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Interview with Aleksandra Lun, a Polish native who became a celebrated Spanish-language writer · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Cover of Aleksandra Lun's novel “Los palimpsestos” in the original Spanish. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
Exophonic writers — that is, authors who write in a language that isn't their mother tongue — are a growing phenomenon in the 21st century, as migration takes a global scale and flows in various directions. It is important to make a distinction between authors who grew up in a multi-language environment, such as the often-mentioned Vladimir Nabokov, and authors who learned a language as adults and decided to write in what was a foreign language until late in their lives. One contemporary example of the latter case is Jhumpa Lahiri, a Bengali-American English-language author who now writes in Italian.
Aleksandra Lun. Photo by Mirna Pavlović. Used with permission.
Another example is Aleksandra Lun, a native speaker of Polish and accomplished translator who one day decided to write fiction in Spanish, a language she mastered only after she turned 19. Her novel itself is a reflection on linguistic hybridity: “The Palimpsests,” released in 2015 in Spanish and now also available in English, tells the story of Czeslaw Przęśnicki, a Polish writer who migrates to Antarctica where he learns the fictional local language and writes a novel in it.
I talked to Lun about what motivates a writer to embrace an initially foreign language, and what it means to be a celebrated author outside of one's home culture.
Filip Noubel: You were born a native speaker of Polish, learned Spanish at the age of 19 while working in a casino to finance your studies in Spain, and today you are a celebrated and translated Spanish-language writer. How did this linguistic shift happen?
Aleksandra Lun: If we think about the Czech proverb that says that we live a different life in every language we know, I have had several lives, as I am sure many of Global Voices’ readers have had too. According to my calculations, I could be now 136 years old, which is frustrating since I don’t seem to be receiving any retirement benefits! The way I see it, there has been no linguistic shift, only the fact that in one of my lives I am a writer.
We can see languages as multiverses, a concept from a theoretical framework in physics called string theory. Like a multiverse, each language describes a different story, a story that happens simultaneously to all other stories. Writers are just the people who put those stories down.
FN: Do you also write in Polish? Many bilingual or exophonic writers often say that writing in a language that is originally foreign creates a distance which helps them to express things that would otherwise be difficult in their native language. Do you agree with this?
AL: For “The Palimpsests,” I researched into cases of authors who changed languages: illustrious immigrants like Samuel Beckett, Ágota Kristóf, Joseph Conrad, Vladimir Nabokov, Emil Cioran and others. I didn’t find any common denominator since they all had their own reasons not to write in their mother tongue. Some took a time-specific decision to change, others did it naturally. Some switched languages for personal reasons, others for commercial ones. Joseph Conrad used to say that he didn’t choose English at all – it was English that chose him. He also said that English was the only language he could have ever written in, while Ágota Kristóf claimed she would have written in any language. There is a variety of choices and motivations, and they are all legitimate.
I cannot say that I don’t write in Polish since in my translations I write in Polish all the time. But my muses talk to me in Spanish, so translating their voice into Polish would just be double work. Regarding the distance that writing in another language is supposed to create, I think it all depends on the relationship you have with it. To me, Spanish is the most natural choice. Using it is no stranger than brushing my teeth – I might not receive retirement benefits, but I am proud to conserve my own dentition.
English-language cover of the The Palimpsests. Photo provided by Aleksandra Lun, used with permission.
FN: You also work as a professional translator. How does that shape your relationship with languages?
AL: A translator’s work reminds that of doctor Frankenstein’s, since you kill a text in one language and resuscitate it in another. You cut your victim in pieces, put them back together, and wish that they leave your clinic looking better than the patient of Frankenstein. In the process you lose some peace of mind and a lot of preconceived notions about your own language. It is a happy loss since it takes you out of the story of one specific culture and opens you up to a much bigger, common story.
Now you understand what happens under the skin and you start seeing languages beyond the superficial layer of vocabulary and its pronunciation. You see the organs and the connections between them, aka syntax, and you understand that they are just one of many options. And you start asking yourself questions. Why do some languages use definite and indefinite articles? At some point there had to be a powerful and mysterious need to divide reality into “things we know something about” and “things we know nothing about”. As someone who comes from Slavic languages, where we only see “things,” I find it fascinating that we grow up in such different realities.
FN: In your view, what does it mean to “master” or “own” a language?
AL: In Europe or the US we seem to be obsessed with “speaking” a language, the ultimate ownership as opposed to thinking, dreaming or writing in it. Beyond this narrative, which is an effect of the Western world’s dictatorship of extroversion, a language is simply a world that you choose to live in. If you live in that world, you own its language.
FN: Your book is extremely funny, but you also touch on sensitive issues: identity, rejection, migration, exile and the desire to integrate. How does language relate to those issues?
AL: Humour is an effective narrative tool since it brings things back to proportions. When you are an immigrant the last thing that is expected from you is to be funny. If you enter another culture, you are expected to behave as if you were invited to a formal dinner at your auntie’s: sit properly, eat up what you are served, be silent and smile a lot. If you have any interest in culture, you can listen to what the auntie’s intellectual friends have to say, maybe take notes and later try to translate them for your less fortunate friends, the ones that have not been invited. What nobody expects you to do is to arrive at your auntie’s disguised as SpongeBob, sit whenever you please, eat noisily your own vegetarian burger and start telling intellectual jokes.
Equality is difficult to achieve without humour because humour itself is a form of equality.
FN: Your first novel was translated into English and French, and a Dutch translation is underway. How do you prefer to be described? As a Polish writer? A Spanish writer, since your upcoming second novel will also be written in Spanish? Or just a writer?
AL: I can be described as Jack the Ripper, if that satisfies the person describing me! I know that I will always be classified as belonging to this or that other culture, but it doesn’t mean that I need to identify with a label. In our impermanent world, nationality can seem a solid and objective category, but it is one of the least objective ones. It only describes one of your external characteristics from a historical perspective. Your passport says nothing about who you are now.
The concept of national literature is itself an extravagant one. No other art field has been divided into these categories – we don’t hear that much about “Lithuanian rock bands” or “Nigerian photographers”, do we? There is a logistic reason behind a division into nationalities, since a book is coded in a language and needs to be translated to reach audiences that don’t understand it. But once it is re-coded, the human experience it contains doesn’t differ from the one in a book published across the border. A passport itself is not a very interesting read, even if the airport queue is very long. I strongly recommend reading shampoo labels in the shower instead.


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The extrajudicial killing of four accused rapists in India leads to debate about justice system · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Advertisement in Newspaper celebrating the killings. Translation: Four gone. How many left? The country will deliver justice. Widely distributed image from the Facebook page “Indians of Late Capitalism”
The extrajudicial killing of four accused rapists in India has led to a heated debate between those who applaud bypassing the slow-moving wheels of justice and others who feel that it sets a bad precedent.
On 27 November 2019, Dr. Priyanka Reddy was brutally gang-raped and killed in Hyderabad. Around the same time, another rape survivor was set ablaze while on her way to a court hearing, eventually succumbing to cardiac arrest.
With a rise in rape cases across the country, the outpouring of rage was strong and many have demanded a quick response, including stricter laws and actions against rapists. In a speech to the upper house of Parliament, Member of Parliament Jaya Bachchan even said that rapists should be lynched.
A few days after Dr. Priyanka Reddy was found, the Hyderabad police took the four accused men to the site of the crime to recreate the scene. According to the police, the four men tried to flee the crime scene and were shot and killed. Following this news, netizens expressed their opinions on social media, underlining a large divide in public opinions.
An encounter killing is a term used in South Asia (especially India and Pakistan) to describe extrajudicial killings by the police or the armed forces. According to reports, Hyderabad has a long history of encounter killings and people have repeatedly criticized the police for acting as judge, jury, and executioner. The Indian Consitution provides for the protection of citizens from actions taking place outside of the law.
No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law – Article 21 of Indian Constitution
In the case of the four accused rapists, T K Arun writes in the Economic Times that the fundamental rights of the accused were blatantly violated by the state in Hyderabad.
Other netizens took to social media to request that appropriate judicial action be taken in each case.
Shocking. What have we become? What proof was there that these were real culprits? Do we have information on investigation and evidence which prove crime beyond doubt? They perhaps didn't even have a lawyer, didn't get a hearing. Killed in #Encounter and we are celebrating?
— Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) December 6, 2019
Modi’s done a brilliant job at planting the vision of India as a Great Power where use of violence is an evidence of its strength.
But reminder: Bypassing your own justice system and using state violence against your own citizens proves nothing but weakness. #hyderabadpolice
— Gurmehar Kaur (@mehartweets) December 6, 2019
However, an overwhelming outpouring of support for the police has called the extrajudicial killing of the four men a ‘just’ act of retribution.
Finally yes , Let this day be the beginning of new era where children and women feel safe and secure to live in India.
Quick Justice like this will inculcate fear into the Dirty minds ,
Our sincere prayers have been answered #hyderabadpolice
Hats off #Encounter pic.twitter.com/0QbqJGDHBT
— Yogita Bhayana (@yogitabhayana) December 6, 2019
A strong message from the Konidela’s ! ??
Proud to be a woman! #JusticeForDisha #justiceforpriyanakareddy #justiceserved #hyderabadpolice #TelanganaPolice #ramcharan #Chiranjeevi pic.twitter.com/EuXVBh2OkZ
— Upasana Konidela (@upasanakonidela) December 6, 2019
I applaud the #hyderabadpolice who in no time took strong steps & gave befitting punishment to the perpetrators of crime. We shouldn't demoralize police. Cases of fake encounter demoralized Gujarat Police in past. Dr Priyanka Reddy. #justicedelivered #HyderabadEncounter pic.twitter.com/e2m8UvG5Uu
— Parimal Nathwani (@mpparimal) December 7, 2019
#WATCH Hyderabad: Reaction of girl students when news of encounter of the accused in murder and rape of woman veterinarian broke out pic.twitter.com/z238VVDsiC
— ANI (@ANI) December 6, 2019
I think every father, every parent, every brother in the country today stands behind the #hyderabadpolice. My best wishes to them.
— Ashish Khetan (@AashishKhetan) December 6, 2019
A father in Kerala had to kill the rapist and murderer of his 13 year old daughter, coz a Kerala court let the rapist out on bail. The ‘juvenile’ in the #Nirbhaya case is a free man with a sewing machine. In such a situation, how can one NOT be happy with the #encounter?
— Shefali Vaidya (@ShefVaidya) December 6, 2019
According to Times Now News, the victim's father said:
It has been 10 days to the day my daughter died. I express my gratitude towards the police and government for this. My daughter’s soul must be at peace now.
For now, the debate between quick responses and a slow judicial system is at a stalemate.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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Internet blocked as protests intensify in northeast India against the Citizenship Amendment Act · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Protest against Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam. Screenshot from YouTube video by DW News.
Soon after India finalized the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on 12 December 2019 to allow refugees of six different faiths from the neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, violent protests opposing the Act erupted in the northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya. While the Act has been criticized for anti-Muslim bias, most in Assam have been protesting it for fear that it will open the door to Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, and affect the local language and culture.
At least three protestors have died in suspected police firing. Protestors in major cities of Assam and Tripura have been flaming torches and setting car tires and cardboards ablaze. The internet has been blocked since 11 December in Assam and Meghalaya.
Why Guwahati exploded in protests – and what explains Assam's resistance to the Citizenship Billhttps://t.co/UQUWZO2Pn5 pic.twitter.com/suE322BAbX
— scroll.in (@scroll_in) December 14, 2019
Indian state Assam is burning in the protest against #CAB. The media is forced by the govt to not provide any coverage to the protests what so ever. #CABProtests #AssamProtest pic.twitter.com/EzhnwIAlaZ
— Global Politics? (@Globalpoliticss) December 14, 2019
Editors Guild of India seeks withdrawal of I&B Ministry's recent advisory asking all private TV channels to desist from showing content that could incite violence or promote “anti-national attitudes”. The advisory was issued in wake of violence in Assam against #CitizenshipAct
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 14, 2019
The amended Act segregates the identification of refugees on the basis of their faith. It adds new clauses to the 1955 Citizenship Act allowing the Indian State to provide citizenship to six communities — Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs — who are fleeing from religious and minority persecution from India's three neighboring countries. Assam is a province with 33 million people with multiple ethnicities — including many indigenous ones — and religions. Among many other complexities and historical incidents that have led to this protest is Assam Accord, a 1985 Memorandum of Settlement that provided a framework on how to deal with immigrants from Bangladesh.
Assam saw a massive influx of refugees from Bangladesh since its formation in 1947 through the 1950s until the 1980s. From 1980–1984, the then Indian government led by Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress (INC) party engaged with those who were protesting against this influx. After the assassination of Gandhi in 1984, the Indian government led by Rajeev Gandhi initiated a Memorandum of Settlement that was signed in the presence of parties from both the federal and provincial governments and representatives from the protesting unions. The Accord brought the six-year-long Assam Movement to an end which arose with a goal to identify and expel refugees from Bangladesh. The Accord made it clear that any refugee irrespective of their religious faiths who entered India before 31 December 1965 would be given citizenship and the ones who entered after this date would be illegal. The ongoing protests in Assam also highlight the alleged violation of this Accord since the recently passed Citizenship (Amendment) Act now legalizes the aforementioned refugees who entered India before 31 December 2014.
Tensions and emotions are already running high as Assam is in the process of updating 33 million citizen records to detect and deport undocumented immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. Approximately 1.9 million people are now facing the possibility of becoming stateless in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam after being excluded from the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The NRC is a government register containing the names and relevant information for the identification of all Indian citizens.
After the protests became violent on 11 December, local authorities ordered the shut down of the internet in Assam and Meghalaya to stop the spread of rumors. This also affected online mobile transactions and mobile internet connections.
Social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube are likely to be used for spreading of rumors and also for transmission of information like pictures, videos and text that have the potential to inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation. – Officials in the state of Assam
Mobile & broadband Internet services suspension extended for another 36 hours in #Assam under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act ? #CABProtests #CABPolitics pic.twitter.com/3Tana5oyRv
— Karma Paljor (@Karma_Paljor) December 14, 2019
Human rights lawyer Arjun Sethi criticized the internet shutdown:
India leads the world in internet blackouts.
Right now, it’s blocked in four different states: Kashmir, Assam, Tripura & Arunachal.
We all know what fascist governments do in the dark. Don’t be a bystander; speak now & speak loudly.
— Arjun Sethi (@arjunsethi81) December 12, 2019
The shutdown in Assam is reported to be in effect until 16 December. The NetBlocks Internet Shutdown Observatory that monitors internet shutdowns worldwide has reported that both mobile and fixed line connections are cut off leading to an information blackout and taking down of media coverage and free expression. It is important to note that access to the internet is officially banned in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (formerly an Indian state) since 5 August after the abrogation of the Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that provided the region with a special provincial status.
The Press Information Bureau of India is tweeting about the implications of the Citizenship Amendment Bill focusing on the Indian northeast:
Busting some #Myths : #Mythbusters focusing on North-Eastern India, especially #Assam, surrounding the #CitizenshipAmendmentAct. The 11-points address the most common misconceptions and fears in the region (1/2)
#CAB #CAB2019 pic.twitter.com/dJ35FKxcBZ
— PIB India (@PIB_India) December 14, 2019
Amid this conflict, the Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has appealed to the people of Assam to maintain peace and harmony. Meanwhile, the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has shared a video on Twitter promising that the languages and indigenous cultures of northeast India will be respected after the Citizen (Amendment) Act takes effect.
Read our special coverage: Who is paying the cost of India’s declining democracy? for more details on the protests against the citizenship laws in India.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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The intertwined origins of ‘kawaii’ and Japanese queer culture · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A “Rune Girl” on the cover of a 1959 issue of “Junior Soleil” (ジュニア それいゆ) a magazine designed by Rune Naito. Screencap from YouTube.
Represented by cultural icons from Sanrio's Hello Kitty to Hasbro's My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, the Japanese concept of ‘kawaii‘, or cuteness, has become a part of global culture.
As a 2017 article in UK-based Time Out magazine notes:
[The word ‘kawaii’] joined the league of sushi, samurai and kimono: the word kawaii is now part of the global consciousness, with enthusiasts from Seattle to Stockholm embracing Japan's take on cuteness.
Cosplay, or dressing up in character, has become part of mainstream youth culture around the world, and is often linked to ‘kawaii’ culture. The newest Star Wars-themed television series, The Mandalorian, features a ‘kawaii’ Baby Yoda character that has become wildly popular for its cuteness.
While Japan is recognized as the birthplace of contemporary ‘cuteness’, in a recent series of tweets, one person has identified the roots of ‘kawaii’ and its connection with queer culture.
‘Kawaii’ EVA Air checkin kiosks at an airport in Taipei. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
Twitter user Patrick, who is pursuing a doctorate in Japanese Studies focusing on research on contemporary queer Japanese literature and communities, identifies the late Japanese designer and illustrator Rune Naito as the pioneer of “cuteness” in Japan in the 1960s. Patrick recounts the beginnings of Naito's career in the late 1940s, when he launched a magazine for young girls.
Rune was born in 1932 and got his start working with Nakahara Jun'ichi, another one of the major figures in shojo history. Together, they helped to start Himawari (Sunflower, 1947-1952) one of the first postwar magazines for young girls. pic.twitter.com/35q46ffeS8
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
Rune became a major figure in the design and editing of Himawari's successor, Junior Soleil (1954-1960). Junior Soleil was where Rune's career really took off, and his “Rune Girls,” became a major hit, launching his career as an illustrator and designer for numerous magazines pic.twitter.com/6HA8azVIFv
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
As a result of his success in illustration, Rune began designing his own mascot characters that also became huge hits. Characters like Hello Kitty are pretty well known everywhere now, but Rune's Panda character, designed the year before Ueno Zoo received a panda, paved the way pic.twitter.com/ERYTMkcvIn
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
A YouTube channel features several examples of how Rune Naito's character creations were licensed for commercial reproduction:
Examples of Rune Taito character designs that licensed for commercial sales. Screencap from YouTube.
Patrick goes on to note that Naito's ‘kawaii’ legacy has largely overshadowed his contributions to queer culture in Japan.
But a major part of Rune's work that's rarely discussed is the work he did for the magazine Barazoku (1971-2008). Barazoku was the first mass-market magazine that catered to same-sex attracted men in Japan, and Rune's long term partner Fujita Ryu designed the first cover pic.twitter.com/YRuzTfm3Mx
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
After the mid-1980s, Rune joked that he could use his name for illustrating for gay magazines because his “boom” period was over. For the rest of his life he lived with Fujita, producing dolls, figures, designs, and gay illustrations until his passing in 2007 pic.twitter.com/v7JxEZRvsV
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
When he died, many Japanese obituaries credited him as the “godfather of kawaii,” but very few noted his contributions to queer visual culture in Japan or his own history as a queer person. As far as I can tell, no English language sources on him discuss it either. pic.twitter.com/kRaQsTr5kw
— ✨ (@animaltextures) December 10, 2019
Patrick concludes his Twitter thread by stating:
That's why I think it's important that Rune get credit for the totality of his works; not only was he a pioneer of the kawaii aesthetic but with his long term partner, he helped to create an entire visual language and artistic lineage for gay men in Japan.
Besides paving the way for queer culture to be produced in Japan for queer audiences, Rune Naito also set the stage for queer culture to enter mainstream culture. ‘Yaoi‘ is a genre of manga that focuses on homoerotic relationships, and is generally created by women for a female audience.
The cover of the first volume of the manga My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame published by Futabasha. From Wikimedia.
More recently, the popular manga My Brother's Husband, about a gay man from Canada who travels to Japan following the death of his Japanese husband, has been turned into a hit live-action television show on NHK, Japan's public broadcaster.
An exhibition of Rune Naito's works is currently being held in Okazaki, in central Japan until January 13, 2020. The official Rune Naito website has more examples of his work. For more background about the history of ‘kawaii’, Sebastian Masuda of fashion brand 6%DOKIDOKI discusses Rune Naito at a 2012 “Roots of Kawaii” exhibition in Tokyo:
NOTE: Twitter user Patrick gave permission for his tweets to be embedded in this story.

author: Nevin Thompson


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As Global Voices celebrates its quinceañera, 15 ‘coming-of-age’ posts from the Caribbean · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

December — the happy month in which Global Voices was created back in 2004. Fifteen years have gone by quickly, but it's also given us the opportunity to publish close to 100,000 posts that encourage discourse and translate most of them into other languages.
In honour of this milestone, here's a five-part retrospective, each highlighting three of our Caribbean team's most significant or inspiring 2019 stories, which — on one level or another — represented a “coming-of-age”.
Seven members of the Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè and their advisor celebrate after signing the agreement with the IDB. Photo courtesy Accountability Counsel, used with permission.
Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake still resonates within the region. Every time some fresh disaster strikes, there are echoes of the 7.0 Mw monster that flattened parts of Port-au-Prince, killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the ones who survived in increasingly vulnerable positions.
It was with great joy, therefore, that we learned about Kolektif Peyizan Viktim Tè Chabè — a Haitian farmers’ collective which, in January 2019, signed a historic agreement offering redress to nearly 4,000 people who were displaced to accommodate the construction of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and USAID-financed Caracol Industrial Park — a project that was pegged by the Haitian government to be part of the post-earthquake reconstruction effort, but which instead trampled on their land rights and livelihoods.
The group's tenacity, patience and ability to work together for the greater good of their community showed great courage and a willingness to advocate for themselves. Their case, in fact, marked the first time in Haiti that victims of a land grab had been able to make their voices heard in a formal dispute resolution process, and their success serves as a strong precedent should any government be tempted to take similar decisions in the future.
A Venezuelan protest, January 2019. Photo by Valentin Guerrero, CC BY 2.0.
As Venezuela's political impasse rapidly degenerated into a humanitarian crisis, Venezuelan nationals began to flee the country, with many displaced people choosing nearby Trinidad and Tobago as their place of refuge.
Though Trinidad and Tobago has had a national policy on refugee and asylum matters in place since 2014, it was not being implemented, which has had an adverse effect on proper protection for refugees and asylum seekers, who often end up being treated as undocumented migrants. This creates a ripple effect of refugees being economically exploited or, as a January 2019 Refugees International (RI) report put it, “forced into illegality”.
By June 2019, however, the government of Trinidad and Tobago had conducted a registration process, through which tens of thousands of asylum-seekers were able to be legally recognised, minimising the likelihood of them being taken advantage of — a decision that resonates with us as being on the right side of history, no matter what the political outcome in Venezuela.
The Haitian flag. Photo by Amy Nelson, CC BY 2.0.
On February 7, 2019, Haiti's violent street protests, which had started in response to increased food prices, came to a temporary halt. Social unrest, however, was destined to continue, since much of the country's socio-economic crisis was being fuelled by systemic corruption.
A large part of that corruption was intertwined with PetroCaribe — a Venezuela-led regional energy programme designed to offer petroleum and its by-products at preferential rates, but gross mismanagement resulted instead in a loss of currency value, a rise in inflation, and a US $3 billion corruption scandal involving high-level government officials, including Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
As part of the government's efforts to discourage further unrest, then-Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant promised to curb the skyrocketing prices of basic food products, reduce government expenditure, raise the minimum wage and fight corruption by supporting the PetroCaribe lawsuit process, but against the backdrop of decades of political instability, people were reaching a breaking point. There were widespread calls for Moïse to resign.
By March 2019, Haiti's parliament had handed down a vote of no-confidence in Céant and the United States seemed to be playing a part in helping the country address the crisis. By April 9, Moïse had appointed Michel Lapin as Haiti's new prime minister, even as gang violence plagued hotspots in and around the capital.
But PertroCaribe simply would not go away. On May 31, Haiti's High Court of Auditors released a 600 plus-page report on the mismanagement of the PetroCaribe funds. Meanwhile, Lapin's ratification as prime minister stalled in the Senate; by July, Moïse was looking for another prime minister. Come November, the country remained at a standstill in the midst of an ever-worsening socio-economic crisis, with schools, hospitals, markets and banks basically shutting down as the government increasingly relied on force to crackdown on protests.
As things stand at the end of 2019, it appears that Moïse is just as intent on holding onto the presidency as Haitian citizens are intent on getting him out. We anticipate that this will continue to be a situation to watch come the new year.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Indian police accused of brutality after violently dispersing student-led anti-CAA protest in Delhi · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Students at Savitribai Phule University in Pune, India protest the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the police brutality against the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in the presence of police and university guards. Image by an anonymous activist. Used with permission.
After passing the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) with a vote of 125-105, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was then signed by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and became known as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on 12 December 2019. The act, which provides a path to citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, has drawn criticism from civil society organizations and the opposition for unfairly excluding Muslims.
Since its introduction in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) on 9 December 2019, protests have erupted across the country, most notably in the northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya.
The protests soon spilled over into the capital, Delhi. The student-driven protests in the capital began peacefully on 15 December 2019 at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia University; however, things took a violent turn when stones were thrown and two passenger buses and some motorcycles were set ablaze near the universityThe culprits behind these acts of vandalism are still not officially known but that evening, 300 members of the paramilitary forces and Delhi police in riot gear stormed the campus, the libraries and the mosque.
According to a statement by the university’s Chief Proctor, the policemen did not have prior permission to enter the premises and instead entered by force. The Delhi Police used tear gas and batons charges leading students to denounce severe police brutality. About 200 students were injured and 100 were detained at police stations.
As many as 17 metro stations remained shut in Delhi following the unrest. Many secondary schools and colleges in South Delhi remained closed on 16 December 2019.
As the students turned to social media for help, there were growing concerns about a network shutdown being imposed. Videos and photographs of the incident started to float around on Instagram. People started to post about what was happening in order to spread awareness.
Spoke with a student inside Jamia who sent me this video along with other videos. He claimed that the students were stuck inside library with the library filled with tear gas smoke and they were having a difficult time breathing. And that some could finally get out of there. pic.twitter.com/1XaD9jPrdt
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) December 15, 2019
#JamiaProtest witnesses account:
Delhi Police fired tear gas canisters in the campus
Entered campus & vandalised classrooms, libraries, mosque
Fired live ammunition on students
Scaring residents with air fire
One tear gas shell fell inside Holy Family Hospital premises
— Uzair Hasan Rizvi (@RizviUzair) December 15, 2019
Protests outside @DelhiPolice headquarters at ITO in Delhi to demand withdrawal of police personnel from Jamia campus and stop the violence against students. #JamiaProtestsCAB pic.twitter.com/SzTbBaLz6M
— Neha Dixit (@nehadixit123) December 15, 2019
Outrage grew as users shared images on Instagram:
#JamiaProtest Image – @thewirein
A post shared by  Sucharita Tyagi (@su4ita) on
Who is better? #JamiaMilliaIslamia protest against #CitizenAmendmentBill in New Delhi #PhotoJournalism
A post shared by  Adnan Abidi (@adnanabidi) on
Poster comparing Indian president Narendra Modi to Adolf Hitler at Savitribai Phule University in Pune, India during protests. Image by an anonymous activist. Used with permission.
There was also growing demand for celebrities to take a stand against police brutality. Protests were held across the country at a number of other universities in solidarity with the Jamia Millia Islamia students.
Students of Pondicherry University, IISC- Bangalore, Jadavpur University (Kolkata) and many more will protest today in their campus in solidarity with students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.
— Nagarjun Dwarakanath (@nagarjund) December 16, 2019
The Jamia Millia Islamia University students left campus the next day after all those who were detained were released. The campus has reportedly been destroyed and students described it as a war zone.
The students disassociated themselves from the violence and police also denied using rubber bullets against the students. As per the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Delhi, the police were forced to use tear gas after stones were thrown at them from inside the university, buses were torched and policemen were injured. As the debate gained traction on social media, people started to take sides with some standing in solidarity with the actions of the police.
According to a report by News18, the police have confirmed that the students did not initiate violence during their protest. In a press conference, the Public Relations Officer of Delhi Police assured that accountability for the incident would be decided through a thorough investigation by the Crime Branch.
Meanwhile, police have also used tear gas and baton-charges on protesters elsewhere in the country.
Protests and marches are set to continue across the country in order to demand accountability for the police brutality against the Jamia Millia Islamia University students as well as a retraction of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)
National Register of Citizens (NRC):
Read our special coverage: Who is paying the cost of India’s declining democracy? for more details on the protests against the citizenship laws in India.


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Risk rooted in colonial era weighs on Bahamas’ efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Dorian · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

CBP Air and Marine Operations agents conduct search and rescue operations in Abaco Island and Marsh Harbor Bahamas on Sept. 5, 2019. The islands were devastated by Hurricane Dorian. CBP Photo Kris Grogan. United States Government Work.
This article was also published on The Conversation. The authors have given special permission for it to be published separately on Global Voices.
By Jason von Meding, David O. Prevatt and Ksenia Chmutina
When Hurricane Dorian made landfall on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on Septemeber 1, 2019, it packed winds of up to 185 miles per hour and a 20-foot storm surge. A day later, it ravaged Grand Bahama for 24 hours.
Across both islands, the storm brought “generational devastation.” Thousands of houses were leveled, telecommunications towers were torn down, and roads and wells were badly damaged. The cost to the Bahamas has been estimated to be up to US$7 billion—more than half of the country’s annual economic output.
But not all structures and communities in Dorian’s path were equally affected. The Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance Network, or StEER—a research group the authors of this piece participate in— found that while structural failure was widespread, houses intentionally built to resist high wind and storm surge fared much better.
The problem is that not everyone has access to a house that can weather a storm like Dorian. The different ways in which Abaco and Grand Bahama were affected by the same event is yet another example of how disaster impacts are rooted in the historical development of society.
This happens around the world time and again. To really understand what happened in the Bahamas—and determine how it should rebuild—one needs to look back at how society has developed there.
Certain narratives tend to dominate the media in the aftermath of disasters: death and destruction, heroes that come to the rescue and “villains” that allegedly capitalize on misery or are to blame for the calamity. In recent years, what could be called a climate breakdown narrative that links disasters to climate change has also become prominent.
But we can sometimes learn even more by examining the narratives that are not present.
The historical context of injustice, discrimination and inequality, experienced through social structures that cause harm to certain people, is often missing. This context informs today’s risk.
In the Bahamas, we see this kind of accumulated risk most clearly among the Haitian diaspora and Haitian Bahamians, who are stigmatized and face many barriers to full participation in society.
Engineers from the Structural Extreme Events through Reconnaissance research group inspected buildings damaged after the hurricane to capture how failures happened. Photo by Justin Marshall (CC BY 4.0)
The most catastrophic damage from Dorian occurred in communities like “The Mudd”, a shantytown housing the nation’s largest Haitian immigrant community where land is not owned by residents, and daily survival is paramount. People there trade the risk presented by massive hurricanes for the necessity of a place to live.
This trade-off can only be understood as part of the story of risk creation.
Yes, nature shows its unyielding force through earthquakes and tsunamis. But in their differential impacts, disasters can actually be seen as social and political manifestations of injustice. In the Bahamas, inequality, poverty, political ideology, class and power relations lead to the buildup of unequal risks that make some people considerably more vulnerable than others.
For every inadequate building, there is a social context.
The same phenomenon plays out across the Caribbean—in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominica—and around the world as a protracted class divide.
Of course, people know that Caribbean housing is often ill-prepared for hurricanes. This is linked to inappropriate long-standing structural design choices and the limited enforcement of building codes. Both of these problems have supposedly been solved on paper, but the best technical solutions very often fail to grapple with social and political realities – and the root causes of disasters.
Two houses side by side – only one survived the storm surge. Daniel Smith, Structural extreme Events Reconnaissance Network. Photo provided by Authors and used with permission.
What turned Hurricane Dorian into an epic disaster, particularly in places like The Mudd, was the lack of access to the resources necessary to achieve wellness every day and safety during the storm.
When Europeans arrived in 1492, they committed atrocities against the indigenous peoples that lived there. The Caribbean was rapidly turned into a site to sustain and protect colonial circulations of goods, money and slaves. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated 5 million Africans were enslaved and transported to the Caribbean. Half ended up in British territorial possessions, such as the Bahamas.
Colonization created the conditions for the chronic levels of risk that we see today among the descendants of enslaved people.
Engraving depicting Christopher Columbus landing on Hispaniola. His expedition originally landed in the Bahamas and was met by the Lucayans, who were wiped out along with an estimated 12-15 million indigenous people across the Caribbean. Theodor de Bry/Library of Congress
Moving into the recovery phase of Dorian is daunting. Affected communities need support to not just return to “normal” but address structural injustice. The probability of stronger storms under climate change— and impacts distributed primarily onto the most marginalized—continues to increase.
A historically and socially conscious approach to recovery and reconstruction could address not only shelter and infrastructure needs, but broader issues of equity and justice.
Understanding the origins of risk can inform better decisions about building back (or not). Ironically, the most vulnerable often continue to be left with no choice but to live in the most exposed areas.
Optimum building codes, planning policies and design strategies are critical. Much of the detailed hurricane-resistant structural knowledge is proven and available—small design changes make a substantial difference.
But without a plan for achieving equity and establishing basic rights and access for all, solutions will serve mostly the privileged. Colonial patterns of displacement, dependency and disadvantage are likely to be reinforced.
Dorian, like so many others recently, was a monster storm. But blaming disasters on nature—or human-induced climate change—allows those with power to maintain the status quo and to avoid their responsibility for the failures of development.
Jason von Meding is an associate professor at the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience at the University of Florida and co-host of the Disasters: Deconstructed podcast. David O. Prevatt is an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Florida and associate director and co-PI of a National Science Foundation Eager Award #1841667. Ksenia Chmutina is a senior lecturer in Sustainable and Resilient Urbanism at Loughborough University and co-host of the Disasters: Deconstructed podcast.

author: Guest Contributor


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2019: A year of flipping scripts and changing narratives in Africa · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

A bodaboda driver (motorbike taxi) reflecting in the mirror along Kimweri Avenue in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Photo by Pernille Bærendtsen, used with permission.
A year of revolutions. Internet shutdowns. Massive tree-planting. A year of migration. Feminist uprisings. Jailed journalists. Cyclones and climate change. A year of opposition rising. Cultural icons dying. Illness, crisis and cures.
A year of changing narratives on Africa.
From the fall of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir in Sudan to the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, in Ethiopia, Africa witnessed another year of profound shifts in leadership in 2019. In Guinea, after President Alpha Condé announced his intention to run for a third term, anti-government protests sparked pan-African solidarity. The longtime leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, died on September 16, 2019, leaving a complicated legacy lodged between “freedom-fighter” and “despot.”
Perhaps no other opposition voice was louder this year than that of Robert Kyagulanyi, known by his stage name “Bobi Wine.” The People Power opposition party leader from Uganda spoke out loudly against longtime leader Yoweri Museveni and declared his intention to run for president in 2021. But Wine was arrested several times for organizing protests against Uganda's “social media tax,” and if convicted, would not be allowed to run.
Wine, along with many others, have been fighting against the current trend across Africa of shutting down dissent, often under the guise of laws drafted to prevent hate speech and fake news online. In 2019, governments deployed internet shutdowns during politically charged periods in Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Ethiopia, among others.
Journalists and media workers remain on the frontlines of Africa's freedom of expression wars. In Nigeria, human rights activist and journalist Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters, was arrested in August on charges of treason and harassing President Muhammadu Buhari, after running against him in February elections. In December, hours after he was freed on bail, Sowore was rearrested within the precincts of an Abuja High Court. And in Tanzania, journalist Erick Kabendera remains languishing behind bars on charges related to economic crimes. His lawyers say the abduction and arrest of Kabendera —  a well-respected investigative journalist critical of the government — was politically motivated.
We lost some greats in 2019. On May 21, 2019, the world lost Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, an outspoken LGBTQ activist and creative writer who insisted on changing the way we see and write about Africa. And on August 6, 2019, legendary American writer Toni Morrison died, leaving a hole in the heart of literary Africa. Morrison, a champion of centering black and African narratives, had a profound influence on African writers and social critics.
But stories of survival also defined 2019. In March, when the deadly Cyclone Idai nearly destroyed the city of Beira, Mozambique, as well as many parts of Zimbabwe and Malawi, the region came together to think critically about ways to improve rapid response systems to save lives. In the Democratic Republic of African scientist Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, director-general of the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), discovered the cure for ebola. And in Ethiopia, 350 million trees were planted in a single day, flooding the globe with the hope to confront imminent climate change.
There were also difficult stories that forced us to confront inequalities that threaten our shared humanity. Traveling for Africans remains an extreme sport. For Africans traveling outside the continent, applying for a visa is like offering sacrifices to a ravenous god. Most countries assume that Africans who travel will not return to their home countries, leaving African visa applicants to bear the burden of proof. For instance, in May, DJ Duke and MCZO, two Tanzanian musicians were denied a visa to the United States after a months-long visa application process.
With stories of survival come stories of healing and reconciliation. This year, The Gambia embarked on a groundbreaking truth, reconciliation and reparations process that captivated citizens as witnesses, perpetrators and victims came forward to share testimonies of torture under the former Yayheh Jammeh regime. The process, which continues in 2020, is a testament to the power of truth in storytelling to heal and confront abuses of power, but it also raises questions about the extent to which absolute power corrupts absolutely.
“Black: My story,” says the writing on this daladala (taxi) in Arusha, Tanzania. Photo by Pernille Bærendtsen, used with permission.
Global Voices’ sub-Saharan Africa team worked hard this year to shed light on the stories transforming Africa. Of the hundreds of stories we told this year, here are ten that most captured our attention in 2019:
Eissa Muhamad, from Niger, says he has been stranded in the transit section of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for more than two months, starting on November 6, 2018. Muhamad, 24, was deported from Israel where he lived for eight years as a migrant.
Although Guinea’s constitution allows only two consecutive terms in office, the country's current president, Alpha Condé, recently announced that he intended to seek a third term. To help achieve this, he has not hesitated to make calls to violence.
On October 12, barely 24 hours after Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019, the organizers of a protest were arrested and prevented from addressing a press conference in Addis Ababa. Abiy, a 43-year-old former intelligence officer, became the fourth prime minister of Ethiopia on April 2, 2018. He immediately launched a series of reforms that were not only unprecedented but which would have seemed impossible five years ago.
As the world prepared for the 18th annual Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and their Conference of Parties, four southern African countries — Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa — have submitted a petition and proposal seeking to remove restrictions and allow international trade in registered raw ivory of their elephants.
Since April's military ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, pro-democracy protesters’ attempts to negotiate a transition to civilian rule with Sudan's Transitional Military Council (TMC) faltered, stalled and then broke down. Mohammad Mattar, 26, was one of many protesters shot and killed during a deadly sit-in. To cope with their grief, Mattar's friends began a social media campaign asking people to change their profile pictures to shades of blue in solidarity with protesters’ pro-democracy struggle. It went viral.
On July 3, 2019, the New York Times announced a job ad in search of the next bureau chief for its Nairobi, Kenya, office. The reductive language used to describe the ideal candidate’s role and responsibilities reignited an enormous debate on Western media's trafficking of tired stereotypes about Africa.
The outspoken, openly gay writer rebuked convention and challenged the status quo, triggering a literary revolution that opened the door to thousands of aspiring writers ready to change the narratives in and about Africa. A writer, educator and LGBTQ activist, Binyavanga Wainaina, 48, died on May 22, in Nairobi, Kenya, after a brief illness.
Morna, traditional music and dance from Cape Verde, was approved by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora was one of the best-known performers of the genre and dubbed “the queen of Morna.”
Every day, millions of Ugandans hop on social media to get the latest news, chat with friends, and express their views. But in May 2018, when the Ugandan government introduced controversial taxes on social media and mobile money services to raise revenue and “curb gossip,” it amounted to an internet shutdown in terms of accessibility and affordability. This year saw mass protests against the social media tax as the opposition heats up ahead of 2020 elections in Uganda.
The introduction of the Mandarin Chinese language to East African school curricula signals China’s growing influence in Africa as a global superpower. As China strengthens its already robust trade and infrastructural ties with Africa, Chinese-government funded Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms are on the rise in East Africa.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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In the frenzy over the new $100 bill, Trinidad & Tobago’s banking sector reveals its disrespect for an age-old practice · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screenshot of Trinidad and Tobago's new polymer $100 banknote, taken from a Central Bank YouTube video detailing the bill's security features.
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago recently demonetised the country's existing $100 bill, which was replaced as legal tender on December 9, 2019, by a new polymer $100 note with enhanced security features.
The move forms part of the objectives listed in the Central Bank’s Strategic Plan 2016/17-2020/21, aimed at improving the durability of the banknotes, making them more difficult to forge and easier for the visually impaired to identify by touch. The old $100 note only remains legal tender until December 31, 2019, and since the announcement of the shift, people have been rushing to commercial banks to deposit their paper $100 bills before their value is negated.
One goal of this initiative has been to identify any ill-gotten money within the system; in keeping with international best practice, depositors must declare the source of the funds before the money can be accepted. However, there has been an outcry over comments made by Karen Darbasie, president of the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT) and chief executive officer of First Citizens, a state-owned bank, who said that if a “sou-sou” is listed as the source of funds, the banks will not accept the deposit.
Originating in West Africa, “sou-sou” is a rotating savings circle, in which a group of people takes turns “throwing hands”. Through this method, each member of the group makes an agreed-upon cash contribution to a common fund once during an allotted time period, at the end of which the total fund amount is paid to one member of the group. This strategy is repeated until each member of the group receives a payout.
Darbasie explained that while each bank may have its own policy on the issue — some, for instance, say it depends on quantum — financial institutions will generally “not accept sou-sou money as a legitimate source of funds” even though they understand it is part of the local culture. “It is not something that we can independently validate,” she said. “We […] have a responsibility as a bank to ensure that the information that is put on the source of funds looks like it is consistent with the client’s behaviour historically and that it is coming from a real source. From a banking perspective, it is impossible for us to validate a sou-sou.”
On Facebook, Tillah Willah was indignant about both Darbasie's statement and the local media's reporting of it:
The media never fails with its lack of acknowledgement of anything African, so I'm not surprised at the description of sou-sou as ‘an informal, co-operative loan system…popular in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the Caribbean.’
This empty and limited description dismisses the fact that this practice is a centuries old financial institution and can be found among West African populations and was brought to this part of the world through enslavement and has survived and thrived as a system of co-operative economics for African people for whom the banking system was not set up and systematically excluded until well into the 70s.
She also shed some light of the origins of the practice:
Esusu is linguistically associated with Ibo, Yoruba, Twi and the system is culturally embedded across West Africa. It ties to the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu — I am because You Are.
Actually this is just one example of ways that people who are not served or deliberately excluded by colonial and neocolonial capitalist institutions have been able to thrive legally.
It's not just about the money. It's about collective responsibility, a community being accountable for everyone's mobility.
Without sou-sou my mother would not have been able to buy a house at age 30, nor indeed my great grandmother who was born just after Emancipation and was able to buy a house at the turn of the 20th century in Grenada.
Tillah Willah made the point that on a trip to Ghana, she saw “locally owned cooperative banks offering a sou-sou banking arrangement”:
There is now an esusu app and countless ways that sousou has embraced digital banking. But in Trinidad, it's informal, illegitimate and not valuable because it's something that working class black people do. With countless examples around the world of banks being bailed out by tax payers, with corporate entities making you all but wine for a $500 cheque to support poverty alleviation, what moral authority does any bank have to say what is legitimate and what is not?
Other social media users agreed. Jonathan Bhagan, who remembered one high school teacher involving his class in a “sou-sou” as a hands-on lesson in local culture, said:
The outright refusal of banks to accept Sou Sou as a source of funds stinks of elitism. A sensible policy approach would be to put a cap on ‘Sou Sou’ funds […]
Our banking system should seek to cherish and preserve our culture rather than condemn it.
Facebook user Lisa-Marie Griffith echoed this sentiment:
This country is a damn plantation. Policies which do not take context into consideration. Who is the government serving?
Gerelle Forbes added:
A few months ago someone said how come black ppl doh have their own banks (we had [just] seen the Muslim credit union) I said we do, it’s called a sou sou.
Things that effing irking me is how black people's history always start[s] at slavery. If u speak anything before that or try to apply the tools and methods our ancestors lived on…you are demonized for it.
BATT has not said anything further about the issue.


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New network of journalists vows to promote press freedom and independent media in Cambodia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Members of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance during the launching event. Source: Facebook
More than 200 participants attended the launching of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance (CamboJA) on 13 December 2019 in the capital city of Phnom Penh.
CamboJA aims to promote press freedom, freedom of expression and professionalism in Cambodia’s media sector.
It is a membership network of journalists registered at the government’s Information Ministry. It now has nearly 100 members who are freelance, staff, and even citizen journalists.
The idea of establishing a network of journalists came from a meeting organized in February 2019 when 20 professional journalists discussed the media situation and the issues facing journalists in Cambodia. They agreed to hold a weekly meeting in order to plan the formation of CamboJA.
Nop Vy, CamboJA’s board chairman, highlighted the objectives of the network through an email interview with this author:
We plan to improve professionalism through capacity building, raise awareness about the code of ethics, and provide technical support and training to local media.
Nop Vy, who is also part of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, mentioned the importance of protecting independent media:
We are going to monitor and document the cases of violence against the work of journalists. We will address the lack of access to independent information from Cambodia through the development of a new news media platform. We will also provide legal and mental health support to journalists in order to assure their safety and well-being.
The news website was also launched which featured stories about journalists facing threats and persecution.
Cambodia’s media has faced difficulties in recent years after the Hun Sen government, which has been in power for more than three decades, charged several independent radio and news outlets over licensing and tax issues. Critics said this was tantamount to a crackdown on independent reporting.
Another prominent case related to press freedom is the espionage charge filed against two former reporters of Radio Free Asia. Media groups in and outside of Cambodia have often cited the case to remind the government to stop criminalizing the work of journalists.
Civil society groups welcomed the launching of CamboJA.
Participate in the launch of the Cambodian Journalist Alliance (CamboJA). I wish the new alliance all of the best in their efforts to restore trust in media and to improve professionalism, neutrality and independence for the media sector and journalists. pic.twitter.com/rPxDT00SLU
— Preap Kol (@kolpreap) December 13, 2019
Chak Sopheap of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights lauded the establishment of CamboJA while noting some of the challenges facing the media sector:
The introduction of CamboJA is therefore a vital progression for independent journalism. I wish to congratulate CamboJA on their launch and the quality of the work they are already producing. While CamboJA may begin to fill some of the gaps in Cambodia’s free media, the gaps remain numerous and cavernous. Our free press is insufficiently protected and is under constant threat. The use of the courts to harass journalists is an unacceptable tactic to silence and threaten those who speak critically about the government and it must be stopped immediately if we are to protect our fundamental right to free speech.

author: Mong Palatino


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Cultures clash after release of Trinidadian soca music video featuring cricketer Ali Khan · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Screenshot from soca songstress Destra's “Me Gusta” video, featuring cricketer Ali Khan, via YouTube.
Few soca music videos have gone viral to the degree that singer Destra Garcia's “Me Gusta” has. The song — one of Destra's offerings for Trinidad and Tobago's upcoming 2020 Carnival season, which has been viewed over 400,000 times on YouTube — generated quite a few memes and sparked a lot of lighthearted conversation online.
Released on November 24, 2019, the video features a provocative dance scene between Destra and Pakistani American cricketer Ali Khan, who has become a sensation in Trinidad and Tobago since he began to play for its Knight Riders cricket team in the annual Caribbean Premier League (CPL). In the video, Destra “wines” on Khan, a hip-swivelling movement that is a signature of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Fans loved the video but Khan’s parents were allegedly not pleased with Khan’s appearance in it, prompting Khan to issue an apology video, in which he explained that while he approved the final cut, he did not realise that the choreography for “Me Gusta” would “be too much” for his family. While Khan did not specify exactly why they were unhappy with the video, many netizens assumed it was because of the suggestive dancing.
In an interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, Garcia said she wanted Khan in the video because of his local popularity. She didn’t expect Khan's appearance to lead to controversy.
Khan's close friend and cricket colleague, Dwayne Bravo, also posted an apology video to Khan’s family on his behalf, because Bravo had helped coordinate the collaboration. Destra Garcia responded by saying that both men showed “great courtesy” in handling the situation.
But once Khan made a public apology, the initial lighthearted banter sparked by the video soon gave way to larger discussions around cultural norms, gender and race relations in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinbagonian culture treats suggestive dancing like Destra’s as normal — many reactions to the video that were posted online were tinged with humour. But the lion's share of online comments derided Khan for his decision to apologise, which came across to some netizens as “unmanly” — especially when seen through the lens of “macho” Caribbean society.
One Facebook user could not understand why Khan felt he had to make a public apology.
Another netizen on Twitter insisted Ali Khan must have been aware of the consequences of his actions:
My mother talmbout some destra should’ve known the people culture before she wine up on Ali Khan like if Ali Khan is a dummy who don’t know whats ok in his own home girl GOODBYE
— s? (@safiyaaaax) November 29, 2019
Another was incredulous as to how several social media users could somehow blame Destra Garcia:
Ali Khan father vex and is Destra's fault? He's a biggggg man ?????????
— Amanda (@AmandaNer) November 28, 2019
This Twitter user summarised the whole controversy this way:
So Ali Khan agrees to be in a music video with Destra. His parents allegedly express disappointment in the video. Now DJ Bravo issues a public apology to the parents because the whole thing was supposedly his idea. ?
Ali boy, next time stick to cricket.
— JN (@jasonnPOS) November 28, 2019
Some social media users went so far as to dismiss Khan altogether as no longer worthy of attention — a trend seen often in online “cancel culture”. Very few netizens displayed sensitivity toward Khan during what appeared to be a difficult situation for him.
But the comments surrounding Khan’s choreography controversy continued even after his apology was released — and some seemed to cross a line.
An attorney who spoke to Global Voices by phone, but preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that privacy rights for celebrities get diminished when information circulates in the public domain; however, the risk of libel or defamation is significant for social media users who comment on situations like Khan’s.
Trinidad and Tobago's long-standing Libel and Defamation Act, as well as its more recent Cybercrime Bill, aim to protect people, whether celebrities or not, from harmful online content. Even if social media users did not author the posts they share, they can also be held liable.
In Khan's case, while his appearance in the video is public, the wider comments that it has sparked about his alleged religious beliefs or his sex appeal are personal.
Perhaps Destra Garcia and Ali Khan’s “swivel” garnered so much attention because it conjures the historical tensions surrounding Indian and African unions in Trinidad and Tobago. Destra is an Afro-Trinidadian woman and while Khan is of Pakistani heritage, to Trinbagonians, he represents the larger South Asian diaspora.
In Trinidad and Tobago, people of Indian and African heritage represent the country's two biggest ethnic groups.
The children of Indian and African unions are known as “Douglas”. The term is derived from the Hindu word Dugola (दुगला), which means “many” or “a mix”, referring to inter-caste unions in India. In the Caribbean, the term is only used to describe people of Afro-Indo ethnicity.
Speaking with Global Voices by phone, Amilcar Sanatan, who teaches behavioural sciences at The University of the West Indies’ St. Augustine campus in Trinidad, says that he was struck by the local reaction to the concept — even if it is just a video storyline — of displayed sexual interest between people of African and South Asian backgrounds.
The concept has been explored before by other soca music artistes: Olatunji's “Wining Good (Bharati Laraki)”, in which he extolled the virtues of an “Indian gyal [girl]” (perhaps inspired by Destra's “Come Beta”. Sally Sagram's “HandyMan” video, meanwhile, featured an Indian woman interested in Afro-Trinidadian men.
Sanatan told Global Voices:
I'm not sure who's fetishising who, but what's really interesting to me is that when videos like these, which are often sexually empowered and racially ambiguous, are consumed by non-European or American audiences, the values of those societies — like India and its diaspora, for instance — begin coming into play in a nuanced way. Usually, the discussion of such differences happens between the Global North and the Global South, but now we have an opportunity for it to be a South-South dialogue.
Sanatan suggests that the more Caribbean countries play cricket in the Indian Premier League (IPL), for example, and the more that players from other countries play in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the more the region will have to come to terms with such narratives — issues to which he also believes Trinbagonian music responds.
“In ‘Me Gusta’, Destra is trying to represent something global, and other cultures are reading it in different ways.” Trinidad and Tobago, he explains, is accustomed to the discourse around douglarisation, which often raises issues of purity, appropriateness and even morality. “We love the product of an African-Indian union,” says Sanatan, but the process still shocks us somehow, and that's something we need to grapple with,” he said.
While he doesn't think the online response to the video was racist, Sanatan did not discount the racial undertones that drove much of the negative commentary about the video.
While Khan remains out of the spotlight for now, Garcia has since released a new soca tune, entitled “Permission Slip”, just a few days after the release of “Me Gusta”, much to the amusement of her fans.

author: Jada Steuart


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Global Voices quinceañera: Spotlight on Caribbean women’s stories · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In honour of Global Voices’ 15th birthday, we continue our recap of some of this year's most compelling coming-of-age posts from the Caribbean.
In this instalment, we'll take a look at some of the stories coming out of the region that affect women and how they operate within the Caribbean space.
On the southern edge of Port of Spain, while waiting for her band to cross the South Quay judging point on Carnival Tuesday, 2019 Trinidad and Tobago Queen of Carnival Shynel Brizan breastfeeds her son Prince. Photo by Shaun Rambaran, used with permission.
In 2019, perhaps the most iconic image of Trinidad and Tobago's annual Carnival celebrations was a serene stilt walker — a traditional Carnival character known as a ‘Moko Jumbie’ — who sat amidst the festivities bonding with her infant son as she breastfed him.
Shynel Brizan, fresh off her victory of copping the coveted Queen of Carnival title, was part of a band of Moko Jumbies comprising a stunning portrayal titled “Palace of the Peacock”, which impressed many Carnival enthusiasts — but the image of Brizan breastfeeding, captured by several photographers on the scene, proved to be even more powerful, quickly making its way around the world. The image was shared a number of times on social media, including by The Breastfeeding Association of Trinidad and Tobago and by La Leche League USA.
In a piece titled “Moko – Mother —Marvel”, Brizan told blogger Sheetal Daswani, “The stilts and I become one when I’m a Moko, and when I’m feeding my son, he and I also become one. The experiences are similarly spiritual.” It was a refreshing perspective, especially when juxtaposed against lactation consultant Marilyn Stollmeyer's observation that, “Particularly at Carnival, we're a society that says it's okay to put on skimpy costumes and bare your breasts, but if women are breastfeeding, many times they are asked to cover up or go somewhere else.”
Or, as Daswani put it, “Shynel’s images assert the legitimacy of public breastfeeding, and her audience acknowledges the exposure of her body and has normalized it, the same way they normalize all women playing mas despite their level of self-exposure. These photos have presented an unintended aesthetic strategy to put forth a profound proclamation for all women — We own our bodies.”
Artist Halcian Pierre's portrait of plus-size Carnival masquerader Candice Santana, used with permission.
Carnival also proved to be the perfect vehicle through which to address the issue of body-shaming. Although there is a website that has been advocating for inclusivity and diversity in Caribbean Carnivals for some time now, the body-shaming bent was put front and centre after Trinidad and Tobago's former Minister of Health posted a video chastising plus-size masquerader Candice Santana.
Santana had shared photos of herself in her Carnival costume, commending the band she played with for running “a campaign endorsing all sizes, shapes and shades”:
This excited me on many levels because truth be told we are a body shaming society. Some do it consciously and directly while others may not even understand that they doing it.
Former minister Fuad Khan retorted that the issue was one of health, then proceeded to verbally humiliate Santana, referring to her as “a tub”. When social media users rallied predominantly on the side of Santana, Khan apologised for his tone but stood by his message.
For many Caribbean women, however, Santana's message was stronger:
I recall that I spoke about body shaming regardless of size, shape or shade. I also recall that I said that I am not endorsing an unhealthy lifestyle […] I look myself in the mirror and remind myself that I am beautiful inside and outside.
Shelly-Ann Weeks talks about female reproductive health at an event at the Institute of Jamaica in March 2019. Photo courtesy of Her Flow Foundation.
Imagine having to make a menstrual pad last five days. Sadly, this is the reality for many Caribbean women and girls on the lower side of the socioeconomic scale — so Jamaican author and columnist Shelly-Ann Weeks decided to put both mainstream and digital media to good use in order to focus the spotlight on traditionally taboo topics like “period poverty”.
As the executive director of Her Flow Foundation, which address the stigma and shame often associated with menstruation, Weeks established Jamaica's first Period Awareness Day, which took place in October 2016, as well as Period Awareness Week, held in October 2017. By November 2018, the first Healthy Pelvis Conference had been held in the capital, Kingston.
These initiatives, along with regular awareness workshops that have reached over 5,000 high school students — both boys and girls — has begun to make a dent in how female reproductive health is regarded in the country, and dispel the “hush-hush” attitude to female reproductive health that Weeks calls “dangerous”.
Weeks has long recognised that the issue is just as much about long-held societal attitudes, religious beliefs and cultural myths as it is about economic status:
Talking to women while I was writing my first book, I realised so many have problems affording the products they need every month. And for the woman who has daughters, she literally has to choose between buying them pads and feeding them […] the need is much greater than I had thought. I wanted to create a space where women could get access to pads free of cost, no questions asked. Because it’s a dignity issue as well.
Part 1 of this series is here.


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Serbian fact-checking service Istinomer files criminal complaint after serious hacker attack · Global Voices
Istinomer

Screen shot of Istinomer (Truth-O-Meter) front page on December 18, 2019. Fair use.
This article originally appeared on Istinomer (Truth-O-Meter), a fact-checking initiative of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA). An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Istinomer (Truth-O-Meter) is a Serbian media outlet focused on the fact-checking of statements by public officials and politicians, as well as analysis of important social and economic issues. It celebrated its 10th anniversary on December 10, 2019.
The editorial board of the Belgrade-based media outlet filed a criminal complaint against unknown perpetrators to the cybercrime department of the Serbian Ministry of Interior on December 17, 2019, reporting a massive DDoS attack carried out against its website on December 16, 2019, which hampered its functioning.
A DDoS or distributed denial-of-service attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic.
The attack started some minutes after 16.00 local time (CET), causing the Istinomer website to crash. The site was receiving 30,500,000 requests per hour generated from IP addresses supposedly originating in Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, India, and other locations.
This was the second attack against Istinomer in the space of a few days. Several days prior, just before the scheduled celebration of the outlet's 10-year anniversary, the fact-checking service's web site was targeted by a cyberattack that disrupted its online poll “Lie of the Decade.”
The poll invited readers to vote on which of several claims made by politicians over the previous ten years constituted the most influential untruth. A day before the poll closed, a hacker attack resulted in the addition of 350,000 fake votes to the 10,000 actual ones submitted by users during the voting period.
In a statement to the public, the Istinomer team announced that the fake votes had propelled lies by members of the current opposition to the top of the list and moved statements by ruling politicians towards the bottom. Unable to guarantee the validity of the vote, the Istinomer team closed the poll and apologized to readers:
Priznajemo da je naša ideja propala. Nismo se dovoljno zaštitili. Odnosno, nismo bili u dovoljnoj meri svesni kako određene strukture u ovom društvu ništa ne prepuštaju slučaju. Očigledno, svaki rezultat koji izlazi pred javnost mora biti grubo friziran.
Izvinjavamo vam se, dragi čitaoci, posebno vama koji ste učestvovali u našoj anketi. Iako formalno nećemo proglasiti Laž decenije, verujemo da je i vama i nama jasno ko najviše laže i lažira.
We admit that our idea failed. We didn't provide sufficient protection. Or in other words, we failed to anticipate the degree of control exercised by certain structures in this society. Obviously, any result that is presented to the public will end up being thoroughly coiffed [by the powers that be].
We apologize to you, dear readers, in particular to those who took part in our survey. Even though we will not formally announce the Lie of the Decade, we believe that both you and we can see clearly who is the biggest liar and forger.
In the ten years of its existence, Istinomer has never suffered a hack of such intensity.
By reporting the cyberattack to the police, Istinomer's editorial board signaled its readiness to cooperate with the authorities. It issued a demand for an investigation that would disclose the identities of those who ordered the attack and funded the technology that underpinned it.
Napad na Istinomer flagrantan je primer pokušaja gušenja medijskih sloboda i onemogućavanja prvog fekt-čeking medija u regionu da javnost obaveštava o tome ko je se služi neistinama, zloupotrebom činjenica i neodgovornim obećanjima.
Izvinjavamo se publici Istinomera zbog otežanog praćenja naših sadržaja. Istinomer nastavlja svoju misiju provere činjenica i otkrivanja laži u izjavama političara i drugih učesnika u javnom životu.
The attack on Istinomer is a flagrant example of an attempt to smother media freedoms and disable the first fact-checking media in the region to inform the public about those who are  spreading lies, abusing facts and making irresponsible promises.
We sincerely apologize to the Istinomer audience for the slow and delayed service concerning our content. Istinomer will continue with its mission of fact-checking and disclosing lies in the statements of politicians and other participants in public discourse.

author: Istinomer


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Serbian nationalists want to build an extravagant Triumphal Arch in a Belgrade park · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The Triumphal Arc in Skopje, North Macedonia, in December 2019. Photo by Global Voices, CC-BY.
The nationalist political party Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), a member of the ruling coalition in Serbia, is pushing for the construction of a massive Triumphal Arch in the center of Belgrade to commemorate military victories achieved in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. The arch would be flanked by statues of King Peter and King Alexander of Serbia.
Serbia's ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), lead by President Aleksandar Vučić, has launched other controversial (and costly) urban projects since it came to power in 2012. Those including the Belgrade Waterfront, a musical fountain, a giant flag pole, and a cable-car in the Belgrade Fortress — the latter has been recently put on pause by a court ruling.
The SNS enjoys the support of the SPO, a small right-wing party that used to be influential in the 1990s — it even had its own paramilitary wing, the Serbian Guard — but that has since shrunk in size and importance. Writing for Serbian newspaper Danas, political analyst Miloš Mitrović said that the Triumphal Arch proposal was “a way for them to show they still exist.”
The SPO proposal, put forward in the Belgrade City Assembly on December 6 without a cost estimate or a funding plan, drew comparisons with similar architectural shenanigans by authoritarian regimes in the Balkans.
In neighboring North Macedonia, the “Skopje 2014” project erected over 130 neoclassical structures — among them monuments, statues, government buildings, and museums — in the capital to the cost of at least 763 million USD between 2010 and 2014. The single most expensive structure was a Triumphal Arc called Porta Macedonia, which came to over 7 million dollars. The entire initiative was marred by corruption benefiting cronies of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPNME party, who ruled North Macedonia from 2006 to 2017.
Both SNS and VMRO-DPNME are members of the conservative European People's Party and have cultivated a strong bilateral cooperation at that time when VMRO was in power in North Macedonia. The two populist regimes have often been implicated in backsliding of democracy and degradation of human rights standards in their respective countries.
A 2011 cartoon picturing Nikola Gruevski, former Macedonian PM who built a Triumphal Arc in Skopje. Cartoon by Darko Markoviкј, AKA Dar-Mar, via Citizens for European Macedonia. Used with permission.
In a statement, the SPO argues that Serbia needs such “monumental memorial” in order to “remind us of the glorious moments of our history, inspiring present and future generations to love and defend their homeland.” Party Vice President Aleksandar Čotrić said:
Предлажемо да Тријумфална капија буде подигнута у некадашњем Краљевом, данас Пионирском парку између здања Скупштине Србије и Новог двора, односно садашњег Председништва. Такође, предлажемо да у близини новог симбола наше престонице буду постављени и достојни споменици краљу Петру Првом Ослободицу и краљу Александру Ујединитељу, који су као командати српске војске заслужни за велике победе код Куманова, на Брегалници, Церу, Колубари, Солунском фронту и другим бојиштима од 1912. до 1918. године.
We propose that the Triumphal Arch is erected in the former Royal, today's Pioneer Park, between the Serbian Parliament building and the New Palace, i.e. the present Seat of the President. We also propose to erect appropriate monuments devoted to King Peter, the Liberator, and King Alexander, the Unifier, who, as commanders of the Serbian army, were responsible for the great victories at Kumanovo, on Bregalnica, Cer, Kolubara, on the Salonica Front and other fronts from 1912 to 1918.
SPO added that the construction of the Triumphal Arch was first proposed in the 1930s but did not move forward due to Serbia's occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941.
In the morning of SPO's announcement, Serbian tabloid Espreso ran an article sensationally titled “Belgrade's getting a Triumphal Arch just like Paris, here and now! Serbs will atone their sins towards King Alexander!”. It included quotes by SPO founder Vuk Drašković, who served as deputy prime minister in 1999 under Slobodan Milošević‘s government, and as foreign minister under conservative PM Vojislav Koštunica (2004-2007).
The article unquestionably praises the initiative while offering no information about sources of funding or environmental impact. It revolves instead around “Serbia's sins,” meaning the supposed neglect of the country's military tradition by its governments. Drašković, a self-proclaimed monarchist and an instrumental figure in the rehabilitation of the quisling četnik movement, said:
Nadam se da ćemo okajati grehe, drugačije ćemo se osećati kada prođemo pored spomenika ili kroz Trijumfalnu kapiju, kada je ozidamo u kojoj ćemo se slikati sa onima i pored onih čiji smo potomci. Valjda će to podstaći i pokajanje da im (onim čiji smo potomci) budemo dostojni jer smo se od njih odmetnuli, njih smo zaboravili, njih smo osramotili.
I hope we will atone our sins, we will feel differently when we pass by the monument or through the Triumphal Arch after we raise it and when we take photos with those [historical figures] from whom we descend. I hope it will instigate atonement and that we finally become worthy of our ancestors, because we reneged from them, we forgot them, we disgraced them.
So far, no official response to the SPO's proposal by the Belgrade authorities or the national government has been made public.
Miloš Mitrović says that the proposed plan for the Triumphal Arch doesn't include information about the costs and that its construction would destroy the current park's greenery.
Predlog SPO-a ima za cilj da, dakle, veliča slavnu prošlost, a ponekog je podsetio na svojevremeni, isto monumentalni, u najmanju ruku, projekat izgradnje spomenika i zgrada u klasičnom stilu u Skoplju, poznat kao antikvizacija. Izgradnja trijumfalne kapije i spomenika kraljevima u Beogradu ne bi predstavljala antikvizaciju, pre bi ovom, centralnom delu glavnog grada, ili prestonice kako ga SPO doživljava, dale jednu, malo je reći, grobljansku notu. Ali bi Beograd izgradnjom trijumfalne kapije i spomenika definitivno dobio, posle rekonstrukcije Trga Republike – ili Trga slobode kako bi u svom prošlom životu to rekao Vuk Drašković, taj Branko Kockica srpske politike – još jedan betonski prospekt u svom središtu. Osim ako bi projekat, ipak, bio izveden na manje monumentalan način, pa bi se kapija i spomenici krili među drvećem Pionirskog parka.
Otvara se, naravno, i krajnje banalno pitanje, pogotovo za grupu elitista, koliko bi podizanje monumentalne kapije i spomenika koštalo i ko bi novac obezbedio, bogati dobrotvori ili zahvalan narod, uz opravdanu sumnju da se vlada i gradska skupština, pošto prihvate inicijativu SPO-a, možda ne bi zaustavili na kapiji i dva spomenika, zašto sitničariti, već bi se setili i drugih primera iz slavne prošlosti, a nije ih malo, pa bi kapiji i spomenicima dvojici kraljeva pridodali još koji kip i najmanje jedan obelisk, zašto da ne. Zna se da je monumentalnost kod njih, u vladi i gradskoj vlasti, na ceni. „Faraoni su ostavili iza sebe piramide, ali svuda okolo je pustinja“, rekao bi Aleksandar Čotrić.
So, the goal of SPO's proposal to extol the glorious past, somehow reminds of another, also monumental, project of constructing monuments and buildings in classical style in Skopje, known as antiquisation. The construction of the Triumphal Arch and monuments to past kings in Belgrade would not be antiquisation per se, but would nevertheless make this central part of the capital look more like a cemetery. The Triumphal Arch and the monuments […] would become yet another another space filled with concrete in the center of Belgrade. Unless the project, if built on a less monumental scale, fits between the trees of the Pioneer Park.
Another issue, which might be too banal for the elitist group of the SPO, is the cost this enormous arch and monuments, and who would pay for it — some rich benefactors or the grateful people. One doubts that the government and the city assembly, if they accept the SPO's initiative, will stop with just an arc and two monuments. Why would they be stingy if they could also remember other names from the glorius past? There are plenty of them, so a few more statues could be added, as well at least one obelisk — why not. It's a well known fact that both the central and the city government appreciate monumental things. Aleksandar Čotrić might justify it by saying something like “the pharaohs left the pyramids behind, even though all around them is a desert.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Masterminds behind Ampatuan massacre convicted but campaign against impunity continues in the Philippines · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Media groups, artists, and human rights defenders gather in Manila to call for the conviction of the Ampatuan massacre masterminds on 23 November 2019 during the tenth anniversary of the crime. Source: Altermidya Facebook
A Philippine local court has sentenced members of the Ampatuan family and their accomplices to 40 years in prison for the massacre of 58 individuals — 32 of whom were journalists — in 2009.
On 23 November 2009, a group scheduled to file an election candidacy bid in Maguindanao province, located in the southern Mindanao island, was stopped at a checkpoint by the ‘private army’ of the Ampatuan family. Those who joined the convoy, including journalists who were covering it, were massacred and hastily buried on site.
It was the deadliest attack on the press and the worst election-related violence in Philippine history.
For the next ten years, media advocates and human rights groups have campaigned for justice. They kept the issue alive while monitoring the case to make sure that the Ampatuans are convicted. On 19 December 2019, a local court finally convicted the masterminds of the massacre.
But the campaign does not end here. At least 80 suspects are still at large. The Ampatuans are also expected to appeal the court decision which may reach the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines highlighted the importance of the court conviction:
The convictions and indemnification can never bring back the lives of the victims and erase the pain of the families who lost their loved ones.
But these, in some way, alleviate the suffering that they have endured for the past 10 years.
The group also recognized those who tirelessly campaigned for justice in the past decade:
The conviction of the key accused is also due to the unity and steadfastness of Filipino media workers and media groups in the country and abroad who have sustained the campaign and efforts for the past 10 years to make sure that the massacre will not be forgotten and that justice will be achieved no matter how long and hard it takes.
Altermidya, a network of independent media groups, noted that the campaign against impunity will continue:
The past ten years have galvanized us, fortified our ranks. After the massacre, killings of journalists continued. Fifteen of our colleagues have been gunned down under this administration.
Moreover, warlordism, political patronage and all the conditions that led to the tragedy ten years ago remain. The enablers of this dome of impunity remain vastly untouched.
The Rodrigo Duterte administration came to power in 2016. In the past three years, more than a dozen journalists have been killed for simply fulfilling their duty of informing the public.
A vigil and candle lighting event was organized by media groups on the eve of the announcement of the verdict. Some relatives of the massacre victims attended the gathering.
Ate Emely, relative of one of the victim recalls the brutal tragedy and calls for justice for slain relative. pic.twitter.com/N7iUgx6ar3
— CEGP (@CEGPhils) December 18, 2019
During the promulgation of the court decision, media advocates were joined by human rights groups in a protest gathering while waiting for the announcement.
Various groups including the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines continue ahead with their program here just outside the fences of Camp Bagong Diwa to call for #ConvictAmpatuan. The program was stopped earlier by police.#FightFor58 #AmpatuanMassacre pic.twitter.com/bD9cMGRhCt
— Philippine Collegian (@phkule) December 19, 2019
Journalist Kath Cortez was with the children of some of the victims while monitoring the court announcement in Mindanao. She shares the impact of the decision on the children:
Ngayon ko pa lang naprocess ang mga naganap. Mahirap ang nangyari ngayon lalo nat kasama ang mga anak ng mga biktima. Hindi tulad natin, mahirap para sa kanila iproseso ang hatol ng korte dahil iba ang pinagdadaanan nila.
Ganun pa man, saludo ako sa tibay nila at tapang na humarap sa media ngayong araw kahit na halo-halo ang emosyon. Malinaw at matibay ang kanilang paninindigan na patuloy hanapin ang hustiya para sa kanilang mahal sa buhay.
Puno ng emosyon ang araw na ito pero matibay ang mga bata. Sana tayo rin dahil di pa tapos ang lahat.
It's only now that I was able to understand what just happened. Today's events were difficult especially since we were joined by the children of the victims. Unlike us, it's more difficult for them to process the court decision because of what they endured.
Nevertheless, I salute them for their strength and bravery to face the media even though they were struggling with conflicting emotions. Their conviction to fight for justice for their loved ones is clear and strong.
It was an emotional moment but the kids never wavered. I hope we can be like them because the fight is not yet over.