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War knows no gender: Georgia’s female soldiers · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

Major Manana Kurdadze and Sergeant Nana Tskhadadze recall their colleague Zurab Begiashvili, who died in the 2008 August war. Both women served as military doctors during the war. All photos by Bach Adamia for Chai Khana. Reused with permission.
The following is a version of a partner post by Global Voices’ partner Chai-Khana.org. Text and photos by Bacho Adamia.
Georgian doctor Nana Tskhadadze is no stranger to war.
The 44-year-old sergeant served as a doctor in Iraq and was on the front lines in Tskhinvali during the 2008 August war between Russia and Georgia.
But despite the doctor’s experience, for many Georgians, Tskhadadze’s gender makes her an unlikely soldier.
Gender stereotypes are strong in Georgia, where many parents still raise little boys to think they have to be strong and brave and little girls should be kind and caring.
A small minority of women, like Tskhadadze, are bucking those traditions, however.
Tskhadadze did not grow up dreaming of the military. As a young girl in the village of Sviri, in Georgia’s southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region, she dreamed of becoming a doctor.
After graduating from Tbilisi State Medical University, she worked as part of the school’s faculty for five years. Eventually, however, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her brother and cousins and join the army.
In the beginning of her career, Tskhadadze served in the Kodjori Brigade as the head of the pharmacy. After that she worked as a military doctor for six years.  Eventually she was deployed to Iraq, where 2,800 Georgian troops ended up serving, mostly in the capital Baghdad.
Memories of the August 2008 war stir deep emotions for military doctors, who witnessed the death and suffering soldiers experienced on the frontline. “During a war, anything can happen. I could have been captured,” Dr. Nana Tskhadadze (left) says.
When the August 2008 war broke out, Georgia quickly withdrew its forces from Iraq. Tskhadadze was sent to Tskhinvali, the de-facto frontline where centrally administered Georgia meets with the Russia-backed breakaway territory of South Ossetia.
When she heard about her deployment, she felt she had more responsibility than her male colleagues.
“When they told us that war had started, I began thinking about what could happen. I knew that, as a woman, I had more responsibility. In a war, anything is possible and I might be captured,” she recalls, adding that her capture would be “shameful” for both her family and the country.
Moreover, unlike her male colleagues, Tskhadadze felt she had to hide her deployment from her parents, out of concern for their feelings. When she was sent to Tskhinvali, she lied to her parents, telling them she was being posted to a military hospital in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi.
Sergeant Tskhadadze bandages the arm of a soldier at Vaziani Base.
Ten years later, Tskhadadze can still recall the sound of the bombs and the ferocious heat on the frontline when it came under attack.
“We followed the medical team. There were four of us — two men and two women. We had to defend ourselves because they [Russian troops] opened fired from a deserted house. We helped our soldiers,” she says.
The situation deteriorated once Russian forces began an aerial bombardment.
“It was a real hell in the city. They were shooting from everywhere. Soldiers arranged a defence line so we could reach the wounded. On the way back, we had to do the same for them and they helped us rescue the wounded,” Tskhadadze says, adding that the men had felt encouraged when they saw their female colleagues on the frontline.
Dr. Nana Tskhadadze started as a civilian doctor but eventually joined the army, like her brother and cousins. She and other women in the military are challenging widely held gender stereotypes.
As they were heading away from the fighting, there was an explosion in the forest. Tskhadadze can remember the calls for help and grabbing her bag to help a soldier who had broken his leg.
“I stopped the bleeding and called for others to bring the stretcher. Right then the sky went orange. A wave shook me and I saw soldiers flying through the air. I fell over,” she says.
When she came to, everything was quiet and she saw dead bodies around her.
“Everyone around me was dead. I didn’t want to get captured and I started looking for my gun. I could not feel my shoulder. I thought I would not be able to get out of the woods.”
At some point, however, she realized that other Georgian soldiers were arriving on the scene to rescue them.
“They helped me. These scenes are etched in my memory,” she says.
Tskhadadze was taken to the Gori hospital with the other wounded soldiers. The trip to the hospital was the first time in her military career that she had felt afraid, she says.
“I was seriously injured but what I had witnessed was even worse than the physical pain. Since I survived that, I understood that I must continue living. A year later, I put my uniform back on and returned to the army,” Tskhadadze says.
Major Manana Kurdadze stands with soldiers in front of the sick ward named in honor of Lieutenant Zurab Begiashvili. Begiashvili died during the 2008 war. Kurdadze served as a doctor during the war and her own son was injured in the fighting.
Doctor Manana Kurdadze, 53, a major in the army, has been defending Georgia for over two decades.
She is known as the “brigade’s mother” in her unit. For the soldiers, Kurdadze is not only a doctor but also a friend, someone they can consult when they have problems.
“When you are a doctor you have a big responsibility but the biggest responsibility is to defend the peace. Serving the soldiers and serving the peace brings me happiness. I thank God that I can help our military,” says Kurdadze.
Like Tskhadadze, Kurdadze gets emotional when she remembers the 2008 war.
Dr. Manana Kurdadze, 53, is known as the mother of her brigade.
“When the air attack began, my friends and I were expecting something horrible to happen. They say that in those moments, you see your whole life in front of your eyes. But I didn’t see my life. I was just begging God for a miracle and for all of us to survive,” she recalls.
“When you witness war and see how people die, life becomes more valuable, love and friendships become more precious. I remember that I was hugging and kissing everyone when I returned home.”
Major Manana Kurdadze measures a soldier’s blood pressure at Vaziani Base.
Kurdadze, who has two children, says that her family’s support means a lot to her.
The scariest moment in the 2008 war for her was not from her time on the frontline, but rather when she learned her own son had been injured in battle.
Manana Kurdadze is set to retire soon and she finds it difficult to imagine her life outside the military.
Kurdadze believes that women and mothers have a special role in maintaining peace.
“A female doctor or a nurse is a mother. A mother is always associated with peace. A woman may not have a child but she still has a motherly instinct. When you are a woman serving in the military, you are responsible for every soldier. I think that there should be more women in the military because soldiers need someone who can take care of them and women can do that.”
Manana Kurdadze believes that military service builds inner strength.
Today, she is now facing a new challenge: retirement.
“I am 53-years-old. In two years, I will leave the military. I often wonder what I will do when I do not need to go to work at six in the morning and I won’t see my girls and my soldiers. I don’t know how I will survive.”
For more articles like this, see Chai Khana's special coverage section The Peace Builders.


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Crossing the Syrian-Turkish border: risks by the hour · Global Voices
Act For Ghouta

Migrants in Hungary, August 2015. Photo: Gémes Sándor/SzomSzed, Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia.
After the Assad regime forcibly moved residents of Eastern Ghouta to northern cities, some chose to stay within Syria's borders. But others chose to cross the border into Turkey and start a life far from war, bombs and death. Of those, some planned to move further, toward cities in the European Union.
Omar (not his real name) was one of those who chose refuge in Turkey. Instability, lack of security and the continuous fighting between the opposition factions, coupled with the lack of work opportunities or possibilities for higher education, pushed him to make such a decision. The 22-year-old arrived in Idlib, in northwestern Syria among the forcibly displaced masses from Eastern Ghouta.
Around two months after arriving in Idlib, Omar and a friend decided to seek a route into Turkey. He consulted with a trafficker who had helped one of Omar's friends cross into Turkey a few days earlier. The trafficker told him to go to a district in Syria called Zarzour to negotiate the details and fees.
As they had been instructed, Omar and his friend met the trafficker at the designated location and the three agreed to cross the Turkish border that night. The trafficker asked them to wait at a specified house, but he never showed up. A few hours later, five people arrived at the house and said that the Gendarmerie (Turkish law enforcement) had caught them and ordered them to return to Syria. They added that they were part of a bigger group that had been split into two. The bigger group of eight had gone first and had been lucky to have crossed the border unnoticed. For this smaller group, it was the tenth unsuccessful attempt.
According to the story they related, their journey had started in a minivan that transported them to Adduriyah, an area adjacent to the border wall, accompanied by a guide, a person who knows the road well and communicates through a mobile phone with a monitor. The monitor, in turn, monitors the movement of Turkish forces. The group was warned that the road was rugged and that they would have to jump over a wall and walk through sewers. The journey was interrupted by Turkish forces. Three members of that group decided not to take another chance and stayed in Syria.
The trafficker showed up the following day. He asked Omar and his friend to each pay $450, the figure Omar had been given beforehand. The trafficker told them to leave everything behind, including their luggage, as the journey would be rough. Omar initially refused, but eventually caved in after the others who had experienced this journey told him that bags become an immense burden while crossing the border.
The group that set out comprised four young men and two women. They climbed a hill to the wall along the border. After jumping over, the guide told them to run non-stop. They had to pull along the women, for whom the exertion soon became too difficult. The rough road was slick with mud, which made running more difficult as their feet got stuck in the wet earth. It was also strewn with thorns and flowing with dirty sewage water. Just as they were on the verge of crossing the border, the two women could not take it anymore and began yelling and crying.
The yelling drew the attention of Turkish forces, who arrived on the scene and fired shots in the air. The guide translated what the Turkish officers said. The officers took them to a military enclosure with a watchtower, very bright searchlights and a helicopter landing pad. The sat them down on the pad, along with another group that had been caught earlier.
A soldier took pictures of each of them with his mobile phone. Their names were taken and they were kept there until 3 a.m. Every now and then they were joined by other groups of Syrians who had been caught by the Turkish forces — men and women, old and young.
At 3 a.m., in the freezing cold, the group boarded buses back to the official Turkish-Syrian crossing point —a bitter reminder of a time not so long ago when they had boarded the buses that had forcibly removed them from Eastern Ghouta to Idlib.
At the crossing point they were transported in minivans back to the trafficker's house, which was packed with Syrians waiting to escape the country. There was barely space to sleep. The loud cries of children coupled with the screams of men and women prevented Omar and his friend from getting much-needed rest.
The following day at noon, the trafficker told them they were to cross during the daytime. As they approached the border area once more, they saw Turkish forces spread all along the border. They flatly refused to attempt the crossing, and the trafficker then agreed to push the journey back to the evening.
At 8 p.m., the trafficker returned them to the same place at the border. They waited in a grove of olive trees, 200 meters from the border, where many other groups of people were also waiting to make the crossing. The guide went to scout the route and reported back that they would have to wait — until 5 a.m. Trouble started brewing among the group, and people started yelling at the baffled guide, demanding that he take them back. The guide called the trafficker and told him that the road was not clear, that Turkish forces were heavily present, and that they were firing shots in the air. They waited there for one more hour and then returned to the trafficker's house.
Omar and his companions’ morale plummetted. They were tired, as they barely slept for three long nights. But they were determined to cross the border and decided to try another trafficker. They got their money back and headed to Silkin, 30 kilometers away from Zarzour, where they waited for the new trafficker.
After a while, a young man of only 18 arrived and identified himself as the trafficker. He took them to his house and explained the escape plan. He said that the crossing would only take an hour and that the danger zone was no more than 200 meters. If they could cross this stretch, they would successfully reach Turkey. The trafficker's family was very hospitable, his mother even prayed for them. The trafficker charged them $400 each and like the previous trafficker, told them they could not take any belongings.
It was the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. They washed up and set off on their journey before sunset. The guide arrived and explained the route. They were five people, split into two groups. They first had to cross the Orontes River on a small float made of plastic bottles lashed together and stuffed into a cloth bag. They waited for the calls for Maghreb prayer as Turkish soldiers would be busy breaking their fast and eating their Iftar meal, as the monitor had instructed the guide.
On the other bank spread fields of wheat. The guide led them, crawling along the ground over mud and thorns for half an hour until they reached asphalt. Then they sprinted over the 50-meter stretch between the asphalt road and the mountain. They kept on running as the road continued up the mountain. Half an hour later, the guide stopped and told them that they had just crossed the danger zone. They caught their breath and marched their way to a Turkish village. They took shelter in a safe house, where they would wait for a car to collect them the next day.
They washed and slept in the safe house. The following day, a Turkish man arrived and asked their destination — they said Istanbul. He charged them $200. The five men got into his car. Twenty-six hours later, they arrived at their final destination.
Omar is now contemplating a plan to get to Europe. Will he risk his life yet again in search of a better alternative to life in Syria?

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Act For Ghouta


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Donate to Global Voices—help us keep connecting the world · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to global generosity of all kinds, and we're hoping that Global Voices is one of the organizations whose work you'll support this year by making a donation.
Our organisation stands out as one of the earliest and strongest examples of how media committed to building community and defending human rights can positively influence the way people experience events happening beyond their own communities and national borders.
At Global Voices, we've built a strong and empathetic community by reporting stories and forging deep linkages across cultures, languages and differences of opinion. Our work over the past 13 years is proof that that human connections across lines of difference can change how people understand the world.
As people seek to understand how to live harmoniously in a difficult global environment, sharing and scaling our experience and expertise becomes an even more urgent part of our mission.
So please make a donation to help us continue the work of building bridges, to combat the forces of hatred and intolerance that threaten to make our world a less connected and hospitable place.
Donate now »

author: Georgia Popplewell


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How will Google plug into China’s all-encompassing internet censorship regime? · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

A Google music event in China, 2009. Photo by Keso via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
This post is published as part of an editorial partnership between Global Voices and Ranking Digital Rights.
The secret is out — Google is building a search engine for China.
After deflecting questions from reporters for months, CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged in October Google’s plan to build a mobile app that will serve Chinese users — and thus comply with Chinese government censorship mandates.
But big questions remain. Namely, how will this actually work? To keep the censors happy, Google will need to invest significant human, financial and technical resources to keep up with China’s unique and exhaustive approach to controlling online information and speech. While the company may be prepared to make some concessions (and substantial investments) in order to enter the Chinese market, this move will force Google to undermine its own commitments ”to advancing privacy and freedom of expression for [its] users around the world”.
In contrast to US-based companies, which are largely shielded from liability for illegal content, Chinese internet giants are obligated to proactively censor illegal and politically sensitive content and report it to the authorities. If Google does enter the Chinese market, it can expect to be held to the same standard.
What counts as an illegal content? This is dictated by the country’s far-reaching Cybersecurity Law, along with an ever-evolving set of demands from high-level party and government officials in the Cyberspace Administration.
China's Cybersecurity Law bans Internet users from publishing information that damages “national honor”, “disturbs economic or social order” or is aimed at “overthrowing the socialist system”. The law also requires internet companies to collect and verify users’ identities whenever they use major websites or services.
Censorship of politically-sensitive keywords is a powerful component of this system. Alongside terms that have long been outlawed, such as “human rights” and “Tiananmen Square”, there is a constant churn of new censorship requests from above, driven by current events and hot topics on social media. Earlier this year, for example, censors moved to ban phrases like “anti-sexual harassment” in the wake of the #metoo movement spreading to China.
In order to comply and keep up with state demands, large tech firms in China invest substantial financial and human resources into the work of keeping their sites “clean” and legal. Companies enlist layers of individuals as part of this effort, ranging from full-time employees to community “advisors” to “civilization volunteers” who promote positive messages about the Communist Party (and drown out negative ones). An unofficial estimate by a Japanese media outlet in 2014 put the number of people employed in the internet censorship sector at eight million.
Artificial intelligence is also becoming a bigger part of this industry, though there is still relatively little known about how companies are building censorship decision-making mechanisms into their systems.
For foreign companies like Google, there also are extra hurdles when it comes to data storage. As Google will be collecting user data (The Intercept reports that users in China will need to log in before they can search), the company will need to run a data center with a local partner, as per China’s Cybersecurity Law. Drawing on a leaked internal memo, The Intercept contends that the Chinese partner company would have “unilateral access” to users’ search data.
To keep up with these demands, Google may need to substantially change its model for content distribution and moderation, not to mention data collection. This will surely put Google’s principles of openness and preserving free speech to the test.
In its early years, Google did comply with censorship requests from the Chinese government. But it stopped censoring search results in China in 2010, after suffering a major cyber attack from within the country, that was aimed at Chinese human rights activists. After the attack, the company began directing traffic from mainland China to its Hong Kong version, which was relatively open, similar to the rest of the world. Within months, the company’s services were fully blocked in mainland China.
Google’s decision was applauded by internet freedom activists, both in and outside of China, and placed Google into a unique category. It became a company that chose to change its agenda (and likely lose profits) in order to protect human rights.
Google was forced to leave China in 2010. Image by Flickr user Josh Chin (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Isaac Mao, a Hong-Kong based entrepreneur and founder of Musicoin Project, looked back on the 2010 move: “Google’s action then enlightened a lot of people to pay attention to censorship issues, that [was] historical.”
Although Google officially removed its servers from China in 2010, it still maintains a presence in the Chinese market by investing in local startups and an artificial intelligence research center in Beijing. But the decision to bring its flagship products back to China, on the Chinese government’s terms, represents a true paradigm shift for the industry as a whole.
Mao sees Google’s plan to re-enter China as being entirely profit-driven.
“Chinese internet users suffer a lot and they really want to see Google hold a high level of morality… instead of just caring about the single digits of the market share,” he told us.
Alongside the changes that this will bring for Google, experts say this shift will encourage other tech companies (whose services are currently blocked in China) to seek their own share of the Chinese market.
“It would embolden other companies to also lower their human rights standards for the Chinese market. And then it becomes a race to the bottom,” said Yaqiu Wang, the China researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Lokman Tsui, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong who once worked for Google told us that the move will also make it easier for governments around the world to impose stricter censorship regimes on Google. He said:
“In negotiations with governments around the world, any government can now say, ‘you can do that kind of censorship for China, but you cannot do this for us?’”
Google’s decision to bring its flagship products back to the Chinese market is unsurprising and seems to correspond to a broader trend among major US companies. Facebook, LinkedIn and Apple, to name a few, have all sought to establish stronger footing in China in recent years — though only some have succeeded.
In 2014, LinkedIn launched a Chinese version of its service which prevents mainland users from accessing content forbidden by the Chinese government. Speaking with The Guardian after users complained about political content being blacked out on the site, LinkedIn Asia-Pacific staff member Roger Pua explained that this was intended “to protect the privacy and security of the member who posted that content.”
Apple products have long been available for purchase in China. Throughout the years, the tech giant has also been complicit in censoring its Chinese users by cracking down on VPNs, removing the New York Times app from its China store, and censoring the Taiwan flag emoji. In early 2018, Apple agreed to store user data locally to comply with the country’s 2017 Cybersecurity Law, in a move that was slammed by human rights groups and privacy advocates.
While both Apple and LinkedIn have encountered challenges along the way, it appears that for both companies, the strategic business decision to move into China has so far been effective. That said, neither of these companies have nearly as much power over what people say and see online as Google.
It is clear that Google’s executives and leadership are prioritising profit over openness in this move. What remains unclear now is how far is the company willing to go to get the Chinese government's blessing.
Google will be facing fierce competition from Chinese tech companies, and Baidu in particular which dominates the search engine market in the country. And while many users in China may be willing to switch to Google due to public disappointment with Baidu, Chinese companies have an edge: their close ties to the Chinese government.
Most Chinese companies “have very deep local or central government relationships, and in China the relationship is everything,” Mao said. “If they are not satisfied they can shut you down overnight.”
Chinese companies “have better relations with the Chinese government,” Tsui said. “This is something Google never will be better at, nor should they want to be better at that.”
In April this year, authorities ordered Toutiao or Today’s Headline, China’s most popular information platform, to shut down its affiliated social media application, NeihanShequ, which allowed users to submit jokes and riddles for others to comment on. NeihanShequ was banned on the grounds that it was “heading in a wrong direction with its vulgar and banal content.” This came despite a public apology from the company’s CEO Zhang Yiming who also promised that Toutiao will strengthen self-censorship measures by increasing the pre-screen staff team from 6,000 to 10,000 people.
Many of the largest tech companies in the country, including Baidu, even have a designated Communist Party branch within their office. In 2017, the government made a big push for companies to do this, offering them cash and other incentives in exchange for even more access to corporate activities and control.
Earlier this month, the micro-blogging platform Weibo gave 1,322 accounts affiliated with government entities including public security bureaus and cyberspace offices the direct authority to label posts as “rumors”. Weibo will not even play a role in the screening process.
It is difficult to imagine that Google would ever give Chinese authorities the ability to label its content, or that the Silicon Valley superpower would deign to establish a Chinese Communist Party branch within its own Beijing office. But the company will surely be asked to make substantial concessions to the government. So where will Google draw the line? If and when this happens, will the company be asked to leave?
These and many other unknowns leave many wondering if Google is really taking “a longer-term view” here, as its CEO maintains.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Russian rapper arrested and unexpectedly released after alleged Kremlin intervention · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Husky, a prominent Russian rapper, makes a cameo appearance in a music video mocking Vladimir Putin's speech about “spiritual bonds” // YouTube, screenshot by Runet Echo.
In late November, regional authorities in Krasnodar, a major city in Russia’s south, banned the concert of a popular rapper Husky (real name Dmitry Kuznetsov). Local police stormed the club where he was set to give a concert and arrested Husky when he attempted to perform on the roof of a car parked nearby. The rapper was then jailed and released shortly thereafter, which may have been the result of some people high in the Kremlin hierarchy being his fans. Despite this, Husky's career might still hang in the balance as Russian authorities continue to crack down on music that they find offensive.
Хаски арестован на 12 суток. Рэпера задержали в Краснодаре вечером 21 ноября. Он выступил с крыши машины перед зрителями, которых не пустили на его концерт в местном клубе. pic.twitter.com/1hY0LkspLY
— Meduza (@meduzaproject) 22 ноября 2018 г.
Husky has been jailed for 12 days. The rapper was apprehended in Krasnodar late on November 21. He performed on the roof of a car in front of a crowd of fans who were prevented from entering a local club for his scheduled show.
Husky was sentenced to 12 days in jail by a local court for petty hooliganism, with lawmakers calling for the ban of rap shows “promoting suicide and drug abuse.” The ban and his arrest are part of a larger Russian trend where local authorities are disrupting and banning music shows which they deem to be a destructive influence on the country’s youth.
Earlier, Husky made a prophetic cameo in a music video by another prominent Russian hip-hop band, Kasta. In the video called “The Bonds” (a mocking reference to Vladimir Putin’s 2012 state of the union speech where he bemoaned the lack of “spiritual staples” or “bonds” keeping the Russian society together), he played a young man in a tracksuit harassed by a policeman in the back of a paddy wagon.
On top of Husky’s legal troubles, Google censored Husky’s latest music video “Iuda” (Judas), with YouTube displaying a message to Russian users: “This video has been removed at the request of public authorities in your country.”
Баста: “На YouTube заблокирован клип Хаски “Иуда”. Сообщается, что это сделано по требованию государственных органов”. Товарищи из гос.органов-это ваш большой провал(((((((https://t.co/IS8ezW7Ab3 pic.twitter.com/0nvgrs0HCa
— The-Flow.ru (@theflowmag) 17 ноября 2018 г.
Basta [a popular rapper]: YouTube banned Husky’s video “Judas.” The message says that it was done at the request of public authorities. Dear government comrades, it’s a massive failure on your end (((((((
On November 26, Husky's fellow rappers staged an impromptu show in his support. Oxxxymiron, one of the most popular hip hop artists in Russia, posted an appeal on his Instagram page:
Я БУДУ ПЕТЬ СВОЮ МУЗЫКУ: Баста, Oxxxymiron, Noize MC. Концерт солидарности. В нашей стране участились отмены концертов и запугивание исполнителей. Артистов обвиняют в проблемах общества, ведь это проще, чем заняться решением этих самых проблем. Творчество – это отражение реальности, иногда кривое, иногда правдивое, но никак не сама реальность. Его нельзя понимать буквально. 12 суток ареста сейчас отбывает в Краснодаре рэпер Хаски, в чьих текстах увидели пропаганду того, чего там нет, заблокировали клип и сорвали ряд концертов. Его будущие концерты также находятся под угрозой срыва, а значит под вопросом как его свобода самовыражения, так и честный заработок. Это беспредел. Мы можем не разделять взглядов Хаски, не понимать его музыку или акционизм, но при этом должны принципиально поддержать его в этот сложный момент. Поэтому, раз он не в состоянии сейчас выступать и зарабатывать сам, мы выступим с концертом солидарности и перечислим ему всю выручку. Речь здесь не только и не столько о Хаски, сколько о всех нас и нашем будущем. Приходите и, даже если презираете хэштеги, поддержите нас в соцсетях хэштегом #ябудупетьсвоюмузыку. Билеты в кассе «Главклуба» и по ссылке в описании инсты. @noizemc @bastaakanoggano
Публикация от  Oxxxymiron (@norimyxxxo)
I'M GOING TO SING MY MUSIC: Basta, Oxxymiron, Noize MC. A solidarity concert. In our country there is an accelerating wave of cancelled shows and intimidation of performers. They are blamed for the society's ills, it's easier than fixing these very same issues. Art is a reflection of reality, sometimes it's twisted, sometimes it's true, but never the same as reality. It can't be interpreted in a literal way. In Krasnodar, Husky is currently serving 12 days for allegedly promoting something in his lyrics that simply isn't there. His video was banned [from YouTube] and several shows have been cancelled. His future shows are under threat of being cancelled as well, which means that not only his freedom of expression is in question, but his ability to make a living by honest means. It's lawlessness. We don't necessarily share Husky's views, understand his music or performances, but we must make a principled stand for his sake at this perilous moment. Which is why, since he himself is unable to perform and make a living, we are staging a show to express our solidarity, with all proceeds going towards his support. It's not just about Husky, but about us all and our future. Come, and even if you despise hashtags, support our show on social media by posting with a hashtag #imgoingtosingmymusic. Tickets are available at Glavclub's booking offices and by following a link on this Instagram's profile. @noizemc @bastaakanoggano
But Husky is no liberal minstrel. Before his rapping career took off, he was an editor at a loyalist TV show launched by Sergey Minayev, a popular writer, screenwriter and the current editor in chief of Esquire Russia. In addition to that, Husky expressed support for pro-Russian guerillas fighting a separatist war in Eastern Ukraine with Russia’s assistance. He even traveled to the front lines and attempted to join a separatist battalion, although not much came out of that, except for a few photographs and an impromptu performance for Arsen “Motorola” Pavlov, a notorious rebel commander assassinated in 2016.
So it came as no surprise that several pro-Kremlin figures, including Husky’s former boss Minayev, came to the rapper’s defense. Minayev went on on a Telegram channel run by the social media team of RT, a state-owned international news netwrk, to vent his frustration:
Это безумно талантливый, тонко чувствующий человек. Ничего и никого не боится, обладает обострённым чувством справедливости — и после всей славы, что на него обрушилась, ни на секунду не надел на себя корону. Всё, что происходит вокруг его концертов, — это дичайший бред. Дима сегодня один из главных музыкантов, не надо ему мешать творить.
He [Husky] is an immensely talented man with a keen appreciation of beauty. He doesn’t fear anything and anyone, has a profound sense of justice — and with all the fame that has been pouring on him he has not worn a crown for a second. Everything that’s been going on with his shows is sheer absurdity. Dima [short for Dmitry, Husky’s real name] is one of the biggest musicians of our generation, just let him be one.
Suddenly, Husky’s conviction was overturned and he was set free. RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan tweeted:
Теперь подробнее про Хаски. Инсайдик, как тут принято.
Хаски отпустили и впредь оставят, тьфу-тьфу-тьфу, в покое, исключительно потому, что два-три человека в АП, которые никогда не слышали о Хаски, однажды вечером услышали о Хаски, а также услышали, что с ним произошло …
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) 26 ноября 2018 г.
… и были, мммм, как бы это выразиться – возмущены произошедшим.
А когда два-три человека в АП возмущены произошедшим, обычно это произошедшее хорошо заканчивается.
— Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) 26 ноября 2018 г.
Now, a few details about Husky. A little inside view, as they say. Husky has been set free and in the future will be left alone, tap on wood, solely because some two or three members of the AP [Vladimir Putin’s administration], learned of his existence yesterday and what happened to him and were, let’s say, outraged. And when two or three people in the AP are outraged about something, it usually ends well.
Such blatant disregard for normal procedure — Simonyan in effect admitted that courts in Russia are completely subservient to the Kremlin — drew widespread condemnation and ridicule.
Главный редактор государственного информационного агентства Маргарита Симоньян: В России нет независимого суда, судом напрямую управляют из Администрации Президента.
— La Russie parle (@Russia_calls) 26 ноября 2018 г.
Editor in chief of a state news agency Margarita Simonyan: “There are no independent courts in Russia, all decisions are dictated directly from the president’s administration.”
But even despite this top-level intervention, Husky’s rapping career is still hanging in the balance. In late November, after Husky’s release from jail, his show in the town of Vologda was canceled after a local club reported threats of closure by the local police and prosecutor’s office.
видимо теперь хаски послушали 2-3 других сотрудников АП и такие «не, всё-таки нет»https://t.co/PuZLdJTcRX
— маша борзунова (@mborzunova) 27 ноября 2018 г.
apparently, 2-3 other members of the [presidential administration] gave Husky a listen and were like “hmmm no, maybe not”

author: RuNet Echo


text:
British national urges UK to ban Chinese state TV over role in forced confession · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

A drawing of Peter Humphrey’s forced confession. illustrated by Alexey Garmash via Hong Kong Free Press.
The following post was written by Kris Cheng and published on Hong Kong Free Press on November 23, 2018. The republication is based on a partnership agreement.
A British fraud investigator has filed a complaint with the UK's telecommunications authority against China Central Television (CCTV) for having helped to stage a forced confession in 2013 and 2014.
In 2013 and again in 2014, Peter Humphrey, a former Reuters journalist, was forced to confess on Chinese TV for crimes he had not committed, in an ordeal he says “will forever haunt him.”
Humphrey and his wife were hired by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to conduct an internal probe in the company's Chinese headquarters in January 2013. In July that year, Humphrey and Yu were detained and charged with “illegally acquiring personal information” of Chinese nationals.
Humphrey was forced to make confessions on state television in August 2013 and again in July 2014. Humphrey and Yu stood trial in August 2014 and were sentenced to 30 and 24 months in jail respectively. They were released in June 2015 following diplomatic pressure.
On November 23, 2018, he filed a complaint with the UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) in an attempt to revoke the UK license and credentials of CCTV and its international arm CGTN. If the complaint is upheld, China’s state broadcaster will be kicked out of the UK.
In his complaint, Humphrey says:
They drugged me, locked me to a tiger chair, and placed me and the chair inside a small metal cage. China Central Television journalists then aimed their cameras at me and recorded me supposedly reading out the answers already prepared for me by the police.
The complaint was filed mere weeks before's CCTV's opening of its European hub in Chiswick Park in London. It will be CCTV’s largest foreign bureau, reportedly with plans to base more than 300 staff.
Humphrey says he only raised the complaint years later because he had to undergo long-term cancer treatment after his release, as he was denied treatment while in prison. He also had to undergo long-term treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and physical treatments for damaged joints and nerves.
He told HKFP three years after he was released from:
I continue to suffer from nightmares, flashbacks and bouts of depression over my ordeal, my entire family’s ordeal. The forced TV appearance [in] the cage is a trauma that will never leave me. I just have to learn how to manage my trauma.
This action is one of a number of actions that I intend to take focused upon the illegal acts perpetrated against me and my family by the Shanghai regime, against certain individuals who played criminal roles in our persecution, victimisation, unlawful imprisonment, and material damage.
Forced television confessions have frequently occurred in mainland China since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
Humphrey is being assisted by Swedish activist Peter Dahlin, the director of Safeguard Defenders, which aims to fight against this practice. Dahlin was also forced to confess on CCTV in January 2016 on a separate matter.
Safeguard Defenders is publishing a new book, “Trial By Media”, on television confessions. The book includes testimonies from Humphrey, Dahlin, human rights lawyer Wang Yu, Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, among others.
Dahlin told HKFP that Humphrey's complaint identifies over 20 different violations of Ofcom's broadcasting code in the forced confessions broadcast by CCTV, covering four different types of violations. He said:
Mr. Humphrey has a strong argument for why the complaint should be accepted… If it is, there is literally no situation or interpretation where CCTV will not be found to have grossly violated the broadcasting code.
He said the request to strip CCTV’s license was based on the Office of Communication's broadcasting code and a past case from 2009. In that year, Iran’s PressTV broadcast a confession on UK airwaves by the then-jailed Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari.
Bahari filed a complaint to Office of Communications and in 2011 PressTV lost its license to broadcast in the U.K.
Humphrey hopes that the ombudsman “will take it seriously in order to defend British laws, regulations, and values from a fake news outlet complicit in human rights crimes.” He added:
The upholding of the complaint and sanctions against CCTV in the UK would send a strong signal to Beijing and would alert the world to the dangers posed by [CCTV]. A denial of the complaint would be a dark day for democracy, for the rule of law and for human rights.
Humphrey told HKFP:
This experience and struggle does not diminish my love for the Chinese people and their culture after 43 years of involvement with China. The Chinese people deserve better governance than they have today.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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‘The Little Prince’ now speaks Tsotsil · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

Little Prince, or Ch’in Ajvali in Tsotsil. Image used with permission.
One of the world's most-translated books just added another language to its collection: “The Little Prince” is now out in Tsotsil, an indigenous language spoken by 400,000 people in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas.
“Ch’in Ajvali” was released in November 2018 by the independent Argentinian publisher Los Injunables, which published an Aymara translation of the same book in 2016.
Translated by the poet Xun Betan, the Tsotsil version comes with Maya-inspired illustrations as well as a special typography developed specifically for that language.
Poet Xun Betan, in charge of translating “Ch'in Ajvalil” into Tsotsil, showing one of the books. Image used with permission.
Global Voices spoke briefly with Javier Merás, the brains behind Los Injunables, about this brand-new reimagination of the 75-year-old book by Antoine Saint-Exupéry.
Global Voices (GV): How did the Tsotsil translation of “The Little Prince” came about?
Javier Merás (JM): Xun Betán, el traductor de esta edición, se acercó a la lectura a los nueve años con El Principito. No solamente fue su primer contacto con la lectura, también lo usó para aprender castellano. Más adelante, tuvo la iniciativa de traducir el libro al Tsotsil, iniciativa que emprendió con sus propios medios y fondos. Su intención era que más personas en su comunidad pudieran leer la obra.
Javier Merás (JM): Xun Betán, who was the translator of this edition, first became fond of reading when he was nine years old, and precisely because of “The Little Prince”. It was not only his first contact with reading, he also used it to learn Spanish. Later on, he took the initiative to translate it into Tsotsil, which he's done with his own means. His goal was that more people from his community could read the book.
GV: We can tell it wasn't an easy task.
JM: En realidad, no. La traducción estaba lista para salir a imprenta, pero las editoriales a las que Xun contactó no acababan de asimilar los dibujos de Héctor Morales Urbina, tan diferentes a los de todas las versiones clásicas. En 2016, a través de Los Injunables, tienda de libros virtual que administro, lo contactamos, después de dos años de rechazos. Xun nos hizo llegar un ejemplar del libro, y nosotros lo trabajamos y le dimos forma. Su faceta como editora surge por necesidad.
Los Injunables, la editora a cargo de esta versión, es un proyecto de salvación personal, donde cabe de todo. Tenemos libros en braille salidos de las cárceles, tipógrafos que rescatan fuentes coloniales y hasta traducción de clásicos de la literatura realizadas por hablantes de lenguas mestizas, como ha ocurrido con El Principito en tsotsil.
JM: It wasn't. The translation was ready for printing, but the publishing houses that Xun contacted didn't receive well the drawings by Héctor Morales Urbina, since they were so different from all the classic versions. In 2016, through “Los Injunables”, the virtual bookstore that I manage, we contacted him, after two years of rejections. Xun sent us a copy and we worked on it and shaped it. We became a publisher by necessity.
Los Injunables, the publishing house in charge of this version, is a personal salvation project, where everything fits. We have books in Braille that came from prisons, typographers who rescue colonial fonts and even translations of classics done by speakers of indigenous languages, like The Little Prince in Tsotsil.
GV: It's very interesting that the Tsotsil version has its own drawings, and how they maintain the essence of the traditional ones we are all familiar with.
JM: Efectivamente, las ilustraciones son completamente de inspiración maya. Fue un ofrecimiento del traductor, Xun Betán. Los dibujos son de Héctor Morales Urbina y tienen una evidente influencia maya. La contraportada y otros detalles los aportó Alejandro Fiadone, experto en iconografía indígena argentina, especialmente para Ch’in Ajvalil. También se usaron números mayas para numerar los capítulos.
JM: That's correct, the drawings are completely Maya-inspired. It was a proposal by translator Xun Betán. The drawings are the work of Héctor Morales Urbina and have a clear Mayan influence. The back cover and other detalis were produced by Alejandro Fiadone, who is an expert in Argentinian indigenous iconography, specifically for Ch’in Ajvalil. We also used Mayan digits to number the book chapters.
GV: What have you learned from translating “The Little Prince” into indigenous languages?
JM: Podría decir que aprender a relacionarme con esta historia se ha convertido en lo que podría llamar una especialidad. También es un pretexto por el que tengo que estar agradecido. Me he encontrado con muchísimas personas valiosas que me brindaron su amistad, inspiración y apoyo a lo largo de este hermoso viaje.
JM: I'd say I've become specialized in learning how to connect with this story. It's also something I have to be thankful for. I've come across many invaluable people that have given me their friendship, inspiration, and support along this beautiful journey.
GV: How is the edition of The Little Prince in Aymara doing?
JM: “Pirinsipi Wawa” tuvo mucha demanda entre coleccionistas y la sigue teniendo. Un grupo peruano vinculado a la educación mandó a comprar un lote grande para un trabajo en colegios bilingües. La idea original era donar libros para que se usaran como material escolar. Sin embargo, debo destacar que nuestro rol no es benéfico. Asumimos que nuestro ciclo ya concluyó, y en breve cederemos los derechos de esa edición al traductor, Roger Gonzalo Segura, para que el texto se pueda publicar en el Perú y que siga su camino. ¿Qué más puede soñar un editor?
JM: “Pirinsipi Wawa” was highly demanded by collectors, and still is. A Peruvian group linked to public education bought a big batch for bilingual schools. The original idea was to donate books to be used as school material. However, I must emphasize the fact that our role is not charitable. We acknolwedge that our cycle is over, and soon we will transfer the rights of that edition to its translator, Roger Gonzalo Segura, so that the text can be published in Peru and go its own way. What else can an editor dream of?
You can find more information in the Los Injunables Facebook page — that includes this video which tells the story of the translation and the publishing process:
Traducen libro de “El Principito” al tsotsil
Bajo el título de “Ch´in Ajvalil” el chiapaneco Xun Betán y el argentino Javier Merás realizaron una traducción al tsoltsil, con imágenes originales de inspiración maya, de la obra clásica de Antoine de Saint-Exúpery. Descubre más: http://ow.ly/IFvB30mBHt1    Edición: Joselin Zamora
Geplaatst door Chiapas Paralelo op Dinsdag 13 november 2018

author: Gabriela García Calderón


text:
Why Cuba has decided to pull 8,000 doctors out of Brazil · Global Voices
Global Voices Brazil

According to the Cuban government, 20,000 doctors attended 113 million Brazilians in the last five years. Image: Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0
Thousands of Brazilians could be left without healthcare as Cuba begins pulling out 8,400 doctors who have been stationed in the country's smallest and remotest towns for the past five years.
In an official statement dated November 14, Havana announced it will end its agreement with Brazil as a response to president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's public comments about the program, which it deemed “threatening and depreciative”. On multiple occasions over the course of the presidential campaign, Bolsonaro has disputed the skills of the Cuban doctors and criticized the agreement's terms.
Launched in 2013 by former president Dilma Rousseff, the program “Mais Médicos” (More Doctors) sought to widen healthcare access in Brazil's most vulnerable towns, some of which never had a resident doctor before. It opened thousands of job posts in those areas, offering salaries of around 3,500 dollars per month plus a stipend for housing and meals (for comparison, Brazil's minimum wage is currently around 300 dollars per month).
The program gave preference to Brazilian doctors, but after they've signed up for only six percent of the job openings, the remaining vacancies were filled by Cuban doctors who were brought in through a deal signed by Brazil's Ministry of Health and Havana and mediated by WHO's Pan American Health Organisation. By the agreement's terms, Brazil doesn't hire the Cuban doctors directly: instead, it pays the Cuban government, who recruits, manages and compensates them as civil servants — with a salary that is around 25 percent of what Brazil would pay them had they been hired individually.
Médicos cubanos atendendo brasileiros mais vulneráveis.
São esses aí que Bolsonaro mandou embora do Brasil com suas declarações desastrosas…
Fotos: Araquém Alcântara. pic.twitter.com/ridWZci46y
— rodrigo vianna (@rvianna) November 15, 2018
Cuban doctors attending some of the most vulnerable Brazilians…These are the people that Bolsonaro sent away with his disastrous declarations. Photos by Araquém Alcântara
The deal met plenty of criticism since the first doctors began to arrive. They were booed in airports by massive crowds and were called “slaves” in protests led by Brazilian medical associations.
Bolsonaro himself, at the time a congressman at the Chamber of Deputies, went to the Supreme Court demanding the program's suspension. Both during his time as congressman and the presidential race, he repeatedly said that the program was “slave work”. He's promised to send the doctors back to Cuba with the “strike of a pen” so that they could assist the “the members of the Workers’ Party who will soon be sent to Guantanamo”. In a TV interview in July 2018, he said that “no one has any proof of whether [the Cuban doctors] have any knowledge of medicine”.
In its official pull out statement, Havana's said:
El pueblo brasileño, que hizo del Programa Más Médicos una conquista social, que confió desde el primer momento en los médicos cubanos, aprecia sus virtudes y agradece el respeto, sensibilidad y profesionalidad con que le atendieron, podrá comprender sobre quién cae la responsabilidad de que nuestros médicos no puedan continuar prestando su aporte solidario en ese país.
The Brazilian people — who made the “More Doctors” program a success, who trusted the Cuban doctors from the beginning, who appreciated the respectful, sensitive and professional treatment they received — will understand who is responsible for our doctors being unable to continue providing support in the country.
Bolsonaro responded on his social media channels that Havana simply didn’t want to accept new terms: to relay the full salary back to its doctors and that they'd validate their medical diplomas in Brazil through an exam. He called it an “irresponsible decision by the Cuban dictatorship” for disregarding the impact it would have on the lives of Brazilians.
As journalist Leonardo Sakamoto writes, this could lead to the “first social crisis in Bolsonaro’s government”, and one that's unfolding even before he takes office.
Cubans make up 45 percent of the More Doctors professionals. Around 28 percent of Brazil's cities served by the program only count with one resident Cuban doctor. Around 90 percent of the doctors working in indigenous areas in Brazil are Cubans.
Five years ago, Brazil had a deficit of 54,000 doctors in its public health system. The country had 1,8 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants. For comparison, that rate is currently of 2,5 in the United States and 7,5 in Cuba.
Small towns in Brazil have always struggled to attract medical professionals, who complain about the lack of infrastructure. Brazil also doesn't train enough doctors to serve its 200-million population.
The small socialist nation, on the other hand, has doctors to spare. Currently, Cuba has 50,000 health workers stationed in 67 countries. Leasing of medical experts is Cuban's main export: they generate 11 billion US dollars in revenue to the state per year, more than tourism does.
Cuban doctors arriving in Brazil in 2013. Photo by Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0
Cuba has sent its first medical brigade abroad in 1963, after the independence war in Algeria. Since then, according to a story by Radio Ambulante, almost 500,000 Cuban physicians have worked in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Over the years, a few Cubans have told the Brazilian press that they felt “exploited”. Some have joined lawsuits against both governments as well as the WHO. Others have reported threats made by their government. However, many said in a podcast by Radio Ambulante that, even with Havana's retention of 75 percent of the wages, they don't think the salary is unfair.
A study by the Federal University of Minas Gerais, which interviewed 14 thousand patients in 700 cities one year after More Doctors began, revealed a high level of satisfaction with the program: 85 percent said that healthcare in their regions were “better” or “a lot better”. The participants highlighted poor infrastructure and the lack of medicines as unresolved problems.
Another study from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) shows that the program helped the government to reduce a third of its expenses with hospitalizations. Débora Mazetto, one of the economists who led the study, told BBC Brazil:
Houve uma melhora na qualidade do atendimento à população. Imagine uma comunidade que não tinha médicos? Com o aumento das consultas em áreas desassistidas, foi possível identificar e tratar doenças com agilidade, evitando internações que poderiam ser de fato evitáveis
There has been an improvement on the quality of the services offered to the population. Can you imagine a community that never had a doctor? With the rising numbers of appointments in areas that were complete unassisted before, it's now possible to identify and treat diseases faster, avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations.
Since November 14, over 200 doctors have already returned to Cuba. The Pan American Health Organization expects that all of them will have returned by December 12.
In many public clinics, people have found themselves without medical care this past week or were told that they'd only have a doctor available once a week from now on. Although the Brazilian government claims that 92 percent of the spots left vacant by the Cubans have already been filled, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo said this number might not mean much at the end of the day:
Em 2017, o Ministério da Saúde abriu concurso para selecionar brasileiros para o Mais Médicos. Ao todo, 6.285 se inscreveram para 2.320 vagas, mas só 1.626 apareceram para trabalhar. Cerca de 30% deixaram seus postos antes de um ano de serviço.
In 2017, the Health Ministry opened a call to select Brazilians to More Doctors. In total, 6,285 applied to 2,320 openings, but only 1,626 showed up to work. Around 30 percent left their jobs before completing one year on them.
As with many social programs in Brazil, More Doctors did have its gray areas, but it also dramatically changed public health in regions that were completely forgotten by the Brazilian state. Perhaps the greatest challenge so far for the next government-elect is to learn from its mistakes and where it got it right. How, and if, Bolsonaro’s government will ensure healthcare is available in those regions is still to be seen.

author: Global Voices Brazil


text:
Activists in Lebanon are taking on the country’s stray bullet problem · Global Voices
Nourhan Nassar

A performance art piece with a social message in downtown Tripoli — a wedding guest dies after being shot by a stray bullet from another guest. Photo used with permission from Farha Taysheh Facebook page.
Reem Shaker was only 18 years old when a stray bullet struck her head on the balcony of her family home in the Lebanese city of Miniyeh. The shot which killed her was fired not in retribution, but in jubilation by a group celebrating the return of their loved ones from a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Reem’s story is one example in a series of senseless deaths caused by celebratory gunfire.
The global Small Arms Survey estimates that as of 2017 in Lebanon, 1,927,000 civilians possess firearms. With a population of 6,105,000, almost one-third of Lebanese civilians own a firearm. According to the Permanent Peace Movement, 90 people were killed in 2017 alone due to stray bullets shot at weddings and other joyous occasions mired by bloodshed.
This incident is particularly close to the hearts of Tripoli’s Farha Taysheh (“Stray Bullets Kill Joy”) campaign organisers. Marwa Seif, who helped launch the campaign earlier this year, was one of Reem’s closest friends, and for a long time, she felt a sense of helplessness in confronting the cause of her friend’s death.
But in May 2018, an unlikely group of people gathered around a table in Beirut would change things. Seif joined youth from the city of Tripoli, members from the Local Prevention Network (LPN) in Tripoli, and a mediator from the municipality to organise.
Local Prevention Networks, led by the Strong Cities Network (SCN), aims to build the infrastructure of community-led initiatives by bridging the gap between grassroots organisations and the municipality.
Seif’s story struck a chord.
Sitting across the table, Duaa, another participant in the workshop, shared her story: she had lost her sister fifteen years earlier to a stray bullet, this time in a hunting accident. Najia, a mediator at the municipality of Tripoli and Tripoli LPN member, listened intently to Duaa’s story.
While the primary focus of the LPNs is on tackling violent extremism through a preventative lens, they end up addressing a wide range of local issues. The networks set their own agendas. Their endorsement of the campaign was an acknowledgment of the scope of preventative initiatives.
In the months that followed, Seif and Duaa worked with Najia to develop and launch their campaign Farha Taysheh. This municipal endorsement set celebratory gun violence on the agenda of the local government.
Along with other volunteers, Seif and Duaa organised performance art with a social message: a wedding celebration in downtown Tripoli, where actors would react to the feigned death of a wedding guest following a stray bullet shot by another guest. The performance was filmed and shared on Facebook, sparking dialogue and gaining media coverage.
Farha Taysheh is one campaign among many that attempt to fight the inevitable violence resulting from gun possession — whether intentional or not. The municipal support gave youth activists a strong platform to reach a wider audience. The large-scale performance staged by the activists in downtown Tripoli would not have been possible without the permission of local authorities.
The collaboration between grassroots youth campaigners and local government contributed to the success of this campaign in Tripoli, but the context of each city differs and community-led prevention networks may choose to begin addressing less controversial topics as they build trust, credibility and confidence in addressing harder edge issues.
Combined with the energy of the youth activists, Farha Taysheh has been resoundingly successful, sparking a city-wide conversation across local media platforms. Perhaps this is because stray bullets are a global problem — not just a Lebanon-specific issue — and exists all over the world, from the Balkans to the U.S.
In 2017, Texas state representative Armando “Mando” Martinez was injured in the head by a stray bullet from New Year’s Eve celebrations. Two years earlier, a 10-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet at a wedding in Macedonia. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles, California police department use its social media platforms to warn citizens not to shoot in the air with criminal prosecution and serious jail time as a consequence.
Gun culture cannot be exempt from this conversation. The common thread between countries where stray bullets are a problem is that gun ownership is culturally acceptable. However, the scale of stray bullets incidents differs. In Lebanon, a partial disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) programme after the civil war (1975-1991) meant that firearms from fighting factions were never completely confiscated.
Celebratory gunfire is a global issue and combating it will involve addressing some of the factors that allow it to persist. This requires addressing the widespread acceptance of firearm possession and lack of accountability of the shooters.
Local initiatives have a key role to play. In the case of Farha Taysheh, cooperation between youth activists and the municipality of Tripoli is an example of how unlikely parties can come together to combat a common issue — one stray bullet at a time.
Editor's note: Farha Tayshe was born out of a workshop organised by Young Cities in Beirut (May 2018). The workshop brought together youth activists and members of the Strong Cities Network (SCN) Local Prevention Network (LPN), including municipal representatives. Young Cities is a joint initiative between the Strong Cities Network and Youth Civil Activism Network.

author: Nourhan Nassar


text:
Meet the women’s rights activists behind bars in Saudi Arabia · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Saudi women's rights activists Aziza al-Yousef, Eman Al-Nafjan, and Loujain al-Hathloul. Campaign image by Amnesty International.
The October 2018 murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi — who US and Turkish officials say was killed at the order of Crown Prince Bin Salman — has cast new light on the many human rights abuses that take place in the kingdom.
International and regional human rights groups and activists are taking this new scrutiny as an opportunity to publicly demand the release of imprisoned human rights activists, including women's rights defenders.
At least ten women's rights activists are currently in jail in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for their human rights activities. Among them are Aziza al-Yousef, Eman Al-Nafjan, and Loujain al-Hathloul. The three activists have been in detention since mid-May, after Saudi authorities detained and held them incommunicado in an unknown location. All had campaigned for women’s right to drive and against the kingdom's antiquated male guardianship system, under which a woman must have the consent of a male guardian if she wishes to get married, rent her own apartment, apply for a passport or travel outside the country.
In addition to these highly sensitive issues, each had used the internet for different kinds of independent activism. Aziza al-Yousef advocated on behalf of domestic violence survivors. Al Nafjan is the author of the blog Saudiwoman, where she wrote about women's rights, social issues and cultural understanding in the kingdom.
In 2014, Loujain al-Hathloul challenged the ban on women driving by driving her car from the UAE to Saudi Arabia. She stood trial before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), where terrorism and national security cases are heard, for her driving and online activism. She spent 10 weeks in detention and was then released on 12 February 2015. Her legal status remains unclear, according to Amnesty International.
Al-Fassi behind the wheel. Photo via the activist's Twitter account.
Another woman activist currently in prison is Hatoon al-Fassi, who was arrested on June 27, three days after the driving ban on women was lifted. According to the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR):
Al-Fassi is a renowned scholar, associate professor of women's history at King Saud University and the author of Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea. She has long been advocating for the right of women to participate in municipal elections and to drive, and was one of the first women to drive the day the ban was lifted.
Following the arrests of al-Yousef, al-Nafjan and al-Hathloul and three other activists in May, official statements circulated in state media, accusing all three women of posing a threat to state security for their contact with foreign entities “with the aim of undermining the country’s stability and social fabric”, Amnesty reported. They too are expected to face trial before the Specialized Criminal Court.
Women's driving campaign cartoon by Carlos Latuff. Released to public domain.
On July 30, two other activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah, were arrested. Badawi is the sister of Raif Badawi, an imprisoned blogger who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a website for public debate in 2014. A tireless campaigner for women's rights and social justice, Samar Badawi has been arrested and investigated several times by Saudi authorities.
In February 2017, the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution interrogated her for several hours, asking about her human rights activities and the campaign to end the kingdom's discriminatory male guardianship.
Al-Sadah is a co-founding member of Al-Adalah Center for Human Rights, an organisation that the Saudi government has denied a license to operate. Like Badawi, Al-Sadah also campaigned for women’s rights and she was previously interrogated over her human rights activism. In the 2015 municipal elections, during which women were allowed to vote and participate for the first time, Al-Sadah decided to run. Two weeks before the vote, her candidacy was disqualified without any clarification.
Saudi women activists in prison reportedly are subjected to abuse at the hands of their interrogators. According to Human Rights Watch, at least three of the detained women's rights defenders have been tortured. These forms of torture included ”administering electric shocks, whipping the women on their thighs, and forcible hugging and kissing”.
On the occasion of the International Women Human Rights Defenders Day celebrated on November 29, human rights organisations continue to call for the release of Saudi women activists through online campaigns, a 240k-strong petition to the UN organized by Women's March Global, and numerous letters and statements of support.


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Bushfires and floods have Australians asking: ‘What climate change?’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Bushfires and flooding rains – Screenshot from Bureau of Meteorology video
Bushfires in Queensland and flooding rains in Sydney have raised online debate in Australia about the impact of climate change on extreme weather conditions.
On Wednesday, 28 November 2018, record temperatures in central Queensland resulted in 200 fires, which some classified as catastrophic. Eight thousand people were evacuated from the town of Gracemere just near the regional center of Rockhampton.
Further south, a month’s rainfall inundated Sydney on the same day, with 100 millimetres (4 inches) recorded in just two hours. There was widespread flooding and property damage, as well as two reported deaths. One ‘mini-cyclone’ tore off the side of a building.
Despite the sunburnt county’s reputation for “droughts and flooding rains”, many Australians were quick to blame climate change for the exceptional events:
just got out of bed to see the news, bugger politics for five minutes hope twitter friends in Sydney, the south coast and in queensland are OK – what an absolute weather nightmare, oh and yes this is the time to mention climate change.
— marcus kelson (@marcuskelson) November 27, 2018
Seeing as half of the east coast is on fire and the other half is under water, would now be a good time to start listening to scientists? #SydneyStorm #qldfires
— s'meeeeeee? (@LaurseyK) November 28, 2018
Not all agreed. Some argued that isolated weather events are not proof of a connection. A tweet by news website new.com.au brought this response:
From the perspective of single moment in time this would be stupid. Many times in history worse weather calamities happened. Only people didn't have the label “climate change” to wave around
— Focusritetime (@focusritetime) November 28, 2018
Melanie Elron was more concerned with the big picture:
However #SydneyStorm is nothing new. Remember the freak hailstorm of 1999? This is not evidence of climate change. Sustained research over time is evidence of #climatechange.
— Melanie Elron (@GingerSyd) November 28, 2018
The Australian government’s action, or inaction, has been a hot topic in recent times. Coincidentally, the United Nations released a report on the same day. According to the Climate Council:
A NEW UNITED NATIONS report has found that Australia, along with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United States, is not on track to meet its 2030 Paris climate target.
Jonathan Meddings lays the blame squarely on the politicians (aka ‘pollies’ down under):
Record fires in Queensland. Record rain in Sydney. Record drought in parts of the east coast. This what #climatechange looks like. While Queensland is burning, the east coast is parched & Sydney is drowning, most pollies have their heads in the sand. Not good enough. #auspol
— Jonathan Meddings (@J_Meddings) November 29, 2018
Meanwhile, students are taking action of their own with many skipping classes to attend Student Strike for Climate Action rallies around the nation:
Check out this great story on Junkee with a fabulous profile of all the students standing up for climate action in their communities #climatestrikehttps://t.co/8ALXqv8ZeZ
— School Strike 4 Climate (@StrikeClimate) November 29, 2018
Their action has certainly fired up Prime Minister Scott Morrison who called for “less activism in schools and more learning”. Many on social media took the side of the students:
Thanks to the school students standing up to @ScottMorissonMP and his govt's criminal lack of action on #climatechange. Scomo's vision of students who don't care about politics or the future beggars belief. #BeMoreActivist #ClimateStrike https://t.co/z3gvSeokxw via @SBSNews
— Brad Coath (@bradcoath) November 26, 2018
Well played that student. pic.twitter.com/G0cxY8o4ya
— on (@jonkudelka) November 29, 2018
Climate change is shaping up as a major issue at next year's Federal election in Australia expected in May.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos accused of corruption by his successor · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

João Lourenço, President of Angola. Photo by J.Barande, École Polytechnique/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0
Since João Lourenço was elected president in 2017, Angolans have wondered about his relationship with his predecessor, José Eduardo dos Santos.
JES, as he's commonly called locally, has ruled Angola from 1979 to 2017, when João Lourenço was chosen to occupy the ruling MPLA's number one position. As the MPLA won a majority of 150 seats in that year's elections, Lourenço automatically became president. In September 2018, Lourenço became the leader of the MPLA as well.
While on a visit to Portugal in November 2018, João Lourenço told in an interview with weekly newspaper Expresso that JES (he's commonly called in Angola by the acronym) found the country’s coffers empty when he took over.
This was only the most recent episode of a series of frictions between Lourenço and the past administration. In March 2018, Lourenço has terminated contracts between JES’ relatives and Angolan state companies, an action that some Angolans see as controversial and disrespectful of the due process.
Last year, he's fired JES’ daughter, Isabel dos Santos, from the presidency of state oil-firm Sonangol. In March 2018, the prosecutors have opened a corruption investigation against her for misappropriation of funds.
Her brother, José Filomeno dos Santos, who formerly served as the chairman at the country's sovereign wealth fund was detained in September 2018 on suspicion of money-laundering, embezzlement of public funds and fraud. He remains in jail while a trial is pending.
The sociologist and television commentator João Paulo Ganga, said that the President was brave and frontal for having made serious accusations against his predecessor. According to him, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) should investigate all allegations.
Activist Joaquim Lunda agrees:
Continuo acreditar que o país pode vir a melhorar e muito e pela forma como o PR tem estado a “levar o barco”, podemos alcançar a esperança desejada e um futuro próximo de uma boa satisfação. Ainda há muito por fazer, mas nada é impossível.
Continuo a dar o meu benefício de duvidas na governação do João Lourenço e creio que até então está a dar-se “minimamente” muito bem.
Aos traidores da pátria e os que estavam com os planos de tentativa de deixarem os cofres do Estado ainda mais vazios, que sejam responsabilizados e que a história venha registar a punição dos mesmos.
I still believe that the country can improve a lot and, by the way the President has been “steering the ship”, we can achieve the desired hope and a future of satisfaction. There is still a lot to do, but nothing is impossible.
I'd still like to give the benefit of the doubt to João Lourenço and I believe that so far he has been doing “minimally” well.
To the traitors of the country and those who would like to empty the state's coffers, may they be held accountable and that history registers their punishment.
Meanwhile, Tchizé dos Santos, daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, posted on her social media accounts that her father has found state coffers empty since he took office after the death of Angola's first president, Agostinho Neto, back in the 1970s.
Tchizé said that despite João Lourenço's claims about having found the state coffers empty, he himself has been engaging in luxury travel, and carrying out reforms in the presidential palace:
Então…um PR que encontra os cofres vazios aluga o avião privado mais luxuoso do mundo e faz obras de dezenas de milhões de USD num palácio presidencial em bom estado e de luxo? Não era melhor reabilitar ou construir postos médicos com esse dinheiro? Ou criar melhores condições para os médicos que hoje estão em greve? O PR está a gerir as prioridades melhor que o antecessor?
So… a president who finds empty coffers rents the world's most luxurious private plane and spend tens of millions of USD in luxurious works in the presidential palace. Woudn't it be better to rehabilitate or build medical hospitals with that money? Or create better conditions for doctors who are on strike today? Is the new president managing priorities better than its predecessor?
After that, José Eduardo dos Santos has held a surprise press briefing in the capital Luanda to defend himself against his successor's allegations, and claimed that he had left the public treasury with a balance of 15 billion dollars:
I did not leave the state coffers empty. In September 2017 at the time of the changeover of presidents, I left $15bn (£11bn) in the National Reserve Bank (BNA)

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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How fake news and misinformation are stirring ethnic tensions in Afghanistan · Global Voices
Nicole Valentini

Demonstrators in Kabul protesting the arrest of commander Alipoor. Photo by Mustafa Hasani for Hushdar News Agency. Used with permission.
In Afghanistan, deliberate disinformation circulated by authorities and poor media practices are fuelling hate speech.
On November 25, hundreds of Hazara demonstrators took the streets of Daykundi, Bamiyan, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Ghor and Kabul to protest against the arrest of the militia commander Alipoor, whose forces have been fighting Taliban militants across central Afghanistan.
The protest came after the government failed to respond quickly to deadly attacks launched by Taliban militants on three districts populated by the minority.
In an interview, Alipoor, who is branded a “criminal” by his critics and a “people's defender” by supporters, said:
When the government fails to protect and defend people, it's our natural right to defend ourselves. People voted for them and supported them to run the government, so they can enforce the law and run a strong administration, but they failed. Nobody is feeling safe. When there is no security, then there is no government. We need justice, security and stability so that people can live their lives. For this reason such a government, that is not able to guarantee its own security, cannot ask me why I am armed.
Alipoor was released from custody on November 26, but only after the protest in Kabul had already turned violent. Afghan officials said dozens of police were wounded by rocks and some police checkpoints were burned. Alipoor's arrest was ordered by the country's Attorney General.
A video published November 26 by Etilaatroz, one of Afghanistan's most important newspapers, shows policemen appearing to shoot into a crowd of unarmed protestors.
The deputy interior minister claimed no-one was killed during the protest even as gory photos of protesters shot in the head and young school girls killed circulated online.
At least four people were killed in Kabul according to multiple media accounts, with 22 wounded. In Bamiyan, seven people were reported killed.
After the demonstration, more than 80 people were arrested, among them girls and children aged between 8 and 16.
#AFG Photos of at least 4 dead bodies shared widely on social media including a school girl. Bodies in a West Kabul hospital. Surprised to hear Deputy interior minister Gen Ibrahimi claim no one was killed? @PShamal https://t.co/rNuDGe3ssQ
— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) 26 novembre 2018
Alipoor’s case has divided the Afghan public. This strong polarization of opinions mirrors the social, political and ethnic fragmentation which is deepening in Afghanistan against a background of everyday insecurity.
Such a setting offers fertile conditions for misinformation to sprout and intensify inter-group hate speech.
As anti-Hazara sentiment surge in #Afghanistan, journalists, former governors, & individuals have taken to Twitter to show how protestors beat up policemen. The truth is the image circulating around is fake. It belongs to Wakil Kohsar and was taken in 2016, 2 years ago. pic.twitter.com/3oKyhUFATb
— Namatullah Kadrie (@KadrieNama) 26 novembre 2018
At a meeting with Afghan vice-president Sarwar Danish on November 24, National Directorate of Security chief Massoum Stanekzai said that Alipoor was arrested by the Americans and then handed over to Afghan intelligence.
After this information began to circulate online, a spokesman for US forces in the country took to Twitter to deny any involvement in the case on Washington's part.
Other disinformation came directly from generally well-regarded media outlets, such as RFE/RL's Afghan service, Azadi.
A number of social media users indicated that the service had used a Reuters photo from 2016 to illustrate an article about this month's protests. The photo shows injured policeman being transported by a military vehicle and was taken after a bombing in Kabul.
This is a clear exampe of how @DaRadioAzadi Afghan section Internationaly try to ignite ethnic clashes and create hatred among #government and #Citizens.The reporter has used used photos from past police casualties to show they were injured by protesters today. #Fake Reports pic.twitter.com/lzVw9xtAXK
— Mohammad Yasin Samim (@m_yasinsamim) 25 novembre 2018
In an online environment characterised by bitter vitriol, humour is an antidote.
The massive spread of fake news on the back of the Alipoor protests pushed some users to turn to creative irony:
Scientists believe the latest protest organized in Kabul has increased the level of air pollution and is the main cause of this year's drought in northwestern AFG. When asked how, scientists blamed Iran for providing Hazaras with unknown sophisticated techs.#RadioFakeNews
— Jalil Pazhwak (@Jalilpa) 27 novembre 2018
#BREAKING #AliPoor steps on Mars! #DaRadioAzadi#راديو_آزادي pic.twitter.com/631eCazi6I
— Muhib Shadan (@muhibshadan) 27 novembre 2018

author: Nicole Valentini


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Syrian prisoners of conscience announce a hunger strike in Hama Central Prison, leaked footage reveals · Global Voices
Methal Dabaj

Screenshot from the YouTube channel SY Plus. Source.
Two weeks ago, on Monday, November 12, 2018, in a short leaked video recording, Syrian prisoners of conscience sent a message to fellow Syrians and the world from within the confines of Hama Central Prison (HCP).
Their message is clear — they are going on a hunger strike.
In the foreground, three men who identify themselves as a Christian, an Alawite and a Sunni stand together to deliver the bold message.
In the background, several detainees stand holding signs that say “yes to pluralism and secularism” and rejecting sectarianism and populism. Others hold signs appealing to the world and human rights organizations who have turned a blind eye to their suffering.
The three leaders read a statement calling on Syrians of all sects and backgrounds and the world to recognize their pain and alleviate their suffering:
We've been languishing for years in the whirlpools of detention cells, we inhale agony and exhale moans. We have a right to live and for our issue to be taken seriously.
This hunger strike is an effort to protest their unjust detentions, arbitrary sentencing, and make their voices heard.
This appeal comes after Feras Dunia — a judge assigned by the Military Field Court — along with other government officials delivered an order that 11 of the detainees be transferred to Saydnaya Prison. A total of 68 — with minors among them — are to appear before the Military Field Court for trials with assurances that they will not receive harsh sentences.
The detainees, however, described these assurances as “empty promises”.
Saydnaya has been dubbed by Amnesty International a “human slaughterhouse” where the Syrian regime sends prisoners to be executed. Amnesty has estimated that nearly 13,000 people have died while in custody or were extrajudicially executed in Saydnaya between March 2011 and December 2015.
Knowing very well what awaits them in Saydnaya, the detainees refused Dunia's request to deliver their fellow inmates and demanded detailed information on what sentences they had received.
Dunia later handed them a list of the 68 sentences, which included 11 death sentences, multiple life sentences, multiple 12-year sentences and 29 pending judgment where no sentence was declared.
The majority of the 260 prisoners of conscience held at HCP were detained by the Syrian regime in the early days of the Syrian revolution in 2011 and 2012.
They describe themselves as peaceful protestors who had done nothing wrong except for “chanting for freedom” according to heartfelt testimonies in this leaked audio recording.
When Global Voices spoke to one of the detainees via a phone app, he explained:
I had no political or partisan background, I just had a dream of a different Syria, so I joined the ranks of my fellow Syrians who took to the streets in peaceful protests, we did not carry arms. Our dream was a difficult one to attain.
Hama Central Prison fell under prisoners’ control in May of 2016, following a riot sparked by the execution of two detainees who were transferred to Saydnaya to await trial — and then executed. The families of those two detainees informed fellow inmates what had happened, and the remaining prisoners started rioting to prevent the authorities from transferring four other inmates scheduled for transfer to Saydnaya.
Prisoner disobedience at HCP still persists today.
The government attempted to take back control of the prison during the early days of the disobedience, conducting raids by Syria's Air Force Intelligence Directorate — notorious for its brutality.
But media coverage during this time put pressure on Russia, who intervened and guaranteed that there would be no further attempts to raid the prison and that the Syrian government would work to reach a settlement to meet the prisoners’ demands.
As part of the agreement, the Syrian regime formed a committee to conduct its sessions inside the prison premise that would commute the sentences of 400 prisoners. Some of the prisoners were released since then, this process stalled then came to a halt in April when 40 prisoners were released.
A small portion of Syria’s prisoners of conscience end up held for various reasons in civilian prisons such as HCP. The majority are taken to military prisons or secret detention centers used by various security branches. It is estimated by the Syrian Network for Human Rights that no less than 95 thousand individuals are forcibly disappeared, 85% of which at the hands of the Syrian regime.
“Only sheer luck,” one currently imprisoned individual at HCP said when asked how he had ended up in a civilian prison:
When they were done with me after four months of torture and interrogation, all the military prisons were full, so I ended up here.
Despite the difficult circumstances inside HCP, it is not representative of the reality most Syrian prisoners experience. Another HCP prisoner described the conditions inside the detention centers as even worse — “a real holocaust”:
The real tragedy isn’t here, the real tragedy is the prisoners who are kept under the ground, who cannot tell day from night, who die each day a thousand deaths, who are being tortured and mutilated every day. I do not know what to tell you, even Caesar photos are a small portion of the reality. For those prisoners, they wish for death, because death is a lot more merciful than their suffering.
For many years, Syrian prisoners of conscience have been neglected by the international community. This detainee asks with heightened urgency:
Where is this world that claims to be civilized? Where are human rights bodies? Where is the United Nations? Where is everyone? The world’s conscience, where is it?

author: Methal Dabaj


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South Sudanese singer Nyaruach calls out ‘boring man with no plan’ in feminist hit · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Nyaruach. Photo by Tania Campbell-Golding, used with permission.
A man named Gatluak is probably feeling a bit embarrassed as South Sudanese singer Nyaruach calls him out for being a “boring man with no plan” in a hit song shared widely since its release in June 2018. Or, rather several Gatluaks — the name is common in South Sudan and “all know a Gatluak [who behaves this way]”, Nyaruach says.
With fierce feminist messaging, Nyaruach's playful song reclaims a woman's dignity after getting burned in love. It also reminds the world that vibrant music and art emerge out of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya, one of the largest refugee camps in the region.
Nyaruach, a single mother of two who lives in Kakuma, told Global Voices during a Skype interview:
South Sudanese men fail women with the wrong kind of love. So, my message is to the young girls of the new generation … Love is killing the new generation.
The catchy song and music video, which features some of Nyaruach's Kakuma co-residents, released in November 2018, caught the world's attention for its hypnotic Afro-beats and bold lyrics.
Ladies… there is nothing worse than a boring man, with no plan ?. Gatluak pick up your phone ?!? ???? New video and album with my brother @emmanueljal out now. Click on my bio ☝? Naath Album | Gatluak #southsudan #afropop #afrobeats #wewantpeace… https://t.co/jClCIZhH9Y
— Nyaruach (@nyaruachmusic) November 19, 2018
Gatluak bought her cold drinks, they went on long walks, and then ghosted her! “You refuse to pick my phone after you get what you want. You are such a bastard guy, I just want to say goodbye! May God bless you where you are. You boring man — with no plan. With no plan!” sings Nyaruach.
“Gatluak” is the second release on the album NAATH (“humans” in Nuer) produced by Nyaruach and her brother Emmanuel Jal, a hip-hop artist who gained notoriety after his autobiography, “War Child: A Child Soldier's Story”, was published in 2009. As children, the siblings were forced apart through extreme circumstances.
The two draw on Nuer traditional folk and love songs and interlace them with addictive dance beats. “We can’t forget our culture”, Nyaruach said. “We have to remind the new generation about the past — and music makes people happy.”
Nyaruach and Jal named the album NAATH after the “glorious Kingdom of Kush” of the Nile as an antidote to images of war and poverty that have characterized South Sudan.
Nyaruach was born in 1983 in Tonj, Sudan and separated from her family at the age of four when her mother died. Her brother Jal was taken as a child by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and forced to fight. He was then taken to Kenya at the age of 11 with the help of a British aid worker who was married to then-senior SPLA commander Riek Machar. There he discovered hip-hop, which he used to encourage peace.
Nyaruach's life took a different turn. She spent several tumultuous years with relatives and ran away from an abusive father at the age of 10, surviving several arduous escapes from Sudan, first to Ethiopia and later, to Kenya.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, after a 22-year long civil war (1983-2005). The peace did not last long despite major investments in South Sudan's development. In 2013, armed conflict broke out in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. This spread to other areas of the country, gradually turning into an inter-ethnic conflict between the country’s two largest ethnic groups: the Dinka, represented by President Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the Nuer, represented by then-Vice President Riek Machar.
Nyaruach did not reunite with Jal until they met in Nairobi. They collaborated on a song called Gua, or “peace” in the Nuer language. She was 22. The song was a hit in Kenya in 2005 and a breakthrough song for Jal, who went on to become an award-winning musician and peace activist.
Jal also faced criticism for contradicting his role model status with using social media to air divisive views that stoked ethnic tensions when conflict erupted in South Sudan in 2013.
In 2015, Nyaruach traveled to South Sudan for a short visit. Upon her return, she spoke out against the violence she witnessed. Pregnant with her second child, she decided to shift to Kakuma, seeking security.
Kakuma Refugee Camp was originally established by the UNHCR in 1992 to host 20,000 Sudanese children and youth known later as the “Lost Boys of Sudan” fleeing violence during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Today, over 56 percent of the population of Kakuma and neighboring Kalobeyei settlement are from South Sudan. At the end of January 2018, the camps hosted a total of 185,449 registered refugees and asylum-seekers.
Nyaruach said that living in a refugee camp is especially hard on women with children.
They give us firewood for a month, it finishes after seven days. We need to eat our meal, we wake up at 4 a.m. to steal. Yes, we have to steal it — and it's very dangerous. They rape us, they can even shoot and kill us. But we can't report. Who is going to report? We have no voice or authority.
Enduring years of hardship has taken at toll on Nyaruach's spirit. Reuniting and making music with Jal has felt like salvation. “I have a heart of singing”, says Nyaruach. “Jal taught me how to rhyme.”
Nyaruach's song uplifts women and girls in South Sudan who she says have “no rights, no matter how young you are” in a recent interview with Kenya's The Star.
South Sudanese women are among the most marginalized, and the conflict has made conditions untenable. More than 80 percent of those who have fled the violence in South Sudan are women and children.
This is my  life now in Kakuma refugee camp. ??We have almost no womens rights or basic human rights now in South Sudan and I want to use my music to celebrate the magic of women from our country. ? For all the pledgers who have supported our upcoming album release NAATH you will receive some ⭐special updates from my life in Kakuma today and learn more about my situation. Thanks for all your support ?? please listen to our music and walk with us by following the link in my bio ?? #blackgirlmagic #blacklivesmatter #refugees #southsudan #wewantpeace @gatwitch @jalgua @jalguacafe
A post shared by  Nyaruach (@nyaruachmusic) on
South Sudan has gone through several rounds of failed and fragile peace negotiations, but data shows that women have been far less involved than men in the peace process, despite research that suggests including women at higher levels would improve stability.
Machar returned to South Sudan in October 2018 after two years in exile in South Africa to work with Kiir, but many are wary of the peace deal after five years of protracted conflict.
“Women in South Sudan have been treated by government soldiers and armed actors, including local militias, as spoils of the conflict”, UN investigators said in September 2018. “The plight of South Sudan’s women and girls should no longer be ignored”, they said — referring to disturbing testimonies of rape victims.
According to a 2017 survey issued by the International Rescue Committee and Global Women’s Institute, 65 percent of South Sudanese women interviewed had experienced physical or sexual violence.
Nyaruach has her own testimony.
[South Sudanese] men's ideas are changing about love. They get married to many wives and then destroy our lives. They fail to take care of their children properly. They rape us, use young girls, get us pregnant and leave us.”
Nyaruach says music is her calling. “If I hide what is killing me in my heart, what can I do to make a change?” she asks.
No wonder “Gatluak” is a hit. This is Nyaruach's chance to demand the men in her life to do better, not just in love but war — and peace.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein