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Old Misogynist Hatreds Fuel a New Year’s Massacre in Brazil · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Women in São Paulo protest against femicides in Latin America. Photo: Mídia Ninja
It was New Year's Eve when Sidnei Ramis de Araújo, a 46-year-old lab technician, decided to act on his hatred towards his ex-wife. At a house in Campinas, a medium-sized city in the state of São Paulo, Isamara Filler was celebrating the last day of 2016 with her relatives, as well as the couple’s eight-year-old son, João Victor. As they toasted, Sidnei walked in, armed with a gun. He murdered 12 people, including his own son, and killed himself afterwards. Nine of the victims were women — or, in Araújo’s words, “sluts.”
This bloodshed on Day One of the New Year was a textbook hate crime. Before going on the killing spree, Sidnei left behind a cell phone in his car. It contained an audio recording, and an email scheduled to reach friends and work colleagues, explaining his motives.
In his “manifesto,” which was quickly reproduced by the media, Sidnei blamed Isamara for setting him apart from João Victor. But she wasn't just the only target of his hatred.
He also blamed “a feminist system and some crazy women” for ruining his life. He referred to all women as “sluts that do everything to alienate fathers.” He mocked Brazil's Maria da Penha Law, which sets harsher punishments for domestic violence. He blamed human rights activists for defending criminals. Sidnei even took a moment to share his rage about Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president who was impeached in 2016.
Remarkably, this hateful manifesto repeats many of the familiar tropes you find browsing the comments on news articles, or scrolling through updates from conservative friends on Facebook.
As journalist Carol Patrocínio wrote on her Medium page:
Eu e você já lemos aquele discurso. Já lemos milhares de vezes feminicídio ser chamado de crime passional — na página Não Foi Ciúme você pode ter uma ideia de quantas vezes isso acontece -, já vimos diversas histórias de mulheres violentadas que são apontadas como um problema quando afastam o filho do genitor — vale lembrar que gerar e exercer a paternidade são coisas diferentes -, já vimos milhares de homens justificarem sua violência e descontrole no comportamento de outras pessoas.
You and I already have read this speech. Thousands of times we've heard feminicide being called “a passion crime” — in the It Wasn’t Jealousy page you can have an idea of how many times this has happened. We’ve seen several stories of women who had been violated and who are called a problem when they push their kids away from the other parent. It’s worth remembering that fathering a child biologically and raising a child are two distinct things. We’ve seen thousands of men justify their violence and lack of self-control, often blaming other people’s behavior.
From 2005 to 2015, Isamara filed five police reports against her ex-husband for threats, aggression, and sexual abuse against her son. Due to a lack of evidence, Sidnei was never convicted of the latter charge, but the court nonetheless ruled that his interactions with his son should be limited to supervised visits.
The killer denied all the accusations, but João Victor's teachers told a reporter that the boy once said that “he would kill his father once he had grown up.”
This killer is not an exception
It's a disturbing notion, but much about Sidnei Ramis de Araújo is hardly unusual, when it comes to gender-based violence.
His father described him as “a sweet person, who never smoked or drank.” As anthropologist Debora Diniz pointed out in a op-ed for Brasil Post (Brazil's version of The Huffington Post), “madness does not explain the misogynistic fantasies in the killer’s mind” — even if he was a “psychopath.” Diniz added: “Sidnei killed because he couldn’t stand the break-up or the law enforcement against his patriarchal abuse, because he lost his domestic domain as the sovereign.”
And Sidnei was not alone. After the news of the massacre broke out, several people tried to “make sense” of the killer’s motives. Some even justified his actions. This time without satire, the parody website Sensacionalista published several comments circulating online in support of the shooter:
One Internet user blamed everything on feminists, of course:
MEN:Run away from feminists, like the devil runs from the cross, do not have relationships with them, do not parent other people’s children, do not have children, if you do, pay attention to what your kid is learning at school, avoid at any cost any humanities class at public or private colleges, they are the cancer eating this society from inside, get ready for the psychopath generation that is yet to come.
Another reasoned that, obviously, the victim was to blame for her own murder:
Impressive, it really looks like she was cheating on him and took his son away from him or was still charging a very expensive alimony it is not right to kill people but NEVER TEST A MAN.
One commentator addressed a warning to all women:
These women are all to blame for if you want to know a woman you only have to divorce from her, your life will turn into a living hell…While women cannot learn how to be good, the slaughter will continue…May that be set as an example to all you lazy women, watch out!!!!
And this one summarized the supposedly oppressive regime instituted by Brazil's minorities:
His letter is 100% accurate about the Brazilian reality and about part of the contemporary society, minorities are oppressing through institution of rules that are disconnected from reality. I respect his attitude, even though I do not completely agree with it. If 10% of the men had the same courage, worthy of the ancient kamikazes, bashi-bazouks or Spartans. The virility of erstwhile was lost for drugs and homosexuality.
Brazil has a femicide rate of 4.8 per 100,000 women, according to the World Health Organization — that's the fifth highest femicide rate in the world. Black women are the main targets, according to the 2015 Violence Map, an independent annual research report on violence in Brazil. The murder of black women rose 54 percent between 2003 and 2013. At least 10 women were murdered in the country by their partners in the first six days of 2017.
Brazilian lawmakers have tried to address gender violence in the past. In 2003, the country created the Maria da Penha Law to protect women victims of domestic violence. The legislation bears the name of an activist who was rendered a paraplegic by her husband, after he tried to kill her, twice. In 2015, another law, classifying feminicide as a hate crime, was added to the Brazilian Penal Code.
Former President Dilma Rousseff, who lost her position in a controversial impeachment process last year, was the victim of misogyny throughout her six years as head of state. After learning that Sidnei Ramis de Araújo mentioned her in his letter as “the other bitch,” she wrote on Facebook:
A misoginia mata todos os dias. Matou Isamara Filier, uma criança, outras oito mulheres e três homens. É intolerável que o machismo encontre eco no pensamento conservador e justifique o feminicídio. O momento é de fortalecer a política de direitos humanos para defender as mulheres da cultura do ódio e da violência pelo único motivo de serem mulheres. Devemos defender com firmeza a Lei Maria da Penha e fazer valer a Lei do Feminicídio para que a impunidade não seja mais escusa para novas mortes.
Misogyny kills every day. It killed Isamara Filier, a child, another eight women, and the men. It’s not acceptable that chauvinism can echo in conservative thinking and justify the femicide. The moment is to strengthen human rights politics to defend women from a culture where they're subjected to hate and violence just because they are women. We must firmly defend the Maria da Penha Law and enforce the Femicide Law, so impunity is no longer an excuse for new deaths.
Reflecting on the fact that Isamara sought police protection from Sidnei several times, Janaina Penalva, a law professor, notes:
Infelizmente, a importância das leis que reconhecem os direitos das mulheres não se mede apenas quando elas conseguem prevenir a violência, quando falham também mostram o valor que têm. A carta de Campinas é a prova disso.
Unfortunately, the importance of laws recognizing women's rights are not only measured when they can prevent violence. When they fail, they are also showing their value. The Campinas’ letter is proof of this.
With so many men trying to rationalize a murder spree that killed 11 people, the only way to combat such volatile thinking might be to educate future generations to understand that gender-based violence is not a normal thing.
Used to dealing with such cases, prosecutor Gabriela Mansur affirmed sadly in an interview with Huffington Post that women's causes are not a “priority” in Brazil:
Enquanto não for prioridade de investimento público, destinação de verba, aprimoramento dos atendimentos, credibilidade da palavra da vítima, deixar pessoas especializadas em estratégias de políticas públicas e criminal, enfim, enquanto não for prioridade não vamos conseguir diminuir os índices de violência contra a mulher.
While it is not a priority of public investment, sum destinations, improvement of treatments, believing in the victim’s words, preparing specialists in criminal and public policies, anyway, while this is not a priority, we won’t be able to reduce the numbers of violence against women.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Reviving Beirut: How an Artist Collective Is Coloring Lebanon’s Capital · Global Voices
Dalia El Ali

One of Paint Up's first projects in 2012. Bliss Street, Beirut, Lebanon. Source: Facebook.
Critics say Beirut is a city that's losing its “character,” and it's not uncommon to see Lebanese people writing wistfully on social media about times supposedly lost to the past.
While much of Beirut was destroyed during the country's 15-year-long civil war that ended in 1990, the “reconstruction era” that's been in swing ever since has sadly been no kinder to Beirut's architectural heritage. Indeed, if there's one word that has come to define the city's architecture, it is “chaos.”
In response, artists and activists have made it their task to try to reclaim the city's heritage. One such initiative is “Paint Up” by the group Dihzahyners (a play on words between “designers” and “Dhan”—Arabic for “paint”). The group paints spaces all over Beirut.
Launched in 2012 by Jubran Elias and Lana Chukri, “Paint Up” was designed as an alternative to the many protests against demolitions by Lebanese activists.
Lana Chucri and Jubran Elias, ‘Paint Up’ co-founders. Source: Instagram.
Speaking with Global Voices, Elias said:
Our goal is not to change Beirut, but to bring it back to life. There are many things we cannot change in the political and economic situation of this place, however, we can try to revive Beirut with paint.
Creating a single “painting event” requires months of planning. They first have to get permission from the relevant municipality and then work alongside their sponsor, “Colortek,” before posting the event on social media. Elias explains:
We start by taking photos of the stairs and then mock it up. Then we decide on its design.
With hard work and countless hours under the sun, the team has proven that working hard does pay off. Their “Paint Up” stairs projects, known as “Volumes,” have gained global recognition, and they’ve been featured in Vogue’s ”Nine Amazing Staircases From Around the World,” on BoredPanda, the BBC, and Forbes, among others. The group's co-founder, Lana Chukri, was also interviewed recently by Al-Jazeera.
Below, you'll find photos of some of their work:
“Home of Hope,” a project completed in July 2016 in Kahale, Aley district.
At the “Home of Hope” in Kahale, Aley district. Source: Facebook.
“Waiting for the Train” at the Mar Michael Train Station, Mar Michael, Beirut with Achillea in October of 2013.
At the Mar Mikhael Train Station, Mar Mikhael, Beirut. Photo by Nadim Kamel. Source: Facebook.
“Paint Up V. 6- Tetris” in Mar Mikhael, Beirut in October 2013.
“Paint Up V. 6- Tetris” in Mar Mikhael, Beirut. Photo by Nadim Kamel. Source: Facebook
“Paint Up V.7 Stripes” with Chad the Mad in Azarieh, Beirut in October 2014.
“Paint Up V.7 Stripes” with Chad the Mad in Azarieh, Beirut. Photo by Nadim Kamel. Source: Facebook.
Eager to reconnect Beirut with its past, the Dihzayners team has found a way to turn a simple idea into a community that cares about its surroundings. With so much paint and goodwill, it's safe to say these artists have made their mark on Lebanon.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Dalia El Ali


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The Best of Latin American Info-Activism in 2016 (Part II) · Global Voices
Social TIC

Image from the campaign, “Purple Revolution Online” published for circulation by SocialTIC and used with permission. Sign reads, “I want a feminist Internet.”
What follows is the second installment of a reprint in two parts. This text was originally published by the organization SocialTIC on its main website. Global Voices publishes this piece with permission from the original authors. The original text and this adaptation present a selection of the best info-activism projects in Latin America, as well as parts of the social and political contexts in which they are developing.
For SocialTIC, this collection of civic-technological projects and sacrifices inspires us to resist, and above all to take leading roles in changing our own societies, in order to be more effective in our info-activist tactics, to tell profound stories in an empathetic manner, and to influence groups outside of our own ideological bubbles.
The first installment of SocialTIC's review (available here) highlights the work of citizens who are looking for more transparency, who want to lead social movements, and who fight online and in the street to protect their participation and security. In this second installment, the group highlights inspirational projects fighting for equality in representation, and the importance of citizens in group projects and electoral processes.
In early 2016, the Nicaraguan “Open Street Map” community mapped transportation routes in Managua and Sandino City, in order to make the information available to the public, both online and in print. The project was possible thanks to cooperation between local entrepreneurs in the design-and-printing industry.
MapaNica represents the civic spirit of many technological communities that operate in the absence of support from the state. This activism also shows the high potential such projects could have, if the government did cooperate more often with technical communities.
SocialTIC also highlights the work of the Morlan team, whose members analyze and visualize data in their off time. This talented team shares its discoveries, projects, and tipster recommendations all the time on social networks and on VISceral's YouTube broadcasts, which is presented as the home “of the only show in Latin America that covers data journalism, data science, [and] data visualization.”
The Movement to Help Breast Cancer (MACMA in Spanish) challenges Facebook and Instagram's terms of service and politics with a video that is impossible to forget. Its video #TetasxTetas (#TitsxTits) evaded the social networks’ censorship of women's bosoms by showing a man's chest, demonstrating how women can examine their own breasts for preventative healthcare.
Subtitles on video image: “With the hands on the waist and on the head, look for changes and lumps.
In 2016, the power of online videos grew, as multimedia adapts to viewers’ consumption habits. Short 90-second videos exploded in online activism (see work on Ssexual violence in Mexico by Amnesty International) and in digital news (see #InformeAyotzinapa or #AyotzinapaReport by AJ+). Opinion influencers also leveraged this developing technology, as demonstrated by the work of Sofía reflecting on nutrition and others like Yaser Morazán.
Special mention also goes to El Poder del Consumidor and Cacto Producciones, which in addition to producing the documentary “Dulce Agonía” also experimented with music for social causes in Dulce Veneno's music album.
The platform Bancada Ativista unites different individuals from across the political spectrum who share an interest in engaging politically in order to effect changes in the real world. Projects like this one promise to identify future citizen leaders with the integrity and dedication necessary to working effectively for social change.
Debate com os candidatos da #bancadaativistapic.twitter.com/tzFAb52c9h
— Bancada Ativista (@bancadaativista) September 7, 2016
Debate with the candidates gives #activistsstand
There were also efforts by the media, civil-society organizations, and technological groups to encourage informed voting and hold officials accountable for campaign promises.
In Chile, Espacio Público launched #LupaElectoral (#ElectoralMagnifyingGlass), encouraging citizen vigilance. Ciudadano Inteligente then applied this electoral platform in Vota Inteligente at the municipal level. In the Costa Rican elections, the Voice of Guanacaste adopted the Argentinian platform Yo Quiero Saber, allowing users to weigh their sympathy for the different candidates. In Colombia, La Silla Vacía created a microsite about elections with a test aimed at undecided voters. In Nicaragua, VotoNica lobbied to make the demands of the country's youth more visible to political parties and candidates.
As always, hackathons and civic brainstorming leads to dozens of promising activist ideas, but few of these proposals ever becomes something ordinary people can use.
ContratoBook was one of those few projects that made it, uniting efforts between SpaceshipLabs and others, like PODER, Gobierno Fácil, and Transparencia Mexicana. The results is a service that makes it quick and easy to find and analyze public procurement data from the Mexican government.
SocialTIC also emphasized the great importance of civic technological programs and stimulation funds, since it is these incentives that encourage new generations of Latin American techies to engage in civic technology.
In Argentina, a small group of specialists, journalists, and volunteers created the project Argentina Discusses Sexist Violence, an anonymous survey of hundreds of Argentinian women identifying 15 dimensions of violence that occur in different aspects of their lives. This compilation of information is already available as the first national index of sexist violence.
Another project in 2016 was Tiempo Fuera, created in Mexico by the Simone de Beauvoir Leadership Institute (ILSB in Spanish) and Virk. This web application has helped hundreds of women learn more about the different support options available in Mexico, in case they experience sexual violence.
In Latin America, women are a growing presence in the tech world, which is becoming more diverse and more collaborative. In 2016, initiatives like “Editatonas” — edit-a-thons for women only — popped up in Argentina, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Brazil, capturing the knowledge of female authors within a wide variety of subjects on Wikipedia.
Video title: Editatona on Women Writers, 2016
In spite of some regrettable closures and reductions of data units, many Latin American media and NGOs that work rigorously with data kept up their work in 2016. With a new year underway, SocialTIC expects big things from groups like SOS Riachuelo, Fondos de Papel, Geografía del Delito, and Niñas Madres, which are busy using data in innovative ways to tell compelling and grounded stories.

author: Social TIC


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The Strangest Japanese “Love Hotel” Names, Ranked · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The spires of the Espo World (Love) Hotel (エスポワールホテルベル) at dawn, across the river from historic Tojinmachi in Kochi, Japan. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
A recent survey has ranked the top ten strangest “love hotel” names in Japan. Coming out on top? “Banana & Donut.”
@daitoshonagikai バナナとドーナツってラブホもよくこの名前にしたなって思いますw pic.twitter.com/1bBoNL9HJo
— Alice@熊本城マラソン2月19日 (@ab_k2) December 12, 2016
“Banana & Donut” is the perfect name for a love hotel.
“Banana & Donut,” which as recently as 2013 was ranked as having only the tenth-weirdest name, is a “love hotel” (known as a ラブホ, or rabuho in Japanese) in Saga Prefecture in western Japan. Visitors to such hotels pay per hour or for an overnight stay, typically for a private place to have sex. Some tourists to Japan have discovered, however, that “love hotels” are an affordable alternative to conventional hotels.
Like similar establishments outside of Japan's big cities, Banana & Donut is located on a highway bypass on the outskirts of town, and according to its website, besides providing private rooms, also offers raffle draws for useful household gadgets, room service and coupon discounts for frequent visitors. There is also a porn shop (link may be Not Suitable For Work) where costumes and adult novelties can be purchased as part of your stay.
“Love hotels”, with their by-the-hour rates, serve a variety of purposes. In a culture where it's uncommon to entertain guests at home, the hotels provide a neutral space for intimate encounters when dating; in a country where most houses lack insulation or central heating, they are a warm refuge in winter. There's also the idea that these hotels provide a convenient place to retire for an illicit tryst — and most of them provide guests with private parking spots, or at least some way of obscuring the car's license plate number from prying eyes.
Since “love hotels” all serve a common purpose and market themselves to a similar consumer demographic in generally the same geographic area, they rely on memorable names to stand out from the crowd and help generate business.
Goo Ranking, working with Research Plus, polled 500 Japanese people in December 2016, to come up with some of the strangest (and most memorable) “love hotel” names in the country:
実在するラブホ名
1位バナナとドーナツ
2位と、いうわけで。
3位ホテルだぞぉー
4位暴れ狸の鬼袋
5位べんきょう部屋
5位101回目のプロポーズ
7位オラオラ
8位甲子園ジュニア
9位北アフリカ
9位つれてって～
11位ポニーテールは風にゆれて
12位さりげなく！
— リフォロー100%相互フォロー支援 (@redpanda678) January 2, 2017
Actual names of love hotels:
1. Banana & Donut (バナナとドーナツ)
2. ‘As I was saying…’ (と、いうわけで)
3. It's a Hotel, You Know… (ホテルだぞぉー)
4. The Raging Racoon's Enormous Sack (暴れ狸の鬼袋)
5. Study Hall (べんきょう部屋)
6. The 101st Marriage Proposal (101回目のプロポーズ)
7. Oi! (オラオラ)
8. Koshien Jr.甲子園ジュニア
9. North Africa (北アフリカ)
9. Take Me With You… Please? (つれてって～)
11. A Ponytail, Blowing in the Wind (ポニーテールは風にゆれて)
12. Nonchalance (さりげなく)
While many of the hotel names seem so whimsical as to be almost incomprehensible, some have a tenuous connection to reality: “The 101st Marriage Proposal” (101回目のプロポーズ), for example, was a television series in 1991, in late bubble-era Japan.
The 101st Marriage Proposal hotel itself is located in the pleasant tourist town of Kurashiki, in western Japan, on Japan's Inland Sea. Images from Google Street View demonstrate the privacy guests can expect when checking in, and the overall romantic atmosphere of the hotel.
Goo Ranking, which gets its name from a little-used search engine and web portal based in Japan, bills itself as Japan's “biggest domestic ranking site”, having published more than 50,000 surveys. The company generally collects its results through Internet surveys, and the results often appear in news reports and other media. The long-running English-language blog, What Japan Thinks, frequently posts translations of its surveys on a variety of topics.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Trinidad & Tobago Moves to End Child Marriage, Despite Religious Opposition · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Seventeen 13-year-old girls were legally married in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.” Infographic in support of putting an end to the practice of child marriage in Trinidad and Tobago. Widely shared on Facebook.
With the proclamation of The Children Act on May 18, 2015, Trinidad and Tobago raised the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18. Ironically, however, because The Marriage Act of 1923 is still on the books, the youngest legal age of marriage remains 12 for girls and 14 for boys, once there is parental consent.
The issue caused a big hullabaloo back in May 2016. That's when Brother Harrypersad Maharaj, the leader of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO)  — the members of which represent the country's diverse religious groups — declared that the government should not amend the Marriage Act because “age did not determine maturity”.
While the practice is still adhered to by some members of the Hindu, Muslim and Orisha religions in Trinidad and Tobago, the public pressure to repeal the law has been significant. The government, which promised to reassess the situation, has kept its word. On January 10, 2016, the country's attorney general, Faris Al Rawi, presented the Miscellaneous Provisions Marriage Bill in the country's senate. The bill aims to get the marrying age in sync with the new age of sexual consent and “to protect the voice of the child”. Judging by the response on social media, the move was a welcome — and long overdue — one.
However, it appears that the country's opposition, which comprises a few practitioners of some of the faiths that allow child marriage, may not be supportive of the bill. The contribution from the opposition bench that got the most attention came from temporary senator Dr. Waffie Mohammed. Temporary senators are appointed to fill in for senators who may be absent from office for whatever reason, though Mohammed appears to have been appointed just for the day of the parliamentary debate, ostensibly to make the case for keeping the law as is. He stated:
So you will understand the wisdom in this, because the age of puberty will vary in climatic conditions, from place to place. If we had said, like the United Nations, 18 years, or this or that, it would be varying with regards to the standard of judgement.
That line in particular prompted journalist and Facebook user Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar to sound off about a video on the subject:
Sometimes when I watch the Parliament Channel I want to knock my head repeatedly against a wall. Some feel girls should be able to get married as they enter puberty …because climate.
Senator Mohammed went further, saying that the Quran has not changed and that any amendments to The Marriage Act would be “oppressive to Muslims”, to which Ramesar retorted:
Here's the thing, waiting till both parties are 18 won't kill them and it may well save the girl's life. Nobody is being oppressed with the proposed changes to the laws. If you want to talk about oppression, the minimum age for same sex marriage (or even civil union) in T&T is never.
The popular political and sports site, Wired868, accused some of the country's religious leaders of “gazing at our children with criminal intent”, adding:
The Quran, for the kafirs reading this article, is believed to have been written 1,385 years ago. And, as we know, public sentiment on a wide range of issues—from inter-racial marriages, homosexuality, abortions, global warming and seatbelts—evolve constantly according to time, information and culture.
Facebook user and political commentator Rhoda Bharath, after listening to the opposition's stance, quipped:
After twenty years of consultations with stakeholders on numerous occasions, Team Paedophilia aka the Opposition wants a Joint Select Committee to discuss their right have sex with 12 year olds.
#EndChildMarriage
Both Bharath and Ramesar called out the opposition's waffling on the issue. Last year, the leader of the opposition, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, said, “Our very clear position is that [child marriage] must not be allowed by law; it must not be seen as right or permissible by society and whether by tradition or circumstance, must not be allowed to continue” — the complete opposite of the argument Senator Mohammed put forward.
Journalist and Facebook user Wesley Gibbings noted:
There are politicians, clergy and partisan hacks in my country who believe it is acceptable for children, even as defined by specific children's legislation, to marry. Maybe they should have met the Yemeni physician I once had a conversation with and during which he described what happens to the body of a 12-13 year old girl during their ‘honeymoon’ which routinely ends on a hospital bed. This is not a matter of cultural relativism. It is a matter of cruel criminal behaviour.
Netizens overwhelmingly found the whole affair scandalous, with Facebook user Steven Mawer saying:
“In 2017, there are opponents to abolishing child marriage in Trinidad and Tobago. This is a true story.”
While one independent senator got a lot of online support for calling the practice “child slavery”, in the public Trinidad and Tobago Muslims Chat Group on Facebook, there were different points of view. One commenter “[did] not believe that a girl has to be 18 years in order to be considered ready for marriage”, while another member of the group thought “a better approach would be to implement age gap barriers to the existing marriage act to address the issue of paedophilia.” Irshaad Ali suggested that the value system was inverted:
We live in a time where it is permitted by society to commit acts that are not permissible and it is prohibited to do what The Creator has made permissible, for example, parents or guardians prefer to allow teenagers to do as the please like fornication and consuming of alcohol, partying, exposing their bodies but marrying them to protect them from doing these acts is wrong, what a twisted society we live in
Outside of the group, there was a lot of push-back against this line of reasoning. The blog What's the Idea? argued that child marriage was tantamount to child abuse:
Child marriage disproportionately affects girls and is part of the undergirding of patriarchy which we have been collectively dismantling. It uniquely secures legal access by men to the bodies of girls at a time in their lives when they do not have the capacity to give informed consent as is acknowledged in sexual offence legislation all over the world.
In this country, between 1996 and the present, 97% of child marriages were of girls. These girls can be as young as 12 as was the case in 2008. And if that is not enough chilling news, the available data shared by the AG shows that the men who ‘married’ these girls were as old as 52. Marriage of girl children is a sheer perversion. It legitimizes conduct that would otherwise be child sexual abuse. How can it be otherwise?
Although the government will require some opposition votes for the bill to be passed, it it widely expected to go through.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Do You Know Kilishi? Feast Your Eyes on this Sahelian Culinary Delight from Niger! · Global Voices
Blogueurs invités

Nigerien kilishi courtesy of Ali Mahaman. (Top left-hand caption: kilishi coated with peanut paste and spiced) (Bottom right-hand caption: “Rumuzu”: a type of kilishi)
When talking about Niger, one often brings up its majestic Sahelian landscapes, its fight against extremist violence and its uranium resources. Yet rarely does one speak of its distinctive cuisine, which is as rich in variety as the national population is culturally diverse. Ali Douka Mahaman, blogger for the website Mapping for Niger and a resident of the eastern Nigerien city of Madaouda, presents a dish little known outside his home country.
Kilishi is a dish of Nigerien origin. Its name comes from the Hausa language and means “fine slice of meat (beef or boneless mutton), dried and spiced.” The final product is a thin slice of sundried meat whose time-consuming preparation entails:
–        selecting cuts of meat;
–        tanning the slices, or Lay-laya in Hausa;
–        laying the meat out in the sun to dry;
–        covering the slices in red-coloured peanut paste;
–       grilling the meat over a fire and finally, seasoning it with spice and peanut oil.
Seasoned kilishi (with author's permission)
In  Niger, centres for kilishi production are mostly located in the southern strip of the country, primarily in the cities of Madaoua, Guidan-Roumdji and even in the capital, Niamey. The main players in the production of this dish are the bangarou, or butchers, who have cultivated a justified reputation as masters of meat.
There are the two main types of kilishi:
– ja: kilishi covered in peanut paste and red colouring.
– rumuzu: plain kilishi with peanut oil.
Kilishi production remains a labour-intensive process that is very much the preserve of Niger's vast informal economy.
Here is a video showing how it is produced:
Moreover, given that Niger is facing massive emigration due to a depressed economic climate, kilishi is increasingly moving across the border, to coastal neighbours like Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria and Gabon.
A study conducted by the Niamey municipality estimated that bbetween 700 and 1000 kilograms of kilishi is produced every year in the city . This product can be enjoyed with onion slices and spices, and makes for a delicious and comforting desert.

author: Blogueurs invités


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Get to Know Barry Diawadou, the Guinean Independence Hero the Government Prefers to Forget · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

“Barry Diawadou Leader of Guinean Independance. Executed at Camp Boiro in 1969″ via a screenshot from the video, Camp Boiro: 45 years later on YouTube
The state-backed history of Guinea is selective in who it remembers and forgets, meaning that important historical figures who were not loyal to the dictatorship established after independence and still in place nearly sixty years later seldom get the lip service they deserve from the country's leadership.
On national holidays not one word is uttered in commemoration of Barry Diawadou, or Barry Ibrahima, also known as Barry III.
Neither does the state recognise many of the others who lie in graves, whose locations are unknown even to their relatives, that it slandered, arrested, expropriated, tortured and finally killed. No attempt has been made to rehabilitate these heroes posthumously and recognise their achievements in the independence struggle, and yet their executioners are praised often enough.
Barry Diawadou and Barry Ibrahima were leaders of the Guinean Independence before they fell victim to Sékou Touré's predatory post-independence regime. Sékou Touré was elected as the first President of Guinea, serving from 1958 to his death in 1984. He imprisoned or exiled his strongest opposition leaders. It is estimated that 50,000 people were killed under his regime.
Diawadou in particular, stands as compelling figure in the country's exit from colonialism.
A graduate of the department of Administration at the Ecole Normale William Ponty de Gorée, Diawadou served in World War II and obtained the rank of chief sergeant. He was elected several times as a member of the French National Assembly.
In an article published on the website “La Plume Plus”, Mody Boubakar Diallo writes:
Il fut le premier leader guinéen à donner le mot d’ordre à ses militants de voter ‘’ Non’’ au référendum proposé par le général De Gaulle, en vue d’une indépendance de la Guinée. Par ailleurs, il fut le premier leader à renoncer à tous les avantages dont il bénéficiait auprès de la France à savoir: Sa pension d’ancien combattant, ses biens matériels, sa pension de député à l’assemblée nationale française, sa nationalité française, tout ceci dans le seul but de favoriser l’accession de son pays à l’indépendance totale par patriotisme. En plus de tout cela, en 1959, quelques mois après l’indépendance, il refusera fermement l’offre de la France , de mettre à sa disposition de l’argent et une armée, pour un vote en faveur du « oui » évitant ainsi un bain de sang à son peuple. A noter que Barry Diawadou sauva de justesse le président Sékou Touré en lui recommandant de refuser de monter dans l’avion militaire devant le conduire à Dakar. La raison était très simple, les français voulaient le larguer en haute mer après son discours du 25 août 1958 à De Gaulle.
He was the first Guinean leader to call on his supporters to vote “no” in the referendum proposed by General De Gaulle [on membership of the French Community].  Moreover, he was the first leader to renounce all the benefits he was entitled to from France, namely his veteran's pension, his property, his salary as a member of the French National Assembly, and his French nationality; all for the sole purpose of promoting the transformation of his country towards full independence through patriotism. In 1959, some months after independence, he flatly refused France's offer to put at his disposal a salary and army in exchange for a “yes” vote, thus avoiding bloodshed for his people. [Ed:The referendum requested by France asked whether, after independence, Guinea would wish to remain within a newly formed francophone commonwealth]. It should also be noted that Barry Diawadou narrowly saved President Sékou Touré by advising him not to board a military aircraft bound for Dakar. The reason [for his advice] was simple, the French wanted to throw [Touré] out over the sea after his speech on August 25, 1958, addressed to De Gaulle.
In his book entitled Guinée, Le temps de Fripouilles (English: Guinea, The Era of Buggers)  Sako Kondé praises Diawadou's integrity and recalls an exchange between him and Touré during those turbulent times:
Un homme d’une honnêteté intellectuelle et d’un sens du bien public exemplaires. Certains ont pu dire de lui qu’il était « trop droit pour réussir en politique ». C’est sans doute, vrai… Beaucoup d’entre eux se souviennent de cette entrevue qu’il eut avec Sékou Touré à la veille du référendum : celui-ci vint le trouver pour lui dire en substance : « Le sort de la Guinée est entre tes mains ; tout dépendra de toi”
A man of true intellectual honesty and an exemplary sense of public good. Some could say he was “too honest to succeed in politics”. This is probably true… Many among them remember a meeting that took place with Sékou Touré on the eve of the referendum. He [Touré] came to him [Diawadou] and said in essence: “The fate of Guinea is in your hands, everything will depend on you”.
In his own book Expérience Guinéenne et Unité Africaine, (English: The Guinean Experience and African Unity) Sékou Touré, writing before his descent into total despotism, noted approvingly of Diawadou:
A l’avance, je vous dirai que chez ce camarade, nous avons constaté une parfaite loyauté.
I will tell you right now that with this comrade, we have found a man of perfect loyalty.
Sako Kondé describes the political situation that prevailed in Guinea and its evolution following the country's accession to independence:
A la veille du référendum il y avait, outre la section guinéenne du R.D.A., deux principales formations politiques minoritaires : le Bloc Africain de Guinée (B.A.G.) et le Mouvement Africain Socialiste (M.S.A.), dirigées respectivement par Barry Diawadou et Barry Ibrahima dit Barry III, tous deux assassinés depuis par leur ancien adversaire. L’« accord » entre ces deux partis et le P.D.G. intervint dans les tout premiers jours de l’indépendance. Sékou Touré pouvait alors exulter et déclarer que « notre peuple avait » transcendé les contradictions mineures qui le divisaient en de nombreux partis politiques » ; et que leur « unité » « donnait à l’option de la Guinée son entière signification politique et morale ». La population venait de rejeter la Communauté à plus de 94 %, conformément aux consignes concordantes de tous les dirigeants de parti. Mais s’agissait-il véritablement d’accord, d’unité ? Les faits n’allaient pas tarder à montrer que cette obscure convention entre états-majors n’était rien d’autre que l’arrêt de mort des partis minoritaires. Certes, leurs deux dirigeants étaient entrés dans le gouvernement P.D.G. Mais, en pratique, ils étaient désormais coupés de leur base, laquelle fut, en quelque sorte, aussitôt phagocytée par le parti unique. Et, déjà, le chef de cette dernière formation fourbissait ses armes et construisait, pièce par pièce sa machine à asservir.
On the eve of the referendum there was, besides the Guinean section of the RDA (African Democratic Rally, a sub-group of the PDG, the Democratic Party of Guinea), two main political minority groups: the African Bloc of Guinea (BAG), and the African Socialist Movement (MSA), led respectively by Barry Diawadou and Barry Ibrahima (Barry III), who were both later killed by their [shared] adversary. The “agreement” between these two parties and the PDG  took place during the very first days of independence. Sékou Touré could then gloat and declare that “our people had risen above the petty disagreements which divided the country into numerous political parties”; and claim that their “unity” made possible “Guinea's full political and moral significance”. The population had just rejected the French Community, with more than 94% [voting ‘No’], at the request of all party leaders.  But was it truly a matter of agreement, or unity? […] This shady deal among the general staff was nothing more than a death sentence for the minority parties. Certainly, their two leaders had entered the PDG government. But in practice, they were already cut off from their base, which was, in some way, immediately swallowed up by a single party.
The cunning Sékou Touré, meanwhile, was already a dictator-in-the-making.
Barry Diawadou est tombé victime d’un adversaire (Sékou Touré) bien plus à l’aise dans les marécages de la basse « politique politicienne » que sur le chantier de la construction nationale. L’histoire sait jouer des tours révoltants où l’on voit les tricheurs, les ignares, prendre le pas sur les honnêtes, les capables. Ce fut bien à un de ces tours qu’on assista en Guinée dans les premiers jours de l’indépendance. Que retenir de tout cela ?
Barry Diawadou fell victim to an adversary [Sékou Touré] more comfortable in “dirty-dealing politics” than in building a nation. History is full of dirty tricks whereby the cheaters and the ignorant take precedence over the honest and capable. […] What can we take away from this ?
The website campboiro.org describes Sékou Touré's persecution of Barry Diawadou and his family. Diawadou was executed by firing squad in 1969 following his trial and conviction in absentia of plotting against the regime.
His father, his brothers, one of his sons, two nephews, and a son-in-law all spent time behind bars. Diawadou's brother also died a prisoner. Below is a video which retraces the memories of families in this prison:
Camara Kaba 41, in his book Dans la Guinée de Sékou Touré: Cela a Bien eu Lieu, (English: Living in Sékou Touré's Guinea: How it Happened)  offers a harrowing description of the fate of a group of political prisoners under the Touré regime:
Ils étaient méconnaissables avec leur maigreur extrême et surtout avec leur barbe de plusieurs mois. A gauche de Fodéba, son ami Fofana Karim, ministre des Mines et de la Géologie. Kaman était à l’extrême droite. Il creusait sa tombe sous les baïonnettes de ses soldats d’hier.
They were unrecognisable with their extreme gauntness and especially their months-old beards. To the left of Fodéba, his friend Fofana Karim, Minister of Mines and Geology. Kaman was on the far right. They dug their graves under the the bayonets of the soldiers of yesterday.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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New Russian App Works Like Uber, But for Funerals · Global Voices
Aliide Naylor

Image: Pixabay
It has all the convenience and technical pizzazz of the transportation network Uber, but it helps you arrange funerals, not rides. A project manager working at the Russian Internet giant Yandex is designing an app called “Umer” (“Died” in Russian) — a service built to help people overcome the logistical difficulties of putting a loved one to rest.
Umer estimates funeral costs and aggregates all the documentation required to register a death and make funeral arrangements. According to Dmitriy Geranin, the man behind the app, it will offer a range of mortuary options, including both conventional burials and cremation.
Dmitry Geranin. Photo: Facebook
“It seems like we've automated everything except death. I want to fix this,” Geranin wrote on Facebook.
Umer isn't yet up and running, but Geranin hopes to launch his app in the next three months, after finalizing negotiations with different funeral homes.
The service's name is a play on “Uber,” changing just a single letter to transform it into the Russian word for “Died.”
Still in development, Umer has already generated significant interest online, though Sergei Mokhov, the chief editor of the scientific journal “Archaeology of Russian Death,” is certain the project is doomed.
“The price for each specific funeral is always unique,” he told the website TJournal. “‘How much is a funeral?’ is as incorrect as asking ‘How much is a car?’” he added. Mokhov also argued that Russia's funeral market is largely unregulated, making various additional fees hard to predict.
“You have to pay for the body to be issued on time and in its proper form,” Mokhov said. “But one morgue takes 30,000 rubles [$500], while another will take 10,000 [$165]. And the price always floats.”
While it's too soon to know how Umer will fare on the app market, Mokhov is right about the chaos of burials in Russia. On New Year's Eve, state authorities in Chechnya buried the remains of more than a 100 people killed two decades ago by the Russian army. The victims were unidentified and their remains were dumped in a mass grave.
A video posted by ДУМ ЧР (@dumchr) on
Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov led a prayer at the unpublicized burial, information about which leaked to locals over WhatsApp. Just hours later, however, Kadyrov was smiling on television screens, welcoming the republic to the New Year.

author: Aliide Naylor


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UK Horror Writer Graham Masterton Organizes Short Story Contest for the Inmates of Poland’s Prisons · Global Voices
Elaine Rigas

A 1945 postcard showing the prison in Braniewo, Poland. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Renowned British horror writer Graham Masterton has organized a competition aimed at resocializing Polish prison inmates through creative writing. Masterton used social media to announce that a prize named “Written In Prison” will be given to the best short story entries:
“I came up with the idea after visiting Wolow maximum security prison near Wroclaw in October last year. The prisoners were all very well-read and interested in my books and in writing in general. In fact they were one of the most enthusiastic audiences I have ever had.”
The author wrote a letter to each inmate, personally encouraging them to set free their creativity and imagination and participate in his literary contest.
Invitations have gone out to all 71,000 prison inmates n Poland to enter a short story for the Graham Masterton Written In Prison Award pic.twitter.com/8LzpJHjYgv
— Graham Masterton (@GrahamMasterton) January 9, 2017
The author, Graham Masterton (left) after meeting with the Warden of Wolow, Robert Kuczera (right). Image from the author's Facebook page, used with permission.
Inmates can submit a short story about any subject they like (the contest's deadline is the end of March, 2017). The stories will be translated into English, Masterton will personally choose the best three and in June, fly to Poland to  present the awards. The prizes include an engraved plaque, hampers of fruits and sweets, and books by Rebis Publishing House. If the contest is successful, the author intends to do the same in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The popular novelist of horror and crime fiction has connections to Poland — his great-grandfather, who was Polish, emigrated to England in the 1890s to avoid being enlisted in the Russian Imperial Army.
Masterton's novel “The Manitou” (1978) was the first Western horror novel to be published in Poland since World War II. The author was so impressed by the interest the inmates at Wołów Prison showed in his books — and by the intelligence of their questions — that it occurred to him they might not only enjoy writing fiction themselves, they might also derive considerable benefit from it:
“Most people have some kind of a story to tell, but prison inmates never get the chance to express their ideas and their emotions to the outside world. By entering the Graham Masterton ‘Written In Prison’ contest, they can feel that their stories are being given attention beyond the walls of their cells.”
The response from Wołów’s warden and the Wrocław agglomeration was immediate and positive; the contest will also have the strong support of Graham’s publishers in Poznan, Rebis, and the Wrocław public library.
In an inspirational quotation, Masterton said:
“The prisoners can write about anything they like. Even though they’re locked up, I want to see them setting their imagination free.”
The reactions to Masterton's contest in the Polish press have been overwhelmingly positive.

author: Elaine Rigas


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Catchy Singlish Songs Urge Hong Kong to Return Military Hardware to Singapore · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture from Alvin Oon's video.
As tensions over Hong Kong government's seizure of nine military vehicles from Singapore continues to escalate, Singaporean bloggers have turned the diplomatic incident into catchy ‘Singlish Songs’, humorously pleading Hong Kong and China to return their “Terrex Chia”.
A shipment of nine Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles and other military hardware was seized by Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department on November 23 last year.
The vehicles were en route to Singapore following a joint military exercise in Taiwan. Similar unofficial military cooperation between the two countries has been occurring for decades.
Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen said earlier this week in the Parliament that the seizure does not comply with international law. He also revealed that Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has written to Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying requesting the immediate return of the vehicles.
Hong Kong authorities have said they were still investigating if the shipment involves arms smuggling. But foreign affairs analysts believe Beijing was behind the incident and wanted to pressure Singapore into ending all unofficial bilateral exchanges with Taiwan.
In response to the mini-crisis, Singaporean bloggers urged the return of the nine “Terrex Chia” with hilarious Singlish songs (via Hong Kong Free Press).
Singlish is a popular creole based on English with unique slang and syntax spoken colloquially in Singapore. It is usually a mixture of English, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, and other local dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew, according to Wikipedia.
YouTuber Alvin Oon's song, “Give Me Back My Terrex Chia”, went viral in the space of a few days. He introduced it on YouTube as “Song Diplomacy”:
Song Diplomacy – Maybe a light-hearted song will lessen the tensions and see the return of Singapore's 9 Terrex Infantry Carrier Vehicles.
Oon mixes English with Chinese dialets (Hokkien), Malay and Tamil in his song during which he asks repeatedly:
Why you take something that is not yours but mine?
And adding:
A-Neh Kuan Buay Sai Mah
You can't do this [to me]
One day after Oon released his song, another blogger Mr. Brown rewrote the lyrics of a Chinese Lunar New Year Song into “Give Us Our Terrex Back”, echoing Oon's song diplomacy:

author: Oiwan Lam


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Kyrgyz Security Services Declare War on President’s Facebook Critics · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2015. Russian government image, licensed to reuse.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org. Republished with permission.
Kyrgyzstan’s security services are dropping the gloves for a fight against Facebook-using keyboard warriors who are taking pops at apparently thin-skinned President Almazbek Atambayev. Social media users do not know whether to laugh or cry.
On January 10, a letter from the deputy head of the State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, addressed to a member of parliament in Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, began circulating online. The letter noted that some 45 Facebook users who are openly critical of Atambayev had been placed under the organ’s direct observation. Then, some of them were named and shamed in the text.
Officially, the term GKNB deputy director and former Atambayev bodyguard Bolot Suyumbayev used in the letter, which MP Irina Karamushkina has confirmed as authentic, is “negative publications addressed to the head of state.”
A quick search through the publicly visible posts of the social media users named in the letter reveals very few that are openly insulting of Atambayev. However, it is possible that some of purportedly offending posts might have been recently removed by the users.
One that stands out is Toichubek Akmatali uulu’s page from November 24. It contains a repost that mocks a reference made by a political ally of the president, referring to Atambayev as a “Father of the Nation.” Swathes of Facebook users pilloried the comment as evidence of a stirring personality cult.
The post also features a photo of Atambayev with bulging eyes that are an unhealthy shade of yellow superimposed onto his face.
Karamushkina – who has a reputation as something of an SDPK attack dog – first called on the GKNB to pursue Atambayev’s online critics during a parliamentary session in October. At the time, another GKNB deputy director said the organ was doing exactly that, and justified the investigations by arguing that Atambayev is “a state symbol,” and thus is deserving of reverence, just like the national anthem and the flag.
A local media watchdog, the Institute of Media Policy, noted soon after that exchange — which many viewed as heavily choreographed — that unlike the anthem and flag, the president was not included among the state symbols listed in the constitution.
Despite the passage of several contentious changes to the country’s basic law in a referendum late last year, that does still remain the case.
But the rule of law tends to play second fiddle in Kyrgyz politics to political expediency, and critics say that authorities are eager to bring Facebook, the social media platform favored by Kyrgyzstan’s highly politicized civic leaders, to heel.
Just weeks before the appearance of the GKNB’s letter to Karamushkina, a civil court set a precedent by ruling against a Facebook user who had criticized her SDPK colleague Dastan Bekeshev. “[The government] pressures users in order to foster self-censorship,” says Adil Turdukulov, who leads the Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Speech advocacy group, and is himself facing civil proceedings for insulting another former member of Atambayev’s security detail.
“Now a person will think five times before writing something critical about the government,” he told EurasiaNet.org “[Kyrgyzstan] has taken its lead from Russia and Kazakhstan, where you can get jailed for a repost or a ‘like.’”
While the content of the letter is alarming, there are doubts about the abilities of the GKNB to execute a systematic roundup of Atambayev’s online enemies. In the letter to Karamushkina, for instance, Suyumbayev claims that the IP addresses of the Facebook users named indicate they are living abroad, and therefore cannot be brought in for questioning.
One Facebook user who is featured in the GKNB letter, and who was later interviewed by the news outlet Kloop.kg, scoffed at that the security services’ allegations, and remained defiant.
“What article did Atambayev not like? When I write, I write the truth. […] The GKNB is a disgrace,” Ainura Belekovna told Kloop. “Such a strong state organ, but they cannot locate my IP address! I do not live in the countries that you wrote. I’m living in Kyrgyzstan! And once again I say: Down with Atambayev!”
Some people have been brought in for questioning over Atambayev-related posts, continuing a trend that began towards the end of last year. According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz service Azattyk, 11 Facebook users in southern Jalal-Abad oblast have already been summoned to the GKNB’s local office for a ticking off for their Atambayev criticisms since the turn of the year.
Gulnura Toralieva, a former government advisor and founder of the Bishkek School of Public Relations, a non-profit entity, has called investigators’ recent surge of interest in anti-Atambayev Facebook posts “absurd” and “a dangerous precedent.” But she is not surprised that authorities are interested in keeping tabs on the medium.
“In the last two years, social networks have grown much more important, connected with the growing tendency of [citizens] to get news via them and journalists and civil society to use it as a platform,” Toralieva told Eurasianet.org in comments over Facebook.
“Influential commentators and social influencers have emerged [on social networks]. Politicians can publish their statements and denials there without approaching journalists. The government can use [the social networks] to help it respond to the public mood and score points. If it ignores them, it stands to lose.”
For the moment, several Kyrgyz Facebook users are responding to the GKNB name-and-shame campaign by calling on their friends to join them in roundly insulting Atambayev.
“Now many Internet users have a common passion — to get on this list :-),” joked photographer Ilya Karimdjanov on January 11.

author: Eurasianet


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Mindless Deforestation in Jharkhand, India in the Name of Development · Global Voices
VideoVolunteers

The women of the mountain villages in Rajasthan, India, carry 70 albs of wood on their heads every day for their cook fires. Image from Flickr by Engineering For Change. CC BY-SA 2.0
This post originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organization based in India. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Like in many parts of the world, deforestation is one of the major sources of environmental degradation in India. According to a recent study, India suffered a net loss of 243,447 sq. km (28%) of forests over the past eight decades. The effects of deforestation have caused irreversible damage across the country wiping out natural habitats and delicate ecosystems, triggering draughts, heatwaves and other natural calamities. Deforestation over the past few decades has caused a considerable decline in rainfall in India according to a study published in the Scientific reports.
Each year more and more forest areas in India are being converted to agricultural land to feed the growing needs of people due to the increase of local populations. Commercial logging, mining, urbanization and industrialization are the other causes of deforestation. This video story by Amita Tutti, a community correspondent for Video Volunteers, shows that thousands of trees all over the Indian state of Jharkhand, have been cut for road widening and infrastructure development projects of the State’s administration. Many more century-old trees face the same fate.
Citizens, including some civic organisations, have objected to the destruction of trees intended to pave way for roads in the area. “The trees would provide shade to the riders and pedestrians during peak summer,” says Pinki Kumari, a resident of Khunti.
While government officials have said that permission was granted for road expansion, an activist suggests that the officials sell fallen trees to the timber industry for a profit.
In Junagarh. India. This morning. Sad. Deforestation. pic.twitter.com/E5FRdHAjQE
— shriny (@shriny) December 19, 2016
Residents of Khunti have requested that indigenous trees be planted and the district’s green cover conserved. Last July 800,000 citizens of the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh planted more than 49 million trees in 24 hours in a statement against deforestation. India needs more of such efforts in order to balance out the loss of trees due to urbanization and development.

author: VideoVolunteers


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Thai Army Invites Children to Play with Real Guns, Tanks and Assault Helicopters · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Children's Day at the Chiang Mai Air Force base in Thailand. Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Children’s Day in Thailand is an annual celebration wherein various activities are organized across the country to inspire the future generation. This is the day when kids are given free rides and free access to museums, government buildings, and even army camps replete with weapons.
Yes, that's right, Thai kids get to play with real machine guns, artillery, and climb aboard tanks and Black Hawk helicopters.
For many advocates of children’s rights, this practice which has become almost a tradition in the past few decades, amounts to a dangerous promotion of violence within society. Critics of the junta which grabbed power in 2014, see it as a mind-conditioning activity that helps justify military rule in the country, and the military itself does little to alter that perception.
Since the 1930s, the army has launched more than a dozen coup attempts in Thailand.
In a local media report titled “Trigger Happy: Thai Children Get Hands on Tanks, Jets, Guns for Children's Day”, one soldier who interacted with five-year-old kids during this year's celebration justified the use of real military hardware:
What we’re doing is familiarizing them with soldiers and weaponry. By familiarizing them, they learn to love soldiers and even become soldiers.
A child gets a grip on an Israeli TAR-21 assault rifle for Children's Day at the King's Guard's 2nd Cavalry Division in Bangkok pic.twitter.com/qpgzi7vN8w
— Khaosod English (@KhaosodEnglish) January 14, 2017
For journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall, Children’s Day in Thailand is now a “day of state-sponsored child abuse.”
The main element of Children’s Day is that the army — which has never fought a real war against any foreign enemy but repeatedly crushes Thai democracy — invites kids into military camps where they can be brainwashed by being given lethal weapons to play with.
His opinion was shared by netizens who disapprove of the use of guns to educate children.
National children's day in thailand @KrisKoles @PravitR @Reaproy pic.twitter.com/AuXB2CiF3z
— stephff cartoonist (@stephffart) January 15, 2017
เที่ยวงานวันเด็ก งดพาเด็กไปดูอาวุธ Please don't take kids to handle war weapons on Children's Day #Thailand pic.twitter.com/ZkCCxU2aey
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) January 14, 2017
Since last year, the army has launched a number of aggressive information campaigns targeting children, such as reforming the school curriculum to promote Thai values, recruiting cyber scouts to police the Internet, and holding boot camps for preschool children.
Writer John Draper describes the military-sponsored training of kindergarteners as a form of “systematic militarized indoctrination.”
How long that indoctrination will continue is impossible to guess. If civilian rule is ever restored in Thailand, will the new government also continue to expose children to big guns and tanks?

author: Mong Palatino


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In Israeli Soldier’s Manslaughter Conviction, Palestinians See Injustice · Global Voices
Ilaria Grasso Macola

Screenshot of the footage released by B'Tselem showing the moment Azaria decided to shoot an unconscious Al-Sharif in Hebron, Occupied West Bank. Source: B'Tselem.
On January 4, 2017, Elor Azaria, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier, was convicted of manslaughter by the Israeli military court. Azaria, now 20 years old, was found guilty of killing Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif, a 21-year-old Palestinian man, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on March 24, 2016.
Azaria shot an already-wounded al-Sharif in the head after the latter had allegedly tried to stab another Israeli soldier at an IDF checkpoint. Another Palestinian man, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, also 21 years old, was already dead.
The court deemed Azaria's statements on the matter insufficient and contradictory, since he initially claimed that al-Sharif was already dead when he shot him and then later changed his deposition to state that he thought the Palestinian man was wearing a suicide vest and was, therefore, a threat.
The video of the murder, legally referred to as an ‘extrajudicial killing’ in Israeli courts, was released in March 2016 by the Israeli human rights NGO B'Tselem, which documents human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories. At minute 1:50, Al-Sharif is seen unconscious on the ground when Azaria shoots him in the head.
There are more videos available of the incident available here. In the attached press release, B'Tselem explained that:
The footage of the incident that B’Tselem released in March began at a point in time in which the second assailant, Ramzi al-Qasrawi was already dead. The military has recently lifted the strict travel restrictions imposed on Tel Rumeida, so for the first time since the incident, B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bri was able to get into the neighborhood and collect testimonies from its residents. The testimonies of two of residents, Nur Abu ‘Eishah and Amani Abu ‘Eishah, raise concerns that al-Qasrawi was also executed with a shot to the head, as he lay injured on the ground after having been hit by gunfire elsewhere in his body.
The organization further said:
Extrajudicial street killings are the direct consequence of inflammatory remarks made by Israeli ministers and officials, augmented by the general public atmosphere of dehumanization
The soldier’s conviction was deemed exceptional by many, including B'Tselem, as Azaria was the first IDF soldier since 2004 to be convicted of manslaughter. This despite the fact that, between 2015 and 2016 alone, Israeli forces killed at least 124 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 22 in the Gaza Strip, and 10 inside Israel, according to Amnesty International. B'Tselem said it was one of the few cases where there was no “whitewashing by the army”.
Meanwhile, in Israel, there has been an outpouring of sympathy towards Azaria and even outrage at his trial, with protests taking place illegally outside the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s house in support of Azaria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Rivlin to pardon Azaria, an act Rivlin said he would consider after waiting “for the legal process to run its course.” Netanyahu added:
This is a difficult and painful day – first and foremost for Elor, his family, Israel's soldiers, many citizens and parents of soldiers, among them me … I support granting a pardon to Elor Azaria.
Some view Azaria's sentence as a positive step forward. Hebrew University of Jerusalem lecturer Robbie Sabel stated that “the court has done a wonderful job” in delivering such sentence.
On the Palestinian side, many complained that this individual conviction distracts from the wider issue of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Issa Adro, a Hebron-based Palestinian human rights activist, the founder of B'Tselem's Camera Project and co-founder of the activist group ‘Youth Against Settlements‘, told Al Jazeera's Inside Story team that:
I think it's a false conviction. The Israeli legal system is supporting the occupation. As Palestinians, we are not only suffering from one soldier. We are suffering from all the soldiers who are occupying our own homes, our own cities and our own streets. I think that the one responsible for the killing of the Palestinians is not just Azaria but also the occupation and the military system in the occupied territories.
It was a videographer trained by Adro who shot the footage. Adro explained that there wouldn't have even been such a trial had the video not been released and that the videographer received death threats from Israelis after releasing it.
Similarly, Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint List, a political alliance of four Palestinian-dominated parties in Israel, emphasized that while this episode was recorded and used as evidence in court, there are many others that are never filmed.
Relatives of the deceased raised their voices against the conviction, as they thought it was a “perversion of justice” since manslaughter is a milder conviction compared to murder. The verdict is not considered by activists as ‘exceptional’ because there is the possibility that the pardon will take place, commuting the sentence into a milder one.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament said that historical precedents, such as the amnesties given to security officials involved in the Kfar Qassem Massacre and the Bus 300 Affair, suggested that Azaria could be granted a pardon. She also compared Azaria‘s trial to that of Ahmed Manasra, a 13-year-old Palestinian who was sentenced to 12 years in an adult prison in November 2016 for a stabbing attack that wounded two Israelis.

author: Ilaria Grasso Macola


text:
Lebanon’s Seaside Dump Threatens Not Only the Environment, But Also Airplanes · Global Voices
Nadine Mazloum

Image published by ‘Labne&Facts’ on Facebook. Source: Facebook.
The threat of bird strikes in and around Beirut International Airport, Lebanon's only international airport, is not recent. It’s an issue that has been raised time and time again by the media, environmentalists, and concerned citizens since the Costa Brava landfill was built next to the airport as one of two landfills serving the nation’s seemingly incessant waste crisis.
But in the past few days there has been renewed anxiety over the situation after recent reports showed the situation was worsening. In one video report by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), seagulls can be seen hovering in larger numbers than previously documented over both Beirut International Airport and the landfill.
The news led many to ask international airlines and even the International Air Transport Association (IATA) if measures are being taken to prevent a catastrophe:
What measures have been taken by @IATA to prevent a real bloody catastrophe from happening in #Beirut Airport, #Lebanon?@iata2presspic.twitter.com/YvoXmMlCC5
— Adham Hassanieh (@AdhamMG) 10 janvier 2017
In response, Mount Lebanon Judge of Urgent Matters Hassan Hamdan ordered the temporary closure of the Costa Brava landfill. The decision came after sources confirmed several aircraft had encountered seagulls on the runways of Beirut International Airport during landing and takeoff.
The birds are attracted by the organic waste found at the landfill and possibly the polluted Ghadir River nearby, both of which offer sources of food. Sonic repellers, installed by authorities to ward them off, are no longer effective as the birds have acclimated to them.
Seagulls seen on Costa Brava landfill near Beirut Report. Source: Screenshot from the LBC report.
According to a judicial source, waste is still likely to be taken to said site until the judgement becomes binding, meaning trash is unlikely to accumulate on the streets over the course of the coming days.
For his part, new Environment Minister Tarek Khatib dismissed fears of another trash crisis like the one that began in 2015, which saw mountains of garbage piled up in public areas. And the Minister of Public Works Youssef Finianos told reporters on January 11 that the highly polluted Ghadir River, which pours into the sea near the dump site and might be another source of attraction to birds and other animals, will be dealt with.
The dumpsite as seen from the road. Photo taken by Zeina Nasser and used with permission.
Although bird strikes are not a primary cause of fatal plane crashes, they pose serious safety and economic concerns. Overall, 219 people traveling by airplane have been killed worldwide as a result of bird strikes since 1988, according to Boeing. The most disastrous case occurred on October 4, 1960, when Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, flying from Boston, collided with a flock of starlings during take-off, damaging all four engines. The aircraft then crashed into Boston harbor killing 62 passengers.
Another famous case took place in 2009 in New York, popularized in the 2016 Hollywood biopic of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. The US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was forced to land in the Hudson River after colliding with a flock of geese, which caused its engine to fail. All 150 passengers and five crew members survived after the heroic water landing.
Economically speaking, damage to aircraft caused by birds is estimated at billions of dollars, leading many airports to beef up animal control measures. Seagulls account for 77% of accidents, according to the International Bird Strike Committee, and these birds constitute the majority of those near Beirut's airport. While most modern airliners are built to withstand the dangers posed by bird-strikes, airports around the world take the threat seriously and employ a number of techniques to ward them off.
On January 14, 2016, dozens of hunters were spotted shooting seagulls close to the airport. These hunters were allegedly provided with the needed cartridges and with transportation, according to activists. One hunter told LBC:
We were only provided with the cartridges. Only seagulls are being targeted since they threaten civil aviation safety.
But environmental activist groups such as the Lebanon Eco Movement think otherwise. Sharing the following photo of a dead true sparrow, they commented:
.مجزرة الطيور لا تقتصر على ١٧ نوع من طيور النورس وانما تطال كل ما له جانحين
بالصورة طائر دوري مقتول من الفواصين المجرمين والمرسلين من مجرم حاقد لل يحترم الحياة
The bird slaughter did not limit itself to 17 types of seagulls but targeted anything with wings. In this photo you can see a dead true sparrow killed by criminals sent by a criminal with a grudge against the respect of life.
Dead true sparrow at the Costa Brava landfill. Source: Lebanon Eco Movement on Facebook
The news was condemned by activists on social media, and it caused outrage among environmentalists:
Shame on @MEAAIRLIBAN for transporting the hunters that are happily shooting down birds in the Costa Brava dump. RT please. pic.twitter.com/kHGkicEj5D
— Hassan Cha. (@has_s_an) 14 January 2017
By the day’s end, hundreds of birds had been shot dead, with no official claim of responsibility on the part of Lebanese officials. Lebanon's newly appointed environment minister initially claimed he was not aware of the bird culling plan, but then asked citizens to come up with better alternatives.
Environmental groups accused the Lebanese government of violating international treaties with the hunt. The most notable treaty concerned is the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) of 1999, which Lebanon is a part of and which covers 254 species of birds.
According to the Lebanese Bird Conservation Coalition, several other species were killed in the spree too. They include the Common Redshank, the Common Sandpiper, the Collared Doves, the Laughing Dove, the Turtle Dove, the House Sparrow, the Little Egret, the Great Cormorant, the Sandwich Tern, the Black-Headed Gull, the Little Gull, the Mediterranean Gull and the Black-Headed Gull.
Finally, speaking with Newsroom Nomad, Paul Abi Rached, the president of the Lebanon Eco Movement, said the Lebanese government's decision to pursue short-term ‘solutions’ can have catastrophic consequences:
The birds will return after a while, and shooting them just won’t do … To solve this problem they must shut down the Costa Brava landfill and fix the Ghadir River problem from the root. Anything short of that just won’t do.
It is both criminal and illegal, but above all it shows how incompetent this government is … The landfill was set up to last for 4 years, and it seems they [authorities] want to keep things as they are so as to pave the way for incinerators, which will be presented to the public as the only solution to the waste problem.
I have reason to believe that they will be resorting to this immoral and illegal tactic [bird shooting] as a means to cover up their shortcomings and keep the landfill in use … This was the new government’s first test, they promised to protect the environment and they have gravely failed.

author: Nadine Mazloum


text:
Website That Published ‘Yanukovych Blog’ Says It Was Fake · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr. CC 2.0
Little more than two weeks after first appearing on the news website Korrespondent, a blog purportedly written by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has been deleted by the publication's editors.
Maxim Minin, the editor-in-chief of Korrespondent.net, told RuNet Echo in an e-mail that the site's editors decided to delete the blog because its author provided no evidence verifying their identity. “He was never in direct contact with the editors to confirm his identity. Therefore, we considered the blog to be fake.”
Minin added that had the blog been real, Korrespondent would not have hesitated to publish it, as long as the author's posts did not violate Ukrainian law. Korrespondent's editors do not review public blogs before they are published, but chose to investigate the authenticity of the blog published in Yanukovych's name because of the publicity it generated.
Screenshot of the page that previously hosted the first blog post purportedly written by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
A blog entitled “Ilya Ponomarev—a Roguish Guy” was first published on Korrespondent.net on December 29, 2016 under the authorship of Viktor Yanukovych, a “statesman and politician, twice prime minister and president of Ukraine.” The article accused Ponomarev, a Russian politician who was the sole parliamentarian to vote against Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and now lives in exile in Kyiv, of being a CIA agent.
A subsequent series of four blogs asked “Who Drowned EuroMaidan in Blood?” and accused journalists-turned-parliamentarians Mustafa Nayyem and Sergii Leshchenko of plotting the EuroMaidan Revolution, which toppled Yanukovych in February 2014. The final post, dated January 7, was entitled “What Happened on Maidan on December 11, 2013. Victoria Nuland. Bread and Cookies,” referring to the U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, who has been criticized for handing out food to protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
After being ousted in February 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia, with help from Moscow. Over the past three years, he has occasionally given press conferences in the city of Rostov-on-Don in southwestern Russia, but has otherwise been politically inactive—at least publicly.
Korrespondent is controlled by Serhiy Kurchenko, who is seen to be a Yanukoyvch ally.

author: Isaac Webb


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Day of Mourning in Kyrgyzstan After Cargo Plane Crashes, Killing Dozens · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport inear the capital Bishkek. Creative commons.
Kyrgyzstan is observing a day of mourning January 17 after a Turkish cargo plane failed to land at the country's main airport on a misty winter morning, instead crashing in a village close by and killing over 30 people.
Horrific video shows plane crash aftermath which wiped out Kyrgyzstan village, killing 37 https://t.co/qSW4XpCT6c
— YesbananasNews (@yesbananas) January 16, 2017
The dead are mostly local Kyrgyz from a nearby village, and some of the stories are harrowing.
один маленький мальчик утром встал и пошел в школу. пока он дошел до нее, на его дом упал самолет и вся его семья погибла. какой ужас…
— Edil Baisalov (@baisalov) January 16, 2017
A little boy got up and went to school. As he was getting there, a plane fell on his house and his whole family died. What horror.
The government quickly blamed the accident on the crew of the freight plane operated by ACT Airlines, a fact that has upset many people.
Journalist Anna Lelik wrote on Facebook:
На расследование авиакрушений уходят многие месяцы. Наши власти, не найдя еще черных ящиков, без расшифровок, спустя всего лишь несколько часов, умудряются уже публично делать достаточно уверенные заявления о предварительных причинах. Без расследования, на очень высоком уровне, успевают судить о происшествии, которое случилось не в ясную солнечную погоду, а в сильный густой туман (и да, за считанные часы до этого президентский самолет посадили в Тамчы, а не в Бишкеке). Я надеюсь, что по итогам должного расследования будет восстановлена объективная картина и оглашены причины, а всем пострадавшим оказана помощь.
Мои соболезнования семьям и близким всех погибших в последствиях авиакатастрофы около аэропорта “Манас”. Пострадавшим – здоровья и поскорее пойти на поправку. Спасателям и медикам, всем помогающим, спасибо за их работу в такой холод.
Air crash investigations take many months. Our authorities had not yet found the black boxes, there were no transcripts, and yet after only a few hours, they had already managed to make a fairly confident statement about preliminary causes. Without an investigation, and at the highest levels, they have found time to judge an incident, that took place not in clear, sunny weather but in heavy fog (and yes, a few hours before the presidential plane [was forced to land in] Tamchy, not in Bishkek [due to fog]. I hope that an objective picture will emerge on the basis of a proper investigation, and that all victims will be assisted. My condolences to the families and relatives of all the casualties in the aftermath of the plane crash near the Manas airport. To the injured, health and a speedy recovery. To rescuers and doctors, thanks for all your work in such cold weather.
The tragedy has led to one of the biggest local resource mobilisation efforts in the country's history. Currently the fundraising effort is mostly cash and goods based, targeting people living in Kyrgyzstan.
If other means of giving (Kickstarter, etc.) appear online Global Voices will add links underneath this article.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Dissent and Solidarity: When Iran Mourns One of the Fathers of Its Revolution · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Massive crowds gathered in Tehran on January 10 to bid farewell to a founding father of the Islamic Republic, Rafsanjani, as well as to express dissent and solidarity with some of the reformist-leaning positions that the former president took at the end of his life. Image from Mehr News Agency photographer Majid Haghdoust, published with intent to redistribute.
The death of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is shaping up to be one of the most significant events in Iran in several years. In numbers perhaps not seen since the Green Movement protests against the 2009 election, millions of mourners turned out for his funeral procession. Some took the opportunity to speak out against political persecution.
Rafsanjani was one of the fathers of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and one of the closest advisers to the founder of the Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. He would go on to become the Islamic Republic's 4th President following Khomeini's death. His legacy is besmirched with some of the darker days of the Revolution, where mass executions of political prisoners and assassinations riddled the nation. However, like many paradoxical elements of Iran's history and culture, Rafsanjani would also become a figurehead for reform and moderation.
Once outside of office and positions of power, Rafsanjani was known for his support of the 2009 Green Movement in opposing the election results. He was also known as one of the only figures who could bridge the demands of reform and moderation to the country's hardliners, especially through his friendship with Ayatollah Khamenei, whom he helped elect as Supreme Leader in 1989.
Their relationship has been defined as a “friendship-cum-rivalry,” for Rafsanjani's moderation and pragmatism challenged Khamenei's more ideological stances. Rafsanjani was known as a “mentor” to current moderate President Hassan Rouhani, especially in helping build consensus around issues such as opening ties up with the U.S. and the West. Pushback from Khamenei and hardliners on these issues with Rafsanjani's absence is expected to become more difficult.
Regardless of the disagreements however, across almost all political factions in Iran — conservative, reformist, and moderate — Rafsanjani's legacy was largely celebrated. A scan of some of the front pages of newspapers on January 10, the day of the funeral, showed a typically divided political landscape (represented in the different factions behind the newspapers) that came together to embrace Rafsanjani's legacy in Iran.
This was not decidedly the case in diaspora media, which did not shy away from highlighting the bloodier elements of Rafsanjani's past. Shargh newspaper, a popular reformist newspaper in Iran, with a history of being banned by authorities, was one of the few to make a subtle allusion to Rafsanjani's darker side, with the headline “The Keeper of Secrets.”
Shargh, one of Iran's most well known reformist newspapers, ran the headline “Farewell to the Keeper of Secrets,” in a subtle allusion to some of the politician's work in the early days of the Islamic Republic.
Popularly, Rafsanjani was linked to the Chain Murders, a series of assassinations by Iranian government operatives of dissident intellectuals, including writers, journalists, translators, political activists and ordinary citizens, between 1988 and 1998. In 2000, investigative journalist Akbar Ganji identified Rafsanjani as one of the principal figures behind the assassination in his book His Red-Robed Highness. Rafsanjani's role and knowledge of the Chain Murders is thought to be one of the many secrets of the Islamic Republic that were buried with him.
Hardline newspaper Kayhan, the reformist newspapers of Etemad and Hamshahri, as well as the moderate Iran newspaper, however, all took on a clear and decidedly mournful tone to their front covers on the day of his funeral.
Kayhan, one of Iran's most recognizably hardline newspapers, close to the office of the Supreme Leader, headlines its front page with: “The people who worship rule by Velayat [the concept of the Supreme Leader] go all out for the friend of the ruler [the Supreme Leader].”
Etemad, a reformist newspaper that has faced censorship from the judiciary and the Press Supervisory Board, and is generally seen as the newspaper of Iran's liberal-minded intellectuals, wrote ” The Sadness of the People.”
Hamshahri newspaper, known to sympathize with the reformist former President Mohamad Khatami, ran a cover simply with “the guest of the Imam,” in reference to Rafsanjani's close relationship with Khomeini.
The government affiliated (moderate) Iranian newspaper ran a simple a headline of “A national farewell” for the day of his funeral procession.
An estimated 3 million Iranians poured into the streets on January 10 for the funeral as the day was turned into a national day of mourning. Many turned the public gatherings into an opportunity to voice dissent regarding the jailing of political prisoners, Iran’s relationship with Russia, and frustration at the notoriously biased state broadcaster, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
#Rafsanjani funeral: Ppl demand release of hunger-striking political prisoners “Shariati & Sadeghi must be released” https://t.co/0rvHODBnlC pic.twitter.com/kK9urSZSIC
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) January 10, 2017
IRIB, which holds a monopoly over television broadcasts, appeared to be avoiding coverage of the funeral, perhaps in an effort to avoid documenting public dissent.
Such an embarrassing day for #Iran‘s state TV, anytime people saw the #IRIB crews, chanted slogans against them #oF24 pic.twitter.com/Txn42CUeG2
— ERSHAD ALIJANI (@ErshadAlijani) January 10, 2017
Several politicians, including the current moderate President Hassan Rouhani and the Supreme Leader, took center stage in the ceremonies commemorating Rafsanjani. The popular reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, who is currently under a media ban, was barred from attending, however. Chants in support of Khatami became a noticeable feature of the funeral.
At Rafsanjani's funeral in Tehran now the pro-reform crowd is chanting:
“The will of Hashemi (is)
Supporting Khatami” pic.twitter.com/KyCU8APu5r
— Negar نگار (@NegarMortazavi) January 10, 2017
Solidarity with the Green Movement leaders was another notable hallmark of the event.
At Rafsanjani's funeral in Tehran now the crowd is chanting for 2009 Green Movement leader who is in house arrest: “Ya Hussain, Mir Hussain” pic.twitter.com/UczyCuNRNi
— Negar نگار (@NegarMortazavi) January 10, 2017
Some Iranians said the internet was jammed or slowed when connecting from the funeral and throughout Tehran. It is unclear whether this was tied to government efforts to stifle dissent, or due to increased internet traffic.
Defiant female Iranian mourner at #Rafsanjani‘s funeral asks why authorities have cut off access to Internet and their phones at gathering pic.twitter.com/0GlRWYjw74
— mahsa alimardani (@maasalan) January 10, 2017

author: Mahsa Alimardani


text:
Princess Leia’s Hairdo Didn’t Come From a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Princess Leia, the iconic character played by Carrie Fisher. Image on Flickr by user Foxspain Fotografía (CC BY 2.0).
A few days before 2016 came to an end, the world bade farewell to popular actress Carrie Fisher, whose untimely death at the age of 60 came on Dec. 27, four days after she suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
Although she played many roles, Fisher was best known for portraying Princess Leia in the epic space saga Star Wars.
Once the news of Carrie Fisher's death broke, social media all over the world flooded with odes to the actress, including thousands if not millions of images showing little girls mimicking Princess Leia's iconic hairdo, which you'll likely recognize as two buns pinned at the sides of her head.
In an interview published by Time magazine in 2002, George Lucas – the man who created Star Wars – said he found inspiration in the women from the Mexican Revolution (in the early 20th century), known as soldaderas:
I went with a kind of south-western Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico.
According to Mi Sazón, this name for name of the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution comes from the Aragonese word soldada, used to name the payment some of them received in exchange for their services:
Las llamadas soldaderas, fueron todas aquellas mujeres mexicanas anónimas que se alistaron a combatir en las fuerzas revolucionarias. Con gran coraje e idealismo lucharon por conseguir una vida digna y mejor para toda la clase obrera campesina, estos trabajadores eran sometidos a las tareas más pesadas, con salarios ínfimos comprometidos casi siempre, por la avaricia indiferente del patrón. Algunas de ellas no esperaron a que las tropas las enlistaran, salieron a su encuentro.
So-called soldaderas were all those anonymous Mexican women who enrolled themselves to fight with the revolutionary forces. With great courage and idealism, they fought to get a life of dignity for all the countryside working class, these labourers were responsible for the hardest tasks, for a very poor paying, [were] almost always put in danger due to employer's indifferent greed. Some of those women didn't wait for the troops to enroll them, they went out looking for the troops.
In her essay “Las Soldaderas, Mujeres de Armas Tomar” (Soldaderas, Women to Be Reckoned With), Mexican historian Elena Poniatowska explained their importance:
Sin las soldaderas no hay Revolución Mexicana; ellas la mantuvieron viva y fecunda, como la tierra y la alimentaron a lo largo de los años […], sin ellas los soldados no hubieran comido ni dormido ni peleado”. Como se puede concluir, sus condiciones de vida eran muy duras.
Without soldaderas there is no Mexican Revolution; they kept it alive and productive, just as the seeding ground, and nourished it along the years […], without these women, soldiers wouldn't have been able to eat, sleep nor fight.” As we can conclude, their living conditions were very hard.
It was these women who inspired the unique hairdo George Lucas bestowed on his most important female protagonist.
Writer and professor Eric Tang shared this post after visiting an exhibition at the Denver Museum of Art, in Colorado, where he saw an image that seems to prove the hairdo's origins.
The woman in the image is identified as Clara de la Rocha, a Mexican revolutionary lady, and the daughter of revolutionary hero Herculano de la Rocha.
However, Tabea Linhard, the author of “Fearless Women in the Mexican Revolution and the Spanish Civil War,” told BBC:
[…] I would like to say that Princess Leia's hairstyle was based on the ‘soldaderas’ from the Mexican Revolution, this was probably not the case.” […] If you take a look at photos from the period, you see women with long braids, some wear hats, on occasion they cover their hair with a shawl. […] So a hairstyle like Leia's probably was not a convenient option.
Twitter users gave their two cents about the issue, as well.
Some insisted it was all true:
#NoEsBroma George Lucas se inspiró en soldaderas de Pancho Villa para crear peinado de la princesa Leia https://t.co/IBkDRI5zmp pic.twitter.com/O1FlkEfWdx
— 24 HORAS (@diario24horas) 31 de diciembre de 2016
This is not a joke. Geroge Lucas was inspired by Pancho Villa's soldaderas to create Princess Leia's hairdo.
While some others linked their source options:
Retweeted BuzzFeed en español (@BuzzFeedEspanol):
El peinado de la Princesa Leia fue inspirado por estas mujeres… https://t.co/h05YK4lv9m
— ROCIO E. LEÓN G.ℹ (@ROCIOLEONPY) 31 de diciembre de 2016
Princess Leia's hairdo was inspired in these women.
Amazing but true! Princess Leia's #StarWars hairdo was inspired by that of Mexican revolutionary Clara de la Rocha: https://t.co/0rpq3HxbMb pic.twitter.com/0WI5zDTZql
— ⛴ TheMaryEllenCarter (@flyaway47) 31 de diciembre de 2016

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Russians Are Hacking Your Beloved Fairy Tales. (LOL.) · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image: Facebook “Memes and Fans” community
There’s a new Internet meme in Russia, and there’s a good chance you won’t like it. At least two good reasons you won’t like this new meme: it requires bilingualism to understand, and it’s as salty as sailors’ speech.
But if you’ve got Russian and English under your belt, and you don’t mind a little obscenity, you’re liable to fall in love with this meme, which doesn’t have a proper name yet, apparently having emerged just last week.
The new meme is this: fairy tales retold in captions mixing vulgar English and Russian. If you’re wondering how this works, feast your eyes on the example below:
Image: Vkontakte “Degradach” community
In this version of “The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats” — a story that basically combines elements of “The Three Little Pigs” and “Little Red Riding Hood” — the wolf addresses the goats as “kozlatkis” — adding an English “s” to pluralize the already-plural Russian word “kozlyatki.” When the goats refuse to believe that he’s their mother, they say, “We think that you ne nasha mother,” meaning “not our mother.” Later, they explain, “Because you sounds like spidozniy sobaka,” meaning “like an AIDS-infected dog.”
The wolf then pauses dramatically and screams, “Are you ahueli tam?!” meaning “are you out of your fucking minds over there?!” The goats then respond, “Go and fuck yourself, tupoi volchara,” calling him a “stupid self-centered prick,” where “volchara” is an Internet slang word based on the Russian word for wolf, “volk.” Finally, the wolf says to himself, “Oh Jesus, what’s wrong with this rebatishki?” meaning, “What’s wrong with these little guys?”
Several other adaptations of the meme first appeared in the past week on the Vkontakte community “Degradach,” which translates loosely to “Degradation Channel.” Also known as “Let Me Explain,” the community is run by a man who calls himself “Babai Velikolepnyi” (“Bogeyman the Magnificent”), a young man apparently in his 20s who runs a YouTube channel with more than 25,000 subscribers that’s attracted more than 1.3 million views.
A lot of Babai's videos, like many of the memes and cartoons published on Vkontakte, are pure Internet trash — the kind of hateful, regressive humor that got the alt-right show “Million Dollar Extreme” booted off Adult Swim after one season.
For all his joking, though, Babai seems to take his work very seriously. On Monday, he wrote on Vkontakte, complaining about how Russian Internet users have stolen his bilingual meme, adapting it in ways he says are beneath the quality of his humor.
Here’s one version of the meme that failed to impress him:
Image: Facebook “Memes and Fans” community
In this version of Cinderella, the Evil Stepmother addresses her as “Zolupka,” mispronouncing her Russian name, Zolushka, instead calling her a “little dickhead.” Cinderella (Zolushka) then responds, “Blyad’ you starya. Tolchok posle tebya washing” — “Fuck, you old woman. I’m washing the toilet after you [used it].” The stepmother then says, “Mne pohuy what’s your name. Ya and moi daughters going na vpison na hatu to king,” meaning, “I don’t give a fuck what your name is. My daughters and I are going to a party at the king’s crib.” She then adds, “Clean our zamok, chto by on shine bright like a diamond,” meaning, “Clean our castle, so that it shines as bright as a diamond.” Cinderella answers, “Bitch tuporulaya, I too want buhnut’ and ebat‘sya with prince,” meaning “Dumb ugly bitch, I want to get wasted and screw the prince, too.” The stepmother then says, “Huins! We are popizdovali, a tu zhopoy nyuhaesh’ flowers. AZAZA,” meaning, “Horseshit! We are fucking bouncing, and you’ll be snorting flowers up your ass. AHAHA.” Cinderella then says, “Blyat’ gde moya god mother” — “Fuck! Where’s my godmother?”
We’re then treated to an appearance by the “I’m Fat, Let’s Party” Internet cat, who was recently reborn on the RuNet as “Vzhukh” — a magical feline who clumsily grants wishes. (The word “vzhukh” is meant to capture the sound of a wand waving around.)
Next, Cinderella emerges in her beautiful evening gown, saying, “AZAZAZA. Naebala old pizdu,” meaning, “AHAHAHA. Now I’ve fucked over that old cunt.” She then adds, “Need to lost my tufel’ka and dat’ yobucha and live with prince,” meaning, “I need to lose my little shoe and get to some fucking and live with the prince.”
“I used to have the hope that neo-memeology [what Babai calls his online activity] would be the reason for raising content on Vkontakte. But now I see that nothing is going to work. […] If they think that Vzhukh is the pinnacle of modern-day humor, then there’s nothing I can do for these people,” Babai wrote, condemning the spread of the very meme he created.

author: Kevin Rothrock