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Uproar, Victim-Blaming on Brazilian Social Media After Gang Rape Video Shared on Twitter · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

“Looks like she used drugs”, “Well, with those clothes”, “16 years old and already has a child”, “She deserved it!”. Cartoon by Vitor Teixeira, shared on the artist's Facebook page.
On a Saturday night, a 16-year-old girl left her parents’ home in a suburban area of Rio de Janeiro and went to her boyfriend’s place. The couple was supposed to go to a party afterwards. She remembers arriving at his house and falling asleep, only to wake up on Sunday morning, in another house, feeling dizzy and surrounded by armed men. She woke up, put on some clothes a man had left lying around, and took a cab home.
Three days later, a 40-second video emerged on Twitter.
In it, she appears lying in bed naked and unconscious, while several men make jokes and laugh. They can be heard saying, “This one got pregnant from more than 30″.
One of the men took a selfie with her in the background and posted it to Twitter. Others reacted to the video with similar comments.
As media started to cover the case, a wave of victim-blaming manifested itself in comments on social media.
A Facebook page collected screenshots of some of the comments: “This wouldn’t have happened if she had stayed at home”, read one. “If she had gone to church instead”, read another.
Details surrounding her case, such as the fact her boyfriend and the other 32 men were drug dealers, that the party and gang rape took place in a favela, and that the girl admitted using drugs to the police, all helped the victim-blamers relativize their empathy towards her.
But broad condemnation of the crime was also quick in coming.
Twitter soon blocked the profile of the man who uploaded the video. A plea, mostly led by feminist pages, was spread across social media asking people not to search for the video on the web.
In less than two days, the Public Attorney’s Office of Rio de Janeiro received some 800 complaints related to the case. On Friday, four suspects were already identified and brought in for questioning. The girl’s boyfriend of three years is one of them.
A massive outcry on social media targeting victim-blaming and rampant sexism followed.
Protests are being scheduled across the country for the weekend of May 28-29, as women swap their profile photos for an image that reads “for an end to rape culture”.
Journalist Ana Freitas posted on Facebook:
1. Nem uma a menos. A gente não deixa nenhuma pra trás. O nosso poder de mobilização e a nossa força está deixando todas as outras no chinelo.
2. Não foi culpa dela. Trinta homens e nenhum foi capaz de parar e dizer “gente, pera, isso é meio mancada”. Não foi culpa delas.
3. Tem alguém ai que duvida de cultura do estupro? Chega mais. Explica pra mim como 30 homens estupram uma mulher desacordada se não existir uma cultura velada dizendo que vagabunda merece ser estuprada (e que coloca na categoria “vagabunda” qualquer mulher que não seguir um código de conduta subjetivo).
4. Você está pronto (como homem) pra dizer ao seu amigo babaca que ele é babaca e machista pelo jeito que fala das mulheres, pelos vídeos que compartilha? Está pronto pra tentar mostrar pra pelo menos alguns deles que esse tipo de atitude prepara o terreno pra violência contra mulher? Por que essa é a parte difícil.
1. Not one less. We don't leave any woman behind. Our power of mobilization and our strength is putting all others to shame.
2. It was not her fault. Thirty men and not one was capable of stoping and saying, “guys, wait, this is kind of wrong”.
3. Is there anyone who doubts the existence of rape culture? Come over here. Explain to me how 30 guys raped an unconscious woman if there isn't a veiled culture saying that ‘sluts’ deserve to be raped (and put into that category any woman who doesn't follow a subjective code of conduct).
4. Are you ready, as a man, to tell your jerk of a friend that he is a jerk and a sexist for the way he talks about women, for the videos he shares? Are you ready to try and show at least some of them that this prepares the ground for violence against women? Because this is the hard part.
“não foram 30 contra 1. foram 30 contra todas”. Justiça é pouco, o que eu quero é o fim do machismo. #EstuproNuncaMais #RaivaComRazão
— Thainá Cunha (@thainateixeirac) 27 May 2016
“It wasn't 30 against 1. It was 30 against all”. Justice is not enough, what I want is the end of sexism. #AngerWithReason
If not for the rapists exhibition of their crime, the case may not have gathered any attention at all.
But what is it that makes a criminal proudly exhibit a crime?
Silvia Chakian, a prosecutor and coordinator of a group that fights violence against women, analysed this case in an interview with BBC Brasil:
Mostra a certeza total da impunidade desses criminosos, que agem em grupo e que gravam e publicam a própria prova do crime que praticaram. Mostra o descaso pra eventuais responsabilizações, descaso com a Justiça (…) O (episódio) mostra que praticar crime dessa natureza é motivo de vaidade, de ser ostentado.
It shows the certainty of total impunity on the part of these criminals, who act in a group and record and publish the proof of their own crime. It shows their scorn towards the prospect of accountability, scorn towards the Justice system […]
[The episode] shows that practicing a crime of such nature is a motive to vanity, something to be displayed.
While rapists rely on impunity, victims know it as fact.
As journalist Mariana Varella recalls, in 2014, another girl was found by her parents sitting on her bed pointing a gun to her head, after being raped by her grandfather.
Last week, a judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to a conviction. The grandfather himself admitted to having had sexual intercourse with the girl, but the judge believed in a narrative wherein the three women in the same family — the girl, her mother and her grandmother — were plotting against the man.
The most recent research on sexual violence in Brazil revealed that every 11 minutes someone is raped in the country. According to the Annual Public Safety Report, 47,646 cases were registered in 2014.
The same week the gang rape case of the 16-year-old in Rio happened, another teenage girl was raped by five men in the northeastern state of Piauí and the case barely received national coverage.
Coincidentally, the same day the case became public, the Minister of Education of the current interim government met with Brazilian actor Alexandre Frota, known for boasting on national TV about how he once choked a woman until she fainted and then proceeded to rape her, a crime for which he never faced prosecution.
Frota has for the past year been involved in the pro-impeachment movement against President Dilma Rousseff and has been a notorious defender of measures that would prohibit “Leftist indoctrination” in public schools.
Included in “leftist indoctrination”, according to its opponents, are lectures and textbooks that deal with gender issues, an issue Frota says was bought up in the conversation with the minister.
But the case involving the 16-year-old girl is helping erode women's tolerance for such public displays of sexism.
As Chakian notes:
Não tem 30 monstros juntos. Não tem patologia nisso. É uma questão cultural. São 30 pessoas que participaram do crime e nenhuma delas agiu para evitar que aquele crime acontecesse. Isso revela uma sociedade criminosa e violenta contra a mulher. Que enxerga que o corpo da mulher é feito para o homem usufruir.
These are not 30 monsters together. There is no pathology there. This is a cultural issue. These are 30 people who took part in a crime and none of them act to avoid prevent such a crime happening. This reveals a society that is criminal and violent against women, which sees that a woman’s body as made for man's consumption.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Ghanaians Oppose Shutdown of Social Media Platforms During Elections · Global Voices
Kofi Yeboah

Image from Penplusbytes's study of social media use by media houses in Ghana. Image used with permission.
Some countries in Africa have developed a routine habit of blocking social media platforms before, during and after elections citing “security concerns”.
During the recent elections held in Uganda, for example, the government ordered telecommunication companies to block access to popular social media platforms. Social media platforms were also blocked ahead of Ugandan President Museveni's inauguration.
Uganda and Nigeria are two countries that have recently indicated their intentions to impose stricter controls over social media, and Ghana, it appears, may be joining them.
In Ghana, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor, has hinted Ghanaian authorities might consider shutting down social media platforms during elections due to take place on November 7.
The IGP emphasised that the potential shutdown of social media platforms during elections is based on the fact that some people abuse the space during voting.
There have been complaints that social media users spread misinformation and rumours about violations and violence at polling stations on election day.
In a quotes published by local media outlet Citi FM he said:
At one stage I said that if it becomes critical on the eve and also on the election day, we shall block all social media as other countries have done. We’re thinking about it. We are also thinking about the other alternative that the police should be IT compliant and get our own social media [account] to be able to stop these things on time. We are looking at the variables and come D-Day, we’ll come out with a decision.
The news of the potential shutdown unleashed a wave of negative reactions on TV, radio and social media platforms.
In response to the IGP's statement, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), berated the mooted block.
Blocking or restricting access to social media is a blatant violation of freedom of expression. The 1992 constitution declares in no equivocal terms that: All persons shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media. The constitution guarantees that the press and every individual in Ghana has the right to say anything that they want, whenever that they want and wherever that they want. The position of the IGP in relation to the effect of social media on election suggests that the Ghana police lacks appreciation of the use of online social networking technology in a 21st century world as a platform of engagement. This kind of thinking is unacceptable.
Kinna Likimani, of the social media platform dedicated to election coverage in Ghana, Ghana Decides, also stated during an interview:
We are not a country that subscribes to heavy handed repressive tactics otherwise we will not be in a democracy. What we need to do is that within our democratic dispensation, we educate our citizens. The Police needs to understand and come on and we all work together. There is a huge space that even the Police can occupy on social media. Ways by which we can inform Ghanaians, ways in which we can help them in their job.
Not only the Police , including the EC who is now on social media. The last election, the EC released the results on Facebook. The Peace Council needs to be on social media, the government needs to be on social media. It is a platform for informing and together we can Police ourselves but to ascribe to heavy handed repressive tactics, I repeat it is not a democratic best practice and it doesn’t suite the path we are on as Ghanaians. We close down social media and then what. What message do we send to ourselves as Ghanaians. That we can’t handle ourselves.
A well known private legal practitioner, Ace Ankomah wanted to know which law will be used to block social media and prevent access to information which is a key democratic right in Ghana:
The right and freedom of information and communication is absolutely guaranteed and the excuse to it ought to be in accordance with law in a democratic society. So for even considering this the IGP is playing with a possible legal action from restraining it from doing it. On the basis of which law is he going to stop access to information? Our rights to communication cannot be infringed with under the provisions of the constitution unless it is in accordance with law and not just law, law that is necessary in a democratic society. So technically and legally they will struggle.
Nigeria did election without banning social media and the report show that social media helped. Uganda banned it so on what basis are we going the Ugandan way instead of going the Nigerian way? Let’s strengthen the traditional media to be able to give out information and give it out quickly so that we will know that the key thing is traditional media. So that when somebody put out some diabolic message, traditional media can quickly kill it. If you shut down social media, we can still talk and people can still do their diabolic.
Facebookers such as Stephen Saan-Ire regretted the fact that a country traditionally viewed as one of the continent's stronger democracies was seemingly falling into line with autocracies like Uganda, while Twitter also lined up to pan the potential block.
@Joy997FM this is only the act of a sleeping country, well structured countries don't even think about stuffs like blocking social media!!!
— Francis Yanch (@phada05) May 27, 2016
Most people, however, have been supportive of the suggestion that the Ghanaian Police should fine-tune its own social media skills in order to engage with the public.
Clearly, this is a preferable approach to information management than simply blocking the platforms.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Kofi Yeboah


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How a Hmong Song Tradition Is Kept Alive in the American Midwest · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

This article originally appeared on PRI.org on May 26, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Think of kwv txhiaj as song poetry.
Or better yet, think of it like a Hmong version of the blues. And in that vein, think of kwv txhiaj the way American writer Ralph Ellison thought of the blues: “an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.”
Ellison's quote starts off a new book about kwv txhiaj and one of its singers, a man named Bee Yang. The story is by his daughter, award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang. It's called “The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father.”
Her book shows that, like the blues, kwv txhiaj can be soothing for the soul.
“It connects me to my dad,” Yang says. “Everybody in America knows him, and for most of my life I've talked about him as a machinist. But I know that in his heart and in his mind he is a song poet. So when I hear kwv txhiaj, I think about the man who, long before I'd ridden a bike or a car, I saw the world from his shoulders. It was those shoulders that took me to the tops of the trees and said, ‘One day your little hand and feet will not dictate your life journey. You will walk on the horizons your father has never seen.’ So when I hear kwv txhiaj I think about his words and I think about the future he saw for me.”
It's a future that is distinct from a past filled with war. Her father fled Laos for a refugee camp in Thailand during the US war in Vietnam, and in 1987 settled his family in the US state of Minnesota.
“As a child of the Hmong people, I know that we come from a war. Growing up in America I never knew which war we came from because in history classes we only learned about the Vietnam War as between the Americans and the North Vietnamese Army,” she says. “To belong to a people that has been deleted so thoroughly from history I think is terribly sad. My father and other traditional Hmong kwv txhiaj singers have tried to document this in their songs, the stories of how war came upon a people, how lives were lost, and how we stood up again.”
So kwv txhiaj is also history.
Yang adds that for many refugee children like herself, songs like the kwv txhiaj call them home and raise them up. And only a select few can do it.
“You cannot just be a kwv txhiaj singer. You have to be born with a gift because your voice is the only music accompanying your words into the world.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Myanmar Wants the World to Stop Using the Word Rohingya for Persecuted Ethnic Group · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Loading a truck with Rohingya refugees. Photo by Steve Gumaer. Source: Flickr, CC License
For human rights groups outside Myanmar, the Rohingya people are among the most persecuted ethnic groups in the world. But for Myanmar authorities and Buddhist nationalists, they are treated as illegal immigrants living in the western Rakhine State.
Myanmar’s foreign ministry is asking other governments to refrain from using the word Rohingya since it is deemed offensive by many people inside the country.
But last month, the United States embassy in Myanmar issued a statement expressing condolence to the families of Rohingya boat refugees who perished in an accident.
…we extend our condolences to the families of the victims, who local reports state were from the Rohingya community. Restrictions on access to markets, livelihoods, and other basic services in Rakhine State can lead to communities unnecessarily risking their lives in an attempt to improve their quality of life.
This statement angered Buddhist nationalists who organized a protest in front of the US embassy. They carried banners with messages like “Those who use the word Rohingya are our enemies!” and “Don’t meddle in our internal affairs!”
They insist that the Rohingya should be called “Bengalis” since they are “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.”
Myanmar Nationalists Stage Protest in Mandalay Against Use of Term #Rohingya by U.S. https://t.co/l7JvK3BLK5 pic.twitter.com/yQCMBSOnGj
— Zashnain Zainal (@bedlamfury) May 14, 2016
Nationalist protest rebukes US for Rohingya statement https://t.co/rGphUFYJn6 pic.twitter.com/AHpO0PoRwt
— eprp myanmar (@EPRP_Myanmar) May 5, 2016
The majority of Rohingya are Muslims who have been living near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border for hundreds of years. But the Myanmar government has refused to recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s ethnic groups.
Since 2012, several clashes between hardline Buddhist and Muslim groups have displaced the Rohingya from their communities. Some fled to neighboring Southeast Asian countries as boat refugees while many took shelter in makeshift camps.
Addressing the United Kingdom Parliament, Myanmar’s first ever Catholic Cardinal Charles Maung Bo described the Rohingya as “among the most marginalized, dehumanized and persecuted people in the world.”
His statement was reported by the World Watch Monitor website:
They are treated worse than animals. Stripped of their citizenship, rejected by neighbouring countries, they are rendered stateless. No human being deserves to be treated this way.
Scot Marciel, the new US ambassador to Myanmar, acknowledged the position of the Myanmar government towards the word Rohingya but stressed that communities have the right to be called by their names.
Marciel’s statement sparked angry online comments in Myanmar despite the fact the word Rohingya was not mentioned by the US envoy.
The Irrawaddy, an independent news website, published an editorial on the topic.
Instead of fighting over a terminology, it urged dialogue between Buddhists and Muslims:
…rather than arguing over terminology, it is crucial to initiate a dialogue between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority in Arakan State and negotiate a lasting solution, which would alleviate the everyday suffering of all communities in the impoverished state.

author: Mong Palatino


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Recent Rhino Translocation in Nepal Hints at Bright Future for the Vulnerable Animals · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Greater One-horned Rhinoceros at Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Image from Flickr by GrahamC57. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Conservationists around the world have a reason to smile — a healthy baby was born to a rhino translocated a few months ago from the Chitwan National Park to the Bardia National Park in Nepal.
The Chitwan National Park is home to the largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses in Nepal. According to the latest rhino count in 2015, the park had 601 rhinos out of the 645 in the country.
New kid on the block: Rhino translocated from Chitwan with her newborn calf at Babai Valley in Bardiya National Park pic.twitter.com/fl8eQBlx5x
— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) May 26, 2016
In the month of March five rhinos were translocated from the Chitwan National Park to the Bardia National Park which had only 29 rhinos as per the recent count despite being larger in area.
#Rhino on the road: We just get pictures & footage from a rhino-translocation in #nepal #worldwildlifeday #nashorn pic.twitter.com/nWjdFgIy0d
— Roland Gramling (@Roland_Gramling) March 3, 2016
The video below shows how the rhinos were translocated:
From 1986 to 2003, a total of 87 rhinos were translocated from the Chitwan National Park to other protected territories.
Some 83 were transferred to the Bardia National Park and a further four to the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in western Nepal.
The authors of a 2009 scientific paper “Observations on Habitat Preference of Translocated Rhinos in Bardia National Park and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, Nepal” noted the motivations for translocation:
Chitwan National Park had the only surviving greater one-horned rhino population in Nepal until the 1980s. To reduce the threat of losing this population to natural calamities, catastrophic events and poaching, rhinos were translocated to the Bardia National Park (BNP) and the Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (SWR).
However, most of the translocated rhinos fell prey to poaching that peaked during the period of the Maoist insurgency.
In view of such bitter past experiences, some conservationists and local communities in Chitwan have protested against the government’s plan to translocate a further 30 rhinos to Bardia in three years’ time.
Serious issues raised on Rhino translocation from CNP to Bardia, bad habitat for wild animal and free access for poacher from India.
— Ananta Praksh Subedi (@apsubedi) February 27, 2016
However, communities in Bardia were enthusiastic at the arrival of the rhino and welcomed the translocation team holding placards bearing the message “We can protect the rhinos”.
Moreover, according to the authors of the scientific paper, both Bardia National Park and Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve are good rhino habitats with surrounding areas that offer the potential to increase rhino populations in the long term.
Although the newly-born baby rhino has provided enough evidence that the rhinos, in the long run, will form another viable population in western Nepal, some criticize translocation for other reasons.
Dilli Bhattarai wrote on Facebook:
People, even wildlife Gurus and some animal rights activists, are saying this is nice news, great news…etc. Okay, may be it is nice news because the newly translocated Rhino successfully gave birth in a new habitat. But, have you ever imagined this pregnant pachyderm, who was going to give birth just few months later, had been sedated with drugs and loaded in the truck and transported into new habitat so far from the previous location? I am just wondering, wasn't that a crime against a pregnant animal? Probably, the Rhino experts will say it does not harm the animal at all. But is that the way you treat pregnant mothers?
The government authorities along with conservation organisations involved in the translocation and conservation of the rhinos need to address complaints such as this one through broad-based public discussion of the strategy and also ensure anti-poaching operations are strengthened in western Nepal.
Good management of habitats and effective public outreach is essential if the country is going to continue celebrating “zero poaching of rhinos in Nepal”.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Giant David Bowie Mural Unveiled in Sarajevo · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

“Fashion changes, but you will always be my heroes,” states the David Bowie mural in Sarajevo. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.
A group of Sarajevo artists unveiled a giant mural of David Bowie in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina May 28, recognizing the artist's contribution to humanitarian efforts in the country.
The Bowie mural is painted on the wall of a dilapidated building on the grounds of the Sarajevo university campus.
During the opening ceremony, the authors, who call themselves Team Bowie Sarajevo, also used stencils to paint Bowie logos on t-shirts for attendees.
According to local portal Clix.ba, this is “the biggest Bowie mural in the world,” 13 meters high and 10.5 meters wide (43 by 34 feet).
While this claim is hard to verify, the Sarajevo mural indeed looks much bigger than any of the “13 Of The Best Street Art Tributes To Bowie From Across The World” selected by NME magazine.
People at the unveiling of David Bowie mural in Sarajevo. Photo by Katarina Vučković, CC BY.
During the 1992-1995 war, when Sarajevo suffered a disastrous siege, Bowie took part in humanitarian actions aimed at helping its citizens.
Team Bowie Sarajevo includes musician Vedad Trbonja from the popular rock band Billy Andol, Marvel comics artist Enes Čišić, graphic designer and painter Zoran Herceg, as well as Mensur Demir, Aleksandar Brezar and Adnan Čomor.
They stated that they joined together to pay homage to “one of the greatest artists, who had passed away before any of them could manage to attend one of his concerts.”
Social media users have been using the #SarajevoBowie hashtag to express admiration for the project.
The mural site is part of an area that once served as one of the biggest barracks of the Yugoslav People's Army.
After the Bosnian War, the grounds were repurposed, used partly by a university, and partly by the new U.S. embassy.
Only part of the buildings in the campus have been renovated, and many of them stand as empty shells. Graffiti abounds, with other elaborate murals keeping Bowie company.
Part of the Sarajevo University Campus. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.
Part of the Sarajevo University Campus. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.
Another bit of graffiti on Sarajevo University Campus, unrelated to Bowie. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.
Stencils near the David Bowie mural in Sarajevo. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Global Voices Seeks NewsFrames Project Director · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

Global Voices seeks a Project Director to manage a new, two-year project with the working title of Global NewsFrames, and to support the Global Voices community to design and run research projects related to this work. This project, funded by Google’s Digital News Initiative, will create a digital toolset and editorial process for rapid analysis of online media frames and trends in the world’s media markets. This work, if successful, is likely to continue as an integral part of the Global Voices mission. We envision the toolset and associated staff to be a resource for the Global Voices community.
Media Cloud's Data Visualization Tools
The NewsFrames project will support the creation of a dashboard for research on global conversations, news and citizen media. It will produce digests of popular, important and under-reported stories by country and topic/theme and stories based on the data and on real-world issues that result from the research.
To build this toolset and editorial process we will collaborate with Media Cloud, an open data research tool that explores complex quantitative and qualitative questions about online media by tracking some 260,000 mass and social media sources. Media Cloud is a joint project of MIT Media Lab and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. See summaries of the project here and here.
Global Voices is a global, virtual organization, supported by the paid and volunteer efforts of people on every continent. The Project Director must possess a wide range of professional and personal skills to help the project reach its potential as the leading international network for the development of successful and effective citizen media projects.
Early prototype of Global Voices NewsFrames dashboard, by Sands Fish, May 2016
The Global Voices Project Director will be responsible for the following:
We seek a candidate with the following qualities:
To work effectively with our community and on this project, we would prefer that candidates have some combination of the following:
The Project Director will report to the Global Voices Executive Director and Managing Director.
The ideal candidate must have a passionate commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices. She or he will be joining a well-established core team who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of the world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have access to broadband internet connectivity and be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment. We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe, and encourage people currently contributing to the Global Voices project to apply.
The position is near full-time or full-time, but should be treated as a freelance contract.
Interested candidates should send a CV and letter of interest explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: adminjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org by no later than June 20, 2016.

author: Ivan Sigal


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Peru Has Not One, but Two Tours Dedicated to Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Corner of Colon and Diego Ferre streets in Miraflores, Lima, frequent streets in the works by Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. Photo by the author, used with permission.
Fans of Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa‘s books are probably familiar with the names of certain streets and parks from the Lima district of Miraflores that appear in his stories, such as Ocharan, Colon, Diego Ferre, Juan Fanning, Salazar Park, and Kennedy Park, among others.
That's why in 2011, the Municipality of Miraflores started a touristic route known as “Literatour“, inspired by the work of Vargas Llosa, who lived there for a time during his younger years:
‘Literatur: la ruta de Mario Vargas Llosa’. Se trata de un circuito que une parques y avenidas emblemáticas […] inicia en el parque Kennedy, el mismo que está ubicado al lado de la iglesia principal de Miraflores, luego continúa por donde se encontraba el parque Salazar y donde ahora se encuentra el concurrido centro comercial Larcomar.
Más adelante, el circuito sigue por la Casa de Porras Barrenechea (ahora convertida en Instituto Cultural), donde Vargas Llosa trabajó seleccionando los libros. Para terminar, se continúa por la concurrida avenida Larco, y el pasaje Champagnat, donde se encontraba el colegio del mismo nombre donde estudió el literato.
“Literatour: the Route of Mario Vargas Llosa.” It's a tour that goes by parks and emblematic streets […] that starts at Kennedy Park, located next to the main church of Miraflores, then goes all the way up to where Salazar Park used to be and where the much frequented Larcomar Shopping Mall now stands.
The tour goes on to [Peruvian diplomat, historian and politician] Porras Barrenechea's house (now a cultural institute), where Vargas Llosa once worked curating books. Lastly, it passes by crowded Larco Avenue and the Champagnat passageway, where a school the man of letters attended and now bears his name used to be.
According to the website of the Municipality of Miraflores, to organize the tour:
[…] la Municipalidad de Miraflores desarrolló una investigación literaria e histórica que permite involucrar a los ciudadanos con el mundo literario de Vargas Llosa, y a la vez conocer un poco más sobre la historia de la ciudad, al recorrer sus principales calles.
[…] the Municipality of Miraflores carried out a literary and historical investigation with the aim of allowing citizens to get involved with Vargas Llosa's literary world, and at the same time get people more acquainted with the history of the city by passing through its main streets.
This YouTube video shows images from the sites along the Mario Vargas Llosa Literatour:
On Twitter, people have shared information about the Miraflores tour, equally called the Mario Vargas Llosa Literatur and simply Literatour:
Lima ofrece un tour que recorre los pasos de Vargas Llosa https://t.co/DPT3L2i1FC Un Literatour inspirado en el premio Nobel de Literatura…
— Fabulosa El Tocuyo (@Fabulosa107) 25 de noviembre de 2015
Lima offers a tour that follows the footsteps of [Mario] Vargas Llosa. A Literatour inspired in the Nobel prize awarded…
En el marco de la 36ª Feria del Libro Ricardo Palma, se han programado 4 fechas del Literatour Mario Vargas Llosa: https://t.co/QB9ZudmZUm
— Muni de Miraflores (@MuniMiraflores) 24 de noviembre de 2015
As part of the 36th Ricardo Palma Book Fair, four events for the Mario Vargas Llosa Literatour have been scheduled.
#LITERATOUR Mario Vargas Llosa https://t.co/BHCkVqYZCz
— Carolina Leal (@Carolina_LealR) 20 de noviembre de 2015
Article excerpt: I can't help writing about Miraflores, Vargas Llosa once said . Discover the nostalgic tour that gets into the modern…
Tweet: Mario Vargas Llosa Literatour
Last year, one edition of the tour included a specialist in sign language for hearing-impaired people:
Acompañando el literatour Ruta Mario Vargas Llosa inclusivo @MuniMiraflores #SemanaInternacionalDeLaPersonaSorda pic.twitter.com/hBQxwhI2Cx
— Susana Stiglich (@sustiwa) 23 de septiembre de 2015
With the inclusive Mario Vargas Llosa Literatour. #InternationalWeekoftheDeaf
Miraflores isn't the only place with a tour inspired by Vargas Llosa. Arequipa also recently launched one that includes guided visits to Mario Vargas Llosa Regional Library and his personal library as well as visits to the House Museum where the author, who just turned 80, was born:
Entre las majestuosas fachadas de sillar que dan a Arequipa el nombre de “Ciudad Blanca”, la travesía recorrerá el centro histórico de la urbe para visitar la Biblioteca Regional Mario Vargas Llosa, y la biblioteca personal y la casa museo del último escritor con vida del “boom” de la novela latinoamericana.
La ruta Vargas Llosa es la primera propuesta turística de Arequipa enfocada en la literatura, y será una alternativa a otros recorridos más populares, entre ellos las visitas al imponente cañón del Colca, punto ideal para avistar cóndores, la campiña, las picanterías y la escalada al volcán Misti, que custodia la capital [del departamento].
Among the majestic [white stone] sillar facades that make Arequipa known as the “White City,” the tour will go through its historic center to visit the Regional Library named after Mario Vargas Llosa, his personal library and the House Museum of the last living writer from the Latin American literary “boom.”
The Vargas Llosa route is the first touristic project focused on literature in Arequipa, and will be an alternative to other more popular tours, such as the visits to the impressive Colca Canyon, an ideal spot to catch sight of condors; the countryside; the picanterías [restaurants serving spicy dishes]; and the climb up Misti volcano which looms over the [department's] capital.
Rommel Arce, the library manager, said the aim of the tour is to boost the number of visits to cultural centers dedicated to the author. The House Museum not long ago was restored and now allows visitors to take a virtual tour through Vargas Llosa's life milestones with pictures, videos and even a hologram of the author himself.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Russian Citizen Imprisoned for Filming Police Detaining Hijab-Wearing Women in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Salam Aleik

Footage from video of police detaining women in hijab in Isfara city of Tajikistan in February 2016
Russian citizen Oqil Sharifov, who returned to his home in ex-Soviet Tajikistan on vacation earlier this year, now won’t be going back to Russia until next year after a local court sentenced the 31-year-old man to a year in jail for filming what he determined to be local police violating the right to wear the Islamic hijab.
February footage of police arresting two hijab-sporting women quickly gathered traction on the Russian social network Odnoklassniki and YouTube, angering ordinary Tajiks in the majority Muslim country and earning the attention of local authorities accused of launching a crusade against Islam.
The man was charged with “provocation of enmity based on nationalism, regionalism, and religion” and sentenced on May 26.
Sharifov's lawyer noted that the prosecution justified the arrests by the police in connection with “cultural events” taking place in the city at the time.
Sharifov is one of hundreds of thousands of Tajiks who travel to Russia seasonally in search of work. Like many others, he managed to gain citizenship there.
His home city Isfara is located in northern Tajikistan and is known as one of the most devout areas in Central Asia.
A few days after returning from vacation he made the following video using his smartphone.
One of the detained women says on camera that they are being detained for wearing the hijab.
Sharifov comments while filming:
“Аврат мумкин нест… Мана бинетон. Мана ин государство!”
Look at this. A ban on the hijab. This is the government!
Tajik YouTube users were more concerned with the crackdown on religion than the fate of the citizen journalist.
Lyudmila Azanova commented:
“потом удивляються почему люди едут в иг”
Then they are surprised when people go to join ISIS.
Indeed, former interior ministry colonel Gulmurod Halimov, who shocked the world by defecting from Tajikistan to join ISIS in Syria last year cited the government's aggressively secular policies against Islam as the main reason for his defection.
Despite this, the assault on public manifestations of Islam has continued.
For the first time, the United States government this year added Tajikistan to its elite list of religious freedom offenders designated “countries of particular concern” following the rollout of the religious freedom report.
In addition to a de facto ban on hijabs (no legislation prohibits a person from wearing one) police have also been documented forcibly shaving believers’ beards, while Tajikistan is the only country in the world to place a permanent ban on minors attending prayers in mosques.
Currently over a dozen leaders of a faith-based political party widely viewed as moderate but outlawed by the government as extremist last year are awaiting a court ruling on terrorism charges.
The state prosecutor has demanded life sentences for several of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan's leaders, whose links to an alleged coup plot in September have never been convincingly presented by the government.

author: Salam Aleik


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Russian Newspapers Are Now Warning Readers About Russian TV Networks · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
When people think of Russia’s independent media, their minds don’t often turn to Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha Republic, located 450 kilometers (about 300 miles) south of the Arctic Circle. But it was a newspaper in Yakutsk and its criticism of the pro-Kremlin media that produced one of this weekend’s most viral images on the Russian Internet.
On May 27, an economics professor named Tuyara Gavrilyeva shared on Facebook a photograph of the TV listings in her local newspaper, “Yakutsk Vechernii” (Yakutsk Evening). In the photo, above the television program for the station “NTV,” the newspaper added a warning to readers. It said:
Будьте осторожны! В информационных передачах ТВ часто допускаются искажения и ложные сведения. Чаще других в этом замечены телеканалы НТВ и Россия.
Caution! TV news broadcasts often contain distorted and false information. This happens especially often on the networks NTV and Rossiya.
The Facebook post attracted almost 1,500 shares, and the image was reposted and retweeted thousands of times on Twitter.
В якутской газете напечатали предупреждение о том, что федеральные каналы частенько врут https://t.co/JN3eepcAgp pic.twitter.com/vtA2MblFx1
— Лентач (@oldLentach) May 29, 2016
A Yakutsk newspaper printed a warning about how national network often lie.
Gavrilyeva told the news website TJournal that she isn’t sure how long Yakutsk Vechernii has been warning readers about the dangers of watching news channels, but it’s a good bet that the warning started appearing some time after March 4, 2016, when NTV aired a defamatory investigative report called “Debtors to the US State Department.”
NTV’s controversial documentary targeted several popular media outlets throughout Russia’s so-called “regions,” in cities far from the country’s “center” in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The station took aim at recipients of loans from the Media Development Loan Fund (known today as the Media Development Investment Fund), which has received funding from the philanthropist George Soros, whose Open Society Foundations and OSI Assistance Foundation have been outlawed in Russia.* (In November 2015, the Russian Attorney General declared these organizations to be “undesirable.”) NTV’s investigation accused Yakutsk Vechernii, along with several other media outlets, of changing editorial policy on orders from the Media Development Loan Fund (which NTV equates with the US State Department, in a poorly explained conspiracy theory).
Immediately after the documentary aired, the representatives of four media outlets, including the director of the publishing house that manages Yakutsk Vechernii, appealed to Russia’s Press Council, an independent public board where journalists can submit complaints and resolve “information disputes.” On May 12, the Press Council released its findings regarding the NTV report, calling the broadcast “inaccurate” and “defamatory.” The Press Council also published a lengthy review by a media and communications professor, arguing that NTV went so far as to “distort” the very genre of investigative reporting.
After the program first aired on NTV, Leonid Nikitinsky, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, wrote a review in the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, saying NTV reporters used shady means of gathering information, which they then edited and took out of context. Nikitinsky also took issue with the basic premise of NTV’s show, which implied that receiving loans from foreign investors poses dangers to media independence. According to Nikitinsky, the decline of loans and the rise of direct funding from government-controlled institutions has been disastrous for Russian journalism:
По практике выходит, что на кредиты (без разницы, чьи) создаются хорошие медиа, а если по-российски на шару — тогда унылое … (ну, вы понимаете). И в условиях кризиса, когда у правительства вдруг является нужда обсудить с гражданским обществом не самые популярные меры, ясно становится, что площадки СМИ разрушены пропагандой или вот этой халявой.
In practice, loans (it doesn’t matter whose) create good media, but if it’s just a Russian-style free lunch, then the result is some sad piece of … (well, you get the idea). And in times of crisis, when the state suddenly needs to discuss not altogether popular measures with civil society, it becomes clear that the mediasphere has been destroyed by propaganda and these handouts.
Earlier this month, Russia’s Central House of Journalists named Yakutsk Vechernii one of the top ten newspapers in the country. According to the paper’s own website, it has a distribution of roughly 43,000 copies and has been in business since 1994. The publication receives no state or municipal funding and claims to be “completely autonomous, self-sustaining, and independent.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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The Meteoric Rise of (Recently Censored) Chinese Internet Celebrity Papi Jiang · Global Voices
Travis Meng

“I really hate my parents for giving me such beautiful face!” Screen capture of Papi Jiang's performance from “You have no idea the pain of being a beauty”.
If you're aren't active on the Chinese web, it's likely you haven't ever heard of Papi Jiang. She's one of the most popular online celebrities in China, known for her fast-talking satirical videos that mock everyday life, relationships, movies and social issues.
In China, such fame doesn't go unnoticed by authorities, however, and last month she was the target of the country's Internet censors, who took down some of her videos from Youku, China's most popular video platform.
Behind the Papi Jiang avatar is 29-year-old Jiang Yi Lei, who graduated from China's Central Academy of Drama. Her videos, in which she delivers comedic monologues or imitates high-profile figures or celebrities in her trademark high-pitch, rapid-fire voice, have earned her 11 million followers on social media site Sina Weibo.
Papi Jiang started posting videos in October 2015, and within months she became a top online celebrity. She proudly identifies herself as “leftover woman” (sheng nu), a derogatory term used to describe single women who are over the age of 30. Many of her popular videos center on the frustrations of young urban women in their careers, family and romantic relationships. She often curses and uses vulgar language in her performances.
Below is a typical video from Papi Jiang, this one uploaded to YouTube. The one-and-a-half-minute video is a satirical monologue titled “You have no idea the pain of being a beauty”:
The foul language in her videos is officially the reason why China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPRFT) took down most of her videos from Youku last month. The censors said if she removed her use of expletives, her videos could go back up.
Just one month before her videos were taken down, she received RMB 12 million yuan (about US $1.83 million) from a number of venture capital firms that invest in social media products. While some thought the SAPRFT's actions would hamper Papi Jiang's career, she still managed a few days after she was censored to sell advertising space on her weekly videos on April 21 for RMB 22 million yuan (approximately US $3.5 million) in an auction run by Ali Auction, an affiliate of the e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Since then, most of her videos have been restored online with the vulgar language edited out.
China not only has the world's largest Internet user population, but also the largest online video user base. According to Internet giant Tencent, the country's online video users reached 461 million by June 2015, and the video market accounted for RMB 11.53 billion yuan (US $1.9 billion dollar) in the third quarter of 2015.
That figure will continue to rise as the Internet population keeps growing. The China Internet Network Information Center's latest report shows that China had 688 million Internet user by end of 2015, and the penetration rate has reached 50.3 percent. A total of 90 percent of the users access the Internet via mobile phones, a device that favors the consumption of information through visual and audio means.
In the US, Internet content providers such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu have been producing their own programs in order to lower the costs on copyright licensing. A similar trend is happening in China. Internet content providers are now competing directly with state-owned television producers. Yet smaller scale firms find it difficult to make a profit due to the high costs of production, bandwidth and copyright licensing, so more and more production teams have started using Youku and Tudou's video ad space to boost revenue. Papi Jiang is one of the most vivid examples of this model in action.

author: Travis Meng


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Vietnam’s Growing Number of Pet Lovers Are Challenging the Meat Industry’s Treatment of Dogs · Global Voices
Loa

Photo of dogs on truck in Vietnam by Animals Asia. Source: Flickr, CC License
This edited article by Nguyễn Linh Chi is from Loa, an independent news website and podcast broadcasting stories about Vietnam, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
“How much is that doggie in the window?” That’s the song title and the query of the popular song immortalized by Patty Page in the 1950s, to which 26-year-old Mai Anh’s answer would be: nine million đồng, the equivalent of US $400.
That’s a lot of đồng for a dog, in a country where the average monthly salary is about US $220.
Anh is a teacher living in Hà Nội, the capital of Vietnam. She named her pup, a snow-white English bulldog, Bạch Bạch, which means white in Vietnamese.
I am willing to spend money because I really like this breed of dog. I got my puppy online. All white English bulldogs are very rare in Việt Nam. Luxury dogs in Việt Nam go anywhere from a couple million đồng to hundreds of million đồng.
Anh is part of Việt Nam’s emerging middle class, and expensive, imported dogs are their latest accessories. It’s a way for the young and ambitious to express taste and social status. The trend is also helping Việt Nam become more pet-loving, and thanks to the rise in the standard of living, the pet industry here is growing, fueled by a demand for premium pet goods and services.
According to Digi-escape, a Sài Gòn-based pet industry publication, the first pet shop was opened here in 2006. A decade later, there are now over 76 pet shops and vet clinics all over the city.
Digi-escape writes that the market for all things furball is still “small, fragmented and developing but with potential”.
Still, make no mistake about it. It’s difficult to be a dog in Việt Nam: They can go from being someone’s favorite pet to another person’s favorite dish as quick as the blink of an eye.
From “The Dog Meat Song” (or “Bài Ca Thịt Chó”) by Nguyễn Hải Phong to a rap song titled “Trộm Chó” (or “Stealing Dogs”) by Nam Lee, a number of songs expound on the ways dogs can be cooked or caught.
But a recent YouTube hit “Thịt Chó Không Ngon Đâu”, meaning “Dog Meat is No Good” by entertainer Huy JOo, is receiving love from pet lovers all around the web for its humane, though somewhat idealistic message. The song is a parody of the popular love song “Giữ Em Đi”. Huy JOo keeps the original catchy melody, while switching up the lyrics to call for a stop on dog meat consumption.
“I always remember my doggie, out playing when it was snatched. And I vow to never touch this delicious dish again, because I love dogs so much,” he sings.
As pet ownership increases, the dilemma of dog meat consumption is arguably clear. The ethics of eating any meat is hotly debated around the world. But it’s the treatment of these animals that is raising alarm bells.
There is a myth that the more pain the animal has to suffer before being killed, the tastier the meat. Some restaurants hang dogs, then bludgeon them to death to maximize the fear factor.
Methods of dog slaughtering can include anything from electrocution, burning, chest stabbing to throat slitting. A horrifying fate one can only imagine coming out of a horror movie is indeed the reality for many dogs in Việt Nam. There is no evidence to show how violently an animal is killed relates to the meat quality outcome, but watching this inhumane practice is heartbreaking.
According to the Asia Canine Protection Alliance, an estimated five million dogs are killed annually for meat in Việt Nam. That figure puts the small southeastern nation second on the list of Asian countries which eat the most dog meat, after China.
And not just dogs are being eaten in Việt Nam. Cat meat is also considered a treat in many parts of the country. Although it is illegal to consume cats, there are still plenty of restaurants serving cats in the north. A story in the South China Morning Post Magazine on the illicit cat trade quotes the owner of a restaurant located in Vietnam's Bắc Ninh province, saying
Everybody wants to eat cat now – it is more delicious and exotic than other kinds of meat, and some people are superstitious and eat it to bring them strength and good fortune.
Ironically enough, the restaurateur also shares that lawyers, policemen and rich people are the restaurant’s regulars.
The combination of tradition, the belief that eating dog meat brings good luck, and social custom will make it very difficult to wean people off the taste for dog meat.
Despite the many challenges, the animal rights community is growing rapidly in Việt Nam. Activists are becoming more vocal in the fight, not simply against dog or cat meat consumption, but against the larger issue of animal cruelty.
Catherine Besch, one of the co-founders of the Vietnam Animal Welfare Organization (VAWO) in Hội An, in central Việt Nam, says that one of the biggest problems is education. VAWO is amongst many young animal advocate groups who are actively working to make Việt Nam a friendlier place for animals.
She says there is a need for a collaborative effort between animal rights organizations in order to make animal welfare legislation happen in Việt Nam:
To get a grassroot social activism movement going in a country where people are into it but they don’t know what to do, two steps are needed. Step one: Love animal. Step two: [People say] I don’t know what to do now. The idea is to try to figure out how to bind them together and give them step by step results-based tasks so everyone knows what to do next. Get on the same page. If we are separate, we are a whisper. If we are together, we are a roar. We can make a voice so much stronger in that country.
Besch also wants society and the legal system to take care of animals, she says, so the rescues don’t have to. It’s the dream for decades and decades in the future, but it’s the goal that they constantly work towards, she adds.
The new generation of pet lovers who see animals as friends will serve as the driving force against animal cruelty in Việt Nam and push back the demand for dog or cat meat. Việt Nam is still a long way from becoming a safe and friendly country to pets, but changes are happening.
Listen to the podcast about the dilemma of eating dog meat in Vietnam:

author: Loa


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Europe Expects Big Progress From Angola Following Prisoner’s Liberation · Global Voices
Manuel Ribeiro

Marcos Mavungo with his family, after his liberation by the Supreme Court. Photo: Facebook / Revista Cabinda
When Angola's Supreme Court liberated the activist Marcos Mavungo, the European Union said the decision should usher in a new era of “wider tolerance” from the government regarding respect for human rights. In the communique, published on Wednesday, May 25, EU officials stated:
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of Justice acquitted Mr. Marcos Mavungo of the charges of rebellion against the State. It should allow further progress in the full and unhindered implementation of the rights of association and manifestation enshrined in Angola's Constitution and international conventions and regional human rights instruments the country adhered to.
APO – Statement of the Spokesperson on the trial of Marcos Mavungo in Cabinda (Angola): The recent decision o… https://t.co/EZvHh33Qzr
— Africa Live (@AfricainLive) May 25, 2016
José Marcos Mavungo was imprisoned on March 14, 2015, and later sentenced to six years in prison by the Provincial Court of Cabinda on charges of “inciting a violent rebellion.” On Thursday, May 19, 2016, the Supreme Court of Justice absolved Marcos Mavungo of the accusations of rebellion against the State and decreed his liberation.
Mavungo, who returned to his family on May 20, told the news agency DW-África that he would not stop fighting the injustices taking place in Angola:
The fight continues while there are more people assassinated and persecuted; there are cases of injustice, unjust judgements, theft of public funds, children who spend 433 days without a father simply because of the caprice of someone in power… I, as a Christian, faced with all those evils, cannot just cross my arms.

author: Manuel Ribeiro


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Farewell to Holly Betaudier, a Man Who Dedicated His Life to Promoting Trinidad & Tobago’s Cultural Diversity · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screen grab of a video by Nnamdi Hodge and Jo-Anne Ferreira on Patois speakers in Trinidad and Tobago, featuring cultural icon Holly Betaudier.
One of Trinidad and Tobago's most beloved cultural icons has passed away. Holly Betaudier (also known as ‘The Arima Kid’, a nod to his hometown) died on May 30, 2016 at the age of 91.
He was a television pioneer who hosted one of the longest running local talent shows, Scouting for Talent, which helped launch many a musical career, especially in the genre of calypso. He was also an aficionado of parang music and up until recently, hosted a radio programme, Toute Bagai (a Patois expression meaning “everything”), which was a platform for him to proudly speak one of the dying languages of Trinidad.
On learning of his death, netizens immediately began to pay tribute. Journalist and blogger Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar posted an interview he had done with Betaudier, calling him “diminutive” and “a giant of culture in T&T”.
Sharing Leslie Ann Boiselle's Facebook post, iconic calypsonian David Rudder said:
Rest in peace Holly Betaudier. You've given all that you could give to Trinbago. Thank you sir.
Popular local radio station 96.1 WEFM hailed Betaudier as “the original host of one of the best nation-building cultural shows, Scouting for Talent”:
Holly B’s love for local culture began in his childhood days in Arima. He became involved in media and entertainment in the 1940s at the U.S. Armed Forces radio service network, WVDI. He moved to television when TTT was inaugurated in 1962 and helped develop local entertainment and cultural shows that reflected Trinidad and Tobago.
“Through ‘The Eyes of the Nation’ Holly presented the real Trinidad and Tobago to a generation of national audiences, building bridges and creating understanding of the diversity of Trinidad and Tobago. There will always be only one Holly B,” the National Carnival Commission (NCC) wrote about Holly B, who is considered a ground-breaker in the television industry in T&T.
The National Parang Association of Trinidad & Tobago also paid tribute to one of its most dedicated supporters:
We are extremely grateful for his priceless contributions to the Parang art form, particularly for his pioneering programme ‘Holly's Parang Bandwagon’ which was aired on Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT). We are moreover pleased that Mr. Betaudier's legacy in Parang has been kept alive as the programme continues through his son Holly Jr. who also serves as the host of our annual Junior Parang Festival.
Former Port of Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing, on whose radio station Betaudier had his show, shared warm memories of their friendship:
Holly Betaudier was not just the person you meet and you remember for that moment […] Simple, sweet, and blessed with irresistible charm […] as he grew into manhood he looked after too many as he became the go-to man, if you wished to launch a career in entertainment. […] Holly was brave to a fault and it is this Betaudier brass, which created the brand – Holly B!
He created the bridge between his and successive generations and in his latter years offered to those with ears to hear, the opportunity to listen to his oral history on not only his, but the experiences of many of our early artists who painted the tapestry of life in Trinidad and Tobago!
Gayelle TV, one of the few stations dedicated to broadcasting local programming, also tipped its hat to Betaudier:
What sad news we woke up to this morning. Rest well uncle Holly. One of the nicest people you would have had the pleasure of meeting.#ArimaKid #ScoutingForTalent. #TTT #SweetParang. Thank you for everything.
Naturally, Betaudier's death affected the media fraternity very deeply; but his influence was felt in all spheres of the country's life, with both the government and the opposition extending official condolences on his passing.
Other Facebook users who had been touched by Betuadier's easy manner and love of local culture were also saddened. Brenda Baptiste said:
Trinidad & Tobago and the Caribbean at large has lost a great servant and gentleman.
Mark Owen added:
To say he loved our culture is an understatement…he was our culture…thank you for your contribution […] you will be missed…
On a blog dedicated to honouring the pioneers of broadcasting via the country's first television station, Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT), Beatudier himself recalled what it was like to be a part of that movement — it read almost like a final farewell:
Over the years, nearly every living room had a television set and I was very proud and honoured to have been the host of programmes that aired on a weekly basis if not more often. Our presenters brought joy, sadness, information, culture and education to the viewing public. The onscreen presenters were also known to the viewers on a first name basis, just like one big family.
And then one day it seemed like the whole world crumbled. There was sadness, tears and by God’s grace there was hope. No, the whole world did not end, just our lifeline, ttt, which was part and parcel of the community for some 40 odd years, came to an abrupt end. Competition set in.
We were first, we did our best and now there are many to follow. In the closing days there were many hugs and kisses as well as sentimental recollections and then we all went our separate ways. Some of us are gone and by God’s Grace some of us are still around. It was an end of an era – God bless.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Four Years and an Impeached President Later, Paraguay’s Curuguaty Massacre Is Still in the Shadows · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

A poster from the SomosObservadores campaign during a protest. Photo: SomosObservadores/Facebook.
The early morning of June 15, 2012 shifted Paraguay’s history. Sixty landless campesinos (peasants) — men, women and children — occupying a plot of public land measuring 2,000 square meters in the city of Curuguaty woke up to the sound of helicopters flying above their heads. Soon, 300 armed officers from the Paraguayan Army and police Special Forces arrived at the property, demanding the landless to leave the place.
It did not take long for the shooting to start. A few hours later, 17 people — 11 campesinos and six police officers — were dead. And seven days later, President Fernando Lugo would be impeached.
Almost four years after the Curuguaty massacre, the case is still dragging through Paraguay’s courts. Fourteen people, one of them a minor, were charged with crimes related to the tragedy, including criminal association, attempted homicide and the deaths of six police officers. Eleven of them are facing prosecution together in a trial that has been postponed time and again over the past year.
No police officer was ever indicted over the massacre. Not one person was formally accused of involvement in the deaths of the 11 landless campesinos.
From the beginning, complaints of rights violations have dogged authorities’ handling of the case. The United Nations’ Human Rights Committee expressed concerns over the investigation, and a UN rapporteur pointed to the fact that only campesinos were pursued for the bloodshed as indicative of the judiciary's bias.
Observers have indentified other inconsistencies in the official narrative. For instance, even though police officers claimed they were not armed when they entered the Marinakue area — the public-private land that the campesinos were occupying — photographic evidence proved otherwise.
Last year, on the day the trial began, 12 defendants decided to fire their lawyers, due to lack of trust, and asked for public defense instead. Their new defense recently filed a request at the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States for the trial to be suspended.
The land that the campesinos were occupying belonged to the government and had at one point been included in agrarian reform measures meant to more fairly distribute the country's land. Paraguay is the fourth largest soybean exporter, and in a country where 2% of the population owns 80% of the lands, the problem of land ownership inequality has only increased by the expanding soybean plantations.
But the government had arranged some sort of deal with a company owned by the family of Blas Riquelme, a prominent politician with the Colorado Party, that allowed it to operate on the Marinakue land.
At the time of the deadly police operation there, the Colorado Party was out of power for the first time in 61 years. They had been ousted by Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop who became the first left-wing president elected in the country.
Following the massacre, Lugo was impeached. His supporters say his impeachment was orchestrated by the country’s elite to stop agrarian reform.
The impeachment process was considered a coup d’état by other Latin American governments, since Lugo had no time to prepare his defense. And in less than a year, the Colorado Party was back in the presidency with Horacio Cartes. Curuguaty wasn’t even an issue during elections.
In 2013, Al Jazeera released a documentary on the subject, calling it “Paraguay’s Forgotten Coup“. Generally speaking, however, international media have given scant coverage to the case.
Two citizen-driven campaigns, “¿Que pasó en Curuguaty?” (What happened in Curuguaty?) and “Somos Todos Observadores” (We Are All Observers), have been trying to call the world's attention to the prosecution of the campesinos and the violations they say have been committed against the landless.
Last week, the trial resumed. Global Voices talked to the organizers behind Somos Observadores to understand what is happening now.
Global Voices (GV): What happened in Curuguaty on June 15, 2012?
El 15 de junio de 2012 hubo un operativo policial en una ocupación de campesinos sin tierra en el lugar llamado Marinakue. Las tierras correspondían a una fracción en disputa judicial entre el Estado paraguayo y una empresa llamada Campos Morombi. Este operativo se realizó por una orden de allanamiento emitida por la fiscalía. El grupo de campesinos reclamaba esas tierras para la reforma agraria, para lo cual debían haber sido destinadas de no haber sido por la apropiación ilegal realizada por la mencionada empresa. Los campesinos estaban en número aproximado de 60 personas y los policías eran más de 300. Al ingresar la policía al lugar se produjeron varios tiros iniciales, cuya proveniencia hasta ahora no fue identificada. Se desató una balacera, y terminaron muertos un total de 11 campesinos y 6 policías.
Somos Observadores (SO): On June 15, 2012, there was a police operation against a group of landless campesinos occupying a place called Marinakue. The lands belonged to a territory in legal dispute between the Paraguayan state and a company called Campos Morombi. This operation took place following a prosecution’s squatting order. The campesinos group reclaimed this land for agrarian reform, to which it should have been destined, instead of allowing the company’s illegal appropriation. The campesinos were about 60 people, while the police had 300 men. When police forces entered the place, a series of shots were fired, we still don’t know the origin of them. After the gunfight, 11 campesinos and six police officers were dead.
Weapons found with campesinos after the events in Marina Kue. Photo: Somos Observadores/Facebook
GV: What are the main grievances in the massacre’s legal process?
SO:
SO:
1. The prosecution has never investigated how the massacre began. Instead, they immediately publicized the version that said the campesinos started the shooting — a fact that has been denied by both the campesinos and witnesses. So far, no one has been able to prove who fired the first shots.
2. There is evidence that has not been included in the process and that could help to get to the truth (for instance, spent bullet casings from long guns allegedly found at the site, while farmers were only carrying shotguns from which no shot was fired, except for one that was later declared as stolen right after the events, and was annexed as evidence later).
3. The prosecution went after more than 60 landless farmers from a list of people, written in a notebook with pencil, who were aspiring to get lands; alleged evidence that got lost and, therefore, is not included in the process.
4. The prosecution formulated the accusation and then asked for the trial of 14 campesinos — two of them were teenagers when the massacre took place — under the charges of attempted homicide, invasion of private property and criminal association. How can you possibly ask for a conviction if you are not sure that the defendants shot? They are accused of invasion of private property, but the lands where the massacre took place belonged to the Paraguayan state. They charged them with criminal association for fighting for a piece of land.
5. The prosecution didn’t investigate the killings of any of the campesinos, and formulated a generic and unfunded accusation on how the farmers were responsible for killing the police officers. There are witnesses and evidence that some of the campesinos were executed, when they were already injured or were trying to hide. These cases were never questioned.
6. The landless farmers charged have been kept under house arrest for almost four years. Throughout the process, they have endured three hunger strikes.
7. The prosecutor, Jalil Rachid (today, vice-minister of interior), who has been in charge during most of the process, has close ties with Blas Riquelme’s family. In spite of this, the complaints against him were never pursued, nor the ones against other legal agents whose impartiality was in doubt.
One of the court sessions on Curuguaty case, on April, 2016. Photo: Qué pasó en Curuguaty/Facebook
GV: What is the official version presented in court regarding the campesinos’ and police officers’ deaths? Why was no one ever indicted for the 11 campesinos’ deaths?
SO: La fiscalía alega que los campesinos prepararon una emboscada para atacar a los policías y que iniciaron el tiroteo. Que las mujeres estaban presentes con sus hijos para “dar un ambiente de confianza” y que los policías entraran desprevenidos a las tierras.
No fue procesada ninguna persona por la muerte de los campesinos por parcialidad manifiesta de la fiscalía de los agentes del poder judicial que han actuado en el proceso (tribunal de garantías, tribunal de sentencia, tribunales de apelación y hasta la misma Corte Suprema de Justicia).
SO: The prosecution claims that the campesinos ambushed police officers and then started the shooting. They claim women were there with their children to give the place an “impression of safety” and that police officers entered the land unprepared.
No one was ever charged for the campesinos’ deaths because the prosecution and legal agents acting in the process were biased (Court of Guarantees, Court of Sentences, Court of Appeals and even the Supreme Court).
GV: There is a movement in Latin America alleging that the campesinos’ sentences are already decided. What do you think of that?
SO: Tenemos la certeza de que este es un caso afectado por lo que se llama “sentencia previa”, y que el juicio es apenas una farsa para ratificarla.
SO: We are sure that this is a case affected by what we call “prior sentence”, and that the trial is just a way to ratify it.
GV: The case is complicated by the political events that followed it — Fernando Lugo’s impeachment, the fact that Marinakue was claimed by Colorado Party member Blas Riquelme, the party's return to power less than a year after the impeachment. How can we interpret them from an outsider's perspective?
SO: La masacre de Curuguaty puede ser vista como un suceso desatado para dar elementos al juicio y golpe parlamentario al gobierno de Fernando Lugo. Se precisaba un elemento de shock para impedir reaccionar a la sociedad. Lo más lógico es suponer que no fue una casualidad, sino un suceso preparado de manera minuciosa.
SO: The Curuguaty massacre can be seen as an event orchestrated to feed the trial and the parliamentary coup against Fernando Lugo’s government. They needed a shocking element to prevent a pushback from society. The most logical thing here is to understand this was not a coincidence, but a success prepared in a meticulous way.
A mass in Marinakue remembers the two-year anniversary of the Curuguaty massacre in 2014. Photo: Qué Pasó en Curuguaty/Facebook
GV: What happened in Curuguaty also speaks to the reality of landless farmers (campesinos) and land owners in Paraguay. Can you explain this topic a bit more?
SO: El caso Curuguaty muestra de manera evidente la situación de la tierra y el campesinado en Paraguay:
SO: The Curuguaty case very clearly shows the situation of land and peasantry in Paraguay:
GV: This month the campesinos’ trial once again got underway. Where do things stand now? What can we expect from the trial?
SO: De los 14 acusados: Un adolescente fue condenado pero con suspensión de condena (es un mecanismo usado para una persona acusada que admite culpabilidad; en este caso, se supone que la admisión de culpabilidad fue inducida indebidamente). Una acusada adolescente en el momento de la masacre aún espera el inicio del juicio, que se le debe realizar bajo las normas del derecho aplicables a la niñez y adolescencia. Ella está en libertad condicional. Para uno de los campesinos adultos se separó la causa y debe ser juzgado en otro juicio, debido a que su acusación era por complicidad, a diferencia de los demás.
Así que 11 campesinos están ahora en el juicio. De ellos 10 guardan arresto domiciliario en Asunción, en tanto se desarrolla el juicio (están en un albergue y se mantienen gracias a la solidaridad ciudadana, pues el Estado no provee para sus necesidades). Un campesino (Rubén Villalba) está preso en la cárcel de Tacumbú (Asunción) mientras se desarrolla el juicio, debido a que en medio del proceso por Curuguaty le “resucitaron” otra acusación anterior por otro caso relacionado con demandas de tierras, y lo condenaron de manera “exprés” a siete años de prisión.
SO: Of 14 defendants, a teenager was found guilty, but his conviction was suspended (a legal mechanism used when a person admits guilt; in this case, it is assumed that the admission of guilt was unduly coerced). Another defendant, who was a teenager when the massacre took place, is still awaiting trial and shall be judged as a minor; she is on parole. Another defendant had his trial separated from the others’ because he was charged as an accomplice.
So, 11 campesinos are now on trial. Ten of them are under house arrest in Asunción while the trial happens (they’re in a safe house and living on the solidarity of their fellow countrymen and women because the state does not provide for their basic needs). One of the campesinos, Rubén Villalba, will be tried while imprisoned in Tacumbú penitentiary (also in Asunción) because in the middle of the Curuguaty’s prosecution, another charge against him — also involving a land dispute — resurfaced and he was quickly convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Black flags mark three years and seven months since the massacre (in January) and protest. Photo: Qué pasó en Curuguaty/Facebook
GV: How have campaigns such as Somos Observadores and Qué Pasó en Curuguaty been creating awareness of the case?
SO: Somos iniciativas ciudadanas independientes, constituidas por activistas sociales y organizaciones, que desde el inicio del caso hemos dado a conocer por diversos medios las irregularidades del proceso y hecho difusión sobre el caso Curuguaty. Ahora hay una campaña denominada “Absolución YA”, que busca la adhesión ciudadana nacional e internacional a la causa por la justicia del caso Curuguaty.
En general y en conjunto, hemos logrado poner en duda la versión oficial sobre lo que pasó en Curuguaty y llamar la atención sobre las irregularidades y violaciones de derechos humanos en el caso. Damos información y según las posibilidades de cada quien se organizan acciones de solidaridad con los campesinos presos y procesados.
A pesar de que en Paraguay ya se sabe que en Curuguaty NO pasó lo que dice la versión oficial, el cinismo y gran poder de los actores judiciales y estatales logra que hasta ahora esté en duda que se obtenga justicia y se investigue lo que de verdad pasó en Curuguaty.
SO: We’re independent citizen initiatives, created by social activists and organizations, that since the beginning of this case have been working though several means to show the irregularities in the legal process and publicize the Curuguaty case.
Now, there is another campaign called “Absolución Ya” (Absolution Now) that seeks national and international support in the quest for justice in the Curuguaty case. In general and together, we have managed to cast doubt on the official version of what happened and bring attention to the irregularities and the human rights violations in the case. We have provided information, and when we can we organize solidarity actions with the campesinos who have been arrested and prosecuted.
Even if in Paraguay people already know that Curuguaty DID NOT happen as stated in the official version, cynicism as well as the great power of the state and legal bodies still make us doubt that there will ever be justice or that we will ever know for sure what really happened in Curuguaty.


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Hindu Religious Leader Tells Child Marriage Critics in Trinidad & Tobago to ‘Mind Your Own Damn Business’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Child Marriage”. Image by Flickr user SAM Nasim, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
Child marriage, as it relates to the Hindu and Muslim communities of Trinidad and Tobago, is a law that has been on the books for nearly a century, but of late, there has been public pressure to repeal it.
Women's and human rights lobby groups — as well as ordinary netizens — deem the practice as child abuse, which they say is in direct contravention of the tenets of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory, and which defines minors as “every human being below the age of 18”.
In the latest twist in the controversy, Sat Maharaj, the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, the country's most high-profile Hindu organisation, had harsh words for some of the noteworthy people speaking out against the practice as well as anyone else advocating for the amendment of the marriage law.
He told Joseph Harris, the country's Roman Catholic archbishop who was critical of child marriage once the matter came under public scrutiny:
Archbishop, mind your own damn business. This is the business of the Hindu community and the state.
Maharaj also effectively told the United States’ ambassador to the country, John Estrada, to keep his nose out of the issue:
In every state, there's a different age and the age is as low as 13 in the United States of America, Mr. Ambassador. Cure your own evil before you come to tell us how to cure our evil.
Still, to many netizens, Maharaj’s rant was further proof that child marriage is indeed “evil”. Facebook user Mark Lyndersay commented, tongue firmly in cheek:
Because a young girl's agency over her own body depends on the faith into which she is born.
Blogger and Facebook user Rhoda Bharath simply said:
No. Words.
The popular satirical website Wired868 couldn't resist commenting on this latest misstep:
The ‘business’ that Maharaj is defending, incidentally, is the right for Hindu girls to be married, under the Hindu Marriage Act, from the age of 14. So far, so backward.
Now, in case you missed it—maybe, for instance, you were focused on the stuttering economy, bloodletting in the streets, judicial constipation, police disservice, or the ticking time bomb next door in Venezuela—the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) head Brother Harrypersad Maharaj revealed, two weeks ago, that local religious bodies rather liked the idea of keeping the option of child brides on the table.
In case of emergencies, of course.
Which kinda begs the question: What sort of problem, save for pending deportation, is a hastily arranged marriage supposed to cure in 2016? […] Does marriage really cover shame? Or merely increase the number of the humiliated?
The Wired868 post also picked apart Maharaj's justification for keeping the act as is:
‘[They] could make children though,’ said Maharaj, ‘with old men. Nobody locking up the old men…
‘When you are young, you take chances. And if a girl at the age of 14 took a chance and she got pregnant, the two sets of parents will come together, and they will give support, they will send them back to school. And they will take charge of the child.’
Wait… So your defence is if the police are not successfully prosecuting offenders of statutory rape, why not legitimise the act and allow them to keep their victims?
[…]
Sorry. No words. That’s exactly the sort of idea that, if you let bounce around in your head for a bit, leads to an aneurysm.
Diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch, however, was not in the least bit surprised. Citing the first and fourth paragraphs of Trinidad and Tobago's constitution, which talk about freedoms “founded upon respect for moral and spiritual values and the rule of law”, he wrote:
I have often read or heard in the media, comments by various people that Trinidad and Tobago is a secular state. I don’t know how or where that misconception came about […]
Morality is independent of both religion and culture, but in the minds of most people, morality is religion and culture.
[…] I hope that people can accept that Trinidad and Tobago is NOT a secular country and that religion is given an unproportioned weight in decision making.
Some Hindus were ashamed by Maharaj's statements; Shane Anthony Mohammed, in a public Facebook post, said:
What a damn disgrace to our ancestry. […]
He has embarrassed the Hindus of our country and further segregated our us by his insults and callous remarks.
#shutupsatmaharaj
But Maharaj also had his supporters. Leigh López commented publicly on Facebook:
I must say, I LOVE Sat Maharaj response! “Mind your damn business” #WhoVexLoss
The overwhelming reaction to Maharaj's statement has been one of criticism, but the battle lines have been drawn. As public pressure to amend the Marriage Act mounts, the government may very well be in for a fight.


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‘It’s Not a Compliment’ Campaign in Guyana Uses Personal Stories to Fight Street Harassment · Global Voices
Alex Abdelwahab

Screen grab of the banner image of the WITNESS Project website, which has undertaken a campaign to stop street harassment in Guyana.
In a black-and-white photograph posted in the bathroom of a popular café in Guyana’s capital city, a young woman holds up a sign that reads ‘Leave me Alone!’ The words ‘ey sexy’ (sic) ‘ah want kiss up them lips’ (sic) and ‘ey girl come sit down pan it’ (sic) are etched in chalk around her head.
Then comes the tagline — It’s Not a Compliment, It’s Street Harassment.
The poster is part of an online and offline campaign by the WITNESS project, a group of young people based mostly in and around Georgetown using art and media to raise awareness of gender-based violence and child abuse in Guyana.
The poster is part of a three-pronged campaign that is also using workshops and social media to try to start a conversation. Since they launched, they have received dozens of stories from women and even some men, WITNESS’s volunteer program director, Rosheni Takechandra, said during an in-person interview on May 28, 2016:
Basically what happened to them, how it made them feel, ways they’ve dealt with it and the results of that. Each story is unique to the person’s experience, but overall the harassment is the common thing.
Their Facebook page has attracted nearly 2,000 likes, with many young Guyanese sharing their own encounters with street harassment. Facebook user Shelly Harris shared her story:
I have faced down groups of touts. I stood my ground; looked them in the eye boldy and told them with enough venom to out supply a poisonous snake, not to touch and I would repeat as though I am just crazy enough.
Eventually, after some training, from the time I got to the bus park, I could hear one or two saying: ‘Don’t touch she.’
Freelance journalist Carinya Sharples, in a blog post, wrote:
I usually feign deafness and walk on. But words are harder to ignore – and my irritation levels vary according to the language, context and man.
In a video posted on the page, WITNESS project member Haresh is asked why — as a boy — he should care about the issue:
I think respect for women is vital and it starts with everyday interactions.
In the interview with Global Voices, Takechandra said that the group was initially uncertain how the project would go, especially as they were sending out young female and male volunteers to raise their voices on the issue:
I think it would be fair to say that it’s an abusive and a very aggressive culture, verbally, even physically and the newspapers attest to that when you see the level of violence in Guyana.
People would apparently often approach the group, even as they were putting up the posters:
We realized that lots of men were willing to have a conversation to justify why they should harass women. That’s what we wanted. We wanted to ignite and spark conversations.
So they began to hold workshops and focus groups to hear from men directly. Takechandra explained:
Men were saying that they didn’t know. Men were saying, ‘I thought women liked this. I thought they wanted to know how they look and about their body parts. I had no idea that women didn’t like it.’
Takechandra said so far the campaign has received more positive than negative responses, with many men saying they didn’t realize it was a problem and others promising they would stop — though not all the men they spoke with were convinced:
They say ‘I’ve been doing this since I was [little]. My father used to do it. My uncle used to do it. I can do it. Women like it. If a woman looks a certain way, she should know.’
Gender-based violence is endemic in Guyana’s culture. According to the website of Help and Shelter, Georgetown’s main safe house, between one-third and two-thirds of women in the country have been victims of domestic violence.
The shelter is one of the WITNESS project’s main institutional supporters and has a billboard painted on their building. The project also receives some financial support from the Margaret Clemons Foundation in New York.
The WITNESS campaign will be expanding its program again to include bystander training workshops — for both girls and boys — at several Georgetown schools this September. Takechandra said the group’s experiences have taught them that male harassers will often stop harassing women if another man intervenes. Eventually, they want to bring the training to every school in Guyana. Takechandra said that in each workshop, they will ask participants to take a pledge to stand up against harassment:
If it’s anyone who will change behavior and send a strong message, it’s the younger population.

author: Alex Abdelwahab


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Mexico and the World Meet at the Festival of Friendly Cultures · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Azerbaiyán, Tanzania, Libya, and the Dominican Republic, some of the countries represented at the #FCA2016. Image by the author.
Once again, Mexico City's Zócalo is hosting the Festival of Friendly Cultures, which seeks to build a connection between this Latin American country and approximately 90 countries from different regions of the world.
The special guest country this year is France.
Vive la France, vive le Mexique! / Viva Francia, viva México! @CulturasAmigas #FCA2016 no se lo pierdan! pic.twitter.com/D3ygdneSyv
— Madame Déficit (@Alessia_mx) May 24, 2016
Long live France, long live Mexico! Festival of Friendly Cultures 2016. Don't miss it!
This is the eighth anniversary of the festival, and it is described by the local government as follows:
Más de 200 actividades artísticas y culturales están listas para promover el intercambio multicultural, moderno y cosmopolita que se ha hecho tradición en la capital del país, del sábado 21 de mayo al domingo 5 de junio, cuando se lleve a cabo la Feria de las Culturas Amigas (FCA) 2016 en el Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México.
More than 200 art and cultural activities are planned to promote multicultural, modern, and cosmopolitan exchange, which has become a tradition in the capital of the country. From Saturday, May 21 to Sunday, June 5, the Festival of Friendly Cultures 2016 will take place in the historic center of Mexico City.
What exactly are the activities? The same website explains:
Con talleres, conferencias, ciclos de cine, clases de francés, actividades infantiles, sesiones de activación física y espectáculos de performance, música, danza y teatro, el proyecto llega a su octava edición bajo la coordinación general del Gobierno de la Ciudad de México.
Workshops, conferences, film series, French classes, children's activities, physical activities and live performances of music, dance and theater will all be featured in this eighth edition of the festival, produced under the direction of Mexico City's government.
The opportunity to sample international cuisine is one of the most popular attractions for visitors to the festival, which the Ministry of Tourism of Mexico City seems to be well aware of, judging by the following image posted on Twitter:
La Feria @CulturasAmigas la fiesta del mundo en nuestra #CDMX te espera en el Zócalo #CDMX ~ #Francia País Invitado pic.twitter.com/2aJn1VdsUb
— TurismoCDMX (@TurismoCDMX) May 24, 2016
The Festival of Friendly Cultures, a party of the world in our own Mexico City, is waiting for you at the Zócalo. France is the special guest country pic.twitter.com/2aJn1VdsUb
For example, at the United Kingdom's food stand you can find beans and sausage:
Te esperamos en la Feria de las Culturas. Reino Unido.
#culturasamigas #FCA2016
Credito: foto por #ukmx2016 pic.twitter.com/JPQKDJOIok
— Simply Sausages (@SausagesMX) May 21, 2016
We're waiting for you at the Festival of Cultures. United Kingdom.
For those interested in finding international ingredients after the festival, we recommend checking out the large variety offered at San Juan market, also in downtown Mexico City.
Events like the Festival of Friendly Cultures allow Mexico City's population and visitors to hear, taste, and see unique countries, and why not, build friendships.

author: J. Tadeo


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Professor and Political Pundit Kidnapped and Shot in Mozambique’s Capital · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Screenshot of Jaime Macuane from a YouTube video of “Pontos de Vista”, STV‘s talk show.
Expressing opinions about political life is an increasingly dangerous activity in Mozambique. In March 2015, Gilles Cistac, a constitutional law professor, was murdered in the country's capital, and now another academic, José Jaime Macuane, has been kidnapped and shot—but thankfully not killed—in the streets of Maputo.
Macuane is a political pundit on one of the country's most watched television shows, Pontos de Vista, which airs every Sunday on the TV channel STV, where analysts review the biggest events of the past week. One of Macuane's last appearances on the program was on May 22. The footage is available on YouTube:
Macuane is also professor at Eduardo Mondlane University, one of Mozambique's major institutions of higher learning. He was found beside the Circular de Maputo road with gunshot wounds to his head and feet. The reasons for the attack remain unclear, though a political motive is among the leading theories, given that Macuane is an outspoken commentator on politics. According to sources at the newspaper CanalMoz, he was kidnapped by men from the famous death squad that abducts and often murders critics of the Frelimo political party, targeting members of the political opposition.
Jaime Macuane is currently hospitalized at the Maputo's Hospital Privado. He's believed to be “out of danger” for the time being, says Celio Mabjaia, who works for the government at CNE and STAE Moçambique.
Screenshot from Celio Mabjaia's public Facebook page of Jaime Macuane hospitalized at Maputo's Hospital Privado after being attacked.
Mozambique is currently the site of immense military and political tensions. Amidst this general insecurity, the threat of kidnapping and murder has spiked—particularly for citizens who voice independent ideas and criticize powerful groups and individuals.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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Some in Trinidad & Tobago Are Royally Sceptical of the Tourism Ministry’s Soca Cruise Idea · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship at sea. Photo by David Spinks, used under a CC BY 2.0 license.
In the midst of an economic slump, Trinidad and Tobago's tourism and community development ministries have jumped on board — to the tune of TT$450,000 (about US$67,500) — a concept aimed at attracting tourists to the country's Carnival celebrations via the cruise line Royal Caribbean.
Dubbed ‘Soca on the Seas’, the idea to converge Trinidad and Tobago’s top soca music performers, Carnival band designers and other entertainers for a “Carnival on the high seas” was put forward by a Trinidadian diaspora businesswoman.
Despite Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe calling the initiative “simply awesome and simply genius”, many netizens remain unconvinced about the return on investment. Facebook user and political commentator Rhoda Bharath commented:
I waiting patiently to hear Shamfa explain how this cruise ship thing fitting into her wider Tourism master plan…because up to now I aint hear a word about her agenda for Tourism.
This going to be E.P.I.C.
The National Tourism Policy of Trinidad and Tobago — which pre-dates Cudjoe's term in office — pays a lot of attention to cruise tourism under the policy content section. It notes that the sector has “demonstrated substantial growth” and that it “is considered one of the most robust in the tourism industry given [its] […] capacity to offer a wide range of entertainment and recreational activities on board.” Part of the country's economic goals include “[making] Trinidad and Tobago a more attractive cruise and yachting destination”.
Update: May 30, 2016 — Social media user Zico Cozier, who works as a producer at a local television station, shared the audio of a never-used interview he conducted with Dr. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, the Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, whose ministry is co-sponsoring the cruise. The audio quality is poor, so is not embedded here, but Dr. Gadsby-Dolly did liken the Soca on the Seas idea to “the reggae cruise that the Jamaican government supports”, explaining:
It docks in Jamaica and […] they do sponsorship and signage on that cruise, so we are looking at it in the sense that […] the emphasis is branding Trinidad and Tobago, so even though they’re not docking in Trinidad and Tobago they have a clear idea of who is sponsoring this cruise and where all this music and fashion and pan and so on is coming from.
But the logic of the Soca on the Seas cruise remains lost on Facebook users like Jonathan Ali, who shared a link about the initiative and quipped:
Ship of Fools.
In a public Facebook post, Cozier agreed:
An investment has returns. What are the returns on this […]?
Meanwhile, the project's Facebook page already has over 3,000 likes and promotion for the event is in full swing.
Iain Waller, in a public Facebook post, thought it was a complete waste of public funds:
Our hard earned money at work. Well done. They could use that money to pay the rent on 1 Alexandra street!
His reference to 1 Alexandra Street refers to a multi-storey commercial building which remained empty for while the government paid millions of dollars in rent to the owners.
Rhoda Bharath also commented:
A Boat Cruise to save Tourism!
Some questions bouncing around my head:
Why Yuma [a Carnival band] alone?
Why not a sampling of both traditional and contemporary bands? So our Carnival diversity is on display?
And why a boat cruise that goes between Miami and Bahamas?
How will TT Carnival 2017 benefit from this? In plain talk, not Govt Minister rhetoric.
How does this initiative factor into a larger tourism plan?
How stupid do you think we really are? Again, in plain speech, not Govt Minister rhetoric.
#TreasureQueen
#TourismHasCoralVision
#DeViceCyahDone
Finally, satirical website The Late O'Clock News took a jab at the whole idea on the occasion of the Indian Arrival Day holiday, which was observed on May 30:
Minister of Tourism Shamfa Cudjoe has announced the successful launch of the government’s ‘Indian Arrival Cruise’. The government is hoping that the cruise attracts tourists who will enjoy Trinidad when we’re not partying. Unlike the controversial Carnival Cruise however, this boat cost nothing but a little integrity.