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China Tries to Be Hip With Its Latest Political Propaganda Songs · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Last October, Xinhua released an English a catchy song to explain to foreigners China's 13th five-year plan. Image from the video.
Many China observers have argued that current President Xi Jinping's leadership style bears uncomfortable similarities to that of Chairman Mao Zedong, the ruthless revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China who ruled from 1949 to 1976. Since 2012, Xi has consolidated his power as the head of the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and the military through an anti-corruption campaign. He has also engaged in an ideological battle by stifling independent thought and encouraging zealous patriotism.
However, as some scholars have pointed out, the times have changed and so has the social-political context in China, meaning the recentralization of power will not be a simple copycat of Mao's red China. In fact, the following propaganda videos, which combine Western-style popular culture with red culture, offer a glimpse of how the political and social scene in China has evolved.
The latest propaganda video is a rap released by Xinhua, China's state news agency, to promote Xi's idea of the “Four Comprehensives“, a set of strategies to realize the so-called China Dream of revitalizing the nation.
Xinhua, in a tone that could almost be self-mockery, introduced the rap with the comment, “There is no brainwashing in it, you can't help yourself from listening to it 200 times or more…” In fact, the term “Four Comprehensives” appears more than 100 times in three minutes, and the catchy chorus, which repeats four times, easily gets stuck in the listener's head:
Say it with me, The Four Comprehensives, The Four Comprehensives, a prosperous society is the goal
Say it with me, The Four Comprehensives, The Four Comprehensives, reformation is progress
Say it with me, The Four Comprehensives, The Four Comprehensives, the rule of law is guaranteed
Say it with me, The Four Comprehensives, The Four Comprehensives, building up the Party is the key;
The Four Comprehensives will establish a society that everybody dreams about!
The propaganda song has clearly appropriated popular culture to reach out to youth, but judging from popular social media platform Weibo, echoes of the song mainly came from media outlets, Chinese Communist Party-affiliated organizations and official government accounts.
It wasn't the first propaganda rap. This one was released by state-owned CCTV last December to promote the achievements of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, with the rapper speaking about reform efforts in education, healthcare and household registration (“Change, change, change, change”), the anti-corruption campaign (“Flies, tigers and big foxes. Catch, catch, catch, catch”) and environmental protection (“Cure water, air and land. Cure, cure, cure, cure”). The hip-hop samples clips of Xi's voice explaining his determination in implementing policies as the leader of the reform group:
Apart from official propaganda released by state media outlets, party-affiliated groups or individuals also produce popular songs to promote Xi's image. Most of these songs are to encourage common people to sing along, the beats flow at a moderate pace and are catchy, like many popular karaoke songs.
For example, the song “Xi Dada Loves Peng Mama” presents Xi as a romantic and courageous figure who loves his wife Peng Liyuan dearly. The lyrics praise his “bravery” in fighting against corruption, urging all men to learn from Xi and all woman to learn from Peng. The video was uploaded online on November 18, 2014, and within one week, it had more than 22 million views. The composer claimed that he was inspired by CCTV's news feature on Xi and Peng's relationship.
Last September, a similarly styled song also went viral online. The lyrics claimed that everyone in the country loves Xi Dada (a popular nickname for Xi that means “Uncle Xi”) for his care of the people, his courage, his righteousness, his upbringing, and his contribution to the nation.
The message of the above song actually resembles the epic propaganda song “The East is Red” released during the violent Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, which praises Mao Zedong as China's founding father.
Both Mao and Xi are populist leaders, but their political aesthetics as reflected in the propaganda videos are very different and will not generate the same effect. The age of the crescendoing anthem as a way to capture hearts and minds is gone.

author: Oiwan Lam


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The Former Refugee Behind One of Liberia’s Few Bookstores, Where Children Can Read About Themselves · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Girls like Miatta (left) come to storytime at One Moore Bookstore in Monrovia. Owner Wayétu Moore (right) also publishes books like the one they're reading, “Gbagba,” a Liberian word that means “corruption.” Credit: Prue Clarke. Used with PRI's permission
This article by Prue Clarke for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on January 30, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
One Moore Bookstore, a small shopfront on a busy street in downtown Monrovia, represents many firsts. Though there are stores here that sell text books, this is the first selling books purely for reading pleasure. And its owners publish some of the only books aimed at Liberian children. The bookstore is a rare place where kids might hear a story read to them just for fun.
In this poor West African nation wracked by war, poverty and most recently Ebola, reading is not something people generally do for pleasure. Kids read when required in school, but Liberia still has one of the world's highest rates of illiteracy.
That will all change if the owner of One Moore Bookstore has her way. Wayétu Moore, 30, is a Brooklyn-based author who fled Liberia with her family when she was 5. She opened this book store here last year. And she's been publishing books for Liberian children since 2011.
Like children in other poor countries, most kids here only have the chance to read books donated from the West.
“These books are about Bobby playing baseball, or Cindy on the cul-de-sac,” Moore says. “And pizza, and things that really aren't typical of the everyday local Liberian child.”
The donated books also serve to idealize foreign cultures and make them seem more legitimate than the children's own, Moore says. Altogether, it makes reading comprehension harder.
“If the child understands the concept, then really all they're struggling for is learning how to read,” Moore says. “But if they don't understand the concept, then they have to learn how to read and learn what the content is referring to.”
Some of the titles in One Moore Book's series for Liberian children. Credit: Prue Clarke. Used with PRI's permission
So with her sister Wiande, also a writer and their sister Kula, an artist, Moore set out to change that. They wrote “J is For Jollof Rice,” the first book ever done for Liberian children. Then came books with other Liberian writers and their artist brother, Augustus. Their publishing house One Moore Book has gone on to create a series with Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat. And they're now creating books for Brazil and Guinea; a fifth series will launch in Ghana later this year.
The books are having a powerful impact, says Liberian education expert Mamawa Freeman Moore. “You see the kids’ reaction to these books. Those are things that arouse their interest, and it motivates them to read.”
As a professor at the University of Liberia, Mamawa is well qualified to assess the impact of the books. But she has a bigger role in their creation: She's Wayétu Moore's mom.
In 1989, Mamawa Moore was a teacher and the mother of three little girls in Liberia. She won a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study education at Columbia University, and her family decided it was too important to pass up. Mamawa left her children and husband for New York, unaware of the calamity that was about the engulf their country.
Within months Charles Taylor, who went on to become the first former head of state convicted of war crimes by an international criminal tribunal, had launched the reign of terror that would kill 250,000 people. Wayétu's father fled the capital with the girls on his back. They wandered for weeks, hiding in the forest and eating whatever they could find. Eventually they took refuge in a rural village.
In New York, Mamawa heard nothing. There were no landlines, no cell phone, no Internet. “The only news I heard from the family was what I saw on CNN,” she says.
And those reports were filled with stories of brutality and child soldiers. On top of it all, Mamawa was pregnant. She would give birth to a son in New York, not knowing whether the rest of her family was alive or dead.
Children read “Gbagba,” a book by Liberian author Robtel Neajai Pailey about corruption. Credit: Prue Clarke. Used with PRI's permission
After the baby arrived, she knew she had to go and find them. Mamawa flew to neighboring Sierra Leone, and on the border she found a woman fighter who knew her family and was willing to bring them out.
Recounting moment still brings tears. “After almost a week she brought my family,” she says. “It was a joyful day. Very, very happy. I will never forget that day.”
Wayétu was five when they fled. Eventually the family settled in Houston, but the trauma left Wayétu shy and plagued by nightmares. Mamawa encouraged her children into the arts, hoping it would provide some relief.
“I read and wrote and read and wrote,” Wayétu says. “And it helped me to heal. It helped me to find my voice.”
Wayétu wants children in Liberia to have the chance for the same sanctuary she found. As she watches the kids in her bookstore read, she says she is driven by a sense of duty. She knows of girls who have to leave school every day to sell water sachets, and they can't go home until selling all of them. Girls like that don't have time to do homework, but Wayétu understands.
“I could be that woman sending my daughter out after school to sell just to make ends meet,” she says, as emotion catches her throat. “I would hope that someone cared enough to come back and give to her.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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These Speed Drawing Videos Promote Tolerance and Women Empowerment in Indonesia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A screenshot of the video promoting tolerance in Indonesian society.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) has produced several speed drawing videos which advocate conflict resolution through peaceful actions in Indonesia.
The NGO Search for Common Ground used the videos as part of their education campaign to promote women empowerment, tolerance, and preventing extremism in Indonesian society.
The two videos tackling women participation in governance aim to “transform the public’s attitudes and perceptions of women’s role in democracy, governance, and leadership.” Women comprise less than 20 percent of elected leaders in Indonesia.
This video highlights the marginalization of women in Indonesia and the need to elect women leaders in order to revoke discriminatory laws:
To succeed in electing women candidates, political parties need to prepare and create the conditions to encourage women participation in elections.
This video inspires women to join politics:
The group also released two videos about tolerance and extremism.
With the spread of extremist and violent doctrines targeting vulnerable youth, the need for alternative messages to violent intolerance that celebrate Indonesia’s spirit of pluralism and unity in diversity is increasingly urgent.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world. In recent years, there has been a number of clashes between Christians and Muslims which underscore the need to promote tolerance. This video seeks to address that issue:
Another video discourages young people from falling prey to extremist teachings and attitudes:

author: Mong Palatino


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A Young Pakistani Woman Hopes Her Soul-Searching Motorcycle Trip Will Inspire Others · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Zenith Irfan defied Pakistani social boundaries and set off to honor her father's legacy by taking a motorcycle trip across Pakistan from Lahore to Kashmir. She hopes her blog and videos will inspire future adventurers who aspire to end gender stereotypes in Pakistan. Credit: 1 Girl 2 Wheels/FB
This article by David Leveille for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on February 4, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
There are different ideas about what freedom is.
But at least one is simply taking off on a motorcycle — going in any direction — as fast or as far as your heart tells you to go.
Zenith Irfan describes herself as “a 21-year-old Capricorn on an epic motorcycle journey amongst the terrains of Pakistan with nothing but her free-hearted soul.”  She went on that journey last summer. Among the few things she carried with her, was a concern that her stories serve as a guide for future women adventurers who aspire to end gender stereotypes in Pakistan.
Zenith says her father, who died at a young age, inspired her to make the journey.
“When I was 12, my mother and I were going through some pictures, family photographs, and my mother told me that ‘your father wanted to travel all across the world on a motorcycle’ and she was telling me how this was his dream and he could never accomplish it because he lived such a short life. And my mother got this crazy idea that I should pursue this dream of his and take it on as a legacy for my father … because in our culture we are usually bounded with certain limitations, like parents don’t allow their children to go on trips or to have some fun because of the culture around us. It’s a very restrictive culture.”
Stepping across those cultural boundaries, and encouraged by her mother and brother, Zenith crossed Pakistan on a motorcycle during August and September of 2015.
In the city, where children are caught up in the artificial world of gadgets and games. There exists, ambitious souls in the mountains of Kashmir. These little angels walk 2-3 miles daily, just to read a few alphabets. Indeed, those who have less, are spiritually privileged, than those who have more. Credit: 1 Girl 2 Wheels
“When I was riding through Khunjerab Pass, that’s the pass that connects Pakistan with China, there was this man near the security check post and he was telling me how I should not be riding a motorcycle and I should go back home. And I just passed a smile him, like I waved off his comment. That was the only negative comment I got. I never got any threats.”
“The Prophet Muhammad narrated ‘Don't tell me how much educated you are, tell me how much you travelled.’ This quote hit my heart straight. The knowledge we have from books and dictated syllabus may open our imaginations, but does not open the door to experience. Traveling, climbing trees and catching butterflies opens our sensory perceptors. Having a small conversation with a native village man, picking up cotton from white dew fields, opens the window of knowledge and experience through which we learn culture and stories, stories that never made it to literature.”
“Motorcycles are seen as one of the most dangerous vehicles to travel in. So I actually want everybody to travel on a motorcycle instead of a car because a motorcycle gives you a 360-degree vision of everything that’s around you. You can see the air, the sun and you’re literally going through each and every experience physically, mentally and spiritually. So I encourage everybody to adopt a motorcycle as a travel buddy.”
See a video of some of Zenith's travels on Facebook here.


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Broken Is the Road of Political Promises in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Atiba Rogers

Screengrab of signage for the Couva Children's Hospital in Trinidad, taken from a CNC3 news broadcast.
Initially, the expected completion date for a specially designated medical facility in central Trinidad dedicated to the care of children was March 2015, but the opening of the Couva Children's Hospital, nestled in the political heartland of the country's previous government, was delayed.
On August 14, less than a month before the country's general elections, the hospital was officially opened by Trinidad and Tobago's then-prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Though commissioned, the hospital was not completed and therefore was never actually available to the public.
While the new government dealt with criticism from the opposition over not allocating any money in its 2016 budget for the hospital's completion, the new finance minister, Colm Imbert, insisted that the financial arrangement for the facility was a government-to-government one with China.
The new administration was therefore under no obligation to continue to fund it, especially since, Imbert told the now-Leader of the Opposition, “I assume that you opened a complete facility.”
“Finished” and “completion” apparently mean two different things https://t.co/j18wNMBmdr
— Amanda (@AmandaNer) February 1, 2016
Imbert also stated his intention to launch an investigation into why hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds were being used for a project that was meant to be fully funded by the Chinese Government.
Now, to add to the opposition's woes, part of the roadway leading up to the hospital has collapsed, causing a political firestorm.
There has been a lot of speculation as to what exactly caused this to happen.
Some fear that the collapse is a result of bad work done on the road or is due to the hospital being built close to the Central Range earthquake fault line.
Piece of the roadway collapsed today on the compound of the Couva children's hospital @CNC3TV pic.twitter.com/baN9JvZMUl
— Akash Ravi Samaroo (@AkashSamaroo) February 1, 2016
I just saw that the road to the Couva hospital collapsed…
Lemme mind my business over here oui 🐸🍷🇬🇩
— Meling® (@NaomiAndreaJ) February 2, 2016
Meme being widely shared on Facebook.
Under a Facebook meme poking fun at the island's former prime minister, Facebook user Harold Creese commented:
We money get wasted on the hospital and we have to spend more money to repair its roads that have not been used, just now it […] collapsed and we have to pay for the hospital being built on a fault line. Kamliar (Kamla) and her forty brigands should be held responsible for this and not [hold] the country at ransom for their deficiency. Oh what a waste of hard working tax dollars gone in boball [sic: ‘bobol’, meaning ‘corruption’] and this is not the breakdown of the beginning of the corruption of the PP (People's Partnership) government, whew!
The facility stands on a 60-acre parcel of land which used to belong to Caroni (1975) Limited, the old state sugar production company.
Costs on the project reportedly amount to an estimated TT $1 billion (just under US $155 million).
Construction was kickstarted in 2012 by the Shanghai Construction Group and the hospital was supposed to be fully operational by January 2016 after full training for staff was completed, in addition to other final touches.
Instead, the opening was further delayed due to staffing and budgetary allocations for operating the hospital.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the rush to build and “open” the hospital before last September's elections.
Way back in 2013, one Facebook user left a comment on the facility's page supportive of the government's plan to build the hospital.
Many children have died over the years because of the danger of travelling while ill. This is a dream come true for parents like myself and others. To my Honourable Prime Minister thats the greatness of your heart, thats why the people of this nation love you so much. Thanks for the dream becaming a reality.
The road to that dream has now collapsed — literally.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley slammed the poor work done on the roadway in a statement to the media on February 2:
The Couva hospital is a construction site, the last information I have is that by the end of March, the contractor would have completed the construction. What you are seeing there is that those election arrangements are unfolding a bit more.
A Facebook post by Speak Out T&T suggested this was an accident that was always waiting to happen:
Flashback: the UNC was warned by local and international seismic experts NOT to build the hospital at its current site […] because it is right next to the active Central Range Fault (CRF). […]
But they built the hospital anyways, simply because its current location serves the UNC's PR campaigns. A government who truly cared about Healthcare and the nation's children would have taken the almost $4 billion the UNC spent on the Teaching Hospital and the Children's Hospital and build a brand new San Fernando General, a brand new Port of Spain General, completed the specialist centers in Mt. Hope and STILL have money to upgrade health centers across the country.
‘But the hospital was built so the PNM should just open the hospital for people's children. Except, no. According to UDECOTT, the building was not built to code, is on moving soil and an active fault line so putting people's children in there is the most dangerous thing the government could do. The government must take this time to ensure that the building is safe, which means spending money that we don't have. Thank you Kamla. Thank you UNC. #Fraud #Childrens #Hospital
Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen made a different claim, saying that the work was done properly, but the roadway collapsed as a result of the construction of a retention pond that was recently built under the present government.
Finally, in a letter to the Trinidad Express newspaper, one citizen, Thelma Joseph, indicated with sarcasm what she thought of the government's priorities:
I fully endorse the views of our Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that priority must be given to investment for the completion of vital and important projects like the Brian Lara Stadium.
A completed stadium would allow the population to be in an environment which will keep us physically fit with less stress. […]
With a healthier nation there would be no need to waste further investment to complete projects like the Couva Children's hospital.

author: Atiba Rogers


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How an Indian Singer’s Impromptu Inflight Performance Led to Crew Members’ Suspension · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Sony Nigam's impromptu concert on Jodhpur Mumbai Flight. Click on the screenshot to watch the video.
Indian airline company Jet Airways has suspended all five crew members of a Jodhpur-Mumbai chartered flight after a video of Bollywood playback singer Sonu Nigam‘s impromptu performance during a recent flight went public.
The video, taken by a passenger on a mobile phone, went viral after it was posted to YouTube and has been viewed over 170,000 times at the time of writing.
It features the singer singing using the in-flight public address system and some of the audience standing.
According to reports when co-passengers requested him to sing for them he took over the mic of the cabin PA system and sang a couple of his hits.
Many passengers appeared perplexed at first before bursting into applause and shouting cheers of encouragement.
Even though the video was shot a month back on January 4, it only came out in public recently. Following a request by The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials the airline have temporarily suspended the all-women crew that was present on that flight.
Skonu Nigam, one of the highest paid Indian playback singers, has sung and acted in several Indian movies and released pop albums. He was nominated for the Oscars in 2015 along with composer Bickram Ghosh for their composition in the Hindi movie Jal.
On social media Jet Airways were accused of an overreaction.
Word of caution would've been enough. But suspending crew for Sonu Nigam singing on flight shows how humourless, tightassed we're becoming
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) February 5, 2016
Sonu Nigam sings in plane- Air Hostes got suspended.
Terrorist hijacked plane- Well.. umm.. meehh.. duh.. lets play politics on this
— Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) February 5, 2016
What an idiotic move. Is Sonu Nigam a terrorist? He wasn't itching to sing. Passengers requested. Pls revoke. https://t.co/4j0uEtXB46
— Roflindian (@Roflindian) February 5, 2016
We really need to grow up! Flights tend to be boring – so what if Sonu Nigam sang a song? How is that a “security threat”? #JetAirways
— Archer (@TheArcherIsIn) February 5, 2016
Some users supported the step in favour of passenger security:
I'm frigging @SonuNigam, who cares about airline security protocols?: @JetAirways suspends crew for in-flight gig https://t.co/QX27L8cxBT
— David Tusing (@DavidTusing) February 6, 2016
let's not waste on Sonu Nigam anymore
I suggest he b punished along with d pilot. if Pilot wa not aware of cabin drama, it's security risk
— #IntolrnKrishnaBaalu (@IndusSpirit) February 6, 2016
There's no justification for Sonu Nigam's act! Aviation security should be of utmost importance & it should not be compromised!
— Gaurav (@piplaniG) February 5, 2016
Shivakumar Muruganandam comments on YouTube:
Rules are for everyone. PA system is kept for a specific purpose and this is a misuse. There maybe lot of passengers in that plane who don't give a damn about Sonu Nigam or his songs and this is nuisance to them. period.
However, Nigam himself criticized Jet Airways’ suspension calling it “real intolerance”:
#EXCLUSIVE – @sonunigam calls suspension of crew for letting him sing ‘real intolerance’ – https://t.co/1Muq87tRGu pic.twitter.com/lQqUupvHY2
— BombayTimes (@bombaytimes) February 5, 2016
In a public statement Nigam said:
I have witnessed an elaborate fashion show in an aircraft. I have heard of small concerts happening in an aircraft. I have seen pilots and crew members cracking humorous jokes to loosen up passengers in other countries, which is so cool. To suspend crew members for asking me to sing on the address system, when the seat belt signs were off, and no announcements were to be made, is nothing less than punishing someone for spreading happiness.[..]Indians, need to loosen up. This act of lack of common sense, according to me, is real intolerance.[..]
Apart from many posts supporting the airline's decision to respect the law and passenger's safety, and many other comments opposing the crew members’ suspension, the event showcasecd Indian Twitter's humour.
Akshar Pathak wrote a series of witty tweets inserting words connected with air travel into some of Nigam's most popular songs:
Airhostess Sonu Nigam: “Tray table bandh kar lein. Kursi ki peti baandh lein. Toilet jaane nahi denge tujhe. Jaane tujhe, denge nahi.”
— Akshar (@AksharPathak) February 5, 2016
Sonu Nigam as airhostess: Please close the tray table and tighten your seatbelt. [We] won't let you go to the toilet! (original lyrics “Toilet jaane nahi denge tujhe. Jaane tujhe, denge nahi.” from one of Nigam's popular Bollywood songs)
Jet Airways, in a recent tweet, has confirmed that the crew members have be grounded temporarily but will resume in their jobs after a “relevant” briefing/training:
Jet Airways Statement: pic.twitter.com/9VJimuCRFs
— Jet Airways (@jetairways) February 5, 2016

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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Indigenous Otomí-Ñätho Communities in Mexico Exercise Their Autonomy to Defend Their Lands · Global Voices
Mas de 131

Like Cheran, Michoacán, and the Zapatista Caracoles of Chiapas, the Ñätho community of Huitzizilapan have exercised their sovereignty and voted to form their own communal assembly. Photo: Más de 131.
Huitzizilapan, whose old name is N'dete, which means “big town”, currently encompasses 12 indigenous Otomí-Ñätho communities living in the area between the two large cities of Mexico City and Toluca.
A year ago, its people organized themselves to defend their forests, a movement that ultimately led them to elect their own representatives free from the influence of any political party on 7 December 2015.
That day, the indigenous people waited for the arrival of the Agrarian Ombudsman, the authority which can give power to assemblies formed on communally owned lands in Mexico.
However, the ombudsman never arrived, citing an accident as the reason.
Meanwhile, members of the National Human Rights Commission, who were invited by the comuneros (a Mexican term for members of an agrarian community) to document the assembly, left without warning.
This did not stop the indigenous community members from exercising their rights in line with convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, the Mexican Constitution and agrarian legislation.
During the assembly, by a show of hands, they unanimously choose the “candidates of the people”.
The Ñätho, however, say that they were forced to confront a new assembly convened by the Agrarian Ombudsman without legal grounds on 18 January 2016.
The Ñätho worried that the local government and the pro-government Institutional Revolutionary Party would impose another parallel authority instead of the authority which the people already had elected.
They therefore decided to make efforts to reinforce their vote.
“We are getting organised and visiting all the comuneros so we can win again”, said Abundio Rivera, one of the local leaders.
In a statement released on 12 January, the comuneros criticised the town's former authorities, who had links to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for handing out 2,000 Mexican pesos to each person to persuade them not to support the chosen “candidates of the people”.
“We are working on increasing awareness”, stressed Rivera. And they did, on 18 January 2016 they won again.
Since 2003, the federal government has set up registers of comuneros in agrarian and communal centres around the country.
In Huitzizilapan, there are 904 comuneros who make decisions involving the land. Since then, all kinds of projects have been imposed by the communal authorities, without any prior consultation with the people.
The idea behind the 2014 movement and the formation of a group of candidates from open assemblies held in the town was to reverse the environmental destruction and protect the integrity of the Huitzizilapan people’s lands.
Once elected on 7 December, the first words of the new commissariat were:
Todos sabemos la gran problemática del núcleo comunal, tendremos que cuidar nuestro territorio, nuestra agua y nuestro bosque y atender otros problemas. Me parece que tengamos en cuenta a los que los que están afuera y en casa que son ciudadanos de San Lorenzo. Que abramos el padrón para que se puedan registrar”.
We all know the great difficulties facing the community, we must care for our land, our water and our forest as well as deal with other issues. To me it seems we must keep those citizens of San Lorenzo whether they be at home or away, in mind. Let us give them the chance to voice their vote.
Another comunero went even further in saying:
Voy a luchar para que abran las puertas, que se abra la autonomía del pueblo. Más allá de abrir el padrón, abrir las puertas del pueblo y recuperar la autonomía que hace quince años poseía, porque jóvenes y niños tienen derecho a decidir en tierras y bosque y que ya no venga la Procuraduría Agraria a mandarnos”.
I will fight for the autonomy of the people, not just the chance to vote. I will open the doors to the people and recover the autonomy we had 15 years ago, because our children have the right to decide what happens to their land and forest, independent of the Agrarian Ombudsman.
Along with its neighbours, Xochicuautla and Ayotuxco, Huitzizilapan faces the construction of the Toluca-Naucalpan highway, which was contracted to a corporation owned by Juan Armando Hinojosa, one of the businessmen most favored by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's government.
At the beginning of 2015, the former town commissioner and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Luis Enrique Dorantes, passed a supposed “forest exploitation plan” without notifying the people.
A few months later, on the morning of 5 July, young men and women from Huitzizilapan set themselves up at the community council offices, lighting campfires to watch an assembly in which Dorantes had planned to hand over part of the peoples’ land to the local government of Lerma, though a process called “disincorporation”.
That morning the church bells rang next to the council offices, and hundreds of residents answered the call to expel around a thousand police from their town.
Women, young people and children of Huitzizilapan have met with indigenous people from all over the country, as well as with some of the families of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in the state of Guerrero who remain missing.
Their case has led them to file protection orders against an expropriation decree on their land ordered by Peña Nieto in March 2014, as well as to create a community newspaper and paint messages such as: “We are all comuneros” and “Here the people are in charge” on walls around the town.
The forests defended by Xochicuautla and Huitzizilapan are recognised by Mexico's government as the Tributary Sub-basin Forestry and Water Sanctuary.
The 105,844 hectare area is classified as the Zempoala La Bufa Ecological, Recreational Tourist Park, and is known as the Otomí-Mexica Park.
Peña Nieto and Governor Eruviel Ávila insist on constructing a highway for 39 kilometres through this forest, which would practically divide it in two. Avila declared in December that the project will be completed in 2016.
When elected on 7 December, the new commissariat of the people asked, “Why do we care for the forest?”
He then answered the question saying, “Because it is the lungs of both the Valley of Toluca and the Valley of Mexico. It is a matter of preserving it for future generations, let's raise awareness”.

author: Mas de 131


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Will Egyptian Doctors Vote in Favor of a Nationwide Strike Next Friday? · Global Voices
Salma Essam

A cartoon that went viral featuring Medical Syndicate Chairman Hussein Khairy stopping a policeman from beating him.
Egypt's top prosecutor has ordered the re-opening of Al-Matariya Teaching Hospital, in Cairo, following a week-long strike led by its doctors, after two of their own were reportedly attacked by a group of policemen. The doctors said they would continue their strike, backed by the Doctors Syndicate, until legal action is taken against the policemen involved in the incident.
Representatives from the Doctors Syndicate and the Ministry of Interior Affairs reached a deadlock after a parliamentary committee, which mediated a discussion over the dispute, failed to bring a compromising solution for both sides.
According to news reports, a group of low-ranking policemen assaulted two doctors at the Matariya Hospital for their refusal to issue a report including fake injuries in the case of an injured conscript. Egypt's Doctors Syndicate announced its official support for the strike launched by physicians, who demanded taking immediate legal action against those involved in the assault. Clashes also occurred between representatives of the Doctors Syndicate and representatives of the Ministry of Interior Affairs after the doctors refused to accept an official apology until all investigations are carried out. The situation exacerbated as Dr Hussein Khairy, Doctors Syndicate chairman, insisted that the hospital remains closed until the policemen involved in the assault on the doctors are held accountable.
Khairy and deputy head of the syndicate, Dr Mona Mina, were summoned by East Cairo prosecution over the accusation report they had filed to the general prosecutor. Meanwhile, the syndicate has scheduled an emergency meeting for all its members on February 12, to discuss the incident and move forward with their demands. Members will also be voting over launching a nationwide general strike, as reported in the Daily News Egypt.
The hospital's shutdown has enraged government officials, with the general prosecutor condemning the actions taken by the hospital doctors, saying the strike a “constitutional crime which obstructs a public institution from serving the citizens.” However, doctors are not budging and syndicate member, Hossam Kamal, told the Daily News Egypt:
Doctor’s strikes are a legitimate form of collective action all over the world according to international protocols.
Meanwhile, political activists, public figures, and movements showed their support to the doctors strike and expressed their solidarity through social media channels.
TV host and activist Dr Bassem Youssef, who is originally a physician, supported the medical syndicate strike through his Twitter account, which has 6.33 million followers:
كل التحية للدكتورة منى مينا ود.حسين خيري احسن من درس ليا الجراحة في القصر العيني.ادعموا إضراب الأطباء. ضد بلطجة الداخلية
— Dr Bassem Youssef (@DrBassemYoussef) February 4, 2016
ِAll my greetings to Dr Mona Mina and Dr Hussein Khairy, who was the best to teach me surgery courses at Al Kasr el Ainy Hospital. Support doctors strike against police brutality
He then tweeted:
فكروا الداخلية اللي بتبلطج على الدكاترة لما قعدوا مقموصين وخايفين في بيوتهم وقت الثورة الدكاترة ماسابوش المستشفيات و لا الميادين.
— Dr Bassem Youssef (@DrBassemYoussef) February 6, 2016
Remind police officers who are bullying the doctors of the days of the revolution, when they stayed at home out of fear, while the doctors didn't leave the hospitals and the protesting squares
Bassem added this image that reads in Arabic #Support_Doctors_Syndicate against police brutality to express his solidarity:
pic.twitter.com/7F3C0bW9eQ
— Dr Bassem Youssef (@DrBassemYoussef) February 6, 2016
It was not only Bassem Youssef who backed up the strike but also many activists, who encouraged the decision taken by Dr Khairy and Dr Mona, expressing their support under the hashtag #Support_Doctors_syndicate.
Political activist Khaled Teleima tweeted:
في مواجهة البلطجة.. #ادعم_نقابة_الأطباء
— خالد تليمة (@khtallima) February 5, 2016
#Support_Doctors_Syndicate in the face of bullying
Shady el Ghazaly Harb, a founding member of the 25th of January Revolution Youth Coalition, who is also a doctor, supported ‘his’ syndicate:
لأول مرة أفخر بنقابتي نقابة الأطباء في دفاعها عن حقوق الأطباء
وبنقيبها البعيد عن مصالح أي حزب أو جماعة#ادعم_نقابة_الأطباء#ادعم_حسين_خيري
— Shady ElGhazaly Harb (@shadygh) February 4, 2016
“For the first time I'm proud of my syndicate, the doctors syndicate, in its defense of the physicians’ rights and its chairman who's unaffiliated to any party or organization #Support_Doctors_Syndicate #Support_Hussein_Khairy”
Human rights activist and lawyer, Mokhtar Mounir, showed his admiration to the Doctors Syndicate in this Facebook post in which he supported the strike:
الفرق أصبح في من يقود النقابة ومن يستطيع أن يثور من أجل كرامة مهنته ومن أجل كرامة المواطنين في مواجهة نظام غاشم
..the difference lies in those leading their syndicates, and in those who could revolt for the dignity of their profession and the dignity of citizens in the face of a brutal regime
TV presenter Ossama Gawish tweeted:
#ادعم_نقابه_الاطباء ضد بلطجة الدولة المهزأة التي لا تحترم كرامة الطبيب ولا تستطيع تأمينه في مقار عمله
— أسامة جاويش (@osgaweesh) February 6, 2016
#Support_Doctors_Syndicate against the state bullying that does not respect the physician's dignity and is unable to protect him in his workplace
Video editor and human rights activist Mahmoud Salmani criticized the prosecutor's actions:
لو هتحققوا مع مني مينا وحسين خيري فلازم قبلها يتحقق مع مجدي عبد الغفار وزير الداخلية، مني مينا وحسين خيري مبيقتلوش! #ادعم_نقابة_الاطباء
— Mahmoud Salmani (@Mahmoud_salmani) February 6, 2016
If you are to bring Dr Khairy and Dr Mona Mina to trial then first you must interrogate the Ministry of Interior Affairs. At least Mona and Khairy never kill
The April 6 Youth Movement also issued a declaration announcing its support to the strike and pinned its content in an Arabic post on their Facebook page:
يعلن شباب 6 إبريل كامل التضامن مع نقابة الأطباء في مواجهة الحملة الشرسة التي تشنها ضدهم الأذرع الأمنية والإعلامية للنظام الحاكم.
وأكدت الحركة إدانتها الكاملة لإنتهاكات الأمن المتصاعدة بلا محاسبة أو عقاب والتي طالت الجميع على إختلاف إنتمائاتهم من طلاب وصحفيين وباحثين وحقوقيين في ظل إرهاب السلطة لكل من يقف ضد مظاهر الفساد والكذب والتدليس التي أصبحت أسلوب إدارة هذه البلاد
لقد بات واضحاً أن جميع المصريين هم من يدفعون فاتورة ترضية وإستمالة السلطة الحاكمة للجهات الأمنية والقضائية الذين صاروا فوق القانون.
يؤكد شباب 6 إبريل دعمهم الكامل لمطالب الأطباء وتحركاتهم السلمية المشروعة ضد إهانة أعضائها والإعتداء عليهم أثناء تأدية وظيفتهم وتواطئ أجهزة التحقيق مع الداخلية ضد الضحايا ونؤكد أن أطباء 6 ابريل مشاركون بقوة في هذه التحركات وندعم دور نقابة الأطباء بكل الطرق.
يدعو شباب 6 إبريل كل النقابات المهنية الوقوف في وجه ممارسات أمن النظام الذي آمن العقاب فعاد لينتقم من الجميع ووصلت ممارسات القمع والتعذيب والتدليس والتزوير لمستويات غير مسبوقة في تاريخ البلاد.
The April 6 youth movement announces its full solidarity with the Doctors Syndicate strike against the vicious campaign launched by the media and the security arms of the government. The movement condemns the escalating security violations that are disregarded and receive no accountability or punishment. Violations reached all people regardless their affiliations or differences, including students, journalists, researchers, and rights activists under the umbrella of authority terrorism for anybody who stands up against corruption and fraud.
It has become clear that Egyptians are the ones paying for the attempts taken to appease security and judicial authorities; who are now above the law. Therefore, the April 6 movement affirms its full support to the doctors’ demands and their peaceful legitimate actions in the face of insulting and assaulting members of their syndicate while performing their jobs. It also supports the syndicate against the act of complicity between investigation sectors and the Ministry of Interior Affairs against the victims. In addition, the movement's doctors are strongly taking part in this strike and are fully supporting the role played by the syndicate in this manner.
Hence, April 6 movement calls upon all syndicates to stand in the face of the regime's security forces who are not subjected to legal punishments and their practices have reached unprecedented levels of torture, fraud, and forgery
On Twitter, the messages of support continues. El Fateh tweeted:
النقابه الوحيده اللي منختش للنظام وحافظت علي حقوق الاطباء من بلطجة الامن #ادعم_نقابة_الاطباء
— عآبد ™ (@el_fateh17) February 6, 2016
The only syndicate that didn't succumb to the regime and has preserved the physicians’ rights against the brutality of the police
Ahmed Ezzarab asked:
#ادعم_نقابة_الاطباء كيف يكون الطبيب مسئول عن حياة المريض وهو عاجز عن حماية نفسه وكرامته ؟
— ahmed ezzarab (@aezzarab25) February 6, 2016
How can a doctor be responsible for the life of a patient when he is unable to protect himself and his dignity?
Mohamed Ali added:
نقابه الاطباء اخدت خطوات مشرفه ضد همجيه الدوله
ربنا يحفظ الناس المحترمه اللى خلف العمل ده#ادعم_د_حسين_خيرى #نقيب_الاطباء
— mohamad ahmed ali (@Mohamad_A_Ali) February 6, 2016
The Doctors Syndicate took honorable steps against the savagery of the state. May God protect those behind these actions #Support_Dr_Hussein_Khairy”
And Khaled Diab concluded:
In Egypt, even doctors aren't immune to police brutality. We need accountability and the rule of law. https://t.co/LTMx6EB6Rp
— Khaled Diab (@DiabolicalIdea) January 31, 2016

author: Salma Essam


text:
A Costa Rican Political Party’s ‘Incendiary’ Ad Didn’t Seem to Help Them at the Polls · Global Voices
Alejandra Montiel

Costa Rican 2010 municipal elections. Photo on Flickr by user Ingmar Zahorsky (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
This post was originally published in Spanish. An edited version in English appears below.
On February 7, Costa Rica elected mayors for its 81 municipalities. These were the first elections where people voted jointly for councillors and the other municipal positions. Before the 2009 reform, these positions were elected together with presidential elections. Back then it was usual for voters, without deeper knowledge about the local candidate, to elect the same party across all ballots.
Each one of the seven provinces of the country are divided into cantons, with 81 cantons in total. In each canton, a series of small parties have appeared with hopes of winning control of the local government. To achieve that, they're offering voters — who have historically had low interest in municipal elections — the moon and the stars.
For this election, candidates pulled out all the stops from life-size cut-outs to professionally made jingles. But perhaps the most curious and controversial was a video advertisement from the Libertarian Movement Party (LMP) that received criticism for being incendiary and aggressive.
A screenshot of the LMP's controversial video ad posted to their Facebook page. “Libre” means “free” in Spanish.
News site CRhoy.com reports:
El video toma como base una escena de la película Revolución: El cruce de los Andes, que llama a la lucha y al enfrentamiento para “rescatar a la Patria”. Sobre el video, el Movimiento Libertario coloca palabras con las que dicen estar identificados como “esfuerzo”, “nunca es suficiente”, “dispuestos”, y “libertad”.
The video is based on a scene from the [Argentinian] movie “Revolution: The Crusade of the Andes”, and calls for struggle and confrontation to “rescue the Homeland”. In the video, the Libertarian Movement uses words they say they relate to, such as “effort”, “it's never enough”, “willing” and “freedom”.
The party ended up not winning a single mayorship in the elections.
LMP, which was established in 1994, managed to become the third political force in the country by 2010.
Libertarians are not very popular in Latin America, seeming to stay in academia for the most part, which makes the Costa Rican case an interesting one .
Although promoting itself as a party with libertarian ideology, many Costa Ricans don't view the LMP as such.
Relatively recently created, the Libertarian Movement is viewed by a big proportion of the population as a right-wing party, while the party, with broad literary license, calls itself liberal.
On one hand, they are opposed to taxes, social security, regulation by the state, and defend casinos and informal taxi drivers.
On the other hand, in the last presidential elections movement leader Otto Guevara said that he is opposed to abortion and marriage equality, indicating a clear contradiction with their alleged libertarian principles:
“En estos casos de violación, nos oponemos al aborto. Consideramos que orresponde brindarle a las mujeres un acompañamiento, para proteger la integridad y la dignidad, tanto de la madre como la del niño que lleva en su vientre, esto con la finalidad de que cuando nazca ese niño, la madre tenga la oportunidad de entregarlo en adopción, para que otras familias que estén dispuestas a darle amor tengan la oportunidad de adoptarlo, sin sacrificar la vida de ese menor”, expresó el candidato Otto Guevara.
In these case of rape, we are opposed to abortion. We think it's appropriate to provide women with company, to protect the integrity and dignity of the mother and the child she carries in her womb, so when this baby is born, the mother can have the chance to give the baby up for adoption, so other families who are willing to love them have the opportunity of adoption, without sacrificing the life of the baby.
The video ad has been criticized on several levels, but the strategy seems to be on purpose. After Luis Guillermo Solis’ victory in 2014, Barrantes acknowledged that he commercialized the then-candidate as if he were promoting a soda or a soft drink:
“Había que dejar de pensar en una campaña para ciudadanos y pensar en consumidores. Este negocio es de vender ideas y esperar que las personas te paguen con su voto”, dice Barrantes, como para empezar a explicar la estrategia de campaña del PAC […].
We had to stop thinking of it as a campaign for citizens and think of consumers. This is a business of selling ideas and waiting for people to pay with their vote.
Judging by the 1.3 million votes that the incumbent president received from an electorate of roughly 3 million that time round, the approach seemed to work. Unfortunately for the LMP, however, it didn't do quite as well this time around.
The footage in the Libertarian Movement's controversial ad is not original. It is an excerpt of the Argentinian movie “The Crusade of the Andes” which follows José de San Martín, a 19th-century Argentinian general. But Iván Barrantes, known as the mercadólogo (marketing specialist), who was in charge of presidential campaign for incumbent president Luis Guillermo Solís, from center-left Citizens’ Action Party (PAC), defended his work:
Aunque el video no es una autoría original, Barrantes alega que no es un plagio ni demuestra que tienen pocos fondos económicos para producir un anuncio publicitario, sino que aprovecharon el mensaje de la película, que está accesible en Youtube “como muchos otros” videos o cortos.
Although this is not an original video, Barrantes claims it's not plagiarism nor shows they don't have enough money to produce a video advertisement, but that they took advantage of the message of the movie, which is available on YouTube “like many other” videos or short films.
The ad shows an army — an interesting visual since Costa Rica has had no army since 1949.
It also refers to things that aren't related at all to Costa Rica, including South American heroes that are virtually unknown locally as well as battles for independence, when Costa Rica is a country where independence came by mail two months after it was signed in Guatemala in 1821, without a drop of blood shed.
It insists on the concept of “freedom” in a land considered as one of the oldest and strongest democracies in Latin America.
These images of soldiers and conflict have generated a strong rejection in the average Costa Rican citizen, evoking a movement called Costa Rica Libre (Free Costa Rica), a militarized anti-communist group in favour of “freeing” Costa Rica.
Nos podrá parecer idiota ese anuncio… pero esos grupillos del ejército costarricense y partido ultraderechoso, son síntomas
— Adrián Solo (@inspectorcholi) enero 4, 2016
That advertisement could seem to us idiotic… but these little Costa Rican army and far-right political groups are symptoms.

author: Alejandra Montiel


text:
For Mainland Chinese, Taiwan’s Earthquake Relief Efforts Stand in Stark Contrast to Their Own · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A 17-storey building collapsed during the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Tainan on February 6. Photo from Apple Daily. Non-commercial use.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Taiwan on February 6, just ahead of the Lunar Chinese New Year, the most important festival among Chinese. International and domestic rescue teams have continuously been searching for survivors in the ruins for two days. Hundreds have been rescued, but at least 38 people have been confirmed dead and more than 100 people remained missing on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Most of the victims were from a 17-storey apartment complex in Tainan city. The building collapsed during the earthquake, and hundreds of residents were buried in the ruins. Below is a local TV footage of the major earthquake damage:
While the rescue work continues non-stop, the Tainan city government has started an investigation into the quality of construction materials of the building.
The news of the Tainan temblor quickly traveled across the strait to mainland China, where Web users pointed out the difference they perceived between Chinese relief work and what they were seeing in action on the ground in Taiwan.
In such a tightly controlled environment as China, mainland Chinese media must stay positive and avoid criticizing their country's authorities when reporting on local disasters, such as last year's Tianjin explosions. In the case of the Tainan earthquake, readers noticed that Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times highlighted the possible poor construction problem of the 17-storey building that had collapsed. While some echoed the media outlets in criticizing the Taiwanese authorities and the supposed failure in governance, others mocked the double standard of state- and party-affiliated media.
Given the strict censorship measures that China has put in place on social media, mainland Chinese netizens could not openly compare disaster relief work in China and Taiwan. Instead, they shared one of the Tainan city government's progress reports on earthquake relief work on social media to show how democracy makes a difference in recovering from a disaster. The progress report presented detailed updates on the calamity, the locations of newly set-up relief centers and the number of relief team members in each affected district. The reports are released to the public a few times a day.
In mainland China, disaster reporting typically spotlights the country's leaders coordinating the rescue work in the affected area and doesn't mention any of the concrete details of the relief measures. Mainland Chinese netizens spotted the difference when reading the Tainan progress report. Below are some of the comments on the report:
第一次看到如此清晰的报道，都是民众想知道的信息。
这就是民主的好处
台湾各部门各司其职，根本不需要总统下指令，说实在的，总统对地震也不专业，他越指挥越乱
好具体，透明，高效
这才是干实事的 不需要谁下达指示 不需要谁高度重视 不需要谁慰问关怀 赶紧救人才是最有效的
详细，明确，没有官话套话！！
没有领导高度重视，没有一长串莅临的领导点名⋯这就是政府社会治理的差距，背后的差距更是难以言说
The first time I've seen such a clear report, all this information is wanted by the public.
This is the advantage of democracy.
All departments have their own role. They do not need the president to coordinate. To be frank, the president is not an earthquake expert, his coordination will only mess up the relief work.
So concrete, transparent and efficient.
This is substantial work. There is no need for anyone to give orders, no need for anyone to pay special attention, no need for anyone to express concern or care, all the focus is on rescue work.
Detailed, concrete, no bureaucratic speech.
No special attention from leaders – no long list of officials visiting the affected areas – this is the difference between the two governments in social governance.
Meanwhile, the day after the quake, Chinese President Xi Jinping conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims, stressed the blood ties between Chinese in Taiwan and in China and offered assistance for the disaster relief work.
While some Chinese observers anticipated the relationship between Taiwan and China would be tense after Tsai Ingwen, the leader of the opposition party, won the Taiwanese presidential election last month, Xi's comments on the blood ties linking Chinese across the strait was viewed as a show of good will. Though Taiwan has had de-facto sovereignty for decades, the Chinese government insists it is an inseparable part of China.
But the friendly gesture was sullied by overly zealous mainland Chinese Web users who were eager to defend their country against “separatists”.
Twitter user @wildwong displayed a screen capture image of the aggressive comments from popular social media platform Weibo:
在台中國人平安 只希望台獨都能被震死!
解放軍此時不救更待何時? 把航母開過去趕快開展救援工作, 大陸人民會在第一時間捐款祈福.
我只想告訴大家, 這個表情不是 ‘祈禱’, 而是 ‘gimme five’ 擊掌慶祝的意思.
常聽老年人說: 女人當家房倒屋塌. 蔡英文該下台了吧?
Hoping that all Chinese in Taiwan are safe, and all the Taiwan independence advocates are shaken to death!
This is the right time for the People's Liberation Army to act and rescue. Send the navy aircraft carrier to rescue them. People from mainland China will donate and pray for you. [The comment implies that China should take advantage of the moment to take control of Taiwan with military force.]
I want to clarify, this emoji [placing two palms together] is not praying, but ‘give me five’, a celebratory gesture.
Old people are saying: with a woman in control, the house will collapse. Tsai Ingwen should step down.


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Starved of National Media Coverage, Student Occupation Movement in Central Brazil Encounters Strong Police Response · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

High school students protesting in Goiás state. Screencap: Youtube
For the past week, there's been a slew of reports about threats and police violence in schools in the Brazilian state of Goiás (near the federal capital in Brasília), where high schoolers have occupied buildings since late last year.
On January 14, a local court in Goiás ordered the repossession of three schools in the state capital of Goiânia and the city of Anápolis. The students say they were violently ejected from the schools by police with the help of some students’ parents and the school administration. Most of the occupy demonstrators were between the ages of 13 and 16.
The students were protesting against a government plan to transfer up to 30% of the administration of the schools to private organizations (called OS, or Social Organizations) and the military police. (In Brazil, some secondary schools are run by the armed forces or the police—a policy many educators strongly condemn.) In September, the Committee of the UN Children's Rights issued a report on Brazil stating concern about the presence of the private and military sectors in the country's basic education system.
Inspired by the student movement of São Paulo (which managed to repeal a government measure that would have closed an estimated 90 schools), youths in Goiás began to occupy their schools late last year. Unlike the mobilization in São Paulo, however, the movement in Goiás received little coverage in the national press, with attention restricted to social networks and local media.
Caricature of Goias’ secretary of education, Raquel Teixeira, who cut off the water and energy to occupied schools and, when asked, said “who never made a mistake?” Image: Zé Ninguém. Original author unknown.
On January 25, students in the city of Goiânia attending the Ismael Silva de Jesus school reported that police officers climbed over the school fence and attacked the occupiers. According to the Facebook page of Secundaristas em Luta – GO:
Nesse momento os alunos, ainda machucados, estão resistindo na porta da escola enquanto sofrem violência de pessoas da comunidade. Dois ocupantes foram ATROPELADOS na porta. E um dos estudantes que foi atropelado foi pro hospital com fratura exposta.
At this moment the students, still injured, are resisting at the school gate while suffering violence from members of the community. Two occupiers were bowled over at the door. And one of the students that was hit went to the hospital with an exposed fracture.
One supporter of the movement, Mariana Barbosa, who also works at Federal University of Goiás, says she arrived at the school minutes after the incident. She confirmed on Facebook that students were attacked and ejected by police officers and some members of the local community. After the assault, the authorities took to a loudspeaker and announced that the 2016 school year was open for enrollment.
Barbosa said police threatened her, too, when she was helping beaten students to the local prosecutor's office, so they could file formal complaints:
Ao passarmos por uma rua um pouco mais afastada da escola e bem vazia, nossos carros foram fechados por mais três carros, sem nenhum tipo de identificação policial, nem nos veículos e muito menos uniformes ou distintivos nos policiais. Fecharam a gente, sairam de seus carros com arma na mão mandando a gente descer e colocar a mão na cabeça. Assim fizemos. Nos trataram com muita truculência. Gritaram com as crianças, não nos deixaram pegar nossos celulares para avisar o advogado, revistaram os carros, revistaram nossas bolsas, jogaram as cosias dxs meninxs no asfalto.
As we passed a pretty empty street a little farther away from the school, our cars were approached by three other cars. They didn't have any police identification—not even in the vehicles, much less on their uniforms or police badges. They approached us, left their cars with guns in their hands, and told us to pull over and put our hand on our heads. So we did. They treated us with great brutality. They shouted at the children, wouldn't let us use our phones to call a lawyer, they searched the cars, searched our bags, and tossed the kids’ stuff in the road.
In one video circulating on social media, a high school student described the police response at the Ismael Silva de Jesus college:
On January 25, police also targeted the state college Rui Barbosa, which had been occupied two days before. On the Facebook page Ocupação Rui Barbosa, students said they were expelled from the school violently.
On January 26, students from the Lyceu de Goiânia denounced a deliberate disruption of one of the school's gas pipes (the authorities were trying to sabotage the occupation).
Hoje sentimos um cheiro muito forte e quando fomos procurar o problema encontramos o cano de gás do Lyceu serrado, vazando, NA IMINÊNCIA DE UMA EXPLOSÃO. O acesso é fácil pra quem está na rua, pularam e sabotaram o encanamento.
Ainda que estivéssemos cientes da violência direta ~que já começamos a sofrer~, ainda que soubéssemos que seríamos vítimas da opressão e da ditadura marconista, não esperávamos que algo tão sério pudesse acontecer contra o movimento.
Essa situação é muito séria, colocou em risco a vida e integridade física dos ocupantes.
Today we sensed a very strong smell and when we went looking for the problem we found Lyceu's gas pipe sawed open, leaking, READY TO EXPLODE. Access [to the gas pipe] is easy for people on the street. They jumped [the wall] and sabotaged the pipe.
While we were aware of the direct violence ~that we have already begun to suffer~, and even though we knew we would be victims of oppression and marconista dictatorship [after Goiás Governor Marconi Perillo], we did not expect them to do something so serious against the movement.
This situation is very serious, putting at risk the lives and physical safety of the occupiers.
On the evening of the January 26, students protested at the headquarters of Goias Secretariat of Education (SEDUCE) and some still remain camped on site. According to the Facebook page of Zé Ninguém, who's been posting videos and photos from occupations:
Após um dia de truculência, violência policial, reintegração de posse sem órdem judicial e chegar ao extremo de TENTATIVA DE ASSASSINATO. Estudantes, professores e apoiadores colocaram um basta no autoritarismo do governo, que privatizou o ensino público sem abrir nenhum canal de dialogo ou mesmo uma audiência pública.

O prédio da SEDUCE acabou de ser OCUPADO por dezenas de pessoas!
After a day of brutality, police violence, repossession without a court order, and the extreme of a MURDER ATTEMPT, students, teachers, and supporters put a stop to government authoritarianism, which privatized public education without opening any dialogue or even a public hearing.
The building of SEDUCE has just been OCCUPIED by dozens of people!
Gas pipe of Lyceu de Goiania college sawed. Photo: Occupation Lyceu Goiania / Facebook
Also on Facebook, Professor Rafael Saddi said that he and other teachers who support the movement are being persecuted by local police:
Só queria dizer que o delegado que está chefiando a operação, que pretende me incriminar junto com outros professores e estudantes por organização criminosa, corrupção de menores, dano ao patrimônio público e furto (me incriminar por quebrar e furtar escolas, é mole?) é o mesmo delegado que chefiou a operação 2,80.
Esta Operação 2,80 foi a que prendeu os 03 estudantes da luta pelo transporte coletivo.
I just wanted to say that the police delegate who is leading the operation aims to incriminate me along with other teachers and students, [accusing us] of [forming] a criminal organization, corrupting the youth, damaging to public property, and stealing. (Framing me for breaking into and robbing schools—can you believe it?!) This is the same delegate who led the operation 2.80, where three students were arrested in the struggle for public transportation.
The Facebook page for Secundaristas em Luta – GO denounced Goiás’ Child Protective Services based on rumors that it has been calling students’ parents and threatening them. Teachers of the UFG (Federal University of Goiás) published a statement rebuking all violence against students. On social media, many activists have expressed their support for the statement.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


text:
Is Taiwan a Country, a Self-Governing Island, or a Breakaway Territory or Province of China? · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

‘The Island Formosa and the Pescadores’, depicted by Johannes Vingboons in around 1640. Formosa is the name given to Taiwan by Portuguese explorers who sighted the island in the 16th century. PHOTO from Chinese Wikipedia.
A German friend once asked me about the sovereign status of Taiwan, and I told him that Taiwan is a country because we elect our own president and legislators, and we have our own currency and passport.
My friend bought what I said, but his wife didn’t. She is a political scientist, and based on what she heard about Taiwan, she thought the relationship between China and Taiwan bore more similarities to the relationship between the East and West Germany. In other words, as Chinese and Taiwanese can communicate in Mandarin and as the two countries’ cultures are so similar, it would have made sense for China and Taiwan to have pursued reunification after the Cold War ended.
I argued that a better comparison was the relationship between the UK and US. The British and the Americans share a similar language, and a certain percentage of Americans were actually British before their war of independence. Americans, nevertheless, claimed their independence because they—or at least their founding fathers—subscribed to a different political ideology. Taiwan, likewise, embraces a democratic political system, while China’s political framework is that of a socialist republic run by the Communist Party of China (CPC). China is a great country. Like many countries in the world, Taiwan also wants to make friends with China. However, many of the 23.4 million Taiwanese prefer not to unite with China because we embrace different political systems. What has happened between Hong Kong and China proves that it does not work.
LEARN MORE ABOUT TAIWAN
A selection of recommended books, films, and musical works about Taiwan:
Tyzen Hsiao’s symphony ‘Taiwan the Green’: Many Taiwanese refer to this as the unofficial National Anthem of Taiwan.
Formose: French-language illustrated storybook by Li-Chin Lin depicting the author’s childhood and adolescence during the White Terror period in Taiwan.
Formosa Betrayed: George H. Kerr's account of Taiwan's abandonment by the international community after World War II.
‘A City of Sadness’: Film by Hsiao-Hsien Hou that tells a story related to the incident that triggered the Republic of China’s military repression in Taiwan, after Japanese surrendered.
‘Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale’: Film by Te-Sheng Wei about the revolt by Taiwanese Aborigines under Japanese colonialism.
China, or People’s Republic of China (PRC), always claims that Taiwan has been part of China from the very beginning, but it is not true if we check history records. Taiwan became part of China during the period of the Qing Dynasty in 1683, and the Qing government did not seriously govern Taiwan except collecting heavy tax from Taiwanese and using military forces to repress ‘insurgents’. It was not until 204 years later, in 1887, that Taiwan was made a province.
In fact, if Taiwan was not attacked by the French during the Sino-French War (1883-1885), the Qing government might never have given Taiwan provincial status. But the Sino-French War revealed the Qing government’s fragility, as well as Taiwan’s strategic position as a bulwark in the West Pacific again to other Asian countries with strong military forces. Eight years later, in 1895, after the first Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was forced to cede Taiwan to Japan.
At the end of World War II (WWII), the Republic of China (ROC) took control of Taiwan after Japan surrendered. Taiwan was a colony of Japan during the Kominka movement or Japanization of subjects of the Empire of Japan. Since Japan was an enemy of China during WWII, the ROC government had difficulty considering Taiwanese their fellow countrymen. Taiwanese did not even speak Mandarin at that time.
During the Chinese civil war (1946-1950), the Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-Shek, decided to consolidate the power of his exiled government in Taiwan after it was defeated by the CPC’s People’s Liberation Army in China in 1949. During the period of White Terror (1949-1987) and after, the Taiwan democracy movement took decades to build a free and democratic society. They finally succeeded, and in their quest for a new society, forged a new Taiwanese national identity that is quite different from China’s.
Historical image of the Tsou people in Taiwan playing music instruments. Photo: taipics.com.
Before 1683, Taiwan was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines, who are very proud of their role in the history of Polynesia. Studies of genetics, pottery styles, languages, and the existence of plants such as the Pacific paper mulberry suggest that the Lapita, the ancestors of those who would go on populate Polynesia and Micronesia, very likely lived in Taiwan before they traveled to other islands. For Taiwanese, the question of finding aboriginal bloodlines in our genealogy is central to discussions about Taiwan’s independence, because there is evidence that very few of the Han Chinese  who moved to Taiwan during the Qing Dynasty period were female.
Underlying the debate about bloodlines is an idea about historical viewpoints and their role in forming national identity. Taiwan’s history is generally viewed from two different perspectives: one that is China-centered, the other Taiwan-centered. According to the China-centered version, China was kind enough to bring Taiwan back into the family after WWII. In the Taiwan-centered version, both the Chinese and the Japanese empires were colonizers.
An outreach event by Taiwanese and supporters at Harvard Square in Boston that explained Taiwan's situation to interested passers-by. Photo by Chia-Chun Chung. Republished by Global Voices with permission.
Let us return, however, to the question of whether Taiwan is a country, a self-governing island, a breakaway territory of China, or a province of China. It is a difficult question for diplomats and journalists, and it is not an easy one even for Taiwanese.
Firstly, it is true that Taiwan was—for that brief eight-year period before WWII—a province of China. But Taiwan is not currently a province of China, as China has no control over Taiwan. This is the political reality. To clarify the situation further we can refer to the history of Mongolia. Mongolia was once part of China under the Qing Dynasty, pursuing its independence in 1911 and became an independent country later on (a long story). No one would say that Mongolia is part of China just because it was part of China more than 100 years ago.
Yet some still insist on calling Taiwan a province of China because China claims so. Many agencies still use the formulation ‘Taiwan, Province of China’, either out of ignorance or because they enjoy close relations with China. To counter the China-centered viewpoint, some Taiwanese spend lots of time writing to these agencies in order to persuade them simply to use the term ‘Taiwan’, without further political attribution.
The terms ‘self-governing island’ and ‘breakaway territory’ are more widely used in international media reports that refer to Taiwan’s sovereignty status. ‘Self-governing island’ at least has the virtue of being relatively neutral, but it's also inaccurate, as the territory of Taiwan comprises several islands. ‘Breakaway territory’ (or ’renegade province’) is a formulation of the English-speaking world. According to the China-centered historical view it's not incorrect, but it sidelines the Taiwanese-centered view of history. In Taiwan, it's likely to offend the pro-independence community.
Taiwan’s sovereign status is tricky in many ways. Even though we Taiwanese possess almost every attribute of a ‘nation’, we have very few diplomatic allies. Taiwan is recognized by only 22 nations as a sovereign state, and diplomatic allies of the PRC are strongly requested not to recognize Taiwan a sovereign state even in non-diplomatic international events like film festivals. As a result, Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, nor even of the World Health Organization (WHO), and it's the rare international mainstream media article that refers to Taiwan as a ‘country‘.
Thanks to Sophie Hsu, Brian Hioe, and Oiwan Lam for the valuable discussions and comments about this article.

author: I-fan Lin


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Unbelievable: Saudi Arabia’s Vice Police Arrests a “Female” Mascot · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi Arabia's vice police arrested this mascot at the opening of a sweet shop because .. it wasn't wearing the Islamic attire
Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or religious police, arrested a female mascot at the opening of a sweet shop in the capital Riyadh because it wasn't wearing the Islamic attire enforced on women in the conservative kingdom. What was worse, was that the mascot was actually a man, pretending to be a woman, who was not covered, and who was making inappropriate gestures with a male mascot which was accompanying it.
On Twitter, netizens laughed and joked at the incident, complaining about the eroding freedoms left for people. Many could not even bring themselves to believe that this incident actually took place.
Najwa Hammoud tweets in disbelief:
اعتقال دمية؟؟؟؟؟؟؟
— Najwa Hammoud (@najwa_hammoud) February 7, 2016
They arrested a mascot???
Migrant Soul is also confused:
#الامر_بالمعروف_تعتقل_دميه here's the tag btw I still can't tell if it's real or satire😭
— †♀Daنa (@migrantsoul) February 7, 2016
Is it for real? Yes, it is. The religious police actually arrested a mascot and reactions to this arrest can be found under the hashtag #الامر_بالمعروف_تعتقل_دمية which translates to #Vice_Police-Arrest_a_Mascot.
Naifco, who has 216K followers on Twitter, shares this circular from the Vice Police with more juicy details about the incident:
بيان من الهيئة حول ما أثير في هاشتاق#الامر_بالمعروف_تعتقل_دميه
يؤكد أن حصول تميُّع بحركات غير مقبولة. pic.twitter.com/4CiJmsE96e
— نايفكو (@naifco) February 7, 2016
On this day, we received a number of reports about two dolls, one a man and the other a woman, which were making unacceptable gestures in front of Sanabil Al Salam shop and their presence attracted a huge crowd on the King Abdulla road. We went to the said location and witnessed the two dolls doing what the complaints said. We found a man in the female mascot and after contacting the superintendent of the Kharj area, we spoke to the man (in the doll) and made him and his supervisor write a statement that they will not repeat this again and we reminded them about Allah and that what they did was pretending to be women and that is against sharia (Islamic law). They expressed remorse and asked them to accompany us to the station, to complete the formalities.
For many, the incident was an opportunity to complain about dwindling rights in the ultra-religious kingdom. Aziz Alqenaei laments:
حبس المثقفين،حقوق المرأة، الجلد والرجم، تطبيق الشريعة، اعتقال دمية متبرجة،، من المؤلم أن تكون قضايا المسلم قضايا  انتهى منها الإنسان المتحضر
— Aziz Alqenaei (@Azizalqenaei) February 7, 2016
The arrest of intellectuals; women's rights; flogging and stoning; implementation of Sharia law; and now the arrest of a mascot for not complying with Islamic attire. It is painful that Muslim's causes are now issues that the civilised world has moved away from
Jalal AlBaqshi adds:
#الامر_بالمعروف_تعتقل_دمية
من يقرأ السجل الحافل بالتجاوزات اللا إنسانية، هل نستغرب من اعتقال دمية؟!
أبداً.. لا عجب !
— جلال البقشي (@JalAlBaqshi) February 7, 2016
Whoever reads about the increasing record of inhumane trespasses will still be surprised that a mascot has been arrested? Never. We are not surprised.
And from Kuwait, writer Dalaa Almoufti warns:
انتظروا أخبارنا في كل صحف العالم وعلى برامج السخرية الأجنبية…#الامر_بالمعروف_تعتقل_دميه pic.twitter.com/fFmmacBnJH
— دلع المفتي (@dalaaalmoufti) February 7, 2016
Wait for the news in newspapers around the world and in foreign satire shows
Would you blame anyone for carrying the story?

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
‘A Good Day for the Internet Everywhere’: India Bans Differential Data Pricing · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Net Neutrality And Creative Freedom explained. Image from Flickr by Anna Lena Schiller. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
India distinguished itself as a global leader on network neutrality on February 8, when regulators officially banned “differential pricing”, a process through which telecommunications service providers could or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services offered based on content.
In short, this means that Internet access in India will remain an open field, where users should be guaranteed equal access to any website they want to visit, regardless of how they connect to the Internet.
In their ruling, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) commented:
In India, given that a majority of the population are yet to be connected to the internet, allowing service providers to define the nature of access would be equivalent of letting TSPs shape the users’ internet experience.
#TRAIFreesInternet | Key take aways from TRAI’s ruling on Net Neutrality pic.twitter.com/xlFsLb3bZ6
— CNN-IBN News (@ibnlive) February 8, 2016
The decision of the Indian government has been welcomed largely in the country and outside. In support of the move, the World Wide Web Foundation's Renata Avila, also a Global Voices community member, wrote:
As the country with the second largest number of Internet users worldwide, this decision will resonate around the world. It follows a precedent set by Chile, the United States, and others which have adopted similar net neutrality safeguards. The message is clear: We can’t  create a two-tier Internet – one for the haves, and one for the have-nots. We must connect everyone to the full potential of the open Web.
While the new rules should long outlast this moment in India's Internet history, the ruling should immediately force Facebook to cancel the local deployment of “Free Basics”, a smart phone application that offers free access to Facebook, Facebook-owned products like WhatsApp, and a select suite of other websites for users who do not pay for mobile data plans.
Facebook's efforts to deploy and promote Free Basics as what they described as a remedy to India's lack of “digital equality” has encountered significant backlash. Last December, technology critic and Quartz writer Alice Truong reacted to Free Basics saying:
Zuckerberg almost portrays net neutrality as a first-world problem that doesn’t apply to India because having some service is better than no service.”
When TRAI solicited public comments on the matter of differential pricing, Facebook responded with an aggressive advertising campaign on bill boards and in television commercials across the nation. It also embedded a campaign inside Facebook, asking users to write to TRAI in support of Free Basics.
Two-page Free Basics newspaper advertisement urging Indians to advocate against net neutrality protections before the government. Image widely shared on social media.
TRAI criticized Facebook for what it seemed to regard as manipulation of the public. Facebook was also heavily challenged by many policy and open Internet advocates including non-profits like the Free Software Movement of India and the Savetheinternet.in campaign. The latter two collectives strongly discouraged Free Basics by bringing public opinion where Savetheinternet.in alone facilitated a campaign in which citizens sent over 2.4 million emails to TRAI urging the agency to put a stop to differential pricing.
Alongside these efforts, 500 Indian startups including major ones like Cleartrip, Zomato, Practo, Paytm and Cleartax also wrote to India's prime minister Narendra Modi requesting continued support for net neutrality—on the Indian Republic Day January 26.
Stand-up comedians like Abish Mathew and groups like All India Bakchod and East India Comedy created humorous and informative videos explaining the regulatory debate and supporting net neutrality which went viral.
Had differential pricing been officially legalized, it would have adversely affected startups and content-based smaller companies, who most likely could never manage to pay higher prices to partner with service providers to make their service available for free. This would have paved the way for tech-giants like Facebook to capture the entire market. And this would be no small gain for a company like Facebook: India represents the world's largest market of Internet users after the US and China, where Facebook remains blocked.
There have been mixed responses on social media, both supporting and opposing. Among open Internet advocates both in India and the US, the response was celebratory:
This order shows the power of citizen involvement in policymaking. Policymakers are forced to listen if citizens engage. #NetNeutrality
— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) February 8, 2016
I think this is not just a good day for the Internet in India. It's a good day for the Internet everywhere #TRAI #savetheinternet
— Anja Kovacs (@anjakovacs) February 8, 2016
India is now the global leader on #NetNeutrality. New rules are stronger than those in EU and US. https://t.co/D6g68k2xaI
— Josh Levy (@levjoy) February 8, 2016
There are also those like Panuganti Rajkiran who opposed the ruling:
A terrible decision.. The worst part here is the haves deciding for the have nots what they can have and what they cannot.
When you buy a car, it's fulfilment of aspiration. After that, the next guy who buys a car is just traffic. Let's regulate. #NetNeutrality
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) February 8, 2016
Soumya Manikkath says:
So all is not lost in the world, for the next two years at least. Do come back with a better plan, dear Facebook, and we'll rethink, of course.
The ruling leaves an open pathway for companies to offer consumers free access to the Internet, provided that this access is truly open and does not limit one's ability to browse any site of her choosing.
Bangalore-based Internet policy expert Pranesh Prakash noted that this work must continue until India is truly — and equally — connected:
The pro-#NetNeutrality campaign shouldn't rest until every poor family in India has full and free access to the Internet. #ZeroRating
— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh) February 8, 2016


text:
Artists and Activists Unite in Support of Russia’s ‘Good People’ · Global Voices
Vladislav Kalashnik

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (of Pussy Riot) sings a song dedicated to Petr Pavlensky. Photo: Vladislav Kalashnik
The event was called a “Good People Support Evening,” and it took place on Sunday, January 24, at a small art cafe in eastern Moscow. The good people at issue that evening were various Russian activists currently imprisoned for (what their supporters say are) political reasons.
The event coincided with the birthday of the anti-fascist movement activist Alexey Sutuga, known to his friends as “Socrates.” He couldn’t attend because he's now serving a three-year sentence for allegedly brawling. (Sutuga denies the charges.) Human rights advocates believe the case against him was fabricated, including the Russian human rights center Memorial, which recognizes Sutuga as a “political prisoner.”
The organizer of the event, Vladimir (he hides his last name behind an alias), told Global Voices that Sutuga is his close friend. “Now my friend is in jail, where he celebrates his 30th birthday. I believe that a birthday is a party of friends, and we all need to celebrate it in order to remember Alexey and to lift his spirits.”
And so other activists decided to hold a party, honoring Sutuga and another three men now in prison: performance artist Petr Pavlensky, Dmitry Buchenkov, who was detained in the third wave of so-called “Bolotnaya Square case” (though he says he wasn't even in Moscow at the time of the alleged “crime”), and political activist Ildar Dadin, who is the first Russian demonstrator to be convicted and sentenced to prison under a new law that makes it a felony to participate in multiple unsanctioned rallies.
Each of them, Vladimir said, was arrested and imprisoned for his political ideas.
Они не сделали никому плохо, никого не убили, не ограбили, не совершали по факту преступления. С точки зрения государства, их преступление лишь в том, что они думают по-другому.
They didn't hurt anyone, they didn't kill anyone, they didn't rob anyone, and they didn't commit a single crime. From the point of view of the state, their crime is merely that they think differently.
Most of the speakers were already familiar with what they call “the Kremlin's oppression machine.” Vladimir Akimenkov, Andrei Barabanov, Denis Lutskevich, and Alexey Polikhovich were all convicted at various stages of the “Bolotnaya Square case,” and all of them spent some amount of time in Russian detention centers, prison colonies, or both. The speakers not only reached out to Sutuga and the others, but they also recounted their own experiences and encouraged people to send letters to their comrades now in state custody.
Sutuga’s mother gave an emotional address, and his lawyer (who is also defending Buchenkov) described the absurdity with which activists are prosecuted in Russia. Then came the musical portion of the event, which featured performances by several artists, including (most famously) Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who sang a self-composed song dedicated to Pavlensky.
According to Vladimir, his aim was to hold a social-cultural event that focused on people. He didn't want an exclusively political function, and he told Global Voices that the number of people who came to show their support was inspiring. “I’m happy we did not lose our human kindness. Friendship, solidarity, and mutual aid are stronger than any prison, fears, or government oppression,” he said.
Anastasia Zotova looks forward to her marriage. Photo: Vladislav Kalashnik for GV
When it comes to politics and women's courage, Russians often recall the Decembrists’ wives, who accompanied their husbands into exile, to Siberia, after the failed rebellion against Tsar Nicholas I. Almost two centuries later, things haven't changed as much as you might expect. Consider Anna Koroleva and Anastasia Zotova, the partners of Dmitry Buchenkov and Ildar Dadin.
Anna Koroleva, a shy, black-haired woman with piercing eyes, told Global Voices that Dmitry was arrested just before their engagement. Even the long arm of the law didn't stop their marriage, however, and soon the two were wed. “This was just the logical conclusion of what was supposed to happen,” Anna says today, looking back at how she came to be married.
Anastasia Zotova, who attended the event in a t-shirt with her fiancé's face imprinted on the chest. She says they decided to get married a year ago, after Ildar was detained on Manezh Square in Moscow. When he was sent to prison, he asked her if she still wanted to become his wife. “I punched him and said, ‘I love you, I won’t abandon you,’” Anastasia remembers. Today, she admits that she’s never thought of herself as a “Decembrist’s wife”:
Я очень люблю творчество Толкиена. У него была история про эльфийскую принцессу, которая спасла своего рыцаря. Она пошла в башню, спела – и башня разрушилась, рыцарь был свободен. И если бы я могла так же пойти в СИЗО и спеть, чтобы все там разрушилось, – я бы это сделала.
I’m fond of Tolkien's books. There was a story about an elven princess who saved the knight she loved. She entered the tower, began to sing, and the tower collapsed, setting the knight free. I wish I could go to the detention center [where Ildar is now captive] and sing, so the whole thing came down.
On January 27, Petr Pavlensky was transferred to the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry,where he'll undergo psychiatric evaluation. Last year, Pavlensky was charged with vandalism after setting fire to a door at the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service in Moscow. He's being prosecuted for burning tires atop a bridge in St. Petersburg. (That trial began in mid-2015 and isn't yet finished.)
Three days before Pavlensky was transferred to the psychiatric center, his partner, Oksana Shalygina, read aloud a letter he wrote from his cell in the detention center. According to Pavlensky, people’s fears and needs are commonly used to gain control over them: “The fear of punishment and fear of losing your belongings are the main [social] management tools. And, as for one’s needs and craving for things, they just tighten the noose of submission and obedience”:
…Здесь государственность не скрывает себя. Здесь ей уже не нужны декорации: формула заботы о безопасности доведена до своей логической завершенности. <…> Есть еще кое-что – методичное воспитание привычки, задача выработать у тебя рефлекс автоматического подчинения. Которое должно идти изнутри, без внешней подсказки представителя власти. Их задача в том, чтобы ты перестал самостоятельно думать. <…> Ты должен засомневаться и подчиниться сам. Тогда аппарат побеждает.
The statehood doesn't hide itself here, as it needs no more decoration. The concern about safety is brought to its logical completion. […] They also cultivate one's habits in order to create an automatic obedience reflex coming from within, without any external hints. They are aimed at stopping your thought process so you can't think independently. When one starts to hesitate and finally obeys, the system wins.
In his art, Pavlensky works with ideas and meanings, using instruments mirrored on the tools at the disposal of the government, he says. His performances show how government leads a person into submission, though he insists that obedience is, ultimately, still the individual's choice. “His role is to show that one either obeys or moves towards self-deliverance and self-emancipation,” Shalygina explained to Global Voices.
Can individuals motivated by passion like Pavlensky's disrupt Russia's status quo? Shalygina thinks so, and so does Masha Alekhina, another leading member of Pussy Riot and the cofounder of MediaZona, a news site that focuses on Russia's criminal justice system. “[Social] art has connections with politics, the regime, and all events around us. We interact and create through [our] every gesture and action. Art changes the world—there's no doubt. Only art is capable of changing it,” Alekhina said, smiling.

author: Vladislav Kalashnik


text:
Classrooms Without Teachers Spread in Southern Venezuela · Global Voices
Morelia Morillo

Indigenous children return home from school. Photo taken from the Flickr account of barloventomagico under Creative Commons license.
This post was originally published in Morelia Morillo's blog, The Chronicles of the Border.
Although they love their profession, upwards of 300 teachers in Gran Sabana, Venezuela, have left their classrooms to find more affordable pay in other industries. Instructors—mainly those from an indigenous background—are walking away from grade schools and junior high schools to take jobs in gold and diamond mines, while others (namely the Creoles, or non-indigenous peoples) find other work as taxi drivers or vendors selling Tupperware, hot dogs, empanadas, or gasoline.
Far from the coast, on the border with Brazil, even the most qualified teachers earn an average 20,000 bolivares ($20 in the black market, the only one available) a month, while the average cost of renting a room runs just as high. People who want to eat can expect to spend, at a minimum, another 500 bolivares ($.50) on a kilo of cornmeal. In urban areas, where there's no public transport, a single ride usually costs about 300 bolivares ($.30).
Venezuela uses four different exchange rates simultaneously. The result is that things can either be extremely cheap, or unbearably expensive, depending on the rate used. According to the Mises Institute, Venezuelans must rely on the black market to meet their demands for foreign currency. Therefore, people naturally rely on the black market rate, though it is much less advantageous (getting as high as 900 bolivars per dollar, versus 6.3-200 bolivars per dollar on the “official” market).
The Gran Sabana is the ancestral territory of the indigenous Pemón tribe. It's a pristine area home to various environmental protection entities: Canaima National Park, the Tepuyes Natural Monument, Bolivar’s Southern Protected Zone, and the Ikabarú Hydraulic Reserve.
For years, studies from the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana and one of its subsidiary companies, Electrificación del Caroní (Edelca), have established convincingly that this area is excellently suited to tourism and generating water for hydroelectric production. Nevertheless, mining in the area has become increasingly uncontrolled.
It’s November 2015. Mining is rampant in rural areas—even within the Canaima National Park. In the capital city of Santa Elena de Uairén, there’s a market for everything imaginable and domestic fuel sales abound.
It is estimated that half of the gas coming out of the local service stations, where long lines form daily, goes to the mines. The other half of the fuel is sold to clients in Brazil. A 200 liter-drum can cost up to 300,000 bolivares ($300). In Venezuela, a liter of gasoline doesn’t even cost one bolivar ($0.10). In Brazil, it costs nearly four Brazilian reals ($1).
An official from school district number four, in the Gran Sabana municipality, confirmed that during the 2014-2015 academic year, at least 80 teachers resigned. She warned, moreover, that the real figure could be even higher, given that some teachers withdrew from their classes without formally terminating their employment at the Ministry of Popular Power for Education.
In addition, the same source said that, so far, during the first three months of the 2015-2016 school year, at least 25 teachers have resigned.
Another official in the same office reported anonymously that 300 teachers throughout the city resigned at the end of the 2014-2015 school year, exploding the students-to-teachers ratio in both indigenous communities and urban areas.
At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, school principals, district officials, and officials from the mayor’s office met to discuss the situation and drafted a letter to the Ministry of Education, then led by Héctor Rodríguez, to expose what was happening and request 109 new teachers. In response, in November, 83 new teachers were brought in, but the rest of the problems that have led to this crisis remain unresolved.
In some cases, vacancies remain. Valdirene Dos Santos told the Mujeres del Agua Foundation’s blog that school children of different grades were gathered into a single class in the El Paují community.
In the Bolivarian Comprehensive School known as “El Salto,” half of the teachers left. Some retired, others left because of disabilities, and others resigned. In light of this event, some parents had to take the lead in the classroom. For two months, Kámala Manjari served as second-grade teacher, for example.
At the beginning of the school year for first-graders at the Gran Sabana preschool, which is attached to El Salto, was delayed for at least a month when one teacher requested her retirement and another requested leave due to a disability. Finally, the Common Council of Brisas del Uairén and the city of Gran Sabana hired a teacher, who earns 24,000 bolivares ($24) a month.
The school in the indigenous community of Las Agallas closed until further notice and the school in Ikabarú, the capital of the second parish of the city, began classes at least a month late, once the Bolivar School Zone managed to hire five new teachers—all from other cities, apparently with the stipulation that they not request any changes over the next eight years.
In Ikabarú, an area dominated by the ministry industry, located about 114 kilometers (70 miles) of dirt road from Santa Elena, a chicken costs up to two grams of gold—at least 30,000 bolivares ($30). To get paid, a teacher must travel to the capital city, paying for a ride in a rusty vehicle (3,000 bolivars, or $3, each way). All payments are made to the teachers through Bank of Venezuela checking accounts, which only has branches and ATMs in the capital city. Teachers receive a debit card, but local ATMs only process daily withdrawals of up to 3,000 bolivares ($3).
The teachers who remain, those who didn’t resign, do it because they like to or because they are about to retire, but they also sell products, clothing, gasoline, drive cabs,” the official told us confidentially.
Nardy Torres and David Silva are married, the parents of two girls, and teachers. They both love their profession; they feel that it’s the only way they serve their families and their community. Both Nardy and David have resigned from their positions, however, stating “economic reasons.”
“Because with two salaries we still couldn’t afford to eat,” David explains.
He resigned a year and a half ago. He served as the pastoral coordinator of the “Faith and Joy of Manak Krú” school. His workload was 36 hours a week and at that time he earned 4,500 bolivares ($4.50), plus a bonus for his coordination work.
I went to the market and there was a moment when I used all of my paycheck, part of my savings and my cesta ticket (a food voucher given by law to employees in Venezuela).”
Now, he works in transportation, although incidentally, he told us his car is currently immobile because it's missing spare parts. He and his wife have a small store in his wife's grandmother’s house, where he sells plastic containers under an awning on the side of the Troncal 10 highway. “For the passing Brazilians,” he says.
I would like to be teaching, that's my thing. I would like for this situation to change and return to teaching because in the country’s current situation, a teacher can’t make a living.”
Nardy teaches preschool at the “Darak Merú” school. She resigned at the end of the last school year, but will continue to work until December because her superiors said, “If you resign, who will the kids be left with?” Now she works at the grocery store selling ice cream and making pound cakes.

author: Morelia Morillo