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Netizen Report: Voices of Yemen’s ‘Forgotten War’ Speak Out, Despite Legal Barriers · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

An airstrike in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, in May 2015. Photo by Ibrahem Qasim via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Yemeni blogger Afrah Nasser was awarded this year’s International Free Press Award for her work covering the conflict in Yemen despite the many obstacles faced by journalists in the country. But Nasser, who also holds Swedish citizenship, was nearly unable to attend the awards ceremony in New York in person, because of the US travel ban on Yemeni nationals.
After three applications and many letters in support of her application, Nasser finally obtained her visa from the US Embassy in Stockholm, where she resides.
On Twitter, she remarked:
I never really had faith in the power of media & public opinion as I have today. Makes me think of people who don’t enjoy my high media profile. This is why, we need to get the tragedy in Yemen as well-known as hell so we can all help pushing an end for it!
While Nasser has done much of reporting from her home in Sweden, Yemeni journalists working on the ground face much graver obstacles.
Among them is political commentator and writer Hisham Al-Omeisy, who was detained by Houthi rebels without explanation in August 2017. This week, it was reported that Al-Omeisy was arrested on charges related to his correspondence with US-based organizations.
Al-Omeisy has been actively tweeting about the humanitarian crisis and violations committed by both warring parties in the ongoing conflict in Yemen. He also has analyzed and spoken about the conflict to international media including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and NPR.
For more than two years, a coalition of Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh (who was removed from power following street protests in 2011) have been fighting to seize power from the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Hadi’s government is also supported by a Saudi-led airstrike campaign.
Journalists and media covering the conflict face risks from all warring parties, making it difficult for Yemenis and the outside world to get information on what’s already been described as a “forgotten war”. Placing restrictions on key voices like those of Nasser and Al-Omeisy only exacerbates the situation.
The Turkish court in Istanbul conditionally released eight of the ten human rights defenders on trial who were arrested in July 2017 on accusations of “membership in a terrorist organization” while attending an information management workshop. Among the defendants was Idil Eser, the director of Amnesty International’s Turkey chapter. In their court testimony, multiple defendants explained that they had never even heard of the terror organizations that Turkish public prosecutors accused them of supporting.
In the days leading up to the trial, netizens tweeted in support of the #istanbul10 using the hashtag #FreeRightsDefenders. The group is expected to reappear before the court on November 22.
Two political party workers were arrested by the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency, for allegedly writing posts critical of government and state institutions. The workers, who are affiliated with the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) party, have been charged under the penal code along with multiple sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Ironically, the PML-N party was responsible for pushing through the controversial PECA law, despite opposition from digital rights advocates. The PML-N has been engaged in a rift with Pakistan’s powerful military establishment since August 2017, when the Supreme Court disqualified former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif following a corruption inquiry into his family’s offshore wealth, sparked by the 2016 release of the Panama Papers. The Ministry of Information Technology, which was instrumental in pushing the electronic crimes law through, now admits that it has no oversight mechanism in place and the law is being misused.
Other political workers and journalists have previously been interrogated and arrested under different sections of the law as well, an indication that authorities may be using the law as a silencing tool.
A Palestinian construction worker was arrested by Israeli police after posting a picture of himself with a bulldozer and inserting the caption, in Arabic, “good morning.” The post was erroneously translated (into Hebrew) by Facebook as “attack them.” The man has since been released, and Facebook said it is investigating the issue.
Kuwait’s DNA law was struck down by the Constitutional Court in a decision that is being lauded as a positive step for the protection of citizens’ privacy. The law — which required all Kuwaiti citizens, residents and visitors to provide DNA samples to authorities for storage in a database operated by the Interior Ministry — was passed following a 2015 suicide bombing that killed 27 people. Anyone who refused to comply with the law faced one year in prison, a fine, and sanctions that could include canceling their passports. The emir requested the law be revised to “safeguard people’s privacy.” It is likely that Parliament will amend it so that only suspected criminals are asked to give their DNA.
Apps designed by the Chinese Communist Party hit China’s Apple and Android app stores surrounding the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party. Estimates of the number of CCP apps range from dozens to up to 400, with many app developers building party apps for local party branches and party organizations. Among the apps is Smart Red Cloud, which “aims to use artificial intelligence to educate and evaluate party members” through ideology tutorials, chat functions and party-related activity notifications.
The apps disseminate information and enable the CCP to monitor and evaluate party members’ political orientation. At least one state-owned company, the China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group, ranks party members on a monthly and weekly basis in response to scores on tests of party knowledge, penalizing users who perform poorly and rewarding those who perform well.
Chelsea Manning was turned away at the Canadian border while trying to vacation in Montreal and Vancouver. The former US military officer and leaker of documents demonstrating human rights violations committed by the US government in the Iraq war was detained overnight and told she was inadmissible “on grounds of serious criminality.” A Canadian lawyer representing Manning has submitted a formal request asking the government to reconsider its decision. More than 40 human rights organizations and academics sent letters to the Canadian government in support of the human rights activist.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Sadaf Khan, Leila Nachawati and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Kyrgyz Media Outlet’s Report Shows President-Elect’s Campaign Gained Access to Private Data · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Kyrgyzstan's outgoing President Almazbek Atambayev appeared to be heavily involved in the effort to ensure his protege's election. This file comes from the website of the President of the Russian Federation and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Used on Wikipedia.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org. Republished with permission.
An in-depth investigation by news website Kloop.kg has revealed evidence of collusion in Kyrgyzstan between the government and the winner of this month’s presidential election. A Kloop.kg report states its research shows that Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s campaign gained direct access to government computer servers, almost certainly giving it access to vast pools of personal data about the nation’s voters.
When Jeenbekov, who was nominated to run by the ruling Social Democratic Party, unexpectedly won a majority of the vote in the October 15 election, his detractors were quick to suggest that he had benefited from the deployment of what are known as “administrative resources.” This usually describes a cocktail of methods that can range from unfair and disproportionate access to state media to placing pressure on civil servants and students to vote for a given candidate.
For administrative resources to have any certainty of success, however, campaign workers need to be able to access detailed information about voters. And that, Kloop.kg found in its investigation, is what exactly they appear to have obtained.
The story begins in mid-September, just as the election campaign was getting underway. Around that time, Samara.kg, an obscure website that previously advertised real estate services, was suddenly converted into a voter data management system. After plugging in log-in details, visitors to the website would find spreadsheets containing names, addresses, tax numbers and other information. But even more importantly, as Kloop.kg discovered with assistance from Qurium, a Swedish nonprofit specializing in IT security, the website was relocated to a server belonging to the State Registration Service — a government entity that collates and processes personal data on Kyrgyz citizens. The server is at the heart of ambitious e-government initiatives intended to do away with vast amounts of red tape.
“What we have shown is that government servers that process and handle the data of citizens of Kyrgyzstan … was hosting an election campaign website that was collating similar data,” Kloop.kg chief editor, Eldiyar Arykbaev, told EurasiaNet.org.
The existence of the voter management data system was being actively discussed on forums and social media in the weeks before the election. But the bulk of details divulged by Kloop.kg only came to light because of an anonymous self-styled activist going by the nickname suppermario12. On the eve of the election, suppermario12 hacked into Samara.kg, and then wrote a letter to multiple local news outlets informing them of the website and how it was operating on a government server. In a curious detail, Qurium’s research found that the Samara.kg domain had been registered by Uchunbek Tashbayev, who occupied a ministerial portfolio for about one year, in 2011.
The identity of the person behind suppermario12 is not known beyond doubt, but Arykbaev told EurasiaNet.org that much of the factual claims made by the hacker have subsequently been independently verified.
As suppermario12 told Kloop.kg, his intent was to derail the voter data system by locking out other users, which is why Samara.kg was unavailable on the eve of the election and on the day of polling itself. But the functions fulfilled by Samara.kg were simply taken up by another previously semi-dormant website, mls.kg, according to research done by Kloop.kg. Both websites have now reverted to their prior bland, anonymous functions — Samara.kg advertises carpet-cleaning services.
While hacking into Samara.kg, suppermario12 managed to download data relating to one precinct-level election commission — a list of 600 names, mainly of teachers and students at Bishkek’s Kyrgyz State Technical University, or KGTU in its Russian initials. A KGTU student contacted by Kloop.kg said he could not be certain how all his details ended up in the Samara.kg database, but that all the listed information was included in an official application form for would-be voters wishing to cast their ballot anywhere other than their permanent place of residence.
The chairman of the State Registration Service, Dastan Dogoyev, who has held his job since June, denied his department had any ties to Samara.kg.
“I can tell you with every authority — no third parties have had any physical or remote access to our servers,” Dogoyev told Kloop.kg.
Tashbayev, the formal owner of Samara.kg, denied all suggestions his website was somehow used for electoral purposes. He called suggestions his site had been relocated to a government server “sheer nonsense.” He said that the only use to which Samara.kg had been put was as a vehicle for a failed carpet-cleaning start-up.
The existence of a Samara.kg database would seem difficult to dispute. Kloop.kg managed during its investigation to speak to several Jeenbekov campaign workers who confirmed, speaking on condition of anonymity, that they used the voter register, adding that in essence, it differed little from the kinds of databases any election campaign teams use to try and effectively target their message. And footage surfaced online in the days before the election in which Jeenbekov campaign employees discussed the database.
In a commentary appended to its article, Kloop.kg stopped short of asserting that access to the voter database was, on its own, enough to assure Jeenbekov of an outright victory in the October 15 vote. What the website did argue, however, was that access to state servers packed with voter data would have “seriously simplified electioneering from any presidential candidate.” In addition, such access potentially compromised “private data of the citizens of Kyrgyzstan,” the Kloop.kg commentary added.
Qurium, meanwhile, said that allegation made by suppermario12 were serious enough that they should “trigger a deeper investigation.”
Other than to deny outside parties could have gained access to the State Registration Service, officials have yet to comment.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Eurasianet


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A Son of Indian Billionaire ‘Resides’ in a Modest Post-Communist Building in Macedonia · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

Screenshots from the “Kod with Snezhana Lupevska Sozen” investigative TV show on the residences of Sushanto Roy in Macedonia, displaying the initial mansion (top left) and current flat. Used with permission.
It might come as a surprise to Indian high society that one of their own has an official address in a modest post-communist building in Macedonia.
Opening the Macedonian Voting Registry had been instrumental in tracking the Skopje address of Sushanto Roy, a son of Indian billionaire Subrata Roy, from an affluent neighborhood in 2016 to an unassuming flat in a working-class neighborhood in 2017.
Sushanto Roy's residence — and whether or not he actually resides there — has brought up questions about Macedonian former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE‘s relationship to the Roy family and how these ties might be linked to government corruption.
One of the mainstays of the 2017 local elections campaign run by Macedonia's former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE was fear mongering focused on demonizing migrants and inciting homophobia. Investigative reporting TV show “Kod so Snezhana Lupevska Sozen” (meaning “Code with Snezhana Lupevska Sozen”) researched the topic of granting Macedonian citizenships to foreigners during VMRO-DPMNE's reign.
It turned out that — contrary to its rhetoric of presenting people from the Middle East as dangerous — during the last decade, quite a few people from that region have received citizenship as “investors” through a fast-track procedure. For instance, Reza Zarrab AKA Rıza Sarraf, an Iranian businessman — actually residing in Turkey — who was arrested in the USA in 2016 on suspicion of money laundering related to breaking the embargo on Iran, was given Macedonian citizenship.
“Kod” also researched the family of Subrata Roy, a controversial Indian billionaire and partner of the former government. They used the data from the voter’s registry — made public ahead of local elections — to find out the current address of Sushanto Roy. Instead of the lavish villa in an elite suburb, his official address is now in a somewhat dilapidated apartment building in a far less glamorous neighborhood at the edge of town.
In the following video of the show (in Macedonian language) we can see the young Roy's first and current official residence.
Investigative reporters visited the flat, located in the drab block nicknamed “the tin building” which was built after the 1964 earthquake. There they encountered the owner, an elderly local man who didn’t want to talk on camera. He explained that members of the Indian billionaire family are indeed formal residents in his flat. The landlord then admitted that his close relatives worked in one of Subrata Roy's companies located in Macedonia and that he was asked to “rent” the flat [presumably as a return favor for the job].
Some citizens living in the Roy's ‘old neighborhood’ mockingly expressed disappointment due to his ‘move,’ and jokingly berated “Kod” manager, Snezhana Lupevska Sozen, for ‘bursting their bubble.’
Сушанто Рој не ми е више комшија :( Јебига нема да купуеме заедно леб и млеко. :((( Фала Лупевска.
— Ej Brej (@Gogiche) October 9, 2017
Sushanto Roy is no longer my neighbor. :( Too bad, we won't be buying bread and milk [in the local store] together any more. :((( Thanks Lupevska.
In 2012, the government of the Republic of Macedonia, promoted an economic program based on attracting foreign direct investments. It introduced the Indian billionaire Subrata Roy as a kind of ‘savior’, bringing hundreds of millions of euros to the country. He was supposed to receive — as a subsidy — part of Galichica National Park to build an enormous casino resort on Ohrid Lake which would include ‘an airport on the water,’ as well as huge tracts of land in Eastern Macedonia to build a farm for 20.000 cows.
At the time, only several independent news portals paid attention to the fact that Subrata Roy was under investigation for massive fraud in his home country. In the meantime, in an effort to create goodwill, Roy's company Sahara, the Macedonian government and the media — under government control — conducted a comprehensive public relations campaign to promote Subrata Roy's company. The PR campaign included organizing an event named Sahara Balkan Peace Festival, which included some Bollywood entertainers, as well as a special appearance by former UK PM Tony Blair.
Mr. Roy also announced that he would finance building a monument to Skopje-born Mother Theresa (1910-1997), whom he met and allegedly befriended in Calcutta. The government celebrated this by erecting a monument — in the form of a marble memorial plaque — to commemorate the announcement of the future monument. The site was one of the few remaining green spaces next to the Skopje main square.
Then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Subrata Roy unveiling a monument to the future monument, Jan 23, 2013. Photo by the Government of Republic of Macedonia.
As in many other countries around the world, Macedonian law allows the government to grant citizenship to persons of particular “scientific, economic, cultural, sportive or other national interest,” (Law on Citizenship) i.e. if they invest over 400.000 euros and employ at least 10 people. In 2014, independent journalists revealed that several members of Subrata Roy’s family, including his spouse Swapna and two sons, Sushanto and Seemanto, had become Macedonian citizens.
Their official address was a rented mansion in an affluent area of Bardovci. In early 2016, while citizens crowd-sourced efforts to weed out ‘phantoms’ from the Voters’ Registry, his name popped up again.
Сушанто Рој, Сушанто Рој од Бардовци. #СеПоСписок pic.twitter.com/gENjImpg8Z
— Ели (@Elislonce) March 4, 2016
Tweet: Sushanto Roy, Sushanto Roy from Bardovci. #All from the List
Image: Screen shot of the online version of the voting registry displaying his data: name, surname, address and polling station.
In 2014, Indian authorities finally arrested Subrata Roy and put him in prison on charges of fraud and debt. Some of the speculations in Macedonia involved assumptions that the granting of his citizenship was a precaution in case of possible extradition requests from India.
Apparently the young Mr. Roy didn't seem to have even spent much time in Macedonia. In October 2016 the Ministry of Agriculture filed a lawsuit against him for not paying the lease on the land set aside for the promised cow farm. Some social media users used the similarity of the name Sushanto to a local idiom related to lying (“sushi – lazhe” literaly “dries – lies,’ meaning lying so hard that it produces drought) to comment.
Министерството за земјоделство го товари Сушанто Рој за долг за закуп,зошто само него,а не и оние што го донесоа,тие поголеми сушанти се.
— ПОФАЛБА НА ЛУДОСТА (@pofalba) October 30, 2016
Ministry of Agriculture charges Sushanto Roy for a debt for a lease. Why only him? Those who brought him are bigger ‘sushantoes.’
The lawsuit against the young Roy didn't affect his citizen rights; ahead of the general elections that took place that December, Twitter users alerted that this naturalized Macedonian citizen is registered to vote.
Сушанто и Свапна Рој,синот и сопругата на Субрата Рој,се евидентирани со право на глас во општина Карпош,населено место Бардовци, ИМ 2653/1
— ГлумецИлепотанНаМама (@MirkoMVidoeski) December 2, 2016
Sushanto and Swapna Roy, a son and the spouse of Subrata Roy, are registered with the right to vote in Karposh municipality, Bardovci locality, polling station number 2653/1.
Actually, none of the investments in Macedonia announced by the Roy family materialized. Their company, Sahara, bought a hotel in Ohrid without actually bringing any money into the country. They took a loan from a local bank, owned by one of the top cronies of the ruling party. As the whole enterprise tanked, the bank took ownership of the hotel. To many observers, this confirmed the impression that Roy's role in the whole scam was to serve as a front for laundering the money owned by members of the VMRO-DPMNE-run government.
The VMRO-DPMNE-led government then announced that it would use around 6 million euros of Macedonian taxpayers money to build the new monument to Mother Theresa promised by Roy. It is still in construction in the center of Skopje, and in height, it’s supposed to rival the nearby statue of Alexander the Great.
Construction site of the new monument to Mother Theresa (middle) on the main square of Skopje, Macedonia. Photo by GV, CC BY.
Petre Shilegov, the city mayor of Skopje who won the October 15 elections as a representative of former opposition party SDSM, announced that the building of that monument will be discontinued, alongside many other construction projects by the former government, which were part of the VMRO-DPMNE's Skopje 2014 plan.

author: Marko Angelov


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Global Voices Summit 2017: Countdown to Sri Lanka! · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madagascar, Maldives, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam.
These, in case you were wondering, are the 50-plus countries—and counting—that will be represented at the Global Voices Summit 2017.
In just over a month's time, on December 2-3, hundreds from the four corners of the globe will gather at the TRACE Expert City in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to spend two days together exploring the connections between the open Internet, freedom of expression and online civic movements around the world.
Since 2006, Global Voices Summits have brought together the most innovative and inspiring digital activist and citizen media communities from around the world. These meetings have proven a rich breeding ground for ideas and collaborations across borders, and we look forward to continuing that tradition at the 2017 Summit.
Colombo's Beira Lake at night. PHOTO: Shamli071 via Wikimedia Commons.
This year's program will feature panels, short project showcases, open roundtable sessions and hands-on training workshops with some of the leading voices in digital rights and international citizen media. And as part of the process, we'll be facilitating real-time online participation as well as capturing, translating and publishing the knowledge and conversations coming out of the meeting.
If you'd like to join us in Colombo, please register through the Summit website. And if you're unable to join us in person, we'll be streaming portions of the program live on December 2-3, 2017.
And do keep an eye on the Summit website, Twitter and Facebook for updates!
The Global Voices Summit 2017 is made possible thank to the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Groundviews, Google, Calcey Technologies, Lanka Bell and Hashtag Generation.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Jamaican Prime Minister’s Barefoot Campaigning Inspires Laughs—and Questions About Infrastructure · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

A screengrab of images from a tweet by @DrNormanDunn, showing himself and the Jamaican prime minister walking barefoot in a rural electoral constituency, having crossed a river to get there.
There's no doubt that Jamaicans enjoy a hard-fought political campaign. For the “diehard” party supporter it's a time of passion and excitement (and possibly some small benefits). For the neutral onlooker, a Jamaican political race can often be annoying, perhaps distressing — and sometimes entertaining.
All of the above is true of the current by-election campaign taking place in a rural parish, which has national implications and added significance because of the one-seat majority of the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party in parliament.
Because so much hinges on it, party leaders have played an active role in the campaign, including the social media effort. Photos of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, with his jeans rolled up and bare feet, paddling across a small river, provoked much comment — amusement, praise, and some cynicism too.
The prime minister originally tweeted:
We meet the people by the same route they travel to meet us. #DoItForTheLove pic.twitter.com/VqgviwWKJb
— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) October 25, 2017
His party's candidate followed up with a somewhat cryptic message:
The same paths you walk to Vote, we walk to meet. We cannot fix what we do not face. #ArgumentDunn #DownToEarth #Development pic.twitter.com/ERPww25pgv
— Dr Norman Dunn (@DrNormanDunn) October 25, 2017
The same post on Facebook was shared over 1,800 times and received hundreds of comments, ranging from praise and delight to sarcasm.
The photographs were apparently a response to a video posted by the opposition People's National Party, showing candidate Dr. Shane Alexis arriving in the constituency in a helicopter:
Opposition leader Peter Phillips tweeted the video, which sparked questions from some cynical users about the state of the roads:
Every time @DrShaneAlexis shares his vision for SE St Mary with the residents they are energized & excited #AJamaicaThatWorksForAll pic.twitter.com/EqG0ANV4hL
— Peter D Phillips (@PDPhillipsJa) October 21, 2017
This is not the first time that Jamaican politicians have symbolically got their feet wet in a river for campaigning purposes, as university lecturer Donna Hope pointed out on Facebook. She shared a photograph of former member of parliament for the constituency, Dr. Winston Green — who passed away suddenly, leaving the seat vacant — in a similar photo-op, quipping:
South East St. Mary politicking. Battle of the barefeet politicians on social media. High stakes. Your comments?
One commentator tweeted:
Who barefoot better? Campaigning for and with the people the Jamaican way.
— Jaevion Nelson (@jaevionn) October 26, 2017
Several commentators pointed out that the prime minister's post pointed to the lack of infrastructure in rural Jamaica. One regular Twitter user shared:
After Oct 30 whole ah unnu gone, di ppl dem still haffi guh wade thru river & unnu will lol about the times unnu did guh dem place deh.
— Empress Yolie (@jahmekyagyal) October 27, 2017
After October 30 all of you [politicians] will be gone and the people will still have to wade through a river; you will ‘lol’ about the times you went to those places.
Following an on-air discussion about how the publicity stunt was playing on social media, radio presenter Patria-Kay Aarons tweeted:
After you cross the river barefooted and feel the people's pain, your next move better be to give them a bridge!
— Patria-Kaye Aarons (@findpatria) October 26, 2017
So, who will win the October 30, 2017 by-election? It has been an eventful campaign, with many twists and turns. The constituency was won by the narrowest of margins — only five votes — in the last elections. With final mass rallies that took place over the weekend, some political pundits feel there may yet again be a close finish — now that the politicians have put their shoes back on.

author: Emma Lewis


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Japan’s Largest Diwali Celebration Featured Food, Dancing and a Naan Flatbread Mascot · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Part of Diwali celebrations in Yokohama, Japan in October 2017. Screencap from deharu monkiye YouTube channel.
Diwali, often referred to as the “Hindu festival of lights,” is one of the most important festivals observed by the Indian diaspora every year in some countries around the world, and Japan is no different.
While in 2017 Diwali begins on October 19, about 200,000 people, mostly Japanese, were estimated to have attended an annual two-day Diwali cultural event in the city of Yokohama on October 14 and 15, making it one of the largest India-related festivals in Japan. The festival took place next to Yamashita Park, one of Yokohama's best known parks, on the waterfront near the city's historic Chinatown.
横浜でインドに浸れる2日間。
「ディワリ・イン・ヨコハマ」 10/14・15
＜山下公園＞https://t.co/elMuPnyJ0A
「ディワリ」とは、日本で言うところのお正月にあたるお祭り。
カレーはもちろん、本場の絶品インド料理が味わえるブースなどが立ち並びます。 pic.twitter.com/uBZxNOXDu3
— MIRAI～ちょっと先のﾐﾗｲを探しに (@kizunamirai_com) October 11, 2017
[…] The “Diwali” festival is like the Japanese holiday of O-shogatsu [the New Year's holiday]. Of course there will be curry served, and at the event ground there will be many booths lined up serving Indian cuisine.
Thanks to increasing trade, infrastructure development, technology and defense ties, the number of Indians living in Japan has increased over the past two decades to at least 28,000 in recent years.
Yokohama, Japan's second largest city after its neighbor Tokyo, has the most multicultural reputation of any city in Japan. The city got its start as one of the first Japanese ports to be opened to foreigners after country ended its long period of national isolation in 1854. Since then, the city has been home to large numbers of immigrants, notably people from China.
Still, Indians in Japan are not a large part of the national consciousness yet, leading to some surprise and curiosity. Twitter user Mulboyne, whose feed chronicles some of the more interesting aspects of daily Japanese life, took notice of Diwali:
You might not see too many Diwali-themed snacks in the combini but there was a festival in Yokohama last weekend. pic.twitter.com/koNSTkqW2Q
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) October 19, 2017
Bollywood dancing features heavily. pic.twitter.com/jkNtxaXEgZ
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) October 19, 2017
Mulboyne noted that, humorously, Diwali in Japan features–what else?–a cute mascot representative, in this case shaped like a piece of naan flatbread:
My personal favourite is mascot Nan-chan pic.twitter.com/nl2W3qmyr1
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) October 19, 2017
Mulboyne notes that Nan-chan has been around for a few years, having been noticed by other Twitter users:
Hard not to keep looking for more photos. pic.twitter.com/n5Uw5OZ9QN
— Mulboyne (@Mulboyne) October 19, 2017
The Diwali celebration itself was well attended, and featured two days of dance performances and other cultural events.
ステージプログラム｜ボリウッドダンス：#三輪かのん 他 #ハッピーディワリ #HappyDiwali pic.twitter.com/oOgibhgtJ4
— ディワリ・イン・ヨコハマ (@yokohamadiwali) October 18, 2017
Stage Program / Bollywood Dance: Sanrin Kanon and other performers. #HappyDiwali
On the second and final day of Diwali in Yokohama, there was a ceremony that ended the festival and also marked the start of the holiday in India.
ステージプログラム｜ディワリ祈りのパレード。これをもって #ディワリ・イン・ヨコハマ2017 のすべてのステージプログラムが終了しました。#横浜がインドになる2日間 楽しんで頂けましたか？#インド は明日からディワリ祭です。これからも #ハッピーディワリ #HappyDiwali pic.twitter.com/PqsxfDqg2F
— ディワリ・イン・ヨコハマ (@yokohamadiwali) October 18, 2017
Stage program / Diwali prayer parade. Bearing [these candles], the #Diwali_in_Yokohama_2017 events come to an end. For two days #Yokohama_became_India. Did you enjoy it? Diwali begins in India tomorrow. #HappyDiwali.
?? #HappyDiwali #HappyDiwali #HappyDiwali ?? pic.twitter.com/RACdzRtl9q
— ディワリ・イン・ヨコハマ (@yokohamadiwali) October 18, 2017
More photos of the festival can be seen on the official Yokohama Diwali Twitter account.

author: Nevin Thompson


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The Portuguese People Want Justice for Victims of Fires That Ravaged Their Country This Year · Global Voices
Mário Lopes

Various Portuguese cities protested on 21 October for better services to prevent forest fires. Image: screenshot, Eu, a Rainha e 3 princesas. (YouTube)
On 21 October, in various major cities in Portugal, hundreds of people came out to demand justice for victims that were killed by massive forest fires that had torn through parts of the country.
Forty-two people died and around 70 were injured in forest fires on 15-16 October, leading the government to declare three days of mourning for the victims and their famillies.
Fires were also reported in the Spanish region of Galicia, where four people died.
An estimated 500 fires have spread through Portugal's northern and central regions, burning around 250,000 hectares of forests and affecting various villages.
In June 2017, forest fires left 64 dead in Pedrógão Grande, Portugal. Image: screenshot, Despertar da Consciência Cósmica (YouTube)
In June, a similar tragedy took place in Pedrógão Grande — a municipality in the center of the country — with fires leaving 64 dead and more than 200 injured.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, which monitors forested areas via satellite images, around 500,000 hectares of forest have burned in 2017 alone – an area roughly twice the size of the district of Lisbon.
Para perceberem a gravidade da situação, só não há fogo em 4 distritos. Portugal está literalmente todo arder. #PrayForPortugal
— nata ? (@a_ataner) October 15, 2017
To understand the seriousness of the situation, only 4 districts have no fires. Portugal is literally burning
Images of the tragedy were shared on Twitter:
Gavião, Castelo Belver. #FogosPT pic.twitter.com/L4JVzkYsgW
— torrada_mirita (@torrada_mirita) 18 de agosto de 2017
Isto é Braga Hoje a noite #PrayForPortugal #Braga #FogosPT
This is Braga tonight
Various videos were shared online and they gave glimpses of the devastation:
The aims of Saturday’s protests were to demand better state measures to prevent and fight fires.
Questions were raised over the inability of the civil protection service to control the tragedy. João Soveral, of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal, told the newspaper Público:
Depois de Pedrógão fechavam estradas e evacuavam aldeias por tudo e por nada, neste domingo não fizeram isso em lado nenhum, houve dezenas de relatos de estradas abertas rodeadas pelo fogo, na mata de Leiria podia ter ocorrido uma tragédia semelhante à de Junho porque só se cortaram estradas muito tarde.”
After Pedrógão, they closed streets and evacuated villages for everything and nothing. This Sunday, they did not do this anywhere, there were tens of reports of open roads surrounded by fire. In Leiria's forests there could have been a tragedy similar to that of June because they only closed roads very late.
The protesters also called into question the many years that construction permits were given to projects in high fire risk zones. A proposal of stricter forestry reform presented by the government — after large fires in 2003 and 2005 — was questioned by councils, which complained that the rule was a barrier to investment.
“O Governo introduziu uma flexibilização na lei que autorizava casuisticamente construções caso o proponente tivesse meios de autoprotecção – era uma porta aberta para que tudo pudesse ser construído”, completa João Sorval, na mesma matéria do Público.
“The government introduced a flexibilization of the law that authorized constructions on a case by case basis, depending on whether or not the applicant had means of self-protection – there was an open door for anything to be built”, added João Sorval, in the same report by Público.
The environmental organization, Quercus, brought attention to the large areas of eucalyptus, a tree of highly flammable wood whose growth, ironically, tends to expand after fires of this type.
On top of the growing list of issues, during the 15-16 October fires, citizens who attempted to look for information or tried to contact relatives on the website of Portugal’s Civil Protection, found that the site was offline.
It was a private initiative that assumed the role of sharing information; using the civil protection’s own data, the application Fogos.pt informed people of the location of fires and their status in real time.
The project was created in 2015 by the programmer João Pina to facilitate the work of firefighters, and it became so important during that fateful October weekend that servers could not manage the 400,000 users and the 1.5 million views it received.
Its founder even asked for help:
ALGUÉM ME CONSEGUE ARRANJAR MAIS KEYS DO GOOGLE MAPS JAVASCRIPT API?
— Tomahock (@tomahock) 16 de outubro de 2017
CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME GET MORE KEYS FROM GOOGLE MAPS JAVASCRIPT API?
In the end, Google contributed to help keep the website running:
Quota aumentada por parte da @google 1 Milhão vamos ver até quando dá!
— Tomahock (@tomahock) 16 de outubro de 2017
Quota increased by @google 1 million we’ll see how long it lasts!
There have also been numerous tributes to the firefighters who have been working tirelessly to fight the flames.
Os bombeiros são os nossos heróis! Orgulho enorme ❤?#PrayForPortugal #FogosPT pic.twitter.com/uTleZ230jB
— ⭐ Alexandre 1904 ⭐ (@RapazSemNome92) 16 de outubro de 2017
The firefighters are our heroes! Enormous pride!
Impossível ficar indiferente a esta tragédia. Solidário com familiares e amigos das vítimas. Apoio total aos bombeiros que arriscam a vida para ajudar da melhor forma possível.?????? pic.twitter.com/VO8Tjx0jHG
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) 16 de outubro de 2017
Impossible to remain indifferent to this tragedy. Solidarity with relatives and friends of the victims. Total support for the firefighters risking their lives to help in the best way possible.
Whether the Portuguese government will heed the cries of its people is anyone’s guess, but in the meantime, the country continues to burn.

author: Mário Lopes


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The Venezuelan Crisis Understood Through Video Games · Global Voices
Rafael Uzcátegui

Screenshot of the page hosting the games under #VzlaCrisisJam
Protests against a multi-pronged national crisis in Venezuela have seen citizens pour onto the streets in their thousands, but anti-government sentiment has also found other less typical outlets.
In June and July this year a group of programmers and digital culture enthusiasts gathered to design collaboratively a series of video games focusing on the Venezuelan crisis. Thus was born#VzlaCrisisJam, a “game jam” brainstorming session to create computer games that reflected the nature of the crisis.
The first “game jam” in Venezuela took place in the capital Caracas in 2009 and around 80 online video games have been made through similar events.
The organizers of the politically-themed Crisis Game Jam said:
Cualquier plataforma es bienvenida, pero creo que por motivos de difusión la distribución debería ser fácil de llevar: juegos de desktop (ya sea Linux, Windows o Mac), juegos para navegador que usen html5. Juegos móviles no estaría mal si ya disponen de las facilidades para publicarlo en una store.
Any platform is welcome, but I believe that in order to have a better outreach [the platform] should be easy to access: desktop games (either Linux, Windows or Mac), or games for html5. Mobile games wouldn't be bad if [the developers] have the possibility to put it on a ‘store’.
Among the creations of the #VzlaCrisisJam, that can be viewed here, is “Faces of the Guaire” (the Guaire river flows through Caracas). The setting is the day of the April 19 protest that took place on the Francisco Fajardo highway, adjacent to the river.  Protesters were famously forced to jump into the water to escape from tear gas attacks on that day.
Another game  created by the jam was “The Economy of an Arepa”, the typical Venezuelan dish, in which players run a virtual restaurant and need to deal with the rapid soaring prizes of products (due mostly to inflation) and the difficulties of finding them. Two of the games, “Reality Revealed” and “Vzla2017″, a game that recreates the protests and the represion; and finally, “Feria” centers on a character: a soldier that needs to keep the order in front of a group of people asking for food and medicine:
A game prototype where you, as the military, must distribute the basic products among the population. But there are some things you most certainly cannot distribute. Click the military with the mouse and drag back to launch the product. Right click to invert the next product you'll launch with the one after. Click on the queue to send repression.
In total, the jam produced 15 blueprints, of which six can be played online and nine can be downloaded and played on Windows. The goal is to offer different looks inside of a crisis that affects different parts of the population in a wide diversity of ways that are not always understood for the different parts in conflict.
According to one of the promoters of the project:
En este momento estamos enfocados en darle difusión a los juegos y tener colaboraciones. En función de los comentarios y de la retroalimentación que obtengamos de la comunidad en general podremos decidir si repetiremos la experiencia. Invito a las personas a que prueben al menos uno de los juegos, el que más llame su atención, y compartan su opinión en la misma página
Right now we're focusing on the outreach of the games and in collaboration. If the comments and the feedback are generally positive we can repeat the experience. I invite people to try at least one of the games, the one that calls their attention the most, and to leave a comment on that page.
This post was originally published on Rafael Uzcátegui‘s blog and has been re-edited by Global Voices with his permission.

author: Rafael Uzcátegui


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After 121 Years, the First Indigenous Singer Performs at Brazil’s Teatro Amazonas · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Djuena Tikuna during her performance at the Teatro Amazonas. Image: screenshot, Jornalistas Livres (Youtube)
On 23 August, Djuena Tikuna became the first indigenous singer to perform on the stage of the Teatro Amazonas (“Amazonas Theatre”) — a bastion of European culture in the middle of the world’s largest tropical forest.
The 32-year-old artist produced and starred in the launch of her work Tchautchiüãne, or ‘my village’ in the Tikuna language. The album was inspired by the Amazonian rubber boom, which saw the massive exploitation of the region's rubber trees — and the region's people — beginning at the turn of the 20 century.
The state of Amazonas has one of the largest indigenous populations, making up around 17% of the 896,000 indigenous people currently live in Brazil.
Djuena is from the Tikuna people — Brazil’s largest indigenous ethnic group – and identifies as a “singer of the indigenous movement”. According to Djuena, the Tikuna are a “very musical” people; she learned from her mother, who learned from her grandmother, who, in turn, learned from her ancestors.
Her lyrics are full of activist spirit; they speak of matters dear to her community, such as the environment and the demarcation of lands. More importantly, she sings in the Tikuna language, which, for her, is a political choice:
Alguns povos não falam mais a sua língua. Já pensou se canto em português? Os jovens que estão me assistindo vão querer me imitar. Mesmo na cidade, temos de manter a língua e a identidade.
Some peoples no longer speak their language. Can you imagine if I sang in Portuguese? The youth who are watching me will want to imitate me. Even in the city, we have to keep our language and identity.
To understand what her show means for Brazil’s indigenous peoples, it is useful to look at the history of the Teatro Amazonas itself.
The building, in central Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, was designed by the Portuguese Institute of Engineering and Architecture of Lisbon and inaugurated in 1896, at the peak of rubber exploitation in the region.
In an era when the automobile industry was taking its first steps, the discovery of extracting rubber from the seringueira trees — commonly found in the Amazon — proved to be an extremely lucrative business, and attracted hordes of investors, adventurers, and workers from other parts of Brazil.
The industry used indigenous techniques to extract natural rubber from the trees, and the wealth it generated turned the state capitals of northern Brazil into some of the country’s richest. As a show of this new wealth, the local elite proposed and financed the construction of the Teatro Amazonas — a project which was actually built by indigenous workers.
The conversion of many indigenous people into poor workers was not the only damage done by the rubber boom; this period was characterized by the mass expulsion of various tribes from their lands.
121 years has passed since indigenous workers built the Teatro Amazonas, and for the first time, an indigenous performer took to the stage of one of that era’s most important landmarks.
When still a child, Djuena left the village and went to live in Manaus. In a piece reported by the website Jornalistas Livres, she says the idea to take her show to the Teatro Amazonas came from a question she asked herself: “Why can't I sing there? Because I'm indigenous?”
She adds:
Quando eu cantei no palco do Teatro Amazonas com eles, que nós batemos os pés, é uma forma de eu estar dizendo: estamos aqui, parentes. Vocês sofreram por causa dessa construção, mas nós estamos aqui, vamos continuar aqui lutando e vamos continuar aqui resistindo.
When I sang on the stage of the Teatro Amazonas with them, and we beat our feet, it is a way of me saying: we are here, kinsmen. You suffered because of this building, but we are here, we will continue fighting here and resisting here.
The video ends with calls of “Demarcação já!” (“[Land] demarcation now!”) which is part of campaigns — including a protest song released by artists earlier this year — to defend remaining indigenous lands by ensuring full legal recognition, an issue which has been further weakened under Brazil's current president Michel Temer’s government.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Fake News Tries to Link Austria’s Chancellor-to-Be and Philanthropist George Soros · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Screenshot from the Macedonian aggregator Time.mk displaying links to media articles spreading the fake news that Kurz forbid Soros foundations in Austria. Click to enlarge.
Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of Open Society Foundations.
Days after Sebastian Kurz's party won the most votes in Austria's elections, making him chancellor designate, a known fake news purveyor spread false information that Kurz's first order of business was to expel Open Society Foundations, the philanthropic organization founded by Hungarian-American magnate George Soros, from the country.
The article, published on October 19 by a website called YourNewsWire.com, is completely invented. Kurz hasn't assumed office yet; he is set to do so in November, and therefore could make no such order for Open Society Foundations to “cease and desist operations in Austria.” And Open Society Foundations does not have any offices in Austria to begin with.
As noted by Media Matters for America, a US-based media watchdog, YourNewsWire often spreads disinformation and has been accused of being a “proxy” for the Russian government:
YourNewsWire was classified as a “proxy” for Russia by the European Union’s East StratCom Task Force, a task force established to fight Russian propaganda. U.S. intelligence official and Kremlin propaganda expert Joel Harding similarly said the site has been “used by the Russians as a proxy site to spread disinformation.” The site is one of the most prominent fake news purveyors to receive a verification check mark from Facebook, granting it a degree of legitimacy that enables the spread of its fake narratives. The verification also contributes to the argument that Facebook is toothless when it comes to combating Russian influence in American politics.
The particular Kurz-Soros item was spread on social media and through other sites claiming to fight “the new world order.” Soros is a controversial figure, and his progressive philanthropy promoting open societies is often demonized in certain right-wing circles and even figures in conspiracy theories about world domination.
This was not the first attempt to connect Kurz and Soros with disinformation, although interestingly, the previous instance tried to present the future Austrian chancellor minister as a pawn of the businessman. As the Guardian newspaper reported on October 15:
The Schmutzkübel (dirt bucket) scandal, which rocked Austrian politics two weeks ago, centred on at least two Facebook sites posting Photoshopped images and video clips that accused Kurz of secretly paving the way for a new wave of immigration from Islamic countries, and of being part of the “dubious political network” of the Hungarian-American financier George Soros.
Right-wing populist politicians and their supporters in the Balkans celebrated Kurz and the Austrian People’s party's (ÖVP) election victory, pointing to the win as proof that their cause is popular. ÖVP's dominance could also bring tangible benefit in terms of influencing European Union institutions.
However, the disinformation linking their perceived ally in Kurz to their designated arch enemy Soros didn't appear to receive traction in media under their control, with the exception of Macedonia.
In Macedonia, only the media belonging to the propaganda machine of the former ruling party VMRO-DPMNE tried to promote the Kurz-Soros fake news item, incorporating it within their permanent campaign of promoting conspiracy theories centered on Soros.
VMRO-DPMNE had been receiving open diplomatic support by Russia in recent years, and one of its propagandists even recieved a medal from Putin in 2015. Several times during the election campaigns in recent years Kurz had come to Macedonia to express support for them as part of their cooperation within the European People's Party.
A search via the country's leading news aggregator Time.mk, which only covers around a hundred and sixty of most influential sites in Macedonia (out of several thousand), shows that three media outlets echoed the YourNewsWire article, and those outlets are directly owned by party officials or their close cronies.
A Google search with the keywords “Soros” and “Kurz” displays a number of articles based on recent fake news. Click to enlarge.
The articles were then picked by smaller sites, which can be placed into two categories. The first are right-wing blogs that push a pro-VMRO-DPMNE stance, which is why on one such site the YourNewsWire article received the headline, “This is how Sorosoids end up in a normal country: New Austrian Chancelor Sebastian Kurz chases Soros out of Austria.” The term “Sorosoids” is a term invented by VMRO-DPMNE propagandists to mark and target dissidents during their rule.
The second involves websites that promote themselves as topical, for instance, as a resource on the Christian religion. Such sites don't advertise themselves as sources of political news, and their staff is most often anonymous.
In one case, the bulk of the site's content consists of advice on how to observe a certain holiday or how to cleanse oneself from the Halloween demons through a pilgrimage tour to a certain monastery organized by a sponsoring tourist agency. However, an author at the website, who signs as “Christ” (Hrist), found it important to misinform their readers that “Kurz bans Soros – Rothschild is next!!!” referring to the famous banking family that also often figures in anti-semitic conspiracy theories.
None of the media outlets which spread the fake news have published a correction or retraction, even though social media users have been reacting to almost all instances of sharing.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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In Paraguay, a Community Fights for the Right to Grow Food · Global Voices
Kurtural

In Paraguay alone, between 700 or 800 varieties of mandioca (also called yuca or cassava) are grown on 445,000 acres, yielding 6 million tons of the staple crop. Photo by Juana Barreto. Used with permission.
This post is an abridged version of a story produced by Kurtural and published on Global Voices with the author’s permission. It is part of the series “The landless don’t go to the supermarket,” which will be published and re-edited by Global Voices.
Before dawn, Severiano Ruiz Díaz detonates an explosive firework beside his house, but his children slept right through the blast. Throughout the rest of the community of Primero de Marzo, Ruiz Díaz’s neighbors wait, listening for a second explosion that would signal the presence of police. But today, there is no second blast, and a new day begins for the 300-plus families in Primero de Marzo, a community where food is plentiful in a hungry nation.
Primero De Marzo is an asentamiento or informal settlement, one of at least 200 similar communities established by landless farmers in Paraguay. It has three schools, no church, and nearly 2,500 acres of rich red soil.
The settlement of smallholder farmers is surrounded by soy fields, engulfed by mechanized farming in a country that is the world’s fourth largest exporter of the crop. But in an effort to encourage family agriculture, Primero de Marzo prohibits cultivating soy within its territory. Instead, the community sustains itself through a diverse array of crops.
Paraguay’s small farmers face many obstacles. In Primero de Marzo, those include the lack of roads and competition from contraband produce smuggled in from abroad. Photo by Juana Barreto. Used with permission.
Their small fields are the the last plots of land in the county where food crops — not commodities — are grown. They harvest two kinds of bananas, three varieties of corn, four types beans, sugar cane, yerba mate, peanuts, papaya, sweet potatoes, watermelon and cassava.
Each member of the settlement is assigned at most 25 acres of land, which totals a little less than half of the 4,000-plus hectares of land whose ownership in disputed by the residents, the Paraguayan government, and a group of powerful landowners — the Bendlin Family.
During the long-running dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, the Bendlin family illegally traded an airplane for the land where Primero de Marzo now stands, an airplane that does not exist in the country’s official aeronautical records. The family are the Paraguayan representatives of a famous German vehicle brand; have relations with Paraguay’s president, Horacio Cartes; and own a lot of real estate in Paraguay’s largest city and capital, Asunción.
The Bendlins were accused of hiring thugs who harassed Primero de Marzo for years and who, on June 11, 2014, attempted to kill Severiano Ruiz Díaz.
But bullets aren’t the community’s only problem. Police have officially evicted the community from their lands on three occasions, burning houses, destroying crops and confiscating or killing livestock. Government officials have charged members of the community with crimes of occupying land and accused them of criminal association. In contrast, the attack on Severiano Ruiz Díaz and instances of police violence during the evictions have not been investigated.
Activities in Primero de Marzo begin early and include the whole family. Photo by Juana Barreto. Used with permission.
Severiano Ruiz Díaz speaks about the evictions while finishing breakfast in the hallway of his family’s wooden home. It’s the second house he’s built here, just five meters from the first house that police burned to the ground. The new building is small, but has basic amenities like electricity, thanks to the 14 miles of power lines the community installed themselves to serve all the families in Primero de Marzo.
For rural farmers, the right to land transcends purely economical considerations: It is the right to a domain, the right to exist. But it is a right enjoyed by few in Paraguay. About 94 percent of the nation’s arable land is farmed using mechanized agricultural techniques to produce commodities for export, including soy, corn and wheat.
Conventional agribusiness requires only one employee for roughly every 500 acres, or 40 times fewer jobs than the style of smallholder agriculture practiced in Primero de Marzo — the kind of agriculture that got Severiano Ruiz Díaz shot.
Paraguay faces extreme inequality in land ownership, according to the Gini Index, which measures the extent to which incomes deviate from perfectly equal distribution. Fifteen landowners in Paraguay together hold property twice the size of Puerto Rico, while more than 300,000 Paraguayan families own no land at all.
Every June, the colors of harvest fill Primero de Marzo. Along the crooked path worn by tractors and motorcycles, you can see fields of corn, banana and towering manioca rocking in a winter breeze. These are days of “halfway peace” say the residents.
The community’s agricultural abundance stands in contrast to the violence it has endured, and to the reality of the entire country: Every day, 700,000 Paraguayans face hunger. None of them lives in Primero de Marzo.
Nonetheless, the farmers of Primero de Marzo struggle to sell their products to a hungry nation. The problem begins with transporting their harvest: inadequate roads and exploitative middlemen. Then — even if products reach Paraguay’s main produce market, Mercado Abasto — they must compete against the prices of contraband produce, much of which comes from Argentina.
Although the Paraguayan government is committed to supporting smallholder agriculture in theory, between 2013 and 2016 the importation of fruits and vegetables to Paraguay doubled. Between 2003 and 2013, the number of acres dedicated to growing tomatoes, a staple of Paraguayan cuisine, was halved. This loss of production and diminishment of Paraguay’s food sovereignty has resulted in recurring periods where tomatoes cost more than five times their usual price in Asuncion.
Farmers in Primero de Marzo grow three kinds of corn: white, tupí, and chipá, but famers complain that they have no market for their harvest. Photo by Juana Barreto. Used with permission.
The families in the settlement still inhabit a territory of uncertainty. But while their land remains in dispute, a second generation is growing up in Primero de Marzo, a generation that has inhabited these lands since birth. A generation of children that run and laugh and splash in mud puddles and go to school. Who, like Ruiz Díaz’s children, hope that lunch will be chicken stew.
And while these children grow, the community of Primero de Marzo keeps waiting, each morning, for a second explosion.

author: Kurtural


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Activist Faces Imprisonment For His Book Criticizing The Indian River Inter-Linking Project · Global Voices
Rezwan

India River Inter-Linking Project map. Image by AmyNorth via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0
On 22 October, police in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu charged Indian educator, researcher, and activist T. Jayaraman for comments allegedly made in his recently published book. Police in Mayiladuthurai — a town in Tamil Nadu — offcially accused Jayaraman of speaking against national sovereignty and integration, an act punishable under the Indian Penal Code Section 153B (1)(b).
Jayaraman is a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai and a researcher in climate policy. He is also known for his activism in stopping a coal bed methane (CBM) gas project in Tamil Nadu.
Last July, Jayaraman was also arrested — along with eight others — for participating in protests against the Indian multinational, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and its oil extraction in Kathiramangalam in Tamil Nadu. For the 42 days he was detained at the Tiruchirappalli Central Prison, Jayaraman penned the 48-page booklet at the center of the current conflict.
The booklet titled, “Nathigalai Inaippum Aarugalai Pidungi Virkkum India” (Interlinking of Rivers and India Snatching and Selling Its Rivers), was released the same day Jayaraman was charged, and allegedly addresses concerns about the possibility that the River Inter-Linking project would lead to corporate control of public water sources.
FIR filed against Anti-Methane protester T Jayaraman reportedly for Speaking& Publishing against d Integrity of nation.@NewIndianXpress pic.twitter.com/Ik5htJjtWc
— M Manikandan (@Mani_TNIE) October 29, 2017
The Indian Rivers Inter-link is a large-scale civil engineering project that aims to connect 37 Himalayan and peninsular rivers. The idea is that the water-surplus rivers will be contained with dams, and the excess water will be diverted by a network of reservoirs and canals to rivers that need more water flow. This project is aimed at reducing persistent floods in some parts of the country and water shortages in others. However, ecologists and environmentalists have warned that the project is imprudent, dangerous and a disaster in waiting. More than half a million people are likely to be displaced in the process, and a lot of cultivable lands will be destroyed.
According to Jayaraman, the project is not only imprudent, but could also lead to corporate control of public water sources:
…the corporate companies are funding this project, and in return, the rivers will be under their control and the farmers and public have to buy water from these corporate companies and the book deals with these problems.
Jayaraman claimed that the charges are baseless and the book is not against national unity. He also asked:
How is this a democracy if I am not allowed to express my thoughts? Are we not allowed to write against government schemes anymore?
People reacted to the situation on Twitter:
This is sad! Have people lost their right to critique govt plans such as this, finally?https://t.co/jfC3IxgrFs
— Ranjan Panda (@ranjanpanda) October 30, 2017
Can anybody make me understand how opposing govts policies become sedition?
https://t.co/Pes3JsZu4v
— काणो बाबो (@Ghoomta_Aaena) October 31, 2017
This. Is. Despicable. Debate cannot be stifled; dissent must not be silenced. The law must not be misused. https://t.co/U6tikIeN4Q
— JayEnAar (@GorwayGlobal) October 30, 2017
In the past, the Tamil Nadu government has used sedition laws to target anti-nuclear protestors. In December 2011, more than 6,000 protestors from fishing villages of Idinthakarai and Kudankulam were charged under Section 121 (waging war against the government) and Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code for their protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. In 2016, sedition charges were also filed against Amnesty International India, on the grounds that certain slogans used in one of their events were insulting to India.
Lawyer and Activist Prashant Bhushan from New Delhi writes in Facebook:
Sedition case for writing against river linking! This is a most financially, socially, environmentally disastrous idea.
Outrageous. The Tamil Nadu Police is a law unto itself. In 2012 they filed 8000 sedition cases for a single protest. https://t.co/G4SwVsRU3s pic.twitter.com/mpvJaYUOeB
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) October 30, 2017
It remains to be seen whether the case against Professor Jayaraman will hold up. In the case of Kedarnath vs the State of Bihar (1962), the Indian Supreme court outlines the limits of a citizens right to criticize government:
A citizen has the right to write or speak anything about the government or its measures, by way of criticism or comment so long that it does not incite people to do violence against the government established by law or with the intention of disrupting public order.

author: Rezwan


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In Offhand Remark, Putin Says Someone Is Harvesting Russians’ Biological Material · Global Voices
Christopher Moldes

Mash-up of Vladimir Putin's portrait and the “Ancient Aliens” meme by L. Finch.
Vladimir Putin has had his share of choice quotes, some of which have inspired a “Who Said It?” quiz challenging readers to distinguish between his real quotes and those of the patriarch of the “Game of Thrones” Lannister family, Tywin Lannister.
At a meeting of Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights on October 30, President Putin had ample opportunity to provide more material for people to scrutinize as he fielded questions on a variety of topics, from current events like the knife attack on journalist Tatyana Felgengauer and corruption cases, to Stalin-era repression.
His tangentially related response to a seemingly innocuous question, however, has raised eyebrows across the RuNet.
The question came from Igor Borisov, the director of the “Russian Social Institute for Electoral Rights”, who in lengthy commentary described the problem of poll station observers taking pictures of voters as they entered to cast their votes. After describing his view of the problem, he finally got to his question:
Для чего такое количество интересантов смотрит наши выборы и проводит видеозапись фактически образа человека и как он дальше будет использоваться с учётом тех технологий, которые сегодня существуют? То есть лично я озабочен тем, что образы моих сограждан оказываются в чужих руках, и непонятно, как и для каких целей они там будут находиться.
Why are so many self-interested people watching our elections and recording video with actual images of people, and how will this further be used, considering the technology that exists today? That is, I personally am worried that the images of my fellow citizens are ending up in the hands of strangers, and it’s not clear how and for what purpose.
By way of response, Putin promised to look into the results of Borisov’s investigations, adding that he would look into those poll-watching organizations that were financed abroad. Things took a turn for the strange when he added:
По поводу того, что образы наших граждан, избирателей собираются кем-то и как-то используются… Образы-то ладно, а вы знаете, что биологический материал собирается по всей стране, причём по разным этносам и людям, проживающим в разных географических точках Российской Федерации? Вот вопрос: вот это зачем делают?Делают целенаправленно и профессионально. Мы – такой объект очень большого интереса
As far as your concern that someone is collecting images of our citizens and voters and using them in some way…images are one thing, but did you know that biological material is being collected across the whole country, notably among different ethnic groups and people living in different geographic points of the Russian Federation? Here’s the question: Why are they doing this? They’re doing it systematically and professionally. We’re a subject of great interest.
The unexpected tangent was immediately pounced upon by media outlets. Mediazona, a media outlet founded by two members of protest punk rock group Pussy Riot, posted this tweet, as they were dumbfounded by the biomaterial reference:
Помогите Медиазоне понять, о чём говорит Владимир Владимирович (звучит тема из X-Files) pic.twitter.com/8iL5ZGWSTe
— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) 30 октября 2017 г.
[Image: “Did you know that biological material is being collected across the whole country, notably among different ethnic groups and people living in different geographic points of the Russian Federation? Here’s the question: Why are they doing this?”
- President Vladimir Putin]
Help Mediazona understand what Vladimir Vladimirovich is talking about (the X-Files theme plays)
Independent TV channel Dozhd offered up this mashup of footage of Putin solemnly riding a bus accompanied by music from the famous Soviet-era spy miniseries, “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, with the caption: “Who is gathering the biological material of Russians”:
pic.twitter.com/ZaGz0K3E0u
— Телеканал Дождь (@tvrain) 31 октября 2017 г.
The Russian Twitter commentariat also had their fun:
Россиянин под гипнозом сдает биоматериал для ЦРУ pic.twitter.com/igZB8dHYBA
— ??✨ (@OraclePigFuntik) 30 октября 2017 г.
Russians under hypnosis submit their biomaterial to the CIA
2004 год В.Путин:Если семь лет быть президентом,то с ума можно сойти.
2017 год В.Путин:Неизвестные силы собирают биоматериал по всей стране.
— HELO (@AgriDilan) 30 октября 2017 г
2004 Putin: If you’re president for seven years, you can go crazy.
2017 Putin: Unknown forces are collecting biomaterial across the country.
The cartoonist for US government-funded Radio Svoboda had a go, too, offering up this amusing take:
Свежий Ёлкин:
pic.twitter.com/c978NYWi6T
— Догоняй! Е7Ы09 (@mix_voronezh) 31 октября 2017 г.
Urine sample collection: 8 to 10 am
Despite these humorous takes, there seems to be some truth to what Putin said. Russian Senator Frantz Klintzevich did not discount Putin’s words, saying in a Facebook post:
Я не утверждаю, что речь непосредственно идет о подготовке биологической войны против России. Но ее сценарии несомненно разрабатываются. Как говорится, вдруг возникнет необходимость.
I’m not claiming that there’s ongoing preparation for a biological war against Russia, per se. But these scenarios are undoubtedly being worked out.  As they say, it may suddenly become necessary.
The same day, LifeNews, a media agency that some have alleged has ties to Russia’s security services, ran a lengthy article titled “Genetic weapon against Russia. Why are the Americans collecting our biomaterial?” Claiming that the majority of people reacted with irony to what Putin said, the first part of the article is an explainer of what exactly can be considered a biological weapon.
The second section is devoted to documented instances of the collection of Russian biomaterial but for nominally scientific purposes. The collection of Russian biomaterial for the study of arthritis is mentioned, specifically a case of the United Air States Air Force looking to collect exclusively Russian material to further research on diminishing its effects on the population.
This exact story was referenced by a pro-government blogger, who said:
Вчера посмеивались над словами Путина, что иностранцы собирают биоматериалы граждан РФ.
А это давно не новость: https://t.co/pe8FvkZbWF
— Илья Ремесло (@iremeslo) 31 октября 2017 г.
Yesterday, everyone laughed at Putin’s words about foreigners collecting the biomaterial of citizens of the Russian Federation. This hasn’t been news for a while.
The LifeNews article goes a bit further, stating:
Естественно, нельзя исключать и тайного сбора, действительно ведущегося на территории нашей страны. Но, как правило, подобные вещи гораздо проще замаскировать под открытое взятие биоматериалов с какой-нибудь другой целью. Представить агентов тайно, под покровом ночи заставляющих россиян плюнуть в пробирку — это уже тянет на паранойю.
Of course, we can’t exclude secret collections, which are definitely carried out on our country’s territory. However, as a rule, such things are more easily masked as collecting biomaterials for some other reason. Imagining agents, under the cover of night, secretly forcing Russians to spit into test tubes is already bordering on paranoia.
Clearly enjoying themselves, they also present another theory, that agencies like the CIA are afraid of Russian sleeper agents and could be interested in biological materials as a way of testing genotypes of suspected double-agents. The author discounts this theory, citing the difficulties in determining genotypes of any given nation’s population, and commenting on America’s ethnic “melting pot”, which would make any such testing quite unfeasible in determining whether someone was truly a sleeper agent.
There is a scientific consensus around this last part. A Russian biologist at Moscow State University commented on the notion of a genetic weapon and stressed the improbability of its development:
Про генетическое оружие – это какая-то омерзительная ложь. Такого оружия не бывает. Люди слишком похожи друг на друга, чтобы можно было создать специфическое оружие против какой-то расы. Наверное, возможно создать – очень дорого и очень сложно – создать оружие против какого-нибудь очень маленького этноса, который последнюю тысячу лет ни с кем не смешивался. Русские таким этносом не являются. Вероятно, можно, потратив безумные деньги, придумать, как истребить жителей условных Андаманских островов. Но для этого есть более простые способы
A genetic weapon is just a repulsive lie. There’s no such thing as this. People are too similar to each other for someone to be able to create a specific weapon against one race. It’s probably possible, but very expensive and difficult to create a weapon against a very small ethnic group which for the past thousand years has never interbred with anyone. Russians aren’t this sort of ethnic group. It’s probably possible, after spending an absurd amount of money, to think up ways to exterminate the residents of, let's say, the Andaman Islands, but there are simpler ways.
This echoes the ending of the LifeNews article, which ends with a warning against this paranoia:
Волноваться не стоит: генетическое оружие не стоит у нас на пороге, а сборы если и ведутся, то с научными, а не военными целями.
It’s not worth worrying about: genetic weapons aren’t on our doorstep, and if they are collecting, then it’s for scientific and not military purposes.

author: Christopher Moldes


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Despite Victories, the Fight for Afro-Mexican Recognition Has a Way to Go · Global Voices
Shirley Campbell Barr

Anaí Herrera, one of the leading dancers of the Afro-Mexican dance group of Oaxaca. Screen capture of a report made by Gustavo Mora for AJ+ on YouTube.
As occurs in many parts of Latin America, Mexicans of African descent have been ignored for decades. The common citizen does not acknowledge them as an ethnic group with unique characteristics, and until recently there was no place to identify as an African descendant on the census.
In 2015, Mexico's National Institute of Statistics (INEGI) finally recognized their existence, defining them as a community with an ethnic identity of their own. Nevertheless, Afro-Mexicans continue to be left out of the legal framework of the country, and are not recognized by the Constitution of the United States of Mexico. In its second article, the constitution refers to the free will and autonomy of indigenous people, but the text makes no mention of people of African descent.
According to INEGI,  Afro-Mexicans are located mainly in the states Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. The institute's “Socio-Demographic Profile of the Population fo African Descent in Mexico” reports 1,381,853 African descendants in Mexico, or, one out of every 100 Mexican citizens. Guerrero reports 6.5% of its population as being Afro-Mexicans, Oaxaca follows with 4.9%, and Veracruz has 3.3%.
Afro-Mexicans face many of the same prejudices and stereotypes that populations of African descent suffer throughout all of Latin America. They are not represented on a political level, and they are marginalized, with limited access to services such as education. Their history is not documented and therefore is absent from the school curriculum. In general, Afro-Mexicans experience discriminatory treatment daily, which can include jokes, humiliation, and even doubts about their citizenship.
Likewise, Afro-Mexicans are poorly represented in traditional media, which studies have highlighted as an influential factor in the discrimination they encounter.
Nevertheless, Afro-Mexicans are far from ignoring their roots, and there are groups devoted to celebrating Afro-Mexican identity and bringing recognition to ancestral traditions. For example, a brief report by AJ+ published in December 2016 shows a group of women in Oaxaca who recreate dances from northeast Africa with the help of YouTube:
And in August 2017, the video channel spotlighted the Movement of Afro-Mexican Women, in which three Afro-Mexican women describe their personal process of self-recognition and how they've organized together to demand recognition as a whole for their community:
Many of the comments that the video generated on Facebook were negative, and in a way confirmed the struggle for recognition that the women were describing.
Some comments demonstrated the difficulty of accepting Afro-Mexicans as part of the national demographic map with a separate name:
Mi pensamiento es que son mexicanas y ya no importa que sean morenas o blancas son mexicanas y punto así como muchas comunidades indígenas simplemente por haber nacido en territorio mexicano son mexicanos y punto así que a las mujeres que hablan en el vídeo eso es lo que pienso y punto.!
I think that [these women] are Mexicans and it doesn't matter if they're dark skinned or white, they're Mexicans and that's it; just like many indigenous communities that simply because they were born in Mexican territory are Mexicans and that's it. So, to the women of the video, that's what I think and that's it!.
Others thought the recognition of Afro-Mexicans would contribute to the separation of people based on race:
¿Por qué esa necedad de hacer diferencias por razas? Humanidad es una y nuestro México es pluricultural, lo cual está plenamente reconocido en la Constitución, en la cual no se señalan las etnías existentes o no. Se les reconoce plenamente con la Ley de usos y costumbres. Me parece que ese movimiento “Afro mexicano”, no es sino querer seguir el existente en EU, puesto que allá las raíces de su gente está muy señalada, pero en el nuestro, nuestras raíces son una rica unión de “razas”, etnias, usos, costumbres y tradiciones. Somos una sola Nación con un solo pueblo: los mexicanos. Ahora que si de raíces hablamos, TODA la humanidad tiene sus raíces en África ¿o acaso ya se olvidaron de “Lucy”?
Why the need to make differences based on race? Humanity is one and our Mexico is multicultural. That's widely acknowledged by the constitution. I think that this “Afro-Mexican” movement is nothing but wanting to follow the same movement in the US, since the roots of that people is well known out there. But ours, our roots are a rich union of “races”, ethnicities, customs and traditions. We're one nation with one people: the Mexicans. Now, if we talk about roots, ALL humanity has its roots in Africa, or did you forget about “Lucy“?
Other comments denied certain signs of racism against the African-descendant population in Mexico, and highlighted, on the contrary, discrimination against white people:
A mi me descriminan por ¡ser rubia! Todo me dan más caro en los mercados y donde me pare. Por ser blanca te tachan de idiota. ¿acaso el ser blanca es sinónimo de tener billetes? ¡Que bonito fuera! Además con tantas ednias en el país yo tengo sangre francesa, china, alemana, mexicana. ¿A cual me dirijo?…
Ser víctima por el color, en este país para mi no aplica ya en estos tiempos. sentirte bella del color que seas si.
I get discriminated against for being blond! They sell everything more expensive to me in markets or wherever I go. When you're white, they think you're an idiot. Is being white a synonym of having money? That would be nice! Besides, with so many ethnicities in the country, I have French, Chinese, German and Mexican blood. Which one do I keep? Being a victim because of the color of your skin in this country, these days, I think, is not valid, what is valid is to feel beautiful no matter what color you are.
Also, another comment argued that racism in Mexico is contradictory and that it is not exclusively against people of African descent:
En México el racismo no es a la raza negra. Es a cualquiera q sea un poco diferente , pero q no sea indigena pq ahi si es un pecado. Nos enseñan a querer la cultura indígena, a estar orgullosos de nuestros antepasados, pero no al indígena, ni nos mencionan q ellos son descendientes directos de las culturas antiguas y q hay q respetarlos.
Racism in Mexico is not against people with black skin. It's against anyone who's a bit different… But God forbid if it's against indigenous peoples! We're taught to love indigenous cultures, to be proud of our ancestors, but not [to love or to be proud of] indigenous peoples [of today]. They don't tell us they're direct descendants of those cultures and that we should respect them.
The reality is that Afro-Mexicans are discriminated against, no matter what the law says, according to Israel López Larrea, the coordinator of the Alliance for the Strengthening of the Indigenous Regions and Afro-Mexican Communities (or AFRICA for short).
In a note shared by Margarita Warnholtz Locht (also known as La Tlacuila, which means “painter” or “illustrator” in náhuatl) on independent news site Animal Político, López Larrea stated:
Hay quienes dicen que ante la ley todos somos iguales, todos somos mexicanos y que pensar diferente es ser discriminatorio o racista. Quienes esto aseveran es porque seguramente no les han sido violentados sus derechos, efectivamente ante la ley todos somos iguales, sin embargo, si esta letra fuera efectiva, no habría necesidad alguna de estar pugnando por nuestros derechos, pero cuando no eres libre de andar en tu propio país, cuando hay necesidad de que por tu apariencia física tengas que cantar el himno nacional o presentar la credencial, cuando por tu apariencia tienes que saber quién es el gobernador de tu estado y en qué estación del año se dan determinados productos ahí es en donde te das cuenta de que no todos somos iguales ante la ley y que es necesaria la exigencia de nuestros derechos.

author: Shirley Campbell Barr


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Fire Balloon Competition in Myanmar’s Taunggyi Celebrates ‘Festival of Lights’ · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
This article by Zaw Zaw is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Shan State capital Taunggyi this week to celebrate the annual balloon festival held around the full moon day of Tazaungmone, the eighth month of the Myanmar Calendar.
The balloon festival takes place from October 26 to November 4 this year and is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” The week marks the end of Kahtein, where robes are given to Buddhist monks.
Each year, teams of locals launch homemade hot air balloons made of paper and bamboo in a competition that concludes the day after the full moon, which this year falls on Friday.
Although the British reportedly introduced the annual balloon competition during the colonial era, the practice is also considered an offering of light to Buddhist spirits.
During the day, balloons are launched and a fairground runs at the site of the festival—a field on the outskirts of the mountaintop town of Taunggyi.
The festival is one of the most famous and significant cultural celebrations in Myanmar. As much as it is spectacular, it is also one of the most dangerous festivals where people are sometimes injured—and even killed—in accidents while launching the balloons.
See more photos of the festival below:
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy
The balloon festival is part of the Buddhist celebration of Tazaungdaing, or the “Festival of Lights.” Photo: Zaw Zaw/ The Irrawaddy

author: The Irrawaddy


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Miss Peru Pageant Protests Gender Violence to International Applause, but not all Peruvians Are Clapping · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Screenshot from Al Jazeera: “Miss Peru contenders turn pageant into gender violence protest.” Available on YouTube
When contestants in this year's Miss Peru contest exposed the alarming numbers related to violence against women, the international media gave a standing ovation. But in Peru, not everyone clapped.
During the pageant, images linked to the #niunamenos (not one more) campaign and pictures of cases in the press filled the background while contestants walked on stage. Jessica Newton, the pageant's organizer and the person behind the initiative, said she came up with the idea after learning that several of the 30 contestant finalists had been abused or harassed. Peruvian social media exploded with comments for and against the protest.
The storm of opinions over the pageant reignited the controversial hashtag #PeruPaisdeVioladores (Peru, Country of Rapists), sparking heated debates online. The hashtag came as a response to the case of a census worker who was sexually attacked while gathering data for the 2017 national census.
For many, the hashtag was an abusive generalization and therefore an unfair way of representing the country while for others, the numbers were far more alarming than making clear that not every man in Peru was involved in sexual assault:
15mil violaciones en 8 meses. Pero crees que no somos un país de violadores porque tú y tu papá no lo son.#PeruPaisDeVioladores https://t.co/cMwpxDHwka
— Giselle (@GiselleOstojic) October 26, 2017
15000 cases of rape in 8 months. But you think we're not a country of rapists because you and your dad are not.
The discussion extended to the meaning and contradiction behind the idea of a beauty pageant joining a campaign against sexism and violence against women. Critics accused the initiative as a stunt to improve ratings and call attention to the pageant itself. Despite contestants’ bluntness about the gravity of the situation, they couldn't elaborate much on the subject during the Q & A portion of the contest.
¿De qué sirve un #MissPerú ‘feminista’ si es que las candidatas no saben qué responder cuando les preguntan sobre violencia contra la mujer?
— Franco Mori Petrovic (@francomorip) October 30, 2017
What good is a “feminist” Miss Peru if the contestants don't know what to answer when they're asked about violence against women?
Raising awareness about violence against women while walking on stage in a bikini seemed difficult to grasp for those critical of the pageant's protest, who questioned the very structures that objectify women and contribute to a climate of violence against women.
Matan a las mujeres xq las consideran un objeto de su propiedad. Para cambiar esa mentalidad, vamos a hacerlas desfilar en bikini #MissPeru
— Ojos de Uva (@ojosdeuva) October 30, 2017
They kill women because they consider them an object of their property. To change that mentality, let's make them walk on stage in a bikini.
Feminist author and online activist “Pamela” expanded on these contradictions in her Medium piece “Miss Peru: ‘Let's Demand More, We Deserve More.'” She explains why not everyone in Peru is celebrating the pageant organizers’ approach to protesting violence against women:
Primero, hay que reconocer el contexto de la situación. Miss Perú 2017. Un concurso que elige a su ganadora en base a su apariencia física y capacidad de responder preguntas en tiempo record. Donde todas las mujeres son casi idénticas: altas, delgadas […] Lima, Perú. La 5ta ciudad más peligrosa para las mujeres en el mundo […] Estas dos cosas están relacionadas, ambas son producto de una sociedad machista. La cosificación de la mujer es una forma de violencia que nace de una sociedad que solo nos valora por nuestros cuerpos y que piensa que pueden hacer lo que les da la gana con ello.
First, we should recognize the context. Miss Peru 2017. A beauty pageant that chooses its winner based on her physical appearance and the capacity of answering questions in record time. [A contest in which] all women are almost identical: tall, thin […] Peru. The 5th most dangerous city for women in the world. […] These two things are related. They're both the product of a sexist society. The objectification of women is a way of violence that emerges from a society that values us only because of our bodies and think they can do whatever they want with it.
She continues:
Si Latina.pe y Miss Perú en verdad les importara el bienestar de las mujeres peruanas y realizar un cambio potente en nuestra sociedad machista y violenta, hubieran utilizado ese tiempo que dedicó para emitir el certamen para algo más productivo que nombrar a otra reina de “belleza” (física, específica, occidental y que no representa la apariencia de la mayoría de peruanas). Yo no le voy a tirar flores a un certamen porque por fin se dio cuenta que las mujeres peruanas estamos sufriendo en una situación crítica. Nosotras no decimos “nos están matando” o “#PerúPaísDeVioladores” porque nos gusta. Nos duele. Mucho. Nos deprime. Nos parte el alma pero lo gritamos porque es la verdad y no podemos ignorar lo que estamos viviendo.
if Latina.pe [the TV chain transmitting the contest] and Miss Peru really cared for the well being of Peruvian women and wanted to make a powerful change in our sexist and violent society, they would use that air time in something more productive than having yet another “beauty” queen (a queen of a very specific physical beauty: Western, not representative of most Peruvian women). I'm not throwing flowers to the pageant because they finally realized that Peruvian women suffer a grave situation. We're not saying “they're killing us” or #PeruCountryofRapists because we like it. It hurts. A lot. It's depressing. It breaks our souls but we shout it out loud because it's the truth and we can't ignore what we're living.

author: Laura Vidal


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Moroccan Journalists Keep Fighting to Cover the Hirak Movement, Despite State Intimidation · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Protesters at a sit-in in Imzouren, 14km from the city of Al-Hoceima in the Rif region. Photo by AlhoceimasOfficiel. Used with permission
One year after protests erupted in the northern city of Al Hoceima, Moroccan media are still struggling to cover the news, despite intimidation and legal threats from Moroccan authorities.
The protest movement in Morocco's Rif region began with the death of fish vendor Mohsin Fekri on 29 October 2016. Fekri was crushed to death by a garbage truck while trying to retrieve his fish, which had been confiscated by local authorities. The protests have since grown into a “Hirak” or a movement for jobs and economic development, and against marginalization and corruption. Despite a government ban on demonstrations, protests were still held over the weekend to commemorate Fekri's death.
As the unrest continues, journalists are facing a myriad of restrictions including media bans, expulsions and legal threats.
Moroccan freelance journalist Omar Radi, who has been covering the protests himself, told Global Voices that when it comes to reporting on social unrest in the Rif region, “there is a climate of terror.”
“Those who speak to the press can risk going to jail,” he said. “People are afraid to get out of their homes and cops are everywhere.”
At present, at least seven media workers are behind bars for their reporting on the Rif protests.
Outspoken journalist and commentator Hamid Mahdaoui, who runs the independent website Badil.info, was arrested in the city of Al Hoceima, where he traveled to cover protests. On July 20, 2017, Moroccan authorities had imposed a protest ban. When passers-by who recognized him stopped him and started a conversation with him about the Hirak, Mahdaoui criticized the ban. He was accused and convicted of “inciting” a protest.
On appeal, a court increased Mahdaoui’s sentence from three months to one year last September, prompting him to launch a two-week hunger strike.
Badil.info which covers a variety of topics in Morocco including politics, human rights and corruption, is among few independent websites that have been able to report on the protests. But on October 22, 2017, collaborators announced that the site would cease publishing, due to what they described as financial constraints.
Mahdaoui is also known for his outspoken online criticism of the Moroccan authorities, which he expresses primarily through his YouTube channel, where he discusses the political and human rights situation in the country.
In a separate case, Mahdoui has been accused of “not reporting a crime endangering state security” to the authorities, due to a phone conversation (an official recording of which was obtained via wiretap) between himself and a Moroccan anti-monarchy activist based in the Netherlands, in which the activist described a plan to bring weapons into the country.
In addition to Mahdaoui, six citizen journalists who were arrested due to their coverage of the Rif protests are currently behind bars. Among those arrested Mohamed El Asrihi and Jawad Al Sabiry from Rif24.com, a local citizen media website that provided extensive coverage of the protests in Al Hoceima and other cities.
El Asrihi, the editor and director of Rif24.com stands accused of “illegally practicing journalism” because he does not posses a press card. While the site has not been updated since mid June, the Facebook page of Rif 24 continues to provide coverage of the Hirak and the protests.
Although they have seen less harsh consequences, the crackdown has also affected foreign media workers. On 27 September, police detained Iranian-British journalist Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Al-Hoceima and expelled him from the country reasoning that he did not have an “authorization” to report from Morocco. Dehghan, who works for The Guardian, traveled to the Rif region to cover the protest movement and interview activists there.
Morocco is ranked 133rd in the 2017 edition of RSF's World Press Freedom Index. The international press freedom watchdog noted “a slow but steady decline in media freedom” in the country where “the kingdom’s authorities use political and economic pressure to deter local independent media outlets from covering highly sensitive subjects”.
The closure of Badil and repression of various media workers who have played a key role in covering the protests in the Rif region has left Moroccans — and those outside the country — with even fewer ways to stay informed about the social movement.

author: Afef Abrougui