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Allegations of Rigged Ethnic Hungarian Voting in Croatia’s Latest Election · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

Promotional photo for the 2012 film “Talk to Me,” featuring Croatian-Hungarian actress Csilla Barath Bastaić.
The number of people who registered to vote as ethnic Hungarians dramatically increased between Croatia's last two elections. Why? Some say it is due to organized crime, citing intimidation and bribing to ensure victory for the candidate favored by the country's ruling party.
While election fraud had been endemic to the Balkans, it wasn't a major issue in Croatia's elections in recent years. Due to the deadlock that forces the winning conservative HDZ to form coalitions with smaller parties, however, the political significance of potential “swing” deputies was abnormally high in elections on September 11.
The Croatian Parliament is composed of 151 members elected to a four-year terms through secret ballots. Seats are allocated according to the Croatian Parliament's electoral districts: 140 members of the parliament are elected in multi-seat constituencies, 8 from the minorities, and 3 from the Croatian diaspora. The votes for the minorities’ deputies are cast by voters who declare themselves a part of one of the minorities that form roughly a tenth of the population (Serbs, Bosniaks, Italians, Roma, Hungarians, Slovenes, Czechs, and so on).
Election results for the parliamentary representative of the Hungarian national minority in Croatia. Screen shot from the State Electoral Commission of the Republic of Croatia.
Preliminary results suggest that Robert Jankovics, who is closely associated with the right-wing HDZ party, defeated incumbent left-leaning deputy Šandor Juhas, who has suggested examining alleged collusion with Hungary's ruling party Fidesz and its government. HDZ and Fidesz are both members of the European People's Party.
The website T-Portal's examination of Croatia's voter registry shows that the number of voters who identified as members of the Hungarian ethnic minority increased by 852 between the regular elections in December 2015 and the early elections in September. This narrow increase in votes by ethnic Hungarian voters affected the slim margin of about 300 votes between the incumbent leftist deputy and his right-wing competitor.
According to reports by the Croatian and regional news media, state institutions, including social services agencies, have preyed on some of the most vulnerable people in the country's eastern rural areas, reportedly pressuring groups to change their ethnic registration.
There have been other forms of voting irregularities, as well. Zorica Blažević, a voter in Kamenac, called the police to report that she was registered as Hungarian even though she is an ethnic Croat:
‘Osim obećanja o boljoj socijalnoj pomoći, agitatorica nije prezala ni od zastrašivanja. ‘Rekla je da će mi uzeti kuću i sina i da ćemo imati problema s policijom, a ja sam se onda uplašila.’
Besides promising to increase my monthly social benefits, the agitators also threatened me. They said they will take away my home and my son and that we'll have trouble with the police, which intimidated me.
According to various reports, a secret campaign using socio-economic pressures is underway against ethnic Roma. In addition to cash incentives, voters were also enticed with packages containing flour, sugar, shower gels, and chocolates.
Croatia's State Electoral Commission is expected to reveal the election's official results on Monday, September 26. It's unknown if officials will address the allegations described above. Though bribery and blackmail in elections are criminal offenses in Croatia, victims rarely submit official reports to police, due to intimidation.

author: Marko Angelov


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Chiles in Walnut Sauce: Mexican History in Each Bite · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

First Hot Peppers in Walnut Sauce fair in San Pedro Cholula. Photo taken from the Flickr account of Arturo Alfaro Galan (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Hot peppers in walnut sauce is the signature dish in Central Eastern Mexico and one of the most popular meals in the national cuisine. The dish is also a blend of the colours of the Mexican flag: green, red, and white. In this text, we are going to gather some expressions related to the dish's origin and, of course, to its ingredients concerning Mexico's national celebrations.
To continue exploring Mexican cooking (in the past we wrote about tacos de canasta or basket tacos and tacos al pastor), we now turn to hot peppers in walnut sauce, which are nothing more than peppers stuffed with meat, drenched in a special walnut sauce, and adorned with fruit. It sounds simple but the preparation is far more involved, and the meal has its origins in the country's War of Independence.
September is a special month in Mexico. This is because September 16 marks the beginning of the war of independence against Spain. On September 21 (although it is rarely celebrated), the Army of the Three Guarantees arrived in what is known today as Mexico City. The achievement of independence led Agustín de Iturbide, one of the city's architects, to proclaim himself emperor within a short time.
Tania Jardón of the University del Claustro de Sor Juana explains the beginnings of how Mexicans started eating hot peppers in walnut sauce:
Existen diversas versiones sobre el origen de este platillo típico de las Fiestas Patrias. La más popular dice que este platillo fue inventado por las monjas agustinas del Convento de Santa Mónica en Puebla, para celebrar tanto la reciente Independencia de México, como el santo del nuevo emperador, Agustín de Iturbide. Aprovechando los productos de temporada como la granada y la nuez de Castilla, las monjas agustinas prepararon un plato que llevara los colores del ejército trigarante: verde, blanco y rojo.
There exist various versions about the origins of this dish, which is typical of the Independence Day celebrations. The most popular version says that this dish was invented by the Augustinian nuns of the Santa Monica Convent in Puebla to celebrate the recent Mexican Independence as well as the saint of the new emperor, Agustín de Iturbide. Taking advantage of seasonal products such as pomegranates and walnuts, the nuns prepared a dish that bore the colours of the Army of the Three Guarantees: green, white, and red.
The same author shares this other version:
Otra versión, y más romántica que la anterior, está descrita por el famoso escritor Artemio de Valle-Arizpe. De Valle-Arizpe, relata que en el ejército trigarante existían tres soldados cuyas novias vivían en Puebla. Emocionadas por la Independencia y por tener de vuelta a sus enamorados, decidieron crear un platillo para engalanarlos. Cada una eligió un ingrediente que representara el color del ejército y encomendadas a la Virgen del Rosario y a San Pascual Bailón, se dispusieron a cocinar.
Another version, more romantic than the previous one and described by the famous writer Artemio de Valle-Arizpe,relates that there were three soldiers in the Army of the Three Guarantees whose fiancées lived in Puebla. Excited by the independence and the return of their lovers, they decided to create a dish to adorn them with. Each one chose an ingredient that represented the colour of the army and was entrusted to the Virgin of the Rosary and San Pascual Bailón. Then they set out to cook.
Writing for the website of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education,Briss Carrizo confirms these historical origins:
La receta original data del año 1714, pero no fue hasta el año 1821, cuando los insurgentes ganaron la guerra de la Independencia de México, que el chile relleno bañado en salsa de nuez se acompañó por primera vez con adornos en verde con el perejil y rojo con la granada, haciendo alusión a la nueva bandera tricolor que habían adoptado los insurgentes.
A partir de dicho año, los responsables de preparar los chiles en nogada -que en ese entonces se degustaban como postre- comenzaron a experimentar con nuevos ingredientes que actualmente se producen en más de 25 municipios del estado de Puebla como manzana, plátano, durazno, pera y nuez de castilla.
The original recipe dates from 1714 but it was not until 1821, when the insurgents won the war of Mexican Independence, that hot peppers stuffed and drenched in walnut sauce, was accompanied for the first time with green adornments made from parsley and red ones from pomegranate alluding to the new tricolour flag that the insurgents had adopted.
From that year on, the people in charge of preparing the hot peppers in walnut sauce, which from then on was savoured as a dessert, began to experiment with new ingredients such as apples, bananas, peaches, pears, and walnuts that are currently produced in more than 25 municipalities in the state of Puebla.
The website ChilesEnNogada.com mentions other ingredients that were used in the preparation of the dish:
Almendra, piñón, acitrón (biznaga), durazno, pera, manzana y plátano macho; eran los ingredientes con los que se preparaba este manjar que probablemente se comía como postre. Es así como la gastronomía poblana se enriqueció, obteniendo uno de los platillos más representativos.
Almonds, pine seeds, candied peaches (bishop's weed), pears, apples, and plantains; these were the ingredients with which this delicacy that was probably eaten as a dessert was prepared. This is how Pueblan gastronomy was enriched, obtaining one of the most represented dishes in the process.
Today, hot peppers in walnut sauce is served as a main course (not as a dessert) in restaurants all over Mexico—especially in centre of the country in August and September. Although its preparation is laborious and slow, it is served not only in places dedicated to luxury and high cuisine, but on medium-budget tables, as well.
On Twitter, people are fond of sharing how much they enjoy the dish:
Hoy fue un día hermoso porque comí chiles en nogada y vi a mis amigos y caminé de la mano de mi novio y me tomé mis copitas y me dormí 👌🏼— sof (@SofTellez) August 30, 2015
Today was a beautiful day because I ate hot peppers in walnut sauce, saw my friends, walked hand in hand with my boyfriend, had some drinks and fell asleep.
Abby Carrillo sent the following question:
Jamás en mi vida había probado los chiles en nogada. Probarlos me convierte en una chilanga oficial?😂😂
— Abby Carrillo♡ (@Abbyck123) August 30, 2015
I had never tried hot peppers in walnut sauce in my life. Does trying them make me an official Chilanga [slang for a resident of Mexico city]?
Fernanda Centeno shared the following image of this traditional dish:
Ya en @Grafocafe estamos preparando chiles en nogada. pic.twitter.com/KM5NBMJWRo
— Maryfer Centeno (@Grafocafe) September 7, 2015
In @Grafocafe we are already preparing hot peppers in walnut sauce. pic.twitter.com/KM5NBMJWRo
The site Chilango.com took on the task of checking out several places where this delight is served:
Salimos a buscar los mejores chiles en nogada del DF, ¡y los encontramos! http://t.co/8CFmNJWG8lpic.twitter.com/pZf5Ina9vN
— Chilango.com (@ChilangoCom) September 8, 2015
We went to look for best hot peppers in walnut sauce in Mexico city and found them! http://t.co/8CFmNJWG8l pic.twitter.com/pZf5Ina9vN
The exotic combination of flavours that hot peppers in walnut sauce is just one of the joys available to Mexicans (and their guests, of course) during the national celebrations in September.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: J. Tadeo


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Kyrgyzstan’s World Nomad Games and the Hypermobile Archer Who Shocked the Internet · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Photoshopped version of a TASS/Getty Images photo of Chynara Madmikulova using her feet to shoot a bow and arrow. Image used on Kloop.kg. Creative commons.
Now the dust has settled on the spectacular World Nomad Games held in Kyrgyzstan September 3-8, some people are beginning to ask whether an event featuring delegations from over 40 countries competing in more than 20 traditional Eurasian sports was worth all that money.
The Kyrgyz government has not disclosed exactly how much it spent on the World Nomad Games — and sponsors played a part in funding the games, too — but based on available information, their cost at minimum exceeded $20 million.
For a poor country with a reported deficit of school textbooks as well as a worrying external debt, even a few million dollars should be considered be a lot.
But then the games were an incredible exercise in branding for a republic that is little known beyond the tough-to-access former Soviet region of Central Asia.
For a week, at least, global media poured attention on Kyrgyzstan and the unique sporting spectacle taking place on the shores of its picturesque Lake Issyk-Kul, with even Great Britain's best-selling tabloid the Sun gushing: Acrobatic Archers and Burning Man Wow Crowds at the World Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan.
Of particular interest to the Sun, a host of other media, Twitter and the online community Reddit, was the achievement of Chynara Madimkulova, an archer who hit the target firing a bow and arrow with her feet while supporting herself on crutches.
Men on internet forums: “Women are inferior compared to me”
Women: pic.twitter.com/e6q8n6APDL
— David Rayfield (@RaygunBrown) September 13, 2016
The talented Madmikulova, who was captured in mid-shot by a photographer from Russia's Tass news agency, could hardly have been a better advert for Kyrgyzstan.
The image earned thousands of retweets on Twitter and soared onto Reddit's main page, inspiring a wave of furious photoshopping by redditors subsequently catalogued by Kyrgyz media outlet Kloop.kg:
Image created by Reddit user Mal3ficent
Academic Adrienne Mayor, who authored the book The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World noted the historical roots of Madmikulova's feat:
@simplic10 @semiotechnic tradition of nomads #AcrobaticArchery ancient way of terrifying enemies with riding and archery skills, not for war
— Adrienne Mayor (@amayor) September 15, 2016
More than any country in its authoritarian neighbourhood, Kyrgyzstan has made an effort to grow its tourism sector.
Initiatives such as Community Based Tourism — a network of offices coordinating homestays in rural parts of the country — and a government policy scrapping visa regimes with over 30 countries, have been rewarded with a rapid increase in the number of foreign visitors.
Only time will tell whether the colourful World Nomad Games was a worthy milestone along this journey, or just an expensive stunt.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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Need the Latest News on Flooding? In Jakarta, There’s an App for That. · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Feri Yadi, a resident of Muara Baru in North Jakarta, stands atop the seawall recently built to protect his neighborhood. He has little confidence that the wall will work as expected. “Like in the past, this will be broken somehow” he says. Credit: Muhammad Fadli/GroundTruth
This article by Chris Bentley originally appeared on PRI.org on September 16, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Like millions of Jakartans, Dedi Setiawan lives along one of the city’s 13 rivers, in a village-style neighborhood called a kampung. The area’s unpaved paths are jammed with people selling snacks and cell phone credits out of carts, residents hang laundry out to dry between bamboo shacks and small brick homes, and the river crossing is a wooden boat pulled along a wire strung between the banks.
Life along Jakarta’s rivers can be challenging. The city faces some of the worst flooding problems of any major urban area in the world, in part because those 13 rivers, often swollen by monsoon rains, drain into a dense urban area that’s rapidly sinking below sea level.
In 2013, rising waters sent Setiawan scrambling to the second floor of his house, and during the flood, he couldn’t get in touch with anyone to find out what was going on elsewhere.
“Back then we didn’t have the communication system,” he says.
But the growth of social media has changed that.
“Now we mainly use WhatsApp and Facebook groups to communicate with each other,” he says.
Word spreads organically — people upriver might text their friends a photo of flooding in their part of town so their neighbors downstream can prepare.
Going online for flood information is faster than waiting for official announcements, and residents say they trust the information more because it’s coming from a real person.
Fajar Inayati, who lives upriver from Setiawan, says during a recent flood her friends were sharing photos before the government could get the word out, and even before it hit the local news.
Seawater floods some streets in Jakarta's Muara Angke neighborhood even during low tides and the dry season. Most of the district's residents are fishermen who work in nearby Jakarta Bay. Credit: Muhammad Fadli/GroundTruth
“We were not at the area where the flood came, but we heard it from our friends who shared it,” Inayati says. “They were there, so I believe that the news must be reliable and factual.”
The social media posts prompted her and her neighbors to start prepping sandbags to keep the water at bay.
Of course social media can also be unreliable sometimes. Rumors spread fast, and even good information can get drowned out in the chaos of a natural disaster.
That’s where PetaJakarta comes in. It's an open-source, real-time, online map of the city that automatically filters Tweets about flooding to improve accuracy and fill in the gaps between official city reports.
When someone tweets “banjir”  — the Indonesian word for flood —  and tags @PetaJkt, PetaJakarta automatically replies, asking them to verify the tweet with geotagged photos. The app then combines all those reports with official data from the city into an up-to-the-minute, online flood map that can be more reliable than other social posts.
“If you have four people with photos at different angles showing one event, that's a pretty difficult thing to stage,” says Etienne Turpin, a Canadian-born designer and research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ‘s Urban Risk Lab. He founded PetaJakarta in 2014 along with colleague Tomas Holderness. Today they operate an eight-person team of mostly local residents out of an office in Jakarta's Guntur neighborhood.
Holderness and Turpin both study disaster resilience, and that's what drew them to Jakarta. Turpin says he once heard Indonesia referred to as a “living laboratory for disaster.” And Jakarta, he says, “is the sort of center of that laboratory.”
Slums line the Ciliwung river, one of 13 that run through Jakarta. Trash accumlated on the banks shows the high water mark during monsoon season. Credit: Muhammad Fadli/GroundTruth
By one estimate, Jakarta is also the world's capital of Twitter activity, which Turpin says makes it a goldmine of data, full of what he calls “human sensors” for tracking disasters and vetting real-time reports.
Compare PetaJakarta’s real-time flood mapping with the city’s standard practice of circulating static PDF maps every six hours.
“If you want to decide if you should leave work early to pick up your children from school, or check on your elderly parents, having a picture of a map every six hours doesn't give you a lot of confidence about making those decisions,” Turpin says.
It's about democratizing disaster management, he says.
“If decision support is just concentrated in the hands of the government, we have a bottleneck of information. But if real-time information is being collected, validated and shared, then we have 31 million decision makers deciding, ‘Should I drive this way? Should I avoid a certain area?'”
Given its speed and accuracy, even some government officials have turned to PetaJakarta. Soon after it went online, Jakarta's governor urged his followers on Twitter to use PetaJakarta to tweet about flooding.
Anto Sugianto, who works for the city in the flood-prone northern district of Ancol, says PetaJakarta has become an important tool in flood response.
During a flood in April, Sugianto says he used PetaJakarta to help city teams decide where to deploy pumps to suck water away from important streets, and what roads to close to keep people from being trapped in their cars. His team even contributed their own geotagged photos to the site while they worked.
Sugianto says Petajakarta has begun to transform flood response in the city from a top-down effort to a cooperative relationship between the city and its residents.
“It’s not only that the Kelurahan [district] can give information to the public,” Sugianto says. “Now we get information from them, too. Give and get.”
And PetaJakarta is getting noticed beyond Indonesia. Both the US Federal Communications Commission and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent have cited PetaJakarta as a model of community engagement in disaster response.
Aerial view of North Jakarta. Nearly all of the northern part of the city is now below sea level. Credit: Muhammad Fadli/GroundTruth
Of course, better online mapping won’t help actually prevent the flooding that plagues Jakartans like Dedi Setiawan and Fajar Inayati. That would take an overhaul of the city's stormwater system, including new urban planning ideas and investments in green infrastructure to restore some of Jakarta's paved-over landscape.
But as cities like Jakarta struggle to adapt to the new normal of high water that’s coming with global warming, online tools like PetaJakarta may help them live better with what they can’t change — and connect with each other while they do.
Read or hear the whole series: Living with Rising Seas

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Polish Lawmakers Move Forward With a New Abortion Ban That Critics Say Will Be ‘Hell for Women’ · Global Voices
Kasia Odrozek

Polish #BlackProtest poster. Photo used with permission of author Kasia Babis.
In the face of a “Black Protest” movement that has gripped the Polish Internet and several city squares throughout the country, the Polish Parliament voted in favor of moving ahead with legislation that would outlaw abortions in nearly all circumstances, introducing prison sentences for both women having the procedure and doctors who perform it. The lawmakers’ decision has already led to even more protests.
This Friday, members of parliament supported the controversial draft law's development, voting to refer it to a legislative committee for review and revisions. Lawmakers also voted to dismiss another piece of legislation that would have taken Polish reproductive rights in the opposite direction, liberalizing existing laws.
Poland's parliament is currently controlled by the rightwing Law and Justice Party, which enjoys the support of the Roman Catholic Church.
Critics of the push to restrict abortion rights even further in Poland say the new law would be “hell for women,” referring to a famous collection of essays by the Polish writer and doctor Tadeusz Boy-Żelenski, who in 1930 described the suffering endured by women in that era as a result of limits on reproductive choice.
Opponents of the new proposed abortion ban list several nightmare scenarios that would result, if the law is passed, such as forcing women who are raped to give birth to children, and even throwing criminal suspicion on mothers who miscarry naturally, raising police concerns that the miscarriage may have been deliberate. The one narrow exception that law would preserve for carrying out an abortion—instances when a mother's life is in danger—will put doctors in the dangerously awkward position of deciding when a pregnancy's threat to a mother's life is “direct enough.” Making the “wrong” decision in these cases could presumably land a physician in prison, too.
I say NO to prison for abortion, I say NO to #Poland where miscarriage is a crime #CzarnyProtest pic.twitter.com/B4fYUEqI2Q
— Ela Żywiczyńska (@rosiomak) 21. September 2016
Since Thursday, Poland's “Black Protest” movement appears to be gaining momentum, which participation online continuing to grow.
The backlash against Poland's controversial legislation is no longer restricted to Poles, either. Internet users from around Europe and the United States have joined the protest movement, sharing photos and posts expressing solidarity with Poland's pro-choice demonstrators.
Kasia Babis, a Polish illustrator, published a poster in English calling people to join the “Black Protest,” depicting some of the legislation's likely consequences. At the time of this writing, the poster has more than 3,000 “likes” on Facebook and more than 1,800 “shares,” including one by noted libertarian and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
We stand in solidarity with Polish women facing antiquated and repressive new laws #CzarnyProtest #blackprotest pic.twitter.com/TiZz8BXLiR
— Rachel Hamada (@rachelhamada) 24. September 2016
After the vote in the parliament this weekend, the left-wing party RAZEM announced a series of “Black Protest” demonstrations against the bill in nine major Polish cities on Sunday, September 25.
Wychodzimy jutro z domów! #czarnyprotest pic.twitter.com/o5Qro6Hsi0
— Karolina Kociołek (@karo_koc) 24. September 2016
Tomorrow, we won't just sit at home! #BlackProtest
At the same time, many spontaneous solidarity gatherings took place or are planned abroad, including rallies in London, New York, Vienna, and Berlin.
Family photo at the end of #repealthe8th #blackprotest at @PolishEmbassyUK pic.twitter.com/1cosItdUgh
— Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) September 24, 2016
Soli- Kundgebung gegen #Abtreibungsverbot in #Polen und in #Irland findet am 28.9. in #Wien statt. https://t.co/xkJg7c8Sw6 #CzarnyProtest pic.twitter.com/1sOYgONNm2
— dieSpielfrau (@VickySpielfrau) 23. September 2016
Facebook event: International Solidarity with the Women of Ireland and Poland
Tweet: Solidarity Rally against abortion ban in Poland and Ireland will take place in Vienna on September 29. #BlackProtest
The hashtags #czarnyprotest (“#BlackProtest,” found here on Facebook and Twitter) and #blackprotest (Facebook, Twitter) continue to serve as rallying points for dissemination of information about the protest movement.

author: Kasia Odrozek


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The Beginning Autumn Gives Japanese People a Great Excuse to Post to Social Media · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Higanbana (Red spider lily, Lycoris radiata). Photo by Flickr user resonanced sky. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
September 22 marks the Autumnal equinox and the first day of fall in the Northern Hemisphere. The day is known as Shubun (秋分) and has its origins in the 24 points found in the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendar.
The day holds great significance in Japanese culture, and—in a modern addition to age-old traditions—people upload photos of flowers, food. and pastoral scenes to social media.
二十四節季の１つ「秋分」になりました。春分と同じく太陽が真東から登り真西に沈み、昼夜の長さがほぼ等しくなります。秋分の日は「祖先をうやまい、亡くなった人々をしのぶ」日として昭和23年に制定されました。秋の彼岸の中日にもあたります。 pic.twitter.com/DaT2zT8pwp
— 神社検定 (@jinjakentei) September 22, 2016
Higan is know as Qiufen or the Autumnal equinox in the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendar (二十四節季). Just as with the Vernal equinox that marks the start of spring, the sun rises in the middle of the eastern horizon and sets in the middle of the western horizon. Shubun (秋分, the Autumnal equinox) officially became designated as the day to “venerate the ancestors and mourn the departed” in 1948.
The Autumnal equinox also occurs in the middle of Higan.
In Japan, the equinox falls in the middle of a week-long period known as Higan (お彼岸), which is observed as a Buddhist holiday, and families return to their ancestral homes to visit and clean the graves.
9月22日(木)は秋分の日
沈みゆく太陽を礼拝する事で、彼方にある極楽浄土に生まれ変わると願ったのがお彼岸の始まり…
秋分の日の前後七日間がお彼岸の期間となり『先祖を敬い亡き人を偲ぶ 』
ご先祖様のご供養におはぎを…9月に咲く萩の花のように、細長い俵型に整えます。 pic.twitter.com/PX0fgonB7x
— ちー (@blendykotya) September 21, 2016
September 22 (Thursday) is the Autumnal Equinox
As we give a prayer to the setting sun, Higan, when we pray for the rebirth of the departed in heaven (極楽浄土, Sukhavati, Amitabha's Pure Land), begins. The period of seven days surrounding the Autumnal equinox is known as O-Higan, when we “pay our respects to the ancestors and remember the departed.”
We provide offerings of ohagi (rice cakes) to our ancestors […] with hagi the flower (Japanese clover).
Higan is heralded each year by the presence of the flowering Higanbana (Red spider lily, Lycoris radiata), which flowers in the week or so around the Autumnal equinox.
And, each autumn, the hashtag #higan (#彼岸) trends on Twitter—the red flowers provide excellent opportunities for amateur photographers
お彼岸近し、咲き始め。 pic.twitter.com/TchCkruF93
— aiko☆papa 大阪&奈良で絶叫円陣 (@aikopapa) September 13, 2016
As Higan draws near the Red spider lilies are coming into bloom.
今日は9月21日（旧暦8月21日）の水曜日
「彼岸花（ひがんばな）」
秋のお彼岸のころに開花する花。
曼珠沙華（まんじゅしゃげ）とも呼ばれますが、これは天に咲く赤い花という意味です。◯https://t.co/OPnU64fISu pic.twitter.com/JweuQyr795
— 暦生活 (@543life) September 20, 2016
It's September 21 (August 21 on the old Japanese lunisolar calendar). Higanbana (Red spider lily) blooms around the time of Higan. Called “manjushage” (曼珠沙華), it is said to be the “flowering red blossom of the heavens.”
@26Heisei
こんばんは♪
彼岸花、こちらではもう咲き始めてますよ。今年はちょっと早めの
ような気がしますが…
後もう少しでお彼岸ですね。
暑い夏ともお別れかな・・
(#^.^#) pic.twitter.com/uQyVu4OpRJ
— emi (@Satuki_eys0510) September 14, 2016
Hello everyone, the Higanbana are already blooming here. This year I get the feeling they're a little early, and it will be Higan soon. Hopefully this will put an end to a hot summer.
Higan coincides with the fall harvest season, so typically fall foods, especially those that feature the newly harvested rice, are eaten.
お彼岸メニューはおはぎ
甘いんだからデザートだろうとオカズを先に食べたらお腹いっぱいで入らなくなった pic.twitter.com/nLjbnwesRV
— 犬猫烏骨鶏@切迫早産入院中 (@kawakamiinu) September 22, 2016
Ohagi are on the menu for Higan… it's sweet so I saved it for desert, but after I finished everything else I was too full and couldn't eat it!
While warm weather will continue in Japan for at least another month, Higan does promise that the cool days of autumn are not far off. And perhaps for some, the cool weather means cats come in from the cold to cuddle and keep warm:
お彼岸なので、猫の時間に来ました(？) pic.twitter.com/dMQ2M1zCC8
— 三ツ矢学は９／２８生誕 (@m1tsuya_0928) September 22, 2016
It's Higan, so perhaps it's time for cats as well?

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Animations, TV Shows, and Personal Testimonies Help Colombians Understand the (Possible) End of Conflict · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

“There goes Colombia”. Photo by Flickr user Lucho Molina. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Colombia is currently living through a historic process that could put an end to the horrific armed conflict that has dominated the country's narrative for more than 50 years. On October 2, 2016, Colombians both inside and out of the country will vote to either accept or reject the signed agreement between the government and the militant group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The negotiation process, which has taken years of complex and difficult decisions, has been amply discussed in the public arena, a discussion that reflects the strong divisions within Colombian society.
These opinions are a good mirror of each group's own context. In general, these point of views collide in rural areas, where people are for and against the FARC. In cities, views are conflicting — on one hand, there are those who have not been directly touched by the war, and on the other there are those who fled violence only to come to live in urban areas marked by poverty and exclusion.
In order to transform the debate and inform people about the peace agreements, numerous information campaigns have been launched, including the animated series “Dejemos de matarnos” (“Let's Stop Killing Ourselves“). Narrated by historian Diana Uribe, the series explains the minutiae of the peace agreement and confronts the fears surrounding the agreement. Uribe claims in the video how opinions and misinformation are affecting the debate: “People are not against the peace process, they're against the rumors about the process.” The series also link the Colombian process for peace with those of other countries, such as Ireland, Rwanda, and Guatemala.
Cada vez que los pueblos pasan por un proceso de paz la humanidad en su totalidad da un paso hacia adelante. No solo porque la paz nos engrandece como especie, sino porque cada proceso de paz es un aprendizaje que nos da las claves para el siguiente. Así como Irlanda y Sudáfrica le están enseñando al mundo cómo superar los odios y la violencia, así también llegará el día en que Colombia le cuente su historia a los demás para que otros puedan aprender de lo que nosotros hicimos.
Every time nations go through a peace process, humanity as a whole takes a step forward. Not only because peace elevates us as a species, but also because each peace process is a learning experience that gives us the keys for the next one. Just like Ireland and South Africa are teaching the world how to overcome hatred and violence, so too will come the day when Colombia will add its story to the rest so that others can learn from what we have done.
Other analyses of the road to peace and its possible regional significance were explored by the program “Claves” (“Keys” in English), in which different Latin American analysts compared the Colombian peace process with that of El Salvador:
Dagoberto Gutiérrez, a guerrilla chief on the civil war period who was a negotiator and signer of the Salvadoran peace agreements, said:
En la negociación se negocia el fin de la guerra, pero no el fin del conflicto. Termina esa guerra [El Salvador], esa guerra era civil que es cuando se enfrentan dos partes de una misma sociedad; y se abren las puertas para otra guerra, la actual, una guerra social.
What was negotiated was the end of the war, not the end of the conflict. The civil war ends [in El Salvador], a civil war in which two parts of the same society fight each other; then the doors of another war, the current war, a social war, open.
While Mauricio Ernesto Vargas, a retired general and a signer of the Salvadoran peace agreement, commented:
Es mejor coexistir que matarnos, es mejor hablarnos que ignorarnos […] No deben confundir [los colombianos] lo que es el proceso de pacificación con lo que es la construcción de la paz.
It is better to coexist than to kill ourselves, to talk with each other than to ignore each other […] [Colombians] should not confuse the pacification process with the process of peace building.
And Jaime Martínez, director general of the Public Security Academy and director of the Center for Criminal Studies of El Salvador, observed:
Ganamos [los salvadoreños] muchísimo con los acuerdos de paz. Como sea, con las imperfecciones que ahora tenemos e incluso con las nuevas conflictividades […] estamos mucho mejor que esa época oscura, terrible, de locura que había durante la guerra que vivimos.
We [Salvadorans] won so much with the peace agreements. With the imperfections we have now, including the new unrest […] we are much better off than [we were during] that dark, terrible, time of madness that happened during the war that we lived through.
The Colombian conflict has been characterized by a multiplicity of versions, histories and scenarios. It is a conflict that has had repercussions within and outside of the country. Colombia has the second-highest number of internally displaced people due to conflict in the world (6.3 million people, according to the UNHCR), and much of the diaspora who have gone in search of better opportunities in other Latin American countries have fled from either direct or indirect violence from the armed conflict.
Young people especially have been the most victimized. Video testimonies that have circulated across social media emphasize the fact that many of those who participate in the wars — no matter the side — are youth who are impoverished and victims of exclusion. As Leonard Rentería, a community youth leader, said in a powerful video, “The sons of the rich do not go to war.” “I Never Imagined Colombia,” a collection of testimonies gathered by Patricia Barón, Martha Lucía Jordán and Omar Rincón, recounts years of displacements, violence, wielding weapons and reintegration first person:
No me he olvidado del pasado […] porque eso son cosas que me han hecho madurar bastante. Yo te he contado que hay momentos en que me arrepiento de todo, pero es que no me puedo… me arrepiento en la forma en que ahora hay gente que prácticamente que lo ve a uno, y no sé, como todo extraño […]  Antes no pensaba lo que pienso ahora, antes pensaba que mi mundo giraba alrededor de lo que vivía en el monte y no miraba adelante nada, ni para atrás tampoco. Pero resulta que desde que salí [de la guerrilla] las cosas me han estado cambiando, ahora estoy aquí, con todo lo que he recorrido y he conocido, aprendido de las personas.
I have not forgotten the past […] because those are things that have made me grow. I have told you that there are moments in which I regret everything, but it is that I cannot…I regret the way in which now there are people who see me, I don't know, as a complete stranger […] Before, I did not think what I think now; before I thought that my world revolved around what I was living in the forest and I did not look ahead to anything nor behind. But the result is that ever since I left [the guerrillas], things are changing for me, and now I am here, with all that I have gone through and known, [and have] learned of people.
The debates and the polarization on this subject are centered around the vote that will decide the fate of the peace agreement. The campaigns based on a “Yes” for peace defend it with the idea that it brings Colombians a step towards a more united Colombia and that it can move the country past a war that has scarred various generations. Those who advocate voting “No” fear that the country is submitting to the FARC, that its members have places in the Senate, and that their crimes will go unpunished.
The number of voices across sectors that see hope in the peace process, however, are multiplying. Expectations are high that the agreement can be part of a process of forgiveness and reconciliation that will establish a more united Colombia. And it is hoped, likewise, that the agreement can strengthen relations with the rest of the region and help Colombians dedicate themselves to the biggest challenge of ending the conflict: the daily and collective construction of a long-lasting peace.
On September 27, we'll analyze the conflict's context, compare Colombia's current peace process to others around the world, discuss the upcoming referendum and talk about how Colombians imagine their future after the war.

author: Laura Vidal


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Jordanian Authorities Impose Media Gag After Writer’s Killing · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Censorship. Image by Eric Drooker. CC BY 2.0
Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar was shot dead on 25 September outside a court in the capital Amman, where he was scheduled to stand trial over a cartoon he shared on Facebook.
Government authorities have officially banned news coverage of his assassination.
The cartoon in question depicted a bearded man in heaven, lying in bed with two women, inside of a tent. God peers inside the tent, and the man asks God to bring him some wine and cashew nuts. The writer posted the cartoon with the comment “the Lord of Dawa'ish.” Dawa'ish is the Arabic language acronym used to refer to ISIS members or supporters in the plural. Dawa'ish and Dai'sh (Arabic-language acronym for ISIS) are usually used to negatively refer to the group and its members.
Hattar was facing three years in jail for insulting religion.
At the behest of Prime Minister Hani al-Mulqi, Hattar was arrested on 13 August for “insulting divinity. According to Al Jazeera, he removed the cartoon soon after, stating “it mocks terrorists and their concept of God and heaven. It does not infringe God's divinity in any way.”
Hattar was a staunch leftist, known for his controversial political writings and his support for the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad. The 54-year-old writer stayed in police custody until he was released on bail in early September. Despite the threats on his life, he was not afforded any police protection.
After news of the assassination broke on September 25, Jordanians were already expecting a gag order.
The standard procedure… don't address the problem, shove a sock in it
قرار مرتقب بمنع النشر بمقتل حتر
https://t.co/KrzKZuxnS3
— LumaQ (@LumaQ) September 25, 2016
Govt to issue media gag order on Nahed Hattar's assassination shortly. Because shutting media up is the problem. https://t.co/pUKkURkgCX
— Naseem Tarawnah (@tarawnah) September 25, 2016
How are we supposed to fight extremism if we can't speak about it? https://t.co/xQpWfHou7S
— Areej Abuqudairi (@abuqudaa) September 25, 2016
Sure enough, on September 26 the country's State Security Court issued a ban on the coverage of news related to Hattar's assassination. According to a statement published by the media commission, a government body that regulates audiovisual, print, and electronic media, the ban aims to “preserve investigation secrecy, and ensure public interest.”
This is nothing new for Jordan. On 1 September 2016, the government issued a gag on news coverage related to the King and the royal family, unless they are published by the Royal Hashemite Court itself. The ban came in the form of a 25-word statement from Jordan's media monitor and offered no details on how long the ban would last or what penalties would be served to violators.
On Twitter, Jordanians bemoaned the fact that gag orders now seem to be issued whenever something newsworthy happens.
@tarawnah 1. Something newsworthy happens 2. #UNITE #Weareone 3. Gag order
Repeat
— Nickolas Neibauer (@NickNeibauer) September 25, 2016
The local online magazine 7iber counted 15 gag orders between early 2014 and mid-August 2016. The list includes the gag order issued on the case brought by Jordanian authorities against Hattar, the day after his arrest.
In another example, on 28 August 2016, authorities banned coverage of the detention of a preacher for posting on Facebook a video critical of Amman's participation in the US-led military campaign against ISIS.
Though the Jordanian government was quick to condemn his assassination describing it as an “ugly crime”, critics say that it is also partially to blame for bringing the case against the writer in the first place, and for not investigating threats against his life.
Jordanian writer and editor Naseem Tarawnah tweeted:
Say what you will about Hattar, but his killing is a reminder of the real state of free speech, expression, and media in #Jordan.
— Naseem Tarawnah (@tarawnah) September 25, 2016
In an editorial mourning the loss of Hattar published yesterday, 7iber wrote:
If blood stains the hands of Hattar’s assassin who fired four shots at him, then the hands of the state and instigators are not clean either…Incitement against the murdered writer started on social media and other platforms, with threats to kill him published and delivered to him. This did not warrant “an order to investigate” nor did it initiate any legal case against the instigators…If this weren’t the same government that initiated Hattar’s trial, we might have been able to describe its role as negligent or complacent. But when its popularity and its acceptance by some is considered more important than protecting the life of one of its citizens, then its responsibility regarding this crime becomes much more significant.
The Committee to Protect Journalists described the writer's murder as the “result of lack of commitment to freedom of expression by Jordanian authorities,” and called on the government to “to bring the killer to justice and to change its approach to freedom of the press to foster openness and protection for critical voices.”
Today's gag order indicates that the Jordanian government is not planning to liberalize its free speech or censorship policies anytime soon.

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Macedonian ‘Colorful Revolution’ Rallies to Defend Special Prosecutor’s Office · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

“VMRO, we have a problem”—a poster featuring Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva and high party officials Ilija Dimovski MP, former ministers Gordana Jankuloska and Mile Janakieski, and former PM Nikola Gruevski. Poster by Zoran Kardula, used with permission.
Activists of the “Colorful Revolution” movement have announced a new demonstration planned to take plan in front of the parliament building in Skopje on Monday, September 28, in support of the Special Prosecutor's Office (SPO).
After months of preparation and no small amount of time lost to legalistic sabotages and obstructions by the ruling parties, VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, Macedonia's special prosecutor finally pressed charges against top ruling party officials and state authorities in two cases launched on September 15.
As explained by Special Prosecutor Fatime Fetai, one indictment concerns the destruction of documents related to illegal wiretapping equipment, while the other indictment concerns violence outside the Centar municipality, which occurred in June 2013.
In 2015, Macedonia's political opposition published a selection of leaked audio recordings that suggest the country's intelligence services had illegally wiretapped a range of people. In the conversations, some of the country's ruling elite seem to implicate themselves in acts of corruption. One such instance was the 2013 mob violence in Centar, which happened while the local council was debating a zoning issue that would affect top politicians’ profit margins. In one of the leaked recordings, Macedonia's then-prime minister can be heard allegedly admitting that the mob was organized on his orders.
The revelations accelerated an already simmering political crisis, and the SPO was formed as part of an European Union and United States-brokered agreement to bring an end to the stalemate.
Lawmakers’ efforts to delay the proceedings have continued, including asking SPO chief Katica Janeva a barrage of diversionary questions at her recent annual report presentation, including demands that she account for minute details in office expense reports. During formal sessions, members of parliament have also openly insulted and threatened her, in an apparent attempt to intimidate her into dropping the charges against the ruling parties.
“You have kept me here for three days deliberately and will not let me work. For three days, I've sat here and answered the same questions. You are deliberately keeping me here so that I can not work,” Janeva told Member of Parliament Krste Mukoski, who accused the SPO chief of being incompetent and not knowing how to run her agency, Meta.mk reported.
Many of the members of parliament in question have a clear conflict of interest, considering that their voices can be heard in a published sample of the leaked wiretaps, which serve as evidence in the SPO's investigation.
After the first day of the hearings, deputies from VMRO-DPMNE and DUI banned live television coverage, despite apparent legal requirements that the session remain open to the public. Meanwhile, Janeva has endured the hearings, despite reported health problems.
Криминалот нема да исчезне само затоа што обвинителката носи чипка. #ВоЗатвор 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 @GMihajlovski https://t.co/Tj8aNSVRVT
— Batakoja (@batakoja) September 24, 2016
Record of crime will not disappear just because the prosecutor wore a lace top. #PutCriminalsInJail
Harassing Janeva might have backfired, however, cultivating the public perception that lawmakers are acting like “hysterical bullies” and shaming the country.
In the mainstream media, largely controlled by the ruling parties, the SPO has been the target of relentlessly negative coverage.
Едно сиже од птичја перспектива за овие 2 дена: се изнагледавме одвратна карикатура на парламент. Институција која дпмне ја усовршува 10 год
— 42 (@forty_tw0) September 23, 2016
A bird's-eye view summary of these two days: we could see a repulsive caricature of a parliament. An institution perfected by DPMNE over the last ten years.
Janeva's supporters have eagerly promoted the demonstration planned by the “Colorful Revolution” movement, sharing information about the event since Friday, September 23, and sharing it hundreds of times among each other on Facebook:
Соборци и соборки,
Ве повикуваме во Понеделник, на 26.09.2016, во 17 часот пред Собранието на Република Македонија на јавен собир за поддршка на СЈО.
По летните одмори, СЈО повторно е под каконада на режимските глсноговорници. Периодов во Собранието и по медиумите под контрола на обвинетиот груевски можеме да забележиме вистински линч и пропаганда против Катица Јанева и целото СЈО.
Истовремено, власта со кој се уште управува обвинетиот груевски ја користи секоја прилика за да ја блокира работата на оваа институција.
Судиите од тефтерот на горде продолжуваат да ги одбиваат барањата за притвор, го укинаа единственото кое беше прифатено и го вратија едниот Обвинителен предлог кој СЈО го поднесе до кривичното одделение, поради причина која не им е проблем кога постапуваат по предметите на зврлевски.
Уставниот суд се уште нема закажано седница на која ќе се разгледува Иницијативата за уставноста на СЈО.
Пратениците од ДПМНЕ одбиваат секаква поддршка за СЈО. Одбиваат да ги донесат потребните законски измени за заштита на сведоци и свиркачи, одбиваат да го продолжат рокот за работење на СЈО, а собраниската говорница ја користат исклучиво за дискредитација на Катица Јанева и институцијата која ја претставува.
Владата зад која се уште стои обвинетиот груевски, продолжува да остава на високи функции луѓе кои се под истрага за сериозни кривични дела од страна на СЈО.
На СЈО повторно му е потребна нашата помош. Не смееме да дозволиме режимот да помисли дека оваа институција барем за момент е без силната, здружена и одлучна поддршка на граѓаните!
Се додека нема правда, НЕМА ДА ИМА МИР!!!
Dear brothers and sisters-in-arms,
We call upon you to gather at 5:00 p.m. on September 26, 2016, in front of the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia for a public rally in support of the SPO.
After the summer holidays, SPO is again under a barrage of fire by the regime's mouthpieces. We're witnessing a true lynching of and propaganda against Katica Janeva and the whole SPO in the Assembly and the media under control of the indicted Gruevski.
Simultaneously, the government still ruled by the indicted Gruevski uses all opportunities to block the work of this institution.
The corrupt judges who owe their posts to the ruling party refuse the SPO's requests for detention of suspects. They also suspended the single house arrest of SPO suspect and the refused to proceed with criminal prosecution in another case, citing reasons that have not been a problem when responding to the cases of the [non-special] Public Prosecutor Zvrlevski.
The Constitutional Court has still not scheduled a session to decide on the constitutionality of the SPO.
The MPs of [VMRO-]DPMNE refuse to provide any support to the SPO. They refuse to adopt the necessary legislation for the protection of witnesses and whistleblowers; they refuse to extend the deadline for its mandate; and they use the parliament's pulpit for their attempts to discredit Katica Janeva and the institutions she represents.
The government, which still stands behind the indicted Gruevski, continues to appoint persons under investigation by the SPO to high public offices.
The SPO needs our help again. We must not let the regime think that this is institution, even for a moment, is left without the strong, joint, and decisive support by the citizens!
As long as there's no justice, there will be no peace!
According to a poll in April conducted by the US-government-funded International Republican Institute, 63 percent of the nation supported the work being carried out by the Special Prosecutor's Office.

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
This Soviet Cartoon Was Too Much for Romania’s Communist Censors · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A scene from an episode of the Soviet cartoon “Nu Pogodi” not approved by Communist Romanian censors.
According to the documentary “Chuck Norris vs Communism,” Romania's state censorship actually deleted scenes from the classic Soviet cartoon “Nu Pogodi” before broadcasting it on state TV during the 1980s. For instance, in the first scene of the second episode, the Rabbit carries three balloons: red, blue, and yellow. Because they matched the colors of the Romanian flag, censors cut out the scene to avoid associations about Soviet dominance over Romania.
“Nu Pogodi” (“Well, Just You Wait!” or “I'll get you!”) is probably the Soviet Union's best-loved, most famous cartoon. Produced in Russia by Moscow-based Soyuzmultfilm, it featured two main characters inspired by Tom and Jerry: the ‘hooligan” Wolf and the goody two shoes Rabbit. Today and on YouTube, it remains popular across the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, as well as in the former Yugoslavia.
While Romania was indeed a Soviet satellite state, the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu tried to maintain the perception that his government was in charge, and that his brand of Communism, which included Romanian nationalism, was “the best.” Other instances spurring censorship highlighted in the “Chuck Norris” documentary included deleting scenes of abundant food (banned because of shortages in most consumer products, thanks to the shortcomings of Communism's planned economy).
Soyuzmultfilm has published all the “Nu, pogodi!” episodes online on YouTube, including a 2014 reboot. (These videos cannot be embedded outside YouTube, however.)
“Nu, pogodi!” was created in the traditions of Disney and Warner Bros. For other of cartoons made behind the Iron Curtain, check out more examples from Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary.


text:
Two Years and Still No Justice, but Mexico Has Not Forgotten Ayotzinapa’s Students · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

“Alive they took them away, alive we want them back” Memorial to the students who were victims of a forced disappearance, located in the Reform Promenade in Mexico City. Image by author and published with permission.
September 26, 2016 marks the two-year anniversary of a series of violent acts in which a group of students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College – with its headquarters in Ayotzinapa, in the western Mexican state of Guerrero – were deprived of their freedom by local police and later handed over to an armed group identified as the Guerreros Unidos, or “United Guerreros” (a play on words, as guerreros also means “warriors” in Spanish). The Ayotzinapa case – as this tragic series of events is known – remains unpunished.
The forced disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa marked the start of President Enrique Peña Nieto's fall in popularity and was followed by a series of high-profile corruption and/or conflict of interest scandals that implicated the president and his closest partners. Added to these scandals was the discovery of other violent events in which government forces committed extrajudicial executions of civilians, such as the Tlatlaya case and the Apatzingán Massacre, to mention only a few.
Twenty-four months have passed since the students disappeared. Two different people have headed the office of the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR, in Spanish), an office that is part of the Public Ministry (Mexico's prosecuting authority) and conducts investigations. More than 110 people have found themselves subjected to preventative detention, accused of being involved in the Ayotzinapa case, and not a single one has been declared criminally responsible, that is to say, condemned by a judge.
Instituciones mexicanas nivel: 111 detenidos en caso #Ayotzinapa y nadie sabe a ciencia cierta qué fue lo que pasó. Qué estúpido no?
— La Jous (@LaJousT) September 28, 2015
Mexican institutions’ standard: 111 detained in the #Ayotzinapa case and no one knows for sure what actually happened. How stupid, right?
Perhaps the most important news in the days leading up to Ayotzinapa's second anniversary is the resignation of Tomás Zerón, who occupied the post of director in chief for Mexico's Criminal Investigation Agency. Zerón found himself in the cross hairs of both the missing students’ families and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which helped in the investigation's inquiry and was appointed by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.
Their complaints against him were based on a video that circulated in which Zerón is seen wandering around the place where, according to the official version, the students’ remains were burned. It is also believed that Zerón “sowed” evidence intentionally so that it would be found by experts who were working in the area.
Zerón's resignation has been demanded by the families of those who disappeared and by Vidulfo Rosales, who acts as their legal adviser:
Exigimos la renuncia de Tomás Zerón, por manipular la evidencia en el Río San Juan, Cocula.
— Vidulfo Rosales (@VidulfoRosales) September 6, 2016
We demand the resignation of Tomás Zerón for manipulating the evidence in the San Juan River, in Cocula.
In the maelstrom of indignation, and perhaps in trying to keep the symbolism of the now emblematic number 43, hardly anyone talks about the other victims of that bloody day. These victims are people who, although they did not suffer from forced disappearances, were still severely wounded from the violence.
Such is the case with a student by the name of Aldo Gutiérrez Solano, whose story was referred to on the Latin Times’ website:
Aldo Gutiérrez Solano es uno de los estudiantes de la Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos que [resultó] herido la noche del 26 de Septiembre de 2014 en Iguala. El caso Ayotzinapa causó indignación en todo México y el extranjero, no solo fueron los 43 estudiantes desaparecidos y posiblemente asesinados cruelmente por un grupo delictivo y los oficiales locales de Guerrero, sino también cuentan los que murieron esa noche y los heridos que siguen sufriendo la indiferencia y poca consideración por parte de las autoridades federales.
Aldo Gutiérrez Solano is one of the students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College who [was] wounded the night of September 26, 2014, in Iguala. The Ayotzinapa case caused outrage throughout all of Mexico and abroad, [not only for] the 43 students who have disappeared and possibly been cruelly murdered by a criminal group and local Guerrero officials, but also [for] those who died that night and those who were injured and continue to suffer from the indifference and little consideration from the federal authorities.
In August 2016, it was reported that student Aldo Gutiérrez was hit that fateful night by a projectile (bullet) that destroyed 65% of his brain. According to the neurological expert who has traveled from Cuba to attend to him, he remains in a “vegetative state” with little chance of recovery.
Thus, two years after the forced disappearance of the 43 students by government forces and the injuries caused to others, the Attorney General of Mexico (PGR), now headed by Arely Gómez (a member of the same party as President Peña), has been remiss in presenting a theory of what actually happened that differs from the “historical truth” suggested by her predecessor Jesús Murillo.
This same PGR has been incapable of obtaining convictions against those presented before the judiciary as responsible for Ayotzinapa. In this same vein, Twitter user Rubén Cárdenas threw out the following advice:
Lo justo sería una doble detención en la PGR: [Una] para Jesús Murillo Karam por inventar “la verdad histórica” y [otra] para Arely Gómez por encubridora.
— Rubén Cárdenas (@RubenCardenas10) April 26, 2016
What would be just is a double arrest in the PGR: [One] for Jesús Murillo Karam for inventing the “historical version” and [another] for Arely Gómez as accessory.
Arely Gómez, however, has insisted that the investigation, after so many months, is still ongoing:
“Ayotzinapa no es caso cerrado”: Arely Gómez | https://t.co/2rntmnqibnpic.twitter.com/jU8trHeS6G
— Digitallpost (@DigitAllPost) August 29, 2016
“Ayotzinapa is not a closed case”: Arely Gómez |
The story of the Ayotzinapa case continues to be written. For the families of the missing students, the search goes on. For all Mexicans, the episode remains fresh in their memories.


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What Will Happen to Colombia’s Youth in the Aftermath of War? · Global Voices
Lully

Screenshot from the YouTube video “For a Peace with Opportunities for Colombian Youth” posted on April 12, 2016 by Joe Espinosa Marmolejo.
All is ready for the signing of a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the militant group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which will be made official in Cartagena city on September 26, 2016. This is the first phase of a process that will put to an end the 52-year-old conflict. The second phase is set for October 2, when Colombian citizens will have the last word via the ballot box during a highly debated, countrywide referendum to affirm the peace agreement.
For Colombians, this process is of utmost interest, especially since the futures of the country's young people are at stake.
Section 6 of the final agreement describes the process for verification, victim authentication, and the mechanisms for dispensing and monitoring compensation through the “Committee for Implementing, Monitoring, and Verifying the Final Peace Agreement and the Resolution of Differences.” The verification process is both a fulfillment of the peace agreement, as well as a means of ensuring that displaced Colombians return to their lands, obtain subsidies and compensation for damages, and receive professional psychological care.
This process includes youth and children. According to the Only Victim Register, the number of younger victims (from 0 to 28 years) has climbed to 4,007,136 due to assassinations, displacements, and disappearances.
Even if peace is won, however, there will still remain many open wounds. Those who went into exile still have not been able to return. Many Colombians refuse forgiveness and reconciliation, in spite of the educational campaigns involving activities and conferences for open discussions. These campaigns are put on by the government and the private sector, as well as by educational institutions and public sites. They are especially directed at youth from different locations and walks of life — including those who feel apathetic — and those who were not directly affected by the conflict, but have it sown into the collective subconscious.
Although difficult, the work continues progressing and is proceeding according to the final agreement's written stipulations. The presidency of the Republic announced on Twitter that UNICEF will receive those under 15 who left the ranks of the FARC into transitional homes while they are reincorporated into civilian life. Consequently, on September 10, UNICEF received 13 boys and girls as a part of the integrated mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
COMUNICADO | El 10 de sept se iniciará el proceso de salida de los menores de edad de los campamentos de las Farc pic.twitter.com/SILWaYwFTo
— Equipo Paz Gobierno (@EquipoPazGob) 2 de septiembre de 2016
ANNOUNCEMENT | Sept. 10 will begin the exit process of minors from the Farc camps
At a meeting scheduled by ex-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez (the main opponent of the peace process), Leonard Rentería, a community youth leader from the port of Buenaventura in the Valle del Cauca Department, courageously expressed himself in favor of the “yes” vote and the peace agreement because, according to him, he does not want to continue living in war:
[…] El territorio de Buenaventura donde la guerra ha sido marcada, donde el paramilitarismo asesinó a 12 jóvenes del barrio en el 2005, masacres que venimos conmemorando a lo largo de 12 ó 20 años […]  Es importante que las comunidades no sigan sufriendo, que sigan siendo envenenadas por el odio. Yo pienso que si algo nos merecemos nosotros es empezar a caminar para construir la paz. Parte de Buenaventura no lo ha visto, porque paramilitares se encargaron de arrasar en lo urbano un sinnúmero de gente joven y de gente que nada tenía que ver sino que simplemente fue víctima de este sistema […]
¿Quiénes son los soldados de las Farc y del Ejército colombiano? Muchachos pobres, empobrecidos… porque los hijos de los ricos no van a la guerra, a la guerra vamos nosotros […] yo soy una víctima directa de la guerra, del conflicto armado, pero a pesar de eso, si yo tengo que darle la mano a los victimarios estoy dispuesto a hacerlo porque creo en el perdón”.
[…] The territory of Buenaventura where the war has left its mark, where paramilitarism murdered 12 neighborhood youth in 2005, massacres that we continue to commemorate over 12 or 20 years […] It is important that the communities do not keep on suffering, continue being poisoned by hatred. I think that if there is something we deserve, it is to start walking towards creating peace. Part of Buenaventura has not seen peace because the paramilitaries ordered countless youth to destroy its urban areas, people who could do nothing but were simply victims of the system […]
Who are the soldiers of the FARC and of the Colombian army? Poor, impoverished men… because the sons of the rich do not go to war, to war we go […] I am a direct victim of the war, of the armed conflict, but despite this, if I have to give my hand to the murderers, I am ready to do so because I believe in forgiveness.
But there are also other youth who have not been directly affected by the conflict, yet they too seek peace. For example, José Antequera Guzmán expressed optimism on his blog before the announcement of the war's end when he stated:
Cada solución de un problema implica un problema nuevo, dijo el activista Saul Alinsky. Teniendo las cosas claras, nadie nos puede negar que celebremos hoy por todo lo que nos ha costado este momento. Yo hoy, sobre todo, celebro que cada día estemos siendo más un solo país. Que Colombia cada día nos parezca menos ajena.
Every solution to a problem involves another problem, said the activist Saul Alinsky. Keeping things in perspective, no one can keep us from celebrating today all which this moment has cost us. I today, above all, celebrate that each day we are becoming more and more a single country; that each day Columbia appears less alien to us.
And in his last publication, he declared his inclination for the “yes” vote:
Vote Si y comienza esta paz o prepárese para poner su cabeza y a la de sus hijos en la incertidumbre y en otras guerras!
Vote Yes and start this peace or prepare yourself to place your head and the head of your children into uncertainty and into other wars!
Colombia will not have to navigate this road to peace alone, and the postwar period will have international oversight through the Committee for Implementing, Monitoring, and Verifying the Final Peace Agreement and the Resolution of Differences. It will also have the help of the United Nations, not only for the political mission of verification, but also with the continuation of its development programs, such as Hands for Peace, a project that helps college youth which began with a post-conflict Colombia in mind.
Other international entities continue their work for future generations, as is the case with the Spanish organization Help in Action, which reaffirmed its support for those under 18 in the postwar period. The organization mentions, for example, the dangers that could still plague youth in rural areas:
Entre los hechos víctimizantes que más les afectan, se encuentran el reclutamiento, la orfandad a causa del conflicto armado, el desplazamiento forzado, la desaparición forzada, el secuestro, el ser víctimas de minas antipersona (MAP), municiones sin explotar (MUSE) o artefactos explosivos improvisados (AEI), los homicidios, las masacres, el confinamiento, la violencia sexual, y la vulneración de los derechos a la educación y a la salud entre otros.
Among the victimizing acts that affect them most, one finds recruitment, becoming orphans from the armed conflict, forced displacements, forced disappearances, kidnappings, becoming victims of anti-personnel mines (APM), unexploded ordnances (UXO), or improvised explosive devices (IED), homicides, massacres, confinement, sexual violence, violations of rights regarding education and health, and more.
After more than five decades, Colombian youth will now be responsible for their own destiny and will have the opportunity to decide a new path. But the parents of minors who are too young to vote have a greater responsibility: to decide for themselves and for their children in the next vote.

author: Lully


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Artist Draws Attention to the Plight of Child Laborers and Young Women in Myanmar · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Promotional poster of the video animation ‘I Wanna Go to School’. Image from the Facebook page of Nyan Kyal Say
Myanmar artist Nyan Kyal Say has produced several video animations that highlight the poor conditions experienced by many children and young women in his country.
One of these animations is titled ‘I Wanna Go to School’, which narrates the story of a brother and a sister whose dream of going to school is undermined by various obstacles such as gender inequality, poverty, war, child abuse, child labor, and human trafficking.
It won the best animation award in the 2015 Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival. Last month, the Asia-Pacific office of the International Labour Organization promoted the video as part of the campaign to strengthen child protection in Myanmar.
According to some studies, one out of 10 children in Myanmar are involved in child labor, with more than half of them in hazardous work. Almost half of children do not finish primary school.
Below is ‘I Wanna Go to School’
Another video animation made by Nyan Kyal Say is titled ‘My Life I Don’t Want’ which depicts the experience of many girls in Myanmar as they try to overcome the various difficulties they face in life such as sexual abuse, discrimination, and trafficking. See the trailer of the video below:
In an interview with this author, Nyan Kyal Say highlighted the role of artists in a country like Myanmar, which is undergoing a democratic transition.
The role of artists is very important for every country, because aside from pointing out the realities, they can also make people feel those realities and make the public understand. For Myanmar, since the eyes of most Myanmar people were closed by the previous military-backed governments for many decades, they became lost and didn’t even know that they were lost. In such case, art is a strong way to make their eyes open. Also, because of that, during those years, many artworks dealing with politics, social issues, economy, and government matters were censored. Now, since Myanmar is in rapid transition and transformation with the new government, and as artists are now given the freedom to create, art becomes more important for the people to see and feel the reality, and motivate them to make changes in society.
He is confident that animation artists like him will continue to have an important role in the country:
For animation, we have to keep trying far to survive, since the animation market and animation knowledge in Myanmar is still not well-developed yet. However, I can see positive movements in Myanmar like the rising number of young animation artists. I believe we can do it for the development of animation culture in Myanmar.
Nyan Kyal Say. Source: Facebook

author: Mong Palatino


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‘No Embarrassment’ Photo Exhibition in Moscow Ends Early Under Pressure From Conservative Activists · Global Voices
Yulia Savitskaya

Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
On September 8, an exhibition of American photographer Jock Sturges’ work documenting life in nudist colonies opened at Moscow's Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography. Less than two weeks later, the museum, facing pressure from conservative activists claiming that Sturges’ photographs violated Russia's laws against child pornography, ended the exhibition.
The first person to object to Sturges’ exhibition was Lena Myro, a fitness blogger who is notorious for referring to her readers as “fat pigs.” Her post, which accused Sturges of engaging in “child pornography” and “pedophilia,” went viral on Saturday morning. Later that day, Yelena Mizulina, an MP in Russia's State Duma, the face of the country's anti-LGBT movement, and an advocate of “traditional values,” demanded that No Embarrassment be shut down immediately, alleging that Sturges’ work amounted to child pornography and “pedophile propaganda.”
Jock Sturges’ work is undoubtedly controversial, and indeed many of his nude models are underage. Still, his photographs don't fit the definition of child pornography as laid out in Russian law.
УК РФ Статья 242.1. Примечание 2. Не являются материалами и предметами с порнографическими изображениями несовершеннолетних материалы и предметы, содержащие изображение или описание половых органов несовершеннолетнего, если такие материалы и предметы имеют историческую, художественную или культурную ценность либо предназначены для использования в научных или медицинских целях либо в образовательной деятельности в установленном федеральным законом порядке.
Russian Criminal Code. Article 242.1. Note 2. Materials and objects containing images or descriptions of a minor's sexual organs are not considered child pornography if such materials and objects have historical, artistic or cultural value, or are intended to be used for scientific or medical purposes, or educational activities in accordance with federal law.
Disregarding this provision, new Children’s Rights Commissioner Anna Kuznetsova seconded Mizulina's description of Sturges’ art as “child pornography” and promised immediate action. Representatives from the Lumiere Brothers Center updated the official description of the exhibit on their website: “The naked models on show are adult women of legal age,” the website read.
But it was too late. The next day, a group of activists calling themselves “Officers of Russia” blocked an entrance to the gallery. Anton Tsvetkov, the leader of the “Officers” and a member of Russia's Civic Chamber, came in to see the pictures. He was accompanied by a likeminded local official and an unknown man who poured urine on an offending picture. (Other activists intervened, however, and the man was charged with disorderly conduct, according to news website Meduza.)
Later on Sunday, the Lumiere Brothers Center leaders decided to avoid further controversy and end the exhibition early. Jock Sturges told Russian journalists that he was surprised and upset by this decision.
The Runet didn't stay quiet. Journalist Yekaterina Gordeeva said she was shocked by the attack on the exhibit: “Those ignorant obscurantists! The Officers of Russia are now an arts council, our conscience, our taste,” she wrote on Facebook.
Dmitry Gudkov, a former Duma deputy, argued, also on Facebook, that no one should be surprised by the government abandoning its monopoly on violence.
Вот эти казаки и фекальные активисты – они и есть расширенное государство…Просто в России выстроена вертикаль власти – и никто не обещал, что она будет легальной. Кто подставляет плечо этой власти – тот и в вертикали. И живут, кстати, все “Офицеры”, казаки и цапки на наши деньги: получают их через гранты, преференции или ненаказуемый разбой и пригосударственный бизнес.
All these Cossacks and fecal activists are an extension of the government… Russia has simply erected the power vertical – no one promised that it would be legal. Anyone who lends a hand is part of the vertical. And by the way all those officers, Cossacks, and Tsapki take our money through grant programs, preferences, unpunishable robbery, or state-supported business.
Publicist Ivan Davydov, meanwhile, wrote that he was tempted to tell people: “Why don't you just try not going to the exhibit?”

author: Yulia Savitskaya


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Trinidad & Tobago’s Deadline for Passing US Tax Legislation Looms as Politicians ‘Play Games’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screen shot of a Parliament Channel YouTube video, showing the parliamentary debate of Friday September 23, 2016 in Trinidad and Tobago.
The deadline for Trinidad and Tobago to become a signatory to the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is September 30, 2016. The law, which the US Congress enacted in 2010, strives to ensure that US citizens and residents with financial assets outside of the country are paying taxes.
The legislation gives US banks the power to withhold a portion (up to 30%) of payments made to foreign financial institutions that do not agree to release information on their customers who have US accounts. In fact, they can even refuse to do business with them altogether. Non-compliance would therefore have far-reaching effects: critical banking services such as credit card use, wire transfers and remittances would be cut off, Trinidad and Tobago's economy — already sluggish thanks to low energy prices — would further weaken, and the general cost of living and doing business would increase.
Yet, the bill has still not been passed in the country's parliament. Even though the government is unanimously voting for compliance, the current opposition — which had put forward the bill when they were in government — now appears to be stonewalling its passage. The government has 23 members in the House of Representatives, but 26 votes are needed to pass the bill. Despite its insistence that “nobody wants to pass this bill more than [them]”, in the parliamentary sitting of September 23, 2016, every single member of the opposition voted “No” (54:46 on the timeline of this video). For its part, the opposition has accused the government of “politicising the issue”.
The leader of the opposition, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, explained that she and her colleagues are worried about “the draconian provisions in the Bill which are in no way necessary to give effect to the agreement”.
In his presentation to parliament, Minister of Finance Colm Imbert noted, “Clause 8 — the opposition has a problem with this. Nothing in Section 4 of the Income Tax Act, Data Protection Act or any other law of like effect prevents the disclosure of information. The opposition maintains that this strips our citizens of any protection that the law may give to them.”
Although the government has said that they addressed three of the opposition's seven concerns, the matter never went to debate. After Imbert made his presentation in parliament last Friday, he asked the speaker of the house for a one-hour adjournment, during which time the two sides could sit down and hammer out the amendments to the bill. But the opposition refused. Soon after the parliamentary sitting resumed, the opposition leader was reprimanded by the house speaker and asked to leave. The rest of the opposition (save one member) — in an apparent show of solidarity — walked out.
Theoretically, parliament would be able to meet on September 30 and pass the bill just in time to meet the deadline — but that is the date on which the minister of finance will present the country's 2017 budget, so there is no chance of FACTA being tabled for discussion then. Unless the United States agrees to extend the deadline, which at this point seems likely, Trinidad and Tobago will be left in a tenuous position. No matter what happens, though, netizens are incensed.
Wired 868's news blogger Mr. Live Wire quipped:
Quite unhelpfully, Finance Minister Colm Imbert booked his Budget speech on the same day. Presumably, Imbert did not foresee that the [opposition United National Congress] UNC would feign such a startling ignorance of what is at stake here.
Of course, that is not to say that he agreed with the legislation so much as he resigned himself to the fact that compliance had to happen:
In essence, every bank in the world will become non-paid informants of the IRS.
The cost of America’s witch hunt for tax evaders was estimated to be around eight times the value of income the IRS expects to recoup. So, to make this exercise financially viable, the IRS will let the banks pick up the tab for their investigation of US citizens who are using their services. […]
So, should Trinidad and Tobago object to accepting such a costly and invasive excursion into its own banking system by the Yanks? Of course!
We should also refuse to fork out TT$300 for a plate of pasta at those stoosh [posh] restaurants in west Trinidad.
But if you are there already and want to get fed, you will pay. And if you want access to the US banking system, you will do the same.
Otherwise, the IRS will start by withholding 30 percent of financial transfers—even Moneygram and Western Union—to locals, whether they are American or not, until they can prove they are not involved in tax evasion.
Meanwhile, the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago supports the bill, the business chambers issued calls for compliance and the country's Securities and Exchange Commission has provided its feedback.
Netizens, however, appear to be divided across political lines. One Facebook user, Gideon Charles, called the opposition's refusal to vote for the bill a desperate attempt at destabilisation, speculating that the opposition does not want FACTA compliance “because it would divulge the pilfering, the embezzling of taxpayers’ money by the former, now Opposition UNC government”. Others were more tongue in cheek, while Facebook user Susan Charles called out the minister of finance on his political posturing:
Imbert stop playing games with the FACTA bill by saying you hoping for an extension yes the deadline is Friday but ent [didn't] you already get an extension stop pretending… This is Trinidad and somebody always know somebody and so mark does bust [local saying which means what is done in the dark will soon come to light]
Still, Imbert insisted that “the bill […] is identical to the bill prepared by the People's Partnership government. It's the same bill, word for word.”
With the passing of the bill still in limbo, social media users in the Caribbean nation wonder whether the government and opposition will come together for the greater good — or in the words of Mr. Live Wire:
Russia President Vladimir Putin also railed against FATCA, which he described as an attack on Russian sovereignty. Then, 24 hours before the US deadline, Putin caved and signed on 30 June 2014.
Think Sarcastic Smurf [a snide reference to Imbert] can drive a harder bargain than a man who rides horses bareback in Siberia and invades neighbouring countries in his spare time? FATCA chance! Just sign the damn thing and done, Kamla!

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Uzbekistan’s Late President Islam Karimov Leaves an Enduring and Terrifying Legacy · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Islam Karimov, former President of Uzbekistan.
Unlike some of his regional neighbours, Uzbekistan’s late President Islam Karimov—who was buried in his native city of Samarkand on September 3—never felt the need to honour himself with ostentatious statues. His authoritarianism, fashioned over a reign of almost three decades, was the no-frills kind, and heavy on repression. Time and time again, Karimov, who was 78 when he died, answered with aplomb the question posed by Italy's renaissance philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli: it was more important for a leader to be feared than loved.
What little the world beyond Uzbekistan knew of Karimov, who reigned over Uzbekistan for 27 years and tolerated no opposition, was the stuff of nightmares. This was the man who ordered a bloody crackdown on protesters in the market town of Andijan in, 2005, killing 187 people according to the government tally and many more according to unofficial accounts. This was the man who reportedly boiled some of his political opponents in oil, and put his eldest daughter—a pop singer and businesswoman with a ruthless streak of her own— under house arrest, where she remains to this day.
Meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry off the plane in his home city last November, Karimov was photographed wearing a black trilby hat and a black overcoat. He cut the figure an archetypal Godfather, a dealer in death. And yet in Uzbekistan, he was loved—perhaps as a byproduct of fear—and when not loved, at least tolerated.
For all the grinding poverty, pervasive corruption and the implicit threat of violence ordinary Uzbeks endured under his rule, Karimov was president when they had their first child, and still president when those children became grandparents. And in a country where age confers deference and authority, he was both very old and very powerful for a long time.
Writing on Facebook following his funeral, one noted Uzbek political analyst explained why so many regular citizens came out onto the streets—some tearful—to watch Karimov's cortege go past:
I would like to publicly answer some non-Uzbeks who think that after the death of the leader with a controversial reputation we should be celebrating in the streets […] Uzbeks who are now mourning do so not for political but for human reasons, as it is accepted by Uzbeks, to quietly and with dignity, mark the passing of someone, moreover their first president. The time to analyse his deeds will come again in the future.
The Uzbek state is unlikely to allow any objective analysis of Karimov's time in power in the short-term. While he shunned the opportunity to build a personality cult during his lifetime, his underlings are making up for lost time.
Karimov's likely successor, acting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has already referred to him as “like a father”. Eurasianet reports that since his death classes have been dedicated to memorializing Karimov's life.
The regime has also allegedly been cracking down on people for spreading “rumours” that contradict the official version of Karimov's death, including rumours about the date of the death, which has been the subject of serious dispute.
Islam Karimov as depicted by an artist that wished to remain anonymous.
It is possible that Karimov was kept “alive” beyond the date when a Moscow-based news outlet with a web of contacts in the secretive country reported him dead on August 29, in order to extend his reign beyond the country's 25th anniversary of independence on September 1. For political reasons he had to make it at least that far, even if he could not in reality.
But what of the future without him?
Karimov’s own hints that Uzbekistan could dissolve into bloody chaos under a different government were repeated so often, that many inside and outside the isolated country treated them as fact, even when evidence was hard to come by. For this reason, Uzbekistan will continue under the same government.
The SNB internal security service—the Central Asian region's most powerful—will still be headed by Rustam Innoyatov, 72, a man whose longevity at the apex of Uzbek politics is matched only by Karimov's. The police state they honed together is unlikely to recede or face any significant overhaul while Innoyatov is still alive.
Mirziyoyev, the ultimate Karimov loyalist who has served as prime minister since 2003, will, as president, continue to enforce a system that benefits the few, not the many.
Civic freedoms will continue to be squashed and the country's undoubted economic potential will be sacrificed for the sake of a vague “stability”, a buzzword Karimov used often, and one which will doubtless survive him.
Karimov, like other dictators, peddled a narrative of stability, while doing much to undermine it. It is a deep irony that a man called Islam, who swore his presidential oath on the Koran and now has a mosque in Tashkent named in his honour, did so much to repress devout Muslims in the country of 32 million, mostly under the guise of anti-terror policies.
And while hailed for his skill in managing the very real tensions between regional political and business elites in the republic, his habit of playing them off one another ensured the perpetuation of these tensions.
Finally, Karimov crafted an Uzbekistan that continues to appear in World Bank reports alongside impressive GDP growth statistics that hint at the sort of book-cooking unseen even during Communist times. A completely different Uzbekistan has seen migrant remittances from Russia, where over two million Uzbeks work, fall several times, along with prices for its key exports.
It is his other, bedraggled Uzbekistan that is destined to shock the pretend Uzbekistan into change for better or worse. It may not happen now, or soon, but some day it certainly will.


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A Bangladeshi Man Who Knows Hunger All Too Well Provides Affordable Meals for Children in Need · Global Voices
Pantha Rahman Reza

Bidyanondo students enjoying their one-taka meal. Photo via 1-Taka Meal Facebook page. Used with permission.
Lunch is served. For just one buck. Surprised? Have we gone back to the days of when a horse cost as much as a piece of bread does today? No, we’re still talking about the present.
A Bangladeshi organization named Bidyanondo has launched an initiative that seeks to distribute food to the underprivileged children of Dhaka and other areas for just one Bangladeshi taka (0.013 US dollars). The initiative began six months ago in May, and it is taking place in five districts including Dhaka. The organisation says that 121,000 children and elderly people have been fed as of September 22, 2016, and the plan is to distribute food to at least 300 underprivileged children a night.
Bidyanondo is mainly a volunteer educational institute for the underprivileged. The institute has five branches all over the country with more than 750 underprivileged children studying at its schools. The principal mind behind the one-taka meal venture is  Kishor Kumar Das, who currently lives in Peru’s capital Lima. When asked about the initiative, he explained to Global Voices that it was personal:
নিজেই ছিলাম মন্দিরের সামনে ক্ষুধার লাইনে। তখন চিন্তা ছিলো, আমিও একদিন ফিরিয়ে দিবো এই খাবার। সেই চিন্তা থেকে করা। আমাদের ৫টা স্কুলে প্রতিবছর দরিদ্র ছাত্রছাত্রী ঝড়ে পড়ে, তাঁদের আটকানো একটা কারণ ছিলো। আরেকটা কারণ ছিলো খুবই দরিদ্র শিশুদের স্কুলে টানার জন্য।
There was a time when I used to wait in the long lines in front of the temple for a little food. I decided back then that if I ever get the opportunity, I will return the same kindness to those who needed it. Impoverished children drop out of our schools every year. Keeping them in school was one reason for the initiative. Another was attracting other children to join our schools.
Although the Bangladeshi constitution states that food is a basic right for all, many people still go to sleep without a meal almost every night. Children are especially vulnerable.
There are around 400,000 underprivileged children in Bangladesh. Most of them spend their nights on the street or in bus and rail stations. They have little to eat and no money to buy more food. It is for them that Bidyanondo began their project.
“We were providing vegetable rice for the kids that day at the railway station. One guy came and told them, “Why eat this cheap food? Come with me, I will give you biriyani (fried rice with meat).” A 10-year-old kid replied, “These sisters bring food for us from afar and we should not turn them away. And you will not come every day for us.” From Bidyanondo's Facebook page. Used with permission.
Bidyanondo had started the initiative with their leftover food budget and financial backing from founder Kishor Kumar Das. But many others have enthusiastically joined the project since then. Some have donated the money they had saved up for their birthday party. Some have given away their Eid bonus, while others have contributed to the project with their hard-earned tuition money.
Not only individuals, but an organization named Serverghost Foundation has also joined in. They donated all the money they received as an award from Google to Bidyanondo’s project.
Food being distributed among underprivileged children. Photo courtesy 1-Taka Meal Facebook page. Used with permission.
One of the individuals who have helped the cause become a success posted this on Bidyanondo’s Facebook page:
আমি খুব ছোট একটা চাকরি করি, সম্বল খুব নেই। তবে ঈদে যে বোনাস পাইছি তা দিয়ে ২০০টা কচি ফুলকে অন্তত এক বেলা খাওয়াতে চাই।
I have a very small job, and my savings are little. But I want to feed at least two hundred little flowers (kids) with my Eid bonus.
The page later announced that 203 children were fed with that person’s contribution.
One taka being collected from each child. Photo via 1-Taka Meal Facebook page. Used with permission.
When asked why the meals are priced at one taka, Kishor Kumar Das had this to say:
বিষয়টিকে যেন ভিক্ষা হিসেবে না দেখা হয় সেজন্য শিশুদেরকে এক টাকা দিয়ে খাবার কিনতে হয়। শুরুতে বিষয়টি নিয়ে অনেকে হাসাহাসি করেছে, কিন্তু এখন শিশুগুলোর মধ্যে অহংবোধ এসেছে। অনেকে আজ বাকিতে খাবার নিলেও কাল এসে টাকাটা দিয়ে যাচ্ছে। আমি এ জায়গাটাই বদলাতে চেয়েছিলাম, শিশুদের ভেতর ‘ভিক্ষা’ এবং দাতাদের মধ্যে ‘দান’ শব্দটি মোছার জন্য।
We don’t want this initiative to appear as charity or pity. There was a lot of ridicule about this at first, but the children have a certain degree of pride now. Even if some of them can’t pay for the food right away, they’ll give us the money next day. I wanted to eliminate the word ‘alms’ from the children’s dictionary, and the word ‘donation’ from the givers’.
The meal usually consists of rice and vegetable curries. But when there are enough funds, the children sometimes enjoy much-beloved dishes like pilaf and chicken curries. The food is prepared by the volunteers of Bidyanondo.
Here is a video report on this initiative uploaded to YouTube by user Video Vubon:
A lot of volunteer initiatives in Bangladesh usually cannot linger after a promising start for a variety of reasons. When asked whether the one-taka meal project will remain active in the long run, Das said:
বেশীরভাগ প্রতিষ্ঠান শুরু হয় আবেগি মাথায়, অনভিজ্ঞ হাতে, বাস্তবতার সাথে যুদ্ধ করতে গিয়ে দুর্বল হয়ে হারিয়ে যায়, বিশেষ করে পেশা আর সংসার শুরু করে। আমরা শুরু করছি এসব স্টেজ পার করার পর। আরেকটি ব্যাপার হলো, অর্থের সংস্থান। উদ্যোক্তাকে নিজেই স্বাবলম্বী হতে হবে প্রতিষ্ঠান চালাতে, বিনা অনুদানে প্রতিষ্ঠান কয়েক বছর চালানোর সক্ষমতা জরুরি। দীর্ঘমেয়াদী চালাতে আমি নিজের ব্যবসার মালিকানা এই বিদ্যানন্দকে দিয়ে দিয়েছি, এটা দিয়ে এর খরচের অনেকটা পূরণ করা যাবে।
Most similar initiatives are started by the inexperienced and run with more heart than brain. When faced with reality, these initiatives sometimes buckle. Especially when you have to find time for a family and a job, charity work becomes increasingly unmanageable. We’ve started after finishing these stages. Another thing is the financing. The people in charge of the initiative should be able to run the organization through their own means. It is important to operate the organization without donations or outside help for a few years. I’ve transferred the ownership of my local business to Bidyanondo, to secure finances in the long-term.
Food delivery vans have been incorporated into the project to better manage the distribution process. The volunteers take these food-filled vans to railway stations and give them out to underprivileged kids. The project leaders dream of a day when this type of food vans or shops will be found all over the country, selling their wares for one taka to those in need.
Guests at Das's hotel helping to cook for underprivileged children in Lima. Photo via 1-Taka Meal Facebook page. Used with permission.
A similar initiative has begun in Peru’s capital Lima. Food is distributed among the slum children of Lima every week. Kishor Kumar Das runs a hotel business in Lima. The profits from that business are used to pay for this endeavor. The food is cooked in the hotel’s kitchen. The cooking is a team affair, with hotel guests and tourists participating.
Das dreams of the day when this project of his will spread throughout the world. No child will have to suffer hunger anymore. Because he remembers his time standing in line in front of the temple. Because he understands the pain of hunger, of the hungry. That is why he wants to help underprivileged children.

author: Pantha Rahman Reza