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Political Interference? The Culling of Japan’s Broadcasters Culminates in a Respected Journalist’s Ouster · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Kuniya Hiroko, announcer, NHK Close Up Gendai. Image from YouTube.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK's decision to oust popular and respected journalist Kuniya Hiroko from a long-running current affairs program has many lamenting the death of quality journalism on Japanese television.
Kuniya has anchored prime-time current affairs program Close Up Gendai since 1993. Under Kuniya's lead, the program developed a reputation for strong investigative reporting and analysis, which in Japan, like many other countries, is in short supply on television.
However, NHK announced in late January that Kuniya's tenure at Close Up Gendai will end on March 31, 2016, the end of Japan's fiscal year. The announcement comes in the wake of accusations of political interference at NHK and after it was determined that she “staged” an interview in April 2015, although it's believed her ouster is payback for posing hard questions to government chief cabinet secretary and key ally of President Abe, Suga Yoshihide, in July 2014.
At 58, Kuniya is also one of the older women to appear in an authoritative role on television, and her age and her gender may also play a role in the decision to not renew her contract.
Kuniya isn't the only one signing off for good. Several other prominent television broadcasters and commentators on private networks are also stepping down or being removed from the airways.
安倍政権の重圧か…各局批判キャスター相次ぎ交代　https://t.co/beuDWp8Rpi#古舘伊知郎 #岸井成格 #膳場貴子 #国谷裕子 #キャスター #交代
— 日刊スポーツ (@nikkansports) January 29, 2016
Pressure from the Abe government? All newscasters critical of the government have been taken off the air, one after the other. #furutachi ichiro #kishii shigetada #zenba takako #kuniya hiroko
After veteran Mainichi News journalist and TBS commentator Kishii Shigetada criticized the Abe government's controversial security legislation last year, conservatives took out newspaper ads accusing Kishii of violating Japan's broadcast laws. Kishii announced he would step down from his work as a commentator on TBS's News 23 program, but would still continue to comment on government policy.
Zenba Takako will also leave News 23 at the end of March.
TV Asahi news anchor and popular Japanese television personality Furutachi Ichiro will also step down in April following rumors of political interference. Furutachi has anchored late-night newscast Hodo Station on Asahi Television for 12 years.
Kuniya's employer NHK has been under fire for some decisions it has made in recent years, especially under the helm of NHK Director-General Momii Katsuo. Momii was elected to his position as director-general in December 2013, almost exactly a year after Abe Shinzo was elected prime minister of Japan.
There are suspicions that Momii, who comes to NHK from the private sector, is working closely with the right-leaning Abe government to transform NHK from a public broadcaster into an organ of the state. Besides asking NHK management to quit (they did not), Director-General Momii mused that NHK's broadcasting should support the Japanese government's stance on territorial disputes with South Korea, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China while also downplaying the issue of “comfort women“, as the thousands upon thousands of women across Asia who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II are known.
However, as with other public broadcasters around the world, Momii's real mission may be to transform NHK, which operates with a US$5 billion budget, into a more market-oriented company.
As for Kuniya Hiroko, she has not announced her plans post-Close Up Gendai. NHK has said the show will be updated for an international audience and will feature a rotating lineup of seven female announcers.
A selection of Hiroko Kuniya's broadcasts in Japanese can be viewed for now on the official Close Up Gendai YouTube Channel.

author: Nevin Thompson


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The Movement for Affordable and Accessible Sanitary Napkins in South Asia · Global Voices
Rezwan

Mass Community Health Teaching in Accham, Nepal – Sunita showing how to make a cloth pad. Image from Flickr by Possible. CC BY 2.0
In many cultures and societies around the world, there is a stigma attached to menstruation. Girls in developing countries miss up to one week of school or work every month due to lack of sanitary products, inadequate facilities and shame associated with periods.
Shortcomings in education and poor hygiene during menstruation can also lead to discomfort, rashes and infections.
But in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, various efforts are underway to help make sanitary napkins affordable and available to the country's women.
In Bangladesh, the available sanitary napkins on the market are costly. Foreign manufactured ones cost more than 120 Bangladeshi taka (US $1.50) as there is a 60% supplementary tax imposed on the imports.
But a locally manufactured brand called Joya, which costs 60 taka (US $0.75) for eight pads, falls short, according to blogger and activist Marzia Prova:
“জয়া” র এত প্রচারণা দেখে, “দেশি জিনিষ ব্যবহার করব না মানে” টাইপ ভাব নিয়ে জয়া ব্যবহার করলাম। [..] ইউজ করতে গিয়ে দেখি প্যাডের আঠা জাস্ট একটু খানি। প্যান্টির সঙ্গে ঠিক ভাবে এটাচড থাকে না। যেকোনো মুহূর্তে পড়ে যাবার সম্ভাবনা থাকে । তারপর উপরের কভার ভীষণ খসখসে, আমার তিনদিনের মাথায় জঙ্ঘায় লাল র‍্যাশ উঠে পড়ে। [..]
ভাবা যায়, দেশের পিরিয়ড হওয়া নারীর সংখ্যা ৫ কোটির ও বেশী। অথচ এই দেশে “মেইড ইন বাংলাদেশ” স্যানিটারি ন্যাপকিনের সংখ্যা মাত্র দুইটা নিদেনপক্ষে তিনটা, এবং তার একটাও মানসম্মত নয়, কোনদিক থেকেও ! এটা আসলে কার উদাসীনতা ! দেশের সর্বস্তরের নারীদের স্যানিটারি ন্যাপকিন ব্যবহারের প্রতি আগ্রহ তৈরি লক্ষে প্রচারণা চালান হয়, অথচ দামে এবং মানে দেশের একটা প্যাডও ভাল নাই। সব শ্রেণীর মেয়েদের কাছে প্যাড পৌঁছে দিতে কি আসলে কেউই প্রকৃতপক্ষে আগ্রহী নয়?
After watching the much hyped advertisements I started using “Joya” with the zeal I reserve for local products. [..] I saw that the adhesive in that pad is inadequate. So it does not stick to the undergarment and is prone to be displaced. Its cover is very rough, I got rash on my thigh in just three days.
Can you believe, in our country there may be 50 million menstruating women. But only two or three female sanitary products are “made in Bangladesh” and their quality is not up to mark! Whose negligence is it? We see campaigns across the country to increase awareness among women to use hygienic sanitary pads, but there is no affordable and good quality pad in the country. It seems nobody is interested to provide affordable or free pads to every women in this country.
But there are people who are doing something about it. Girls in a drop-in-centre (shelter home) in Dhaka, run by an NGO called Oporajeyo Bangladesh, are making their own pads by hand with a cost of only 4.50 taka (US $0.06).
The organisation provides shelter for these girls with violent or tragic pasts, trains and rehabilitates them for school or work in different garments factories or beauty parlours. In an interview with Feminism Bangla, a feminist blog, the organisation's executive director Wahida Banu explained her dream of commercialising the product:
অপরাজেয় বাংলাদেশ পথশিশুদের নিয়ে কাজ করে। আমরা এখানে প্রত্যেক শিশুকে রিপ্রডাক্টিভ হেলথ, এইচআইভি প্রভৃতি নিয়ে সেমিনার করি, ক্লাস করি, শিক্ষা দেই। বলি ৩ থেকে ৬ ঘণ্টা পর পর প্যাড বদলানোর কথা। এরাই যখন মেইন্সট্রিম স্কুলে যায়, তখন নিজেরাই সে স্কুলে বাচ্চাদের এই বিষয়ে ধারণা দেয়, যেটা টিচাররা পর্যন্ত এড়িয়ে যায়। [..]
আমার মেয়েগুলো ক্লাসে যাচ্ছে, ফ্রেন্ডদের বলছে, ওরা আগ্রহ পাচ্ছে। এখন এসে বলছে ওদের ফ্রেন্ডরাও প্যাড চায়। [..] অনেকের কাছে অফার পেয়েছি এক টন তুলা, বা এক টন ইলাস্টিক তারা কিনে দিতে প্রস্তুত। লটে যখন তুলা বা ইলাস্টিক কেনা হবে তখন প্যাডের দাম আরও কমে যাবে। মরার আগে বাংলাদেশে আমি ৪ থেকে ৫ টাকার প্যাড করেই যাব।
Oporajeyo Bangladesh works with street kids. We teach every kid about reproductive health, HIV, etc. We tell them to change pads every three to six hours. When they go to mainstream school, they communicate this knowledge to other children, even the teachers don't teach them this. [..]
Our girls are telling their friends in their class, and they are also interested. So they come to us saying that their friends want the pads. We got an offer from others, who are eager to help with purchasing the raw materials in lot — 1 tonne of cotton or 1 tonne of elastic rubbers. When we can buy them in lots, the cost will be lower. I want to produce sanitary pads costing 4 or 5 taka before I die.
In Nepal, there are a number of menstrual pad projects that train local women to sew menstrual pad kits. A huge problem in using the traditional methods is to wash the menstrual rags for reuse and dry them in an hygienic way without much exposure. Students at the Art Center College of Design in California have built one low-cost, easy-to-use tool to wash and dry reusable sanitary cloths.
And in India, Arunachalam Muruganantham, a school dropout from a poor family in southern India turned social entrepreneur, has ‘revolutionised‘ menstrual health for rural women by inventing a simple machine to make cheap sanitary pads. His machines have been installed in more than 1,300 villages in 23 of the 29 states of India. A manual machine costs around 75,000 Indian rupees (US $1100) and can provide employment for 10 people. The machine can produce up to 250 pads a day, which cost about 2.5 rupees (US $0.04) each.
According to a 2011 survey by AC Nielsen, only 12% of India's 355 million menstruating women — compared to 88% in Japan, 64% in China and nearly 100% in Singapore and Japan — use sanitary napkins, with 70% of women saying their family can't afford to buy them. The rest resort to unhygienic alternatives like non-sanitised clothes with cotton, sometimes combined with ashes and husk sand.
Muruganantham, who was recognised in 2014 among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, shared in a TED talk how he began his movement for sanitary napkins in India.
His machine was reportedly replicated in Jordan to help Syrian refugees.
Inspired by Muruganantham, more and more social enterprises have been launched in India to manufacture cheaper sanitary pads. However, there are also the critics who say that focusing on sanitary pads and ignoring traditional cloths used for menstrual hygiene isn't sustainable. Sinu Joseph, a menstrual health educator from India, comments:
The hypocrisy is such that while foreign organizations are promoting the need to introduce sanitary napkins in India by saying that 88% of Indian women are using cloth, in their own country they are promoting reusable cloth pads and menstrual cups, citing environmental reasons. If that is the case, then India is far ahead of the rest of the world in being environment friendly. [..]
What we do need is a simple solution of providing information in schools and communities on maintaining menstrual hygiene, be it with cloth or pads. And leave it to women to decide what they wish to use.
Then there is the question of disposing the pads. The thought of hygienic disposal of sanitary napkins got Kathy Walkling into the business of making biodegradable cloth pads as part of the Indian all woman group Ecofemme that produces and exports fair-trade cloth sanitary napkins from India to 14 countries in the world. Other organisations in India have started producing cheap compostable pads like Azadi pad and Anandi pad.
Menstrual health and hygiene isn’t merely a women’s issue. If a large number of the population is being held back because of a problem which is often ignored then it affects the whole population. If only the policy makers could recognise and accept this truth.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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Twitter-Based Doodling Community Inspires Creativity Across Eastern and Central Europe · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Topic: “If poet and philosopher Njegoš were alive these days” by Zombijana Bones. Republished with permission.
Every Monday, drawing aficionados across former Yugoslavia visit Twitter profile @crtkamo, which means “We doodle” in the closely related languages of Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian. On that day, the people behind this online drawing community post the doodle prompt for the week. Participants then start making and submitting their creations by tweeting under the hashtag #crtkamo.
Doodling topics have ranged from “something the size of a coin” and “kilometer of hair”, to toys and pirates, dream house, “a happy sky” and summer, to David Bowie and Professor Snape from the Harry Potter series. The participating artists use various techniques and styles and share each other's works.
“This is not a contest” is the main rule of the game. Many of the images get re-tweeted by the main account, and that's the only reward provided by the organizers. Co-founder Zombijana Bones explained in an interview:
Crtkamo postoji od 11. avgusta 2014.
Do sada smo imali 80 tema. Nedeljno dobijemo oko tridesetak radova (nekad više nekad manje).
Radi se o neprofitnoj inicijativi, gdje naš odabir zapravo nije nikakav sud da li je taj rad dobar ili ne, jer mi smatramo da su svi dobri.
“We doodle” has existed since August 11, 2014.
We have had 80 topics, so far. We receive about 30 works per week (sometimes more, sometimes less).
This is a nonprofit initiative, and our selection does not imply our value judgement about the works because we think they are all good.
Topic: Voodoo dolls. Art by Aleksandra Tosman, used with permission.
Podgorica-born Zombijana works as a designer and is a popular online artist in her own right, with 12,000 followers on Twitter and 67,000 likes on Facebook. Fans across the ex-Yugoslavia region have been ordering t-shirts with her illustrations of witty tweets, and in May 2014 she held an exhibition at the POINT Conference in Sarajevo, selling original works to raise money for victims of the terrible flooding that year.
Topic: “Winter Clothes” by Zombijana Bones. Published with permission.
The “We doodle” project started as collaboration between Zombijana and freelance artist Živko Kondić. When he withdrew due to lack of time in November 2014, the most active member, Aleksandra Tosman from Belgrade, replaced him in running the initiative. The duo have not missed a week since, alternating as agenda-setters and curators. They use the project to support humanitarian causes, and sometimes they provide bonus presents such as books or cinema tickets for participants. However, the primary goal of everyone involved is “to have fun and bring more art to the Internet.”
Topic: Foxes. Art by Aleksandra Tosman. Published with permission.
Topic: Ninja Turtles. Art by Zombijana Bones. Published with permission.
Topic: Cowboys and Indians. Art by Aleksandra Tosman. Published with permission.
All you need to join #crtkamo is a will to draw. Full disclosure: Both my young son and myself have participated in “We doodle”, and from experience I can tell you that any tool that enables you to express yourself visually will do, be it a pencil and notebook, post-it note, digital camera, scanner, or painting software.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Why Is a Russian Art Museum Granting Free Admission to Women Wearing 4-Inch Stilettos? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

On YouTube, the music video has attracted more than 32 million views in just three weeks. Even for one of Russia’s most popular rock bands, Leningrad’s new song “Display Exhibit” (“Exponat”) stands out as a massive hit. The song tells the story of a young woman going on a date with a man named Serge to an art exhibit featuring work by Vincent van Gogh. The chorus, in Leningrad’s typically obscene style, repeats, “In Louboutins, fuck, and in fucking awesome pants.” (In Russian, the verse rhymes.)
Screenshot from the music video for Leningrad’s new song “Display Exhibit” (“Exponat”). YouTube.
The music video fleshes out the protagonist a bit more. It begins with the woman telling Serge over video chat that she’s just turned down an allowance from her wealthy father and moved into a loft to pursue art. Serge, who’s dressed like a businessman and flanked by wall clocks showing the times in Moscow and Tokyo, shows mild interest in her drawing (which we soon learn the woman is lying about) and then invites her to see a new Van Gogh exhibit.
After demurely accepting Serge’s invitation and ending the call, the woman begins jumping up and down with joy, declaring how awesome she is. Her mother walks in, and the audience realizes that the young woman was lying about having moved away from home (and about being rich). She spends the rest of the video hunting down the perfect outfit, which she hopes to use to seduce Serge into marriage and a comfortable life. First she bullies a friend into loaning her a pair of shoes that resemble (the far more expensive) Christian Louboutin stilettos, and then she goes to great lengths to squeeze into impossibly skinny jeans.
Desperate to disguise the fake shoes as Louboutins, she paints the heels red with nail polish and sets them to dry near the heater. At one point, her mother walks in on her, when she’s struggling to fit into her jeans. Mom gets an earful about keeping too much bread in the apartment and for passing on a “fat ass,” which now prevents her daughter from wearing the right pants. “Don’t talk that way about bread!” her mother answers. “Our granny lived through the Blockade [of Leningrad]!” Still suffering, the young woman fires back, now crying, “Granny lived, but I’m fucked.”
Though she eventually finds her way into the jeans, things don’t end so well for our heroine. You can join millions of other people and watch the video’s dramatic conclusion for yourself, which hardly requires Russian fluency to enjoy:
On January 26, about two weeks after the video was released, the organizers at Artplay, a Moscow museum now featuring a new Van Gogh exhibit, announced that it is extending the show until Valentine’s Day. On the weekend of February 13 and 14, the museum will even offer free admission to any women wearing stilettos with heels at least 10 centimeters (4 inches) tall. And men named Serge (carrying the proper identification) get a 50-percent discount on their tickets.
After Artplay’s announcement, Russian representatives for Christian Louboutin asked the media not to mention its brand name in reports about the Van Gogh exhibit, arguing that it never consented to allowing its name in the promotion of “another brand.”
Photo: Yulia Topolnitskaya / Vkontakte
Despite the shoemaker's dislike of its brand name being thrown around, Leningrad went on national television two days later and performed a live version of the hit song, using the phrase “in Louboutins” dozens of times. (The band did, however, agree to replace the obscenities in the song with neutered language. In an Instagram post, the band’s front man, Sergei Shnurov, called it a necessary compromise to perform on TV.)
Meanwhile, Yulia Topolnitskaya, the 24-year-old actress who starred in the music video, has become an overnight star in Russia. She seems to be enjoying the limelight, giving many interviews, where she’s often asked about her body (which was, admittedly, the focus of the Leningrad video). She claims to have gained a small amount of weight intentionally before filming, but she says she’s now busy trimming back down.
Topolnitskaya’s waistline aside, her acting in the video is remarkably funny. And at least 32 million YouTube users seem to agree.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Will Armenian Civil Society Remain Electric? · Global Voices
Julieta Avetisyan

Protests at the 2008 presidential elections in Armenia. Wikipedia image taken by Serouj.
Over the last decades, civic spirit and capacity for collective action has ebbed and flowed in Armenia, a small landlocked country in the South Caucasus.
That all changed with  Electric Yerevan, a protest movement that flowered last year after Armenia’s Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) announced in June 2015 its intentions to increase the price of already costly electricity by 16.7%.
On June 19 people gathered at Freedom Square under the banner “No to Plunder”, a reference to alleged corruption in the Russian state-owned energy holding Inter RAO that produces Armenia's electricity and top levels of the country's government.
Armenia places 95th of 175 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Thus, despite some progress, corruption remains endemic in almost all spheres of public and political life.
By June 22 the demonstrations had become a sit-in at Baghramyan Avenue, a stone's throw from the Residence of the President in the capital city Yerevan. A day later police moved in with water cannons, bringing thousands more out in protest at the government's excessive use of force.
According to some estimates there were 15,000 people in central Yerevan, a city of 1,000,000 people, at the peak of the protests.
#electricyerevan: june 19-30 http://t.co/xvdPERAwA6 pic.twitter.com/xBkbka4gsc
— The Region (@Caucaseastan) July 3, 2015
The protestors demanded that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan cancel the rise.
Eventually, although the electricity company still took more in fees from the government, those increases were not passed onto consumers, while a state audit into the company's activities was announced.
Public hearings related to Electric Yerevan continued in the months after the utilities hike was abandoned, with some representatives of the movement calling for the nationalization and subsequent privatization of the electricity company.
@KarenaAv Thanks to #ElectricYerevan we see there are other better possibilities. That was a first great step.
— Ռօպէր Գարաեան ✌ (@muvaffakiyet) October 20, 2015
Before the movement began Armenia had experienced a few moments of civic awakening, only to return into a slumber.
To many, Armenian civil society appeared as an extension of the NGO sector.
Genuine collective action has been driven by growing distrust towards authorities in the country.
According to the Caucasus Research Resource Centre Armenian citizens have even less trust in their government than neighbours Georgia and Azerbaijan.
“We can say that everybody was interested in [Electric Yerevan], both political and civil societies,” Vaghinak Shushanyan, one of the activists in the movement, told Global Voices. “The movement is a social one, but the demands [that were made] were put in front of the politicians.”
The question of whether Electric Yerevan was a tipping point or another false dawn remains open.
In December a referendum was held in Armenia, where 63,35% of voters said ‘Yes’ to adopting a parliamentary system of government favoured by Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party of Armenia, despite some minor violations.
Opposition to the referendum was significant and the ‘No’ campaign proved an innovative attempt to undermine loud government messaging, even as it failed to inspire the same public uproar as a protest over electricity price hikes.
After a tumultuous 2015, this year may shape up as a defining year in terms of determining how far Armenia's newly assertive public can push a government and political elite used to getting its own way.

author: Julieta Avetisyan


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A Dying Swan Resurrects Faith in the Creativity of Trinidad & Tobago Carnival · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Peter Minshall's Carnival King “The Dying Swan: Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavlova”. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
What does an early 20th century ballet solo have to do with Trinidad and Tobago Carnival? Ask Peter Minshall, designer extraordinaire. His intermittent hiatuses from the spectacle of Monday and Tuesday's Parade of the Bands — led by kings and queens in magnificent costumes — have left a gaping hole in the creativity and symbolism of the masquerade, to the point where many enthusiasts feel that the festival has been diminished from a love of making mas (as Carnival design and performance are called in the twin-island republic) to a business of mass production.
The master is back for Carnival 2016, however, with an alluring and controversial costume called ‘The Dying Swan: Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavlova‘. Performed by Moko Jumbie dancer Jha-Whan Thomas, the portrayal has easily been the most talked about aspect of this year's Carnival, trumping the fiasco that was the International Soca Monarch semi-finals, and the jokes about the poor standard of this year's musical offering and the effect the country's recession is having on attendance at Carnival events.
Minshall is used to causing a stir; his mas constantly pushes boundaries. The last band he brought out in 2006, ‘The Sacred Heart’, provided commentary on societal ills, including the dangers of HIV. The National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) endorsed the portrayal, and in a stunning performance on Carnival Tuesday on the stage of the Queen's Park Savannah, Minshall's performers managed to put a condom on a huge phallus to the shock of some and the awe of others.
In comparison, the outcry over a cross-dressing swan must seem tame, but nevertheless, it has been the subject of heated online discussion.
Journalist Sunity Maharaj, in a guest post at Wired868, described the breath of fresh air that the portrayal has brought to the Carnival landscape:
Just as the heart was groaning under the weight of yet another foreign franchise coming to serve us coffee [the Starbucks franchise will soon be opening its doors in Trinidad], in floats Ras Nijinsky to turn the imperial order upside down before sending it forth, unrecognisable to itself in ras and drag.
This Minshall Ras Mas is, indeed, a high mas, a real mas—a Carnival maestro making new mas with old European masters.
When it emerged on stage on Thursday night, the marvel of ‘The Dying Swan—Ras Nijinsky in Drag’, did what Minshall does best. It cut the clutter, silenced the noise, changed the rhythm, re-contoured the imagination and posed the question: What is Mas?
This question was examined in a Facebook thread on Trinidad-born writer Monique Roffey's page, where she asked the question, “Ok Trinis, why is a dying swan at all relevant to Caribbean society? Why all the fuss?” The ensuing comments were reposted with permission on Active Voice — the blogger, Annie Paul, wrote:
Jhawhan Thomas’s rendition of the swan was powerful and eloquent i thought especially with all the inversions and subversions trailing behind it. Europe, Africa, male, female, traditional mas vs beads and bikinis — so many collisions were choreographed into this creation it was thrilling.
Writer, editor and Carnival enthusiast Nicholas Laughlin gave one of the most pertinent explanations of the costume's relevance to a Caribbean space:
I can’t escape the sense that The Dying Swan is Minshall’s meditation on the place — aesthetic, intellectual, emotional — he finds himself in at nearly the end of his career as an artist.
The ballet that inspired the maswork is about the inevitability of death […] It’s a classic Minshall move to have taken this exemplary work of European ‘high’ culture and translated it via two traditional Carnival characters, the moko jumbie and the Dame Lorraine. And through a minimalist but rigorously considered form, a deceptively simple performance by the masquerader, a touch of self-awareness and self-parody (it’s a burly dude in drag, after all), to have made something that his audience can plainly delight in, while feeling the little emotional quiver of recognition that this is an artist’s elegy for his art.
Artist Edward Bowen added:
Several layers to ‘the fuss’ – firstly the unexpected return of Minsh, secondly, with the usual ‘difference’ of content and presentation, often quite startling, thirdly the obvious androgyny, and fourthly, that collection and more of content = drama, abstracted, left field, story telling, theatre – our society allows him that stage, his mas, perhaps we need the stories, more stories.
James Christopher Aboud thought that the costume was also significant in that it forced discussion about gender discrimination in the country:
Minshall is an adapter, and the fact that the stilts fail to capture the graceful movement of Pavlova is not the point, although I noticed that at once. He made a connection with something other than ourselves, which is what the mas is supposed to do, and, by that adaptation, made it ours. Pavlova in drag is the original thought here, shocking the ballet purists and entering our transgender debate.
Laughlin added:
It occurred to me that there might be a sly reference here too to the pisse-en-lit, another traditional ‘drag’ mas in which men portray women to deliberately evoke disgust and disdain–and which may have a fresh relevance at a moment when gender and sexual identity and expression are being vigorously debated and (re)contested.
Writer Judy Raymond made the point that the mas was brilliant both symbolically and functionally. This was the first time that the stilts on a Moko Jumbie costume were altered — in this case shaped to mimic the elongated elegance of a ballerina en pointe — which must have been much more difficult to control compared to the regular, sturdier-looking stilts, though Nicholas Laughlin, who perused the costume up close, says it is “very solidly engineered”. Comparing Ras Nijinsky with the usual costume offerings, Raymond said:
Did you see the others? I haven’t yet this year, but they are almost always a variation on a fancy Indian or a giant clamshell-shaped thing on wheels that the masquerader drags along around/behind him- or herself. […]
Minsh draws on traditions from all over the world–because they’re all ours too–just as he drew on the work of Alexander Calder to produce his human mobiles–and especially stands on the shoulders of mas giants to produce something that is new–a moko jumbie combined with European ballet. And yes, as Eddie says it’s real theatre, and it included androgyny in a reference to one of the issues that this society is only now beginning to address. He doesn’t overestimate the value of originality but no one else understands how to combine the basic mechanical principles and characters of the mas into a new work of art that says something about the world and especially our corner of it now.
“Peter Minshall ….. The Dying Swan-Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavloa …Carnival 2016″. Instagram photo by Ashraph Richard Ramsaran, used with permission.
Laughlin added:
As for brilliance on its own terms, though The Dying Swan isn’t technically innovative (Minshall did a moko jumbie king and queen as far back as 1988, and it’s now standard in the repertoire), and certainly not epoch-defining like Man Crab, I think it achieves the simple but not-so-simple thing that Minshall’s works have long argued is the meaning of mas: to give the performer the means to express an energy, an emotion, an idea beyond what the body alone can do.
In this case, I’d say, it starts in the gorgeous elongation of the masquerader’s limbs and thus the bird-like delicacy of his steps. It’s also remarkable to me how the generally male energy of the moko jumbie is subverted here without sacrificing presence or scale. And I am obviously no Carnival judge, but the scoring system ought to reward those kings and queens that can move entirely through the muscles and energy of their masqueraders, i.e. with NO WHEELS.
Despite all its public attention, Gin Awai didn't particularly think the costume itself was worthy of the title of ‘King of Carnival':
Audiences respond to drama […] the performance is breathtaking drama come to life. Still don’t think it’s a good Carnival King.
The theatrics don’t translate without the Minshall story. Seems more apt for Cirque du Soleil than first place. Interested to see what more drama would be created in the finals.
I predict more glitter and a blackened bird.
This turned out to be a moot point — Minshall's king placed third in this year's finals, but many were disappointed that there was no surprise spectacle to witness. Back in 1983, when Minshall created a convincingly threatening Man Crab which was brought to life by masquerader Peter Samuel and copped the King of Carnival title, his pristine white canopy was dramatically flooded with red paint on the night of the finals.
Not only did Minshall's 2016 ballerina not win, it was roundly criticised by other veteran mas designers, one of whom won the overall competition and maintained that Moko Jumbie portrayals were not mas. In a public Facebook post, Attillah Springer quickly corrected him:
Dear Mr. Eustace
In 2015 I had the opportunity to work with Trini/British artist Zak Ové to install two eight foot moko jumbie sculptures in the Great Court of the British Museum. […]
Your comments showed such a shocking lack of knowledge and were delivered with such hubris I wondered who had died and made you an authority on anything else but how to drag an ugly lump of shiny empty nothingness across the Savannah stage.
I read things about masquerade that the likes of you would probably never see because apparently you don’t know that the moko jumbie is in fact one of the most ubiquitous forms of African masquerade on the continent.
Love it or hate it, there was no disputing that the costume elicited a response — which in itself speaks to its success. Actress Martina Laird described it this way:
Towering and proud, beautiful and grotesque, tragic and comic. Sexuality explicit and concealed. An amazing drag statement of ownership made on the very mainstream stage of the Savannah. Such challenge being very much the spirit of Carnival. Not to mention the parody of Eurocentric high culture in Trinidadian context
Perhaps most importantly, according to Sunity Maharaj, the gender bending swan is a symbol of hope for the country's future:
Although Carnival is no longer subject to the ostracism of the past, what it still awaits is our recognition that it might be the better part of who we are: a people joyfully at work, confidently problem-solving, open to change, willing to innovate, happy to collaborate.
Inside there somewhere might be found the principles to organise a functional society.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Afghan Five-Year-Old Murtaza Ready to Meet Argentine Football Star Messi · Global Voices
Najiba Madadi

Messi and Murtaza. Photo shared on the Facebook group of Shoja Designi.
For almost a month now, the image of a five-year-old boy playing soccer near his home in eastern Afghanistan sporting a plastic bag with the football icon Lionel Messi's name and number splashed in marker pen has been trending on social media.
Now the world is waiting to see when Murtaza Ahmadi will get to meet the Barcelona and Argentina No.10.
Murtaza, whose family is unable to provide him with a genuine Lionel Messi football shirt, grabbed the attention of local media and subsequently the international agencies for his apparent devotion to one of the greatest footballers of all time.
Murtaza's makeshift shirt was fashioned for him by Homayoon Ahmadi, his older brother, who posted a photo of him on Facebook.
His father Mohammad Arif Ahmadi told local station Ariana TV: “He loves football and he loves Messi. he asked me many times to buy a Messi shirt but I could not provide it because in the village where we live, there is no such shirt.”
Murtaza and His father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi. Image widely shared.
Ahmadi also spoke of his wish to see a football stadium in Jaghori district, Ghazni, where Murtaza lives.
“We do not have any personal desires but what we expect is opportunities for our children to have a better future.”
After foreign internet users first saw the mystery boy, a rumour developed that he was a Kurdish child from Iraq.
That belief was given added currency when Kurdish TV reported that a boy called Homin, located in Dohuk province, Iraq, was the subject of the photo.
But then Twitter user @illMindOfRobin claimed that he had made up that story to draw attention to the town where his parents were from.
@xmcrt_ it wasn't iraq. duhok is where my parents were born so i just made it up. every media says iraq without source referencing to me
— RobinXVI (@illMindOfRobin) January 19, 2016
Earlier this week, the Afghanistan Football Federation invited  Murtaza and his family to Kabul. Keramuddin Karim, the federation's president promised to grant him an opportunity to meet Messi.
“We have already contacted Barcelona club and they will respond within 4-5 days about the time and the place where they want to meet Murtaza,” the federation chief said.
Murtaza appeared photographed in an official Barcelona kit.
5 year old Murtaza Ahmadi has finally got his real Messi Jersey ❤💙.. pic.twitter.com/a8hx0ng4BN
— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) February 2, 2016
An Afghan Facebook user commented:
Every one is waiting to meet #kingMessi
Messi is waiting to Meet our little #Murtaza
Because of that we love Messi and soccer
Although Barcelona has not released an official announcement, BBC Persian reported that the Spanish Embassy in Kabul said that they will try to provide the opportunity for Murtaza to meet Messi. His father has said the meeting will take place in Barcelona at the club's famous Nou Camp stadium.
This would be somewhat ironic as European countries line up to slam the doors shut on migrants from war torn countries, including Afghanistan, but Murtaza's family is unlikely to refuse the opportunity of acquainting him with his idol.
In the meantime, football fans around the world have been displaying their envy:
После того, как люди узнали, что мальчик в футболке из полиэтиленового пакета, возможно, встретится с Лео Месси pic.twitter.com/waMGGsJn8C
— Настоящее Время (@CurrentTimeTv) February 4, 2016
What happens when people find out that a boy wearing a polythene bag football shirt has the chance of meeting Messi.

author: Najiba Madadi


text:
Did Argentina’s New President Just Arrest His First Political Prisoner? · Global Voices
Maral Shafafy

There are many questions for Milagro Sala to answer. Photo: Romina Santarelli taken from Argentinian Ministry of Culture Flickr account under Creative Commons License.
The arrest of social activist and indigenous leader Milagro Sala on January 16 has been the cause of both international outcry and domestic protest in Argentina over the past few weeks. Thousands of people took to Plaza de Mayo in the capital city of Buenos Aires, protesting an arrest they believe violates civil liberties (including the right to assembly).
Sala, who leads the Tupac Amaru Association and serves as a Parlasur lawmaker, was organizing protests in the province of San Salvador de Jujuy when she was arrested. She and many other social organizations set up camp in Belgrano Plaza in mid-December, opposite to the principal government building in Jujuy, protesting against reforms made by newly elected Governor Gerardo Morales to the distribution and control of social benefits. Before these reforms, Sala and her association were chiefly responsible for administering these resources.
Officially, Sala was arrested on two charges: “inciting criminal behavior” among the people in the camp at Plaza Belgrano, and spreading “disorder” by lobbying cooperatives to oppose the governor's reforms by resisting the state's new requirements.
The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) in Argentina and Amnesty International Argentina were among the first to denounce her arrest:
Lanzamos una Acción Urgente exigiendo la inmediata liberación de #MilagroSala https://t.co/F6hS1nn6DU #LiberenAMilagroSala .@luispazTA
— Amnistía Argentina (@amnistiaar) January 19, 2016
Urgent Action demands the immediate release of Milagro Sala
Milagro Sala es una luchadora q aporta organización y reivindicación social y política.
Esas le dan miedo a la derecha#LiberenAMilagroSala
— La Carancha (@LaCarancha) January 16, 2016
Milagro Sala is a fighter who brings organization and social and political revindication. The kind that the right fears. #FreeMilagroSala
Mariela Belski, the executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, says it presents a clear “attempt to criminalize practices related to the exercise of the right to protest and freedom of expression.” Both the CELS and Amnesty International Argentina also say that her arrest warrant is vague and does not clearly define the charges against her.
CELS, together with ANDHES (the Northwestern Argentine Lawyers for Human Rights and Social Studies), has already filed an application with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) on Sala's behalf.
Shortly after her arrest, supporters took to Twitter with #LiberenAMilagroSala (#Free Milagro Sala).
Users were quick to describe her as the first political prisoner in Argentina since President Mauricio Macri took power in December.
Milagro Sala primer presa politica de Macri la Argentina.  Se viene un #MegaAjuste #LiberenAMilagroSala #NOALAPERSECUCIONIDEOLOGICA
— Fado (@fumandoangeles) January 19, 2016
Milagro Sala is the first political prisoner of Macri in Argentina.
Some users suggested that her arrest was the result of discrimination because she is a woman and because of her indigenous origins.
#LiberenAMilagro Su peor pecado es dotar de conciencia colectiva a un sector segregado por el racismo en un pseudo sistema de castas.
— Pablo Martin Rossi (@PabloRArg) January 19, 2016
Her worst sin is bringing collective conscience to a group segregated by racism in a pseudo caste system.
Lo q no le perdonan a @SalaMilagro  es q sea india, mujer y q haya organizado a los humildes! #LiberenAMilagro
— Ayma (@aymaramiro) January 19, 2016
What they can't stand about Milagro Sala is that she is indigenous, a woman, and she has organized the poor.
Many in the international community have also denounced Sala’s arrest. Members of Parlasur at the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Parliament both condemned the arrest.
Officially, newly elected President Mauricio Macri had little to do with her arrest, though he has endorsed the policing measure and met with Governor Morales at the Casa Rosada.
Nonetheless, Twitter users have criticized Macri for hypocrisy, given his objections to the arrest of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez at the Mercosur conference just a few weeks earlier. The comparison when posed by an Argentine journalist caused Macri to storm out of a press conference in Davos.
#MACRIMITOMANO https://t.co/sPOfg8SZlx PEDISTE EN MERCOSUR LIBEREN A PRESOS POLITICOS Y VOS TENES PRESA A @SalaMilagro #LiberenaMilagroSala
— Carolita (-_-)╭∩╮ (@yo_guionbajo) January 19, 2016
You ask to free political prisoners while you keep Milagro Sala in custody.
In his first two months in office, President Macri has faced several difficult trials already, and his critics say he takes an “authoritarian approach” to civil liberties. Police officers in La Plata met demonstrators with rubber bullets after they began protesting job cuts in the region. Protesters assembled twice at Plaza de Mayo before Sala's arrest, demanding changes to media laws and the reinstatement of a prominent dissident who was fired from his radio show. His co-host recently started a YouTube show, where she also calls for Sala's release.
Milagro Sala is a longtime ally of former President Cristina Kirchner. Tensions between Sala and Governor Morales (President Macri's political ally) have been rising since he took office two months ago. Morales says he's bringing an end to a monopoly of power in the province (which was led by Sala and her association until now). According to his campaign platform, he seeks to bring “transparency” the the system, which he argues Sala used to collect money and power. Morales says Sala’s main goal is to the change in power dynamic, achieving some kind of co-government in the province. The governor even says Sala was a mafia-style leader in Jujuy, allegedly getting involved in the trafficking of both drugs and people.
One Twitter user claims that the majority of people from Jujuy support Morales.
@JuaniVilela pic.twitter.com/fKPbtaFdtO
— Sonia legado (@SLegado) January 26, 2016
Jujuy is no Milagro. Jujuy's people don't support corruption. Milagro Sala is not a political prisoner. She was detained for many causes. Respect the rule of law.
Another called out Amnesty International for defending Sala, saying the organization has failed to offer a full picture of her leadership in Jujuy:
#AmnestyInternational M. Sala es conocida por violencia, clientelismo, corrupción. Llamarla perseguida ofende a quienes en realidad lo son.
— Daniel Bianchi (@danibian) January 21, 2016
M Sala is known for violence, patronage and graft, corruption. To call her a persecuted politician is to offend those who really are.
Sharing a photograph of a burned out city building, one Facebook user pointed out that Sala's protests weren't always peaceful:
This is how the Governor's Office in Jujuy looked after Milagro Sala protested. This is the act of someone who says she is a pacifist? Is it a felony? Can you protests without starting a fire or running someone over?
Milagro Sala es la síntesis perfecta de la militancia como la entiende el kirchnerismo: cobraba simultáneamente tres sueldos del Estado.
— Facundo Landívar (@flandivar) January 26, 2016
Milagro Sala is the perfect synthesis of how kirchnerism [after the former Kirchner government] understands political militance: she earned three salaries from government
Este es el nuevo modelo de Smart #Miami @cuervotinelli pic.twitter.com/rmUPgMGukr
— Opy (@OpyMorales) January 27, 2016
This is the new model of smart.
Por la liberación de Milagro Sala propongo que vayamos todos en caravana tocando la bocina de nuestros Smarts. Ah, no, pará…
— Matias Reggiardo (@MatiasReggiardo) January 26, 2016
To demand Milagro Sala's liberation, I propose that we all go in a rally honking with our smart [cars]
Political commentator and left wing activist Fabian Harari agrees that there are many questions that Milagro Sala must answer. He highlights that her arrest however is related to her protest and this is what sets a dangerous precedent.
Milagro Sala tiene que responder por muchas cuestiones. No por organizar un acampe, ni por cortar rutas. Eso no es un crimen, es el derecho más importante. Milagro Sala debería responder por conductas realmente criminales, pero contra la clase obrera y que exceden con mucho la imputación que le hizo el gobernador Gerardo Morales.
Milagro Sala has to answer many questions. But not for organizing a camp, or blocking roads. That's not a crime—it is a most important right. Milagro Sala really should respond [to charges of] criminal behavior, but [regarding crimes] against the working class—crimes that that far exceed the accusations made by Governor Gerardo Morales.
Harari argues that Governor Morales’ real grievances lie elsewhere.
El Estado contrató y seguirá contratando en negro, sin cargas sociales, sin jubilación y sin derecho a la sindicalización, como lo hace Milagro Sala.
Además, la política burguesa en Argentina siempre usó a los negocios sucios como fuente de financiamiento y a las patotas como elemento de coacción. No va a dejar de hacerlo. Es decir, los manejos de Milagro Sala son los de la política argentina. Su responsabilidad es la de toda una clase social. Gerardo Morales y Cambiemos no están en contra de todo esto. Simplemente quieren ser ellos los beneficiarios.
The state hired and will continue to recruit in black, without social security, with pensions, and without any right to organize, as Milagro Sala does.
Moreover, bourgeois politics in Argentina always used corrupt businesses as a source of funding and street gangs as an element of coercion. It will not stop. That is, Milagro Sala's wrongdoing is the stuff of Argentina's politics. Herr responsibility is to an entire class. Gerardo Morales and Cambiemos are not against this. They simply want to be the beneficiaries.
The different narratives over Milagro Sala and her arrest show the continued political divides in Argentina between supporters of the former Kirchner government and the current regime. The Argentine TV show “Intratables” is shown every night from Monday–Friday, when political analysts, journalists, and politicians are invited to discuss the most important issues of the day. The following video clip is from one episode that demonstrates the show's heated nature.

author: Maral Shafafy


text:
Did Kyrgyzstan’s Prime Minister Fall for Spam Scam? · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariyev. OSCE's Flickr. Creative commons.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org. Republished with permission.
A purported U.S. schoolboy has got himself into the Kyrgyz media by appealing to Prime Minister Temir Sariyev’s greatest weakness: a spot of free PR.
According to a letter reportedly posted on Facebook by Bakyt Asanov, the press officer for the government, 14-year-old Tim Li of Minneola High School in New York State wrote to Sariyev calling him “one of my inspirations.”
Li added that “during my free time I read about you and learn how to be successful.”
Li dutifully recited Sariyev’s biography, offered New Year pleasantries and asked for a signed photo of the Prime Minister, according to a piece published on news website zanoza.kg February 4.
It apparently didn’t occur to Sariyev or his press team to question why a schoolboy living thousands of miles away would find an obscure Central Asian politician inspirational.
That might be because Sariyev, strongly rumored to be preparing for a presidential run in 2017, doesn’t consider himself obscure, and according to his harshest critics, would lick himself if he was made of chocolate. (Or even chuchuk)
But Sariyev will feel slightly less special now it is common knowledge that President Jammeh of the Gambia, a country as far off the radar of the average American schoolboy as Kyrgyzstan, also received a letter from Li.
The letter, reported by pro-government media read:
“Dear Yahya Abdul – Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh,
Hi, my name is Tim Li and I am currently 14 years old. I live in Long Island and I am attending Mineola High School. You are one of my inspirations and I look up to you when I am down. During my free time I read about you and learn how to be successful. You are the President of The Gambia. As a young Army Officer, you took power in a 1994 Military Coup. You were elected as President in 1996, and you were re-elected in 2001, 2006 and 2011….”
Anonymous commenters on Kyrgyz media websites have suggested with good reason that Li might be a spammer rather than a schoolboy, possibly one looking to make some money from signed photographs of world leaders.
A Facebook profile in his name citing Minneola as a place of residence supports this view. The profile lists his place of work as “do I look like I have a job?” and notes that he studied at “go fuck yourself university.”
Such uncouthness is a far cry from the schoolboy with aspirations of becoming a Harvard student and doctor that apparently wrote to Sariyev. Li’s timeline is riddled with spam.
Moreover, in his haste, Li may have misread Kyrgyzstan’s mixed constitution and confused Sariyev — one of five Prime Ministers in the last five years, with Almazbek Atambayev, the country’s president and head of state.
But given the circumstances, the letter is more likely to serve as a joke at Sariyev’s expense inside the executive than fuel for political rivalry.
Asanov has since deleted his Facebook post about the letter.

author: Eurasianet


text:
Global Deforestation Is Decreasing. Or Is It? · Global Voices
Ensia

Aerial view of the Amazon Rainforest, near Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Photo by Flickr user Neil Palmer (CIAT). CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0.
This post by Jeremy Leon Hance was originally published on Ensia.com, a magazine that highlights international environmental solutions in action, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
It started, as many things do, with a rumor. In 2013, Matt Finer, a researcher with the Amazon Conservation Association, heard from locals that someone was cutting down rainforest deep in the Peruvian Amazon, far from prying eyes. So Finer and colleagues did something that would have been unheard of 10 years before: Using high resolution satellite imagery, they found a couple hectares of felled trees in a seemingly impenetrable sea of forest.
“You could just see this little smidge of forest loss and we said, ‘Maybe that’s it,’” says Finer.
Over the next few years, the team watched the destruction spread from just a few hectares to more than 2,000. It eventually connected the loss to United Cacao, a company based in the Cayman Islands with ambitions to become the “world’s largest and lowest cost corporate grower of cacao,” according to its website. Armed with dramatic satellite images, Finer and colleagues took the story to the Peruvian government and press, hoping to make a difference. The case is now in Peruvian court to determine if the company undertook the proper steps before clearing the forest. In the meantime, according to Finer, the agriculture ministry has responded by slapping United Cacao with a “paralyzation” order to halt its operation. But, says Finer, weekly satellite imagery shows United Cacao is not complying. “The deforestation is happening as we speak,” he says.
The world has struggled for decades to stem deforestation through a variety of means. In 2008, biodiversity expert Norman Myers said that deforestation in the tropics was “one of the worst crises since we came out of our caves 10,000 years ago.” Ongoing loss is driving fears of mass extinction. But the loss of forests — both tropical and temperate — also plays a big role in the global climate crisis: Experts estimate that 10 to 15 percent of current greenhouse gas emissions are due to land use change. Not only that, but forests are vital to mitigating soil erosion, stemming floods, maintaining precipitation and even boosting human health and happiness.
The world has struggled for decades to stem deforestation through a variety of means, including setting aside new protected areas, improving laws and enforcement at the national level, creating international programs such as REDD+, and making corporate commitments to cut out deforestation altogether.
Yet nothing has changed how we approach deforestation like satellite monitoring. In recent years, this has revolutionized our ability to track deforestation. Instead of relying on local government statistics, researchers and activists are now able to monitor changes in the forest from their laptops and smartphones.
What does this information tell us about how we’re doing at beating deforestation — and what we might do to make further progress toward this global goal?
Last year, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released its latest Global Forest Resources Assessment. According to the assessment, we have seen a net loss of forests of 129 million hectares since 1990, an area about the size of Peru. But the report, released every five years, also found that the rate of deforestation had slowed recently: forests experienced 56 percent less net loss annually in the past five years than during the 1990s. The Global Forest Resources Assessment found a significant slowdown in deforestation in the tropics, while net forest cover in temperate regions was either stable or rising.
Anssi Pekkarinen, leader of the FAO’s Forest Monitoring and Assessment Team, says the team is “quite confident” that deforestation has slowed in the tropics. Between 1990 and 2000, tropical forests lost more than 9 million hectares (20 million acres) annually, but over the past five years annual losses slightly exceed 6 million hectares (10 million acres), according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment. Critics, however, contend the FAO data are marred by dependence on local governments with varying abilities — and desires — to accurately monitor or report forest cover. Moreover, definitions of forest vary depending on the government and the time period, making comparing forest loss over decades difficult.
Meanwhile, one of the most rigorous studies in recent years found that forest loss actually accelerated by 62 percent in the tropics from 1990 to 2010.
Lead author Do-Hyung Kim, a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, College Park, says the study, published in 2015 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, was meant to provide an “alternative” to FAO data based on “a consistent definition and methods.” To do the analysis, Kim and colleagues analyzed 5,444 Landsat satellite images, comparing past and present forest cover using the same definitions.
“Brazil is the exception, not the rule at all, in reducing its rate of deforestation.” – Matt HansenKim’s conclusions are buttressed by findings from a 2013 study in Science that found forest loss in the tropics jumped by more than 200,000 hectares every year from 2000 to 2012. The research declared that Brazil’s recent crackdown on deforestation was negated by rising destruction in other tropical countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Brazil is the exception, not the rule at all, in reducing its rate of deforestation,” says lead author Matt Hansen, a remote sensing scientist at the University of Maryland.
There is little disagreement, however, that deforestation has slowed in temperate regions. For one thing, the data are generally more reliable in these regions. According to the Global Forest Resources Assessment, net forest cover has actually risen in countries such as the U.S., Russia and China over the past 15 years. This doesn’t mean these nations aren’t continuing to clear-cut forests, but the total amount of land devoted to forests has grown. China, for example, has undertaken ambitious forest planting programs to combat desertification and soil erosion (although most of these are monoculture plantations rather than diverse forests).
Worldwide, Global Forest Watch — an interactive mapping tool online — has found that tree cover loss has steadily increased (with some fluctuations) between 2001 and 2014. But Rachael Petersen, a research analyst for World Resources Institute, which operates GFW, says comparing the FAO and GFW data is like “comparing apples to oranges.” This is because FAO largely measures land use change, while GFW covers tree cover loss. For example, clear-cutting a forest in the southern United States is not considered deforestation by FAO so long as the land remains designated as a production forest — that is, clear-cut and regrown at regular intervals. But GFW will detect loss for that year, because the satellites see felled trees — even if forests will soon grow there again.
FAO says it does not include oil palm plantations or fruit tree monocultures under its definition of forests, but it does include pulp and paper plantations as well as replanting efforts that usually depend on a single species.“Taken together, [the GFW and Global Forest Resources Assessment] data give us a more complete understanding of how forest landscapes are changing,” says Petersen.
Another major issue plaguing the data today is whether monoculture plantations should be counted as forests. FAO says it does not include oil palm plantations or fruit tree monocultures under its definition of forests, but it does include pulp and paper plantations as well as replanting efforts that usually depend on a single species. And most analyses of satellite data sets don’t distinguish between forest plantations and diverse forests, meaning that research dependent on satellites usually counts mature oil palm, rubber, acacia or other plantations as forest simply because from the a bird’s eye view they look like forest.
But the idea that any monoculture plantation is a forest drives ecologists crazy.
“They’re about as biologically similar to native forests as my front lawn,” says William Laurance, an expert on tropical forests with James Cook University in Australia.
In the end, no measurement of deforestation is without fault. But, ultimately, we may be missing the point by focusing on relative rates of global deforestation. Even if we go with the best-case slowdown scenario, deforestation is still happening at an unsustainable pace. Every year, our planet has less forest than it did before — and much less primary forest. Every year, more species — many of them not even named — become threatened with extinction or go extinct. And every year more planet-warming carbon enters the atmosphere from destroyed forests.
This is nowhere more evident than in Indonesia, which in 2015 saw 2.1 million hectares (5.2 million acres) of land — much of it peat and rainforest — go up in smoke.
During the dry season, farmers and plantations routinely clear peat and rainforest in Indonesia by burning it, creating a toxic haze that blankets the wider region. But last year — due in part to El Niño and global warming — the fires proved particularly fierce and long lasting. Erik Meijaard, an Indonesia-based ecologist, dubbed them “the biggest environmental crime of the 21st century” even as the months-long crisis failed to capture anywhere near the global media attention as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
In all, the disaster resulted in the direct deaths of 21 people, at least half a million acute respiratory infections, hundreds of cancelled flights and immeasurable impacts to wildlife. The World Bank estimated a total loss to the Indonesian economy estimated at more than US$16 billion. It also released a carbon bomb: At the height, the fires emitted more carbon dioxide on a daily basis than the entire U.S. economy.
For those who have followed the turmoil of Indonesia’s forest policies, none of this was surprising. Suffering from decades of corruption, lax laws, decentralized governance and powerful industrial players, Indonesia’s forests are in crisis.
But, maybe Indonesia should look to Brazil. The Amazonian country was once the global pariah when it came to rainforest destruction. Now experts repeatedly point to it as a model for how to really take on deforestation. A leader in the application of satellite monitoring, Brazil has combined the new technology with strong governance, tough forest laws and vast protected areas. And it’s working: Deforestation in Brazil slowed 70 to 80 percent from the early 2000s to today — though it has risen slightly in recent years.
“Brazil is the best to date in intervening in an ongoing deforestation dynamic and actually greatly reducing it,” says Hansen, who points to the country’s “vigorous civil society, government mandates and an engaged private sector” as key to the initial success. In a nutshell, Brazil’s many stakeholders came together to take on a hugely complex, but not unsolvable, problem. The battle is not over there, but it is moving in the right direction.
“Replicating those conditions elsewhere may prove challenging,” Hansen says. For instance, in Indonesia, the palm oil industry routinely plays down the problem and the government still sends mixed messages on the importance (or lack thereof) of protecting forests, even going so far as to criticize recent zero deforestation pledges by corporations.
Many hold out hope that the Paris climate agreement, signed by virtually every nation in the world in December, could point to a new era for the world’s forests. Included in the agreement is a request that countries conserve and enhance forests in order to mitigate carbon emissions.
Every year more of the world’s biggest corporations and industries are announcing “zero deforestation” pledges.The Paris agreement also lent considerable support to REDD+, a long-debated program that establishes a mechanism by which wealthy nations pay poor tropical countries to keep their forests standing. Under discussion for a decade, the program has yet to prove itself and still faces a number of critics. But a commitment of $5 billion by Norway, Germany and the UK to REDD+ announced on day one of the Paris talks should see the program finally kick into high gear.
At the same time, every year more of the world’s biggest corporations and industries are announcing “zero deforestation” pledges, a trend started in Brazil in 2008. Many of these pledges don’t go into effect for 5 or even 15 years and, even more problematic, such pledges often only apply to so-called high conservation forests, a definition that remains under heavy debate but basically means forests with high carbon content or rare species. Still, such pledges show that at least some in the private sector are beginning to view deforestation as no longer permissible.
Finally, experts say that recognizing the rights of local people and indigenous groups to their traditional forests could be one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective ways to protect standing forests from razing. Many indigenous groups still lack legal tenure to their traditional lands in tropical countries, but where they have secured their rights — for example in parts of Brazil — research often shows that forests are well protected. In some cases indigenous groups were even better at halting deforestation than government sanctioned protected areas. Efforts to achieve indigenous rights to forests are ongoing, but sluggish for many of those groups who are watching their forests — and their way of life — vanish to chainsaws.
Concerned citizens elsewhere are also doing their part by being conscientious about purchases that may come with deforestation baggage, including everything from paper to timber and beef to palm oil. Just as important is to support courageous groups and individuals putting pressure on world leaders to protect our remaining forests amid the twin climate and biodiversity crises. If Brazil is any example, we’ll need all hands on deck — governments, industry and citizens — to truly end deforestation.
Jeremy Leon Hance is a senior writer for mongabay.com, Jeremy Hance has also written for Yale 360 andConservation magazine.  He is the author of the new book Life is Good: Conservation in an Age of Mass Extinction. He tweets from @jeremy_hance.

author: Ensia


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Kuelap, the Ancient Fortress That Aims to Become the Second Biggest Tourist Destination in Peru · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

End of the road, Kuelap. Image on Flickr by user Luis Cordova (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Kuelap is an important Peruvian archaeological site located in the province of Luya, in the Amazonas region, built by the Chachapoya culture of Andean people 1,000 years ago. It might not be so well known worldwide as Peru's Machu Picchu, the ancient, sky-high estate built by the Incas, but Peruvian authorities are trying to change that.
Kuelap, a kind of walled city, has the following features, according to tour group Tambopata:
Forma un conjunto arquitectónico de piedra de grandes dimensiones, ubicado en lo alto de una montaña a 3.000 msnm. Se encuentra […] en la provincia de Luya. Se estima que su construcción se realizó hacia el año 1000, coincidiendo con el período de florecimiento de la cultura Chachapoyas.
En lengua nativa, Kuélap significa “lugar frío” y es que, a pesar de encontrarse en la selva peruana, tiene un clima templado, seco durante el día y con temperaturas muy bajas durante la noche.
It's a huge stone architectural complex, located at the top of a mountain 3,000 metros above sea level [about 9,800 feet]. According to some estimations, it was built circa 1,000 AD, when the Chachapoya culture was at its peak.
In the native language, Kuelap means “cold place”, a reference to the fact that despite its location in the Peruvian jungle, it has temperate weather, dry during the day and with very low temperatures during the night.
The archaeological complex was “rediscovered” in January 31, 1843, by Juan Crisóstomo Nieto, a judge from Chachapoyas. While carrying out work related to his position, he arrived at the virtually unknown site — due to its location in a forested and rainy area that is hard to access — with the help of some local guides.
Kuelap is not free of mystery:
Los habitantes de Kuélap, abandonaron su ciudad antes de la llegada de los españoles, por razones que hasta hoy no han sido descubiertas. El sabio italiano Antonio Raimondi, el primero en estudiar la zona en 1860, encontró en el lugar el esqueleto de un hombre de dos metros de altura y cráneos con cabellera rubia, lo que creó un misterio no descifrado hasta hoy.
The old occupants of Kuelap abandoned their city before the Spaniards arrived, for reasons that remain unknown. Italian researcher Antonio Raimondi, the first one to study the area in 1860, found a skeleton of a two-meter-tall [6'5″] man and skulls with blonde hairs, which sparked a mystery that goes unsolved to this day.
In its day, Kuelap's residents used limestone to build the complex; its main architectural attractions include the Torreón (fortified tower), the Castillo (castle) and the Tintero (inkwell). The latter, as noted by historians, seems to have been used as an astronomical observatory and is considered a ritual structure because of its unique inverted cone shape.
Kuelap has several attractions, as seen on this short list from travel agency Aracari:
Petroglyph in Kuelap. Image on Flickr by user Jorge Gobbi (CC BY 2.0).
Podrá ver de cerca los Sarcófagos de Revash con sus petroglifos rojos, los de Karajía que tienen la forma de las estatuas de la Isla de Pascua, descubrir algunas de las estructuras deterioradas de La Congona, La Joya o Macro. Un sitio que no puede perderse es el Museo Leymebamba donde se encuentran las momias que se encontraron cerca de la Laguna de los Cóndores.
You'll be able to see up close the Revash sarcophagus with their red petroglyphs and the Karajía ones that have the same shape as the Eastern Island statues as well as discover some of the deteriorating structures of La Congona, La Joya and Macro. A place you can't miss is the Leymebamba Museum, which holds all the mummies that were found by the Lake of the Condors.
Peruvian authorities would like to transform Kuelap into the country's second biggest tourist destination, and with that in mind the first cable railway will be ever built in Peru. Plans are to have it finished by July 2016, according to reporting from newspaper El Comercio:
[…] en el distrito de Tingo María (Luya, Amazonas). Este permitirá acceder a la fortaleza de Kuelap en tan solo en 20 minutos, en un viaje cómodo y seguro en el que se podrá admirar las montañas de verdor y el bosque de niebla.
[…]
El objetivo final es transportar mil pasajeros por hora.
[…] in the district of Tingo María (Luya, Amazonas). It will allow access to the Kuelap fortress in just 20 minutes, in a comfortable and safe trip where you will be able to admire all the greenery of the mountains and the misty forest.
[…]
The ultimate goal is to transport a thousand passengers per hour.
Twitter users have posted photos, facts and comments about their own visit to Kuelap:
La Fortaleza de Kuelap se encuentra en la region Amazonas, asentada en la cima del Cerro Barreta a 3000 msnm pic.twitter.com/4qqCNm6Izi
— hilda caveduque (@set163) febrero 1, 2016
The Kuelap fortress is located in the Amazonas region on top of the Barreta hill at 3,000 meters above sea level
EFEMÉRIDES:
============
31 de enero de 1843, descubrimiento de Kuelap… https://t.co/hu2GJf1g6u
— Félix Rodri (@PERUFOLKLORICO) enero 31, 2016
TODAY IN HISTORY:
============
January 31, 1843, discovery of Kuelap…
Kuélap, la imponente fortaleza a 171 años de su descubrimiento https://t.co/jLGH6voyYM vía @elcomercio
— CONSERVANDOLONUESTRO (@CONSERVANDOLON1) enero 31, 2016
Kuelap, the impressive fortress on the 171st anniversary of its discovery.
He publicado 106 fotos en Facebook en el álbum “FORTALEZA DE KUELAP – Provincia de Luya – CHACHAPOYAS”. https://t.co/uiQjmTSIut
— OfficialRenegado (@OficialRenegado) enero 29, 2016
I've posted 106 photos on Facebook in the album “FORTRESS OF KUELAP – Province of Luya – CHACHAPOYAS”.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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‘Lion’s Blood’ Stickers Pop Up All Over Sri Lanka, Stoking Fears of Renewed Ethnic Hatred · Global Voices
Rezwan

The ‘Sinha-le’ image.
A sticker campaign undertaken by a Buddhist nationalistic movement in Sri Lanka has some observers fearing harassment of ethnic and religious minorities in the country.
The image, which has also circulated on social media, shows a lion with the word “Sinha-le”, meaning “lion’s blood” in Sinhala —  a reference to the lion ancestor that Sinhalese Buddhists claim. Some Muslim residents in the Nugegoda suburb of the capital Colombo also discovered that their walls and gates had been spray-painted with the word.
Sinhalese are the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka, with 74.88% of the total population, followed by Sri Lankan Tamils at 11.2% and the Sri Lankan Moors or Muslims at 9.2%. Past years have seen a disturbing trend in which some political leaders or organizations have instigated religious tensions and persecution on minorities.
Madille Pagngnaloka Thera is the general secretary of Sinhale Jathika Balamuluwa, the group which is promoting ‘Sinha-le’, and happens to be a former activist with right-wing Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist organization Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). He said in a press conference that the movement is based on the Buddha's saying “Sabbe Saththa Bhavthu Sukhi Thaththa” (May all beings be happy). In an interview with The Sunday Observer news site, Thera elaborated on the ideas behind the movement:
Democracy means the will of the majority, but our rulers always attempted to entertain multi-ethnic politicians ignoring the majority Sinhalese. In order to realise their narrow political objectives, they created the Sri Lankan nation rather than rebuilding the Sinhala nation on its true indigenous roots. As a result, we have been deprived of many things. During our epic journey to rediscover our lost heritage, the Sinhale campaign was born.
The group maintains that they will not point an accusing finger at the Muslim or Tamil communities, but will simply stand beside the Sinhala community in the face of injustice. The movement is being supported by political heavyweights like the opposition UPFA Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila and the Sinhale National Movement.
In reality, the Sinha-le symbol means different things to different people, and many commenters are skeptical of the movement's motives. As Himal Kotelawala wrote for online publication roar.lk:
To some, it’s a badge of ethno-religious pride in the face of growing anti-national forces; to others, an oppressive reminder of their place in society that could potentially spark the flames of another bloody conflict. Still others dismissively call it a meme, a harmless bumper sticker that doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, blown way out of proportion by social media do-gooders. The truth, as is often the case with such things, probably lies somewhere in between.
Blogger Indi Samarajiva further explained:
The Sinhale movement isn’t necessarily racist, but in practice it is. Especially online, it’s tied up with the usual racist bullshit (think BBS) – ie, Sinhalese great, Muslims bad, this is a Sinhala country, etc. There are a lot of wonderful things about Sinhala culture, but this parochial racism isn’t one of them. We’re an island people and we evolved by taking the best of other cultures (Buddhism, chili, cricket) and making them our own. We have also co-existed with different types of people for basically ever.
Over at citizen journalism site Groundviews, Hilly Ahmed said bluntly:
Today, politically motivated groups alleged to be close to the former regime have unleashed a new wave of hate and racism under the “Sinha Le” label. They are determined to create divisions amongst the different communities once more and the provocations of the “Sinha Le” group are clear evidence of the renewed hate campaign on the Muslims.
Sri Lankan Twitter users had a mixed reaction:
@thusinutz @NotJagath I might have glued a Sinha-le sticker myself if I had a vehicle. Just cos I'm proud of being a Sinhalese. @e4c5
— Choco. (@kattasambal) January 25, 2016
State transport also bearing racist Sinha-le sticker. What Gov tells, different to what Gov allows? #lka #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/O89WpShqUb
— Groundviews (@groundviews) January 31, 2016
I see more & more Sinha Le stickers 😐 #lka #racism #RacismMustFall pic.twitter.com/zDjH9EREyw
— Yhashiga De Alwis (@Yhashiga) January 25, 2016
Its not about #Buddism its all about #Racism,#Sinha_Le
— Akree DJ (@ADJtheExplorer) January 24, 2016
Malinda Seneviratne argued on his blog that the Sinha-le word is confusing:
The problem is not the sticker or the wording, but its associations with organizations that are racist and intolerant of other groups. There is also the problem of the word in its ahistorical break (i.e. Sinha-Le instead of Sinhale, ‘le’ meaning ‘blood’ and its depiction in red which is obviously associated with violence). There is legitimate anxiety which spills into fear and even fuels extremism (latent or otherwise) among other groups when the word, either in its integrity or break, is painted on the walls of buildings owned by or associated with those in other communities.
However, there is hope that the extremists are a minority as of now. TED Fellow alumnus and blogger Sanjana Hattutowa wrote:
As Sri Lanka embarks upon constitutional reform and other major projects this year, involving the whole of government and reshaping how we see our country, I expect ‘Sinha-le’ to be the first salvo in what will be many more movements, on similar lines, that attempt to deny, destroy and decry the essential diversity in our country. The litmus test will be around how we respond to extremism, and what measures can be proactively taken to combat the growth of these movements amongst young adults – the future leaders of Sri Lanka.


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Meet Brazil’s (Literally) Most Sung Hero: The Japanese Federale · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

Newton Ishii, the Japanese Federale. The Photo source Twitter
Perhaps you've heard about the latest corruption scandal in Brazil: executives at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras allegedly accepted multimillion-dollar bribes to make deals with big private contractors at inflated prices. It's estimated that Petrobras might have lost R$19 billion (almost 5 billion USD) in public revenues because of the scheme, which was uncovered by a federal police operation codenamed “Car Wash,” launched back in 2014.
Dozens of people, including high-profile businessmen and politicians connected to the Worker's Party, have been arrested so far, and every arrest is a media spectacle, with a flock of reporters and cameras registering every moment. Soon people started to notice something unusual. In every arrest photo, there he was: the same short, East Asian–looking agent, with grizzled hair and always, always, wearing ray-ban sunglasses.
He soon became a celebrity: the “Japanese Federale,” Brazil's newest anti-corruption hero, some called him. With Carnival approaching, he is all over the place: from masks and costumes to the lyrics of the marchinhas (a typical music genre of Brazilian carnival that satirizes formal military marches, which every year parodies current events). In the town of Olinda, where one of the largest carnival parties is held, organizers promised to construct a giant doll in the agent's image (Olinda's carnival traditionally features giant dolls of celebrities and politicians).
“Oh my God, I'm done for. The Japanese Federale is knocking at my door,” intones a popular new song.
Fábrica produz máscaras de carnaval do agente da PF, Newton Ishii, o “Japonês”, da Lava Jato. Fábio Motta/Estadão pic.twitter.com/O73Os5RmOV
— Broadcast Imagem (@BroadcastImagem) January 8, 2016
A factory is producing carnival masks of the federal police agent, Newton Ishii, the “Japanese” [agent] of Operation Car Wash.
#JornalDaManhã Qual será a sua fantasia neste #Carnaval? Eduardo Cunha ou Newton Ishii da Polícia Federal? pic.twitter.com/Jc0xbp5yaN
— Jovem Pan (@portaljovempan) January 22, 2016
What's your favorite mask for the carnival this year? Eduardo Cunha [President of the parliament] or Newton Ishii of the Federal Police?
But who is he? Agent Newton Ishii, a descendent of Japanese immigrants, is the chief of operations in Brazil's Federal Police branch in Curitiba, where the “Car Wash” operation is based. He's been serving in uniform since 1976 and was arrested in 2003 for alleged involvement in a smuggling ring at the Paraguay-Brazil border. Ishii was found innocent and released. More than a decade later, in 2014, he rejoined the Federal Police.
This information hasn't stopped Ishii's cult of personality online, however, where he's now being celebrated as an anti-corruption warrior and an inspiration for Internet memes.
Agradeco a gentileza do PF Newton Ishii, p tirar foto comigo e familia. @marisascruz@lobaoeletrico#SomosTodosPFpic.twitter.com/BW6oGeOqXf
— Rogerio Machado (@RF_Machado) January 6, 2016
Grateful for Federal Agent Ishii's kindness to take photo with me and my family.
#RestamosNós Feliz Ano Novo para Newton Ishii, grades apreensões. PF muito bem representada. https://t.co/vrGOdPKaQJ
— marksjoma (@marksjoma) January 1, 2016
Happy new year to Newton Ishii! Great arrests! The federal police is well represented.
@De_Flores_ PF agradece. Para você guardar, o “Japonês da Federal”, o nome dele é Newton Ishii, um símbolo. pic.twitter.com/ogISNJHwnX
— marksjoma (@marksjoma) December 29, 2015
“The Federal Japanese.” His name is Newton Ishii and he's an exemplary [officer].
Toc, toc, toc… pic.twitter.com/sueQazDYsV
— Japones da Federal (@newtonishii) December 13, 201
DISFARCE https://t.co/YDCDaSLtIY pic.twitter.com/Q7d9QAiSEb
— Humor Político (@HumorPoliticobr) January 18, 2016
[The webpage Humor Politico published a cartoon showing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hiding his head as ostrich as the Newton Ishii looks for him.]
Many Brazilians have grown dissatisfied with the Worker's Party, which has been in power for 12 years. Critics expect incumbent President Dilma Roussef and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president and the founder of the Worker's Party, to be implicated in Operation Car Wash. So far, neither have been summoned by police for questioning.

author: Rami Alhames


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Ukrainian Censor’s ‘Explicit Content’ Database Is Up for Grabs · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

The Commission's liquidators sent DVDs containing the database to state officials. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
One of Ukraine's most embattled state censorship bodies, the National Expert Commission for Protection of Public Morality, was officially dissolved last year, but it's still creating problems for government officials. The latest conundrum revolves around a database of “explicit content” collected by the Commission during its tenure—and no one knows what to do with it now that the censor is no more.
The Commission for Protection of Public Morality was created in 2004 by then Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych to monitor media content in Ukraine for violations of national laws that dealt with “morality issues,” including things like inciting religious hatred, production and dissemination of pornographic content, propaganda of alcoholism and smoking, and other issues.
Some highlights of the Commission's work include an attempt to ban animated films SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, Shrek, and Teletubbies for “propaganda of homosexuality,” “sadism” and “reincarnation,” among other things. The Commission has also attempted to pressure Internet service providers to exert control over user activity and regulate access to content online, though these attempts never found legislative support.
Throughout its lifespan, the Commission faced criticism from free speech advocates, media outlets and civic activists, who believed the state agency's work to be harmful to free expression, prone to subjective opinions, and overall pointless since its decisions did not have legally binding power.
In 2010, Yanukovych (then President) announced plans to dissolve the Commission for Protection of Public Morality, but they were never carried out. In December 2014, a new draft bill aimed at dissolving the agency was introduced into Parliament, and was passed in February 2015. The author of the liquidation bill, lawmaker Olga Chervakova stressed the cost-saving benefits of dissolving the Commission, which in 2009-14 alone had cost the taxpayer 30 million hryvnyas ($1.16 million).
But the liquidation of the Commission was only finalized in June 2015 with a decision from the Cabinet of Ministers. Although the dissolution was supposed to be complete in 5 months, the team in charge of it is still working away in 2016. Chervakova, a journalist turned lawmaker, closely monitors the dissolution work and recently reported an amusing anecdote on her Facebook page.
Apparently, over the years of work, the Commission accumulated a sizeable database of content “containing elements of sexual nature and erotica,” and no one is quite sure what to do with the media files now that the agency no longer exists. Writing about the dissolution process and the database, Chervakova explains:
…в процесі інвентаризації майна знайшовся досить цікавий нематеріальний актив – База даних (каталог) всіх видів продукції сексуального характеру і продукції, що містить елементи еротики. Вона була створена НЕКом за бюджетні кошти в попередні роки.
Сто сторінок припущень, наскільки захоплюючою була така діяльність, опускаю. Щоправда, каталог містить також файли про насильство і жорстокість.
During the process of property inventory, we found a rather interesting intangible asset—a database (catalog) of all kinds of media content of sexually explicit and erotic nature. The database was created by the Commission using budget funding over the previous years.
I'm going to skip about a hundred pages of speculation about how fascinating putting this database together must have been. Although the catalog also contains files marked as violence and cruelty.
Chervakova reports that the dissolution team is at a loss as to what to do with the database. The lawmaker published a scan of a December 2015 letter from the team addressed to the Cabinet of Ministers, the Parliament, the Presidential Administration, and other state bodies. In the letter, the head of the dissolution team proposes that state officials take a look at the database (provided separately on a DVD) and provides an access code (which Chervakova judiciously redacted from her scan).
Though it's unclear what exactly the database contains, the lawmaker pokes gentle fun at the civil servants for their awkward attempts at transparency.
До речі, в Верховній Раді є приміщення, яке офіційно називається “кінозал”. Напевно, в ліквідкомі всерйоз вважають, що депутати влаштовуватимуть там колективні перегляди.
By the way, the Parliament building has a room that is officially called “cinema hall.” I guess the dissolution committee seriously thinks the lawmakers will put on group movie nights.
Reacting to Chervakova's news of the “explicit content” database, users suggest the effort to make the content more widely available is to be lauded, since “we need to know where the tax payers’ money went.” Others suggest writing to officials to get a personal copy of the database or to make it publicly available online. Yet others think the very existence of the database proves the futility of the Commission for Protection of Public Morality's existence and recommend the catalog be destroyed.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Anxiety Over Government-Sanctioned Violence Engulfs Uganda as Elections Approach · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

A screenshot of YouTube video showing police officers arresting a female opposition official. The official was stripped naked. Some Ugandans expect to see more incidents of election-related police brutality.
Tension is building as Uganda goes to the polls on 18 February in a hotly contested election in which two of the top candidates are former allies of incumbent president Yoweri Museveni, Dr. Kizza Besigye and Amama Mbabazi. President Museveni is seeking to extend his 30-year-old reign with a fifth term in office.
As the clock ticks towards election day, fears over arbitrary arrests by the government and post-election violence are circulating both on social media and mainstream media.
There is every reason for Ugandans to worry. Opposition politicians including Kizza Besigye, who was accused by police of endangering public order, and Amama Mbabazi were arrested and later released in 2015. Military General David Sejusa, who opposes President Museveni was arrested last month and detained at Luzira maximum-security prison. He is charged charged with being absent without leave from the army and participating in politics. He will appear in court on February 9.
Last year, the government trained 11 million crime preventers — civilian volunteers recruited by police — which some activists have compared to Interahamwe, a Hutu paramilitary organization of Rwanda that was formed just before the genocide there.
Despite a call from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Network Uganda, Chapter Four Uganda, and Foundation for Human Rights Initiative to suspend the ‘partisan’ crime preventers, the government and the Ugandan police have been adamant.
The inspector general of police told those that don't understand what crime preventers are to go and hang.
QUOTE: We shall not stop recruiting crime preventers. You can hang, if you are ignorant over their importance- KALE pic.twitter.com/MMerMTtjpr
— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) January 25, 2016
Statements that senior government officials have uttered in the past month have sent chills amongst Ugandans. For example, the executive director of the Media Centre, which is responsible for press releases and other official information from ministries and government departments, Ofwono Opondo, warned members of diplomatic missions in an official statement against meddling in internal politics of the country.
Justine Lumumba Kasule, the secretary general of the ruling National Resistance Movement party, shocked the nation when she said children intending to create chaos might not be spared the government's violence:
When President Museveni, the chief fighter, is still seated on the throne, whatever they are planning, tell them the government of NRM is not going anywhere! Don’t send your children to bring chaos in Kampala and cause confusion during elections, disrupt peace in the country, government will handle you…. you will be shot.
Newspaper The Daily Monitor reported that the deputy resident district commissioner, Erick Ssakwa, warned that those who are found disrupting the February 18 elections in Jinja District will be shot dead.
News website Chimpreports reported that the Mbarara Police Deputy Commissioner Jaffar Magyezi even threatened that animals could be targeted:
Magyezi also said Police will not permit presenting animals such as goats to the candidate which are painted in party colors, noting that this violates the rights of animals.
Something that Winnie Byanyima, the wife of opposition candidate Kizza Besigye, scoffed at:
Can you recall when police protected the rights of animals? Ever? Why can't I dress my goat in a blue (or yellow) coat? Lol! #UgandaDecides
— Winnie Byanyima (@Winnie_Byanyima) February 1, 2016
In response to the fears and threats, Ugandans have taken to Twitter to carry out campaigns for peaceful elections using the hashtag #IpledgePeaceUg.
Look who just joined #Dembe #iPledgePeaceUg @usmissionuganda @CinderellaAnena @morningatntv #UgandaDecides @nbstv pic.twitter.com/sjGFVM81m4
— Andrew Salema Ludigo (@ludigocreations) February 2, 2016
#IChoosePeaceUg Join the campaign for peace in Uganda before & after the elections Cc @Desirekarakire @Snduhukire pic.twitter.com/lxxg4WuCio
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author: Prudence Nyamishana


text:
Calls for Civil Disobedience in Australia Over Children’s Offshore Detention · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

#LetThemStay – Courtesy United Nations Human Rights (OHCHR) Facebook page
A High Court decision upholding Australia's offshore detention system for people seeking asylum has prompted calls for civil disobedience. Many people are particularly outraged that there are 80 children including 37 babies among 267 people currently facing deportation. Among them is a five year-old boy allegedly raped on Nauru.
A campaign focusing on the children, based on the theme of #LetThemStay, had commenced before the judgment.
First Dog on the Moon's cartoon for the Guardian Australia captured the widespread revulsion:
“I'm not sure I can do this any more” @firstdogonmoon cartoon on the children and babies to be returned to Nauru https://t.co/q1zhoJucsa :(
— Corinne Grant (@corinne_grant) February 4, 2016
The current policy for ‘border protection’ is aimed at refugee arrivals who come by boat. It has two main arms:
1. Offshore detention on either Nauru or Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, with the aim of resettlement in regional countries for those successful in their asylum claims. Essentially anywhere but Australia. Most remain in detention centres because of the lack of acceptable countries for relocation.
2. Turning back of refugee boats heading for Australia.
The stated goals include defeating people smuggling and ending deaths at sea.
The BBC canvassed the broader issues in a November 2015 article Australia asylum: Why is it controversial? Public opinion is divided:
Domestically, asylum is a hot political issue. Polls have shown that a significant number of Australians approve of taking a tougher stance
The Australian Human Rights Commission also has an online guide for anyone seeking detailed information.
Staff who work or have worked at the island detention centres are prevented by law from commenting on their experiences. This has not prevented a number from speaking out. This video presents the views of Sydney paediatrician Hasantha Gunasekera:
The doctors have strong support as founder of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre indicates:
Anytime
Anywhere
I'll represent for free any brave Aussie doctor prosecuted for exposing institutional abuse of #refugee children. #Nauru
— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) February 3, 2016
Following the court decision, several churches have been offered as sanctuary. The Anglican dean of Brisbane has taken a leading role, defying a possible ten year gaol term:
#LetThemStay: Anglican Dean of Brisbane says he's prepared to be charged over #sanctuaryhttps://t.co/u7RbIxArOE pic.twitter.com/szu8wS8Hez
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) February 3, 2016
Michael Short, columnist at Melbourne's daily newspaper The Age, was one of many who has called for action:
Civil disobedience is needed when #laws are stupid https://t.co/CrOp4VSnIW via @theage #auspol #Melbourne #Australia
— Michael Short (@shortmsgs) January 31, 2016
He was not alone:
Govt has failed us. It's up to us now. It's time for mass civil disobedience #letthemstay #closethecamps https://t.co/sPOO0gWYHx
— Gaye Demanuele (@gayedemanuele) February 3, 2016
#Auspol @PeterDutton_MP Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. #LetThemStay
— Fr Rod Bower (@FrBower) February 4, 2016
Learn to take action. Have you seen I'm running a #civildisobedience training for #refugees #LetThemStay https://t.co/c0sDlfMMRG @Asher_Wolf
— Nicola Paris (@peacenicsta) February 5, 2016
Refugee groups quickly organised snap rallies and mass protests around the nation:
Snap rally Thursday following the high court decision on returning asylum seekers to Nauru https://t.co/vC0PRyVd8Z pic.twitter.com/sVokPpULHg
— RAC Victoria (@racvictoria) January 31, 2016
Great turn out for Brisbane rally #LetThemStay @TurnbullMalcolm #refugees #auspol (photo by Robyn) @changethetide pic.twitter.com/c6CcDOd3UZ
— jester (@Nothinshocksme) February 5, 2016
The United Nations Human Rights office was prompt in criticising the situation:
#LetThemStay: #Nauru is not a safe or appropriate environment to send vulnerable people, esp children https://t.co/RQrDJ2bguP
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) February 3, 2016
Their Facebook page urged “Australia to refrain from transferring all concerned individuals to Nauru.”
In the latest development Daniel Andrews, the Premier of the State of Victoria, has offered to take in the 267 people:
I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister today. #LetThemStay pic.twitter.com/AtekuC1GYh
— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) February 6, 2016

author: Kevin Rennie