), Dr. Haraksingh-Thilsted spoke to me via email about her passion for nutrition and the many people she's been able to help.
Janine Mendes-Franco (JMF): What has been the most satisfying part of your journey and what impact will the prize have on your work?
Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted (SHT): Being able to work with communities, mothers and children and knowing that my work can have a positive impact on their lives. Working with younger researchers and students and being able to [impart] knowledge to them, which they can carry further in their work and benefit communities. I hope that getting this award will give me a platform to change the way we look at [and] work with food systems—moving the narrative from ‘just feeding’ to ‘nourishing.’ Also, getting this award I hope will inspire young people, [especially] young women, to study science and take up a career in food and nutrition.
JMF: What drove you to rethink how people could be fed nutritiously en masse?
SHT: Working with severely malnourished children and their mothers [in Bangladesh], I witnessed first-hand the power of diverse, nutritious foods in keeping people well-nourished and healthy. This can be done sustainably, through employing very many pathways […] producing diverse foods; paying attention to quantity as well as quality, nutritional quality and food safety; consuming sufficient [food], not excess; greatly reducing food waste and loss.
Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, winner of the 2021 World Food Prize for her trailblazing scientific work in making aquatic food systems an integral part of sustainable food production, thereby relieving hunger, aiding livelihoods and increasing all-round resilience. Photo courtesy Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted, used with permission.
JMF: How did your Caribbean roots factor into how you thought about this problem of food security? What made you look to the sea when most people think of agriculture as land-based?
SHT: Growing up in Trinidad and in a home in which my grandmother ruled the kitchen, I did not think of the issue of some people facing food insecurity. My grandmother instilled in us the value of healthy food for good brain—[including] fish—and for being strong. Working in Bangladesh, the most nutritious food in the diet, small fish, comes from water. The sea is not the only source of aquatic foods. Inland waters—lakes, rivers, seasonal water bodies, floodplains—are extremely important sources of diverse aquatic foods [like] animals, plants, seaweed. Two-thirds of the planet is covered by water, so we must make use of this potential for harvesting and growing diverse, nutritious foods, sustainably.
JMF: Does it matter that you’re a woman scientist, the first woman of Asian heritage and the first from the Caribbean to receive this prize?
SHT: Yes; it matters to show to young people, from all backgrounds and countries, that there are opportunities. Studying hard, working hard, and learning from/listening to others are good habits to develop. I do hope that getting this award will show young women that a career in food and nutrition can be exciting and rewarding.
JMF: Explain the difference between feeding and nourishing, and what it means for long-term food sustainability.
SHT: In the past […] famine and food shortage [were] many times not related to a lack of food, but to power, distribution, trade, war, water scarcity, and pests. People were taken up with not being hungry, filling their stomachs. So just ‘quantity’ was the goal; now we know that we [must] think of nutritional quality and food safety. Today, many people are eating too much of staple foods—rice, wheat, maize, oil, meats—with […] very little fruits, vegetables and aquatic foods [which are] the source of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. So people can be overweight and at the same time be suffering from ‘hidden hunger': lack of vitamins and minerals. A well-nourished woman gives birth to a well-nourished child who grows up to do well in school, work well, is healthy, and thereby contributes to national development, inter-generationally.
JMF: When was the first time it struck you that your work, in making this shift, was making a difference in people’s lives?
SHT: In Bangladesh, in the 1990s, mothers [would] tell me about their health and that of their children when they ate small fish and vegetables and fed these foods to their young children. I would hear the same feedback in the other countries where I worked: Cambodia, Nepal, India, Malawi, Zambia.
In the second part of this post, Dr. Haraksingh Thilsted discusses pond polyculture, the importance of biodiversity, the impact of the climate crisis, and the role governments and strong policy frameworks play in food security.


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Daraa protests burst the Syrian regime’s bubble of election day · Global Voices
عقبة محمد - Mohammed Okba

An image from a video clip showing Syrians massing in Daraa against the Assad regime and the presidential elections.
While Syria ostensibly witnessed a presidential election on May 26 that was celebrated by the regime and some parts of the country, several regions in the Daraa governorate in the south of Syria staged a popular uprising against what they described as a ‘farcical play’, holding demonstrations and strikes, while insurgents attacked pro-regime entities.
#Syria: Demonstration in Daraa Al-Balad now, against the Syrian presidential elections.#Daraa pic.twitter.com/DVpu8OEj7F
— Fared Almhlol (@FARED_ALHOR) May 25, 2021
The elections were held as scheduled to elect Bashar Al-Assad as the president of war-torn Syria for a fourth term extending to 2028, after his election in 2000, 2007 and 2014. To complete what many people in Syria, Europe and the United States, considered as a ‘fake scene’, the regime expectedly declared Al-Assad the winner, and the president of the Syrian state with 95.1 percent of the votes, totaling around 10 million citizens.
However, in Daraa, the cradle of the Syrian 2011 revolution, and despite being officially under the regime's control for three years, voter turnout across the 200 ballot boxes was very weak. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Daraa Al-Balad, Al-Harak, Nahtah, Bosra Al-Sham, Bosra Al-Harir and Al-Jizah in the east of the governorate, voicing their rejection to the elections, according to the Horan Free League, which focuses on southern Syria news. There, demonstrators chanted for the overthrow of the regime and raised many slogans, including: “No future for the Syrians with the Killer.”
Wow — just extraordinary.
This isn't from 2011, it's a video from a major protest today in #Daraa, next to the Omari Mosque, in which demonstrators are chanting against #Assad & the revolutionary flag is being flown.pic.twitter.com/C8zDU7CXG6
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) March 18, 2021
يحصل في سوريا أنه ورغم كل ما حصل ويحصل، يخرج آلاف السوريين حول جامع العمري في درعا حيث انطلقت المظاهرات قبل عشرة أعوام، ليعلنوا ليلة المهزلة المسماة زورا انتخابات، أن الثورة مستمرة وأن الشعب يريد الحياة.
— alia (@aliamansour) June 1, 2021
What is happening in Syria is that, despite everything that has happened and is happening, thousands of Syrians go out around Al-Omari Mosque in Daraa, where demonstrations had begun ten years ago, to announce the farcical night that is falsely called elections. The revolution goes on and that the nation want life.
— alia (@aliamansour) June 1, 2021
Meanwhile, several villages in the east and the west of the governorate, including Dael, Nawa, Jiza, Jassim and others, announced a strike, closing the shops and cutting off roads connecting them with the city for several days, as an expression of their opposition to what they called “the electoral play”.
Polling stations under attack
Several areas of the governorate witnessed a military escalation on polling day as a result of regime-affiliated sites coming under attack by armed opposition, along with polling stations and pro-regime figures.
#أحرار_حوران
قوات الأسد شنّت منذ صباح اليوم الخميس، حملة دهم وتفتيش للمنازل في مدينة #داعل بريف #درعا الأوسط،واعتقلت عدد من المدنيين وأحرقت منزلاً لآخر،انتقاماً من الهجوم الذي تعرضت له القوات الليلة الماضية في الفرقة الحزبية بالمدينة.
فرضت قوات الأسد حظر تجوال في المدينة منذ
— ثورة (@thawraa_syr) May 27, 2021
#Ahraar_Houran
Since Thursday morning, Al-Assad's forces launched a campaign of raiding and searching homes in Dael city in the central countryside of Daraa, and arrested a number of civilians and burned another house, in retaliation for the attack on the forces last night in the partisan division in the city.
Al-Assad's forces imposed a curfew in the city.
Media activist from Daraa governorate, Hussein Al-Muhammad, said anonymous persons targeted with grenades the municipality buildings where ballot boxes were located in Sidon, Al-Harra, Nimr and Al-Naima, without causing any casualties, in addition to the homes of Al-Baath party members in Sidon and Al-Naima, in the east of Daraa, being attacked with automatic weapons.
Speaking to Global Voices (GV), Al-Mohammed added that other military points of the Syrian regime were targeted with machine guns, such as those in Eastern Karak, and military points belonging to the Air Force Intelligence between Ghassam, Al-Sahwa and Western Maliha, and as well as regime-affiliated targets in cities like Nawa, Eastern Karak, Al-Musayfirah, Al-Sanamayn, Hajjah and Khirbet Ghazala.
In Daraa's countryside district of Dael, the headquarters of Al-Baath party division came under attack by unknown people with machine guns and RPG launchers, as violent clashes took place in the city's neighbourhood that lasted for hours. As a result of that, the regime forces suffered many losses.
In response to these attacks, local sources said the Syrian regime forces imposed a curfew in Dael since the early hours of the polling day, announcing that through mosque loudspeakers. In the morning of Thursday, May 27, the regime launched raids and search campaigns, arresting a number of civilians for a few hours before releasing them.
#درعا_داعل إلى الأن وضع المدينة متوتر وحظر تجوال واعتقالات وحرق لمنازل المدنيين
واعتقال كل من
1_ مصطفى ابو زيد
2_ وليد تركي الشحادات
3_أحمد موسى الحريري #لاشرعية_للاسد_وانتخاباته pic.twitter.com/IOeC27SB8K
— قاسم الجاموس أبو وطن (@JamousKasem) May 27, 2021
#Daraa_Dael so far the situation in the city is troubled. Curfew, arrests and burning of civilians’ homes.
The arrest of:
1_ Mustafa Abu Zeid
2_ Walid Turki Shehadat
3_Ahmed Musa al-Hariri
#The_illegality_of_Al-Assad_and_his_elections
pic.twitter.com/IOeC27SB8K
Daraa is always present
The anti-regime protests in Daraa governorate were not particularly linked to the elections. According to Walid Al-Nawfal, a journalist at the independent Syria Direct, Daraa has been witnessing continuous protests since the Syrian regime and its allies took control of it in the summer of 2018.
As a reminder — #Daraa remains chronically unstable & quite clearly not “in regime control” as might generally be understood.
In the past week alone, 8+ #Assad-linked individuals have been killed in insurgent attacks. https://t.co/gpTHzecFIG
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) May 24, 2021
Al-Nawfal told GV: “We always see peaceful movements in Daraa demanding the release of detainees and expulsion of Iranian militias,” adding that large swathes of Daraa always react to important events happening in Syria through rallies, which have not stop since the signing of the Russia-brokered settlement agreement between the regime and the opposition in July 2018. Therefore, as he puts it, “Daraa is always present.”
From Al-Nawfal’s point of view, the Syrian regime considers several areas of Daraa to be out of its control, and under the control of settlement factions and negotiation committees, so it is likely that the regime will launch military operations with the aim of extending its influence in these areas and empowering local militias associated with it, which will, in turn, result in clan disputes, and in those opposing the settlement to move towards the north, like what happened in the village of Umm-Batna in Quneitra city in mid-May.
As for the impact of the popular uprising on the presidential elections, Al-Nawfal noted:
صوّت بشار الأسد اليوم من مدينة دوما بريف دمشق، التي كانت من أبرز معاقل المعارضة وهي إحدى أكثر المدن التي تعرضت لدمار وخسائر بالأرواح بفعل النظام وروسيا، ليوصل رسالة للسوريين وللعالم أن الحرب إنتهت وهو المنتصر، لكن الاحتجاجات الشعبية في درعا والمستمرة منذ أيام أفشلت المسرحية التي حاول بشار الأسد تمريرها.
Al-Assad voted today from Douma city in the countryside of Damascus, which was one of the most prominent opposition strongholds, and one of the cities that have been most hit and lost many lives at the hands of the regime and Russia, to send a message to Syrians and the world that the war is over and that he is the victor. But the Daraa's protests that have been going on for days have thwarted the play which Al-Assad tried to pass.
Al-Nawfal predicted a long-term crackdown by the regime in response to the protests, through arrest campaigns that may target shop owners who declared a strike and closed their stores.
The United States, France, Britain and other members of the UN Security Council rejected the result of the Syrian presidential elections in advance, while the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, emphasized that normalization with the Syrian regime, lifting sanctions, or supporting reconstruction efforts cannot be achieved unless a political transition schedule is set in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

author: عقبة محمد - Mohammed Okba


text:
Jamaica’s ‘Mommy Rocket’, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, is the fastest woman alive · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Jamaica's Women's 4x100m Relay Team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow, Scotland. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (R), was part of the gold medal-winning team, which also included Kerron Stewart, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Schillone Calvert. Photo by Marc on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
On a warm Saturday afternoon at the National Arena in Kingston, Jamaica, two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce became the second fastest woman in history to win the 100 metres, breaking Jamaica’s national record of 10.70 with a blazing 10.63-second run.
The aptly-named “Pocket Rocket” (Fraser-Pryce is just five feet tall), has now acquired the moniker “Mommy Rocket” — the 34-year-old sprinter returned to the track just nine months after giving birth to her son, Zyon, in 2017.
After the June 5 race, Fraser-Pryce tweeted:
When the hard work finally pays off!! So much accomplished, yet so much more to go
— ShellyAnnFraserPryce (@realshellyannfp) June 5, 2021
She told reporters in Kingston:
I’m at a loss for words because 10.6 has been a dream, a goal. I’ve been working so hard, been so patient and to see it finally unfold, I’m just ecstatic.
This was the world’s fastest women’s 100m since American Florence Griffith Joyner won at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, where she gained three gold medals. However, many Jamaicans discounted the late “Flo-Jo’s” record, citing her alleged drug use during this period:
Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce ??
10.63 ??? 2nd fastest woman in history but as far as I'm concerned that's the WR‼I pretty much ignore Flo Jo's record… Drugs and all. pic.twitter.com/nAAsCyOr9g
— Sanade ♥ ♡ (@SanadeSweet) June 5, 2021
Now third on the all-time list, retired American sprinter Carmelita Jeter, who had held the record since 2009 with a run of 10.64 — and whom Fraser-Pryce has regarded as her toughest rival — tweeted her congratulations:
I just woke to some amazing news. @realshellyannfp has done it again. I give credit when it’s due. You have come back from having a child and showed the world how talented and driven you are. You are officially the Fastest Women Alive. Keep motivating these young Queens #CoachJet
— Carmelita Jeter (@CarmelitaJeter) June 5, 2021
Fellow Olympic medalist Usain Bolt added:
Congrats ?? Representing from day one ?? https://t.co/xqjKaWLpT9
— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) June 5, 2021
Jamaican sports fans were ecstatic at Fraser-Pryce's record-breaking win. A local sports journalist tweeted:
What a time to be alive and at track side. Shelly's reaction after posting 10.63 seconds #prycless https://t.co/Jvhs089BSm pic.twitter.com/At6Tbj0qGA
— Denise Walters (@like_daw) June 5, 2021
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness joined in:
#Shelly is a fine example of what talent, discipline and determination may achieve.
We are proud of our global Ambassador ??.
We celebrate her breaking the National Record and becoming the fastest woman alive. #Shelly #mommyrocket #Jamaica https://t.co/LTbOqugaee
— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) June 5, 2021
Fraser-Pryce, from the inner city Kingston community of Waterhouse, is enormously popular in Jamaica. An engaging yet unassuming personality, she is admired as a hard-working athlete. One of her fans summed up her determined nature:
Shelly-Ann came back from a toe that was giving her some serious problems. GRIT, discipline, focus, pure in spirit, humble… must succeed!
— Kerry-Ann Morgan (@patrioticjam) June 5, 2021
Seen as a role model by many Jamaicans, Fraser-Pryce is also a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF Jamaica. She has been using the platform to advocate for Jamaican children and mothers, often sharing motivational messages for women:
Running is easy, but Motherhood is a separate sport of its on. Celebrate all the women in your lives, they deserve it!! #happymothersday #mommyrocket pic.twitter.com/H56iZGMV7q
— ShellyAnnFraserPryce (@realshellyannfp) May 9, 2021
Fraser-Pryce is now focused on Jamaica's National Trials and beyond that, the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo. Meanwhile, family always plays an important role:
“Mommy” is the best title I could have ever earned. pic.twitter.com/VDF7uZ4WGV
— ShellyAnnFraserPryce (@realshellyannfp) June 4, 2021
Whatever happens, Jamaicans know that the sprinter, who is not planning to retire just yet, will continue to make them proud.

author: Emma Lewis