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Nigeria’s President Surprises With a Speech Not About His Health, but About Ethnic Tensions · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Screenshot of President Buhari's national broadcast to Nigerians on August 21, 2017.
President Muhammadu Buhari is back in Nigeria after a three-month-long unexplained “medical vacation” in the UK. In his first national broadcast since his return, 48 hours later, he didn't talk about his personal health or healthcare in the country. Instead, he addressed divisive ethnic-politics.
He remarked that while he was away, he was “distressed” to see comments in social media discussions about current affairs that “crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation.”
“Nigeria's unity is settled and not negotiable,” he said:
We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood. Every Nigerian has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance. I believe the very vast majority of Nigerians share this view. This is not to deny that there are legitimate concerns. Every group has a grievance. But the beauty and attraction of a federation is that it allows different groups to air their grievances and work out a mode of co-existence.
Ethnic hate speech online has been on the rise in Nigeria since the 2015 presidential elections in the country. The reasons were explored in an August 2016 Global Voices post, “Nigeria: Curbing the Tide of Ethnic Hate — Online and Off.” Recently, from the south-east of the country, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu has been clamoring for secession from Nigeria. This has precipitated a series of events, chief among which was the “Kaduna Declaration,” a notice published by a group of northern youths giving any people of the Igbo ethnicity three months to quit northern Nigeria.
In his speech, the president gave no official pronouncement on the state of his health, and even though many Nigerians are glad to have the commander-in-chief of their armed forces back home, that fact didn't go unnoticed. The lack of clarity over what ails Buhari moved public affairs analyst Chido Onumah to suggest a different speech that Buhari ought to have delivered:
I have never been this sick in my entire life but being sick is a human condition and while I pray that sickness does not befall our worst enemies, I want to say that it is a shame that I had to travel abroad for medical treatment when we have the resources to improve ours in Nigeria but due to bad governance of the past, we have not done so. I want to assure all Nigerians that my government will do better to improve our health care system and make sure that no other President after me will travel abroad for medical treatment; instead other world leaders will visit us for such.
Nonetheless, the actual speech that Buhari delivered about ethnic tensions drew mixed reactions from Nigerians. Dr Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister and leader of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, tweeted:
I can give an instant Citizen's feedback to President @MBuhari that his Speech this morning was a a terrible case of MISSED OPPORTUNITY. ✍
— Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) August 21, 2017
Patrick Okigbo III, in a Facebook post, was also not happy with the tone of the presidential broadcast:
I am a Nigerian, pure and simple, but I do not agree that “Nigeria's unity has been settled and not negotiable”. That would be bondage and not based on freewill. […] I believe that we are better and stronger together. However, I believe that every group must be strong to come to a common table to negotiate their space. The role of the Federal Government is to make it possible for this dialogue to happen within safe spaces. We must engage the various ethnic nationalities and figure out how best to create a nation that works for all. Banging on the table and proclaiming a non-negotiable union can work for a time and then the seams will give way. The sound you hear in the South East today is the ripping apart of the weakened thread. Nnamdi Kanu's movement is not a joke. It is not a bad hangover that will go away. Rather, it is an opportunity for Nigeria to put a number of issues on the table and rigorously engage them. As the say, the best time to plant that tree was twenty years ago; the next best time is now. Taa ka bu gbo. Today is still a good enough time to start.
Kanu was arrested in 2015 on an 11-count charge of terrorism and treasonable felony, and was granted a bail this year. Some think the government's decision to prosecute him might have actually empowered him and worsened an already dangerous situation. Media commentator Dr Reuben Abati wrote:
Fifty years after the outbreak of the civil war, we now have a man called Nnamdi Kanu. He may well end up as Nigeria’s nemesis. He is the most frightening product of our many years and acts of denial and he may well throw the country into a nightmare worse than Boko Haram, if care is not taken. He started out as the leader of a group called the Indigenous People of Biafra and as director of Radio Biafra.  He and those who bought into his rhetoric of secession and the renewal of the Biafra dream organized protests across the world, and they looked, from afar, like a group of disgruntled Nigerians in diaspora. […] Whoever ordered Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest and prosecution did this country a bad turn. Kanu is a character that could have been better ignored. His trial and travails have turned him into a hero and a living martyr among Igbos. And the young man so far, understands the game. Since he was released on bail, he has been taunting the Nigerian state and government.
However, there were Nigerians who supported President Buhari's speech. Nigerian poet Ikeogwu Oke shared this on his Facebook wall:
I have read – and reread – the latest speech by President Buhari. I agree that it could be improved, like any other speech. But I'm surprised that one of the strictures against it is that it says Nigeria's unity is not negotiable. Did anyone in their right senses expect Buhari or the leader of any other country to openly declare in a national broadcast that the country's unity is negotiable, thereby sanctioning agitations for its breakup? Can anyone point to a precedent where any leader formally pronounced the unity of their country negotiable, even in the so-called civilised world? Even if such a precedent were to exist, are the underlying circumstances the same as ours? […] As for me, I agree that the unity of any nation ought to be negotiable. But to expect any leader to proclaim that in a national broadcast is to take an unreasonable expectation too far.
The hostile ethnic politics in Nigeria was summarized by Nigerian writer Mazi Nwaonwu thus:
Did any of you read ‘Divided We Stand’ by the gifted Ekwensi? It is a forerunner of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's cerebral ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’. Both books share many things in common, but the most striking is showing that even in the midst of the turmoil before the war and the war proper, many northerners and easterners and westerners navigated their relationships and found a way to be together.
But…this is not about the books or the brilliant writers behind them. This is about how we seem to stand divided and how this division is examplified by how we view issues. So someone writes something beautiful against our sitting president you would most likely find names like Obi, Chima, Ngozi, etc hailing the writer and his craft and superb brains. Another writes something pro Buhari that's considered equally beautiful and you'd find the Adamus and Sanis hailing. In the midst of all this is the Yinkas and Salawus who remains majorly in the middle, echoes of their fathers before them.
It's funny, but both books captured this mode from that time our fathers though they won't revisit. More than 4 decades later, we are here again, clinging to the same lines drawn in the sand by yesterday.
Nigeria has been bedeviled with ethnic politics since independence in 1960. In the words of these two scholars, Felicia H. Ayatse and Isaac Iorhen Akuva: “Nigeria has carried forward the spirit of ethnicity into the post-colonial Nigeria, this vice has been discovered to have been responsible for most of the political, administrative, economic, social and cultural maladies in Nigeria.” Sadly, these sentiments have been exploited by most Nigerian politicians till date.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Russia’s Blind Footballers Overcome Underfunding and Doping Scrutiny to Become European Champions · Global Voices
Charlotte Bull

Players at blind football tournaments are wearing googles for both protection and to ensure equal opportunity for all players. Credit: EURO 2017 press photo, Ralf Kuckuck, BS Berlin
The Russian national blind football team was declared the 2017 European Champions on 26 August after beating Spain in an intense final. In front of an enraptured crowd in Berlin, where the tournament was taking place for the first time, the teams needed penalties to separate them, after the match ended in a tie.
This is an important breakthrough for a country where Paralympic sports are chronically underfunded and all Russian athletes, including Paralympians, have been under extra scrutiny and subjected to blanket bans in the wake of a doping scandal.
The Russian team was initially done 0-1 in the first half, but regained parity through an excellent individual effort from player Denis Egorov. Russia eventually emerged victorious in a penalty shoot-out 4-3, with Andrei Tikhonov, who was also voted player of the tournament, scoring the decisive goal.
A screenshot from Russian blind football players’ and fans’ Vkontakte community page. “Friends, we forgot to tell you that Andrey Tikhonov has been declared the player of the tournament at EURO 2017 — and so we extend our congratulations to him!”
Egorov in his post-match interview shared his delight at the victory: “It was a fantastic game and it is a fantastic feeling. Spain is a giant of European football, it was a pleasure to compete against them.”
Spain is indeed a giant of the game, largely responsible for the development of blind football. The country hosted the first national tournament in 1986, and then the first European Championships in 1997, overseen by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA).
But this was not the only edge to Russia’s opponents in the final. The Russian team had succeeded in qualifying for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, having finished runners-up in the 2015 European Championships. However, the team was disqualified from the Games due to the ban levied on Russian Paralympians as part of the wider doping scandal. The team that replaced them in Brazil? Spain.
Globally, blind football, a specially adapted form of 5-a-side futsal, is on the rise, attracting more players and recognition. Whilst in Russia there is an established annual national tournament and new programmes being set up for blind footballers, most recently in Dagestan, the overall picture is not so positive, according to the trainer of the national team, Nikolay Beregovoy.
“Blind football [in Russia] is regressing. The number of teams is decreasing, they are just disappearing”, Beregovoy lamented in 2016 in an interview with R-Sport, a sports news website affiliated with RIA Novosti, Russia's state news agency. “The worst thing is that no-one cares – neither the RFS (Football Union of Russia), nor the Ministry of Sport.”
Beregovoy was keen to praise individual efforts to support blind football, such as the Director of Paralympic, Deaflympic and Non-Olympic Sports in Moscow, Dmitry Kotyrev, and the Mayor of Dzerzhinsky, Vitaly Panamorenko, who, having seen the Russian team play, built specialised facilities, giving players a place to train in winter, and provided equipment, namely the adapted balls that make a sound allowing players to locate them in play.
What is lacking on a grassroots level, he said, is systematic infrastructure and consistent funding. “Usually everything hangs on one person, who takes the team to games, gets equipment and all the rest with their own money. If that person leaves, then there is no team, no sport as such.”
“The sum of one [football] agent’s commission could help a blind team exist for half a year, or even more.”
It is not certain yet whether the success of the Russian team on the international stage will attract more interest, and crucially, funding to all levels of blind football.
Financial challenges notwithstanding, the Russian team is in a good overall shape and its future is promising. Thanks to their victory in the European Championships, the team has qualified for the World Cup, to be hosted next year in Madrid. The stage for a rematch is set.
And as Beregovoy comments in an upcoming documentary film, “winning the World Cup or Paralympic Games – it’s worth a lot.” For a country that often fails to support and provide opportunities for its citizens with disabilities, there is a sense that more is at stake than just the trophy.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Charlotte Bull


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Thousands of Rohingyas Fleeing Violence Are Stranded on the Bangladesh-Myanmar Border · Global Voices
Rezwan

The Rohingya community in Myebon. 2013. Image from Flickr by European Commission DG ECHO. CC BY-NC-ND
Violence between an insurgent group and Myanmar's security forces during the last week of August 2017 drove thousands of Rohingya Muslims to enter Bangladesh in search of refuge.
The surge led Bangladesh to begin to restrict crossings, meaning many others were turned away and left to wait on the border.
Members of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) staged a major coordinated attack on around 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, Myanmar. Around 1,000 militants took part in the offensive in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships. The military retaliated and at least 59 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed on August 25, 2017 alone.
Fighting between the two sides continued for days. Myanmar's armed forces raided villages and torched houses, claiming their actions were part of the fight against the insurgency group. The Myanmar government evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers, and many Rohingyas fled on their own.
Over a thousand #Rohingya crossed the border into #Bangladesh after #MyanmarArmy launched atrocious campaign against the civilians. pic.twitter.com/Grqu4lih2W
— The Stateless (@Thestateless1) August 26, 2017
The violence threatens the already precarious situation of the Rohingyas in Myanmar. The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar doesn't recognize the Rohingya people as among the country’s ethnic groups and denies them citizenship. Authorities and Buddhist nationalists consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though the Rohingyas have roots in the Rakhine state that go back centuries.
Rohingyas are often subjected to racial and religious slurs, including being called “Bengalis.” It's for these reasons they are often described as the “most persecuted minority group in Asia.”
The majority of Rohingyas are non-violent, but a group calling itself Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army took up arms late last year. In October 2016, its armed militants attacked several border police posts, leaving nine police personnel dead. Myanmar forces retaliated by killing dozens of “alleged insurgents” and the counter-insurgency operation saw reports of wide-scale human rights violations on the part of the army, including incidents of extrajudicial murder, gang rapes, arson, and infanticide.
After the recent round of fighting broke out, thousands of Rohingya fled their villages and gathered near the Bangladesh border as gun shots could be heard from the Myanmar side. A Rohingya Facebook page claimed that the Myanmar military conducted air attacks in northern Maungdaw, shooting villagers from helicopters. Videos were circulated on social media showing villages burning, Rohingya refugees fleeing and dead bodies on the river.
#Myanmar military at the border shot fire #Rohingya, who areabout to cross #Bangladesh to escape killing by military and extremists #Rakhine pic.twitter.com/t5vnRdUyLk
— M Rafique (@Rafiquerhg) August 26, 2017
Getting reports of arson attacks, same as last wave of violence. I'm told this footage is from N Rakhine State today, Rohingya village burns pic.twitter.com/rvb3nyM2Y0
— Matthew Smith (@matthewfsmith) August 25, 2017
Myanmar citizens also expressed concern for Rakhine's ethnic majority who were exposed to the violence. However, some took it a step further and blamed the entire Rohingya community for the attacks against the security outposts.
Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the State Counsellor  of Myanmar and whose party is now the head of Myanmar's government, has attracted criticism for failing to stop the persecution of the Rohingya.
She, in turn, has accused international aid workers of helping the violent militants. According to reports, Suu Kyi’s administration is trying to restrict access to Rakhine for aid groups and the media while publicly discrediting them. Several aid workers have been seen leaving the area already.
Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, condemned on Twitter the statement of against aid groups:
Profoundly irresponsible for Aung San Suu Kyi to accuse int'l #NGOs of involvement in “terrorist” attacks in #Rakhine without any evidence! pic.twitter.com/WqtOXSgyEy
— Phil Robertson (@Reaproy) August 28, 2017
Bangladesh remains the only country which has repeatedly agreed to allow Rohingya refugees inside its borders. The refugees are sheltered in temporary camps and are surviving with the help of aid and donations from authorities and the local people. The World Food Programme and other local NGOs have pledged food and emergency medical aid support.
Catastrophe & hunger in No Man's land. #Rohingya kids without food. Babies not breastfed. Agencies not given access. https://t.co/noyRn0fTqT pic.twitter.com/RcVWYCMdV8
— Shafiur Rahman (@shafiur) August 27, 2017
But on August 26, Bangladesh declared that they will not allow any more refugees from Myanmar, citing that the country already hosts about 400,000 Rohingyas. The government maintains that as Bangladesh is overpopulated with little or no form of social security for its own citizens, it simply is not in the position to host refugees indefinitely. It added that the influx of refugees has already caused “massive” social, economic and environmental problems.
The Bangladesh government started to push back hundreds of Rohingyas into Myanmar, putting them further in danger.
Desperate scenes at Bangladesh's border as Border Guard try to prevent entry to fleeing #Rohingya https://t.co/Pp4yClmDmT #nonrefoulement pic.twitter.com/LuDGmdxjes
— Shafiur Rahman (@shafiur) August 26, 2017
BD Border Guard deploys 15k more troops to push back #Rohingya & respond to Burmese army firing into no man's land https://t.co/tz9PZ7GFLQ pic.twitter.com/iqS06nFdXm
— Shafiur Rahman (@shafiur) August 27, 2017
Faruk Wasif, a journalist with the Bangla daily Prothom Alo, appealed for a comprehensive solution to the problem instead of simply blaming the victims:
রোহিঙ্গাই হোক বা স্বদেশি পাহাড়িই হোক, ভিক্টিমকে দোষারোপ না করে আমাদের তাই তাকাতে হবে সমস্যার গোড়ায়। মায়ানমারে গণতন্ত্র আসেনি, এসেছে উগ্র বর্ণবাদী জাতীয়তাবাদ। আমাদের সীমান্তে তা নিয়মিত জন্ম দিচ্ছে দুঃসংবাদ।
Whether it's the Rohingya or the indigenous group, we should not blame the victims and instead look at the root of the problem. In Myanmar democracy is still elusive, extreme racist nationalism persists. This is creating bad news at the borders.

author: Rezwan


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Guatemala’s Top Court Rules President Can’t Expel Anti-Corruption Commissioner · Global Voices
Renata Avila

“#OutWithJimmy. Guatemala without fear goes to the streets.” Illustration made for the a Mexico-Guatemala organized campaign. Image originally published by Prensa Comunitaria and used here with permission.
Guatemala has lived days of intense political confrontations following President Jimmy Morales's attempt to expel Ivan Velázquez, the current chief of the UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), by declaring him “persona non grata.”
Now, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala has stepped in, suspending the president's decision and declaring that he acted “illegally.”
Many Guatemalans saw the court's ruling as a step forward in the struggle against corruption, and a reason to celebrate online:
Cohetes, aplausos y discursos de celebración por resolución de la Corte de Constitucionalidad que confirma que @Ivan_Velasquez_ se queda. pic.twitter.com/BE2gbzUK2u
— nómada (@nomadagt) August 29, 2017
Fireworks, applause, and speeches in celebration for the resolution of the Constitutional Court confirming that Ivan Velázquez stays [in Guatemala].
#IvánSeQueda pic.twitter.com/3m076bF3oG
— Ferdy (@Ferr_Mont) 29 de agosto de 2017
#IvánStays
The destiny of the commissioner is uncertain, but the popular support and trust he's received in Guatemala and internationally are key to the success of CICIG's mission: to independently investigate the activities of illegal security groups, clandestine security structures, and mafias undermining the rule of law.
President Morales is currently under investigation for receiving illicit funding. He is backed by a considerable number of parliamentarians — many of whom are being investigated as well — and also by municipal authorities. He's also received support from former presidents and the most conservative sector of Guatemalans, formed by the neo-Pentecostal churches, the association of army veterans, and libertarian scholars. As noted by Raúl Bolaños on in-depth journalism site Plaza Pública:
Sus apoyos se encuentran en un discurso nacionalista, en la amenaza del uso de la fuerza y en la ambigüedad de las élites y de las instituciones religiosas, que no quieren un escenario de incertidumbre. El presidente refinó la confrontación en esta lucha, se apoyó en el conservadurismo religioso y aderezó este con un nacionalismo exacerbado
The president's support is found in a nationalist discourse, in the threat of the use of force and the ambiguity of the elites in religious institutions who don't want an environment of uncertainty. The president refined this struggle, backed himself with religious conservatism and added an exacerbated nationalism to the whole mix.
The level of aggressive speech is escalating, with authorities hinting at violent means they've used in the past during the 36-year-long civil war, as noted by journalist Allan Nairn:
Álvaro Arzú, oligarch &former president who has his own intel force,hints at a return to war if Guatemala's anticorruption chief isnt ousted https://t.co/hi3HJxonL4
— Allan Nairn (@AllanNairn14) August 29, 2017
Those asking the president to resign have described Arzú's alliance with Morales as a “corrupt [politicians’] pact,” a description that quickly became a hashtag and flooded Guatemala's networks: #PactoDeCorruptos.
Que levante la mano quien esta a favor del financiamiento ilícito #PactoDeCorruptos pic.twitter.com/UFiRY0yJsB
— Edgar (@Edfucho) August 29, 2017
Those in favor of illegal finance raise your hand. #CorruptPact
Cuando tu respaldo es un expresidente en prisión, Otto Pérez Molina, y uno prófugo por golpe de Estado, Serrano Elías. #CrisisDeEstadoGTpic.twitter.com/MU5P5KMVSf
— Bill Barreto (@bbarreto_v) August 29, 2017
When you are backed by a president in prison, Otto Perez Molina, and a fugitive who perpetrated a coup d'etat, Serrano Elias. #StateCrisisGT
In the following days, the process to get the authorization from the Supreme Court to remove the president's immunity will begin. While municipal authorities are backing him, an increasing number of Guatemalans are returning to the public squares in different cities, asking him to resign.

author: Renata Avila


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Macedonian ‘Moby-Dick’ Translator Ognen Čemerski, 42, Was a Meticulous Linguist and Engaged Educator · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Ognen Čemerski with his friend and colleague Jasna Koteska during the Student March, November 14, 2014. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
The death of linguist Ognen Čemerski on August 24, cut down in his prime at age 42 by cancer, has shocked the Macedonian public. First his friends, then a wider circle of colleagues and admirers of his work have taken to Facebook to express their grief and reminisce about his fruitful career as translator and academic.
Čemerski served as a lecturer (assistant professor) at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje within the “Blaze Koneski” Faculty of Philology and distinguished himself as one of the founders of the Professors’ Plenum that gave open support for the student protests of 2014 and 2015.
As a translator, Čemerski left a lasting cultural legacy by providing a new translation of the classic American novel “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville, and most media outlets stressed that within their obituaries.
Čemerski spent about 12 years working on the translation of “Moby-Dick,” a project initiated during his undergraduate studies at Graceland University in Iowa, USA. He conducted it as a scientific endeavor, and used it as basis of his masters’ thesis in linguistics.
“Moby-Dick or the Whale” by Herman Melville, translated into Macedonian by Ognen Čemerski. Photo by GV, CC-BY.
This was not the first translation of “Moby-Dick” in Macedonian. There was one edition published in the 1980s, translated from Serbo-Croatian, which did not produce a lasting impact.
The main problem of translating a book from 1851 about sailing and whaling was that the Macedonian language lacked maritime terminology. Most of the ethnic Macedonian population had been landlocked during the last centuries, having little contact with the sea in general and sailing in particular. In order to overcome this, Čemerski had to re-construct the vocabulary by first discovering the origins of the English terms, and then trace their equivalents in Macedonian or other Slavic languages.
As he pointed out in a podcast published by Graceland University staff in 2016, Čemerski also had to deconstruct the nuances of the English language used by Melville. This included influences of earlier authors such as Shakespeare and Milton, and the use of dialects of the Quakers – a religious group that ran the sailing industry — which sounded archaic even to mid-19th-century American readers. When dealing with literary references, he relied on translations of classic English works by other Macedonian translators and archaic language found in preserved writings by Macedonian authors from the same time period and in religious literature written in Old Church Slavonic.
By far the biggest challenge faced by Čemerski was the lack of Macedonian vocabulary for everyday terms used by American sailors to designate parts of the ships, which had become commonplace words in the English language. By researching the origins of these words, he was able to find equivalents in the Macedonian words used by various craftsmen, from carpenters to masons to farmers, since all technology used on sailing ships originated on land.
A reconstruction of traditional fishing row-boat used by Ohrid Lake fishermen until early 20th century, in Ohrid Lapidarium Museum. Photo by GV, CC-BY.
He also investigated fishermen jargon stemming from the dialects used by Macedonians living around the three big lakes in the country (Ohrid, Prespa and Dojran). Historically, these people used various kinds of row boats to go about their trade, and their terminology could be transposed to parts of sailing ships. Additionally, Čemerski compared the development of maritime terminology in other Slavic languages, in particular those used along the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
Leading Macedonian peer-reviewed literary and arts journal Blesok | Shine published a sample of Chapter 9 in 2012. Before the translation was published, Macedonian Twitter users were enthusiastically anticipating it, due to Čemerski's reputation. For instance, in this thread from 2013 they discussed how he spoke to Ohrid fishermen to find the most appropriate terms.
His efforts paid off, as the resulting translation echoes the time period when “Moby-Dick” was first published.
Čemerski didn't consider himself an activist, even though as a professor he participated in activities demanding reforms such as restoring academic freedoms and university autonomy. On social media, he discussed issues affecting ordinary Macedonians at a time of deep tension in the country.
On May 19, 2015, during the period of intense anti-corruption protests occurring near his house, he related an experience that serves as a testimony of the impact of living in a country whose social cohesion has been dangerously damaged by years of populist propaganda and a government with authoritarian tendencies:
Вчера, во маало, еден припит комшија, кого го познавам уште од кога бев дете, се обиде да ме денунцира пред специјалци што си купуваа сладолед во маалската пилјара. Не реагираа ама баш ич, но се згрозив кога видов како сосед може да покаже со прст кон тебе и да лаже, во очи да те гледа и да лаже дека си тепал полиција, дека си зборувал на бина, па уште и да вика до небо баш додека полицајците се мачат да се решат кој сладолед да го изберат од богатиот асортиман. Вака, од дистанца, неговиот испад е комично нарушување на слатките изборни маки на полицајците и на мојот мир, ама страшно е кога ќе видиш дека, ако затреба, има комшии што би ти пресудиле со лага. Никаков мирен разговор не помага кога ќе им се вкрват очите.
Yesterday, a somewhat inebriated neighbour, whom I have known since I was a kid, tried to denounce me in front of riot police who were buying ice cream in our local grocery. They didn’t react at all, but I was horrified to see that a neighbour could point a finger at you and lie, that your own neighbour could look you in the eye and lie, saying that you had assaulted the police, that you had made a speech on stage, and it was appalling to see him rip the skies with shrieks just as the police were struggling to decide what ice cream to choose from the rich assortment. Now, in retrospect, his outburst seems but a comical disturbance of the police officers’ sweet travails surrounding their selection process and of my peace, but it is dreadful to know that, should the need arise, there are neighbours who would be happy to lie in order to have you condemned. No calm reasoning will ever help once their eyes get bloody.
In 2016, Čemerski joined the protests against the presidents’ decision to provide amnesty for suspects of high-level corruption. He published a public request addressed to President Gjorge Ivanov for him to stop using a hall adorned with monumental mosaics made by Čemerski's father, renowned painter Gligor Čemerski (1940-2016), because he “spit on all the values they represent.”
Throughout his life, Čemerski drew inspiration and promoted the legacies of the various struggles for freedom in the past, both local and global, in particular the World War II anti-fascist movement. For instance, the poster on his chest pictured in the photo at the top of this post references the last words of a teacher during the 1941 Kragujevac massacre, while his pose references the iconic move of Yugoslav hero Stjepan Filipović. He channeled some of his concerns through witty articles about the process of translation and the interplay between language and society.
Čemerski is survived by his wife and two children.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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One Year On: Uzbekistan’s Unhappy Ex-Ruling Family · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Islam Karimov. Russian government image. Creative commons.
By the time he suffered a reported stroke from which he would not recover, his eldest daughter was under house arrest and his unloved nephew was languishing in a psychiatric prison. In Islam Karimov's Uzbekistan, families regularly told the pro-government polling company how happy they were, even as authoritarianism flourished and corruption deepened.
His own family, however, could never quite keep up the pretence.
Since President Karimov's burial in September last year, life has got better for his estranged nephew Jamshid, who has been released from over a decade of psychiatric confinement, and worse for his daughter Gulnara, who has been placed behind bars.
Jamshid, an independent journalist by profession, recently gave an interview to the Central Asia-focussed outlet Centre1.com, in which he said something publicly unsayable during Karimov's time: namely, that Islam Karimov was probably not a Karimov at all:
Бабушка наша… скорее всего… с каким-то… неизвестного происхождения.
Our grandmother…probably…with someone…no-one really knows whose he was.
Relatively little is known about Islam Karimov's childhood, but it almost certainly involved a state orphanage at some point. In his interview, Jamshid added weight to long-standing doubts about Karimov's paternal heritage, and acknowledged widespread but lightly-whispered rumours that Karimov might even be Jewish or Tajik on his father's side. “All we know is he wasn't one of ours,” he told Centre1.
Screenshot from Centre1.com's interview with Jamshid Karimov.
What is clear is that Jamshid's father Aslan did not see eye-to-eye with Islam.
“They didn't love each other,” said Jamshid, who was committed to a psychiatric facility despite no known mental problems in 2006, after writing a series of articles criticizing the government.
Centre1 notes in its report that Aslan Karimov, a regional communist official, died in a “suspicious car crash” in 1989, the same year Islam Karimov became Uzbekistan's most powerful man. The brothers had apparently only spoken once in 12 years.
That Jamshid was able to give an interview on this topic at all says much of the changes underway in Uzbekistan.
New President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has honoured Islam Karimov, who he served as prime minister for 13 years before coming to power after his death, as “like a father”.
Nonetheless, Mirziyoyev and his allies have done much to undermine Karimov's legacy in the last year; releasing key political prisoners, inviting back international organisations previously banned from the country and addressing some of the many woes of the Karimov era via a series of reports on the country's new-look state television channel.
Democracy watchdog Freedom House cautioned in its August 28 report on Uzbekistan that these changes might have less to do with a genuine opening up, and more to do with Mirziyoyev's immediate need to consolidate power and bolster legitimacy:
Media have started to openly criticize regional governors and other state institutions only after receiving a “blessing” from Mirziyoyev himself in the form of a speech or remark criticizing the said official or institution.
Uzbekistan's announcement on July 28 that Islam Karimov's ambitious entrepreneur-turned-popstar daughter Gulnara Karimova had been placed in jail for fraud and organised crime might be just one more re-affirmation of the reshuffled elite's power.
Many in Uzbekistan had assumed that the conditions of Karimova's house arrest — announced in 2014 and seemingly sanctioned by her father — were quite comfortable.
The glamorous 45-year-old once viewed as a successor to her father was being kept in a gilded cage, analysts argued, in order to prevent her from launching a leadership bid as Karimov ailed. Confirmation of her house arrest had been provided by authorities months after she caught the world's attention by sniping at her mother, Tatiana, and sister, Lola, on Twitter.
Now, as the Uzbek state looks to requisition her foreign-based properties, the question of whether she will ever see daylight again seems suddenly relevant. Gulnara's London-based son, Islam, who was named after his grandfather, has given several interviews to the BBC calling for her release and criticizing the country's security services. One of the interviews features rare family photos that hint at happier times chez Karimov, as well as the revelation that Islam junior's dictator grandfather had taught him how to fish and ride a bike.
The 23-year-old says he believes would be arrested immediately if he returned to Uzbekistan.
Lola and Tatiana Karimova, for the moment, appear much safer. But analysts familiar with the country suggest that the same cannot be said for the vast network of businesses and wealth they accumulated over nearly three decades in power.
Daniil Kislov, who edits Ferghana.ru — the Moscow-based outlet that was first to report Karimov's death — wrote on his Facebook page:
По данным от конфиденциальных источников «Ферганы», близких к правительственным структурам Узбекистана, родственники покойного президента страны постепенно утрачивают свое былое теневое влияние и публичные позиции. Ну, то есть, им помогают “утрачивать”. Так, Татьяна Акбаровна, супруга Ислама Каримова, находится в «почетной ссылке» в Кувасае — ее родном городе в Ферганской долине. Младшая дочь Лола и ее муж Тимур Тилляев, живущие за рубежом, в самое ближайшее время могут лишиться своего солидного бизнеса внутри республики.
According to confidential sources of Ferghana.ru who are close to Uzbekistan's government structures, the relatives of the late president of the country are gradually shedding their former influence and public positions. That is to say they are being forced to shed them. Thus, Tatiana, the wife of Islam Karimov, is in “honorable exile” in Kuvasai, her hometown in the Ferghana Valley. Their youngest daughter Lola and her husband, Timur Tillyaev, who live abroad, might very well lose their significant businesses in the republic sometime soon.
Another tyrant, China's Chairman Mao Zedong, ruled for exactly the same length of time as Karimov, and died almost exactly four decades before him. After Mao's passing, the Chinese Communist Party endorsed his rule, but registered significant reservations in an official document, supposedly giving his time in power a modest seven marks out of ten.
A similar process seems to be underway in Uzbekistan, where a regime is trying to distance itself from Karimov's most brutal excesses without throwing into question the need for the regime itself. What this means for the relatives Karimov left behind, only time will tell.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Provisional Election Results Show Angola’s Longtime Ruling Party Is Staying Put · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

National Assembly in Luanda. Photo: davidstanleytravel/Flickr, CC-BY 2.0
The provisional results of the parliamentary elections in Angola, held on 23 August, show a victory for the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, which has been in power since the country’s independence in 1975.
According to the National Election Commission (CNE), the MPLA obtained 64.57%, guaranteeing the party control of two-thirds of the parliament and the right to nominate the president of the republic.
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the largest opposition party, obtained 24.04%, followed by The Broad Convergence for the Salvation of Angola – Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE) with 8.56%. The voter abstention rate was 23.17%, according to the CNE. The opposition, however, contests this results.
This election marks the end of the rule of José Eduardo dos Santos, the president of the MPLA and the longest-serving head of state in Africa. Once the MPLA’s victory is confirmed, João Lourenço – a party veteran and the current defense minister – is to take his place.
José Eduardo dos Santos, however, will likely remain powerful behind the scenes. At the end of June, the parliament guaranteed him a place on the Council of the Republic, an advisory body to the president whose members enjoy immunity from prosecution, which will prevent the origin of his fortune being investigated.
In an effort to keep authorities accountable, a citizen election-monitoring platform called Jiku encouraged poll workers to send them photos of their station’s vote counts via WhatsApp before forwarding them along to the CNE.
On August 27, Jiku stated it had scrutinized, using photos, more than 300,000 valid votes, with results that differ from those officially given: the MPLA leads with 50.49%, then UNITA with 34.10%, and CASA-CE with 13.61%.
UNITA, as in previous elections, contested the results shared by the CNE. Fernando Veloso, director of the newspaper Jornal Canal de Moçambique, said:
O vice-presidente da UNITA, Raúl Danda, contestou hoje o anúncio de vitória do MPLA nas eleições gerais angolanas, exortando a Comissão Nacional Eleitoral a ter a coragem de divulgar os resultados provisórios reais que vão chegando aos partidos.
A UNITA diz que os resultados que lhe estão a chegar contradizem o anúncio da MPLA.
The vice-president of UNITA, Raúl Danda, today contested the announcement of the MPLA’s victory in Angola's general elections, calling on the National Election Commission to have the courage to share the real provisional results which are coming to the parties.
UNITA says that the results which are coming to it contradict the announcement of the MPLA.
Voters used social media point out irregularities, like the activist Hossi Sonjamba:
Três Províncias de Angola, Cunene, Benguela e umas das Lundas que corresponde a 15 Assembleias de Voto ficaram sem exercer o direito de voto.
E irão às urnas no dia 26 de Agosto de 2017 no Sábado que vem, visto que não votaram hoje no dia 23 .
Fonte : CNE
Three Provinces of Angola, Cunene, Benguela, and some of the Lundas which correspond to 15 voting stations have not yet exercised the right to vote.
And they will go to the ballot box on 26 August 2017 on the coming Saturday, as they did not vote today on the 23rd.
Source: CNE
Bruno Constantino, an Angolan journalist, described how the day of the vote went, highlighting some nervousness among the electoral authorities:
Na Assembleia de Voto número 89, Mesa número 01, o funcionário da CNE insurgiu-se contra mim por eu ter perguntado, de forma simpática, pela presença dos delegados de lista das formações políticas concorrentes. Com ele dois outros colegas tiveram a mesma postura. Tentaram molestar-me. Mas a minha serenidade e a pronta intervenção de um dos delegados de lista de um dos contendores evitou que a situação passasse daí além. Não ficou nada bem a CNE na fotografia, que parece estar mais nervosa do que os próprios concorrentes. (…)
In Voting Station number 89, Table Number 01, the CNE employee reacted badly to me for having asked, in a friendly way, about the presence of delegates of the list of competing political formations. His two other colleagues had the same attitude. They tried to harass me. But my calmness and the quick intervention of one of the delegates from the list of one of the candidates avoided an escalation of the situation. The CNE did not look at all good in the photograph, looking more nervous that the candidates themselves […]
On its Facebook page the television channel Televisão RAIAR criticized the detention of delegates from the list of opposition parties:
Polícia prende Delegada de Lista da UNITA em Nehone
Por reclamar da violação do funcionamento da Assembleia 9433, Nehone, município de Kwanhama, A Delegada de lista efectiva da UNITA Justina Nashovanu está detida na Esquadra Policial daquele município.
Police detain delegate of UNITA’s list in Nehone:
For having complained of the violation of the workings of Station 9433, Nehone, Kwanhama municipality, the delegate of UNITA’s list, Justina Nashovanu, is detained by the police in that municipality.
On Facebook, UNITA accused police of taking violent action at some voting stations:
POLÍCIA DE INTERVENÇÃO RÁPIDA DISPARA CONTRA ELEITORES
Polícia de intervenção rápida na Província do Huambo, deteve a 15 minutos, delegados de lista da UNITA na assembleia nº 4287 na escola nº 42 localizada no Bairro de Cavongue, quando esses tentavam identificar um movimento estranha que dava conta da entrada de algumas urnas desconhecidas com boletins votados. E estão a disparar contra os eleitores e espancamento aos mesmos.
RAPID ACTION POLICE FIRE ON VOTERS
Rapid action police in the province of Huambo, detained delegates of UNITA’s list for 15 minutes at Station number 4287 in school number 42 located in the neighbourhood of Cavongue, when they tried to identify a strange movement which indicated the entry of some unknown ballot boxes with marked ballots. And they are firing on voters and beating them
Before knowing the rate of abstention, some were already had doubts about the turnout of voters, such as Dago Nível:
Das duas uma, ou a cne dessa vez aumentou o numero de Assembleias de voto e se organizou muito melhor, ou a abstenção dessa vez foi maior que nas eleições passada.
O que aconteceu é que ate as 15 horas, quase todas as assembleias de voto estavam as moscas. . .
One of two things, either this time the CNE increased the number of voting stations and organized itself much better, or the rate of abstention this time was higher than in previous elections.
What happened is that until 15:00, almost all the voting stations were mostly empty…
Some were still talking about a punishment by the National Election Commission for the sharing of the results:
A #CNE esta a nos castigar bem, 2:23 sono nada e muito menos os resultados preliminares. Mas nós somos mesmo teimoso e vamos a resistência.
— Simão Hossi (@simaohossi) 24 août 2017
The #CNE is torturing us well, 2:23 no sleep, let alone the preliminary results. But we are very stubborn and will resist

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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Rape Conviction of an Indian Cult Chief Leaves Millions of Followers in Limbo · Global Voices
Devika Sakhadeo

Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Screenshot from a YouTube video by Siddharth Kannan.
In India, a vast number of ‘gurus’ (teachers) and ‘babas’ (ascetics) preach spiritual, religious and philosophical teachings. Some self-proclaimed ‘godmen’ gain massive popularity when they seduce followers and grow their fan base through a deep psycho-social relationship offering comfort, power, and community.
On Friday, August 25, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the controversial leader of the hugely popular Dera Sacha Sauda sect, was found guilty of rape by a special Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in two cases. These cases have been in court since 2008 when the CBI initiated a probe into the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. During the investigation, two women came forward and accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim of rape, and their cases continued in the special CBI court for nearly ten years.
Dera Sacha Sauda is one of the largest religious cults in India, with a follower base of approximately 3 million Indians. Most prominent in the states of Haryana and Punjab of India, the religious cult declares itself a social welfare and spiritual organization currently headed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim who calls himself a ‘Spiritual Saint.’ Rahim, who comes from a village in the state of Rajasthan, is known for his flashy attire and also for his starring roles in two films called ‘Messenger of God.’
As the Dera Sacha Sauda chief made his way to court to hear the verdict in Panchkula with a convoy of 700 cars, thousands of his followers gathered on the streets of Haryana and Punjab in support of their ‘godman.’ State officials canceled several buses and trains, brought in extra police forces, and closed many offices early in anticipation of an ugly turn of events. Hours before the verdict was announced, an air of hostility and tension gripped these two northern states. Things did take an ugly turn after the court released the verdict. Supporters held violent protests leading to clashes with police with such intensity that officials enforced a curfew in the Panchkula area. More than 30 people were killed and many more were wounded.
Anand Mohan, a correspondent at Indian Express, tweeted:
A train bogey set on fire at Anand Vihar railways station. #Deraviolence #RamRahimConvicted @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/j7Cm38Ts98
— Anand Mohan (@mohanreports) August 25, 2017
Many people, including celebrities, took to social media to condemn these violent acts and supported the court's verdict.
Arun Sharma quipped:
I live in a country where Babas and Maulvis have more impact on people than Education.#Deraviolence
— Arun Sharma ?? (@arunn333) August 26, 2017
Bollywood actress Twinkle Khanna tweeted:
Our fault Babas exist as we turn towards them like silly sunflowers looking for the sun,forgetting that a halo is just a trick of the light!
— Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) August 26, 2017
Ajay Kadian wrote:
Now add ‘Rapist’ too in your bio ? #RamRahimVerdict #RamRahimVsLaw #RamRahim #RamRahimVsLaw #RamRahimVerdic #GurmeetRamRahimSingh pic.twitter.com/ewBb02v7uy
— Ajay Kadian ?? (@AjjayKadian) August 25, 2017
Cartoonist Satish Acharya tweeted:
Blind Faith! #cartoon #DeraSachaSauda #GurmeetRamRahimSingh pic.twitter.com/uwP91bJ6ay
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) August 29, 2017
On Monday, August 28, the courts announced a sentence comprised of 20 years in succession, 10 years for each offense, and a fine of around 14 lakh Indian rupees (approximately 21,900 US dollars). More unrest followed after the sentence was declared.
Amit Dholakia accused the media of omitting an essential detail in the conviction:
Hindi front pages: In Ram Rahim headlines, the missing word was ‘rape’ https://t.co/ZJFsdv5HRB via @scroll_in
— Amit Dholakia (@Amit_Dholakia) August 29, 2017
Others, like Yogendra Yadav, expressed muted rejoice over the verdict:
Done. Finally, 18 yrs after rape, 10 yrs of trial.
Now ensure that he serves his sentence as a prisoner, not as VIP in hospital & on parole. https://t.co/BM8dqqjvLY
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) August 28, 2017
Political parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Indian National Congress (INP) have both tried to influence this case in their favour. The INP has accused BJP of harbouring close political ties with Gurmeet Ram Rahim while the BJP claims the verdict was too harsh but has remained relatively silent.
The Chief Minister of Haryana was questioned for negligence in failing to provide more security and the Chief Minister of Punjab announced that no compensation would be provided for followers injured during the violent protests across the state. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi condemned the violence during his weekly radio talk show. Uttarakhand, the state lying east to Haryana, witnessed violent riots, forcing officials to impose Section 144, Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of 1973, to prohibit assembly of five or more people in an area.
Meanwhile, chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim faces three other pending criminal allegations against him, including murder charges and the alleged castration of 400 Dera followers at the sect's headquarters.
Shocked by Rahim's conviction, Dera Sacha Sauda followers remain on the streets, wondering who they can believe in now.

author: Devika Sakhadeo


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The Evolution of China’s Great Firewall: 21 Years of Censorship · Global Voices
Jimmy Wu

Images remixed by Oiwan Lam.
In September 1987, a Beijing laboratory sent what became China's first email. The message, to a German university, read: “Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner of the world.”
The development of internet infrastructure in the past few decades has enabled Chinese people to continue crossing the “Great Wall” and communicate with the rest of the world. But Chinese authorities soon threw up another wall to prevent the people from accessing information they deemed threatening to the Chinese Communist Party.
In 1996, Beijing enacted a set of interim provisions for governing computer information, and in 1998, the Ministry of Public Security launched the Golden Shield project — a national filter that blocks politically sensitive content from entering the domestic network.
This censorship tactic scheme has long been nicknamed the Great Firewall, and has undergone periodic upgrades since it was first introduced, given that people's efforts to cross the Great Firewall have been non-stop. Some describe the interplay between the Great Firewall and Chinese netizens as an ongoing “prison break”.
Recently, Hong Kong-based investigative journalism platform the Initium reviewed the concurrent evolution of the Great Firewall and tools used to circumvent it. Below is a summary and partial translation of key points in the Chinese report.
The first generation of the Golden Shield was a domestic filter that blocked specific domain names and server IP addresses:
「牆」就像一個邪惡的郵差，只要看到你的信封上寫上 Google 或 Facebook 等網站的地址，就會直接將信件丟棄。
The Great Firewall is like an evil mailman; whenever he sees Google or Facebook addressed on the envelope he will just toss the letter away.
By using an overseas server, i.e. a proxy server, people could still go around the wall and visit any sites they wanted:
就好像你將一封希望寄給 Google 的信，先寄給一位認識好郵差的朋友，再由他幫你轉寄給 Google。
It is like you plan to send a letter to Google; you can first send the letter to a friend who knows a nice mailman and then the mailman can forward the letter to Google.
The keyword-filtering system of Golden Shield was upgraded to detect the content of the websites that netizens visit, even if the internet connection is going through a proxy. If there is “sensitive content” communicated along the network connection, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is reset:
這時候，「牆」就如一名資訊審查員，拆開你的信件，只要發現你提到敏感資訊，便將你的信丟棄。
In this case, the Great Firewall acts like an information inspector; it can tear open your letter and toss it away if sensitive content is found.
Pathways for Censoring a Weibo Post. Graphic by Citizen Lab (CC BY 2.5)
To prevent such inspection, Chinese netizens started using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to bypass the Great Firewall. Originally, VPNs were used by global corporation to protect business secrets; their internal communications traveled within a private network and were encrypted to make sure that no third party could detect the messages sent through the network.
In other words, a VPN server outside China could safely transmit a Chinese netizen's visit requests to any third-party website.
With support from the government, the developers of the Great Firewall finally managed to identify weaknesses in VPNs. They found that there are some obvious features of the commonly used VPN protocols, such as IPSec, L2TP/TPSec and PPTP, which often use specific ports. When processing the encrypted connection, it leaves a distinctive trace.
Again, the Great Firewall was upgraded to detect such “irregular” connection traces:
這就好比「牆」雖然看不懂你的信件，但能從你信件內容中經常使用的筆跡和標點符號出現頻率，分析出你的真實意圖。
It's like even if the Great Firewall can’t read your letter, it can analyze the intention of the letter based on the handwriting and how often the punctuation appears.
In 2011, the Great Firewall blocked two major VPN protocols, PPTP and L2TP, temporarily. But the economic damage of blocking protocols was huge. The Great Firewall since has been upgraded to slow down or reset individual VPN connections.
VPN diagram, shared widely online.
To solve the problem, open source developers from Github collectively developed a new tool, Shadowsocks.
Same as a VPN, Shadowsocks is circumvention technology. It encrypts communication between the user and the website they wish to visit, but the connection is hard to detect for third party because Shadowsocks allows users to choose different encryption methods and appoint a random port.
Moreover, Shadowsocks is an open-source project, so even if the original developer were to delete the codes published at GitHub under pressure from authorities, other developers could carry on the development and maintain variants such as ShadowsocksR and V2Ray.
As the Chinese government has blocked more and more websites, including non-political online game sites, photo-sharing sites and social media platforms, the demand for circumvention tools has grown. Some individual developers have build successful businesses by providing circumvention apps to individual netizens using Shadowsocks.
After Apple upgraded its operating system to iOS 8 in 2014, the company's devices started to open VPN-related API programming ports, which enable other developers to build privately-owned encrypted VPN apps. Since then, proxy apps supporting Shadowsocks protocols have flourished. People need only to install and open the app and they can connect to websites banned by the Chinese government, making it easy for casual internet users to access websites outside the Great Firewall.
But Chinese authorities are keeping a close eye on all of this.
In addition to constantly upgrading the Great Firewall, Beijing has also introduced new laws to criminalize VPN service providers.
On January 22, 2017, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced a “Notice on Clearing Up and Regulating the Internet Access Service Market”, which states:
without approval by the telecommunication management departments, one must not create on his own accord, or hire, dedicated lines (including virtual private networks VPNs) or other information channels to conduct cross-border business activities. Basic telecommunication enterprises leasing dedicated international lines to users, should create a centralized user archive, and make clear to the users that the terms of use of those lines are limited to internal office use, and that the lines must not be used to connect to domestic or overseas data centers or operations platforms to conduct telecommunication operations business activities.
On June 1, the controversial “Cyber Security Law” officially took effect, giving far-reaching rights to the supervision department, strengthening internet operator responsibilities and duties, and demanding real-name registration of individual internet users. The monitoring system is similar to the “pre-crime” operation in the US science fiction movie “Minority Report”.
The legislation directly compelled Apple to take down VPN apps from its China app store in July. Amazon's China partner also issued a warning to its customers against the use of its cloud server for setting up a VPN server. It said that once they discover clients using unapproved VPNs, it would shut down their services.
The pressure directed towards individual developers and users of VPNs is severe. Starting in July, news of police harassment of proxy software developers and proxy software users has appeared regularly.
One developer shared on Twitter on how he was identified by the police. He said the police located his IP address through his QQ number which was shown in the App store. The police visited his apartment and forcefully demanded that he remove the app. He later vowed not to upload his proxy app again.
In Shenzhen, some internet users have been located by the police due to their frequent connection to proxy software. Their internet connection service was cut and they were forced to write a letter promising they would never use the software again to resume the connection.
These increased crackdowns have frightened individual circumvention tool developers and users. Among the developer community, one developer said they are left with two options:
要絕對安全，只有兩條路：一個是不做中文版，包裝成類似 ExpressVPN 這樣的海外公司；另一個……我前天見了一個朋友，他說他認識工信部的人，可以幫我申請 VPN 銷售許可證。這樣就可以徹底洗白了。
There are two ways to go to be absolutely safe, one is by not making the Chinese version of the app, and promoting your app as if it’s from a foreign company like Express VPN; and the other way… I met a friend a few days ago, he said he knows someone who works at MIIT and he can help me get a VPN sales permit. In this way, the business can be totally legit.
However, getting a license means working with the government to spy on VPN users’ online activities. The developer further explained:
肯定要按官方要求，記錄用戶身份，保留用戶日誌，到時候上面如果查下來，要什麼數據就給他們。…其實沒幾個用戶在意隱私的，他們只要能翻牆就行了。而只要有人用，我們就有錢賺……
Of course you have to follow the government rules to register user identity, keep login records; and we will have to give whatever data the government requires in the future…actually few users care about privacy, what they want is to just get over the wall. As long as we have users we can make money…
Technically speaking, circumvention technologies have outwitted the Great Firewall. Yet the new legal regime has changed the rules of the game. Today, Chinese netizens who want to be connected with the external network must choose to either give up their privacy and subscribe to licensed VPN services or overcome their fear of police harassment and register with overseas circumvention tools.
After three decades, the dream of crossing the Great Wall and reaching every corner in the world has given way to a nightmare which sees people's freedom under threat.

author: Jimmy Wu


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Amid a Teacher Strike, a Powerful Image Shakes Up Peruvian Social Media · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Peruvian police officer Rodolfo La Rosa Ariza comforts a teacher during a protest march. Image by Anthony Niño de Guzmán, widely shared on social media.
Since June 15, 2017, news in Peru has been dominated by a national teacher strike called by the Union Labor of Education Workers of Peru (SUTEP). The strikes have taken place in many cities, with some leading to clashes between protesters and police officers. Amid the chaos, one photo has taken social media by storm as a beacon of peace in the conflict between teachers unions and the Peruvian government.
The basic demands of the strike were salary raises and the postponement of a teacher evaluation, which had been planned for this year and would continue until 2018. By late July, both sides had managed to agree on a raise over a base of S/2,000 (a little less than USD 600) and a 30-teaching hours work week. However, reaching terms for evaluations turned out to be more difficult. Some agreements were made, but not all of the union leaders accepted the conditions.
Meanwhile, public sentiment is in favor of carrying out teacher evaluations.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that there is more than one teacher's labor union involved in negotiations. Besides SUTEP, there is also the National Committee of Reorientation and Reconstruction (CONARE), Democratic SUTE, various federations and SUTEP dissidents. The points of disagreement, in general, are linked to the teacher evaluation, as many fear this could mean that many teachers could lose their jobs.
But the complications don't end there. The arguments are complex and they take place not only between the government and unions, but it all gets tangled with other conflicts associated with the very complex recent history of Peru. The Minister of Interior, Carlos Basombrío, claimed that among the union leaders there are individuals with ties to a faction of the Shining Path, a communist militant group formed in the 1980's, and asserted that the “government won't dialogue with any sectors connected to this terrorist group”.
Days go by, negotiations go forward on one side and they get tangled up on another. Meanwhile, there are children who haven't been attending school for over two months now. There is a risk of losing the school year in public schools, a year that had already started late after the heavy rains that affected several regions in the country due to the so-called Costal El Niño.
For days, teachers have been organizing protest marches in several Peruvian cities, and in some cases, police officers have violently suppressed them.
It was amid this context that the image of a police officer and a female teacher shook Peruvian social networks:
Un policía consuela a una maestra -que podría ser su madre -en medio de la represión y el caos de hoy.
Una imagen que devuelve la esperanza. pic.twitter.com/UWFrPxvMbn
— beto ortiz (@malditaternura) 25 de agosto de 2017
A police officer comforts a teacher –she could be his mother– amid the repression and chaos seen today. An image that gives you back some hope.
Beto Ortiz, who is the most followed Peruvian journalist on Twitter and whose own mother worked as a school teacher all her professional life, highlighted the great impact the picture had in his Sunday opinion column titled, “She Could Be Your Mother”.
Me sorprendió […] escuchar la noche siguiente al suboficial PNP huancaíno Rodolfo La Rosa Ariza [uno de los dos protagonistas de la imagen], contarle a un reportero […] lo que había pasado por su mente en aquel momento de caos: “Al ver su llanto y desesperación, le dije: madrecita, yo estoy para protegerte y te voy a llevar a un sitio donde estés segura. La abracé y tomé su rostro entre mis manos. Me hizo recordar a una maestra que yo tuve”. Con […] toda la parafernalia del guardia de asalto, el policía luce enorme y temible, parece un villano de película futurista, una especie de Robocop o de Darth Vader. Pero el solo gesto de acariciar el rostro de esta señora menudita y aterrorizada lo convierte –mágicamente– en un gigante tierno.
I was surprised […] when I heard this police officer from Huancayo, Rodolfo La Rosa Ariza [one of the two individuals in the image], telling a reporter […] what was in his mind at the moment of chaos: “When I saw her tears and despair, I told her: madrecita [literally meaning little mother, a colloquial term used to address ladies that mixes respect and consideration], I'm here to protect you and I will take you to a place where you will be safe. I hugged her and took her face with my hands. She made me think of a teacher I once had”. With […] all that paraphernalia of a riot officer, the policeman looks huge and scary, he looks like a bad guy from a futuristic movie, some kind of Robocop or Darth Vader. But the single gesture of caressing this petite lady on the face makes him –magically– a tender giant.
The picture was widely shared on Twitter, garnering awards and acknowledgment that were shared on social media for the police officer in the photo:
Condecoran a policía que consoló a una maestra durante huelga de docentes https://t.co/arP6ZK91bO https://t.co/mZDJypUfSz
— Veo Noticias (@VeoNoticias_) 27 de agosto de 2017
Police officer who comforted a teacher during teacher strike was given an award.
Meanwhile, in some cities, teachers went back to work in their classrooms while in others, the the protests continue.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
An Indian Transgender Couple Receives Death Threats After Announcing Plans to Marry and Adopt · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Sukanyeah Krishna and Aarav Appukuttan. Image credit: Sukanyeah Krishna. Used with permission.
Aarav Appukuttan and Sukanyeah Krishna are in love. The transgender couple — Appukuttan was designated female at birth, and Krishna was designated male — met at a doctor's clinic while in a hospital awaiting gender reassignment surgery in India's financial capital, Mumbai, three years ago. A romance soon bloomed based on their shared passion for advocacy and struggles with gender identity, and they decided to get married.
News of their plans to wed and eventually adopt children made headlines around the world, but their joy over the international solidarity became tinged with anxiety after receiving death threats on social media. After lodging official complaints with the police, the couple tried to move on with their advocacy. They also sought help via crowdfunding for their surgeries, but they received more negative feedback and trolling. This came through various channels including Facebook, where threats of violence and hate speech are prohibited, but not always removed by the company.
The couple then decided to take down their crowdfunding campaign. Sukanyeah wrote on Facebook  about the death threats:
I'm sharing a screenshot of a video Published in ScoopWhoop News. Below that video there is a comment published by a person named “Mayank”, and he is calling out to “Kill us Both.” Certainly! It's from a Fake Profile.
Now my reply to Mayank:
Man, we both might be ‘Gays’ for your eyes! But we've shown enough guts to come out in the public and reveal who we are, what we are planning… Do you have enough guts to use your own name and picture in a facebook profile and make such a comment? If you have enough “Mardangi” (manhood), do that! We're waiting…
I know there many psychos and phobics out there in the middle, but why are you targeting us? Just because, we live a REAL Life? without hiding ourselves? We too have the same rights to live in this world, as you all are having… We aren't disturbing anyone else. In fact, we've to fight a lot to survive itself. We don't enjoy any privileges to make it easier So Please… Live and Let live!
In 2014, India's Supreme Court declared transgender people a “third gender”, a ruling that protects their access to education and employment. Nevertheless, stigma remains and transgender people are often targets of harassment and attacks, or are even forced to beg or engage in prostitution for survival. According to a survey of 2,169 transgender people by Swasti Health Resource Centre, four in 10 transgender people in India have experienced sexual abuse by the time they reached puberty.
This reality has led people like Aarav and Sukanyeah to fight back. Global Voices spoke to the couple in a telephonic interview. Below is a brief transcript.
Global Voices (GV): You have received death threats on social media. How has this affected you?
Sukanyeah: We've received varied responses from people. While some are super appreciative others have issued threats saying, “Kill the LGBT dogs” on Facebook. I don't now why we are being targeted but it's very similar to the transphobia and homophobia that triggered the Orlando massacre [in the United States in 2016]. People think we are outcasts or aliens but we are not the ones creating problems. We just keep to ourselves and still face attacks. They don't know anything about us, gender identity disorder yet they read headlines and abuse us. It hurts us and demeans our struggle to a greater extent.
In fact, now, we are even scared to publish our wedding dates and our security will get compromised. We are poor and we don't know how to handle goons if they threaten us so our best chance is to get a private wedding ceremony done.
This negative feedback is forcing us to hide. It takes a lot of courage to come out in the first place and accept your identity.
Aarav: We have filed complaints against a few accounts on social media for issuing death threats against us. Most of them are fake and based out of Kerala. We try and be as polite as possible in our responses but sometimes, it's just hard to be kinder when they want to end our lives and it is disturbing.
GV: And what about the positive responses?
Aarav: We are happy, we have received a positive response from everyone across the world except some miscreants locally. We are happy people are trying to understand our situation and it gives out a bigger and much significant message of acceptance of the gender-identity disorders.
GV: What is the plan for the wedding? Do you expect any legal hassles?
Aarav: We don't expect any legal hassles from our marriage under India's article 377 as we both are legally male and female now. Officially, we have received our government documents as well and are waiting for more documents before we can solemnize our marriage.
GV: How did you meet?
Aarav: We met three years ago outside at a doctors clinic where Sukanyeah had come for her treatment. I heard her talking in Malayalam and that's how we started talking. My family is supportive of our union.
GV: What are your future plans?
Aarav: We want to start a non-governmental organization for members of the transgender community and want to create awareness among parents. They should not ignore their children dealing with gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder. They should instead support them and we hope we can set some example. We are hopeful parents will reach out to us and seek our counseling.
Sukanyeah: My family disowned me when I was young and let me down because I was a transgender. I faced many troubles and left home at 18 to work in Bangalore and save money for my surgeries. I worked in call centers, worked as a freelance in Information Technology sector and started my hormonal treatment to transition into a woman. That's when my relationship with Aarav blossomed and I don't think seeking support from my family will yield anything positive. I was heartbroken at their rejection but now plan to focus all my energies on starting a non-governmental organization by December to aid other trans individuals.
GV: How do you summarise your journey?
Aarav: After 45 years of hiding behind a woman's mask, I am finally free to live my life as a man and don't take those seriously who want to insult or mock me. Also, I would want to advise those opting for surgeries to go to a renowned doctor instead of falling for botched surgeries which are more dangerous.
GV: What about starting a family?
Both Aarav and Sukanyeah: We want a child to complete our family and inspire us to do good for the world and I am sure we will make wonderful parents.
Global Voices uses the GLAAD Media Reference Guide to ensure that our reporting on transgender people is respectful and effective. We encourage anyone who wishes to share or comment on this story to do the same.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


text:
From Afro-Spanish Identity to De-colonial Studies in Anthropology · Global Voices
Afroféminas

The following is a reprinted interview conducted by journalist Lucia Mbomio and originally published in “Afroféminas” (Spanish language source). It is republished by Global Voices with permission of the website organizers.
“Anthropology emerged from a specific historical moment in time and, especially at the outset, was used for expansive, colonialist, and oppressive purposes. I believe this was the case for several other sciences, however […] Anthropology is evolving and including other voices and perspectives…” Elena Garcia, photograph from the Afro-feminists website and published with permission.
Elena Garcia is from Madrid, Spain. Garcia has studied philosophy, anthropology and international aid with a focus on gender issues. She has experience working with migratory populations in Spain and providing aid assistance in Colombia, Senegal, and Equatorial Guinea. As a woman of African descent who has lived on three continents, she addresses the growing outspoken criticism of anthropology and development aid work by anti-racist activists.
The following insights are shared below:
Elena  Garcia (EG): It is true that anthropology emerged from a particular historical moment and was used for expansive, colonialist and oppressive means, especially in its early days. However, I believe this has been the case for several other sciences, so I find that critique unfair at times. Anthropology, like other sciences, is evolving to include other voices and perspectives, so I don’t believe we should stick to an obsolete nineteenth-century image.
EG: Of course it's possible. Anthropology is not a colonial science by default, although it has been used in certain contexts for specific objectives.
In its broadest definition, anthropology is the study of human beings. I would look to the example of Cheikh Anta Diop, who raises interesting and relevant awareness about contributions of Black African culture that have often been ignored or undervalued by the west.
EG: Above all, development aid is controversial because it functions as another method of Western imposition of culture and thought toward other parts of the planet. The aim is not to improve living conditions of beneficiary populations, but to introduce them into the system. This is a dangerous mistake.
One of the clearest cases with regard to this is seen in gender equality and women’s empowerment projects that are so in vogue these days. It starts from the premise of white, western feminism, without questioning the institution, and is therefore considered “advanced” and aimed at creating “achievements” which very well may not be.
EG: Yes and no. Partnerships are complicated. Sometimes they consist of conscientious organizations seeking to improve the living conditions of the populations they assist, but most of the time, the vast majority are engines of the machinery. Populations have learned to deal with westerners by telling them what they want to hear, showing them what they want to see and even, as perverse as it sounds, acting as intermediaries between organizations and communities in a way that benefits them; organizations have become a kind of intermediary elite who look out more for their own interests than the real demands of the beneficiary populations.
South-South cooperation is essential, but as it always serves the interests of the countries involved it is carried out in a serious and aggressive way, because it is also sometimes used as a method of expanding the national interests of large emerging countries. This is a problem we are facing now.
EG: I wouldn't know how to convey it exactly. I partly believe so, especially in Latin America where there is some mutual recognition and pairing off among people and communities of African descent.
It's different in Africa, one of the things that surprised me the most in Africa is that people call me white. At first that was a real shock to me.
(Central and West African name for a person of European descent).
EG: Exactly. It is very difficult, because one goes about their lives with the idea of feeling recognized a certain way, but that doesn't always happen everywhere you go. On the contrary, you often end up being viewed as “responsible” for a history that is so much larger than you and that, in some way, you are also the result of.
In the end, we mestizos are strangers everywhere and it is something we learn to live with.
EG: It is not easy to be different in a country like Spain, and it is not easy not to feel recognized within your own country.
I will say that Spain itself has passed through different eras with respect to her African descended population. At first, when I was little, it felt isolating and curious, and people would do things like congratulate me on speaking “Spanish so well.” Around 2000, being of African descent was irremediably associated with immigration and shrouded by negative implications that affect women in particular. Today I want to believe that we are in a different phase, with greater empowerment, visibility, and recognition of African descended populations, although there is still a lot of ignorance.
It should certainly be the subject of anthropological analysis as it is quite a pertinent subject.
EG: Right now I am going back home. I am focusing on the processes of African descended community empowerment that are happening, especially in Madrid. It has been nice to come back here and find so many active movements with which I share a common experience and desire for change. It is very interesting what is happening, very enriching.
I would like to focus more on the integration of migrant populations in Spain. At the moment I would prefer not to work outside it for a while, because I love Madrid and I have missed it very much, but you never know. Life always surprises us.

author: Afroféminas


text:
India’s Latest Internet Shutdown Hits Haryana and Punjab · Global Voices
Riana Patel

India internet shutdown map, January 2010 – March 2017. Created by the Centre for Communication Governance (CC BY)
Internet and mobile services were shut down for several days in the northern Indian states of Haryana and Punjab over a court ruling in the criminal case against guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the controversial leader of the hugely popular Dera Sacha Sauda sect.
On August 25, the special Criminal Bureau of Investigation court reached a verdict that the guru would serve 20 years in prison for two counts of rape. The decision led to the eruption of violent protests, mainly among his followers, in the Haryana and Punjab provinces as well as some parts of Uttarakhand. At least thirty people died and hundreds were injured as a result.
Ahead of the chaotic dissent, authorities suspended internet and mobile phone services in the Haryana and Punjab provinces, home to over 25 million people.
What happened in Haryana? #internetshutdown ? pic.twitter.com/9r35DHlxDw
— Chinmayi Arun (@chinmayiarun) August 24, 2017
Mobile internet services suspended in #Punjab, #chandigarh and #Haryana for 72 hours.
— APN NEWS (@apnnewsindia) August 24, 2017
According to the Haryana Additional Chief Secretary Ram Niwas, the order was intended to prevent any disturbance of peace and preserve public order.
But the reality was not so simple. The shutdown disrupted the lives of citizens across the provinces who were unable to communicate using SMS, 2G, 3G, 4G, CDMA, GPRS systems. India is the world's second largest mobile phone market after China and much of its burgeoning digital economy depends upon mobile phone networks across the provinces.
In combination with the physical riots, the shutdowns affected myriad aspects of civic life, from garbage collection to schools to commercial traders.
Internet users of punjab & Haryana right now ~ pic.twitter.com/8RERDFvYyh
—       (@Ludhianviz) August 29, 2017
Can someone tell me why internet was barred in Punjab and Haryana ?????
Government Mind
— Anil Mehra (@mehra116) August 29, 2017
As of August 29, mobile internet and SMS services were restored in Haryana province.
In 2016, the UN passed a non-binding resolution to protect freedom of expression by condemning active disruption, shutdown, or suppression of the internet which is fundamental to information sharing and access. But this has not had much impact on the prevalence of internet shutdowns in India, despite criticism that they are ineffectual and stifling of individual and press freedoms.
Although different institutions use unique technical criteria to define a shutdown, none dispute that they have risen rapidly in India in recent years. According to the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre, India has seen 106 internet shutdowns since 2012.
In the Indian state of West Bengal, the internet was shut down on June 18 to control the recent unrest caused by the pro-Gorkhaland separatists. The ban has been extended by the local authorities a few times, thus leaving the region without connectivity for more than two months.
Internet ban in #Darjeeling extended till September 7. Ban since 18June. The joke's on @_DigitalIndia @MIB_India @rajnathsingh @KirenRijiju
— Dinesh Sharma (@subalternCry) August 24, 2017
@DoT_India been two months since internet ban in Darjeeling. Is that what you call #DigitalIndia . Please open the net services
— mahesh agarwal (@mahesh51195) August 19, 2017
On August 7, the Indian Ministry of Communication released a memo intended to codify the process for imposing an internet shutdown through two channels: by the central government and by the state government, whose requests must be reviewed within 24 hours of their submission.
In their analysis of the order, local tech policy blog Medianama noted that it does not explain how shutdown agreements are reached. As shutdowns already infringe on the UN’s resolution for freedom of expression online and enact collective curfew on all internet users, the new rule has worrying implications not just for internet freedoms but for the economic and social order of an increasingly digital India.
Follow the Software Freedom Law Centre's Internet Shutdown Tracker for up-to-date records of shutdowns across India.

author: Riana Patel


text:
India’s Supreme Court Says Privacy Is a Fundamental Right. How Did This Happen? · Global Voices
Rohith Jyothish

Equipments to capture biometrics information under Aadhaar. Image from Flickr by Julian Correa. Public Domain.
Last week, a nine-judge bench of India's supreme court issued a unanimous ruling that Indian citizens have a fundamental right to privacy.
The historic decision could have significant implications for India's biometric identity scheme or Aadhaar (Hindi for “foundation”), the world's largest biometric identification programme.
Aadhaar was launched in 2009 in a stated effort to eliminate ghost, duplicate and fraudulent IDs that its proponents said were disrupting the delivery of financial and other social services and causing “leakages” in government revenue. Aadhaar is implemented by the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI).
Last week's judgment must be seen within the context of a series of citizen petitions to the court attempting to challenge the implementation and linkage of the biometric ID to various government welfare schemes and services.
On September 23, 2013, the Supreme Court of India passed an interim order in response to a batch of petitions that argued that Aadhaar violates fundamental rights of equality and privacy.
The petitions specifically challenged the linkage of Aadhaar with various welfare schemes. In their response, the court held that “no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card inspite [sic] of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory.” Since then, the court has stated several times that Aadhaar cannot be mandatory until all the cases are heard in court and disposed of.
9. Relevant text of standing Supreme Court orders prohibiting mandatory use of Aadhaar (consolidated). pic.twitter.com/eiidV8tF8j
— india subsidy data (@databaazi) January 30, 2017
Theoretically, this made Aadhaar optional. However, various government bodies continued to link Aadhaar to more benefits and services.
In 2015, citizens petitioned the court challenging the constitutionality of Aadhaar. Then-Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the central government, argued before a three-judge bench of the supreme court that privacy is not a “guaranteed right,” and that there were “inconsistencies” in the previous apex court orders, despite nearly thirty years of jurisprudence on privacy in India to the contrary.
The government went on to argue that citizens will have to waive certain fundamental rights in order to have access to government benefits. To settle the matter, the court decided that the challenge would have to be resolved by a nine-judge constitution bench that would consider the overarching question of whether Indian citizens have a fundamental right to privacy or not.
But it took many months for the court to assemble this bench to hear the case.
In the meantime, more than 108 services– ranging from bank account access, to key healthcare procedures, to school enrollment — that citizens cannot access without an Aadhaar ID. Yet the UIDAI still maintains that the scheme is voluntary.
While petitioners continued to wait for the court to form this bench, in March 2016 the government passed the Aadhaar Act.
Soon after, the law was reported to have disrupted welfare schemes across the country, ‘leaked’ citizens’ data, and from some advocates’ perspectives, become an instrument of surveillance. At one point, Aadhaar even had an officially sanctioned trolling programme to attack critics of the scheme on social media.
Government proponents of the scheme, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made several claims about the benefits of Aadhaar as a tool for combating identity fraud in welfare schemes. But civil rights activists and researchers have shown these claims to be dubious.
The magnitude of the Aadhaar scheme and its increasingly broad application to the many processes of everyday life left many advocates concerned that even if the court finally heard the case and upheld petitioners’ arguments, Aadhaar would have bcome so pervasive that it would become impossible for anyone to reverse the process.
Nearly two years after petitioners challenged the constitutionality of Aadhaar, the supreme court finally convened a nine-judge constitution bench to determine whether Indian citizens will have a right to privacy was formed in July 2017.
During the course of the hearing, the tone of the government shifted to endorsing a ‘Data Protection Act’ instead of a full-fledged fundamental right to privacy. This was yet another attempt on the part of the government to dilute the right.
On top of that, it suggested some names for a committee that would formulate the law, the composition of which raised some eyebrows.
The committee that will form India's privacy law. Notice the composition. pic.twitter.com/D8gnK0kIB4
— Apar (@aparatbar) August 1, 2017
In spite of such heavy odds stacked against the petitioners, the supreme court delivered a unanimous verdict that Indian citizens do have a fundamental right to privacy.
Twitterati were quick to point out that Aadhaar is still around.
Just a reminder that the larger case of Aadhaar is still going on in SC and the right to privacy hearing was just a key element of it.
— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) August 24, 2017
While the 547-page judgment will have implications on a host of pending cases, the government's response to the judgment is telling.
“AADHAR per se was not before the court, Right to Privacy was the issue ” : Union Minister @rsprasad on SC verdict on #RightToPrivacy pic.twitter.com/GEI2r9Q7wf
— Frank Noronha (@DG_PIB) August 24, 2017
Even a fundamental #RightToPrivacy has limitations, that need to be identified on case-to-case basis: @rsprasad quoting a judgement pic.twitter.com/IlZ3QOjOn6
— PIB India (@PIB_India) August 24, 2017
The law minister was quick to state that the judgment does not affect the biometric scheme. However, a day after the judgment, government officials close to the development feel that they will need to “ring-fence” Aadhaar and demonstrate to the supreme court that the scheme does protect privacy of Indian citizens.

author: Rohith Jyothish