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After Planting the Caribbean in Our Collective Imagination, Sir Derek Walcott, ‘One of the Great Poets of All Time’, Has Died · Global Voices
Shivanee Ramlochan

Derek Walcott at the VIII Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua, February 2012. Photo by Stanislav Lvovsky, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Derek Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature, the titan who planted Caribbean poetry deep into our global literary consciousness, has died at his St. Lucia home today. Walcott was 87.
The Bocas Lit Fest, the largest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean, tries to capture Walcott’s enduring legacy in this official statement:
Walcott has been an overwhelming presence for three generations of Caribbean writers, and his influence is manifold. He was a master of the language, and proved beyond doubt that English is the property of no single nation or culture. He had a fierce and almost religious devotion to the landscape of his native St. Lucia and the broader Caribbean, which he immortalised in his lines and metaphors. He believed it was the job of poets to give names to the places, people, and things which history had rendered anonymous, and he emboldened other poets to do the same.
[Walcott] showed that even the most humble village on a tiny island on the fringes of the world could be a place of epic beauty and significance, written into his poems.
His masterful epic poem ‘Omeros’ is the embodiment of that and is one of the great works of world literature. He challenged orthodoxies and wielders of power, throwing down the gauntlet to younger writers.
Above all, he was the living proof that one of us — born in tiny Castries, educated in Kingston, living and working in Port of Spain — could become one of the great poets of all time, writing from the circumstances of everyday life.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Walcott was awarded a 1981 MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ award; the 1988 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry; the 2004 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement; the 2011 T.S. Eliot Prize; the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, among a litany of other accolades.
He self-published his first book of poems at age 19, with financial support from his mother to cover the costs of printing. His most recent work, ‘Morning, Paramin’ (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) was a collaboration with Scottish painter Peter Doig, marrying poetry with painting. It was critically acclaimed by The New York Review of Books’ Julian Lucas as work that uplifts Walcott’s eternal concerns of reclamation, re-visioning and the astonishment of regarding Caribbean vistas:
The poems are suffused with twilight, but the dominant register is celebration, delight in the fresh eyes of a painter whom Walcott addresses much as Shakespeare does the young man of the sonnets: with an injunction to preserve beauty in the world, to produce and reproduce, perhaps even to inherit.
The region’s scholars, students, readers, playgoers, poets and educators have been plunged into mourning. A profusion of tributes on social media and in traditional news outlets has echoed forth, underscoring the influence of Walcott’s body of work to individuals, organizations, movements and courses of study.
In an official tribute, The Poetry Society quotes Karen McCarthy Woolf’s review of ‘Morning, Paramin’, which describes Walcott’s legacy as “one that has enriched the language and discourse through which the reader might embrace the region’s history and resilience as a hybridised environment.”
Outside of the region, plaudits from the international writing and reading community are also pouring in, focusing on the collective mastery of Walcott’s language; the dedication of his investment in Caribbean poetics; the breathtaking range of his devotions to rendering a landscape and the people within it.
The Guardian’s official obituary quotes Walcott’s own words about his artistic and personal self-perception to galvanise the rootedness of the poet in his particular, unapologetic moorings:
The division of black theatre and white theatre still goes on, and I don’t wish to be a part of any one of those definitions. I’m a Caribbean writer.
Walcott's career was not without controversy, however. His candidacy, in 2009, for the prestigious post of Oxford Professor of Poetry, came to an abrupt end after sexual harassment allegations from more than two decades earlier were brought to the attention of the university. The woman who eventually secured the post resigned mere days into her tenure when it was revealed that she had been the whistleblower.
As tributes to Sir Derek Walcott’s life, work and legacy continue to flood global message boards, online forums and the public sphere, mourners are encouraged to take his books down from their shelves, and open them to their most beloved poems, celebrating in verse the sublime and majestic presence of Walcott, irreducible by death.

author: Shivanee Ramlochan


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Fake News and Fake Solutions: How Do We Build a Civics of Trust? · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

Protesters fly a flag upside down as a signal of distress outside the offices of The Washington Post in Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017. Photo: Ivan Sigal.
In his recent manifesto, Mark Zuckerberg asserts that the response to our dysfunctional and conflict-ridden politics is to build a stronger global community based on ubiquitous interconnection. We know of course that Facebook stands to profit from this utopian vision, and we should be skeptical of the motives underlying Zuck’s position. But it’s worth taking a second look at the idea of working on underlying economic and political issues in our societies, rather than focusing on the effects of online expression—particularly in the context of the moral panic over “fake news.”
The consternation about fake news from Western journalists, scholars of propaganda, and policymakers has inspired waves of stories and talk-shops addressing its growth as a threat to our public discourse, our journalism, and our systems of governance. And we see many attempts to understand, fix, or apportion blame. Yet many of the proposed fixes are deeply problematic because they advocate overly broad and vague restrictions on expression. Solutions that would limit suspected “fake” expression or strongly encourage private intermediaries to restrict some kinds of speech and prioritize or “whitelist” others are particularly troubling.
This week, Germany was the latest country to introduce a plan that would force social media companies to monitor and censor some kinds of online expression. Justice minister Heiko Maas wants to put regulatory pressure on social media companies, and especially Facebook and Twitter, to police expression, asserting that they have failed to do so voluntarily. Draft legislation proposes to fine social media companies up to €50 million for failure to quickly delete hate speech, fake news, and other types of misleading speech.
In this context, we can look to countries that have created regulatory regimes to control online expression — such as China — not as entirely “other”, but perhaps as cautionary examples. When posing solutions to fix fake news, we should be extremely careful not to build our own self-censorship machines.
Many recent false news stories have come from groups not affiliated with states, but examples from Russia, China, Iran and many other countries should remind us that the biggest threat to our public discourse is false information used by and to the advantage of governments. Governments, after all, have the authority to couple shifting narratives of truth to state mechanisms of control. We ought to be especially attuned to states that restrict the “false” expression of their citizens, while at the same time creating misleading narratives and stories about themselves. When states attempt to control narratives, it’s time to start looking for signs of tyranny.
For the past 20 years, we have seen states or their affiliates use Internet-based false news and disinformation as part of broader agendas to shape public opinion for political ends. Well-researched examples include China’s 50 Cent Party, Russia’s troll factories, and astroturfing bot engines contracted by the U.S. government, all of which are designed to flood Internet forums and social media with falsities and distractions.
At the same time, some states have taken steps to regulate, restrict and even criminalize “false” stories produced by citizens and journalists as a punitive method of controlling expression. In Bahrain, China, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Venezuela, Iran and elsewhere social media users have been arrested and prosecuted for sharing information deemed by governments to be false or misinformed. New regulations in China forbid the use of “unverified facts distributed via social media platforms” and prohibit websites “from quoting from unnamed or fake news sources and fabricating news based on hearsay, guesswork or imagination.”
A recent declaration issued by a group of intergovernmental organizations, including UN Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye, discusses these regulatory efforts from the perspective of international law and norms. They emphasize that international human rights doctrine explicitly protects expression that may differ from or counter governmental positions, even when it is factually inaccurate. Regulatory and technical approaches to reduce fake news should, they argue, continue to safeguard the diversity and abundance of speech. They write:
the human right to impart information and ideas is not limited to “correct” statements…the right also protects information and ideas that may shock, offend and disturb, and that prohibitions on disinformation may violate international human rights standards, while, at the same time, this does not justify the dissemination of knowingly or recklessly false statements by official or State actors…
The real-life consequences of fake news are unclear. A recent study by the MIT/Harvard research project Media Cloud, (with which Global Voices is affiliated), led by Yochai Benkler and Ethan Zuckerman, examines the effects of right-wing information sources in the U.S. It suggests that rather than wringing our hands over “fake news”, we should focus on disinformation networks that are insulated from mainstream public conversations. Benkler and his colleagues challenge the idea that “the internet as a technology is what fragments public discourse and polarizes opinions” and instead argue that “human choices and political campaigning, not one company’s algorithm” are the more likely factor to influence the construction and dissemination of disinformation.
Nevertheless, projects seeking to control fake news are running full steam ahead. These efforts have the potential to affect what information is easily available to publics, and if we aren’t careful, could even diminish our rights to expression. Approaches tend to fall into three broad categories:
Notably, these approaches all focus on mitigating effects rather than confronting the underlying economic or technical incentives in the structure of media, or the broader social, economic and political incentives that motivate speech.
In seeking to build systems to manage false newstechnology companies will end up creating systems to monitor and police speech. We will quickly find that they need to use ever-more granular, vigilant and therefore continuously updated semantic analysis in order to find and restrict expression.
These proposed solutions to fake news would be in part technological, based on AI and natural language processing. They will automate the search for and flagging of certain terms, word associations, and linguistic formulations. But language is more malleable than algorithm, and we will find that people will invent alternative terms and locutions to express their ends.
The slipperiness of language could cause the hunt for “fake” or hurtful speech to become an end in itself. We have already seen this in the hunt for “toxic” language in a recent project called Perspective, made by Google’s Jigsaw, and other efforts will surely follow.
Companies are likely to supplement their automated processes with human monitoring — from social media platform users flagging suspect content to contractor armies interpreting those flags and implementing restrictions. Added to this, perhaps, will be ombudspeople, feedback loops, legal processes, and policy controls upon the censors. Those systems are already in place to deal with terrorism, extreme hate speech, extreme violence, child pornography, and nudity and sexual arousal. They can be further refined and expanded to police other types of expression.
Proposed solutions in this vein mostly fail to acknowledge that the technological incentives that encourage fake news are the same as the forces that currently finance the digital media industry — that is, advertising technology masquerading as editorial content.
The internet theorist Doc Searls calls this “adtech”, emphasizing that it is a form of direct marketing or spamming. The rise of fake news is driven in part by organizations seeking revenues or political influence by creating sensational and misleading stories packaged for highly polarized audiences. Producers of this content benefit from a system already designed to segment and mobilize audiences for commercial ends. That system includes the monitoring of consumer habits, targeted advertising, direct marketing and the creation of editorial products appealing to specific consumer segments. These forces coalesce in a dance of editorial and advertising incentives that leads to further polarization and segmentation.
The next approach — that we fix ourselves — relies on the Victorian idea that our media systems would work if only people behaved in ways expected of them by the builders of systems. Media literacy campaigns, public education, fact-checking, calling out and shaming tactics, media diets, whitelists of approved media: these solutions require that we blame ourselves for failing to curb our appetites. It is not wrong to suggest that we are susceptible to the allure of the media’s endorphin-injection strategy to hook us on the sensational and trivial, or that education is important for a healthy civics. To focus blame primarily on individuals, however, is victim-blaming of a sort.
The third approach — devoting more resources to better journalism, is an example of the journalism community jumping on the current moment to reassert their expertise and value. While a more proactive, better-resourced media is definitely vital for the long-term health of our civic life, conversations about journalism need to start with the trust deficit many journalistic outfits have accumulated over the past decades. That deficit exists precisely because of ever-more sensational and facile reporting, news as entertainment, and the corporate drive to maximise profits over the interests of audiences and readers.
Given that the business model of the liberal, capitalist media is primarily to sell eyeballs to advertisers, they should not be surprised to find those of us being sold becoming wise to the approach. And while efforts to strengthen journalism and public trust in the media are important and much-needed, they will not make fake news go away.
The technological and the human-based approaches to controlling inaccurate online speech proposed to date for the most part do not address the underlying social, political or communal causes of hateful or false expression. Instead, they seek to restrict behaviors and control effects, and they rely on the good offices of our technology intermediaries for that service. They do not ask us to look more closely at the social and political construction of our communities. They do not examine and propose solutions to address hate, discrimination and bias in our societies, in issues such as income disparity, urban planning, educational opportunity, or, in fact, our structures of governance.
Frustratingly, we have seen these approaches before, in efforts to reduce online “extremism”, and also with dubious results. Countering violent extremism (CVE) projects suffer from similar definitional flaws about the nature of the problem, but that doesn’t stop governments from creating misguided responses. For examples, look to the many ‘counter-narrative’ projects such as “Welcome to ISIS Land” funded by the U.S. State Department. These projects, supported by governments, international organizations, and companies, seek an array of technical, communications and policy-based approaches to controlling extremism.
David Kaye, in an earlier joint declaration on CVE, notes the “fail[ure] to provide definitions for key terms, such as ‘extremism’ or ‘radicalization’. “In the absence of a clear definition, these terms can be used to restrict a wide range of lawful expression,” but still inflict collateral damage, with pervasive surveillance and tracking that triggers the self-censor in all of us, resulting in the reduction of civic participation and dialogue.
How do we begin to tackle the larger challenges, those beyond simple technological fixes or self-blame? There are no easy solutions for the economic and social inequities that create divisions, and the technological and economic incentives that underpin our current information ecosystem are deeply entrenched. Yet we need to find a way to start serious conversations about these systemic challenges, rather than tinkering with their effects or simply assigning responsibility to the newest players on the field.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet, has urged that we reform the systems and business models we have created to fund our online lives. He points, for example, to the use of personal data by companies as the driver for the creation of surveillance societies, which exerts chilling effects on free expression. He suggests seeking alternatives to the concentration of attention and power in the hands of a small number of social media companies that derive profit from showing us content that is “surprising, shocking, or designed to appeal to our biases.” He’s concerned by the use of these same tactics in political advertising, and its effect on our systems of electoral politics.
Confronting our social and economic inequities is even harder. It is the challenge of our time to find the language to conduct honest and frank debate about how we construct our economies and our states, how we apportion benefits, and which values guide us. Building civic communities that are rooted in trust, both online and off, is the ongoing and vital work necessary for public conversations about our collective future.
It is no small irony that the communications systems that we built to support such debate are imperilled, both by those who would explode the social norms of civic discourse for their ideological ends, and through resultant attempts to control extreme or misleading expression. It is easy to find fault with the technologies that facilitate our collective civic life. It is much more difficult to look at our civic life as a whole and determine whether and how it may be failing.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Ivan Sigal


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A Young Policewoman’s Murder Leaves Trinidad & Tobago With More Questions Than Answers · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Screenshot from a YouTube tribute video to slain police officer Nyasha Joseph.
The search for Nyasha Joseph, a woman police constable (WPC) who had recently gone missing, has come to an upsetting but not entirely unexpected end. On Wednesday March 15, 2017, a Trinidadian fisherman discovered a body in the Gulf of Paria, which was later confirmed to be that of 22-year-old Joseph. A man is in police custody in connection with her murder, which officers suspect stemmed from a domestic dispute.
Thursday's autopsy, however, yielded inconclusive results as to the actual cause of death.
It is a far too familiar story, both in Trinidad and Tobago and in the region. In a 2013 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study on Crime and Violence in Trinidad and Tobago (part of the organisation's wider report on crime and violence in the Caribbean), noted that although a comparatively low number (1.7%) of all reported domestic violence incidents resulted in murder, “the incidence of domestic violence in Trinidad and Tobago is in all likelihood higher that that indicated in official statistics”. The study estimated it was perhaps as much as 6.3 times higher than the figure indicated in official crime data.
The report also referenced other research, which found that “over one-quarter of the men on death row in Trinidad and Tobago have been charged with killing their wives, girlfriends, or common-law spouses”.
Social media users have been vocal about Joseph's murder, just as they have been about the many other incidents of gender-based violence the country has been facing. Calling out society's penchant for victim-blaming, popular news site Wired868 wondered how many murders it would take to puncture Trinidad and Tobago's self-delusion:
The point is not whether or not the criminal can get hold of a potential victim. Surely it ought to be whether the law can get hold of the criminal—or is even trying to.
The wolves are not even bothering with sheep’s clothing anymore. And even police are not off-limits. The only ones engaged in self-delusion at present is the public.
The post was unapologetic about its lack of faith in the police service:
Besides distributing speeding tickets and assisting wreckers, what does the police do effectively? Why even bother with the charade anymore?
Instead of looking us square in the eye and insisting that ‘officers are working assiduously to bring the perpetrators to justice’, acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams might as well tell Trinidad and Tobago: ‘Your guess about what we should do now is as good as mine!’
On Twitter and other social media platforms, much of the public discussion focused on the recurring theme of how Caribbean men are socialised:
Is male culture here and the men who are a part of it ready yet to admit something is very very wrong?
— rhoda bharath (@rhodabharath) March 15, 2017
On Facebook, women's activist Tillah Willah wondered:
Where are the men in this conversation?
Where are the men taking action? Where are the men demanding better of other men?
Where are the men urging other men to learn to let go?
Where are the men calling our their men friends for their violent language and behavior?
Why are women expected to solve this?
WHERE ARE THE MEN?
A few men responded. Facebook user Raymond Edwards joined the call for change:
Another confirmed death that may turn out to be a Domestic-Violence incident.
Men: please leave our women alone!
Men: Control your emotions and ask for help if you do not think you can
Men: For !#@k sake
MAN UP!
Be a REAL MAN
Responding directly to Tillah Willah's question, Taran Rampersad said that he wanted to have a different conversation:
It's not a trivialization of what empirical evidence there is: The latest constable killed in Trinidad and Tobago – a WPC, her legal title, is unfortunately the flavor of the week of Crime in Trinidad and Tobago. And violence against women, too, is at issue with 56,744 court matters for protection orders in the last 2 years in this dual island country.
And I already, in a separate update, asked why a legal title would HAVE ‘W’ in it to designate someone as someone with ovaries when they do the job of a Police Constable – something that by itself shows a lot if one were to actually think about it. But not everyone thinks about it. That's part of the problem.
The conversation I would want to have is not about women alone, but crime in general. About corruption. A lack of empathy. […] So the conversation that I think should be had isn't about women specifically. It's about society in general. […] Gender politics be damned, this isn't about gender. This is about people, and I say that because women are people too.
Predictably, there were several snarky Facebook status updates pointing fingers at Womantra, a regional feminist lobby group whose focus is to advocate for gender justice. In the past, the group has been criticised for only speaking up on issues when it is convenient. However, Teocah Arieal Ainka Dove stemmed that tide very early on:
Instead of asking WHERE IS WOMANTRA
Look in the mirror and ask yourselves ‘WHERE AM I’ […] For months, some of you ill-informed, ignorant humans have been peddling a narrative that ‘Womantra only speaks up for high coloured women’ (NEWS FLASH: They are all women of colour) or ‘Womantra only talking now because they want publicity’. […]
WOMANTRA is doing their part, various Women's Groups are doing their part! It is time you stop asking what they are doing, as though in your estimation they are not ‘doing enough’ and do YOUR PART!
Facebook user Kathryn Stollmeyer Wight agreed:
Shame on anyone on FB speaking out against Womantra. Against any group crying for justice. I am so fed up of our smug men, & yes, women, in this country who lash out with great authority from behind their laptops.
Get off your arses & stop the killing of our people.
Not easy eh?
Even as the country's Minister of National Security urged Trinbagonians not to lose hope in the face of violent crime as it would be tantamount to “dying ourselves”, many netizens — particularly women — were concerned that the trend would eventually catch up with them. Stollmeyer Wight, like many others, was at a loss as to what to do:
Should we march as if we have never marched before? Write to the newspapers as though for the first time, hoping this would help stop the bloodshed?
Pray? […] Do we take this cry for justice to parliament, to the corridors of so called power, to watch those empty heads bowed, avoiding our eyes, preening for the camera, secretly counting the money they buy our votes with?
I do not have any of the answers, but I fear far worse.
Another sister, daughter, mother is gone & ‘doh fool yuh fat’, any one of us could be next.
Patricia Worrell, meanwhile, had a few choice words for Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams:
I hear the anger in your voice over the murder of WPC Joseph. […] I understand your pain. Believe me, I do. She was one of yours – one of your family – and she has been irredeemably harmed.
But you see, sir, Nyasha Joseph was a woman before she was a police officer. As I am. As so many of my friends and family are. And I feel your pain because before she was one of yours, she was one of ours.
And because I and my sisters have been feeling traumatized for a long, long time, sir. Now, we embrace our sister in her violent death, shed tears, acknowledge our anger, and move on.
As we must, repeatedly, because generally speaking, you and those who work with you never seem to be quite as traumatized when the rest of us fall….. in OUR tribe, CoP Williams, WPC Joseph is simply another fallen sister, whose life is one of the latest to be sacrificed……And we have learned through bitter experience that generally, we can expect nothing significant or useful from you.
Another facet of the discussion on violent crime is talk of amending the country's Cybercrime Bill to stop social media “abusers” from posting gruesome images and unverified information, a position which the Minister of National Security echoed after Joseph's body was discovered and images began to flood digital feeds.
Such moves, especially in light of developments in other parts of the region, are raising concerns about the new challenges activists may face as speech is increasingly policed by ‘cybercrime legislation’.
In the interim, women trudge on. Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan quoted Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib‘s poem, ‘Sunday’, to make her point:
I will survive my grief, amen.
I have run into the darkness and arrived in the morning still living, amen.
I have made my home anywhere I still have a name, amen.
I swear that they cannot kill us all
amen.

author: Flora Thomas


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Afghanistan’s Cricket Team Sends Hope Home from India · Global Voices
Ieshan Wani

Supporters cheer for the Afghan team during a T20 match in India. Image by Ieshan Wani.
The game of cricket is a great cause of hope and joy in war-torn Afghanistan. The team is a rising star in the sport, which a generation of players learned in the refugee camps of Pakistan.
Even when the team is playing abroad, cricket seems to have the power to unite a country defined by violence and factionalism. Afghanistan's team has been doing just that throughout the month of March, as it goes head to head with the Ireland cricket team in a Twenty20 International series in India.
Afghanistan is technically the host team in this match-up, given that they signed a contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India to designate Greater Noida's Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathak stadium as their home ground. On Wednesday, March 8, Afghanistan defeated Ireland by six wickets, but the taste of victory was soon tainted as ISIS claimed to have carried out a deadly attack on Afghanistan's largest military hospital in Kabul, which killed 49 people.
“Afghanistan cricket team is our one happiness in all the pain we have had. It has brought entire nation together as everyone from different ethnicities watch and cheer for them but the entire nation went into mourning on Wednesday despite the win,” Asadullah, a student in Delhi waving the Afghan flag, told Global Voices.
Two days later, both teams assembled to pay homage to people killed in the attack ahead of the 2nd T20 International game on March 10, 2017. The Afghanistan team wore black bands on their right arms in solidarity with the victims, as flocks of dark clouds brooded over the ground, occasionally yielding to sunnier spells, only to return again later.
#AFG & #IRE players observe a moment's silence in memory of victims who lost their lives to the attack on Sardar Daud Khan hospital. #Kabul
— Fazel Fazly (@FFazly) March 10, 2017
Afghanistan's powerful batsman Mohammad Shahzad was the first back in the dressing room after being caught as he tried to clear mid-off.
The clouds thickened as wickets continued to fall, despite a flurry of sixes courtesy of Najeeb Tarakai who helped Afghanistan to post a strong total of 184 on the board.
Some spectators used the occasion to draw attention to the country's plight. A young Afghan boy in attendance held a placard that read “International politics stop killing us”. Some of his friends applied red paint over their face, representing blood.
Placard held by spectators. Image by Ieshan Wani.
The matches are being hosted in India because of security concerns in Afghanistan, but ironically, cricket is a rare patch of common ground between the recalcitrant Taliban and the government.  In 2012, the Taliban lent support to the national team when it was facing of with Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, while in 2015 the Taliban and government forces reportedly both fired their guns — not on each other, but in joy – after the team qualified for the World Cup.
Afghan cricket team emerged competitive very quick. They will be tough to beat in the very near future.#BANvAFG
— ربنوازیوسفزئی (@RBK_USAFZAI) September 25, 2016
The Afghan and the Irish cricket team at play. Image by Ieshan Wani.
What A Great Gesture By @BCCI Helping #Afghanistan To Arrange Their International Series In India
World-class Facilities!#AfgvsIre
— Akshay Aher (@AkshayAher05) March 8, 2017
The sky was gloomy, but the game went on. Image by Ieshan Wani
The floodlights were switched on as the Irish team came to the crease to try and match Afghanistan's total. The nature of T20, in which each team has just 20 overs or 120 balls to rack up a score, means the batting team has to start quickly. Ireland rose to the challenge, hitting balls out the ground from the off as rain began to fall.
The Afghan team cheers the fall of an Irish wicket. Image by Ieshan Wani.
Eventually the rain forced a stop in play as players rushed to the dugout and covers were drawn over the pitch.
Oh, rain please go away, coz we are going to lose.#AfgvsIre @ACBofficials @Irelandcricket pic.twitter.com/a5wYuMrZnx
— Samiullah Zalaal (@SZalaal) March 10, 2017
The bad weather appeared to slow Ireland's momentum and some good bowling from the Afghans left the away team with a target of 111 to achieve in 11 overs. With Ireland looking to hit out, the wickets began to fall as 18-year-old spinner Rashid Khan wrought havoc, gaining five wickets in the space of two overs.
Afghanistan went on to win the match and there was a loud cheer from the crowd as Rashid Khan and Najeeb Tarakai shared the ‘man of the match’ award.
Fans start to click selfies with their stars as they shake hands with them. Image by Ieshan Wani.
This was Afghanistan’s tenth consecutive victory in a T20 match, extending a world record in the sport, and providing a welcome spot of relief for ordinary Afghans as the Taliban's traditional spring offensive begins.
Finally ,a great feat ! Tenth win in a row in T20Is . Towards the glory ! #AfgVsIre @ICC
— Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) March 10, 2017

author: Ieshan Wani


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Brazilian Facebook User Prosecuted for Posting a Joke About a Politician · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Legado da Copa is a popular humour page in Brazil. Photo: Screenshot
The administrator of one of Brazil's most well-known Facebook pages was fined 5000 Brazilian reais (1500 USD) for publishing a satirical post about federal legislator Celso Russomano while he was running for mayor in São Paulo in late 2016.
The administrator was prosecuted not for defamation, but rather for violating Brazil's anonymity laws.
The post contained a fabricated screenshot of a Facebook Messenger conversation between an unknown person and then-mayoral candidate Russomano. In the fabricated conversation, Russomano said that if the published screenshot of the conversation achieved 80k likes, 10k comments and 5k shares, he would step down from the campaign.
The fake screenshot, which was reportedly created and first posted by Facebook user Cauê Madeira, was shared by the page Legado da Copa (Legacy of the World Cup) to its 400,000 followers and quickly achieved over 20,000 shares.
Russomano sued Facebook, Cauê Madeira, and Raphael Evangelista, the owner of Legado da Copa page. A court ruling from October convicted Evangelista of violating Brazil's Electoral Law, reasoning that the screenshot constituted negative publicity published anonymously. The ruling invoked Brazil's constitutional prohibition on anonymity because Evangelista's name is not visible to the public on the Legado da Copa page. Evangelista appealed, but a second ruling in March by São Paulo's Electoral Court, in a vote 4-3, upheld the ruling.
Brazil's 1988 Constitution's Article 5 enshrines the free manifestation of thought but forbids anonymity in authorship. Brazil's Electoral Law states that anonymity is also forbidden in content related to electoral campaigns. The Constitution, however, also protects the rights of journalists to cite anonymous sources.
The October ruling stated:
Se o usuário da rede mundial de computadores não identifica na página do perfil visitado quem é o responsável pela postagem. O anonimato estará caracterizado, não importando, a possibilidade de sua posterior identificação, após a intervenção judicial, a partir dos dados cadastrais ou do I. P. utilizado”.
If the user of the global network is not identified on the profile page who is responsible for the post, this is anonymity. It does not matter if one can later ascertain the identity of the poster, after judicial intervention, via the registration information or the IP used.
But the tight vote in the regional court showed how ambiguous the laws are when applied to the social media environment.
Reporting judge Cauduro Padin, who voted in favour of Evangelista, stated:
Entendimento contrário, defendido pelo representante, ensejaria o despropositado arremate de que todos os perfis do Facebook seriam irremediavelmente anônimos e, por conseguinte, toda e qualquer manifestação em tal rede social vedada constitucionalmente. Evidentemente não é assim.
Destarte, apesar da suposta “aparência” de anonimato existente na rede social Facebook, a especificação do usuário foi possível nos presentes autos por força dos dados obrigatoriamente disponibilizados quando da realização do respectivo cadastro.
The opposite understanding, defended by the representative, would lead to the absurd conclusion that all profiles on Facebook would be hopelessly anonymous and thereafter all and any manifestation in said social network would be Constitutionally forbidden. Evidently it's not like this.
For a start, despite the supposed “appearance” of anonymity on Facebook, the specification of the user was possible in the present case because of the data made available in the occasion the user registers.
It is important to note that while Facebook allows pages to bear names that are not explicitly connected to the name of the administrator, Padin's assertion is not entirely accurate — individual Facebook account holders are required to use their legal (or in their words “authentic”) names on their accounts.
The fake screenshot between then candidate Celso Russomano and an internet user. Photo: screenshot widely shared, published under fair use.
User: Hi, candidate, how are you? Maybe you won't take it seriously, but here it goes: How many likes on Facebook do you need to resign from the race to be mayor of São Paulo? I will post a screenshot with your reply shortly…”
Impersonator of Russomano: Is this serious, boy? The city of São Paulo needs a mayor like me. I really doubt that you will have a single like on this gibberish, but I will give you a chance. Get 80k likes, 10k comments and 5k shares that I will resign from my candidacy. Good luck.
Cauê Madeira, who made the joke on the first place, was found in both decisions to be innocent as he had shared the joke originally under his own name and that didn't violate the anonymity clause. Facebook was also found to be innocent as it promptly deleted the post once a preliminary injunction was filed.
In October, Evangelista launched a crowfunding campaign to raise 7,650 reais, which covered the cost of his fine and legal fees. The campaign since has raised more than 8,000 reais.
The page Legado da Copa was founded in 2014 to satirize the legacy of 2014 Brazil World Cup and became a well-known humor page that posts mainly memes. The page's following developed a particular culture in which, in every post, no matter the subject, the commenters will always make a reference Brazil's 7-1 defeat against Germany, with them often competing with one another for the best link between the subject matter with the ill-fated defeat.
Russomano, who is a former TV presenter, was elected to Brazil's Chamber of Deputies in 2014 with Brazil's PRB, a party directly associated with Universal Church, Brazil's largest evangelical congregation that has been increasingly influential in the country's institutional politics, worrying many secular activists. His lawyer says that he filed more than 30 suits against internet websites and pages during the 2016 mayoral campaign. In the end, Russomano won 13% of the votes and lost to PSDB candidate João Dória.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


text:
Photography Project Urges Mexicans Never to Forget Crimes that Have Gone Unpunished · Global Voices
Erin Gallagher

“Mientras Orabamos.” Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
Please be warned that some of the images in this post, although staged, depict graphic violence.
Photographer Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes has created “Sin Olvido” (Without Forgetting), a series of striking photomontages to highlight nine cases of unsolved crimes in Mexico.
Tonatiuh says he seeks to criticize the collective memory of Mexicans who easily forget crimes that go unpunished, many of them covered up by politicians. These injustices are often perpetrated against some of the most vulnerable people in Mexico.
The images are produced using a style of artistic presentation called Tablau vivant, French for “living picture.” The technique features staged subjects who are theatrically lit for dramatic effect, which creates a hyper-realistic aesthetic.
He has so far released seven out of the nine pieces from the Sin Olvido project on his Facebook fan page. In an interview with Global Voices, he explained the photomontages are not only art, but activism, and so he is timing the publication of each photo to have maximum impact.
The photomontage “Mientras Orabamos” (While We Prayed) at the start of this post represents the Acteal massacre in which paramilitaries killed 45 people, including women and children, who were attending a local prayer meeting in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas, on December 22, 1997. The slaughter took place amidst the armed conflict between the state and the leftist militant group known as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation following the implementation in 1994 of the “Plan de Campaña Chiapas” – a counter-insurgency operation intended to infiltrate Zapatista-influenced zones with paramilitaries to prevent the spread of the ideology.
In our interview with Tonatiuh, he explained the importance of highlighting the indigenous victims of this massacre:
Habla sobre la matanza que ocurrió en una pequeña localidad en Acteal, en Los Altos de Chiapas, ahí se encontraba orando indígenas tzotziles en una iglesia cristiana pentecostal, cuando llegó un grupo de paramilitares, a disparar contra ellos, el resultado fueron 45 muertos, entre los que se encontraban mujeres y niños, se culpó a un grupo paramilitar contrario al EZLN de haber perpetrado el crimen, pero nunca se esclareció de manera correcta quienes fueron los instigadores, pero la respuesta más obvia, es que fue el mismo gobierno federal que buscaba dar un escarmiento a la guerrilla en Chiapas.
Hablar de este sucesos significa darle voz a un grupo poco escuchado en el país, los indígenas.
“Mientras Orabamos” (While We Prayed) speaks to the massacre that occurred in the small town, Acteal, in the Chiapas highlands. A group of Tzotzil indigenous peoples were praying in a Pentecostal Christian church when a group of paramilitaries arrived and opened fire. Forty-five people were killed including women and children. A paramilitary group opposed to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation was blamed for having committed the crime, although it was never clear who was responsible, but the most obvious answer is that the federal government wanted to teach the guerrillas in Chiapas a lesson.
To speak of this event gives voice to a little-known group in the country: the indigenous peoples.
El “Silbato de Mancera” (Mancera's Whistle) refers to a policy implemented by the government of Mexico City to prevent violence against women by giving them an “anti-assault” whistle to use if they are attacked in the street. Named for Miguel Ángel Mancera, the current mayor of Mexico City, the pink whistles were criticized as a superficial and ineffective solution against the widespread violence against women in Mexico.
“El Silbato de Mancera” (Mancera's Whistle). Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
La violencia hacia las mujeres no se arregla separándolas en los vagones del metro, recomendándoles ropas largas, o dándoles silbatos rosas para que pidan auxilio. La violencia se combate desde la educación, cuando se comprende al otro, cuando se le respeta, cuando se le conoce. Medidas paliativas para solucionar problemas graves y profundos, sólo destacan la indiferencia que se tiene hacia el tema, y peor aún, demuestran que mas que una solución son ellos mismos, parte del problema. – Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes
Violence towards women cannot be resolved by separating them in subway cars, recommending that they wear long skirts, or giving them pink whistles to call for help. Violence is fought through education, when one person understands the other, when one is respected, when one is known to another. Palliative measures to solve serious and profound problems only highlight the indifference to the subject, and worse, demonstrate that instead of being a solution, they are themselves part of the problem. – Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes
“Peñabot” is an image criticizing the use of public resources to generate digital propaganda favorable to the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. Peñabot is the popular name given to automated bots and trolls in Mexican social media that are used to overpower trending topics, which are mostly critical of the government, manipulate public opinion and harass users.
“Peñabot.” Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
According to Dr. Ernesto Villanueva, academic and researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Legal Research Institute, the usage of peñabots violates Articles 6 and 134 of the Mexican Constitution and could cost an estimated 80 million pesos per month (approximately 4 million US dollars).
This image refers to a tragic 2009 fire at the Guardería ABC, a daycare center in Sonora state in northern Mexico. The blaze took the lives of 49 children and left more than 70 with respiratory problems and other permanent conditions. There were suspicions that the fire, which began in a neighboring warehouse that housed the archives of the Sonora state treasury’s Department of Vehicular Control, was intentionally set.
The ABC daycare was federally funded by Mexico's Social Security Institute, but it was privately operated. Several safety rules had been violated including a lack of fire extinguishers, non-functioning smoke alarms and inadequate safety exits.
“Hasta el Fin del Mundo” (Until the End of the World). Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
An investigation took place afterwards to determine the cause of the fire and who was responsible. It implicated several high-level officials, like Juan Molinar Horcasitas — one of former President Felipe Calderon’s closest collaborators —  as well as the administrators and owners of the daycare, including a cousin of Calderón’s wife. Some state officials resigned in the aftermath of the incident, but were not prosecuted. The only person arrested for the daycare fire was released from jail in January 2014.
In 2016, Danissa López Arvizu, the mother of one of the victims and a former teacher at the ABC daycare, explained to El Universal newspaper the pain caused by the lack of justice:
Cada día lo recuerdo más, el dolor va a estar ahí siempre, alguien irá a la cárcel? quizás, ¿pero mi hijo qué? Él jamas va a estar conmigo y con sus hermanos. ¿Quién va a pagar por su muerte y las de los otros 48 niños y los otros 70 lesionados? El paso del tiempo no me ayuda, al contrario peor es su ausencia. Mi niño me hace falta y siempre va a estar en mi pensamiento, me hubiera gustado que viviera hasta el fin del mundo.
Every day I remember it more, the pain will always be there, will someone go to jail? Maybe, but what about my son? He will never be with his brothers and I. Who will pay for his death and the deaths of the other 48 children and the other 70 who were injured? The passage of time does not help me, on the contrary it gets worse with his absence. I need my child and he will always be in my thoughts, I would have liked him to live until the end of the world.
“Las Edecanes” (The Aides). Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
Tonatiuh explained the story behind “Las Edecanes”:
Cuando el equipo de la periodista Carmen Aristegui descubrió la red de prostitución encabezada por Gutiérrez de Torre del PRI del Distrito Federal muchos sentimos una gran satisfacción de ver cómo el periodismo había logrado lo que nuestras autoridades corruptas en nuestro país no habían podido, desenmascarar cómo el poder político en nuestro país convierte a las mujeres en prostitutas. Tristemente el gusto duró poco, De la Torre fue exonerado, y anda por la vida como si nada hubiera pasado, por eso me decidí hacer este tableau vivant, para que no se olvida lo que hizo él, para que no se nos olvide lo que representa el PRI en nuestro país, y para que quede constancia de lo que el poder de muchos políticos, radica en su impunidad sin límites.
Que este tableau vivant fotográfico sirva para perpetuar la indignación que tan rápido se disuelve con el tiempo en nuestro país.
When the team of journalist Carmen Aristegui discovered the prostitution network headed by Gutierrez de Torre of the PRI political party of Mexico City, many felt a great satisfaction to see how journalism had achieved what our corrupt authorities in our country could not: unmask how the political power in our country turns women into prostitutes. Sadly, the feeling didn’t last long, and De la Torre was exonerated and walks through life as if nothing had happened. That's why I decided to make this photo, so no one forgets what he did, so that we will not forget what the PRI represents in our country, and to record that the power of many politicians is founded on limitless impunity.
May this photo serve to perpetuate the indignation that so quickly dissolves over time in our country.
San Salvador Atenco is a town in Mexico state known for its resistance movement against the construction of a new airport in 2002. Citizens organized and formed the Frente del Pueblo en Defensa de La Tierra (the People's Front in Defense of the Land) and resisted the airport construction, ultimately causing the government to abandon the project. Their successful resistance earned the citizens of San Salvador Atenco nationwide recognition.
Several years later, on May 3, 2006, police blocked 60 flower vendors from setting up their stands in the Texcoco market, not far from San Salvador Atenco. Those who resisted were beaten and arrested. The flower vendors called on their neighbors for help and the citizens of San Salvador Atenco responded by blocking a local highway. What transpired next would come to be known as the Atenco Massacre. A massive police operation that first violently repressed and lifted the highway blockade on May 3, then escalated on May 4 when police raided the homes of private citizens, arrested and beat people arbitrarily and terrorized the town. The media portrayed the siege as a justifiable police action against a small group of violent, machete-wielding agitators.
Two teenagers died and more than 200 people were detained including women, minors, journalists, human rights observers and several foreigners. Some 26 of the women who were detained were subjected to monstrous sexual torture at the hands of police while they were being transferred to prison. The trip which should have only taken about 2 hours turned into a 6-hour nightmare. Testimonies of 11 of the 26 women were included in a complaint filed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) against the Mexican state. The complaint detailed how the women were stripped, humiliated, forced to perform oral sex and raped by police.
“La Construcción del Nuevo Aeropuerto” (The Construction of the New Airport). Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
Of the 16 police officers who were prosecuted for these heinous abuses, 15 were released without charges. One state police officer was sentenced to three years in prison for “libidinous acts,” but ended up serving no jail time because his charge was categorized as a non-serious crime under the Mexican Penal Code; his sentence was changed to a fine of $8,427 pesos (approximately $420 US dollars).
The then governor of Mexico State, Enrique Peña Nieto, appeared on national news and reassured the public that he had ordered the police action and that it was necessary to restore peace and order. He also publicly stated there would be further investigation but that it was possible the women were “fabricating accusations.” Peña Nieto later went on to become the current president of Mexico.
Several of the women who were assaulted by police in Atenco weren't from Mexico. María Sastres from Spain testified to Amnesty International:
nos hicieron de todo, y como estábamos encapuchadas no veíamos quiénes eran, cuando mucho veíamos el suelo lleno de sangre y escuchábamos los gritos de dolor de la gente. No quiero entrar en muchos detalles sobre las agresiones sexuales, pero nos quitaron la ropa, nos la rompieron, nos pasaban la mano muchos policías y prefiero ya no decir más cosas…
They did everything to us, we saw all of the blood on the ground and heard people screaming in pain but since our faces were covered we couldn’t see who they were. I do not want to go into many details about the sexual assaults, but they took off our clothes, they ripped them off, the hands of many policemen passed over us and I prefer to not say any more…
Two years have passed since a group of students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College – with its headquarters in Ayotzinapa, in the western Mexican state of Guerrero – were deprived of their freedom by local police and then allegedly handed over to the Guerreros Unidos armed group, never to be heard from again. The Ayotzinapa case, as this tragic series of events is known, remains unpunished, and the families of the 43 students still don't know what happened to their loved ones.
“No Nos Olviden” (Don't Forget Us). The banners read “It was the state” and “Don't forget us.” Photo: Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes. Used with permission from the author.
Tonatiuh reflected on his work in an interview with revistakulte.com:
La gente ya no quiere recordar ni pensar en esos hechos, porque tal vez no le ve ningún caso; por ello este proyecto nos dice que no deberíamos olvidar lo que nos ocurrió, como Atenco, el News Divine, que tal vez fue más local, pero todos los sucesos de ese tipo son importantes cuando no han tenido un cierre, cuando no se ha castigado a los responsables. Debemos seguir luchando porque todas las luchas nuevas, también son las viejas, son la misma.
People no longer want to remember or think about these cases, because maybe they do not see any case. So this project tells us that we should not forget what happened to us, like Atenco, the News Divine disco tragedy, which was perhaps more local, but all such events are important when they have no closure, when those responsible have not been punished. We must continue to struggle because all new struggles are also the old ones, they are the same.
You can follow Tonatiuh's work on Facebook at Pablo A. Tonatiuh Fotografía.

author: Erin Gallagher


text:
A Visit to a Moscow Mental Health Center · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Vera Shengelia. Photo: Anna Shmitko / Facebook
Vera Shengelia is a Russian journalist, a mental health activist, and a trustee at the Moscow-based Life Route Foundation, which provides assistance to teenage and adult disabled persons. For the past several years, Shengelia told RuNet Echo, she’s been helping one disabled young man in particular, whose relatives had him committed and placed in a psychoneurological center. She used to visit him at a facility outside Moscow, but he was recently transferred to a clinic in the city.
Last week, Shengelia saw this man at his new home, where the living conditions startled her. On March 16, she described the experience on Facebook, drawing more than 450 shares and 1,700 reactions. RuNet Echo presents that text below, translated into English.
сколько раз я была на всех этих дискуссиях, круглых столах про советского человека. его культурный код, ценности, вот это все.
сегодня за пять минут все поняла. приехала в интернат для взрослых. психоневрологический как они это называют. поднялась на второй этаж. а там этот запах. на ужин рыба с картошкой. и вот если у вас начинается паническая атака от этого запаха — вот ваш культурный советский код.
разодрала воротник, уйти я не могла, поднялась еще этажом выше. там пластиковая дверь на засове. в ней продолговатое окошко. и оттуда как животные из загона на меня смотрят живые люди. с десяток мужиков в одинаковой одежде. я даже кивнуть не смогла.
господи, это же я двумя часами раньше рассказывала студентам про концепт достоинства, про права человека, про столпы социальной журналистики, про разговор на равных, про то, что любой человек это всегда человек.
и сама от страха, от этой рыбы стала искать глазами кого-нибудь в халате, какого-нибудь надсмотрщика, кого-нибудь, кто бы меня защитил.
навещала мальчика. хорошего, домашнего мальчика — учился на политологии в мгу, чинит компьютеры, переписываемся иногда по английски.
его только перевели. совсем не узнала. черный. медленный. голос дрожит, как в этих страшных фильмах про гестапо. не смог сам открыть печенье даже.
и оттуда из раковины, из под этой ваты говорит мне — Вера, лучше бы меня в тюрьму посадили. я бы уже вышел.
говорит — я думаю, что чем-то я прогневал бога. чем же он прогневал? тем, что у него умерла мама? а остальные родственника вот так его быстро упихали.
курить водят два раза в день. строем. телефон отобрали. ужин в шесть. в шесть часов у взрослого мужика ужин. и потом все. это такое наказание? это такая тюрьма? это что?
на выходе встретила замдиректора, мы знакомы. говорю — отдайте телефон парню. он же только приехал, не знает никого, ему страшно.
всегда же можно попросить позвонить у старшей медсестры, говорит. от свободы, Вера, говорит, такие страшные вещи бывают. дедовщина, например.
привезла печенья. купила кофе в автомате. сходили покурить.
мне, говорит, так неудобно тебе это говорить, но я здесь совсем не могу в туалет ходить: здесь открытые кабинки, я стесняюсь.
я не боюсь людей с ментальными нарушениями, с инвалидностью. я боюсь фашизма, боюсь, когда людей держат как коров. боюсь вашей жареной рыбы, гребаные вы суки. ни конца этому говну, ни края.
I can’t count how many times I’ve been to discussions and roundtables about the “Soviet Man,” where we examine his cultural code, his values, and all that. Today, in just five minutes, I finally understood everything.
I visited a residential care center for adults — a psychoneurological facility, they call it.
I went up to the second floor, where I was hit by this smell. For dinner they were having fish and potatoes. If you’re looking for the “Soviet cultural code,” search no further than the panic attack you get from this smell.
Tearing at my collar, unable to leave, I went up another floor. There I found a plastic door bolted shut. The door had an oblong little window, and through it I saw living people looking back at me, like animals in a pen. There were a dozen men, all wearing identical clothes. I couldn’t even nod in return.
Christ, just two hours earlier I’d been telling a room full of students about the concept of dignity, about human rights, about the pillars of social journalism, about talking as equals, and about the fact that any person is always a person. Now, out of sheer fear, and because of that terrible smell of fish, I started looking around the room for anyone in a lab coat, for any supervisor — for anyone at all who would protect me.
I visited a young man — a good, down-home kid who studied political science at Moscow State University. He repairs computers, and sometimes corresponds with friends in English. They’d just transferred him here. I never would have guessed it. He was weathered. He moved slowly. His voice trembled, like in one of those gruesome movies about the Gestapo. I brought him cookies, and he couldn’t even open the box himself.
Photo: InLiberty / Facebook
And from this pit of despair, from under all his thick blankets, he says to me, “Vera, it would have been better if they’d put me in prison. I’d already be out.” He says, “I think to myself that I must have done something to anger God.”
But what did he do to anger anyone? Was it that his mother died? That his remaining relatives then dumped him here?
Twice a day, they take them out for a smoke, lined up in formation. His phone has been taken. Dinner is at six. A grown man has dinner at six o’clock. And then that’s it for the day. Is this some kind of punishment? Is this some kind of prison? What is this?
On the way out, I met up with the facility’s deputy director. We already know each other. I tell him: give the guy his phone back. He only just got here, he doesn’t know anyone, and he’s scared. He tells me the young man can always ask the head nurse to place a call. “Vera,” he tells me, “some very scary things happen when you start granting freedoms.” Hazing, for example.
I left the cookies. I bought a coffee from a machine and stepped out for a cigarette. When I got back, the young man told me uncomfortably that he can’t even go to the bathroom at this place: there are no stalls, everything’s open, and he’s embarrassed.
I’m not afraid of the handicapped or of people with mental disabilities. But I am afraid of fascism, and I’m afraid when people are locked up like livestock. I’m afraid of your fried fish. I’m afraid when there’s no edge or end to this shit.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
With Tambourines in Hand and Led by Survivors, a Powerful Movement Against Sexual Violence in Jamaica Rises · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A tambourine held aloft at the Tambourine Army's March 11, 2017 protest against sexual violence in Kingston, Jamaica. Photo by Storm Saulter, used with permission.
One of the founders of Jamaica's Tambourine Army, a bold new movement led by women and survivors of sexual abuse and violence, was arrested and charged on three counts of “the use of computer for malicious communication”.
Latoya Nugent was charged under the country's cybercrime legislation, after several men lodged formal complaints with the police accusing her of identifying some of them as sexual predators on social media. Nugent is currently out on bail.
Her arrest comes as her Tambourine Army movement has garnered much attention and stimulated debate in the Caribbean. Particularly, some in Jamaica are questioning the group's rage and tactic of naming and shaming abusive men, many of whom are in positions of power; the tactic got Nugent arrested.
Current national legislation in Jamaica fails to address the complexities and realities of sexual violence against women and children. For example, the Sexual Offences Act narrowly defines rape as ‘non-consensual penile penetration of a woman’s vagina by a man’. Rape and abuse are also massively underreported in the country because of a culture of victim-shaming and stigma.
All of these conditions led to the spontaneous creation of the Tambourine Army earlier this year. The Army came together after Nugent started the hashtag #TambourineArmy, in response to the attention she garnered on social media for bonking a pastor accused of sexual assault with a tambourine at a protest. With the hashtag, Nugent tried to channel focus of the incident to something bigger:
What we are trying to do is to engage persons who do healing work, and counselling and support kind of work, to provide safe spaces, physical and virtual, for survivors of sexual violence. We are also trying to let people understand the concept of sexual grooming.
The pastor, Dr. Paul Gardner, was soon charged with the sexual abuse of minors.
While Gardner faces trial and his church is facing a backlash, Nugent's online movement brought out 700 women, men and children to march in the capital city Kingston on March 11, 2017. They carried tambourines to break the silence against the stigma survivors face and to demand justice against sexual abuse and rape.
Survivors of sexual abuse and gender violence in Jamaica are no longer prepared to stay silent. Photo of participants in the Tambourine Army's march by Storm Saulter, used with permission.
The rift created over the Army's tactics escalated when Emma Lewis, a Global Voices contributor who had written about the group's formation and mission, subsequently wrote an opinion piece on her personal blog that hit a nerve and got the discussion going on a deeper — and at times acrimonious — level.
Lewis, a survivor herself, noted in her post that she “was also a ‘radical'” and still is when it comes to her views “on the environment, capital punishment, human rights, abortion rights, LGBT rights”. She maintained, however, that she doesn't believe in violence because “it solves nothing”.
Lewis’ post was not well received by some and it unleashed a series of vicious online comments.
According to Jamaican author Kei Miller, Lewis might not understand that the Tambourine Army's rage is called for; that perhaps, Lewis’ position of “supposedly unacknowledged White Privilege” blinds her to the heat of the issue. On his blog, Miller further explained:
Many who read Emma’s blog – many women in fact – felt that she had bravely expressed their own misgivings […] there was something too militant, too aggressive and ultimately something too divisive about the Tambourine Army. The Tambourine Army was not impressed by this critique. To them it was just more respectability politics – an attempt to police their tone, to muffle their rage, an unfair demand to take all that pent up hurt, that lifetime of suppressed pain, and make it all more polite, more reasonable, more acceptable for brown people’s consumption, for male consumption, for good-decent-middle-class-people-who-faint-at-the-word-bomboclawt consumption.
Men marched alongside women in an effort to put an end to Jamaica's rape culture. Photo by Storm Saulter, used with permission.
He went on to make the point that there is a time for fury:
I have not agreed with every utterance from the Tambourine Warriors. […] The binaries they sometimes insist on seem overly strict to me – ‘you either hold to this particular position, or you’re not with us!’ Still, I haven’t felt the need to voice any of these objections. This is not a critical/academic discourse. This is rage. Let it be. Let it do what only it can do. Let it offend and disrupt and dismantle what only it can. If I had been in Jamaica I would have marched and shaken a tambourine in solidarity.
To everything there is a season – a time for the silence of men, and a time for the tambourines of women.
University of the West Indies student Germaine Bryan also wrote about the “brewing revolution” on his blog:
If the women behind this Tambourine Army believe they have exhausted all avenues of ‘proper’ ways to advocate that they taught us in their schools, then I say do what you must to maintain the fight. If you must shout, then shout; if you must march, then march; if you are attacked with force, fight back with force; but please don’t give up the fight.
In a Facebook update, fellow writer Marlon James summarised the situation this way:
First came the privileged uptown lady indifference. Then came the media black out. Then came the media hatchet jobs. And now the police intimidation has begun. All because Jamaican women would like to no longer be raped and murdered. #TambourineArmy.
After her release on bail, Nugent took to social media to express her gratitude for the outpouring of support:
Yesterday they broke my spirit. Today, because of all of you I am stronger than the concrete that was my resting place last night. The #TambourineArmy has risen.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Alleged Attacks on Online Media Follow the Tragic Death by Fire of Young Women in Guatemala · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Women leave candles on May 8th in Guatemala City. Photo: Carlos Sebastián for the online media Nómada. Used under Creative Commons -non specified- licence.
The same week in which Latin America hit the streets and the net to defend women's rights, the regional public was in uproar over the death of 41 young women inside a shelter on the edges of Guatemala City.
The tragedy took place after the young women protested against alleged sexual abuses ongoing inside the shelter. According to reports, the protests ended in brutal crackdowns, with the young women kept locked up inside the shelter. According to local media, the girls burned a mattress in order to try and escape, but the authorities kept them locked in. The final death toll in the subsequent fire, according to local and international media, rose to 40.
The story was well covered across online media outlets and on social media. Among those media covering the story was Guatemalan outlet NomadaGT, where the recorded testimonies of some of the young women were published.
Shortly after publishing the audios, some users and activists decried an apparent DDoS attack (a ‘denial-of-service-attack’, in which multiple users or computers try to access a site until it crashes due to traffic) on NomadaGT:
En este momento @nomadagt está siendo atacado con un DDos (ataque de denegación de servicios)..#LibertadDeExpresión
— Anonymous Guatemala (@An0nymousGT) March 14, 2017
In this moment, @nomadagt is going through a DDoS attacked (a denial of service attack) #FreedomOfSpeech.
Journalists breaking this story are currently under DDoS attack. @nomadagt looking for technical help. #defendthepress#defendthepeoplehttps://t.co/gDK7mqcBxf
— Loni (@loniamillion) March 14, 2017
The website Guatemala Shafaqna said:
El portal de noticias Nómada entrevistó a dos de las menores sobrevivientes de la tragedia del Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, sin embargo, luego de publicarlos han experimentado problema en su sitio. Las declaraciones fueron publicadas en la nota Audios: una policía le dijo a las niñas que se aguantaran el fuego [itálicas nuestras] escrita por la periodista Claudia Méndez Arriaza.
The news site [NómadaGT] interviewed two of the surviving girls of the tragedy of Hogar Seguro [the shelter where the protest and the fire took place] But after publishing them they had problems with their website. The testimonies were published in the note ‘Audios: a police officer told the girls to suck the fire up’ written by journalist Claudia Méndez Arriaza.
Other media republished the news and warned of the problems that NómadaGT had. Hours later, when normal service resumed, the notes were updated:
El portal de noticias Nómada entrevistó a dos de las menores sobrevivientes de la tragedia del Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, sin embargo, luego de publicarlos han experimentado problema en su sitio. Actualmente ya están reestablecidos.
The news site [NómadaGT] interviewed two of the surviving girls from the Hogar Seguro tragedy, but after publishing them, they had access problems. They're now back online.
Hours later, NómadaGT was reestablished, but the denial-of-service-attack remained important in the context of accusations that the Guatemalan State was responsible for the death of the young women.
If you spent all day trying to read the note, here it is, in full, on our Facebook page. We apologize for the delay. The crime against these girls will not go unpunished. #HogarSeguro

author: Laura Vidal


text:
How One Small Japanese City Is Attracting Trainspotters · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

“Hitachi Class 800. York.” Photo by Flickr user Carl Spencer. License: Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Tens of thousands of rail enthusiasts turned up in an out-of-way town on Japan's Inland Sea earlier in March, in order to catch a glimpse of a new train destined for the United Kingdom. While trainspotting has turned into an obsession in Japan in recent years, the event provides clues for how regional Japanese cities attract tourists.
On March 6, about 30,000 people lined the streets of Kudamatsu, a small city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) west of Tokyo, to watch a Class 800 series diesel-electric railcar be delivered by tractor trailer from a Hitachi manufacturing facility to the port.
英国向け高速鉄道、昼に陸送　山口・下松、ファン３万人：朝日新聞デジタル https://t.co/R2D89s84Qi
かっこいい～～??? pic.twitter.com/qw3WTPd0Ig
— fusa (@121511xf) March 6, 2017
Bound for a high-speed rail line in the United Kingdom, the train was delivered by road this afternoon. 30,000 fans gathered in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi.
The delivery of the railcar to the port, including the route it would take, and the best spots to catch a glimpse of the train, was publicized by the city. Kudamatsu, a small city of 55,000 people, is not generally known as a tourism hotspot. However, inbound tourism in Japan is booming, so much so that there are room shortages in major tourist destinations. To help keep up with demand, there is an effort to promote and develop regional tourist attractions in Japan.
下松市長 殿
道路を走る高速鉄道車両見学プロジェクト、最高でした。僅か4キロの陸送コースに3万人を集客するなんて、下松しか出来ないイベントでしょう。是非、今後もプロジェクトの発動をお願いします！ pic.twitter.com/Y5YafJqpAq
— 電車を撮ろう。 (@tentenw) March 5, 2017
To the mayor of Kudamatsu:
The “Let's Transport High Speed Railcars to the Port Along Public Streets Project” was just the best. Although it was just 4 kilometers [2.5 miles] between the factory and the port, the fact that 30,000 people showed up indicates this event could have only have happened in Kudamatsu. I really hope you continue with this project!
Although it's difficult to gauge how popular this sort of event might be with visitors to Japan, this “new type of tourism, attracting people who are interested in Japan's industrial manufacturing” seems to have been a hit with Japan's vibrant trainspotting subculture, who flocked to see the traincars delivered to the port for shipment to the United Kingdom.
The Class 800 train may have some nostalgic value for Japanese rail enthusiasts; it's based on Japan's 681 series express train that traveled between Osaka and cities on the Japan Sea coast. The 681 is the fastest narrow-gauge train in the world, able to travel at speeds of more than 160 km/h (99 mph).
The sheer number of spectators seems to have caught locals by surprise:
?今日は地元の日立製作所から港までイギリス鉄道の車両陸送の一般公開がある日。仕事帰りに見ようと思ったけど、主要な道は軒並み大渋滞してて断念。。地元のケーブル局で生中継してたのでそれで我慢した。。?
つか、ギャラリーの多さにビックリ！！下松市の人口以上集まっちょるで！（笑）? pic.twitter.com/cWTar4xcJj
— 猫神アキラ@3月20日オープン戦観戦♪ (@901Akiracchi) March 5, 2017
Today was the day when the transport of the the new trains from the Hitachi factory to the plant was open for viewing by locals. I thought I would go take a look after I got of work, but for most of the way the crowd was back shoulder-to-shoulder, and I couldn't get a good look. However, I saw it later when it was broadcast over cable access.
I couldn't believe how many people there were… there must have been more people than live in Kudamatsu itself!
Other cities in Japan, hoping to capture the interest in rail manufacturing, quickly emulated Kudamatsu's train-based tourism promotion. Hakata, in Fukuoka on the western island of Kyushu, tweeted:
こんにちは！昨日のニュースで，山口県下松市で，市内で製造された高速鉄道車両の港までの輸送を観覧するイベントがあり，たくさんの鉄道ファンの方が詰めかけたそうです。
博多港でも，JR西日本博多総合車両所の新幹線が船で運ばれることがあります。めったに見られない貴重なイベントなんですよ☆ pic.twitter.com/mPlAUIKrgT
— 福岡市港湾空港局 (@port_of_hakata) March 6, 2017
Hello! As you may have seen on the news yesterday, there was an event in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi, where a newly-manufactured train was transported from the Hitachi rail factory to the port, and a lot of rail fans came out to watch.
As a matter of fact, JR West Japan received a number of high-speed rail cars for the Shinkansen super express service at Hakata Port. This was a very rare event to experience as well!
The Class 800 rail cars loaded at Kudamatsu are bound for the United Kingdom as rolling stock for Britain’s Intercity Express Program.
The train at platform 1 of @NetworkRailPAD is the Class 800 #GreenMachine, departing soon for the #greaterwest pic.twitter.com/MI7EglaBBK
— Great Western Route (@networkrailwest) June 30, 2016
While train carriages will be built in both Japan and in the United Kingdom, where manufacturing is expected to create more than 700 jobs, the Japanese government has bluntly stated that Brexit puts at risk similar Japanese investments in Britain in the future.
News reports showed the scale of the crowds who gathered to see the train shipped to the port at Kudamatsu:

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
In Northern Sri Lanka, Incidents of Military Intimidation Threaten Reconciliation · Global Voices
GroundViews

Protest by villagers in Pilakudiyiruppu. Image credit Ruki Fernando and Marisa de Silva (via Groundviews)
This post by Raisa Wickrematunge originally appeared on Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
There have been increased incidents of military intimidation in the last couple of weeks in the Tamil-populated northern parts of Sri Lanka such as Pilakudiyirippu (near Keppapulavu), Paravipaanchan in Kilinochchi, and Puthukkudiyiruppu, human rights activist Ruki Fernando said. All of these areas are former military-held lands released back to their one-time residents following sustained protests.
The Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) recently questioned Fernando during his visit to Pilakudiyirippu on March 9, he added.
AirForce questioned me yesterday in #Pilavukudirupu , #Kepapulavu. Revenge for having to end 8yr ocupation of village aft peoples protests? pic.twitter.com/AWDO6cjfTh
— Ruki Fernando (@rukitweets) March 10, 2017
“I was talking to a few of the residents when two people in civilian clothing came up to me. They asked me who I was and why I had come. When I in turn asked them who they were, they informed me that they were from the air force camp next to the village,” Fernando said. He added that he had refused to answer the questions and walked away. Air Force personnel decided not to pursue questioning.
The people of Pilakudiyirippu have been protesting from January 31 to March 1 this year demanding the return of their lands, held by the SLAF (see Global Voices report). Most of the land was released on March 1. However, the residents of Pilakudiyirippu are facing the daunting prospect of rebuilding their lives in a region that was a key theatre of conflict during the civil war that ended in 2009.
“They are living in tents or under trees. They need housing, water and electricity. Most of the residents are involved in casual work, and their children go to school, but there is no bus service,” Fernando said of the returning families plight.
He added that while the Red Cross in Mullaitivu had provided essentials such as pots, pans, mats, a bedsheet and a lamp to each family, there had been “absolutely no support” from the government. “The government needs to step in and provide for these families. It’s not enough to just release the land,” Fernando said.
Apart from the questioning, there have been other incidents of intimidation, as the military react angrily to the release of lands due to pressure, Fernando said.
Keppapulavu was in the news when residents protested day and night for the return of their land, in the face of military intimidation. A leading figure in the struggle for the release of both Keppapulavu and Pilakudiyirippu was Chandra Leela, whose house is still under army occupation. Recently, Chandra Leela was stopped from accessing her agricultural land, Fernando said.
“The Air Force is now saying that the land she uses for agricultural purposes is the property of the Forest Department. But she has legal documentation,” Fernando said. “This is clearly retaliation due to the partial success of the protests.” The Government released 40 acres of land, in response to the protests – other families are still waiting for their land and have recommenced protests until it is returned.
Courageous women of #Keppapulavu led the struggle for lands; Kowsalya-an outspoken lady was greeted by her fellow protesters/villagers today pic.twitter.com/DvvfvArW55
— Garikaalan (@garikaalan) March 1, 2017
The military also regularly photograph any visitors. “As soon as we get down from a vehicle, we see people come from inside the camp and photographing us. The people who are still protesting noticed this too,” Fernando said.
Pilavu day 17: protestors under surveillance https://t.co/5JsGcmUOFY #Tamil #lka pic.twitter.com/Rq1OKUptWm
— Tamil Guardian (@TamilGuardian) February 16, 2017
A solidarity protest in Jaffna demanding for the release of military occupied lands also saw the military intimidating some of the participants. “I attended this protest, along with people from Trincomalee and Mannar, and many others. Some intelligence operatives had gone to an IDP camp in Jaffna the day before the protest and intimidated people there, pressuring them not to join the protest. They had singled out a camp leader and accused him of instigating protests.”
CID present on roadside in front of protest #jaffna
— Tamil Guardian (@TamilGuardian) March 4, 2017
In Puthukkudiyiruppu, families returning to their land after one month of protests, ending on March 3, found their houses bulldozed, doors, windows and toilet and kitchen fittings removed, and beer bottles strewn around the area. A small shop had also been destroyed. “There was clearly anger from the side of the military that people were getting their land back. The release of military occupied land is part and parcel of reconciliation, and this is exactly the opposite of what should be happening,” Fernando said.
In Keppapulavu, a new signboard states the surrounding land is an ‘army cantonment area,’ he added. “There is a military blockade which had been there for around five or six years. But this signboard is new. I didn’t see it when I visited around two weeks before.”
Parallel to the protests on military-occupied land, families affected by enforced disappearances in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and most recently Mullaitivu have also begun sustained protests.
“What is significant about the protests in Vavuniya and Kilinochchi is that they are actually trying to reach out for Sinhalese support. Protesters have put out banners and prepared letters and appeals in Sinhalese,” Fernando said of the ethnic group who dominate the country's politics. The protest in Mullaitivu is just two-days old, and is much smaller.
“However it is ongoing for 24 hours, with the families working in shifts. Some of the people have to work, others are leaving their children to come and protest. So they are trying to strike a balance between going to work but also sustaining their protests for 24 hours,” Fernando said.
“மகன் வருவார், மகள பத்தி தெரியாது” என்று சிஐடி சொன்னவங்க” https://t.co/FMnh3OfMDK #lka #srilanka #BeBoldForChange #IWD2017 #DisappearedSL pic.twitter.com/adXV9dGWne
— Selvaraja Rajasegar (@SRajasegar) March 8, 2017
“Your son will return. We don’t know about your daughter: CID”
Courtesy sister publication Maatram
“I have been told @ all temples that my son is alive;I just wanted to see him before I die”Vadivel Puhsparaani in Kilinochchi #DisappearedSL pic.twitter.com/jJ9tNB7aQJ
— Garikaalan (@garikaalan) March 10, 2017
In the case of these families too, there has been limited progress, apart from in Vavuniya, when State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijewardene promised to set up a meeting with the Minister of Law and Order, the Attorney General’s Department, the IGP and the Minister of Justice.
The promise broke a four-day hunger strike that the families had launched, demanding answers. “Following that meeting, the only thing that occurred was that certain members of the government accused the families of trying to prioritise their individual cases. The families said that in fact it was the government who had offered to expedite their cases, which they had rejected as they wanted truth and justice for all the families,” Fernando said.
The families of Vavuniya waited two weeks to see if anything would culminate from the meeting on February 9, and recently began protesting again due to lack of action.
Against this background, a Sri Lankan delegation to the United Nations asked for more time to implement UN resolution 30/1 of 2015, even as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein spoke of Sri Lanka’s ‘slow progress’ in areas such as accountability and reconciliation. The UN Human Rights Council also asked for the return of all military occupied land to civilians, as well as the end of military involvement in civilian and administrative activities.
However, as is clear on the ground, incidents of intimidation continue to occur, and returnee families such as those in Pilakudiyirippu have to rebuild their lives with no support from the State.
The following photo story by Ruki Fernando and Marisa de Silva, documents civilian protests in Keppapulavu and the struggle of the newly resettled.

author: GroundViews


text:
Peruvians Find Strength in Surviving a Merciless March · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Screenshot from a video shared by Carlo Paredes on YouTube “Evangelina Chamorro: Struggle and courage.”
Since early March, several cities in Peru have struggled with a seemingly endless wave of heavy rains, floods, landslides, road closures, and lately school closures, just days after the opening of the 2017 school year. As the damage continues to spread, more and more ordinary people — in Peru and abroad — are joining efforts online to share the victims’ stories and convey safe wishes, using the social media hashtags #FuerzaPerú (Strength to Peru) and #UnaSolaFuerza (One Single Force).
Peru owes its treacherous weather to what's known as Niño costero (Coastal Child). As of March 16, disasters this season have claimed 62 lives and affected 62,000 people. Ecuador is reportedly suffering, as well.
A news stand on Saturday, March 18. Almost every headline is about the rains. Photo by the author, published with permission.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has been using his Twitter account to deliver messages to the Peruvian people, sharing his actions during the disaster and some general recommendations:
He dispuesto entregar S/ 4,400 millones a los gobiernos locales, regionales y nacional para iniciar la reconstrucción de zonas en emergencia pic.twitter.com/HcCen2oWVW
— PedroPablo Kuczynski (@ppkamigo) 17 de marzo de 2017
I've arranged to deliver S/ 4,400 millones [about USD 1.3 billion] to the local, regional, and national government to start the reconstruction of affected areas.
Estamos organizados y listos para atender la emergencia. Mantengamos la calma y obedezcamos a las autoridades. #FuerzaPeru
— PedroPablo Kuczynski (@ppkamigo) 16 de marzo de 2017
We are organized and prepared to face the emergency. Let's keep calm and do as authorities tell us.
Esta emergencia pasará, pero tenemos que ser prudentes. No tomemos riesgos innecesarios como cruzar vías inundadas o puentes debilitados.
— PedroPablo Kuczynski (@ppkamigo) 16 de marzo de 2017
This emergency will end, but we have to be cautious. Don't take unnecessary risks, such as going through flooded roads or over damaged bridges.
Several groups are collecting donations for the worst-hit areas, where locals have made runs on stores, amid rumors and worries about supplies running out. Last week, there were reports of long lines at supermarkets to buy water, following service interruptions.
Limeños llegan a centro comercial Megaplaza para entregar donativos https://t.co/TRUZiHNesn pic.twitter.com/kUh8PxVTAC
— Agencia Andina (@Agencia_Andina) 18 de marzo de 2017
Limeans go the Megaplaza shopping center to hand out donations.
Colas para llenar baldes con agua. Así igual por toda la ciudad. Av. Parinacochas, La Victoria – Lima @canalN_ @Agencia_Andina @PeruNews pic.twitter.com/o7ZQdEc8kr
— Jorge Campos (@jcampos148) 18 de marzo de 2017
Lines to fill up buckets with water. It's like this all along the city. Parinacochas Ave, La Victoria – Lima.
agua embotellada agotada supermercados colas interminables, prevenir SI – No caigamos en pánico Abastecimiento de alimentos está garantizado pic.twitter.com/pzzlt4DCb1
— Carlos Marill (@cmarilld) 17 de marzo de 2017
Bottled water sold out, endless lines at supermarkets. Preventing YES – Let's not go into panic. Food supply is guaranteed.
For the past week, a woman named Evangelina Chamorro has dominated the news, after literally emerging from the mud following a huayco (mudslide) in the Limean district of Punta Hermosa, where she lives with her family.
Evangelina Chamorro, de 32 años, se salva de morir en huayco de Punta Hermosa y se convierte en símbolo de tragedia en Perú. pic.twitter.com/wv22EJuE5c
— Pao Ugaz (@larryportera) 16 de marzo de 2017
32-year-old Evangelina Chamorro escapes from death after a huayco hit Punta Hermosa and she becomes the symbol of the tragedy in Peru.
Evangelina is currently recuperating in a hospital, amazingly having avoided any life-threatening injuries in the mudslide.
¡Horror!
Esta es la portada de nuestra edición de hoy jueves 16 de marzo de 2017 https://t.co/Xba15WDo2W pic.twitter.com/J8vKppXyeX
— Diario Perú21 (@peru21noticias) 16 de marzo de 2017
The Horror!
This is the front page of today's edition, Thursday, March 16, 2017.
The survival story also inspired a new image by Colombian artist Humberto Álvarez, better known as Alter Eddie, the author of website Se lo explico con plastilina (I'll Explain It With Clay Dough).
#FuerzaPeru #Evangelina #LimaenEmergencia Evangelina Chamorro, todo un ejemplo de lucha y coraje pic.twitter.com/TrANbEmx4n
— alter eddie (@altereddie) 17 de marzo de 2017
Strength to Peru. Evangelina. Lima in emergency. Evangelina Chamorro, what an example of struggle and courage.
As the country faces these terrible challenges this month, a popular phrase, coined by historian Jorge Basadre, has become the national mantra: “Peru is bigger than its problems.”

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
India Fights to Bring ‘My Freedom Day’ to Its 12 Million Slaves · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Image from Flickr by Steven Depolo. CC BY 2.0.
Students around the world recognized #MyFreedomDay last week, organizing events to spread awareness about modern-day slavery. On social media, activists explained what freedom means to them. In India, many students joined the movement by asking how far their country has actually come to eradicating slavery.
Shame on us – we always turn around our head #India #Hyderabad #myfreedomday #savechild https://t.co/vxqilm5EiW
— Anahata (@Anahata___) February 21, 2017
The Global Slavery Index 2016 defines slavery as situations where one person takes away another person’s freedom to control their body, their freedom to choose, to refuse certain work, or to stop working. This includes indentured labor, forced begging, domestic services, and commercial sex work.
#MyFreedomDay What is freedom to the Child Labor Coalition? A world free from child labor, child slavery, and child trafficking pic.twitter.com/9GkbM1dwl1
— ChildLaborCoalition (@ChildLaborCLC) March 1, 2017
Even in the 21st century, slavery remains a serious concern. The Global Slavery Index 2016, issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, estimates that India's slave population grew 4.1 million people between 2014 and 2016 — bringing the country's total slave population to about 12 million people. The researchers also found that more than half of the people living in India today are vulnerable to being forced into slavery.
According to the website Scroll.in, more than 300,000 people in India have been identified as indentured workers and 4.2 million people qualify as domestic workers. Eight percent of all boys and 14 percent of all girls are beggars, says Scroll.in's report, and 3 million women work in the sex trade, 1.2 million of whom are minors. Additionally, half of the Indian women forced into marriages are then made to work as unpaid laborers.
Tina, a 14-year old girl from Darjeeling, went missing one night. Working with local officials, “MARG” (Mankind in Action for Rural Growth) was able to rescue Tina, who was found in Delhi where she was brought under the false promise of a job in a big city. She was rescued before her captors could sell her off. But many aren't so lucky.
Many women are lured to big cities under the false pretense of a job and a better lifestyle.
According to the project “Women Under Siege,” there are whole criminal networks, composed of different agencies, working to identify potential victims living in poor households. The project reports that most of these agencies typically operate in villages in eastern India.
A child bride in #India the pain,the captivity and the hope when she is finally free. @CNNFreedom #myfreedomday https://t.co/v5iiQAMyb4 #CNN
— EDOF (@EDOForg) February 15, 2017
‘Sold like cows and goats': India's slave brides #girl #slavery #india #voilenceagainstwomen @AJEnglish https://t.co/1334l7roeZ
— Najiba Feroz (@NajibaFeroz) November 18, 2016
In December 2013, a 15-year-old girl was admitted to New Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital with her head and face bandaged, multiple bruises, a black-eye, swollen lips, burns, and scabs all over her body. This girl had been sold as domestic help and was beaten by her employer every day. Sadly, this is a typical case.
Indian girls are sometimes forced to work 14-16 hours a day, doing household chores, ranging from cooking and cleaning to childcare. They're paid next to nothing, and often their wages go directly to the “employment agencies.” Most of these women are trapped in this vicious cycle for life.
Slavery isn’t limited to domestic laborers and sex trafficking: many are stuck in indentured work. People borrow money to pay for basic necessities (farming, weddings, and so on), entering into contracts that exploit their illiteracy and desperation.
India banned slavery in 1976 when it enacted the Bonded Labour Prohibition Act, but the practice remains widespread. Today, the government is debating about a fixed wage for contract laborers.
Other state initiatives include the campaign “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” (Save Your Daughter, Educate Her), which seems to have worked in crucial states like Haryana, where the women-to-men sex ratio has reportedly shifted.
The sex ratio at birth has increased to 938, from the earlier 850. Our Govt. will achieve the sex ratio target of 950 by this year.
— Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) March 15, 2017
Courtesy PM @narendramodi‘s ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ Yojana & its excellent implementation by @mlkhattar ji.
This is what #KaamBoltaHai :) https://t.co/kDFCFof1ZV
— Pradeep Mamgain (@PcMNavy) March 16, 2017
Another campaign called “Selfie with Daughter” launched in Bibipur, a small village in Haryana. The initiative especially gained momentum after the prime minister promoted it:
Love the #SelfieWithDaughter campaign. My selfie with my daughter Yashasvini @narendramodi. #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao pic.twitter.com/gbbaBlsuj2
— Naveen Jindal (@MPNaveenJindal) June 29, 2015
The campaign also drew attention around the world:
Hello new friends from #India! Heading to give a #baking class on biscuit making with my girl. #selfiewithdaughter pic.twitter.com/PSvsJ1YVSj
— Cristen》Food & Swine (@FoodSwineIowa) June 28, 2015
There are several organizations working to end slavery today. Maiti in India and Nepal, Marg NGO, Free the Slaves, and Women Under Siege are just some of the programs and NGOs on this list.
At the local community level, people are taking steps to prevent dangerous vulnerabilities. For instance, there's a growing trend of group weddings, which saves money and reduces the need for loans that can ensnare individuals in debt.
This year, roughly 12 million slaves in India couldn't celebrate My Freedom Day. By 2030, that number could rise to 18 million people, if more isn't done to end the cycles of poverty and sexism that doom India's most vulnerable to lives of servitude.

author: Devika Sakhadeo