text:
Indians Applaud a Journalist’s Passionate Takedown of a Body-Shaming Facebook Meme · Global Voices
Sohini Chatterjee

Screenshot from Facebook. Meme originally shared by Abbey Oye, an Indian entertainment site.
The above cringe-worthy meme featuring Oscar-nominated American actress Gabourey Sidibe was doing the rounds on Facebook in India for quite a while. Originally uploaded by Abbey Oye, an Indian entertainment site, the image was being shared by users who tagged their handsome male friends, insinuating what a horrible thing it would be for them to have a wife or a girlfriend who resembled Sidibe.
Kolkata-based journalist, Tiyash Mukhopadhyay, who works for a leading Bengali daily, gave a fitting reply to all those who thought it was “funny” to bash the woman in the meme for her size and looks.
In her Facebook post, she wrote in Bangla:
ক'দিন ধরেই চোখে পড়ছে, এই ছবিটা ফেসবুকে বেশ ছড়িয়ে পড়েছে। লোকজন শেয়ারও করছে, তাদের ‘সুদর্শন’ বন্ধুকে ট্যাগ করে। বেশ মজার ব্যাপার বটে।
I have been noticing that this picture is going viral on Facebook. People have been sharing it, playfully tagging their good-looking friends. It’s quite funny.
আমরা জানলামই না…মেয়েটা কে, কোথায় থাকে, কী করে, কী ভাবে, কী খায়….
আমরা জানলামই না, কালকেই রাস্তার ধার থেকে কোনও আধমরা কুকুরছানাকে ও ঘরে নিয়ে এসেছে কি না..। [..] জানলাম না, অন্যায় দেখলেই ও রুখে দাঁড়ায় কি না..। জানলাম না, কাল সন্ধেয় ওর প্রেমিক ওকে ছেড়ে চলে গিয়েছে কি না..। জানার চেষ্টাও করলাম না, এই নির্লোম ঝকঝকে ফর্সা ঝিনচ্যাকের নিঁখুত বাজারে প্রতিটা মুহূর্তে ওকে লড়াই করে বাঁচতে হয় কি না..। জানলামই না, ঘুমিয়ে পড়লে ওকে আর পাঁচ জনের মতোই নিষ্পাপ লাগে কি না..। জানলাম না, মেয়েটা ভালবাসতে ভালবাসে কি না..।
But we do not really know… who this girl is, where she lives, what she does, what she thinks, what she eats…. we do not know if she picked up and brought home a dying puppy from a street corner yesterday…. […] We do not know if she protests against any injustice. We do not know if her lover left her last evening… We did not make an attempt to know whether in a world of well-groomed people with glossy exteriors full of spunk, if she has to struggle to survive. We do not know whether she looks as innocent as everyone else when she sleeps. We don’t know if she loves to love.
জাস্ট জানলাম না, প্রয়োজনই মনে করলাম না..।
শুধু জানলাম, মেয়েটি ‘মোটা’, ‘কালো’, ‘কুৎসিত'। জানলাম এ রকম মেয়ে কারও বান্ধবী বা কারও প্রেমিকা হলে তা এক ভয়ঙ্কর মজার ব্যাপার বটে..। সাইজ আর চামড়ার রং দিয়ে মুহূর্তের মধ্যে জাজ করে ফেললাম ওর সমস্তটুকুকে..।
We just do not know, neither did we feel the need for it. The only thing we know is: the girl is “fat”, “dark”, “ugly”. If someone like her becomes someone’s wife or girlfriend, it would be a terribly funny thing. We judge her everything merely on the basis of her size and colour of her skin.
তার পর শুধু শেয়ার করলাম..।
আর আমারই কোনও এক সুপুরুষ বন্ধুর এ রকম বান্ধবী ‘জুটতে’ পারে…এই আশঙ্কায় হেসেই গড়াগড়ি খেলাম..। তাদের ট্যাগ করে খুব খানিক অপ্রস্তুতে ফেললাম..।
And then we started sharing the picture. I rolled on the floor laughing, having imagined the possibility of some of my handsome friends, having her as their girlfriend. I tagged them and made them a little uncomfortable.
কী প্রচন্ড রসবোধ আমাদের..! কী অল্পে খোরাক খুঁজে পাই..! কত সহজেই একটা ছবির মাধ্যমে নির্ভেজাল খুশি ছড়িয়ে দিতে পারি সোশ্যাল মিডিয়ার পাতায় পাতায়…!
What a tremendous sense of humor we have! We find fodder for laughter so easily. How easy it is for us to spread unadulterated happiness throughout the pages of social media on the basis of just one “odd” picture!
মেয়েটা হয়তো জানলই না… বা জানার পরে বাকি জীবনটা কুঁকড়ে বাঁচল… অথবা, এই অপমান সহ্য করতে না পেরে……….
Maybe the girl in the picture will never know. Or maybe, after knowing, she will lead a miserable life. Or maybe, unable to bear the insult, she will…
যাক গে, এত জেনে কাজ কী আমাদের…!
Anyway, what’s the point of knowing all this?
Mukhopadhyay's post quickly circulated on Facebook. It has garnered more than 2,600 likes and reactions and more than 380 comments, with around a thousand people having shared the post at the time of writing this article. Most have applauded Mukhopadhyay for pointing out the cruelty of the meme and the misogyny inherent in it.
Paramita Ghosh wrote:
I feel very good after having read your post. This bears prove of the fact that goodness is still left in us.
Echoing Mukhopadhyay's thoughts, Deblina Chakraborty said:
Body shaming in the garb of jokes is constantly humiliating our apparently “educated”, “progressive”, “modern society”. I lose my voice of protest as I am filled with disgust.
Ankita Chakraborty lamented the pressure put on people over their weight:
Funny, indeed! Apart from grinding your teeth or softly crying to yourself, is there any thing else one can do? Everyday one has to hear, “Stop eating so much”, “You have become fatter”, “You will burst any moment now”. Nobody thinks about the impact their remarks would have on the person who is being spoken to. I don't know who you but I salute you.
While sharing the post, Somdatta Roy commented:
অসম্ভব প্রাসঙ্গিক… এবং এক ই সাথে লজ্জার… কোথায় চলেছি আমরা? শেষ টা কোন যায়গায়????
Extremely pertinent and at the same time shameful. Where are we headed and where is it going to end?
Mukhopadhyay wasn't done with her critique. She wrote in response to a comment on her post:
আসলে ‘সুন্দর’-এর একটা কাঠামো ছোটবেলা থেকে আমাদের মধ্যে পেরেক পিটে গেঁথে গিয়েছে..। তার বাইরে যা কিছু, সেই সবটা নিয়েই আমরা ‘মজা’ করতে পারি বলে ভেবে নিই..। পরে কোনও এক দিন হয়তো জানতে পারি, আমাদের চেনা কাঠামোর বাইরের পৃথিবীটা এত বড়, সেখানে মজা করতে গিয়ে আমরা নিজেরাই মজা হয়ে যাই..। নিজের কাছেই ছোট হয়ে যাই।…
We have been made to buy into the standardization of beauty from our very childhood. Anything that falls outside our known parameter of beauty, we think is worth being made fun of. It is not the fault of an individual, but the way we have been raised to think about beauty is to blame. The fault is in the perspective that society has gifted us. Maybe someday we will learn that the world is bigger than what we know, because of which we end up looking funny ourselves as we try to make fun of others, making ourselves appear smaller.
Not all have responded to the post favourably, however.
Avi Bose seemed to think people were taking the meme too seriously:
Wonderful thinking! But if you keep thinking in this fashion then probably you should consider not walking down the streets as you could step on many ants causing their death. Try to take things lightly. There's no point thinking so much about such a small issue.
Experts say that Internet memes go viral due to a psychological process called emotional contagion through which emotions spread like a disease. Many on Facebook were sharing the image, thinking it was funny, long before Mukhopadhyay chose to reflect on it critically. But her post seems to have “cured” the contagion for a number of people, at least, who are now refusing to accept it as benign humour. The power of social media is immense — for bad and for good.

author: Sohini Chatterjee


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Iran’s Shrinking Lake Urmia Comes Under the Spotlight, Thanks to Hollywood’s Leonardo DiCaprio · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

Lake Urmia by Yoosef Pooranvary. Own work. CC BY-SA 3.0
In one “regram,” American actor Leonardo DiCaprio has brought a flood of attention to Iran's drying Lake Urmia.
Lake Urmia (sometimes spelled Orumyeh or Urmieh) has been an issue for Iranian environmentalists and water engineers for years. The lake was once the largest salt water lake in the Middle East. Poor water management, reckless infrastructure projects, and drought have combined to threaten the very existence of the lake.
Leonardo DiCaprio shared an image from American TV outlet The Weather Channel of the drying lake in an Instagram post shared on May 5, 2016.
#Regram #RG @weatherchannel: A dilapidated ship dock remains on dried up Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. It used to be the biggest salt lake in the Middle East, but it now contains five percent of the amount of water it did two decades ago due to climate change, dam construction and decrease in precipitiation. Read more at weather.com. Photo: @solmazdaryani #ItsAmazingOutThere #climatechange #lakeurmia #iran #photography #travelphotography #travel #environment #lake #saltlake #saltdesert #photo #photos #photooftheday #pic #picoftheday #pics #urmia
A photo posted by Leonardo DiCaprio (@leonardodicaprio) on
Twitter was soon inundated with praise for the actor's Instagram post. The United Nations Development Program representative in Iran, Gary Lewis, thanked the actor for bringing the world's attention to the lake:
#Iran: Thanks @LeoDiCaprio for drawing attention of the world to Lake Urmia. All hands count. Keep up the great work pic.twitter.com/Fp0yQS7jJe
— Gary Lewis (@GaryLewisUN) May 5, 2016
Lewis has long been involved in activities to reverse the drying of the inland salt lake.
Behna Azimi thanked DiCaprio for hearing “our scream”:
Thanks alot for your notice @LeoDiCaprio, at least one person hear our scream!
it's need to do more to save #urmialake / #LakeUrmia!
— Behnam Azimi (@bhnmzm) May 5, 2016
Twitter user @Elxan89 shared the video In Memory of Urmia Lake.
Journalist Omid Memarian was also among those thanking DiCaprio for sharing information about the lake:
Kudos 2 @LeoDiCaprio 4 brining attention 2 #Iran‘s #LakeUrmia in his latest post, received widely in Iran. pic.twitter.com/2Xksfor0ZH
— Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) May 5, 2016
@aaraz, a Twitter user from Urmia added:
When @LeoDiCaprio instas ur home town & ur hometowners break his @instagram 😂 #LakeUrmia #Iran #climatechange pic.twitter.com/oDA4yigjnc
— aRaz (@aaraaz) May 5, 2016
The drying of the lake has an impact for the whole world. The brine shrimp in Lake Urmia have been an important food source for many migratory bird species. Flamingos, egrets, pelicans, and other birds were once abundant in the area.
The area's residents are suffering the most. The salt exposed by the drying lake has already poisoned the soil, destroyed generations of agricultural land, and has the potential to disrupt the lives of millions.
Some users went beyond thanking the actor. Amir Ghias tweeted about the rehabilitation of the lake:
طرح احیاء #دریاچه_ارومیه در حال اجراست ولی زمان می بره 🌊 امیدوارم کارساز باشه 🌊 #urmialake
— Armin GHias (@arminghias) May 5, 2016
The rehabilitation of #Lake_Urmia is having an effect, but it takes time.
Image widely shared during the 2011 protests to bring attention to the drying lake.
Lake Urmia is on the border of Iran and Turkey. It has long been a central feature for the region's residents. The lake has been a source of income and cultural pride. Its deteriorating condition has caused concern among populations in both Turkey and Iran. In 2011, this resulted in widespread protests. Read more about the protests on Arseh Sevom and Global Voices.
Twitter user Saeed Maraghali wrote:
از اون سر دنیا واسه خشک شدن دریاچه نگرانن. به یکی گفتم میدونی اگه خشک بشه چه بلایی سرمون میاد؟گفت خشک بشه فوقش میریم یه جای دیگه#urmialake
— SaeedMaraghali (@SaeedMaraghali) May 5, 2016
From the other side of the world there is worry about the drying of the lake. I asked if they knew what disaster would befall us if the lake were to dry up. They said, if it goes dry, we'll just have to go somewhere else. #urmialake
We (more than) suspect Twitter user Saeed Matin is joking in this tweet about Lake Urmia:
برای دریاچه ارومیه ی ما ابراز نگرانی می کنند، چه غلط ها! شما بروید نگران خلیج خوک ها باشید…بی حیاها. #UrmiaLake
— سعید متین (@SaeiddMatin) May 5, 2016
They worry about Lake Urmia when they should be worrying about the Bay of Pigs. Have they no shame #UrmiaLake
Leonardo DiCaprio may not be able to save the lake. But there are many people in Iran and around the world working to bring it back from the brink. In an interview with Scientific American, Hossein Akhani, a biologist at the University of Tehran, was asked what the government of Iran was doing to save the lake. He stated:
The Urmia Lake Restoration Committee set up expert committees who made an action plan in 2014, which was approved. In the Iranian calendar for 2015 until 21st of March in 2016, 660 million dollars was invested in 88 projects in the area. For example, they gave 200 million cubic meters of dam water to the lake and connected two rivers so the water flows more easily. They are constructing a canal to bring water from a river near the Turkish border to the lake. They also started subsidizing agricultural sectors to reduce their water use.
They certainly have their work cut out for them. This GIF shows how much the lake has diminished between 1998 and 2014:
Lake Urmia from 1998 – 2014 using satellite images in the public domain
We'll conclude with this image Gary Lewis recently shared on his Facebook page. The recent wet winter in Iran has contributed to an increase of 5 cm in the water level of the lake. Because Lake Urmia is so shallow to begin with, this is a significant increase.
“Let's continue our efforts to restore it.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Tori Egherman


text:
Meet Bayangol FC, Your Reference Point for Mongolian Football · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Bayangol FC celebrate victory. Photo of Bayangol FC, used with permission.
With shock package Leicester City recently crowned champions of England and the UEFA Champions League final not until May 29, Global Voices decided to turn to Mongolia and Bayangol FC for its football fix this weekend.
The startup club co-owned by Welsh football coach Paul Watson and his famous comedian brother Mark, is overseeing the development of a squad made up mostly of Mongolian players looking for a shot at professional glory in their homeland.
After a reality show covering the club's development and player recruitment drive on local television, Bayangol FC have attracted interest from some of the world's biggest media outlets.
But as Paul Watson explained in an interview with Global Voices, the club's biggest challenges — including staying in the Mongolian Premier Division — are still in front of them.
Paul Watson: I was approached in 2013 by Enki Batsumber, a Mongolian football lover who had been in the US for a decade and just returned to Ulan Bator. His dream was to set up a Mongolian club that stood as an example for honesty and transparency and encouraged the development of local players.
At the time Mongolian football was mired in corruption and the official Mongolian Football Federation league had six teams and no promotion or relegation – games were contested with no crowds really and nobody cared. Enki set up a breakaway league that had 20 teams and games broadcasted on YouTube.
Bayangol was formed as a club to inspire local people to not just watch the English Premier League, which they do in their thousands, but to come out and watch local players.
So we formed the club as part of a reality TV show on the Mongolian channel NTV with open trials and players from all over Mongolia with vastly differing backgrounds became the core of our team.
Shortly afterwards, the Mongolian Football Federation chief was found guilty of corruption and a new, young regime was put in charge, so Bayangol joined the official league in the Second Division.
PW: Mongolians love football and thousands are in fan clubs for Man United, Man City, Barcelona, Liverpool and others.
They pack into bars at unsociable hours to watch games live on bad feeds and go wild. But there's been a long-standing belief that Mongolian football isn't worth watching.
The national team is struggling badly and lost to East Timor heavily to end their 2018 World Cup qualification campaign before it had started.
However, the new Mongolian Premier League is growing and getting more and more attention.
This year Bayangol will be supported by the Man City fan club of Ulan Bator so we hope to have 100 plus fans at least at our games singing!
Bayangol FC are hoping for attendances of 100 and over as their battle to remain in the Mongolian Premier League begins next season. Photo of Bayangol FC, used with permission.
PW: The club runs as a charity pretty much.
We have one main sponsor, Study UK Mongolia, who organise football and English language camps in Mongolia, and the rest of the running costs come from a small group of us who invest our own money.
Other clubs in Mongolia are owned by big corporations or oligarchs but we're a people's club and are funded by football lovers, none of whom are rich!
PW: One of our players Ochiroo Batbold, a young Man United fan who idolises Wayne Rooney, was the victim of a scam where he was told he could get a trial for LA Galaxy if he transferred money to an ‘agent’.
His family, who live in one of the poorest districts of Ulan Bator borrowed the money and lost $6,000.
They risked losing their house.
Fortunately we crowd-funded and supporters from all over the world came forward to reimburse him.
After that we heard from a Scottish journalist in Bishkek who was friends with a Nigerian player, Olewale, who'd suffered something similar.
He had been brought to Central Asia on the promise of his big break with a Russian club but had in fact been held effectively captive by a minder while he played for a small team in Tajikistan and gave his wages to his handlers.
He escaped to Kyrgyzstan and became friends with the journalist David McArdle who wrote a great piece for a website called the Diplomat.
We got talking and decided we could give Wale a chance to start afresh in Mongolia and we can't wait to welcome him.
Over the last few weeks we've also had two Nigerian players with us who were signed by clubs in Mongolia who then let their visas expire and refused to pay them their wages.
They were cut adrift and had no way of appealing as they were now illegal immigrants.
They even had nights sleeping rough. They are training with us and the club has put them in an apartment but a new league ruling means they aren't allowed to play this season, leaving them in limbo.
We are going to help them find a way out of their predicament.
Wale's player trafficking nightmare came to an end when he was transferred to the Mongolian premier league's newest side. Photo of Bayangol FC, used with permission.
PW: It's true that Ulan Bator gets bitterly cold, temperatures get down to -30 in winter.
After October until March everyone plays futsal indoors as there's no indoor full-sized pitch.
While futsal is a great game, it does hinder their 11-a-side team when they play national games and haven't been on a full-sized pitch for months.
We're talking to various people who want to help get an indoor facility built.
Bayangol FC training in Ulan Bator. Photo of Bayangol FC, used with permission.
PW: Bayangol lost in the play-offs last year but we were told just 10 days before the start of the season that we had been promoted as another side refused to take their Premier League place.
As a result we've had very limited time to prepare for a much higher level of football.
We are going to welcome a great young UEFA A License coach to the club in Shadab Iftikhar but he won't arrive until after the first game against the 2014 champions Khoromkhon, so it could be a tough start to the campaign but we believe we can hang on in there and stay up.
The current champions and the team to watch are Erchim, the Power Plant No 4 team who won the Super Cup 6-0 last week. They are very strong and have a fantastic manager – Tulga Zorigt – and nine Mongolian national team starters.
PW: I think that Mongolian football is growing fast and that in ten years time we will see Mongolian sides doing well in the AFC Cup and the national team finally winning a few matches.
There's so much talent and promise in the country and now with a forward-looking Federation in place and a new, exciting league I think it will go from strength to strength.
Bayangol FC photo shoot. Photo of Bayangol FC, used with permission.

author: Chris Rickleton


text:
Meet Japan’s Biggest YouTube Star · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

はじめしゃちょー（hajime） is YouTube's most popular vlogger in Japan with 3.2 million subscribers.
Bound by cultural and linguistic barriers from the outside world, Japanese YouTube exists in a universe of its own. Viral memes come and go with little notice being taken anywhere outside of Japan.
Luckily, Hajime Shacho, Japan's most popular YouTube vlogger, has included English language captions for his most watched (and most outrageous) videos.
With more than 18 million views, Hajime Shacho's most popular YouTube upload so far is “Taking a Coca-Cola bath with Mentos.” It's a perfect example of the extreme experimentation that has made Hajime's YouTube channel sort of like a mini-Mythbusters:
The hilarious—and informative—”How to Make a Slime Bath” has racked about 11 million views so far:
In this popular video with 7.2 million views, Hajime Shacho sets out to eat all of the items on the McDonald's menu.
Hajime Shacho's most popular YouTube videos can be viewed here.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
The ‘Migration Project’ Helps Guatemalan Families Find Missing Loved Ones · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Manuel sought help from the Migration Project after his daughter was injured in a car accident trying to reach the US. Credit: Amy Bracken
This article by Amy Bracken originally appeared on PRI.org on May 5, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Every month, the United States deports thousands of men, women and children to Guatemala. But many continue to come, or at least try. Many are fleeing remote villages that were devastated by violence during the country’s armed conflict decades ago, and that now suffer economically.
Guatemala’s truth commission reported that the mostly Mayan town of Zacualpa, in the northern highlands, was the scene of genocide in the 1980s. Many residents fled then. And now, in some of Zacualpa’s outskirts, almost a fifth of the adult population has migrated north, in search of a better life.
In Zacualpa, many locals can’t resist a gamble: get a loan and pay a smuggler thousands of dollars to take you through Mexico to the US. You might make it and get a job, and send much-needed money home to family. Or you might fail — get deported, and end up back in Zacualpa, worse off than you were before.
Or you might go missing.
In that case, your family is likely to come to the convent behind the Church of Zacualpa, where there’s a small office marked with a paper sign saying “Migration Project.” It’s a local initiative with outside backing — from the human rights center at Boston College in the US state of Massachusetts.
Luisa Hernández Simaj works here. She says most people who stop by are looking for loved ones who’ve gone north.
“We’ve noticed that they don’t present themselves,” she says, “like, ‘My name is María or Juana and I come from such and such community.’ The first thing they say is, ‘I’m looking for my migrant family member.’”
Luisa Hernández Simaj works for the Migration Project helping family members locate missing loved ones in the US as well as supporting people who don't make it and return home in debt. Credit: Amy Bracken
They know Hernández Simaj has access to a powerful tool: the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement locator website. She plugs in the migrant’s name, country of origin and date of birth. Sometimes their location pops right up. Sometimes it turns up nothing, which could mean the smuggler has told the migrant not to use his or her real name. So Hernández Simaj fills out a form with the migrant’s information, and submits it to an attorney at Boston College, who checks with her network of attorneys across the US to see if anyone can locate this person.
“We’re so happy when we get a result,” Hernández Simaj says, “to see he’s in detention. Here he is. The family knows he’s coming home. When, we don’t know. But he’s coming home.”
The feeling is relief because the worst fear is that the loved one is dead.
“Here in Zacualpa we have four cases of people who have disappeared,” Hernández Simaj says. They’ve been missing for between four and 15 years.
And then there’s the tragic case of Manuel’s family. The 67-year-old farmer first came into the office a few months back already knowing where his daughter and grandson were. They’d been in an accident in Mexico. The smuggler had lost control of the car trying to evade authorities. Manuel’s daughter had just awoken from a coma, and her 8-year-old son was dead.
Hernández Simaj drives out to visit the family.
Speaking a mix of Quiché Mayan and Spanish, Hernández Simaj asks Manuel to tell his story.
Years ago, Manuel says, his daughter’s husband went to the US to find work to support the family. Wife and son were supposed to join him, but it never happened.
The first attempt was thwarted by US Border Patrol. On the second try, the accident happened. When Manuel got the news, he asked the Migration Project for help. Staff members worked with churches in Mexico to arrange rides to get his daughter home, with her son’s remains.
“Without the churches,” Manuel says, “forget about it.”
Back in the convent courtyard, outside the Migration Project office, is another client, 21-year-old Luis. In a sense, he’s lucky. He survived his three attempts to reach the US. Each time, he was caught by Border Patrol. At that part of the story he’s overcome with emotion and pauses for a while.
Still, as bad as the experience was the first time, after being deported once, he says, “when you think about the debt, you want to go back and try again, and forget everything that happened before.”
Luis tired to reach the US three times and each time he was caught by Border Patrol and deported. Now he's home, struggling with the debt he incurred trying to get the US. Credit: Amy Bracken
He’d wanted to help support his family. Instead, he had to sell off family land to pay back the loan, with interest.
It used to be his family that went to the Migration Project to track him down. Now he’s the one who comes here.
“It helps to talk to the staff here,” he says. In the community, “what happens is one is ashamed to talk about one’s failures.”
Hernández Simaj sees this all the time. She says people don’t talk because of the pain of the debt, but also “because they failed to make it through and achieve this quote-unquote American dream.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Timor Leste’s Prime Minister Isn’t Backing Down on His Defamation Lawsuit Against Two Journalists · Global Voices
Dalia

Timor Leste Prime Minister Rui Araujo meets a group of journalists during the World Press Freedom Day celebration in Dili, the country's capital. Source: Facebook page of Timor Leste's office of the Prime Minister
On April 22, 2016, several global media groups wrote a letter to Timor Leste Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo, urging him to withdraw the defamation case he filed against two local journalists. A week later, Araujo responded, defending his decision to pursue a case against the reporters.
This author got a copy of Araujo's letter, which addressed the concerns raised by global media groups. Araujo said he will not tolerate ‘press irresponsibility':
I will not trade press freedom and freedom of expression with ‘press irresponsibility’ and ‘irresponsible expression of freedom’.
The letter, signed by Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, International Federation of Journalists, and Southeast Asia Journalist Unions, refers to the case of Raimundos Oki and Vicente Martins of the Timor Post newspaper. On November 10, 2015, Timor Post ran a story alleging corruption in a government tendering process. A few days later, the newspaper posted a correction and a reply from the office of the prime minister — a right protected by the country's press law — in relation to the story.
But Araujo, who was not satisfied with the correction published by the newspaper, filed a defamation case against Oki and Martins.
However, in the letter he gave to global media groups, Araujo asserted that what he filed was not a criminal defamation case, but merely the “presenting of facts to the prosecutor’s office of a publicly disseminated false accusation against me.”
Araujo insisted that he has a right to press charges against the journalists who he says made false accusations against him:
Can a journalist write, and newspapers publish these types of reports just because of press freedom and freedom of expression?
There was indeed a report by Timor Post on a press conference in which I denied the false accusations, and an apology was published mentioning ‘technical error’, but not a single word ‘correcting’ the patently baseless accusations.
He added that Timor Leste's press law guarantees the rights of journalists, but “not as a means of sanctioning any wrongdoing by journalists or publishing agencies.”
A copy of the correction published by Timor Post on November 8, 2015. Photo by Raimundos Oki, used with permission
Last April 11, the two respondents were summoned to appear in the prosecutor’s office. After probing the case, the prosecutor's office decided to charge the two journalists with ‘slanderous denunciation’.
[…] the prosecution believes that Raimundos Oki ‘after getting this information, did not verify the truth of this information nor confronted with the victim in order to get their version of the facts.’
[…] It did so in order to hit the honor, good name and reputation due to injured Rui de Araujo, well knowing that such rights are constitutionally protected and that the news did not correspond to the truth.
The letter from the global media groups was sent a few days before the celebration of World Press Freedom Day. It expressed concern about the impact of the defamation case on Timor Leste’s commitment to protect press freedom:
[…] the international media community is both disappointed and concerned that such an action is being pursued and strongly urge for you to unconditionally drop the charges and stop using legal threats to harass Timor Leste’s journalists.
[…] this defamation complaint against Oki and Martins threatens to significantly undermine press freedom in Timor Leste by engendering a culture of fear and intimidation among journalists who report on issues of national import.
Interviewed by this author about his case, Oki replied:
Kuandu lori ba prosesu legal ne'e ha'u la tauk ida, tanba ha'u prontu asume responsabilidade ba aktu ne'ebe mak ha'u halo ona, tanba ita kumpri ona buat hotu liu husi halo koresaun no fo direitu de resposta.
When escalated to a legal lawsuit, I have no fear because I am ready to take my responsibility for what I have done, because we already have obeyed everything by doing the correction and giving the right to reply.
Despite this case, Araujo, while addressing a group of journalists on May 3 during the World Press Freedom Day, affirmed Timor Leste’s adherence to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

author: Dalia


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Famine Haunted His Childhood in Ethiopia. Now He Sees Food Running Out Again. · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Abebe Haregewoin (right) and his father in Ethiopia. Credit: Courtesy: Abebe Haregewoin
This article by Joyce Hackel originally appeared on PRI.org on May 5, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The place where you grew up has a way of staying with you for the rest of your life.
Abebe Haregewoin knows that feeling.
He's an oncologist in Silver Spring, a city in the US state of Maryland. But he grew up in Ethiopia and lived in Addis Ababa when famine stalked the Horn of Africa nation back in the 1970s and 80s.
He's thinking about that a lot right now as Ethiopia heads into the “lean season.” Those are the months between planting and harvesting, when there's not a lot of food around. This year, grain stocks will be even more meager than usual.
That's because in recent years the rains in the Horn of Africa haven't followed their usual cycles. Crops have withered. Haregewoin says there's already severe hunger, and in the coming months it will be significantly worse. At the moment, some 10 million Ethiopians are not getting enough food and 4 million children are at risk.
“But the world is now totally focused on Syria, and this is really not obvious to most people in the world,” he says, adding that the Ethiopian government and groups like the World Food Program are trying to spotlight the crisis.
Haregewoin knows from what he saw decades ago that hunger saps not just the body, but the spirit.
“There are people who are totally turned into monsters by starvation and hunger. Stealing, fighting for food. And sort of becoming extremely pathological people,” he says.
At the same time, he's witnessed how the famine has brought out the best in some Horn of Africa residents.
“People share in Ethiopia, that's our culture,” he says. “We eat together. Sharing is part of our make-up.”
These days flash floods are hitting many of the regions where hunger is most acute, making it difficult for trucks to reach those in need.
The drought and the floods put Ethiopia on the precarious front lines of climate change.
“Climate change is not a myth, it's a reality,” he argues. “I've seen it in my own lifetime.”
With an even more severe hunger crisis in the offing, some Ethiopian expats have mobilized to seek donations to help those in need. Haregewoin set up a Go Fund Me page to support food aid. So did Ethiopian Abraham Debebe from Minneapolis. The two men found each other and joined ranks. It took them just a few weeks to raise more than $30,000.
But the need is great, and for Haregewoin the possibility of another devastating famine is always foremost on his mind.
“I think about Ethiopia day and night,” he says. “I worry about Ethiopia, I am spiritually, mentally connected to Ethiopia.”
And that, he says, is the reality for so many Ethiopian expats, who feel especially far from their homeland in its moment of need.


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Georgia Considers National Matchmaking Campaign · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Wedding party in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi. Wikipedia image.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Giorgi Lomsadze. Republished with permission.
A planned nationwide headcount of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes has been announced in Georgia as the best solution to the “problem” of singles in this South Caucasus country of 3.7 million.
A group of concerned citizens at Georgia’s non-profit Demographic Development Fund (GDF) believe that sagging marriage and birth rates have brought the small post-Soviet nation to the cusp of a “demographic catastrophe.” And this is something Tinder, the get-acquainted app, and the like won’t fix. A government-backed dating service is in order, they say.
“We will take a census of all singles, widows, widowers, the divorced and enter their details in a database,” Davit Khizanishvili, the fund’s president, announced last month. Via an agency dedicated to this particular exercise, the non-profit has already started to profile Georgia’s singles, taking careful note of such personal details as “weight, height and zodiac sign.”
The GDF carries the blessing of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the country's most influential public institution, and parliamentarians have scurried to make donations from their salaries.
Like elsewhere in the South Caucasus, much of Georgia tends to look on marriage and having children as solemn duties, but many Georgians are not exactly enamored of this national matchmaking idea. The way it is presented, the undertaking carries none of the fun of Denmark’s “Do it for Denmark, Do it for Mum” campaign, which encouraged Danish couples to go on vacation to make love and conceive babies. With its somber slogans, the Georgian version strikes more similarities to the 2015 dystopian comedy, The Lobster. In that movie, single people are taken to a hotel, where they have to find a romantic partner in 45 days or face being turned into animals.
Some Georgians were indeed creeped out by the GDF’s campaign. Public reactions, rounded up by the daily newspaper Rezonansi, included concerns that singles will get taxed or face the prospect of shotgun marriages.
The proposal has touched off not just concern, but also spoofs. “It may happen so that a woman is not happy with the proposed husband, but she has to bear with the whole thing for the national cause,” wrote the satirical online journal Chiti, essentially a Georgian version of The Onion. The journal joked that the Fund will try to arrange unions between unattractive and attractive people, so their children will have midway decent looks.
The skepticism for the idea is linked to the man behind it, businessman and matchmaker-in-chief Levan Vasadze, chairman of GDF’s board of trustees and a graduate of Emory University’s business school. Traditionally minded and attired (with a taste for chokhas), Vasadze, 45, has an organization and goals similar to those of the GDF.
He is known for his crusade against gay and abortion rights. His manner of speech and many orphic rants against liberalism have provided fodder for internet and television take-offs.
Currently making the rounds online is Vasadze’s tirade against cultural/social liberals. “I am going to call these types homo urbanicus hedonicus, or homo urbanicus, or perhaps just urbano-hedonicus,” he declared in a talk earlier this year. “In adolescence, homo urbanicus thinks he is happy, but that’s just a hormonal illusion…homo urbanicus hedonicus becomes a sadomasochistic, depressive type afflicted by solitude, anger and bile.”
Married and the father of six children, Vasadze sees recreation as the antidote to such ills.
GDF said that Vasadze is not behind its census campaign, but many Georgian singles still are apprehensive that Vasadze, decked out in his trademark traditional outfit, comes knocking on their doors with a proposed date by his side.

author: Eurasianet


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Animals Can’t Escape Cambodia’s Worst Drought in 50 Years, Either · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A tourist elephant dies from heat stroke in Angkor. Photo from an online petition calling for an end to elephant riding. Source: change.org
The El Niño weather phenomenon is partly responsible for plaguing Cambodia with rising temperatures and water shortages. The extreme drought is reported to be the worst in the past 50 years.
According to the government, 2.5 million Cambodians in 100 districts have been affected by the drought, and water shortages have been declared in 18 of the country’s 25 provinces. Meanwhile, nine provinces are experiencing heat waves.
Low water supplies have exacerbated poverty in many rural areas, where farmers depend on rivers and ponds for irrigation. Food security and local populations’ health are also growing concerns.
A look at drought's devastating toll on #Cambodia https://t.co/hTbLWt2AXQ pic.twitter.com/cp5jNmnBIs
— The Phnom Penh Post (@phnompenhpost) May 1, 2016
Fishermen collect fish at a dried up pond at the #drought-hit Kandal province, #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/FYWfyUFlfx
— Hans Solo (@thandojo) April 27, 2016
This YouTube video shows a completely dry Sisophon River in Banteay Meanchey.
Another video shows how some families in rural areas collect water in an almost dry watering hole in Banteay Meanchey province:
Animals are dying because of the water shortage and heat stroke. About 65 tons of fish in Tonle Chhmar lake died last month because of decreasing water levels:
Water Shortage & Heat killed many tonnes of fish in #KampongThom #Cambodia #DroughtKH https://t.co/uXtNLv4JNx pic.twitter.com/K24UqCPFzt
— OU RITTHY (@ritthyou) April 27, 2016
Drought & water shortage have killed 300 cattle in Siem Pang district #StungTreng province https://t.co/aU7R5Of2MI pic.twitter.com/cbNuKRR7Gr
— OU RITTHY (@ritthyou) April 27, 2016
Officials blame heat wave for deaths of hundreds of bats in Siem Reap https://t.co/buWAyoqaIA #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/48S7TYimlr
— The Phnom Penh Post (@phnompenhpost) April 23, 2016
From community: over 30 black monkey died today becuz no water in Battambang, #Cambodia @WildlifeRescue @natgeowild pic.twitter.com/ktR2JYOupT
— Moses (@mosesngeth) April 28, 2016
A tourist elephant in Angkor succumbed to heat stroke. Because of this incident, some Internet users launched a petition urging the authorities to end elephant rides, which are still popular among tourists.
The Cambodian government is asking for cooperation and unity in the nation's response to the drought crisis. Officials vow to provide immediate aid to residents experiencing water shortages.

author: Mong Palatino


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Confused About the Mapuche Conflict in Chile? This Animated Video Can Help · Global Voices
Maral Shafafy

“Justice, recognition and respect” are part of the demands of the Mapuche people and the base of their struggle in Chile. Screenshot from the short animated video “10 Keys to Understanding the Mapuche Conflict,” available on Vimeo.
The conflict between Chilean authorities and the indigenous Mapuche community is far from being relegated to the pages of history. Recent months have seen protests by Mapuche people and several outbreaks of violence.
The issue is complex, and despite being decades and decades old, misunderstanding of the Mapuche's struggle for land rights, justice and respect still abounds inside and outside Chile. As Luis Campos Muñoz at NACLA, a magazine for news and analysis on Latin America, explains:
The past two decades have seen increasing conflict between Chile’s indigenous peoples—particularly the country’s largest indigenous group, the Mapuche—and a series of Chilean governments over questions of land rights and development. Building on the country’s widespread ignorance of the bases and even existence of the Mapuche conflict, both dictatorial and democratic governments have used the euphemisms “dialogue” and “development” to veil the processes by which indigenous communities have been displaced by the construction of dams and highways.
An animated Spanish-language video available on Vimeo, scripted by Hector Errázuriz and María Pía Manquemilla produced by Colectivo Saltamontes in 2013, sheds light on the roots of the conflict and the principal demands of the Mapuche people.
Although it was uploaded three years ago, the film is still useful for its succinct explanation of the history behind the strife. To shed light on the roots of the conflict, Errazuriz Manquemilla made a video, available on Vimeo in which 10 key points are provided to understand the history of the conflict :
The video goes back to the beginning of the the struggle in the year 1880:
Comenzó con la llamada Pacificación de la Araucanía. Chile había conquistado el Norte Grande. Ahora tocaba el sur, cuyo límite era el río Bio Bio. Es por eso que esa zona es considerada “la frontera” […] Al sur del Bio bio vivía el pueblo mapuches. Tras años de tratados los mapuches y españoles vivían cada uno en lo suyo.
It began with the so-called Pacification of Araucanía. Chile had conquered the Big North. Then it reached the south, whose limit was the Bio Bio river. That is why this area is considered the “frontier” [ … ] The Mapuche people lived to the south of Bio Bio. After years of treaties Mapuches and Spaniards lived each to their own.
In that time, the Mapuche people lived on large swathes of land raising cattle and trading mainly with Argentina. But then came the “pacification”, an event “poorly named” because, as the video's narrator says, it was in reality a massacre in the Araucanía region. During this period, Mapuche lands were taken away through deceit, alcohol and guns. At minute 1:34, a list of authors appears in the video, all of which are recommended reading if you want to expand your knowledge of the history.
After this, the Mapuche people were given other pieces of land:
Luego de la toma de tierra las comunidades mapuche fueron relegadas a pequeñas extensiones de tierra llamadas “reducciones”. […] Además de lo pequeño de los terrenos, eran los peores.
After the land was taken, the Mapuche communities were relegated to small areas of land called “reductions.” […] In addition to the land being small, it was of poor quality.
And so, the rest of the fertile lands were offered to European settlers who wanted to come to Chile. “This is what it all comes back to,” the video says. Thus, with the beginning of the 20th century, Mapuche people organised to reclaim their rights and demand reparations. And here's the reason:
La vida en las reducciones significó pobreza, humillación [y] violencia. Los mapuches no siempre fueron campesinos pobres […] Por esto ha habido partidos políticos mapuche y parlamentarios que han sacado su voz.
Life in the “reductions” meant poverty, humiliation, violence. The Mapuche were not always poor peasants […] For this reason, Mapuche political parties and parliamentarians have spoken out.
With the government of Salvador Allende in the early 1970s, reparations began to seem possible, but this was abruptly interrupted by the coup lead by Augusto Pinochet. Years later, after the dictatorship, these plans were put back on the table:
Con la vuelta de la democracia algunas cosas cambiaron, pero otras, ligadas al clasismo y al racismo, siguen igual.
With the return of democracy some things changed, but others, related to classism and racism, remained the same.
The video ends at the present, pointing out that there doesn't have to be hostility in Chile between authorities and the Mapuche people. Countries like Canada, Finland and New Zealand share a similar history with indigenous people, and they recognize and respect themselves as multicultural countries.
At the same time, video underlines the importance of understanding the diversity and complexities inside the Mapuche community itself:
Hay mapuches campesinos, cantantes, poetas, economistas, panaderos, vendedores, abogados. Hay diversas opiniones, miradas, sobre lo que se quiere para el futuro. Es diverso el mosaico del pueblo mapuche. Pero todos quienes tienen conciencia de ser mapuche los une el deseo de justicia, de reconocimiento, de respeto de equidad y valoración.
There are Mapuche peasants, singers, poets, economists, bakers, merchants, lawyers. There are different opinions, perspectives about what we want for the future. The mosaic of the Mapuche people is diverse. But all who have an awareness of being Mapuche are united by the desire for justice, recognition, respect, equality and value.

author: Maral Shafafy


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Iranian Blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki Freed on Bail · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki. Picture uploaded to Twitter after his 2016 release on bail.
Blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki was freed on bail May 4, 2016. Maleki went on a hunger strike in April to protest his imprisonment.
In a May 6 tweet, Maleki shared a recent photo with a poetic comment:
هر رفتنی را بازگشتی است هر چند با جسم ضعیف و مریض احوال اما ایستاده و خندان باید بازگشت. باید بازگشت… pic.twitter.com/lp3zICJuka
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) May 6, 2016
With every departure there is a return. Even when weak and ill we must stand and smile. We must go on…
Maleki was arrested in December 2009, six months after Iran's disputed presidential elections. He was immediately incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison, serving 376 days in solitary confinement before his trial finally began in 2010. This led to a 15-year sentence on charges of “spreading propaganda against the regime”, “membership of the Internet group Iran Proxy”, and “insulting the Iranian supreme leader and the president.”
Maleki blogged under the nickname Babak Khorramdin, the name of an ancient Persian freedom fighter from Azerbaijan (Maleki is an ethnic Iranian Azeri).
In April, Global Voices and Global Voices Advocacy reported on Maleki's case here.
After just a few days on bail, Maleki is already working to raise awareness about Mahmood Beheshti, another political prisoner now on a hunger strike in Iran.
آنچه نگرانم می کند ایمان و اراده ای وصف نشدنی #محمود_بهشتی به راه و اعتقادش است.#FreeMahmoodBeheshtipic.twitter.com/wBD3O5NNzr
— Hossein Ronaghi (@HosseinRonaghi) May 7, 2016
What concerns me is the indescribable faith and the strength shown by #Mahmood_Beheshti who is so committed to his path.
For more recent Global Voices coverage about Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki:


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Syrian Activists Raise the Alarm Over a Possible Massacre in Hama Prison · Global Voices
Reem Zaitouneh

Save the prisoners of Hama prison. Source: @luna_alabdalla (Twitter)
More than 800 mostly political prisoners are believed to be in a grave situation after rioting in the Central Prison of Hama, north of the capital Damascus, in protest against the moving of five inmates who are sentenced to death to another facility — the notorious Sednaya Military Prison. The mutiny was also staged to demand access to trial and better prison conditions.
Regime forces surrounded the prison, shooting live ammunition, petrol bombs and tear gas into the crowded facility after prisoners took some guards hostage. Activists say the prison has been without electricity and water for four days and there is mounting evidence of a possible massacre against the prisoners, already living in dire conditions and subjected to grave human rights abuses.
The stand-off, from Monday, is only becoming worse, as activists raise the alarm online, sharing footage posted by prisoners on social media, showing the extent of the unfolding crisis. Photographs are also being circulated showing regime forces ready to storm the prison.
#BREAKING#FirstFootageRelease of the revolting detainees in #Hama Central Prison#SAA have surrounded the Complexhttps://t.co/MIFZTahWm3
— ۞Logical⚔Liberator۞ (@ShamiRebel) May 2, 2016
#BREAKING
Footage of prisoners in #Hama central prison attempting to ram-down the sealed main gates.https://t.co/kix0p00127
— ۞Logical⚔Liberator۞ (@ShamiRebel) May 2, 2016
On Twitter, Luna Watfa shares this photograph from Hama prison and reports:
800prisoners trapped inside #Hama central prison,What threaten massacre 2happen there#save_Hama_political_detainees pic.twitter.com/lpmxrdTzD7
— Luna Watfa (@luna_alabdalla) May 6, 2016
And Abdalaziz Alhamza says two detainees have been killed:
The situation in #Hama prison is horrible, 2 detainees have been killed , the Syrian regime will make another massacre there#SOS .
— Abdalaziz Alhamza (@3z0ooz) May 6, 2016
Detainees inside the prison have been sharing their ordeal, and calling on human rights groups to intervene to stop a possible massacre. On social media, Syrian activists have published the following statement on their pages in an attempt to highlight the plight of the prisoners:
We are Syrian activists extend without exception this distress call to all international human rights, humanitarian organizations, and to the Organization of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the request to extend assistance to the political detainees in the Central Prison of Hama, after they carried out the intractability of protest against the arbitrary trials suffered by the prisoners, which resulted in the Syrian regime's determination to execution death sentence to many of them.
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After negotiations with the regime failed to improve the conditions, the detainees were given deadline until 5 am Damascus time to lift the deadlock. In case the detainees did not comply with this threat, the Syrian regime forces will attack the prison in a military operation which is expected to produce a terrifying massacre against the detainees.
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We call upon all international bodies to intervene to prevent an imminent massacre in the coming hours and that upon the request of the detainees, also calls upon the international community to shoulder its full responsibility to deter the Syrian regime against any reprisals action against the detainees.
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We hold the international community and human rights organizations responsible for the massacre, which is expected to be committed in the prison by the regime.
From inside the Hama prison, a prisoner shares this appeal on YouTube, saying that prisoners have not had food for three days:
According to Detainees of Central Hama Facebook page a deal is being negotiated with the regime to restore services like water and the provision of food and medicine to the prison. In exchange, the mutiny must end.
Thousands of Syrians are being held in prison without charge and subjected to torture since anti-regime protests broke out across the country in March 2011. Also, more than 270,000 Syrians have been killed in Syria's five years of conflict.
Stay tuned for more updates.

author: Reem Zaitouneh


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The Text Message That Stopped an Oil Exploration Project in Colombia · Global Voices
Marco Sarmiento

Caño Cristales, the “River of Five Colors”, El Tapete area. Photo by Mario Carvajal from the Caño Cristales website, used under license CC 3.0
After an intense debate that involved the whole country, the government of Colombia has decided to revoke the license given to an oil company to carry out exploration in an area adjacent to La Macarena, a nature reserve located 281 kilometers from Bogotá and considered to be one of the largest wildlife refuges in the world.
The turn of events might not of happened, had it not been for a text message. The fact that “oil wells are being drilled in La Macarena” first came to the attention of Paloma Valencia, a senator from the Democratic Pole party, through a group chat. She then made the decision to summon the mayor of the municipality, Ismael Medellin Dueñas, to Congress to report to his colleagues about these grave allegations.
Valencia recounted for the independent online newspaper Debate Periódico what had happened:
Con los amigos del Centro Democrático pudimos entrar en contacto con el recién elegido alcalde del Municipio y otras autoridades locales que de tiempo atrás han venido defendiendo el territorio de la explotación petrolera. Logramos que el Alcalde se dirigiera a la plenaria [del Congreso], y la reacción fue inmediata, se conformó una comisión para redactar una proposición del Senado en pleno para pedir la revocatoria de la licencia.
With the help of the friends from the Democratic Center, we were able to contact the newly elected mayor of the municipality and other local authorities who have been defending the territory from oil exploitation for a long time ago. We managed to convince the mayor to address the plenary [of Congress], and the reaction was immediate: a commission was set up to draft a proposal to the Senate in plenary meeting calling for the revocation of the license.
This situation forced the director of the entity responsible for granting environmental licenses, the National Agency of Environmental Licenses (Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales, or ANLA), to organize a press conference. In it, he confirmed that on March 18, 2016, he gave permission to the US company Hupecol to drill 150 sites for oil in a territory covering about 30,000 hectares, adjacent to the spring of three major rivers that run through the region.
The mayor of La Macarena, Ismael Medellín Dueñas, explained in an interview with the daily newspaper El Espectador:
Yo quiero denunciar la entrega de esta licencia 0286 para la explotación de 150 pozos, nosotros somos un municipio ecológico y turístico, llevamos más de 15 años preparándonos para esto y ahora resulta que el Gobierno da vía libre para acabar con todo nuestro ecosistema. Hoy recibimos más de 14 mil turistas al año por la belleza de nuestros recursos y ahora nos pretenden convertir en una zona de explotación de hidrocarburos.
I condemn the issuing of the license 0286 for the operation of 150 wells, we are an ecological and touristic municipality, we have been preparing for this for over 15 years, and now it turns out that the government gives the go-ahead for the destruction of our entire ecosystem. Today we receive more than 14,000 tourists a year, attracted by our beautiful [natural] resources, and now the government seeks to turn this into an area of exploitation of hydrocarbons.
After the official confirmation, the news was splashed across the country's front pages and became a trending topic on social media the next day, April 14.
The scandal reached international media because the area is home to the famous “River of Five Colors,” the Caño Cristales, visited by thousands of tourists a year and an emblem of the Serranía de La Macarena mountain range.
Several hashtags on Twitter, including #YoDefiendoLaMacarena (#IDefendLaMacarena) and #LaMacarenaNoSeToca (#DoNotTouchLaMacarena) expressed the concerns of those who opposed the oil project. Hector Lorenzana, for example, shared a video about Caño Cristales:
Te amo Cristales ⎯ Río de cinco colores https://t.co/42Hob7908Z @YouTube #YoDefiendoLaMacarena ANLA Asco Nacional de Licencias Ambientales.
— HÉCTOR H LORENZANA (@HECTORfelino) 13 de abril de 2016
I love you, Cristales ⎯ River of Five Colors
ANLA, Disgusting National Agency of Environmental Licenses.
Alicia GT showed her indignation at the explanation given by the director of the ANLA that “the licensed oil exploration does not affect the Caño Cristales”:
¿Creen tarada a la gente?#YoDefiendoLaMacarena#YoDefiendoLaMacarena#YoDefiendoLaMacarena#YoDefiendoLaMacarena https://t.co/rxt4PWXC1I
— AliciaGT_ (@AliciaGT_) 13 de abril de 2016
Do they think people are stupid?
A senator for the Green Party, Claudia Lopez, stated that the party would respect the environment:
Verdes haremos respetar Serranía de La Macarena de este intento absurdo de destrozarla con exploración petrolera! https://t.co/zgKLqlRupV
— Claudia López (@CLOPEZanalista) 13 de abril de 2016
The Green Party will defend Serrania de La Macarena from this absurd attempt to destroy it with oil exploration!
Others, like Marcoteto, used memes to express their anger:
#YoDefiendoLaMacarena @ANLA_Col pic.twitter.com/5T9ELZ8Cr9
— Marcoteto (@marcotulio12332) 13 de abril de 2016
Tweet: #IDefendLaMacarena
Image: Here, you dropped this.
Meanwhile, Andrés Correa reminded people about Colombia's top ranking among countries of the world in terms of the number of environmental conflicts:
¿Colombia es la virreina mundial en conflictos ambientales y le queremos sumar más? #YoDefiendoLaMacarena pic.twitter.com/TW3EQdsAAl
— Adrián Correa (@AdrianCorrea) 14 de abril de 2016
Colombia ranks in the top in the world for environmental conflicts and we want to add more of these conflicts? #IDefendLaMacarena
César Jerez provided a map showing where the 150 wells are drilled:
Este es BloqueSerranía donde se perforarán 150 pozos petroleros en La Macarena #YoDefiendoLaMacarena #CañoCristales pic.twitter.com/oKB7EAnMvP
— César Jerez (@CesarJerezM) 14 de abril de 2016
This is Serrania Area where 150 oil wells were drilled in La Macarena
And Alberto Castilla gave an account of the demonstrations against the project in the departmental capital, Villavicencio:
6 mil personas expresaron de manera contundente en Villavicencio la defensa de la Macarena#YoDefiendoLaMacarena pic.twitter.com/Faz9DcWZKu
— Alberto Castilla (@CastillaSenador) 21 de abril de 2016
Six thousand people in Villavicencio overwhelmingly expressed their defense of La Macarena
However, despite the growing outrage, the president of the state-owned oil company (Ecopetrol) threatened, “Either the country extracts more oil, or it increases taxes or makes fewer road improvements. So, you have to protect the oil and gas resources because this country is financially dependent on crude oil.”
The scandal escalated when it was revealed that the ANLA had already been warned of the risks involved in the approval of the license by the Autonomous Corporation of La Macarena (Cormacarena), which is the first environmental authority that must be consulted before issuing any environmental license. On July 29, 2015, the corporation ruled that the approved mining project was not feasible.
All this led President Juan Manuel Santos to order the suspension of the license, while the Environment Ministry denied in a contradictory tweet that there was a license at all:
Es falso que se haya entregado una licencia de exploración en Caño Cristales #NoHayLicenciaEnCañoCristales pic.twitter.com/OzjHD9cNe7
— Minambiente Colombia (@MinAmbienteCo) 14 de abril de 2016
Tweet: It is not true that an exploration license in Caño Cristales was issued #ThereIsNoLicenseInCañoCristales
Image: #ThereIsNoLicenseInCañoCristales It is not true that a license for mining or hydrocarbon exploitation has been awarded in Caño Cristales
At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce sought to de-escalate the controversy with this statement:
.@ParquesColombia impulsa proyectos de conservación y turismo ambiental #NoHayLicenciaEnCañoCristales pic.twitter.com/9rFjdUBkrZ
— MinComercio (@MincomercioCo) 15 de abril de 2016
Tweet: Colombia's National Parks agency promotes conservation projects and environmental tourism #ThereIsNoLicenseInCañoCristales
Image: The only projects that we in the National Parks promote are those for conservation and environmental tourism. #ThereIsNoLicenseInCañoCristales
It all culminated in this forceful statement from the president:
Nuestro compromiso es proteger y conservar los @ParquesColombia #YoDefiendoLaMacarena #NoHayLicenciaEnCañoCristales pic.twitter.com/KydhmCMlps
— Presidencia Colombia (@infopresidencia) 16 de abril de 2016
Our commitment is to protect and conserve national parks. #IDefendLaMacarena #ThereIsNoLicenseInCañoCristales
Three days later, following the statements of the president and the minister of environment against the decision of the ANLA, the director of ANLA officially announced in a press conference as expected that the license was revoked, arguing that he did not know about the Autonomous Corporation of La Macarena's statement.
In response, the company Hupecol, through its legal representative, did not rule out filing a lawsuit against the government or appealing to a court of arbitration. Meanwhile, the oil sector expressed its concern about the credibility of the country's institutions.
However, this license is not the only one, as journalist Victor Solano warned:
Así, aunque muchos colombianos decimos que #LaMacarenaNOseToca, @ANHColombia y @ANLA_Col se empeñan en que sí pic.twitter.com/rQ1IIJgzjp
— Víctor Solano (@Solano) 21 de abril de 2016
Thus, although many Colombians say #DoNotTouchLaMacarena, the National Hydrocarbons Agency and ANLA insist on the contrary
Meanwhile, Manuel Rodriguez, pointed out that there's more work to be done:
#MacarenaEstaDeFiesta Faltan revocar 12 títulos más #LaMacarenaNOseToca
@RemaAcpp pic.twitter.com/oqxJrtnaK5
— Manuel Rodríguez B. (@manuel_rodb) 20 de abril de 2016
#MacarenaIsCelebrating: 12 more titles [to explore for oil and gas] still need to be revoked  #DoNotTouchLaMacarena
On April 25, the director of the ANLA submitted his resignation, a day before being summoned to the Senate to explain the granting of the disputed license. On the same day, in a cabinet reshuffle, the president appointed a new minister of environment.

author: Marco Sarmiento


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Anti-Impunity Activists Say Skopje Marathon Scuffle Is Example of Government’s Violence · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A man holds a sign that reads “Run as if you're carrying the news of Gruevski's imprisonment” at the Wizz Air Skopje Marathon 2016. Photo by Protestiram Facebook Page.
An activist holding a sign that protested impunity for former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski appeared to hit a nerve during the Skopje Marathon on May 8.
Gruevski is one of many top Macedonian politicians under investigation for corruption. The sign read: “Run as if you're carrying the news of Gruevski's imprisonment.” Three men confronted the activist, stole and ripped his sign, shoved him and hit him in the face.
The Skopje Marathon is one of the biggest public events in the capital of Macedonia, with thousands of participants. In recent years, it has been sponsored and branded by Wizz Air, an air carrier receiving government subsidies to provide affordable flights from Skopje to different airports in Europe.
During the marathon, as elsewhere in the world, both participants and onlookers have expressed their support for various causes –whether it's their company's logo, a message of encouragement for their loved ones running the race, or a political statement — on T-shirts, banners and posters. This year, many in attendance used the occasion to express their support for the so-called Colorful Revolution, the protest movement that sprung up after current President Gjorge Ivanov announced sweeping legal immunity for high-up politicians and their associates suspected of electoral fraud and abuse of power.
On social media, some alleged that one of the three men who stole the sign is employed by a state-owned company, while others suspected he may have ties to a security company owned by Gruevski's family through relatives.
On Facebook, activist and analyst Ivana Јordanovska explained the significance of the incident as she saw it:
There hasn't been a major incident, but it's obvious that the regime considers even the use of force as a potential weapon.
This isn't the first time anti-government dissent has been met with violence. In 2015, there were dozens of incidents involving independent journalists or activists; in one such case, Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Peshevski attacked a journalist on camera, without any subsequent consequences.
According to human rights defenders, such impunity emboldens others to perpetrate similar attacks. In February 2016, an elderly man was beaten to death in a small village store, allegedly after he “praised the work of Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva” — who is investigating top-level corruption — and “expressed his pleasure at the prosecution of former ministers from the [ruling] VMRO-DPMNE.”
After the marathon dust-up, leftist movement Solidarnost (meaning “Solidarity”) published an article titled “Who are the hooligans here?” stating that the man holding the sign was one of its activists. Within the article, they strung together several photos from the scene into an animated GIF:
Animated GIF with photos depicting three men take an activist's sign and appear to push him at the Skopje Marathon. Photo by Solidarnost, used with permission.
Solidarnost stated that other activists at the event experienced pressure to remove their stickers or other paraphernalia. Noting that the sign was actually a year old and was originally used during the 2015 marathon, they added that they intend to participate in the official competition for the best sign at the event. If it wins a prize, the movement said it will use the prize money to pay fines and legal fees for protesters who face charges. They concluded:
Ги потсетуваме сограѓаните и организаторите дека Скопскиот маратон е во чест на победата над фашизмот (9 мај 1945). Очигледно е дека и денес ние сѐ уште се бориме со внатрешниот фашизам кој користи сила во обезбедувањето едноумие, се заканува и тепа бидејќи не му се допаѓа нечиј транспарент. Повторуваме – нас ќотекот и притисокот нема да нѐ заплашат, туку само нѐ мотивираат да бидеме погласни и поистрајни во борбата. Ќе дадеме сѐ од себе што поскоро Груевски да оди во затвор, а потоа ќе трчаме наоколу да ја шириме добрата вест!
Смрт на фашизмот, слобода на народот!
Честит 9 мај!
Повторно ќе победиме!
We remind our fellow citizens that the Skopje Marathon takes place in honor of victory over fascism (May 9, 1945). It is obvious that today we still struggle with domestic fascism which uses force in order to prevent pluralism of opinions, threatens and beats people when they don't like a sign. We repeat; we shall not be intimidated by beatings and pressure; they provide additional motivation to be louder and more persistent in our fight. We will give all we can for Gruevski to go to jail as soon as possible, and then we shall run around spreading the good news!
Death to fascism, freedom to the people!
We congratulate May 9!

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Canadian Man Forced to Leave Nepal Over Controversial Tweets · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Ethnic Groups in Nepal. Image via Wikimedia commons. Public Domain.
Robert Penner, a Canadian man who currently finds himself mired in controversy over a series of provocative tweets, left Nepal after the Nepalese Supreme Court postponed his appeal hearing this week.
The Supreme Court had other urgent cases today & was unable to hear mine. I must leave Nepal tonight.
— Robert Penner (@robpenner) May 5, 2016
Penner, a principal scientist with Cloud Factory, was arrested on May 2 by Nepalese police and charged with disrupting social harmony with critically worded tweets.
Nepal Immigration released me after 26 hrs in custody, cancelled my working visa & gave me 2 days to leave Nepal. Thanks to all supporters.
— Robert Penner (@robpenner) May 3, 2016
It is not clear which tweets triggered Penner's arrest. BuzzFeed reported that government authorities received pseudonymous Tweets requesting that they “investigate Penner for violating immigration rules and ‘doing politics’ in Nepal.” Penner was arrested a few days later.
Nepal's long-awaited new constitution went into effect in September 2015. The new constitution was meant to close the rift between the “people of the hills,” who hold most of Nepal's political power, and the “people of the plains” the Madhesis, who share ethnic and cultural links with people across the border in India. Madhesi activists say they're fighting to defend their own dignity and establish their right to inclusion in the broader national context. The new constitution defines the majority-Hindu nation as a secular republic divided into seven federal provinces. The Madeshis and Tharu ethnic minorities, however, have argued in public demonstrations that the proposed boundaries of the new provinces could lead to their political marginalisation.
Penner is a vocal critic of the new constitution, especially what he calls its “citizenship inaccuracies”, and he's drawn attention to the issue by posing questions and arguing on Twitter. In doing so, he's earned himself many supporters and detractors.
Akhilesh Upadhyay, the chief editor of the Kathmandu Post tweeted:
@robpenner is certainly asking some difficult questions to us Nepalis, including journalists;will not dismiss him because he is not a Nepali
— Akhilesh Upadhyay (@akhileshU) December 27, 2015
Writer Prawin Adhikari wrote:
A sensible man asks sensible questions, and Nepali state arrests him. Robert Penner's arrest brings shame to all Nepalis.
— Prawin Adhikari (@prawinadhikari) May 2, 2016
Penner's appears to be the first reported arrest of a person in Nepal over messages posted on Twitter. There have been arrests due to Facebook posts and comments, including one case in which a journalist was arrested for allegedly violating the Electronic Transactions Act.
Penner also tweeted extensively about the arrest of prominent Nepalese journalist Kanak Mani Dixit by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the government's highest anti-corruption body. Dixit was released on May 2, the same day Penner was arrested.
Robert Penner. Image from Flickr by Peter Hall. CC BY -SA
Sara Shneiderman, an assistant professor in anthropology at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, and Ajay Pradhan, a senior policy adviser and manager at Treaty Related Measures, Indigenous, and Northern Affairs Canada wrote in an op-ed:
Both Mr. Penner and Mr. Dixit appear to have been arrested on the basis of personal vendettas held against them by powerful scions of the ruling establishment. They join many more across the country who, in recent months, have been subject to patterns of arbitrary force or detention – for expressing their views about the new constitution, for instance, or running afoul of earthquake relief regulations – by police who seem to act with impunity in the service of vested interests rather than following due process.
Not everyone is standing by Penner, however.
Subhash Ghimire, the chief editor of the English daily newspaper Republica, tweeted:
Harassment, trolls & insults aren't freedom of expression. A white man's immigration violations can't be masked under free speech. Period.
— Subhash Ghimire (@subhash580) May 4, 2016
Rob should be entitled to his free speech, some of which has been full of bs. https://t.co/XMLIJxQo6D
— Pratyoush Onta (@pratyoushonta) May 3, 2016
Mahendra Limbu Lawoti, a professor at Western Michigan University wrote on Facebook:
Nepal is a country where the head of a leading human rights organization instigates the government to take action against an individual utilizing basic human rights to express himself and an editor of a leading English daily who supports the state denying freedom of expression!!!
Arresting and then pressuring Penner to leave the country has generated a significant controversy, but it's not the first time in history that Nepal has forced a foreigner to leave under such circumstances. In 1977, David Holmberg, a professor of anthropology at the Cornell University, was asked to leave the district where he was working during the Panchayat era.
David Holmberg-1977 (Panchayat Era) compare with Rob Penner-2016.
Ending Democracy…enabling autocracy -Nepal pic.twitter.com/elVZVaOSjr
— Lhamo Y Sherpa (@Lhamo_Y) May 5, 2016
Though there's no clear national consensus about Penner's case, it has raised many concerns about the state's attitude on free expression.
Nepal's former ambassador to Denmark, Vijay Kant Karna, tweeted:
Arresting #RobertPenner is a beginning of threatening foreigners,who speak for rights of minorities, racist nature of const & Oli govt
— Vijay Kant Karna (@Vijaykarna) May 3, 2016
Noted writer Khagendra Sangroula also wrote on Twitter:
ओलीगार्कीले रोबर्ट पेन्नरलाई देशनिकाला गरो ।अब सामाजिक सञ्जाललाई पनि देशनिकाला गर्ला कि!रोबर्ट पेन्नरहरुले दुःख दिइरहन्छन् ब्रो,लौ गरिहालूँ!
— Khagendra Sangroula (@belakoboli) May 5, 2016
Oligarchy ousted Robert Penner from the country. Will now deport social network also! Robert Penners keep on pestering bro, do it now!
On May 10, 2016 the Kathmandu Post reported that the Supreme Court summoned the defendants and the petitioner to discuss a stay order in Penner’s case within three days.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Gambian Protesters Allege Police Used Live Ammunition During Bloody Crackdown · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

A screenshot of a Twitter image of injured activists posted by Gambian journalist @freejobe39.
Authorities in the tiny West African nation of the Gambia have fired live rounds in their efforts to disperse peaceful protests, according to participants and journalists.
A para-military force called the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) reportedly beat protesters while arresting others in an attempt to break up demonstrations sympathetic to detained main opposition leader Ousainou Darboe. Amateur video shared on social media show police agents beating people while popping sounds — allegedly gunfire — is heard.
@StateDept @article19wafric @amnesty @hrw @UNHumanRights @Smith_JeffreyT @BBCAfrica in #Gambia Now, Live Ammunition! pic.twitter.com/UyI7P4X8oy
— The Fatu Network (@FatuNetwork) May 9, 2016
The protesters were marching from a court session featuring Darboe and his United Democratic Party (UDP) members, who were arrested on 16 April — another day when authorities reportedly used live ammunition.
@DugaDC @Smith_JeffreyT @ChangeGambia evidence of gun shots in Gambia pic.twitter.com/fQYKmoZGCX
— Paul (@pexie) 16 de abril de 2016
Darboe had picked up the mantle of protest following news that Ebrima Solo Sandeng, the youth head of the UDP, and two other UDP members died in police custody. Sandeng and the others had been demonstrating 48 hours before in support of electoral reforms and the resignation of President Yahya Jammeh, who has been in power since 1994.
The rallies have continued even after Darboe's arrest. Twitter users shared images of protesters’ t-shirts stained with blood after the most recent crackdown:
@BBCAfrica @Smith_JeffreyT @UN @UNHumanRights @AmnestyWARO @Sabrina_Mahtani Evidence Of Assault At #Gambia Rising! pic.twitter.com/ww07T5CtSu
— Juka Ceesay (@jukacares) May 9, 2016
#Gambia: Heavy scuffle b/w protesters & armed PIU officer on Kairaba Avenue, protesters injured #KalamaaRevolution pic.twitter.com/anSRANdKx9
— Alhagie Jobe (@freejobe39) May 9, 2016
In April 2000, Gambian security forces opened fire at student demonstrators, killing up to 14 including a journalist and a Red Cross volunteer. With that grim history in mind, activists and human rights organisations are calling on the international community to do something to protect the rights of people to assembly and peaceful protests:
Calling on the Intn community #GambiaRising @AmnestySenegal @africamedia_CPJ @StateDept @KofiAnnan @BanKimoon_amdg pic.twitter.com/37UtHXGLsC
— Oumie Andrews (@OumieAndrews) 9 de mayo de 2016
On 5 May, a high court judge denied Darboe and 19 others bail in the name of national security and the need to prevent the detainees from fleeing. The case has been adjourned to 16 May 2016.

author: Demba Kandeh


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In Tajikistan, Shoots of Hope Spring from a Tale of Woe · Global Voices
Salam Aleik

Izzat Amon, who represents the interests of Tajikistan's migrants in Russia. Photo was taken from Izzat Amon's Facebook page.
When you have no food to feed your children, when you have no money to send them to school, when no one helps you because you are the wife of a “driver of terrorists”, when you are prosecuted for being poor and you lose belief.
And at that moment, a crew of reporters arrives at your home to film an interview with you, and their report goes viral, and you receive a promise to help from the most unexpected source — your compatriots toiling to make a living in a foreign land — and that promise is kept.
Footage from Dilbar Gurgova's interview to RFE/RL
This was the strange sequence of events experienced by Dilbar Gurgova, a mother of five children in impoverished ex-Soviet Tajikistan.
Gurgova was the spouse of a former driver at Tajikistan's Ministry of Defense, who was detained for participating in what Tajikistan's government termed a mutiny led by ex-Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda last September.
Gurgova claims that her husband — imprisoned along with other people named as supporters of the disgraced general killed during subsequent fighting with government troops — was just an ordinary driver.
On the night of a supposed coup attempt in the Central Asian country of 8 million, she says that he was just doing what he had always done: obeying orders from superiors to drive ministry staff somewhere in an official ministry vehicle.
The government had different interpretation of his role in the political crisis that followed and the effect on her life has been dramatic.
Gurgova used to sell vegetables at a market in the capital Dushanbe, but was evicted from her place there after becoming the “wife of a terrorist” overnight.
Now she cleans a store for around 10 somonis ($1.20) per day, using the money to buy bread and sausages to feed her children.
Gurgova meanwhile has no idea as to the wellbeing of her husband, who she has seen once during the eight months he has been imprisoned.
She worries that she has no money to hire a lawyer for him, although few Tajik lawyers would take on this type of case given the government's ongoing crackdown on independent practitioners of the profession.
In an interview with the BBC Gurgova explained that her kids were sent from school for having no “proper shoes”.
Her attempt to hand her children over to an orphanage in order to pay her rent was refused, because the orphanage did not want to take in “a terrorist’s children”.
The local prosecutor's office has also been unhelpful, to say the least.
It opened an administrative case against her for failing to send her children to the school that expelled them, with the prospect of a large fine in the offing.
One commenter on an article about Gurgova on RFE/RL's Tajik service surmised her sorry situation:
Макомоти мо, аниктараш мардуми точики мо як менталитет доран, агар дар лаби чох бинат бо як лагати дигарт мезана ки дарунтар брай. Хай шавхарш хоин бромад, айби зану кудакои у дар чияй? Ба ин зан сабуки додан лозим. Макомоти мо барои худро ширинтар кардан боз кушиш мекунан, ки ба оилахои онхо (хоинон) хам бади кунанд.
Our officials, and in general our people has a culture of kicking you deeper into the depths if they see you have problems. Ok, her husband was a traitor, but what are the faults of the wife and children? This woman should get some help. Our officials are trying to harm even the families of traitors for the sake of showing results to their bosses.
Gurgova even contemplated suicide. Mothers killing themselves and their children is becoming a worrying trend in Tajikistan as an economic crisis sweeps down from Russia where around a million nationals live and work.
Things changed somewhat after her initial video interview with RFE/RL's Tajik service attracted massive attention.
Three teachers from her children’s school were promptly fined by the government for exclusion, while the school was forced to make small contributions towards their education costs.
Far more importantly, Izzat Amon, a prominent Tajik lawyer living in Moscow promised that his foundation run by Tajik migrants in Russia would collect at least 1,000 TJS ($125) for her every month.
Amon, who is known among the Tajik diaspora for directly assisting hundreds of Tajik migrants in Moscow while criticising the government for not defending their rights, recently returned to Dushanbe and paid a visit to Gurgova and her children.
The actions of Amon and his friends were lauded by Tajik internet users, who also criticised the government's negligence towards vulnerable women:
Абди Бекназаров Офарин ! Да туйи хамаашон иштирок бикунем, Омин !!!
Well done! Inshallah, we will live to see the weddings of these children.
Parvonai Tu Бале дусти азиз Иззат, Худо аз шумо рози бошад! Кумитаи занхову дигар макомот танхо пас аз худкушии занхо сабаб чи бошад гуён баъзан овоз мебароранд! Дигар коре аз дасташон намеояд ба чуз орову торо ва дар курсихо нишастан!!!
Dear friend, Izzat, May Allah be satisfied with you! The [State] Committee on Women's Affairs and other officials will raise their voices only after our women have already committed suicide. They can do nothing except sit on chairs and put on their makeup!!!
In her BBC interview — which came after the RFE/RL video that attracted Azzat's attention — Gurgova said she felt guilty that migrants in Russia facing rising xenophobia and police harassment would put aside the time and money to help her, notwithstanding the public humiliation she had faced.
Clearly, as the government continues to wash its hands of ordinary people's suffering, solidarity has become the best form of survival.

author: Salam Aleik


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Not Only Patients Suffer in China’s Broken Healthcare System—Medical Professionals Do Too · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hundreds of medical staffs and Guangzhou residents mourned the death of retired dentist Chen Zhongwei. Photo from Twitter user Jiang Bo.
A retired dentist in southern China named Chen Zhongwei succumbed to his injuries two days after he was stabbed 30 times by a former patient. His death, which came a few weeks after college student Wei Zexi passed away of cancer after spending thousands of dollars on a phony treatment, has once again thrust China's medical system into a harsh light.
Since the country's health sector was further privatized with the lifting of the ban on private hospitals in 2000, the number of medical scams have increased rapidly and frontline medical professionals have become a target for violence by frustrated patients. In 2014, there were at least 155 criminal cases involved injuries or death of healthcare workers.
Chen Zhongwei in Guangzhou was the latest victim. He reportedly had overseen the attacker's dental veneers 25 years ago (some reports said 10 years ago). His former patient demanded compensation recently because the veneers had become discolored, but the hospital rejected him because the treatment was only meant to last 10 years. The attacker killed himself by jumping off a building after stabbing Chen.
While it's certainly not normal for a patient rebuffed to take such extreme and deadly measures, the case has drawn attention to the worsening doctor-patient relationship in China. Han Yiwei, a writer from KDnet, a popular journalist forum, pointed out:
医生受医闹伤害事件不是一两起，而是一再发生，几乎让人感到有些麻木了。另一边厢，虚假治疗、过度治疗和医疗事故发生后得不到合理解决。再有坑人的医疗广告、假药、虚高药价及江湖骗子等横行无忌，又增强了人们对医疗乱象的反感。这样，医患矛盾愈发严重，愈发撕裂社会。
This is not the first time a medical professional has fallen victim to unreasonable patients. Such incidents have become so common that the public brushes off this kind of news. On the other hand, incidents involving medical scams, excessive treatments and medical errors have not been properly dealt with. In addition, misleading advertisements for medical treatment, fake medicines, overpriced treatments and scammers are everywhere. People have become very frustrated with the chaos of the medical sector. The conflict between doctor-patient has escalated, and it's tearing society apart.
The writer further pointed to the problem of the unregulated Putian hospitals, a network of medical entrepreneurs that operate nearly 8,000 private hospitals, representing more than 70 percent of the whole national market. As it is so difficult to get entry into good public hospitals, quality medical treatment has become a “privilege”:
所谓好医院就那么几家，供不应求，便自然产生特权医疗、人情医疗，形成一种特殊的关系医疗链。有特权、有关系就能得到好的治疗，否则，你就只有认命。这样的医疗不公又特别伤人伤心。医疗费的高昂本身对患者产生巨大的经济压力，更易调集他们心中的种种种情绪。有些人托关系，找门子，花费巨资，如果认为治疗效果不理想、不满意，那又容易让他们产生更大我怨恨心理。
There are so few good hospitals, and the supply cannot meet the demand. As a result, access to quality medical treatment has become a privilege — one has to rely on his or her social capital in order to check in. For those who can't gain access, they have to rely on their fate. People are so frustrated with this injustice. The expensive costs of treatment also put tremendous pressure on patients and may lead to depression. Some patients have spent huge amounts of money to gain access to quality treatment, and if they find the treatment to be unsatisfactory, they might tend to be more resentful.
While the unregulated private hospital sector is a major source of chaos, violence also stems from the absence of independent authority to investigate on medical errors. One journalist wrote on his account on popular social media platform Weibo:
昨天跟另一位广东知名医疗专家聊，他说莆田系为什么没医闹？因为莆田系用钱反应快，患者闹得又厉害又有理时，赔点钱立刻搞定；闹得没理的时，找些社会人在医院揍患者，而公立医院完全不具备这样的条件。～一度公立医院也破财免灾，但是却又更鼓励了闹，真是恶性循环，法治任重道远。
Yesterday I talked to a well-known medical expert from Guangdong, and he explained why the Putian hospitals don't have this problem: the hospitals usually react to medical disputes promptly. If the patients have reasonable grounds, they settle the matter with compensation quickly. If the patients are unreasonable, they hire someone to beat them up. For public hospitals, they can't settle disputes like this. For a period of time, the public hospitals had tried to settle disputes with compensation, but the mechanism somehow encouraged more unreasonable claims and resulted in vicious cycle. Rule of law is most important.
Medical professionals have become in a way punching bags for all kinds of social injustices, as Yang Zheng, a senior medial expert pointed out on his WeChat's public account last year (via CN healthcare.com), explained:
施暴者身上常常有着各種社會科學領域矛盾的『累加』：經濟狀況極差、家庭不和、社會支持不足、信仰缺失、性格缺陷等等，最後再加上慢性（重大）疾病無法治癒的痛苦。」而醫生，則有可能「成為這些巨大矛盾的『接盤俠』
Most of the attackers are the accumulative result of social conflicts: [Most of the attackers are of] poor economic stand, have poor family relationships, lack social support, do not have religious beliefs, have certain kinds of personality problems, in addition to the pain of facing an illness that cannot be cured. Medical professionals end up as the “conduit” of all the tremendous conflicts.
Chen's death has had a tremendous impact on the medical sector, which has suffered from serious brain drain. On May 7, hundreds of medical professionals and Guangzhou residents gathered at the city's Hero Square to mourn him. Twitter user @Jiang Bo, who attended the vigil, pointed out that the fate of doctors and patients are intertwined:
你八卦魏则西，我哀悼陈仲伟。你不知道的是，当医生都变成陈仲伟，你们就全成了魏则西。其实，谁也无法置身事外。 pic.twitter.com/FwJMTjUPPT
— Jiang Bo (@Jiangbo_0516) May 8, 2016
You paid attention to Wei Zexi's death, I mourned for Chen Zhongwei. You don't see that when doctors become Chen Zhongwei, you all become Wei Zexi. Both are victims of the same set of problems.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Russian Court Sentences Internet User to Two Years Behind Bars for VKontakte Reposts · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Andrey Bubeyev. Photo from VKontakte solidarity page.
A court in Tver region, Russia, has sentenced Andrey Bubeyev, a local social media user, to two years and three months in prison on charges of promoting extremism and separatism online.
According to a reporter with Meduza news outlet, who was present at the court hearing, the extremism and separatism charges Bubeyev faces stem from two pieces of content the Internet user reposted on his page in VKontakte (a Russian social network similar to Facebook). One repost was an image of a toothpaste tube with the words “Squeeze Russia out of yourself,” and the other was a republishing of an article by another author titled “Crimea is Ukraine.”
In his last word in court, the defendant stressed that Russia's Constitution allows its citizens “to read and gather information freely.” When asked by Meduza to comment on the verdict, Bubeyev reportedly said: “This is a circus.”
The prosecutors initially asked for a three-year prison sentence for Bubeyev. The Internet user is already serving another sentence on extremism charges: in August 2015 he was sentenced to one year in a penal colony for other social media posts and illegal possession of ammunition supplies. In March 2016, Russian human rights organization Memorial recognized Bubeyev as a political prisoner.
Bubeyev's verdict is the latest in a string of cases in Russia where Internet users have been charged under “anti-extremist” legislation and given real prison terms or community service for posting or reposting content on social media.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Russia’s 11-Year-Old Internet King · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Stepan Saveliev's classmates don't make fun of him anymore. Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Last month, a mother living in Moscow felt bad for her 11-year-old son. She felt so bad that she turned to Facebook, where she appealed to her friends with a small request. It seems the poor boy was being teased at school because he meticulously maintains a page on the Russian social network Vkontakte, where he uploads photographs of toy dinosaurs and tanks, staging miniature battles between his playthings. “You don’t even get any likes on your page,” his mother said his classmates tell him. “You loser,” they say. Wanting to rescue her son’s reputation at school, Stepan’s mom asked people to visit his Vkontakte page and like his posts.
More than 4,000 people liked Svetlana’s Facebook post, and another 670 users shared it with their friends. Her son, Stepan Saveliev, now has more than 13,000 subscribers on Vkontakte, and several thousand people have liked many of his recent posts. He’s also been invited on at least five Russian TV networks, and an array of Russian celebrities and public figures have written him in support. Some organizations have even joined the bandwagon. The tech magazine iCover.ru sent Stepan a special Lego set. Dmitry Grishin, the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Mail.ru Group, sent him a Star Wars BB-8 robot replica. Mail.ru Group’s corporate office also gifted him a free premium subscription to Armata, a multiplayer tank computer game.
One of the few people to bring bad vibes to Stepan’s Vkontakte page was Maxim Ksenzov, the former deputy head of Roskomnadzor. Though he’s no longer with the government’s federal censor, Ksenzov apparently still felt compelled to advise Stepan to change his profile picture. (The 11-year-old boy uses a rather gawky-looking photograph of himself slumped in a chair.) Within minutes, Stepan’s new army of friends already had his back, pointing out to Ksenzov that his Vkontakte avatar also fails to impress.
Ksenzov's unsolicited advice doesn't go over well.
According to Stepan’s mother, who says she is pleasantly shocked by the strong response to her public appeal, her son has even made peace with the boys at school who mocked his Vkontakte page and fascination with dinosaurs.
The news site Life.ru (formerly Lifenews) has taken a particular interest in Stepan. On May 10, the website published a feature story ranking the “top ten dinosaurs, according to Stepan Saveliev.” (He likes the Spinosaurus best of all.) The news agency’s TV network also interviewed Stepan on the air, filmed adorably, if awkwardly, in his bedroom, as he slouched at his desk.
Last week, Roskomnadzor also decided to celebrate Stepan, and it did so in its own unique way, adding the boy to the federal government’s official blogger registry, making him the 2,487th Web address to be registered officially by Russian state authorities. “Our congratulations!” Roskomnadzor told Stepan on Vkontakte. “Now you can be accredited to attend sessions of the State Duma.”
Once the centerpiece of feared and controversial legislation, Russia’s “blogger registry” today is a largely forgotten repository for blogs and websites picked seemingly at random by Roskomnadzor. The 2014 “law on bloggers” was expected to single out popular, possibly oppositionist websites, and saddle their owners and authors with new regulations (against obscene language, libel, and so on), increasing their vulnerability to prosecution. Like several of Russia’s potentially repressive Internet laws, however, officials have scarcely enforced it at all, and many bloggers added to the registry aren’t even aware of their special status. (To date, the government hasn’t fined or penalized a single blogger on the registry.)

author: Kevin Rothrock