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As the MENA Region Heats Up, UN Climate Change Talks are Under Pressure · Global Voices
Christophe Maroun

Drought and high temperatures threaten the MENA region. Image sourced from Wikimedia / Creative Commons.
As the world's nations meet in Bonn, Germany for the 23rd annual conference of the parties (COP23) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), 2017 is set to be one of the hottest years on record.
COP 23 Logo. Source: COP 23 Website.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia have predicted a harsh fate for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Jordan currently faces one of the most severe droughts in recorded history. In the absence of international climate policy action, the country could receive 30 percent less rainfall by 2100 and annual temperatures could increase by 4.5 Celsius.
The landmark Paris Agreement at COP 21 in 2015 provided the first truly global deal to tackle climate change. The 2017 Bonn meeting will be paramount in building the rules to enact the Paris deal and toughen national actions to meet the goal of keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.
In October 2015, the journal Nature Climate Change predicted that heat waves in parts of the Persian Gulf could threaten human survival by the end of the century. Heat wave duration in the MENA region will prolong dramatically, lasting 80 days by mid-century and 118 days by the end of the century compared to the present average of 16 days, even if greenhouse gas emissions decline again after 2040.
Screenshot from Google Earth of the Persian Gulf and neighboring countries.
Unrestrained demand for water for agricultural purposes in the region has led to groundwater over‐drafting, declines in water quality and land degradation including salinization (increasing salt content in the soil).
Climate change is expected to compound these trends and the agriculture sector will hit the hardest. More frequent and intense heat waves and reduced rainfall will curb growing seasons. With less rain, there will be a reduction in soil moisture, river runoff, and aquifer recharge. Increased uncertainty will affect productivity, and make agricultural planning more difficult.
As Safa’ Al-Jayoussi from ‘Climate Action Network – International‘ told Al-Ayam newspaper:
«المنطقة العربية تعاني من الجفاف حاليا الذي ما هو الا بداية تبِعات التغير المناخي ولذلك يجب على المناقشات أن تراعي المجتمعات المحلية الاكثر تأثرا بالأضرار من جهة والتعويض عن الخسائر الناتجة عن تلك الظاهرة من جهة أخرى.”
The Arab region is currently suffering from drought, which is only the beginning of the consequences of climate change and therefore the discussions should take into account the communities most affected by the damage on the one hand and compensation for the losses resulting from that phenomenon, on the other hand.
Jordan, for example, draws 160 percent more water from the ground than is replenished by nature, yet there is little incentive to conserve this precious resource.
The use of water for irrigation remains heavily and unsustainably subsidized by the government, and wastage is a major issue. More than half of Jordan's water is used for agriculture which only produces only a small share of the local food supply. An estimated 50 percent of the water supply is lost due to misuse or theft.
Egypt faces similar problems:
Climate change drives hunger – it hits the most vulnerable the hardest. As Egyptian farmers struggle to adapt, @WFP is there to help. #COP23 pic.twitter.com/3a7QQutIDB
— WFP Middle East (@WFP_MENA) November 6, 2017
Middle Eastern countries are paying a heavy price for their focus on fossil fuels in the form of air pollution and contaminated water. Increasing desertification has adversely affected farming. The fishing industry suffers from deteriorating quality in coastal waters and the negative effects of changing sea temperatures on catches.
But fossil fuels continue to enjoy huge subsidies and are so underpriced that it is difficult for renewable energies to break through. They are perceived as not being cost-competitive because of the sometimes-hidden subsidies offered to fossil fuels.
Share of Renewable Energy Capacity in the Arab World, Turkey and Iran (2016) #FESMENA #COP23 #CANAW pic.twitter.com/Jfd3s7GomN
— @CANArabWorld (@CAN_ArabWorld) November 5, 2017
Only some countries in the region have grown rich by exploiting fossil fuels with the majority sourcing less than 1 percent of electricity from renewables. While all MENA countries stand to benefit from the sun, and the region has huge potential for solar energy and wind power, renewable energies investment is among the lowest in the world. MENA falls behind similar-income countries in this regard, but also behind many poorer countries.
Countries in the Arab World have voluntary committed to renewable energy targets as a percentage of overall electricity generation capacity. #CANAWA #FESMENA #COP23 pic.twitter.com/gWeGGMFg2O
— @CANArabWorld (@CAN_ArabWorld) November 8, 2017
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), anthropogenic climate change is already significantly increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events like heatwaves, floods, and wildfires. The impact of these natural disasters may be irreversible, severe and widespread for billions of people unless action is taken now to drastically cut global carbon emissions.
Over the last decade, various nations have announced long and medium-term development plans for alternative installations to fossil resources.
For example, Morocco and Jordan have been driven to diversified their energy sources to meet a greater dependency and demand for fuel imports that continue to increase in cost.The Moroccan government is on the verge of achieving its objective to produce 2 Gigawatts (GW) of solar energy and 2 GW of wind energy by 2020, whereas its current wind capacity is over 750 Megavolts (MV). The Jordanian government is planning to increase its initial objective of 600 Megawatts (MW) of solar power to 1 GW by 2020.
Current pledges for carbon cuts by the world’s nations would mean at least 3 degrees Celcius of global warming and severe damage, experts warn. Without serious preparation to build trust and agreement, deals are likely to delay, as the failed COP in Copenhagen in 2009 revealed.
While the Paris Agreement included a mechanism to review and ratchet up these pledges, the rules have not been set, adding pressure to the Bonn meeting to complete this vital work before 2018.

author: Christophe Maroun


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‘I Felt This Happiness in My Skin and Bones’: Domestic Football Thrills Afghanistan · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Afghanistan national football team before match with Japan, 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Azadi Stadium, Tehran. Photo by Javid Nikpour for Tasnim News Agency. CC 4.0 International License.
In the end, the final of the Afghan Premier League’s (APL) championship was more of a night party than a sporting spectacle.
That isn't to say that the match last month pitting Shaheen Asmayee from Kabul against De Mainwand Atalan from Kandahar was not good viewing. Few national titles are decided by seven-goal thrillers like this one was, and both teams played their role in fulfilling the festive atmosphere in the stadium.
But fans of the defeated De Mainwand Atalan team still headed away from the October 27 tie with the understanding that the game was about so much more than a scoreline. Less than two decades ago, the Taliban used football stadiums to stage public executions. Nowadays, with the Afghan Premier League completing it sixth season, they are being used for football again.
Mujib Mashal, a fan of De Mainwand Atalan, thanked the organizer team for “lifting up the people” on Facebook after his team lost 4-3 in a game that went into extra time.
Saad Mohseni, director of Dubai-based MOBY group that co-sponsors the Afghan Premier League, tweeted:
Last night’s Afghan football final was a huge success regardless of who won. A sold out crowd cheered for 2 hours straight @AfPremierLeague pic.twitter.com/hBsGXFe5SD
— Saad Mohseni (@saadmohseni) October 28, 2017
Football fan Haseeb Humayoon echoed this common sentiment:
Shaheen/Kabul+ scored more goals. Atalan/Kandahar+ played like champions.Our Afghanistan won.Such days must repeat all over, all the time. pic.twitter.com/88OtoHCZ7S
— Haseeb Humayoon (@HHumayoon) October 27, 2017
Journalist Marjan Asadullah even tuned in from Canada:
Shaheen Asmayee Wins Afghanistan Premier League! Crazy to be this far yet feel such pride ?? now go take your selfies and deserved medals!! pic.twitter.com/e3wOJVkJGv
— Marjan Asadullah (@marjanasadullah) October 27, 2017
Farhad Darya, an Afghan pop star, who sent the stadium into raptures with a vibrant live performance, told TOLONews that he had felt “this happiness in my skin and bones.”
“In today’s match two teams played, but it had one winner and that was Afghanistan,” said Darya.
Global Voices looks at the key facts behind Afghanistan's re-embrace of the world's favourite sport.
In Afghanistan, football has gone through a long journey. The Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF), was established in 1933 and became a member of Fifa in 1948. The national team played at the London 1948 Olympics, and was named as part of the Asian Football Confederation in 1954.
But Afghan football suffered during the civil war that broke out after the Soviet invasion of the country was repelled in 1989. Football was subsequently barely tolerated during the Taliban era (1996-2001), when the country's main stadium was turned into an execution place.
After the Taliban was toppled, football re-emerged with support from international donors. FIFA has invested $1.5m into the country since 2005. The German Football association and English Premier League have also been involved, while the Japanese government has paid for the floodlights used in the league.
The Afghan Premier League (APL) itself took shape in 2012 with help from a reality TV show. Maidan-e-Sabz, or Green Field, was produced by Moby Media Group in partnership with the Roshan telecommunications company for privately-owned Afghan broadcaster TOLO TV. The show was essentially a talent contest that scouted players for the new league. Since then, the clubs have done some scouting themselves.
Eight teams play in the league, with each team representing one of the country’s eight main regions. Each team is financed by the Afghanistan Football Federation and its partners including Roshan Telecommunication Company and Hummel International.
The players receive a daily allowance of around $12. The matches are all played in Kabul, since logistical and security challenges make travelling around the country difficult. After four teams qualify from two groups consisting of four teams each, semi-finals and finals follow. This year's seven-goal final was more dramatic than most!
The stadium where the Taliban executions took place is Ghazi stadium, a mile away from the Afghanistan Football Federation stadium where the Afghan Premier League matches take place. The women's national football team, however, plays at Ghazi stadium where women were regularly killed in front of the public. According to a Reuters article from 2008, the pitch at the Ghazi stadium was dug up and relayed to exorcise some of the horrors associated with this period.
There are around 25 women's teams at different levels of the sport. They play in Kabul, fully covered in line with Afghan traditions. The women's national team regularly competes in the South Asian Football Federation cup and has reached the semi-finals of the tournament before, but failed to get out of the group stage at last year's version in India.
Afghan footballers have won praise from the highest echelons of the state. Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah attended the final match in October, while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani invited the players to a party at the presidential palace.
President Ghani met with the 2017 APL winners & runners up. He encouraged and congratulated both teams. #APL pic.twitter.com/GcwIooOuPj
— AfghanPremierLeague (@AfPremierLeague) October 28, 2017

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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In a Video Testimony, Mothers Expose Horrible Situation Inside a Venezuelan Children’s Hospital · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

A screenshot from the video made by Prepare Family.
The serious problems facing public hospitals in Venezuela continue to grow with very little help being given by the state and very little attention being paid by the media. Nevertheless, non-government organizations like Prepara Familia (Prepare Family) make use of the Internet to draw attention to these issues. For instance, the organization has made a video in the nephrology ward of Juan Manuel de los Ríos Hospital in Caracas, the country's capital, and presented the difficult situation the patients and their families are in.
The amount of time the patients have spent in the nephrology ward in that hospital has created bonds that are almost equal to those of a family. The mothers make a community and support each other to make up for the shortcomings of their surroundings and the difficulties of the treatments. However, since mid-2017, several of the littlest patients in the waiting room have died, one after the other.
Although the hospital denies it and the authorities had attempted to hide it, some of the rooms and pieces of equipment have shown signs of being contaminated. Studies conducted by the Health Technology Unit of Simón Bolívar University suggested the presence of total coliforms, fecal coliforms, and airborne mesophiles. The machines that the hospital uses to clean the blood of the children contaminated them and were not promptly attended to due to budget constraints. Because of this, some of those who went to this hospital to get better only found themselves in worse conditions.
In the video, the mothers of the patients of the nephrology department of Juan Manuel de los Ríos Hospital tell of the complications that come with the lack of proper hygiene in the hospital, like the infections that further complicate the state of their children's health. In general, children who need dialysis go to the hospital at least twice a week for treatments so when finished they can continue leading normal lives.
Esto ha sido muy fuerte […] no veo mejorar a mi hijo. La situación es horrible.
This has been very difficult […] I don't see any improvement in my son's health. This situation is horrible.
For many of the families affected, the true epidemic is the mismanagement of the government. There are no replacements for the reagents that are used to perform the exams, and the costs are unmanageable. There are no ambulances to transfer the families to other hospitals. At times there was not even enough food in the hospital and they were depending on donations.
In the video, which was first presented on July 5, 2017, the mothers of Deivis, Rafael, and Cristhian – all three of whom are patients of the department – spoke about the situation of the hospital, the lack of maintenance, and the constant infections. Complaints have been made previously before the Office of the Public Prosecutor but they were not allowed to enter with lawyers. The courts also have not accepted claims made by CECODAP, an organization dedicated to the defense of the human rights of children, that has repeatedly called for the acknowledgment of the emergency.
The mothers of the three children who died during August and September gave their testimonies in the video. The number of children who died from infections in the unit has since risen to seven. It was reported in the description of the organization's video that:
A la fecha que fue grabado el video habían fallecido 3 niños (Raziel Jaure, Samuel Becerra, Dilfred Jimenez) y Daniel Laya falleció en los días de la grabación, lamentablemente contaminados con bacterias. El material audiovisual fue presentado en la audiencia Nro. 163 ante la CIDH celebrada el cinco de julio de dos mil diecisiete en Lima, Perú por Cecodap, Prepara Familia y Judith Bront la madre de Samuel Becerra, uno de los niños fallecidos. Desde entonces, tres niños más han fallecido producto de la contaminación que se vive en dicho centro de salud. Sus nombres eran: Deivis Perez, Rafael Velasquez y Cristhian Malave. Varias de las madres que aparecen en el video denunciaban la situación mientras sus hijos aún vivían.
At the time this video was recorded, three children (Raziel Juare, Samuel Becerra, and Dilfred Jimenez) had died and Daniel Laya died during the filming, tragically infected with bacteria. The audiovisual piece was presented in auditorium Number 163 before the CIDH celebrated the fifth of July, 2017 in Lima, Perú by CECODAP, Prepara Familia, and Judith Bront, the mother of Samuel Becerra, one of the dead children. Since then, three more children have died due to the contamination in that hospital. Their names were: Deivis Perez, Rafael Velasquez, and Cristhian Malave. Some of the mothers who appear in this video made complaints about the situation while their children were still alive.
As 2017 comes to an end, the hospital continues to be contaminated. The public prosecutor's response has been to request the closure of the unit and the transfer of the patients to other hospitals. A court dedicated to the protection of children has called on the public prosecutor to guarantee access to the medical treatments that the patients need. Nevertheless, Katherine Martínez, president of the organization Prepara Familia, denied that the unit had been closed. According to Martínez,
The ward and the dialysis clinic continue to be in operation because this is the only unit left in the country that takes pediatric patients who weigh less than 20 kilos.
The mothers of the victims continue to come together at the wakes and meetings. They also continue protesting, and trying to make this situation visible to international authorities. The video was presented to the Court of Interamerican Human Rights, the largest human rights organization on the continent before the Venezuelan government left it in 2013. Seeing how the prosecutor's instructions were not complied, it is unknown if the government will take an active role in solving this emergency, as it seems priorities are focused on the political disputes that divide the country.

author: Luis Carlos Diaz


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A Game of Inches: Watch the Georgian Try That Sent Rugby Fans Into Raptures · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Photo by Flickr user Paata Vardanashvili. CC 2.0.
The ex-Soviet nation of Georgia is gradually building itself a reputation as an emerging force in the sport of Rugby Union. Moments like this one help that cause.
Georgia was already beating Canada by a comfortable margin — 40 points to 22 — when the Caucasus country's full back Soso Matiashvili decided he fancied some more.
The fan-powered sports blog Pundit Arena described Soso Matiashvili's second try of the game that took place in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on November 11 as “a piece of individual brilliance from the 24-year-old.”
Matiashvili spotted some space in the Canadian backfield and kicked the ball deep from the halfway line. He used his blistering pace to catch up with the ball and spectacularly dove on it just before it went dead – incredible.
In Rugby Union a try is scored “when a player touches the ball down inside the opposition's in-goal area between the try line and dead ball line.” Matiashvili got just enough contact on the ball at just the right time. Al Pacino, famous for his “Game of Inches” speech in the American Football-themed movie Any Given Sunday, would surely have approved.
He wouldn't be alone. Despite the fact that the friendly game that finished 54-22 in Georgia's favour was of little consequence, fans of the sport piled in on the Georgian Rugby Federation's tweet hailing the try:
Wooooow! I wish I had seen this in real time. The speed those legs were pumping at, to reach the ball. AND ground it! Amazing! Bravo ?????? #Try!
— Paula Tauetama (@Sam_chic3) November 12, 2017
This is the reason rugby is one of the best sport in the universe. That attempt was pure dedication and he nailed it ??✌
— aman (@natafarian) November 12, 2017
pic.twitter.com/cPo9485JdN
— მარიამ ბლანკო (@marrmadridista) November 12, 2017
Canadian outlet the Province hailed Matiashvili and his team in a sober reflection on the defeat:
The Canadians did a fine job in the first half on defence, disrupting more than one Georgian attacking move but that strength fell away in the second half.
Georgia played with pace and power and the Canadians struggled to match. Tbilisi has never been a kind venue for visitors so that’s something for Canada to point to, but it’s also worth noting the last encounter in the Georgian capital four years ago was a narrow four-point victory for the home team, a game which might have been a Canadian win but for a moment of extreme violence by the Lelos that turned the game on its side.
It’s also worth noting Soso Matiashvili was deadly for Georgia, recording 34 points including a spectacular chased-down try. The 24 year old was electric with the boot, bringing a backline dimension we’ve not always seen from Georgia.
The bigger picture question that will linger after the gifs disappear from social media timelines is where Georgia's national team can go from here.
Since rugby world rankings were first introduced in 2003 the country's worst rank has been 23rd and its best 11th. They are presently 12th and peering in on a top ten that includes all the sport's traditional powers, topped off by the indomitable ‘All Blacks’ of New Zealand.
In 2019, Georgia will come up against three teams from that elite in the form of Australia, Fiji and Wales in the tournament's ‘Pool D’.
A win against any of those would be something of a quantum leap for Georgian rugby.
After all, previous iterations of the tournament failed to deliver the big scalp that local fans of the sport have been waiting for.
But following Soso Matiashvili's incredible try, the impossible might suddenly seem possible for the Caucasus team.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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How a Female Scientist Became a Symbol of Resistance to Sexism in Kyrgyzstan · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Screenshot from YouTube video “Asel Sartbaeva Discusses Thermally Stable Vaccines” uploaded by X, the moonshot factory on Jan 8, 2015.
When a prominent businessman set Kyrgyzstan's social media space alight by calling female leadership “nonsense” and equating feminism with “terrorism”, it was a woman scientist from the Central Asian country who provided the perfect response.
Biochemist Asel Sartbaeva and the British University of Bath triumphed in the Biotechnology Award category at the IChemE Global Awards ceremony held in Birmingham on November 2, delighting compatriots in her homeland.
According to IChemE, Bath’s Biotechnology project spearheaded by Sartbaeva “uses silica to protect vaccines from spoiling, and reduces the need for cold-storage equipment.”
In the video below, Sartbaeva describes how she first became interested in developing a technology that IChemE says “could go on to save millions of lives” by keeping vaccines secure in unconnected locations.
After the birth of my daughter I took her to the doctor to be vaccinated. The doctor took the vaccine out of the fridge and was going to administer it. And I naively thought he was going to warm it up. But he said, “No, no, no, because if we warm it up it would denature.”
And I thought, OK, I know nothing about vaccines, so I started searching and found out that vaccines need to be stored in refrigerators all the time. That is when I thought I can maybe use silicon to cage them so they don't unfold.
The news of the award came just days after Babur Tolbayev, the founder of one the country's most successful micro-credit institutions made waves by comparing feminism to “terrorism” and calling the idea of female leadership “nonsense.”
In an interview with a local talk show, Tolbayev, whose Mol Bulak company lends money in Russia as well as Kyrgyzstan, said:
Многие женщины хотят быть супербизнесвумэн, лидерами — это все хрень, извиняюсь. Феминизм — это терроризм, это та же форма радикализма
Many women want to be superbusiness-women, leaders. Sorry, but this is all nonsense. Feminism — is terrorism. A form of radicalism.
Screenshot from YouTube video “Asel Sartbaeva Discusses Thermally Stable Vaccines” uploaded by X, the moonshot factory on Jan 8, 2015. Here Sartbaeva is filmed with her daughter.
As journalist Bermet Talant kyzy noted in a blog, these were strange words coming from a man whose business includes several female top managers and has provided countless loans to a mostly female client base, including for start-ups.
Talant kyzy concluded that Tolbayev, who styles himself as a philanthropist, was “a big hypocrite”:
Все женщины, очевидно, делятся для Тольбаева на две категории: те, кто его обслуживает, как его жена, и те, за счет которых он наращивает свое богатство, как сотрудницы его компании и клиентки.
Seemingly, women for Tolbayev can be divided into two categories: those that serve him, like his wife, and those who help him increase his wealth, like his company's staff and clients.
On social media, links to Tolbayev's interview circulated for days.
In a Facebook post, children's author Altyn Kapalova accused Tolbayev of misunderstanding feminism and came up with a name for a character based on him that may yet feature in one of her books:
В стотысячный раз повторяю:
Феминизм – это не поклонение каким-то взглядам, феминизм – это простые адекватные действия в реальности, которые не ограничивают женщину, но и не привилегируют ее. #корольразбросанныхносков
For the 100,000th time I repeat:
Feminism is not an adherence to some kind of views. Feminism is simple and normal practical actions that neither restrict nor privelige women. #TheKingofDiscardedSocks
Screenshot from YouTube video “Asel Sartbaeva Discusses Thermally Stable Vaccines” uploaded by X, the moonshot factory on Jan 8, 2015.
Asel Kubanysh, an education specialist reasoned:
Понимаю, когда-то мужчины были добытчиками. Когда нужно было уметь убивать животного, бегать с копьем на руках и тд. Но с того времени, столько воды утекло как говорится…
Сегодня, не надо кормить женщину. Так и так видим, на примере трудовых мигрантов, как женщина кормит целые семьи…. И это, заметьте, женщина делает практически в наихудших условиях… в дали от детей, без никаких соцпакетов и тд. А теперь представьте, каких успехов достигла бы женщина имей она поддержку мужа, семьи и государства.
I understand that at one point men were hunter-gatherers, ran around with clubs and so on. But a lot of things have happened since then. Today, a woman doesn't need feeding [by a man]. We see this in the context of Kyrgyz labour migrants, when sometimes a female migrant is feeding whole families. And these are things that women achieve in some of the worst imaginable conditions. Now imagine what kind of successes a woman would have if she enjoyed the support of her husband, family and the state.
MP Elvira Surabaldieva fumed on Twitter:
Чего удивляться. Бабур Тольбаев – типичный представитель КГ бизнес- среды. Для которых женщина- человек 2- сорта.
— Elvira Surabaldieva (@ElviraSur) October 31, 2017
Where is the surprise? Babur Tolbayev is a typical representative of Kyrgyz business circles, for whom a woman is second-grade human.
Tolbayev subsequently attempted to explain his remarks. He acknowledged that his comparison between feminism and terrorism was an “exaggeration”, and claimed he stood for “a correctly implemented gender policy” that allowed men and women to pursue their own life and career goals equally.
Nevertheless, he argued, women were the “foundation of the family”, which justified his comments during the interview that having a family is “better than any MBA” for a woman, and that women should try to “have as many children as possible” before they reach the ages of 35 to 40.
Understandably, few were convinced by the backtrack:
After stunningly sexist outburst, KG bank boss responds with more of the same, but phrased differently. https://t.co/pK8SO5VEf4
— DeirdreTynan (@DeirdreTynan) November 1, 2017
Just days later, however, with the news of Asel Sartbaeva's award, Kyrgyz women had an example of exceptional leadership to celebrate, as well as an excuse to troll Tolobayev on social media:
Rimma Sultanova's post (on the left) says “Women in Science” and is addressed to Tolbayev. Umetai Davluetayeva's post (on the right) says, “Take that patriarchs! A woman scientist is saving lives while you make judgments on how to correctly collect dirty socks!”
Altyn Kapalova's post (left) says: “Such cool news! I have been walking about with pride as if I developed this new technology by myself! Probably, this is a terrible nightmare for the King of Discarded Socks.”
To find out more about Dr. Sartbaeva's journey to the forefront of international science, read this interview with her on the website of the Royal Society of Chemistry.


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Facebook’s ‘Explore Feed’ Experiment Is Hurting Small Businesses, NGOs, and Political Groups in Cambodia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

An Internet shop in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Flickr photo by Melissa Gira (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
On October 19, 2017, Facebook began testing a new system for its newsfeed in Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala and Cambodia.
In the experiment, Facebook users only see posts from their friends (alongside sponsored content) in their regular News Feed. Updates from news outlets, NGOs, political parties and other groups that they follow on Facebook will not appear unless they click a new button, named “Explore Feed”.
Facebook page owners must pay if they want their content promoted in the regular News Feed.
This experiment has drastically reduced the number of visitors and engagements of Facebook pages, especially the online activity of small businesses, non-government organizations, and political groups that cannot afford to pay for content promotion.
Adam Mosseri, head of Facebook’s News Feed, explained why the company is conducting this experiment, which is expected to last for several months:
We always listen to our community about ways we might improve News Feed. People tell us they want an easier way to see posts from friends and family. We are testing having one dedicated space for people to keep up with their friends and family, and another separate space, called Explore, with posts from pages.
The goal of this test is to understand if people prefer to have separate places for personal and public content. We will hear what people say about the experience to understand if it’s an idea worth pursuing any further.
In Cambodia, the experiment appears to have generated major losses of traffic for several Facebook pages belonging to news outlets, online stores, NGOs, and political parties. According to news reports, Facebook pages in Cambodia recorded losing up to 60 percent of visitors and engagements after the launch of the “Explore Feed” button.
Facebook’s experiment comes at a tense time in Cambodia, with the country's ruling party facing accusations of silencing the opposition, independent media, and NGOs ahead of the 2018 general elections. The sudden disappearance of posts from independent news sources and opposition parties in Cambodians’ Facebook News Feeds has exacerbated the problem.
Cambodia has almost five million Facebook users out of a total population of 15 million. In a survey conducted in 2016, it was revealed that most Cambodians are now getting their news from Facebook.
Jaime Gill, a freelance communications adviser working with several NGOs, summarized the impact of Facebook’s experiment in Cambodia:
By slicing news out of people’s feeds and sending it to a content graveyard where stories are buried, Facebook has cut off a source of information for millions of Cambodians. With a pivotal election rapidly approaching, it’s a worrying time for such an experiment.
The big international NGOs just gained another advantage in the battle for awareness and funds. They already have the money to spend substantial amounts promoting posts on Facebook; now they’ll be even more prominent in newsfeeds. Not so for smaller NGOs.
Tharum Bun, a social media analyst, wrote that ordinary Facebook users in Cambodia probably didn’t notice Facebook’s experiment:
I think the majority of Cambodians may not notice this tweak. What matters is that they still see that Facebook is working and feeding them the content they want to consume. If the social networking site were having a one-hour downtime, the public will get angry much more than this introduction of the Explore Feed.
But even if this is the case, Facebook’s experiment deprived many people of information by making it difficult for groups with limited resources to boost their content on the popular social media platform.
The experiment could also undermine the social media initiatives of NGOs, independent media, and the political opposition. These groups have been relying on Facebook in recent years to counter the propaganda machinery of the ruling party which has been in power for more than three decades.
Facebook has yet to release a statement about the result of its experiment.

author: Mong Palatino


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In India, Class and Gender Inequities Impede Justice for Sexual Harassment Victims · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Image via Pixabay by Surdumihail. Creative Commons CC0.
The #MeToo campaign that encourages women to speak up about their experiences of sexual assault harassment has been a catalyst for such accusations across political, professional and geographic spectrums.
An especially powerful and controversial trend in this moment is one among people who have created public lists of accused perpetrators of sexual misconduct.
On 24 October 2017, a law student in the US published just such a list on Facebook. Raya Sarkar, a Singaporean national who is studying law in the US, published the names of 58 academicians at 29 universities, mostly in India, who students accused of sexual harassment or assault.
Sarkar, who prefers the pronouns they/them, crowdsourced the list through their friends and networks, and collected evidence from each victim in order to verify their allegations.
The published list has been seen by many as an attempt to pull back the curtain and speak openly about the issue of sexual harassment in India's academic sector. In an interview with BBC, Raya Sarkar explained that this initiative was an attempt at making friends and colleagues wary of the people who have a history of sexual misconduct. The aim, they said, was just to help people feel safe.
Raya Sarkar told BuzzFeed that the published list was based on evidence collected by one-on-communication with each victim — this includes messages, screenshots, and testimonials. Sarkar has not published any of this evidence, on grounds that maintaining the confidentiality of the evidence is imperative until victims choose to make their accusations public. But they also have encouraged victims to file reports with police and other relevant authorities, writing on Facebook:
If you are a victim of sexual harassment go file an FIR (police report). No internal committee nonsense. Go straight to court. Internal committees will exhaust you harder than courts, speaking from 1st hand experience.
Since sexual harassment is a punishable crime in India, a complaint can be filed against the harasser.
While many saw this move by Raya Sarkar as quite a bold one, others were skeptical of the tactic. Deepanjana Pal writes in NewsLaundry:
Viewed from a legal perspective, Sarkar’s list inhabits an ethical danger zone. The complainants are anonymous, the charges are vague and the only definite detail is the name of the accused.
In an article for Daily O, Sumit Mitra explained that the main factor is that there seems to be a lack of answerability since the victims of harassment have not come forward to share their stories.
But many on Twitter have made the point that it is difficult for victims to do this without harming their own reputations or becoming vulnerable to further threats:
If we were in a world where being on an anonymous list did anything to your reputation or career, anonymous lists wouldn't even be needed.
— Warlizard from the Warlizard gaming forums. (@AroonDeep) November 2, 2017
Horrible irony alert: Raya Sarkar faces death, rape threats after sexual predators’ list takes academia by storm https://t.co/1faZfa4uNH
— Zeynep Arsel (@zeyneparsel) November 6, 2017
The list has also received mixed opinions from feminists. A group of 12 feminists published a statement on the Kafila Online blog, wherein they appealed to the contributors of the list to either retract it, or work within the proper course of law and justice. They echoed the view of some legal experts who raised concern about the lack of public evidence:
It worries us that anybody can be named anonymously, with lack of answerability. Where there are genuine complaints, there are institutions and procedures, which we should utilize. We too know the process is harsh and often tilted against the complainant. We remain committed to strengthening these processes. At the same time, abiding by the principles of natural justice, we remain committed to due process, which is fair and just.
This manner of naming can delegitimize the long struggle against sexual harassment, and make our task as feminists more difficult.
Responses to the letter reflected concern about the system of due process that the Kafila group referenced. One commenter, identified as “Officious Fool”, wrote:
…what incentive does someone, who has nothing but her first-hand experience to back her statement, have to speak up against these people who wield such immense power in academic circles? The intent to strengthen redressal mechanisms need not delegitimise personal accounts. Please don’t discourage people from speaking out. And please don’t say “due process” if you can’t vouch for the protection of those who do come forward.
The list and responses to it also hint at other underlying issues in Indian society and culture. Most of the professors named in the list hail from the upper castes in the Hindu caste system, demonstrating an often unacknowledged aspect of the prevailing hegemony of the upper caste in Indian society.
Sudhamshu Mitra posted a message of support for Sarkar's initiative on Facebook. Mitra, who is an engineer in Bangalore, expressed initial unease with the list. But he then reasoned that Sarkar's tactic was a deft one in the face of class and gender divides in India:
…in my experience, upper caste men(including me), who talk about feminist ideals, or who have gained immense academic stature, can easily find a way out of the current justice system. Because the entire justice system itself is aligned towards keeping patriarchy and caste system intact.
For instance, if my name was on the list, or if someone accused me of sexual harassment, I doubt many would believe that because of the conversations I engage in with respect to masculinity and feminism. That's how much power I possess. An “upper” caste man proclaiming progressive ideas is put on a pedestal in our society. But others who constantly engage in politics of daily lives and raise issues on inequality and oppression are not even listened to.
While social media voices continue to debate the issue, most universities have refused to respond or explained that they will investigate the accusations independently.

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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Jamaican Women Demand the Right to ‘Bare Arms’ at Government Offices · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Would this bare-armed woman be allowed into a public building in Jamaica? If the current dress code status quo remains, probably not. Photo by flickr user AntonSLarsson, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Jamaica is a hot country, and with climate change it's getting hotter. On August 3, 2017, the country's meteorological service registered a record high of 36.9 degrees Celsius in Kingston, the capital.
So, with all this heat, why do Jamaican women (and men) need to cover their arms (and legs, and feet) when visiting a government office or institution? Because of a set of dress codes — an issue that was recently raised on Twitter, with traditional media quickly catching on to the debate.
The discussion is not at all new. In 2010, The Gleaner newspaper reported that the dress code pertaining to government entities was not even relaxed in emergencies. In one instance, this resulted in the death of a woman who “was killed minutes after she was reportedly turned away from a police station because she was instructed by a policeman to get ‘properly dressed’ before entering the station.”
Several years ago, there were persistent complaints in the media, including this 2014 letter to The Gleaner newspaper, in which the writer concluded, “Perhaps Jamaica would now be First World if we stopped majoring in the minor.”
Columnist Garth Rattray also noted:
Even grief-stricken parents and relatives are turned away from public hospitals if they are deemed to be inappropriately attired. Most of the time, one's attire is the very last thing on one's mind when a loved one is seriously ill. It is heartless to turn away someone for wearing the same clothes that they would wear in any city capital.
The dress codes for government institutions are ridiculous, hypocritical, unfair, sectarian, archaic, bigoted nonsense. It's time to get rid of them. Short of exposing private parts, I can't imagine how one's attire can influence the way that business is conducted on government property.
In fact, there is no Jamaican law prohibiting sleeveless dress for men or women; but almost all government agencies have a notice on the door stating that the dress code includes (but is not limited to): strapless blouses, sleeveless blouses, tank tops, low cut blouses, short mini skirts, tube tops, shorts (for women); and shorts, slippers, low-slung pants, undershirts (for men). The list of prohibited items for women is usually longer.
The discussion was revived via a Facebook post by University of the West Indies professor Verene Shepherd, which was shared on Twitter:
Can we have a discussion about this nonsense colonial mindset in an independent state? @findpatria @KemeshaKelly_ @djmillerJA pic.twitter.com/nHpVGmckke
— L.A. West-Blackwood (@garveygirl) October 31, 2017
There followed a slew of personal anecdotes from Jamaicans, who had visited government offices and were turned away:
Went to get a yellow fever shot, after waiting 20 mins to register, was told that I couldn’t get the shot because my top was sleeveless
— Melanie Schwapp (@melsdew) October 31, 2017
A friend was turned away from a govt office because he was wearing slippers while suffering from a foot ailment even with a doctor's note.
— Warren Smith (@warrenlsmith_jm) November 2, 2017
Even television reporters visiting a government-run open air greenhouse were not immune:
#tvjallangles went to RADA to buy seedlings… we were denied entry because one of us was wearing a sleeveless dress…
— Rochelle McBean (@rocheeboo) November 9, 2017
The same television station devoted its weekly current affairs program to the topic:
There are Jamaicans who are being denied services that they are entitled to because of these dress codes, says @garveygirl. Yes, a serious issue to be addressed. @djmillerJA #TVJAllAngles pic.twitter.com/RGlDLYGfpw
— Susan Goffe (@suezeecue) November 9, 2017
The host of the show took the opportunity to make a “sartorial statement” in the studio:
#SleevelessInStudio pic.twitter.com/utBXQBuNS4
— Dionne JacksonMiller (@djmillerJA) November 6, 2017
Some noted the double standards in Jamaicans’ adherence to — or disregard for — rules. Broadcaster and educator Fae Ellington tweeted:
It's amazing how many Jamaicans are quick to utter ‘rules is/are rules’ when it's a discussion about women's sleeveless outfits but often break rules that could cause death. For example, the rules of the road. ‘Mout mek cross way if seh anyting’. #Rulesarerules
— Fae A. Ellington (@FaeEllington) November 9, 2017
One tweeter referred to a British comedian, who portrays an overdressed rapper:
In #Jamaica offices and state buildings, women are expected to dress like #BigShaq ? No sah! #armsout we deserve the #RightToBareArms pic.twitter.com/lkcqIPORr1
— Isis Semaj-Hall (@IsisSemajHall) November 10, 2017
However, not all Jamaicans were opposed to the dress code. One of the arguments for the “no bare arms” policy was hygiene:
Good morning to everybody, except those who make a big stink about having to dress properly to go into ppl's offices…have a care for the workers who don't wish to interact with your underarms…
— Griot (@RealDuttyMan) November 9, 2017
The perspiration argument was refuted by some:
Sleeveless can't be less hygienic than sleeves. The heat while wearing clothes creates more sweat, and that is the best bacteria growing environment. #tvjallangles
— Finding Me-o (@MarioRBoothe) November 9, 2017
However, many Jamaicans were quite happy to follow the rules, as one television viewer noted:
It is striking how many people in the vox pop said “Rules are rules.” #sleeveless #TVJAllAngles @djmillerJA pic.twitter.com/69f2DbUwHO
— Susan Goffe (@suezeecue) November 9, 2017
Will there be an online petition? Not yet, it seems, although one television commentator mentioned plans to post one on the Office of the Prime Minister's Jamaica House Petition portal:
Donna Scott-Mottley says she has a volunteer who is going to set up an online OPM petition re the sleeveless rule. @djmillerJA #TVJAllAngles pic.twitter.com/r0Q9r5gSA5
— Susan Goffe (@suezeecue) November 9, 2017
However, most of the current petitions are currently languishing with very few votes between them. So far, there are none on the dress code issue.
Nevertheless, an informal online media poll showed 72% of readers supported the relaxation of the sleeveless rule.
Latching on to the social media discussion, the Jamaica Observer consulted with a well-known human rights lawyer, Bert Samuels, who suggested that refusing to grant entry to public buildings because people are dressed in sleeveless clothing “could offend their constitutional right to liberty, freedom of association and freedom of movement”. He added that the legislation which addresses clothing is the indecent exposure law, which is really intended to prohibit the exposure of private parts.
Fellow attorney Hilaire Sobers commented on Facebook:
Time for my legal profession to challenge this nonsense in the courts.
The newspaper featured the contentious issue on its front page:
Unconstitutional and colonial! No Jamaican must be denied access to public Services based on this nonsense rule. ???? pic.twitter.com/RB5KoZvgN4
— L.A. West-Blackwood (@garveygirl) November 6, 2017
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are always Jamaican entrepreneurs (whom some might call “hustlers”) ready to profit from the situation, with some renting appropriate clothing outside some government offices.
While former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, was well-known and admired for her sleeveless fashions, overseas-based educator Grace Virtue likened the dress code to “Trumpism”:
Trumpism : When you live in a tropical country (96 degrees in the shade…) and thick long-sleeved lined polyester suits are accepted as proper dress code and a sleeveless shirt is a violation. Trump is a metaphor – for ignorance and the utterly absurd! I don't even know about the legality but I am certain of the stupidity!
It is notable that this is not a purely Jamaican phenomenon; according to a number of online sources, including this post from Barbados, it is common elsewhere in the English-speaking Caribbean.
There has been very little response from any government agency or institution to the most recent uproar over the rules. Apart from social media outrage, there has also been very little in terms of action, which may suggest that this may continue to be an unresolved issue two or three years’ from now.

author: Emma Lewis


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Video Games Are the Latest Additions to Russian Infowarfare · Global Voices
Christopher Moldes

Collage by Christopher Moldes. Used with permission.
On November 14, 2017, the latest efforts in the information war appeared on Twitter, when The Russian Ministry of Defense published “irrefutable evidence” of US – ISIS cooperation. The tweet purported to show drone footage of ISIS convoys moving under US protection. There was just one problem — none of it was real.
As investigative search network, Bellingcat, and the Conflict Intelligence Team point out, four of the five pictures were from Iraqi military aerial footage, and the fifth…from the computer game, “AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron.”
The @mod_russia uses images from a computer game as evidence the US is working with ISIS https://t.co/8uv2vbEHeQ pic.twitter.com/EvqP1Id5pR
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) 14 ноября 2017 г.
The Russian Ministry of Defense swiftly deleted the tweets, but not before Russian users presented their own mocking evidence of American wrongdoing in Syria:
Министерство обороны РФ предоставило неоспоримые доказательства того, как военные США минируют жилые кварталы в Алеппо pic.twitter.com/WIb5tzsMn2
— за сингулярность (@the_outreach) 14 ноября 2017 г.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation presented irrefutable evidence of American soldiers mining residential areas in Aleppo. [screenshot: Bomberman]
Presidential hopeful Alexey Navalny weighed in:
Извините, тоже поучаствую во флэшмобе.
Минобороны РФ предъявило неоспоримые доказательства использования американцами специального вируса, меняющего сексуальную ориентацию солдат: pic.twitter.com/Wxv72sERK1
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) 14 ноября 2017 г.
Sorry, I’m also going to make a meme.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation presented irrefutable evidence of Americans using a special virus that changes soldiers’ sexual orientation. [the picture is of Trevor Philips from Grand Theft Auto V]
Others helped the Ministry of Defense by hailing the actions of Russian forces in the area:
Минобороны опубликовало уникальные кадры спецоперации ССО РФ в Сирии pic.twitter.com/2uQqMkOLn7
— Д///ИХАД (@tvjihad) 14 ноября 2017 г.
The Ministry of Defense published exclusive photos of Russian Special Operations’ covert ops in Syria [the picture is from the controversial “No Russian” mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]
This last Twitter account, TV Jihad, is a well-known satirical Twitter personality lampooning the liberal, independent news channel TV Dozhd. In a typical tongue-in-cheek fashion, they jokingly broke the news that ISIS had claimed responsibility for the Ministry of Defence’s post:
Исламское государство наконец-то взяло на себя ответственность за фейки Минобороны pic.twitter.com/TFAKiLQOw0
— Д///ИХАД (@tvjihad) 14 ноября 2017 г.
Relying on Allah, brother Vanka Erokhin, also known as Abu Al-Kukhul Ar-Rusi, posted video game screenshots to the Ministry of Defense’s Twitter, so as to debase the kafirs (non-believers) and shatter their reputation. All glory to Allah!
Although the original tweets were deleted, many were left wondering how anything like this could have been given the go-ahead by the Russian ministry in the first place:
General: What are you doing soldier, playing a computer game!?
Corporal: No sir, it's, uh, um … footage of the Americans protecting ISIS!
General: Excellent! Get that to the media department ASAP! https://t.co/HLquaNKnsV
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) 14 ноября 2017 г.
Even pro-Kremlin bloggers were outraged. One said:
Минобороны выдало скриншот из игры за “неоспоримое доказательство” сотрудничества США с ИГ https://t.co/FNqCXxqBgs
Лавры Захаровой кому-то не дают покоя (
— Илья Ремесло (@iremeslo) 14 ноября 2017 г.
The Ministry of Defense passed off video game screenshots as “irrefutable evidence” of US cooperation with ISIS. Zakharova’s [Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, known for her blunders and gaffes] laurels aren’t leaving someone in peace. This speaks to the recent dispute about Zakharova’s “honest mistake.” This is what happens when “honest mistakes” are forgiven. Do you like it? For some reason the bots are silent, downright surprising.
Others saw this as another move in Russia’s continuing eleven-dimensional chess in the information war with the West:
Love our @bellingcat commenters. Russia's Defense Ministry shares photo of a video game saying it's the US helping ISIS, and our beloved commenter says… https://t.co/mDv03uAv4g pic.twitter.com/OMKWQOe9mi
— Aric Toler (@AricToler) 14 ноября 2017 г.
Despite backlash against the fake photographs, Rossiya 24, a Russian state-owned TV network, aired a news segment about the “irrefutable proof” anyway:
Russian state TV regurgitated the Defense Ministry’s videogame-based “evidence” that America is working with ISIS. pic.twitter.com/99JeuKfpVS
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) 14 ноября 2017 г.
“We begin with a message from the Russian Ministry of Defense: the US-led international coalition is supporting ISIS terrorists and working together with them. This is confirmed by photos taken on November 9th by Russian drones during the liberation of Abu Kamel. The pictures show armed ISIS formations running from Russian airstrikes in kilometer-long convoys, heading towards the Syrian-Iraqi border. To ensure the safety of the retreating fighters, the coalition’s air forces tried to run interference against Russian warplanes in the area. These facts are irrefutable confirmation that the US is providing cover for ISIS units and is using them to promote American interests in the Middle East.”
The Ministry of Defense later put out a statement:
Минобороны России проводит проверку в отношении гражданского сотрудника одного из подразделений, ошибочно прикрепившего фотоматериалы к заявлению военного ведомства о взаимодействии возглавляемой США международной коалиции и боевиков ИГИЛ* в районе аль-Букемаля (Сирия)
Russia’s Defense Ministry is conducting a review in relation to a subdivision’s civilian employee, who mistakenly attached photographic materials to the military administration’s statement on cooperation between the US-led intenational coalition and ISIS fighters in the Abu Kamel region in Syria.
The Defense Ministry went on to say that the US’s refusal to carry out airstrikes on the convoy and interference against Russian warplanes is a fact borne out by official transcripts. This is not the first time tensions have arisen between US and Russian forces over whether or not to carry out attacks on convoys.  Earlier in September, during a weeks-long standoff with a convoy transporting not only ISIS fighters, but also fleeing civilians, Russian officials had requested that their American counterparts pull their air assets back, apparently standard procedure so the Russian planes could carry out strikes. This was the deconfliction process at work, whereby both the US and Russia could ensure their forces do not strike one another in the fight against ISIS. American drones and warplanes had been harassing the convoy from the get-go, but as the conflict drew on, the Americans acquiesced and pulled all air reconnaissance units out. Since this particular convoy was crossing into Iraqi territory from Lebanon, it seems that a deal had been struck between the Assad government and the respective governments. As Assad's allies, the Russians were perhaps using the deconfliction process to facilitate the convoy's movement. No Russian airstrikes took place. By pulling back their air assets, the Americans therefore let the convoy reach its destination.  This is not the first time a deal of this sort has been struck; the BBC wrote an exposé about a secret deal with coalition forces that allowed another such convoy to leave Raqqa with thousands of ISIS fighters and their families.
As for the latest Russian tweet, the Russian Defense Ministry eventually posted a new one with the “correct” images. Some commentators were still doubtful that they amounted to much, however:
Российские беспилотники в Сирии умеют делать гораздо более качественные фотки с таймстампами, а «неоспоримое подтверждение» 2.0 — это нарезка с видео, причем непонятно когда снятого (таймстамп обрезан). pic.twitter.com/5iUH7tu96b
— Содомский лайк (@Mortis_Banned) 14 ноября 2017 г.
Russian drones in Syria can take much higher-quality photos with time-stamps, but this “irrefutable evidence” 2.0 is a still from a video and it’s not clear when it was shot (the timestamp’s been cut out).
Social media users may have had some fun with this, but others wondered if this is the kind of intel the commander in chief himself, Vladimir Putin, is getting from his agencies. Because there are definitely reasons to believe that this might be the case.

author: Christopher Moldes


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When Citizens Rejected a Ban on WhatsApp and Telegram, Afghan Officials Backed Down · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Image sourced from Max Pixel. CC0 Public Domain
A failed ban of two popular messaging apps has highlighted both the Afghan government's security concerns and the increasingly influential voices of Internet users in the country of 35 million people.
In an official letter, the Ministry of Information and Technology on November 1 ordered Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block WhatsApp and Telegram, both of which have gained a strong foothold in the country with the rise of mobile internet connectivity.
By November 2, a major state-owned telecoms company had blocked the apps, and criticism of the decision — mostly manifested on Facebook — rose to a loud crescendo. Within days, the country's two top government officials, President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, met and overturned the ban.
The Ministry's letter called for an immediate 20-day test ban on the messaging apps without delay, but did not offer a reason for the action. The deputy director of the telecoms regulatory authority, a sub-office of the Ministry of Information and Technology, told the BBC that the ban was due to “security reasons.”
In recent years, Afghanistan's government has been overwhelmed by a militant insurgency that has grown fiercer as key militant groups, notably the Taliban, have splintered into competing factions.
The Taliban reportedly uses both WhatsApp and Telegram for their end-to-end encryption features, but the group is not alone in this choice. In July 2017, Facebook (the parent company of WhatsApp) reported that more than one billion people use the application every day.
There is no available data for the number of WhatsApp users in Afghanistan, but the app is known to be popular in cities where mobile internet is relatively reliable including Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The Taliban maintains a presence close to all five cities, while groups that have claimed loyalty to ISIS are active close to Jalalabad.
Among the roughly six million users of social media in the country, the ban was seen as an attempt at censorship rather than a security precaution, as well as an implicit threat to the much more treasured online resource of Facebook.
Habib Khan, a journalist, spoke out against the ban:
Say NO to government censorship!
Blocking What's App & Telegram is just the beginning of government's censorship. If it's not resisted, soon the gov't will block Facebook, Twitter and other social media and messaging platforms.
Such bans contradict democratic values and norms and compromise on the citizens’ freedom.
Global Voices contributor Maisam Iltaf questioned the 20-day timeframe:
I wonder, what is the magical 20 behind the ridiculous ban?@WhatsApp @telegram #Afg
— Maisam Iltaf (@MaisamIltaf) November 3, 2017
Parwiz Kawa, who edits the country's largest newspaper Hasht e subh Daily, told the BBC that the country was an open society:
The public reaction – including our own front page – is to resist. We can’t tolerate any ban on social media or any censorship… If the Taliban or others are using these services, find out who is using them, don’t ban them- that’s very sensitive at this stage of Afghanistan’s development.
While Mukhtar Wafayee, a renowned investigative journalist, presented Afghan President Ashraf Ghani with an ultimatum:
حک می‌کنیم.
صف حاکمان مستبد باید مشخص باشد. اگر فرمان مسدود ساختن تلگرام و واتساپ پس گرفته نشده و از مسدود شدن صفحات مشخص شده‌ی فیسبوک جلوگیری نشود، نام اشرف غنی نیز در کنار دیکتاتورهای سرکوبگری همچون علی خامنه‌یی، رجب طیب اردوغان، رابرت موگابه، پوتین، کیم جونگ اون، بشار اسد، شاه عربستان و ده‌ها تن دیگر از دشمنان آزادی بیان اضافه می‌شود.
…the order must be immediately withdrawn, otherwise we will put Ghani’s name in line with dictators like Putin, Bashar Assad, Kim Jong Un and many more.
Not long after the public outcry, the decision was reversed. The office of President Ashraf Ghani put out a sunny press release, highlighting the constitution's guarantee of free speech.
“The National Unity Government considers itself responsible for [free speech]… The government will not allow any address or institution to impose a ban on the tools related to freedom of speech.”
President @ashrafghani and Chief Executive Abdullah met today & decided that there will be no ban on Whatsapp & Telegram in #Afghanistan.
— Dr. Abdullah (@afgexecutive) November 6, 2017
This isn't the first time the government has betrayed nervousness over tools of mass communication.
In 2014, ISPs appeared to ignore a government request to block Facebook during a prolonged election dispute. The government argued Facebook accounts were adding to political tensions by posting provocative content. Afghan users of the service decried the attempted block.


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#StopTheCrackdownVN: Global Groups Call for Human Rights Protection in Vietnam · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Human rights groups are calling for the release of 165 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
Global civil society organizations (CSOs) have launched a series  initiatives to highlight Vietnam’s alarming human rights situation.
The NOW! campaign, founded by 14 human rights organizations, calls for the immediate release of 165 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam. The campaign has established a comprehensive online database containing information about Vietnam’s prisoners of conscience.
According to the database, Vietnam’s prisoners of conscience included bloggers, journalists, environmentalists, students, farmers, and workers who were arrested for their peaceful activism.
Together, these men and women are serving 955 years and one month in prison, followed by 204 years under house arrest.
Most of them were charged with violating article 79 of the criminal law, “plotting to overthrow the government”, and article 88, “conducting propaganda against the state”.
But Civil Rights Defenders, one of the members of the NOW! campaign, said that the number of prisoners of conscience could be higher:
The government’s near total control of media in Vietnam and the secrecy that surrounds the arrests and jailing of certain prisoners of conscience, especially those from ethnic minority groups, mean that it is often difficult to find information about cases of prisoners of conscience and it is impossible to state definitively that all prisoners on conscience in the country have been identified.
A letter signed by 17 CSOs urged leaders who attended the 2017 summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Vietnam to raise the issue of human rights violations committed by state forces. The letter informed APEC leaders that Vietnam has detained at least 25 peaceful activists and bloggers since last year.
This crackdown is contrary to the goal of “Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future” which is the stated theme of this year’s APEC gathering. Arbitrary detention, censorship, and state-sponsored violence against activists and human rights defenders are not only an affront to our common humanity but a grave violation of international human rights laws and standards.
We believe it is in the strong interest of APEC and of the international community to speak out against the widespread and systematic violations of human rights violations in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Nguyễn Bảo Nguyên, daughter of detained dissident blogger Me Nam (Mother Mushroom) wrote a letter addressed to Melania Trump seeking help in securing the release of her mother. The United States First Lady joined President Donald Trump in Vietnam during the APEC summit.
I’ve read on the social media and knew that your family will be visiting Vietnam during APEC summit. My birthday is only a few more days away. It’s going to be another birthday that my brother Gấu (Bear 4-year-old) and I will have to be without my Mom. We love Mommy very much and just want Mommy to be home with us.
Nine human rights groups launched the #StopTheCrackdownVN campaign decrying the crackdown of bloggers and activists in recent months and the harsh prison terms handed out to critics of the state.
Don Le, a writer and member of Viet Tan political party, explained how the notorious articles 79 and 88 of the law are used by authorities to silence citizens:
The law also allows authorities to filter, block or temporarily shutdown networks on the basis of any information that may be seen to “incite” mass gatherings that disturb national security and order. Given the Vietnamese government’s broad interpretation of national security, we might expect to see more attacks and shutdowns aimed at independent media and bloggers and arrests of peaceful community mobilisers.
Even the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement last July expressing concern about the detention and persecution of citizen journalists:
We urge the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release all those detained in connection with their exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, and to amend the overly broad ill-defined laws that are used – under the pretext of national security – to crack down on dissent.


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Women Die in Childbirth in Rural India, Where Hospitals Lack Doctors · Global Voices
VideoVolunteers

A rural medical facility remains shut due to lack of doctors. Screenshot via a VideoVolunteer report.
This post was written by Madhura Chakraborty and originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organization based in India. An edited version is published below as part of a partnership with Global Voices.
In many rural areas of India, many women suffer during childbirth or even die due to a lack of medical personnel or services.
India has succeeded in recent years in reducing the high maternal mortality rate (MMR). Still, about five women die every hour in India from complications developed during childbirth.
The main reasons for maternal mortality are unattended births (with no medical professionals), poor health infrastructure, scarcity of specialists and emergency obstetric services, and most importantly, shortage of doctors in rural areas. According to a study by the Lancet, a UK medical journal:
As of March 2015, 8 percent of India’s 25,300 primary health centers had no doctor. More than 80 percent of community health centers, where specialists practice, had no surgeons; 76 percent had no obstetricians and gynecologists, and 82 percent had no pediatricians.
One of the reasons for this is that most doctors choose to work in cities, rather than move to rural areas. Video Volunteers’ community correspondent from West Bengal Jahanara Bibi reports:
Basanti Roy is an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)in Badalpur village of South Dinajpur District in the Indian state of West Bengal. ASHAs are community health workers, organized by the government of India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, who play a pivotal role in ensuring positive maternal health outcomes. But Basanti could not save her own relative:
She was my nephew’s wife. I called the ambulance before her labor pain started but it arrived late. First I took her to the hospital at Rashidpur. There was a delay. Then we took her to the hospital in Kaldigi where they were able to perform a cesarean section on her. After the operations, she started having convulsions. We shifted her to a bigger hospital in the neighboring district of Malda where she passed away.
Government health facilities in West Bengal have repeatedly come under the scanner. A 2014 study found that not only is there a shortage of doctors in the hospitals, but the facilities were also underperforming and inefficient.
The situation in Badalpur is illustrative of this scenario. The primary health center (PHC) there serves a population of 50,000 when government rules mandate that there should be one PHC per 20,000 people. Further, the PHC is operational only between 9 am and 2 pm. Ailing patients have to travel up to 20 kilometers to the next government health facility.
Video Volunteers community correspondent Jahanara Bibi’s report reveals that pregnant women fare the worst due to the prevailing situation. Poor connectivity and bad roads further delay ambulances and women in labor end up giving birth at home or on their way to the hospital. Lakshmi Barman’s daughter-in-law gave birth at home. Lakshmi Barman says:
Ambulances are always late. We kept calling but it arrived an hour later. My daughter-in-law had already given birth. We took the mother and child to the hospital and they stayed there for three days. We had to spend quite a lot of money, about 5,000 Indian Rupees (US$76). If we didn’t have to spend so much we could have cared for her nutrition better.
The government’s Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) program claims to provide free maternal health and delivery services in addition to a cash incentive of 1,400 Indian Rupees (US$21) to women in rural India who choose to give birth at government health facilities. But in areas like Badalpur where basic facilities are not available, poor families end up spending a large chunk of their income on out-of-pocket expenditures.
According to another report by community correspondent Shambhulal Khatik, government health facilities are ill-equipped to deal with complicated cases of childbirth and are plagued with a shortage of qualified staff. In the vacuum created by the absence of such health facilities, unscrupulous private clinics have started charging exorbitant fees to poor people.
Shambhulal reports that Pushpa Bai, a mother of five children living in a rural area in Rajasthan, died during the birth of a stillborn child due to systemic lapses and negligence in rural healthcare infrastructure.
When Pushpa Bai felt labor pain, her husband Shantilal Lohar took her to the nearest district hospital in an ambulance. There were no doctors in the hospital. Nurses examined her and told her she had two more days to go before her delivery and once again she was sent home.
The very next day she started experiencing excruciating pain. Shantilal hired a car and drove Pushpa to the nearest private clinic, five kilometers away, not choosing to trust the government health facilities. The doctor examined her and started the treatment assuring that everything was fine, the baby was fine. Three hours later their stillborn child was delivered. Pushpa started bleeding in the process and was referred to a district hospital with better facilities and doctors. She eventually died due to blood loss as the final private hospital she was admitted in did not have enough blood in their bank to make up for the continuous blood loss.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) reveals that health expenditure in a low-income household is often the cause of indebtedness and impoverishment, with hospitalization costing up to 20 times the monthly income in the poorest households.
The government health institutions lack doctors and reports point to poor working conditions or inadequate professional incentives as the reason for not many doctors wanting to work in rural areas.
What is even more frustrating in the case of Badalpur is that a new hospital, with facilities like inpatient department, doctors’ living quarters and other facilities, was constructed in 2014. But it lies vacant with its fully air-conditioned wards and state-of-the-art equipment because doctors are not willing to get posted in this remote village. While the government of West Bengal has enacted stringent laws to combat medical negligence in private hospitals and nursing homes, more clearly needs to be done to improve services provided through the state health care facilities.

author: VideoVolunteers


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“Cementazo” Scandal Tarnishes Costa Rican Presidential Election · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís. Image on Flickr by user UN Women (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Costa Rica is just months away from a presidential election, set to take place on February 4, 2018. However, the road to the polls seems to be growing darker due to a complex political scandal that reveals the presence and extent of corruption in Costa Rica.
The scandal, popularly known as “Cementazo” (roughly translated as “huge cement blow”), is a puzzle with various pieces: an alleged import deal of cement from China, a dubious loan structure, an amendment of the import rules, and a complex network of people that goes all the way up to the Presidency.
By mid-2017, a series of investigations exposed irregularities in what totaled up to a US $31.5 million loan that the state-owned Bank of Costa Rica (Banco de Costa Rica or BCR) made to real estate developer, Juan Carlos Bolaños, and his firm, Sinocem Costa Rica to import cement from China.
The website CRHoy.com published a 20-minute audio of a conversation that allegedly involved Bolaños and then BCR assistant director, Guillermo Quesada:
Esta grabación […] explica un supuesto plan para evadir el pago de un préstamo de $20.000.000 que hizo el Banco de Costa Rica con fondos públicos a un empresario importador de cemento y cuya garantía -en caso de no pagarse- son miles de toneladas de cemento importado desde China. El audio […] según varias fuentes, tendría a algunos políticos, diputados y empresarios diseñando estrategias para lograr una salida “honrosa”. [Como consecuencia] La presidenta del BCR [renunció] al puesto.
This recording […] explains an alleged scheme to avoid paying a $20,000,000 loan that Bank of Costa Rica gave to a cement import businessman with public funds, using as collateral –in case of default– thousands of tons of cement imported from China. The audio […] as per various sources, apparently has some politicians, congressmen and businessmen planning strategies for an “honorable” way out. [As a consequence of all this] The head of BCR [resigned] from her position.
CRHoy also stated that investigations revealed complex influence peddling. It seems there is no information on the whereabouts of the imported cement, which was also the collateral given to BCR for it to approve the loan. Also the “relationship the businessman has with members of all state branches, including congressmen, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Presidential House, as well as members of different political parties”, is under scrutiny.
Bolaños has defended himself by arguing that the loan and the collateral for importing the cement were intended to “put and end to a duopoly” in the local cement industry. According to Bolaños, the Cemex and Holcim duopoly set cement's market prices and manage the industry.
In fact, the duopoly was indeed threatened with the import of cement from China. Import rules which favored the duopoly by targeting foreign cargo — in this case cement — were lifted to allow Sinocem’s Chinese cement shipment to enter Costa Rica while the cement was still en route, on the behest of very high profile political figures. Without the help of these powerful figures, the Chinese cement would not have complied with the tight import restrictions mandated by Costa Rican law, why then did the Bank of Costa Rica sign off on a loan for an import that would otherwise not be allowed to enter the country?
Bolaños insisted he has been a victim of multinational corporations and that his main interest was to provide Costa Rican people with cheaper high-quality cement, putting an end to the duopoly. His claims weren't enough. Juan Carlos Bolaños was arrested in the early hours of November 3 of this year while he was on his way to his estate in Santa Eulalia de Atenas, 40 kilometers from Costa Rican capital, San José.
After Bolaños, other figures that belonged to the state branches fell down too. Besides the resignation of Paola Mora Tumminelli as BCR chair (although not from the board of directors) as well as several managers from the bank, on October 18, 2017, the Supreme Court ruled for a three-month suspension for Courtroom III judge, Celso Gamboa, to investigate his relations with businessman Bolaños. Just days earlier, on October 13, that same legal body had suspended, for three months also, General Prosecutor Jorge Chavarría, to investigate the alleged concealment of evidence during the process.
Outrage is everywhere in the online sphere. Hashtags like #cementazo [huge cement blow], #cementazoCR [huge cement blow in Costa Rica] and #YoNoTengoAmigos [I have no friends], quoting a phrase by President Solís before the Congress Commission that visited him to get his version of events, became trending topics:
¡Bienvenidos al circo! Donde los dueños son los payasos y creen que los del público somos los animales ??♂#YoNoTengoAmigos pic.twitter.com/2mexucAIiL
— T H O M A S (@TmsVgs) 7 de noviembre de 2017
About the statements by independent congressman Victor Hugo Morales Zapata on November 6, the Presidential House reaffirms the President of the Republic has no friends and has acted solely on behalf of national interests.
———-
Welcome to the circus! Where the clowns are the owners who believe the public are the animals. ??
I have no friends.
Buen consejo para los de #CementazoCR, empiecen a ser querendones para que les vaya menos piorsh… https://t.co/0fMPsUIEkY
— Olman Rímola (@OlmanRimola) 7 de noviembre de 2017
A piece of advice to all those involved in “Cementazo”: start being affectionate among you guys, so things get a little less bad for you
New developments happen daily, revealing the involvement of more and more high profile people connected to Bolaños in business relations or friendships:
Todos están involucrados, y el primero que debería dar la cara es el presidente y no esconderse co. No tengo amigos ???♀#CementazoCR
— MaJo✨ (@mari_jot14) 7 de noviembre de 2017
They are all involved. The first one who should face the consequences instead of hiding is the president. I have no friends. ???♀
¡Luis Guillermo hoy negando hasta al Papa!#YoNoTengoAmigos https://t.co/9kxog1wrlN
— Revolucion Liberal ® (@RevLiberal) 7 de noviembre de 2017
[President] Luis Guillermo [Solís] today denies [knowing] even the Pope [Francis].
On the discussion of the case and its implications, Medium website author, ¡Seás Tinta!, says they notice an over-simplification of the scandal considering the hashtags. They also argue that these kinds of cases need deeper reflections and less headlines that divert attention from more long-lasting consequences:
Rebajar la discusión, identificar culpables, simplificar un fenómeno complejo, destruir reputaciones, esconder el verdadero tráfico de influencias y promover intereses ajenos a los de las mayorías. ¿Quién va a confiar en un banco público ahora? ¿Quién va a querer pagar más impuestos después de que se ve “regalar plata” a un empresario? ¿Cómo sostener la obra pública a través de un fideicomiso? ¿Cómo vamos a seguir modernizando la economía con duopolios que ya no están en discusión?
Bringing down the discussion, identifying the culprits, simplifying a complex phenomenon, destroying reputations, concealing the real traffic of influences and promoting others’ vested interests. Who will trust a public bank now? Who will want to pay more taxes after what's seen as “giving away money” to one businessman? How to fund public works with a trust? How are we going to go on modernizing the economy with duopolies that are no longer under discussion?
Recently, and during his recovery from surgery, President Solís uploaded a video on Facebook where he repeats he has no friends, and in case someone acted on his behalf, they did it without president's consent:
Screen Shot of President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera's video on Facebook.
I said the truth and I stick with it.
Uploaded by Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, on Tuesday. November 7, 2017.
Clearly, public opinion about the Costa Rican representatives has been the first victim of this scandal. Results of a survey carried out on October 2017, show an evident change in the public's perception about government corruption. Although unemployment is still a main issue in Costa Rica, corruption jumped to first position on the list of concerns for Costa Ricans.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Many Taiwanese Say Taiwan Representation at China’s National Congress Was Simply Beijing Propaganda · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Taiwan-born delegate of 19th CCP Congress, Lu Li'an. Chinese state-owned Xinhua photo.
Mainland China and Taiwan have a rocky relationship. Taiwan is a de facto political entity that has operated independently from mainland China since 1949, when the Kuomintang forces were defeated by the Communists in the civil war and retreated to Taiwan. Beijing has never recognized Taiwan's independent status and vows to one day “reunite” China and reclaim the territory.
So at first glance, it might seem unusual that Beijing arranges for Taiwan representatives to attend the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) every five years.
However, the presence of Taiwan delegates at the event is intended as a political demonstration of Beijing's “one China” principle. In the past, these so-called Taiwan representatives were born in mainland China.
In a break with tradition, the chosen Taiwan delegate at the 19th National Congress held in October 2017, Lu Li'an, was actually born and educated in Taiwan — before she went to China to work as a professor.
Nevertheless, many Taiwanese saw her participation as inane, given that Taiwan is not ruled by China, and a political move meant to pressure Taiwan into accepting Beijing's understanding of the “one China” principle and suppressing the pro-independence movements in Taiwan.
Since Taiwan has been colonized by different countries throughout its history, Taiwanese defectors are not unheard of. Lu is not the first person (and will not be the last one) leveraged like this. Yifu Lin, for example, who served as the chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank from 2008 to 2012, swam to mainland China in 1979 when he was a military officer in Taiwan.
While Lu's presence at the CCP's National Congress was largely considered a joke in Taiwan, it did touch on the the serious issue of nationality for Taiwanese working in China. Taiwanese law prohibits  Taiwanese from establishing a residence or holding a Chinese passport, or taking positions in the CCP, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or the Chinese civil service. Given that Lu holds a Chinese passport and became a delegate at the CCP's National Congress, the Taiwan government decided to revoke her citizenship.
At the same time, Taiwan's National Security Bureau also announced that they will examine the status of another 19 Taiwanese who have taken positions in the CCP or the People's Liberation Army.
To further fire up the discussions in Taiwan, two Taiwanese graduate students from Beijing University publicly declared that they wanted to join the CCP not long after the National Congress.
One of them did so in a letter published on Guancha, an online news and comments aggregator. In it, he claimed that he wants to join the CCP because speech freedom is limited, thought is monopolized, and democracy is controlled by a few people in Taiwan.
The student's letter was widely condemned in Taiwan, given that Taiwan is ranked 45 and China is ranked 176 in 2017 World Press Freedom Index and Taiwanese voted to choose their president and legislators directly.
Given that Beijing's goal is to eventually regain control over Taiwan, Joyce Yen, the founder of publishing house Ars Longa Press, explained on Facebook that these two students won't benefit the CCP like Lu does:
請注意，她不是自己申請加入，是上海統戰部長沙海林介紹她加入的。
像她這種刻意挑出來做樣板的，模樣好不好，講話得不得體，都非常重要。[…]
這兩天嚷嚷要入黨的那兩位台生，別說他們資歷不可能讓共產黨看上眼，光看相貌還有談吐，就差太多了吧。你以為你努力嫌台灣，講中共好話，中共就會看上你 ?
錯 ! […]你還沒入黨就得罪台灣人，你對中共能有什麼統戰價值 ?
Please notice that [Lu Li'an] did not apply to be a delegate. It is Sha Hailin, the director of the United Front Work Department in Shanghai, who introduced her for this position.
To be chosen as an example for this position, her outlook and communication skills are seriously evaluated.
Regarding those two Taiwanese students who claimed to join the Chinese Communist Party, aside from their background, their outlook and communication skills are too far below the standard. Do they think that the Communist Party would like you only because you say good things about it?
Wrong answer! […] If you upset Taiwanese before you join the Chinese Communist Party, what use are you to their United Front?
The United Front Work Department is one of five departments directly under the CCP's Central Committee which orchestrates soft power policies at home and abroad. It has a bureau that works on the “one country, two systems” political relationship between China and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, and recruits the pro-China Taiwanese.
Yi-Luo People, a mainland Chinese exchange student in Taiwan, argued on Facebook that the Taiwan-born Beijing University students were motivated by material interest to denounce Taiwan:
賣台，實際上賣的是臺獨，臺獨運動越來越好，中國政府的統戰經費也就越來越高。[…]
『顯然，即使我足夠無恥，作為河南人的我並不能靠出賣河南從黨國那裏得到如此巨大的利益。同樣任何一個北京人，上海人，四川人或廣東人也不能靠出賣他們的家鄉獲取利益。而台灣人與我們最大的區別是無論中國政府如何宣稱台灣是中國的一部分，台灣仍然是實質獨立的國家，擁有自己的政府和軍隊，與歐美列強的外交關係也不受中國控制。』
When they say they are selling Taiwan, it is actually Taiwan’s independence movement on sale. When the pro-independence movement in Taiwan becomes stronger, Beijing will pay more and more to build up a united front in Taiwan.
[Quote from the writer's letter to local media outlet] “As a Henan-born Chinese, it is obvious that I cannot get what they get from the Chinese Communist Party even if I shamelessly sell out my homeland. It is the same for anyone born in Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, or Guangdong. What Taiwanese differ from us is that Taiwan is a de facto independent country and has its own government, military, and diplomatic interactions with those Euro-American countries no matter how Beijing claims it to be part of China.’
Putting border politics aside, the controversy surrounding Lu has put many Taiwanese in a difficult situation. While neither Taiwan nor China allows dual citizenship, quite a number of Taiwanese working in mainland China or couples married across the Taiwan Strait have attained citizenship in China. If they are forced to choose between the two, they must either give up their work in mainland China or conform to Chinese patriotic sentiment, which expects a person to love the country more than their homeland.
Even CCP delegate Lu Li'an faced criticism from mainland Chinese patriots when she told a Taiwanese reporter during the CCP Congress that “I love Taiwan, and I love China as my home country, too.” Her answer was viewed by some mainland Chinese as “politically incorrect”. A Weibo user called “Lazy-fish-play-in-Weibo” explained the logic of Lu's critics:
持这样观点的人认为，卢丽安“爱台湾，也爱大陆”，这话他感觉不顺耳，“也”，就是第二，就没有把大陆摆到第一的位置，其次，是把台湾从大陆分裂出去了[…]该作者甚至拿出来范本，说卢丽安应该说，我爱中国，台湾是中国的一部分，或者只是一个省，我也爱台湾，因为她是中国的领土所以我也爱台湾
People who [criticized Lu's answer], Lu's response “I love Taiwan, and I love China too” does not sound right. They don't like the word “too” because they interpreted “too” as the second place. Which means she had not put China in the first place. Secondly, she seems to separate Taiwan from China. […] This author even prepared a model answer for her. S/he suggested Lu say, “I love China, and I love Taiwan as part (or a province) of China, [or] I also love Taiwan because it belongs to China.”
After Tsai Ing-Wen, who is the leader of Taiwan's pro-independence party, won the presidential election in 2016, Beijing cut off diplomatic dialogue with the Taiwanese government and pressured other countries to end their relations. On the other hand, China's United Front Work Department has tried very hard to win support from elites in Taiwan. Recently, China's Fujian Province claimed to open 1,000 positions in universities for Taiwanese academics to apply. To apply or not to apply for the positions — the choice will be both personal and political.

author: I-fan Lin


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The Winner Is: Same Sex Marriage Equality in Australia · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Australia votes YES to same sex marriage. Mashup: Screenshot ABC News, GetUp! tweet and LGBT flag map courtesy Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Australian electors have voted strongly in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.
A total of 61.6% said ‘yes’ to the postal survey question: ‘Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?’.
There was much rejoicing all round, especially on social media:
? THANK YOU ?
This all happened because of you.
We did this together. pic.twitter.com/4vWuIj9bpB
— AU Marriage Equality (@AMEquality) November 14, 2017
Australia votes YES ?? #MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/rN3aQRExOz
— Sydney Opera House (@SydOperaHouse) November 15, 2017
Author and progressive commentator Jane Caro spoke for many ‘yes’ voters:
First bloody vote result in years that made me feel like reasonable, kind, compassionate people are still the clear majority. Thank you yes voters #marriageequality
— Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) November 14, 2017
Despite the government survey being voluntary, 79.5% of registered voters took part. Voting in Australian elections is normally compulsory with a turnout of approximately 90%.
Changing the Marriage Act is up to parliamentarians and does not require constitutional amendments. After the Senate rejected a bill to hold a compulsory plebiscite, the government decided to use administrative measures to conduct a voluntary, non-binding postal survey. The budget was $AU 122 million (about 95 million US dollars).
However, most lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) activists opposed this process as unnecessary, costly and promoting homophobia. Liam Esler posted some reasons for his anger on Twitter in August:
Australia is a secular nation, where the most common religion is none. We are not in the year 1900. Marriage is a legal vehicle, not a religious one.
For those who say religion is a voice that should be heard, religious leaders and people in Australia have had their say many, many times. Despite this, a clear majority of Australians, based on polling data, support marriage equality. Polling is far more accurate and fair than any postal vote (which favours those over the age of 50, coincidentally the demographic most likely to vote against marriage equality).
Civil rights are not something that should be voted on by the public. They're civil rights. We are one of the last progressive countries to legalise marriage equality, despite the rhetoric that we are one of the most progressive countries in the world.
I've been with my partner for over ten years. Frankly, I'm tired of having my legal and civil rights debated by people who tell me my sexuality is a choice and that I'm going to hell for something I can't control.
For the next three weeks all I'm going to see every day is people telling me how disgusting I am, how unnatural my relationship with my partner is, how my identity is THEIR business to preside in judgement over. The suicide rate for LGBTQI+ people will rise, as it has every time these issues come up. It causes real damage.
I am angry with my government for denying my civil rights, and then deciding to treat them as a political football. I'm angry with my government for demeaning me and the LGBTQI+ community by putting our civil rights to a public vote. I'm angry with my government for not dealing with this issue quickly and efficiently so we can move to other important issues that face our country — trans rights, homelessness, basic communications infrastructure.
I'm angry that it's 2017, and this is where we are.
In particular, it was regarded as harmful to members of their community, especially their mental health. Anti-vilification legislation was passed to try to lessen homophobic hate speech during the campaign.
Mental health was a recurring issue:
National Mental Health Commission co-chairs Allan Fels and Lucy Brogden say postal vote has heightened discrimination LGBTIQ people. pic.twitter.com/0txZKTSKOb
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) September 10, 2017
A Melbourne suburban health service expressed a note of relief afterwards:
SCH proud to be part of a Comm that stands for equality for all. Now a speedy resolution to what has been a harmful debate.#MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/UAq7TbTGI3
— Sunbury Comm Health (@SunburyCH) November 15, 2017
The plebiscite had been the policy of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a conservative and Catholic, before he was deposed by fellow Liberal Party member of parliament Malcolm Turnbull in 2015. Despite his open support for same-sex marriage, Turnbull continued with the idea as a way of placating the right-wing members of his coalition government. It was widely seen as a stalling tactic of the Christian conservatives. The Labor party opposition and the Greens supported a free vote in parliament.
Abbott was a major figure in the ‘no’ case. After the result, many remembered his role:
This pleases me greatly especially after Abbott claimed that a 40% no vote in the marriage law postal survey would be a “moral victory”. Would still love to see that no side shrink further! https://t.co/uMu2R6GvFM
— Rick Vaughn (@rickrdvaughn) November 14, 2017
David Marr, a veteran journalist and longtime critic of Abbott, has ignited lots of Twitter joy:
“For old men like me this is another step on a once-unimaginable journey”. Watch the moment David Marr and his partner Sebastian Tesoriero heard the result https://t.co/Dw5XMoFLXF #MarriageEquality #AustraliaSaidYES pic.twitter.com/d0czYRcjaB
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) November 15, 2017
So has Penny Wong, Labor leader in the Senate, who came out in 2002:
Penny Wong's reaction says everything #MarriageEquality pic.twitter.com/JYBXMYNbUs
— Daniel Bryant (@danielbryant) November 15, 2017
All that remains is for federal parliament to pass legislation, which is almost a certainty. The only wrangling may involve conservative proposals to roll back anti-discrimination laws over religious and conscientious objections. The new law is expected to be passed by parliament before the end of the year.
Naturally, iconic actor and activist Magda Szubanski was jubilant:
Thank you my darling!! ❤???????? https://t.co/udEf9dsCo2
— Magda Szubanski (@MagdaSzubanski) November 15, 2017
Her role in the campaign will be long remembered. In 2012 Magda came out on national TV with the intention to “supercharge the case for marriage equality”. It had immediate impact:
Magda Szubanski's crucial role in yes victory. #MarriageEquality. A good news story, @EminaMcLean https://t.co/kkmj4OPtnY
— Nathaniel Swain (@NathanielRSwain) November 15, 2017
After their online breakdown during the 2016 National Census, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has redeemed itself somewhat by spending only $AU 100 million (76 million US dollars), well under budget.
Wikipedia has a detailed background in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey article.
Yes to marriage equality. Image courtesy Amnesty International Australia

author: Kevin Rennie