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WATCH/LISTEN: Myanmar: Coup & civil disobedience · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

As events continue to unfold in Myanmar and as part of our ongoing coverage of the situation, we devoted an episode of our Global Voices Insights series to exploring the events in Myanmar since the February 1 coup, featuring:
Mong Palatino Global Voices’ Southeast Asia editor, Mong has spearheaded our coverage of the events in Myanmar. In addition to hosting the session, he will provide an overview of the country’s transition to democracy over the past decade and of what has transpired since the military takeover.
Ben Crox a Hong Kong-based BarCamp curator and a trainer on new media communication technology and skills, Ben has experience doing business in Myanmar and will discuss how people there are dealing with the military crackdown, and how people from the outside can help.
Hsa Moo a member of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), Hsa will discuss the situation in Karen state and other parts of Myanmar.
The episode also featured two video testimonials from people inside Myanmar.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Crumbling infrastructure and oxygen shortage hit India’s Covid-19 response · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Image by Raam Gottimukkala from Pixabay. Used under a Pixabay License.
More than 2,000 people have died of Covid-19 in a single day in India. On Wednesday, April 21, an interruption in oxygen supply also killed 24 patients, demonstrating to devastating effect the extent to which the infrastructure of Asia's third-largest economy has been overwhelmed by the pandemic.
Amidst the public health emergency caused by the country's second wave of Covid-19, the government is boosting its vaccination drive and expanding local quarantine measures, instead of imposing mass lockdowns.
The Ministry of Health on 21 April recorded 2,023 deaths, the highest number since the pandemic began more than a year ago. From a lack of crucial life-saving medicines such as Remdesivir and a shortage in the oxygen supply, to low bed availability at hospitals, India’s cities, towns and villages are facing a seemingly insurmountable crisis.
Experts are reporting an increase in Covid-19 cases in tier-2 and tier-3 towns (smaller towns and villages, according to the country's population-based classification, which often lack key healthcare infrastructure for treatment) across the country, and, despite a lack of data, Indian scientists are speculating that the current surge is being fuelled by a new Indian variant, labelled B.1.617, which has spread to at least 15 other countries.
Images from hospitals facing oxygen leaks, of mass funeral pyres and bodies laid aside as family members struggle to find hearses, while, as Reuters reports, Indians bypass the usual channels to crowdsource hospital beds and oxygen canisters on Twitter, reveal a lack of preparedness on the part of the Indian government.
Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui tweeted images of distressing scenes from a New Delhi hospital:
Scenes from inside and outside a COVID-19 hospital, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease in New Delhi, India April 15, 2021.
India recorded more than 200,000 positive cases and 1,000+ deaths today. @Reuters pic.twitter.com/yChcBgxwM3
— Danish Siddiqui (@dansiddiqui) April 15, 2021
Epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan outlined how India’s situation went from manageable to bleak within just a few weeks in the New York Times, saying that the situation “is a direct result of complacency and lack of preparation by the government”.
The Indian government claimed victory over the virus quickly and even chaired a meeting to address its success. The messaging from the Indian government, through its election rallies and festival celebrations, was mixed at best, resulting in Indian states easing their lockdowns for economic revival.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced stringent criticism for mismanaging the epidemic and holding multiple election rallies with tens of thousands in attendance in West Bengal state. As the scale of the second wave became apparent, Modi this week said the virus was ravaging India “like a storm” but fell short of holding a press conference on the crisis.
From 1700 deaths on Tuesday, the death count due to Covid 19 as of Wednesday morning is 2023, In any other democracy, the Prime Minister of the country would be holding a press conference, taking questions from journalists on pressing issues and allay the concerns.
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) April 21, 2021
A vortex of factors including highly infectious variants of the virus, mass political rallies and the religious festival of Kumbh Mela – which attracted more than 10 million people – has escalated the spread of Covid-19 infections, epidemiologists claim. And in this second wave, children and those under 45 are being hit hard by a disease previously viewed as more dangerous for older people, as reported by AFP.
To ensure mass vaccination after multiple states reported running out of doses, India announced individuals over 18 would be eligible for vaccination from the beginning May. The Pune-based Serum Institute of India announced fixed prices of Rs 400 ($5.30) for state hospitals per dose of the vaccine – nearly 2.7 times the previous price agreed with the Indian government by the centre.
I lost my beautiful friend today. She was the greatest, funniest, biggest hearted person who’d always stand you for a rum and Coke with a plate of kabobs. Shaoli was extremely high risk because of her underlying health conditions, and had been trying to get a vaccine 1/n https://t.co/q7nqT1eFa1
— Naheed Phiroze Patel is on hiatus (@bookwalee) April 22, 2021
Given that the onus of vaccine procurement is on Indian states – absolving Modi's government of major responsibilities on vaccination – the announcement drew angry responses from policymakers and state governments.
Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted:
Maximum vaccination is required to crush 2nd wave of #COVID19. Requested @PMOIndia to reconsider new policy on vaccine distribution so that availability is assured & no additional financial burden is incurred, enabling States to perform constitutional obligation in health sector. pic.twitter.com/sEE6dpGzpE
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) April 20, 2021
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Modi, suggesting ways to scale up India’s vaccination efforts. He advised the government to look at the total percentage of the population vaccinated rather than focusing on absolute numbers. Singh, 88, who later tested positive for Covid-19, claimed India could improve its response with better policy design. His advice was rebuffed by India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan, who wrote in response that Singh should advise his own party, Indian National Congress, which he accused of attempting to derail India’s vaccination drive. Vardhan acknowledged that Singh’s emphasis on vaccination was also shared by the Indian government and pointed out that other members of the Indian congress “do not seem to share” Singh’s views as they peddled vaccine hesitancy and failed to “utter a single word of gratitude towards our scientist community and vaccine manufacturers for innovating under trying circumstances”.
Last week, journalist Vinay Srivastava, from the city of Lucknow, succumbed to Covid-19 while live-tweeting details of his falling oxygen levels and seeking help from government authorities. Srivastava, 65, died without any medical intervention as his oxygen levels fell to 52 percent – a healthy reading is 95 percent or above. He claimed that no doctor or hospital picked up his call.
India’s cremation grounds and funeral homes have been running out of space to bury the dead, while workers struggled to fulfil final rites due to a lack of safety kits and manpower. News reports have revealed Indian crematoriums are working around the clock, resulting in their metal parts of furnaces melting and chimneys collapsing due to continuous usage for 14 days, highlighting the rising death toll.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that some states are under-reporting the death toll. Tech entrepreneur Peri Maheshwer claimed on Facebook:
An analysis by Financial Times across seven districts in 4 states, 1,833 people died while only 228 have been officially reported.
As India's healthcare system stretches to breaking point, many patients are succumbing to infections in their homes or on the roads, without any medical assistance. These deaths are not being counted as Covid-19 related mortalities, resulting in states reporting tallies of deaths much lower than the actual figures, as reported by the Financial Express.
But as India emerges from a massive contraction of its quarterly growth figures, politicians are reluctant to impose lockdowns on a mass scale that could shut down businesses and send migrants packing back to their villages – Modi has asked state leaders to quarantine neighbourhoods and enclaves instead.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


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The George Floyd verdict gets netizens thinking about police brutality in the Caribbean · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A memorial for George Floyd in South Minneapolis. Photo by Chad Davis on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
On April 20, nearly a year after George Floyd, the African-American man who repeatedly told the white police officer who knelt on his neck for an excruciating nine minutes that he couldn't breathe, a Minnesota court found Derek Chauvin guilty of all three charges against him — second and third-degree murder, and manslaughter.
Floyd's May 25 murder, which took place in broad daylight on a city street in full view of bystanders who begged Chauvin to stop — and fellow officers who stood back and did nothing — prompted massive anti-racism protests in the United States and internationally, including across the Caribbean.
Chauvin appeared incredulous as the verdict was read. Outside the courthouse, where hundreds of people had gathered in support of #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd, there was elation. Many people, including some members of Floyd's family, watched the announcement at home, and their relief at the unanimous guilty verdict was palpable.
The emotions in the Caribbean were similar; Trinidad and Tobago-based Franka Philip said on Facebook:
I feel relief for my friends in the US who have been awaiting justice, not just for George Floyd but for so many others who had no justice on earth.
At the same time, regional social media users acknowledged that justice being served in this one instance does not equate to change. Jamaican human rights advocate Susan Goffe retweeted:
This https://t.co/vajwEXe76R
— Susan Goffe (@suezeecue) April 21, 2021
Trinidadian LGBTQ+ activist Jason Jones said on Facebook:
THANK YOU! GUILTY! Justice is served but we have nothing to celebrate as nothing can ever give back the life taken away.
Still, Jamaica Bonita was pleased with justice being done — especially since systemic racism often makes it elusive:
We need fair and equal treatment under the law. And whenever that fails to happen, then we need justice. And for those who don't know what justice is, justice MUST feel just. Zeen. RIP George Floyd. Justice is served. Thanks be to God, who commandeth us to love one another. ❤ pic.twitter.com/sxVgIOjh8X
— Bonita Jamaica (@BonitaJamaica) April 21, 2021
As Jamaican Lisa Soares Lewis tweeted:
Justice! ????
One down and many more to go!
— Lisa Soares Lewis (@LisaSoares) April 20, 2021
Some of those “many more” were victims of police brutality within the region:
In the wake of the verdict in the George Floyd case I wonder when will the over 2000 families who had their family members killed by JCF officers in Jamaica in the last 20 years, when will they get their JUSTICE? @suezeecue @LexGoffe @CarolNarcisse
— Carolyn Gomes (@CarolynMusing) April 21, 2021
The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is not the only regional policing body accused of alleged abuse of its powers. At the southern end of the archipelago, in Trinidad and Tobago, Inspector Mark Hernandez, head of the police service's Special Operations Response Team (SORT), was recently charged for misbehaviour in public office over the deaths — in police custody — of Andrew Morris and Joel Balcon, who were brought in for questioning in the January 2021 kidnapping and murder of Andrea Bharatt.
Most netizens, therefore, understand that the guilty verdict is not a solution — not in the United States, and certainly not within the Caribbean:
This will NOT bring back George Floyd. It will however hopefully really start discourse about police brutality and race relations. Change how people of colour are treated.
— Alicia B. (@AliBJM) April 20, 2021
A member of the Trinbagonian diaspora in the United States, Sonya Sanchez-Arias, felt similarly, explaining:
I think it was the offending police officer’s audacity that shook us. The nerve to murder someone in front of our eyes. It was his stubborn, unrelenting unwillingness to ease the pressure on Floyd’s neck that stopped us in our tracks.
In the nine minutes and 29 seconds it took for George Floyd to asphyxiate, everything shifted. It felt like the entire world saw red. Enough was enough. […]
Black Lives Matter was striving to challenge and change an American system that perpetuates violence and consistently excuses killing, but it was also asking, in its simplest terms, for equality, for humanity.
This week offered all of us the oddest conundrum: to have watched a man being murdered and wonder whether or not the murderer would be convicted, whether justice as we know it would be served or the officer protected. […]
His legal guilt is the first step on a long road to true justice. I recognize the guilty, guilty, guilty verdict is not a bandage for systemic inequality, but guilty, guilty, guilty sends a clear message: America will not tolerate this. Now There Is Legal Justice for George Floyd. So Why Do I Still Feel So Hollow?
Why? Because deep inside I know George Floyd is just the tip of the iceberg of so many black lives lost and the injustice and toxicity of too many years of systematic racism and white privileged complacency. There is so much work to be done!
At least one Jamaican Twitter user acknowledged the enormous debt owed to Darnella Frazier, the young black teen who filmed the entire incident on her phone, despite threats from the police officers to stop:
You know. We aren't thanking Darnella Frazier enough. Her courage in that moment was unmatched. She never once backed down and allowed the police to intimidate her. That video made the world of a difference in today's verdict.
— Alicia B. (@AliBJM) April 21, 2021
However, after Juliet Holness — Member of Parliament and wife of Prime Minister Andrew Holness — tweeted about Jamaica's “long-standing problem with violence […] inherited from the days of slavery,” the online discourse became heated:
Jamaica state is violent. Parliament inherited it from the colonial office and lovingly upholds and expands it to this very day. https://t.co/IA6sQAbO8t
— Alexis Goffe (@LexGoffe) April 21, 2021
‘Violence we inherited from the days of slavery’ you mean the violence enacted by the people in charge? The violence that was written into law? Or you mean the violence of the prison system? Or maybe you mean the violence from the security forces towards citizens
— Rue (@OddRue) April 21, 2021
Given the uptick in gender-based violence in Jamaica, the tweet was interpreted as tone-deaf — but it is clear, at least to regional netizens, that the guilty verdicts in the George Floyd case merely constitute one small step in dismantling the racist systems that generally allow such injustices to happen with impunity.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Journalist becomes first person convicted over 2019 mob attack that injured dozens of Hongkongers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Documentary producer Bao Choy at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on April 22, 2021, where she was found guilty of “making false statements” to obtain public records during an investigation. Photo: Candice Chau/HKFP. Used with permission.
A Hong Kong court found Bao Choy, a former producer at Hong Kong's public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), guilty of violating the city's Road and Traffic Ordinance by “making false statements” while searching public records of license plates. She was sentenced to pay a fine of HK$6,000 (around 773 USD) on April 22.
Bao's verdict is related to her reporting on the July 2019 Yuen Long subway incident, in which a mob armed with rods and wooden sticks violently attacked subway passengers, among whom were anti-extradition protesters returning from downtown protests. The result of the reporting was an acclaimed documentary about the attack aired by RTHK.
Choy was fined HK$6,000 for checking two car plates – each could have brought her up to six month imprisonment.
Choy and her team reviewed surveillance footage from the area to track down two cars that carried the assailants to the subway station. After identifying the vehicles’ license plates, the reporters used the website of Hong Kong's transportation department to find the owners.
The website system requires users to state the purpose of the inquiry by selecting one of three pre-determined options: “legal matters,” “vehicle purchase” or “transport or traffic-related matters.” As the system does not offer the option “journalistic investigation,” Bao chose “transport or traffic-related matters.” Obtaining license records that way is considered a common practice among journalists in Hong Kong.
Disregarding the public interest of the investigation, the judge found Choy guilty of “making false statements,” highlighting the fact that she knew that the records would be used for news reporting rather than “other purposes.”
The case illustrates how Hong Kong authorities is retrieving to existing laws to prosecute the press. For some journalists, the judge's interpretation of the law indicates that while car buyers, victims of car accidents, or those affected by traffic-related matters, such as road blocking, are legally allowed to access the online database, but not reporters.
Alex Lam, a reporter with the newspaper Apple Daily, highlighted the irony that Choy was the first person convicted of a crime related to the Yuen Long incident:
After all the terror that shook Yuen Long that night, @Baochoy, the journalist who relentlessly looked for the truth behind, is the 1st person to be convicted of a crime related to #721YuenLongAttack. Think about that. pic.twitter.com/YIkrux6EBe
— Alex Lam 林偉聰 (@lwcalex) April 22, 2021
Bao Choy said of the verdict:
@Baochoy described today's verdict as upsetting and heart-breaking. The judgement does not affect just herself, she said, but the industry, and all reporters in HK. She personally does not agree with the verdict. #721YuenLongAttack pic.twitter.com/QbLj3ivN0F
— RTHK's The Pulse (@thepulse_rthk) April 22, 2021
Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents’ Club described the legal action as a “dangerous precedent”:
The government’s actions against Choy set a dangerous precedent. They open the door to further legal action against journalists for engaging in routine reporting. #HongKong #PressFreedom #JournalismIsNotACrime https://t.co/Xwz9TFtNFH
— The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong (@fcchk) April 22, 2021
The latest World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders ranked Hong Kong 80th out of the 180 countries and territories. The international press freedom watchdog said the national security law allows Beijing to intervene directly to punish what it regards as “crimes against the state,” and that is especially dangerous for journalists.
The Hong Kong government dismissed the criticism:
We are appalled by remarks made by Reporters Without Borders that seemed to suggest that people with a particular profession should be immune to legal sanctions… Criminals who break the law must face justice. Arrest and prosecution actions were based on facts and evidence and strictly according to the laws in force, regardless of the profession or stance of the suspects.
Bao Choy vowed to “not give up” her journalism career:
.@Baochoy: “Tho I have lost my role at RTHK, I will try hard to reach my potential in other platforms. I will not give up my journalistic work. Investigating the Yuen Long attacks for HK Connection was my pride and honor.” https://t.co/SGXAfL5IEg @austinramzy pic.twitter.com/PfWhMVRVta
— Tiffany May (@nytmay) April 22, 2021

author: Oiwan Lam


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Travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand brings cheers and tears, but some fears · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Video screenshot: Families reunite as Jetstar flight from Australia lands in NZ | Stuff.co.nz
In a world first, Australia and New Zealand have created a “travel bubble” allowing people to move between the two countries without COVID-19 quarantine. It will enable family members to visit their relatives, as well as boosting tourism. Approximately 500,000 New Zealanders live in Australia, whilst 60,000 Australians live in New Zealand.
In March 2020 both nations closed their borders to non-citizens and non-residents. Some exceptions applied. New Zealanders have been able to enter some Australian states since October 2020 but this freedom of movement was not reciprocated due to locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in Australia. This latest development follows the virtual elimination of community-transmitted cases in the country. Victoria – the worst affected state last year, which endured a four-month lockdown – has seen no local transmission for more than seven weeks.
The two countries are separated by the Tasman Sea, affectionately referred to as “the ditch”. The term “trans-Tasman” usually applies to relationships between the nations or their peoples – in this case it's a shared travel zone.
There are now direct flights between major cities in both countries., with 400 flights per week to and from Auckland expected to be running by the end of April.
Flights from Australia to New Zealand began on April 19, with cheers and tears seen at departure and arrival areas.
Journalist Sophie Trigger, an Australian living in New Zealand, posted about her journey on Twitter:
I’ve flown into Sydney airport more times than I can count, many of them after long stints overseas.
But no arrival has felt quite like this morning’s, over a year since the whole world shut down #transtasmanbubble pic.twitter.com/2l28Zc6CUy
— Sophie Trigger (@Sophietrigger) April 18, 2021
Wellington resident Jessica Avery's response to the scenes at airports was typical of many:
I’m just standing in front of our office TV sobbing because for so many people this is such a bloody beautiful day #transtasmanbubble ❤ @1NewsNZ
— Jessica Avery Shaw (@jessicaavery_) April 19, 2021
The #transtasmanbubble Twitter hashtag provides no shortage of tear-jerking moments, such as this one witnessed by Australian Associated Press New Zealand correspondent Ben McKay:
7 yo hasn’t seen her mum in 15 months.#transtasmanbubble https://t.co/ccHMs3UXUo
— Tanya Selak (@GongGasGirl) April 19, 2021
However, there was a note of caution from at least one Twitter user:
Keen on! #transtasmanbubble
But do people think it's safe to do this?
— Richard Liu (@richardfliu) April 19, 2021
According to The Guardian, this was a concern widely shared in New Zealand:
Despite that upbeat mood, the bubble still represents a risk for New Zealand’s Covid-free haven – and a political risk for Ardern’s government. It has been greeted with trepidation by the wider New Zealand public, with polling finding only around half of New Zealanders, or 49%, were in favour of opening the trans-Tasman bubble.
There has been a push online for some time to open up a wider travel bubble with Pacific Ocean nations that have contained the coronavirus:
We urge our closest neighbours Australia & NZ to consider fast tracking the approval for Fiji & other Pacific States to be part of a Pacific travel bubble. This is the quickest way for #Pacific economies to get back on their feet & get our people the jobs & livelihoods they need https://t.co/QuKZkho1yb
— Zarak Khan (@ZarakFJ) April 2, 2021
#Politics: As the government finally opens up the trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia, it is coming under political pressure to move quickly to do the same with Pacific Island nations.
?: https://t.co/2WI7QJmaLb pic.twitter.com/LpMFgi5tH8
— NBR (@TheNBR) April 7, 2021
Not everyone on social media was sure about this idea:
No, no, no, no, no.
…Aaaaaand, no. https://t.co/ssyE081UAO
— Gary Farrow (@GaryFarrow) April 5, 2021
With very poor timing, this week Fiji recorded its first case of Covid-19 outside quarantine since March 2020:
Fiji faces grave, present danger: PM https://t.co/07OxyNU2FE #Fiji pic.twitter.com/aTGs97xwzL
— Raet Lomi (@raetlomi) April 19, 2021
Meanwhile, a border worker has tested positive in New Zealand, adding to concerns about international travel:
NZ border worker tests Covid positive on second day of bubble https://t.co/xHLATkHHdn via @Yahoo #transtasmanbubble #NZ #COVID19 That took longer than I thought it would.
— Rick Neal (@Rickstar5150) April 20, 2021
Tony Blakely, professor of Epidemiology at the University of Melbourne, has examined risks to Australia associated with international travel and travel bubbles at The Conversation:
Here I propose three things we must consider:
Importantly, all these factors matter. It’s not simply a case of needing to ensure all travellers are vaccinated.
…we need a national framework to assess the risk. Focusing on one measure alone isn’t wise — you have to look at the whole system.
It is inevitable that there will be pressures on the travel bubble when community transmission of COVID-19 occurs in either country. Quarantine-free travel from New Zealand  was suspended by Australia in January 2021 because of a case of a South African strain of Covid-19 across the Tasman.
The two-way system has been tested during its first week. New Zealand has paused travel from Perth, the State capital of Western Australia,   as a result of a three-day lockdown there. A Victorian man tested positive  after he completed 14 days quarantine at a Perth hotel and flew to Melbourne. Restrictions were also applied by NZ authorities to anyone on his flight and to exposure sites at the Melbourne Airport.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Experts warn Turkey’s ambitious Istanbul Kanal will result in environmental destruction—and open a geopolitical can of worms · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

The proposed Kanal Istanbul project would split Istanbul's European continent by a 45km long shipping canal joining the Black Sea to the Marmara, and running parallel to the Bosphorus strait. Screenshot from BBC News Türkçe video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ8KTvrdpSI
Istanbul Kanal, the planned 45-km artificial waterway connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, is probably Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's most ambitious large-scale infrastructure project since he took office 18 years ago — and also the one that will bring the most everlasting consequences, both globally and domestically.
First unveiled in 2011, Turkey's “second Bosphorus”, as it's been called, received the green light from the Environment Ministry only this past January. Erdogan justifies the $12.6bn-project to relieve ship traffic in the Bosphorus strait. The new waterway will have a capacity of around 160 vessel crossings per day, according to authorities. For comparison, the Suez Canal supports 50 crossings a day, and the Panama Canal, around 50.
But experts say that, if built, the new canal could make the 1936 Montreaux Convention, which regulates the straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus, obsolete.
Besides granting Turkey full sovereignty over both straits and ensuring passage of civilian vessels during peacetime, the treaty most importantly limits military deployments in the Black Sea to 21 days for states not bordering that body of water, which is effectively dominated by Russia.
President Erdogan has said multiple times that the convention will not apply to the new waterway. In practice, it means that Turkey, a NATO member, will be able to allow any military ships into the Black Sea — including those with United States flags.
The Istanbul Kanal, however, only provides an alternative route to the Bosphorus; ships would still have to use the Dardanelles strait, which connects the Sea of Marmara and the Mediterranean and is covered by the Montreaux Convention. Because of that, it has been widely speculated that Turkey might also withdraw from the Convention altogether, something officials have so far denied.
Earlier this month, such speculations have led a group of Turkish former admirals to publish a statement warning of the dangers of a possible withdrawal. “Montreux has allowed Turkey to stay neutral during World War II,” the statement said. “We are against any kinds of talks and actions which may result in Montreux being open for debate.”
The statement produced a political firestorm in Turkey, with Ankara equating it with an “attempted coup.” Hundreds of civil society organizations, presumably all pro-government, filed criminal complaints against the former admirals, and 14 were detained (but released shortly after).
Turkey's civil authorities have a fraught relationship with the military, as the latter has staged military coups in 1960 and 1980 — and a failed attempt in 2016.
But control over the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles straits goes way further into the past. In 1774, with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarjai, the Ottomans forbade all foreign ships from sailing out of the Black Sea, which resulted in Russia being unable to send its Black Sea fleet to Japan in the war of 1904-1905.
In 1841, the London Straits Convention forbade non-Turkish warships to enter the straits during peacetime. This treaty was replaced by the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, which called for the demilitarization of the Dardanelles and several other islands, as well as opened the Aegean Sea for merchant ships.
Then came the Montreaux Convention, which, according to historian Onur Isci in an interview with Al-Monitor, “was negotiated as Hitler’s shadow loomed ever larger. It struck what seemed a near-impossible balance, neither alienating Russia nor the Allied powers while securing maximum gains for Turkey.”
Writing for Carnegie Europe about the geopolitical Pandora's box that the new waterway could open, Marc Pierini says:
If the convention will not apply to the canal, it would in practice mean nullifying it and unilaterally creating a new role (and new rights?) for Turkey in maritime traffic regulation between the two seas. Questions abound. Would Turkey set different rules for maritime traffic on the new canal compared to the convention applying to the Bosporus? Would it—in the absence of any international authority or treaty—be free to open or close transit through the canal to certain flags at its sole discretion?
There will be domestic consequences too.
Experts say that, because of a 50 cm level difference between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, the connection will impact on both sea's salinity, and in the lives of organisms living in both seas. Furthermore, the canal will pass through Küçükçekmece lagoon, which is an important stop for migratory birds.
In an interview with The Guardian, Istanbul secretary of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Cevahir Efe Akçelik, said:
The salinity of Black Sea is less than Marmara Sea, and the organic content of Black Sea is much higher than that of Marmara Sea. Some oceanographers say 30 years later there will be no oxygen left in the Marmara Sea. It’s a really harmful and dangerous project.
The canal could also pose a threat to Terkos Lake and Sazlıdere, which supplies drinking water to Istanbul.
Akçelik told The Guardian that “should those reserves be lost, there is no alternative water source on the European side of Istanbul. Instead, the government would have to pump water from the Sakarya River, deep on the Asian side.”
The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, is in fact among the canal's most vocal critics. In December 2019, he called it “a murder project,” and has since been campaigning against it.
According to the results of one survey by the Istanbul Mayorship from August 2020, more than 60 percent of Istanbul residents opposed the construction of the canal.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Harnessing the power of social media, Indian netizens support one another during the second wave of COVID-19 · Global Voices
Anumeha Verma

COVID-19 antigen testing centre Warora, Maharashtra, India. Image via Wikipedia by Ganesh Dhamodkar. CC BY-SA 4.0.
As nearly every state in India reels under a vicious second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens have become a source of support for one another. On April 23, the number of new COVID-19 cases reached more than 332,000 in just 24 hours, the highest-ever recorded in the world in a single day; the death toll for the day stood at 2,263.
The states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal are some of the worst hit, but as the healthcare system baulks under the rising caseload, ordinary citizens are coming forward to help alleviate some of the sufferings. From random acts of kindness to well-coordinated responses, Indians are standing in solidarity with one another, even as they grieve.
When the hospitals were forced to keep COVID-19 patients waiting for admission due to lack of beds and medical-grade oxygen cylinders, a Gurdwara (a place of worship for Sikhs) in Ghaziabad near Delhi, opened its doors. The Gurdwara joined hands with an NGO and organized an ‘Oxygen Langar’ (a langar is the community kitchen of a Sikh temple, which serves meals free of charge), for anyone with respiratory issues. Patients experiencing breathing problems were given oxygen until they could be admitted to the hospital.
At a time when the country's health infrastructure is overburdened and inaccessibility to medical care is causing fear and panic, there have been many such instances of people rallying together to provide critical services. In the throes of a crisis, this type of support offers a ray of hope — and social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, are emerging as some of the channels through which people are both seeking and offering assistance.
Moubani Sengupta, a student of Microbiology from Kolkata, contracted COVID-19 in August 2020. Witnessing the havoc wreaked by the second wave, she took it upon herself to record and post a video on Facebook, in which she outlined steps people can take to give themselves the best chance should they get infected.
Moubani is not alone. Several Facebook groups — such as the COVID-19 Plasma Donor-Recipient Help India Group, where people post their plasma requirements — are acting as COVID-19 helplines and information centres. Plasma therapy is one of the methods currently being used for treating patients infected with the coronavirus. Corona Recovered Warriors offers similar services, providing information and other types of support that COVID-19 patients need.
Twitter has also turned into a 24/7 helpline on medical care access, as netizens from all over India share information on nursing homes, doctors, hospitals, and the availability of medicine and oxygen cylinders. Internationally acclaimed journalist Rana Ayyub noted:
Indian government should take lessons in empathy from Indian twitter. Twitter is the new Covid helpline in India, patients getting plasma, oxygen, hospital beds, guide on free food, everyone trying their best to pitch in by amplifying, making spreadsheets. Thank you EVERYONE ❤
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) April 20, 2021
One Twitter user, who benefitted from the information, expressed her gratitude:
On normal bed with oxygen at St Stephens. Many good people helping me find ICU bed. Something will work out. Thank you everyone for helping us ? https://t.co/h2JrcVvwig
— Karuna John (@karunajohn) April 23, 202
Apart from the patients requiring hospitalization, there are many who have been advised to self-isolate in home-quarantine. In several such cases, entire families have been infected, but their communities have assisted by delivering home-cooked meals and doing runs for essential commodities.
By April 23, however, the Indian government — citing the Information Technology Act, 2000 — requested that Twitter take down dozens of tweets it seemed were critical of its response to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Journalist and digital rights activist Nikhil Pahwa reported that Twitter has agreed, and that as many as 52 such tweets are now inaccessible to Indian users of the microblogging platform:
Twitter has complied with govt requests to censor 52 tweets largely critical of India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected accounts include MP Revanth Reddy, WB minister Moloy Ghatak, actor Vineet Kumar Singh, among others.https://t.co/qQJBIHgQk6
— Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) April 24, 2021
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, commented:
India learned the wrong lesson from China. Censorship about public health threats contributes to a disastrous response. Yet now the Indian government is insisting that Twitter take down some Tweets that criticize its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. https://t.co/oCtZaL7a53 pic.twitter.com/sGYwwuiY0J
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) April 25, 2021
Meanwhile, WhatsApp groups continue to share information on essential COVID-19 treatments and offer round-the-clock, volunteer-based food services in various localities.
Amidst the chaos of wailing ambulance sirens and dwindling hope, Indian netizens’ response to this latest wave of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis tells a story of human resilience and compassion, suggesting that all is not lost.

author: Anumeha Verma


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In Azerbaijan, pandemic restrictions pose unique obstacles for people with disabilities · Global Voices
Mahammad Kekalov

“COVID-19 and disability in Indonesia” by ILO in Asia and the Pacific is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In September 2020, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection made drastic cuts to disability pensions, as part of a package of measures aiming, according to officials, at “curbing fake disabilities.”
What was already a controversial measure was made worse by Azerbaijan's COVID-19 restrictions, which have seen public rehabilitation centers temporarily close across the country in order to minimize contact.
As a result, many Azerbaijanis with disabilities are currently unable to prove they are disabled because they are unable to receive treatment at the closed health centers.
In a September 2020 interview, the Press Secretary for the State Agency for Medical and Social Expertise and Rehabilitation, Gulnar Azizova said authorities will reopen rehabilitation centers once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. On March 19, Azerbaijani authorities extended the quarantine regime until June.
Families protest outside the Ministry of Labor and Social Services in the capital Baku on March 10, 2021. Video screenshot/Azadliq Radio.
Mothers speaking to local media outside the Ministry's building said they want rehabilitation centers to reopen, pensions to be reinstated, and benefits to be increased to account for the setbacks posed by the current economic conditions.
In March 2020, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas warned that “little has been done to provide people with disabilities with the guidance and support needed to protect them during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” She added that states should address the needs of people with disabilities by taking additional measures to “guarantee the continuity of support” for the group that already faces structural discrimination in their communities.
One recommendation voiced by Devandas was increasing financial aid to this community to cover basic needs, such as food delivery and medication.
Without having access to government support, some disabled citizens sought family support and have been receiving rehabilitation treatments at private clinics.
Refail Veten-Das Quliyev, 58, retired Physics teacher, said on Facebook:
Very serious problems with my health forced me to receive treatment at a private rehabilitation center. Despite my many attempts, public rehab centers didn't respond to me. In order to not relive the fate of Malik Abbasov [a man with disability who died in March 2021], with support from my friends and family I'm receiving treatment at the private Surakhani Medical Rehabilitation Center. The staff is kind and caring. Treatment is satisfactory. They are responsible at their work. Patients receive special attention. My doctor Mrs. Sevinj is well-educated, professional and competent doctor, and respects her profession. She's interested in her patients’ well-being and keeps checking-in as they go through procedures. Persons with disabilities who can afford this place can use their services.
According to national regulations, Azerbaijanis with disabilities and patients confined to bed care are entitled to professional health home-based care services by the government. However, this isn't widely provided and available in the country, according to the November 2020 country report on the impact of COVID-19 on older people and caregivers by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IRFC).
The report also notes that reduced access to hospitals, pharmacies, emergency services, and polyclinics was especially felt by older people with chronic diseases and people with disabilities.

author: Mahammad Kekalov


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Kenya’s chaotic COVID-19 vaccine roll out exposes rich-poor divide · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

“Information and awareness is important to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Here in Kenya, clinical health care workers are sensitising the community on COVID-19. Photo: Victoria Nthenge” by Trocaire is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout has been mired by allegations of bribery, line cutting and corruption that have left poor and elderly citizens waiting in long queues outside public hospitals even as the country grapples with a third wave of infections and deaths.
Meanwhile, hundreds of well-connected Kenyans are paying anything up to $100 to secretly receive early inoculations, as documented through eyewitness accounts by various Kenyans online and news coverage in Kenyan and international media.
In early March, Kenya procured over 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine distribution effort known as COVAX. The delivery marked the start of a campaign to offer the vaccine free of charge at select public and private hospitals.
The rollout was broken down into three phases: healthcare workers and security and immigration officials, citizens over age 58 and adults with certain medical conditions, and other citizens in vulnerable conditions such as those living in informal settlements. The country is set to receive 24 million doses through COVAX. It plans to vaccinate 50 percent of the population by June 2022 through a combination of COVAX vaccines and donations from other countries, reports The Washington Post.
In a press release, UNICEF Representative to Kenya Maniza Zaman celebrated the arrival of the first vaccines in Kenya. “With the arrival of these vaccines, UNICEF and partners are honouring the promise of the COVAX facility to ensure people from less wealthy countries are not left behind in the global rollout of life-saving vaccines,” she said.
However, this elaborately planned three-phase rollout fell apart as soon as the exercise began because of a last-minute government decision to fast-track phase two in response to the third wave, conflicting politically charged interests, and the state’s failure to consult and inform citizens.
In his article questioning what is going on with Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccine drive, Patrick Gathara, a Nairobi-based writer and award-winning political cartoonist noted:
Politicians loudly and self-servingly argued that they should be given priority to inspire confidence among the population, even though the Ministry of Health was reporting encountering little resistance. Because the state had ignored the need to explain its plan to the population, there was widespread confusion about where and when people were expected to be in line.
Despite government directives prioritizing citizens over the age of 58, Kenyan media reported that businessmen and politicians not in this age group have found a way to get the jab early, exposing the country's rich-poor divide.
Meanwhile, eligible senior citizens and poor Kenyans, who aren't well connected and don't have money to pay a bribe, often wait in line all day starting at 5 a.m., only to be asked to return the following day because the doses are finished, according to The Washington Post.
“They have another door for their friends,” Mary Njoroge, 58, one of the teachers, told The Washington Post. “Without a godfather to help you through this process, what are you supposed to do?”
A similar incident in another government hospital was reported by @_Sativa, a Twitter user based in Nairobi, Kenyan. In a Twitter thread, he recounted the experience of his aunt, a retired teacher in her 60s. While elderly people waited in line, a nurse called out names and young people came to the front to get vaccinated. When his aunt asked what was happening, the nurse gave her a number where she could send money, he said in his Twitter thread.
Following reports of increased enthusiasm from the public for the vaccination campaign, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe told the media:
I think somewhere along the line we seem to have developed some confusion that anybody can walk into a vaccination centre and get vaccines. I want to make it very clear, those carrying out vaccination will have to account for every dose that they have used and that dose that they have used must be matched against an eligible person.
The National Nurses Association of Kenya president Alfred Obengo pleaded with Kenyans who are not on the priority list to avoid queuing for the vaccine.
In providing clarity on how the Kenyan government could have avoided this confusion in its rollout plan, Gathara concludes his article by saying:
Much of this could have been avoided if the Kenyan government and its global partners, including the World Health Organization and Western governments, treated Kenyans as partners in the rollout rather than colonial subjects to be brutalised and exploited. Sadly for Kenyans, their colonial state does not know how to act any differently.

author: Njeri Wangari


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A sex worker from North Macedonia speaks: ‘Those who pay us do not own us’ · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Monika Tasevska speaking at the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers protest in Skopje, December 17, 2019. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
When we think about sex work, what do we most often think of? The stigma? Whether sex workers are physically safe? What are their clients like? And what do those close to them think of their work? Marija Mitkoska, a reporter for Frontline, an online news magazine in North Macedonia, talked to sex worker Monika Tasevska. Frontline kindly allowed Global Voices to republish the interview here, translated into English by CIVIL.Today.
Frontline: Who is Monika Tasevska?
Monika Tasevska, courtesy photo.
Monika Tasevska (MT): I am Monika Tasevska – primarily a mother, human rights activist, worker… I work as a regional coordinator for the NGO STAR, the first sex workers’ collective in the Balkans, and at the same time I am a sex worker.
Frontline: How long have you been doing sex work? How did you start doing this work? Was it a personal choice?
MT: I started doing sex work about 10 years ago, when I was left without the job I previously had as an administrative worker in a private firm, so I had to try to find a way to earn money. I knew people who had been doing sex work and through their contacts I also starting working. Because of the stereotypes imposed by society, which I also believed, I thought I would work for some time and then stop, but with time I realized that it is a job like any other, and it was my personal choice to continue doing sex work.
Frontline: Why “sex work” and “sex workers” instead of “prostitute” and “prostitution”?
MT: The term “prostitution” comes from the Latin word that means “exposed, dishonored” and has a negative connotation, as it is associated with stereotypes and stigma. This term is used when we want to insult someone – and “prostitution” is characterised as being a job only for women. Whereas the terms “sex worker” and “sex work” are terms originating within the sex worker community, allowing for commercial sex to be considered an economic activity – that is, a form of employment – and better describes the types of sex work that are involved in the sex industry. At the same time, it does not restrict gender inclusion in sex work.
Monika Tasevska. Photo used with permission.
Frontline: We know that apart from this job, you also do other work. How profitable is sex work as an independent person in North Macedonia?
MT: Currently, my primary job is at STAR, I do sex work occasionally as needed. As a sex worker, the most important thing is investing in yourself. The more you invest in yourself, the more profitable it is. Still, as with any job, the earnings from sex work are individual.
Frontline: Considering that we are in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, how does this affect your work? Do you have regular clients?
MT: With the pandemic, sex workers have experienced a social and economic crisis – there are people who have not worked at all for a year now. On the other hand, others – having no other way of earning – are risking their own health, and the health of those close to them and continuing working. Some have lost their homes because they don't have the means to pay the rent. I personally, since the start of the Covid-19 situation, meet only with regular clients, with whom I have mutual trust and who I can believe will not endanger my health and vice versa.
Frontline: Why do you think that married men, and women, decide to seek the services of a sex worker?
MT: We live in a strange society, so to say, and often married couples cannot fulfil their sexual fantasies, fetishes or desires inside the marriage, so they look for this outside their marriage. Some services that clients seek from sex workers are things they do not do at home, because in a marriage, according to some “rules,” there should be restrictions on attitude and communication.
Frontline: How do those around you look upon your work?
MT: I live in a small town where practically everyone knows each other, but I have not experienced anything related to views on my work that has deeply hurt me. I associate with a circle of people whose opinions and views are not limited, they do not divide people into good or bad, which means they see sex work as a job and support me in my choice. This includes my loved ones.
But I cannot exclude STAR’s team – people who in every aspect and moment are here for me, both as a colleague and as an individual. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to them for tirelessly advocating for sex workers.
Frontline: What kind of problems do sex workers most often face in North Macedonia?
MT: The stereotypes, stigma and discrimination are the most common obstacles, both from the general population and from state institution workers. The lack of a clear and defined law affects both the life and work of sex workers and is an encouragement for perpetrators of violence and for state workers prone to abusing their official duty or to discrimination.
These problems have decreased over the years, taking into account that as a collective, in co-operation with other organizations, we are working on raising awareness among the general population, and on increasing the sensitivity of state institutional workers, and there are positive changes.
Postcard with a text “Loudly for the Sex Workers” by STAR – The First Sex Workers Collective in the Balkans. Original photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Frontline: What are your thoughts about legalizing sex work?
MT: The association of sex workers does not advocate for legalization, but for decriminalization of sex work, meaning greater safety and health protection of sex workers. STAR, as a collective of sex workers, in co-operation with other organizations working on promoting the rights of sex workers, has undertaken various activities to this end.
Two years ago, a round table was organized with representatives of all the state institutions and then-Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mila Carovska. Representatives of these institutions, a minister and sex workers met for the first time at the same table and spoke about the regulation of sex work and about the needs of the association.
About a year ago, sex workers and organizations prepared a “declaration of sex workers”. The declaration sets out the rights that all citizens of Europe, including sex workers, have in accordance with international human rights law and prescribes the measures and practices that the signatories of the declaration believe are necessary for ensuring respect and protection of these rights. A total of 17 political parties from North Macedonia signed the declaration.
Frontline: What are the main goals of STAR?
MT: STAR is an association for support of marginalized workers it advocates for a world without violence, where every sex worker lives and works freely. Respect for basic human rights and freedoms are the main principles of a democratic and tolerant society, and STAR aims to protect and represent sex workers in society through active co-operation with state institutions, the civil sector and the media at the local, national and international level.
At the same time, it mobilizes and integrates sex workers in the process of organizational growth and development. This means that STAR is an organization led by sex workers, and the projects and activities that are implemented come from their ideas and needs.
Frontline: What would you say to sex workers who are not as brave as you are in expressing their opinions? And what would you say to clients and other members of the public?
MT: Courage is a personal trait. I cannot encourage them to speak publicly, but I can tell them that sex work is a job – we are not a threat or a danger. We sell sex services, we earn for ourselves, for our families and there is no reason for us to hide and to feel guilty. Those who prevent us from securing a stable life and existence should feel guilty, those who think selfishly and do not try to give people who are not like them a chance should feel guilty.
We are people just like everyone else – someone’s children, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons… and we have a right to choose what we want to do for work. As long as it does not harm others, the choice of work should be no reason for guilt. I would tell them that sex workers do not sell their bodies, but sex services. Those who think that if they pay they own us are wrong. When we go to a café we pay for the coffee and that is it, we do not own the entire café.

author: Guest Contributor


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Chinese state media instrumental in smear campaign against wife of former US diplomat, research firm DoubleThink Lab says · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chuang and her family perform the Chinese folk song “Fung Yang Hua Gu”. Screen capture from Chuang Tzu-Yi’s YouTube video.
Research conducted by Doublethink Lab, a disinformation analytics organization based in Taiwan, claims that the massive smear campaign targeting Chuang Tzu-i, the wife of the former United States consul general in Chengdu, was amplified by media outlets affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
An anthropologist by background, Taiwan-born Chuang Tzu-i is a famous food blogger writing about Chinese cuisines and cultures. Her mother is Sichuanese and, for that reason, she shows a special attachment to Chengdu, the cultural center of Sichuan province. She settled in the city soon after her husband Jim Mullinax was appointed as the U.S. consulate general in Chengdu in 2018. A year later, she was named cultural and tourism ambassador for Chengdu. Her popularity is etched in her husband’s nickname「四川女婿」or “the son-in-law of Sichuan.”
In June 2020, Chuang said in a post on Weibo that, by order of the U.S. State Department, she and her family were being evacuated from China in response to the spread of COVID-19. She described how they were given 48 hours to book air tickets, hostels and pack their luggage. In her long farewell piece, she described her feelings:
我曾經一閃念，試想二戰前猶太人為了躲納粹而而離開家是否就像這樣，然後就甩甩頭不想太情緒化，告訴自己我很快就會回來。
A thought crossed my mind about whether [our evacuation] was similar to the Jews having to flee their homes to escape from the Nazis during WWII. Then I shaked my head. I do not want to be too emotional. I told myself that I will be back home soon.
A few weeks later, tensions between the U.S. and China peaked, with the former ordering the closure of the Chinese Consulate-General in Houston on July 23, and China retaliating by closing the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on the next day.
That was when Chuang was targeted by a massive smear campaign on social media that focused on her farewell post.
Her heartfelt letter was interpreted as a comparison between China and Nazi Germany. Even though Chuang then apologized for the inappropriate analogy, the harassment did not stop. Eventually, she suspended her Weibo account, which had more than 650,000 followers in order to avoid hateful comments (such as: “I hope your mongrel kids get bitten by dogs, run over by a car and die like dogs”).
This past January, Chuang wrote a Facebook post thanking those who had been supporting her. Again, she was flooded with hateful messages.
On January 22, Mullinax described on his Facebook page the intensity of the two waves of trolling targeting his wife. He said of the first wave:
Following the closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Chinese trolls, commonly known as 五毛, (wu mao – “fifty cent-ers” because they reportedly get paid 50 cents by the government for each post) began attacking Tzu-I as a spy, a whore, and a closet revolutionary who used her popularity as a food writer and musician to lay the seeds for a color revolution in China. Many of them went into painful details about wanting to rape her, kill her, abuse our kids, and hurt our family. (…) It wasn’t just the trolls, many of the so-called big Vs (verified social media accounts with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers) also joined in… Voices brave enough to defend her were quickly shouted down or “disappeared” by Chinese censors. Many of her friends have been harassed […]
In the second wave of the trolling, Mullinax says, Chuang was portrayed as a spy:
(…) a new series of lurid rumors started circulating – that Tzu-I and I were never married and that she was assigned by Taiwan intelligence to accompany me to Chengdu as a sex slave, with a mission to foment a color revolution in China. That she entered China as my domestic servant, rather than on a diplomatic visa as my wife. That I have another family in the U.S. and that I discarded her and our boys as soon as I got back home, leaving her alone and homeless. That she is a professional prostitute who lets anyone use her so long as she can promote Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Tibetan independence. It’s almost too ridiculous to get upset about. Yet it’s been circulating like wildfire across Chinese social media. (…)
In addition to the online attacks, the location of Chuang’s residency in the U.S. was exposed. Her family and friends have also become targets of harassment, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry denied any state involvement in the campaign against Chuang. The Ministry told The Wall Street Journal:
China has a free internet, its users can freely express their opinions, and Chinese media is unbiased, truthful and accurate…
But according to Doublethink Lab’s research, the social media storms surrounding Chuang Tzu-I were triggered by news stories published by government and CCP-affiliated media outlets, which cited and amplified groundless and defamatory comments from online accounts. The media reports then were shared in even more insulting posts across several platforms.
Doublethink Lab shared with Global Voices two graphs showing how the keyword “Chuang Tzu-I” trended on Chinese social media over time:
Image provided to Global Voices by Doublethink Lab.
As shown, the first wave of the smear campaign surrounding Chuang emerged soon after the announcement of the closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston on July 23.
As the Chengdu U.S. Consulate found itself at the center of a Chinese social media storm, Chuang became a scapegoat with online patriots digging into her social media history.
The claim that she had compared China and Nazi Germany, made by a few netizens, was then cited and reported by the hawkish nationalistic site Guancha.cn in Chinese and the Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times in English on July 26. Guancha’s story was republished on the same day by the Chinese Communist Youth League’s official Weibo account and by the CCP-affiliated digital newspaper The Paper.
The first wave peaked one day later after a large number of online media outlets reproduced Guancha’s story — and added even more defamatory commentaries. For example, Read01, a popular content farm that uses search engine optimization for general revenue, published a piece on July 27 portraying Chuang as a failed scholar with no talent whose popularity stemmed only from her husband and his family background. As a result, the Weibo post that Chuang wrote on June 30 went viral with more than 5,000 shares and 8,000 comments.
According to Doublethink Lab, the second wave was triggered by a report published on January 5 by Want Want China Times, a pro-Beijing media group in Taiwan, about Chuang’s Facebook post in early January. The post described briefly how she, her family, and friends had been trolled on social media and via private messages in the past few months and that she would like to thank those who had stood by her in difficult times. However, the papers ran the story with the following headline: “Taiwanese female star called a ‘sex maid’ for marrying diplomat; she reveals her story of misery” (台灣女星遭指「陪睡丫頭」 嫁美國外交官吐心酸內幕).
China Times’ report did not make an obvious impact on Chinese social media until the Hong Kong-based, China state-funded newspaper Ta Kung Pao recycled the story on January 8 with a new headline “Taiwanese female star was called a ‘sex maid’ of American diplomat, netizens suspect Chuang Tzu-yi has been dumped” (台女星被指美外交官“陪睡丫头” 网民怀疑庄祖宜遭抛弃). On the same day, prominent social media influencer Sima Nan published a video commentary suggesting that Chuang’s online popularity was a “political project” to influence the Chinese public into support for the independence of Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong.
The peak of the second wave was on January 9, one day after the publication of Ta Kung Pao’s report and Sima Nan’s commentary.
The smearing campaign continued with more vulgar accusations made by verified accounts with high visibility, such as Digua Xiong Lao Lui, who depicted Chuang as a demon-like “enchantress” who uses sex and charm to seduce the U.S. diplomats and the public.
There have been abundant researches and investigations from human rights and technology communities showing that China's internet isn't “free” nor “its users can freely express their opinions,” as its Foreign Ministry described in a reply to The Wall Street Journal. The pattern of reports citing defamatory comments during the two trolling waves showed that Chinese media can be far from “unbiased, truthful and accurate”.


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Could the sargassum plaguing Tobago’s beaches be an opportunity? · Global Voices
Cari-Bois News

Sargassum. Photo by Mark Yokoyama on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
This article was written by Sean McCoon and originally published on Cari-Bois News. An edited version is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
Several beaches in Tobago have once again been rendered unrecognisable by large clusters of sargassum seaweed washing ashore. The issue was recently highlighted by researchers from Trinidad and Tobago's Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), who were in Tobago to conduct monitoring work.
The IMA advised via its social media pages that its team had “noticed a significant amount of sargassum” washing up on the shores of Little Rockly Bay, located along the island's Atlantic coast, where the impact of the brown macro-algae is most acutely felt.
As the sargassum issue has continued to evolve into a seasonal crisis for many Caribbean islands dependent on tourism, people have begun asking questions about the origin of the phenomenon: Why it is happening? Is it possible to stop it? Can sargassum seaweed be put to good use? The answers may surprise you.
As the name implies, sargassum comes from the Sargasso Sea, a warm, ecologically important geographic area in the mid to northern area of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sargassum is essentially a type of seaweed, brown algae that floats freely, offering refuge for migratory species without ever attaching to the ocean floor. While all other seas in the world are defined—at least in part—by land boundaries, the Sargasso Sea is defined only by ocean currents which, of course, give the seaweed its nomadic characteristics. Its recent proliferation is being attributed to warmer ocean temperatures as a result of the climate crisis.
Sargassum on a beach in Speyside, Tobago, on April 12, 2021. You can see bits of discarded plastic caught up in the seaweed. Photo by Sean McCoon, used with permission.
Sargassum is an essential habitat for about 120 species of fish and more than 120 species of invertebrates, an important, nursery-type haven that provides shelter and food for endangered species such as sea turtles, as well as for commercially sought-after fish species like tuna.
There are two species involved in the current sargassum influx: Sargassum natans and Sargassum fluitans, which are practically ecosystems onto themselves. However, thanks to its entangled mass, sargassum also tends to accumulate marine debris like plastic, increasing the chances of fatal ingestion by fish and other organisms that live there.
The temperature of the salt water and the many nutrients it contains create ideal conditions for asexual reproduction by fragmentation. When external forces, like wind, waves, animals or boats, break up the floating mats of sargassum, the small pieces soon grow into larger ones. Given the right conditions, fragments of sargassum can span acres of the ocean’s surface.
En masse, it can give off a unique but pungent scent, a result of its constant interaction with the salt and the micro-organisms it picks up along the way. Even some of Tobago's most remote beaches, like Speyside, a popular diving locale to the north of the island, have been besieged by the “stinky” seaweed.
This obvious presence of sargassum in coastal regions and on local beaches is bothersome—not only to Tobago, but to the Caribbean in general. Fisherfolk, tour operators, beachfront business owners, and those in tourism-reliant industries complain that this is a hindrance to their product and service offering.
The hefty amounts of sargassum that have made their way to Tobago’s shorelines have been flagged by local agencies such as the Tobago Environmental Management Authority (TEMA) as a serious risk for boat operators and others who make their living from the sea, and even for visitors who just want to enjoy the beaches.
Sargassum in the waters surrounding Tobago's capital, Scarborough, on April 14, 2021. Photo by Sean McCoon, used with permission.
Boat operators often experience difficulty in manoeuvring their vessels through the sargassum. The cleanup of such large deposits of seaweed along the shoreline is a tedious task, requiring manpower as well as specialised extraction tools and procedures.
Sargassum may be overwhelmingly perceived as a nuisance, but somewhere deep within its tendrils lie opportunities for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). With proper research, willpower and hard work, this seaweed has the potential to boost regional economies, as potentially create entirely new industries. So, what will Caribbean nations do the next time there is a sargassum invasion?
The solution lies in finding innovative ways to monetise sargassum, which has great potential to be used as a form of biofuel — an energy source produced through biological processes, such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than through geological processes, such as those used in the extraction of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum.
As the use of different, more sustainable types of fuel continues to be explored globally, there is room for innovative forms of renewable energy and ‘green’ ways of thinking and doing. If Caribbean governments can collaborate with individuals to invest in this opportunity post-pandemic, the region may well be on to something that can open doors for sustainable development and economic growth. Sargassum has been washing up on Caribbean beaches year after year; why not use it for all that it’s worth?
Sargassum on the beachfront in Lambeau, Tobago, on April 18, 2021. Photo by Sean McCoon, used with permission.
Sargassum absorbs, stores and transports significant amounts of sea salt; it is also rich in nutrients. The concept of using sargassum as a plant fertiliser is not a new idea. Regional farmers have long trekked to coastal areas to do small-scale mining of seaweed as a natural way of enhancing their agricultural output.
Another action that is within reach for the region, is a marine or “on sea” extraction operation. The idea is to have a designated marine area, sufficiently far off the coast, to capture expanses of sargassum, prevent landfall and save on the resources needed for cleanup efforts.
The sargassum, as well as plastics and other harmful debris, can be corralled via a customised floating offshore barrier, collected by boats and repurposed or recycled in an environmentally friendly way. Once properly constructed and put into operation, sea turtles and other marine life would not be adversely affected.
Such sargassum control efforts have great advantages, not just for Caribbean economies, but also for the ability of both locals and visitors to enjoy the simple pleasures of island living.

author: Cari-Bois News


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Meet Beatriz Gomes Dias, the teacher who could become the first black woman to govern Lisbon · Global Voices
Alexsyane Silva

Beatriz Gomes Dias speaks at the Portuguese parliament. Screenshot from YouTube/bloconoparlamento
Come Lisbon's 2021 local elections, which are expected to take place in late September and early October, schoolteacher Beatriz Gomes Dias could become the first woman of African descent to head the Portuguese capital, once her coalition wins a majority in the city council.
Elected as a member of Portugal's parliament for the Left Bloc in 2019, Dias is one of just three black women in the current parliament, though she has served as a Lisbon city representative since 2018. In March 2021, she agreed to be part of the Left Bloc's list of candidates for the city's local elections.
Dias, who was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1971, is of Guinean descent and has lived in Lisbon since she was four. She graduated with a degree in Biology from Coimbra University and holds a Master’s Degree in Science Communications from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the New University of Lisbon. She works as a secondary school teacher and an anti-racist activist.
She is a member of the organization SOS Racism and the founder of Djass (Association of People of African Descent), which led the charge, back in 2017, to build the city's Memorial in Honour of Enslaved People.
Dias said at the announcement of her candidacy:
Acredito que é possível construir uma outra Lisboa. Uma cidade mais habitável, mais inclusiva, mais solidária, menos desigual e com mais memória. Uma Lisboa com coragem e determinação para enfrentar a crise social que vivemos, a emergência climática, o racismo e todas as discriminações. Uma cidade que não esteja ao serviço dos interesses de alguns, mas que seja verdadeiramente a cidade de todos e todas.
I believe it is possible to build another Lisbon. A more liveable city, more inclusive, more cooperative, less unequal and with more memory. A Lisbon with the courage and determination to face the social crisis we are experiencing, the climate emergency, racism and all forms of discrimination. A city that is not serving the interests of the few, but that is truly the city of everybody.
Many netizens, among them Marlene dos Santos, declared their support for Dias:
Os jovens ficariam sem dúvida muito bem representados caso fosse eleita. A grave crise climática, o racismo e xenofobia são, sem sombra de dúvidas, problemas sérios num futuro próximo (infelizmente), os quais os jovens terão de enfrentar.
Young people would undoubtedly be very well represented if she were elected. The serious climate crisis, racism and xenophobia are, without a shadow of a doubt, serious problems for the near future (unfortunately), which young people will have to face.
Génio Eugénio was of the same opinion, commenting on one of the candidate's posts:
Beatriz, when I look at you with great pride, it makes me say to all the children that ‘no matter where you come from, believe that your dreams will always be worthy’. Thank you for making us feel represented.
Dias has been the target of racist attacks, including death threats, since her 2019 election.
In August 2020, she — along with two other female politicians, Mariana Mortágua and Joacine Katar Moreira (who is also black) — received an anonymous email giving them “a 48-hour deadline” to “resign from their political functions and leave Portuguese territory”. If they failed to do so in order to “guarantee the security of the Portuguese people”, the email threatened, their families would be harmed.
The email was also sent to individuals linked to social and left-wing movements, including Mamadou Ba, director of the association SOS Racismo; Vasco Santos of the Alternative Socialist Movement (MAS); Jonathan Costa and Rita Osório of the Anti-Fascist United Front; trade unionist Danilo Moreira; and Melissa Rodrigues of the Porto Anti-Racist Centre.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa condemned the threats made against the three politicians and the activists:
É tão condenável uma atuação racista que tenha contornos criminosos contra deputados como contra qualquer cidadão português.
A racist act with criminal aspects against politicians is as reprehensible as against any other Portuguese citizen.
The president of the Assembly of the Republic, Ferro Rodrigues, also spoke about the case to the news outlet Agência Lusa, stressing the gravity of the intimidation attempt:
A tentativa de intimidar deputados e ativistas políticos reveste-se de gravidade suficiente para que, enquanto Presidente da Assembleia da República, não possa (nem queira) deixar de a condenar, manifestando também todo o meu apoio aos visados.
The attempt to intimidate members of parliament and political activists is sufficiently serious that, as President of the Assembly of the Republic, I cannot (and would not want to) fail to condemn it, and I also express my full support for those affected.
In a March 26 podcast, Dias spoke about the racist messages she has been receiving on social media since being elected:
Combato o discurso de ódio que me é dirigido através da apresentação de políticas públicas contra a exclusão e a discriminação das pessoas negras. Nós somos as herdeiras das combatentes pela libertação, em prol de uma causa coletiva.
I fight the hate speech directed at me by proposing public policies against the exclusion and discrimination of black people. We are the heirs of the liberation fighters, towards a collective cause.
Portugal has not yet truly reconciled itself with its own history. This episode and so many others thoroughly demonstrate that as long as the country is not able to broach both the great epics of the discoveries and the horrors related to colonization and slavery at the same time, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid these primitive racisms.
Apart from Dias, the only other black female members of the Portuguese parliament are fellow Portuguese-Guinean Joacine Katar Moreira, and Romualda Fernandes, who was born in Guinea-Bissau.
In the midst of the October 2019 elections, Moreira said that the election of the female members of parliament “should not only be seen as an achievement, but as a fundamental tool” in contributing “to the strengthening of democracy and the republican ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.”

author: Alexsyane Silva


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Merkel, Macron or Biden? No, Latin America is relying on China for vaccines · Global Voices
Connectas

Illustration created by Connectas, republished with their permission.
This article was written by Iván Ruiz, a member of the editorial board of Connectas. It was originally posted on Connectas and is edited and republished on Global Voices.
China has once again come to the rescue of Latin American countries in their hour of need. In late 2020, the death toll was rising in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru, as well as in other countries in the region. Europe and the United States had secured millions of vaccines, but these doses were not reaching Latin America. Here, China detected both a political and economic opportunity. Today, almost all Latin American countries are vaccinating their populations with Chinese vaccines, no questions asked.
A family member, friend, or even your child's teacher has probably already had their dose of Sinopharm or CoronaVac (Sinovac). However, the “vaccine diplomacy,” as experts have named this policy, is just the latest chapter in China's growing interest in the region. This can be seen in the recent emergence of the Latin American chapter of China's huge infrastructure and investment project known as the New Silk Road, which has been advancing over the last four years in the region, to the indifference of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
At first, Beijing extended its influence over Latin American raw materials. China subsequently began financing large infrastructure projects (mainly focused on energy) and, finally, it granted loans to countries that would otherwise not have been able to obtain financing in the international market.
Contenedores refrigerados con
1 000 000 de vacunas Sinovac en Hong Kong. Ya vienen volando. Mañana arribarán al Aeropuerto de la CDMX en la madrugada. Ese apoyo sí se ve!! pic.twitter.com/dwBSyD9PtS
— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) March 25, 2021
Refrigerated containers with 1,000,000 Sinovac vaccines in Hong Kong. They are already on the way here. Tomorrow they will arrive at the CDMX Airport [in Mexico] in the early hours of the morning. China's support can be clearly seen here!
China was at first interested in the food products that it still purchases from Brazil and Argentina but later diversified its portfolio to other countries in the region such as Ecuador, where China financed large energy projects. Venezuela's anti-US stance has brought the country closer to China, which became its largest lender. As the old saying goes, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Before the pandemic, China had already begun to build strong relationships with Mexico, Chile, and Peru—countries with large domestic markets—to invest in their service sectors.
“When you sit with a powerful nation such as China, it brings a huge investment portfolio to the table. In this context, vaccines are just another topic on the agenda,” says Federico Merke, Professor of International Relations at the University of San Andrés in Argentina. “China has a very strong presence in Latin America, which has been steadily growing over the last 10 years. Doing business with China brings both opportunity and risk. The opportunities include access to vaccines, but the risks involve associating yourself with a country that does not respect human rights, that does not care about protecting the environment and that has no qualms about accepting or paying bribes,” he added.
Federico Urdinez, an expert on China at the Catholic University of Chile, conducted a study in seven Latin American countries, asking participants about their perceptions of China. Those interviewed tended to give the same answer: coronavirus. Memories of the Wuhan market were clearly still fresh in the minds of many Latin Americans, who blamed China for the hardships that they were still suffering.
Urdinez concluded that initially, China's “mask diplomacy,” which involved donations of face masks that arrived in Latin America during the worst months of the pandemic, did not work. However, when the Catholic University of Chile repeated the study several months later, opinions changed. “The reputational damage that they had not been able to reverse with masks, they did with vaccines. China's public image has now improved among Latin Americans,” Urdinez explained.
These much-needed drugs arrived alongside a huge wave of investment that China had poured into Latin America. China's investments in the region had totalled $7 billion U.S. dollars between 1990 and 2009. However, this figure soared to $64 billion during the period 2010-2015, after China relaunched its Silk Road project which included a special interest in the region.
Brazil, the world's largest producer of soybeans, sold 80 per cent of its total production to China in 2019. On the other hand, Brazil handed over control of 13 commercial ports to Chinese investors and now plans to hand over another 15. Argentina also sells 80 per cent of its soybeans to China, while the Asian giant invests in hydrocarbons and grants the county loans to build trains and ports.
Tenemos un millón de dosis más, arribó a Ezeiza un vuelo de China con vacunas Sinopharm. Contamos con 6.8 millones, ya distribuimos 5.200.000.
Gracias a la tripulación de Aerolíneas Argentinas y a todos y todas los que trabajan para que lleguen a cada argentino, cada argentina. pic.twitter.com/FLdmNCwSry
— Carla Vizzotti (@carlavizzotti) April 2, 2021
We have another one million doses, a flight from China arrived at Ezeiza [airport in Argentina] carrying Sinopharm vaccines. We have 6.8 million, we have already distributed 5,200,000.
Thank you to the Aerolíneas Argentinas crew and to all those who work to ensure that these vaccines reach every Argentinean.
Chile's coastline in the Pacific Basin has enabled the country to sign a free trade agreement with China, which became one of Chile's main investors in energy and lithium. What's more, China is already Bolivia's leading creditor, while Venezuela received more from Beijing than any other country: payments exceeded $62 billion, according to data from the Inter-American Dialogue.
In any case, for now, China's vaccine diplomacy seems to be working. “In ten years’ time, we are all sure to remember who helped us during the coronavirus crisis. Was it Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, or John [Joe] Biden? No. Only China helped Latin America and the countries in the region all began dancing to China's tune, not due to shared ideologies but due to the desire to resolve an unprecedented problem,” says Enrique Dussel Peters, coordinator of the Latin American Academic Network on China.
- Agradeço a sensibilidade do Governo chinês, bem como o empenho dos Ministros @ItamaratyGovBr @ernestofaraujo , @minsaude Eduardo Pazuello e @Mapa_Brasil @TerezaCrisMS .
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) January 25, 2021
I appreciate the responsiveness of the Chinese government, as well as the commitment of the ministers @ItamaratyGovBr @ernestofaraujo , @minsaude Eduardo Pazuello and @Mapa_Brasil @TerezaCrisMS
On the other hand, such soft-power diplomacy can also give China a political, as well as an economic payoff. After all, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, the Latin American president who had most resisted the onslaught of Chinese investment, backtracked on his plan to bar Huawei from the country's 5G network auctions. Such business is much coveted by the biggest players in the telecommunications market, and many countries have boycotted the Shenzhen-based firm. Bolsonaro's about-turn on Huawei occurred a few days after Brazil received the raw materials from China to manufacture the CoronaVac in Brazil.
Whether it is merely trade or geopolitical expansion, the desperation for vaccines and the absence of the United States in ensuring that doses reach poorer countries had created a window of opportunity for China to continue its expansion. China has been committed to Latin America for decades and is using vaccine diplomacy to strengthen its presence in the region. Everything seems to indicate that, after many years of cultivating its influence in Latin America, China now seems set to take on a leading role in the region.

author: Connectas


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Singapore bloggers crowdfund defamation damages due to PM Lee Hsien Loong · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Bloggers Roy Ngerng (left) and Leong Sze Hian (right). Source: Facebook
Two Singaporean bloggers have successfully crowdfunded the defamation damages they need to pay to the country's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
On March 24, blogger and financial advisor Leong Sze Hian was found guilty of defaming Prime Minister Lee for sharing a Facebook post in 2018 that linked to an article alleging the involvement of the Singaporean leader to a corruption scandal in Malaysia.
Leong removed the post but he was still slapped with a defamation suit by Lee. Leong was ordered by the court to pay S$133,000 (USD 100,300). This prompted Leong to launch a crowdfunding campaign, which succeeded in raising the target amount in just 11 days.
Leong’s success inspired fellow blogger Roy Ngerng to crowdfund his defamation payment to Lee. In 2014, Roy accused Lee of misappropriating Central Provident Funds, a federal social security fund intended to support the elderly. Roy later apologized for his blog post but Lee rejected the apology and charged him with defamation.
On December 17, 2015, the Supreme Court ordered Roy to pay S$150,000 (USD 113,130) in damages to Lee. He negotiated to pay the damages in monthly instalments and, like Leong, launched a crowdfunding campaign – reaching his target in just eight days.
The cases of Leong and Roy highlight the persecution faced by critics, including ordinary citizens, who express dissent on online platforms. But the surprise success of the crowdfunding campaigns by both bloggers could indicate a desire for greater protection of free speech.
Leong reached his target fund on April 4, which led him to dub his success a “miracle on Easter Sunday”. More than 2,000 individuals supported his campaign. He penned these lines on Facebook, reflecting on his two-year legal struggle:
All I did was just a Facebook share
Without any comment a share that was bare
And on my 65th birthday came the biggest scare
To fight not did I dare
But with each passing day so many care
Asking for a clear air
For what is right and fair
Freedom and speech are an inseparable pair
Which so sadly here is so rare
A badge of honour forced to wear
The oppression that we must tear
However long and hard the affair
The fear must go away everywhere
So that our children will never ever fear to go there
He revived his crowdfunding campaign after learning that Lee is seeking reimbursement of legal costs amounting to $130,000 (USD 98,000) – meaning Leong is set to pay a quarter of a million dollars for sharing a post on Facebook.
Roy lost his hospital job after being hit by the defamation suit. Unable to find employment, he left for Taiwan. His crowdfunding success means he can now return to Singapore without worrying about going bankrupt.
Up until a week ago, it felt like this, that I would never be able to return home to Singapore, for fear of the defamation suit and threat of bankruptcy hanging over my head.
But over the last week, you have rallied together and helped make it possible for me to return again. I am so grateful.
Around 2,122 individuals contributed to Roy’s campaign and donations continue to pour in, despite him already reaching his target. He has vowed either to return the excess donations or pay them forward to Leong and other journalists who are also facing defamation charges.
He told us that the success of his crowdfunding campaign could be a sign that many citizens are unhappy over the persecution of critics and activists:
People who joined in the crowdfunding movement did so for various reasons, but the consistent theme is that they no longer want to see people who speak up or raise questions on important issues be sued or charged simply for doing so.
There is lesser tolerance for such high-handed oppressive actions, and the government's [continued use of] legal tools for political persecution will ultimately backfire on them, when Singapore's citizens view the government as silencing debate, instead of being willing to engage in the concerns of Singaporeans.
As Singapore becomes more and more unequal and poverty rises, people want debates on these issues, as well as answers and solutions to them. They are beginning to realize that the persecution of activists, journalists and members of the opposition is counter-productive to developing effective conversations and policy solutions, and increasingly understand that the government's use of legal tools to quell dissent has instead curtailed the space available for critical discourse.
He added that the crowdfunding could be interpreted as a “form of targeted resistance” against the hardline tactics of the government against critical individuals:
The democracy movements across Asia are also [making] Singaporeans [more sensitive] to the understanding that democracy can bring about better social changes, and Singaporeans are gradually becoming more accepting of the need for some form of social resistance against the powers that be, in order to achieve social justice. The… crowdfunding movement is an example of such a form of targeted resistance against the government's financially based persecution method against individuals.
Roy’s team has informed Lee and the court that he now intends to pay the remaining balance of his fine in a lump sum.

author: Mong Palatino


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‘The Mermaid Project’ highlights Mexico’s gender violence problem · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

Absence, Siren Project, shown with permission.
In Mexico, 10 women are murdered each day. Feminist organizations and artists denounce this violence, which occurs at home as well as in the streets, and the lack of political response. From his work the Siren Project, the photography of Pablo Tonatiuh Álvarez Reyes wants to give a metaphorical look at the killings to awaken some Mexicans from the numbness they feel amid the press releases, unfortunately repetitive in their morbidity.
Álvarez Reyes chose the metaphor of the mermaid in his photography series because this mythological being “has had a sexist representation in paintings throughout much of art history,” as he told Global Voices by email. “It is related to sexual temptation, which men must avoid in order to continue on their way, so to speak, they are seen primarily in relation to man, without considering their own morals or temptations.”
To this sexist representation, he wanted to give a new, symbolic meaning. In this series, “they are victims of a system that sells, buys, confines, and kills them, considering them inferior beings, subject to the will of others.”
Siren meat 1, Siren Project, shown with permission.
And although the Siren Project is geared toward a diverse audience, Álvarez Reyes adds that he “is interested in creating a dialogue with men, since it is vital that men take an active and critical role in the fight against the systematization that perpetuates violence against women.”
Álvarez Reyes’ photos, thirteen in total, feature a series of fish-women in different dehumanizing situations. Many can be difficult to look at, since it highlights the vulnerability of women and, according to the artist's vision, the way they are seen in Mexican society — as meat.
The photos have the distinct characteristic of showing the models half-naked, which begs the question of why women are shown in this form, as some could see this as a masculine perspective of the subject. Álvarez Reyes responds that he wanted to be faithful to the image of the siren, who is half-human, half fish, to avoid a link with the romanticized images of sirens in pop culture, and to show that the abused people are real women.
Charal Siren, Siren Project, shown with permission.
As for the question of why he put the sirens in suggestive, vulnerable, or gory poses, Álvarez Reyes responds that he employs the suggestive “to highlight that many violent acts are of a sexual nature.” By showing extremely violent situations in the photos, he aims to highlight the indifference of society.
For example, in the photo “Anatomy Class,” “the dead mermaid is observed as if she were treated like a frog in a school laboratory, having no interest in speaking with her in life, to face and recognize her individuality. Among several possibilities, it is criticism of a judicial system and a press that presents women killed by femicide as numbers or statistics, offering fruitless ‘solutions’ to the problem of violence that does not pretend to understand the origin and causes of it.”
The majority of participants are not models, but rather women from different places, ages, and occupations who empathize with the fight against violence towards women.
Trophy, Siren Project, show with permission.
At the moment, the work is not presented in an exhibition due to the COVID-19 lockdown. His initial plan was to go on tour through middle and high schools, but now he's thinking of putting together a book with the thirteen photos and what went on behind-the-scenes, in order to show how the project had been developed, together with pertinent information about femicide and violence.
What the photographer wants most from this work can be summed up in a word: dialogue. He wants to encourage “a dialogue that tears us away from the indifference” and “that upon seeing the photos people want to enter into a conversation in front of the work.”
“We want to move the viewers so that they reflect on the causes and origins of violence against women, and how different harmful practices lead, ultimately, to femicide,” he said.

author: Melissa Vida