text:
A Student’s Death Exposes the Chaos of China’s Medical System, Exacerbated by Baidu Search Engine · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

Wei Zexi talks about his aspiration to live. Image: YouTube
“I do not want to die. I haven’t seen the result after 21 years of struggle and effort, and I still dream of seeing this world,” Wei Zexi said in a short video before his death. “I cannot imagine how my parents would carry on with their lives, if I were to die.”
Wei, a 21-year-old college student in Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province, had for years suffered from synovial sarcoma and both chemotherapy and surgery had failed.
In desperation, Wei and his parents searched on Baidu, the dominant Internet search engine in China, and found the website of the Second Armed Police Hospital in Beijing. Eventually Wei spent 200,000 yuan (the equivalent of 30,900 US dollars) for a phony treatment that, in the end, only exacerbated his condition.
Only later did Wei and his family find out that the search result was actually Baidu's promotional advertisement under the company's Position Auction System. Moreover, the treatment he received was not provided by the military hospital but by a third party, a subcontractor of the hospital's surgery ward.
Wei passed away on April 12 and the Chinese public was enraged.
In response, the Cyberspace Administration, China's Internet regulators, announced that it's launching an investigation into Baidu, as did the National Health and Family Planning Commission and departments of the Central Military Commission file a joint probe into the hospital.
“I did not know how sinister Baidu was at the time,” Wei said, explaining how he fell into the same medical trap that has snared others: a post on Zhihu, an ask-and-answer online community.
Baidu has long dominated the Chinese search engine market, expanding its services ranging from delivering food to  taxi-hailing services.
The public, however, have criticized Baidu for its position-auction system and for providing misleading and false search results.
On Baidu, usually the first pages of any search result feature promotion links, and companies that pay more get higher placements.
But not everyone is aware of this auction system, or how dangerous it can be to take promoted search results at face value. Wei was the victim of one such misleading search result. He and his family followed the link from the search engine, he visited the hospital’s website, which claimed it had imported a biological therapy from Stanford University called “dendritic cell and cytokines-induced killer cells”, which it claimed could prolong a his life for up to 20 years.
The hospital website did not reveal that the treatment was outsourced to a privately run medical company affiliated to Putian—a network of medical entrepreneurs who control thousands of private medical institutions in China.
Updated 10 am May 5 2016: “Stanford University has no relationship to this case or to the hospital. We have no further comment.” said Becky Bach, who is in charge of Media Relations at Office of Communications & Public Affairs at Stanford University School of Medicine, told this author in an e-mail.
In other words, the treatment advertised on Baidu is a scam, and the search engine did not bother to verify the advertisement's claim, before displaying it to people searching for medical care. As Wei did not have professional medical knowledge, he believed the claim of hospital and made a wrong choice that cost him his life.
In China, spreading rumors online is a criminal offense, but police seldom fault Baidu for spreading scams in its advertising business.
In a Zhihu post before he died, Wei said he hoped his story would prevent others from making the same mistake he did. “Otherwise it will be a heavy price for patients suffering from tumors,” he warned.
Baidu should be responsible for spreading false information, but the party responsible for the scam that killed Wei is the Putian faction hospitals.
Putian is a southeastern city in the Fujian province, where the private medical business has been a pivotal industry since the 1980s. The faction mostly consists of “four clans”—the Chens, Zhans, Lins, and Huangs—who currently dominate 80 percent of all private hospitals throughout China.
Many businessmen in Putian work as amateur doctors or so-called “barefoot doctors” who emerged in the Cultural Revolution and do not have professional medical backgrounds. “Curing a hundred diseases” is one of these doctors’ favorite marketing slogans.
At the onset of the Reform and Opening in 1978, many hospitals did not have sufficient state subsidies to operate. As a result, these doctors in Putian seized the chance and filled the funding gap by offering investments, as well as additional doctors and medical devices, entering into profit-sharing arrangements with the hospitals. It was the dawn of a new era of medical marketization. In the 1990s, when China started allowing the private sector to invest in public hospitals, the country's medical industry became massively profitable.
In 2000, the authorities prohibited private investment in public hospitals, but lifted the ban on establishing private hospitals.
Many hospitals in China have titles like “army,” “air force,” and “armed police,” and all of these military hospitals have been under the direct regulation by the People’s Liberation Army, unlike the public facilities supervised by the Health Department. These military hospitals have become strategic partners for the Putian faction.
Now there are nearly 8,000 Putian private hospitals, making up more than 70 percent of the whole national market.
Putian-affiliated hospitals often claim that they have the world’s most advanced medical treatment and the country's most experienced doctors and can cure any kind of disease.
According to Tencent news, Putian faction hospitals contributed 10 billion yuan (the equivalent of 1.6 billion US dollars) to Baidu's advertising revenue in 2014. This January, Baidu came under fire for flooding online communities with false claims and advertisements for unlicensed hospitals.
Many patients like Wei have been swindled at high prices.
Who Should Be Responsible?
Wei's case isn't the first public scandal associated with Putian faction hospitals.
Back in 2006, the Oriental Outlook, a magazine affiliated to state-owned Xinhua News Agency, published an influential report saying Lang Xianping, a well-known Chinese economist, had revealed the inside story about Putian faction hospitals on his TV show. Mysteriously, the television program was soon taken off the air.
“We are those who do not have power and merely can call on those who have power to get involved in [investigation into these hospitals],” Lang said at the time.
Ren Yi, a postgraduate of John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard Kennedy School and former visiting researcher at Fairbank Center at Harvard University, argues that the hospital at the center of Wei's story deserves to take main responsibility for this scandal:
武警二院是一家专业医疗机构，他应当受到存在千年的医德传统约束；他应当直接受公共卫生相关法律法规政策的监管；他对医疗手段的有效性应该有专业认识及接近或等于完全知情。但基于以上，他仍然选择在这样一个具体的医疗服务上进行外包，提供医疗增信并获取经济利润。因此他的道德最大。
The Second Armed Police Hospital is a professional medical institute, and it should be restrained by conventional medical ethics. It should be supervised by relevant laws and regulations on public sanitation. It should have the professional knowledge of effectiveness of treatments and closely or fully know it. For the above-mentioned reasons, it still chooses to outsource such medical treatments and endorses such treatments to make a profit. So it should bear the most moral responsibility.
“We're just ordinary people, and we don't want to get involved in any dispute or draw [public] attention,” Wei’s parents said in an exclusive interview with Caixin. “We just want to live a quiet life.”

author: Patrick Wong


text:
The Long History of One Greek Island’s Temporarily Canceled Easter ‘Rocket War’ · Global Voices
Artemis Touli

Firing rockets over Vrontados Town. Photo by Aneta Silwia Zak, used with her permission
The Greek town of Vrontados on Chios Island is used to drawing attention around Orthodox Easter time. Usually, it’s because of the tradition of “Rouketopolemos” (“Rocket War” in Greek), which sees the members of “rival” churches Saint Mark and Panaghia Erithiani fire thousands of homemade rockets towards each other at midnight on the holiday.
But this year, Vrontados made headlines for the opposite reason. The battle was canceled due to some residents threatening a lawsuit against the rocket makers.
It was the first time in more than 100 years that the town didn’t have an explosive Easter. The Rouketopolemos dates back to the era when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. The ritual was earlier performed with real cannons filled with gunpowder, producing loud explosions, but Ottoman authorities prohibited their use in 1889, fearing that Easter celebrations would ignite a people's revolt against their rule. A second tradition says the Rocket War was supposedly born, because islanders were prohibited to celebrate Easter as they wanted, so they decided to set up a fake battle to keep Ottomans at a distance.
Firing rockets over Vrontados town. Photo by Aneta Silwia Zak, used with her permission
Saint Mark and Panaghia Erithiani parishes prepare for several months before midnight on Easter Sunday, when the Rocket War takes place. People of all ages participate in the rockets’ construction, with final preparations escalating during Lent (the period of time leading up to Easter), with the younger residents taking the lead under the guidance of their elders, usually retired sailors. Specific quantities of nitro, sulfur and coal are inserted into paper cylinders, which are then bound to a stick with a fuse attached to on end. The rockets are then placed in makeshift wooden bases, ready to be lit and create an fiery spectacle.
At midnight, the rival groups take their places, and while the priests say the Mass of the Resurrection, the battle erupts. Rockets explode against the dark sky, leaving golden trails behind them. The target is the bell tower of the rival church. It's difficult to declare a winner, as the rockets are numerous and cannot be counted easily the next day.
The idea isn't to actually hurt anyone. The church buildings themselves and the nearby buildings are extensively boarded up with metal sheets and mesh for the occasion. While some residents aren't fans of the custom, it has become a significant source of tourist revenue for the area — people from all over Greece and abroad choose to spend their Easter holidays in Chios just to witness the battle.
In 2015, English-language news website Greek Reporter produced a brief documentary on the tradition. In it, Dr. Stamatios Krimigis, a Greek-American scientist in space exploration, originally born in Vrontados, Chios, talks about the tradition of rocket war:
It reminds me of my childhood because I always used to take part in the rocket war […] Everything is dangerous when you're not prepared. When you are prepared and you have taken the right measures, there is less danger.
Another video by video platform Nowness offers a stylized peek at the tradition:
When the Rocket War was relatively unknown, things were fine. But as the number of visitors have increased, so have the number of rockets launched and the possibility of stray projectiles doing damage to surrounding buildings. A lack of proper management of the tradition and its growing audience have only exacerbated the situation.
That tension culminated this year, when local rocket makers in Vrontados town declared they wouldn't organize the famous battle as they were threatened with lawsuits by village residents, who every year must repair damages to their homes. As Greek Reporter mentioned:
“We did everything we could to secure the safety of their homes and to convince them,” said president of the local community of Vrontados Markos Kosmas. “But they won’t back down on their decision. The rocket throwers are mostly family people and they will not risk being chased by police and end up in court,” he added.
A legal framework to protect local traditions like the Rouketopolemos has been in the works since last June, and local rocket makers and supporters have been watching its development closely. Parliament hasn't yet voted on it, however.
The battle has begun at Vrontados town. Photo by Aneta Silwia Zak, used with her permission.
Let's hope that the tradition eventually resumes, and that locals and government officials can solve their differences through serious discourse and planning.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Artemis Touli


text:
Two Years Without Gabriel García Márquez: A Tribute · Global Voices
Carlos Esteban Cana

Gabriel Garcia Marquez with students from the University of Puerto Rico at the 14th Havana Film Festival in 1992. The author is on the left wearing beige shorts and a striped shirt. Photo courtesy Carlos Esteban Cana.
One December morning in 1992, I met Gabriel García Márquez. To be completely honest, Gabo had already been my friend for quite some time, thanks to an ex-girlfriend. The only thing that remained of that first young love of mine was a first edition of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” that she had given me, after which my world would never be the same again.
But the meeting I'm referring to took place at The International Film and TV School during the 14 edition of the International Latin American New Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, the most important cinematographic event in the Caribbean. We were able to attend thanks to a class offered at the University of Puerto Rico. Just like that, García Márquez stumbled upon the Puerto Rican delegation, and we ended up talking to him. That encounter was the highlight of a trip that also gave me the opportunity to watch films like “The Dark Side of the Heart,” “Cinema Paradiso,” and “Century of Lights,” among others. And if that weren't enough, I also attended a reading by Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti.
Left to right: Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, French journalist Jean Francois Fogel and co-founder of the Gabriel Garcia Foundation, Jaime Abello. Photo by Carlos Esteban Cana.
Consequently, two years after the death of the great Colombia writer on April 17, 2014, I'd like to share a selection of impressions from a discussion between Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez and French journalist Jean François Fogel called “Memories of language: three of Gabo's friends two years after his death.” The event was held at the Tapia Theater in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 19 within the framework of the 2016 International Congress of the Spanish Language. The event's moderator was Jaime Abello, managing director and co-founder of the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism.
Gabo was remembered throughout the discussion in many different ways, as various aspects of his life and personality were recalled. Among the issues touched upon were his love of the bolero, his view of power, and his relationship with the United States.
Jaime Abello (JA): García Márquez hizo que el Congreso de la Lengua se hiciera famosísimo cuando en Zacatecas propuso una nueva manera de abordar la ortografía de la lengua, pero además fue una persona que realmente fue un paladín de nuestra lengua y lo hizo abordando su oficio de escritor desde distintas perspectivas. Por supuesto, la que más le conocemos, por la que es más amado y leído es la literatura: sus novelas y sus cuentos. Pero también como lo recordamos aquí hay un oficio de escritor periodístico de más de 51 años, un oficio de guionista de cine y además de eso de educador de contadores de historias y de periodistas.
Jaime Abello (JA): García Marquez made the Congress of Language extremely famous when he proposed a new approach to the spelling of the language in Zacatecas, but he was also a true champion of our tongue while tackling his job as a writer from different perspectives. Of course, the one we know best, the most beloved and most read of these is literature: his novels and stories. But as we remember him here, we must also remember someone who was a journalistic writer for over 51 years, a film writer, and beyond that, an educator of storytellers and journalists.
Sergio Ramírez (SR): Recuerdo al Gabo como un gran conversador. Alguien que se podía sentar contigo después del almuerzo hasta las 7 de la noche y hablando por supuesto de literatura y también de cine, de política, de asuntos privados también y por supuesto de música, de boleros. El Gabo sabía muchísimos boleros así como sabía de memoria muchas poesías de Rubén Darío por ejemplo y cantaba además.
Sergio Ramírez (SR): I remember Gabo as a great conversationalist. Someone who could sit down with you after lunch until seven in the evening, talking of course about literature and film, politics, private matters too, and of course about music, about boleros. Gabo knew so many boleros just like he knew many of Rubén Darío's poems by heart, for example. And he also sang.
Jean François Fogel (JFF): Yo era periodista y Gabo era amigo de periodistas… Tuve la suerte de coincidir con él en 1977. Yo era un joven periodista y fue generoso, me trató como un viejo profesional y desde ese momento volví a ver el Gabo pero en misiones periodísticas. Recuerdo una vez que estábamos en Nueva York, cuando volvió allí después de tantos años y fuimos a dar un recorrido en Manhattan y nos detuvieron para pedir autógrafos.
Jean François Fogel (JFF): I was a journalist and Gabo was a friend of journalists… I had the good fortune of running into him in 1977. I was a young journalist and he was generous, he treated me like an old pro. After that I saw Gabo, but on journalism trips. I remember once we were in New York. He had returned after so many years and we were exploring Manhattan and people stopped to ask for our autographs.
JA: De García Márquez podría abarcar muchas facetas: de literatura, periodismo y cine. Podríamos hablar de su interés en la educación y en su decisión de formar escuelas de cine por un lado y de periodismo por el otro. Podríamos mirar muchos temas pero hay uno que es el más polémico y que sigue dividiendo la percepción y opinión sobre el Gabo: su relación con el poder y los poderosos.
JA: García Márquez had so many sides to him: literature, journalism, and film. We could talk about his interest in education and his decision to create schools for film on the one hand and schools for journalism on the other. We could look at many issues, but the one that is most controversial and continues to divide people's perception and opinion of Gabo: his relationship with power and the powerful.
SR: A mí me parece que la relación de García Márquez con el poder es esencial en su literatura y su vida. Siempre decía que había tres temas inmortales en la literatura: el amor, la locura y la muerte. Y yo le decía que el poder. El poder es un cuarto elemento esencial en la literatura y él se veía como un personaje metido en esta máquina del poder. Un hombre de la ciénaga colombiana, del pueblo más pobre que de repente y gracias a su literatura y a su creatividad se ve encumbrado y reclamado por los poderosos… Entonces él comienza a estar en esta relación erótica con el poder.
SR: To me it seems like García Márquez's relationship with power is essential in his literature and his life. He always said that there were three immortal themes in literature: love, madness, and death. And I always added power. Power is a fourth essential element in literature and he saw himself as character stuck in this machine of power. A man from the Colombian swamp, from the poorest village who suddenly, thanks to his literature and creativity, sees himself being praised and demanded by the powerful… So he begins to be in this erotic relationship with power.
JFF: Es obvio la figura del caudillo era una cosa muy importante en la literatura de García Márquez; es la figura del patriarca en El otoño del patriarca; es El general en su laberinto; una figura que lo apasiona. […] Le gustaba la figura del poder; era una formidable materia prima para él. No hay que olvidar que para Gabo, dentro de su obra la que le parece más completa, en la que él ve culminado su talento es El otoño del patriarca. Y si uno la relee se da cuenta de que es una obra de una efectividad y control en la narración absolutamente fenomenal. Y Gabo analizaba la reacción de la gente a través de la manera en que valoraban los distintos libros de su obra. En su biografía lo dice claramente… Gabo tenía la conciencia que El otoño del patriarca, con razón o sin razón, era lo mejor de su obra y técnicamente era formidable…
JFF: It's obvious that the figure of the leader was very important in García Márquez's literature; it's the patriarchal figure in The Autumn of the Patriarch; it is The General in his Labyrinth; a figure that he is passionate about. […] He liked the figure of power; it was formidable, raw material for him. We mustn't forget that for Gabo, the work of literature that seemed most complete to him, in which he sees his talent culminated, is The Autumn of the Patriarch. And if you re-read it, you realize that it is a work of absolutely phenomenal effectiveness and narrative control. Gabo analyzed people's reactions through the way they valued the different books in his work. His biography states it clearly… Gabo was conscious that The Autumn of the Patriarch, rightfully so or not, was his best work and technically speaking, it was tremendous…
JA: La pregunta es, si Gabo en un momento dado dice o se le cita valorando de manera especial El amor en los tiempos del cólera por encima de Cien años de soledad. A qué obedece, siendo unas obras tan distintas.
JA: The question is, if at any given moment Gabo says or is quoted particularly valuing Love in the Time of Cholera over 100 Years of Solitude. It could be, given that they are such different works.
SR: Él creía que su obra maestra era “El amor en los tiempos del cólera”. Una vez hablando sobre esto él decía: “No, es que Cien años de soledad es la fábula pero la novela verdadera mía es El amor en los tiempos del cólera”. Le gustaba los personajes, le gustaba la historia… Me parece que es una opinión muy subjetiva. Yo creo que un escritor por sí mismo no puede valorar cuál es su obra maestra. Yo sé que las dos son obras maestras pero hasta donde van las cosas, en este momento después de su muerte, “Cien años de soledad” sigue estando por encima…
SR: He believed that his masterpiece was “Love in the Time of Cholera”. Once, after talking about it, he said, “No, it's just that 100 Years of Solitude is the fable but the true novel of mine is Love in the Time of Cholera”. He liked the characters, he liked the story… I think it's a very subjective opinion. I think that a writer himself cannot determine what his masterpiece is. I know that the two are both masterpieces, but as far as things go, at this time after his death, “100 Years of Solitude” is still winning…
JFF: Una vez me dijo que había releído Cien años de soledad. Entonces yo le dije: ¿Qué tal? Y me responde: “Faltan dos generaciones más”.
JFF: One time he told me that he had re-read 100 Years of Solitude. So I said to him, “How was it?” and he answered, “It needs two more generations.”

author: Carlos Esteban Cana


text:
What Is #TheAfricaWeWant? One That’s Prosperous, United and Fair, for Starters · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Screenshot from the African Union “Agenda 2063″ website
While commemorating 50 years of existence, the African Union (AU) rolled out an agenda for the continent entitled “Agenda 2063” to build “The Africa We Want”. This plan was described by the 54-member union as “a call for action to all segments of African society to work together to build a prosperous and united Africa based on shared values and a common destiny”.
The keys to achieving “The Africa We Want” are, according to the African Development Bank, are strategic policy leadership, regional integration, job creation for all Africans including women and young people, and managing conflict.
But what kind of Africa do Africans want? The AU put the question to social media to find out.
Share your visions for #Africa using #TheAfricaWeWant – if in Addis join us live, Apr 28, 6-9PM RSVP required pic.twitter.com/kaqqCDbJ6F
— AU Project 2016 (@AUProject2016) April 26, 2016
Naturally, this elicited reactions from African Twitter users. The AU chair, Dr. Dlamini Zuma, wanted a “vibrant economic community”:
#TheAfricaWeWant is one with a vibrant Economic Community, with nothing less than 70% intra-African trade. #AUProject2016.
— Dr Dlamini Zuma (@DlaminiZuma) April 28, 2016
Obianuju Ekeocha, a Nigerian, tweeted:
#TheAfricaWeWant is one where the family is elevated and put at the core of human rights and development projects pic.twitter.com/Ix9O3eUHMW
— Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) April 29, 2016
Tsonam C. Akpeloo evisaged an Africa that is self-reliant:
‘I envision an Africa where we consume what we produce and export the surplus of what we produce’ #AUCitizen #TheAfricaWeWant
— Tsonam C. Akpeloo (@Akpeloo) April 29, 2016
BlackGirlsPower wanted an Africa devoid of mediocrity, but powered by meritocracy:
#TheAfricaWeWant is where people get things on merit and not based on who they know
— #BlackGirlsRock (@ProfUkay) April 28, 2016
Ugandan correspondent for Global Voices, Pru Nyamishana, hoped for qualitative health care for all Africans:
I hope for an Africa with sustainable high quality healthcare #TheAfricaWeWant
— Pru Nyamishana (@nyapru1) April 28, 2016
Nebila Abdulmelik wants an Africa strong on solidarity and diversity:
#TheAfricaWeWant is one of Solidarity & Sisterhood, Beauty & Brotherhood, Unity but not uniformity. Where multiplicity of voices strengthen
— Nebila Abdulmelik (@Aliben86) April 26, 2016
Precious Kc George desired Africa without corrupt leaders and accessible Internet:
I envision an Africa where leaders are not corrupt, and internet access increased. @US_AU #TheAfricaWeWant #AUProject2016
— Precious Kc George (@PreciouskGeorge) April 28, 2016
Anand Madhvani was poetic:
my Africa:
proud strong confident
revelling in its diversity
goes beyond Western
personal consumerism
shows 🌎🌍🌏 abundance#TheAfricaWeWant
— Anand Madhvani (@dosima_org) May 2, 2016

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
Why One Macedonian Man Is Breaking His Vow to Never Protest Again · Global Voices
Vesna Ilievska

Tome (right), out on the streets as part of the Colorful Revolution protests on 27 April 2016. Photo by Vesna Ilievska CC-BY.
Last year, Tome Stankovski wrote on social media that he did not plan on participating in any more protests. The Russian language and literature teacher had been one of 42 people detained after police cracked down on protesters during demonstrations in Macedonia's capital Skopje, and he was rather shaken up by the experience.
Those protests were a response to leaked wiretap recordings implicating now former Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, as well as other officials, in an attempt to conceal details from the official investigation into Martin Neshkovski's death, a young man who was beaten to death in 2011 by a police officer at an election victory rally for the ruling party. Around 5,000 people gathered in front of the government on May 5, 2015, regularly raising their hands in the air to demonstrate that the protest was peaceful.
However, sometime between 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm, the Ministry of Interior reported that protesters were throwing different objects at police; according to them, the protests had turned violent and so orders were given to disperse the crowd.
Soon, images and videos of police arresting people in the streets swept the internet. One of the people in them was Tome. Tackled and held to the down by police, he was arrested on the street while he said he was trying to calmly walk away from the commotion.
However, less than a year since that dreadful night, the 29-year-old with no tolerance for injustice and “a rebellious spirit by nature” is out on the streets again, this time joining the Colorful Revolution against state corruption and impunity. I spoke to him about his arrest, the aftermath and his decision to protest again.
VI: Why did you join the protests last year?
ТС: Дента, на 5-ти мај, бев на Саем на Книга каде имав убав и искулиран ден шетајќи по штандовите на саемот и бирајќи книги за читање по дома. Купив книги, беше убав ден, си дојдов дома, вклучив фејсбук каде видов како луѓе коментираат за прислушуван материјал каде тема беше убиството на Мартин Нешкоски. Од она што го видов и го слушнав, се згрозив, станав се качив на автобус и тргнав сам пред Влада да протестирам, каде веќе имаше насобрана толпа млади и гневни луѓе. Се приклучив каде со сиот глас протестирав, поради тоа што го чув.
TS: On May 5, 2015, I was at the book fair where I had a lovely and a very relaxing day just walking around the stands and choosing what books to get. I bought the ones I wanted, it was a beautiful day, I came home, opened my Facebook and saw people’s comments on the recorded wiretap material which focused on the murder of Martin Neshkovski. I felt sick to my stomach from what I saw and heard. I got up, I got on the bus and I headed alone towards the government to protest, where there already was a group of young and angry people. I joined the crowd and screamed my lungs out, because of what I had heard.
VI: What happened on May 5, 2015?
ТС: Во моментот кога пристигнав пред Влада, како што реков имаше насобрано илјадници млади и бесни луѓе. Многумина фрлаа со јајца по владата. Некои со камења. Некои ги спојуваа македонското, албанското, турското и српското знаме и само викаа: „Заедно сме посилни!“ Јас не фрлав никакви предмети. Го користев само својот глас. Се сретнав спонтано со многу познаници. Знам дека имаше помали инциденти и удари со полицијата од онаму каде што стоев јас, но не беше ништо сериозно, се додека во еден момент една група на луѓе, во главно маскирани, со маици преку глава и капи, фрлаа бекатони, камења, флаши кон полицајците. Не е мое да кажам дали тие луѓе беа намерно инфилтрирани провокатори да направат проблем.
Но, се гледаше дека врие и ситуацијата излезе од контрола, каде полицијата доби наредба преку единицата ЕБР да ја расчисти насилно толпата. Јас се повлекував колку што можев. Имаше насобрано многу луѓе, едни бегаа во паника, други се пресметуваа со полицијата, а трети беа со дигнати раце и не мрдаа. Но, веќе беше доцна. Ситуацијата ескалира. Полицијата употребуваше сила. Толпата се подели. Јас бев во еден дел од толпата каде веќе и не бев практично во толпа, туку бев малку поназад од физичкото пресметување помеѓу полицијата и дел од демонстрантите. Сите бегаа во паника. Во еден момент, си реков зошто да бегам. Не сум направил ништо лошо.
Приметив дека има специјални единици од сите страни, трчајќи некаде да фатат демонстранти. Јас во еден момент, сакајќи да се повлечам под една стреа, од несакана флаша или камен во глава, бев изненадно фатен од еден ЕБР кој со пцовки ме зграпчи. Јас бев со кренати раце и дланки велејќи: ееј ејј, ништо не направив, немам јас ништо. И пред воопшто да се докажам, бев треснат од земја, со два удара во тилот, легнат на стомак, каде се уште можев да зборувам: ејјј, немам ништо направено лошо. Шокантниот момент беше кога на тој еден и крупен ЕБР му се придружија колегите, каде плус тројца на веќе легната положба, каде не пружав отпор, продолжија да ме клоцаат уште едно 7-10 секунди. Ми беа ставени лисици и спектакуларно бев уапсен. Потоа, бев одведен до полициско комбе, каде бев пренесен во полициска станица и каде ги поминав следните 24 часа заедно со уште 15-тина приведини. Бев во шок.
Бев и повреден каде во текот на ноќта бев одведен до болница со придружба на полицаец. Епилогот беше, раскрварена подлактица, болки во глава и најголеми болки во градниот кош, каде беше потребна коњска инекција да ми ги смири болките. После 24 часа бев ослободен без кривична пријава против мене.
TS: As I mentioned, at the moment I arrived in front of the government there were thousands of young and furious people. Many threw eggs at the government building. Some threw rocks. Some were tying together the Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and Serbian flags and were yelling: “Together we are stronger!” I didn’t throw any objects. I just used my voice. I met many acquaintances. I knew there were small incidents and clashes with the police near to where I was standing, but it was nothing serious until the moment when a group of people, masked with T-shirts over their heads and hats, started throwing concrete tiles, stones and bottles at police officers. It’s not mine to say if they were infiltrated purposefully to cause problems with the police.
However, I could feel that the situation was getting out of control and the police, through their Rapid Response Unit, was then ordered to forcefully disperse the crowd. I started retreating as much as I could. There were so many people, some ran away in panic, others clashed with the police, and some had their hands up in the air and did not move. But, it was too late. The situation had escalated. The police used force. The crowd dispersed in several directions. I was with some of the people, but I was no longer a part of the crowd. I was a bit a further away from the point where police and protesters were clashing. Everyone was running in panic. At one point I said to myself “Why run? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
I noticed there were special forces all around, running after protesters. At one point, while I was trying to shield myself from a bottle or a stone that was being thrown in the air, out of nowhere I was grabbed by an officer of the special forces who swore at me. I put my hands in the air and I was saying to him: “Hey, hey, I’ve done nothing wrong, I don’t have anything on me.” I wasn't even allowed to finish; he threw me to the ground as he punched me twice in the back of the head, but I still continued saying: “Hey, I’ve done nothing wrong.” The biggest shock for me was when three other officers joined this bulky officer that had me pinned to the ground. I was on the ground, I wasn’t resisting in any way and they kept kicking me for another 7-10 seconds. I was cuffed and arrested in a very theatrical manner. I was then taken to a police station where I spent the next 24 hours together with about 15 other apprehended protesters. I was in shock.
I was also hurt and during the night they took me to a hospital with a police escort. The aftermath of my arrest was a bleeding forearm, pain in my head and excruciating pain in my chest. The dose of painkillers I was given in order to alleviate the pain was probably enough to subdue a horse. After 24 hours I was released with no criminal offense charges against me.
VI: What impact have the events of May 5 had on you?
ТС: Настаните од 5-ти мај, никако не ми влијаеа позитивно. Имав трауми и флешови од тепањето до степен да прв пат во живот посетам и разговор со психотерапевт. Се чувствував некако изигран, понижен. Бидејќи од моето апсење помина и видеолента, каде повеќето блиски пријатели и познаници ме видоа и се вознемирија. Бидејќи не ме знаат како таков. Јас никогаш не сум бил во тепачки и конфликти. Од друга страна се чувствував горд што бев таму. Но, сè на сè…негативно искуство.
TS: The events from May 5, in no way positively. I was traumatized and had flashbacks from the beating, so severe that for the first time in my life I had to seek professional help from a psychotherapist. I felt played, humiliated … as my arrest was also captured on video, so many close friends and acquaintences saw me and felt upset. Because they don’t know me as that kind of person. I have never gotten in fights or had conflicts with others. On one hand, I felt proud that I was there, but on the other, it was a negative experience overall.
VI: Had you attended protests before or had encounters with the police previously?
ТС: Сум одел на протести да. Секогаш културно, фино и гласно. Сум бил на студентски протести, протести на хонорарци, протести против промена на името на оваа земја, протести за се што сум мислел со своја глава дека вреди да излезам, по мое лично убедување, без никаков притисок од трета страна.
Никогаш не сум имал пробле со полиција во живот. Доволно сум образован и воспитан и знам дека удар на полицаец е удар на држава. Сепак тие нè бранат. И нив не им е лесно. И они знаат од кај смрди рибата.
TS: I’ve been to protests, yes. Always in a very cultured, appropriate and loud manner. I was at the student protests, the protests for part-time workers, at protests against the changing of the name of the country, generally I’ve attended protests which I thought where worth my presence, always because this was something that I wanted, never due to pressure from someone else. And I’ve never had problems with the police. I am educated and aware enough to know that every attack on a policeman is an attack on the state. They do defend us. It’s not an easy job for them either. They are also aware that the fish rots from the head down.
VI: On what grounds were you arrested? What happened afterward?
ТС: Обвиненината во полициската станица беа: поради учество во толпа и поради пружање отпор на полиција при апсење. Јас како прво, бев далеку од толпа веќе кога ме фатија, а како второ, толку експресно ме треснаа на земја, ме расшутираа, што не можев со прст да мрднам камо ли отпор да давам. Секако, тие обвиненија ги одбив и не ги потпишав. Против мене нема кривична пријава, има само прекршочна која е во тек некаде во суд.
TS: The charges against me were “participation in a crowd and resisting arrest”. First, I was not a part of a crowd when they caught up with me, and second, they threw me on the ground in such a short amount of time and started kicking me that I did not have the time to move a finger, let alone resist arrest. Of course I rejected the charges and did not sign statements admitting them. There’s no criminal offense charge against me, only a misdemeanor charge which is still ongoing.
VI: How did the police treat you and how do you feel about them now?
ТС: Полицајците кои ме приведоа секако дека во тој афект беа груби. За тоа се обучени специјалците. Додека бев во станицата 24 часа, не можам да кажам лош збор. Обичните полицајци таму беа многу човечни и фер. Се чувствувам ок во поглед на нив, иако добивам напади на паника кога поред мене ќе протрча ЕБР. Не им се лутам на нив. Се лутам на оние кои дадоа наредба за чистење на толпа. Истите оние кои кога примаат специјалец, не прават темелни психички тестови и физички, доколку се приведе некој на земја, како и на кој начин треба да се прави тоа, без прекумерна употреба на сила, особено не на некој што се спротивставува.
TS: The police officers that detained me were very aggressive in that situation. This is what they are trained for. I cannot say anything bad about the police officers in the police station where I was detained. They were very courteous and fair. I feel okay about policemen, although I get panic attacks when I see policemen from the Rapid Response Unit running past me. But I am not angry with them. I am angry with the ones who gave the orders to “clear out” the crowd. It’s the same people that hire special forces officers and don’t require of them to pass any in-depth physical and psychological tests, they are not trained properly, about how to tackle a situation when someone is on the ground and is not resisting … that there is not reason to use excessive force.
VI: Who offered the most support to you in that moment?
ТС: Најголема подршка во тој период добив од моите најблиски пријатели, кои уште истата вечер беа во полициската станица. Моите не знаеа, што конкретно се случило со мене, се додека не дојдов дома, каде откако им раскажав, се расплакаа. Многу ми беше криво што ги вознемирив моите, немав таква намера. Имав само намера да го искажам мојот револт. Добив огромна поддршка и од моите претпоставени и колеги од тогашното работно место. Искрено, бев малце уплашен да не ја изгубам позицијата, бидејќи сепак бев фатен на камера со лисици позади мене, воден од џандар до комбе. Но, најголема подршка добив од нив, без да бидам прашан дали сум згрешил нешто и ја имав безрезервната поддршка, што ме доведе на неколку пати близу до солзи.
TS: I received the biggest support from my closest friends that came to the police station that very night. My parents didn’t know what had specifically happened to me until I came back home and told them, which is when they started crying. I felt very guilty for upsetting them, it was never my intention. I just wanted to express my anger. I also received tremendous support from my superiors and my colleagues at the work place I was at at the time. To be frank, I was a bit scared about losing my job as I was caught on camera getting handcuffed and lead to a police van. But, they proved to be my greatest support. It was the type of unconditional support; they never asked me if I had done something wrong, which almost brought me to tears several times.
VI: What would you say to people in a similar situation such as yourself?
ТС: Би сакал да порачам, да ја дигнат главата гордо без разлика на ударите. Дека борбата за она што чувствуваш дека не чини, вреди, па макар донесе и последици, психички воглавно. Би порачал доколку веќе ескалира ситуацијата и полиција трча према нив, да трчаат колку што можат побрзо и да не се надеваат на дигнати раце, peace and love. Во тие моменти има ќотек. И во момент на афект специјалците не можат да препознаат кој е крив, а кој не. Би сакал да порачам дека, доколку некои има трауми, да не се срами и да го признае тоа и да побара помош од психотерапевт. Пост-трауматски шок е можеби и полош од самата траума.
TS: I’d like to tell them to stand proud, no matter the punches thrown at them. That the fight against something that does not feel right is worth it, despite the consequences, psychological consequences mostly. I would advise them to run as fast as they can if they see the police charging towards them. And they should forget about putting their hands up and hoping for peace and love. There’s beating in those moments. And in these moments police officers cannot know who’s guilty and who’s not. I’d also like to advise these people to visit a psychotherapist if they experience trauma. Post-traumatic stress can be worse then the trauma itself.
VI: You’ve joined the Colorful Revolution. Based on your experience last year, what advice would you give yourself?
ТС: Уфф тешко прашање. Не знам. Јас веќе си порачав и си ветив на себе си дека нема пак да одам на протести. Дека нема да вознемирам никој од моите блиски. Дека ако сакај нешто да менува, нека излезе некој друг. Јас го изедов. Се водев по ова, од гнев, разочараност, а искрено и од страв. Страв да не ми се случи пак истото.
Бев многу немирен и нервозен што тоа што ми се случи ми влеа страв да не помислам да протестирам.
Но, поради срамната одлука за аболиција на претседателот одлучив да им се придружам на Протестирам после 5-тиот ден на протести.
Срце желно за правда, не издржа, што да правам!
TS: That’s a difficult question. I don’t know. I already promised myself I would not join any more protests. That I won’t upset any loved ones. That if you want change, you should wait for someone else to go out instead. I got the short end of the stick. I was guided by this, by the rage, disappointment … and if I am to admit, by fear. Fear of the same thing happening to me. I felt very restless and anxious that I allowed for this experience to scare me to the point of not protesting. However, it was the shameful decision of our president to issue blanket pardons that pushed me to change my decision and join the #Протестирам (I protest) movement after the fifth day. The heart wants justice, and would got give up. What was I to do?
VI: Any other reasons?
ТС: За внука ми од сестра. За Јана. Јас можеби ќе заминам од тука. И јас размислувам како секој втор младич во земјава. Но, внука ми има 9 години и се развива. Ќе дојде на тинејџерски години, факултет, ќе се соочи со животот, ќе се соочи со ова шизофрено општество. Или можеби со едно ново, убаво, средено, мирно и функционално општество каде ќе може да ги остварува своите соништа. Кој знае? Историјата ќе покаже. Пред да се случи било што, сакам да знае дека го нејзиниот вујко се борел за она да има поубав живот. Барем толку можам да сторам. Да #Протестирам за неа.
ТС: For my niece, Jana. Maybe I’ll leave this place. I have the same thoughts as most young people in this country. But my niece is 9 years old and growing. When she reaches teenage years, or university, she will have to face life, face this “schizophrenic” society. Or perhaps a new, pretty, structured, calm and functional society where she can fulfill her dreams. Who knows? Time will show. But before anything happens, I want her to know that her uncle fought for her, so she could have a much better life. Yes, #Протестирам (I protest) for her.
Tome Stankovski, who was detained and charged with participation in a crowd while protesting in last year's protests in Skopje. Photo by Krsto Zlatkov
VI: In your opinion, how is the Colorful Revolution related to the events of May 5, 2015?
ТС: И лани, како и сега она што го приметувам во шаренава револуција, има луѓе од сите националности, вери, години. Што дава до знаење дека сепак, луѓето можат да се спојат за една повисока идеја, а тоа е убав и пристоен живот, нормални политичари и правна држава.
Но, и лани после 5-ти Мај и Куманово, као и после 17-ти Мај настана панаѓур со кампови и контра кампови, имам чувство дека и оваа шарена револуција може да стане панаѓур, дека ќе биде една добра дружба со гнев по улиците и дека се ова ќе се заборави.
Дај Боже да грешам.
Во меѓувреме, Нема Правда, Нема Мир и напред Шарена Револуција!
TS: Last year, as well as now, what I have noticed is that there are people at the protests from different ethnic communities, religions, age. This tells me that people are able to come together for a higher purpose after all, and that’s having a nice and decent life, normal politicians and a country with the rule of law.
However, as last year, after May 5 and the Kumanovo [where fighting between police and armed groups five days later left 22 dead], and May 17 [when 60,000 people protested for Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's resignation], it’s also possible for the Colorful Revolution to become a type of carnival, with the camps and the counter-camps. And then aside from socializing and being angry in the streets, everything else might be forgotten. God, I hope I am wrong. In the meantime, no justice, no peace, and forward with the Colorful Revolution!
VI: What lessons should be taken away from last year’s protests?
ТС: Па јас, сигурно извлеков лекција. Лекцијата дека не може и не смее никој повеќе да манипулира со народот. Мислам дека е извлечена лекција.
На крај се сведуваш на две екстреми: Последна битка за некаква правна и нормална држава каде ќе излезат на протести 100.000 луѓе или истите тие 100.000 ќе се гушкаме на аеродром, секој со билет во еден правец во рака.
Јас, секако дека морам да бидам претпазлив. Се разбудија многу луѓе. И треба. Моите дедовци се бореле против фашисти и османлиии со цел да јас живеам добро и да градам тука.
TS: Well, I certainly learnt my lesson [laughs]. The lesson learnt is that no one can and should manipulate the people anymore. At the very end we face two extremes: either we fight the last fight for a normal country with a rule of law where 100,000 people will go out on the streets, or otherwise all those 100,000 of us meet at the airport and embrace each other, each with a one-way ticket in our hand. Of course, I need to be careful. Many more people are awake now. And they should be. My grandfathers fought against the fascists in World War II and the Ottoman Empire before that, so I can live well and build a life here.
VI: What are the next steps for the Macedonian people?
ТС: Само масовност.. Мирно и многу гласно. Без удари кон полиција. Со надеж дека ќе биде препознаена правдата во нивните срца и ќе се приклучат на народот и овој систем ќе се замени со некој нов, поубав, поведар, почовечен, попозитивен, пошарен. Како што е шаренава револуција. Како што се луѓето кои движат со Протестирам. Паметни, убави, културни и желни за убав живот во својата земја.
TS: Only massive protests. Peaceful and very loud. No attacks on the police. With hopes that they’ll recognise justice and they’ll join the people in replacing this system with a new one that’s nicer, more positive, more courteous, more colorful, like this Colorful Revolution. Like the people of #Протестирам (I protest). Smart, beautiful, respectful and willing to lead a better life in their country.

author: Vesna Ilievska


text:
A New Dam in Portugal Is About to Destroy Parts of a World Heritage Wine Region · Global Voices
Tiago Lima Quintanilha

The new Tua dam in its final stage of construction. Screenshot from The Last Days of Tua documentary.
A gigantic concrete wall 108 meters high, which will eventually dam the Tua River in the northeastern region of Tras-os-Montes, Portugal, is in its final stage of construction. It's located in the Alto Douro Wine Region, classified since 2001 as World Heritage by UNESCO.
The hydroelectric dam has been under construction for several years. The government says the dam will help alleviate Portugal's heavy dependence on imported energy as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create 4,000 jobs (albeit temporary ones).
But environmentalists don't think the benefits outweigh the costs. In 2013, various organizations came together to create a platform called “Save Tua” to protect the Tua Valley. Members warn that this dam will bring about an “ecological disaster, destroying rare ecosystems and farmland to flood about 400 hectares of olive groves, vineyards and protected habitats”.
Alto Douro is the oldest wine-making region formally demarcated as such by a government, having received the official designation in 1765. Besides being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is an area recognised for producing high quality wine. Farmers — mainly young people who decided to stay in the area and invest in the production of wine — are unhappy with the whole situation. “The dam is not going to bring anything, nothing”, says Pedro Almeida, a wine producer who appears in one of five documentaries made by Jorge Pelicano for the Save Tua platform:
On the right bank of the Douro River, in a territory also known as the “Hot Lands of the Northeast”, is the Tua River, a tributary of the Douro River. This fertile earth, one of the main tourist destinations of Portugal for mountain sports, is now threatened by the hydroelectric dam being erected at the Tua's mouth.
The construction carries the seal of Energias de Portugal (EDP), one of the largest energy companies operating on the Iberian Peninsula, home to some of the most expensive energy in Europe. The company was for many years a monopoly, and as Deputy of Parliament Mariana Mortágua has stated:
Em Portugal, a cada inverno, repete-se um excesso de mortalidade em resultado do frio. As casas são mal isoladas e a pobreza não deixa ligar o aquecimento. A austeridade e as rendas excessivas na energia matam mesmo. Temos das energias mais caras da Europa (preços antes de impostos), um negócio que dá à EDP lucros anuais em torno dos mil milhões de euros.
In Portugal, every winter, there's an increased mortality rate as a result of the cold. Houses are poorly insulated, and a lack of money means there's no option to turn on the heat. Austerity and excessively high rents in energy kill that option. We have the most expensive energy in Europe (prices before taxes), a business that gives EDP annual profits of around one billion euros.
EDP has undergone successive phases of privatization since 2011, when Chinese group Three Gorges bought a 21.35% stake. An audit of the privatization by the Court of Auditors found later that “the state itself may not have assured the national strategic interest in the sale”.
Three years later, the company that owns the Portuguese electrical infrastructure and is responsible for transporting energy in the country, Rede Eléctrica Nacional (REN), was also partially privatized. The government sold 11% of its stake for a sum of 157 million euros. Critics said the privatization, alongside that of EDP, leaves the consumer hostage to the private sector's profits.
These are the two companies that are preparing to finish the Foz Tua dam. The project isn't only plagued by environmental fears. Labor inspections carried out by the Portuguese Authority for Working Conditions found that the dam's construction workers were undertaking highly risky work, due to the lack of safety measures.
The dam will flood some of the land near it, and those affected will be compensated and relocated. But the consequences likely won't stop there. The humidity created by such a large amount of water stored at the dam could change local environmental conditions, jeopardizing local agriculture.
The subject is a sore spot for the wine sector in Portugal. A famous wine brand from Alentejo (region in south Portugal) called Esporão, which also has business interests in Douro, became one of the active voices of the campaign “Save Tua, protect the Douro”
The dam also spells the end of one of the most emblematic railway lines in the country — the Tua Railway, which will be partially submerged — that contributed greatly to the growth of tourism in the region.
EDP says at the most the dam will produce around 6% of the country's total energy. That's a figure that various groups refuted early on. The Foz Tua dam is part of the National Dam program, a government-funded project to build new dams. According to the National Association for Nature Conservation, as well as environmental NGOs GEOTA, LPN and COAGRET, the entire National Dam program will only produce 0.5% of the country's total energy, with the Foz Tua contributing 0.1%.
The association also argues that the project, when completed, could lead to the degradation of agricultural soils, water quality, landscapes and specific ecosystems of the region:
Parar a barragem de Foz Tua agora é 30 (trinta) vezes mais barato do que deixá-la avançar e pagar a posteriori os custos de uma eletricidade inútil e caríssima. Sendo certo que a hidroeletricidade é uma parte importante do mix energético nacional, já temos hoje 67 grandes centrais hidroelétricas, 10 das quais equipadas com sistemas de bombagem; muitas barragens existentes estão a ser ou podem vir a ser reequipadas para maior produção; Não precisamos de barragens novas.
Stopping the Foz Tua dam now is 30 times cheaper than letting it advance and paying the subsequent costs of a useless and very expensive energy supply. Given that hydroelectricity is an important part of the national energy mix, we already have 67 large hydropower plants, 10 of which are equipped with pumping systems; many existing dams are being or could be retooled to increase production. We do not need new dams.
The National Dam program could cost the government between 16 billion to 20 billion euros, which its critics say is a poor investment because private shareholders, not the people through the government, will be the one collecting the profits.
On the other side are the proponents of the project, such as the then Prime Minister Jose Socrates. At the start of the dam construction, he argued that while projects like the dam and other developments like a new airport or a bullet train are expensive and perhaps controversial, they are necessary:
O problema de Portugal foi não se construírem os empreendimentos polémicos. Esse foi o erro que cometemos durante demasiado tempo.
The problem of Portugal was that all these controversial developments weren't built. That was the mistake we made for too long.
Dam opponents say such an argument ignores the many construction projects that have been built, despite their questionable utility. For example, the stadiums built for the Euro 2004 football competition (a few of which are now almost abandoned), or the number of motorways built that put Portugal well above the average when it comes to the amount of infrastructure of this type that is considered necessary.
Ultimately, the efforts of associations and a large number of citizens to thwart the advance of the dam go against UNESCO's own stance on the matter. In a preliminary report, it concluded that “the construction of the Foz Tua dam does not endanger the classification of the Alto Douro Wine Region World Heritage Site”. That isn't exactly how people on the ground whose livelihoods depend on the land see it, as seen in the Save Tua documentary series.
For many, resisting the dam is a lost cause. For others, the struggle ends only on the day that water irretrievably submerges the land. However, one thing is for sure: this protest seems to be the first fight aiming to eliminate a National Dam Program that will supposedly “address the major issues in Portugal“, as António Mexia, chairman of the Board of Directors of EDP, once claimed.
The Save Tua platform has created a petition to be sent to UNESCO and it can be signed through their website.

author: Tiago Lima Quintanilha


text:
How El Niño Is Affecting the Upland Areas of Myanmar · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

A child walks on the dried-up river bed of Thaminekham Dam near Aung Ban on April 28, 2016. Photo by Jpaing / The Irrawaddy
This article is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Shan State’s upland areas are typically cooler than the arid regions of central and lower Myanmar, although this year, much like the rest of the country, it has suffered from an unusually powerful El Niño weather pattern.
In southern Shan State, springs and lakes used by local communities to store rainwater for domestic as well as farming purposes have been dry since February, leaving many villagers facing water shortages that are even worse than those in previous years. Tun Kyi, the head of Kalaw Township’s Le Gaung Village, explains the situation in their area:
The lake near our village dried up two months ago. Last year, we were able to use water from there until March.
To tackle water scarcity, some local charities, such as the Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation, have started to distribute drinking water to villages. The foundation, the only in Shan State digging wells in hard-hit areas, has been collaborating with Myanmar’s government since 2014, receiving machines to drill into the mainly limestone Shan plateau. The foundation says that it has recently spent US$1.5 million to buy their own new drilling equipment and that they have dug over 100 wells in Shan State to date.
A dried-up pond in Pindaya Township in Southern Shan State on April 28. Photo by Jpaing / The Irrawaddy
Villagers of Lel Gaung in southern Shan State collecting water from a water bowser sponsored by Brighter Future Maynmar Foundation’s water project. Photo by Jpaing / The Irrawaddy
Members of Brighter Future Myanmar Foundation distributed water at Naung Bote village near Taunggyi. Photo by Jpaing / The Irrawaddy
A man fills water at a community water tank in Aung Ban. Photo by Jpaing / The Irrawaddy

author: The Irrawaddy


text:
How to Learn More About the Big Wigs and Public Officials in Russia and Ukraine · Global Voices
Aric Toler

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page.
There are numerous free and open information portals and databases available for researching individuals in Ukraine and Russia, whether you are investigating a public figure or a private individual. Information about ordinary Russians and Ukrainians can be hard to find on these databases, and sometimes the best way to locate data about such people is to look on social networks, as detailed in a previous installment to this guide. This eighth and final entry in RuNet Echo’s guide to doing open-source research on the RuNet looks at the portals and databases you can use to learn more about public figures and big-wig individuals, even if you have little or no knowledge of Russian or Ukrainian.
Contents
A handful of websites provide information about organizations registered in Russia, including non-profits, LLCs, and other companies. The website SBIS.ru is one of the best available online resources, providing information about the individuals who hold leadership positions in these bodies and the owners of the organizations. SBIS relies on public data for each category of information. For example, the “Court records” section (Суды) derives its information from the Federal Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation.
To find out what the organizational affiliations of a specific individual are, search for that person's name (with patronymic, if possible) using Google with the search parameter of “site:sbis.ru,” restricting the results to this site. For example, when searching for the Russian basketball player Andrei Kirilenko, some of the results are clearly tied to him, including details about Kirilenko serving as the president of the Russian Basketball Federation. If you speak Russian, most of this information will be fairly clear, though a bit thick in bureaucratic language. If you do not speak Russian, the categories of information are detailed below.
The website Nomer.org holds a vast amount of information, but its results are often outdated, full of gaps, and somewhat unreliable. Regardless, if you are looking for information about an individual in Russia or Ukraine, you may find some success with this site.
Nomer.org hosts a database with the addresses and dates of births of millions of Ukrainians, though much of this information is outdated and now incorrect. From the site http://nomer-org.net/allukraina/, you can input information into the green fields to refine your search:
Testing this out, we can input the name of the Ukrainian president, Petro Alekseyevich Poroshenko. In this case, Nomer.org returns accurate information:
From left to right, the information given is the person’s name, listed telephone number (Poroshenko does not have a listed number), date of birth, city of residence, street, street number, building number, and apartment number.
Nomer.org also hosts a limited directory of Russian citizens, accessible by clicking the correct city or region on the website's main page. Also available is a limited directory of the license plates in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, and Moscow. To find information in these vehicle directories, either search within the Nomer.org search engine, or use Google, by searching the person’s name, address, license plate number, or telephone number, adding the search parameters “site:nomer.org” or “site:nomer-org.net.”
A post-Maidan anti-corruption law requires all Ukrainian public officials—including legislators, judges, prosecutors, and others—to declare their incomes. However, the law does not specify that these income declarations must be published electronically (although a new law passed in March 2016 will require officials to publish electronic declarations—Global Voices). That's where the Declarations.com.ua project, ran by journalist and anti-corruption activist Denis Bigus and his colleagues, comes in. Relying on crowdsourced efforts, the site provides electronic copies of officials’ paper income declarations.
Unlike the sites previously described in this guide, Declarations.com.ua is written in Ukrainian, not Russian. It is nevertheless quite easy to navigate and has an intuitive interface. To search for an individual, enter their name (in Ukrainian, but the name may be recognized in Russian, as well) into the search bar, and choose their name if they come up in the auto-complete. Below, we'll try searching for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko:
This search produces three results: Poroshenko income declarations for 2011 (when he was a presidential candidate), in 2013 (when he served in the parliament), and in 2014 (by which time he assumed the presidency). By clicking any of these records, we see his digitized income declaration, along with a scan of the original document (accessible via the red PDF button in the upper right).
While this project is ambitious and quite useful, there are obvious limitations: Ukrainians without official governmental roles will not be represented in this database, and the database is still incomplete, as there is still an ongoing effort to digitize a massive number of paper records.
There are two noteworthy websites that allow you to search for missing persons in Russia and Ukraine. The first is a Russian national service called Жди меня (Wait for Me), which can be found at at http://poisk.vid.ru/. This service is a partner to a television show with the same name, which features stories about searches for lost loved ones in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, and other post-Soviet countries.
To search for a person in the database, go to the Найти человека (Find a Person) option, and then enter the necessary information into the search fields:
Ukraine's national missing-person database is also quite easy to use. From the search page, input the known information about the person you are searching for:
* * *
If searching for open-source information about a particular Russian or Ukrainian individual, it's quite possible that you won't be able to find any useful information, aside from the information available on social networks. For most people, the social-network route is by far the most fruitful way to find information about their education, employment, and family history. However, depending on the person’s status or importance, it is quite likely that one of these special resources will provide more information, especially if the focus of the investigation concerns financial connections or corruption.

author: Aric Toler


text:
#JusticeforJisha: India Protests the Rape and Murder of a Dalit Woman · Global Voices
Sohini Chatterjee

Protest march demanding #JusticeforJisha. Image from Biju Ibrahim's Facebook page
The brutal rape and murder of a 30-year-old Dalit law student on 28 April in south India's Perumbavoor municipality in Kerala has sent shock waves across India. The postmortem on the victim, who has been named only as Jisha in the media, confirmed she was raped, stabbed 38 times, including two deep wounds on her chest, and her intestines were pulled out of her body.
The depravity is reminiscent of a violent gang rape in South Delhi that shocked the nation in December 2012. Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old student, was raped, beaten and tortured on a bus, then thrown out onto the street, naked and bleeding. Singh, who was being referred to as Nirbhaya, or the “fearless” one, in the media, later died of unsustainable injuries.
Six days after Jisha's murder, Kerala state police have so far failed to arrest anyone. The case is quickly becoming political, with Kerela’s opposition party, the CPI(M), blaming the United Democratic Front-run state government for the lack of progress. Assembly polls are scheduled to be held on May 16, and the National Human Rights Commission has taken suo moto cognizance of the incident. The police had arrested a suspect from the city of Kannur, but his fingerprints did not match with what the police had gathered from the crime scene.
Since reports of the horrific incident started pouring in from different media outlets, public outrage has been palpable. Many participated in protest marches organized in different parts of Kerela. Activists and students came together to voice their anger and discontent over the dismal state of affairs regarding women’s security and rights in India.
Shehla Rashid wrote on Kafila, a blog that critiques politics and media:
You will not get justice because we are quick to blame the rape on everything, but its real cause. We are ready to blame the rape on the dress and choices of women, on poverty, on alcohol, on chowmein, on mobile phone and other absurd things, but not on patriarchy, feudalism, commodification of women by capitalism, on caste, on our society.
Mainstream media stands accused of not giving enough screen or print space to Jisha. Some have theorized this has to do with the urban-rural divide as well as caste-based discrimination, whereby national grief and mourning is selectively reserved for the urban and upper caste populace.
Only brutal rapes in New Delhi and Mumbai deserve national attention right @TimesNow ? Perumbavoor,Jharkhand Chattisgarh etc not worthy!!!
— sunitha krishnan (@sunita_krishnan) 4 May 2016
No solidarity march, no candles, no protests march, no takers of #Dalit Body #JusticeForJisha #ShameonKerala pic.twitter.com/73sg25WHCk
— #DalitLivesMatter (@DalitLiveMatter) 4 May 2016
For people questioning why #JusticeforJisha is not making headlines like Nirbhaya – She is a Dalit woman.
— Dalit Dhamma (@dalitdhamma) 2 May 2016
Dalit means “oppressed” and is the self-chosen political name for castes historically considered “untouchable” within the Hindu caste system. Discrimination against Dalits, while prohibited under Indian law, remains a common occurrence – crimes against Dalits rose 245% in the last 10 years.
Social media was rife with demands of #JusticeforJisha. There are 34 Facebook groups dedicated to the cause as of now, and the hashtag trended on Facebook. While it wasn't trending on Twitter, the platform was nevertheless inundated with tweets drawing attention to the case.
Even after 5 days the police seems to have no clue..why not? Not interested in solving the case? Not important enough? #JusticeForJisha
— Happy Kitten (@Asha_EK) 2 May 2016
Girl!
Whatever be your name,
Don't Rest In Peace,
Haunt us,
Burn us,
In shame.#jisha #JusticeForJisha #Kerala #shame
— P. R. SANJAI (@talktosanjai) 3 May 2016
#JusticeForJisha
Find the culprits. End victim blaming mindset. Stop feeding the rape culture.
— Karthika S Nair (@karthu1993) 3 May 2016
Jisha stands for Dalit rights & for women rights in this country. Patriarchy needs to die. It is a cancer, so is casteism. #JusticeForJisha
— Priyanka Singh (@autumnrainwish) 3 May 2016
The blogger at Cloud Nine penned a poem for Jisha:
Candle marches, silent vigils
Media circus and few days ahead
India's daughter- gets a new face.
Ban the documentaries, hang the dogmas
Release the juveniles, change the laws
That doesn't change is you and me.
Shame!
Jisha's murder didn't happen in isolation, and so social media commentary has also touched on many issues, including patriarchy, masculinity, police inaction, rape culture, victim blaming, Dalit rights and women's rights. One can only hope that all sectors of Indian society come together, so that there is an end to the injustice and women like Jisha and Nirbhaya never again have to endure such violence and suffering.

author: Sohini Chatterjee


text:
Netizen Report: LGBT News Site Editor is Latest Victim of Attacks on Bangladeshi Intellectuals · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Xulhaz Mannan. Image courtesy of PEN International.
Three progressive thinkers were murdered in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka last week, including Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT news outlet, an online magazine called Roopbaan. Authorities believe Mannan and his friend Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, a theater activist, were killed by three assailants who entered Mannan’s building claiming that they had to deliver a package. The intruders attacked Mannan and Tonoy with machetes, signs of trained killers, leaving both of them dead on the spot.
This attack came two days after university professor Rezaul Karim Siddiqui was hacked to death in public, in a northern region of Bangladesh. It is unknown who perpetrated the attack on Siddiqui. Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent claimed responsibility for the attack on Mannan and Tonoy, but this cannot be confirmed.
Mannan, who also worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched Roopbaan in 2014 to promote greater acceptance of LGBT communities, who face widespread discrimination in Bangladesh. The 35-year-old had also organized an annual Rainbow Rally since 2014, which was cancelled this year after police received threats against the group.
Prime Minister Hasina Sheikh has blamed the opposition, saying that they are orchestrating the attacks to destabilize the country and upset her secular rule. She also has been critical of those who write about religion and “offend religious sentiments” but maintains that anyone “killing another person in response to what they have written is not Islamic.”
Since 2005, at least 23 bloggers, publishers, editors and activists have been killed and scores of others attacked or threatened with death for expressing progressive and secular views online. These bloggers and intellectuals were not advocating or perpetrating violence, but rather writing critical texts concerning the complex political climate in Bangladesh and promoting the protection of human rights.
The Ethiopian Federal High Court convicted Zelalem Workagenehu under the country’s Anti-Terror Proclamation, and will issue his sentence on May 10. Workagenehu was arrested along with Yonatan Wolde and Bahiru Degu for applying to attend a training session on digital communication, social media and leadership, which the government has described as a “training operation to terrorize the country.” All three were arrested and spent more than 600 days in prison without facing trial. Degu reported experiencing extensive torture during his first few months in detention, including beatings and being forced to remove his clothes and drink his own urine. Wolde and Degu were acquitted of the charges and released from prison, but were re-arrested shortly afterwards and forced to spend another night in prison before being released the next day and told they would remain under observation. Their relatives say they were told by the state security officers that “they would be killed if they made any moves.”
The Second Chamber of Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled on May 4, 2016 that the controversial Telecom Law, nicknamed the “Ley Stalker” (“Stalker Law”) does not violate the nation’s consitution. The law requires telecommunications companies to retain records of users’ metadata for two years and provide unrestricted access to state authorities without any requirement for judicial oversight. The law, which came into effect in August 2014, has come under criticism from digital rights groups for being invasive of privacy. The Mexico City-based NGO Network for Defense of Digital Rights (R3D) now plans to challenge the Supreme Court ruling before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Two Russian opposition activists reported their Telegram messenger accounts were remotely hacked through the app’s SMS login feature, suggesting the app is not as secure as the company claims. They believe the Russian government was involved in the hack. Security researcher Frederick Jacobs pointed to similar attacks on Iranian accounts earlier this year, critiquing the safety implications of text message logins.
As Internet connectivity has increased in Myanmar over the past six years, social media users have seen a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment on social platforms. In response, activists in have launched a campaign to confront hate speech that aims to educate Internet users on how to identify and respond to hate speech, and how to engage in constructive debates online.
Brazilian judge ordered Internet service providers to block access to WhatsApp in the country for 72 hours, citing the company’s alleged failure to comply with an order to assist police in a drug investigation. The block was lifted the next day. If you think this sounds familiar, you’re not wrong: A judge also ordered WhatsApp to be blocked in 2015 for a period of about 12 hours before the decision was overturned by an appeals court.
Two popular Iranian Web cartoonists who were jailed for their artwork were released from prison since our last report. Hadi Heidari, who was arrested for a cartoon marking the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, was freed from prison on April 26. Cartoonist Atena Farghadani was also released on May 3, after her sentence was reduced from 12 years to 18 months.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill requiring authorities to obtain a warrant before acquiring data and emails stored in the cloud. The legislation received widespread report in the House and was co-sponsored by over 300 members and was passed in a vote of 418-0, however it must pass through the Senate before it goes before President Obama to be signed into law.
Bloggers and online activists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine were given jury prizes and people's choice awards for their online work, ranging from political satire blogs to online environmental activism networks. Among the winners was Global Voices author Ramy Raoof, who earned the people's choice award in the “Tech for Good” category for his work disseminating digital security advice and information via Twitter. Raoof thanked supporters with a message on his Facebook page, suggesting that the award reflected the increasing “importance of our right to privacy in the light of the authorities’ efforts and security surveillance practices to breach our privacy…and [interfere with] our ability to communicate, express, organize, and seek knowledge.”
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Juan Arellano, Marianne Diaz, Sam Kellogg, Weiping Li, Rezwan and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Puerto Ricans Protest Against a Proposed US Financial Oversight Board · Global Voices
Carlos Esteban Cana

A banner at the march against the Financial Control Board in San Juan, Puerto Rico, reads, “Financial control board, colonial slavery.” Used with permission.
On Sunday, May 1, which is International Workers’ Day, various civic, trade union and political groups organized a massive march against a proposal by the United States Congress to impose a federal Financial Control Board with extensive powers over Puerto Rico.
The island, which is an unincorporated territory of the US, is facing a severe financial crisis. The same day, Puerto Rico's Governor Alejandro García Padilla announced he had blocked a $422 million debt payment that was due on Monday, May 2. The next payment deadline is July 1. The total public debt of the country is about $72 billion.
Critics argue, among other things, that the federal Financial Control Board will focus on paying bondholders instead of creating measures to stimulate the national economy, and that it is another instrument of colonial intervention and control. It also won't allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt or change the fact that the island can't benefit from US Bankruptcy Law. The current economic recession has led to a large migration of Puerto Ricans due to an increase in the cost of living and the lack of jobs.
The Center for the New Economy, an independent, non-profit and non-partisan organization focused on promoting socioeconomic sound policies for Puerto Rico, has proposed a Fiscal Responsibility Act as an alternative:
Una Ley de Responsabilidad Fiscal, impulsada y manejada localmente, que busque reformar las instituciones clave y adopte una regla fiscal bien diseñada puede no solamente transformar la posición fiscal de Puerto Rico sino que puede a la vez introducir reformas de gobernanza que aseguren la solvencia y sostenibilidad fiscal del gobierno en el largo plazo. Una Ley de Responsabilidad Fiscal atiende las preocupaciones legítimas del gobierno federal y los reparos políticos que han surgido en la isla alrededor de la propuesta para una junta de control fiscal.
A Fiscal Responsibility Law, promoted and managed locally, which seeks to reform the key institutions and to adopt a well-designed fiscal rule, won't only transform the fiscal status of Puerto Rico, but will also introduce governance reforms to ensure the fiscal solvency and sustainability of the government in the long term. A Fiscal Responsibility Law addresses the legitimate concerns of the federal government and the political objections that have emerged on the island around the proposal for a financial control board.
Here are some photos of the May 1 protest against the oversight board that were shared on social media:
Protesters hold a banner that reads “Our future is in debt.” Used with permission.
The protest in front of the capitol of Puerto Rico. Used with permission.
Protesters inside the Plaza Las Américas mall. Used with permission.


text:
This New Data Set Is Poised to Revolutionize Climate Adaptation · Global Voices
Ensia

A young boy tries to help his donkey to go up the sandy bank after fetching water at Shebele River in Gode Town in Somali region of Ethiopia. February 11, 2014. Photo by Flickr user UNICEF Ethiopia. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0
This post by Eric Holthaus was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
People in developed countries rarely think of weather in life-or-death terms. But millions in the developing world have no choice but to do so. The global rich have stable governments, savings accounts, insurance and more to fall back on when disaster strikes. People in poorer countries don’t, so they’re often faced with tough decisions in times of drought: Sell the only ox for food and plow by hand next year? Take the kids out of school and put them to work chopping firewood for extra cash? Abandon the farm and family to look for work in the city?
But now, a new rainfall data set is aiming to change all that.
The data set, called CHIRPS (short for “Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation With Station data”) blends data from weather stations and weather satellites with extraordinary accuracy, providing a detailed record of global rainfall stretching back more than 30 years. By making it possible to compare current rainfall patterns with historical averages at the neighborhood scale for virtually the entire world, CHIRPS provides an early warning system for drought, making it possible for development agencies, insurance companies and others to more effectively activate adaptive strategies such as food aid and insurance.
For instance, during El Niño, a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that skews weather patterns worldwide and may be getting more intense due to climate warming, conditions can take a turn for the horrible, especially for far-flung rural agricultural communities that depend on steady rainfall to earn a living.
“Now, we can accurately identify how horrible things are” and target assistance accordingly, says Pete Peterson, who led the development of the new data set, which was released in February 2015 by the Climate Hazards Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
CHIRPS was conceived of by Chris Funk, one of Peterson’s colleagues. In the early 2000s Funk had been working in Ethiopia for the Famine Early Warning System Network, or FEWS NET, a project of the U.S. Agency for International Development, when researchers at the University of Reading in the U.K. devised a technique for merging satellite rainfall estimates over Africa with sparse rainfall observations from ground-based weather stations. Funk quickly recognized the value such an approach would have for improving FEWS NET’s ability to identify emerging famines early on so aid agencies can respond quickly. CHIRPS uses that approach, with significant upgrades, and extends it for the whole planet.
The Santa Barbara team developed the CHIRPS data set through painstaking collaboration with meteorologists from weather services around the world who provided old weather station data, sometimes from dusty paper records. After digitizing the local weather station data, team members used it to fine-tune estimates of rainfall around the world based on observations made from weather satellites. Then they combined the improved rainfall data with a detailed global map of how rainfall is known to vary by location and elevation at the local scale to make the estimates even more precise.
Nothing like CHIRPS has ever existed before. The new data set has about 100 times the detail as previous attempts to merge satellite and ground-level precipitation data and provides unprecedented coverage across years and continents.
Best of all, thanks to grant funding the data are freely available — a godsend to cash-starved aid agencies. For some remote places in Latin America and Southeast Asia, this is the first time a climate trend can be reliably tracked over time. The biggest revolution is in places like Central America and the Pacific. “Before CHIRPS, there really wasn’t any good monitoring there,” says Funk.
When we think of the front lines of climate change, we usually think of tragedies like what’s happening in Ethiopia this year: There’s been a terrible drought, and now food supplies are stretched thin.
Poor rains during Ethiopia’s main growing season are strongly linked to El Niño. During the last major Ethiopian drought disaster in 1984, on the heels of the powerful 1982–83 El Niño, hundreds of thousands of people died because the government exacerbated the famine in the midst of a civil war, and international aid became politicized.
Knowing how much it has rained seems basic to those of us in data-dense countries like the United States. But for places like Ethiopia, reliable weather station data is hard to come by. Just as parts of the developing world are leapfrogging fossil fuels and landline telephones for renewable energy and cellphones, monitoring rainfall from satellites skips the need to invest in and maintain thousands of remote rain gauges, and is helping relief agencies and governments track extreme weather events.
Thanks to CHIRPS and other technologies, we can now anticipate drought emergencies and watch them unfold almost unimaginably better than in 1984. Last July, the CHIRPS team noticed that their data set was showing an almost total lack of rain for parts of Ethiopia, in what would normally be the wettest time of the year. Funk contacted the Ethiopian meteorological service to independently verify what he initially suspected might be an error.
“This process is sort of new, and we want to make sure we’re not messing up,” Funk says. “So when we see these huge anomalies, we try to really follow up with that.” He was able to put the stark data from CHIRPS in context to produce a prediction of the drought’s impact on plants, which, when combined with field reports of dead livestock and failed crops indicated an unfolding disaster.
Of course, just knowing you’re in a drought isn’t enough to reduce its impact. But FEWS NET is using that information to draw attention to worsening conditions in the drought-affected area and to help identify exactly which villages have been impacted and how badly. By last May, seasonal weather forecasts began to suggest that the coming El Niño would be a strong one, potentially shifting Ethiopia’s midyear rains toward drought. By last October, after the main rainy season had concluded, it was clear from CHIRPS that the worst case had come to pass and Ethiopia would suffer greatly over the coming months. In January, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Ethiopia to draw attention to the crisis. Organizations like Oxfam began pouring resources into publicizing what was happening in Ethiopia and dozens of other countries around the world, due to El Niño-linked extreme weather.
Funk calls the early identification of the Ethiopia drought the team’s “biggest contribution” so far.
“There’s disaster response, and then there’s improved adaptation, and the latter is what we really want to see,” Funk says. “Sometimes we do our job well but the action doesn’t get there in time. […] This year, there are so many disasters competing. It’s a perfect storm.”
CHIRPS is playing a role in bringing insurance to climate-vulnerable regions for the first time, too. For about 10 years now, Ethiopia has been a test bed for a new type of agricultural insurance based on rainfall, called index insurance, that shows a potential to increase resilience to disasters. The basic idea is that subsistence farmers can purchase the right to financial compensation during low rainfall years through insurance programs sponsored by governments and climate-focused aid agencies. The catch is, up to now, finding reliable rainfall records to set the rates and determine payouts for remote villages has been a real problem. With the advent of CHIRPS, this type of insurance could become available faster to rural areas in need around the world.
Agrotosh Mookerjee, an actuary who consults for governments and humanitarian projects on weather-based insurance, is considering a switch to the CHIRPS data set to expand a project in Zambia that uses satellite-based rainfall measurements to set rates, determine payouts and insure 60,000 farming households. In Zambia, Mookerjee says, some farmers are hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest weather station. There are gaps in the data, and some old weather stations have stopped functioning. To further expand his project, Mookerjee needs reliable weather data for the rural communities, and is considering adopting CHIRPS in the coming season.
Insurance projects like these that serve food producers living on the edge have gotten the attention of the United Nations and other organizations seeking market-based approaches to climate change adaptation. The G7 group of nations, for example, recently launched an initiative to help bring more than 400 million people across the developing world under climate disaster–related insurance protection by 2020. A few insurance companies are viewing this sort of climate insurance as a major future profit center.
Leif Heimfarth is an underwriter for Hannover Re specializing in agricultural risk. As one of the world’s leading reinsurers — an insurance company for insurance companies — his company is very concerned about the world’s vulnerable rural economies, given trends toward increasing severity of weather disasters. Hannover Re expects to continue expanding its weather-related insurance portfolio, and Heimfarth sees satellite rainfall estimates like CHIRPS as a key technology to help them do that.
Ethiopia’s climate is shifting toward more frequent drought, and about 80 percent of Ethiopians make their living by farming, so what we’re seeing this year may be just a portent of troubles to come. And, of course, Ethiopia isn’t the only place currently in crisis. El Niño has plunged much of Central America, southern Africa and Southeast Asia into drought and brought floods to South America. As Syria enters a sixth year of brutal war, sparked in part by a drought made worse by climate change, aid agencies are overwhelmed with need. Wherever in the world such conditions crop up, CHIRPS is available to help overburdened aid agencies prioritize their attention at the local level.
Meanwhile, back in Santa Barbara, Funk and colleagues are already working on their next project: A CHIRPS data set for global temperature. Extreme heat can stress livestock and crops in developing countries, just as a lack of rainfall does — and there are currently even fewer reliable sources of temperature data than rainfall data.
And there’s no time to lose. With the added urgency of El Niño, the Santa Barbara team is racing to create something of value for the most vulnerable people on the planet.  Code Embed v2.2
  End of Code Embed code
.postContent

author: Ensia


text:
Environmental Crisis Makes Protesters of Chilean Fisherman on Chiloé Island · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Chiloé. Photo from Flick user Mauro Díaz. Used under a CC 2.0 license
The marine phenomenon known as a red tide, an excessive proliferation of algae that causes an elevated concentration of toxins, has been affecting the work of fishermen on the southern Chilean island of Chiloé for some months now.
Many attribute the recent phenomenon to the overly present salmon industry, which was affected by an algal bloom that killed more than 24 million salmon, thousands of tonnes of which ended up in the sea. The director of Sernapesca (the National Fish and Aquaculture Service), José Miguel Burgos, said “most of the death toll was used to produce fish flour, while a small percentage was sent to landfill. And the third alternative, which is permitted under international law in emergency situations, and given the lack of other possibilities, are these two thousand tonnes that were disposed of in a marine trench more than three thousand metres deep, more than 130 kilometres from the coast.”
Meanwhile, the environment minister simply attributed the phenomenon to climate change.
Internet users started sound the alarm on social media after thousands of dead clams washed up on the coast of Cucao, Chiloé, on the night of April 25, 2016.
Five kilometres of dead clams. Environmental, social and food emergency in Chile. Screenshot of a public Facebook post by Carlos Reyes Medel.
Local fishermen have been protesting since the May 3, 2016, accusing the government of failing to alleviate the economic losses they have suffered, arguing that the 100,000 Chilean pesos (approximately 150 USD) offered to each family by the regional mayor is not enough.
Bono de $100.000 para los pescadores de Chiloé? Por el tema de la marea roja! Chita con eso no alcanza! Fuerza a los tod@s ! ✨
— Pauli Godoy (@PAULIGODOYB) May 2, 2016
$100,000 payment for the fishermen of Chiloé? For the red tide! Damn that's not enough! Strength to them all!
CHILOÉ DE MADRUGADA. Así amanecieron las calles de la Isla.
REPUDIAN Y NO ACEPTAN BONO POR REPARACION. pic.twitter.com/cokyfFAXLH
— PIENSA.PRENSA (@PiensaPrensa) May 3, 2016
CHILOE IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING. This is what the island's streets looked like this morning.
CONDEMN THIS AND DON'T ACCEPT THE COMPENSATION PAYMENT.
No es la “marea roja” la que está matando Chiloé. Es la “marea neoliberal” de salmoneras, mineras, forestales, eólicas…#AguanteChiloé
— Políticas Públicas (@ceppdi) May 3, 2016
It's not the “red tide” that is killing Chiloé—it's the “neoliberal tide” of salmon companies, mining companies, forestry companies, wind companies… #StayStrongChiloé
Protesters have resorted to a road blockade, barricades, and burning tires. The fishermen are asking that the government and the salmon companies take responsibility for paying compensation.
Protestas en Chiloé por “Marea Roja”. Comunidad apunta a em… https://t.co/1bFtnxw3Bb | https://t.co/cV8Z2MAYh7pic.twitter.com/m6k8pSctnb
— Radio Mejor País (@RadioMejorPais) May 3, 2016
Protests in Chiloé against the “Red Tide.” Community blames salmon companies and demands real assistance.
Se mantienen las protestas por medidas contra la Marea Roja https://t.co/r81Ra4ec7Wpic.twitter.com/qxpuDp1oAn
— soychiloé.cl (@soychiloe) May 3, 2016
Protests continue for measures against the Red Tide.
Nuestros pescadores dando la lucha en la Isla de Chiloé #24HorasCentralpic.twitter.com/yUr3o12NxZ
— Daniela Igor M (@igor_daniela) May 3, 2016
Our fishermen putting up a fight in Chiloé Island.
Some Twitter users pointed out that national media outlets have not informed the country about these issues.
@SoledadOnetto por que no muestran esto en las noticias por que tienen abandonado a chiloe pic.twitter.com/apB25nvsY2
— Lissette Marian (@LissetteMarian7) May 3, 2016
@SoledadOnetto why don't you show this in the news why have you abandoned Chiloe
Como la prensa centralista y del gobierno no cubre
La gente debe difundir la información
Aguante Chiloé y X Región pic.twitter.com/VXJ3LoMGve
— Raul Garcia (@R4dul) May 3, 2016
Since the mainstream and government media doesn't cover it
The people must disseminate the information
Stay strong Chiloé and X Region
A documentary titled “Against the Current” offers us more context about salmon farming and the social, environmental and economic problems it has caused in Chiloé, feauting testimonials that reconstruct the more than 30 years it has been operating in Chile.
Es un proceso parecido a un mall que construyeron ahora en Castro. Nadie se dio cuenta. No nos dimos cuenta hasta que vimos el mar sembrado.
It is a process similar to a mall that was built recently in Castro. Nobody realised. We didn't realise until we saw the sea was covered.

author: Juan Arellano