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Kyrgyzstan’s Anti-Gay Bill Preserves “Historical Values”, Violates Constitution · Global Voices
Jibek Jorokulova

‘Patriotic’ Kyrgyz youth groups have upped their anti-LGBT rhetoric in recent times (Photo from Vb.kg used with permission)
Vigorous discussions continue to take place [ru] in Kyrgyz society about a law that would limit the rights of LGBT people to hold Pride events and promote tolerance towards homosexuality, actions the two lawmakers that proposed the bill consider [ru] “propaganda”.
The law, first sent [ru] to parliament in March and expected to be voted on by MPs in the coming weeks, aims at the “preservation and protection of the traditional family, humane, moral, and historical values of Kyrgyz society.”
Specifically the bill prohibits the spreading of any kind of videos, photos, or written material “containing open or hidden calls for non-traditional sexual orientation or creating a positive image thereof.” Under this bill any kind of “organization of or participation in peaceful assemblies which aim at making publically available information about any form of non-traditional sexual orientation” could be considered a criminal act. Punishments envisaged in the bill range from fines ($15-$580 USD) to six months imprisonment.
“Perverted Europe”
Commenting under an April article on Vecherni Bishkek one of the bill's supporters, Alina, stormed [ru]:
геи это угроза обществу. как в европе общество извратилось в конец, развелись эти геи и лесбиянки, которые даже хуже животных. если допустим их распространение, то скоро некому рожать будет. лгбт в последнее время при поддержке международников активизировались, надо закрыть все эти НПО. А их права никто не нарушал, не фиг кричать что ты гей. пусть на общих основаниях получает услуги, кто им что скажет?
Gays are a threat to society. In Europe society is absolutely perverted, those gays and lesbians who are even worse than animals are everywhere. If we allow them to spread, no one will give birth soon. Recently, with the support of international organizations LGBT have become more active. Those NGOs must be shut down urgently. And their rights are not violated, there is no bloody need yelling that you are gay. Let them receive services like everyone else, no one will say anything..
Another conservative MP from the Kyrgyz parliament, and a regular subject of Global Voices’ Kyrgyzstan coverage (1, 2, 3, 4), Tursunbai Bakir uulu, says [ru] he supports the bill initiated by MPs Kurmanbek Dyikanbaev and Torobai Zulpukarov.
Я поддерживаю своих коллег, хотя они из других фракций, зато мы все патриоты своей земли и наследия, завещанного нам славными предками!
I support my colleagues although they are from other factions, but we are patriots of our land and heritage bequeathed to us by our glorious ancestors!
At stake is the morality of the Kyrgyz people, stress the bill's proponents. In comments addressed [kyr] to the Euroean Union, who called on the government to take steps to combat sexual discrimination, one reader of Vecherni Bishkek said:
биздин Кыргызстандыктар эч качан сайпана болгон эмес,болбойт дагы.Биздин дуйного коз карашыбыз силерден айры.ЛГБТ деген агитация менен прoпагандага эмне учун ЖК уруксат берет? Биз кыргыздар ансыз деле дуйно жузундо аз,кичинекей калк быз.Биздин ата-бабаларыбызда сайпаналар жок болчу.Биз кыргыздар,(мен билген) сайпаналыкка барыбыз тен каршыбыз,элибиз колдобойт сайпаналыкты.
(Dear) EU, Kyrgyzstani people have never been gays and never will be. We have a different perception of the world. Why should Jogorku Kenesh (Parliament) allow any LGBT propaganda? The Kyrgyz nation is very small. Our ancestors were not gay. We, Kyrgyz people (those I know), are totally against homosexuality and our people will never support it.
The two MPs have received [ru] more than 60 letters from LGBT groups demanding to recall the legislation before it goes to a vote. They argue that apart from violating the constitutional right to freedom of assembly among others, the bill promotes [ru] violence against representatives of LGBT community.
A bad track record
They would not be the only ones. When Human Rights Watch released [ru] a report on police intimidation of LGBT community members on January 29, Kyrgyzstan's Grand Mufti promptly released fatwah against manifestations of LGBT the following day. “Kyrgyz Indigo”, another LGBT organization reported that a group of people attacked three representatives of their organization because of their sexual orientation and gender identity shortly after the bill was announced on April 14. Harassment of LGBT groups and their supporters via social media is common.
On its official webpage Labrys published letters from LGBT people they have received since the bill was first sent to the parliament. (Translations run clockwise from top left).
Marat wrote [Kyr]: I am Marat and I am against this bill. I have always wanted to be a girl. These people suffer a lot. We are not guilty because it is a natural phenomenon. Who would understand how much one's soul has to suffer?
To:Dyikanbaev K.S.;From:Marat Artem wrote[ru]: Dear Dyikanbaev K.S., Kochkorov U.T., Zulpukarov T.Z., My name is Artem. I am transgender and I am a PERSON like you are and a CITIZEN. I believe that the bill about “shaping a positive image of LGBT” is unjust. This bill forbids me to EXIST. Why can't the state protect its citizens from itself?
Citizen of Kyrgyzstan wrote [ru]: To Kochkorov U.T. Dyikanbaev K.S. Zulpukarov T.Z., Your bills and bans are based on ignorance and prejudices. They promote hatred in society. Even the comments in discussions call for destruction (of LGBT). Here they are talking about real people.Your inferences in favour of the bill are mystical but I am real. Your fear about propaganda is not provable but our wounds and threats are real for us. The fact that the majority is on your side does not mean that the majority is right. If you agree that there are people in Kyrgyzstan that have to be destroyed, it means that there are people in the parliament who support extremism.
While opposition to the bill beyond the immediate LGBT community is difficult to detect, there is a common feeling Kyrgyzstan should be dealing [ru] with more important issues. As another Vecherni Bishkek commenter noted:
Очень печально, что Дыйканбаева и Зулпукарова совсем не беспокоит бесконечная пропаганда насилия, убийства и жестокости, которыми кишит наше телевидение, пиратские диски и видео в Интернете, а беспокоит “пропаганда” нетрадиционных отношений. Геи уж никого не убивают, а вот пропагандируемое насилие, чернуха, ментовщина, уголовщина во всех сериалах и фильмах…это нормально? Задумайтесь, депутаты – от чего вероятнее всего угроза жизни? ОТ ГЕЯ? Или так разрешаемой вами пропаганды уголовщины, насилия, убийств на ТВ?
It is very sad that Dyikanbaev and Zulpukarov are not worried about the endless propaganda of violence, murder, and brutality, which our televisions teem with, [or can bee seen via] pirated CDs and online videos, but they are worried about the “propaganda” of non-traditional relationships. Gays do not kill but violence, gruesome stories, police brutality, criminal acts which are glamorized in soap operas and movies…are these normal? Think about it MPs, which one is more likely to cause a threat to life? GAYS? Or the propaganda you permit [including] criminal acts, violence, murders on TV?
On June 6, Bishkek held a round table [ru] debating the need for the bill, wherein lawyer Yulia Voltsava stressed [ru] the proposed law's contradictions vis-a-vis existing national legislation. MPs Zulpukarov and Dyikanbaev did not attend.

author: Jibek Jorokulova


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Moroccan Hackers Attack Mauritanian Government Sites · Global Voices
أحمد جدو

A group of hackers calling themselves the “Moroccan Secret Agent” have succeeded in breaching and seizing control [ar] of several Mauritanian governmental websites. The group defaced the websites with slogans insulting the Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, calling the two heads of state “enemies of the Moroccan people.”
Among the websites targeted by the hackers were the Prime Minister's Portal, Mauritania Electronic Portal and the websites of the Ministry of Justice, Mauritanian Deposits and Development Funds, Chamber of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Agriculture, and the National Commission for the Control of Public Tenders.
A photograph of one the hacked websites posted by Baba Ould Deye on his Facebook page.
Activist Baba Ould Deye blamed the breach on the weak security protocols implemented by the Mauritanian Governmental websites [ar]:
المواقع الحكومية الرسمية للجمهورية الإسلامية الموريتانية تحت النار… #موريتانيا أوف لاين
فريق القراصنة المغربي يرسل رسالة سياسية وإختراقه ليس عشوائيا كما في حالة موقع الوكالة الوطنية للوثائق المؤمنة.
لكن الفريق المغربي ليس وحده من مــر علي مواقعنا الرسمية فأصبحت في خبر كان سبقه فريق سوري وآخر تركي وآخر صيني وآخر إيراني …. الخ
أصبحنا سخرية أطفال قراصنة العالم ” هل تريد أن تتعلم الإختراق ؟! هل تريد مواقع ضعيفة وغير مؤمنة لتجرب عليها ؟! إذن إذهب للمواقع الموريتانية ! ”
أين المسؤولون عن تقنية المعلومات في البلد ! عار عليكم سيرفيراتكم وبرامج إدارة المحتوي الموجودة لديكم ونظمكم بشكل عام لم يتم تحديثها منذ سنوات، عار عليكم وقــد حذركم أبناء بلدكم مرارا وتكرار فلم تتعظوا
The governmental and official websites of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania are under fire …. #Mauritania is offline.
The Moroccan hacking group is sending a political message and its breaches are not random, as in the case of the National Agency for Safeguarded Documents.
The Moroccan group aren't the only hackers who have managed to access our official websites, which have became nonfunctional. Before them, there was a Syrian group, a Turkish, a Chinese and an Iranian one.
We have became the laughing stock of the most inexperienced hackers. “Do you want to learn hacking?! Do you want weak and insecure websites to experiment on?! Then go the Mauritanian websites!” they must be telling themselves.
Where are those responsible for information technology in the country? Shame on you, your servers and your content management programs and your systems in general, which haven't been updated in years. Shame on you. Your people warned you over and over again but you did not take heed.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: أحمد جدو


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New Dating Social Network Where Women Rule · Global Voices
Luis Flores

Image by epSos.de on flickr. CC BY 2.0.
[All links lead to pages in Spanish.]
Webonomía contributor Fernando Valencia writes about AdoptaUnChico.com.mx [Adopt a boy], the new way of getting online dates. This is a social network developed as a boutique where the main product are men. Here, men are promoted and women can visit the catalog. The client has complete control, as the author says:
[…]los hombres que se registran en el sitio para ser adoptados por las chicas, pueden llamar la atención de las glamourosas clientas con una herramienta especial para ellos, los hechizos. Un hechizo es el arma principal del producto; mediante él, el usuario interesado en una dama registrada le puede hacer saber dicho interés hechizándola. Si la clienta acepta el hechizo, entonces, y sólo entonces, podrán charlar mediante el servicio de mensajería interna de la web; es decir, en el caso de este muy peculiar sitio de citas, las que mandan son las mujeres. […] el nicho de mercado principal es la mujer; en ella está centrada la página web, por lo que es ella la que tiene el poder de elección.
[…] guys who register on the site to be adopted by girls can attract the attention of the glamourous clients with a special tool for them, spells. A spell is the main weapon of the product; using it the user interestred in a lady can let her know about it casting a spell on her. If she accepts the spell, only then they will be able to talk via intern messaging service, so, in this very unique dating website, women rule. […] the main target audience are women, they are the focus of the website, so they are the ones with the power to choose.

author: Luis Flores


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Sharia Law and Free Speech in Brunei · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Brunei has recently grabbed global attention because of its decision to implement the Sharia Law at the national level. The law features harsh penalties like stoning to death for adultery, cutting of limbs for theft, and flogging for violations such as abortion, alcohol consumption, and homosexuality.
Brunei is ruled by a powerful Sultan who is also one of the richest men in the world. Flickr photo by watchsmart (CC License)
Brunei is a Muslim-majority country. It is a monarchy where the Sultan is also the Prime Minister and wields absolute power in the government and in Brunei society. The Sultan is also one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Brunei netizens initially reacted strongly against the Sharia Law but opposing voices became silent after the Sultan warned online critics that they can be prosecuted for undermining the law.
The controversy became an opportunity to review the state of media freedom and free speech in the country. Some Brunei bloggers actually did this and they called for better criticism of social policies to promote accountability and good governance.
We should start with the basic issue: Is there media freedom in Brunei? Quratul-Ain Bandial has written an article for The Brunei Times highlighting the many issues facing Brunei’s mainstream media. According to the author, there is no censorship board in the country but self-censorship is being practiced:
There is no censorship board in Brunei that systematically vets what we publish, yet we live in constant fear. Fear of overstepping the invisible line in the sand that defines what we can or cannot say.
Mainstream editors are afraid to antagonize authorities:
Officials chastise us for portraying the country in a negative light, or reporting on things deemed “sensitive”.
And more often than not, editors would rather not take the risk of publishing something that might anger or offend the authorities. Under Brunei law, the government has the power to arbitrarily shut down media outlets and journalists can be jailed for up to three years for reporting “false and malicious” news.
Journalists are “reduced to becoming merely stenographers for government officials”:
Most news in Brunei is confined to event-based reporting, produced by covering the opening ceremony of this government programme or that ministry's housing scheme, without deeper investigation into underlying issues.
And that is all we are doing — merely reporting and not journalism. We are reduced to becoming merely stenographers for government officials, without getting the other side of the story.
The author reminded other journalists that this practice is a disservice to the public:
At this point, I would have to say we are failing the public in this respect. In the absence of free discussions and alternative viewpoints, there are no checks and balances on power, which is dangerous for anyone's future.
With mainstream media unwilling to report alternative views, many Bruneians have used the Internet to express their thoughts and to read dissenting opinions:
The Internet has become the town hall of the Bruneian community, with unrestricted access to content allowing people to air their views freely through online news sites, blogs and forums.
Meanwhile, writer Hazirah also noted that criticism is aired through ‘non-official’ sites like the Internet:
There is a culture in Brunei around criticism that has puzzled and frustrated me. The local media is not very critical – or not openly so. And because open criticism does not appear in the media, it is instead carried out in mostly “non-official” capacity.
But she also observed that many people, even those who are active online, refuse to be critical of the government:
There is a notion that the government, a potential target of criticism, cannot be criticised…It seems flawed to suggest that we cannot criticise the government.
She argued that criticism is required to help government official perform their job better:
People working in the government have made mistakes while designing systems or writing policies. They sometimes lacked insight, or asked too few people for feedback.
I’d like to see extended thought, explorations of ideas – critiques. If something has been done “wrong”, ask more probing questions: why isn’t it working, what are the consequences, how does this link to the bigger picture? If something is “good”, I’d like to see an exploration of that too.
And she reminded those in government to learn also from the opposing views of citizens:
I would argue that persisting in implementing controversial policies, without addressing concerns of the public, does not inspire trust. It is similarly difficult to maintain trust when you feel that you are not being given the whole picture.
I am asking if we can accept that criticism doesn’t mean attacking others, and that criticism shouldn’t be taken personally.
Similar to other countries, blogging has also waned in Brunei as more netizens switched to popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Faiq has written a brief history of blogging in Brunei and the role played by the Internet in expanding the opportunities for information sharing in the country. But whether it is blogging or microblogging, the main challenge is still how to broaden, strengthen, and protect free speech in this small but wealthy Southeast Asian nation.
Diverse and dissenting voices became less forceful during the first phase of the Sharia Law implementation. If the trend continues, it would mean a terrible reversal of the victories achieved by democracy and press freedom advocates.

author: Mong Palatino


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Trinidad & Tobago: Why the Smile over Baby Simeon?  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Attorney General uses the presentation of a report into circumstances surrounding a baby's horrific death during a C-section “as a photo opportunity”. Jumbie's Watch calls it “a symptom, and a cause, of what is wrong in Trinidadian society.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Video: Brazil’s Military Police Assaults Subway Workers on Strike · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

The Brazilian independent media collective Midia Ninja posted a video and a news report [pt] on Youtube that expose the violence of the Military Police of São Paulo against subway workers on a peaceful strike in the early hours of June 5, 2014. The video shows riot police officers charging against workers on strike with shots of rubber bullet at close range:
The report also indicates that less than a week to go before the World Cup, the strike “triggered by the Subway Union (…), affected about 4.6 million users of Metro on Thursday”, 5 June:
A categoria tentou de todas as formas negociar pelos seus direitos sem prejudicar usuários mas nenhuma proposta foi aceita até então pela Secretaria de Transporte do Estado.
Os Metroviários chegaram inclusive a propor a catraca livre enquanto forma de manter o protesto sem afetar a população: “Seria uma alternativa à paralização”, propôs o presidente do Sindicato Altino de Melo Prazeres Júnior. Geraldo Alckmin, Governador do Estado e responsável pela gestão do Metrô, afirma que o movimento é “político e sem sentido”, e atua com a força militar da polícia para impedir a reivindicação trabalhlista prevista em Lei.
Ao menos um trabalhador foi preso. A greve do Metrô continua por tempo indeterminado.
The workers tried in every way to negotiate their rights without harming users but no proposal was accepted hitherto by the Secretary of Transportation of the State.
The Subway workers have even proposed a free pass as a way to keep the protest without affecting the population: “It would be an alternative to the standstill”, proposed the president of the Union, Altino Prazeres Melo Júnior. Geraldo Alckmin, governor of the State and responsible for managing the Metro, says the move is “political and meaningless”, and works with the military police force to prevent the labour claim provided by Law
At least one worker was arrested. The subway strike continues indefinitely.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


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A Doctor Remembers His Days in Prison With Iran’s Unjustly Persecuted Baha’is · Global Voices
Global Voices

This photograph was taken several months before the Yaran or seven Baha’i leaders were arrested in Iran. Seated from left, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Saeid Rezaie, and standing Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. Photo credit: Bahá'í International Community United Nations Office
This guest post was written by Dr. Kamiar Alaei to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the imprisonment of the “Yaran”, seven leaders from the Baha’i, a persecuted minority in Iran. The Yaran – five men and two women –  are serving 20 years in prison, the longest sentence of any prisoner of conscience in Iran. The author of this post and his brother Dr. Arash Alaei were imprisoned in 2008 while they were running public HIV/AIDS programs in Iran. The brothers shared cells with the Yaran men while behind bars.
I have much in common with the seven leaders of Iran’s Baha’i community who, on May 14, marked the end of their sixth year in prison. Like them, I was unjustly imprisoned. Like them, I was held in solitary confinement without charge. Like them, I was deprived of a fair trial. I even shared a cell with the male members of this group in prison. But I was eventually released and allowed to go free, while they are now facing another fourteen years behind bars.
My brother Arash and I are medical doctors. Several years ago, we began running public health programs to help HIV/AIDS patients, drug users and other vulnerable populations in Iran. These programs were gradually approved and funded by the Ministry of Health, but, following political changes, in 2008, with no explanation whatsoever, we were arrested and detained as a result of our work. I was picked up the day after Arash, and he didn’t even know I had been arrested until 2009, when we went to “trial.” This was a brief episode, lasting only a few hours. At the end of it, I was sentenced to three years and Arash to six years for our public health work, with the official charge being “communicating with an enemy government.”
Arash and I were then separated for several months, during which time we each became cellmates with male members of the “Yaran-i-Iran,” or Friends of Iran, the seven members of the ad hoc leadership group of the Baha’i community of Iran. Iran’s Baha’is are a minority religious community that have been heavily persecuted since the 1979 Revolution, and the Yaran appeared to be the latest victims of this persecution. Like us, they were arrested and detained in 2008, and, when we met the five men, they had just finished four months of solitary confinement, without any contact with their families.
I know how crushing solitary confinement can be. I had also been in solitary for the first 63 days of my imprisonment, and it felt like a sort of death. I found myself praying, reciting poems I had learned as a child, and recounting times I had helped patients. Those memories were a lifeline that raised my spirit, even inside that small prison cell. Upon meeting the Baha’is, I realized that they, too, had found ways to keep their spirits strong during their time in solitary, as they had no bitterness, and were always seeking to help those around them, despite the difficult and inhumane circumstances they were in.
During our time with them in Evin, I shared a cell with Behrouz Tavakkoli, Jamoloddin Khanjani, and Afif Naeimi, and Arash shared a cell with Saeid Rezaie and Vahid Tizfahm. We came to know them as some of the most decent, kind, and upstanding people we had ever met. Like the rest of Iran’s 300,000-person Baha’i community, they are law-abiding, non-violent, non-political people who seek to serve their communities and their country. We knew that, like us, they had been unjustly imprisoned and we hoped that they would soon be released.
Unfortunately, in 2010, the Yaran were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment on charges including “espionage” and “corruption on earth.” Of course, they are innocent of these charges, and were convicted only because of religious prejudice on the part of some officials, but their 20-year sentences – among the longest sentence of any prisoners of conscience in Iran – were upheld on appeal.
Soon after, the male members of the Yaran were transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in Gohardasht, Iran. That was the last time we saw them, as I was released just a few months later, and Arash was released in 2011. We have since been living safely in the U.S., but our Baha’i friends are still in prison.
Arash and I think of the Baha’i leaders often. I know they are keeping their faith and continuing to find ways to be of service to their fellow inmates. I certainly hope they know that they are not forgotten. When Arash and I were in prison, learning that people around the world were remembering us and advocating for our freedom lifted our spirits and kept us going. Let us do the same for the Baha’is. Today, let us remember the Baha’i leaders and the Baha’i community of Iran, and let us continue working toward the day when all prisoners of conscience in Iran will be free.
The Baha'i, Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority, face severe persecution in the country. According to the Baha'i International Community, government-led attacks on Iran's 300,000 Baha'is have intensified in the last decade. Since 2005, more than 710 Baha'is have been arrested, and the number of Baha'is in prison has risen to 136. Attacks on Baha'is or Baha'i-owned properties go unprosecuted, creating a sense of impunity for attackers. Founded in Iran in 1844, the Baha’i Faith is the youngest of the world’s monotheistic religions, with more than five million followers in 236 countries and territories.

author: Global Voices


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Brazil or Argentina? Football Rivalries Play Out Thousands of Miles Away From the World Cup in Bangladesh  · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Football fever spreads in Bangladesh. Playing football in front of a wall colored with different national flags of the participants in the FIFA World Cup. Jatrabari, Dhaka. Image by Sourav Lasker. Copyright Demotix (8/6/2014)
The FIFA World Cup 2014 is about to begin in Brazil on June 12 and ‘World Cup fever’ has gripped Bangladesh, like it does, every four years.
Nothing can dampen the South Asian country's passion for football, not even their consistently low FIFA ranking – this year it is 167. Bangladeshis may not get the opportunity to celebrate their home team during the World Cup championships, but they do religiously follow and passionately cheer for their favourite international teams.
Most Bangladeshis are staunch supporters of either Brazil or Argentina. This football rivalry grips every Bangladeshi fan. Ahmad-Musa writes on [bn] the Somewhereinblog:
১২ জুন সাও পাউলোতে শুরু হচ্ছে ফুটবল যুদ্ধ। এই যুদ্ধে বাংলাদেশের আপমর জনতা মূলত ভাগ হয়ে যাবে ব্রাজিল-আর্জেন্টিনা শিবিরে। ঘরে ঘরে চলবে এই সমর্থন যুদ্ধ।এলাকা মহল্লায় কার আগে কে কত বড় পতাকা উত্তোলন করতে পারে, কাদের সমর্থক বেশি তা নিয়ে চায়ের টেবিলে ঝড় উঠেছে।
The Football war will start in Sao Paulo on 12 June. All of Bangladesh will essentially be divided into two camps – Brazil and Argentina. This show of support will be reflected in every home. Every neighbourhood is rife with competitive spirit about who is able to hoist the team flag before others. There are ongoing, heated debates over endless cups of tea about who is hoisting the largest flag, whose team holds more supporters etc.
Traders are out to make some quick money as the sale of jerseys of various countries soar ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Image by Md. Manik. Copyright Demotix (5/6/2014)
Everyone is wearing their team loyalties on their sleeve, especially on social media.
Marina Chawdhury (@M_e_R_i_n_a) tweeted in a lighter vein that (unlike others) she did not quarrel over football:
আমি ব্রাজিল সাপোর্ট করি। এবং আমি শান্তিপ্রিয় মানুষ।অন্য টিম সাপোর্টারদের সাথে ঝগড়াও করিনা :p
— Merina Chowdhury (@M_e_R_i_n_a) May 28, 2014
I’m a Brazil supporter, and I am a peace-loving person. I don't quarrel with the supporters of others teams.
Tailors sew Brazil and Argentina flags at a shop in Dhaka ahead of the World Cup. Image by Rohit Rajib. Copyright Demotix (21/5/2014)
Sale of flags of the competing nations rise to an all-time high during the World Cup season. Supporters and fans can be seen flying flags of their favorite teams from their houses, a phenomenon that caused Blogger Sobak Pakhi to comment:
বিশ্বকাপ ফুটবলের সময় ব্রাজিল, আর্জেন্টিনার পতাকা উড়ানোর উপর করারোপ করলে সরকার কিছু টেকাটুকা কামাইতে পারতো।
The government can earn some money by imposing tax on waving of Brazil-Argentina flags.
Ashiqur Rahman Rean wrote on Facebook:
Neymar and Messi should get their “revenue share” from the flag sales in Bangladesh during World Cup: they would go mad if they know the sales number here.
Nillufar Sharmin Jessy comments on the ubiquitous display of flags of playing nations, on almost every building and vehicles plying the roads:
World CUP Mania at Bangladesh. People waving flag on their building or transport.#LOVEFOOTBALL.@WorldCupPosts pic.twitter.com/sXl5tV7HfR
— Nilufar SharminJessy (@NilufarSharmin) June 1, 2014
Interestingly, though Bangladesh will not be playing in the World Cup, seven International teams will playing wearing jerseys made in Bangladesh. Zubayer Aziz is proud of this. He tweeted:
‘Brazil's jersey for the world cup will be made in Bangladesh and will proudly say so on the tag.’ #MadeInBangladesh
— Zubes (@ZubayerAziz) May 30, 2014
Blogger and educator, Ragib Hasan, raised a question on Facebook:
কিন্তু আর্জেন্টিনা ব্রাজিলের এই পতাকার ভীড়ে আমার এই সোনার বাংলার পতাকাটা কোথায়?
বাংলাদেশের পতাকা আইন অনুসারে বিদেশী পতাকা কেবল তখনি ওড়ানো চলে, যখন বাংলাদেশের পতাকা ওড়ানো হয় এবং সব চাইতে উঁচুতে সগৌরবে। খেলা নিয়ে আনন্দ, উল্লাস এসব আমাদের জীবনের, আমাদের বেঁচে থাকারই অংশ। কিন্তু খেলার উন্মাদনায় বাংলাদেশের লাল সবুজের পতাকার মর্যাদাটা ভুললে চলবেনা, কারণ লাখো শহীদের অর্জিত এই পতাকাটা কোনো ব্রাজিলীয় বা আর্জেন্টিনীয়র রক্তে না, বরং এই বাংলার মানুষের রক্তে, আত্মত্যাগেই এসেছে। কাজে ওড়ান পছন্দের দলের পতাকা, মনের আনন্দে, কিন্তু একই সাথে বাংলাদেশের পতাকাও উড়ুক, আর উঁচুতে, আমাদের গর্বে, আনন্দ বেদনার চিরসঙ্গী হিসাবে।
Amidst this ubiquitous presence of the flags of Brazil and Argentina, where is our Bangladeshi flag? According to Bangladesh flag law, you can fly a foreign flag only when you also fly your national flag, which must be flying in all its glory, at a higher level. Craze and fun around sports (and football) is fine. It is a part of our lives, a tonic for our daily living. But while doing so, we must remember to respect and honour our own national flag. We must not forget that  we achieved our flag through the sacrifices of our martyrs, and it was their blood, their sacrifice that won us this flag – not any Brazilian or Argentinian blood. So,go ahead, fly the flag of your favourite team and enjoy yourself but alongside, let our national flag fly higher, as a symbol of our national pride, joys and sorrows.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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China’s Dog Meat Festival – Cruelty or Culture? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

In some parts of China, dog meat is considered a delicacy at the dinner table and the practice of consuming dog meat has been around since 500BC, or possibly even earlier. However, as more and more Chinese are raising dogs as pets nowadays, they consider eating dog meat as cruel and barbaric behaviour.
In the past few years, animal rights activists have launched several campaigns, both online and offline, against the consumption of dog meat. Every year, they call for the abolition of the annual dog meat festival which involves eating dog meat hotpot with lychees and drinking strong liquor. The event takes place in Yulin city, Guangxi province on the summer solstice of the lunar calendar. This year, the date is June 21. On the other hand, local residents claim that the festival is part of the city's cultural heritage and traditional practices.
Last year, animal rights activists estimated that more than 10,000 dogs were killed during the festival. Below is Apple Daily's report on the preparation of dog meat in the 2013 festival:
This year's anti-dog meat festival campaign started in early May. A number of celebrities such as Chen Kun and Yang Mi have spoken out for the abolition of the festival since then. As the festival is approaching, in Sina Weibo, Chinese netizens have started tweeting anti-dog meat festival messages. Here is a typical campaign message written by Weibo user “Singing Feifei” (@踏歌的菲菲) with two campaign stickers attached:
Two campaign stickers against the dog meat festival circulated on Weibo. Via “Singer Feifei” Weibo.
为什么要有狗肉节？！把人装在笼子里，看着自己的同伴一个一个被杀，自己等待被宰杀，那种绝望的眼神再让人类自己看看！
Why do we need the dog meat festival?! Imagine putting humans into a cage and watching each other get killed while waiting for your turn. The desperate look in their eyes.
With popular support, animal rights activists went to Yulin to lobby the local government to stop the festival. In addition to the animal rights perspective, they put forward the food security and legal argument as the Ministry of Agriculture had issued a quarantine regulation on dogs and cats last year, requiring laboratory quarantine for the animals before they are transported. While the laboratory quarantine would cost 200 yuan to 300 yuan per dog (approximately US 30-48 dollars), local residents would not be willing to bear the cost.
To avoid the accusation that the authorities are involved in encouraging the illegal consumption of dog meat, Yulin government sent out a press release on June 6 [zh] that “there is no such thing as “Summer Solstice Lychee Dog Meat Festival” and that the so-called festival “has never been initiated by any government or civic organization… it is a form of social gathering during the summer solstice”.
While the Yulin government is washing their hand off the festival, dog meat lovers and Yulin residents are fighting back saying that animal right activists have no right to stop people [zh] from eating dog meat.
The Chinese food culture and individual rights argument have also found a lot of echoes from Chinese social media. For example “Xiya protector” (@希瓦的守护) said:
我个人很喜欢狗，也从不吃狗肉，但是我不会也没有理由反对玉林人吃狗肉，一个人不能因为自己的个人喜好而去否定其他人的喜好。
I like dog and have never eaten dog meat, but I can't find any reason to oppose Yulin people from eating dog meat. An individual cannot negate others choices because of one's preference.
Lu Daheng (@卢-达恒) believed the controversy is a reflection of cultural conflict:
狗是我们的朋友不能吃，这其实是西方传入来中国的思想 而玉林吃狗节系当地传统节日狗肉能不能吃表面上看系人同狗的问题 其实这是东方和西方思想碰撞问题 广西玉林＂狗肉节＂
Lu Daheng: Dog as people's friend and cannot be eaten. Such an idea is coming from the western world. Yulin's dog meat festival is a local tradition. The argument that dog meat cannot be eaten is not about human's relation with dog as it seems, but the conflict between eastern and western thought.
So far the most convincing argument is about food security. The compromise would be a system to guarantee the security of dog meat rather than a straightforward ban. Doctor Lui Lang in Weibo suggested:
如果我们要保证狗肉的食品安全，那么就必须从源头抓起，要有规范的养殖场，同时还要有严格的养殖档案和每只犬的外在标示，以方便可追溯。合理的防疫和驱虫 […] 这样下来的狗肉价格应该超过进口牛肉。
If we are to guarantee the food security of dog meat, the breeding farms should be regulated. Every dog should be marked so that if there is any thing wrong, it can be traced back to the farm. The dogs should have vaccines and take medicine to clear parasites. […] If all the measures are taken, the price of dog meat would be more expensive that beef.
But animal rights activists are not happy with the trade-off. Disaur exclaimed:
我们抵制狗肉节，抵制吃狗肉，当然，我们也永远不吃狗肉。吃狗肉与否，诚然，是每个人的自由，我们无权干涉。但我们呼吁大家共同抵制所谓狗肉节，谴责屠宰、制售狗肉的商家。贩售、屠宰猫狗永远不可能合法化 […]
We boycott the dog meat festival and the eating of dog. We will never eat dog meat. Of course, the consumption of dog meat is individual's freedom and we have no right to interfere. But we have to boycott the dog meat festival, condemn the slaughters and the dog traders. There is no way the trading and slaughtering of cats and dogs can be legalized [… ]

author: Oiwan Lam


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El Salvador Pays No Attention to Its Laws for Disabled People · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

Jaime Vásquez Villalta writes in his Spanish-language blog Desde mi Silla (From my chair) denouncing El Salvador's failure to observe the United Nations’ 1971 Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons. He mentions the six basic rights [es] of disabled people, according to international human rights legislation.
Vásquez describes what happens in his country:
Las normas jurídicas que amparan los derechos de las personas con discapacidad en El Salvador, es la Ley de Equiparación de Oportunidades para las Personas con Discapacidad, quien tiene como objetivo establecer el régimen de equiparación de oportunidades para las personas con discapacidad físicas, mentales psicológicas y sensoriales, ya sean congénitas. En la práctica son incumplidos y el Estado presta poca o nula atención a estas violaciones.
Las personas con discapacidad tienen derechos que deben ser respetados, para ello se requiere de reformas legales que den cumplimiento a lo establecido y, sobre todo, que todos los que conformamos una sociedad salvadoreña tomemos conciencia y cambiemos de actitud hacia las personas con discapacidad.
Legislation that protects the rights of disabled people in El Salvador, which is the Law of Equal Opportunities for Disabled People, has the purpose of establishing a system of equal opportunities for people with physical, mental, psychological and sensory impairments, whether or not they be congenital. In reality, these are not observed and the state pays almost no attention to these violations.
Disabled people have rights that must be respected and legal changes are necessary to comply with what is established, and, above all, everyone in Salvadorean society has to be aware and change our attitude towards disabled people.

author: Milton Ramirez


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For Literary Stars, Life’s A Beachside Festival In Jamaica · Global Voices
Annie Paul

Calabash Festival Moments (L to R): ) Salman Rushdie reads; interacts with audience members; a packed house; music is a key element of the festival. Images by Annie Paul and Georgia Popplewell. Used with permission.
In years to come, the problem of how to top this year’s stellar line-up is likely to be a key problem for the artistic director of the Calabash Literary Festival, whose 2014 edition came to a close on June 1.
Jamaica’s international literary festival has attracted some big names since 2001, when it made its debut at Treasure Beach, on the island’s non-touristy south coast; but this year the event was especially star-studded, featuring the likes of Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Colum McCann and Zadie Smith. Adam Mansbach, author of Go the Fuck to Sleep—now available in Jamaican Patois under the title Go the Raas to Sleep—and Paul Holdengräber, of Live from the New York Public Library fame, rounded out the celebrity line-up.
Holdengräber was there to interview the festival’s premier invitee—Rushdie—though the American curator’s flowery trousers and t-shirt may have been a trifle too casual for a Jamaican audience uptight about foreigners behaving as though the country is one big beach, even in the context of Calabash’s laid-back atmosphere (the festival’s main stage is a rustic open-air gazebo overlooking the beach). Holdengräber further alienated the audience by asking self-aggrandising questions that Rushdie barely had a chance to answer before besieging him with the next, but the celebrity interviewer soon recovered favour by drawing Rushdie out on the music in his books—with songs by Elvis Presley, U2 and Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” carefully lined up and waiting to be played.
“Lou Reed was a friend of yours, wasn’t he?” Holdengraber asked. Rushdie replied: “In a way it seems ludicrous to say Lou Reed was my friend; it’s like saying I had God’s email address.”
The once-elusive Rushdie, who spent many years undercover to escape the wrath of Muslim extremists offended by his novel The Satanic Verses, spoke on a range of subjects: the fictionality of fiction (“once you’re given that gift—of the fictionality of fiction–it liberates you”); occupying Kafka’s universe; his envy of writers deeply rooted in one place (e.g. William Faulkner and Eudora Welty); his influences, which include James Joyce’s Dubliners and Ulysses and storehouses of Indian stories like the Panchatantra and the Mahabharata that he called “wonder tales of the East”.
The author told a spellbound audience of the problems of being labelled a magical realist—with the stress on the “magic” part—when for him art is about telling the truth. He established a great rapport with his audience, often glancing searchingly around to gauge reactions. Calabashers experienced a friendly and relaxed  Salman Rushdie, standing on no ceremony whatsoever and amiably agreeing to have his picture taken with everyone who approached him.
The only thing to top a lion eating out of your hands is a tiger saying “meow”. The formidable Jamaica Kincaid, whom one might have expected to be quite ferocious, given the often uncompromising tone of her work, was disarmingly genteel and elegant. Her words packed a wicked wallop every now and then, just to remind you why she’s considered the “bad gyal” of Caribbean letters, but by and large she was in a warm and expansive mood. Calabash's artistic director, Kwame Dawes, in the role of interviewer, didn’t make the mistake of trying to compete with Kincaid, instead yielding up the limelight while expertly steering the writer in productive directions.
Among other things, Kincaid told a fascinated audience how much she loved money, gardening and the practice of writing. Children might occasionally be forgotten at school while Kincaid focused on finding the right words. Answering a question regarding the title of her latest novel, See Now Then, Kincaid described her writing as a delicate balancing act:
“I came to understand that the “now” had to be the weight, the balancing weight in the story. I tend to write that way. I tend to weigh how—it takes me a long time to complete a sentence because I have to see how the words. . . balance the sentence.”
Celebrities Rushdie and Kincaid were the standouts at this edition of Calabash, but for Indian writer Rahul Bhattacharya, author of The Sly Company of People Who Care, the music that’s an integral part of this quirky literary festival on Jamaica’s south coast is a great part of its charm. Calabash evenings culminate with beachside concerts and jam sessions by some of Jamaica’s top musicians.
“I don’t think any other festival I’ve been to has this kind of morning-to-night programming or this kind of venue right by the sea,” said Bhattacharya. “Calabash is more like a concert than a literary festival, which is also slightly intimidating for an author. There’s a tent, there’s a podium, there’s this pretty big sea of people. And at night—which is when I went on—the lights were shining in my eyes, and I felt like a performer—a little anxiety-making. So it has that concert feel and the way that people respond is as if at a concert or rally. They’re very responsive, they’re there from morning till night. It’s a pretty full tent and it’s probably the most vocally supportive audience I’ve ever seen.”
For Jamaica Kincaid, too, the large, enthusiastic, and primarily local audience was a surprise. “I’ve never seen so many black faces at a literary festival,” she exclaimed.
One very noticeable feature of the audience was its age and gender—it’s dominated by women in their 50s, 60s and 70s. The demographics of Calabash’s audience hints at future problems: with a dwindling and fast-aging population of book readers and the decline of the physical book itself as a commodity, are literary festivals now an endangered species?
Annie Paul is a writer and critic based at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, who has been published in numerous international journals and magazines. She blogs at Active Voice.

author: Annie Paul


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Heartbreak for Ibrahim and Djouma in the Central African Republic  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Ibrahim and Amadou – screen capture of UNHCR video on YouTube
Djouma and Amadou Moussa are Ibrahim's parents. Djouma and Ibahim are the two lone survivors of an incredibly violent attack by militiamen that took the lives of 5 of Ibrahim's siblings in the Central African Republic, near the border with Cameroon. The militiamen came while  Amadou Moussa was away. Djouma, 30, recalls the attack :
They found me with my children in the house; they gathered all the small children and slaughtered them with machetes. They killed six people, including five children in my presence [..] Ibrahim was among the six children they took. When they hit him with the machetes, they thought he was dead.
As seen in the video, Ibrahim bears the scar of the machete attack on his head. But Ibrahim came through, against all odds. Ibrahim's story epitomizes the ongoing plight of refugees from the Central African Republic in Cameroon. 20,000 refugees have crossed the borders since the beginning of the war. A petition was sent to US secretary of State John Kerry to remind him to take the “necessary steps to ensure that the peacekeeping operation is fully funded in FY2015.”

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Islamic Militants Seize Control of Mosul, Second Largest Iraqi City · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Thousands of Iraqis flee their homes as Mosul falls under ISIS control today. Photo source: Twitter user @mohsinani
Iraq's second largest city Mosul fell into the hands of Islamist militants today (June 10). Reports say the militants are from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a splinter group of the notorious Al Qaeda, which is also fighting in Syria.
Thousands of Iraqis have fled the homes following the fighting over the city. On Twitter, one Iraqi blogger Maryam Al Dabbagh, who is in the UAE, charts her family's struggle during the ordeal.
Her tweets from June 7 read:
Mosul under fire. Explosions and firing heard in several areas and almost no mention in intl media. #iraq
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
Several solidarity campaigns can be seen circulating around social media platforms to raise awareness about situation in #mosul
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
Dabbagh notes acts of kindness:
Reported that hotels in Mosul are opening up their doors to shelter the displaced families in #Nineveh . #iraq
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
Bakeries in (Adan, Al thubbat and al sukkar) areas distribute bread for free to people in #mosul #Nineveh #iraq
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
As the fighting continues over the city, Dabbagh's tweets turns to her family, still in Iraq:
I haven't seen my parents glued to tv like this since 2003 . I pray for the safety of my family and Iraqis in #mosul and #iraq .
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
She draws parallels to the ongoing fighting in neighbouring Syria:
Media narratives are confusing masses now in #iraq. Similar patterns from the Syrian war
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
And she looks back at recent history to compare the terror that has gripped her hometown:
This displacement is a first in #mosul history , even with 2003 the city has not seen such extreme measures. #iraq
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 7, 2014
On June 9, her tweets take another turn. She reports:
Reports from family in #mosul that electricity is off . Complete shutdown
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 9, 2014
Soon, her family takes the decision to join the thousands of people fleeing the city:
Family is evacuating homes in #mosul . لا حول و لا قوة الا بالله العلي العظيم
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 9, 2014
And then…
News confirming that the city is hours away from falling completely under the control of the armed militants. Army fled this morning #mosul
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 10, 2014
Her tweets from today, show her family stranded near the Kurdish borders. She explains:
Family stuck in car on the borders to duhook, no car is given access. Reports that tents are being prepared for the displaced #mosul
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 10, 2014
Al Kharez area on the borders to #irbil is completely closed. Chaos! Phonelines cut . People are disconnected . #iraq
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 10, 2014
Meanwhile, Dabbagh tries to reason with conflicting reports:
Kurdish prime minster says #kurdistan is open to refugees from #mosul. But on ground reports from Iraqis there claim the borders are closed
— Maryam Al Dabbagh (@maryamwd) June 10, 2014
Watching television, Zaid Benjamin is surprised to see Iraq TV is playing a song while it's second largest city was falling into militants control:
التلفزيون العراقي الان مع ورود انباء عن خروج ثاني مدن #العراق عن السيطرة الحكومية بحسب محافظها اثيل النجيفي pic.twitter.com/IjJIb7mmuR
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) June 10, 2014
Journalist Hassan Hassan comments:
Iraqi state TV shows an interview with singer Abdulhusain Allami while Baghdad is losing control over a second city https://t.co/fDTgpWRzae
— Hassan Hassan حسن (@hhassan140) June 10, 2014
Meanwhile, the Arab world is watching as the chaos unfolds.
From Bahrain, Huda Al Mahmood wonders [ar]:
كارثة جديدة تحل بالوطن العربي.. ولا أتصور أن وصول القاعدة الى الموصل سيخدم أحدأ !! يامن تكافحون الإرهاب!! #الموصل
— Huda Al-Mahmood (@Huda_E_AL) June 10, 2014
A new catastrophe befalls the Arab world. I don't imagine the control of Mosul by Al Qaeda will serve anyone. Where are all the counter-terrorism attempts?
Palestinian Maath Musleh asks:
داعش تطلق 2725 سجين من سجن #الموصل…كم منهم رح ينضم لداعش؟ #العراق
— مَعاذ مصلح (@MaathMusleh) June 10, 2014
The ISIS releases 2725 prisoners from a Mosul prison. How many of them will join ISIS?
And Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi states the obvious:
داعش تسيطر على #الموصل !!! أتوقع ان يكون لهذا الخبر تداعيات حتى خارج العراق .
— جمال خاشقجي (@JKhashoggi) June 10, 2014
The ISIS takes control over Mosul. I expect this news to have repercussions outside Iraq

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Mass Protest in Guangzhou, China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hundreds of Guangzhou residents gathered at Sanyuanli yesterday afternoon against the police action in confiscating some private property in a warehouse for fire prevention purpose. The protest turned into a confrontation between police and protestors, the latter turned over police cars in the process. Charles Liu from nanfang.com has the story.


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Vinegret, Anyone? These 5 Videos Will Help You Become a Russian Master Chef · Global Voices
Анна Щетникова

Most often, Russian cuisine is associated with pelmeni, pancakes, and vodka. Over the generations, however, Russians have loved and cooked a much wider array of national dishes. Home-cooking is a cherished Russian tradition, many families (especially when grandparents are present) sit down around the dinner table and eat together. This article describes some dishes that non-Russians will likely find less familiar. For each meal, you'll find a video showing how to prepare the dish.
1. Vinegret
Let's begin with appetizer. Vinegret is a salad made of beetroots, potatoes, pickled cucumbers, and other ingredients. In its present form, it is popular in Russia and Ukraine, though it came to Russian cuisine from Scandinavia in 19th century, and on this way it lost some ingredients and acquired others. (Fun fact: vinaigrette has almost nothing in common with Russian vinegret.)
2. Okroshka
Okroshka is something between a salad and a soup, and is called “cold soup.” One needs to add diced meat (or fish), vegetables (like potatoes or carrots), herbs, and finally kvass (a drink that is usually used in Slavic countries). Okroshka is cooked in the summer heat, when nobody wants to eat anything hot. Blogger ira_plyushkina asks, “What is the summer without okroshka?,” and shares her memories about it from her childhood.
3. Shchi
Now to the main course: a soup. Shchi is a soup made from cabbage, meat, carrots, and other flavorings. These are only the main ingredients, however, and lots of variations are possible. Some people add mushrooms; some use sorrel instead of cabbage; and others add apples. But all this is the one kind of soup—however strange it may seem.
4. Kulich
Unlike the previous dishes, which are ordinary meals, kulich is a ritual bread prepared for Easter. It is just one of the varieties of Easter meals that were common in Central and North Russia. In the past, each family baked a kulich and carried it to church to be consecrated by a priest. In modern times, however, most people buy this in stores, where the bread is sold industrially before the holiday. Kulich is popular to buy or bake even outside the Russian Orthodox faith.
5. Pickled apples
Among urban Russians, this meal is largely forgotten. In the past, peasants soaked apples in oak barrels to store them for the winter. (Alas, they had no refrigerators!) LiveJournal user arfagrafia, for instance, writes about her childhood, before Russia imported vegetables and fruits. In shops, “the floor was made of stone, the shelves were wooden, and very big tubs stood there.” But now, she complains that “there are no pickled apples anywhere!” Despite modern appliances and fruit imports, many in Russia still pickle apples at home. It can produce a very tasty meal!
Thumbnail image is by Loyna, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-2.5.

author: Анна Щетникова


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Some Young Soldiers in Tajikistan’s Army Are Being Hazed to Death · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

The life of a Tajik soldier is a hard one (Image uploaded onto YouTube by user Central Asia Media)
Besides being the poorest country in Central Asia, Tajikistan might also be the region's leader in treating young military conscripts, most horribly.
Unheated barracks, lack of food, and routine violence are quite common  for those who choose to (or are forced to) serve their motherland. The recent death of a young conscript, fatally beaten [ru] by his lance sergeant, has brought the issues of national conscription, forced abduction into the army and military hazing into sharper public focus.
According to an investigation that concluded last week, after a communal dinner on April 17, LSgt Farrukh Davlatov requested three young army recruits to go to a room where he promptly began beating them. After getting hit in the stomach, one of them, Akmal Davlatov (no relation), choked [ru] on a piece of bread he had not fully digested and died on his way to a hospital.
Systematic violence in relation to young military conscripts is not unusual in post-Soviet militaries. There is even a special term for it – dedovshina – wherein ded refers to older draftees close to finishing their term in the army. Young recruits go through a number of “trials” at the hands of the ded that usually involve some form of humiliation. Soon those oppressed find themselves in the positions of oppressors, creating what some believe is a vicious circle, and others believe is a school of manhood.
The following video entitled “Dedovshina in the Tajik Army” shows draftees standing against the wall and being violently beaten by a ded.
Naturally the comments underneath the video are mostly condemnatory.
Kayumars Sayfullo writes [taj]:
Эй вой дод. Ба. Холи. Шумо. Мусалмонон. Барои хар як шатаи задагиат. Дар. Пеши. Худованд. Чавобгаред
Shame on such Muslims like you. For every time you strike a blow, you will be judged by God.
Dedovshina fuels reluctance to enter the army. Many would-be conscripts emigrate to Russia in search of work, while those with the means bribe their way out of military service. Because of this, some recruitment officers resort to the practice of oblava, or kindapping young men of military age.
The following video shows an oblava victim begging [taj] to be released:
Although most responses to the video focussed on the wrongdoing of the government, some commenters under the video felt the young draftee overreacted:
Forsi persi wrote [ru]:
Бародарони точик ба хизмат равед ва хизмати модар ватанро адо кунед…ин шармандаги барои ин чавон писареки ин хел гиря мекунад марг бар ту номард ….
Tajik bretheren, go to the army and serve your motherland. It is a shame for a young man to cry like that. Shame on you, coward.
Despite the kidnappings being illegal, a Tajik human rights defender told the BBC that about 40% of the republic's military conscripts arrive [ru] in the army as a result of kidnappings. Oblava sometimes goes international. In an article entitled “Oblava Without Borders” RFER/L's Tajik service reported that 31 Tajik students studying in a university in Batken, Kyrgyzstan were abducted [ru] into the Tajik army during their academic semester. Legally students should get an exemption from serving, but that did not stop recruitment officers, who refused to return the students despite requests from the university and the draftees’ parents.
Being over the age of military conscription also does not guarantee safety from the kidnaps. Djaloliddin Ahmad, who is 42, was kidnapped [ru] on his way to a mosque in broad daylight. When he tried to talk to the officers about his rights he was insulted and mocked. More tragically, in March 2014, another young private fell [ru] victim to dedovshina. Shahbol Mirzoyev ended up in a hospital with a broken neck and a number of other injuries when he went to an army medical station complaining of tooth pain. The executors of the beating he received were paramedics at the medical station.
Here Mirzoyev describes [taj] his experience:
Given the increasing prominence of incidences of manslaughter and suicides [ru] in the Tajik army, the fact many young Tajik men take a “whatever does not kill you only makes you stronger” approach to their national service verges on dark comedy. Nevertheless, that was the essence of Pozhiratel Kurutoba's recent tweet [ru] on the topic:
Выить [sic] в нашей армии и не сломаться – это вообще задача не из лёгких. Зато если ты выживешь в армии, ничего в жизни тебя не сломает.
Surviving in our army is no easy task. But if you do survive the army, nothing in life can break you.
Conservative blogger Rustam Gulov, who is organizing an online fundraiser for Mirzoyev, has also written [ru] on the practices of oblava and dedovshina in a blog post on blogiston.tj titled “Have You Served?”

author: Chris Rickleton


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The Cult of Political Personality in Trinidad & Tobago  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Grunge textured flag of Trinidad and Tobago on vintage paper, released under a standard Creative Commons License – Attribution 3.0 Unported.
One political blogger is tired of the mud slinging that passes for political debate in Trinidad and Tobago, venting her displeasure in a post that looks at how political campaigns have historically played out in the country and suggesting that change has to be effected from the electorate:
Engineering dirt and flinging it into interesting patterns on the public wall aren’t anything remotely new to politics; and certainly not new to ours.
As early as 1961, our electoral process was plagued with ethnic tensions that led to questionable behavior.
In the course of the campaign, violence broke out and limited states of emergency had to be declared…
That was just one example. The blogger also referred to the “infamous gun hoax” of 1981, in which candidates from a contesting party, the Organisation for National Reconstruction, faked a shooting, made a false report to the police, publicly blamed other political groups and were never brought to task for their actions.
The Eternal Pantomime referred to recent instances of similar behaviour, but focused her attention on last week's revelation of an alleged smear campaign against the country's current opposition leader, after which she addressed what she saw as the key issue of the next election – political performance:
An election is constitutionally due by September 2015. The UNC/PP Govt [the United National Congress and its People's Partnership coalition, which comprise the current government] has not a chance in hell of winning it, despite Kamla’s [Persad-Bissessar, the country's Prime Minister] sustained popularity. There are simply too many scandals and missteps to sidestep during next year’s campaign.
Usually an incumbent party campaigns on its track record [but] this Government has a dismal track record with legislation. From Section 34 to Soldier Bill, to DNA Bill to Dangerous Dogs, no one is happy with how inefficient a Cabinet filled with lawyers are at drafting legislation.
She criticized the tactics that she determined the government was using in a bid to hang on to political power:
1. Circle the wagons of support around the leader and have the party base lash out in a wild, incoherent frenzy at anyone who dares to criticize her.
2. Raising the race bogey.
3. Target and smear the leader.
Instead, she believed that any campaign – from the incumbent party or any challengers – should be run on performance and track record:
We, the electorate, must rise above the noise and examine the UNC/PP's track record from 2010 to whenever an election date is called; and we must examine the PNM’s [the People's National Movement, the opposition party] track record, specifically Rowley’s [its political leader] achievements and skills.
Compare the track records of the two leaders before us: Keith and Kamla.
Let’s make 2015 about performance, not smear campaigns against personalities.


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This Unique Anti-Rape Protest by Women in India Has Shocked Kerala · Global Voices
Inji Pennu

A group of women in Kerala conducting an unique protest against the rape and lynching of the dalit teenage girls in Uttar Pradesh, India. Image by Thasni Banu. Copyright: Sthreekoottayma, used with permission
A group of women created a furore in India's southern state of Kerala when they stood in public, wrapped in banners with anti-rape messages on them. But what message got conveyed through their unique protest?
India is still coming to terms with the news of the rape and lynching of two teenage girls belonging to Maurya (widely referred as dalit in many media), a ‘lower’ caste community in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, last month. The graphic images of the bodies hanging from a tree were widely circulated both online and offline heightening outrage and controversy around the incident.
The family of the two girls, who were cousins, alleged that men from the Yadav community (who are higher in the order of the Indian caste system vis-a-vis Dalits but are themselves classified under ‘Other Backward Castes’ or OBCs in many states) brutally raped the two girls when the two had gone to the fields to relieve themselves as they did not have a toilet in their home. Afterwards, they were hanged from a tree, which is where they were discovered the next morning.
Farah Naqvi, an activist working on public policy for rights of the most marginalized, wrote an op-ed in The Hindu newspaper, where she pointed out why lynching is done in societies.
these hangings were part of a public drum-beating semiotic of power; unspoken racial social laws enforced by terror.
While there were candlelight vigils, massive outpouring of sympathies and protests for the Delhi rape victim, most of the citizen voices have been strangely silent despite the many instances of rape that have come to light across the country since then.This incident too would have perhaps faded to the background, as is seen all the time when rape happens to lower caste women in India’s villages. However this time, since the photographs were widely circulated on social media (even though their circulation led to controversy) it jolted some from their slumber.
The sounds of the deafening silence, reverberated through Kerala as well, forcing people to question this overall lack of public outcry after this incident.
Rupesh Kumar, a filmmaker and a Dalit activist, asks about the silence of the media and of the society.
എന്തെ, ഇപ്പൊ നിങ്ങളെ മെഴുകുതിരി പീടികകൾ മുഴുവൻ പൂട്ടിപ്പോയാ? എന്തെ ഇപ്പൊ നിങ്ങളെ ഡൽഹിയിലെ തെരുവുകളിൽ ഭൂകമ്പം ഇണ്ടായാ? എന്തെ ഇങ്ങടെ തൊള്ളയിൽ ആരെങ്കിലും കൊഴുക്കട്ട കുത്തിക്കേറ്റിയാ? എന്തെ നിങ്ങളെ കടലാസിന്റെ മുൻ പേജ് പാട്ടത്തിനു കൊടുത്താ?
അല്ലാതെ ഉത്തർ പ്രദേശിൽ ബലാൽസംഗം ചെയ്യപ്പെട്ടത് രണ്ടു ദളിത് പെണ്‍കുട്ടികൾ ആയതു കൊണ്ടല്ല, നിങ്ങൾ നിരത്തിൽ ഇറങ്ങാത്തത്…!
അവനവനു ആവശ്യമുള്ളപ്പോൾ മാത്രം എടുത്തു ഉപയോഗിക്കാവുന്ന അശ്ലീലതായായി മനുഷ്യത്വത്തിനെ മാറ്റാൻ ഇന്ത്യൻ ജാതി വംശീയതക്കല്ലാതെ മറ്റെന്തിനാണ് കഴിയുക?
Are the candle shops closed? Or did an earthquake happen in Delhi? Or someone choked you? Your front pages were leased for something else? I am sure those are the reasons why there is this silence about the dalit women and I am sure it is not because they are Dalit. Only when it suits you, how disgustingly the word humanity is used.
A group of women, angry that nothing has been done yet, held a protest in the city of Ernakulam in Kerala, covering themselves with banners that were in tri-colors symbolizing the Indian flag. The ‘sthreekoottayma’ group that consisted of a small group of women, arranged this protest event.
People in Kerala were shocked to see women protesting by standing in the open wrapped in banners that left their shoulders and legs bare. Unfortunately, instead of mobilizing large-scale support for the case of the teenage girls, this unique act of protest was what caught eyeballs and was widely talked about. The police even arrested the protestors for indecent exposure.
Thasni Banu, who took part in the protest had this to explain.
സ്ത്രീ ശരീരം രാഷ്ട്രീയ ആയുധമാക്കുന്നവർക്ക് എതിരെ , സ്വന്തം ശരീരം തന്നെ ആയുധമാക്കിയാണ് ഞങ്ങൾ പ്രതികരിച്ചത്.
ഞങ്ങൾ ഉയർത്തിയ മുദ്രാവാക്യങ്ങളിലേക്കും അതുയര്തിയ രാഷ്ട്രീയ സാഹചര്യങ്ങളിലെക്കും നോട്ടമെത്താതെ , മുദ്രാവാക്യം എഴുതിയ ബാനറിനു പുറത്ത്ഞ വെളിപ്പെട്ട ഞങ്ങളുടെ കാലുകളിലും കഴുത്തിലും മാത്രം നോട്ടം തറപ്പിച്ചവർക്ക്, ഞങ്ങളുടെ നഗ്ന ശരീരമാണ് ഇവിടെ ബലാത്സംഗത്തിന് കാരണമെന്നു അലമുറയിടുന്നവർക്ക്, വീട്ടിൽ കക്കൂസില്ലാത്തത് കൊണ്ട് ഒഴിഞ്ഞ പറമ്പിൽ പോയ സമയത്ത് ബാലോൾ ഭോഗം ചെയ്യപെട്ട, കൊല്ലപെട്ട , തൂക്കിയിടപെട്ട പെണ്‍കുട്ടികളുടെ പേരിൽ നല്ല നമസ്കാരം
We used our bodies to protest against people who are using women’s bodies as a political weapon. Without hearing our voices of protests and slogans, without understanding the apolitical climate which is permeating in the society, people are more worried about our bare shoulders and legs. To those people who still think female bodies are the reason for rape, we mock at all those people, in the name of those girls who were raped and lynched in Uttar Pradesh.
Women in Kerala protest against the rape and lynching of the dalit women in Uttar Pradesh, India. Image by Thasni Banu. Copyrights: “Sthreekoottayma”, used with permission.
When the onlookers’ verbal assault on these women grew out of proportion, amidst all the moral cacophony on how to conduct a protest, Da ly who is a Research Scientist in Mumbai, took it upon herself to stand in solidarity with the protestors, which she did by uploading a similarly wrapped picture of herself as her profile picture on Facebook.
Some of the lewd comments were displayed as a page, where men were catcalling women who protested. To that, Anjaneya Sivan who is a computer Engineer wrote:
സാച്ചര ഗേരളം , പ്രപുത്ത ഗേരളം
Literate society, intellectually active society of Kerala
From the comments made by bystanders, it appears that chauvinism is deep rooted in Kerala's society, regardless of people's education and social consciousness.
Ajithkumar AS, who is a music composer and a dalit activist wrote about the nature of the protest,
പ്രതീകാത്മക സമരത്തിന്റെ ഒരു പ്രതീകാത്മക അവതരണമായിരുന്നു ദളിത് സ്തീകൽക്കെതിരെയുള്ള ലൈംഗിക അതിക്രമങ്ങൾക്കെതിരെ സ്ത്രീ കൂട്ടായ്മ നടത്തിയ സമരം എന്നാണു ഞാൻ മനസിലാക്കിയത്. മണിപ്പൂരിലെ സ്ത്രീകള് ഉള്പ്പെടെയുള്ള സ്ത്രീകള് നടത്തിയിട്ടുള്ള സമരം പോലെയുള്ള നഗ്നതയെ സമരായുധമാക്കുകയല്ല അവർ ചെയ്തത്. ഒരു ബാനര് കൊണ്ട് മൂടി ആ ഒരു പ്രതീകത്തെ സൃഷ്ട്ടിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. അവര് സമര സ്ഥലത്തേക്ക് എത്തിയ വസ്ത്രങ്ങളുടെ മുകളിൽ ഒരു പുതപ്പു മൂടിയതോട് കൂടി അവർ ഉള്ളിൽ നഗ്നരാനെന്ന രീതിയിൽ ചിന്തിച്ചു ഞെരിപിരി കൊള്ളുന്ന്വരെ ഓർത്ത് സമരത്തിൽ പങ്കെടുത്തവർ ഉള്ളിൽ ചിരിക്കുനുണ്ടാവാം. പത്രക്കാരുടെ ഒളിഞ്ഞു നോട്ടമാനോഭാവമാണ് കടുപ്പം. ഒരു തുണി കൊണ്ട് മൂടിയ ഉടനെ “ഉടുതുണിയില്ലാ ‘ സമരം എന്ന മട്ടിൽ മജീഷ്യൻ മുതുകാടിനു പോലും സാധിക്കാത്ത രീതിയിൽ സമരക്കാരെ മുഴുവൻ “ഉടുതുണിയില്ലാതവരായി” മനസ്സിൽ കണ്ടത് അത് പോലെ പത്രത്തിൽ എഴുതി വച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. സമരം ഉന്നയിച്ച രാഷ്ട്രീയം ആ വെപ്രാളത്തിനിടയ്ക്ക് പത്രക്കാർ മറന്നു പോയി.
The women who protested at Ernakulam were representing the sexual assaults on women. Unlike the Manipur women, who protested against the Indian military using their naked bodies, these women in Kerala, symbolized the protest in their own way. They covered themselves in a banner and created a myth of nakedness. These women would have laughed at the frustrated crowd who were imagining these women were in fact naked. More than the crowd, media acted as peeping toms. They ran headlines as “Protest by Naked Women” even though nothing of that was the truth. Media forgot what the protesters actually represented.
The conversations regarding the conduct of protest were never-ending.
Jayarajan Jayarajan C N who works for Kerala State Government asks about the validity of such protests in Kerala.
എറണാകുളത്ത് സ്ത്രീവേദിക്കാര് നടത്തിയ സമരരൂപത്തിന്റെ പ്രത്യേകത കൊണ്ട് സമരരൂപത്തിനെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള ചര്‍ച്ചയാണ് പിന്നീട് അരങ്ങേറിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്. യു.പിയിലെ ബലാല്‍സംഗം അതിനൊരു നിമിത്തം മാത്രമായി ചുരുങ്ങിപ്പോയില്ലേ എന്നൊരു സംശയം.
ഇത്തരത്തില് ഒരു സമരം എറണാകുളത്ത് നടത്തിയാല് എറണാകുളത്തുകാര് സമരക്കാരുടെ ശരീരത്തിലേയക്ക് നോക്കിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുമോ അതോ അവരുടെ മുന്നില് വെച്ചിട്ടുള്ള ഫോട്ടോയില് നോക്കിക്കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുമോ?
സമൂഹത്തില് ഉണ്ടാവുന്ന ഗൗരവകരമായ വിഷയങ്ങള് ജനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് മുന്നിലേയ്ക്കവതരിപ്പിക്കുമ്പോള് പാലിയ്ക്കേണ്ട ചില മര്യാദകളുണ്ട്.
Due to the nature of the protests, the conversation shifted from the main focus to the way of protesting. What happened in Uttar Pradesh just became a side story. If this is the way a protest is conducted, will the people at Ernakulam look at the women or at the picture of the two teenage girls that were raped? When such protests are conducted, there should be some format of conduct that will draw attention to the main issue.
Above all this, the way the Kerala Government took action against the protestors was in fact strange and shocking.
T T Sreekumar who works in MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad) talks about the charges that were brought against these women,
എറണാകുളത്ത് പ്രതീകാത്മകമായി നഗ്നതാ സമരം നടത്തിയ ആക്ടിവിസ്സ്റ്റുകള്‍ക്കെതിരെയുള്ള കേസ്സുകള് അസംബന്ധവും മനുഷ്യാവകാശവിരുദ്ധവുമാണ്. എത്രയും പെട്ടെന്ന് അവ പിന്‍വലിക്കണം. അതുപോലെ ആ സമരം പൊളിക്കാനും പ്രവര്‍ത്തകരെ ആക്രമിക്കാനും തുനിഞ്ഞ ബലാല്‍സംഗാനുകൂലികള് എന്ന് സംശയിക്കേണ്ട ഒരു കൂട്ടo ആളുകളെ എന്തുകൊണ്ട് പോലീസ് തടഞ്ഞില്ല എന്നതിന് ഉത്തരവും വേണം. സാങ്കേതികമായോ രാഷ്ട്രീയമായോ ശരിയല്ലാത്ത നിലപടാണ് ഇക്കാര്യത്തില് പോലീസിന്റെയും സര്‍ക്കാരിന്റെയും. നിയമവിരുദ്ധമായ നഗ്നതാ പ്രദര്‍ശനമോ ഭരണഘടനാ വിരുദ്ധമായ പ്രതിഷേധരൂപങ്ങളോ അവിടെ ഉണ്ടായില്ല. മണിപ്പൂരില് സ്ത്രീകള്‍ക്കെതിരെ നിരന്തരം നടക്കുന്ന പട്ടാള അതിക്രമങ്ങള്‍ക്കെതിരെ സ്ത്രീകള് പൂര്‍ണ നഗ്നരായി മാര്‍ച്ച് ചെയ്തപ്പോള് നഷ്ടപ്പെടാതിരുന്ന മാനമൊന്നും ഭരണകൂടത്തിനോ അതിന്റെ സംവിധാനങ്ങള്‍ക്കോ ഈ സമരം കൊണ്ട് നഷ്ടപ്പെട്ടിട്ടില്ല. ഒരു നിയമവും ലംഘിക്കപ്പെടാത്ത സമാധാനപരവും പ്രതീകാത്മകവും ആയ ഒരു സമരത്തില് പങ്കെടുത്തവരെ നിലനില്‍ക്കാത്ത വകുപ്പുകളില് പെടുത്തി പോലീസ് സ്റ്റെഷനിലേക്കും കോടതികളിലേക്കും വലിച്ചിഴച്ച് ഭയപ്പാട് സൃഷ്ടിക്കാന് ശ്രമിക്കുന്ന സമീപനം അംഗീകരിക്കാനാവില്ല. ഈ കേസ്സ് പിന്‍വലിക്കാന് ഒരു നിമിഷം പോലും വൈകരുത്.
The cases charged against the women who took part in the protest for the dalit teenagers is absurd and inhumane. This should be retracted as soon as possible. Why didn't the police charge cases against the people who were in fact attacking these women who were protesting democratically? The Government has taken a non valid stance politically or technically. The women didn't do streaking which is unlawful in India nor did they do anything undemocratic. When women in Manipur protested using their bodies against the military atrocities of the Indian Government, no arrests were done. Then what happened now? When the whole arrest episode is unlawful why is the Government terrorizing the society? Why are these women pulled into police stations and courts? This cannot be agreed at all. Retract the cases immediately.
When the law of the land and the society is against you, is there any light at the end of the tunnel for India's women?

author: Inji Pennu


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Trinidadian Writer Makes Frank O’Connor Award Longlist · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Repeating Islands notes that Trinidadian writer Barbara Jenkins has been longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for her book Sic Transit Wagon, adding: “The shortlist of six will be announced at the end of the week.”


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‘Women Work 2 to 3 Hours More Than Men’ · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

Image by Ed Yourdon on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
From Venezuela, Marita Seara Fernández, a member of the collective Mujeres Construyendo [es] (Women Building), an online community that aims to end the digital gap among women, took part in the “First International Women Bloggers Conference” [es] in Mexico on October 2013. She notes that women barely represent 25 percent of the Spanish-speaking blogsophere and that this kind of event are still “uncommon” among them, as they need to express freely and uncensored and without limits.
Fernández writes [es]:
Hay muchísimas voces femeninas en el mundo, sobre todo en países donde la represión, discriminación y desigualdad es parte de su día a día. Hay pocas.
[..]
Si comenzamos con que el , para disminuir esta brecha es esencial el cambio o implantación de nuevas políticas públicas que van desde la  y  desde edades tempranas hasta la ayuda en el manejo y redistribución del tiempo de las mujeres, de manera así que puedan acceder al aprendizaje de estos recursos.
There are many female voices in the world, mostly in countries where repression, discrimination and inequality are part of their daily lives.  There are few of them.
[..]
If we start by saying , to shorten this gap what is fundamental is change or new public policies from  and  from very young ages to helping with the management and redistribution of women's time, so they can have access to learning about those resources.
Among other things, she notes that “women work 2 to 3 hours more than men, “. You can read more on her post [es].


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Analyzing the Protests Before the 2014 World Cup · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Image by Fernando H. C. Oliveira on flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In digital magazine Distintas Latitudes (Different latitudes), Mexican internationalist Vanessa Rebollar analyzes [es] the elements present in the Brazilian protests caused by 2014 FIFA World Cup. She brings up some questions:
¿Cuál es el contexto dentro del cual han surgido las protestas? y ¿Quiénes son los actores y sus demandas y cómo se han logrado articular los intereses de los diversos sectores de la población?  Así, en un primer momento hablaré de las coordenadas social, política y económica que pueden explicar o dar sentido al surgimiento de las movilizaciones,
What is the context in which the protests have arisen? Who are the actors and their demands and how have they managed to articulate the interests of the various sectors of the population? So, at first I'll talk about social, political and economical coordinates that may explain or give a sense of the beginning of the demonstrations.
After noting corruption as a common element to all of the above, she addresses some features of the protest and concludes:
Brasil puede dar lecciones dentro y fuera del estadio. A raíz de las protestas, la población ha sido más conciente y crítica de la gestión del gobierno de izquierda, que si bien ha avanzado en unos aspectos, en otros aún ha quedado a deber y esto será reflejado tanto en las calles como en las urnas.
Brazil can teach lessons inside and outside the stadium. Since the protests started, the population has been more aware and critical of the leftist government, which if it has made some progress in some aspects, in others it still has much left to do and this will be reflected on the streets and in elections.
You can follow Distintas Latitudes [es] and also Vanessa on Twitter.

author: Juan Arellano


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This Colombian Campaign Took Reggaeton Lyrics and Turned Them Into Shocking Images of Women Being Abused · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

A group of Colombian photographers are taking on reggaeton. They say that eight out of ten women who listen to the popular Latin American music genre feel mistreated by it. To drive home their point, they've created graphic choreographed images of some of the more shocking lyrics.
“Reggeaton female consumers: 8 out of 10 women who listen to Reggaeton feel that they are mistreated by it”. Image from Twitter account of campaign @Usa_larazon [Use your head].
“Si fueras un clavo y yo un martillo, quisiera CLAVARTE” #usalarazon #campaña #porlamujer #compartelo pic.twitter.com/izJmCS4GcB
— Usa la razon (@Usa_larazon) Mayo 6, 2014
If you were a nail and I a hammer, I'd want to NAIL you.
According to Mexican news site Noticaribe [es], the photographers started the campaign “Usa la razón” (Use your head) because:
Las letras [del reggaetón] contienen cierta dosis de contenido sexual y violencia, muchas veces la mujer es tratada y vista como un objeto. Frases como “pa” que se lo gozen [sic], pa” que se lo rozen [sic]” o “a ella le gusta que le den duro y se la coman”, entre otras. Un grupo de personas se unieron para fomentar una campaña con cuatro afiches donde muestra la violencia en las letras del reggaetón. El objetivo de la campaña “Usa la razón”, es generar conciencia en las mujeres que escuchan este género musical y así sean conscientes del papel que protagonizan en él.
[Reggaeton] lyrics have some dose of sexual content and violence, women are treated and seen as an object. Phrases such as “so they can enjoy, so they can graze it” or “she likes it hard and to be eaten”, among others. A group of people got together to start a campaign with four posters that show the violence within reggaeton lyrics. The “Use your head” campaign aims to raise awareness among women who listen to this music genre so they can be aware of the role they have in it.
Reggaeton has its roots in Caribbean music, which Urban Dictionary says came to Latin America in the '70s, “when Jamaican workers moved to Panama to work on the canal and brought reggae music with them”. With some further inspiration from Panama's Reggae en Español, Reggaeton was invented and shaped in Puerto Rico, which is where most of its current artists come from. It started getting popular with audiences in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa in the early 2000s. Lyrics tend to be about social criticism, reflection, love and daily life problems.
The campaign (@Usa_larazon) and its graphic images took off on Twitter.
#usalarazon que la música no degrade tu condición pic.twitter.com/HVcaBYK9Co
— Usa la razon (@Usa_larazon) May 3, 2014
Don't let music humiliate your condition [as a woman].
En la cocina Voy a darte TABLA #usalarazon #porlamujer pic.twitter.com/iQiKVToiIz
— Usa la razon (@Usa_larazon) Mayo 3, 2014
In the kitchen, I'm going to give you some WOOD [meaning that she will be beaten with a rolling pin or some other wooden kitchen tool].
“A ella le gusta que le den duro y se la COMAN” #usalarazon #porlamujer @cartelurbano pic.twitter.com/t3Zu87CLC5
— Usa la razon (@Usa_larazon) Mayo 12, 2014
She likes it hard and to be EATEN.
The campaign resonated with some people:
Es el Reggaeton un tipo de violencia contra la mujer? Campaña colombiana invita a que reflexionemos sobre ello @Usa_larazon
— Fiorella Solari (@Fio_Solari) junio 6, 2014
Is reggaeton a kind of violence against women? Colombian campaign invites us to reflect on that.
@DatosGrachi @JeyFresitah @OrianaTampoa1 las invito a ver esta interesante campaña: @Usa_larazon #QueLaMusicaNoTeDenigre #UsaLaRazon
— Alejandro Torres (@AlejoEl_Conejo) junio 6, 2014
I invite you guys to take a look at this interesting campaign.
Recomendado especial para @MannyMontes: la campaña @Usa_larazon Un poco fuerte pero muestra una verdad incomoda
— Andrés Camacho (@SoyElEvangelico) junio 6, 2014
Especially recommended for @MannyMontes: the campaign @Usa_larazon Kind of intense, but depicts an uncomfortable truth.
Como pides respeto y en la disco desarmas tu esqueleto bailando musica con mensaje enfermo que sin tocarte manosea tu cuerpo? @Usa_larazon
— CindyLo Parra (@CindyLoCantant) junio 6, 2014
How can you ask for respect then at the night club practically dislocate your bones dancing to music with a sick message that gropes your body without touching you?
#Usalarazón: Excelente campaña de Usa la razón en contra de las letras ofensivas de las canciones. @Usa_larazon http://t.co/p539IqKCw9
— La R-vuelta Colombia (@larvuelta) junio 6, 2014
Excellent campaign, Use your head against the offensive lyrics of some songs.
Some tweeted against the campaign.
@Usa_larazon Ahora pondrán a todos en contra del reggaeton? están exagerando demasiado, en el metal hablan de violar a la mujer, infórmense!
— Rubí Dueñas (@RubiShayla) junio 9, 2014
Now we all are going to be biased against reggaeton? This is overkill, in metal they talk about raping women. Go find out!
@gabitaitaita @Usa_larazon vaya gilipollez
— cid (@ShurCid) junio 9, 2014
Such nonsense.
One reggaeton group said that their lyrics actually work to highlight women's issues:
@Usa_larazon Los invitamos a escuchar nuestro nuevo sencillo #YaNoAguantoMás en contra de la degradación de la mujer https://t.co/1pSjCSIYp4
— Ziudad Real Oficial (@ZiudadReal) junio 5, 2014
We invite you to listen to our new single YaNoAguantoMás [I can't take it anymore] against the humiliation of women.
In response to any potential criticism, “Use Your Head” wrote on their Facebook page [es]:
Como campaña, no pretendemos ir en contra del reggaeton, solo queremos que haya más consciencia [sic], para que la reacción sea valorar más a la mujer en este genero musical, no como objeto sexual sino como ser pensante, inteligente y valioso tanto en espíritu cuerpo y alma.
As a campaign, our intention is not to be against reggaeton, we just want there to be more awareness, so that women might be appreciated more within this music genre, not depicted as a sexual object, but as a deeply intelligent and valuable thinker in spirit, body and soul.
And what do you think? Do reggaeton lyrics indeed humiliate women or is it a case of exaggerated outrage over some harmless words?

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Beautiful Landscape in Talampaya  · Global Voices
María Romina Mascareño

Photo by Laura Schneider, used with permission.
Laura Schneider tells on her blog [es] Viajes y relatos [Travels and tales] her visit to al Talampaya National Park, located in La Rioja Province, Argentina. On her post, her words and pictured are a testimoniy of this charming place:
El Parque Nacional Talampaya, uno de los tantos lugares que es difícil explicar como es. Es difícil transmitir tanta belleza natural. Incluso durante el recorrido, sentí que el guía estaba demás […]. Son 5 paradas que se hacen y en todas, ante tanta inmensidad, el ser humano pierde el ego. Los suspiros no alcanzan y los almanaques se convierten en papel picado ante tanta historia.
Talampaya National Park, one of those places that's hard to explain. It's hard to convey so much natural beauty. Even during the tour, I felt the guide was unnecessary […]. There are five stops and in each of them, facing so much immensity, human being loses the ego. Sighs aren't enough and calendars become confetti when facing that much history.

author: María Romina Mascareño


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From Our World Cup Archive: How Brazil Fooled the World With a Meme · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The most widespread image of the joke. Unknown author
Remember “Cala Boca Galvão”, the Internet meme that became a worldwide joke when millions of Twitter users started telling a famous Brazilian sports narrator and broadcaster, Galvão Bueno, to shut up, during the 2010 World Cup opening ceremony?
Almost instantly it was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter and people from all over the world were trying to understand what was going on.
People armed with Brazilian humour stepped up to elaborate with a fake urgent call to help save a supposedly endangered species of bird (the “galvão”), and asked people to retweet “Cala Boca Galvão” as loud as possible. This video created in June 2010 about the fictional bird that needs to be saved from the World Cup has more than 2.2 million views.
Mainstream media outlets helped spread the hoax that was later described by The New York Times as “one of history’s most successful cyberpranks”, and clarified this in its blog The Lede.
Read the story by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia from our archive: Brazil: The ‘Cala Boca Galvão’ Phenomenon.

author: Sara Moreira


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Getting Tickets for the 2014 World Cup is a Total Nightmare · Global Voices
Luis Flores

Image by Rachel Swallows on Flickr. CC BY-ND 2.0.
Mexican Emmasito shares [es] on his blog his misfortunes when trying to get tickets for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which kicks off on Thursday, June 12. He notes that the problem is not the prices that range from 90 to 175 US dollars, which is affordable considering the magnitude of the sporting event, but the long waiting hours, the high demand for the tickets and problems with the net, among other barriers:
Justo a las 5 AM estábamos al pendiente […] y debido a la alta demanda a nivel mundial, FIFA te pone en una “cola” virtual y hasta que sea tu turno puedes entrar a comprar. Para no hacer la historia larga, nos dieron las 7:30 y seguíamos esperando con una desmañanada brutal. Eventualmente pudimos entrar, pero para ese tiempo ya no había boletos disponibles.
Right at 5 a.m. we were on the lookout […] and given the high worldwide demand, FIFA puts you into a virtual “line” and only when your turn comes you can go ahead and buy. To make a long story short, at 7:30 we were still waiting, totally disoriented. Eventually we were able to get in, but by then, there were no tickets available.
The author is a big fan of the most popular sport in the world and will be sharing his experiences during his visit to Brazil. Follow his blog [es] or his Twitter account if you are also a football fan.


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Kazakh “Bloggers” Program Gets to the Real News · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

Kazakhstan's online program Блогеры (bloggers), presented by Angela Garipova does [ru] a good job of covering socially relevant themes that the country's state-directed media doesn't always get to via funky footage and the views of Kazakhstani social media users. This week the program looked at the decision of the regional government of Karaganda to rename the city's Soviet-sounding streets after Kazakh heroes, a local court fining a pensioner for living off wild garlic and onions, and (more trivially) a Colombian sheep football tournament.(N.B. That is sheep playing sport, rather than a sport played with sheep).
Angela Garipova tweets @goribaldy


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‘Let’s Go, Argentina!’ · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Image by Facundo Pramparo on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
On Futbol Champagne, Argentinian Manuel de León writes [es] a letter to the football national team prior to the 2014 Football FIFA World Cup in Brazil:
Me tomo hoy, a través de esta carta, el atrevimiento de pedirles que dejen la vida dentro y fuera de la cancha por estos colores; que cuando vayan a correr una pelota, lo hagan como la sangre celeste y blanca que les corre por dentro; que cuando traben una pelota no lo hagan con toda sus fuerzas, sino con la de 40 millones de argentinos, porque vamos a estar con ustedes. Estaremos en oficinas, bares, restaurantes, casas, colectivos, el tren, el subte, las fábricas, en la calle. A lo largo y a lo ancho de un país entero.
Through this letter, I am bold enough to ask all of you to make more than your best effort for those colors; when you run after a ball, do it as the light blue and white blood inside you, when you take the ball don't do it with all your heart but with the heart of 40 million Argentinians because we are going to stand by you. We will be at offices, bars, restaurants, homes, public transportation, train, subway, factories, on the street. From every corner of a whole country.
You can follow de León on Twitter.


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Meeting with Putin, Industry Leaders Ditch Users on Digital Rights · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Vladimir Putin attends the Internet Entrepreneurship in Russia Forum in Moscow, June 10, 2014, Kremlin Press Service.
At a highly anticipated meeting today, Vladimir Putin spoke to Yandex’s Arkady Volozh, Mail.ru’s Dmitri Grishin, and others — all Internet industry leaders who stand to lose huge sums of money if the Kremlin’s Internet crackdown causes Russian consumers to take their business to foreign competitors like Google. The “Internet Entrepreneurship in Russia Forum” was organized by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives—a non-profit organization Putin created in May 2011, ostensibly to cut red tape for new businesses.
Throughout Putin’s third presidential term, which began in 2012, the government has released a steady stream of new regulations and laws curtailing online freedoms. In August this year, a set of “anti-terrorist” statutes will go into force, saddling bloggers and websites with a host of new obligations and restrictions. There are more laws rumored to be on the horizon that could pose additional problems for search engines like Yandex.
Times have been tough for RuNet businesses. In late April, after Putin stated publicly that the CIA controls the Web. When he complained about Western pressures on Russian Internet companies, Yandex suddenly dropped 16 percent on Nasdaq.
In the wake of these developments, and considering the fact that Putin hasn’t met with Internet industry heads in over a decade, today’s conference promised something provocative. What happened, however, was anything but.
RuNet VIPs at today’s forum did not ask the President a single direct question about the repressive Internet laws that have multiplied in recent years. Nobody asked about the law that will effectively equate “popular bloggers” with mass media. No one asked about the law that will force websites to archive half a year’s data on servers available to Russian law enforcement. Not a word was said about the Attorney General, which is now entitled to ban websites extrajudicially for “extremism.”
The person who came closest to broaching the sensitive issue of online political freedom was Mail.ru’s Dmitri Grishin, who gently suggested that the government consult more closely with Internet companies before passing new regulations. “It’s very often that the ideas in these regulations are very sound,” he began, “but unfortunately it sometimes occurs that the implementation, generally speaking, scares some people.” To avoid this, Grishin proposed a “system process” to ensure better feedback.
In response, Putin explained that regulations are unavoidable in a “normal society,” telling the audience that Internet commerce is now too big in Russia to escape state supervision. “Every day, a third of our citizens go online,” Putin said, “and of course this is subject to some kind of regulation.” The President then claimed that the government has consulted with Internet industry heads before introducing blacklists of websites that allegedly host child pornography and information promoting suicide, illegal drugs, and terrorism. “We’re all adults,” Putin observed, and then urged the crowd to “remember the children.”
The market has reacted swiftly to the results of the meeting — the Kremlin, it seems, has signaled that it won’t be digging in shareholders’ pockets. Yandex stock rallied to a three-month high, erasing losses from April. Shares in Mail.ru Group, too, reached their highest level since April 1 on the London Stock Exchange.
Internet freedom is a wonderful thing, but nothing apparently soothes investors like photographs of a smiling Vladimir Putin in a room full of nodding executives.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Peru: Love Is… New Ways of Surprising Your Girlfriend · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

He had it all planned to surprise his girlfriend on her birthday giving her a huge teddy bear, but a transportation strike made him walk [es] more than four miles (seven kilometers) carrying along the gigantic present.
This is the happy ending story of Jonatan Rosas, from the district of Yanacancha, in the Peruvian city of Pasco. The incident didn't go unnoticed on Twitter:
ESTO ES AMOR? Caminó 7 kilómetros con un oso gigante para regalarlo a su novia PERÚ.- Jonatan Rosas, que vive en… http://t.co/5aptR9yG3L
— Radio Valle Viejo (@radiovalleviejo) junio 10, 2014
IS THIS LOVE? He walked 7 kilometers (4m 61 yards) with a huge teddy bear to give his girlfriend a present PERÚ.- Jonatan Rosas, who lives in…
Jonatan Rosas se vio obligado a llevar caminando el pesado regalo para su enamorada debido al paro que acatan los… http://t.co/etrRhu2lXI
— Peru News 140 (@perunews140) junio 10, 2014
Jonatan Rosas had to walk carrying along the heavy present for his girlfiend due to the transportation strike…
Jonatan Rosas, realizó una sacrificada caminata cargando un pesado peluche de más de 1.60 metros de altura por… http://t.co/SjhXWM7AIo
— Peru News 140 (@perunews140) junio 10, 2014
Jonatan Rosas took a sacrificed walk carrying a heavy 1.60 m (5'2″) teddy bear due to…


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Show Me The Money: Caribbean Discrimination Case Awardee Still Not Paid · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

The Caribbean Court of Justice Logo; photo by Mark Morgan, used under a CC license.
The Shanique Myrie case was a landmark event in Caribbean jurisprudence. Last October, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that the Barbados immigration was wrong when it strip-searched Ms. Myrie and prevented her from entering the country.  Now, eight months after the ruling, Myrie has still not received the compensation she was awarded in the case – and she is not happy about it.
In the Facebook forum Real Change For Jamaica, some commentators were wondering what was the real motivation behind the case. Gyntaf Gsg wanted to know what was going on:
‘I NEED MY MONEY'…??? Was this what was REALLY behind this showpiece Trial??
EIGHT months after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that Jamaican Shanique Myrie be awarded damages for an illegal cavity search, detention in a dank room in the Grantley Adams Airport, and subsequent deportation, she is yet to collect a cent.
ONE…WINNING A CASE IS ONE THING…COLLECTING IS ANOTHER…She could wait eight years.
TWO..The truth has a way of coming out…
Paulette Stanley did not see the problem with Myrie being motivated in part by money:
And??? Justice was done and I am sure those learned judges/attorneys ‘peeped and glared’ down and through her motives. She won the case and an award [was] handed down. So she should be paid. Who cares what her motives are/were? I am sure Rosa Parks or maybe Martin Luther King had selfish motives (could be) but a precedent was set – a line was drawn – never to be crossed. Let us stop tearing down one another. If the greater good (not the motive) will serve another's good it is ALL good!
Boyous Mortley noted that the money was an issue from the very start:
The young lady is on record saying it is a matter of principle and money. These were her words, not [mine]. To be complaining about money represents an antithesis of her position. You cannot twist facts people.
Garnett Spence thought she was right to complain if she has not received her due:
Nothing is wrong about complaining about the money…it was awarded her…that's what a lawsuit is all about – penalizing the perpetrator – and if she can't get her money, should she forget about it?
Ainatarb Bre Kay also saw nothing wrong with Myrie's position:
Ooh…ok then, nothing is wrong with her wanting the money…some will say it shouldn't be about the money, but if she was giving the money to [those] same people…they wouldn't have said it.
On Twitter, many users called for Barbados to pay Myrie the total which was awarded, with some arguing that the CCJ's legitimacy is at stake:
The media stated that #ShaniqueMyrie won the case against the #BarbadianGovt so why the procrastination in paying her?
— alwaysblessed (@authenticity01) June 9, 2014
If is it that Jamaica is helping to finance the CCJ we must stop immediately. It not working out for us and our citizen (Shanique Myrie)
— Dreamz31 (@Dreamz31) June 10, 2014
I swear this CCJ business is a fraud 8 months & all now Shanique Myrie cant even get a down payment from a country like Barbados (rich)
— Dreamz31 (@Dreamz31) June 10, 2014
Barbados needs to pay Myrie now. AJ needs to step in and help her send a message! We are nobody's footstool!!
— El Comandante (@Aujae_Dixon) June 10, 2014

author: Matthew Hunte


text:
Some Clarity on New Russian Blogger Regulations · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

Nikita Khruschev and Dmitry Medvedev are both interested in high-tech. Anonymous image found online.
The Russian agency in charge of regulating the Internet, Roskomnadzor, has released a new document detailing how laws governing blogs will operate when they comes into effect later this summer. Previously, it was unclear how exactly Roskomnadzor would determine “popular” bloggers — defined as webpage owners and social network users with more than 3,000 daily unique visitors.
According to proposed regulations, released to the public on June 10, 2014, bloggers will have to self-report their daily unique visitors upon a request from Roskomnadzor. If they are unable or unwilling to fulfill this request, Roskomnadzor can resort to using online traffic measurement services (presumably similar to Alexa Ranking), or to other proprietary “programs” which can perform the required tasks. Roskomnadzor also names itself as the authority of last resort in any disputes over the numbers of daily unique visitors (through an internal Commission). Finally, in order to qualify as a “unique visitor,” an Internet user has to be present on a webpage for 15 seconds or more.
If these regulations appear to be clunky and difficult to implement, they are. Roskomnadzor is attempting to make sense of the letter of a law which left all technical details out when it passed the State Duma. Yet, it's still unclear how the daily audience of a Facebook account can be determined, since, for example, readers can read posts from their own “timelines” without ever visiting the account in question. The criteria Roskomnadzor will use when deciding which websites need to provide it with viewership information are also a mystery. If this decision-making process is left opaque, it will certainly be open to abuse — like, say, the targeting of political bloggers, all too common in the past months.

author: Andrey Tselikov