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Here’s Why This Election Year in France Is Completely Unprecedented · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Map showing the leading candidate after the first round of voting in France's 2012 presidential elections in the following territories: Metropolitan France, Overseas Departments and Territories and votes cast by French nationals living abroad. François Hollande –> pink Marine Le Pen –> grey Nicolas Sarkozy –> blue via BigonL on wkipedia CC-BY-30
France's looming elections, presidential and legislative, promise to be different. The presidential elections will take place on April 23 and May 7, followed closely by the legislative elections on June 11 and 18.
For the first time under France's current republican system of government, established in 1958, the outgoing president François Hollande has chosen not to seek re-election. However, there are three other reasons–both national and international–that give a particular note of uncertainty to this campaign.
In 2012, the traditional political parties in France, the Socialist Party and the Republican Party had secured first place finishes in every department in the first round of voting. Without a doubt, this will not be the case this year: the candidates in these parties are placing third or fourth in the latest polls, far behind Marine Le Pen, the candidate for the National Front and Emmanuel Macron, and the candidate for the En Marche [On The Move] movement.
François Fillon, the Republican candidate is mired with legal problems relating to his wife's fake job scandal. Benoît Hamon, the Socialist Party candidate, is now stalling at 16% of predicted votes in the polls after his victory in the left's primary elections.
This trend confirms a defiant attitude against politics as usual and a desire for meaningful change. Jean-Philippe Dubrulle is in charge of the opinion and strategy department at the Institut français d'opinion publique [French Institute of Public Opinion]. He explains why this election is different:
Aujourd'hui, on voit deux tendances assez contradictoires : D'un côté une baisse la participation (ou du moins un désintérêt) et d'un autre une plus grande richesse de l'offre politique. Le désintérêt était justifié par le fait que les gens avaient l'impression que personne ne représentaient leurs idées. C'était, le gros candidat de la gauche et le gros candidat de la droite et puis c'est tout.  Aujourd'hui l'offre est beaucoup pus variée avec des lignes très marquées à gauche, comme à droite ce qui fait qu'on aboutit à deux pôles extrêmement forts. Même si les français ont déjà une bonne idée des candidats qui seront en lice, l'offre n'est pas encore fixée. Tout peut se passer. On assiste clairement à un refus des candidats du passé. Est-ce que tout ça aboutira à un sursaut de mobilisation ou une baisse ? Il est trop tôt pour le dire.
Today, we are witnessing two quite contradictory trends: On the one hand, there is drop in participation (or at least a lack of interest) and on another hand there is more on offer on the political spectrum. Lacking interest was previously justified by the fact that people held the impression that no one represented their ideas. It was a case of a far-left candidate, a far-right candidate and that was all. Today there is much greater choice with pronounced divisions in the left and in the right. which has resulted in two extremely different camps. Even if French people have a good idea of the candidates who are battling it out, the battle is not yet won. Anything can happen. There is clearly a rejection of candidates of the past. Will all of this lead to a sharp increase in engagement or a drop? It is too early to call.
Trump's victory in the United States, Brexit in Great Britain, the extreme right in Hungary and a general rise of populist parties in Europe are the clearest signs that many countries are rejecting globalisation and are becoming increasingly insular. Olivier Costa, director of research at the CNRS and for Science Po University in Bordeaux explores the common cause for these trends in Western democracies further:
Les gens ont le sentiment que l’avenir est noir et que les vieilles recettes des partis établis ne fonctionnent pas. De ce fait, beaucoup ont la tentation de s’en remettre à des nouveaux venus sur la scène politique qui proposent de nouvelles solutions. Les ficelles sont souvent un peu grosses mais d’une certaine manière, les gens s’en fichent. Il y a ceux qui croient à ce que proposent ces nouveaux venus en se disant que ça n’a pas été essayé, et ceux qui sont dans une logique protestataire, de ras-le-bol par rapport aux partis établis. Aussi, ce succès est dû au fait que les partis traditionnels n’arrivent pas à proposer une alternative.
People feel that the future is bleak and that the old recipes of established parties are not working. Because of this, many are tempted to explore newcomers to the political scene who offer fresh solutions. Their tactics can often be a little dodgy but in some ways, people do not care. There are those who believe in what the newcomers are proposing, telling themselves that this has not yet been tried and those who are in a protesting mindset, who feel despondent in relation to the established parties. Also, this success is due to the fact that traditional parties are not offering any alternatives of their own.
After several weeks of scrutiny, none of the favourites has succeeded in breaking away from the pack. Marine Le Pen leads the polls but she is also encountering legal troubles, notably the investigation focusing on the fictitious employment of several European parliamentary assistants, the funding of her electoral campaign in the 2012 legislative and presidential elections in 2012 with Russian money and also the removal of her immunity with European Parliament due to ‘sharing violent images’. The threats of legal action weighed down on Fillon have been heavily dissected in the media as well as his forgotten promises to stand down if he were placed under investigation.
Que Fillon mette en application sa première promesse : “Je ne serai pas candidat si je suis mis en examen”.
Ça serait génial. pic.twitter.com/kSQO1XiSkX
— Salem (@Ibn_Sayyid) March 1, 2017
Fillon should implement his first promise ‘I will stand down as candidate if I am put under investigation’.
Emmanuel Macron remains an unknown entity and does not reap the rewards of the support nor the structure of a traditional political party. Benoît Hamon is struggling to gather forces on the left and has inherited the baggage left behind from the most unpopular president in the history of the Fifth Republic.
These factors combined mean that this election is one of the least certain in the last decades and that no matter who comes out on top, the task of governing a country that is increasingly divided will be a tough challenge to tackle.

author: Rakotomalala


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Hong Kong Residents Are Trolling China’s New ‘Diplomacy’ Page on Facebook · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Screenshot of China Ministry of Foreign Affair Hong Kong Office's Facebook Page.
This post was written by Elson Tong and originally published by Hong Kong Free Press on March 22, 2017. The edited version below is published as part of a partnership agreement.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s branch in Hong Kong has opened an official Facebook page, leading internet users in the autonomous region to flood the page with angry comments. The giant social network is censored in mainland China, but not in its special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau.
On March 21, the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong held a launch ceremony and pressed a button that uploaded this first post in the Cantonese-language:
好啦！咁其實我地係負責咩工作呢？香港實行“一國兩制”，相信大家都知啦，國家有外交部去處理國與國之間的關係，咁香港唔係一個國家，同香港相關外交事務就由我地負責啦。That's why we exist.
Well, what is our responsibility exactly? Hong Kong implements ‘One Country Two Systems’ – we believe everyone knows this – and the country has a foreign ministry to take care of state-to-state relations. Well, Hong Kong is not a country, so we take care of Hong Kong-related diplomatic matters. That’s why we exist.
Some users mocked the page for using the Cantonese possessive particle geh (嘅) instead of gaa (噶). “Why don’t you hire a Hongkonger as an editor?” asked one commenter.
According to the “one country, two systems” principle underwritten in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the city's Basic Law, when Hong Kong was handed back to the people of China from the UK, the city's capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged at least for 50 years until 2047. But Beijing has been showing signs of impatience in recent years, encroaching more and more on Hong Kong's internal affairs, by reinterpreting Basic Law to restrict the election reform and by disqualifying elected pro-independence lawmakers, as well as exercising informal political pressure to intervene in elections, government policy and official appointment.
Despite receiving fewer than 1,000 likes within a day of its launch, the page has received hundreds of comments, mostly in protest. Some commenters called on Beijing to cease its rumoured support for chief executive candidate Carrie Lam, or to prosecute incumbent leader Leung Chun-ying and his alleged Chinese government backers.
On March 26, 1200-member election committee will elect the city's top leader. The three candidates are ex-chief secretary Carrie Lam, ex-financial chief secretary John Tsang and ex-judge Woo Kwok Hing. But there have been talks among pro-Beijing election committee members that Carrie Lam is Beijing's only acceptable candidate. Many believe that Carrie Lam is backed by the China Liaison Office and the current Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying, who is caught in a misconduct scandal for having failed to declare his HK$50 million deal with Australian firm UGL.
Others told the ministry to “go back to Weibo,” given that Facebook is blocked in the mainland.
Fb is blocked in China, go home… stick to your own fakes.
Facebook是外國勢力
中國人用facebook就是賣國！一定收了美國黑金！
Facebook is a foreign power. Chinese using Facebook are definitely traitors, they must have been sponsored by the U.S.
強國不容許使用fb
若果你愛國嘅話，就乖乖地聽中國話，用返微博，qq啦
The powerful country prohibits FB
If you love the country, obey China and use Weibo and QQ.
Student leader Joshua Wong wrote a page review:
撤回人大決定，落實民主普選，中共停止打壓！
Rescind the decision of the National People’s Congress, implement democratic universal suffrage, the Chinese Communist Party must stop its oppression!
Some Facebook users were more welcoming. For example one of the page review said:
加強直接對香港市民了解是好事，因為現在中聯辦是個山寨王國，和一些人構成一個龐大利益集團，每事只想自己利益再先，視國家利益再後，尤其是回歸後才忽然愛國的那些，又經常誇大香港反動情況，騙取各種資源和權力，因香港越分化，那些人得到利益就越多，實質香港人大多希望團結和諧，法治和自由得到肯定而已，所謂國家好，香港好；香港好，國家也好，請好好看清香港實況呢。
It is good to communicate with Hong Kong citizens directly. The Liaison Office is a kingdom claiming to represent the state, it has become an interest block and it has prioritized its interest at the expense of the state. Those who suddenly transformed into patriots after the return of Hong Kong to China and those who keep exaggerating the opposition force in Hong Kong in order to obtain resources and power. The more Hong Kong is torn apart, the more interest they would gain. Most Hong Kong people desire social unity and harmony. They just want rule of law and liberty. The fate of China and Hong Kong is interconnected. Please take a closer look at the reality here.
This is not the first time the Chinese government has set up an official page on Facebook. In September 2015, the government set up a Facebook page for President Xi Jinping to coincide with his visit to the United States. The page – named “Xi’s Visit” – has documented his activities in English ever since.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Is Jamaica Preventing Cybercrime or Cyber Activism? The Tambourine Army Goes to Court · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Protestors at the Tambourine Army's March 11, 2017 march against sexual violence, Kingston, Jamaica. Photo by Storm Saulter, used with permission.
As Latoya Nugent, one of the founders of Jamaica's new Tambourine Army movement, made her way to court on March 22, 2017, public attention turned towards the reach of The Cybercrimes Act, with many asking whether the effort to prevent cybercrime is curbing cyberactivism.
Nugent's Tambourine Army is “a radical movement that was formed organically out of an urgent recognition to advocate differently for the rights of women and girls”. The main bone of contention is the Army's controversial tactic of encouraging survivors of sexual abuse to name their perpetrators with the hashtag #SayTheirNames, before the perpetrators have gone before a judge. Nugent was charged on three counts of “the use of computer for malicious communication”–under the country's Cybercrimes Act–for identifying several men as sexual predators on social media, some of whom lodged formal complaints with the police.
The Tambourine Army movement is led by survivors like Nugent and was triggered earlier this year by revelations of child sexual abuse by Moravian Church pastor Paul Gardner. The Army's supporters say their radical tactic of naming and shaming is essential because Jamaica's sexual violence and domestic abuse laws–including the Sexual Offences Act of 2009 –place disproportionate burden on the victim, and because rape and abuse are already massively underreported because of a culture of victim-shaming and stigma.
The State seems to be more interested in silencing the #TambourineArmy than they are on catching perpetrators of sexual violence.
— Jherane (@Jherane_) March 13, 2017
Like many cybercrime laws in other countries, Jamaica's legislation is vaguely worded when it comes to “malicious” communication. Offline, naming alleged perpetrators who have not had their day in court is an issue that would be dealt with under defamation laws. But in 2013, Jamaica reformed its defamation regime to be treated as a matter of civil — not criminal — law. This means that anyone convicted of defamation in Jamaica can be made to pay for any damage done to the person's reputation, but will not serve time.
When Nugent appeared in court, she learned that her bail would be extended because the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has taken an interest in the case and needs more time to review the files. Nugent's next court appearance will be on March 31. The DPP is expected to be present.
Blogger and internet activist Ingrid Riley called on social media users to “get ready to become involved when the [Cybercrimes] Act comes up for review next year.” Riley noted:
The arrest of Tambourine Army co-founder Latoya Nugent speaks volumes. It says, how dare you host such a march? How dare you decide to speak? How dare you seek change when change isn’t needed. You should be raped, violated and abused, for rape culture has no end!
It is not being said in those words, of course. But the arrest of Latoya Nugent, who has been charged with the use of a computer for malicious communication under the Cyber Crime Act, after naming an alleged sex offender, is telling me just that!
I am told to be silent, for my voice has no power or place in this country. Because if I do speak out, or fight to protect my person, the State will be coming for me.
On its Facebook page, the Tambourine Army linked to an article by the respected UK barrister Lord Anthony Gifford, who admitted that the case against Nugent “has raised constitutional issues that are fascinating for a human-rights lawyer to disentangle.” Gifford distilled the situation into three simple issues: that victims “are fed up with pious talk that has changed nothing”; that citizens have the right to free speech; and that while people are innocent until proven guilty, the justice system in Jamaica “is creaking” and making the path to justice “intolerable”.
Addressing the language of the cybercrime legislation, Gifford noted that “it was clearly designed to punish trolls and stalkers who use threats and obscene language to menace the vulnerable, and particularly women.” While acknowledging that he did not know the details of Nugent's case, Gifford concluded:
…making threats through social media is a criminal offence, and justifiably so, but simply making accusations is not. In interpreting the meaning of the new act, the courts must ensure that the right to freedom of expression is upheld.
In a public Facebook post, blogger Annie Paul commented:
….why is alleged libel on social media a police matter rather than a civil one as libel normally is […]? Because libel via computer is deemed a criminal offence in Jamaica rather than a civil one It has alarming implications for freedom of speech. For example @latoyanugent of the #TambourineArmy was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch. Doesn’t this strike you as overkill? Isn’t this perhaps designed to serve as a warning to civil society and those who comment in online forums? Doesn't this represent a direct threat to freedom of speech?
In an article for the Jamaica Gleaner, Paul wrote that the #SayTheirNames hashtag is not about “women demanding the right to falsely accuse men of raping them”, but rather about “facilitating the empowerment of survivors and placing it squarely at the feet of perpetrators.” Echoing Lord Gifford's point about the many instances of justice denied to victims of sexual abuse, Paul asked, “Why then the moral panic about the mere possibility of libel in cyberspace? And why is there not [an] outcry about the out-of-control rape culture here?”
The Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) has also spoken out on the legislation angle, calling on Parliament to stand by its position on criminal defamation:
Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that, like many others, is subject to restrictions. Those restrictions include the law of defamation to protect the reputations of others. These are matters for the civil courts. […]
However, criminal defamation laws that penalise statements that injure reputation are understood by freedom of expression advocates all over the world to be an enemy of freedom of expression, to have a chilling effect on free speech, and to facilitate the repression of criticism by governments. […]
Making arrests for what are essentially matters for the civil courts places Jamaica on a steep, slippery slope where freedom of expression is at risk. We do not believe this was the intention of the legislature.
Activists Caribbean-wide are making their voices heard with regard to free speech restrictions that fall under the umbrella of overly broad cybercrime laws. Code Red posted a statement of solidarity on its blog:
What happened to Latoya is not specific to Jamaica. Across the Caribbean region, we see an increasing attempt to enact cyber crime and repressive legislation that fails to protect the most vulnerable and the most marginalized in our communities; and instead attempts to silence and criminalize dissent and human rights organizing. […]
We recognize that the internet is often used as a space for human rights defenders to disseminate information, organize, advocate and mobilize. Accordingly, what we need are digital security frameworks that not only centre, but that protect, human rights. […]
We are all impacted by Latoya’s arrest. As democratic spaces across the Caribbean region continue to shrink, in addition to being accompanied by increasing police and state surveillance and repression, we recognize the urgency and necessity of maintaining spaces for civil disobedience and organizing. We demand that our fundamental human right to resist and mobilize be respected. And we call upon the government of Jamaica, specifically the Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn who has taken an interest in this case, to drop all charges against Latoya Nugent.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Is Kazakhstan’s President a Dictator? You Decide. · Global Voices
Dina Baidildayeva

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. PHOTO: Public domain from the web side of the Russian government.
Like many leaders who might more or less match the description, 76-year-old Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev is uncomfortable with suggestions that he is a dictator. In a recent and revealing discussion with hand-picked journalists in the oil-rich country, he returned to a favoured theme: explaining why, in his opinion, Asian societies aren't always suited to the trials and tribulations of democracy.
Nazarbayev held court on March 16 at his residence in the capital Astana, a city of a million that he transformed from a provincial backwater, and one that looks increasingly destined to take his name. According to him, a strong presidential republic such as the one he has ruled over since before the collapse of the Soviet Union offers numerous benefits.
“The most important thing is people’s economic well-being. How can you do politics on an empty stomach? There is no political culture in Kazakhstan for the development of full democracy yet,” he declared during the discussion.
Not for the first time, Nazarbayev referred to his late friend and role model, the former Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew, who served as the country's prime minister for three decades. “Everyone criticized him, calling him a dictator, and look at Singapore now and what economic prosperity it has achieved,” Nazarbayev said.
“Adopting a new Constitution in 1995 that gave me more power as a president. That was a necessary step in order to ensure faster economic development of the country, by adopting faster reforms without consulting the public and the Parliament, which was slowing down economic development.”
“But that doesn’t make me a dictator,” added Nazarbayev. “Look at Europe, a traditionally open and democratic society and how it is dealing with the refugee crisis. Why are they not letting refugees in? Because leaders realise that you have to consider national interests and the interests of your own people.”
At one point during the discussion, which was broadcast on state television, Nazarbayev gestured outside the window behind him to the view of glitzy Astana, where billions of profits from oil revenues have been invested in buildings designed by international architects.
“Look out the window and see how Kazakhstan looked in the early 1990s compared with how it looks now,” he told the journalists.
But there is a problem with Nazarbayev's depiction of Kazakhstan: it is a facade.
For drop-in journalists and delegates at peace talks on Syria that took place there in January, Astana may indeed appear impressive. But it is not representative of Kazakhstan, where the norm remains bumpy roads, school shortages and endemic corruption. Nor do its summits and expos offer much for ordinary people suffering amid an oil-price-linked economic crisis, with high inflation and even higher unemployment.
While Nazarbayev underplays his dictator credentials, opposition activists are forced to flee the country in the face of persecution, unlawful trial and imprisonment. In one recent case, blogger Zhanara Akhmet escaped to Ukraine, declaring that her freedom to openly oppose the present political regime was at risk.
During his discussion with the journalists, Nazarbayev also stressed recent constitutional changes that have seen powers devolved from the presidency to the parliament and the government. But to whom, exactly, have they been devolved?
A speech earlier this month (see video below) in the lower house by an MP from Nazarbayev's dominant Nur Otan party called for the capital, its airport and other important symbols of state to be named after the ageing leader, prompting rebellious social media users in the country to make comparisons not with Singapore, but North Korea.
Elections, meanwhile, are a sham. The 95.22% turnout claimed in a vote Nazarbayev won with a 97.7% margin of victory at a time of profound economic crisis, was widely seen as yet more evidence that Kazakhstan's political system has lost touch with even the faintest trace of reality.
Unfortunately, the strongest sources of resistance to one-man rule in Kazakhstan have all been broken. Opposition media has been suppressed in Kazakhstan, with fabricated court cases and heavy penalties, and some of the country's strongest anti-government media, including the newspaper Respublika, have been shut down. Independent online media is regularly blocked.
Protesting, even by individuals, is mostly illegal in Kazakhstan, since Kazakh laws require obtaining permission from local authorities 10 days in advance, a request which is most of the time denied. In May 2016, applications to hold protests across the nation to vent frustration at controversial land code amendments proposed by the government were rejected, and hundreds of protesters were detained across the country. Rights activists Max Bokayev and Talgat Ayan, who played a role in organising the protests, are currently serving five-year prison terms for “inciting social discord”.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, meanwhile, is immune from prosecution for the rest of his life, and his status as Leader of the Nation, a title created in 2010, also allows him to influence government policy after retirement. Among democratically elected rulers, such stipulations might seem somewhat irregular.

author: Dina Baidildayeva


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Meet Ara Malikian, the Cosmopolitan With a Violin · Global Voices
Nevena Borisova

Ara Malikian during his concert. Photo presented by BG Sound Stage, used with permission.
They call him a violin genius. Ara Malikian, an Armenian man who grew up in Lebanon, has studied music in Germany and England and currently lives in Spain. He recently became concertmaster in the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid. Malikian has traveled the world, performing in concert halls as a soloist and as part of symphonic orchestras.
In late February, Malikian performed a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria. The next month, he gave another show in Ankara, Turkey. This second concert had special significance, in light of Malikian's position on the Armenian Genocide, which he commemorated in September 2015 with performances in Zaragoza and Madrid.
Malikian has also played in support of the refugees in Lebanon. In both life and on the stage, he has become a symbol of cultural unity for fans, merging musical traditions from Central Europe, Argentina, Spain, and Arab and Jewish cultures.
Malikian's father, an amateur Armenian violinist, introduced him to the world of music at an early age, teaching him about Lebanese musical traditions. Malikian's most recent album, “The Incredible Story of a Violin,” was inspired by his childhood. At the age of 12, he performed at his first concert. At the age of 15, he got his big break, winning a scholarship to the musical school of Hannover. He later continued his education in London.
Global Voices’ Nevena Borisova recently spoke to Malikian about his life and his music.
Nevena Borisova (NB): You have a really rich biography. It's difficult to choose from where to start…You are a cosmopolitan by soul, by nationality. Still, where do you most feel at home?
Ara Malikian (AM):  Frankly, nowhere. Today I feel myself at home in Bulgaria, because you Bulgarians welcomed me with much love. And I feel very confident here. I have been travelling so much during my whole life that I had to learn to feel home everywhere with any people. But the most important thing for me at a place are the people. When I meet people who I feel close to me, I feel like being at home.
NB: What's the difference between your two last albums?
AM: First of all, in my last album there are my own compositions. Never before I have been a composer in my albums, but in this last one I worked a lot on the compositions and therefore I am happy it is a fact. Furthermore, in this album I had many guests. We had many live concerts. This last album is very special — it is very new for me.
NB: You have interacted with many types of music: classical, Argentinian (tango), Oriental, Spanish… What are the main sources of your inspiration? What are the main types of music that most influenced you on your last album?
AM: I don’t control from where the inspiration comes. I was lucky to be able to play with musicians from many places, many styles. Each of them has inspired me. Every one of them has taught me many things. When I make music, it comes from the subconscious, which is in fact the most precious. In the album, each song is completely different from the previous or the next one. They are very different by style. This is the way by which I perceive and make the music. This is my musical concept. I would be bored if I always proceeded in the same way.
NB: You have interacted with many cultures. You are like a living proof that there are many points of contact between cultures. And how do you explain all these conflicts in the world that we witness today?
AM: There are many people who are desperate because of living with all these conflicts. Refugees, wars, terrorism… It is all very negative side of the world. I think that the only way to go through these conflicts is through art, music, culture. The world can change through interacting with other cultures, on the basis of respect towards other opinions and ways of thinking. Through art it is the best way to understand that — although we are different — we all have something in common. That is why I think, sooner or later, culture and art will save humanity… I am sure.
NB: In 1899, the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov dedicated the poem “Armenians” to the fate of the Armenian people. A moment ago, you said that you believe that art can change the world. Do you think that contemporary artists are thinking or engaged enough with the perspective of a better world, with today's problems?
AM: There are many artists who are engaged and make an effort to improve the world, but of course there are other ones who think in a more selfish way and who are more interested in economic and political terms… And of course not so much humanitarian interests. So, there is always this conflict between these two ways of thinking. But it still seems to me that the world is a better place today, although we think it is a worse place. And sooner or later people will realize that the only way to survive is to respect each other, our differences, opinions, fate, and different ways of life.
NB: You have lived in the Middle East, in Beirut. In one of your interviews, you said Oriental music is very tranquil and can be very mild and peaceful. Why then do we observe an absence of peace in that region?
AM: Oriental music can be that way, but it can also be very, very rhythmical. There are both styles of this music. Frankly, I do not know why there are so many wars… Maybe because of hot blood, I do not know [laughing]… I've lived in Lebanon for many years and I have many friends who are Arabs and Jews. And basically they live very well, but when it comes to economic interests and political interests, things change. I think if only people would live together they would not have any problems. But as long as these interests and leaders wield influence, they create hate, rage, and this is how you come to war. But I believe that the normal people don’t want to have war. I remember when I lived in Lebanon, we did not want to have war, even though we lived in a time of war, we didn’t want…
NB: A few years ago, you had a concert in Lebanon in support of the refugees. How has Lebanon changed since the time you remember it?
AM: In Lebanon things have changed. When I left Lebanon, the country was plunged in an absolute war. Now there is a kind of peace, people respect each other and each other’s differences. Of course, now there are other, new problems related to the situation of refugees. We have to see how we can make the lives of refugees better, so they can have a future. Those who have lost their family, home, and work — they cannot go back to their countries… Of course, the best way of solving the problem is having peace in their country, so they can go back and find their lives there… But until they go back, we have to help them.
Ara Malikian during his concert. Photo presented by BG Sound Stage, used with permission.
NB: You've had a concert in support of Armenians and in defense of what the Armenian people call a historical injustice. What are the biggest challenges for Armenians today?
AM: I have Armenian roots, I speak Armenian, and I also play Armenian music, I know my culture… We, Armenians, are trying to persuade the world to recognize the genocide, which today is forgotten. We are trying it to be recognized officially — to correct the historic record. That is what we try to do. And what we shouldn’t do today is create hatred against the Turks. I think that Turks today are not our enemies. Of course, they have to recognize the genocide — all the crimes that were committed. But I think for the good of our relations, we shouldn’t think of them as our enemies, and we have to respect them. We have to try to talk with them through dialogue and try to resolve the problem.
NB: Your talent flourished early when you were a child, with the war in Lebanon in the background. How would you describe your childhood?
AM: Although as a child I lived during the war, I really have good memories of it. I had friends, I enjoyed my family, my mother, and my father. The only unfortunate thing was that my childhood was still very short, because I went to Germany [for a music school scholarship]. But this was my destiny: to have a short childhood, but to enjoy it.

author: Nevena Borisova


text:
Netizen Report: Why Did YouTube Censor Your Videos? You May Never Know. · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index 2017 – overall scores for companies.
In mid-March Indian documentarian Rakesh Sharma, who is known for his films on public unrest and violence in the state of Gujarat, found his YouTube channel blocked. He received a message from the company that read:
This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.
The channel had been live since 2014 and mainly features clips from his documentaries, which have garnered considerable attention in India, Europe and the US. Two days later, without explanation, the channel was back on. Sharma is known for his critical views on Indian PM Narendra Modi, which are evident in his films, but there’s no evidence to prove this had anything to do with the block.
Indeed, there’s no information — beyond YouTube’s boilerplate takedown text — explaining what motivated the sudden blocking and equally sudden reappearance of the channel.
Sharma isn’t alone. Amid an apparent shift in YouTube’s approach to monitoring for rules violations (with a particular focus on extremist content) and staying in the good graces of advertisers, a wave of YouTube users have found their work either blocked or relegated to “restricted” mode in recent months.
YouTube video bloggers whose work includes themes of same-sex relationships and LGBT acceptance and rights are among those who have found their videos suddenly unavailable in “restricted” mode, an opt-in version of YouTube intended for children and school computer labs. Users are voicing concern and posting examples of the blocks under the #YouTubeIsOverParty hashtag on Twitter.
The blocks raise critical questions about the partly technical, partly human-driven process that YouTube uses to spot videos that violate its terms or qualify as inappropriate for younger viewers. While some types of content — such as videos clearly intended to be pornographic — are easy to identify and remove, others are not. And in many cases, the process begins with YouTube users themselves, who are free to report content if they think it’s breaking the rules. This mechanism plays a powerful role in how the company sets priorities for content removal — and it sometimes results in abuse by users intent on silencing people they disagree with.
These examples illustrate the importance of corporate transparency surrounding content removal decisions, both on the individual and platform-wide level. The issue is emphasized in the Ranking Digital Rights Index for 2017 (released this week), which measures against a comprehensive set of international human rights standards as they exist in the digital realm.
Iranians are seeing a crackdown on press freedom and digital expression leading up to the May 2017 presidential elections. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a hardline wing of the armed forces that answers to the office of the Supreme Leader, arrested 12 administrators of channels on the messaging app Telegram that support Iran’s reformist political faction, as well as those behind the moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Telegram developed a significant Iranian user base approaching the 2016 parliamentary elections and many believe it helped facilitate gains for reformist and moderate members of parliament. Iranian authorities have been trying to curb the free flow of information through Telegram both with arrests and with new rules that require media organizations and journalists to obtain an official license in order to distribute news through Telegram.
On top of this, authorities recently arrested two journalists, Ehsan Mazandarani and Hengameh Shahidi, both of whom are known for their independent and critical reporting.
Jamaican activist Latoya Nugent was arrested last week and charged under Jamaica's Cybercrimes Act for “use of a computer for malicious communication” after she publicly identified alleged perpetrators of sexual violence via social media. Nugent is the co-founder of Tambourine Army, a new movement led by women and survivors of sexual violence who are talking openly about their experiences, both online and in public. In an editorial for the Jamaica Gleaner, legal scholar Tenesha Myrie called this section of the Cybercrimes Act “an attempt to criminalise defamation through the back door,” noting that offline, defamation is treated as a matter of civil — not criminal — law in Jamaica.
A house fire that killed 40 young women at a shelter on the outskirts of Guatemala City on March 8 drew significant media attention in the region and beyond, but coverage of the story by local outlets did not go unpunished. Guatemalan independent news site NomadaGT, which published recorded testimonies from two young women who survived the fire, suffered what appeared to be a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, leaving the site offline for several hours.
On March 20, authorities in the United Arab Emirates detained Ahmed Mansoor, a respected human rights defender who was the 2015 laureate of the Martin Ennals Foundation, which supports human rights defenders at risk. Mansoor stands accused of using social media “to publish false information and rumors as well as promoting a sectarian and hate-incited agenda.”
On March 15, an Abu Dhabi court convicted Jordanian journalist Tayseer al-Najjar of “insulting symbols of the state” on social media, which is a crime under the 2012 UAE Cybercrime Law. The case against al-Najjar focused primarily on a Facebook post that he published in 2014, while still living in Jordan, where he criticized the Emirati position in the 2014 war in Gaza.
A leftist Brazilian blogger named Eduardo Guimarães had a laptop and two phones confiscated after he released key information about a confidential anti-corruption investigation in Brazil. A supporter of former President Lula and a leading figure among left-wing activists and politicians, Guimarães released information that was allegedly leaked from the investigation of the Operação Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) corruption scandal. The blogger says he also was asked to disclose his sources, triggering a wave of online protests in the country's blogosphere (including from right-wing bloggers) and reports in major media outlets concerning the protection of sources. Reporters Without Borders noted on the BBC that this is a “serious attack” on media freedom in Brazil.
A US court of appeals ruled that a US citizen, who goes by the pseudonym Kidane, cannot sue the Ethiopian government for hacking into his computer using the targeted spy software FinSpy. The decision hinges on the court’s interpretation of where the hacking occurred: it ruled that though Kidane, who is Ethiopian-born, opened the infected email attachment in the United States, the placement of the virus began outside the United States.
Kidane’s lawyer, Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Nate Cardozo, said the court is simply wrong in this interpretation and called the ruling “extremely dangerous for cybersecurity.” The EFF said they are evaluating their options on appealing the ruling.
Tunisian blogger Zouhair Yahyaoui, who founded the satirical TUNeZINE online forum, was jailed and tortured for publishing “false news” in 2001. Now his story has been brought light as part of a series of public hearings on human rights violations under the dictatorship of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, who governed Tunisia for 23 years until his January 2011 ousting.
Bloggers, activists and relatives of those who were targeted by the Ben Ali regime testified before Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, which dedicated a special session to the issue of online rights violations. It remains unclear whether and how Tunisia’s transitional justice process will impact future Internet policies, but for a country once described as an “Internet enemy”, acknowledging its abusive past is an imperative first step toward reform.
Afef Abrougui, Mahsa Alimardani, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati, Diego Casaes, and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Russian Opposition Leader Offers European Court Shield to Thousands · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Alexey Navalny after being sprayed with green paint by a critic who ran away. Photo: Instagram
Alexey Navalny, a leading anti-corruption activist, 2018 presidential hopeful, and perhaps Vladimir Putin’s loudest critic in Russia, is on a tear. Earlier this month, as it’s done several times in recent years, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation released a damning investigation into high-level fraud in the government.
The subject of Navalny’s most recent report is Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who sits at the helm of a vast network of illicitly acquired real estate, according to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. On YouTube, a video presentation of the report has nearly 11 million views.
This Sunday, March 26, Navalny is organizing a nationwide protest against corruption at the highest levels of government. At the time of this writing, demonstrations are planned in 100 Russian cities, plus another two abroad, in London and Prague. Judging by RSVPs on social media, this weekend promises to be a display of Navalny’s mobilizing skills, and a test of how widely his message of anti-corruption appeals to Russians.
There’s a problem with this movement, however, and it’s that officials in most Russian cities have refused to grant demonstration permits to the local activists organizing the protests.
People request a permit, specifying a time, location, and crowd size, and the authorities say no, offering no alternatives.
This, Navalny says, is illegal, and he’s doing something about it.
A post shared by navalny4 (@navalny4) on
Navalny at a presidential campaign rally in Kazan on March 5, 2017.
Meet “RosEvroSud” (Russian Euro Court), Navalny’s latest project, designed to facilitate appeals to the European Court of Human Rights. In a blog post on Wednesday, he announced that he’s making the service available to anyone detained at this Sunday’s anti-corruption protests, which he insists are lawful assemblies, where local officials refused to offer demonstrators alternatives when rejecting permits.
“If we have to file a hundred appeals, we’ll file a hundred. If we have to filed thousands, then we’ll enlist the Anti-Corruption Foundation’s lawyers and attorneys at human rights organizations, and we’ll write up and file thousands of appeals,” Navalny wrote on Wednesday.
The service is available to anyone who’s detained, taken to court, and fined. Individuals are first required to appeal the fine in a Russian court (a process Navalny says is relatively perfunctory), and RosEvroSud handles the rest.
In the past, the group says it has filed 55 appeals with the EHCR, winning 12 cases, with another 29 still in progress. Navalny has personally won several of these appeals, receiving thousands of euros from the Russian government in compensation for moral damages and legal expenses.
Citing a successful appeal by RosEvroSud on activist Igor Tarasov’s behalf, Navalny implies that coming out this Sunday to demonstrate against corruption could net as much as 10,000 euros for each person wrongly detained and fined.
“If you’re detained, then you’re also going to make some money,” he promised bluntly in a message to supporters.
“There’s no need to be scared,” he added. “Cowards get scared.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
These Techies Want Your Phone to Speak to You in Swahili · Global Voices
Laila Le Guen

Photo by Eli Duke via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
With an estimated 100 million speakers, Swahili is the second-most-widely-used language on the African continent, after Arabic. Yet services such as automatic speech recognition (ASR) aren’t commercially available in this language, denying many users with disabilities and those who aren't literate the information they desperately need in their daily lives. This could change very soon though, as academic research and technology startups are converging to provide localized technologies to Swahili speakers.
One of these very promising innovations is about to be rolled out in Kenya. Uliza (meaning “ask” in Swahili) is a voice interface that allows users to access information from the Internet using a basic mobile phone.
All users need to do is call in and ask a question in Swahili. Within 15 to 90 minutes, an “answer agent” (an actual person working behind the scenes) responds with a voice answer. At the moment, a “crowd” of around 50 agents treat the queries by transcribing the voice recordings, searching for answers online in multiple languages, translating the information and sending it back to the caller in Swahili.
During the pilot carried out in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and in Western Kenya, some 600 beta users sent questions about their local representatives, asked for help with Swahili homework, and requested medical information that would be too delicate to bring up in person.
During Uliza's pilot project, these were the words included in the most frequent questions asked by users (translated from Swahili into English).
Uliza will solve another problem for its future users: the lack of access to information hosted on the Internet. There are many overlapping reasons for this situation: unaffordable mobile data bundles, distance to the nearest cybercafe, illiteracy in languages of wider communication, compounded by a dearth of available content in local languages.
Uliza's crowdsourcing model is admittedly labor-intensive but it has a major advantage: by having human beings handle the transcription and translation, it temporarily bypasses the lack of large voice datasets that typically constrains ASR efforts in African languages, while simultaneously collecting data from real speakers in a variety of accents and dialects. Uliza founder Grant Bridgman plans to use this database of short recordings and transcriptions to build machine learning capability and fully automate the system in the future. In this talk at Tufts University, Bridgman introduced the concept behind the project:
A good amount of research has already gone into building automatic speech recognition software for Swahili and other widely spoken African languages, but it’s taking a while for the technology to find its way into people’s hands. In an interview with Global Voices, Bridgman explained:
The technology exists and all of this is already available for first world languages, now we need to find a commercial model to make it viable for low-resource languages.
Companies looking to set up helplines for a rural customer base at a reduced cost are potential customers for the initial phase of Uliza’s growth. Eventually, a full service allowing mobile phone users without access to the Internet to find answers to their questions and upload their own voice content will be implemented. The cost to the user would be minimal — close to the price of an SMS.
Uliza’s model could be viable for other languages with a large enough number of speakers. But for the vast majority of the 2,000 languages spoken on the African continent, this isn't the case. But solutions might be coming from a research project led by Preethi Jyothi at the Beckman Institute, where a team of researchers used a probabilistic method to crowdsource transcriptions from non-native speakers. Once fine-tuned, probabilistic transcription could open up the possibility of ASR for less-represented languages, hopefully at a reasonable cost.

author: Laila Le Guen


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There Are ‘No Borders to Music,’ But the U.S. Consulate Still Rejected These Indonesian Choir Members’ Visas · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

The Vox Angelica choir performing at an international competition. Screenshot from YouTube video.
Three Indonesian choirs were set to compete in the Sing ‘n’ Joy choral competition in Princeton, New Jersey, last month, but two of the choirs never made it to the Garden State, because the U.S. consulate in Jakarta rejected the visa applications of dozens of their members.
The two choirs were Vox Angelica from Manado, North Sulawesi, and El-Shaddai from North Sumatra.
The groups and even some jurors at the competition have voiced concerns that this is a consequence of the Trump Administration's crackdown on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. To complicate matters further, Indonesia is the largest Muslim-dominated country in the world, although it is not one of the countries President Trump has targeted in his controversial executive orders on refugees and immigration.
After hearing about the visa denial of the two Indonesian choirs, the jurors of the competition posted a heartfelt video expressing their regrets, while asserting that “there are no borders to music”.
Due to unforeseen circumstances with the recent U.S. policies, the choir, El Shaddai and Vox Angelica were not able to travel to our festival. And we are saddened by this. But… regardless of the “borders” instilled by politics, there are no borders to music, no borders to unity through artistry, no borders from humanity that thrives from singing of the heart. Music brings our humaneness together, and we invite you to be a part of it.
Through their social media pages, the El-Shaddai choir actually explained its failure to attend the music festival in Princeton:
Saudara/sahabat/kolega/rekan paduan saudara terkasih sekalian,
bersama ini kami Paduan Suara El-Shaddai ingin menyampaikan PERMOHONAN MAAF kami, berhubung kami batal berangkat ke Princeton-New Jersey, USA utk berkompetisi disana, diakibatkan ditolaknya permohonan visa kami oleh Kedubes USA di Jakarta. […]
Kami sudah mempersiapkan segala sesuatunya, dan sudah melakukan semuanya dengan semaksimal mungkin, bahkan usaha pengurusan/permohonan sudah kami lakukan sebanyak 2 (dua) kali. […]
kami meyakini hal ini juga diperkuat dengan kebijakan politik pemerintah AS yang ada saat ini, dimana dilakukan pengawasan yang lebih (sangat) ketat untuk pendatang ke negara tersebut. Saat ini kami masih berada di Jakarta untuk bersiap kembali ke Medan, dan kami juga langsung akan bersiap diri untuk kompetisi internasional lainnya dalam waktu dekat ini, semoga kami dapat mengambil hikmah dari apa yg baru terjadi, mohon doanya.[..]
TERIMAKASIH yang sebesarnya atas dukungan dan kepercayaannya kepada kami selama ini
Dear friends, families, colleagues, El-Shaddai choir would like to extend its apologies for our failure to compete in Princeton-New Jersey, USA, due to visa refusal by the US Embassy in Jakarta.
We've prepared all the requirements and applied for visa twice.
We also believe that this happened because of the stricter US policy to visitors. We're now in Jakarta, getting ready to return to Medan, and will be preparing for other international competition. We hope to learn from this incident, please keep us in your prayers.
Thank you for your trust and support throughout this ordeal.
(1/2) MAAF & TERIMAKASIH Salam sejahtera bagi kita semua. Saudara/sahabat/kolega/rekan paduan saudara terkasih sekalian, bersama ini kami Paduan Suara El-Shaddai ingin menyampaikan PERMOHONAN MAAF kami, berhubung kami batal berangkat ke Princeton-New Jersey, USA utk berkompetisi disana, diakibatkan ditolaknya permohonan visa kami oleh Kedubes USA di Jakarta. Maaf, karena hal ini tentu saja bukan hanya mengecewakan kami, tetapi juga saudara/sahabat/rekan paduan suara/keluarga yang telah mendukung dan mendoakan kami selama ini. Kami sudah mempersiapkan segala sesuatunya, dan sudah melakukan semuanya dengan semaksimal mungkin, bahkan usaha pengurusan/permohonan sudah kami lakukan sebanyak 2 (dua) kali), dengan dukungan dari pihak2 yang sudah sangat berkompeten dinegeri ini menurut kami, namun hasilnya tetap sama, ditolak, dengan catatan penolakan "tidak adanya keterikatan yang kuat dengan negara asal". Hal ini ditambah lagi dgn case record bahwa sudah sering terjadi tim/rombongan (tidak hanya paduan suara) dari Indonesia yang berangkat ke negara Paman Sam tsb, tidak menjaga komitmen kembali ke negara kita ini sesuai waktunya, bahkan ada yang belum kembali sampai sekarang, yang mana hal ini menjadi catatan negatif bagi kepercayaan pihak pemerintah AS/Kedubes utk tidak mudah memberikan visa, terlebih bagi yang pertama kali akan berkunjung, dan kami meyakini hal ini juga diperkuat dengan kebijakan politik pemerintah AS yang ada saat ini, dimana dilakukan pengawasan yang lebih (sangat) ketat untuk pendatang ke negara tersebut. Saat ini kami masih berada di Jakarta untuk bersiap kembali ke Medan, dan kami juga langsung akan bersiap diri untuk kompetisi internasional lainnya dalam waktu dekat ini, semoga kami dapat mengambil hikmah dari apa yg baru terjadi, mohon doanya.
A post shared by Paduan Suara El-Shaddai USU (@paduansuaraels) on
Global Voices spoke to Edward Palit, Vox Angelica's executive director and spokesman, who described what it was like for the choir members to learn that their visas had been rejected:
We are a mix choir group consisting of 41 persons (including manager and conductor). We had to fly to Surabaya from Manado to appear for an interview at the US Consulate in Surabaya. Dozens of our members were denied a visa, including our choir conductor. Our young members said that their visas were denied because they've never traveled abroad before, but our senior conductor who constantly traveled with the choir abroad was also denied entry to the US for a bizarre reason, because he and his wife (who is also one of our singers) are new parents.
Palit added that the visa application process was difficult and disappointing:
We've been training diligently since we received the invitation to compete (in Princeton). Moreover, the Surabaya trip was a big deal for our choir because we don't have regular sponsors. We are surely disappointed about not being able to showcase our hard work but we're looking ahead to other events in the province, including our own concert and workshop to celebrate the choir's anniversary.

author: Juke Carolina


text:
‘Zelyonka’: the Anti-Putin Antiseptic · Global Voices
Nikolay Syrov

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Source: Navalny.com
“Zelyonka,” a green topical antiseptic used in Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe, is back in the headlines: On March 19, Russian opposition leader and presidential candidate Alexei Navalny was attacked with the antiseptic outside his campaign headquarters in the Siberian city of Barnaul, leaving his face coated in “brilliant green.”
Navalny has used the incident to rally his base to join a nationwide anti-corruption march scheduled for Sunday, and his supporters have begun painting their faces green in solidarity—brilliant green, indeed, is becoming the unofficial color of Russia’s opposition movement.
But Monday wasn’t the first time zelyonka, a diminutive term for “green,” has made its way onto the front pages: over the past several years, the antiseptic has taken on an increasing significance in Eastern European politics.
Brilliant Green. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC 1.0
First discovered in the 19 century by English chemist William Perkin, zelyonka is still commonly used in many parts of the former Soviet Union, and you’ll find a vial of it in nearly every Russian home—it’s the antiseptic parents put on their children’s scrapes and cuts.
But lately, it’s become a weapon for those who want to attack the Russian opposition. It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t threaten one’s health. It does burn a bit, but most importantly, it doesn’t rub off easily. When used against the opposition, it's intended to be a symbolic marker that takes days to disappear.
And there have been dozens of instances of zelyonka being used to mark opposition leaders over the last several years. Most recently, Mikhail Kasyanov, a Russian statesman and politician who served as prime minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004, was doused in green dye at a march in memory of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in February 2017.
Михаилу Касьянову неизвестный плеснул в лицо зеленку pic.twitter.com/655NpWo1Yz
— Ольга Кузнецова (@olyakuznetsova) February 26, 2017
An unidentified person splashed zelyonka on Mikhail Kasyanov.
Russian novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC ASA 3.0
Similarly, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, an internationally acclaimed writer and fierce opponent of the Soviet Union and Vladimir Putin’s regime, fell victim to an antiseptic attack in 2016. Activists from the National Liberation Movement (NOD), a nationalist, ultraconservative group, doused her in zelyonka while she was trying to enter an award ceremony for a school competition being held by the Memorial Society, an organization that seeks to document crimes committed during the Soviet era and to prevent their reoccurrence in modern Russia.
Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, members of the anti-Putin feminist punk band Pussy Riot, have also been attacked: in 2014, a group of pro-Putin activists sprayed the two with zelyonka.
In Ukraine, Zzlyonka is also a popular political weapon. Former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and current National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov were doused with green dye in the eastern city of Kharkiv 2014, and a variety of other Ukrainian politicians, activists, and journalists have been victims of attacks since.
Zelyonka attacks have become so routine in Russia and Ukraine that opposition leaders no longer see them as much of a threat. In fact, they’re beginning to use the attacks as their own political weapon: green is quickly becoming the color of the opposition. After the latest attack on Navalny, social media users launched an online flashmob using the hashtag #GreenNavalny (#зеленыйНавальный) during which people posted pictures of themselves covered in green face paint. Indeed, Russia’s opposition seems to be using antiseptic attacks on its leaders as a way to mobilize support against the leaders of their country.

author: Nikolay Syrov


text:
A Century Later, Namibia Demands Justice From Germany for Its First Holocaust · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

1900 Views from German Southwest Africa signed by Hendrik Witbooi. Photo: Keijo Knutas / Flickr / CC 2.0
From Nov. 25, 2016 to March 12, 2017, the Holocaust Memorial in Paris, France, hosted an exhibition dedicated to the genocide of two Namibian peoples: the Herero and the Nama — what is now widely considered to be the first genocide of the 20th century.
Following the 1884 Berlin Conference, when European powers divided Africa among themselves, Germany ruled German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), until 1915.
Between 1904 and 1908, German colonialists committed a holocaust against the Herero and the Nama, exterminating as many as 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama. In one particularly gruesome detail, some of the victims’ skulls were even sent to Germany for scientific research into supposed racial inequality.
Eventually, under the leadership of Chief Samuel Maharero, members of these two tribes mounted a successful revolt against the Germans, retaking their lands, and putting an end to widespread rape by German occupiers and other forms of degradation. They fought a guerrilla war leading to a situation Véronique Chemla described on her blog as  “a major conflict”. Véronique Chemla, an international affairs journalist for American Thinker, Ami and FrontPage Mag, explains:
On Jan. 12, 1904, “while the German troops were busy trying to suppress the “rebellion” of the Bondelswartz Nama in the south, the Okahandja Herero, exasperated by injustices committed by [Station Commander Lieutenant Ralph] Zürn and the continued loss of their territory, attacked German farms, businesses and the colonial infrastructure. These attacks led to a brutal repression by the soldiers and colonials, who held lynchings and indiscriminate reprisals.”
In Germany, following the “exaggerated descriptions of these attacks, a real desire for war developed.”
While the violence continued to spread, the local uprising transformed into a major conflict, forcing Maharero to side with the “rebels.” To the great annoyance of Berlin politicians, his men at first succeeded in resisting [Colonial Administrator Theodor] Leutwein’s troops by use of guerilla techniques. Leutwein was relieved of his command and replaced by the ruthless General Lothar von Trotha who arrived at the colony in June 1904 with thousands of men.
General Lothar Von Trotha led 15,000 men in a ruthless campaign of repression. On Oct. 2, 1904, he ordered his officers to carry out the systematic extermination of members of the two tribes, as described by a post on Le Blog de Daniel Giacobi. Giacobi is a french history professor:
Les Hereros ne sont plus des sujets allemands. S'ils n'acceptent pas, ils seront contraints par les armes. (Ils) doivent quitter le pays sinon, je les délogerai avec le « groot Rohr » (grand canon)… Tout Héréro aperçu à l'intérieur des frontières allemandes [namibiennes] avec ou sans arme, sera exécuté. Femmes et enfants seront reconduits hors d'ici – ou seront fusillés. Aucun prisonnier mâle ne sera pris. Ils seront fusillés. Décision prise pour le peuple Héréro. Dans les frontières allemandes, chaque Herero armé ou non, en possession de bétail ou pas, sera abattu. Je ne recevrai plus de femmes ou d’enfants. Je les renverrai aux leurs, ou je leur ferai tirer dessus».  «  Ma politique a toujours été d'exercer celle-ci par le terrorisme brutal, voire par la cruauté. J'anéantis les tribus insurgées dans des flots de sang et d'argent. C'est la seule semence pour faire pousser quelque chose de nouveau qui soit stable.»
The Herero are no longer German subjects. If they do not accept this, they will be forced to with arms. [They] must leave the country, otherwise I will remove them with the “groot Rohr” [large cannon]
… Any Herero seen inside German [Namibian] frontiers, whether armed or not, will be executed. Women and children will be taken out of the country — or shot. No male prisoners will be taken. They will be shot. This decision has been made regarding the Herero people. Within German frontiers, each Herero, whether armed or not, with cattle or not, will be killed. I will not receive any more women or children. I will send them back to their own, or I will have them shot. […]
My policy has always been to control this using brutal terror and even cruelty. I will use floods of money to annihilate the insurgent tribesmen in torrents of blood. This is the only seed which will grow into something new and stable.
In the August 1904, at the Battle of Waterberg, the Herero and Nama were surrounded, “leaving the only escape route across the Kalahari desert, where the water points had been poisoned.”
What happened next was even more tragic:
Pour compléter le tableau il installa des postes de garde en leur donnant l'ordre formel d'abattre tout Herero quel que soit son âge ou son sexe… Ce fut un massacre systématique que certains estiment entre 25 000 et 40 000 morts (d'autres parlent de 60 000 victimes)
As a finishing touch, he installed guards, giving them a formal order to kill any Herero of any age or either gender. The result was a systematic massacre that some estimate at between 25,000 and 40,000 dead (others speak of 60,000 victims).
Vincent Hiribarren, a lecturer at King's College London in African and World History, runs the libeafrica4.blogs.liberation.fr website, which published an interview by Jean-Pierre Bat with Leonor Faber-Jonker, a historian at the University of Utrecht, who described the extermination methods used by the Germans:
C’est en réalité la politique que suivait déjà, sans le dire, von Trotha depuis l’attaque de Watterberg. Au cours de la bataille, les Herero qui sont parvenus à s’échapper de l’encerclement allemand ont fui en direction de l’Omaheke. Von Trotha ordonna leur poursuite, ratissant systématiquement le terrain et neutralisant les points d’eau. Poussés vers le désert, ces Herero finissent par mourir de déshydratation et de faim. Cette traque n’a pas été sans conséquence, non plus, sur les Allemands…
Des copies de l’ordre écrit étaient brandis à la capture d’Herero, qui étaient forcés d’assister à l’exécution de certains de leurs camarades prisonniers avant d’être renvoyés dans le désert, afin de témoigner de ce qu’ils ont vu et de décourager les Herero de revenir.
This was actually the policy that von Trotha had been following, although unstated, since the Waterberg attack. During the battle, any Herero who managed to escape the circle of Germans surrounding them fled toward Omaheke. Von Trotha ordered their pursuit, methodically scouring the terrain and taking out the water points. Pushed toward the desert, these Herero eventually died of dehydration and hunger. This pursuit also had repercussions for the Germans.
Copies of the written order were shown when Herero were captured, and they were forced to watch the execution of some of their prisoner comrades, before being sent into the desert so they could bear witness to what they had seen and discourage other Herero from returning.
The colonials behaved appallingly, stealing land and raping Herero and Nama women. The Holocaust Memorial website highlighted that most colonials who took the Herero land and cattle treated the Africans with a total lack of respect.
Rape was common, exacerbated by the shortage of German women. The fear of the German people (Volk) of racial degeneration led ultimately to the ban on mixed marriages in September 1905. Ideas of racial difference were based on late 19th century German anthropology, which established a distinction between races deemed “civilized” and those considered “primitive.” It was hoped to gain an understanding of the human species through the objective observation of “primitives,” like those people exhibited in human zoos (highly popular in Europe at that time).
In 2011, eleven skulls from the genocide were finally discovered in Namibia. Until then, this atrocity had remained hidden, as highlighted by the Holocaust Memorial site:
Le Blue Book, un rapport officiel du gouvernement britannique faisant état des atrocités commises dans le Sud-Ouest africain allemand, réalisé peu de temps après la reconquête de la colonie pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, est censuré en 1926 dans l’intérêt de l’unité blanche. Par la suite, la vision allemande faisant du génocide une guerre coloniale héroïque domine le paysage mémoriel au sens propre : l’ancienne colonie est envahie de monuments et de noms de rues commémorant l’effort de guerre allemand.
Après 1945, le passé colonial est tout sauf oublié en Allemagne. Dans le Sud-Ouest africain, la suppression du régime d’apartheid étouffa tout débat public sur le génocide. Ce fut aux descendants des victimes qu’il incomba de garder vivante la mémoire du génocide aussi bien dans des commémorations que par la transmission orale.
The Blue Book, an official report by the British government listing the atrocities committed in German South West Africa, and compiled shortly after the reconquest of the colony during the First World War, was censored in 1926 in the interest of the new unity. Following this, the German perspective viewing the genocide as an heroic colonial war literally dominated the memorial landscape as the former colony was inundated with monuments and street names commemorating the German war effort. After 1945, the colonial past was all but forgotten in Germany. In South West Africa, the suppression of the apartheid regime stifled any public debate about genocide. Descendants of the victims had the task of keeping the memory of the genocide alive, both by commemorative events and oral tradition.
Finally, in July 2015, the German government agreed to label “the events that took place” as an official genocide, following recognition of the Armenian genocide. But the government had still failed to issue a formal apology or indicate a desire to give compensation. This led to a meeting from last October at the Berlin French Center, uniting supporters from several countries to affirm the right of the Herero and Nama communities to be directly involved in negotiating a resolution that includes recognition of the genocide, an appropriate and sincere formal apology to the affected communities, and payment of fair compensation to these two communities, who continue to suffer the ill-effects of the genocide.
Since Namibia gained independence in 1990, descendants of victims — together with human rights groups (in particular, Jewish supporters) from Germany, the United States, Botswana, and South Africa — have fought to win recognition of the genocide, nearing a major victory in court. This July, New York Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain will hear a complaint against Berlin by the victims’ descendants.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Concrete Lovers, This Is What Social Housing Looks Like in Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

“Block No. 4, 2-3-2 Honmachi” (in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture). Photo by Nevin Thompson.
In Japan, there are blogs devoted to documenting train interiors, manhole covers and even cake. So it should come as no surprise that there is a Tumblr and a blog devoted to danchi (団地), the clusters of utilitarian ferro-concrete public housing projects where so many Japanese people have lived since the end of World War II.
This danchi blog provides a rare glimpse into how many people live in Japan, even today.
The term danchi can have negative connotations in Japanese, akin to “the projects” or “social housing” in English. Formerly speaking, these are all known as koei jutaku (公営住宅), or public housing in Japanese.
Concrete lovers, this blog explores the housing estates of Japan. Also known as ‘danchi’https://t.co/YvZgQsTwCL pic.twitter.com/vybt7p6bki
— Present & Correct (@presentcorrect) March 22, 2017
As discussed on American web forum MetaFilter, Walking in the Danchi !! is a Japanese-language blog devoted to sharing images of housing estates around Japan. The blog is frequently updated, and features photos of housing blocks from all over Japan, including Kyoto, central Tokyo, Osaka and many other parts of Japan. The posts include information about the specific address of the tower blocks, and when they were built:
Screenshot from Walking in the Danchi !! Tumblr blog.
Tamachi Ekimae Apartments (1966)
Shiba, Minato Ward, Tokyo
Photo taken in 2016
Screenshot from Walking in the Danchi !! Tumblr blog.
Osaka Kadoma Public Housing (1967)
Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
Photo taken in 2017
The photos capture some of the details familiar to anyone who has ever lived in an apartment in Japan, such as omnipresent ferroconcrete and heavy-duty metal apartment doors that look like something more typically found in a submarine:
Screenshot from Walking in the Danchi !! Tumblr blog.
Naha Municipal Tsubogawa-East Apartments (Built 1985-1992)
Tsubogawa, Naha (Okinawa Prefecture)
Photo taken in 2016
The photos also capture more recent efforts to beautify the typically stark, utilitarian landscapes that typify public housing estates in Japan.
Screenshot from Walking in the Danchi !! Tumblr blog.
Osaka Kadoma Public Housing (1967)
Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
Photo taken in 2017
Screenshot from Walking in the Danchi !! Tumblr blog.
Osaka Kadoma Public Housing (1967)
Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
Photo taken in 2017
Writing for the Japan Times, Philip Brasor provides a useful primer on public housing in Japan, including government housing policy since the Second World War, who qualifies for public housing in Japan, as well as how less government investment in public housing in recent years, combined with the rise of precarious work and declining wages is leading to evermore income disparity in Japan.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Searching for Justice, This Catholic Church Worker Documents Drug Killings in the Philippines · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Majority of the victims of tokhang (anti-drug operation) are urban poor residents. Photo by Ciriaco Santiago, used with permission.
Ciriaco Santiago may look like an ordinary missionary in Manila’s Baclaran Church but he's also a nightcrawler photographer who joins other journalists in covering the lethal anti-drug operations of the Philippine police.
According to police records, more than 2,000 have been killed in the anti-drug operations from June to December 2016. But some groups fear that the number could be higher if extrajudicial killings are included.
If the job of the media is to report the latest casualties in the government’s ‘war on drugs’, Santiago’s role is to profile the victims and document the anti-drug operation or tokhang extra-judicial killing to be used in future human rights abuse investigations.
In an interview with Vatican Insider, Santiago explained why it’s important to expose the violations of the drug war:
Letting the world know about this legalized barbarism is a humanitarian work, before it being news. Raise public awareness about the flagrant violations of law and legality and to stop the killing. Journalism can really serve the public interest and work for the common good.
Santiago’s work has been featured in several exhibitions in churches and schools. The Rise-Up human rights network also submitted his photos as evidence of possible police involvement in extrajudicial killings which has mainly targeted the urban poor of metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The drug war became a national issue in 2016 when the country’s newly elected president vowed to end the menace by killing the leaders of drug cartels and their protectors.
In many instances, innocent civilians have been killed in the tokhang operations. The police are accused of killing unarmed suspects and other petty drug personalities but authorities have blamed this on drug cartels which are allegedly liquidating their rival gangs.
Brother Ciriaco Santiago of the Redemptorist Catholic Church. Source: Facebook
Santiago, who is the crisis management coordinator of his church, began his documentation work last December 2016 in response to the growing number of cases and complaints involving urban poor parishioners.
During one of his visits in urban poor communities, Santiago learned about the case of teenagers who were killed by a group of masked men. Community leaders attested that the teenagers were not involved in illegal drug trade. Many also believe that the killing could be a tokhang operation.
Santiago wrote about the story of the teenagers and documented the funeral march:
They had dreams. All of them wanted to finish their studies, hoping that they would get better jobs once equipped with formal trainings.
Because of poverty, they had to work and save for it. They were firm with the resolve to study, no matter how long it takes.
But that dream vanished that fateful night, as well as the village’s peaceful environment.
The wake was short. The victims’ families and relatives cannot afford a decent burial for their dead. Their option was to bury them all together – alongside with each other.
Teenagers who were killed in a tokhang-like operation were buried alongisde each other to save cost. Community leaders attest to the innocence of the teenagers. Photo by Ciriaco Santiago, used with permission.
Santiago’s work complements the reports of mainstream journalists in giving face to the victims of tokhang and the alarming impact of the drug war in urban poor communities.
Santiago is encouraging young photographers to shed light on the situation of the poor, especially those who are affected by the government’s drug war:
As a photojournalist, always be with the poor, understand their social reality. There is always a clash of competing class interests, with that be on the side of the struggling and poor people.
Below are some photos taken by Santiago, which show what tokhang means to ordinary Filipinos in urban poor villages:
A police officers looks into the dead body of a probable drug suspect. Near the body is a truck with a signage bearing the slogan and name of the country's president. Photo by Ciriaco Santiago, used with permission.
The body of a tokhang victim is carried away in front of a grieving family. Photo by Ciriaco Santiago, used with permission.
The religious sector has been reaching out to tokhang victims in order to probe and stop the drug-related killings in the country. Photo by Ciriaco Santiago, used with permission.

author: Mong Palatino


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These Activists Helped Kurdish Families in Iraq Celebrate Newroz With Color and Resistance · Global Voices
Aveen Karim

From Left to Right: Pictured: Bakhsheen Taha Solaee, Biza Barzo and Sazan M. Mandalawi. Source: Rudaw.
Families across Iraqi Kurdistan gather for Newroz to welcome the new year, according to traditional Kurdish and Iranian calendars, and to celebrate their centuries-old culture of resistance.
Kurds celebrate Newroz — also spelt Nawruz — with poetry, dance, fireworks, bonfires and by jumping over fire. Newroz represents much more than an ancient Zoroastrian tradition to the Kurdish people. For centuries Newroz and fire has symbolized resistance for the Kurdish people. Their ancient mythology is peppered with stories about a blacksmith defeating a ruthless powerful tyrant on the first day of Newroz. Even today, as the Kurdish people are split between modern-day Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, Newroz celebrations help visibly challenge the suppression of Kurdish identity from Arab or Turkish nationalism.
For Kurds celebrating Newroz, the flamboyant, colourful and traditional Kurdish clothes Jili Kurdi has become essential. But for many Kurdish families in war-torn Iraq, Jili Kurdi has become an unaffordable luxury.
To tackle this issue, activists launched the campaign #KurdishClothesForAll on social media asking people across the region to donate Kurdish clothes. Over a thousand people shared the hashtag on Facebook and Twitter and many volunteered to help distribute the donations left at pick-up points in Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok.
Speaking to Global Voices, Biza Barzo, a 23 year old student at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, and one of the initiators of the campaign, said that over 450 families living in impoverished areas received new Kurdish clothes to wear on Nowroz.
Bakhsheen Taha Solaee, a 23-year-old environmental activist and Sazan M. Mandalawi, author of “My Nest in Kurdistan” joined Barzo in promoting the campaign.  In a blog post, Mandalawi wrote:
We are collecting used Kurdish clothes (or new ones) of all sizes, parts, and colors for both genders. They will be distributed to poor families in the Kurdistan Region. This is a community service — and this Newroz as you wear your beautiful Kurdish dress in celebration, you can rest assured that someone else also has one to wear one with a happy heart.
Clothes ready to be delivered. Photo Source: Biza Barzo on Facebook.
Many of those who couldn't donate themselves encouraged others to. London-based SOAS Student Speda Mizuri tweeted:
#KurdishClothesForAll If you have Kurdish clothes that you no longer wish to wear, please donate! Make this Newroz colourful for all!
— S (@SpedaMizuri) 13 March 2017
According to an ancient myth, Kurds lived under the ruthless tyranny of Zuhak who would not allow spring to come to Kurdistan. Kawa, a blacksmith, trained an army of rebels and defeated Zuhak on the first day of Newroz. The victory was marked by the setting ablaze of hilltops. Fire has been used since as the symbol of the Kurdish struggle for freedom.
It is for this reason that the biggest Newroz celebrations in Iraqi Kurdistan take place in Akre, also known as Aqrah, in the Nineveh Governorate, under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The town is said to be the birth place of Kawa and it is perhaps the place where the spirit of Newroz can be felt the most. A fire is lit on the hilltop by people with torches who then run down in a zig zag igniting more fires on their way. At the bottom of the hill, beside the 19th century Ottoman buildings, people dance to the sound of fireworks and Kurdish folk music, while others jump over bonfires.
Here are two videos of Newroz being celebrated in Akre in 2016 and 2015 respectively:
While some Kurds can celebrate Newroz more freely than others, they share the dream of following the example of Kawa and putting an end to tyranny.
Across the border from events in the KRG, Kurds in Manbij, Northern Syria, celebrated Newroz this year for the first time since their liberation from ISIS rule last year.
Alongside Kurds, other ethnic groups inhabiting northern Syria, including Arabs and Turkmen, took part in the festivities, signaling a possibility for peaceful co-existence between them in the area.
Berivan, a woman who was participating in the ceremony in Manbij, told Kurdistan24:
Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen of Manbij are celebrating Newroz. We say Happy Newroz to them

author: Aveen Karim


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What’s Old Is New: Are You Listening? Podcast · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

The podcast Are You Listening? takes a look at some of the stories that have recently come out of the Global Voices newsroom. In this episode, we break down the curious case of coffee culture in Jamaica; a historic visit to the biggest Muslim country in the world; and what it's like to be jailed by ISIS and live to tell the tale. We also introduce you to an iconic Macedonian folk singer who fell into obscurity and lastly, we take you more than a hundred years back to the battle where Ethiopia fought off white colonizers. In this episode, what’s old is new.
Many thanks to Kat Batuigas for helping us produce this episode and to Global Voices contributors Emma Lewis and Endalk for assisting us with narration, and for reporting — along with Filip Stojanovski, Juke Carolina,Joey Ayoub, and Elias Abou Jaoude —  the stories that we featured in this podcast.
In this episode, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzaar (CC BY-SA 4.0); Good Riddance by Ars Sonor (CC BY-SA 4.0); Flute Fleet by Podington Bear (CC BY-NC 3.0); Vintage Frames by Kai Engel (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); Backward by David Szesztay (CC BY-NC 3.0); and Modulation of the Spirit by Little Glass Men (CC BY 3.0 US).
The feature image used in this story is “Church Steps” taken in front of St. Mary of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia. Photo by Flickr user A.Davey (CC BY 2.0).
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author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Art in Transit: Meet the Commute Sketchers of Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Sketch by Alvin Mark Tan, used with permission
They ride buses, trains, and planes, not just to travel but also to practice drawing.
The Commute Sketchers Facebook group was established more than a year ago to showcase the work of artists who make productive use of their time by drawing what they see inside public transport. The group is sharing not just the drawings of Singaporeans but also artists from other countries.
Singaporean artist and teacher Erwin Lian, one of the founders of Commute Sketchers, explains why he thinks the public transport system is an ideal platform for artists:
I think the public transport system is a very unique and peaceful place. You have this moving box (public transport) with wheels or wings that can contain the greatest diversity, because it is literally taking everyone to a common destination. I find that interesting; the notion of going somewhere together. Also, the fact that there are so many different faces to draw within a small room excites me. I was traditionally trained in fine arts and with dwindling interests in traditional art, the public commute presents a unique, safe and condensed setting to practice what I love.
He adds that the idea of Commute Sketchers was inspired by a similar program in Canada:
I was very inspired by the Canadian subway and they have this ‘Sketching-the-line’ program where they invite commute sketchers to submit their work and feature them all over the transit. I thought that was such an organic move and very gracious of them to grant advertising space to commute artists.
Sketch by Erwin Lian, used with permission
Sketch by Erwin Lian, used with permission
Alvin Mark Tan, another active member of Commute Sketchers, is surprised to discover that many people are unaware of what is happening around them when they rise buses or trains:
That people in general can be so hooked on to their mobile devices, they have no clue that I’m sketching them, or even what is happening around them.
Sketch by Alvin Mark Tan, used with permission
He also produced a short instructional video detailing the basics of commute sketching:


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Georgia’s Biggest Killer? Its Roads. · Global Voices
OC Media

Photo: Sulkhan Bordzikashvili for OC Media.
The following is a version of a partner post written by Sulkhan Bordzikashvili that first appeared on the website OC Media.
On 22 March, in Tbilisi, a mother and a daughter standing on the side of the road were hit by a car. The 11-year-old girl died on the spot, while her mother was taken to hospital in critical condition.
The police have launched an investigation into ‘violation of the rules of traffic safety leading to loss of human life’, which is punishable by imprisonment of four to seven years.
According to witnesses, the mother and daughter were standing at a bus stop when the car swerved off the road, hitting first a billboard, and then them.
In 2015, the World Health Organisation published a report stating that every year 1.25 million people die as result of car accidents. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Georgia had the highest rate of deaths from road accidents in Europe (163.6 per 1 million inhabitants). Twenty-four percent of road deaths in Georgia are pedestrians.
According to statistics from Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (see below), the number of accidents started to decline 2008, although it has been on the rise again since 2011. The ministry reported that the most common risk factors for road accidents were driving under influence of alcohol and speeding.
In 2011, 4,500 traffic accidents were reported in Georgia, with 6,600 non-fatal and 500 fatal victims. In 2016, almost 7,000 traffic accidents were reported, with 10,000 non-fatal and 600 fatal victims.
Despite the growing death toll, in 2014, the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared a set of amendments to the Administrative Code, reducing the penalties for traffic violations. According to the proposed bill, the fine for crossing the centre line, which is currently punishable with a fine of 100 lari ($41), will be halved. The fine for repeated offences will be reduced from 200 lari ($82) to 100 lari ($41). Offenders who do not pay traffic violation fines on time will now pay 40 lari ($16) instead of the current 150 lari ($61).
In 2016, the Georgian government approved the National Road Safety Strategy. The authors note that the adoption of the strategy was necessary due to the high death toll from road accidents. The strategy has been jointly adopted for a five year period by the ministries of Economy, Regional Development, Labour and Social Affairs, Education and Science, and Tbilisi City Hall.
The strategy includes, among other things, ensuring safety of school transport, timely emergency medical care, and road safety training in schools.
In order to implement the project, an interagency commission and working group was set up by the Ministry of Economy to coordinate between different institutions.
Photo: Sulkhan Bordzikashvili for OC Media.
In a statement, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that the initiative was the result of recommendations made by international organisations and experts.
‘This is a very important document for successful and sustainable long-term road safety management in Georgia’, the president said.
Talking with RFE/RL, Gela Kvashilava, founder of the Road Safety Foundation, a local advocacy group, said that Georgia’s main problem regarding road safety was that roads were tailored for cars instead of people.
The five-year strategy is supposed to deal with the issues of road safety, city traffic, and lack of parking space.
Photo: Sulkhan Bordzikashvili for OC Media.

author: OC Media