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When will Egypt release photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid aka Shawkan? · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Photo shared by the Freedom for Shawkan campaign on Facebook
In early September, when a Cairo Criminal Court handed a five-year jail sentence to photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, his supporters were relieved.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known online as Shawkan, was unlawfully detained and tried for photographing the 2013 bloody dispersal of the Rabaa El Adaweya sit-in, during which Egyptian security forces killed at least 817 people and injured many more. Shawkan was working for Demotix at the time.
As the 31-year-old freelancer had already spent five years in jail awaiting trial, there was hope that he would not be made to serve additional time. Yet today, more than one month after the Cairo court verdict, Shawkan remains in jail.
Shawkan was tried along with 739 other defendants in what is known as the “Rabaa Dispersal Case”. He was arrested on August 14, 2013 as he was covering the sit-in, in which supporters of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi gathered to protest a military coup that ended his presidency on July 3 that same year. Shawkan spent almost four years in pre-trial detention, in violation of Egyptian law which sets the maximum limit to two years.
On September 8, 2018, he was convicted on spurious charges of murder and affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, now designated as a terrorist group by the Egyptian government.
During the same trial, 75 prominent members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death, and 47 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison.
Despite hopes that he was going to be freed soon, Shawkan's ordeal is yet to come to an end, and there has been no public explanation as to why Shawkan remains in jail to this date. His supporters continue to demand his release.
#Egypt ??: More than a month after an unfair verdict sentenced him to 5 years of prison already served, photojournalist ?@ShawkanZeid remains behind bars. He must be released immediately! #Freeshawkan #PressFreedom pic.twitter.com/zFDgSmps4s
— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) October 11, 2018
In a statement released on October 11, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), called on Egyptian authorities to free Shawkan and denounced the trial's irregularities:
The first blow came when officials, officers, and soldiers had been excluded in the indictment or the formal statement of accusations, despite the hundreds of victims who fell on 14 August 2013, the day the sit-in was dispersed. The second blow is that hundreds of defendants had already exceeded the maximum period of pretrial detention by law. And finally, those who already served their full sentences are being deprived of the right to be released, in a blatant disregard of the judiciary decisions.
Shawkan's ordeal is similar to many others languishing in Egyptian prisoners. Those arrested on politically-motivated charges in Egypt are subjected to numerous violations including arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, prolonged pre-trial detention and solitary confinement.
On October 10, for the sixth year in a row, Shawkan celebrated his birthday in prison, when he turned 31. How many more birthdays will he have to celebrate behind bars?

author: Afef Abrougui


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Hong Kong Free Expression Week features Umbrella Movement activists and political cartoonist Badiucao · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

“Gongle”, by Badiucao. Used with permission.
A coalition of organizations that defend free speech — Hong Kong Free Press, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International — have joined hands to host Hong Kong's Free Expression Week, starting November 3.
The event comes shortly after Hong Kong authorities refused to renew a working visa for Financial Times editor Victor Mallet. Just two months prior to having his visa rejected, Malet had hosted a talk delivered by controversial pro-Hong Kong independent activist Andy Chan.
Hong Kongers enjoy more freedoms than their counterparts in mainland China under a principle known as “One Country, Two Systems.” This autonomy is enshrined in Hong Kong's governing doctrine, known as the Basic Law, which went into force in 1997 when the United Kingdom handed the former colony over to China.
But in recent years, Beijing has more forcefully asserted its influence over Hong Kong. Hong Kongers who support more democratic rights, such as genuine universal suffrage, or outright independence have faced fierce repression. The so-called “Umbrella Movement” protests of 2014 saw thousands of Hong Kong citizens take to the streets to demand full voting rights, only to be disbanded by authorities.
On July 1 2017, President Xi Jinping declared a “red line” barring all suggestions of independence for Hong Kong on the ceremony of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China. Since then the “red line” has been extending to suggestions of self-determination and apparently even the hosting of a talk about Hong Kong independence, as in the case of Andy Chan.
Free Expression Week will launch with the first international solo exhibition of China-born political cartoonist and artist Badiucao on November 3. Badiucao has built his reputation on Twitter, drawing political cartoons that challenge censorship and dictatorship in China. His work has been featured by The New York Times and The Guardian.
As described by the official press release of the event:
The title of his first solo is “Gongle 共歌” — a dark comic reference for Hong Kong, China and the world.
The word “Gongle” is a play on words, commenting on Google’s effort to re-enter China with a censored search engine. The word Gongle sounds like “共” in Chinese – the short term for the Communist Party – “共产党.”
Google’s Chinese name – “谷歌” – is altered to “共歌.” The character “歌” means “singing” or “song.” Thus, “共歌” literally means “communist songs” or “singing for communism”, though it can also mean “singing together” – a metaphor for free expression.
Below is a selection of Badiucao's works to be exhibited in Hong Kong:
A political cartoon about the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia. Used with permission.
Chinese democracy advocate and literary critic Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” for his involvement in Charter 08, a manifesto that called for democratic reforms in China. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his human rights work. He died of liver failure in 2017.
Joshua Wong, one of the major student activists leading the Umbrella protests in 2014. Use with permission.
Joshua Wong played a central role in the 2014 pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” protests. Wong has since been convicted of unlawful assembly and ultimately sentenced to six months behind bars. He has also been the subject of targeted surveillance.
Political satire about the censorship of Winnie the Pooh in China. Used with permission.
Chinese president Xi Jinping is often compared to Winne the Pooh because of his apparent resemblance to the tubby cartoon bear. In August, the new Winnie the Pooh movie, Christopher Robin, was banned from Chinese cinemas.
In addition to Badiucao’s exhibition, Free Expression Week also will include screenings of two documentaries, Umbrella Diaries: the First Umbrella directed by James Leong and  Last Exit to Kai Tak directed by Matthew Torne, as well as a panel discussion on the speech and press freedom environment in Hong Kong since 2014.
Below are the trailers of the two documentaries:
The Umbrella Diaries is a chronology of the 2014 pro-democracy protests with an attempt to trace its origins and explain why so many people were willing to take risk and join the massive sit-in through the eyes of the activists and ordinary Hong Kong citizens.
Last Exit to Kai Tak features five young activists on how they have faced the consequences of the Umbrella Movement. The group includes Joshua Wong, popular singer and democracy icon Denise Ho, pan-democratic political party member Wong Yeung Tat, organizer Ed Lau and activist Derek Lam.
Both films shed light on a generation of Umbrella Movement activists who have been advocating for the rights of Hong Kong people to determine their future. While some of the activists have left the democratic movement, some continue to work in grassroots organizations and participate in elections and have become targets for political repression.
In 2016, six newly elected law makers, majority of them are Umbrella activists who advocate for either Hong Kong independence or self-determination, were disqualified for expressing their political stand during the oath-taking ceremonies.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Macedonian propagandist calls for rape of female journalist, sparking outrage · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

“We deserve better” a 2015 protest in front of the government of Republic of Macedonia. Photo by Vancho Dzambaski via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Macedonia's state-owned news agency (MIA) suspended media worker and notorious propagandist Cvetin Chilimanov on October 3 after he called for the rape of foreign journalist Valerie Hopkins on Twitter.
Chilimanov is a dogged promoter of Macedonia's former ruling party, the VMRO-DPMNE, which ran Macedonia from 1998 to 2002 and from 2006 to 2017. He was a political advisor to pro-Kremlin president Gjorge Ivanov during his first term starting in 2008. In 2017 he participated in the campaign for “de-Sorosization”, which targeted NGOs funded by the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros.
The incident began when Hopkins, a correspondent for Financial Times Balkans, visited Macedonia to report on the recent referendum, in which Macedonians voted on whether the country should join NATO and the EU.
On Twitter, Hopkins summarized a frank conversation she had with a taxi driver who was against joining these intergovernmental bodies and expressed various frustrations about Macedonia's relationships with other countries in the region:
Skopje taxi boycotter: Bulgaria thinks our language doesn’t exist, Serbia refuses to recognize our Church, Greeks block our name, and we have probs w Albanians. We don’t have a problem, everybody else does. But why should we join a military alliance? I like EU but we got 0 chance
— Valerie Hopkins (@VALERIEin140) October 1, 2018
Many Macedonians re-tweeted Hopkins’ tweet, as it highlighted the inconsistencies of the “I Boycott” campaign, a proxy project of the formerly ruling VMRO-DPMNE party, which still holds seats in the current parliament.
Chilimanov responded to Hopkins’ tweet with the following veiled threat:
To all taxi drivers that follow me: If this one enters your car, it's Chichko Kumplung time!
Chilimanov was referring to the 1996 film Suicide Guide (originally named Self-destruction), in which a taxi driver called Chichko Kumpling (Uncle Clutch) takes a young woman to a remote spot and rapes her. The film was a box office flop, and is chiefly remembered for that graphic scene of forced sex [NSFW].
Jovica Mihajlovski, the actor who played Chichko Kumplug in the film, was one of the first to react to the abuse in a Facebook post:
Овој Цветин, што го бербати ликот и делото на чичко Кумплунг, да го потсетам дека Кумплунг заврши во инвалидска количка, токму заради сторените дела на кои сега повикува ангажираниот Чилиманов. Го охрабрувам, тој и сите што го делат неговиот став, до крај да ја споделат судбината на ликот Кумплунг и да завршат на ист начин. За потсетување, таксистот Кумплунг е главен лик од играниот филм САМОУНИШТУВАЊЕ. Веројатно насловот му послужил како инспирација, во исполнување на неговата света мисија. Со среќа, чичин!
I would like to remind this Cvetin person, who soils the character of Chichko Kumplung, that in the movie he ended up in a wheelchair precisely as punishment for the crimes that Chilimanov now advocates. I encourage him and all his adherents to share the fate of the Kumplung character and end in the same way. Another reminder, the taxi driver Kumplung is the main character of the film SELF-DESTRUCTION. Possibly he was inspired by the title, to fulfill his holy mission. Good luck from the Uncle!
Official voices also were quick to respond to Chilimanov's tweet. OSCE High Representative for Freedom of Media Harlem Desire called it “shameful and unacceptable“:
Tweet threatening journalist Valerie Hopkins @VALERIEin140 by @Cvetin is shameful and unacceptable. All threats against journalists, especially gender-based incitements to violence against female journalists are irresponsible. @Cvetin must remove his tweet immediately. #SOFJO
— OSCE media freedom (@OSCE_RFoM) October 2, 2018
Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov publicly apologized on behalf of Macedonia and its men. The Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Council of Media Ethics in Macedonia condemned the call to rape as a form of violence and also a breach of professional standards.
Responding to tweets by representatives of the international community, Chilimanov claimed he was only joking. At first he refused to remove the tweet, but several days later it was no longer available.
When MIA announced that they would suspend Chilimanov, many Macedonians applauded the move, seeing it as a sign of a new era, in which state workers are held accountable for their actions.
The self-proclaimed journalist who called for sexually assaulting @VALERIEin140 has been suspended from the Macedonian Informational Agency, where he works. https://t.co/RB6WplYFHK
— Ivana Jordanovska (@JordanIva) October 3, 2018
Others recalled how when VMRO-DPMNE was in power, its supporters and henchmen — including Chilimanov — would call for violence against critics without any consequences:
Се сеќавате на црните листи на твитерџии чиј идентитет требаше да биде разоткриен и да бидат малтретирани? Орото го водеше фашистот #Цветин. Твитерџиите се ситни риби. Сега премина на повици за силување на колешка новинарка. Овојпат згази во жив песок. Ќе биде забавно.
— Биби (@The_BB_) October 2, 2018
Remember the black lists of Twitter users whose identity was supposed to be revealed so they can be harassed? Fascist Cvetin was a leader of that initiative. Now Twitter users are small potatoes, so he's moved to calling for the rape of a journalist colleague. But this time he stepped in quicksand. It will be fun to watch.
Indeed, this is not the first time Chilimanov has used social media to ‘joke’ about committing politically-motivated acts of violence against a journalist. In spring 2018, he wrote a Facebook post implying that it's OK to run over by a car the journalist and activist Petrit Saracini. In his comment Chilimanov wrote: “I hit the brakes when Petrit was crossing the street. My bad.”
Mr Chilimanov has served as one of the top propagandists of the VMRO-DPMNE since 2008. After his stint in the cabinet of the president, he was posted as the Macedonian Information Agency (MIA) correspondent in Washington, DC for several years.
After returning to Macedonia he became an editor at MIA, and was made the vice-president of the Macedonian Association of Journalists, a government-organized NGO sponsored by the VMRO-DPMNE government in order to further its political interests by mimicking the genuine Association of Journalists of Macedonia.
In 2016 he was engaged in smear campaign against civil society groups that have spoken critically about the party, in particular through the Stop Operation Soros group which tried to foment discord between the administration of Donald Trump, the US State Department and the USAID through unregistered lobbying in the US.
After VMRO-DPMNE was voted out of power in 2017, Chilimanov retained his position in the MIA. Unlike when VMRO-DPMNE came to power, there were no purges based on political affiliations among the employees in state administration and government-owned companies.
MIA has not announced whether the suspension will lead to Chilimanov's firing. His case will be handled by an internal committee and the agency's director.
Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations, which are part of the Soros network.

author: Marko Angelov


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Nationwide far-right protests in Japan met with vigorous anti-racism opposition · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Police monitor anti-immigrant marchers and counter-demonstrators near Tokyo Station on October 14, 2018. Screencap from Youtube video by Hootoo Hiroshi (ほうとうひろし).
Anti-racism groups staged mass demonstrations in cities across Japan on Sunday, October 14 to counteract a series of marches by an openly racist far-right group opposed to immigration in Japan, even as Japan's government pledges to recruit 500,000 foreign workers to help deal with a perceived labor shortage.
Relatively new fringe political party Japan First organized the demonstrations all across Japan on October 14, including in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki, and in regional cities such as Fukushima and Fukuoka.
Anti-racism groups, in turn, decided to take to the streets too to neutralize them, in many cases appearing to outnumber the far-right marchers.
東京・銀座周辺で、「日本第一党」による差別デモが行われています。「外国人は日本から出ていけ」などとくりかえすデモに対し、多くの人びとが「銀座は差別を許さない」などが書かれた横断幕やプラカードを掲げて抗議しています。#1014銀座ヘイトデモを許すな pic.twitter.com/V1i1Bj6ZOi
— MaedaTomoya (@Mae_To_Ushiro) October 14, 2018
In and around Ginza in Tokyo, Japan First held a demonstration promoting discrimination. As they chanted “Foreigners get out of Japan!” and so on, there were a lot of people who held placards and signs with the words “Ginza will not tolerate discrimination” and similar messages. (Hashtag) “Zero Tolerance for October 14 Ginza Hate March.”
Japan First Party (日本第一党, Nippon Daiichi To) is a political party based in Tokyo and led by Makoto Sakurai, who has long been notorious as a leader of the netto-uyoku (ネット右翼), Japan's online far-right hate movement.
For more than a decade, Sakurai has also led the Zaitokukai, a hate group dedicated to harassing ethnic Koreans and other minorities in Japan. Online and real-world harassment against minorities is so prevalent in some Japanese municipalities that various local governments have attempted to set up and enforce hate speech ordinances.
After Sakurai received two percent of the popular vote in Tokyo's gubernatorial election in 2016, as well as considerable mainstream media coverage, he officially established the Japan First Party, the main force behind the racist marches this Sunday.
Twitter user Hiroshi Hotoo, who documented the Sunday events in Tokyo in a series of YouTube videos, noted police far outnumbered the anti-immigrant demonstrators:
Anti-immigrant demonstrators march through Ginza.
About 100 participants in the demonstration.
But the police officers were about 1000, they guard them.#1014銀座ヘイトデモを許すな#NoPasaran1014#Ginza #Nationalist pic.twitter.com/3Wvab3lgwO
— ほうとうひろし (@HiroshiHootoo) October 15, 2018
In the lead up to the racist marches on Sunday, October 14, counter-demonstrators shared common hashtags, differentiated by city name, to arrange meetup points and coordinate activities. One of the most active such hashtags was “#1014横浜ヘイト街宣を許すな“, or “Zero Tolerance for October 14 Yokohama Hate March.”
Counter-demonstrators converged in Tsurumi, a city ward in Yokohama, to show their support of immigrants, and to shout down the far-right marchers, who, like in Tokyo and other cities, were relatively few in number.
The demonstrations received national news coverage, with reports that the anti-immigration marchers received a strong and vocal response from anti-racism campaigners in cities across Japan.
An anti-immigration rally in Kumamoto could only round up seven guys. Very happy to see a larger counter protest. #lifeinjapan #antiracist #japan #humanrights pic.twitter.com/Gm0pxRYbVD
— Gaijin Gaiden (@GaijinGaiden) October 14, 2018
While the number of anti-immigrant protesters may have seemed small, they still were held in tight coordination across the country, and some commentators warned Japan's far-right is not particularly weak.
Shingetsu News Agency's Michael Penn remarked:
…The Tokyo gubernatorial election results show that Sakurai isn't as marginal as you think. These counterprotest movement have succeeded in motivating authorities in many cities to pass hate speech ordinances and the police to monitor the hate groups.

author: Nevin Thompson


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For Calypso History Month in Trinidad and Tobago, six tunes for the #metoo era · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screengrab from the YouTube video “Leave Me Alone” by Calypso Rose and Machel Montano, in which the female protagonist defies her partner's wishes and takes part in the Carnival festivities. The song became a rallying cry for activists campaigning against gender-based violence in 2017.
October 2018 is Calypso History Month, a tradition started by the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (TUCO) in 2002 as a way to celebrate the role calypso has played in the social and political development of Trinidad and Tobago.
To mark the occasion, the Global Voices Caribbean team will be highlighting some of the outstanding contributions to the calypso pantheon from over the years. First up? Calypsoes whose lyrics empower women.
In a genre that has often painted women in a negative light, either likening them to she-devils or playthings, such calypsoes were once rare. According to writer and historian Kim Johnson, much of traditional calypso “posited a war between men and women and took men's side”. Which is why tunes that have broken that mould are etched forever in the national consciousness.
Here are our picks (in no particular order):
The late Aldwyn Roberts, better known as Lord Kitchener (the Grandmaster of Calypso), sang this ditty about a foreign woman visiting Trinidad at Carnival time. She asks his advice on how best to take part in the festivities, and he tells her:
Come in town J'ouvert morning, find yourself in a band
Watch de way how de natives movin’, hug up tight with a man
Sing along with de tunes dey playin’, and now and again you shouting, ‘Play mas’, bacchanal!’
Miss Tourist…dat is Carnival!
With that memorable refrain, Kitch deems Carnival a level playing field not just for locals and visitors alike, but also for men and women. Everyone is encouraged to have fun and “play themselves” in the spirit of Carnival.
With its lively, danceable '60s calypso beat, it's no wonder the song won the Carnival Road March title that year, but its message endures: Carnival is for everybody, and women can — and should — stake their claim in the bacchanal.
It's a thing of beauty when art imitates life. In this calypso by Irwin Reyes Johnson, who goes by the stage name of Scrunter, we learn about a real-life pioneer: Annie Lopez, the first ever female bass player for the legendary steel orchestra “Desperadoes”, who was brazen enough to want to play pan — then a rough and tumble, male-dominated endeavour.
Lopez paved the way for women to find their niche and hold their own as steel pan musicians, and Scrunter's calypso catapulted her story into the national consciousness. Now, thanks to Scrunter's unforgettably groovy bass line and Lopez's bold determination, it's quite commonplace to see a “woman on de bass” — or any pan, for that matter.
The repertoire of Sandra De Vignes (aka Singing Sandra), is reputed for its social commentary. Her tunes do not shy away from tough topics like race or economic inequity, and they are always delivered from a strong feminist perspective. In this calypso, she was way ahead of the #MeToo movement when she addressed the issue of sexual harassment:
You want to help to mind your family, you want to help your man financially
But nowadays it really very hard to get a job as a girl in Trinidad
You looking out to find something to do, you meet a boss man who promise to help you
But when the man let down the condition, nothing else but humiliation […]
Well if is all this humiliation to get a job these days as a woman
Brother they could keep their money, I go keep my honey, and die with my dignity!
The song, which boasts a melodiousness that belies the gravity of its lyrical message, invites women (and progressive men) to sing along, and more importantly, live by those words.
Denyse Plummer is a performer who paid her dues trying to forge a path in the calypso arena — not only as a woman, but a woman perceived as white in the Trinidadian context. Her perseverance eventually paid off. Thanks in part to a successful partnership with revered pannist Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, who often enlisted her to perform his compositions, Plummer enjoyed a prolific career, which included several Calypso Queen competition titles.
This song could well be interpreted as her rebuff to all the criticism she faced, and a rallying call for Caribbean women who routinely felt undervalued, in the calypso music genre and beyond:
Since de beginning of time we standing in line, taking we grind, following behind
Now we woman have changed we course, without remorse woman is boss.
What exactly is a flag woman? She's the compelling creature that acts as the “front woman” for steel orchestras during Trindad and Tobago's annual Panorama music competition by waving a flag.
The flag, mind you, is not some flimsy piece of fabric, and the waving is not the typical side-to-side motion you'd expect. This is a flag with a message: it usually bears the name of the band on stage, and may even include the title of the song they're performing. The waving? Well, it's really more like gymnastics. While the players mesmerise the audience with their musical skill, the flag woman captivates them with her movement. She is part cheerleader, part dancer, all woman, shimmying sensually to the rhythm.
What made Kitchener the genius that he was is that rather than objectifying women — like the lion's share of calypsoes tend to do — he acquiesces to their sexuality, acknowledges and openly admires their power. The dualities of virgin and whore disappear; if there were an anthem for women feeling in control of their sexuality, Kitch's “Flag Woman” is it:
Wave it baby, get dem moving, yes honey, do your duty
Wave it sexy, send dem crazy, woman, woman…move yuh hand!
This “kaiso” collaboration (a blend of traditional calypso and its energetic soca hybrid) between grand dame Calypso Rose and soca king Machel Montano is a nod to the best of calypso's legacy even as it calls the modern-day woman to arms.
When the song was first released in 2017, Calypso Rose allowed it to be used in a campaign to bring awareness to the issue of gender-based violence in Trinidad and Tobago, many instances of which would happen around Carnival time. Through the #leavemealone and #leaveshealone hashtags, women shared their stories and encouraged to hold themselves and their peers accountable. That's the power of empowering calypso.
For a playlist of feminist Calypso music from the Caribbean, see Global Voices Spotify profile.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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How much blood will the right to vote cost Afghans? · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

An Afghan boy helps unload ballot materials from an Mi-17 helicopter in Jaghuri, Afghanistan, Sept. 16, 2010. Public domain. Photo taken by Staff Sgt. Joseph Swafford.
When millions of Afghanistan's citizens voted in presidential and provincial council elections in 2014, some of them selfied with inked middle fingers to send a message to the Taliban.
Four years on, they are going to the polls again for a parliamentary vote, with the security environment even more treacherous than it was back then.
Around 2,500 candidates are standing for an October 20 parliamentary vote that was legally supposed to be in held in 2015.
More than 2,500 Afghans are braving serious security risks to run for parliament. Seven candidates have already been killed.
https://t.co/sGuXS8UFko
— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) October 2, 2018
Among those that did not make it as far as the vote was Saleh Mohammad Asikzai, a parliamentary candidate from the southern Helmand Province of Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold. He was killed along with eight other citizens in a suicide attack on October 9 that was claimed by the Afghanistan-bases affiliate of ISIS.
Another was Abdul Jabar Qahraman, from the same province, who was killed when a so-called “sofa bomb” went off in his office on October 17. That attack was claimed by the Taliban.
Nazefa Yousufi Beg, a female candidate in the northeastern Takhar province was luckier. A motorcycle laden with explosives detonated at her campaign rally on October 13 killing at least 22 people, but she had yet to take the stage.
Abdel Naser Momand, a candidate from Nangarhar Province, survived a blast that killed 13 and injured more than 30 on October 2.
The Taliban and ISIS have both vowed to block Afghanistan’s parliamentary polls. This means that some 5,000 polling stations protected by 50,000 security personnel could be targeted at the weekend.
The bid to prevent the vote from happening began early. Dozens of citizens registering to vote were killed in April 22 when a suicide bomber blew up a voter registration center in Kabul in an attack ISIS claimed.
A shocking #Photo from Kabul suicide attack scene, they were there to get ID cards and later register as voter for coming Parliamentary Election of #Afghanistan
Photo by @ZahraJoya pic.twitter.com/55dnyPD1LB
— Khalil Noori (@KhalilNoori) April 22, 2018
The IEC [Afghanistan Independent Election Commission] says that as many as seven million people have registered themselves to vote, but some are contesting this figure, shedding doubt on the legitimacy of the election's outcome before it even gets underway.
Rock the vote: Despite recent Taliban attacks, voters prepare for the elections in Afghanistanhttp://t.co/ghOEUIejyO pic.twitter.com/BsCCmYPJAT
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) April 4, 2014
Elections in #Afghanistan. Best. pic.twitter.com/UfcwKXPHwf
— Shiraz Hassan (@ShirazHassan) March 31, 2014
The Grand National Coalition of Afghanistan, a newly formed opposition political coalition, has accused the government and the IEC of fraud, saying that real numbers are much lower. The coalition expects the government to ensure its candidates triumph in the contest that sees 250 seats up for grabs. That may not appeal to voters fed up of a weak and highly nepotistic parliament.
The last parliament was a disaster. Parliamentarians not only abused their mandate but were culprits in creating an atmosphere of mistrust, undermining national interests & fanning ethnic hatred. Let's change that by electing those who will answer to ppl. https://t.co/CMdZdxhxJU
— The Afghan Spectator (@TheAFGSpectator) October 17, 2018
Opposition political parties active in the GNCA have cited hundreds of fake voter identities as proof the government intends to rig the election. Representatives handed the fake ID cards over to the media.
Protesters connected to the GNCA staged demonstrations and shut down provincial offices of the IEC in many provinces in a call for transparency last month.
One new element of this vote which should ideally safeguard against fraud will be the the usage of biometric systems in many of the polling stations.
But critics say there are ways to use the voting machines and still cheat, while even a top member of a government electoral reform commission admits that using them is a risk.
“No doubt, the use of the devices can bring transparency to elections but there is also no doubt that the use of the devices can create another crisis,” Sediqullah Tawhidi, Deputy Chairman of the Special Electoral Reform Commission told TOLO News.
Candidates for parliament using different ways to get across their message in #Herat. #Elections in #Afghanistan are ten days away. pic.twitter.com/hpwdyUD5uZ
— Toby Lanzer (@tobylanzer) October 10, 2018

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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Six red carnations and one severed ram’s head: Deadly threats sent to Russian independent newspaper · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

First, they left a funeral wreath. Then, they left a severed ram's head and a bundle of red carnations.
A severed ram's head on the doorstep of Novaya Gazeta newspaper in Moscow. The note reads “With best regards to Novaya Gazeta's editor in chief and [Denis] Korotkov.” Photo by Anna Artemyeva/Novaya Gazeta, used with permission.
These grisly deliveries appeared at the doorstep of Novaya Gazeta, an independent media outlet based in Moscow, in a clear attempt to threaten — and silence — investigative reporters at the newspaper.
On October 17, staff found a funeral wreath and a written warning to one of its reporters, Denis Korotkov. A message attached to the wreath called Korotkov “a traitor to his motherland.” Later that day, a courier personally delivered to Korotkov another bouquet of four carnations with a mourning ribbon and a message: “We won’t forget you.”
The next day, a severed ram’s head in a basket with six red carnations appeared at Novaya Gazeta's doorstep. These flowers are traditionally laid on a fresh grave in even numbers in Russia and some ex-Soviet countries. The basket also contained an ominous message to Korotkov and Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief, wishing them “best regards”.
There is no surefire evidence of who is behind these deliveries, but a series of eerily similar messages have been directed at Korotkov from media outfits associated with the Kremlin and with Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Vladimir Putin. Progizhin was one of the 13 Russians indicted by Robert Mueller in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections.
In a published response to the threats, Novaya Gazeta wrote:
15 октября в ряде СМИ, в том числе на сайте РИА ФАН, которое связывают с Пригожиным, появились статьи о журналисте, в которых он называется «предателем», «изменником родины» и «пособником террористов», а в соцсетях появилось много однотипных сообщений о Короткове, оставленных пользователями, страницы которых напоминают аккаунты ботов.
On October 15 several articles appeared on websites, including RIA FAN, which are connected to Prigozhin. In these articles Korotkov is labeled a “traitor”, a “betrayer of the motherland” and “accomplice to the terrorists,” while social media are awash with identical messages denouncing Korotkov. These users’ profiles are similar to those of bots.
Prior to joining Novaya Gazeta, Korotkov worked for Fontanka, an independent news website in St. Petersburg where he broke multiple stories about a secretive private military company dubbed the “Wagner Group” that has bolstered Russian military involvement in the Syrian civil war. Fontanka and other media have published evidence that Prigozhin is the chief sponsor of the Wagner Group.
In 2017, after Korotkov wrote a piece detailing Wagner’s losses in Syria, he began getting threats from various sources that ultimately forced him to leave his home. Russian police have thus far failed to investigate the threats.
In Russia, Prigozhin is infamous for allegedly sponsoring the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency which had been exposed by Russian journalists for running influence operations on Russian social media long before it made the international headlines for its involvement in the 2016 US elections. In 2017 it attempted to rebrand itself as a legitimate media empire which includes several news websites with government-issued broadcasting licenses.
After the ram's head appeared on their doorstep, Novaya Gazeta’s staff tweeted an appeal to Russian interior ministry and attorney general’s office, demanding that they investigate the threats:
«Доброжелатели» второй день подряд посылают угрозы в адрес журналистов @novaya_gazeta https://t.co/GaBqxT8s14@mvd_official, @Genproc, мы требуем расследовать факты угроз и наказать виновных pic.twitter.com/nMN0eJ6KcO
— Новая Газета (@novaya_gazeta) 18 октября 2018 г.
“Well-wishers” have been sending threats to @novaya_gazeta’s reporters for two days in a row. @mvd_official, @genproc, we demand to investigate these threats and prosecute the perpetrators.
Later, Novaya Gazeta published a statement on its website, saying that they were “sorry for the animal’s fate” and warning against the “atmosphere of hate”:
Клевета в наши времена — опасное оружие. Клевета и фейки приводят к войнам, убийствам и нападениям на общественных деятелей и журналистов.
Люди, которые развязали в соцсетях кампанию против «Новой газеты» и ее журналистов, прекрасно понимают, к чему приводят все эти буквы в атмосфере истерики и ненависти, которая достигла в России запредельных высот.
Slander is a dangerous weapon in our times. Libel and false accusations lead to wars, assassinations and attacks on civic activists and journalists.
The people who are waging this campaign on social media against Novaya Gazeta and its reporters are well aware of the impact their letters are having in the atmosphere of hysteria and hate, which has been running amok in Russia.
Novaya’s statement also refuted the allegations of endangering the lives of Russian servicemen, saying that they have never published anything to that effect, in the newspaper or on the website.
Novaya Gazeta made international headlines when reporter Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in 2006. Founded in 1993, the newspaper has had more reporters assassinated on the job than any other media outlet in Russia.

author: RuNet Echo


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Serbian authorities clamp down on a health charity after it exposed state negligence · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Philanthropist Sergej Trifunović on the front page of Vreme weekly from Sept. 20, 2018, featuring an interview anticipating state harassment. Headline says: “Why do we have to do their job”. Photo by GV, CC-BY.
Serbia's law enforcement authorities are investigating a health charity whose owner is openly critical of the ruling government in what some citizens say is driven by retaliation.
The probe has come on the heels of a highly-mediatized case in which the foundation, called Podrži život (“Support Life”),  helped a 4-year-old boy, Dušan Todorović, to receive cancer treatment in Spain.
The foundation's work consists of collecting donations from citizens via SMS in order to help children who need expensive medical operations that are not offered by the Serbian's public health system. In September, it helped gather 191,000 euros (approximately 225,000 USD) to pay for a boy's treatment.
After the astounding amount drew attention from the public and the media, the government sent its state-owned helicopter to the boy's small town Svilajnac to transport him to Belgrade, and then its official aeroplane to fly him to Barcelona.
Many Serbians have regarded the move as a hypocritical publicity stunt and claimed that it was used to present the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucić as a saviour of the child. The boy ended up passing away in Barcelona two weeks later.
Shortly after the boy had been transferred to Spain, the Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar — whose ties with the Serbian mafia was recently examined by a local investigative media outlet — went on television to warn citizens against SMS-based donations. He said: “Beware of SMS actions, we can expect to reveal some filth in there”.
His declaration immediately raised concerns that the charity would be targeted. Indeed, on October 11, the founder of Support Life, Sergej Trifunović, who is also a famous actor in Serbia, tweeted that the foundation had been visited by the police.
Došla nam je kriminalistička policija, odsek za organizovani kriminal! Fini ljudi, šta će, rade svoj posao….
— Serge Truffaut (@WhistlerDick) October 11, 2018
We have a visit by the criminal police, the department for organized crime! Nice people, they personally have no say in it, they have to do their jobs…
While he had anticipated the inspection in an interview on September 20th — when he said he was confident the foundation worked in full compliance with the law — Trifunović didn't share any further details about the visit on October 11.
The methods of pressure against Serbian civil society organizations bear resemblance to those used by other populist governments in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular, neighboring Hungary and Macedonia.
Serbia is ruled by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which has a far-right background, but managed to re-brand itself as a pro-EU party and, as such, became a member of the transnational European People’s Party (EPP), an association of center-right political parties. Before they lost power in Macedonia in May 2017, SNS’s “sister party” within EPP, VMRO-DPMNE, began a crackdown against prominent local civil society organizations through a series of investigations. The action engaged the financial police, the public prosecutor’s office, the ministry of interior, the public revenue service and the anti-corruption commission.
After the change of government, Macedonian law enforcement officials confessed that they’ve received orders to find anything that could be used to incriminate the organizations. While they mostly failed to find incriminating evidence, the investigations ended up draining the organizations of time and resources.
On October 17, Trifunović tweeted that Support Life foundation in Serbia was facing a similar kind of crackdown:
Evo sad mi “izvor” javlja da su u tužilaštvu dobili nalog da kako znaju i umeju procesuiraju moj slučaj koji bi po njima trebalo da se završi pritvorom. Našli išta, ili ne našli. Ajmo pravna državo! Potrudite se! Kako znate i umete.
— Serge Truffaut (@WhistlerDick) October 17, 2018
I just heard from “a source” that the prosecutor's office got an order to find any way possible to process my case which is supposed to end with my detention. Regardless if they find or don't find anything incriminating [in the foundation]. Let's see how the rule of law works! Work harder! In any way possible.
On social media, people have expressed support for Support Life by tweeting the foundation's mobile phone number 5757, urging people to donate.
#5757 nije samo humanitarni broj.
To je i simbol otpora tiraniji. @WhistlerDick
— Žarko Jokanović (@ZarkoJokanovic) October 11, 2018
#5757 isn't just a humanitarian number.
It's also a symbol of resistance to tyranny.
Uništavanje fondacije Podrži život nije samo
osveta Sergeju za poštovanje i poverenje koje uliva,
ono je i odraz straha nevoljenog nesrećnika prema bilo kome/čemu što može da nas udruži i izvuče dobro iz nas.
— Biljana Lukić (@BiljanaLuki) October 4, 2018
Destruction of the foundation Support Life is not just a revenge against Sergej for the respect and trust he garnered, it's also result of fear of an unloved unfortunate against any form of cooperation which can unite us and bring out the good in us.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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White saviors, Liberian schools · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

More Than Me's founder, Katie Meyler, in Liberia, September 19, 2016, Wikimedia Commons, sourced from More Than Me's official Flickr page.
Last week, the US investigative journalism project ProPublica broke a story titled Unprotected about a massive sex abuse scandal at More Than Me (MTM), a non-governmental organization that primarily operates schools to support Liberia’s most vulnerable girls in West Point, Monrovia. The exposé left many wondering how such gross negligence was possible, but private schools run by NGOs like MTM are cropping up all over Africa, one altruistic idealist at a time.
Founded in 2008 by Katie Meyler, an American, and Macintosh Johnson, a Liberian, Meyler’s evangelical-style faith in the MTM mission led her to raise $8 million from international donors, celebrities and philanthropists. Since its inception, MTM has scaled up from one to 19 different schools serving over 4,000 students.
Meyler and Johnson lacked experience in education or development, but in Liberia, where 60 percent of school-age children are out of school, Meyler cast herself as a savior of sorts who could pick up where Liberia’s decimated education system left off.
In 2013, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf deemed the education system “a mess” after all 25,000 enrolled high school students failed state exams. Recovering from civil war and a devasting Ebola crisis, the Liberian government was desperate for solutions and turned to international donors and do-gooders for support.
On MTM academy’s opening day, President Sirleaf publicly endorsed Meyler, stating that what she wanted more than anything for her country was “to expand Katie Meyler’s initiative to as many communities as possible.”
With few legal restrictions, requirements or obstacles, Meyler established MTM as a reputable organization by spinning a mesmerizing tale of salvation all over social media.
By the end of 2012, however, rumors of allegations of sexual abuse against Johnson had already begun to circulate within the MTM community. But by that time, Meyler was soaring through the world of elite philanthropists as a “charity star,” winning a major $1 million award from JPMorgan Chase and recognition as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2014 for her work with Ebola response. According to ProPublica, Meyler had suspicions of Johnson’s proclivity toward young girls as early as 2011, but the pair were in an on-and-off intimate relationship, and she failed to take quick, decisive action against him. Others who suspected Johnson hesitated to come forward because they worried Meyler would choose her boyfriend over the girls, explained MTM school nurse Iris Martor.
The ProPublica investigation confirms that Johnson raped and abused nearly a third of the schoolgirls, some as young as 10 years old. MTM staff finally reported Johnson to the police in 2014, and he was taken into custody with a subsequent criminal investigation and several juried court hearings. Meyler continued to communicate with Johnson while he was in custody, but did not attend his hearings. Johnson ended up dying of AIDS before his trial resolved. ProPublica confirms that several of the girls whom Johnson raped also contracted HIV.
MTM denied any wrong-doing except hiring Johnson in the first place. MTM board members claim that MTM created a “safe environment” with full commitments to child rights and child protection. Meyler spun herself in the story as yet another victim duped by Johnson and commended the girls who came forward, vowing to fight even harder for their protection. MTM provided scholarships and housing for some of Johnson’s victims, but others transferred out and at least one returned to a harsh life on the streets.
Today, MTM continues to operate in direct partnership with the Liberian government. In 2016, the Ministry of Education launched Partnership Schools for Liberia under the Liberia Education Advancement Program, outsourcing nearly 100 schools to for-profit and non-profit NGO’s including MTM, Bridge International Academies (also under investigation for misleading practices), and Rising Academies, among others.
Teachers unions in Liberia and abroad, as well as development professionals who oppose school privatization in Africa, vocally condemned this initiative. Yet, despite mixed results in its first year, the government plans to double the number of outsourced schools by 2019, following a growing trend across the African continent. One study estimates that one in four children in Africa—66 million children—will attend privatized schools by 2021.
Of Liberia's seven inaugural partnerships, over half were founded by white non-Africans, driven by missions fueled by philanthropic altruism rather than contextualized knowledge. Race, gender and privilege played a major role in the formation of MTM and organizations like it. As a white American woman, Meyler received a lot of passes that a black Liberian probably wouldn’t, former MTM board member Chidegar “Chid” Liberty told ProPublica.
“There was an ignorance of how badly things could go if the right structures of governance weren’t in place,” says Liberty, a Liberian-American based part-time in Monrovia.
Meyler’s willful ignorance goes hand in hand with the ‘white savior complex,’ a term referring to white people driven to help non-white people and rooted in a history of colonialism and racism that perpetuates degrading stereotypes of “uncivilized” black Africa. Writer Teju Cole calls it the White Savior Industrial Complex — because there's clearly money to be made by interfering in the lives of others.
Liberty, who left the board in 2015, went on record with ProPublica to say he believes that the organization “actually played a significant role in a big institutional crime against these girls.”
“Anywhere else in the world, everybody involved would be in some way held to account,” Liberty said, suggesting that Meyler and the organization’s white privilege informed every aspect of MTM’s ethos and actions.
Liberia’s plans to scale up private-public school partnerships are unprecedented on the continent. From Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, philanthropists belonging to what ProPublica calls a “rarefied world of globe-trotting problem-solvers” circle failing governments with predatory focus. This group recognizes the expediency of investing in African education, and how easily it can be disguised as altruism.
Proponents of school privatization insist that private schools simply perform better than struggling state schools. But as the MTM debacle shows, their feverish insistence on rapid scale-up—which offers a quick return on their emotional and financial investments—can lead to human rights violations of epic proportions.
If nations like Liberia fail to see education as a universal human right granted by the state, their struggle to overhaul their education system will continue to depend on organizations like MTM to fill the void.
In an October 14 letter posted on the MTM website, Meyler announced that she will be temporarily stepping down from her role as CEO while the organization conducts its own investigation of the allegations presented in ProPublica's expose.
Undisputably, horrific crimes were committed on MTM’s school grounds with zero accountability. Meyler subjected Monrovia’s most vulnerable girls to an evangelical fantasy of “salvation” that spun terrifyingly out of control and put them in harm’s way, using all the tropes of “do-gooder” development.
But anyone who spends time in Africa knows someone like Meyler, and maybe even recognizes her idealism in their own projects. Despite vocal criticism, the 173 billion dollar voluntourism industry is on the rise on the continent, offering young idealists the freedom to live out their savior fantasies at the expense of vulnerable communities. From Instagram to TED talks, there’s a global choir ready for the next sermon.
A potent mix of privilege and incompetence often leads to major mistakes. I've made a few of my own and I know friends, colleagues, and former students have also fumbled through the complexities of development projects for which they lacked experience or knowledge. Real development takes time—there are no quick fixes.
Not every project derails as badly as MTM did, and not every white person working in Africa is reckless. Competence, of course, cuts across race, class, and gender. But Meyler's story signals an urgent wake-up call for structure, solidarity, accountability and integrity when it comes to development—if we're meant to keep working this way at all.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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Digging up the lost George Lucas Japanese 1980s TV commercials · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Caption: “Always something new.” Screencap from YouTube, Twitter user Retoro_mode.
Japanese Twitter has unearthed a series of 1980s Japanese TV commercials featuring the American filmmaker George Lucas of Star Wars fame, singing the praises of consumer electronics giant Panasonic.
In the commercials, Lucas speaks in simple Japlish, ending with the tagline “Itsumo something new,” which can be directly translated as “always something new.”
やっぱりこのシリーズはかっこいいなぁ。
パナソニックCM。（1988）ジョージ・ルーカス、誰が待ってるかな？@retoro_mode pic.twitter.com/GbPIWd10pY
— みどりん (@icu_0828) October 20, 2018
This series of TV commercials is really cool.
George Lucas in a Panasonic TV commercial from 1988. I wonder all of these are still online? Tagging @retoro_mode
Japanese Twitter user Midorin, who regularly posts nostalgic images and videos from the 1970s, 80s and 90s Japan on Twitter, shared several of the George Lucas Panasonic commercials, tagging fellow Twitter user retoro_mode, whose Twitter feed is an even bigger cornucopia of retro Japanese culture, to see more of the series of was available online.
In fact, the entire series of Lucas Panasonic commercials have been uploaded to YouTube.
From the late 1980s to the early 1990s — when Japan's booming “Bubble Economy” went bust — Western media stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Billy Joel, Brooke Shields and Eric Clapton frequently appeared on Japanese television to pitch products to an increasingly affluent audience. YouTube is a treasure trove of these largely forgotten commercials.
Lucas recorded six commercials in total for Panasonic that aired on Japanese television in 1987 and 1988, a few years after the release of Return of the Jedi. In one commercial, Lucas promotes the company's satellite television tuner and a television set. In another, he pitches Panasonic's “MacLord Movie”, at the time a high-end prosumer video camera. In another, Lucas and his new “creation”, a friendly robot named Sparky, sing the praises of a Panasonic VCR.
All six of George Lucas's television commercials for Panasonic can be found on YouTube:


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Heavy rains and flooding turned parts of Trinidad & Tobago into disaster zones · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screengrab of a public warning on the Trinidad & Tobago Meteorological Service's website, alerting citizens to the areas that have been affected by flooding and adverse weather between October 19 and 20, 2018.
The rains that enveloped Trinidad and Tobago on October 19, 2018 started gently, but their initial softness belied their ferocity. They were persistent, relentless, and they got heavier with time. Time turned out to be the thing that turned bad weather from the energetic Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) into a national disaster.
Alerts and public warnings that were sent out via social media channels by Trinidad and Tobago's Meterorological Service and its Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, on October 19, 2018.
When the deluge began on Friday October 19, many workplaces closed early in an effort to ensure that their employees reached home safely. Still, major causeways were blocked — and if people did manage to reach their homes, many would end up having to abandon them, the flood waters were so high. One family even took refuge on their roof.
Many communities were reeling from the devastating effects of the flooding. By Saturday morning, October 20, Prime Minister Keith Rowley was doing walkabouts in some of the worst affected areas. Via Facebook, he noted that there were, thus far, no lives lost, and that his focus was on “the conditions at the shelters, making sure that people housed there have cots, blankets, food and other supplies.”
Officially dubbing the situation a “national disaster”, Rowley assured flood victims that the government would find the resources to help. Incidentally, many of the areas that were hardest hit are not part of the ruling party's support base. When relief was slow in coming through official channels, some social media users saw it as an opportunity to play politics. With one frank comment, Facebook user Omari Ashby called that out. To him, this was a time for Trinbagonians to band together, regardless of political affiliation, and help those who were suffering.
Through WhatsApp and other social media channels, the country's Chambers of Commerce (just a few of the organisations that rushed to help) jointly circulated a Google form encouraging people to volunteer for flood relief efforts, which included the donation of food, clothing and cleaning items.
With the continuous rainfall, large sections of the main highway connecting north and south Trinidad remained impassable and many warnings were issued via WhatsApp:
An update by Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Works alerting drivers to the closure of the Uriah Butler Highway due to flooding.
The nearby Caroni River, the country's largest, broke its banks, causing floodwaters to span the highway. Video footage, shared once more through WhatsApp, showed just how strong the currents were, and therefore how dangerous that made the situation, even as motorists attempted to get past:
St. Helena, an area close to the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad, was also affected. A video taken by a pilot coming in for a landing was soon widely circulated on WhatsApp. Although some flights were affected by the bad weather, Minister of National Security Stuart Young said that the airport itself was intact:
In a press conference at 6:00 p.m. on October 20, Prime Minister Rowley told the media that the flood waters in the St. Helena area were still high — some areas could be accessed only by boat:
Video sent to me by St Helena resident this morning . She lost everything ! #flood #Trinidad #TrinidadFlood pic.twitter.com/TKOYI7Y4m2
— Essiba Small (@essibasmall) October 20, 2018
He heartily praised the efforts of the communities themselves, saying that volunteers did — and continue to do — yeoman's service. A team of men, for instance, rescued someone who was trapped in a car at Warren Road in the Caroni area [WhatsApp video]:
Another badly affected area was the community of Greenvale Park in La Horquetta, Arima — many residents had to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in emergency shelters:
Evacuation of Greenvale Park Housing Complex in La Horquetta #Trinidad continues. #Flooding pic.twitter.com/gr1781iuiY
— Haydn Dunn (@HaydnDunn) October 20, 2018
Via telephone and WhatsApp, I spoke with Lesleyanne Nanan, who lives with her family near Caroni, not far from Kelly Village, which suffered great damage. Her home was not flooded, but she reported that many of her neighbours were not so fortunate. On October 19, when the heavy rains began, she said, “All around my road is water. My son came to pick me up at work. Many small rivers, canals and rivulets like Cunupia burst banks. About 500 metres from me, water is crossing the road.” The next morning, she told me, “Lower down from me, water is four to six feet high. Residents are trapped. My road is cut off completely. Not even trucks can access the highway, the water is so high.”
Farmers from the area eventually started using their tractors to rescue people, but the floodwaters defied even heavy machinery; eventually, help had to come by boat. As waters continued to rise close to Nanan's house on October 20, she fortified all the entrances with sandbags and propped up her appliances on bricks. No one quite knows what to expect, since the inclement weather is expected to last throughout the weekend, but they are not taking any chances.
While some netizens were quick to say this was an Act of God, the reality is that parts of Trinidad and Tobago have consistently faced flooding after heavy rains, thanks in part to irresponsible development practices, widespread littering and denuding of hillsides. Ronald Ammon, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects (TTIA) said that many developments are built without any consideration for how water drains off. This, coupled with the clear cutting of land, leads to soil erosion, and the silt ends up in the waterways, along with whatever garbage people irresponsibly dispose of. He sent me this comment via WhatsApp:
Unplanned development particularly on hills (and where land is cleared without regard for regulations) simply speeds up the rate at which surface water would typically reach main water courses and low lying areas. The unplanned increase of paved surfaces further exacerbates this by reducing the water absorption rate of the soil. The increased rate of surface runoff puts stress on existing waterways, which simply can't handle this.
Erle Rahaman-Noronha, director of the Caribbean Permaculture Research Institute, who lives in Central Trinidad, one of the worst affected areas, agrees. Via WhatsApp, he explained:
With climate change, we can expect periods of increased rainfall and it is our responsibility to begin designing our landscapes to slow down, hold and sink rainfall into the ground instead of letting it run off the land, causing extensive flooding. Individuals have the capacity to design and implement many of these interventions rather than wait on government to do so. The future of adaptation to climate change lies in appropriate planning and design. It also lies in the treatment of our environment as something that nourishes us, rather than a dumping ground for plastics and other non-biodegradables that clog our waterways and contaminate our fresh water supplies.
If you would like to help flood victims, the Discover Trinidad & Tobago Facebook page has a comprehensive list of organisations that are spearheading relief efforts.


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Chinese artist Badiucao sends ‘Make Wall Great Again’ hats to Google, in protest of company’s return to China · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

‘Make Wall Great Again’ cartoon by Chinese political artist Badiucao.
The original version of this post was written by Holmes Chan and published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on October 19, 2018. The republication is based on a partnership agreement.
Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao sent a package of red baseball caps with the words “Make Wall Great Again” to Google headquarters in China, to protest the company's tentative plans to introduce a censored search engine there.
Badiucao — a Chinese-born artist and activist who now lives abroad — told HKFP that he sent about a dozen red caps to random Google employees. He also left another dozen on sculptures around Google’s United States headquarters and sent a package of 50 caps to Google’s visitor shop.
Badiucao said the caps were a response to the search giant’s potential re-entry into China:
“I want [Google] to know it is a mistake to collaborate with China’s censorship. It is as shameful as Trump’s wall, only this time it is an invisible wall online — the great firewall.”
Google left the Chinese market in 2010, citing human rights concerns. But since August 2018, leaked internal documents, audio recordings, and sources from inside the company have indicated that Google is preparing to launch a search engine tailor-made for China. Code-named “Dragonfly”, the search engine would automatically identify and censor websites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, BBC, Global Voices and many others that are currently blocked in China, and remove search results that government officials deem sensitive.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on October 16 that “it was important to explore” the possibility of running a search engine in China, marking the first time that Google executives confirmed the project’s existence, despite multiple leaks. Pichai said the project was able to serve over 99 percent of search queries and still comply with Chinese censorship laws.
Badiucao's ‘Make Wall Great Again’ red cap.
Commenting on the company's plans, the artist said:
When Google left the Chinese market years ago, a lot people [applauded] its principle of defending free speech. But now, with the Dragonfly program and its CEO defending the program, it only left deep disappointment and fear of the consequences of this super [corporation’s] submission to a brutal regime.
Badiucao first created the caps as part of a cartoon, with the cap's wearer bearing a distinct resemblance to Sundar Pichai. He later had the cap made into physical merchandise. He said he also tried to interview Google employees about the project, but most declined to comment and would not accept the caps. However, he said he spoke to some Chinese employees at Google who appeared to support the censored search engine. He added:
I hope [Pichai] will receive the message. If Google wants to help China or Chinese people, it should help us to fight and defeat the censorship system instead of becoming a part of it.
As for the message on his cap, Badiucao said he decided on “Make Wall Great Again” because of its double reference: first to China’s censorship system, nicknamed the great firewall, as well as to Trump’s slogan.
For me the Trump cap is the crown of shame… Giving something similar to Google is the best ironic thing I can do in the USA.
HKFP has reached out to Google for comment.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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As China legalizes Xinjiang ‘re-education camps’, Weibo netizens cheer on · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

“Graduates” would receive a certificate after they finished the “vocational training”. Screen capture from CCTV.
As international media and human rights organizations unveil details about re-education camps in Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities may have imprisoned up to a million Muslim citizens without charge, the Chinese government has switched its public relations tactics from denying to defending the camps.
China's government has been under fire in the past year over allegations that it was forcibly detaining Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang for “extremist behaviour”, a language often invoked to describe any vaguely religious conduct, from growing a beard to wearing a headscarf.
What happens at the camps is not widely known, but testimonies from ex-internees reveal that they were forced to convert their beliefs and pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and made to criticize their own culture and religion, as well as adopt diets against their own will. They have also reported that the camps are secured with barbed wire, surveillance systems and armed police.
Initially, China's approach was to deny the existence of such camps. As recently as August 2018, shortly after a UN human rights panel brought attention to the matter, a Chinese delegation said that “there is no such thing as re-education centres in Xinjiang”.
Less than two months later, the camps were made official. On October 9, the local Xinjiang government revised its “Regulation on Anti-Extremism” to empower local authorities to operate “vocational training centres” for the purpose of education and ideological conversion. In other words, the new regulation has legalized the existence of the “re-education camps”.
The new strategy was almost immediately reflected on Chinese media and social networks, where many have applauded the policy.
On October 16, the China Central Television aired a feature report and interviewed some “graduates” from such centre in Hotan, Xinjiang. One of them said:
我如果不來這裏的話可能我就會跟隨那些宗教極端分子走上犯罪道路。
If I had not come here, I would follow the religious extremist and become a criminal.
Also on October 16, party-affiliated media outlet Global Times published an editorial stating that Xinjiang's anti-extremism measures were actually a “humanitarian move” to prevent an ethnic cleansing disaster, and should be regarded as a successful model by the rest of the world:
新疆通过加强治理避免了世界其他地方上演的各种极端情况，应被视为化解高风险局势的难得正面范例。[…]从波黑到科索沃，再到利比亚、叙利亚，悲剧故事的类型既有区别又很相似。那些地区都死了很多人，输出了大量难民。西方对那些地区的动荡过程实施了大量干预，但曾经的或者正在付出的代价却如此沉重。难道西方真的愿意新疆也出现震动世界的人道主义灾难、对外输出几十万甚至上百万难民吗？
Xinjiang has strengthened its governance to prevent extremism from happening like in other parts of the world. It should be considered a good model for resolving high-risk conflict situations. […] From Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo, and from Liberia to Syria, the tragedies are distinctive but also similar. Many people in these regions have died, many more became refugees. The West has had great influence in the unrests and have paid and are still paying the price. Does the West really want to see another humanitarian disaster that shocks the world and exports tens of thousands or even millions of refugees?
A day earlier, on Twitter, Global Times’ editor-in-chief Hu Xijin claimed that the one million Muslims detainees figure was pure speculation:
Chinese officials didn’t reveal the true number to avoid falling into the stats trap, giving Western media another excuse to hype up the issue.
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 15, 2018
The one million figure is an estimation by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, who say they have received many credible reports by international human rights organizations. Further reports have pointed to the scale of the camps as shown by satellite images, which hints at a capacity of up to a million detainees or more.
A lot of people rebuffed Xijin's claim and drew attention to the fact that China doesn't allow journalists to visit the camps and objectively report on what happens in them.
On the next day, Hu wrote three more tweets defending Xinjiang’s security measures:
Situation in Xinjiang was out of control before. Over 1,000 violent attacks occurred in a year. But local government held back the media coverage at the time. As a result, outside world cannot understand the following measures. This is the price of insufficient press freedom. 1/3
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 16, 2018
There had been such a horrific story in XJ. A road was blocked by mobs from nearby villages.They stopped all the vehicles and killed all the Han people inside. It is hoped the outside world can understand the measures XJ is taking.They are taken as a last and necessary resort.2/3
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 16, 2018
The most pressing task for XJ is to stabilize the situation, preventing civilians from being killed by young Uyghur people brainwashed by extremism and the latter not being killed by police at crime scene. Vocational training centers may not be the ideal solution, but it works.3/3
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 16, 2018
Hu’s argument received no echo but a number of mockeries, particularly in respect to his claim about the 1,000 violent attacks and the mob incident. A commenter said:
believe me , if that really happened, your government will not wast any chance to show it in public and in your fake 新闻联播 [CCTV news program].
On October 15, on a talk show that he hosts, he said:
【新疆设立职业技能教育培训中心，取得好的效果】围绕新疆治理，中国人与西方的干涉势力完全不在一个对话频道上。我们要的是新疆的和平稳定，要的是那里各族人民的幸福安宁生活，这是最大的人权。而西方那些势力是要找中国的茬，扰乱新疆，牵制中国发展。
[Vocational training centres in Xinjiang has good effect.] Regarding the governance of Xinjiang, China and Western interfering forces are not on the same channel. What we want is Xinjiang’s stability and peace, and different ethnic groups could enjoy a happy life there. This is the most important human right. Western forces want to find fault with China and create chaos in Xinjiang so as to confine China’s development.
In contrast to comments on Twitter, which is blocked but accessible via VPN in China, Hu has attracted many positive responses on Weibo, where political speech is much more heavily controlled. The most popular comments under Hu’s Weibo post were:
有吃有喝不乱是对人权的最大尊重！
food, drink and no chaos is the utmost respect to human rights.
对于新疆来讲，确实稳定压倒一切。没有新疆的稳定，就没有全国的稳定，没有全国的稳定，中国就会出大问题，就会正中某些国家、某些人的下怀。
In Xinjiang, stability is most important. If Xinjiang is unstable, the whole country would be unstable. If the country is unstable, China will have big problem and we will fall into the same trap that some countries did.
Global Times’ official Weibo account has also promoted Hu’s view. It said:
今年以来，西方的一些舆论机构和政客不断对新疆为帮助受极端思想影响的人员而开展教育培训工作进行恶毒攻击，指责新疆“侵犯人权”。学员们在那些中心里学习国家通用语言、法律知识和工作技能，却被西方势力指责为“宗教迫害”。
This year, western opinion organizations and politicians keep attacking the vocational training centers in Xinjiang. These centers are to help those who had been affected by extremism but they accused Xinjiang for violating human rights. The trainees are learning common language [Putonghua], legal knowledge and vocational skills inside the center, but Western forces condemned the measure as “religion persecution”.
Again, there are many echoes under the thread:
作为一个新疆人表示如果没有暴恐新疆这些年经济早腾飞了，新疆财政大都拿来慰问了，出门身上啥也不敢装到处检查，快递限制app限制网络限制，都是那帮孙子害的！站着说话不腰疼的西方人，明里暗里支持那帮人的，都是坏蛋！
As someone from Xinjiang, I would like to say that if there weren't any acts of terrorism, the economy would be flying. Now, a large part of Xinjiang revenue has been allocated for the victims of attacks. We dare not bring anything out in the street for fear of inspection, door to door delivery, internet and mobile applications all have restriction thanks to the terrorists. The Westerners bare no pain. Those who support or sympathize with those [terrorists] are villains.
绝大多数情况，大多数情况下，西方越是对我们的某项政策或事物进行恶意攻击时，就越证明我们这政策的是对的正确的，反之亦然，他们越是吹捧的，我们就越要小心提高警惕了，因为他们见不得我们好，只会希望我们越糟越好。
In most cases, when the West starts to attack a particular policy or issue, it usually implies the policy is right, on the contrary, if they praise something, we have to be careful. They don’t hope for our best but for our worse.
Of course, as is always the case within the great Chinese firewall, it is impossible to appraise real public sentiment from the social media commentariat.


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Education in transition: how transgender teachers are transforming schools in Brazil and Colombia · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Fernanda Ribeiro teaches primary and secondary level art at a state school in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. PHOTO: Toni Pires. Used with permission.
By Vanessa de Sá
Leona Freitas is a typical Brazilian peasant woman. Her daily life revolves around a few close friends and her partner. Her dreams are not very big: she wants to buy a house and live a quiet life. She has rarely ventured out of Congonhas, the town where she was born and works. She has never visited a big city. São Paulo is a distant dream for her. Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais, is just 80 km from her hometown and it’s on her wish list to visit it. “I will go there when I can,” she says.
Congonhas is a tiny historic town known for its religious festivals, which attract thousands of Catholics from all over the country. With its many churches and Christian schools, it is similar to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of South American cities: religious and conservative.
Leona is a transgender woman. She made her gender identity public after graduating from her studies in Pedagogy. To qualify as a school teacher is only possible through a public tender. “I don’t know if I could ever find work at a private school, because most of them have ties to parts of the Catholic or evangelical churches,” she says.
So Leona teaches in a public school. Her life there is not easy. She is the only transgender teacher in this city of 50,000, and can feel the discomfort experienced by her work colleagues. But she isn’t intimidated by them—on the contrary. She believes she has already made a major accomplishment: to be referred to by the female honorifics. “They are still struggling to call me ‘Leona’. They call me by my birth name instead of my name of choice: Miss Albert,” she explains.
Leona Freitas is the only transgender teacher the small Brazilian city of Congonhas. PHOTO: Toni Pires. Used with permission.
In [many countries in South America, discrimination still prevents people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth – the sex listed on the birth certificate – from being adequately represented in politics, positions of leadership, and ordinary jobs as a driver, salesman or cashier.
In schools, this representation is even smaller. For the average South Americans, the role of teacher is still considered a position of authority. “Nobody expects a transgender person to be a teacher. It seems that there is an incompatibility between these two imaginary ideas,” says Alanis Bello, a transgender teacher at the National Pedagogic University in Bogotá, Colombia.
Alanis Bello: “I love to excite the students’ curiosity. I came to university wearing high heels, totally made up, super drag. Their jaws dropped in astonishment.” PHOTO: Toni Pires. Used with permission.
Ana Paula Braga Luz , a volunteer professor at the TransPassando Project in Fortaleza (Brazil), agrees that being transgender is exceptionally complicated. “Most people have the idea that transgender and transsexual educators are going to sexualize children and turn the children gay, lesbians or transgender,” she says.
There is little official data on how many transgender people work in public education not only in South America but throughout the world. This population is generally under-studied, or not reported on at all, and demographic research rarely takes gender identity into account.
But transgender people are gaining visibility thanks to the media and the internet. The Brazilian Institute of Trans Education (IBTE) has been using social networks to connect transgender teachers in the country. Led by the transgender educators Sayonara Nogueira and Andréia Cantelli, IBTE undertook an online survey in 2017 to find how many trans professionals there are working in schools. “We found 90 teachers, but I believe there are many more,” says Sayonara. “We were struck by the story of four transgender men who identified themselves as lesbians because they were afraid they would not be accepted by the school’s staff and students.”
Long isolated, trans teachers are finding strength in numbers. “We’re strengthening the network. We seek educators to empower them and to let them know there are legal norms that protect them, so they don’t need to hide who they are any longer,” says Sayonara, who is vice president of the organization. “We also help them address gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom by providing them with lesson plans.”
Breaking down prejudice
At the beginning of each school year, when she receives new students, the Brazilian teacher Fernanda Ribeiro makes a statement: “I am a transvestite .”
“That’s how I break the gossip and make myself available to have conversations,” she says. The students end up receiving extra-curricular education about gender identity. “I often joke that I am an itinerant research subject because it results in deconstruction in every sense: of stigma, of stereotypes.” Today, Fernanda is no longer “the transgender teacher”. She's just Teacher Fernanda, “a little strict, but really cool.”
Gradually, trans educators are breaking down prejudice. Blasia Gómez Reinoso retired in 2017 after 35 years as a teacher and director at a college in Catamarca, a small city in Argentina. She transitioned in 2012 and tears come to her eyes when she remembers the moment she made the announcement to her students.
“They followed my transition step by step. I've been explaining everything to them. When I first came out as transgender, I felt like the most loved person in the world. The boys applauded, and the girls cried,” she says, reliving those times. “I discovered that children are open-minded. It’s us, the adults, who often have trouble accepting sexual diversity.”
Fernanda Ribeiro's students followed her transition step-by-step. “”I discovered that children are open-minded. It’s us, the adults, who often have trouble accepting sexual diversity.” PHOTO: Toni Pires. Used with permission.
The Colombian Alanis Bello says that she had to fight to get her job at the National Pedagogic University. “My birth name is Jason,” she says. “I didn’t want to change my documents.” Her students expected to find a man as their teacher. “I love to excite the students’ curiosity,” says Alanis, who is a sociologist. “I came to university wearing high heels, totally made up, super drag. Their jaws dropped in astonishment,” she laughs. Little by little, she built a network of alliances with students, teachers and other sectors of the institution. Alanis explains that teaching from a transvestite perspective is about healing. “It’s a healing and poetic pedagogy because it tries to repair the wounds of hate, anger, and discrimination that everyone who has a body experiences in the education system, not only transgender people.”
She says that it has led to changes. “I’m helping to train future educators who think an education differently, who question themselves and let themselves be affected by the magic of transvestism.”
Laura Morales, one of Alanis’ students, says that the experience of having a transgender teacher —or profe, as the Colombians say—was shocking and transgressive to her way of thinking and feeling. “It was wonderful,” she says. “When you arrive at a place like a university and you meet a person with whom you connect not because of their gender but because of their humanity. . . and whose appearance makes you say to yourself: well, she's physically striking but it's her smile, her being, her intellect that is most endearing. You begin not to see her in terms of gender any more, but as a human being. It's been crucial because I’ve learned that there are not only two options, but a thousand ways to take, think and feel.”
This report was funded by  The European Journalism Centre.

author: Guest Contributor


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Landslide victory for Bhutan’s centre-left party following peaceful general elections · Global Voices
Rezwan

Bhutan's new Prime Minister-elect, Dr. Lotay Tshering. Photo: Prachatai/Flickr, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
A new, centre-left party in Bhutan has won 30 out of 47 seats of its National Assembly in elections held on October 18th.
The Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (abbreviated DNT), which means ‘Bhutan United Party’ in Bhutanese, ran on a platform of tackling rural poverty and youth employment. Bhutan's new prime minister will be Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon trained in Bangladesh and Australia. He helped found the party in 2013 and became its leader in May 2018.
This is only the third democratic elections to take place in the tiny, landlocked South Asian country since it transitioned from an absolutist to a constitutional monarchy in 2008.
Newcomers Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (or Bhutan United Party) DNT set to make the next govt in Thimphu. DNT has been popular for their progressive stances on reducing income inequality and healthcare promises. Read our explainer ahead of the election for more: https://t.co/0zjuwyUbZA
— Shubhanga Pandey (@ShubhangaP) October 18, 2018
Located in the eastern Himalayas and known for its index of Gross National Happiness (GNH), Bhutan has only 438,663 registered voters out of an approximate population of 800,000.
The National Assembly's 47 seats are elected by single-member constituencies. In the first round (called primary elections), voters cast votes for parties. Then, the two winning contenders nominate candidates for the second round, regardless of the share of the total votes each of them has got in the first round.
The two main opposition parties, the DNT along with the Druk Phuensum Thosgpa (DPT) which means ‘Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party’ in Bhutanese contested this year's second round after knocking out the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The DNT and the DPT had agreed to keep discussion of Bhutan’s foreign relations out of the campaign — with its two big neighbours India and China, the topic is usually heated in Bhutanese society. The government has also appointed officials to monitor the parties’ online forums to ensure compliance with this agreement.
After the results were in on October 19, DPT leader Dro. Pema Gyamtsho has congratulated DNT on Facebook for its victory:
We humbly accept the choice of the people and wish the president and candidates of DNT all success during their tenure. I hope that Dr. Lotey and his team will ensure that our people would continue to enjoy peace, unity, and harmony under the farsighted leadership of His Majesty the King.
The DNT, which pledged to fulfil 25 of its campaign promises within 120 days, has issued a press release stating they will work with the other political parties to form a Royal Government of Bhutan, not just a DNT government.
Wangcha Sangey, a famous Bhutanese blogger, has echoed the sentiment in envisioning a coalition government in Bhutan.
It remains to be seen how the new prime minister and his party leads Bhutan as it seeks to establish more cooperation with China without upsetting India.
The election was peaceful and had a 71 per cent turnout in its second round.
NA General Election 2018: A long queue of voters at a polling station in Tashiding, Dagana #bhutanvotes2018 #nageneralelection pic.twitter.com/6Oyo4ZMy02
— Bhutan Broadcasting (@BBSBhutan) October 18, 2018
Happy election and voting to all Bhutanese people! May the almighty bestow wisdom and strength to choose the right party to govern for the next five years. May the best win.
— Bhutan Loday (@KurtoepLoday) October 17, 2018
The deciding day for Bhutan…?
Please vote with your inner voice. The election blessed with Dassain is about positivity winning over negativity with the grace of Goddess Durga.
I pray and wish for the best election outcome today for our country to enjoy peace and prosperity?
— Suraj Pradhan (@SurajPr13551283) October 17, 2018
This year, the Election Commission of Bhutan used Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) along with postal ballots, and they have also used an SMS-based Poll Information System to collect information from its 865 poll stations. Many of them are remote in the mountains.
A record seven out of a total of ten women candidates from both parties have won seats.
Screenshot from the Bhutan Election Commission Website

author: Rezwan


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Trinidad & Tobago loses ‘The Mighty Shadow’, the ‘bassman’ of calypso · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

A selection of album covers from The Mighty Shadow's discography. In 2003, he received the Hummingbird Medal (Silver) for his contributions to music in Trinidad and Tobago, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies for his contributions as a musical composer.
The Mighty Shadow, one of Trinidad and Tobago's most original calypsonians, died on October 23, 2018, just weeks after his 77th birthday. Shadow, whose real name was Winston Bailey, brought poetry to calypso, not just in form but in subject matter, often using Tobago's folksy reel and jig rhythms—the soundtrack of his childhood—to controvert the soberness of his messages. Shadow would eventually take that fiddle-and-drum combo and give it new life on the bass guitar, changing soca music in the process. Robin Foster, a sound engineer who knew him well, told me Shadow's exceptional imagination gave him a kind of poetic license that few of his peers could get away with. Even Shadow himself could never quite put his finger on it, referring to the mysterious alchemy that was the source of his originality simply as “de ‘ting” (“the thing“). In this piece for Global Voices, writer and cultural historian Dr. Kim Johnson deconstructs exactly what made calypso's “bassman” so irreplaceable.– Janine Mendes-Franco
If the ideas for great works of art are often fished from the unconscious with only the sheerest threads of memory, Shadow’s “Pay the Devil” was retrieved with a memory of a memory.
“I went to Barbados with Spektakula [a calypso tent] last year and a man I met say I should sing the song I was to sing in ’75,” said Winston Bailey. “I couldn’t even remember his name, but he mentioned ‘Katie’ Brown or ‘Ebby’ Gray and he reminded me of the rhythm: pak-pak-pak pak-pak.”
Katie Brown or Ebby Gray used to play in a devil band that made the young Winston Bailey thrill with fear at Carnival. “I cyar [can't] remember what we said about it, but it was a song I was to do a long time ago about a scary masquerader,” he explains:
Long ago in Tobago,
The Carnival was not so
Was plenty jab jab and devil
They came down to Les Coteaux
They came from Culloden, horns on their head
One name is Drixen, eyes always red
One Abasynia, a hero of mine
Portraying Lucifer with a fork in his hand
Pak-pak pak pak-pak
Carnival, explains Shadow, has always been one of calypso’s many topics, and “Pay the Devil” is a tribute to one of the masqueraders of Shadow’s Tobago childhood, a man named Abasynia. “People say I is a devil worshipper—they crazy! They not listening to lyrics,” he said. “I describe the scene. You could see the picture —it’s about Carnival long ago. Abasynia was theatre. It’s a great man I celebrating there”:
Mama, I hear a rumble
Abasynia coming down, O Lawd!
The children begin to tremble
Abasynia come in town
The crowd start to scatter
Place getting warm
They fall in the gutter
They don’t care a damn
Man start to free up
Spirits are high
Man start to jump up
Like they learning to fly
Pak-pak pak pak-pak
To an adult, and how much more so to a child, the devil mas (masquerade) did indeed possess a frightening power, and to a Tobagonian child there was no more terrifying mas than the devil portrayed by one Nichols, also known as Abasynia. He wore only black, and, chained to one or two restraining imps, he’d rear at the crowd, opening his mouth wide as if to swallow everyone. People would scatter in fear and other bands would part for Abasynia and his demonic retinue to pass, chanting “Pay the Devil, pay the Devil!” to a furious tattoo drummed on a biscuit pan: pak-pak-pak pak-pak.
While the calypso is a tribute to old-time Carnival, the devil masquerade is also a very Shadow theme. The topic of the spirit world recurs in his music. He’s sung about the jumbies in Toco who made him sing calypso, about the bassman from hell, about himself in hell waiting until he could make the calypso competition judges jump, no stopping. Don’t mess with his head because he’ll wait for you in hell. It's a millennial vision of Africans in the New World dealing with violent retribution and divine justice. But their agent isn’t so much God as the Devil, who is the one to watch out for. The great anthropologist Melville Herskovits pointed out long ago in his study The Myth of the Negro Past that “This Devil is far from the fallen angel of European dogma.” Rather, Afro-Americans immediately after emancipation believed in “the avenger who presides over the terrors of hell and holds the souls of the damned to their penalties.” Or, as Shadow puts it:
So if you bad, don’t die
Walk around and cry
The Devil down dey
You will have to pay
Pay the devil
This sense of righteousness is of a scale far grander than calypso’s normal concerns about this or that corrupt politician, and is more akin to the apocalyptic message of reggae. Hence the natural companion to “Pay the Devil” is Shadow’s other 1994 masterpiece:
Poverty is Hell
And the angels are in paradise
Driving in their limousine
Where everything is nice and clean
Africa is also in Shadow’s rhythms, his emphasis on the bass guitar as a modern incarnation of the African drum, or as they are called in Tobago, the tambrin, a flat, goatskin drum used at weddings to dance jigs and reels and invoke the ancestors. “That tambrin rhythm of goatskin drum I was exposed to all the time,” he said, “Tambrin music and violin—more drum than violin—that stay in me, that’s the feeling that grows, the roots. In Les Coteaux that’s the home of tambrin music.”
It’s also the home of many African legends, the faith healers and Gang-Gang Sarah the African witch, and of Abasynia. So when all other calypsonians in the early 1970s had six sheets of music, Shadow had seven, the additional one for the bass guitar. The result was the seminal “Bassman”.
The emphasis on heavy bass rhythms makes Shadow more of a progenitor of soca than anyone else, Shorty included. For the main ingredient that distinguishes soca from calypso isn’t any particular rhythm: there are many different rhythms in soca, such as the Baptist rhythms in Superblue’s music, or the Indian rhythms in Shorty’s. What they have in common is the dominance of the bass lines which separated soca from calypso, and which makes Shadow’s music particularly in tune with reggae and dub. It was part of the early-1970s shift in popular music, including rock, reggae and disco. “Only the youths know the sweetness they feel in it,” he said optimistically about young people's preference for dub and rap. “But in the Trini version I see so much that is Trini that something must come out of it. Everybody rapping today, but they’ll get back to singing.
“African music start from drumming. We use bass but it’s the same drumming, and the youths have gone back into rhythm. They’ve emptied the music now, but eventually they’ll start putting things into it to get it sweeter and if it gets sweet, then great things might come out of it.”
It’s an optimism which allowed Shadow to transcend the profound disappointments of his career. So after his failure to win the 1974 Calypso Monarch crown with “Bassman” and “I Come Out to Play”, for all his threats of satanic retribution, his artistic genius produced—within a few months—one of his most defiant tunes:
I believe in the stars and the dark night
I believe in the sun and the day light
I believe in the little children
I believe in the world and its problems
But then again, even in that optimism you could see the survivalism of the African in the New World.