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US Law Students, Driven by Their Own Family Stories, Are Helping Asylum-Seekers · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Law student Sara Ehsani-Nia (middle) at a rally calling for the release of child asylum seekers held at a juvenile detention facility near Sacramento, California. Credit: Zaidee Stavely
This story by Zaidee Stavely originally appeared on PRI.org on April 20, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
A colorful mural on the wall at the University of California, Davis’ immigration law clinic shows letters from immigrants behind bars and chains turning into quetzal birds: a metaphor for the students’ work.
Chicano studies students painted the mural and “chose the quetzal over the dove because it represents freedom,” explains the clinic's co-director, Holly Cooper. “In the Mayan mythology it’s believed that if a quetzal is brought into a cage, it will die.”
Only 15 minutes away from the university is a juvenile detention facility that contracts with the Office of Refugee Resettlement to hold minors who crossed the US border alone.
“It’s sickening and disturbing to even drive to this detention facility, because two doors down is a brand new high school, that my clients should be attending,” says law student Sara Ehsani-Nia. “Instead they’re behind bars in a detention facility after having committed no crimes. It’s illustrative of our really broken system.”
Ehsani-Nia has represented five clients this year, through the immigration law clinic, which lets students take on cases, with guidance. And more clinics like this one — focusing on immigrants and asylum-seekers — are being created. Many of the students at the UC Davis clinic are from immigrant families themselves.
“I was born in Los Angeles, and my parents are refugees from Iran,” says Ehsani-Nia. “The foundation’s the same: You’re coming to this country with virtually nothing, and knowing virtually no one.”
But Ehsani-Nia knows her family’s story is also fundamentally different from that of many of her clients, three of whom have been unaccompanied minors from Central America.
“My family wasn’t in detention,” she says. “It’s drastically different. Immigration detention is jail, it’s jail conditions. It takes a huge psychological toll.”
The last client Ehsani-Nia had was G.E., a 14-year-old boy from Honduras. Ehsani-Nia asked that we only use the boy’s initials since he is a minor in foster care. G.E. says he fled severe abuse in his home in Honduras. He also left alone, crossed the Texas border, and turned himself into authorities. He has no family in the US. He won asylum in January, but remained in detention. That’s where Ehsani-Nia met him.
“Every time we visited him we would bring a deck of cards with us and play cards or dominoes,” Ehsani-Nia says. “We felt that would loosen him up, and make it slightly easier to ask difficult questions that we needed answers to in order to complete our habeas.”
Eventually, the boy was released into foster care. Ehsani-Nia joined a rally outside the detention center to protest against it holding dozens of unaccompanied child migrants inside, and to celebrate G.E.’s release. Ehsani-Nia saw him right after he was freed.
“It was really remarkable,” she says. “He was wearing the clothes he wore when he was brought into detention a year ago. And as you can imagine, a 14-year-old boy in his growing stage looks a little bit different. But that was literally the only thing he owned: that T-shirt, those shorts, and those sandals.”
At the rally, an immigrant rights advocate reads a letter that G.E. wrote to supporters, who lobbied for his release and donated a duffel bag full of clothes for him. “Me gustó la gorra de los Red Sox. I really liked the Red Sox hat,” he reads, to laughter. “I hope to meet you some day. Con mucho cariño, G.E. With lots of love, G.E.”
After the rally, Ehsani-Nia takes a few minutes in her car to call her mom. She greets her mom in Farsi, then switches to English.
“Do you remember my 14-year-old client that was in immigration jail? We got him out yesterday!” she announces.
“Oh I’m so glad,” answers her mother. “That’s a good job. I’m so proud of you.”
Ehsani-Nia says she feels drawn to give back as an immigration lawyer, in part because of her parents’ story.
“A lot of what you see with all the students, there’s almost like an invisible thread of your past pulling you to do certain areas of work, whether you sort of realize it or not,” Cooper says.
She explains how her own family history drew her to this work. Her grandfather fled Russia as a child and was later abandoned when his mother could not take care of him anymore. She says students’ stories make them strong advocates.
“Students can also be cultural navigators, and say, ‘Holly, don’t do that,’ or ‘You may want to try this,’” Cooper says.
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the clinic has received more calls from students and community members wanting to help. Clients, too, are on high alert. One client calls or emails almost every day, worried about being detained or deported, Cooper says.
For Ehsani-Nia and many of her fellow law students, Trump’s executive orders on immigration feel personal. “It’s scary to feel attacked in this way,” Ehsani-Nia says. “It’s very insulting, and professionally it’s scary to see our clients going through so much distress.”
When Trump’s executive order tried blocking people from certain countries from entering the US, Ehsani-Nia drove to San Francisco, and helped an elderly Iranian couple detained at the airport. For the first time, she spoke Farsi for her legal work. It felt good, she says, and reminded her of something her parents taught her: to value her citizenship by voting, raising her voice, and standing up for the rights of others.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Is This the End of the Fifth Republic in Venezuela? · Global Voices
Marianne Diaz Hernandez

Cartoon by Eduardo Sanabria (Edo). Used with permission.
After a month of continuous protests against President Nicolás Maduro's government, his announcement on May 1, 2017 calling for a “popular constitutional assembly” that would replace the country's current Constitution — approved in 1999 as the foundation stone of Hugo Chávez's mandate — was not well received by diverse sectors of Venezuelan society.
Moisés González, who considers himself a Chavista, wrote for the online news site Aporrea, affirming that the call opens two roads: the elimination of the so-called “Bolivarian Constitution”, or the search of “formulas that violate the democratic principles that kept the Revolution legitimate”. González pointed out that:
Ambas opciones colocan entre la espada y la pared la continuidad del proceso democrático iniciado por Chávez en 1999. Ambas opciones limitan la posibilidad de la izquierda de reorganizarse y purgar sus filas para una recuperación verdadera de la Revolución Bolivariana. Ambas opciones colocan el país en bandeja de plata a la política reaccionaria. Ambas opciones pudieron evitarse con la publicación de un cronograma electoral y la aceptación de elecciones y demás posibilidades democráticas presentes en la mejor Constitución del continente.
Both options put the continuity of the democratic process started by Chávez in 1999 against the wall. But options limit the possibility for the left to reorganize and purge its members for a true recovery of the Bolivarian Revolution. Both options put the country on a silver platter for reactionary politics. Both options could have been avoided with the publication of an election timetable and the acceptance of elections, and all the other democratic possibilities that the best Constitution in the continent offers.
On the other hand, researcher Eduardo Febres backed the government's decision on his Twitter account:
Desconfío profundamente de la dirigencia madurista. Pero estoy de acuerdo con la propuesta de salida a la crisis que planteó hoy.
— Eduardo Febres (@eduardofebres) May 2, 2017
I strongly mistrust Maduro's leadership. But I completely agree with the crisis exit proposal he put out today.
The initial declarations from Maduro were not clear as to the reach and methods of the call, which resulted in several interpretations by politicians, lawyers and regular citizens.
On the website Prodavinci, José Ignacio Hernández evaluated the measure's legal aspects in terms of their constitutional fit:
Tomando en cuenta todo esto, podemos entonces valorar el riesgo de esa propuesta: la ilegítima designación de una “asamblea nacional constituyente popular”, en violación al derecho al sufragio directo, secreto y universal, permitiría afectar el funcionamiento de todos los Poderes Públicos y aprobar una nueva Constitución, todo ello, al margen de la democracia.
Por ello, en el fondo, el anuncio de convocar a una “asamblea nacional constituyente popular” no es más que la continuación del golpe de Estado permanente, ahora, en un nivel incluso superior.
Taking into account all these, we can then evaluate the risk of this proposal: the illegitimate designation of a ‘national popular constitutional assembly’, in violation of the direct, secret and universal voting rights, that would allow disruption of all the Public Powers, now, on an even superior level.
The measure has been qualified as arbitrary; a radical answer to the pressure that looms over Maduro after the almost daily protests that have hit the country since March 30, 2017, when the National Assembly was dissolved, and a sort of “forward runaway” that pretends to change the game rules to allow him to stay in power for longer.
If it is indeed called, the Constitutional Assembly puts a hold to all kinds of elections, and places under its orders the rest of the constitutional powers.
Eugenio Martínez, a famed journalist, asserted:
El chavismo convoca la unica eleccion que puede ganar: una eleccion de ANC manipulando bases comiciales y sistema de elección
— Eugenio G. Martínez (@puzkas) 1 de mayo de 2017
Chavismo calls for the only election it can win: an election of the ANC (National Constitutional Assembly) that manipulates the electoral bases and system.
Cartonist Roberto Weil reflects this scenario by drawing a Nicolas Maduro, in check, who “order[s] that the rules be changed”:
Weil en el clavo: pic.twitter.com/LCAMq7b4N1
— Álvarez Gales (@alvarezgales) May 2, 2017
Weil nailed it.
Lawyer and writer Gonzalo Himiob Santomé posted on his Facebook profile his interpretation of the measure's meaning:
En mi criterio, la intención de Maduro detrás de la maniobra, indiscutiblemente inconstitucional, es la de simular apego a los mecanismos democráticos y supuesto “respeto” a la soberanía popular para, en primer lugar, ganar tiempo, y en segundo lugar, para tener a la mano y bajo control una instancia que estará por encima de todos los poderes constituidos (Fiscalía, y Asamblea Nacional, entre otros) para entonces poder gobernar sin la incomodidad y obstáculos que le impone nuestro modelo de Estado.
In my view, the Maduro's intention behind this move, undeniably unconstitutional, is to simulate he's following the democratic mechanisms and a supposed ‘respect’ to popular sovereignty so, in the first place, he can win time, and in second place, he can have a close and controlled tool that would be above all constitutional powers (Attorney's Office, National Assembly, among others) so he can govern without the discomfort and obstacles that our State model imposes on him.
According to Maduro's own words from Monday, the formation process of the Assembly would imply the election of at least 500 representatives, half of which would be chosen by sector representation; that is, by social categories that presumably will derive from organizations like community councils, which are not provided for in the Constitution, and are the result of social and political control from the government. Journalist and activist Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez wrote:
Así que el disfraz de elegir 200 o 250 constituyentistas de los 500 propuestos por Nikolav para la Constituyente “popular, obrera y comunal” busca ahorrarse el referendo consultivo necesario (si la gente quiere o no ir a este proceso) y disfrazar de “democracia popular” una elección en segundo grado que viola la universalidad del voto y de la elegibilidad: es decir, que cualquiera pueda votar o ser elegido.
So the disguise of electing 200 or 250 constitutionalists of the 500 proposed by Nikolav [Nicolás] for the ‘popular, working and community’ Constitutional Assembly is looking to save himself from the necessary referendum needed (to ask the people whether or not they want this process at all) and don a mask of ‘popular democracy’ to a second degree election that violates the universality and eligibility of the vote: which is that anyone can vote or be elected.
On Tuesday May 2, 2017, the professors of Constitutional Law of Venezuela's Central University pronounced themselves against the initiative, underlining that the vote should be universal, free, direct and secret; and that even if the president has the right to propose a constitutional initiative, he cannot call to a direct election without a previous referendum.
The next day, in a closed-door session, President Maduro read and signed Decree 2.830, which pretends to “activate” the call for a process named “Citizen Constitutional National Assembly”. As expected, the decree confirms that the members of said assembly will be elected:
[…] en los ámbitos sectoriales y territoriales bajo la rectoría del Consejo Nacional Electoral, mediante el voto universal, directo y secreto […].
[…] within the sector and territorial spheres, under the rule of the National Electoral Council, by universal, direct and secret vote […].
This confirms, as pointed out by José Ignacio Hernández, that the election won't be universal, but:
[…] un sistema de elección por ‘sectores’, permitiendo a cada sector definido por el Gobierno (la clase obrera, por ejemplo), designar, dentro de su seno, a los representantes ante la asamblea constituyente. Al menos, como se dijo el 1° de mayo, para la mitad de los constituyentes, lo que garantiza al Gobierno controlar a esta fraudulenta asamblea nacional constituyente.
[…] an election system by ‘sectors’, allowing each sector defined by the government (the working class, for example), to designate, within its inner circle, the representatives to the constitutional assembly. At least, as it was said on May 1, for half the electoral members, which guarantees the government control over this fraudulent constitutional national assembly.
Follow our Venezuela special coverage with more articles about the latest developments in the country.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Marianne Diaz Hernandez


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Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Uses His Ten-Second Defeat of Tai Chi Master to Challenge Chinese Kung Fu Bureaucrats · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

MMA VS Tai Chi. Screen Capture.
In about ten seconds, a Chinese Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, Xu Xiaodong, defeated Tai Chi Master Wei Lei in a fight in Chengdu on April 27, 2017. The fight came about after a few months of online quarrel between the two over the development of Chinese Kung Fu — Xu criticized traditional Chinese martial arts for being too performative, losing its practical combat skill thanks to the bureaucrats who run martial arts organizations like corporations.
His accusations about “fake combat competitions”, along with his open challenge to the representatives of traditional martial arts, created an online uproar that went on for more than a week.
The fight between Xu and Wei was streamed via social media and soon went viral online. Below is a copy from YouTube:
After the fight, the Tai Chi circle attempted to rescue its reputation by suggesting that Wei Lei is not a genuine master, while others pointed out that the combat competition rules are unfair towards traditional Chinese martial arts.
Xu responded via WeChat that he would continue challenging major representatives of Chinese martial arts, in order to expose the “fake Kung Fu” phenomenon in the sector:
我徐晓冬，在中国武术界打假，要打也要打大老虎，我今天39也不年轻，有年轻的掌门我打，有老的掌门，我一晚上连打两个或三个！那些掌门不要逃避，都掌门了，怎么不敢打？
I, Xu Xiaodong, want to expose the fake Chinese martial arts and the big tigers. I am now 39 years old. I will fight the young representatives and old representatives. I can have two or three rounds of battles in one night. Please don't avoid the fight; as representatives of major Kung Fu style, dare not you join the fight?
On May 7, both Xu's Weibo and WeChat accounts were suspended.
The problem of “fake Kung Fu” performance has caught public outrage in the past few years. The most well known example has been Tai Chi master Yan Fang’s public performance of “Chi” in September 2012. The fake performance of pushing down four big guys with Chi was exposed by one reporter on spot, and the video went viral. Yan was the fifth vice-chair of the Hebei Martial Arts Association.
Hence, many Chinese netizens supported Xu and were thrilled to see more public fights. But Tai Chi grandmaster Chen Zhenglei urged his students not to react to Xu’s challenge.
Below is Chen’s letter, which was circulated via various Chinese social media:
各位弟子大家节日快乐！我和你们师母昨晚访欧归来！看到网上炒作徐晓东挑战武林高手之事沸沸扬扬！我看是别有用心的人在故意挑逗武林流派门户之争，这样下去不利于武林团结发展！我建议国际武联和中国武协应出面制止一下！徐要真有能力，让他到国际赛场上去为国争光！这是我给中国武协领导的建议。并得到回复，明天上班就研究措施。并嘱咐让我转告陈家沟的拳师们不要冲动，盲目应战。如这样正当下怀，上当受骗。狂徒在媒体漫骂可以通过法律程序控告他，所以我特告戒咱们的弟子们要谨言慎行，且勿盲目冲动。通过此事也要求弟子们加强练功，增强功力，一旦遇到挑战，要为师门争光，为国争光！师父陈正雷。
Happy festival [May 1, Labour Day] dear students! Your master mother and I have returned from our European tour last night and read the viral news about Xu Xiaodong's fight with [the] Kung Fu master! What I see is that there are people with ill intention picking fights with the Chinese martial arts sector. It will destroy the solidarity within the martial arts sector. I suggest that the International Federation of Martial Arts and the Chinese Martial Arts Association should stop this. If Xu has the ability, let him join the international competitions and fight for the country's glory. This is my suggestion for the leaders of the Martial Arts Association. They have given their response and will look into the issue tomorrow. They also urged students of Chen's Tai Chi not to react to the challenge or we will fall into his trap. If the crazy guy keeps smearing others, we can take legal action. Hear, I bid you to be prudent in your action. I also urge you to keep up your practice so that we can fight for the gory of Chen's Tai Chi, and for the country when we face challenges in the future.
Blogger Cheng Wangdong saw the Tai Chi master’s nationalistic rhetoric as a reflection of the Chinese martial arts’ rent-seeking behavior:
众所周知，这些年大家都在做民族复兴这个梦，有些东西，是很奇怪的，一旦成为口号，也就成了绝对正确。
而中国武术，恰恰又是复兴梦中一个不可分割的部分，一荣俱荣，一损俱损，就成了一个捆绑真实，也就更容易从一个个人摩擦事件，上升到整体家族的火拼斗殴。
[…]当一个武林门派，出了问题不用武林门派的规矩解决，首先噗通一声就是跪在权力的面前求庇护，我觉得陈正雷宗师已经不是武林人士了。
Everyone knows that we are making the dream of national revival all these years and the slogan appears as absolute correctness. The Chinese martial arts sector has become an inseparable part of the dream. The glory and the shame are tied together. Private conflict has become a collective [public] incident. […] When a problem appears in the martial arts sector, the sector does not solve the problem with its own rule, but kneels down to the authority for protection. I would say Chen Zhenglei no longer belongs to the martial arts sector.
As anticipated, on May 3, the Chinese Martial Arts Association issued a statement accusing Xu of “fight picking”, and alleging that his behavior is illegal and against Kung Fu virtue.
Clearly, the public perception of martial arts has fallen behind the evolution and institutionalization of the martial arts sector. Local media outlet Beijing News ran an investigative report on the Chinese Martial Arts business and found out that major traditional martial arts streams, including Shaolin, Wudang, Qingcheng, Emei and Kongdong, have all evolved into business corporations that operate martial arts schools, produce movies, sell Chinese medicines, develop touristic sites and more.
The Chinese Martial Arts Association's statement has successfully saved the faces of key representatives of major martial arts streams by forbidding its members to respond to the challenge.
However, those outside the Chinese martial arts institution are eager to fight Xu using their own rules. For example, Hu Qiong, a Shaolin Chi master, dared Xu Xiaodong to take up a drilling machine challenge:
Hu Qiong performance of drill challenge. Viral image from Weibo via Stand News.
徐晓冬那么能打，有本事让我拿电钻来钻他的太阳穴、喉咙等部位，钻不进去，不会受伤，我就认同他功夫了得，认同他打假传统武术的说法
If Xu Xiaodong is such a good fighter, let me hold the drilling machine to drill his temple, throat and etc. If he did not get hurt, I would recognize his Kung Fu and his talk about the fake Chinese martial arts phenomena.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Nigerians Celebrate the Release of 82 Chibok Girls from Boko Haram’s Captivity · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Nigerians celebrated the release, on Saturday May 6, 2017, of 82 girls from Boko Haram militants. The girls’ kidnapping in 2014, from the northeastern town of Chibok, made global headlines and launched the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which resonated with millions of people around the world, including former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
A public art installation by Nigerian artist Sarah Peace depicting the missing Chibok girls [Image released to the public domain]
The girls were set free following negotiations between the government and Boko Haram, which, in exchange, received members of their group held by Nigerian authorities, according to a statement from the Office of the President.
In April 2014, 276 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in Chibok were abducted by Boko Haram, a group that, over a seven-year period, has waged a violent campaign against the Nigerian government, which has led to the death of thousands and the displacement of two million people. At the time, 57 of the children captured by the militants managed to escape. In October, a further 21 were set free. Yet, even after the release of this latest group, 113 Chibok girls, as they have come to be known, are still missing.
International voices weren't the only ones bringing global awareness to the kidnappings. Local activists, such as Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili and others, led protests from the very beginning, “demanding accelerated government action in the release” of the schoolgirls. And now, their work is finally bearing fruit.
On Saturday, the official government statement said negotiations with Boko Haram “yielded results”:
After lengthy negotiations, our security agencies have taken back these girls, in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects held by the authorities. The released #ChibokGirls are due to arrive in Abuja tomorrow Sunday May 7, and will be received by the President. President Muhammadu Buhari expresses his deep gratitude to all who played a part in ensuring the success of this operation, as follows: Security agencies, the military, the Government of Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and local and international NGOs.
The  International Committee of the Red Cross acted as intermediaries in the negotiations:
Acting as a neutral intermediary, we @ICRC transported 82 #ChibokGirls to the government of #Nigeria. pic.twitter.com/FTiAnjXejq
— ICRC Africa (@ICRC_Africa) May 7, 2017
Dr. Ezekwesili was elated:
?????????
It is REAL!
It is a FACT!!
Another set of OUR # ChibokGirls ARE BACK, folks!
WE REJOICE & PRAISE GOD with their Parents! FG,????
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) May 6, 2017
Journalist Stephanie Busari commended Dr. Ezekwesili and her group for their “resilience and steadfastness” in their fight to secure freedom for the abducted schoolgirls:
I salute the resilience and steadfastness of @BBOG_Nigeria led by @obyezeks. Without them the #ChibokGirls would have been forgotten. pic.twitter.com/H2dNP9nEan
— Stephanie Busari (@StephanieBusari) May 7, 2017
Aisha Yesufu, a collaborator of Dr. Ezekwesili's in the Bring Back Our Girls Group, tweeted:
The most heartwarming congratulatory message came from my 15 year old daughter Aliyyah
How can i ever give up on our #ChibokGirls? How?! pic.twitter.com/OMOlUU6Kob
— Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) May 7, 2017
Other Twitter users were agog at the news:
Thinking about the Chibok community this morning and the celebrations that would have been ongoing since last night!!
Glory to God!! ????
— Dr Etin Imagbenikaro (@etinmagbe) May 7, 2017
Against all odds, 82 #ChibokGirls released- I am impressed!
— Ogundana Michael (@MickeySunny) May 7, 2017
There are no words for the joy I'm feeling at the news 82 #Chibok girls have been released by Boko Haram!! #BringBackOurGirls #CNN
— Isha Sesay (@IshaSesayCNN) May 6, 2017
Despite the good news, some folks on social media remain unimpressed by the actions of successive governments over their response to the incident. Ikhide, a literary critic, decried the “zero transparency in the whole process” on Facebook:
…On Chibok, our government has refused to talk to us. All legitimate questions have been dismissed and any thinking person who dares ask questions is demonized as a Chibok denier. What happened in Chibok? Our government will not tell us. Because no one will hold them accountable. Can you imagine this happening anywhere else in the world? How can you do this to your own people?
Why should people believe the Chibok narrative when there is zero transparency in the whole process. No one truly knows what happened and the government is invested in lying and obfuscation. Can you imagine this happening in the U.K.? I have so many questions about this Chibok mess; each one has been ignored. This government expects no questions but demands respect and blind obedience. Why have they not released the girls that were ‘released’ the last time to their parents? That was months ago? What kind of country is this????
Ikhide may be alluding to what happened to the group freed in October, who were initially kept in government custody. At the time, a minister said this was because “a team of medical doctors, psychologists, social workers, trauma experts” were going to examine them. “Especially because they have been in captivity for so long,” the minister said. “We are now contacting their parents as part of the necessary verification exercise.”
In December, however, they were reunited with their families for Christmas. There were reports that some of the girls “were kept in a politician's house and barred from going home,” according to the BBC. Nevertheless, they returned to school in January to “sit for their final exams“.
As for the latest freed girls, Amnesty International has urged the Nigerian government to respect their privacy. Osai Ojigho, country director of Amnesty International in Nigeria, said:
“It is vital now that they receive adequate physical and psychosocial counselling and support so that they can fully reintegrate in their communities…The government should also respect their privacy and ensure that the released girls are reunited with their families and not kept in lengthy detention and security screening which can only add to their suffering and plight.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Singer Teddy Afro’s New Album Holds Fast to His Vision of a Diverse, Yet United Ethiopia · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Ethiopian singer Teddy Afro, who delivered opening remarks at a U.S. Embassy-sponsored workshop for students on the occasion of World Environment Day 2015. Photo by U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa; CC BY-ND 2.0.
Ethiopian singer Tewodros Kassahun’s most anticipated and highly promoted studio album was released to great fanfare at the beginning of May 2017.
More popularly known as Teddy Afro, his latest album — his fifth — comprises 15 songs of tribute and love that touch on issues of solidarity, reconciliation and the hope of living collectively in a diverse country. The album also includes a song with lyrics in a coded language, which is being interpreted by some as a rebuke to his detractors.
Ever since he caught the public's attention with his debut album in early 2001, Teddy Afro has been a household name in Ethiopia. He is a melodic singer and prolific songwriter. “Ethiopia”, a single that appeared on his new album, racked up millions of views on YouTube as soon as it was released. His album attracted sales of up to 6 million Ethiopian Birr — a feat that no other Ethiopian singer has ever managed to accomplish — which is telling commentary on his popularity.
Within a period of just 1 week, the single audio music of #TedyAfro, #Ethiopia has reached 1.9 million views on YouTube. Ground Breaking! pic.twitter.com/wblFYOp9iY
— ሚክያስ (@MickyEthiopia) April 25, 2017
The recurring theme in Afro's albums, is the need to nurture countrywide harmony, unity, and love which transcend ethnic and religious boundaries in his beloved Ethiopia.
Expanding upon this foundation, this latest album solidifies this message, both in thematic content and lyrics. While the album is mainly an Amharic language pop music offering, some segments of lyrics are inserted into his Amharic songs from other Ethiopian languages, such as Afan Oromo, Tigeregna, and Sidama, which all reflect the singer’s philosophy and interests.
He blends his version of reggae with Ethiopian beats, styles, and instruments. His deployment of the sound of mesenqo, a single-stringed Ethiopian bowed lute, which he mixes delicately with acoustic guitar, bass guitar and drums — while he sings in Amharic and Afan Oromo on one of the tracks — is a great example.
Teddy Afro Mixed Afaan Oromo with Reggae => Anna Nyaatu Le Ene Yaregew. COOL!
— Bisrat Teshome (@_Bisre) May 2, 2017
The response to Afro's album has been mixed. Teddy’s fans and detractors either apotheosize or admonish him based on his fame, his lyrical perspective — even his album's cover art.
His enthusiasts adore him for his genius, while his detractors accuse him of simplifying the complex history of Ethiopia.
The near-fanatical appreciation for — and opposition to — Afro’s latest album is an indication that, in Ethiopia, music criticism usually melds together with political ideology.
Since the release of the album’s single, “Ethiopia”, three weeks ago, much of the debate on social media has been about the politics of Afro's songs. He received an unprecedented amount of criticism for being simplistic — penning lyrics that misrepresent the history of Ethiopia, the poetic quality of which, some believe, mixes cliché and nonsense.
As political concerns take priority over the quality of the music, the artistic aspects of Afro’s work are receiving less attention. However, there are some critics who falsely accuse him of recycling melody lines from his earlier albums, or even plagiarizing other people’s songs.
As much as Afro is a prominent and influential artist, he is also a vulnerable one — producing socio-politically conscious songs while operating in a politically hostile environment. Ethiopian authorities have been known to censor political expressions, whether journalistic or cultural.
Afro was once denied playing a gig in the country's capital, after authorities refused to issue a permit for the concert. He was also prevented from leaving the country for a concert abroad. In 2014, some individuals campaigned against him to strong-arm a beer company to cancel its sponsorship of Teddy’s national music tour over an alleged “politically insensitive” comment in an unpublished weekly magazine.
In 2005, when he released his second album, Afro was aligned with opposition politics because five of his songs were overtly political. One  signature song in particular, “Jah Yastserial” can be read as a call for reconciliation among Ethiopian political opponents, a praise for Emperor Haile Selassie or, most plausibly, a critique of the Ethiopian government for failing to live up to its promise. Many consider this song as a popular anthem of anti-government protesters, as it resonates well with the mood of the post-election political turmoil of the 2005 parliamentary elections.
In 2008, Afro was arrested, charged with a hit and run, taken to jail and held there for almost two years. He denied he committed the alleged crime, and most of his fans claim the allegations are false and politically motivated.
While Afro does not fit the rebellious image of an overtly political singer, he forcefully asserts a collective version of Ethiopian history, culture, and identity, without bowing to pressure to adopt a political posture.
In Ethiopian history, the dominant ideology was a national identity based on a shared, yet hybrid cultural and ethnic solidarity, with a modernizing project based on claims of Ethiopia’s 3000 years of “collective memory”. However, this project came to an abrupt stop in 1991, when two decades of civil war ended. The current regime defined “communities” based on their ethnic identity, and reorganized the Ethiopian state structure exclusively based on this — a deliberately administered, radical break with Ethiopia’s past.
Many blame the current regime for the gradual erosion of the shared Ethiopian identity. In what appears to be a response to the government’s over-emphasis on ethnic identity, Afro's songs pay tribute to early Ethiopian civilization, history, and culture. He praises national figures of the past and considers them as enlighteners. In his latest album, he honored Tewodros II, a 19th century Ethiopian emperor who fought the British. In his fourth album, he did the same for Emperor Menelik II,  who defeated the Italians in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa.
His assertion of a shared Ethiopian identity and national pride in an era of ethnic federalism, in which the regime has denied the existence of collective Ethiopian identity, is a potential threat.
For government supporters and ethnonationalists alike, Afro is a familiar villain. His tributes to past Ethiopian leaders and his devotion to “love and unity” represent an old Ethiopia, a defeated ideology.
Nevertheless, he continues to be a magnetic figure for younger generations and exerts a vast influence among his compatriots. Despite claims that Afro’s songs represent a defeated ideology, his albums generate sales on a record scale — and his fan base is passionate enough to overwhelm the Ethiopian internet and send the message that they are taking a relaxing break from repression.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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The Proud Pacific Nation That Preserves Its Homeland With the Bikini Anthem · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

A group of Marshallese immigrants sang the Bikinian Anthem in Springdale, Arkansas. Credit: Daniel A. Gross
This story by Daniel A. Gross originally appeared on PRI.org on May 1, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Every year on May 1, a proud Pacific nation celebrates its independence. On this day in 1979, the Marshall Islands was finally granted self-government from the United States — a country with a long and sometimes troubling presence in the islands.
For most of the 20th century, colonial powers controlled the region, with little regard for the needs and rights of Marshallese people. During World War I, Japan occupied the islands as a strategic military outpost. The US seized control during World War II.
Everything changed in 1946, when the United States chose the Marshall Islands as a testing site for nuclear weapons. That year, American officials forced the residents of Bikini Atoll to leave their homes and resettle on islands that many had never seen.
Meanwhile, American scientists fanned out across Bikini Atoll, where they ultimately tested dozens of nuclear bombs. They wanted to predict the health effects of nuclear war and refine weapons in the US arsenal, which would soon include hydrogen bombs.
Unfortunately, local Marshallese and American military veterans, some of whom were brought to the Marshall Islands for subsequent cleanup efforts, suffered the consequences. Both groups continue to experience unusually high rates of cancer — and thanks to radiation, Bikini Atoll remains uninhabitable. The US paid reparations in an attempt to cover the damages.
After nuclear testing began, homesick islanders did their best to preserve stories and memories of their home atoll. In 1946, a Bikinian man named Lore Kessibuki wrote a song about his homeland. In Marshallese, it begins: “I jab ber emol, aet, I jab ber ainmon.” “No longer can I stay — it's true. No longer can I live in peace and harmony.” Eventually, Kessibuki's song became the official anthem of Bikini Atoll.
Even far from the Marshall Islands, the song is cherished as a symbol of home. “We sing it at every Bikinian gathering,” says Faith Jibas, a Marshallese advocate who lives in Springdale in the southern US state of Arkansas. Her husband descends from residents of Bikini Atoll, and her mother came from an island that was affected by nuclear fallout.
“The song is about a deep sadness in leaving,” Jibas says. Her friends and family have pictures of the Bikini islands, which show white sandy beaches, a blue lagoon and coconut palms. “It's sad, because a lot of people have never seen Bikini,” she says. “It's just the paradise that people are wanting to escape to. And our people had to escape from it.”
Though the song never explicitly mentions nuclear weapons, its lyrics commemorate an island that was once home to fisherman and farmers, and that today lies abandoned:
No longer can I stay, it's true
No longer can I live in peace and harmony
No longer can I rest on my sleeping mat and pillow
Because of my island and the life I once knew there
The thought is overwhelming
Rendering me helpless and in great despair
My spirit leaves, drifting around and far away
Where it becomes caught in a current of immense power
And only then do I find tranquility
Jibas says that growing up, she didn't know much about the history of her ancestral land. “I was born and raised in America, but I never learned about my own history in the history books,” she says. Some stories of nuclear testing were kept secret, thanks in part to the arms race between the US and the Soviet Union. “This is a huge piece of history that was classified for so long.”
The Marshall Islands remain connected to the United States, largely because of a 1986 treaty called the Compact of Free Association. There were few jobs available for Bikinians who were relocated to other parts of the islands, says Ajji Lewis, another Arkansas resident who was born on Bikini Atoll. “That's one of the reasons there are so many of them here in the United States,” he explains through a translator.
Today, the country is beset not only by the legacy of nuclear testing, but also by rising seas that have damaged crops and eroded coastal land. For that reason, Marshallese communities like the one in Springdale continue to grow. As they do, the Bikini Anthem, and its sense of longing for home, gains new meaning.
“When I hear people sing the song, I cannot help the tears streaming down,” Lewis says. “It brings back a lot of memories.”
Ajji Lewis (left) was born on Bikini Atoll. Adelbert Laukon, another Marshallese immigrant who lives in Springdale, Arkansas, served as his interpreter. Credit: Daniel A. Gross


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WeChat? Not in Russia You Don’t. · Global Voices
Dan Bateyko

Photo: Sinchen Lin / Flickr / CC 2.0
On May 4, Russia’s federal censor blocked WeChat, China’s largest mobile messaging app. According to Roskomnadzor, WeChat failed to register with the federal government as an “information-dissemination organizer,” which is technically required of a wide range of websites and online services.
Since 2014, the Russian government has managed a list of online services that “organize the dissemination of information.” Today, this list includes websites like Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki (Russia's two most popular social networks), the image board 2ch.hk, the email client Mail.ru, and dozens more services.
The list was introduced following the passage of a federal law that requires websites to store all Russian users’ metadata (“information about the arrival, transmission, delivery, and processing of voice data, written text, images, sounds, or other kinds of action”) and make it accessible to the Russian authorities. Websites can avoid the hassle of setting aside this information by granting Russian officials unfettered, constant access to their entire data stream.
According to the Internet rights watchdog Roskomsvoboda, Russian censors have already blocked more than two dozen IP addresses linked to the domains and services of Tencent, the maker of WeChat.
The move against China’s biggest messaging app is just the latest in an ongoing crackdown on messengers, including recent decisions to block BlackBerry Messenger, Naver’s Line, and Vchat — also for failing to register with Moscow. In April, following weeks of organized strikes by truckers against a federal road tax, Roskomnadzor blocked Zello, a push-to-talk app popular among protest organizers.
Artem Kozlyuk, head of Roskomsvoboda, spoke to RuNet Echo about the implications of WeChat being blocked in Russia:
В РФ WeChat и Line не самые популярные мессенджеры, но тем не менее, их использовали наши граждане для связи со своими родственниками, друзьями и коллегами в Средней Азии и Юго-Восточной Азии, где эти мессенджеры являются очень популярными. А теперь ещё и все узнали, что эти мессенджеры де-факто оказались защищенными от слежки со стороны российских спецслужб, и, думаю, интерес к ним в России увеличится.
In Russia, WeChat and Line are not the most popular instant messengers, but nevertheless they're used by our citizens to communicate with relatives, friends, and colleagues in Central Asia and South-East Asia, where these messengers are popular. Now that we know these messengers are de facto impervious to surveillance by Russia’s intelligence community, I think interest in them will increase in Russia.
On social media, the response to the WeChat block ranged from humorous levity to solidarity.
Роскомнадзор заблокировал WeChat: https://t.co/q7niZgvPKI
И как теперь Путин будет с Си Цзяньпином переписываться? Смсками, что ли?
— Vladimir Kharitonov (@v_x) May 5, 2017
Roskomnadzor has blocked WeChat. How’s Putin going to talk with Xi Jinping now? Texting or what?
On Vkontakte, one user commented on Roskomsvoboda’s page:
что выжило при цензуре КНР, то будет добито в РФ? Такая логика? Ахахаха
[WeChat] survived under the PRC’s censorship, but will be finished off in Russia? That makes sense? haha
Another Vkontakte user wrote
Переживём блокировки, главное чтобы не сотрудничали с нашими властями и не выполняли их требований. А уж как обойти блокировку найдём.
We’ll survive the blocks. The important thing is that they didn’t cooperate with our authorities and carry out their requirements. And we will figure out how to get around the block.
Although access to blocked websites is still possible through “anonymizers” like Tor and VPN services, in April Roskomnadzor described plans to block access to websites that offer circumvention technology.
While messenger apps can successfully avoid blocking by registering with Roskomnadzor ( for example, Threema recently became the first foreign-app to register with the Russian government), Kozlyuk believes the WeChat block bodes ill for users of popular Western messaging apps like Whatsapp and Telegram:
Конечно, это сигнал Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp и Viber быть готовыми – или подчинится требованиям Роскомнадзора и ФСБ и начать следить за пользователями или стать заблокированными. Развязку, думаю, мы увидим если не в ближайшие дни, то в ближайшие месяцы.
Of course, this signals that Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and Viber should be ready: they can either submit to the demands of Roskomnadzor and the Federal Security Service and monitor their users, or they can be blocked. I think we'll see the outcome of these, if not in the coming days, then in the coming months.

author: Dan Bateyko


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Oleg Kashin Explains How Russia Reinvented the Political Rumor Mill · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock
From time to time, RuNet Echo translates into English particularly insightful comments that appear in the Russian media. Last Friday, the website Znak.com published an article by columnist Oleg Kashin about the messaging app Telegram, focusing on the rise of “channels” dedicated specifically to spreading anonymous political rumors. Kashin argues that the Russian authorities’ fear of scrutiny has helped boost the legitimacy of news content that used to be relegated to conspiracy websites, as traditional journalists and pundits lose the public’s interest.
The emergence of Telegram channels last year transformed what was a popular messenger into a social network, and aside from the question we always ask about new social networks these days (will it or won’t it take off?), there’s another basic riddle: who will be the main user base, and who will become its stars?
You can never be sure: a network dreamed up for geeks might end up a haven for happy little school kids, or the other way around. The first Telegram channels belonged to people already established on other social networks. They brought over the same names, the same discussions, and a familiar language. Back then, in their first few months, Telegram channels were a social network without a face — not until “Nezygar” appeared.
This happened not long after the release of Mikhail Zygar’s book, “All the Kremlin's Men.” The chief editor of the independent TV station Dozhd (who left his job shortly after the success of his book, of course giving rise to rumors that he was dismissed because he offended the people mentioned in his book) wrote a fascinating nonfiction account of Vladimir Putin’s first 15 years in power. Zygar’s detached tone, his insider’s certainty (the author sounds like he was hiding in the reeds when Putin and Medvedev went on that fishing trip and agreed to swap places), and his excellent delivery made the book a real political event in Russia in 2015.
But an anonymous, still unmasked Telegram channel calling itself Nezygar found an even better delivery: “The real Zygar tells you his version of the Kremlin intrigues, I’ll tell you mine, and if you liked reading the real Zygar, you’re going to like me even better.” And it worked. Someone even more self-assured than the real thing, spreading insider gossip about how the “Feoktistov clan is really weakening,” instantly became a superstar on Telegram and probably the social-network-messenger’s first original format that wasn’t already successful on Facebook or Instagram.
To this day, the search for the person who runs this channel is still a popular diversion for many Telegram users, but there’s no reason to think this mystery would be more interesting once it’s revealed. Over so much time, a well-known person probably would have given himself away by now, and if nobody so far has managed to match this famous anonymous figure to some political analyst, state official, or journalist, then we’re likely talking about someone unknown. And that’s just fine.
Say you find out that Nezygar is actually some guy named Joe Schmo. What’s so interesting about that? All you do is wreck this awesome toy you’ve got now, because political texts signed “Nezygar” will always, by definition, be more interesting than political texts signed “Joe Schmo.”
Why “by definition”? Because any non-anonymous author instantly falls alongside hundreds of other writers: from [professor and columnist] Ekaterina Shulman and [columnist and radio show host] Yulia Latynina to myself and [columnist] Yekaterina Vinokurova. There are lots of people now writing about politics in Russia, and none of these political authors can claim that their readers trust them entirely.
There’s a firm consensus in our society today about bias in the media. Part of that consensus is justified, and part of it isn’t. There’s also a crisis of confidence in the media (here you can blame a lot, from the crooked journalism of the 1990s and the oligarchic media of the 2000s to our modern-day propaganda), and it’s compounded by how absolutely closed off the authorities are from society. It’s gotten to the point that any “informed source” seems untrustworthy, simply because journalists have no means to verify or refute anything they say. And the default distrust that follows any political text paradoxically becomes an interrogation of its dodgy sources.
When you know in advance what to expect from a familiar author, you’re instinctively drawn to the author you don’t know.
The Nezygar channel on Telegram.
In the past, a political text of unknown provenance written with that “insider tone” was the stuff of websites that published smear attacks. It was part of a notorious information cesspool. Now everything has flipped, and anonymous posts look considerably more respectable than non-anonymous texts.
This formula can probably help explain the success enjoyed by the recently unmasked and dismantled “Anonymous International,” the success of Mikhail Zygar (before the release of his book, he spent several years at Dozhd, steering clear of on-the-ground reporting), and the success of Nezygar. None of these sources offers the ultimate truth on anything, but at least they differ from the usual political analysts and columnists, whom everyone knows not to believe.
But Nezygar’s success isn’t just the size of his audience or the number of times he’s quoted; it’s also the format he invented, which dozens of other channels (often just as anonymous) now reproduce today. Metodichka, Karaulny, Politota, Politburo 2.0, Mysh v Ovoshchnom, Chto-to Znayu, ATS-1, Akitilop — you won’t make it halfway through this list, and if you subscribe to them all in one go, you’re in for a single, continuous blend of “Kremlin insider” insights, updated every minute.
But how the quality of these “insider” insights varies, when compared to Nezygar! Instead of classic speculation about “different clans weakening,” we now seem to be reading stories by the same “informed source” we already know from the political desks of loyalist newspapers. This source tells us that the 2018 presidential election will be a referendum on trust in Putin, that the Kremlin is unhappy with the activists spraying antiseptic at oppositionists, that Moscow is going to go after them, and that Putin won’t sign the law on demolitions in Moscow, if the law violates civil rights.
It turns out that you can also frame propaganda as a secret leak, delivered straight to your smartphone, mixed in with instant messages from your friends.
Secretive but ultimately endearing, Nezygar cut out a cozy little path for insiders that dozens of imitators have since trampled, like elephants through a garden. It’s obvious that half the Nezygar clones are professional projects, and their authors are only on Telegram to collect a paycheck. Some copycats pretend that they’re here to reveal something, but really they’re just listening to others, and at the end of the work day they fire off a memo to their supervisors that summarizes the day’s Telegram content.
It would be a stupid, senile act to complain that Telegram already isn’t what it used to be, but it really isn’t the same, in the sense that we’re no longer alone.
In the life of every new social network, there’s a happy period when the network hasn’t yet become an integral part of the media landscape — when you and your friends are there, but the spammers, the trolls, the paid phonies, the drones writing their memos, and the other bums haven’t yet arrived. It’s just a brief period, but it’s what allows you to fall in love with every new social network. It’s these moments that fuel migrations from LiveJournal to Twitter, from Twitter to Facebook, from Facebook to Vkontakte, back to Facebook, and then to Telegram.
Political channels on Telegram will probably be around for a long time still, but the thin, imperceptible line that separates what’s in and what’s out makes it hard to know for sure.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Seven Years After Execution, Kurdish Teacher Farzad Kamangar’s Legacy of Hope Remains · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Farzad Kamangar and his students. Photo courtesy of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)
May 9 marks the seventh anniversary of the execution of Kurdish activist and teacher Farzad Kamangar inside Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. Kamangar was accused of being a member of the Kurdish opposition group PJAK and was sentenced to death following a brief trial which lacked due process.
Ethnic Kurds face systematic discrimination and repression in Iran, and continue to struggle for their own rights and autonomy. Kamangar’s activism centered not only on his identity as a Kurd but as an Iranian who resisted the theocratic regime and fought for the rights of his people and community.
Kamangar was an activist and elementary school teacher in the northwestern Iranian city of Kamyaran, where he was also a member of the Kurdistan Teachers Union and wrote for various underground human rights publications. After his arrest, Kamangar’s letters and articles about the inhumane conditions inside the prison brought international condemnations by many organizations including UNICEF and Education International, an organization which represents teachers across the globe. He was executed on 9 May 2010, along with three other Kurdish prisoners: Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, and Shirin Alam-Holi.
Kamangar continued a long-standing tradition of sacrifice by young political activists in Iran dating back to the 1979 revolution, and beyond to the popular democratic Prime Minister Mossadegh who was deposed in the 1953 CIA led coup d'état, and the 1906 constitutional revolution. His life and teachings most closely resembled that of Iranian writer and teacher Samad Behrangi. Both were Marxist teachers who were moved by witnessing rural poverty in Iran, and ultimately became a target of state violence.
It is difficult to capture the essence of an activist like Kamangar in a brief eulogy. Nor is it proper to attempt to encapsulate his life and struggle in a few brief sentences. However his death, and even more so his life and the way he lived it, had a profound impact on a generation of Iranians who became politicized shortly after the protests of 2009, which saw thousands of people gather in Iran's streets to protest electoral fraud.
Kamagar reminds us that history often repeats, and that there is power in defiance and dignity. Like Samad Behrangi, Farzad’s death has now elevated his words and deeds into the long tradition of resistance to tyranny in Iran.

Instead of summarizing his life, I leave you with an excerpt from one of his final letters before his execution. The letter, addressed to his cellmates and family recounts how his own journey mirrored that of the Little Black Fish from one of Behrangi’s most famous novels. The translation is courtesy of Translation the Amnesty International UK Blog:
Is it possible to be a teacher and not show the path to the sea to the little fish of the country? What difference does it make if they come from Aras* [a river in northwestern Iran, Azerbaijan], Karoon [a river in southwestern Iran, Khuzestan], Sirvan [a river in Kurdistan] or Sarbaz Rood [a river in the Sistan and Baluchestan region]? What difference does it make when the sea is a mutual destiny, to be united as one? The sun is our guide. Let our reward be prison, that is fine!
Is it possible to carry the heavy burden of being a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to see the lumps in the throats of the students and witness their thin and malnourished faces and keep quiet?
Is it possible to be in the year of no justice and fairness and fail to teach the H for Hope and E for Equality, even if such teachings land you in Evin prison or result in your death?
I cannot imagine being a teacher in the land of Samad, Khan Ali, and Ezzati and not join the eternity of Aras. I cannot imagine witnessing the pain and poverty of the people of this land and fail to give our hearts to the river and the sea, to roar and to inundate.
I know that one day, this harsh and uneven road will be paved for teachers and the suffering you endured will be a badge of honour so everyone can see that a teacher is a teacher, even if his or her path is blocked by the selection process, prison, and execution. The little black fish and not the heron bestows honour on the teacher.
*Translator note: Aras is a river in northwest Iran, bordering Iran and Azerbaijan. Samad Behrangi drowned in the river in the summer of 1968. Some have considered the circumstance of his death suspicious and blamed agents of the Shah’s regime for his death.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


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Tunisian Media Activist Interrogated Over Sources of Leaked Documents · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Sami Ben Gharbia (right) with Syrian activist Razan Ghazzawi at a Global Voices meeting in 2008. Photo by Yazan Badran via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Tunisian media and human rights activist Sami Ben Gharbia was interrogated for six hours on May 3 by Tunisian authorities who asked him about his role in the release of the presidency's action plan on a controversial economic reconciliation draft law.
Upon his arrival at the Central Investigation Brigade of the National Guard in L’Aouina, Ben Gharbia was primarily questioned about the source of the Presidency of the Republic’s leaked action plan lobbying in the law's favor. He was also questioned extensively about the inner workings of Nawaat, the Tunisian independent media and transparency NGO that he co-founded in 2004. In their description of the incident, Nawaat staff wrote:
Faced with Ben Gharbia’s determination to protect our sources as per article 11 of Decree-Law 115, the interrogation lasted 6 hours and gave way to harassment, focusing on Nawaat’s internal functioning, the identity of its journalists (identity cards, telephone numbers, etc.) and the list of Nawaat’s collaborators, with the intention of interrogating them one by one.
Ben Gharbia is a significant figure in independent media and digital human rights activism in Tunisia and the Arab region. In addition to co-founding Nawaat,  He also was the founding director of Global Voices’ Advocacy project, now known as Advox.
Human rights organizations in the region and around the world have condemned the government's actions towards Ben Gharbia:
.@RSF_NordAfrique , @Article19Tunis and other local & Intl. HRs NGO statement in support of @ifikra (@nawaat) #FreePress #WPFD2017 #Tunisia pic.twitter.com/IpQALD8WRQ
— Dhouha BenY (Дуду) (@_dby_) May 5, 2017
The so-called “economic reconciliation” law has triggered criticism, as it would grant amnesty to business people and officials accused of corruption during the regime of former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, provided that they return any unlawfully obtained funds. Sponsored by the government and President Beji Caid Essebsi, the bill's adoption has been delayed for two years due to opposition from civil society and protesters. However the bill is now scheduled for plenary debate on 9 May, and has thus sparked protests across the country.
Critics including the anti corruption NGO I-Watch, the transparency group AlBawsala and the Truth and Dignity Commission, established after the revolution to investigate crimes committed during the dictatorship era, argue that the bill's adoption would undermine the country's transitional justice process and enable further corruption by strengthening a culture of impunity. Activists opposing the bill want to see those involved in corruption brought to justice and sentenced by courts, before any sort of amnesty takes place.
Since it was first proposed by President Essebsi back in 2015, Nawaat has provided extensive coverage on the bill, including multimedia coverage of protests opposing the law, and the lobbying efforts by former Ben Ali era officials in support of the bill. In addition, Nawaat has called the bill “counter-revolutionary”.
The leaked seven-point action plan published by Nawaat sheds light on the presidency's strategies to lobby support for the bill. These strategies include meetings with political parties, economists, legal experts and civil society actors, and a media strategy aimed at emphasizing the “results of reconciliation on the economic and financial performance” through increased media appearances of the bill's supporters and a social media campaign to “pass positive messages to adopt and highlight the benefits of reconciliation.”
These issues are not novel for Ben Gharbia, who has worked to improve transparency and accountability in Tunisia for more than 15 years. He played a pivotal role in the release of US State Department documents and cables that corroborated allegations of deep corruption and systemic human rights abuses by the Tunisian government under the Ben Ali regime, known as Tunileaks. Their release was a critical precursor to the Tunisian revolution, which brought about the Ben Ali's ouster in January of 2011.
In a reflective blog post that he published in 2013, Ben Gharbia described the impact of Tunileaks:
Tunisians didn’t need Tunileaks to tell them their country was corrupt. Tunisians had been gossiping and joking about the corruption for years. What was different was the psychological effect of an establishment confronted so publicly with its ugly own image. It was that the government knew that all people knew, inside and outside the country, how corrupt and authoritarian it was. And the one telling the story wasn’t a dissident or a political conspirator. It was the U.S. State department, a supposed ally.
After spending more than a decade outside of Tunisia, fearing persecution by the Ben Ali regime, he returned to Tunisia following the revolution where he continued to work on the Nawaat platform which serves as a space for independent media. The platform was awarded several international and local prizes including the 2011 Reporters Without Borders Netizen Prize for promoting freedom of expression online, the EFF Pioneer Award for its “crucial role in covering the social and political unrest in Tunisia” during the winter of 2010-11, and the 2015 prize of the best interactive website in Tunisia, awarded by the country's journalists union.
Ben Gharbia's lengthy interrogation comes amidst concerns about government attempts to interfere with the media in recent months. Last April, the presidency intervened to prevent the broadcasting of an interview with the former head of the president's office, while a month earlier the ministry of higher education refused to answer questions and the interview requests of  Mohamed Yousfi, editor of the Hakaek Online news website.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Who’s Paying for the Meme War Against Alexey Navalny? · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

A paid-for meme critical of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
On May 5, the administrators of multiple major public groups on the Russian social media website VKontakte began receiving offers of payment to post memes criticizing opposition leader and political blogger Alexey Navalny.
The meme scheme became public when a VKontakte community called “Abstract Memes for Elites of All Sorts” published a post that included screenshots of the pay-to-play offer. The person—or people—responsible for promoting the content identified themselves only as representatives of an “advertising agency,” and had ready-made memes available for distribution. They asked the VKontakte group administrators to write text to accompany the memes, and promised to pay between 700 and 900 rubles ($12-15) per post per day.
Though it remains unclear who is behind the memes, the scheme comes on the heels of an April 18 report by television station Dozhd about a major mudslingling campaign that the Kremlin was reportedly planning against Navalny. Just days later, an anonymous user published a video on YouTube comparing Navalny to Hitler, which many interpreted as being part of a larger attack against the opposition presidential candidate.
In a series of messages exchanged with the administrators of “Abstract Memes,” the alleged advertising agency representatives confessed that they disliked “Nashism,” or the kind of political tactics that the now-defunct pro-Kremlin youth movement “Nashi” used to employ, and that they were only doing it for the money. They also said that two other groups, “Borscht” and “iFeed” had already agreed to distribute the memes, though no anti-Navalny material has appeared on their feeds in recent days.
“Is Navalny a Kremlin Agent?” Source: https://vk.com/nauka_magik.
The administrators of several groups ultimately did post several of the anti-Navalny memes that had been sent to “Abstract Memes.” The group “The Illusionist,” which has more than 2.2 million followers on VKontakte, posted a meme on the evening of May 5 that looked like a magazine cover and read: “Is Navalny a Kremlin Agent?”
Another group, “Cool Science, Tricks, and Magic,” which has only 4,800 members, posted the same image the following morning.
One meme proposed by the advertising agency depicts Navalny as a magician impressing a group of hamsters by turning “speculation” and “falsehood” into grapes. The VKontakte community “You Won't Believe It,” which has more than 6.7 million subscribers, initially posted the meme but had deleted it by May 7.
The website Meduza reported that other VKontakte groups, including “Evil Chaplin” and “Decaying Europe,” had also published anti-Navalny memes, though they have likewise been deleted.
The brief anti-Navalny meme offensive seems to have hurt VKontakte groups more than it helped them: Roughly 1,600 users unsubscribed from “Decaying Europe,” and around 1,400 left “The Illusionist,” according to Meduza.
Статистика одного из таких сообществ. Кажется, народу не понравилось pic.twitter.com/lqD6mLHwtt
— Лентач (@oldLentach) May 6, 2017
Statistics [showing the number of unsubscribers] from one of these online communities. It seems that the people didn't like [the memes].

author: Isaac Webb


text:
Young Slovaks Seem to Have Higher Work Standards Than Previous Generations. Is That Good or Bad? · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

One of the workers in the iconic 1932 photograph “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” by Charles C. Ebbets is a Slovak named Gustáv (Gusti) Popovič – the first from the right, with the bottle. Source: Wikipedia.
In the past, Slovaks had a popular reputation as people willing to work hard (and then party hard). These days, however, there's an ongoing discussion in Slovakia that is questioning this perception and accusing young people of being unwilling to work, following a recent news report on the subject.
The Slovak economy has been doing rather well in recent years. Unemployment is decreasing — in December 2016 it was at 8.8% — and now falls just between the averages for the European Union as a whole and the Eurozone, i.e. the EU countries that had adopted the common currency. The latest Eurostat figures from May 2 show further decrease of general unemployment to 8.4%. As in other EU countries, the youth unemployment is much higher, at 18.8%.
Factors that have contributed to a lower number of unemployed include a change to how they are counted in the first place, which deducted about 0.8%, and the fact that more Slovaks are choosing to work abroad. Currently, about 300,000 people or about 12% of the Slovak workforce does not work within their country of origin.
The “missing” labor is just partly replenished by the estimated 30,000 foreign workers in the country. Companies in Slovakia have started to feel the lack of people, and in response wages are slowly growing to try to attract workers.
So when news site Aktuality recently published a report alleging that with today's conditions young people exhibit a poor work ethic, it created much turmoil on the Slovak internet, receiving over 600 comments. The story quoted a chief executive describing what frequently happens in one car company:
„Mladšia generácia si dnes už ani prácu veľmi neváži. Pravidelne sa stáva, že po prestávke zrazu chýbajú na linke dvaja či traja ľudia. Jednoducho sa zoberú a idú preč. Nikomu nič nepovedia. Na vrátnici nechajú pracovné oblečenie a vstupnú kartu,“ takto nám opísal vedúci pracovník bežnú situáciu v jednej našej automobilke.
The younger generation today does not value work very much. Regularly it happens that after the break two or three people are suddenly missing at the line. They simply go away. They do not say anything to anybody. At the gatehouse they leave work gear and access card.
This new phenomenon is not related only to the automotive industry or the more prosperous region of Western Slovakia, according to Aktuality, but seems to be a nationwide trend even in the areas with higher unemployment to the East.
One of the factors could be related to bureaucracy. The state employment agency forces those who are registered as unemployed to accept positions that might not suit them, under threat of losing social and health benefits.
“After they accept jobs they do not want to endure a long time, they violate work rules and want their employer to fire them,” explained Jana Mesárová from the employment agency Wincott People in the article.
An estimated 20 percent of people will leave these jobs within three months, which the Ministry of Labor views as an abuse of the social system. Therefore, officials have promised that they will introduce an amendment to the law to “fix” the problem.
Slovaks vehemently reacted to the controversy. Some commentators scolded employee behavior:
KotrasE: Vzbúrili sa proti nízkym platom a nechávajú sa živiť rodičmi ktorý zarábajú ešte menej a za ťažších podmienok. Jednoducho povedané nezodpovednosť, žiadna úcta k rodičom a lenivosť.
KotrasE: They rebelled against low salaries and let themselves be fed by parents who earn even less and in more difficult conditions. Simply said, it's irresponsibility, no respect for parents, and laziness.
On the other hand, some defended young people, believing that the days of endless working like their parents and grandparents did should be over:
cippi: No nie je to len nizkymi platmi. Ludia narodeni skor su tzv generacia Y:) KTora je uplne ina ako predchadzajuca. chcu menej pracovat a mat viac volneho casu …
cippi: But it's not just about low wages. People born later are the so-called Generation Y which is completely different to the previous one. They want to work less and have more free time …
Many saw the issue as a result of the difficult working conditions, especially in manufacturing:
posledny0: Neustále sa rieši, že zamestnanci si nevážia robotu.. Ale ešte nikde neodznelo, že zamestnávatelia si nevazia zamestnancov. Musí to ist ruku v ruke.
posledny0: Constantly, the article addressed that employees do not appreciate the job. But it was never said that employers appreciate employees. It must go hand in hand.
Local employers made the point of aligning wage expectations with experience and qualifications:
Vidicon: Je to ako pisu v clanku. Neviem zohnat elektronikov. A to u nas zarabaju bezne cez 1000 v cistom, niekto aj o dost viac. Lenze pride mlady, co skoncil strednu, nema co ponuknut, ziadna prax a pyta nastupny plat 1300 brutto. …
Vidicon: It's like they write in the article. I can't find electricians. And at our place they are often earning over 1,000 [euros] net, and some a lot more. But young people who finish secondary school have nothing to offer, no practice and ask for a starting salary of 1,300 gross. …
Some commenters argued that a boycott would not help:
Hetfield_18: Nadavat mozete kolko len chcete, nic vam to nepomoze. … Ak sa vam nepaci kolko zarabate, tak s tym robte nieco, najdite si inu pracu, vycestujte, ucte sa nove veci, ,,,
Hetfield_18: You can scold as much as you want, nothing will help you. … If you do not like how much you earn than do something about that, find another job, travel abroad, learn new things, ,,,
Many pointed to the gap between living costs and wages:
DustToDust: …to nie je o lenivosti ale o ludskej dostojnosti pokial mi vyplata za pracu nepokryje ani zakladne zivotne naklady s.eriem na taku pracu
DustToDust: …it's not about laziness, but about human dignity if wages for work do not cover the basic costs of the workforce
While others noted the differences in expectations between older generations and younger:
janokosice5: Zohnat nahradu za dochodcu bude čoraz väčší problém lebo dochodca pracuje za 400€ čistého a mladý chce od 1000€ a viac
janokosice5: I get that replacement for a pensioner will be an increasing problem because the pensioner works for 400 € net and young people want 1,000€ or more
Perhaps the higher standards of the younger generations will change conditions, some thought:
milan5321: konečne vyrástla na Slovensku generácia,ktorá si nenechá brnkat po nose.chlebodarcovia budú musieť zmeniť nielen výšku platov,ale aj prístup k pracovníkom. …
milan5321: Finally, a generation that will not tolerate [employers] thumbing their noses at them. Bread-providers must change not only the amount of salaries, but also their attitude toward workers. …
And others wondered if the younger generation was moving away from manual work:
lipovec121: … Všetci chcú pracovať s počítačmi,v kancelárii,no fyzická práca im nevonia.Na tú si najímame Srbov,Rumunov,Bulharov,Ukrajincov. …
lipovec121: … They all want to work with computers in the office, but physical work is not good for then. For that we hire Serbs, Romanians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians. …

author: Tibor Blazko


text:
Iraq’s Parliament Is ‘Convinced’ There’s No Corruption Under Health Minister Hamoud. But Are Iraqis? · Global Voices
Sali Mahdy

Screenshot of Adilah Hamoud addressing allegations regarding corruption within the Ministry of Health. Source: Youtube
A video recording has been making the rounds on Iraqi social media of a lively celebration welcoming health minister Adilah Hamoud, member of the State of Law Coalition and current ruling Iraqi National Alliance, back to work after she was questioned by legislators over corruption concerns.
The video begins with a man slaughtering a sheep in front of the minister's car, which is traditionally done in times of celebration. Later on, others can be seen dancing and congratulating Hamoud.
Not everyone was happy with her return or her performance, however.
Hamoud, nicknamed the minister of death by her critics for her perceived indifference towards Iraqi's health and well-being, had been subject to days of questioning in parliament concerning corruption within the Ministry of Health.
Some of the questions revolved around a number of wasteful government contracts. Member of Parliament Awad al-Awadi, of al-Ahrar party (also part of the Iraqi National Alliance), revealed millions were spent on beds, bedside tables, and disposable medical safety boxes despite shortages of essential drugs.
Awadi also exposed a puzzling agreement with a Portuguese company to purchase 26,140 medical shoes at 27 US dollars a pair. He claimed the exact same shoes are sold in Iraq for little more than 2 dollars a pair.
Despite valid concerns, parliament voted “convinced” with regards to Hamoud's answers.
This is not the first time Hamoud has come under fire for suspicions of corruption within the health ministry.
Last year, Iraqis cried out against the corruption and mismanagement that led to a hospital fire and the death of 13 prematurely born babies in Baghdad. Hamoud fired the hospital director to appease the public and offered to resign if an investigation found the cause of the fire was due to negligence. The health ministry initially claimed the fire was caused by an electrical issue; however, they later concluded that the fire was set deliberately. An investigative committee alleged to have found gasoline used to start the fire at the site of the incident.
Despite the investigations’ findings, the lack of adequate health services in the country is undeniable. In a 2009 article, reporter Corinne Reilly described the most pressing issues facing the healthcare system:
Health ministry workers routinely siphon drugs from hospital orders to make extra cash on the black market. Millions of dollars meant for clinics and equipment have gone missing. Millions more have been wasted on government contracts to buy expired medicines.
The healthcare system continues to suffer from these issues, and the humanitarian crisis precipitated by the ongoing war with militant group ISIS has put additional pressure on an already broken system. Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, described the health crisis in Iraq as horrific. According to Chan, the country's public health, water, and sanitation systems are collapsing and preventable diseases like measles and cholera are on the rise.
Healthcare has become so inadequate that Iraqis have turned to medical tourism in neighboring countries, including Jordan, Iran and Turkey but even as far as India, and in some cases the government will pay for treatment abroad, as Adnan Abu Zeed reported in 2015 for news site Al-Monitor.
For many Iraqis, Parliament's decision to overlook the problems within the health ministry is yet another example of the tolerance that exists in the country for government corruption.
Iraq's political power-sharing system, or “Muhasasa”, imposed after the 2003 US occupation can, in part, explain why corruption is met with shrugs instead of action. The system is supposed to prevent conflict by guaranteeing each of the major ethnic and religious groups in Iraq a part in the political system.
But while decades of sanctions and war have taken their toll on Iraq's healthcare system, ongoing corruption stifles any improvement. Indeed, as Nussaibah Younis, a fellow with the American think tank Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, explained:
The trouble is that it also prevents the government from being able to function effectively. Each political group treats the ministries that it is awarded as its private fiefdom, using it to skim money and to award ministerial positions to party loyalists and important constituents. This has created a government that has been wholly incapable of delivering the basic services demanded by the Iraqi population.
Iraqis turned to social media to express their frustration with parliament's decision.
مجلس النواب لايمثل معاناة الشعب لانه دائما يساند من هم ضد الشعب #عديلة_حمود
— Mohammed Alhsseny (@MAlhsseny) April 14, 2017
The parliament does not represent the people's struggle because it always supports those working against the people.
القناعة بأجوبة #عديلة_حمود يعني قناعة #السلطة بما تستحقه أنت #المواطن الحقير من خدمات صحية بائسة تقدمها لك هذه الوزير الفاسدة#العراق#بغداد
— Mokhalad (@Mokhalad_raad) April 12, 2017
Parliament’s satisfaction with Adilah Hamoud’s answers means the government believes that poor healthcare is what the people deserve from the corrupt minister.
Some were quick to point out that a pair of the medical shoes mentioned above costs more than a barrel of oil.
#عديلة_حمود #وزيرة_الصحة من سعر برميل النفط 25$ وانتي تشترين نعال طبي ب27 $ فاكيد اكو نعال متمدد بدماغج
— kadhim alsajadi (@alsajjadi) April 2, 2017
A barrel of oil costs $25 and you bought medical shoes for $27, you must have a shoe for a brain.
The “Iraq First” Twitter account shared a cartoon that takes a stab at the health ministry's misplaced priorities. A pair of medical shoes are connected to the patient's IV with the caption: “Nothing is more important than your health.”
#نعال_الصحة#عديلة_حمود
لـ/ أركان البهادلي pic.twitter.com/3Bq1r4YiCF
— ✍#العراق_أولاً (@IRAQ_FIRST1) April 3, 2017

author: Sali Mahdy


text:
Let Us Spray: Orthodox Graffiti Comes to Russia · Global Voices
Charlotte Bull

Source: https://vk.com/rimrus_blog. A church-sanctioned tag outside a Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city of Volgodonsk reads “God Is Love.”
The Russian Orthodox Church and street art don’t tend to go hand in hand, but a recent collaboration between a provincial street artist and a priest has proven an exception to that rule.
Last month, an artist who goes by “Rimrus” from the city of Volgodonsk in southern Russia, noticed that the wall surrounding an Orthodox church in his hometown was covered in graffiti, and he decided to do something about it. In a letter to a local priest, Rimrus suggested the church cover up the graffiti with its own street art and proposed a design. The priest immediately granted permission and even offered to provide paint to the artist.
The result of Rimrus’ work? A multi-coloured tag that reads “God Is Love.”
As Rimrus explained in a post on the online forum Pikabu, having received written permission from the priest, he spent three days working on the wall. Many passers-by were supportive of his work, while only one disapproved and threatened to call the police. Upon completion of the piece, Rimrus received three traditional Easter cakes from local women as thanks.
Before Rimrus sprayed over the wall. Source: Pikabu.ru
Explaining his motivation to paint something for the church, Rimrus said that he “liked the idea of bringing together that which seems impossible.” He also claimed that such a collaboration with the Orthodox Church was the first of its kind in Russia, if not the world.
Rimrus describes himself as an “unchurched believer” and was critical in his correspondence with the Church. In his letter to the priest, Rimrus accused the Russian Orthodox Church of inactivity and “turning away from the people.”
The graffiti in Volgodonsk is a rare case of openness towards popular culture from the Russian Orthodox Church. Just this week, the clergy rallied against an episode of The Simpsons that shows Homer playing Pokemon GO in church. Andrey Novikov, archpriest of the Life-Giving Trinity Church in Moscow, commented that the new season of the cartoon was propaganda for “false moral values.”
There are clear parallels between the scene and the case of Ruslan Sokolovsky, who was arrested in 2016 after uploading a video of himself playing Pokemon GO in an Orthodox church in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg. Sokolovsky, whose verdict will be delivered on May 11, faces up to three and a half years in jail.
Though the walls around one of Russia’s churches are now decorated in a rather unconventional fashion, it appears the clergy’s TV preferences remain as orthodox as ever.

author: Charlotte Bull


text:
Russian Pensioners Troll Opposition Leader in Awkward Rap Video · Global Voices
William Cohen

Source: YouTube
A fringe activist group has taken on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a video featuring pensioners spitting rhymes and busting sick—or at least feeble—moves in the latest parody of the Ukrainian band Griby’s hit “Tayet Lyod” (The Ice Is Melting).
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Navalny. On April 27, assailants again doused him with a corrosive antiseptic, this time causing serious damage to his right eye and forcing him to seek treatment in Barcelona. And then came this video, which might leave viewers tempted to reach for an antiseptic to cleanse their own eyes.
The lyrics are as follows:
Тихо дождь идёт над Москвой,
Навальный шагает с братвой по Тверской.
Надежда в его пустой голове:
Как бы Россию присвоить себе.
Только Лёхе башкой не понять,
Что Россию под себя не подмять.
Специальные службы за ними следят и ему по башке настучат.
Navalny and his gang are walking down Tverskaya
There’s hope in his empty head:
How to take Russia for himself
But Lyokha doesn’t get it
That Russia won’t bend to your will
The specials services keep an eye on them and will knock him over the head
The original song by Griby is one of the biggest hits in Russia this year and has spawned numerous parodies. This latest parody showed up on YouTube at the end of March and went viral after Navalny himself reposted it on Twitter.
Всё. Ухожу из политики. По мне нанесён самый страшный из возможных ударов: краснодарская “Единая Россия” сделала кавер “Тает лёд” про меня pic.twitter.com/vr2P1Jb3xi
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) May 4, 2017
That’s it. I’m done with politics. I’ve been hit with the most terrible possible blow: “United Russia” in Krasnodar did a cover of “Tayat Lyod” about me.]
Though Navalny attributed the video to United Russia, it was in fact produced by a fringe activist organization in Krasnodar called “Social Justice.”
Social Justice is ostensibly dedicated to distributing aid to impoverished families but has become better known on the Russian Internet for its ham-fisted Navalny trolling. Its YouTube channel contains a trove of bizarre videos that frequently feature an off-camera voice posing leading questions to elderly activists who respond with tirades filled with anti-opposition falsehoods and conspiracy theories. As an article published on the website Medialeaks points out, at least one of the women in the dance video figured prominently in a recent raid on Navalny’s office in Krasnodar.
This isn't the first time one of Social Justice's videos has been mocked into going viral. In 2013, they had another dubious hit entitled—seemingly without irony—“An Analyst’s Opinion About Navalny.” It features an elderly woman ranting about outlandish and patently false accusations, such as her baseless claim that Navalny put his wife away in a mental institution and then “cavorted with prostitutes.” In another video from 2013, the same woman blames Navalny for the protests in Ukraine that led to the EuroMaidan Revolution, claiming that “Navalny only needs money, money, money, he doesn’t need anything else. Foo on him!”
The videos tend to be somewhat stilted and artificial in tone, leading some to speculate about possible elder abuse, but it must be admitted that the seniors in the videos are nothing if not passionate in their opinions and delivery.

author: William Cohen


text:
The Ghost Towns Left Behind by Cuba’s Shuttered Sugar Mills · Global Voices
Periodismo de Barrio

After the closing of the mills “about 272 employees had to reinvent themselves. Some changed jobs. Others traveled daily to mills that continued grinding.” Photo by Julio Batista for Periodismo de Barrio, used with permission.
The people's council of Gregorio Arleé Mañalich, in the western province of Mayabeque, is better known as el Central, which means sugar mill in Cuban Spanish. However, sugar harvest isn’t talked about there anymore. Twelve years ago, production at the mill was halted, and then came the dismantling. Piece by piece, the mill was taken apart until there was nothing more than steel infrastructure and concrete.
About 272 employees had to reinvent themselves. Some changed jobs. Others traveled daily to mills that continued grinding.
The sugar harvest doesn't worry Nene, an old welder who still gets up everyday at 4 in the morning. He doesn't lose any sleep over the sugar harvest. But then he heard that there were mills in the east that had begun grinding again after a lot of inactivity. They had apparently been maintained.
That did keep him awake that night.
In Mañalich, Nene remembers perfectly, they said they’d maintain the mill, but they didn't.
The sugar industry in Cuba has encountered many merciless hurdles: the collapse of the socialist block, low market values, inefficiencies, bad administrative decisions and climate change.
In 2016, production was at 1.6 million tons of sugar, less than what was being produced back in 1910. That kind of news would have shocked the nation decades ago, but the failure of the sugar cane harvest is no longer a concern in Cuba.
The old way station on the sugar mill property has seen its best days. Photo: Julio Batista.
The downsizing of the sugarcane industry was an economic necessity: the total of 155 mills—which were technologically behind and uncompetitive—was unsustainable for the country. The initial approach was to consolidate the production efficiently, with a cap of 4 million tons a year.
Only the factories capable of producing sugar at a cost of 4 cents a pound or less would remain. And the solution to the unemployment that came as a result: going back to school.
The motives to take such measures were the low productivity of sugarcane fields and the slump on sugar in the global market.
However, the price of sugar began to improve over a decade ago.
From 2017 through 2025, the price of unrefined sugar is expected to level off between 15 and 16 cents per pound, according to the 2016 edition of the “Agricultural Perspectives” from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Had production in 2001 been maintained (3.6 million tons), about 815 million dollars would have been made from the export of unrefined sugar.
“Today will surely become a historic day” were the first words of Cuban President Fidel Castro during his speech on October 21, 2002 at Lavandero mill. So began the restructuring of the sugar industry.
In the following years, a total of 98 mills would be closed down and more than 65,000 people would receive their full salary for going back to school. The Gregorio Arleé Mañalich mill's turn would arrive on May 14, 2004.
Luis Alberto Pérez (or Nene, as everyone calls him) had worked there since 1967. When he speaks of the closing of the sugar mill, the word he repeats the most is “deception.”
Almost all the interviewees agree: They were never told that the mill would be dismantled.
A team stayed on to work full-time on preserving the place. But before the first year was up, letters began to arrive. They were formulaic documents in which the only things that changed were the names of the pieces to be extracted, the recipient and the date. All were signed by the Cuban minister of sugar at the time, Ulises Rosales del Toro. Only the minister could authorize each extraction. Further responsibilities would be delegated afterwards, however, and the letters would arrive more frequently.
For two years, Juan Carlos Rivero was head of the Closed Factory (the official name given to mills and agro-industrial complexes that had to be closed down) and amongst those who received the letters. “The country had neither money to buy supplies, nor spare parts for the factories that were functioning,” he assures.
Eddy Reyes, 64, is waiting to reach the retirement age at another mill, the Bouris Luis Santa Coloma. Against his will, he had to dismember the installations he had put in place before. With each piece he stripped, he was dismantling 31 years of his own life.
The direct legacy of closing a hundred sugar mills has been a string of communities with engineers and technicians that, suddenly, didn't have any factories to help operate or repair.
The best distributed industrial branch of Cuba and the oldest employment source in the nation were eliminated; and in many ways, no alternatives were created for those lost jobs or for the services in the communities where the mills were located.
We will never know if during his lengthy inauguration speech on October 21, 2002, the Cuban president looked in the faces of those who were listening to him when he guaranteed that everything was going well in the factories that had stopped grinding five years prior.
After 2004, in Mañalich, the only place that processes sugar cane are “guaraperas”: small places where the sugar cane is squeezed to make juice. Photo by Julio Batista, used with permission.
Two years later, the people's council of Gregorio Arleé Mañalich would realize that, when a mill closes, a lot of things change, but almost never for the better.
When the mill closed, or rather, when it was destroyed, they also stopped paving highways and thus, services declined.
Without work in the town and too old to study, Nene and Eddy had to go work for other mills. They became replacement parts. Without a hopeful future in their isolated town, many other young people finally left too.
In the small neighborhood surrounding the sugar mill, a pasta factory was built, but it couldn't even produce enough noodles to feed the municipality. The scraps of the sugar mill that remained at the base of the new establishment remained untouched, imposing.
At the end of 2016, Nene returned from the Boris Luis Santa Coloma mill to the ruins of the place where he had started working. Forty-nine sugar harvests allowed him to settle in Mañalich with more than 2,000 pesos.
Nene — black, short, with few teeth and a clear voice — is not a spiteful man, but he will never forgive them for lying to him. The distress has consumed him over the last decade. He retired at 65. But it wasn't because he lacked strength; rather, because he was bitter.
This article is an exclusive Global Voices extract. You can read the full-length Spanish-language article here as well as other articles by Julio Batista here.

author: Periodismo de Barrio


text:
We’re Living Longer, But Not Everyone Is Living Healthier · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Infographic about changes in bad health that mya be expected in South America, used with permission.
Medigo, a health-specialized platform that connects patients and physicians all over the world, has completed a comparative global study on life expectancy.
On average, human beings live longer today than ever before. Nearly every country on the planet has seen an increase in life expectancy since the beginning of the 21st century, with the global average reaching 71.4 years in 2015. But there are huge variations in life expectancy between and within nations, as well. In Europe and North America, the average is 73 years, in Oceania it is 71, in Latin America is 70 years, in Asia is 61 years, and in Africa it is just 55 years.
Medigo, however, decided to take its analysis a step further and ask the question:
The World Health Organization confirms that we are living longer, but are we living healthier?
Healthy Life Expectancy, or HALE, is what the World Health Organization uses to measure how many years an individual can expect to live while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Influenced by factors like quality of healthcare, hygiene, wars, and more, HALE still fails to take into account violent deaths. This rating has registered improvements in recent years.
Life expectancy increased by five years between 2000 and 2015, the fastest increase since the 1960s. Those gains reverse declines during the 1990s, when life expectancy fell in Africa because of the AIDS epidemic and in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Using infographics, Medigo offers an alternative measurement for global health that it calls “Bad Health Years,” showing changes worldwide since 2000.
Infographics about changes during bad health years to be expected in the world, used with permission.
In a brief conversation with Global Voices, Giulia Gutterer, online marketing manager at Medigo, explained the difference between the traditional measurement by WHO and the “Bad Health” measurement they propose:
Basically we take the total life expectancy, which is just how much we are expected to live and is determined at birth, and we deducted the healthy-life-expectancy years from the actual life expectancy. After doing this, we see the average amount of years someone can expect to live in bad health: “Bad Health Years.” Bad Health Years are the years you live with diseases and disabilities.
You can find all Medigo's infographics on its website.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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With an Eye on the Future, First Nations in Canada Are Switching From Audio Cassettes to Digital · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Audio cassette digitization workshop. Photo provided by the UBC Library and used with permission from Indigitization.
While not quite obsolete, audio cassettes are losing their appeal as long-term storage solutions of sound recordings. Many First Nations communities across British Columbia, Canada, are in possession of hundreds of cassette tapes filled with hours and hours of audio recordings of elder stories, traditional songs, and other key elements of their culture. Given this shift away from the analog technology, they are concerned that much of this knowledge may be lost if they don't come up with strategies to transfer their contents to digital formats.
A project called Indigitization has stepped in to providing funding and training for these First Nations communities to digitize those recordings as a way to preserve them for future generations. This collaborative project between the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the First Nations Technology Council, and three First Nations communities — Heiltsuk, Ktunaxa, and ‘Namgis — created an online toolkit with step-by-step instructions for communities interested in undertaking the digitization process.
Among the sections contained in the toolkit include digitization best practices and standards, instructions on adding metadata, as well as additional tips on digitizating photographs and maps.
Indigitization logo created by Alison O. Bremner, a Tlingit artist. Used with permission by the Indigitization project.
This grants program makes funding available to First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities to pay for equipment, digitization technical staff, and travel to and from trainings. Five rounds of funding have been completed and a sixth call for proposals recently closed in March 2017. Examples of projects funded by the Indigitization Grant Program include funds awarded to:
While digitizing will help these communities preserve this information, it does not automatically mean that it will be uploaded to the internet for public access. Another component of the toolkit is providing information on copyright, intellectual property, and different types of licenses to consider, but the Indigitization project makes it clear that “the decision regarding public access to any digitized information rests entirely with each First Nation.”
The project also put on a “Futures Forum” conference held in June 2016, which “brought together an emerging network of community-based information professionals and practitioners, academics, and a wider community of specialists who work to support context-appropriate information practices within Indigenous communities.” A summary of the panels and speakers can be found in the Stories from the Forum section.

author: Eduardo Avila