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Blogging Is Making a Comeback in Russia, Thanks to the Man Who Helped Kill It · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Once upon a time, Russia had a small and dedicated corps of bloggers. They congregated at an ugly website called LiveJournal, where they scribbled poems, art reviews, opinion columns, and everything else under the online sun. And then Father Time came along and smashed the whole, neat arrangement. Other websites appeared. Citizen media gave way to social networks like Facebook, Vkontakte, and Twitter, where writing stuff online no longer made you a “blogger”—it became just another thing people do.
Is blogging back in Russia, thanks to Telegram? Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
But a funny thing is happening in the chaos of today’s Russian Internet use: people are starting to feel overwhelmed, and they’re turning back to ways of writing and reading online that feel more like old-school blogging. Ironically, the bellwether of this new trend is the instant messaging service Telegram, designed and funded by Pavel Durov, the man who launched Russia’s most popular social network, Vkontakte, before being ousted a few years ago (in a scheme apparently orchestrated by the Kremlin to grab more control over the website).
Telegram’s new feature is called “Channels,” and its appeal is built on doing relatively little. Anyone can create a channel, which is essentially a stream of messages that other Telegram users can subscribe to receive. Those messages roll in like other chat messages (intermingled with messages from people you’re actually talking to), and you can either receive push notifications for every new missive, or “mute” incoming texts. There is no way to respond, meaning that commenting is off limits.
“Channels” are strictly one-way, offering an elegant, if slightly tyrannical, solution to the epic problem of trolls, bots, and generally stupid people bent on sharing feedback and trading insults online. You can see the time that a message was posted, the number of views that post has received, and the number of total subscribers a channel has. That’s it. Enjoy.
Earlier this month, the website Afisha Daily asked industry leaders in Russia to share their thoughts about Telegram’s channels feature. Daniil Trabun, Afisha magazine’s chief editor, called Telegram channels “the new blogs”:
Daniil Trabun. Photo: Facebook
У них нет дизайна, их нельзя найти на сайтах большого интернета. Остается главное — свобода самовыражения и удобная доставка контента прямо в телефон. Даже комментировать подписчикам здесь нельзя, что кажется абсолютно логичной вещью. Действительно, вы комментарии на своих любимых сайтах читаете? Ужас ведь.
They’ve got zero design, and they’re impossible to find on the websites of the rest of the Internet. The main things they’ve got are the freedom of expression and a convenient way of delivering content straight to your phone. Subscribers can’t even comment, which seems absolutely logical. Honestly, do you ever read the comments on your favorite websites? No because they’re a nightmare.
Yuri Saprykin, the new editorial director of the Moscow Times publishing house, was similarly pleased with the abolition of comments, telling Afisha that the effect of Telegram channels is like getting access to someone’s bedside diary, filling readers with a pleasant sense of “irresponsibility, if not freedom”:
Yuri Saprykin. Photo: Facebook
Главное достоинство канала в Telegram — что там нет комментов, и значит, под любым твоим самым невинным постом не будут собираться незнакомые люди, чтоб рубиться безжалостно на темы Порошенко и ДНР (как это часто случалось в прошлом году).
The main advantage of Telegram channels is that there aren’t any comments, meaning that you won’t find under your most innocent posts a bunch of strangers fighting mercilessly about [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko or the DNR [the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic] (as was often the case last year).
Grigory Prorokov, another journalist who now also runs a Telegram channel about pop culture and technology, argues that the public is losing interest in the professional mass media. He says Internet use is returning, in various ways, to its habits from more than a decade ago, when smaller media operations were all the rage:
Grigory Prorokov. Photo: Facebook
Telegram словил важную штуку: сейчас интернет в какой-то степени возвращается в начало 2000-х, во времена, когда можно было все делать самому. […] При этом вещи, которые люди делают в одиночку или маленькими командами, популярны как никогда: подкасты вернулись, видео на YouTube в порядке, даже блоги какие-то держатся.
Telegram has caught onto something important: right now the Internet is returning, to some extent, to the early 2000s, when it was possible to do everything yourself. […] Amidst today’s trends, things that people are doing by themselves or in small teams are more popular than ever: podcasts are cool again, YouTube videos are in vogue, and even blogs are making a comeback.
There’s no one official repository of Telegram channels, making it difficult to find the ones you might like best. Quite possibly, that mystique is intentional, preserving the service’s status as something for insiders. Perhaps the whole project will collapse, when too many people start offering Telegram channels, and it becomes as bloated as the social media available in years past. Some Russian outlets, like the news site Gazeta.ru, already seem committed to ruining Telegram’s reputation by lazily using its channels to repost the same content they blast out over Twitter.
The real lifespan of Telegram channels probably relies most of all on how long it can sustain its spirit of “free expression,” which so many of Afisha’s contacts stressed. Here, even the absence of reader feedback might not be enough. For instance, columnist Oleg Kashin recently launched his own Telegram channel (@kashinguru, which has almost 1,600 subscribers at the time of this writing). On Monday, February 15, Kashin joked, “I’ve got a lot fewer [members] of the liberal intelligentsia here [on this Telegram channel], so I can be a little more forthcoming than on Facebook.”
Oleg Kashin. Photo: Facebook
This is a strong indictment of what Facebook has become for Russia’s chattering classes, but Kashin’s confession also begs the question: what happens if too many people migrate to Telegram, and the whole fiasco of self-censorship begins again?

author: Kevin Rothrock


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China’s Media Wants You to Love the State as Much as You Love Your Family · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The older man says, “Showing filial piety to the state is a form of filial piety, we do whatever the state tells us to do.” Screen capture from CCTV.
Filial piety, or showing respect to your parents and elders in the family, is an important virtue in Chinese culture –“family” being the key word. While a person might show reverence to other people or things in their life, the bonds of family are special, requiring the performance of a distinctive daily ritual of duties.
But Chinese state media seem to want to expand the definition of filial piety. In a news feature last week, China Central Television (CCTV) introduced a new way of thinking about the term — “showing filial piety to the state”.
The piece featured two interviews addressing the question of how people should perform filial piety in their day-to-day lives. A young medical doctor answered, “We should show filial piety to the state first, there is no family without the country.” And an elderly man said, “Showing filial piety to the state is a form of filial piety, we do whatever the state tells us to do.”
This not only blurs the lines between family and state and private and public, but it also is a throwback to ancient China, when emperors would justify their rule with the idea that all Chinese were one big family.
Many netizens found CCTV's use of the term ridiculous. Writer Wu Gou wrote on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo:
孝的对象，只能是亲人。孝与忠之间，有时候难免有冲突，此即常言所说，忠孝难两全。儒家承认这种难以两全的道德困境，并作出儒家式的价值排序：可为父绝君，不可为君绝父。孝优先于忠。所谓“孝顺国家”的说法，简直滑天下之大稽。
We can only show filial piety to our family. Filial piety and loyalty are sometimes conflicting. Such conflict is reflected in the common expression that we can't fulfill both loyalty and filial piety. The Confucians see the moral dilemma between the two and deal with the problem by putting filial piety before loyalty: You can cut your connection with the emperor for your father's sake, but you can't cut your connection with your father for the emperor's sake. The expression of “showing filial piety to the state” is absolutely ridiculous.
Weibo user @Wolfman1989 stressed that family should come before the state:
孝顺国家是什么吊玩意？从来都是有家才有国，没有千千万万个家中共统治谁？可是没有现在的政府，我们完全可以民选一个新的政府出来，搞清楚逻辑关系再说话。国家是为公民服务的，我们就是来当大爷的，没让国家跪下就不错了，还他妈我们孝顺国家？央视真傻逼。
What the hell is this “showing filial piety to the state”? Family exists before the country. Without families, who is there for the Chinese Communist Party to rule over? If the current government does not exist, we can just select another one. Please be logical before you speak. The state is there to serve the people, we are the boss. The state should be the one bowing to the people, how dare you talk about showing filial piety to the state? CCTV is such a stupid ass.
Yu Ge believed the term is another name for “family empire”:
国家与父亲一体化的侧面，则是国的家庭化、家族化，此之谓“家天下”。对权力者来讲，把国当家，国事便成家事，或者说，他们惯于以家事的视角处理国事，以至政治伦理弃若敝屣，家庭伦理大行其道。国家属性如此，权力者眼里的国民，则尽是孝子贤孙，要他们“孝顺国家”
By merging the country and the father together into one, the state also merges the family and the family tribe into a “family empire”. For the ruler, to see the country as his family means the country's policies will become family business or they take the country's polices as family business and put political ethics aside. All they see is family ethics. In their eyes, people are their offspring who have to show filial piety to the state.
Under the family empire, people are left with no choice, as lawyer Yu Yang explained:
忠是可选择的、相对的，所谓“良臣择主而侍”，但孝却是没有选择的、绝对的，因为谁都只有一双父母，一般而言父母再怎么样儿女也得受着，可见，把孝顺及于“国家”用心多么良苦。
Loyalty is a choice and is relative, as expressed in the phrase, “A good servant chooses their master to serve”. Filial piety is absolute and not a choice ¡ because people are born into a set of relationships and even if the parents are bad, they have to accept the relationship. You see why they spend so much effort in mixing filial piety and the state together?
Wu Deyu was not surprised by the expression:
何必孤陋寡闻，在当今国家、党、领袖或称核心三者是一致的，只是后两位比较谦虚，所以无论是爱还是孝顺都把第一位推在先。只要明白这个道理就一通百通了。
Don't be naive. Currently the state, the party and the leader or the core are united as one. The latter two are more humble, so love and filial piety is connected to the country. This is the law that explains everything.
More netizens simply mocked the idea:
国家爹，我要结婚了，能不能给我整个房？六七十平方就行！国家爹，能不能多多关心我，让我快乐成长？……我以后一定会好好孝顺你的……
State father, I need to get married, can you give me an apartment? All I need is 60 to 70 square meters. State father, can you give me more attention and happiness… I will certainly show you filial piety…
有宇宙才有地球，有地球才有亚洲，有亚洲才有国家。不要问宇宙为你做了什么，先孝顺宇宙！
The universe comes before the earth, the earth comes before Asia, Asia comes before the country. Don't ask what the universe has done for you. Show filial piety to the universe first.
孝子的最大功能是出殡时披麻戴孝，摔孝子盆执哭丧棒。孝子们时刻准备着，国丧之时哭天嚎地，养殡千日用在一时。国死之始，全国公休，丁忧三年。孝顺论是咒国家早死…
The most significant expression of filial piety is during a funeral. The son would cry loudly and hit himself to express his grief. So be prepared for such a performance of filial piety at the state's funeral. Once the state is dead, we will have a holiday and all the males will mourn for three years. The expression of filial piety to the state is to urge for its early death…

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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Kyrgyz Language Is Part of Google Translate! · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Screenshot of Google Translate in Kyrgyz shared on Tilek Mamutov's Facebook page.
Google Translate is now available in over 100 languages, one of which is the Kyrgyz language, spoken mostly in the mountainous Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan.
The struggle to get Kyrgyz onto Google Translate was waged over several years by local users of Facebook and Russian social media, but the Turkic tongue spoken by over 5 million people worldwide had a tireless advocate inside the tech giant, too.
Tilek Mamutov, a Kyrgyz Technical Program Manager at Google who currently lives in the San Francisco bay area, celebrated the arrival of Google Translate in a Facebook post on February 18:
Кыргызский язык теперь в Google Translate!!!
Спасибо команде Google Translate, которые уже много лет работают над алгоритмами перевода и за работу, начатую годы назад, над кыргызским языком в частности.
Также хочу отметить носителей языка, которые внесли свой вклад в тренировку алгоритма! Огромный вклад внесла граппа под координацией Чоробека Сааданбекова. И хочу отметить внесших вклад через Айсок Кыргызстан за то, что подняли тему сотрудничества кыргызстанцев с Гуглом очень давно, поставили некоторые первые кирпичи в фундамент и вдохновили Гугл сделать глобальный инструмент принятия отзывов от сообществ. Спасибо всем кто помогал этим группам и тем кто вносил вклад индивидуально.
Приглашаю всех попробовать: http://translate.google.com/ Только помните, пожалуйста, что это только первые шаги, и если вы увидите что какой-то перевод можно улучшить прошу нажать соответствующую кнопку.
Kyrgyz language is now on Google Translate !!!
Many thanks to the team of Google Translate, whose work on the translation algorithms began years ago. I also want to note speakers of the language who made a contribution to the training algorithm! A huge difference was made by the work of a group coordinated by Chorobek Saadanbekov.
And I want to mention those who have contributed through Aisok Kyrgyzstan, which has raised issues of cooperation between Google and Kyrgyzstan for a long time, and who helped inspire Google to create a global instrument for accepting feedback from different communities.
Thanks to everyone who helped these groups and to those who have contributed individually.
I invite everyone to try: http://translate.google.com/ Just remember, please, that these are only the first steps, and if you see that some translations can be improved, just click the appropriate button.
Ironically, Mamutov's message was written not in Kyrgyz, but in Russian, a language still dominant in the ex-Soviet country's capital Bishkek.
Online, most of the country's .kg internet space is still accounted for by Russian language websites.
Using Google Translate to translate Russian-language news reports about Kyrgyzstan, for instance, one finds the national currency, the som, rendered as ‘catfish’, while Bolot, a common Kyrgyz first name, becomes ‘swamp’.
Google Translate in Kyrgyz will open up better access to the small but diverse Kyrgyz language Internet, although as Mamutov hints, translations are likely to be affected by inaccuracies for some time.
Kyrgyz beside a traditional nomadic dwelling in the early 20th century. From the archives of the state registry.
Kyrgyz is spoken outside Kyrgyzstan, notably in Russia, where up to a million Kyrgyz migrants live and work, and in Tajikistan, where Kyrgyz communities live along the Pamir mountain range.
In Afghanistan, over 1,000 Kyrgyz inhabit the Wakhan Corridor, one of the most closed-off parts of the world.
There, children study in Dari, but satellites attached to yurts (nomadic felt dwellings) enable the of the community to watch news about Kyrgyzstan in Kyrgyz.
A Wakhan Kyrgyz. Screenshot from video uploaded by Jeff Waalkes.
В переводчике Google Translate появился кыргызский языкhttps://t.co/ERi4sSTJgl #freekg pic.twitter.com/QnBRR16gpS
— АКИpress (@akipress) February 18, 2016
Kyrgyz language has arrived on Google Translate.
Constitutionally, Kyrgyz remains Kyrgyzstan's state language, with Russian as an ‘official’ language that is just as commonly used in government documents.
State education in the country is in Kyrgyz, Russian and Uzbek, although the government recently removed Uzbek-language university entrance tests amid concerted pressure from nationalists.
Command of Russian is fading quickly outside Bishkek, while many young Kyrgyz choose to learn Mandarin, as well as English, in order to take advantage of employment opportunities related to neighbouring China's investment in the region.
Sixty-year-old Ainysa and her grandson. All of her children work in Russia. Chek village, Batken oblast. Photo taken by Eylor Nematov and used with permission.
Finally! Kyrgyz language is part of Google translate! #freekg https://t.co/0XL621tPSi
— Edil Baisalov (@baisalov) February 18, 2016
A young Kyrgyz man stares into binoculars outside the country's main football stadium. Photo by Tamas Paczai used with permission.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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The Gambia Commemorates 51 Years of Independence, But Not Everyone Is Celebrating · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

Dawda Jawara became Gambia's first president after the country gained independence. Photo released under Creative Commons by Fernando Pereira/Anefo.
The West African state of The Gambia celebrated 51 years of independence from Great Britain on February 18, 2016, more than half a century after becoming Africa's 37th sovereign state and the last of four British West African colonies to gain independence.
President Yahya Jammeh has called on Gambians to unite and pray for the country's continued development, promising sustained progress, peace, and stability:
Let us remember that we have reached this stage we are today amidst many odds and animosity. Prophecies of our doom and predictions of our failure were commonplace since the dawn of the July 22 Revolution. We were victims of isolation by the main actors and development partners in the international community. However, with Allah's blessings of staunch faith, commitment and dedication we have been able to weather all storms and tempests that come our way. And, Inshallah, our resilience will continue to be fortified by the strength of our faith in Allah, our submission to His will and our abstinence from evil as prescribed in the Holy Books of the Quran and the Bible and as had been the practice by Allah's Prophets for the emulation of all humankind.
The president's statement centered around religious tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and religious devotion in line with recent pronouncements about the country as an Islamic republic. Jammeh has been in power since July 1994 after a bloodless coup that toppled independence leader Dawda K Jawara. His more-than-21-year presidency is credited with considerate infrastructural development, including the construction of schools and road networks throughout the country. However, Jammeh is also heavily criticized for his poor human rights records (especially against journalists, opposition politicians, and human rights defenders).
Gambians and friends of The Gambia are celebrating the anniversary offline and online, especially on social media, sharing their thoughts about the significance of the day, while reflecting on the past and looking ahead to the future.
Modou Lamin Beyai, a journalist, echoed the president's call for unity:
Let us for a day forget our differences and stand United as Gambians to celebrate this Independence Day.#GambiaAt51 pic.twitter.com/RtAglmXBSq
— Modou Lamin Beyai (@modoubeyai) February 18, 2016
Amie Bella posted this video on her Facebook timeline.
The Swedish Permanent Mission to the United Nations shared some facts and wished Gambia a happy celebration:
Happy #IndependenceDay #Gambia! #DidYouKnow this is the smallest country in Africa but home to 569 kinds of birds? pic.twitter.com/L9DIrp7ZZy
— SwedenUN (@SwedenUN) February 18, 2016
However, not all the online reactions have been positive. Some netizens and human rights activists have used the occasion to highlight what they describe as a climate of fear in Gambia.
Jeffrey Smith, an American human rights expert, tweeted:
#Gambia celebrates 51 years of 'independence' today, but sadly remains shackled & abused by one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.
— Jeffrey Smith (@Smith_JeffreyT) February 18, 2016
MamaLinguere Sarr, a Gambian journalist and human rights expert, wrote:
@Smith_JeffreyT #Gambia we are neither free nor independent! Having a Jammeh in power is a contradiction of anything independent
— MamaLinguere Sarr (@mamasarr) February 18, 2016
Another Twitter user lamented:
Happy #independenceday to the country we love… The #GambiaAt51 #Gambia #Africa It's a shame that you spent 22yrs under #DictatorYayaJammeh
— YesWe Can (@YesWeCan_Gambia) February 18, 2016

author: Demba Kandeh


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Brazilian Activist Flooded With Death Threats After Newspaper Runs Phony Interview · Global Voices
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Journalist and activist Leonardo Sakamoto. Screencap: YouTube.
The well-known Brazilian journalist, teacher, and human rights activist Leonardo Sakamoto says he started receiving death threats after a small Brazilian newspaper published a fake interview with him earlier this month.
The newspaper Edição do Brasil (Brazil's Edition)—a shady publication from Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state—published the phony interview where Sakamoto supposedly says retirees are “useless to society.” Sakamoto says the fake interview was loosely based on a blog post he wrote in December.
In the text, titled “Three Ways of Convincing the Poor That Increasing the Minimum Wage Is Bad,” Sakamoto said the arguments used by the media, and some sectors of Brazilian society, to criticize the federal government's long-standing policy of increasing the minimum wage every year. Writing sarcastically, Sakamoto joked that Brazil should stop adjusting its pensions, too, if it makes sense to abandon hikes in the minimum wage.
Sakamoto says Edição do Brasil not only never interviewed him, but it also failed to understand his sarcasm, republishing things he wrote on his blog, as if he meant them in earnest.
Cover of the newspaper “Edição do Brasil” with Sakamoto's photo and the headline “Political scientist says retirees are “useless to society.” Photo from Sakamoto's personal archive, used with permission.
On Facebook, he wrote that he's been receiving threats online since the fake interview was published:
Meus advogados estão cuidando do caso, mas, como previ no post, a situação pirou. Ameaças de agressão e morte têm circulado na rede. E memes mentirosos baseados na entrevista falsa passaram a, além de me criticar por algo que eu não disse, a fazer ameaças. Páginas de ódio tem compartilhado a informação e fomentado vingança contra esse jornalista que quer “reciclar idosos”. Dezenas de milhares de vezes.
Antes de sair do Brasil para vir a Genebra (onde estou para falar sobre como abolir o trabalho escravo no século 21 em um TEDx na ONU), cheguei a ser abordado na rua por um grupo exaltado. Nada aconteceu desta vez.
Não sou de reclamar, não. Mas a difusão desta mentira na rede pode acabar mal. Espero estar errado.
My lawyers are handling the case, but, as I predicted in the post, the situation has gotten worse: [there have been] threats of aggression and death threats have been circulating on the Internet. And [there are] misleading memes based on the false interview, criticizing me for something I didn't say, making threats. Hate pages have shared information and encouraged revenge against this journalist who wants to “recycle elderly people.” Tens of thousands of them.
Before leaving Brazil to come to Geneva (where I am [now] to talk about how to abolish slavery in the 21st century at a TEDx at the UN), I was approached on the street by an aggressive-looking group. Nothing happened this time.
I'm not of complaining, no. But spreading this lie on the Internet could end badly. I hope I'm wrong.
Sakamoto serves as the coordinator of the NGO Repórter Brasil, Brazil's leading organization defending and reporting on labor rights. Repórter Brazil regularly reports on companies that use slave labor and has received a series of human rights prizes.
Sakamoto, along with other left-wing activists and bloggers in Brazil, often face harassment online, being called “communists” and supporters of the current Brazilian government (which has been led by the center-left Workers’ Party since 2002). Sakamoto himself says he has many times been insulted in the street, though he tries to take it in good spirits (he even made a t-shirt bearing the most common insults he receives). He wrote on his blog:
Quem acompanha este blog sabe que, há tempos, sou perseguido em restaurantes, na rua, em aeroportos, dentro e fora do país – já tratei desse comportamento bizarro algumas vezes por aqui. Na maior parte do tempo, é divertido. O problema é quando as ações diretas acabam descambando para a violência ou as ameaças são executadas.
Anyone who follows this blog knows that, for a long time, I've been persecuted in restaurants, on the street, in airports, and in and outside the country. I've dealt with this bizarre behavior a few times here [on this blog]. Most of the time, it's fun. The problem is when it ends up sliding into violence or threats that are actually executed.
In a blog post in October of 2015, he described a few such cases:
Sakamoto wears a t-shirt with some of the prejudice and offences he hears everyday. Photo from Sakamoto's personal archive, used with permission.
Há algumas semanas, depois de ouvir um monte de coisa ruim de uma mulher no supermercado, não me dei por rogado e resolvi bater-papo. Ela se assustou, afinal de contas, essa não é a etiqueta de haters na internet: a gente tem que aceitar ser xingado e/ou xingar de volta. O que fazer, diante de um afável “querida, vamos conversar um pouco?
[…]
No ano passado, uma me reconheceu, abriu a janela do carro, gritou “volta pra Cuba, filho da puta”, e cuspiu na minha direção.
[…]
Já, há algumas semanas, um jovem do tamanho de um armário me acertou uma ombrada na rua que quase me desconjuntou para depois sair rindo com os amigos por ter batido no comunista.
A few weeks ago, after hearing a lot of bad things from a woman in the supermarket, I decided to chat. She was frightened. After all, this is not the haters’ etiquette on the Internet: we have to accept being called names and/or curse back. […]
Last year, one recognized me, opened the car window, yelled “go back to Cuba, you son of a bitch,” and spat in my direction. […]
A few weeks ago, a young man the size of a truck knocked into me, nearly dislocating my shoulder, and then walked on with his friends, laughing about having given it to the communist.
Brazilian Internet users have also shared memes (like the one pictured below) containing death threats directed at Sakamoto. The example below features the starred symbol of the Workers’ Party, and the caption reads, “This useless [man] will die soon. Sakamoto says the elderly are useless. Why spend on someone who's no longer useful to society, with so much public debt to pay? The best solution would be to establish an age, when those poor old folks should be shipped to the recycling plant.”
Meme shared anonymously online.
Brazil is a dangerous country for journalists, especially for those working in the countryside. In 2015, a survey by the Press Emblem Campaign ranked Brazil 7th in the world, in terms of murdered journalists. (Seven died that year.) Two years earlier, Reporters Without Borders found that Brazil led Latin America in murdered journalists. Last year, the Organization of American States denounced Brazil for its ongoing violence against reporters.
Brazil also has the ignoble distinction of being the world's most dangerous place for environmental activists, according to the NGO Global Witness. The statistics would impress even the most accomplished killer: between 2002 and 2013, 448 environmental activists in Brazil were murdered—more than half the number of all environmental activists killed throughout the world during this period.
Expressing his solidarity with Sakamoto, journalist Alceu Castilho wrote that threats against him are “a warning to journalists all over Brazil”:
Sakamoto não é vítima de inocentes criadores de memes. É vítima de fascistas. E é como tais que eles precisam ser encarados. Não é preciso ser jornalista para combater o fascismo.
[…]
Enquanto isso, longe dos grandes centros, jornalistas menos conhecidos continuam sendo assassinados – e o número tem aumentado. Ou calados. Um colunista sergipano foi condenado por escrever uma crônica – uma ficção – sobre um desembargador coronelista. Assistimos a tudo isso sem a ênfase necessária. Como se fosse admissível a existência de liberdade de expressão em apenas algumas ilhas de democracia.
Sakamoto is not the victim of innocent meme creators. He's the victim of fascists. And it is as such that they need to be addressed. You don't have to be journalist to fight fascism. […]
Meanwhile, away from the big centers, lesser-known journalists continue to be killed, and the number is increasing—or [being] silenced. A columnist from the state of Sergipe was convicted for writing a chronicle—a work of fiction—about a landowner judge [a “colonel” who owns land and uses violence against anyone who challenges him]. We watched all this happen, and we did nothing [about it]. It was as if it's okay that the freedom of expression exists only in a few islands of democracy.
The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI) is calling for an investigation into the threats against Sakamoto, and the website Portal Imprensa contacted the newspaper responsible for the false interview, Edição do Brasil, asking for clarifications:
After the impact of the false interview, the newspaper [Edição do Brasil] deleted the news story and issued a statement saying it dealt with a person named Luíza Amália, who claimed to have conducted the interview, dealing with the newsroom by email.
“Brazil's Edition analyzed the responses sent and the article in question and believes that there was bad faith on the part of the person who answered, with probable intent to harm both the newspaper and Leonardo Sakamoto,” said the newspaper.

author: Raphael Tsavkko Garcia


text:
How Lima Lost the Booksellers of Quilca Street · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Books in Quilca street. Photo: Jorge Gobbi / Flickr. Creative Commons.
This article originally appeared on Juan Arellano's blog “Globalizado.”
In Lima's historical center, the booksellers of “Boulevard de la Cultura Quilca” have operated for almost two decades, but since 2008 they have lived under the threat of eviction. On the morning of January 14, it finally became more than a mere threat, when police arrived en masse to boot out some 60 booksellers, some of whom protested, though the confrontation didn't escalate beyond that.
Before law enforcement moved in, the booksellers had occupied the space since 1997, when the Municipality of Lima relocated them from the city streets to this area, (previously a car park that belonged to the city's archdiocese). In 2008, the archdiocese decided not to renew its contract with the booksellers and commenced legal proceedings to evict them.
Despite drawn-out negotiations about Boulevard de la Cultura Quilca, no agreement was reached.
@sociedad_ECpe @Latina_pe @noticiAmerica Desalojan a libreros del jirones Quilca 265. La Policía custodia el local. pic.twitter.com/7FvsWjNH60
— ARTURO ANDRES (@arturo83_) January 14, 2016
Eviction of booksellers at 265 Quilca street. Police stand guard over the area.
Y así terminó Quilca y sus libreros. Se cerró la puerta del Bulevar, no se permite ya el ingreso. Termino todo. pic.twitter.com/yYsyT9JsMF
— VeJota (@otros_dias) January 14, 2016
And so was the end of Quilca and its booksellers. The door of the Boulevard is closed, entrance no longer allowed. All over.
Por orden del arzobispado desalojaron a libreros de Quilca. Una pena. Ojalá no suceda lo mismo con Amazonas.
— cecilia niezen (@cniezen) January 14, 2016
By order of the archdiocese, the booksellers of Quilca were evicted. Shame. Hope this can be avoided on Amazonas street.
While the street isn't the only place where books were sold in the area (there are various second-hand bookshops and similar stores just around the corner, on Camaná street), the closures at Quilca are sure to reduce significantly the selection of books available in central Lima.
Paulo César Peña explained on the news website La Mula that unlike “traditional bookshops […] which play to the tune of the editorial market,” in places such as Quilca Street, one was more likely to find rare back catalogue titles. He added that the dynamics of the trade were also different:
Como aficionado a la lectura puedo decir que en Quilca uno  podrá encontrar ciertas librerías, ciertos libreros, con los cuales establecer una sólida empatía en materia de temas o gustos compartidos. La constancia lleva a la confianza. El ‘casero’ toma cuerpo y, quién sabe, con algo de tiempo se puede convertir en el amigo. Lo que, por cierto, se condensa en descuentos mucho más generosos o, también, en la opción de guardar un libro por unos días extras, hasta que la liquidez del bolsillo lo permita adquirir sin problemas.
As a book lover, I can say that in Quilca one can find certain bookstores, certain booksellers, with which to establish a solid empathy in terms of shared interests or tastes. Consistency brings trust. You become a regular and, who knows, with time perhaps even a friend. This results in far more generous discounts or the possibility of keeping a book for a while even if you can't yet afford to buy it outright, until funds are there to allow you to buy it without problems.
Although many criticize the archdiocese, and, by extension, the Catholic Church, for a lack of interest in the city's culture, other insist that it has the right to manage its assets as it wishes. According to reports, the archdiocese has plans  to construct an underground station, business offices, and apartments on this land.
La iglesia desaloja a los libreros de Quilca, ¿Se puede creer en Dios? https://t.co/wPrYyCEPlk
— Susel Paredes Piqué (@suselparedes) January 15, 2016
The church evicts the booksellers of Quilca. Can we believe in God?
Libreros del jirón Quilca desalojados. La Iglesica católica vs. la cultura. https://t.co/p6V8EIHboY
— Yohanna Navarrete (@impresiva) January 15, 2016
Booksellers of Quilca street evicted. The Catholic Church vs. culture.
On the other hand, some highlighted that not everything was “peachy” with the booksellers of Quilca.
Los libreros de Quilca,con la plata que han ganado vendiendo bien caro sus libros,incluso más que en librerías d prestigio,que busquen local
— Patricio Anticona (@tinosaulo1) January 14, 2016
The booksellers of Quilca can use the money they have made from selling their overpriced books, even more expensive than in reputed bookshops, to find a new plot [of land].
#Socialconfusos: “Debemos combatir la informalidad en nuestro país!” » Llora por los libreros informales pirateadores de libros de Quilca.
— Quentin Quiroga (@Iraqundo) January 15, 2016
“We must fight informality in our country!” A tear for the informal booksellers counterfeiters of books of Quilca.
Others protested that the theme had become a quarrel between the political left and the Catholic Church, and also that many were outraged just to be cool or due to ignorance about the other places to buy books in the city.
Caviares y rojos se indignan por desalojo de libreros de Quilca, no dicen que el alquiler venció el 97, todo x atacar a la Iglesia Católica.
— Valdo Escobar M. (@vldesco) January 15, 2016
The caviar left and reds (communists) outraged by the eviction of the booksellers in Quilca dismiss that the rent was due in '97. All this to attack the Catholic Church.
Hace años que los libreros de la cultura de Quilca se habian aburguesado. Vayan a buscar sus libros, caminen, no sean flojos. Poseros.
— Carlos (@DanBrownie) January 17, 2016
The booksellers of Quilca became gentrified years ago. Go and find your books, don't be lazy…
Nevertheless, all is not lost as the municipalities of two districts in Lima, Rímac and Los Olivos, have proposed relocating the book vendors to their respective jurisdictions. For one of these areas to succeed in their bid would mean opening a new cultural hub in an area where traditionally there has been no presence or sale of books, which would be a great step towards decentralizing Greater Lima's cultural space.
This article originally appeared on Juan Arellano's blog “Globalizado.”

author: Juan Arellano


text:
Meet Fish, a Resident of the World’s Largest Refugee Camp · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Abdullah Hassan, known as Fish, lived at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya for 23 years. Credit: Abdullah Hassan/Courtesy
This article by Rachel Gotbaum for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on February 18, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Abdullah Hassan, whose nickname is Fish, was 7 years old when his father was murdered by militants in Somalia. He then left Somalia and traveled to Kenya, to the Dadaab refugee camp.
Along the way two of Hassan's brothers and his sister died of malnutrition. When he and his mother arrived at the camp the conditions there weren't much better.
The camp was created in 1992 to house 90,000 Somalis escaping their civil war.
To this day, there is little plumbing or running water, and the UN Refugee Agency often cuts the already minimal food rations. Many refugees have died of hunger. There are also cholera outbreaks because of massive flooding and little sanitation.
Fish's wife died of an ulcer due to lack of proper medical care.
Fish's work with the Danish Refugee Council is considered volunteerism due to his refugee status. Credit: Abdullah Hassan/Courtesy
The refugees are not allowed to work and very few are allowed to leave. Fish works for the Danish Refugee Council, but it's not a job in the traditional sense: the agency provides Fish with a stipend, and considers him a volunteer.
The Dadaab camp now houses 500,000 people and is a ramshackle city the size of New Orleans.
Recently the militant group Al Shabaab has penetrated the camp.
“We experienced severe violent activities, kidnappings, shootings, killings, there were a lot of vehicles bombed,” says Hassan. “My colleagues in the community were killed.”
Fish was also targeted and had to leave for Nairobi, where he is now living illegally. He is often stopped by police and must offer them bribes to avoid arrest.
After feeling trapped at Dadaab and in Kenya for 23 years, Fish hopes to resettle somewhere less hostile with his daughters, who still live at the camp. He hopes to make a new life.
“I’m optimistic that I may go out of this country Kenya and get resettled,” he says. “It’s just about time that God has a solution for me.”
Fish is profiled in the new book “City of Thorns” by Ben Rawlence. Read more about it here.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Online Documentary Preserves Oral History Surrounding 1950s Yugoslav Anti-Veil Law · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A frame from the Youtube version of the film “Looking at the Cobblestones.”
A Serbian NGO has published online the entire documentary film “Looking at the Cobblestones” about the impact of a 1951 law forbidding the covering of women's faces with Muslim veils (niqāb) in the then-People's Republic of Serbia.
The film published by the Novi Pazar NGO Academic Initiative Forum 10 features interviews with senior citizens who witnessed the law's implementation, and who talk about the hard life in the Sandžak region right after the devastation following World War II.
A group of younger interviewees talk about contemporary issues affecting Muslim women taking into account this historical perspective.
According to the film's authors:
Zakon je donet kako se navodu u njegovom obrazloženju „u cilju da se otkloni vekovna oznaka potčinjenosti i zaostalosti žene muslimanke, da se olakša ženi muslimanki puno korišćenje prava izvojevanih u Narodno – oslobodilačkoj borbi i socijalističkoj izgradnji zemlje i da joj se obezbedi puna ravnopravnost i učešće u društvenom, kulturnom i privrednom životu“
The law was adopted with the explanation “..to achieve the goal of removing the century-old sign of subjugation and backwardness of of Muslim women, and to enable Muslim women to fully use the rights won during the Struggle for Liberation of the People and the Socialist renewal of the country, and to enable equal rights and participation in the social, cultural and economic life.”
The Yugoslav authorities’ actions mirrored Atatürk's Reforms in Turkey, which were epitomised by the Law Relating to Prohibited Garments passed in 1934.
Prior to official state action in Yugoslavia, Muslim members of the Women's Antifascist Front had prepared the ground with grassroots manifestations of public uncoverings of their own faces.
The earliest such events took place in Kosovo in 1947. Possibly through coordination at federal level, the constituent republics adopted anti-veil laws around the same time — Bosnia in September 1950, Serbia and Macedonia in January 1951.
While the Communist Party encouraged atheism among its members, the elite of Yugoslav society, the state guaranteed freedom of religion to all other citizens.
In an essay about the law against the veil, Prof. Fikret Karčić explained that the campaign against the veil was based on the notion that the covering of women is not grounded in religion, but in customs that go beyond religious norms.
The state-endorsed message was that rejecting traditional attire does not make one less Muslim.
The post-war Yugoslav Communist government brought about legal changes elevating the status of women, including the right to vote, work and hold property, while adopting a pro-choice stance towards abortion.
However, activist Ms Zibija Šarenkapić Dervišhalitović explains in the film that the state actually avoided directly confronting entrenched patriarchal power structures.
Instead, patriarchy simply came from a different source — the state — which threatened non-conforming women with heavy fines.
Forced uncovering was deeply disturbing to some women.
Mr Asim Nikšić, who was a child in 1951, explains that as a way to cope with the trauma his widowed mother simply stayed indoors for eight months.
The title of the film “Looking at the Cobblestones” is an idiom meaning “hanging your head in shame,” describing how some women felt overexposed when outside of their homes.
Great example of oral history https://t.co/arhETj8bFS
— Реис ЕУлема (@sanjinbuzo) February 19, 2016
Before the filming, Academic Initiative Forum 10 director Fahrudin Kladničanin explained that the project is based on archive research and testimonies, and the intent of the NGO is to offer “a new reading” of forgotten historical events and engage the public in discussion by giving a voice to the women and others who were directly affected.
Ms Kimeta Dolovac. Frame from the film “Looking at the Cobblestones.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
Oz Comedian’s Song Challenges Cardinal to ‘Come Home’ for Child Sex Abuse Hearing · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Cardinal Pell at World Youth Day 2011 – Photo courtesy Flickr user: Catholic Church England and Wales (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
A provocative song by Australian musical satirist Tim Minchin has challenged the Catholic church's Cardinal George Pell to ‘come home’ to face the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Pell is a senior Vatican bureaucrat, appointed by Pope Francis to oversee church finances. He has been given permission by the commission to testify from Rome by video link because of ill-health.
He was at the centre of a cover-up controversy over a chain of child sex abuse allegations involving Catholic clergy in Australia which led to the setting up of the Royal Commission in 2012.
Many victims have been outraged by his absence and plan to fly to Rome, hoping to watch the Cardinal's evidence.
They were not the only ones to cast doubt on the cardinal's motive for not returning:
@HittingAlice @Pontifex
Pell looks hearty & jolly.
What could be keeping him from flying to #caroyalcommission ? pic.twitter.com/mC37Mj2X07
— Tim Jones (@Forthleft2) February 9, 2016
Proceeds from online sales of the song, Come Home (Cardinal Pell), are going to a fund to help send survivors of the Ballarat diocese in Australia — a ‘hub’ of alleged child sex abuse in the country — to Rome.
A crowd funding effort raised over nearly $130,000 in the first three days.
The website explained:
The City of Ballarat has come under the spotlight of the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Abuse as an epicentre of abuse over many years.
Cardinal George Pell was due to give evidence in Ballarat but is too ill to travel, missing the chance to not only give evidence in person but provide hope to the whole city.
The survivors of Ballarat and District child abuse feel that a face-to-face hearing is important for healing and understanding.
The lyrics are deliberately offensive, as is typical of Minchin's in-your-face comedic style.
He calls Pell a “coward”, “scum” and a “pompous buffoon”. In a very provocative red rag finish, he goads the Cardinal to “come home and frickin’ sue me”.
Cardinal Pell has since offered to “meet with and listen to victims and express his ongoing support”.
Frank Brennan, Jesuit priest and human rights lawyer, has lived up to his name with forthright comments in the past about “the closed system of clericalism” and definite “need for greater transparency” with regard to child abuse amongst clergy.
However, he has warned ‘that turning the commission into a “laughing stock” runs the risk of derailing proceedings’.
Fr Brennan has copped his share of criticism on social media:
@AndreaGorman8 @johndory49 Well Father Frank Brennan Shows where his care is, not with the Abused, Another disgraceful #catholic
— Michael Ryan (@mryansisland) February 18, 2016
Nevertheless, he has supporters:
George Pell controversy: Leftist pursuit of Cardinal hindering royal commission https://t.co/iMvtZlZMpm #auspol #ozcot #qldpol #nswpol
— Joe Qld (@Qlder) February 19, 2016
Another Oz satirist Dan Ilic joined the fray on Twitter:
The Church is saying that @timminchin‘s Pell song is harming victims of abuse… I'd hazard a guess, probably not more than actual abuse.
— Dan Ilic (@danilic) February 18, 2016
Tim Minchin appreciated Ilic's support:
@danilic You should see the messages I'm getting from survivors, Dan. Incredible. x
— Tim Minchin (@timminchin) February 18, 2016
Minchin has lost some fans with the song…
@timminchin First saw you at RAHall concert. I thought “what a talent!” Now, after Pell recording, I think, “what a biased, bullying sod.”
— David Walker (@dewalke) February 18, 2016
… while winning over a few new ones: The YouTube video of Minchin's song has had more than 800,000 views in its first four days.
It is not at all surprising that many people on social media have been making comparisons with the recently released film Spotlight, which tells the true story of the media investigation into allegations of child abuse by John Geoghan, an American Roman Catholic priest.
Geoghan was strangled to death by a fellow inmate in a Massachusetts jail in 2003 after being incarcerated on indecent assault and battery charges involving a ten-year-old boy the year before. He is believed to have molested dozens of young boys.
Just seen #Spotlight – after @BostonGlobe exposed his coverup of child sexual abusr Cardinal Law transferred to Vatican, just like Pell.
— Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) February 17, 2016

author: Kevin Rennie


text:
Protests at Indian Universities Add Fuel to Public Outrage Over Sedition Laws · Global Voices
Nikhil Dhingra

Kanhaiya Kumar, student leader of All India Students Federation (AISF), the student wing of Communist Party of India (CPI) speaking at JNU on 11th of February, 2016. Screenshot from Youtube. Click on the image to listen to his speech in Hindi.
The protests started in a public university in New Delhi but have spread across the entire country.
Now, less than a week after Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested for sedition, media outlets are calling these demonstrations the largest India has seen in  over 25 years.
Everything started with a single spark set off by the arrest of Kumar, the president of a student union at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on February 12.
Kumar was detained due to the role he played in organizing a rally to mark the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri separatist. Slogans deemed to be “anti-Indian” were allegedly heard at the rally.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused  Kumar’s group (and other similar left-wing student groups) of anti-nationalism due to their criticism of the infamous 2013 execution of Mohammed Afzal Guru, convicted for his role in the December 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian parliament.
Kumar’s arrest sparked outrage among his fellow peers and classmates at JNU where they denounced the move as a violation of his basic rights to freedom of expression.
In response, these students boycotted their classes and raised barricades in an ongoing conflict with local authorities.
To make matters even worse, India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted shortly after the protests began that anybody who was caught shouting anti-Indian slogans, “will not be tolerated or spared.”
If anyone shouts anti India slogan & challenges nation's sovereignty & integrity while living in India, they will not be tolerated or spared
— Rajnath Singh (@BJPRajnathSingh) February 12, 2016
The protests at JNU eventually spread to 18 different universities across the country in the largest joined-up anti-government demonstration that India has seen since the self-immolation of a young Indian man in 1990 after the government ruled in favour of providing affirmative action for lower castes.
Students have been protesting the arrest in  every form imaginable, from burning sculptures of Modi in Kolkata to planning statewide demonstrations in Odisha.
In some instances, police were called to avoid violent conflicts between different groups of protesters, while earlier this week numerous journalists and Kumar himself were attacked by a group of lawyers inside the courthouse where the hearing for his sedition charges was taking place.
This isn’t the first time that Modi’s government has come into conflict with India’s youth.
Last November, hundreds of writers, historians, and filmmakers supported by youth began returning their state awards, citing rising intolerance and bigotry under Modi’s regime.
Even Indian Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen has spoken out on the issue, explaining that, “the problem is not that Indians have turned intolerant. In fact, to the contrary we have been much too tolerant of intolerance.”
Throughout the demonstrations the BJP has remained consistent on the need to suppress sedition, a crime punishable by life imprisonment in some cases.
Despite this risk, student leaders and activists have continued to voice support for Kumar on the front lines of demonstrations across the nation, where their voice matters the most.
For instance, Shehla Rashid Shora, the vice-president of the JNU’s Student Union, addressed students and teachers last Sunday who were gathered together to protest the BJP’s “assault on campus democracy.”
According to Shora, who believes the arrest of Kumar speaks to a more systemic problem in the BJP Party, “the assault on JNU is a well-drafted script by the RSS-BJP which uses the charade of Anti-National [rhetoric] to silence the most vocal intellectual opposition against [the] BJP government’s anti-India policies.”
“The nation of Mahatma Gandhi cannot fall prey to RSS inflicted Jingoism,” one user commented under a video  of Shora’s speech.
Others have criticised the JNU rally, however.
In response to a tweet claiming that refusing to support Hinduism cannot be synonymous with hatred, Tarek Fatah, the author of renowned books such as The Hindu Is Not My Enemy, pointed out that the JNU rally went beyond criticism of Hindu nationalism:
Are you denying that the #JNU protest was to celebrate the jihadis terrorist Afzal Guru? Perhaps you were unaware. https://t.co/sQMbm1tN4d
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) February 17, 2016
Chitra Subramaniam, a journalist and a UN Diplomat, echoed Fatah’s concerns and called JNU students out for taking their freedom of expression to a place that threatened public security:
Dissent is a right, but students at #JNU are selective about liberty and freedom https://t.co/yIENx89OOh #JNURow
— Chitra Subramaniam (@chitraSD) February 17, 2016
However, there are still many students who have taken both to the streets and to Twitter to fight for Kumar’s freedom.
In fact, contrary to the popular belief that these protesters are inciting violence, ANI News reports that demonstrators on the ground have been handing out flowers:
Delhi: #JNU students protest with flowers as a mark of peace during their march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar pic.twitter.com/Lixas6v84y
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 18, 2016
However, many teachers from the institution are backing the government backlash.
Some #JNU teachers say there is organised propaganda. ‘Lawlessness in university for 3 yrs. Glad action was taken’. pic.twitter.com/BsOthFqSYX
— Jugal R Purohit (@jrpur) February 16, 2016
While some ground reports, such as those relayed by India Today FLASH, suggest that the JNU gatherings are playing host to radical elements:
#BREAKING
Massive protests in Srinagar; ‘Thank you, JNU’ banners raised. Pak and ISIS flags also raised by protesters.
— IndiaTodayFLASH (@IndiaTodayFLASH) February 19, 2016
Regardless of people's opinions of them, the largely peaceful demonstrations spearheaded by the JNU students have been instrumental in putting the issue of the intolerance of the Modi administration on the public agenda.
Combine that with the international attention the protests have received, and the JNU movement could prove key in reconfiguring the popular prime minister’s relationship with Indian youth, while creating a challenge to the constitutionality of the country's deeply controversial sedition laws.

author: Nikhil Dhingra


text:
The KRA Factor: The Shaming of Kadyrov’s Online Critics · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Photo: Ramzan Kadyrov / Instagram
The online presence and antics of the head of the Chechen Republic in Russia, Ramzan Kadyrov, make regular headlines in Russian media. He has a hyperactive Instagram account where he posts heroic images of his daily labors, poses with guns or comments on the world at large. Kadyrov’s social media activity in many ways reflects his larger-than-life political persona.
An article written by Yelena Milashina, published in Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper and website known for its investigative reporting, describes the darker side of Kadyrov’s Internet exploits. Increasingly, Kadyrov’s entourage is using the openly available critical comments posted by Russian netizens to police how Kadyrov is talked about on social media, sometimes resorting to face-to-face intimidation. With permission, RuNet Echo translates the report here.
The Chechen ideologists have invented a non-lethal, but highly effective way of influencing their critics. The method has been successfully tested in Chechnya—and is now being actively used outside of the republic.
Right before New Year the news website Gazeta.ru published a tiny piece titled “Kadyrov demands phone number of Instagram user who insulted him.” Hardly anyone noticed the piece, but the story had a serious development.
The gist of the story is this: in the comments under a post on the Kavkaz_pravda Instagram account devoted to (opposition politician) Ilya Yashin’s address to the head of Chechnya, user @kadyrov_95 (Kadyrov’s official profile) wrote “He’s a funny guy))).” In reply, user @kur_maga wrote: “@kadyrov_95, to be honest, it’s you who looks funny when you say that you’ve done nothing to show off.”
When no reaction followed, the user wrote again: “You’re the one who looks funny when you say Putin is your best friend, @kadyrov_95.”
After this, @kadyrov_95 asked: “@kur_maga, give me your (phone) number, friend)).”
Screenshot from the kavkaz_pravda Instagram page, with Kadyrov's comments.
History soon repeated itself. Commenting on one of the posts about human rights advocate Igor Kalyapin on the same Chechen platform (kavkaz_pravda), user @jelezodorojnik replied to a Chechen journalist with the username @ryzana_v: “I’m from Nalchik. I don’t give a f*ck about people like you. I don’t know Kalyapin. I know he came to you to protect your asses which are being tortured in prisons. You protect the authorities, not the people. You’re just a political shill, nothing more…”
Another user, @lord_095, reacted to this comment: “@jelezodorojnik I’ll find you, scum, by the license plate of your Moskvitch you got from your granddad! We’ll see what you’re made of then, I promise!”
That same day @lord_095 wrote: “@jelezodorojnik N**, city of Nalchik. Phone 89289159***2.” And added: “What do you say now?”
One day later the user @ryzana_v published a comment in the same thread, which obviously suggests that N** was visited by someone who filmed another “shaming video.” @ryzana_v threatened to publish this video on social media. After this, user @jelezodorojnik deleted his Instagram account.
Screenshot of comment exchange between users @jelezodorojnik and @lord_095 on the kavkaz_pravda page.
Here’s what’s curious. Screenshots of threats from @kadyrov_95 and @lord_095 are openly accessible and visible. It’s not that they’re not being deleted—they’re being reposted by Chechen pro-government accounts, which the Chechen press ministry has been opening en mass.
One of such Instagram accounts, krik_chechni, has an openly accessible screenshot of the initial reaction of Ramzan Kadyrov and local official Buvaysar Saytyev to the statement by Russian lawmaker Konstantin Senchenko.  @kadyrov_95 writes: “)))I think the guy has had too much to drink))))”
The user @saitiev_95 immediately replies: “I KNOW THIS CLOWN.” And everyone now knows what happened next.
Comment exchange between Kadyrov and Saytyev on Instagram.
Buvaysar Saytyev paid the “clown” a visit, and the next day Chechen television aired a report with the recording of a phone conversation between Konstantin Senchenko with head of the online edition of “Grozny Inform” Dmitry Yefremov. This is a telling conversation that points to the level of intimidation and pressure that Senchenko was subjected to. In his conversation with Yefremov, Senchenko behaves as completely powerless and acknowledges (actually, repeats after Yefremov) that Chechen separatists (that the Kadyrovs sided with until 2002) and Russian federal forces “fought for a joint, united Russia.” Such behavior could only come from someone who has been scared to death.
All these stories, it seems, haven’t really been fully processed. From all appearances, the Chechen authorities seem to have found a way to influence their critics that, while not lethal, is highly effective. They test drove it in Chechnya and then started using it outside of the republic. And here’s what’s fascinating: both the resident of Nalchik, and the resident of Krasnoyarsk react to it in the same way Chechens do. They keep silent. And the Russian president’s press-secretary asks “not to blow the situation out of proportion…”
As of late, the self-censorship in Chechen Facebook accounts has turned into a epidemic. Users have been deleting or thoroughly cleansing their profile pages. “Dangerous” posts are being deleted, personal information and friends lists are being hidden for safety reasons. Citizens of Chechnya are also mass-migrating from WhatsApp to Telegram messenger (which offers a higher degree of security), use the Secret Chats feature to send information and then immediately destroy it.
But the rest of Russian citizens aren’t yet used to such cautious behavior. They haven’t yet realized that Russian Internet users with nicknames @kadyrov_95 and @lord_095 can send guests with a video camera to any address in Russia.
The active phase of conquering the Russian Internet began in the summer of 2014, when the Chechen press ministry got a new head, Dzhambulat Umarov. Head of Chechen presidential administration Magomet Daudov had Umarov in his sights for a while and was intrigued by his ambitious ideological project, called “The KRA Factor” (with KRA standing for Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmetovich).
Another up-and-coming local ideologue, Dmitry Yefremov (A Russian who moved to Grozny from Moscow and rose in the ranks on local TV), described the project thusly: “The KRA Factor is the first systematic attempt to describe the processes that have been occurring in the Republic during the last decade […] (Ramzan Kadyrov), serving as the axis and foundation for the federal authorities, and at once the embodiment of the principles of federalism, exists as a guarantor of multiethnic and multiconfessional peace. In Chechnya? No, I think, much broader[…] The KRA Factor is an ideologeme for a new Russia, currently in the process of […] searching for its own identity.”
The programmatic statement of the project on the www.factorkra.ru website calls Ramzan Kadyrov:
– “the most creative and effective factor for strengthening the state system of the Russian Federation”;
– “the only efficient way of fighting international terrorism in global practice”;
– “the only hope of the Chechen people”;
– “a faithful associate of the President and Commander in Chief of Russia, who, in these difficult days, […] proves his constant readiness to perform the assigned tasks in any part of the global geopolitical space, should such an order be given.”
Kadyrov’s enemies are described as “those who brainwash the population […] of sovereign nations with political, socio-economic or other problems, through velvet or Maidan-like “revolutions,” wipe them from the face of the Earth.” The statement also mentions terrorists of all kinds who “being the instruments of the external political course of the USA and their allies, perform terrorist acts in any place on Earth where they are ordered to…”
In conclusion, Dzhambulat Umarov draws a parallel between Kadyrov, Saddam Hussain and Muammar Gaddafi—“brotherly rulers” who courageously fought “the Western-Atlantic world of the many-faced Iblis.” And the Chechen press minister doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that both of the “brothers” mentioned didn’t end so well.
Lately, a lot is being said daily on Chechen television about Kadyrov’s great mission and his role in the context of the country and the world, most of it styled after “The KRA Factor.” Actually, most of Kadyrov’s latest most publicized statements seem to have come out of the same design—including his remark about the “faithful foot soldier” and his speech about the “enemies of the people.” These same orientations are being broadcast online on the many various Chechen propaganda platforms on social media, whose number has been growing constantly during the past year. Ramzan (Kadyrov) himself, as evident from the examples above, is an active follower of these accounts.
It should be noted that Chechen media (for the most part, television) have always differed in how they structure their news from the regional mainstream media in other parts of the Russian Federation. No other regional state television company has news bulletins that are 99% comprised of stories about the region’s governor. In Chechnya the only news worth reporting is the public and personal life of Ramzan Kadyrov. His governing activity, his law enforcement structures, his interventions into the religious sphere, his international political connections, his Hajj pilgrimages with his entourage, his family visits to the next Arab sheikh, his hafiz children, his entrepreneur wife, his mother’s charity work, his many hobbies: soccer, boxing, mixed martial arts, horses, dogs and other beasts. Now a new regular topic: “His enemies.”
This simplistic and crude information machine is being funded by the money that the Chechen press ministry, the local media, and bloggers receive from the Russian federal budget.
Another curious thing: Recently, at the order of the Russian president, the “Russian People’s Front” worked with the Russian government to prepare measures to cut state spending on the self-promotion and publicity for heads of the Russian regions. Starting in March 2016 the regional governors will have to report on every penny of the taxpayer funds spent on media coverage of their own activities, by completing and publishing a special form on the official website (something akin to an “information declaration”). I wonder how this innovation will reflect on the head of Chechnya?
I tried calling the phone number published by user @lord_095 in his comment.
—Hello, is this N**?
—Yes.
—My name is Yelena Milashina, I am a journalist from Novaya Gazeta, writing about the threats that Internet users have been getting from the Chechen authorities. I learned about your situation from the Krik Chechny Instagram account. The threats directed at you are still publicly available. Can you comment on the situation? Did you receive threats from the speaker of the Chechen parliament Magomet Daudov about your post? Did someone pay you a visit?
—They came, put me in a car and filmed me (on a video camera)… Anyway, right now they are analyzing this account which was created using my information…
—Are they analyzing it for threats that you received or analyzing it because this was an account you didn’t create? Meaning that someone else wrote the post on your behalf, which then caused someone from Chechnya to pay you a visit?
—How did you find out about this? Who are you?
—I’m a journalist from a federal newspaper. I’d like to find out if you went to law enforcement to report the threats you received and the pressure upon you?
—Can you call me back in 15 minutes?
15 minutes later, N** refused to discuss this issue further: “I refuse to provide you with comments on the matter.” When asked again if he appealed to law enforcement about the pressure exerted upon him, he also replied: “I refuse to discuss this with you.”

author: Tanya Lokot


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Thirty Saudi Religious Police Complete Course on How to Fight Black Magic · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore reacts to the news saying “Bring it on!” Photo source: Hummus for Thought Facebook page
Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police intend to give Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, a run for his money. Thirty members of the Commission for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have just completed a five-day course which will enable to them to fight black magic, identify sorcerers and even break their spells.
Needless to say, practicing magic is strictly prohibited in the deeply conservative kingdom, where those convicted of witchcraft and sorcery are executed.
From the UAE, commentator Sultan Al Qassemi quips:
Essential skills for the 21st century — Saudi religious cops trained to fight magic | Emirates 24|7 https://t.co/A06wNxej0q
— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) February 18, 2016
Others follow suit, with many making references to J K Rowling's best seller  Harry Potter series.
Nadim Rifai tweets the British novelist directly saying:
@jk_rowling Harry Potter and the Dark Kingdom. Please make it happen. I'll take 1% https://t.co/aHnXeLxOg7
— Nadim Rifai (@NadimRifai) February 19, 2016
But Hassan Cha says training the religious police is a “twisted version of Harry Potter”:
Saudi religious cops trained to fight magic https://t.co/RaLaU06Hka the twisted version of Harry Potter's defense against the dark arts.
— Hassan Cha. (@c_ha93) February 8, 2016
Harry Potter aside, it seems that such training programmes have been ongoing for a while. One user on Facebook shares a post from 2013 for a similar workshop. In fact, combating sorcery is one of five main areas religious police should focus on in doing their work. The other four are: “preserving Islam, preventing blackmail, fighting human trafficking, and ensuring that no one disobeys the country’s rulers.”

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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‘Uganda Is a Boiling Pot’: Arrests, Rigging Claims and a Social Media Shutdown Mar Elections · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Ugandans take to the polls, February 2016. Photo by Flickr user Commonwealth Secretariat. CC BY-NC 2.0
On February 18, Ugandans voted in presidential, parliamentary and local elections tainted by violence, protests, arrests and reports of rigging.
Ugandan and international observers have given a mixed opinion on the integrity of the vote, but one local organization, the Citizens’ Elections Observers Uganda, have discredited the whole exercise.
Provisional results show that the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking to extend his 30-year rule with a fifth term in office, is leading with nearly 62 per cent of the vote.
Kizza Besigye, the main opposition candidate representing the Forum For Democratic Change (FDC), was arrested along with some of his officials when police stormed his party's headquarters, firing teargas and stun grenades. Journalists who were live tweeting from the scene were also arrested. In total, Besigye has been arrested three times this week alone.
There were protests outside the party's headquarters on Friday and some skirmishes were reported in different parts of the country over delay in declaring results.
Presidential elections in 2006 and 2011 were also marred by violence and public protests.
On election day, the Uganda Communications Commission blocked access to Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp an hour after voting began, claiming that it was done in the interest of national security. The services are still blocked.
Some bypassed the block using virtual private networks (VPNs), and once Ugandans were able to access social media, many published reports of what they were seeing.
A Twitter user forwarded along a message that was sent to a telecom company's customers about the disruption of service:
disapointed with @UCC_Official blockin mobile money they still HV gas to send this @Airtel_Ug @mtnug #UgandaDecides pic.twitter.com/Lt7UR5xPqd
— young,wild&saved♕ (@emy42) February 19, 2016
Another user, ‘PeacifulTransitionUg’, shared a photo of tyres burning in the capital Kampala:
Burning of tyres in streets; Chaos in Kampala as #BesigyeArrested #UgandaDecides pic.twitter.com/PjN8a1Di0z
— PeacifulTransitionUg (@Prosper_MED) February 19, 2016
While Twitter user Lucy shared a photo of soldiers patrolling a seemingly peaceful neighborhood:
Sending groups of soldiers on foot 2 peaceful neighbourhoods is 1 way 2 intimidate/scare gd people #UgandaDecides pic.twitter.com/IYdQRrWxxx
— Lucy (@lucysuky) February 19, 2016
Days before the vote, Besigye protesters and police clashed violently in Kampala. One person was shot dead, and police fired canister after canister of tear gas to break up the gatherings.
Users discussed their upset with the situation. Calling attention to the way the police and soldiers treated opposition politicians and their supporters, ‘Cane cutter’ wrote:
it is not #UgandaDecides it's #MuseveniPoliceDecides never before have the police behaved this clownish as if they are the candidates!
— Cane cutter (@CharlesJb1) February 19, 2016
Daniel Kawuma, a Ugandan pharmacist, warned:
However good a leader might be, holding to power for decades does more harm than good for a nation. Uganda is a boiling pot! #UgandaDecides
— Daniel Kawuma (@Kawuma) February 19, 2016
Melissa Sibihwana prayed:
When the one who holds our freedom has the guns and teargas. Sigh 😩Lord hear us! #UgandaDecides
— Melissa Sibihwana (@leessa987) February 19, 2016
Twitter user ‘kmarkusk96′ complained:
It is in #Uganda where protestors get beaten up by the #ugandapolice for wanting to know the truth. #UgandaDecides #UgandaElections
— kmarkusk96 (@Markuskk) February 19, 2016
Nimrod Taabu, a television anchor, said:
Winning an election through hook and crook while clobbering your fellow countrymen should never be a proud moment! #UgandaDecides
— Nimrod Taabu (@nimrodtaabu) February 19, 2016
While another Ugandan noted that:
Ths govt makes it so freaking hard to be patriotic.I love my country,bt I sadly fail to believe myself as I say I love Uganda #Ugandadecides
— Play01 #01aura (@play01_) February 19, 2016
Questioning the use of public resources to terrorise civilians, Ashaba Godfrey, a student, said:
Museveni nooooo, we are tied of u There z more of tear gas than medicine in the hospitals God resume us from #ugandadecides
— Ashaba Godfrey (@AshabaGodfrey1) February 19, 2016
On the same topic, Stuart wondered:
This government has choppers to teargas Besigye offices but no choppers to deliver ballots. #UgandaDecides https://t.co/vLkb4LBF5z
— stuart (@djstui) February 19, 2016
Davido, a biotechnologist, wanted to know why the election was even held in the first place:
what was the need of wasting so much resources preparing for an election which the winner is already known #UgandaDecides
— davido (@davido_BSc) February 19, 2016
Making reference to the ruling party's name, National Resistance Movement (NRM), Melissa Sibihwana observed:
Someone just reminded me it's all in the name.NRM.Resistance is what this party still identifies with. Who are you resisting?#UgandaDecides
— Melissa Sibihwana (@leessa987) February 19, 2016
The final election results are expected to be announced on Saturday February 20.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Eurasia’s Leaders Urged to Close Their “Cyber-Borders” · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Internet cafe. Wikipedia image.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org. Republished with permission.
An obscure organization is urging governments across the former Soviet Union to shore up their “cyber-borders” in the face of threats from potential colour revolutions, and consider blocking websites such as Google, Facebook and YouTube.
As appeals go, it was largely forgettable and prone to hyperbole. Yet the sentiment at the core of the message sounds like familiar background music as authorities in the region look for new ways to keep unwelcome messengers at arm’s length.
The statement, purporting to be the handiwork of an entity calling itself the Organization of Eurasian Cyber-Security, laid out its recommendations last week in a blizzard of emails to media outlets across Central Asia. The emails were an evident attempt to spark enthusiasm for online censorship.
The group warns citizens in the region, including business leaders and high-ranking officials, that their data is not secure because the Internet and other means of communication can be “under the control of companies and services representing another state.”
In particular, the message points a finger at Swedish telecommunications firm Teliasonera, active in a number of former Soviet countries and part-owned by the Swedish government. “Despite the fact that [Sweden] is not a NATO member, the country is actively cooperating with the bloc and participates in its information and cyber-projects such as the NATO Cyber Centre, which was created to confront Russia,” the statement cautioned.
Little is known about the origins and the finances of the OEKB, as the cyber-security group is known according to its Cyrillic acronym. Its website does not list a date when it was founded, nor list individuals connected with it. Its avowed aim, according to the website, is “enhancing the security and sovereignty of the information and cyber space of the CIS states while simultaneously ensuring individual freedoms; uncovering and neutralizing foreign cyber-intelligence activity and its physical and electronic means.”
Experience shows that the cyber-security group is pushing at an open door. Governments across the region are already taking action to control the flow of information.
Tajikistan routinely blocks access to social media websites and even, on occasion, e-mail services like Gmail. Such unwritten bans typically follow the publication and circulations of materials deemed potentially incendiary by the government.
In Kazakhstan, authorities cite the fight against extremism as a motivation for blocking large numbers of websites, but the broad approach frequently hits targets that seem notable for being a platform for the exchange of views and information. Such examples include the website of the British newspaper The Daily Mail, regional news site Ferghana, and blog platform LiveJournal. Other recently blocked sites include zonakz.net and ratel.kz, which offer mainly political analysis, often critical of the government.
Gatekeepers in Kazakhstan can combine an often sweeping and crude approach to censorship with a level of technical sophistication that is rare for the region. Almaty-based media watchdog Adil Soz noted in a report published earlier this month that the government’s communications and IT committee actively seeks out and denies access to resources that enable Internet users to get around blockages.
In December, Kazakhstan’s telecommunications regulator posted a notice on its website to the effect that all Internet users would have to download security certificates that allow the government to intercept encrypted traffic, thus bypassing many instruments for online privacy. The notice mysteriously disappeared soon after technology blogs and several major media outlets seized on the announcement.
Uzbekistan and especially Turkmenistan are both Internet black holes, where many topics are off-limits for public discussion.
Freedom House’s 2015 Freedom on the Net report illustrates neatly the topic areas deemed off-limits for Uzbekistan: criticism of authorities, corruption, political opposition and social commentary. Accordingly, websites of international news outlets like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the BBC have been blocked for more than a decade. But the heavy hand is deployed even further than that would suggest and has led in the past to Wikipedia being banned.
Kyrgyzstan represents a relative bright spot in regard to online censorships, albeit with some exceptions. And yet it is there that the hazy strategy of joining hands across the region to forge a collective, ostensibly anti-Western, mass communications strategy has proven most promising.
Indeed, Russia in particular recognizes it is not enough to just deny media space to those that it perceives as strategic foes, but it is also necessary to advance an alternative and coordinated message — one predicated on a rejection of purported Western ills, such as the decline of family values and the embrace of sexual minorities.
“The Kremlin’s turn toward a conservative ideology offers a new playground for the Russian World concept, giving it some depth of content,” Marlene Laruelle, a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, wrote in a research paper last year.
The most concrete outcome of Russia’s collective mass communications strategy in Central Asia came with last year’s decision by Kyrgyzstan to grant “special status” to Russian state-owned television channels broadcasting locally. That provision grants the channels exemption from domestic media regulations, giving the stations free rein to beam often hysterically anti-Western content into Kyrgyz households. (In a striking contrast, Tajikistan has refused to grant the Kremlin’s international television mouthpiece, RT, former known as Russia Today, permanent accreditation).
The special status in Kyrgyzstan was evidently initiated at Moscow’s behest, as was made clear by the language in a document about the agreement published in the national media for the purposes of public discussion.
“As of today, the television channels of the Russian Federation are the most reputable and large-scale television stations that broadcast in Russian for millions of viewers worldwide,” the document read. “At the same time, a large part of the population of Kyrgyzstan prefers listening and viewing programs of Russian TV and radio companies, which have long earned the love of the local audience and enjoy popularity.”
Despite the fact that Kyrgyz society is broadly pro-Russian and, indeed, fond of Russia’s main channels, this “public discussion” did not go as planned and instead sparked a minor uproar on Facebook last month. Kyrgyzstan reportedly withdrew from the strategy, although skeptical media analysts speculated that it might still go ahead, minus the inconvenience of a public debate.

author: Eurasianet


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Fascinating 16mm Films of Japan, Hong Kong and Asia From the Last Century · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

“Japan's Snow Country in 1916″ — Pathé News. Screenshot from Michael Rogge YouTube Channel
YouTube user Michael Rogge has uploaded a fascinating collection of videos documenting daily life in Japan and other parts of Asia, including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia during the Twentieth Century.
Some of the videos he shot himself while being based in Hong Kong and Japan in the 1960s. Other videos in Rogge's YouTube collection include television programs and newsreel shorts he has rescued, converted into digital format and then uploaded to the internet.
For example, Rogge has uploaded this Pathé News depiction of life in 1916 in Japan's Snow Country:
Hogge has uploaded hundreds of other video clips, including this pre-War German newsreel clip of timber rafting in Japan:
According to his online autobiography, Rogge was born in Amsterdam in 1929.
He got a job at a bank in Hong Kong in 1949, and immediately started documenting his daily life there. Many of his photographs from this time have been uploaded to Michael Rogge's Flickr account.
In an interview republished in 2012 by the Netherlands’ consulate in Hong Kong, Rogge says, “What I did not realise back then was that almost no one captured these ordinary moments of life.
I really enjoyed filming and photographing and did it increasingly more for my own pleasure than as a visual diary for my family. It became my fulfilment in life.”
Rogge lived in Japan for several years during the 1950's.
Here is a short home film Rogge made for his family to describe what life was like for him living in Kobe in 1958.
He spent six years in Hong Kong and moved to Japan, where he lived from 1955 to 1960. In 1961 he returned to Holland.
It is Rogge's photographs and home movies of Hong Kong that have so far received the most attention.
Blogger David Derrick notes:
Seeing film of Asian cities as they were one or two generations ago is enthralling if you know them now, because it requires less effort to imagine them as they were a century ago than as they were in 1950, ’60, ’70 or ’80. I first saw Hong Kong in early ’84 and went there about fifty times between then and 1997. Since the handover, I have been back only twice or three times. I first saw Singapore in ’84 and must have been there twenty-five times.
Michael Rogge remains active on Flickr, YouTube and on his personal website.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Ghanaian Facebook Commentator Sued For Defamation by Deputy Attorney General · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A Facebook profile photo of social media commentator Evron Hughes, who is accused of defaming Ghana's Deputy Attorney General.
Ghana's Deputy Attorney-General (DAG) Dominic Ayine, has filed a defamation suit against Evron Hughes, an active commentator on socio-political issues on social media, for a comment addressed to the DAG on Facebook last year.
Below is an excerpt of the comment titled “RE: AMERI TRANSACTION” posted December 21, which contains 32 questions for the DAG to answer:
I aver [Evron] that I have reasons to believe that the AMERIdeal was ‘cooked’ with the ingredients of deceit and theft with the primary intention to defraud the state. I reject outright your suggestion that it may be a bad deal, a deal gone wrong, or a badly negotiated deal. Incompetence, Sir, should not be used here as an excuse to shield corruption. It is my assertion that the initiation, structuring, and execution of the deal were calculated to give effect to a fraudulent conspiracy involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Simply put, it is my assertion that some people decided to steal from the Republic and created the AMERIdeal as the turbine to power this grand theft. They sat down (or stood somewhere), discussed their intent to steal, planned how to steal it, and put it into effect.
DAG Ayine accuses Hughes, who describes himself as an investment banker, economist, and a political strategist, of defaming him and provoking “public disaffection” against him through the “false and malicious” post on his Facebook page.
The post in question relates to a controversial contract between Ghana and and a Dubai-based company called AMERI Group. The contract required Ghana to pay $510 million for 10 gas turbines over the next five years as part of measures to solve Ghana's power crisis.
Last year, a member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, K.T. Hammond said the committee was misled to approve the deal. A Ghanaian think-tank, The African Centre for Energy Policy, was the first institution to alert the public about the inflated price for ten gas turbines.
A Norwegian newspaper, Verdens Gang, also reported that the actual cost of the turbines was $220 million and that Ghana had paid $290 million more for the same turbines. The newspaper pointed out that the head of the group, a Pakistani Norwegian Umar Farooq Zahoor, is wanted by both Norwegian and Swiss police for fraud.
Part of the suit against Hughes reads:
9. Plaintiff says that on or about the 21st day of December, 2015, Defendant in a Facebook post published under the caption; “RE: AMERI TRANSACTION” in which Defendant, discussed an agreement concluded by the government of the Republic of Ghana and an entity known as AMERI and in respect of which agreement Plaintiff advised the government of the Republic of Ghana and stated categorically as follows; “I aver that I have reasons to believe that the AMERIdeal was ‘cooked’ with the ingredients of deceit and theft with the primary intention to defraud the state.”
10.Plaintiff avers that in the same Facebook post Defendant again published the following statements: “It is my assertion that the initiation, structuring, and execution of the deal were calculated to give effect to a fraudulent conspiracy involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Simply put, it is my assertion that some people decided to steal from the Republic and created the AMERIdeal as the turbine to power this grand theft. They sat down (or stood somewhere), discussed their intent to steal, planned how to steal it, and put it into effect.”
Ayine seeks the following:
1. A declaration that the publications to the effect that Plaintiff is corrupt, a thief and fraudulent, are defamatory of Plaintiff.
2. General damages for libel against Defendant for publishing the aforesaid words of and concurring in Plaintiff in his Facebook posts.
3. An order of the Honourable Court directed at the Defendant to publish a retraction and an apology with the same prominence as the defamatory words in the Facebook posts.
The case has elicited mixed reactions from Facebook users in Ghana.
Nana Sarpong, for example, called Hughes “a true patriot”:
I don't know Evron Hughes personally. I don't belong to his cycle of friends on this platform and in fact l don't need to..We hardly cross paths as well..
That notwithstanding,I quite remember very well when he laid the issues bear on the Ameri Deal,Mr Dominic Ayeni responded and they had a fruitful debate so l'm quite surprised about the turn of events…
For those who are excited over the law suit, better think twice because what goes around will certainly come around…
Evron is a true patriot and l respect him for that..
Joyce Lamptey went further, calling for financial support for Hughes:
Is there any fundraising effort to support our brother Evron Rothschild Hughes fight this impudence of a libel suit filed against free speech by Ghana's Deputy Attorney General? I want to contribute […] let's raise money to save Evron and our social media liberty.
While Senior William Mwinbambo thought the case represented a warning to social media users who insult their leaders:
It will serve as a warning to people who use the social media to say all sort of things and openly insult leaders especially in our country Ghana.
But Francis Aokye asked social media users to frame criticism of politicians responsibly:
Freely airing your view doesn't mean one can defame or ruin a decade of hard work and hardly earned reputation within a second with just some simple clicks and typing behind a computer or on phone. Let's all criticise responsibly with facts and not just with the appetite of being heard. Our laws do not make provisions for lies. “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise”.
According to the Freedom House Freedom World 2015 Report, freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected in practice in Ghana, making the DAG's suit against Hughes a particularly disturbing case.


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Albanian Police Use Force Against Protesters Defending the Capital’s Last Public Park · Global Voices
Alida Karakushi

Citizens attempting to remove a fence in Tirana Lake Park, Feb 21, 2015. Photo by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
Around a hundred civil society activists gathered on February 21 to protest against a plan by the municipality of Tirana to destroy the only significant green space remaining in the capital of Albania, which was once protected by law.
Police used violence to disperse the demonstration and arrested 12 activists.
Citizens for the Park (Qytetarët Për Parkun) were opposing plans to replace the city's only park with a “concrete” Children's Corner.
The Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, and the Vice-Prime Minister Niko Peleshi have argued that Tirana's chaotic development has resulted in the need for the so-called corner, as children are increasingly stripped of places to play.
The Prime Minister's decision to change the protected status of Tirana Lake Park.
Activists were particularly enraged by Prime Minister Edi Rama's decision to revoke the protected status of the park, four days after the start of construction works on the corner, without a public consultation.
Activists argue that greenbelt should not be sacrificed as a result of the municipality's failure to provide public services for the city population.
The organisers avoided publicly announcing the protest in order that opposition political parties would not hijack the event.
This had happened at a prior protest, when demonstrators had dismantled fences around the planed construction site on Tirana Lake Park.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the ruling Socialist Party (SP) had portrayed the event as the handiwork of the opposition Democratic Party (DP).
When it comes to transparency, it was only after the protests that the mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj started a hectic campaign of information on the Tirana lake's park projects.
The tender to revamp part of Tirana Lake Park was conducted without a transparent competition, further decreasing trust in state institutions, which research shows is already among the lowest in Europe.
The failure of urban planning in Albania's capital of nearly a million people is widely attributed to corruption at local and national levels of government.
Protest in Tirana Feb 21, 2015. Photo by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
On Sunday February 21, civil society activists tried to bring down the fences around the construction site on the park.
One police officer was filmed hitting a protester. Minister of Interior Sajmir Tahiri immediately ordered the officer's suspension. Among other police related incidents counts the retrieval of a reporter's camera  that was filming live.
Among the police present were officers from the special unit Shqiponjat, which usually deals with serious criminal activity. Civil society activists considered their presence offensive.
Here a video of events as filmed from one of the activists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uJFQppaEI0
Shqiponjat Special Police Unit arresting protesters in Tirana Feb 21, 2015. Photo by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
Protest in Tirana Feb 21, 2015. Photo by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
Police arresting protesters in Tirana Feb 21, 2015. Photos by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
Shqiponjat Special Police Unit arresting protesters in Tirana Feb 21, 2015. Photo by Qytetarët Për Parkun, used with permission.
Activists both on the ground and on social networks expressed anger after one of the police officers threatened them with the words: “There will be blood!”
After the arrests of 12 civil society activists there was a follow-up of the protest, initially in front of the Tirana City Hall, where some protesters deposited the fences they had taken from the park.
The demonstration then migrated towards the police station where protesters were still being questioned by police.
Video evidence and testimonies circulated via social media appear to support the protesters’ claims of violence during the arrests.
The city of Tirana provides less green space per citizen than the vast majority of cities in Europe.

author: Alida Karakushi


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An Aboriginal Comedy Show in Australia Finds a Mainstream Audience · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Writer and actor for ABC's “Black Comedy.” Credit: ABC
This article by Carol Hills for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on February 13, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Aborginals aren't especially visible on Australian television. But a hit sketch comedy show has found a mainstream audience and it did it almost immediately.
“When we did the first season, we weren't quite sure what the show was,” says Nakkiah Lui, a co-star and co-writer of “Black Comedy,” which is produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “We literally came together over an advertisement that said, ‘Apply if you're a black fella and you think you're funny.’ Well, all black fellas in Australia think they're hilarious so we were kind of just the blind leading the blind.”
“Black Comedy” is the first indigenous sketch show on Australian television in 30 years. The 1973 attempt, “Basically Black,” never made it out of pilot mode. But “Black Comedy” became an instant hit and just started its second season.
Lui says the show has something for everyone and it also taps into white guilt over Australia's original sin: colonizing Australia's indigenous people.
“We have some very biting satire that a lot of the time is met with a bit of uncomfortableness from non-Aboriginal people and a lot of laughter from Aboriginal people,” she says.
An example: Lui wrote and starred in a satirical advertisement for a cosmetic line, Pretty for an Aboriginal. Lui is light-skinned. Her mother is an Aboriginal from the Gamilaroi Nation in interior Australia. Her father is a Torres Strait Islander. They're ethnically like people in Papua New Guinea.
“I always got told growing up that I was ‘pretty for an Aboriginal’ or I was lucky I didn't look Aboriginal,” she says. “It was when I confiding in my mother and sisters that they had also had experienced the same thing. And so had all of my aunties. And so had all of my cousins. And so had all of my Aboriginal friends. We all look different, different features, different colors. It was incredibly sad, but also hilarious, because we're all beautiful.”
Another popular sketch is “Black Force,” about an Aboriginal special police SWAT team that arrests Aboriginals for not acting black enough. Lui says it's a direct and satirical response to the lack of diversity on Australian screens across the board.
“What ‘Black Force’ does is put our culture there on the screen through a parody, but we're also reclaiming it, I think,” she says. “‘Black Force’ is received so well by non-Aboriginal people because they think they get the joke and the references about class, like ‘What's kale?'”
Lui says “Black Force” is a comical idea of what an Aboriginal person is meant to be and includes in-jokes for Aboriginals.
“In one episode they say, ‘Party's over. Put the mattress back in the lounge room.’ And that's a real black fella joke, because any Aboriginal house you go to in the summer has a mattress in the lounge room because it's nice to have a lay-down and watch TV and have a chat.”
There's also recurring sketches about two flamboyantly gay characters called Tidders, an Aboriginal term for sisters, a take-off on the “The Real Housewives” called “The Housewives of Narramine,” a tiny town in the Australian bush.
Lui is a also a successful playwright and much of her work is about being perceived as different in Australia.
“I've had to tick a box all my life,” she says. “My mum's had to tick a box all her life. My grandparents lived on missions (like Native American reservations in the US) managed by white people. Having that be your kind of signifier of who you are whether it be positive or negative. It's tiring. You can never be seen as a human, as just a person, as just an artist. It's always the Aboriginal one.”
So why comedy?
“My grandmother always used to say to me. ‘What can you do if you can't laugh?’ And she said it on the day she died,” she says.
Lui believes that comedy is potent and can sometimes be more effective than drama.
“I think sometimes the thing with drama is that people can opt out really early,” she says. “They kind of know what kind of ride they're in for and they can decide pretty early on as to whether they're going to go on that ride with you. Whereas with comedy, you can kind of take someone along for the ride and they don't even know they're on it. That's why I love comedy as a tool. I just think it's so incredibly subversive.”