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An overview of Indonesia’s coal export ban and Asia’s energy crisis · Global Voices
Sydney Allen

A coal barge off the coast of Kalimantan, Indonesia. Courtesy of Andrew Taylor. Used via (CC BY 2.0)
Coal prices have shot up around the world this month after Indonesia — the fourth biggest coal producer in the world — temporarily banned coal exports from January 1 to January 31 after domestic stockpiles at the state-owned PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) power plants fell to critically low levels. By December 31, the PLN had less than 1 percent of the coal it needed this month, according to officials from Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Without the ban, islands including Java and Bali may have faced widespread power loss and blackouts, according to Ridwan Jamaludin, the ministry’s director general for coal.
The announcement immediately caused a global spike in coal prices and left China, the world’s largest coal importer, in a temporary lurch.
Immediately following the ban, Indonesia’s domestic coal suppliers rushed to restock the PLN. Mining companies and advocates have been pressuring the government to lift the ban, with the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (ICMA) saying in a statement the policy was “taken hastily without being discussed with business players.”
This is the fifth time in the last 15 years that Indonesia has had to institute a coal export ban due to domestic shortfalls. All coal mining companies in Indonesia are required to reserve 25 percent of their coal supply for domestic sale as part of the 2009 “domestic market obligation” (DMO) policy.
Through the DMO, domestic coal prices in Indonesia are capped at USD 70 per ton — less than half the current global market rate of USD 154 — in order to protect consumers from price fluctuations in the international market.
When the DMO was first introduced, the market price for a ton of coal was around USD 55, meaning Indonesian coal manufacturers were raking in cash by selling locally. However, as prices rose in 2021, hitting a record high of USD 270, in October 2021, companies began to shirk their domestic responsibilities and put all their supply toward the international market, ignoring their 25 percent mandate. This caused the critical coal shortage.
In August 2021, 34 coal mining companies were prohibited from exporting coal after failing to meet their DMO.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) took a hard line with coal companies. “This is an absolute rule that must not be violated for any reason,” he said in a statement on January 3, reported Tempo, “If necessary, not only do we refuse to issue export permits but also revoke their business licenses.”
Meanwhile, since the export ban was introduced, coal companies’ bottom lines have been hit hard. With over 100 ships loaded with coal stalled out in the Kalimantan bay, awaiting export, the companies are shedding money. Coal representatives have been pressuring the Jokowi government to lift the ban, with some claiming that Indonesia could miss out on up to USD 3 billion due to the export ban. They have also demanded that the government lift the cap and pay international prices for the coal.
As of January 8th, Indonesia’s coal supply has somewhat stabilized. Jokowi has since eased the ban and allowed 37 ships to deliver coal internationally on January 15 and a total of 67 ships are expected to depart this week. Officials will not fully lift the ban until January 31.
The ban and subsequent price jump have put pressure on economies throughout Asia. So far officials from Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines have all called on Jakarta to lift the export ban.
Indonesia exports about 75 percent of its annual coal yield to Asia — 54 percent of which goes to China, its largest export destination.
China uses coal to drive its massive industrial economy, and imported 323.22 million tons of coal in 2021, up from 303.99 in 2020. About 75 percent of China's total coal imports come from Indonesia.
As China’s relations with the US and Australia have soured, China implemented an unofficial ban on coal imports from Australia in 2020. Since the ban went into effect, Beijing mobilized its own domestic coal miners, which temporarily stabilized the market and added an influx of supply to drive its behemoth economy. It also turned to neighboring Russia to help subsidize its energy needs. As of mid-January, China’s coal looming shortage had “basically been solved” according to state-run media outlets.
Since the ban was eased on January 15, 35 vessels have docked in China and two in Japan. But even with the easing restrictions, Kazuhiro Ikebe, the chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies, Japan (FEPC) said in a press conference that they expect prices will continue to rise until the ban is lifted. “As Indonesia is a major coal exporter, there will be a certain amount of upward pressure on coal prices, though it depends on how quickly things return to normal.”
Once the ban is officially lifted, experts predict a sharp drop in coal prices and an overflow of coal onto the market, said a Beijing-based coal trader in an interview with Reuters.
“It is almost certain that we would see oversupply and a coal price plunge soon if the domestic output boom continues.”
Environmental advocates say the current energy crisis highlights how reliant Asia is on dirty energy. Greenpeace Indonesia tweeted:
Gara-gara ketergantungan pada batubara, Indonesia terancam krisis listrik di awal tahun 2022.
Pasalnya, para perusahaan batubara tidak patuh dengan ketentuan wajib pasok dalam negeri (DMO), sehingga pemerintah pun melarang ekspor batubara sementara. pic.twitter.com/CCkoLfq25i
— Greenpeace Indonesia (@GreenpeaceID) January 5, 2022
Because of its dependence on coal, Indonesia is threatened with an electricity crisis in early 2022. The reason is that coal companies do not comply with the mandatory domestic supply (DMO) provisions, so the government has temporarily banned coal exports.
During the November 2021 COP26 conference, Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) pledged to phase out coal by the 2040s and to decommission a quarter of the nation's coal mines by 2030. Indonesia currently powers 60 percent of its energy grid through coal each year.
Trucks transport coal through a forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Michael Padmanaba at CIFOR used via (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Five of Indonesia's largest coal mines are based in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The region is one of the most biodiverse on earth and is severely threatened by environmental destruction wrought by mines and the deforestation required to build them.
Meanwhile, China is the world’s largest producer, consumer, and importer of coal. China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2060 and will begin reducing its coal usage in 2026. China has funded numerous energy and infrastructure projects in Indonesia, including coal and green energy plants, through its belt road initiative to support continued mining and trade.
Kevin Tu, a Beijing-based non-resident fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, warned that as international natural energy sources become more scarce, China may pull back on its previous environmental commitments and bolster its domestic coal production and supply, noting, “Beijing has deep concerns about its energy security.”
“Because of the rising anxiety over security, including energy security, China is expected to be a little bit more cautious regarding further upgrading its climate commitments.”

author: Sydney Allen


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Australia’s refugees react to double standard over tennis star Novak Djokovic’s treatment · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A rally led by the Refugee Action Collective, calling for the release of refugees currently being detained in Park Hotel, Carlton. Flickr photo by Matt Hrkac, (CC BY 2.0)
Australia’s refugees and asylum seekers highlighted their struggle for justice by comparing their situation with Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic who arrived in Melbourne on January 5 but was prevented from entering the country after his visa was canceled by immigration authorities.
Djokovic refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 but he got a medical exemption to allow him to play at the Australian Open. Australia requires vaccination in order to enter the country. After his visa was canceled, he was placed in the same hotel where 25 refugees and 7 asylum seekers have been indefinitely detained. He pleaded his case in court but in the end, he lost his appeal and was deported from Australia on January 16. The Immigration minister Alex Hawke had made his decision based on Djokovic ‘being a risk to “civil unrest” and a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”’.
Australia has a complex history regarding its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
For much of its recent history, Australia accepted refugees for resettlement, with over 800,000 refugees and displaced persons settling in Australia since 1945, according to the Federal Parliamentary Library.
Each year, the Australian government usually allocates around 14,000 places to refugees and others with humanitarian needs.
The main difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee is that asylum seekers are people seeking international protection whose claims for refugee status have not yet been determined.
Nevertheless, a refugee may still not have been granted a visa, in which case they may face indefinite detention.
Since July 2013 anyone arriving in Australia by boat without a valid visa has not been eligible for asylum. Many have been held in offshore detention centres in Nauru or Papua New Guinea. Many have also been turned away and sent to Indonesia. Some of these people have been settled in other countries such as the United States or returned to their country of origin, whilst others have been brought to Australia for medical attention.
In addition, as the Refugee Council of Australia explains:
…detention is mandatory for those without a valid visa. It is also indefinite, and there is no independent review.
…Australian law requires that a person should be detained until they are granted a visa or leave the country.
They may be detained in a prison-like detention centre or in community detention.
Several refugees were able to draw attention to their plight because of the public mania over the Djokovic case.
Mehdi Ali, an Iranian refugee, is disappointed that interviewers want to know more about Djokovic than refugees like him who have been in detention over the past nine years.
It's so sad that so many journalists contacted me yesterday to ask me about Djokovic. I've been in a cage for 9 years, I turn 24 today, and all you want to talk to me about is that.
Pretending to care by asking me how I am and then straight away asking questions about Djokovic.
— Mehdi Ali (@MehdiAli98) January 6, 2022
He posted a photo featuring fellow refugees carrying banners about the number of years they have been seeking asylum in Australia:
This photo speaks for itself.. pic.twitter.com/nQnVBoKBT6
— Mehdi Ali (@MehdiAli98) January 12, 2022
Adnan Choopani, a refugee from southwest Iran, called out the government's double standard and said that some citizens are more equal than others in Australia.
All animals are equal,but some animals are more equal than others”.
32refugees hold 3years in hotel detention no access to the basic rights. my wish since when I was 15 In detention until now they call me by my name instead detainee or ANA–023.#Djokovic
— Adnan Choopani (@AdnanChoopani) January 8, 2022
He was also curious to know if the Australian Border Force (ABF) is treating Djokovic with respect:
I'm just wondering did ABF handcuff Djokovic or hold his arms? remember rules are rules.
ABF handcuffs me and @MehdiAli98, with 2 officers grabbing us at any appointments we go to.
Rules are not for everyone in Australia! #only15
— Adnan Choopani (@AdnanChoopani) January 10, 2022
During a protest, refugees demanded access to basic human rights which had been denied to them. Mohammed Joy, a refugee from Bangladesh, tweeted their demands and said he is grateful to Australians who have been pushing for the recognition and protection of the rights of refugees. In this video he talks about the plight of refugees while addressing a crowd in front of the hotel:
Please listen to refugee Mohammed Joy in the Park Hotel, Melbourne, speaking to protesters today.
When the Djokovic saga ends tomorrow, one way or another, the spotlight will move on.
And they’ll still be inside those rooms, crying out for help.
It’s disgusting. #GameOver pic.twitter.com/zxNPIsIYmy
— Craig Foster (@Craig_Foster) January 9, 2022
Former refugees, Mostafa Azimitabar also weighed in on the issue and urged the public to learn more about how Australia is treating refugees and asylum seekers:
The whole world is watching as Novak Djokovic is detained at Park hotel prison. As a refugee I was imprisoned there, & refugees are still imprisoned there in tiny rooms without fresh air. No one deserves this. Let’s not forget the people that will remain long after Novak leaves.
— Moz (Mostafa Azimitabar) (@AzimiMoz) January 6, 2022
Journalist and award-winning writer Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian-Kurdish refugee who was detained in Australia’s immigration detention center for six years before his release in 2019, compared the situation of refugees with what Djokovic experienced in Australia:
The difference between refugees and @DjokerNole goes beyond the length of their detentions. The asymmetry extends to the fact that Djokovic is able to defend himself in court and refugees are not; they are totally failed by the judicial system.
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) January 10, 2022
While Djokovic has a safe, comfortable life to return to, refugees who flee their homes only to be deported- are doubly persecuted. They cannot return safely. This is what it means to be a refugee.
— Behrouz Boochani (@BehrouzBoochani) January 16, 2022
A further furore emerged after the court's decision, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison tied to muddy the already troubled waters:
How can the PM of this country not know that most of the detainees being held in cruel conditions at the park hotel are genuine refugees? Not asylum seekers. We have totally lost our moral compass. https://t.co/CrZYNQ8Hoj
— Barrie Cassidy (@barriecassidy) January 17, 2022
Djokovic is already in Serbia, but the campaign for the rights of refugees continues in Australia. He has not yet made any statement of support for the refugees in the detention hotel, despite many calls for him to do so.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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Enda, Kenya’s first running shoe brand hopes to make it big in the global sports scene · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

Photo Credit: Enda (Used with permission)
For a country famous for its successful long-distance runners, it’s about time a locally-made running shoe brand took off in Kenya. Enda is a trailblazing  Kenyan sports apparel company hoping to become the first African brand to give famous shoe brands like Adidas, Nike, and Puma a run for their money. Enda means “Go!” in Swahili.
In December 2021, the company raised USD 1 million in Series A funding for start-ups from Talanton, an American venture capital firm, which will allow Enda to expand its brand globally by boosting its product development and distribution efforts.
Enda was founded in 2016 by its current CEO, Navalayo Osembo and Weldon Kennedy, a  social activist and running shoe enthusiast. Considering the popularity of running among many Kenyans, especially those from the Rift Valley, Osembo saw a gap in the domestic shoe market and sought to address  it
Their first shoe series, the Iten,  rolled out in 2017, was named after a famous town in Kenya’s Rift Valley predominantly occupied by the Kalenjin community and has produced some of the world’s best runners. The community has the largest share of distance athletes in Kenya. The Iten shoe was developed through crowd-funding efforts, which drew over 1,000 contributors. They managed to raise over USD 120,000 from an initial target of USD 75,000 through the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform.
In 2019, the Lapatet, their second series, was developed after 18 months of research and testing. Lapatet is a Kalenjin name that means “running.” Each shoe series is uniquely designed to incorporate an aspect of Kenya or the local communities, such as local clothing designs (kitenge and kikoys) and colors (the Kenyan flag is red, black, white, and green).
Though still largely unknown to most Kenyans, the brand has been growing and currently employs over 100 people at its production line in Kilifi, in coastal Kenya. It also utilized production capacity from a locally-based shoe manufacturer originally producing budget rubber shoes.
In an interview with AfroTech, Kenyan born Navalayo Osembo said she was inspired to create the brand because running shoes are the most important gear financially and culturally for both professional and recreational running enthusiasts. It took about a year to create a shoe sample, and using these as proof of concept, she ran the Kickstarter campaign and started mass production of the shoes in 2016.
By mid-2021, the company had partnered with a local beer manufacturing company to produce a running trainer brand that would endear the general populace, support local businesses, and honor Kenya’s athletes. This was in recognition of Kenya’s Olympic team performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Osembo also noted that it was a collaboration of local brands breaking into the global scene and becoming accepted as part of the Kenyan culture.
Enda is now the first athletics company from Kenya and Eastern Africa to secure seed funding for its expansion. It joined other start-ups in financial tech, agriculture, and transport that have traditionally attracted venture capitalists from across the world. The company is looking to produce daily distance trainers and a short-distance shoe series using locally sourced materials.
Statistics from RunRepeat, indicate running has been growing globally over the last decade, with a 57 percent increase in popularity. In the last two years, amidst the lockdowns and movement restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, running was one of the biggest fitness trends in 2021, as many first-time runners hit the pavement for some stress relief. This places Enda’s running shoes in a prime position. With its target extending beyond the elite athletes that grace the training tracks in Kenya, Enda is looking to expand into the recreational running space that has grown tremendously both in Kenya and across the world.
The team at Enda believes that running can be more than just a means to improve physical and mental health. It can also be used to focus on social issues such as fairness, justice, and equality not just in Kenya but around the world. Through the positive social impact the brand has had, Enda is hoping to break the glass on becoming a leading running shoe brand from Africa.

author: Richard Wanjohi


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These podcasters are carrying African Languages into the new audio world · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

“Podcasting” by mikemacmarketing is licensed under (CC BY 2.0)
While podcasting as a storytelling medium has grown exponentially since its birth in the 2000s, its uptake and consumption in Africa has been slow. Hampered by high data costs and an ever-increasing digital divide on the part of the listeners in a continent where internet access remains a privilege, the journey for African podcasters has been arduous as many seek to join this contemporary revival of oral storytelling traditions.
Production costs which can range anywhere between USD 60–100 per episode are still prohibitive in most African countries, not to mention unreliable electricity supplies. Most podcasters often have to bootstrap, by sourcing funding either from their day jobs or personal savings, until they can reach a certain listener threshold where advertising becomes a viable sustainability model. For most, that critical mass of consistent listeners has remained a mirage in a desert. Many have tried to achieve it, but most have grown weary looking for an oasis.
Whereas five years ago, there were only a handful of African Voices in the global podcasting space, in the last two years alone, podcasting in the African continent has seen phenomenal growth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic forced citizens to stay home, which in turn saw a huge surge in data traffic as many broadened their digital consumption pallet. Many data providers as well as tech companies across the continent either zero-rated their services or found ways to make their facilities more accessible.
South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya are the largest podcasting markets in both production and consumption. Kiswahili — a Bantu language spoken by over 80 million people in East and Central Africa has become one of the most used and recognized African languages. Just last year, UNESCO declared July 7th World Kiswahili Day. That notwithstanding, its use among podcasters still pales in comparison to English
Yet, in a continent with 1.3 billion people, 54 countries, and over 1,500 languages, when it comes to language, English is the dominant choice for many African podcasters due to its broad appeal at both a continental and global level.  So, who are the podcasts targetting if more than half of Africa’s population does not speak English?
Speaking to Radio France in 2021 during the inaugural Africa Podcast Festival which took place on February 12, World Podcast Day, Melissa Mbugua the festival co-founder said:
Languages that are widely spoken on the continent are Swahili, Arabic, Amharic, Yoruba, Zulu… We are starting to see quite a number of them popping up – this is an expectation we have of the future of the podcasting industry, is that we will have many languages, an uninhibited by the language barrier.
Amidst the prevalence of English podcasts,  a community of podcasters is emerging who are decidedly uninterested in the Western gaze. Looking beyond language as a barrier, they instead, have seen the potential of this medium to amplify the voices of everyday Africans and the power it gives to counter dominant public narratives.
Some of the most active and widely listened to non-English podcasts include: Swahili Program, America Swahili News, NHK World Radio Japan, SBS Swahili, Adventist World Radio (AWR), Swahili Radio Sermon, Back 2 basics, Salama Na and Africa & Beyond which also incorporates English with Kinyarwanda translations. Though the list is by no means exhaustive, it points to the lack of variety in the type of content available to Swahili listeners with many of the podcasts being of religious or news nature.
Stoneface Bombaa, a Kenyan community organizer, and April Zhu, a journalist, created the podcast “Until Everyone is Free” about Pio Gama Pinto, a socialist Goan-Kenyan freedom fighter who was assassinated by the Kenyan government in 1965, two years after the country became independent.
Recorded in Sheng and Kiswahili, Zhu and Bombaa say that:
While recording the podcast, knew they were trading a ‘broad, global audience’ for the audience that mattered to them most: people who spoke Sheng and lived in areas where the language was spoken.
Shagz Chronicles, currently, in its fourth season, is also another Kenyan podcast whose hosts are language outliers. Hosted in Kikuyu — a Bantu language spoken as a first language by 6.6 million people in Kenya — the show's hosts, Wathiomo and Jehudi, tap into viewer nostalgia by sharing stories of their childhood adventures from rural Kenya in the 1990s.
Matire Ngemi is also another podcast from Kenya that uses Kikuyu and English to explore history, culture, and heritage.
There are also quite a few podcasts in the Yoruba language, with Adventist World Radio, Omoluabi, Ohun Anu, and The Yoruba Proverbs podcast being among the most recent and active.  UPGNRS and Pidgin Reviews are popular podcasts that use Pidgin language which is spoken throughout West and Central Africa. Pidgin borrows heavily from other local languages including Igbo and Yoruba.
Wolof Tech, a podcast hosted by El Hadji Ibrahima Diago discusses IT news and upcoming technologies in the Wolof language with French blurbs. As noted in his podcast profile,
For us Wolof is able to play a role of language of education and communication to access information and new technologies.
The writer during one of her recording for her podcast, The KenyanPoet's podcast. Photo used with permission
A majority of the podcasts recorded in Shona, isiZulu, Xhosa, and other major Southern African languages, are broadcast through IONO.FM — an audio hosting and distribution platform that provides one-stop solutions for radio stations and podcasters in South Africa. Some of the notable shows on the platform include 4IR Simplified, Jazzing With Dumza Maswana, Brazoville: A Podcast, and Ezomndeni
Global platforms also host a few, such as Shoko Rehupenyu, Tsoiro & Bhudda, Zamani Zulu
Discoverability for African podcasts, especially ones intended for local audiences, can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Homegrown online audio platforms such as Audiomack, Afripods, Ionofm, Africanpodcasts.com, and Africa Podfest provide services including audio hosting, distribution, audio live streaming, or listing services to podcasters. This will make it easier for local listeners to easily find relevant podcasts in their languages as is the case for IONOfm which has a languages page and a menu with a list of over 25 podcasts — 12 of which are presented in various African languages
Almost 60 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent, states Cities Alliance. Podcasts have an incredible potential on the African continent whose growing youth population of digital natives has a huge affinity to digital content and its ability to democratize entertainment. Many have shunned radio which they deem excessively conventional and rigid. In contrast, podcasts fit within their lifestyles where entertainment is based on convenience when it comes to who, where, when, and how to listen.

author: Njeri Wangari


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#helloTürkiye — Turkey’s latest attempt to rebrand itself · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

A screenshot taken from the promo video shared by TRT World on YouTube.
Turkey's Communications Directorate launched a new campaign #helloTürkiye on January 14, in an attempt to “raise global awareness about using the country’s original name.” In a statement issued by the Presidency's Director of Communications, Fahrettin Altun said, “We believe that it is significant to use the phrase ‘Türkiye’ in the international arena in order to further strengthen our country's brand and reputation.” The rebrand follows a presidential circular signed on December 4, 2021, requiring the use of “Türkiye” instead of “Turkey” in all correspondence with other states, international institutions, and organizations.
The circular issued in December, further reads:
The phrase ‘Türkiye’ symbolises and conveys the Turkish nation’s culture, civilisation, and values in the best way possible. As part of this, the phrase ‘Made in Türkiye’ instead of ‘Made in Turkey’ began to be used in our export products; as a result, our products, which are the pride of our country in international trade, are promoted and presented to the rest of the world using the ‘Türkiye’ branding. Our aim is now to represent our state and nation’s thousands of years of experience in every sector under the ‘Türkiye’ brand.
According to Middle East Eye, an online news platform, Turkish officials have already started the process of registering the new name with the United Nations. “The exact timing for the name change is still under consideration by the government, but the process is ongoing,” reported Middle East Eye quoting a senior Turkish official.
While Altun and the President have emphasized that the rebranding would strengthen the country's reputation, others joked that the campaign is meant to disassociate the country from a certain homonymous bird. “Type ‘Turkey’ into Google, and you will get a muddled set of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that conflate the country with Meleagris – otherwise known as the turkey, a large bird native to North America – which is famous for being served on Christmas menus or Thanksgiving dinners,” reported TRT World.
As the country grapples with soaring inflation, pundits say this is not the time for rebranding, nor there is any point in doing so.
With what's going on inside Turkey, another branding campaign is the focus? https://t.co/XCrnW4sn9b pic.twitter.com/2Q7z4wEWDC
— Lisel Hintz (@LiselHintz) January 14, 2022
ICYMI, Turkey now insists on calling itself Türkiye in English, as it has no other problems to deal with https://t.co/n3t08UoLil
— Zia Weise (@ZiaWeise) January 14, 2022
Others criticize the government's choice to use taxpayer money on this rebrand when there are countless other issues plaguing the community such as a recession, job loss, unchecked violence, gender discrimination, and an Omicron surge, among others.
Another savvy method to spend $$$$! That is just what is needed in a recession! Bravo https://t.co/x62amipBv6
— Pinar Tremblay (@PinarTremblay) January 14, 2022
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Turkiye and Turkey will be pronounced pretty much the same in English and foreigners will still call it Turkey anyway. Huge waste of taxpayers’ money https://t.co/r79MRkmwkd
— Steven H. Seggie (@Seggitorial) January 13, 2022

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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In Turkey, a veteran pop star is facing scrutiny over song lyrics · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“Music Note Bokeh” by all that improbable blue is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“It is a wonderful thing to live” written by Turkey's music icon, Sezen Aksu, debuted in 2017. Five years later, Aksu, shared the video for the same song via her YouTube channel ahead of New Year celebrations. The YouTube video was accompanied by a message from Aksu, wishing her fans a year of humanity, freedom, and solidarity. Little did the singer know that soon she would face a barrage of criticism over the song lyrics and her character. Aksu is being accused of degrading religious values because one sentence in the song reads, “Give my regards to the ignorant Eve and Adam.”
The 67-year-old singer-songwriter is also facing a criminal complaint and has been subject to an online hate campaign that has taken Turkish Twitter space by storm under the hashtag #SezenAksuHaddiniBil (#SezenAksuKnowYourPlace). On January 17, a group of men organized a protest outside of the singer's home.
One ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party member and parliamentarian Mustafa Açıkgöz tweeted:
Yeter!
Sanat, müzik kisvesi altında değerlerimize yaptığınız saldırılara artık son verin, “Modanız Geçti”, toplumumuz sizin gibilerden bıktı! #SezenAksuHaddiniBil
— Mustafa Açıkgöz 🇹🇷 (@kulmustafa77_ac) January 15, 2022
Enough! It is time that you stopped attacking our values disguised under art and music, “You're Out of Fashion”, our society is tired of people like you! #SezenAksuHaddiniBil
Other lawmakers followed suit. “The misery and ignorance of the irresponsible singer, who called Prophet Adem and Hava ‘ignorant’ in the lyrics of the freak song she wrote, is explicit,” said Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, while addressing a parliamentary group meeting on January 18. MHP is in the coalition with the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party.
Meanwhile, the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) issued a statement. Although it does not explicitly mention Aksu's name, the wording of the statement makes it clear that he is referring to Aksu and the song.
The careless attitude towards religious figures is disrespectful, to say the least. Regardless of its purpose, intention, and context, it is necessary to be extremely sensitive and careful in every sentence, statement and approach made about the distinguished, leading and exemplary figures of Islam.
While Aksu has refrained from making any public statements following the attacks, politicians, as well as artists have come in support of the icon.
The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu tweeted,
Sanatçıdır konuşacak.
Sanatçılar bu ülkenin iç sesidir. Kimse gündem değiştirmek için bu sesleri kısamaz. #Tarkan #SezenAksu #MustafaSandal
— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) January 18, 2022
An artist, speaks. Artists are the inner voice of this country. No one has the right to mute these voices for the sake of changing the public agenda.
Ali Babacan, former AKP member, and the Chairman of DEVA party tweeted:
Türkiye ancak fikir ve ifade özgürlüğü zemininde yükselebilir.
Sanatçılarımız da sanatlarını icra ederken özgür olmalıdır. Şarkı sözlerini çarpıtan zihniyet bu ülkeye sadece kötülük yapmaktadır.#SezenAksu’nun hedef alınması kabul edilemez.
— Ali Babacan (@alibabacan) January 17, 2022
Turkey can only rise on the ground of freedom of thought and expression. Our artists should also be free while performing their art. A mentality that distorts the lyrics is only doing this country a disservice. Targeting #SezenAksu is unacceptable.
Writer, Elif Shafak, joined her defense, tweeting, “We have become a society that wears out its artists with insults, lynchings and slanders […] It's so easy to attack people. #SezenAksu is one of the most valuable artists of this country. Her songs and voice have found place in the hearts of many generations #sezenaksuyalnızdeğildir (#SezenAksuIsNotAlone).”
Rapper Şanışer too voiced his support of Aksu. “If you are incapable of understanding what you read, don't listen to Sezen Aksu,” tweeted artist whose epic song #Susamam rocked Turkey in 2019.
In the New Year message Aksu shared on YouTube, she  hoped that in the new year “we realize the power of solidarity, heal each other's wounds, be ashamed of the violence we have gradually normalized […] to change, transform, and make progress.” The recent wave of harassment the singer faced, indicates that there is a long journey ahead, but that there is still hope, with all the solidarity and support that has emerged.


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Netizens mock China’s suggestion that Omicron was brought to Beijing via a letter from Toronto · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Under China's zero-COVID policy, international mail is disinfected before being distributed in China. Screenshot via YouTube.
Beijing's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) suggested on January 17, that the first locally-transmitted Omicron case found in Beijing could have entered the city through virus-contaminated mail sent from Canada on January 7.
A Beijing-based woman started developing symptoms and tested positive on January 13. She had not traveled during the 14-day incubation period and all her close contacts tested negative. Health officials could not identify how she was infected and suggested a letter she received from Canada on January 11 might be the source of the infection.
Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing CDC said that samples collected from the letter had traces of the Omicron variant, leading authorities to “not rule out the possibility that the person was infected through contacting an object overseas.”
The letter had traveled from Toronto through the United States and Hong Kong before it reached Beijing. Among the eight people who came into contact with the letter during its transport within China, only the recipient was tested positive, according to Pang.
A mail sorting bay in Beijing. Under China's zero-COVID policy, international mail is disinfected before distributing in China. Screenshot from Reuters’ YouTube channel.
Based on this assumption, the Chinese health authorities and state-owned China Central Television urged the public to reduce importing goods and receiving mail from overseas.
According to World Health Organization's investigations, since COVID-19 is an airborne virus, it's unlikely to be transmitted through objects. Generally, coronaviruses need a live animal or human host to multiply and survive and even if food or packaging contains traces of the virus, that doesn’t mean that the viral components are capable of causing infection.
This is not the first time China claimed that COVID was imported internationally through frozen food or objects. Last October, the health authorities claimed that two dock-workers in Qingdao were infected with the virus through contaminated food packaging, causing widespread concern over possible transmission via imported food. However, this is the first time letters from overseas are said to be contagious.
On Weibo, a majority of Chinese netizens believed in the health authorities’ investigation and expressed concern about the transmission of the virus through objects sent from overseas. But, some also raised doubts, such as:
物传人的概率，真的很低，否则中国早就遍地都是了，也不想想每年进口多少东西，哪里还能够动态清零。
The probability of transmission through objects is really low or else the coronaviruses would be spread all over China. Just imagine how much goods we import annually. How could we have sustained zero-COVID?
In fact, under the zero-COVID policy, all incoming international mail and packages have to be disinfected before they are distributed to their recipients.
On Twitter, many pointed out that it's more likely the letter recipient was already infected and spread the virus to her mail. @AndyRubin20 raised doubt about Beijing CDC’s dubious unscientific findings:
疫苗就是病毒的尸体或碎片，保存温度都有严格规定，否则疫苗就会失效。如果信纸都能保存病毒四天还有活性，那么疫苗还用得着冷藏吗？
The vaccines are made from debris or fragments of virus and they have to be stored strictly under a certain temperature or the vaccines would not work. If paper can preserve the virus for four days and keep the virus active, why do we still need to freeze our vaccines?
Some pointed out that the conclusion made by the Chinese authorities was driven by political considerations rather than science. @Terryhoo for example said:
只能甩锅境外投毒，要是等到冬奥开幕再发现，那必须是美帝派运动员投的，现在只能说是邮件。国内出了本土的确诊，要问责官员，为保乌纱，就只好强行牵涉境外。
They have to blame foreign countries for this. If the case was discovered after the opening of the Winter Olympics, they would definitely blame the athletes from the imperialist US. Now they blame the mail. Officials have to be accountable for any local transmission cases [under the current policy], in order to protect themselves, they have to say the case came from overseas.
@colacode_0812, on the other hand, believed that the finding was to is an excuse to justify cracking down on online private trading business via the international postal system:
首先确定是境外输入，然后再来开会讨论要定什么理由好, 这是要打击代购。
First, they came to the conclusion that the case was imported from overseas, then they had a met to decide the exact channel. This result implies that the online private trading business would be the next crackdown target.
Famous blogger @fangshimin joked the authorities might use this as an excuse to inspect international mails and packages:
国际邮件进入中国都是要经过消杀的，不过只能消杀表面，以后还得一件件拆开了消杀里面，才能万无一失，避免国外反华势力利用邮件传播奥密克戎。 pic.twitter.com/Y2ZB31gM9s
— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) January 17, 2022
All international mails have to be disinfected before being distributed in China. However, the current practice can only disinfect the surface. In the future, they might open up the package and conduct an inside-out disinfection to make sure that anti-China forces could not spread Omicron via the mail.
As for the English Twitter community, many found the Chinese explanation ludicrous. Canadian doctor David Jacobs is among those who poked fun at the news:
Maybe we should try mailing them democracy and human rights to see if we can spread that to them as well.#China #COVID19https://t.co/8t7gjblwqf
— David Jacobs (@DrJacobsRad) January 17, 2022

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
‘Rehmat’ or ‘zehmat’? Learning to cope with the trauma from rain in a Pakistani metropolis · Global Voices
Unbias The News

Illustration by Gustavo Brigante. Image via Unbias The News, used with permission.
This article was written by Zoya Anwer, edited by Zahra Salah Uddin and published originally in Unbias The News. An edited version is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
I was six years old and there was no electricity at our house.
We had heard in the news that a cyclone would be visiting Karachi, as rains lashed through our balcony, colliding with its edge from where we would often look onto the main road. The 2A Cyclone of 1999 in May, I later learned, affected more than 6,000 people in Pakistan’s Sindh province. But despite the endless rain, I wasn’t terrified because of the privilege of having loved ones around, and of course the city’s patron saint, Abdullah Shah Ghazi. It is generally believed by the residents of Karachi that his shrine, situated at the sea, saves the city from sea storms and diverts cyclones.
For someone whose worst fear is to get stranded in rain, I still do consume a lot of music and literary pieces which talk about its beauty and melancholy.
It is during the outpour that a very painful linguistic migration occurs: the Urdu word رحمت (rehmat: blessing) gets a nuqta (dot) on the first letter changing it from ray to zay (ر to ز ), transforming it to the word زحمت (zehmat: trouble/misery) reflecting the misery caused by the state's callousness and neglect.
Monsoons are a sign of a good crop and are celebrated in villages in different ways across Pakistan. Urban dwellers especially in Karachi, who didn’t receive any rain for long periods in the past, also feel a certain joy when dark clouds occupy the skies and rain pours down upon them. I used to be like that until an incident changed me permanently.
Over the last few decades in Karachi, rains have caused havoc because of the city’s infrastructure, terrible drainage, and bad governance, to count a few reasons. Urban planner and architect, Arif Hasan has been addressing the problems with Karachi’s drainage system for a very long time but it seems that his pleas fall on deaf ears.
Karachi is perfectly defined by the word “sprawling” and is home to 18 million people, ranking as the third-most populous city in the world. Getting stranded in rain here is one of the worst experiences, with roads inundated with water, gutters overflowing, ready to swallow whoever steps into them, and the danger of live electrical wires.
Electrical wires in Karachi. Photo by Zahra Salah Uddin. Image via Unbias the News, used with permission.
Until 2012, I knew very well that if I ever got stuck in rain, I would be able to get out because my father would eventually come and pick me up or there would be some alternatives available. He would be raging with his own anxiety in case I was out without a “purpose” like going to school, but I knew eventually I would reach the safety of my home.
His unexpected death in 2012 changed that forever because then I was absolutely on my own to deal with this ordeal.
Unlike in Western countries where issuing storm warnings is a usual practice, Karachi only receives one if there is a chance of a cyclone developing in the Arabian Sea, so relying solely on weather apps may not be the best way to go about life here.
It was just another hot and humid Karachi morning in September, and I was just getting done with my classes at the university. Around 1:00 p.m, it started to rain heavily, and the remaining classes were cancelled.
Within minutes, there was a lot of water on campus and getting to the main gate was a daunting task. Waiting was also not an option because the rain just wouldn’t stop. My friend accompanied me to the gate and from there I was supposed to take a chinqi (a six-seater motorbike vehicle) to a major stop and take another to the stop near my home. Because of rain, the chinqis weren’t operational, so I had to rely on a bus, except they, too, weren’t showing up.
One bus finally arrived and I got inside. Upon reaching the stop, I realized there was absolute chaos.
I was drenched, and being on the first day of my period added discomfort as I became more conscious of my clothes now sticking to my skin. Squinting to see through my spectacles, I attempted to make out the names of buses from afar as their bright colors merged to form an old painting.
Amid the confusion, a woman slipped and fell into the water on the road and people rushed to help her.
My anxiety increased and I started to race up the stairs of the tall, yellow pedestrian bridge in an attempt to figure out which bus I could take. As I reached the top, the grey clouds burst again with loud thunder which made me forget how to breathe. The missed calls on my small phone also made me worry incessantly as it became difficult to operate it in the rain.
Running from one end of the bridge to the other, I felt defeated and worried that I wouldn’t reach home that day. Some 20 minutes later I, fortunately, spotted one bus which I normally skipped but at such a time of crisis, was my best bet.
Finally, after getting off at the stop and taking a rickshaw charging way more than usual, I headed home on the submerged roads. I was just glad to have made it home, and I put my various books around the apartment to dry.
There is often a joke about Karachi that if it rains, the entire social media feeds of its residents is filled with pictures and videos of the rain and lightning illuminating the sky. However, not all areas in the city have the luxury to have an Instagrammable rain, with a steaming cup of chai in the foreground and hashtags like #blessed #finallyitrained #petrichor.
Most parts of the city end up in mayhem, and perhaps it is only a few whose privilege allows them to enjoy the rain without worrying about their homes being flooded, loved ones being stranded, or falling prey to live electrical wires.
That doesn’t mean that the less privileged do not look forward to rain or don’t enjoy it — they do. Their kids also jump in the rain, they also celebrate it in whatever ways they can, but more often than not their enjoyment is tainted by the misery the rain brings.
Will I get to enjoy rain again in this lifetime? Maybe yes and perhaps no.
I do smile when I hear people shout out from joy when it starts to rain, although it is often short-lived because soon enough they are doing whatever they must to save their homes, shops, vehicles, or just themselves from the pitter-patter.
Growing up, I saw the violent side of my city as well, but I was quickly able to heal the trauma it brought because I wasn’t up against Mother Nature. Now, as we see the reality of climate change before our eyes, and global warming no longer only limited to a term taught in school textbooks, I can see cities like Karachi drowning each year because they were never built nor prepared for heavy rains, and urban flooding is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg.

author: Unbias The News


text:
Tobago ditches ‘colonial’ dress code, waits for its sister isle, Trinidad, to catch up · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Image compiled using free Canva elements.
If you visit a government office in Trinidad and Tobago — as is the case in many Caribbean territories — you must adhere to a strict dress code. You may not wear anything “sleeveless” (including cap sleeves and vests). Mini-skirts, shorts, capri pants, leggings, slippers and sheer or transparent clothing are also off the table. Many state enterprises and financial institutions also prohibit headwear for security reasons — ironic now that masks are mandatory in the country's public spaces as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Failure to adhere to these guidelines will, more often than not, result in your being unable to access these government services, as you will be given a public dressing down and asked to leave the building. This treatment has been a bone of contention for the public for decades, with citizens suggesting that such dress codes are outdated and do not take into consideration the country's tropical climate — mean daily temperatures are 26.5 Celsius or 79.7 Fahrenheit — nor the fact that not every member of the public may have a wardrobe that satisfies the requirements.
As such, one of the first orders of business that the new Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has done after his party, the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), secured a landslide victory in the island's December 6 elections, is retire the contentious dress code.
Referring to the practice as “vestiges of colonialism,” Augustine maintained that no member of the public seeking to access government services should be turned away based on their attire:
Effective immediately we will […] send out a circular notifying of the change in policy with regards to the dress code for people seeking services in THA offices [doing away with] those clumsily written signs about no shorts, no sleeveless and no slippers […] We are not the first in the Caribbean to do this, it is about shaking off the vestiges of colonialism that we have held onto for dear life. No one can convince us that we ought to turn people back because they are wearing slippers. The taxpayers are paying us, we will dress professionally and serve the people however they come.
Most social media users welcomed the change, with several calling for Trinidad to follow suit. Facebook user Gerard Johnson said the former dress code was “one of the most ignorant policies on the plantation”, while A Corey Gilkes referred to it as “the most visible proof of the bankruptcy of our ‘Independence'” and quipped that he “wear[s] jacket and tie for the only time of the year it is appropriate to do so: J'Ouvert Morning.” (J'Ouvert is the sacred, elemental, messy ritual that marks the formal opening of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.)
Dilworth Braithwaite added:
To refuse service to anyone for any reason related to dress codes are discriminatory, classist, and rooted in colonialism and segregation.
However, not everyone was comfortable with the relaxed dress policy. Trevor Williams suggested that “some people will go to the extreme if they are not restricted,” to which Merlin Hernandez replied:
Fascist much? Curtailing freedom with fear, (the colonial playbook, of course), and enforcing it through rules (and law perhaps). Playing the pan was once unacceptable to the elitist (read fascist) colonial mindset. Beating a drum was once illegal too. So now it's showing underwear…
Cheryl Hernandez made the point that the old dress code promoted a double standard, since some government employees flouted the rules, while Pat Agar mused:
That whole dress code policy in T&T is plain silly. It would make more sense to require good manners and patience when doing business.
The latter point was echoed by many, especially after Minister of Public Administration Allyson West deemed there were more pressing issues for her to deal with than a dress code.
In response, blogger Denise Demming suggested that if properly examined, the issue was one of social justice:
It is a problem of politicians losing touch with the needs of ordinary folks and forgetting the old adage that little things mean a lot. Most of us just want to live, follow the rules and keep out of trouble but the system works against us.
Quite a few social media users shared their stories about the many ways in which the system has worked against them—and how some have managed to outwit the enforcers of the dress code, often in clever and comical ways.
With the new dress code already in effect in Tobago, citizens can now go about their business without fear of being humiliated or turned away, but it seems Trinidad, mired in bureaucracy, may have to wait a bit longer.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Fans mourn Narayan Debnath, creator of the first Bengali comic-strip superhero · Global Voices
Rezwan

Narayan Debnath in his study. 2011. Image via Wikipedia by Bonyoraj. CC BY 3.0.
Indian comics artist, writer and illustrator Narayan Debnath was perhaps not known in the international arena but he is hailed as the father of Bengali language comic strips. His popular comic strips such as Handa Bhonda (1962), Bantul the Great (1965) and Nonte Phonte (1969) popularized Bengali comics and entertained Bengali speaking children and teens in India and Bangladesh for generations. On January 18, 2022, Debnath passed away at the age of 96 in a hospital in Kolkata after prolonged illness. His fans on social media are mourning this void in the world of Bengali comic strips.
Journalist Monideepa Banerjie from Kolkata thanked him:
Narayan Debnath, legendary creator of Bengali children's comics, passes away in Kolkata. He was 97. Thank you, Narayan Babu, for Nonte Phonte, Handa Bhonda, Batul the Great and much more. And for keeping the child in each one of us alive. #RIP pic.twitter.com/kaDLbcS5HK
— Monideepa Banerjie (@Monideepa62) January 18, 2022
Entrepreneur Boria Majumdar remembers how Debnath's cartoon characters impacted his childhood:
Anyone who has grown up in the 70s or 80s in Kolkata has lived on Narayan Debnath. His characters are in each of us. With him gone each one of us have lost a part of our childhood. pic.twitter.com/iExeO2zG4g
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) January 18, 2022
Researcher Swati Moitra also concurs:
Even before I could read, I would hold the Nonte Phonte comic books upside down and read out loud whatever I remembered from it, complete with sounds effects like ‘haha’ ‘hihi’ ‘khya khya’. Our neighbourhood hulo is called Keltuda.
Thank you for everything. #NarayanDebnath
— Swati Moitra (@swatiatrest) January 18, 2022
Hulo = Cat
Debnath was born in 1925 in Shibpur, Howrah, near Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. During the Second World War, he studied fine arts at the Indian Art College but did not finish his studies. He started his career by freelancing for advertising agencies creating logos. During the 1950s he illustrated several children's books, including adventure novels and translation of international classic books for a major publishing house Dev Sahitya Kutir.
Handa Bhonda: His first comic strip Handa Bhonda started in 1962 in the Bengali children's monthly Shuktara, which is also published by Dev Sahitya Kutir. The story is about two young boys similar to the Laurel and Hardy characters. The skinny and mischievous Handa is always trying to get his bulky friend Bhonda in trouble, however, the humble Bhonda always emerges as the winner.
Handa Bhonda is the longest-running Bengali comic strip written by a solo writer-artist, and has been published for over five decades.
Here is an animated episode from the series:
Bantul the Great: Bantul (Batul) is the first Bengali comic strip superhero defending people from robbers and hooligans since 1965, and it also appears in the magazine Shuktara. The big-bodied character with strong muscles was influenced by Debnath's friend, the famous Bengali bodybuilder Manohar Aich. But Bantul didn't have superpowers yet. During the Bangladesh liberation war and the India-Pakistan War of 1971, the editors and publishers requested Debnath to make Bantul invincible. The character had an insanely powerful physique and bullets would bounce off him ever since.
The series also runs on Indian television:
Nonte Phonte: Nonte Phonte started to appear in children's monthly magazine Kishore Bharati in 1969. It is the fun-filled adventures of the two young boys Nonte and Fonte, who keep their boarding school superintendent on his toes.
Sandip Talukdar tried to translate a page from the Nonte and Fonte comics for international readers.
Tried my hand at translating one of the many comics created by #NarayanDebnath. First page: pic.twitter.com/RtX8yNb0pt
— Sandip Talukdar (@sandipcal) January 18, 2022
Devarsi Ghosh at Indian news portal Scroll.in shares  other less-known characters by Debnath:
Patalchand the Magician (created in 1969), a young neighbourhood magician whose powers solve local problems; Bahadur Beral (created in 1982), a wonder cat who is too smart for his own good; Danpite Khadu aar tar Chemical Dadu (created in 1983), a Rick and Morty-like pair of a young boy and his scientist grandfather whose weird inventions form the crux of the stories; and Petuk Master Batuklal (created in 1984), the last of Debnath’s serialised creations, who is a gluttonous schoolteacher devising ways to steal food but is always stopped in his tracks by the students.
However, Twitter-user Vinod thinks that Debnath's most underrated character is Goyenda (detective) Kousik:
You may have heard of some famous creations by Narayan Debnath, like
Batul , Handa-Bhonda , Nonte-Phonte, Khandu, Bahadur Beral . But most underrated possibly is Kousik. A bio-mechanically enhanced super spy finds himself against megalomaniacs
Art- https://t.co/c4ERtRGWfm pic.twitter.com/nvPiJ3vfJ8
— Vinod (@VinodDX9) January 18, 2022
Most of his comic series have been published as books, and some of his works were televised and ran for decades. The Indian Institute of Cartoonists paid tribute to the more than six decades of his comic strip career:
IIC is very sad to inform you that the octogenarian comics artist Mr. Narayan Debnath, 97, just passed away. Padmashri award (2021) was recently presented to him at his residence. He has created 2000+ comics and illustrations over 60 years. Incredible achievement! Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/NDbEd9wMOc
— IIC (@CartoonistsInd) January 18, 2022
Many on Twitter shared their tributes with hashtags like #RIPNarayanDebnath and #BengaliComics.
Writer Subharanjan shares an illustration of Debnath's cartoon characters:
Narayan Debnath escapes to his heavenly abode with a treasure trove of childhood memories. #RIPNarayanDebnath pic.twitter.com/TmfiDl5m66
— S U B H A R A N J A N (@Subharanjan_) January 18, 2022
Journalist Soumyadipta Banerjee wonders whether the tradition of reading Bengali “comics” would continue:
Today's kids won't understand this brand of humour. They won't ever know the sheer joy of reading “comics”. I proudly belong to the last generation who thrived on comic books.
Narayan Debnath's cartoon characters were a big part of my childhood.
Farewell sir.
Om Shanti. pic.twitter.com/oy1WMlC0vV
— Soumyadipta (@Soumyadipta) January 18, 2022
Om Shanti is an invocation for peace or an invocation to God
Journalist Bihan Sen Gupta feels that the loss is personal:
A loss that feels personal. #NarayanDebnath was an inseparable part of childhood, quite like Lila Majumdar, for any Bengali kid. Long before we knew Hulk, we knew Batul; long before hostel life kicked in, Nonte-Fonte introduced us to that part of a fun-filled world :) pic.twitter.com/wrW7VedlOI
— Bihan Sengupta (@BihanSengupta91) January 18, 2022
Debnath was also immensely popular in Bangladesh. Sports journalist Soumik remembers him:
Narayan Debnath Will Be Remembered For His Creative Work, A Known Personality Here In Bangladesh To 90s Kids. A Tribute For Him At Gauri Sankar Lane, Kushtia.
Years Ago Members From Dhaka Comics Went To Meet Him At Kolkata . He Was Delighted To Know Love For His Work Here https://t.co/7iQ1rUK4wJ pic.twitter.com/YWFvUQ6HzI
— বাংলার ছেলে 🇧🇩 (@iSoumikSaheb) January 18, 2022
Writer and scientist A. M. (@bhalomanush) opines that Debnath never got the accolades he deserved:
Narayan Debnath never got the accolades he deserved. First, because his creations were exclusively in Bangla. And second because he made comic books for children that were warm, relatable, and funny. Had they been edgy, literary, or political, he’d have been taken more seriously.
— A.M. (@bhalomanush) January 18, 2022
However, Debnath got some recognition in India. He received the Sahitya Akademi award in 2013 and also the Banga Bibhushan awarded by the Government of West Bengal, in the same year. He received an honorary D. Litt from Rabindra Bharati University in 2015.
Debnath was also awarded the Padma Sri, the fourth-highest civilian award of India in 2021, which he received in the hospital on January 13, 2022.
Indian Twitter-user Shivani tweeted:
The fater of graphics literature in Bengal #NarayanDebnath, genius who didn't get his due acknowledgement.He gave us an entire galaxy of home bred heroes in an age when digital toots were non existence & went on creating🌟
Got #PadmaShriMedal in hospital🥺My childhood memories😌. pic.twitter.com/YG2rZgCS6o
— Shivani🇮🇳 🖤💜🖤 (@MostlySane007) January 18, 2022

author: Rezwan


text:
Police violently break up Afghan refugee protest in Indonesia · Global Voices
Sydney Allen

Afgan refugees in Indoneisa have been meeting to protest perceived inaction from the UNHCR. Refugees are calling for either Indonesian citizenship, or resettlement elsewhere. Image via YouTube.
Content notice: This article contains mention of depression, suicide, and police violence.
A peaceful protest of Afghan refugees was violently broken up by police on January 17 in Pekanbaru, Indonesia, a city on the island of Sumatra. The refugees were attempting to draw international attention to their years of displacement, mistreatment, and neglect by the Indonesian government and the international community. Police dispersed the protest by beating attendees and striking them with batons. Several attendees were reportedly injured.
The protest emerged outside of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office because an Afghan refugee community member committed suicide on January 16. They were the 15th person to die from suicide in the community. Veronica Koman, an Amnesty International representative tweeted a video of the clash [content notice: some viewers may find the following video disturbing]:
Dozens of Afghan refugees were subjected to violence during forced dispersal by Indonesian police today (17/1/22) in Pekanbaru.
They were protesting in front of the @UNHCRIndo office following the suicide of an Afghan refugee yesterday.
They are all desperate for resettlement. pic.twitter.com/NiLhZctoAR
— Veronica Koman 許愛茜 (@VeronicaKoman) January 17, 2022
Some Afghan refugees have been living in limbo in Indonesia for over a decade, waiting to either receive citizenship from the Indonesian government or get approval and documents to move to another country.
Mohammad Juma Mohseni was forced to leave Afghanistan in 2011 and has been living in Indonesia for nearly a decade. He told Gandhara news, a branch of Radio Free Europe, “[Fifteen] people have committed suicide and 10 have been prevented from committing suicide.” He added, “neither Indonesia nor the UNHCR has had a positive message for us.”
The Indonesian government is not party to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 protocol intended to eliminate restrictions on who can be considered a refugee. It does not have any official asylum laws and delegates all oversight to the UNHCR office and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). There are over 13,700 Afghani refugees in Indonesia who have been there for over 10 years.
According to the SUAKA, an Indonesian civil society organization for refugee rights, asylum seekers in Indonesia are not permitted to work, receive social benefits from the Government of Indonesia, own a car or motorbike, travel outside city limits, or go to university.
The IOM covers basic living costs while they await repatriation or resettlement.
Some Afghan refugees in Indonesia have been camping outside of the UNHCR building for months. Screenshot courtesy of YouTube.
Monday’s incident is the latest in a number of heartbreaking incidents in recent months as Afghan refugees desperately try to call attention to their plight in Indonesia. Some refugees have been continuously camping out outside UNHCR offices waiting for news about their resettlement and attempting to raise awareness about their situations.
A group of Afghan refugees staged a 24-hour protest outside the IOM office in Medanon on November 30, 2021. One attendee, Ahmad Shah, 22, set himself on fire in front of the building. He had been in Indonesia awaiting permanent resettlement, separated from his family and loved ones, and unable to leave the country since 2016.
He suffered third-degree burns and was reportedly taken to a nearby private hospital until he was moved to a public one on the same day.
UNHCR Indonesia spokesperson Dwi Prafitria Juma told The Jakarta Post the agency was “deeply concerned about” and investigating the incident.
At least two dozen Afghan refugees had previously set themselves on fire. Six survived.
“This is the seventh person we saved who was experiencing undue stress and fighting depression from living in limbo for around seven years,” said Juma in a press conference in front of the UNHCR office.
In recent months numerous refugees in Indonesia have sewn their mouths shut as a form of civil disobedience and protest.
In an interview with the Voice of America news agency the founder of Solidarity Indoenisa for Refugees (SIR), Ali Yusef, explained that Indonesia's refugees feel forced to take such extreme measures because they feel silenced and unheard. He worries for their mental health and urged UNHCR representatives to take immediate action.
The facts on the ground are that the UNHCR is less responsive to the fate of refugees in Indonesia. The proof is that they are not able to communicate with UNHCR when they want. … Don't let their delay mean the refugees who are sewing their mouths can injure themselves or even take their own lives. In the name of humanity UNHCR, please meet them. Explain that UNHCR is looking for a solution for them.
He added, “The world will judge Indonesia to be indifferent to international citizens.”
Both the UNHCR and IOM are responsible for managing refugees in Indonesia until they can be moved to another more permanent location. Both have been accused of neglecting and mishandling refugee affairs in the past.
Before the Taliban came to power in August 2021, Indonesia housed the fourth-largest number of Afghan refugees in the world — behind Iran, Pakistan, and India. Most of these refugees intended to stop in Indonesia only temporarily until they could reach Australia. However, in 2013, Australia closed its borders to refugees and asylum seekers. Many were left stateless and stranded in Indonesia without recourse.
The situation has worsened since Kabul fell in August 2021. Experts say the situation in Afghanistan is likely exasperating feelings of helplessness that many Afghan refugees already deal with. It has also crushed their slim hopes of potentially returning to their home country and made it even more unlikely they will get rehoused, due to added influx of new refugees who have fled the Taliban.
Additionally, many countries have lowered the number of refugees they accept in recent years, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of resettled refugees has reached a 20-year low, according to the UNHCR. The organization found that 160 countries had closed their borders at some point during the pandemic in 2020, with 99 states making no exceptions for people seeking protection.
As a result, many refugees are finding it impossible to relocate to a third country or attain stability.
For years, refugee advocacy organizations have been calling for improved conditions in Indonesia, though those calls have not received much traction. In the meantime, citizens are doing what they can and using the hashtag #HelpRefugees_Indonesia on Twitter and social media, as a rallying call to support refugees.
Freedom and a peaceful life are the right of refugees in Indonesia#HelpRefugees_Indonesia pic.twitter.com/L3JV8onO5t
— Nabizada Habib (@NabizadaHabib) January 15, 2022
In a change.org petition, discussing the situation Afghan refugees face in Indonesia, Musa Zafar wrote:
Their most basic fundamental rights, which are emphasized in international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are systematically infringed on a daily basis. Their freedom of movement, education, employment, and political and social rights have been ignored. These people have been forgotten and the world has turned a blind eye to their crisis.


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The Hong Kong government ordered 2,000 rodents culled. Netizens are organizing to save them · Global Voices
Yaqi Yang

“Add oil Hongkongers, Save Hamsters” A online poster from Save Hamsters Concern Group.
Hong Kong authorities announced some 2,000 hamsters and small animals would be killed, after a 23-year-old employee of a pet shop in Causeway Bay tested positive for the COVID-19 Delta variant, raising concerns that the animals be vehicles for COVID mutations. The decision has stirred public outrage and some citizens have begun organizing hamster rescue campaigns.
The pet shop employee tested positive on January 16 and a 67-year-old woman who visited the pet shop briefly on January 8 tested positive the following day. The patron's husband also had a preliminary positive result. The woman’s family bought a hamster from the shop on January 4.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) told the press on January 18, that they could not rule out the possibility of animal to human transmission as, among the 125 samples collected from 78 animals, 11 hamsters tested positive for COVID-19.  However, the health authorities also admitted that the virus could have spread from the pet shop employee to the customer as human contact is the most common mean of transmission.
Authorities were further worried because they could not identify how the pet-shop employee became sick.
Officials then conducted an investigation in a storehouse where the pet shop chain stored their animals. They found some environmental samples that contained traces of COVID-19.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said some 1,000 small animals including hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits collected from the storehouse would be euthanized upon COVID-19 testing, even if the results were negative to reduce risk.
On January 19, AFCD further identified two shipments of hamsters from the Netherlands that might be potential carriers of the coronavirus, prompting them to test and cull some 1,000 hamsters currently for sale in pet shops around the city. They also urged pet owners who had purchased their hamsters on or after December 22 to hand over their hamsters for euthanasia.
AFCD also suspended the import of all small mammals, including hamsters, and ordered all pet shops which had sold hamsters to suspend their business until all other mammals stored in their shops meet the COVID-19 test requirements.
The decision to euthanize the creatures was made out of “public health concerns with caution,” according to Thomas Sit, the AFCD’s assistant director.
The World Health Organization, however, reaffirmed that while some animal species could be infected with coronavirus, the chances for them to reinfect humans remains low.
Netizens in Hong Kong are furious about the decision and some have organized to save the rodents. Within one day, more than 11,000 people signed a petition demanding the authorities to drop the killing order.
On social media, many expressed the frustrations that mistakes made by humans had to be paid for with animals’ lives. Twitter user @winktaev said:
哈 2000多隻倉鼠
2000多條生命就這樣沒了
當生存的權利都不在自己身上
繁殖生來就是為了滿足人類的佔物慾
現在人道毀滅牠們 卻是因為人類自身的問題
得生由人 遭死因人
難道生命的價值就如此廉價嗎？ pic.twitter.com/Yb8XQiq3uA
— 菁 (@winktaev) January 18, 2022
More than 2,000 lives would be gone like this. They could not choose to live. They were bred to meet human beings’ possessive desires and were culled for man-made problems. Their lives and their deaths were controlled by humans, who treat their lives so cheaply like this.
Another Twitter user @hkguy1988 expressed a similar idea with a cartoon in which a hamster rejects the escape help offer proposed by a mouse as it has trust in its owner:
倉鼠做錯了什麼？
硬要說的話就是將命運交由人類主宰這一點吧…#倉鼠 pic.twitter.com/2w52kf7U9K
— 一個人 (@hkguy1988) January 19, 2022
What wrongs did the hamsters do? Humans have control of everything.
As some hamsters owners decide to abandon their pets after reading the news, some netizens decide to organize rescue teams to save the abandoned rodents. They shared some rescue guidelines on social media. @liu20306 is among one who shared the information:
【倉鼠救援指南】
🆘香港人請分享🆘
🆘非香港人如果有香港友列也請分享🆘
香港政府下滅鼠令，預計有2000隻倉鼠及小型動物受影響，極有可能出現棄鼠潮，請有能力人士盡可能幫助遇見的被遺棄動物！ pic.twitter.com/vwIjO0mIaA
— 左眼的悲傷 🌈 (@liu20306) January 18, 2022
[Guidelines to saving hamsters]
Hongkongers please share
Non-Hongkongers please share if you have friends in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong government has ordered the killing of hamsters, which involves 2,000 hamsters and small animals. This may trigger a wave of hamsters abandonment. People who have capabilities, please help the abandoned animals you encounter!
A Facebook group named “Save Hamsters Concerned Group” was created on the same day as the news on culling broke has recruited more than 5,000 members in less than one day. Members of the group share rescue tips and match the abandoned rodents with new owners.
Other Facebook groups like “Hamster Blog HK” and “The Cute Hamster” have also received thousands of new member requests.
A Taiwan-based Twitter user @taiwanlorraine praised Hong Kong civic groups for their animal rescue efforts:
雖然港府很沒有人道，但救野豬、救倉鼠，各種NGO呼應，還是讓人覺得香港是很有溫情的地方。
— Lorraine嶼妍 (@taiwanlorraine) January 19, 2022
Although the Hong Kong government is inhumane, saving boars, saving hamsters, all these NGOs’ callings make me feel that Hong Kong is a place full of compassion.

author: Yaqi Yang


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Were the Kazakhstani protests predictable? · Global Voices
Gerard Toal

Protests in Kazakhstan spread across the country. On January 4, a large crowd gathered in the northern city of Aktobe. Photo: Esetok, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
The recent violent protests in Kazakhstan are still reverberating, despite the Russian-led intervention force's recent withdrawal. It is now evident that they were not a singular unified phenomenon. Rather they were a cascade of entwined events, beginning with regional grassroots protests, then jumping spontaneously to all major cities, and escalating in Almaty into spectacular violence and an apparent failed attempted coup by disaffected elements of the elite surrounding former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Protest events were geographically dispersed, without unifying slogans or national coordination structures, and violent in outcome in only certain locations, most prominently when organized criminal forces hijacked the Almaty protests. Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev claimed to see the hidden hand of unnamed actors, including Islamists, and pronounced the protestors “terrorists.” It will take time to get a complete picture of the protest events and their geography, and of the connections between the street protests and the alleged palace coup. But was the greatest civil disturbance in the history of independent Kazakhstan really unforeseeable? Our research suggests not.
We organized one of the last in-person face-to-face surveys in Kazakhstan just before the coronavirus pandemic. This nationally representative sample survey with 1,200 adult respondents was conducted by a leading national polling firm, between December 2019 and January 2020. The survey was part of a larger research project on geopolitical attitudes in select neighboring states of the Russian Federation, and involved survey research also in Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine as well as some breakaway disputed territories. Most of the questions we asked were the same in all locations so it is possible to compare attitudes across countries. Our surveys were almost all complete when the global pandemic hit, and face-to-face polling was no longer possible. Belarus and now Kazakhstan have experienced significant political upheaval since our survey research was completed. Is is possible to tell from our research findings that there would be trouble in Belarus and then Kazakhstan? Not exactly: no survey is a crystal ball into the future. But our data shows considerable discontent among Kazakhstani citizens even before the pandemic upended normal life. Here are five clear indicators of these concerns.
Our survey asked respondents to list the three biggest problems in Kazakhstan in order of priority. The question was an open one so we had to group the responses into categories afterwards. We ended up using four categories: problems related to the economy, to political rights and ethnic problems, to state services, and to corruption. This question allowed us to identify the most cited problems as well as the problem listed most frequently as the number one problem in Kazakhstan. We found that economic problems (unemployment, inflation, and low wages) were the most cited. For the whole sample, 94 percent indicated that these concerns ranked in their top three; the proportion reached 99 percent in the Almaty city sample.
Analysts too often treat Kazakhstan as just one big unified space, yet this large country has very distinctive regions associated with economic specializations and nationality concentrations. Unlike other surveys that we conducted in post-Soviet countries, demographic differences are not as evident in the Kazakhstan data. Belarus, for example, showed dramatic differences in political choices across age groups. This regional pattern matters because the recent protests began in the oil-and gas rich region of western Kazakhstan before jumping to the former capital and biggest city, Almaty, and elsewhere. In examining the problem question regionally, we found that corruption was listed as the number one problem in two regions across Kazakhstan — the north, including the capital Nur-Sultan, and the south — and tied with economic problems in the west. Overall 49 percent of the sample mentioned corruption as one of the three biggest problems (see the figure for regional details).
The figure shows the sum of answers to the question “What are the three biggest problems in Kazakhstan at the present time” in order of priority.
Strong dissatisfaction was also evident with the quality of government services (healthcare, provision, education availability and costs, low pensions), with 62 percent listing it as a problem. However, there was not much attention to political rights and ethnic issues in their various forms for one-third of the sample. Political rights and ethnic issues include worries over free elections, property claims, gender equality and ethnic discrimination. This does not imply these issues were not important to people just that they were not at the forefront of their everyday concerns. Respondents in Almaty were more likely to nominate political and ethnic problems than those elsewhere in the country.
Asked what would be the best political system for Kazakhstan, only 36.9 percent chose the current Kazakhstani system, while 25 percent picked the Soviet system. A more modest number preferred Western democratic systems (around 14 percent) and less than 6 percent the current Russian political system. Demographic analysis showed that poorer people and the less educated tended to prefer the Soviet system. This approximate one-third preference for the Soviet system is the same as in Belarus but the support of the local political system is significantly larger than in Belarus (only 15 percent) where the Western democratic system was picked by 32 percent.
The survey was done less than a year after Nazarbayev stepped back from the presidency that he occupied since 1991 and gave formal control to current president Tokayev. To counter social desirability bias we used a survey technique called a list experiment to probe citizens’ trust in their president. This is an indirect way of asking about trust: given a list of institutions  (without mentioning any name), respondents indicate how many they trust. By randomly switching out the presidency in lists of institutions, we can estimate general trust in the presidency. The results were particularly low: an overall average of 24.3 percent trusted the president, and in the western regions the level was at 0 percent. Other regional percentages were north (including Nur-Sultan) 17.7, Almaty city 25.9, east-center 19.6 and the south at 52.4. We found similar low levels of trust in the political leadership in Belarus using the same question format just before the presidential election and subsequent mass protests there.
Political protests are not like science experiments, with predictable outcomes when certain elements mix. Specific events, local conditions, communication, organization and leadership all matter in providing an initial spark and subsequent diffusion and momentum. Nevertheless, background attitudes shaped by deteriorating economic conditions and everyday experience with state services and corruption matter a great deal. The presidential transition of 2019 in Kazakhstan coincided with a significant uptick in political protests in that year before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Just as in Belarus, conditions were ripe for anti-government protests. While the outcome was a reassertion of control by the autocratic center in both cases, the attitudes that literally fueled the protests — recalling that spiking liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices provided the initial spark — are not likely to have disappeared.
John O’Loughlin, college professor of distinction at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is a political geographer with research interests in the human outcomes of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa and in the geopolitical orientations of people in post-Soviet states.
Marlene Laruelle, Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, is Director of the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at the George Washington University, as Director of its Central Asia Program.
Gerard Toal, professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech’s campus in Arlington, is a political geographer and author of “Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest for Ukraine and the Caucasus” (Oxford University Press, 2019).

author: Gerard Toal


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Australian town of Onslow hits record 50.7 degrees Celsius, as global warming rolls on relentlessly · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

One prediction of where rising sea levels will end up at Cottesloe Beach, Perth Western Australia – Photo courtesy Flickr user go_greener_oz (CC BY-ND 2.0)
When the coastal town of Onslow in Western Australia hit a record-setting 50.7 degrees Celsius (123.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on January 13, 2022, it was just another day in the unfolding climate crisis. It matched the 1960 temperature record at inland Oodnadatta, which is the high mark for the Southern Hemisphere.
NEW Western Australian maximum temperature record and equal National temperature record*! Onslow reached an unprecedented – 50.7°C which is a WA record and equals Australia's hottest day set 62 years ago in Oodnadatta SA. *Data not official until quality controlled. pic.twitter.com/VfAg0SPuez
— Bureau of Meteorology, Western Australia (@BOM_WA) January 13, 2022
2022 is the year we expect Carbon Dioxide levels to reach 50% above pre-industrial levels 📈
In other (very much related) news, Australia hit 50.7C today which is the joint #hottest temperature ever recorded in the southern hemisphere 🌡 pic.twitter.com/1VhKsA710q
— Holly Green (@HollyJGreen) January 13, 2022
Andrew King, senior lecturer in Climate Science at the University of Melbourne, explored the implications through an article in The Conversation:
Unfortunately, this extreme heat is becoming more common as the world heats up. The number of days over 50℃ has doubled since the 1980s. These dangerous temperatures are now being recorded more often – not just in Australia but in cities in Pakistan, India and the Persian Gulf. This poses real threats to the health of people enduring them.
Should these temperatures be a surprise? Sadly, no. Australia has warmed by around 1.4℃ since 1910, well ahead of the global average of 1.1℃.
You may think Australians are good at surviving the heat. But the climate you were born in doesn’t exist any more. Sadly, our farms, wildlife, and suburbs will struggle to cope with the extreme heat projected for coming decades.
One institution in nearby Roebourne grappled with the dire consequences for humans in these extreme temperates. The majority of the prisoners in the Roebourne prison are Aboriginal people. NITV (National Indigenous Television) reporting claims that inmates at the prison “were left to swelter in record heat without adequate air conditioning”:
Inmates had to swelter through 50-degree heat without air-conditioning on January 14, the second hottest day recorded in national history.@rachaelknowles_ reports.https://t.co/y7zuSTBs8y
— NITV (@NITV) January 19, 2022
The extreme heat also grounded the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS):
Temperatures were so hot in Onslow today, the RFDS plane couldn’t take off 😯 @abcnews @stjohn_wa #StJohnOnslow pic.twitter.com/lhDsRjaOhM
— Laura Birch (@laurabirch25) January 13, 2022
Andrew King expects Australia’s largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, to hit 50 degrees Celsius in the near future. Melbourne’s highest official temperature of 46.4 degrees Celsius (115.5 degrees Farenheit) was recorded on Black Saturday, February 7, 2009. It was the day of Victoria’s devastating bushfires with 108 deaths and more than 750 houses incinerated.
Meanwhile at a global level, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 2022 released a study of ocean temperatures: Another Record: Ocean Warming Continues through 2021 despite La Niña Conditions. It indicated that the world ocean was the hottest ever recorded. The authors warn:
As oceans warm, the water expands, and sea level rises. Preparing for sea level rise and its implications for coastal communities are particularly important.
In addition, warmer oceans supercharge the weather systems, creating more powerful storms and hurricanes, and increased precipitation. Warmer oceans lead to a warmer and moister atmosphere that promotes more intense rainfall in all storms, especially hurricanes, thereby increasing the risk of flooding. Warming ocean waters threaten marine ecosystems and human livelihoods, for example, coral reefs and fisheries.
Novelist and activist Eliza Todd seems to have an angle for an end-of-world movie:
🌎A disaster film occurring daily in real time, 2021 world ocean temperatures are the *hottest ever recorded.
Rising ocean temps are inextricably linked to massive extreme weather/climate events, destabilization of Antarctic ice shelves and massive sea level rise.🌏 ax. pic.twitter.com/AUWjFXYX5u
— Eliza Todd (@Smilynntodd) January 12, 2022
As New Scientist reported, the last seven years were the warmest so far. Last year ranks fifth, sixth, or seventh based on the international datasets used by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for their analysis. Although 2021 was not the hottest year on record, that’s hardly cause to celebrate:
The past seven years were the warmest on record as climate change continued apace, despite the cooling effect of the La Niña weather pattern in 2021.
…2021 saw climate scientists shocked by several temperature records broken by much larger margins than usual in some places, such as the near-50°C record set in Lytton, Canada. Previous research showed this event would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, La Niña “refers to the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean”.
This WMO YouTube animation has the following warning: “Global warming and other long-term climate change trends are expected to continue as a result of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere”.
The Washington Post created an animation of temperature variations since 1880, shared by Twitter user Nuclear Engineering:
Wanna see something really scary?🔥
“Today, our planet revolves at its hottest levels on record — 1.1°C higher than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The drumbeat has been steady; the past seven years have been the hottest on record.” https://t.co/eZVZn6NwRD pic.twitter.com/lkxFtIEIMx
— Nuclear Engineering (@NuclearEngnrng) January 20, 2022
Given the spades of new records, it must be time to revisit the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) COP26 Code Red.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Gang truce or not, President Bukele is still popular in El Salvador · Global Voices
Eddie Galdamez

Illustration of President Nayib Bukele, by Giovana Fleck.
Despite accusations of negotiating a secret truce with organized crime, authoritarianism, corruption, and nepotism, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele keeps a strong score of popularity among Salvadorans.
During the first half of his five-year term, the international community has condemned military actions, such as when Bukele entered the Salvadoran parliament with heavy-armed military staff to pressure legislators into approving the financing for his security plan in February 2020.
In 2021, his political party Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) gained absolute control of the legislative branch. On their first day of work, they removed and replaced the attorney general and all five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Judicial Court, sparking fear of erosion of El Salvador's hard-won check-and-balances system. Bukele has also fallen out with the Biden administration, on top of being accused of spying on members of the Salvadoran press.
Bukele's actions have provoked international condemnation by human rights groups, the international press, and many foreign government officials. Within El Salvador, however, the president's governance keeps him popular.
The trust Salvadorans place on President Bukele is slightly higher now than when he got elected, going from 61.4 percent in 2019, according to the Jesuit-led University of Central America (UCA), to 67.9 percent in December 2021, with a peak in May 2021 with 86.6 percent.
Surveys, which are conducted by two prestigious Salvadoran universities including UCA, a local newspaper critical of Bukele, and an international organization, CID Gallup, show his overall average approval rating of 2020 and 2021 is 90.04 percent. They cite the lowering homicide rates and managing the COVID-19 pandemic as the top reasons for his popularity.
In early 2021, the Lowy Institute ranked El Salvador as the best in Central America regarding managing the pandemic; and number two in Latin America. In conversations with Salvadorans, the population seems to agree with El Salvador's confinement measures and vaccination rates and see improvement in the healthcare system. Also, the past couple of years set low records in lethal violence in a country known for its high homicide rate.
Yet, in 2022, maintaining high approval ratings may not be easy for Bukele. The principal pillar of his popularity, lowering the number of homicides, has come under heavier scrutiny.
On December 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued sanctions against two of Bukele's cabinet members. Osiris Luna Meza, the Chief of the Salvadoran Penal System and Carlos Amilcar Marroquin, Chairman of the Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Luna and Marroquin organized secret meetings involving incarcerated gang leaders and gang members on the outside. The report stipulates that they facilitated the entrance of gang members into high-security prisons to secretly meet with senior gang leadership.
The alleged secret meetings were part of El Salvador’s government's efforts to negotiate a secret gang truce to reduce homicides and receive electoral support. The U.S. Treasury Press Release states:
In 2020, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s (Bukele) administration provided financial incentives to Salvadoran gangs MS-13 and 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18) to ensure that incidents of gang violence and the number of confirmed homicides remained low.
In his usual antagonistic manner, Bukele responded to the accusations on Twitter, saying that U.S. authorities use old evidence and support the political opposition, which has been previously accused of negotiating with gangs.
¿Celulares y prostitutas en las cárceles?
¿Dinero a las pandillas?
¿Cuándo pasó eso?
¿No revisaron ni la fecha?
¿Cómo pueden poner una mentira tan obvia sin que nadie se las cuestione?
Hay videos sí, pero de sus amigos haciendo eso. No nosotros.
Ya ni disimulan.
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 8, 2021
Cell phones and prostitutes in prisons?
Money sent to gangs?
When did that happen?
They didn't even check the date?
How can they put such an obvious lie without anyone questioning them?
There are videos yes, but of their friends doing that. Not us.
They don't even pretend anymore.
Accusations that the Bukele administration has been negotiating with gangs are nothing new. Online investigative newspaper El Faro has been reporting on these negotiations since before 2020 dating back to when Bukele was mayor; however, most people in El Salvador do not believe it. The latest survey from UCA reports:
(Pregunta de la encuesta.) A lo largo del presente año [2021] algunos medios de comunicación han revelado información sobre la posible negociación del actual gobierno con las pandillas. ¿Usted cree que el gobierno tiene una negociación con las pandillas o que no la tiene? El 60,2% respondió que no hay negociación.
(Survey question.) Throughout this year [2021], some media outlets have revealed information about possible negotiations between the current government and the gangs. Do you think the government negotiated with the gangs or that it did not? 60.2% responded that there is no negotiation.
Besides the accusations of negotiating with gangs, Bukele faces other issues that could affect his approval rating. For instance, accusations of human rights violations, corruption, and spying on reporters and activists. As of September 2021, Bukele has also been facing regular protests. Different groups of society are protesting his authoritarian governing style, the use of the military for security purposes, and the increasing rates of disappeared persons.
Nevertheless, despite all the accusations and condemnations, Bukele still has a high probability of maintaining a high approval rating in 2022. Here is why.
First, Bukele is a savvy communicator. Also, he has government-sponsored media outlets, such as a TV station and print newspaper, that help spread the government's messages. President Bukele's favorite way of communication is his Twitter account.
Second, traditional media outlets critical of Bukele's governance have low credibility among Salvadorans. A 2021 survey conducted by a local university revealed that less than 15 percent trusted the investigative newspaper, El Faro, despite it receiving multiple journalism awards. Also, less than 30 percent trusted La Prensa Grafica and El Diario de Hoy, two of the oldest newspapers in the country. These are the principal media outlets that have been reporting on Bukele's alleged negotiation with gangs and corruption cases.
Third, political opposition is weak. The two traditional political parties that Bukele and his political party defeated are losing political members. The traditional political parties FMLN and ARENA, which were born out of El Salvador's civil war, have lost support due to years of corruption. The latest UCA survey released in January 2022 asked who the preferred political party was; 3.4 percent chose ARENA and 2.2 percent the FMLN.
Support for the president's political party, New Ideas, has also declined. In May 2021, it had a 49.6 percent political preference; but, at the end of 2021, it had fallen to 27.7 percent. This drop could affect Bukele's approval in 2022; however, with strong mediatic support, a lack of trust in critical media, and a weak political opposition, Bukele could maintain a high approval rating in 2022 as president.

author: Eddie Galdamez