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Brazil: The Cry of Resistance of the Guarani Kaiowá · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.
Under yet another threat of eviction from their lands, the indigenous community Guarani-Kaiowá from Pyelito Key/Mbarakay, in the town of Iguatemi, State of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) released a letter [pt] on 8 October 2012, that has rippled across the press and the web, as a cry of resistance when death seems to be the destiny of a whole people:
A quem vamos denunciar as violências praticadas contra nossas vidas?? Para qual Justiça do Brasil?? Se a própria Justiça Federal está gerando e alimentando violências contra nós. (…)
De fato, sabemos muito bem que no centro desse nosso território antigo estão enterrados vários os nossos avôs e avós, bisavôs e bisavós, ali estão o cemitérios de todos nossos antepassados. Cientes desse fato histórico, nós já vamos e queremos ser morto e enterrado junto aos nossos antepassados aqui mesmo onde estamos hoje, por isso, pedimos ao Governo e Justiça Federal para não decretar a ordem de despejo/expulsão, mas solicitamos para decretar a nossa morte coletiva e para enterrar nós todos aqui.
To whom are we going to denounce the violence perpetrated against our lives? To what Brazilian Justice system? If the very Federal Justice system is creating and feeding violent acts against us. (…)
In fact, we know very well that at the center of this old territory of ours are buried many of our grandfathers and grandmothers, great grandfathers and great grandmothers, there are the cemeteries of all of our ancestors. Conscious of this fact, we are now going to and want to be killed and buried along with our ancestors right here where we are today, therefore, we ask of the Government and Federal Justice system not to make an order for our eviction/expulsion, but instead we request that they decree our mass death and to bury all of us here.
Profoundly affected by the near total loss of their lands during the course of the last century, the Guaraní Kaiowá, the second largest indigenous group of Brazil, with a population of 43,000, are the constant target of attacks and victim to an alarming wave of suicides. The lands of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul are the most productive in Brazil in terms of cattle and biofuels.
Photo of 5,000 crosses planted in Brasilia on the Facebook page of Itiban Comic Shop
The letter was provoked by the publishing of a dispatch by Federal Justice of Navirai, State of Mato Grosso do Sul (case number 0000032-87.2012.4.03.6006) determining the removal of the community Pyelito Kue/Mbarakay from its ancestral lands.
“Those who should die”
“We should not remain silent or unmoved in the face of this clamor by the Kaiowá Guarani community”, maintains [pt] Egon Heck, adviser to the Indigenist Missionary Council (Cimi), alluding to the historical memory documented “Y-Juca-Pirama – The Indian He Who Should Die“, a booklet published in 1973 by by bishops and missionaries working in the Amazon:
Diante do decreto de morte e extermínio surge a obstinada determinação dos povos de viver ou morrer coletivamente, conforme suas crenças, esperanças ou desespero. Esse grito certamente fará parte do manifesto “os povos indígenas, aqueles que devem viver”, apesar e contra os decretos de extermínio. (…) Não se trata de um fato isolado, mas de excepcional gravidade, diante de uma decisão de morte coletiva. Continuaremos sendo desafiados por fatos semelhantes, caso não se tome medidas urgentes de solução da questão da demarcação das terras indígenas desse povo.
In face of the decree of death and extermination arises the obstinate determination of the peoples to live or die collectively, according to their beliefs, hopes or despair. This cry certainly will be part of the manifesto “the indigenous peoples, those who should live”, in spite of and against the decrees of extermination. (…) It is not an isolated occurrence, but of exceptional gravity, in face of a decision of collective death. We will continue to be challenged by similar occurrences, if some urgent measures are not taken to solve the question of demarcation of the indigenous lands of this people.
Illustration by Odyr Bernardi published on the Facebook page “Quadrinhos Guarani” in response to the appeal to collective action for a comics version of the letter by the indigenous community.
Journalist Eliane Brum, reacting to the letter, wrote [pt] on her page in the magazine Época about the history of the struggle of the Guarani Kaiowá and of how “a group of the elite discards, in the name of ignorance, the immense richness contained in the languages, knowledge and world visions of the 230 indigenous ethnicities that still survive” in Brazil:
Como podemos alcançar o desespero de uma decisão de morte coletiva? Não podemos. Não sabemos o que é isso. Mas podemos conhecer quem morreu, morre e vai morrer por nossa ação – ou inação. E, assim, pelo menos aproximar nossos mundos, que até hoje têm na violência sua principal intersecção.
How can we comprehend the despair of a decision of dying together? We cannot. We do not even know what this is. But we can meet those who died, who die and who will die by our actions – or inactions. And this way, at least we can bring our worlds closer, that until today have in violence their main meeting point.
Felipe Milanez, journalist, director of documentary Toxic: Amazon, and creator of the tribute blog Luta Guarani (Guarani Struggle) [pt] has made prolific use of social networks to alert others about the cause of this people. Recently he published a video with the testimony of Elpídio Pires, an indigenous leader, about what it is like to live under death threats:
On Twitter (@felipedjeguaka), Felipe denounces [pt] the connections between local government officials and plantation owners, gunslingers, and organized crime in the Amazon”, naming names [pt] such as:
O prefeito de Paranhos levou pra cadeia Elpídio Pires. E o de Aral Moreira é um dos acusados na morte do Nisio Gomes Guarani. Prefeitos!
The mayor of Paranhos took Elpídio Pires to jail. And the mayor of Aral Moreira is one of the accused in the death of Nisio Gomes Guarani. Mayors!
Already in April he had published another video, about the death of chief Nísio Gomes, in an attack of gunmen in November 2011:
Wave of protests
On social networks, initiatives in solidarity multiplied, like the Facebook page Solidariedade ao Povo Guarani-Kaiowá [pt] (Solidarity with the Guarani-Kaiowá People) or the blog [pt] of the International Committee with the same name. A video directed by Tekoa Virtual Guarani has circulated, with messages directed to President Dilma Rousseff with the aim of raising her awareness to the violence targeted at this people.
Denunciation of death threats by an indigenous representative of the women of MS in the video “Salutations Dilma! Those who are about to die salute you.”
On Facebook a group organized to perform a “symbolic collective suicide” online, based on a collective disactivation of Facebook accounts on November 2, in an event given the name “facebookicide” [pt]. An Avaaz petition, already with 24,290 signatures [translator's note 34,218 at the time of publication of the English version], appeals: “Let's stop the collective suicide of the Guarani Kaiowá indians”.
A note [pt] by CIMI meanwhile criticizes the irresponsible form that the issue has been brought to light interpreted as a “supposed suicide” of the Guarani Kaiowá, echoed by citizen mobilizations and by the press, when in fact the letter speaks of a “collective death” in the “context of a struggle for land”.
Another Avaaz petition, already with over 172,000 signatures [216,872 at the time of publication of this translation], reinforces the message conveyed in the letter and launches appeal:
Exija conosco cobertura da mídia sobre o caso e ação urgente do governo DILMA e do governador ANDRÉ PUCCINELLI, para que impeçam tais matanças e junto com elas a extinção desse povo.
Join us in demanding media coverage of the case and urgent action from President DILMA and [State of Mato Grosso do Sul] governor ANDRÉ PUCCINELLI, for preventing such killings and along with them the extinction of this people.
On October 19 in Brasilia a public protest [pt] convened by CIMI, the Federal Council of Psychology (CFP), the Dhesca Platform and Global Justice, occurred in front of the National Congress. Egon Hack wrote about the mobilization and concludes [pt]:
Enquanto isso, as comunidades nas retomadas, nos acampamentos, nas aldeias, organizam a esperança, enfrentam os poderosos e lutam com as forças que lhes restam contra as políticas de morte e genocídio.
Meanwhile, the [indigenous] communities on reclaimed lands, in camps, in villages, organize hope, taking on the powerful and they struggle with the strength that they have left against the policies of death and genocide.
This post is part of our special coverage Indigenous Rights.


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China: Failure to End the Slaughter of Migratory Birds · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The migratory bird season has come in China; yet instead of searching for food in the warm lake areas, a large number of birds are being slaughtered for human consumption. Every year, according to Hunan province's local news, more than 150 tonnes of wild birds are caught in certain villages in Hunan.
This year the annual slaughter began in September. The problem was exposed in a documentary, The Slaughter of Migratory Bird in their Seasonal Journey (鳥之殤，千年鳥道上的大屠殺), which has been widely circulated online and has thus put pressure on the State Forestry Administration (SFA) to act. An emergency notice was issued on October 22, 2012, which urged the Hunan authorities to investigate and penalize the illegal killing and business exploitation of wild birds.
The documentary shows the particulars of the bird hunting business in Hunan province. The hunters can catch up to three tonnes of wild birds in just one night. The birds are then either sold in local markets or transported outside the province [zh]:
Unlike other Western countries, the habit of eating wild birds and animals in China has not changed with industrialization and modernization as civic activities such as environmental and animal rights advocacy are repressed. Instead, the development of modern hunting tools has resulted in the large-scale slaughtering of wild birds and the incorporation of wild birds into local restaurant cuisine.
To counter such food culture and market demand, both grassroots authorities and concerned citizens are urging people to stop consuming wild birds [zh]:
Say No to Wild Bird Consumption. A poster uploaded by Jiangning police online on Weibo.
江宁公安在线￼：微倡议：最近，一些不法分子趁着候鸟前往温暖地区过冬，又干起了非法捕杀候鸟的勾当，在一些温暖的内陆湖区撒下天网、毒饵，大量珍稀候鸟遭捕杀。没有买卖，就没有杀害，警察蜀黍在此呼吁：【拒绝食用野生候鸟！遇到有人捕杀、贩卖国家保护的野生鸟类，请果断向当地林业公安及野生动物保护部门举报！】
Jiangning police online: Micro-advocacy: Recently some illegal hunters have become engaged in illegal hunting activities by setting up nets or laying down poison in warm lake areas, killing a large number of precious migratory birds. If there is no business, there will be no killing. The police are urging everyone to stop eating wild birds. Report any hunting and business activities related to the killing of wild birds to the police and forestry authorities.
御史在途￼：#让候鸟飞#今天赴一个朋友晚宴，餐桌上出现了一大份烤鸟肉，都是整只的。服务员说是新到的货，平时很难吃到。食者都说味道鲜美。显然，这些都是刚被屠杀的候鸟。我照例没动筷子，并说明理由表明立场。但我知道，要说服别的食客拒食野生鸟类和其他野生动物，不是件简单的事情。
History on the way: I was having dinner at a friend's place and there were barbecued birds on the dinner table. The hostess said they were seasonal. Everyone was saying that the birds tasted great. Obviously, the birds were slaughtered migratory birds. I did not wield my chopsticks to express my stance. I know it is very difficult to persuade others not to eat wild animals.
权静￼：坚决不吃！劝那些想吃的人，即便自私得考虑，也不应该吃。野生鸟类和家禽不一样，没有经过检疫流程，如果携带病毒，如禽流感之类，灾烹饪过程中如果没有完全杀死，非常非常不安全。
Quanjing: Never eat [wild birds]! Perhaps a more selfish reason can persuade you: wild birds do not have veterinary certificates, meaning they may be carrying viruses such as bird flu. It is very dangerous to eat wild birds.
天河少先队-徐健瑜：祖先早已驯化出最好味道的飞禽——鸡鸭鹅。吃野鸟的人请你们收起猎奇，放它们一条生路！生命平等！
Xu Jianyu: Our ancestors have already domesticated the best birds- chicken, duck and goose- for our consumption. Please give wildlife a chance to live. Please stop eating wild birds.
Despite the online call to arms, ordinary netizens are still talking about the pleasure of eating wild birds in social media:
疯狂桃妈：老爸得了两只野鸟，坐了三个小时车拿来给外孙吃。知道我经常头痛，买了四斤核桃，老两口一个负责剥开，一个负责炒，一块背过来！父母的爱，如此深厚，拿什么回报呢?
Crazy Mother Tao: Father has two wild birds. It took him three hours to deliver one to his grandchildren. He also knows that I sometimes have headaches and has bought me 2 kilos of walnuts. My love for my parents is so deep. How can I return their love?
小橙子乖：吃鸟了吃鸟了，野鸟确实比家鸟香
Little orange: Eat birds! Wild birds taste much better than domesticated birds.
It takes a long time to change food culture and the problem obviously lies with the law enforcement carried out by government authorities:
邓飞￼￼：#一广州网友来信#没有消费就没有猎杀。每年必吃野鸟的人说，广州流行吃的禾花雀，最大消费人群不是老百姓，而是广东各级政府官员，每到这个季节，各个处室都会外出吃鸟。也许保护候鸟正应该从政府内部着手。据他介绍，广东市场上的禾花雀并非广东境内捕获，而是在天津抓了空运过来！
Deng fei: #A letter from Guangzhou#. Without consumption, there will be no hunting. A regular wild bird consumer said that the main consumers of rice birds in Guangzhou are not ordinary citizens but government officials. When the season comes, all the government departments dine out and have bird feasts. The protection of wild birds should begin with the government. Most of the rice birds consumed in Guangzhou are not caught locally but are transported by air from Tianjin.
onlyyouli11：记得多年前焦点访谈就播过鄱阳湖地区随意捕杀野鸟的报道，一些迁徙到那里的稀有野鸟、天鹅等都成了有钱人及游客餐桌上的野珍馐美味，成了当地人致富的一条门路。它们随意被捕杀，巡湖员都是白拿工资的摆设。这个报道我记的很清楚，当时也是一样的心痛。几年过去了，这种是还在发生￼
onlyyouli11: Many years ago, similar reports about the slaughter of birds around the Poyang Lake district appeared on Central Television's feature programme. All precious migratory birds, including swans, have become expensive dishes served at dinner tables belonging to tourists and rich people. Such business is creating wealth. Wild birds are being slaughtered; the forestry officers are just there for decoration. I remember the report well as I was very sad to see all these things. After all these years, the situation remains the same.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: Grass Mud Horse Style · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Anthony Tao from Beijing Cream comments on prominent Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's parody of PSY's Gangnam Style.
As a society, I mean. Gangnam Style was always about more than the tune, however catchy, and the jig, however fun. Why must all our parodies of it intentionally ignore its intended purpose, and as a result live down its potential?
Prominent dissident artist Ai Weiwei has imitated South Korean rapper PSY's Gangnam style and produced a “Grass Mud Horse style” video. Anthony Tao from Beijing Cream comments on Ai's parody which is not creative at all.


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China: Iron Man 3 and the Mandarin · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment announced back in April that they were intended to co-produce “Iron Man 3″ in China. Stan from China Hearsay doubts if the mainland Chinese censor would accept the villain of the movie being “The Mandarin”.
Screen capture of “the Mandarin” from Iron Man 3's trailer.


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Former Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola Sacked · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

Last Friday 19 October, 2012, former Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola was dismissed. The move came after a hearing against him found him guilty of accepting bonuses and not declaring among other charges.
BattingwithBimal reported the announcement:
Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive Gerald Majola has been sacked with immediate effect after being found guilty on all nine charges that he was accused of during his disciplinary hearing. Majola has been found guilty of misconduct, accepting bonuses, not declaring them to the board and wrongdoing around travel claims.
The former chief executive was also asked to appear before chairperson Karel Tip for the verdict, but chose not to.
Gerald Majola – Image courtesy of www.sportslive.co.za
When Majola, who was given an opportunity to tell his side of the story, and his legal team failed to arrive last Friday, the disciplinary chairperson issued the findings on sanctions, and all of them were agreed to by CSA. The decision in finding Majola guilty has finally brought an end to a three-year long investigation, in which Majola and 39 other staff members were paid a total of R4.7 million (then US$ 671,428) in bonuses after hosting a highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa in 2009.
I was seven years old; I remember Clive Rice and his team being paraded around Kolkata with garlands around their necks. Millions of Indians took to the streets to welcome the South African cricket team. I had no idea what cricket was, we grew up in a soccer home, Chelsea, Man United and Liverpool were the teams we idolised. This was something new to many South Africans, but many of us took the cricketers to heart. They were from our country, we had a team.
Forward a few years, we were lucky to host the IPL. South Africa showed the world how to do it, at short notice we hosted a magnificent tournament. But something wasn’t right; murmurs of secret bonuses, palace coups were appearing in the media. Our beloved game was being dragged through the mud; the Gauteng Cricket Board lost its rights to host the Proteas. Cricket was in a shambles and we could all see it except the powerful men and women at CSA. Cricket always seemed to be the sport that united us.
Cricbuzz also reported this as follows:
Despite being informed that the hearing would go on even if Majola and his team were not present, they opted to not show up for the disciplinary hearing after indicating that they understood the consequences.On the 19th of October 2012, a sanction handed down by Advocate Karel Tip SC stated that Mr Majola is dismissed from his service with CSA with immediate effect. That decision has finally put an end to a three year long chapter that involved R4.7 million (at that time US$ 671,428), an amount which was paid to Majola and 29 other staff members during the 2009 IPL that was held in South Africa.
This brings an end to Gerald Majola's ten-year reign, making him one of the longest serving CEOs in the cricket world. In his time, South Africa never won any major trophies in ICC but was able to host the Cricket World Cup in 2003 and also the Indian Premier League games in 2009, gaining a wider global audience and extensive television coverage.
The CSA will be recruiting a new CEO to replace Gerald Majola when they meet on 27 October at their annual general meeting.

author: Richard Wanjohi


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Global Voices Seeks Rising Voices Editor · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Global Voices seeks a Rising Voices Editor to produce and manage its online content flow related to citizen media development and outreach in global underrepresented communities. This content highlights innovative people, initiatives, and tools that are contributing towards promoting greater participation in the global digital space, especially through knowledge and skills sharing.
The editor will work with our growing community of volunteer authors to expand this content to be more representative of more regions and languages. Through the writing of regular blog posts and managing other online RV content, s/he will be instrumental in articulating the need for a greater diversity of voices and the work taking place to approach this ongoing goal.
The Rising Voices Editor will be responsible for the following:
We seek a candidate with the following qualities:
To work effectively with our community, we would prefer that candidates:
The Rising Voices Editor will report to the Rising Voices Director.
The ideal candidate must have a passionate commitment to the values and goals of Global Voices. S/he will be joining a well established core team who are dedicated to amplifying the voices of world. There is no geographic requirement associated with this position; Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must have access to broadband Internet connectivity and be comfortable working in a wholly virtual environment. We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe, and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.
The position is part-time, but should be treated as a freelance contract.
Interested candidates should send a CV and letter of interest explaining why you would be a good candidate for the job to “rising AT globalvoicesonline DOT org” by no later than November 5, 2012.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Jamaica, Cuba: Handling Hurricane Sandy  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Tropical Storm Sandy, which had been on a direct course towards the Greater Antilles over the past few days, got upgraded to Category 1 hurricane status shortly before it made landfall in Jamaica.  As early as Tuesday, Girl With a Purpose was posting updates to her blog:
Schools closed half-day, today and will be closed tomorrow.
Some persons have started to batten down.
We continue to pray that this lovely island of ours will be spared from the ravages of this storm/hurricane.
Following the storm's upgrade to hurricane status, Stunner's Afflictions noted that:
Sandy…now poses an even more serious threat to Jamaica. This is the first direct hit for the island since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
Both bloggers continued to give updates as regularly as they could.  Girl With a Purpose wrote yesterday:
In Jamaica, we've been experiencing sporadic outbursts of moderate rain from Sandy's outer bands, but very few wind gusts.
There:
1) Have been mandatory evacuations in low-lying areas that are flood-prone. (Persons on the Pedro Cays – three small islands located 50 miles South of Jamaica,  were ordered to evacuate from Monday, although some have refused to leave.  The Jamaican Coast Guard had no other choice than to abandon them, as the Coast Guard had to secure its vessels.
2) Are presently 108 persons in shelters from four parishes on island: Clarendon, Portland, Kingston and St. Andrew.
Stunner's updates were accompanied by time checks and photographs:
12:13 Conditions are now deteriorating as Sandy now approaches the island. The rain has begun to increase in intensity. There has been report of flooding, storm surges in places like Caribbean Terrace and the temporary bridge at Kintire has been swept away by the raging Hope River.
12:52 The eastern end of Jamaica seems to be getting the brunt of the hurricane so far. Fallen trees have blocked some roadways and downed power poles have cut off power to many communities in Portland.
In his third update, he posted a video clip he recorded of “the first of the winds associated with hurricane Sandy so far in Kingston”:
As the storm finally left the island and headed to Cuba, Stunner wrote:
Hurricane Sandy has left the island of Jamaica but not without the scars associated with a hurricane. There have been reports of flooding, several trees are down, roads are blocked, several power lines are down leaving approximately 70% of the island without power. The city of Kingston is regaining power in may sections including where I am which go back power at approximately 12:00 midnight. The full impact will not be known until at least later today.
Cuba, meanwhile, was getting ready.  Havana Times posted a series of updates.  This one reported that:
The Cuban civil defense network declared an alarm phase in the eastern half of the island as what is now Hurricane Sandy closes in on the southeastern coast.
With the hurricane approaching the island the alarm phase geared to protect all human and animal life as well as property is in effect for the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas and parts of Camaguey.
The authorities noted that the greatest threat posed is from the intense rains that can cause flooding.
The central Cuban provinces of Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus and Villa Clara are on a hurricane watch phase.
Havana is not included in the provinces forecast to be affected by the passing of the hurricane.
Earlier today, the blog posted information about the authorities’ initial assessment of damage on the island:
Cuban TV reported hundreds of fallen trees in Santiago de Cuba with the entire city, Cuba’s second largest, without electricity.
The storm pulled off roofs of a still undetermined number of homes, felled trees as well as electric and telephone polls.
The tourist installations at Baconao Park to the east of Santiago were hit hard both by winds and sea surges.
Waves on the south coastline reached up to 10 meters high along the Malecón seawall of Siboney, 9 miles from Santiago de Cuba. The seawater invaded the land for 35 meters.
Meanwhile, in Holguin, Cuba’s third largest city, damage was reported to houses in the municipality of Banes, as well as power and telephone outages in Cueto and Mayarí.
It is still a category two storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, close to becoming a major hurricane, as it moves into the Bahamas. The storm left Cuba near Cabo Lucrecia, Banes, Holguin, the same place where the devastating hurricane Ike entered in September 2008.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kyrgyzstan: Bride-Kidnapping Prevented · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Blogger Diana Rahmanova writes [ru] about a female student who prevented an attempt to kidnap a young girl in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Bride kidnapping, or ala kachuu, remains a common occurrence in the country.
You know what shocked me most of all? The people in the street. They were just standing there and watching, as if it was some sort of a performance.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Madagascar: A Case Study for Small Scale Mining  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

The Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) in Protected Areas and critical ecosystems (“PACE”) programme (ASM-PACE) has released a case study on how Madagascar can “ensure continued socioeconomic development without undermining ecological resiliency”. The report focuses on successful and failed methods to cope with mineral rushes.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Manufacturing a Car in Open Source and Modular Design · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

I don’t know whether we will need gasoline, electric or hydrogen cars tomorrow. I don’t have to know, because I designed my car so that I can change the motor in about the same time that it takes to change a tire.
Joe Justice, founder and Team Lead of Wikispeed, explains on Ouishare how the Wikispeed team worked to build a 100 mile per gallon car in three months coordinating via free tools such as Skype, Dropbox or Google Docs. Wikispeed recently presented workshops in Rome, Barcelona and Paris.


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Mercenaries from Mali to Foment Unrest in Côte d’Ivoire? · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage.
UNOCI Conducts Disarmament Operation in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire – February 2012. By United Nations Photo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
According to a controversial report commissioned by the United Nations, former Ivorian President Laurent Gbabo's exiled allies are recruiting Islamists from Northern Mali to destabilize the current government of President Alassane Ouattara.
News of the report broke on Saturday, October 6, 2012 on Radio France International (RFI). In an article entitled “Côte d'Ivoire: UN report rich in revelations” [fr] RFI describes the alleged links between the pro-Gbabo Ivorian Patriotic Front (FPI) and Ansar Dine Islamists in Mali. Their report also claims that a meeting took place on the border between Mauritania and Senegal to discuss the mobilization of mercenaries.
Truth or propaganda?
French national newspaper Le Figaro took up the RFI story [fr], followed by the Associated Press, whose story was republished on the New York Times and other international news sites.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) emphasized that the report was by no means binding upon the UN [fr]:
Contrairement à ce qui a été dit sur Rfi et qui a semé la confusion, ce n’est pas un rapport de l’Onu. C’est un rapport d’experts indépendants qui doit être soumis au Conseil de sécurité.
(…) les conclusions de ce rapport n’engagent que ces experts.
Il faut qu’on attende tous de voir le rapport et de voir les preuves qui ont été apportées par les experts. Pour pouvoir établir si les éléments sont vrais et savoir ce que les experts ont comme éléments de preuves.
Contrary to what has been said on RFI and sowed confusion, this is not a UN report. It is an independent expert report to be submitted to the Security Council.
(…) the findings of this report solely bind those experts.
We have to wait for everyone to read the report and see the evidence collected by experts to determine whether the elements are true and what the elements of proof they have.
The five independent experts in question were mandated by the UN Security Council and appointed by the Secretary General in June 2012.
Théophile Kouamouo, a well-known blogger and editor in chief of Cote d'Ivoire pro-Gbagbo opposition newspaper Nouveau Courrier doubts [fr] the accuracy of the UN expert investigations:
Les experts doivent, pour publier une information, se fonder sur des sources documentaires éprouvées ou au moins deux sources indépendantes. Ils doivent aussi, autant que faire se peut, contacter les mis en cause et recueillir leur version des faits. Ce qui n’a pas encore été fait, selon les nombreuses personnalités interrogées par Le Nouveau Courrier. Par exemple, sur un sujet comme la prétendue réunion de Takoradi, Marcel Gossio, par exemple peut aisément prouver qu’il n’était pas au Ghana à la date citée.
The experts should, before publishing a report, rely on documented sources tested or based on at least two independent sources. They should also, whenever possible, contact the respondents and collect their version of facts. This has not been done, according to numerous persons interviewed by The New Courier. For example, on a subject like the alleged meeting in Takoradi (Ghana), Marcel Gossio, can easily prove that he was not in Ghana at the date cited.
Casting further doubt on the report's accuracy, Kouamouo assumes that the current Ivorian regime must have provided the UN-appointed experts with the mobile phone messages exchanged between exiled FPI politicians and Islamists:
Par ailleurs, selon RFI, le rapport (?) évoque des SMS interceptés et qui seraient des preuves contre les pro-Gbagbo. Or, le Comité des experts ne comporte en son sein aucun expert en écoutes téléphoniques, et l’ONUCI non plus. La réalité doit être la suivante, au-delà de cette opération de propagande bien huilée. Il est fort probable que, tout simplement, les sécurocrates du régime Ouattara aient livré de prétendues «preuves» aux experts.
Moreover, according to RFI, the report (?) evokes intercepted SMS messages as evidence against the pro-Gbagbo. However, the expert committee is not comprised of experts on wiretapping, and neither is UNOCI. The reality must be that, beyond this well-oiled propaganda operation, it is highly probable that the securocrats of Ouattara's regime have simply released the alleged “evidence” to the experts.
This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

author: Julie Owono


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Mongolia: Goodbye, Lenin · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

The last bronze statue of Vladimir Lenin in Ulan-Bator, the capital of Mongolia, was recently taken down. Alec Metz on Registan.net explains what this means to Mongols and why many of them miss the previous adherence to ‘Lenin Bagsh’ (‘Teacher Lenin’).


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Panama: President Cancels Colón Land Sale Plans · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

“If the people of Colón don't want the land in the tax-free zone to be sold, the sale will be canceled. The rise in rents 100% for Colón”
Panama's President Ricardo Martinelli (@rmartinelli) [es] tweeted on October 23, 2012, in response to the protests and clashes in Colón sparked by a law which allowed the sale of land located in the tax-free zone of Colón.

author: Silvia Viñas


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Philippines: Anti-Mining Activist Arrested over Facebook Post · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

The arrest of a 62-year old anti-mining activist in the Philippines for a Facebook post spawned fears of a clampdown on dissenters through the recently enacted anti-cybercrime legislation.
Critics of the cybercrime legislation won a tactical victory when the Philippine Supreme Court issued a 120-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the law as it deliberates on at least 15 petitions calling for the junking of the law.
However, they claim that the case of Esperlita “Perling” Garcia is a preview of how the law could be used to suppress the people's freedom of expression and right to expose and criticize government abuses online.
Garcia is President of the Gonzaga Alliance for Environmental Protection and Preservation which is opposed to magnetite mining operations in Gonzaga town in Cagayan Province. The Cagayan provincial government authorized mining by Chinese and Taiwanese corporations in the area.
Gonzaga Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr. charged Garcia with libel for a Facebook note posted last April 2011. The note condemned Pentecostes for harassing community leaders planning an anti-mining demonstration.
Environmentalists and internet freedom advocates has setup the “Cyber-Perling” Facebook page to draw attention to Garcia's plight. The page has gathered more than 800 likes as of this writing.
A factsheet on her October 18 arrest can be read on the said page. ‘Cyber-Perling’ was released on bail last October 19 after a day in detention.
Activist youth group Anakbayan warned that the incident is a strong indication of an impending E-Martial Law once the cybercrime law becomes effective:
“This is a preview of what to expect once the TRO lapses: the Cybercrime Law will be unleashed by the Aquino regime against its countless critics and opponents” said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan.
He said it was not surprising that an anti-mining activist is the first victim of ‘e-Martial Law’, considering the intensifying resistance nationwide against foreign, large-scale, destructive mining operations, and President Noynoy Aquino’s bias in favor of those.
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, however, insisted that the arrest did not in any way arise from the Cybercrime Prevention Act:
This is not a Cybercrime case. This is a case of libel filed. In fact, if you notice, the bail posted was P10,000. The penalty for online libel is prision mayor, which is higher than the penalty imposed under the Revised Penal Code. Obviously, this is a case filed under Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code. So this is not a case of e-libel.
The youth activists answered Lacierda by pointing out that Facebook, blogs, and social networking sites are not included in the Revised Penal Code, which limits libel to printed and broadcasted materials.
Lacierda has now morphed into an e-Martial Law spokesman who is also lawyering for those who want to stifle internet freedom and free speech. He knows very well that libel under the law currently only applies to print and TV, making the case vs Perlie baseless, and yet he twists and spins to justify repressive and fascist acts.
They reiterated that it is “a preview of how rights will be curtailed once the Cybercrime Law is passed.” Lawyers also reaffirmed this observation. Atty. JJ Disini points out in a Facebook post:
“Well, someone should tell Atty. Lacierda the fact that this is not even a proper case of libel because public officials, as a rule, are not allowed to sue for criminal libel. This is clear from the landmark [United States Supreme Court] case of New York Times v. Sullivan cited with approval by our Supreme Court in the recent case [decided in 2005] of Guingging v. Court of Appeals.”
PITIK-B(u)LOG said the case is a wakeup call for everyone to take action against the cybercrime law.
Ilang ESPERLITA GARCIA pa ba ang dapat hulihin para maniwala ang sambayanan na ang R.A. 10175 ay inilalagay sa panganib ang ating freedom of expression? Kailan natin maiintindihan na sa ating pagsasawalang-kibo ay unti-unti rin nating kinakatay ang ating mga karapatang pangtao? Hindi lang ang R.A. 10175 ang dapat sisihin sa pagkitil sa ating freedom of speech, kasama na dito ang mga taong nagkibit ng balikat at nagsawalang-kibo. Apathy kills.
How many more Esperilta Garcia should be arrested before the people believe that R.A. 10175 will put our freedom of expression in danger? When will we understand that our indifference is slowly killing our human rights? R.A. 10175 is not the only thing that should be blamed for the curtailment of our freedom of speech, alongside this are the people who stay on the sidelines and do not care. Apathy kills.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Russia: Cryptanalytic Vulnerabilities in the Opposition’s Online Elections · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Last weekend, Russia's political opposition held elections for its first-ever “Coordinating Council.” While there were some detractors who criticized the voting process and the results, many (if not most) in the protest movement welcomed the Council as a triumph of cooperation and mobilization. Rather than wait for the first scheduled meeting on October 27, the opposition's informal leader, Alexey Navalny, gathered fellow council members in a Facebook group on October 24, and rallied a majority to issue the Council's first official statement [ru]. That announcement broadly declared the opposition's objections to “repressions and torture,” specifically addressing the alleged mistreatment of Leonid Razvozzhaev, whom Russian police seized in Ukraine last week and transported to Moscow.
It's only natural that oppositionists are pressing on with the Coordinating Council, already deciding its positions in the debates of the day. For all its disturbing qualities, though, the Razvozzhaev case is hard to see as anything but another flash in the pan that is Russian politics. It's the latest in a series of events that are often described “Putin tightening the screws.” (This has been a familiar theme in Putin's third presidency, and one that he mocked [ru] immediately after winning reelection.) In the near and distant future, the Council will undoubtedly take a great many other stances on similar burning questions.
Leonid Volkov, screenshot from YouTube, 22 October 2012.
In a sense, this is business as usual for the protest movement. Given that Global Voices is committed to studying and amplifying the voices of civic society, we at RuNet Echo will continue to track the Coordinating Council's coming skirmishes with torture, repressions, and other injustices. Today, however, I'd like to turn back the clock to last weekend to review the issue of security in the online elections that made the Council a reality.
Cyber security, or a lack thereof
In an October 1 LiveJournal post [ru], the opposition's elections commissioner, Leonid Volkov, assured voters that “malicious persons” would be unable to access their private information. His promise was concrete:
Мы добиваемся этого единственным возможным способом — мы вообще не храним персональные данные ни в каком виде. Сразу после регистрации, каждый избиратель представляется в базе данных ЦВК с помощью уникального кода, который вычисляется по его ФИО и дате рождения, но восстановить исходные персональные данные избирателя с помощью этого кода невозможно.
We achieve this in the only way possible — we don't store personal data in any form. Immediately after registration, every voter is logged in the Commission's database by a unique code that is computed using his full name and date of birth, but it's impossible to restore this data using that code.
Before explaining what this means, it's worth reviewing Volkov's comments [ru] about telephone data, issued a week earlier:
Во-первых, мы вообще не храним никаких персональных данных. Это единственный, самый верный, надежный, и абсолютно безупречный способ борьбы с их утечкой. ФИО, даты рождения и телефоны необратимым образом преобразуются в хэш-значения, и хранятся только эти самые хэш-значения; обратно вычислить по ним какие-либо личные данные участников голосования невозможно. База номеров телефонов хранится в зашифрованном виде и отдельно от реестра хэш-кодов избирателей. (Из-за этого вы, дорогие избиратели, по сто раз в день жалуетесь, что уведомления о верификации не приходят на сотовый телефон, а проверять свой статус верификации надо в личном кабинете. Проблема в том, что мы не знаем, какой телефон соответствует какому избирателю! Послать СМСку всем избирателям одновременно мы можем, а именно вам лично в руки – нет).
First, we don't store any personal data whatsoever. This is the only, most reliable, trustworthy, and absolutely perfect way to fight leaks. Full names, birth dates, and telephone numbers are irreversibly converted to hash values and stored only as these hash values — it's impossible to restore voters’ personal data. The phone-numbers database is stored in encrypted form, separate from the hash-codes registry of voters. (Because of this, you, my dear voters, are complaining 100 times a day that verification notifications don't arrive to your mobile phones, and that [you instead have] to check your status from your office. The problem is that we don't know which phone number belongs to what voter! We are able to send a mass SMS to all voters simultaneously, but not to you personally.)
Volkov's security measures are technical and convoluted, but here's what is important to grasp: he apparently understood cryptographic hash functions as an impenetrable defense against hacks bent on deciphering voters’ personal information. Furthermore, Volkov claims that voters’ phone numbers were permanently severed from any identifying data.
The phone numbers leak
In an October 24 blog post [ru], Volkov tried to clear the air with a long explanation of how the Elections Commission combated [ru] the threat from MMM “zombies.” (For background on this story, see here.) RuNet Echo's Andrey Tselikov has covered the general contours of that counteroffensive, but there is one tactic we've yet to discuss.
At some point during the voting, Volkov quite foolishly decided to feed the Commission's database of phone numbers into an algorithm that tested the MMM website's password-recovery system. In other words, he tested voters’ private data to see if it would trigger proof that some of them were in fact MMM members.
Moments after Volkov revealed this operation, California-based IT specialist Ilya Kuleshov commented [ru] on the blog post, pointing out that MMM could now review its own weblogs to discover the telephone contact information for the entire electorate (which Volkov essentially “handed over” by mistake). Kuleshov (whose own Facebook page indicates support for the Coordinating Council) asked worriedly, “Leonid, I hope you only checked the suspicious individuals and not every single voter?”
Volkov's response came just seconds later, and it was not likely a great comfort to his readers. It read:
прогнали довольно много, это, на самом деле, известный наш косяк, он будет отражен в независимом заключении технического аудита как одна из наших больших ошибок :(
We checked quite a lot [of numbers], and this is in fact our most notorious screw-up, and it will be reflected in the independent findings of a technical audit as one of our biggest mistakes :(
Indeed, nationalist Sergei Nesterovich recently published an informal audit (retweeted [ru] by Volkov), which faulted the Elections Commission for this very slip-up, declaring [ru]:
К сожалению, оказался или нет, мы сможем узнать только в результате действий этих лиц, […]. Есть небольшая надежда на то, что эти люди – идиоты, и не смогут воспользоваться сделанным им подарком.
Unfortunately, we can only know whether or not [the MMMers obtained the data by waiting to see what they do now] […]. There is a small hope that these people are idiots and will be unable to use what's been gifted to them.
On October 25, Volkov's personal hate blogger, Andrei Sporov, seized on the MMM-telephones foul-up to make his latest case [ru] that the opposition's elections were carried out by a “liar” and a “dilettante.” Several times in the past [ru], Sporov has criticized Volkov's security measures (particularly his unshakeable faith in the “irreversibility” of cryptographic hash functions) as foolish and easily defeated. In a post in late September, for instance, Sporov listed the weaknesses of Volkov's encryption methods, leading commenter livestant to conclude [ru] that a brute-force cryptanalytic attack launched from a single puny laptop could decipher the entire electorate's personal data in just six months’ time.
Irrelevant or unsafe?
About now you might be asking yourself, “But didn't Volkov promise to destroy all voters’ personal data?” Indeed, blogger livestant ultimately concludes that the only data one could likely learn from such hacking would be “whether [a particular individual] did or didn't participate in these elections.”
Alas, dear readers, I have a different question for you. If the telephone numbers were supposedly divorced from all identifying personal data, why did Volkov test the database of phone numbers against MMM's user base? If the Commission was incapable of “knowing which phone number belongs to what voter,” what use could this risky test have been at all? Either his interest was purely academic (e.g., “what is the rough percentage of the electorate that used MMM-registered phone numbers?”), or the Commission actually does have a way of reintegrating personal data after the voter registration process.
If you're having any trouble understanding the ins and outs of this issue, you're not alone. As the Coordinating Council — now populated and active — marches forward, the controversies surrounding its election will fade into history. This, anyway, is part of that history's record.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russia: With Opposition’s Online Elections Over, Scandals Plague Results · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

The Coordinating Council elections are finally over. Now that the results are in, and the Council has already convened [ru] for the first time, it’s time to look more closely at what happened.
Undoubtedly, these elections were one of the most well-attended events (either online or offline) in the history of the Russian opposition. Registering to participate were more than 170,000 people, over 97,000 of whom passed the relatively complicated identification-verification process (either by sending money over the phone, or attaching a photo of themselves holding their passport). In the end, nearly 84% of all verified voters (81,801 citizens) cast ballots between October 20 and 22.
Despite some hitches, the event was generally a success, prompting Alexey Navalny — who led the count with 43,723 votes — to blog “We did it” [ru]. (An explanatory note: voters could cast as many as 45 votes for the 45-seat council.) Nevertheless, some bloggers and online activists chose to criticize both the results and the process.
Central Election Committee website listing numbers of people registered, verified, and voted. Screenshot. October 24, 2012
First, many criticize the fact that nearly all the winners of the election are “the usual suspects” –- the individuals who have stood at the helm of the protest movement for the past year, and arguably have not accomplished much. LiveJournal user andrey_kuprikov blogged [ru]:
Новых фамилий вы там не увидете : Собчак, Немцов, Удальцов и прочие Кацы, из регионов аж четыре персонажа
You won’t see new names there: Sobchak, Nemtsov, Udaltsov, and other various Katzes, from the regions there’s a whole of four persons
While @Uberkatze tweeted [ru]:
Одно я могу сказать точно: народ, у которого в топ 5 оппозиционеров входят Яшин и Собчак – заслуживает Путина.
I can say one thing for certain: a people, whose top-five opposition members include Yashin and Sobchak, deserves Putin.
Media-personality candidates like Sobchak did compete extremely well. Except for Irina Yasina and Liudmila Ulitskaya (who dropped out of the race before voting began), all the members of Sobchak’s campaign bloc, “Civil Platform,” were elected. Curiously, Sobchak's Platform, composed of celebrities and authors, has denied any wish to participate in “politics.”
More diverse candidates did not make it. Commenting on this absence of more unknowns, blogger dmitry_dabb wrote [ru]:
Лично для меня показательно то, что не прошел ни один человек из тех, кто занимался политзеками.
For me personally, it’s indicative that not a single person of those who deal with political prisoners made it through.
Journalist Olga Kuzmenkova also noted this, tweeting [ru]:
То, что Власов из “РосУзника” не прошел – это вообще космический пиздец. Кто вместо него? Максим, бля, Кац!
The fact that Vlasov from “RosPrisoner” did not make it is a cosmic WTF. Who’s in instead of him? Maksim-fucking-Katz!
Kuzmenkova was referring to Max Katz, a professional poker player with an interest in urban development, who is currently a municipal deputy in a Moscow neighborhood.
Leonid Volkov at the election headquarters. Screenshot from Youtube. October 24, 2012.
The predictability of the results wasn't the only complaint lodged against the elections. When a DDoS-attack crippled the voting platform on the first day of the election, many criticized Leonid Volkov, the Elections Commissioner and mastermind behind the online system's technical design. Volkov previously promised that the website was locked down tight, and was prepared to withstand any attacks. That, however, was not the case [ru]. Early on, one of the voting servers was successfully taken down by a LOIC attack — a famously easy to use and effective DDoS tool. (LOICs have been successfully used by the hacktivist group Anonymous in their attacks on the Church of Scientology.) The attackers then switched to using a Botnet, which caused further problems, prompting the use of a captcha response test. Both types of attacks are very low budget [ru], and were mild enough (around 4,000 requests per second) for a user of an IT-related forum to comment [ru]:
ну если это называется атакой… то на какую нагрузку то был расчитан сайт?
if this is what you call an attack, what kind of load was the site designed for?
The attacks made voting nearly impossible for almost 36 hours, prompting the extension of the voting period.
Eventually, people were able to vote. The number of voters, however, was another reason for criticism. In the end, only half of all registered voters actually voted. However, after the elections were over, Volkov tweeted [ru] that the turnout was above 80 percent. He was comparing the number of people who voted to the number of those verified through the website. This turnout percentage is misleading.
If registration on the website is akin to voter registration in general, then going through the subsequent verification process is better analogized to showing up in person at a voting booth or requesting an absentee ballot. According [ru] to journalist Tatyana Shabaeva, this is what should determine the turnout –- how many people out of the ones who registered cared enough to follow through with the verification process.
In real (i.e., non-percentage) terms, the turnout was low any way you swing it, especially compared to how many Russians are active online. One of the losing candidates highlighted this [ru] in a Facebook post:
За Навального проголосовало 43 723 человека. При количестве подписчиков в твиттере 300 000 + ЖЖ, где тоже очень много подписчиков.
43,723 people voted for Navalny. Thats with 300,000 followers on Twitter, plus LiveJournal, where he also has a lot of followers.
Others were more despondent. Mitya Aleshkovsky tweeted [ru]:
И самое важное чему нас научили выборы в КС это то, что проголосовало – 81801 человек. Я не верю, что оппозиции так мало.
The most important thing that the Coordinating Council elections have taught us is that 81,801 people voted. I can’t believe that the opposition is so small.
Meanwhile, Volkov has also caught flak for his management of the votes cast by members of MMM, Sergey Mavrodi’s pyramid scheme. Mavrodi, who made it clear before the elections that he would try to influence the results by getting thousands of his minions to vote according to a list [ru] of 38 lesser known candidates (Global Voices covered this development a few days ago). According to Volkov himself [ru], around 20 thousand MMMers ended up being verified and voting in the elections. In other words, Mavrodi's followers comprised roughly a quarter of the election's total electorate. However, the Election Commission counted only half of the MMMer votes. The rationale for that decision [ru] was quite curious.
The argument is convoluted and goes something like this: there was a number of people who voted according to Mavrodi’s list, but not all of these votes were fraudulent; only votes cast by MMMers registered after Mavrodi “coerced” them into registering for the election, which he achieved by requiring MMMers to present proof of registration in order to gain access to their personal pages on his website.
That is, people who registered to vote after October 16 (when Mavrodi decided [ru] that simply asking his followers to register wasn't good enough) were disqualified as “swayed by an illegitimate campaign,” if their votes matched Mavrodi’s list.
Justifying this decision encounters serious problems logically. If Mavrodi’s involvement was not in the spirit of the elections, then all MMM votes should have been disregarded (which would lower actual turnout to around 60,000 people). If such a move is unthinkable because of its fundamentally undemocratic character, the only rational alternative is counting every vote. After all, Mavrodi did not actually make anyone vote, only register. Furthermore he did not force anyone to vote for particular candidates. As he himself pointed out [ru] on his website:
[…] я рекомендую — не требую! боже упаси! :-)) — голосовать. Да и как я могу требовать? Я же не имею возможности проверить, как вы голосуете?
[…] I recommend — not demand! god save me! :-)) – to vote. And how could I demand anything? I don’t have the ability to check how you vote.
And while forcing people to register to vote under durres may be morally questionable, it hardly amounts to compelling actual voter participation or a vote for a particular candidate (which Mavrodi never attempted). In this sense, all people who voted according to Mavrodi’s list are either equally culpable or equally innocent.
In the end, it’s not clear where the new Council will lead the opposition. Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, who withdrew as a candidate just days before voting started, tweeted [ru] at Volkov:
@leonidvolkov ты убил идею #ВыборыКС своей ее реализацией. Теперь надо как можно скорее похоронить усопшую и заняться другими делами
@leonidvolkov you killed the idea of Coordinating Council elections with your execution of it. Now we need to bury the dead as soon as possible and start doing something else
Conversely, journalist Ilya Barabanov countered [ru] the naysayers, answering on Twitter:
Не нравится этот КС – выберите через год другой.
[If you] don’t like this Coordinating Council – elect another one in a year.
Barabanov's confidence that the Coordinating Council will survive into 2013 is inspiring. But is it well-founded?

author: Andrey Tselikov


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Senegal: Casamance Region Hopes for Peace Through Deal in Rome · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

On October 13 and 14, 2012, preliminary talks took place in Rome, Italy, between representatives of the Senegalese government and of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (Mfdc) [fr], under the auspices of the Community of Sant'Egidio. Casamance is a region in the south west of Senegal, which has been the scene of violent conflict between government forces and those fighting for independence since the beginning of the 1980s.
The NGO Sant'Egidio is affectionately known as the Trastevere UN due to the numerous peace mediations and dialogues it has facilitated. This engagement in the peace process has, amongst other things, earned its founder Andrea Riccardi [it] the position of Minister for Solidarity and International Cooperation in the current Italian government.
The Casamance river at Ziguinchor (Senegal) by KaBa on Wikipedia under license Creative Commons (NC-BY-2.0).
Santegidio.org explains [fr]:
Après des consultations approfondies, une délégation du gouvernement sénégalais et une délégation du Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance (Mfdc) « se sont rencontrées en présence de la médiation de la communauté de Sant'Egidio pour permettre le retour de la paix en Casamance », indique le communiqué de la communauté religieuse, précisant que la rencontre a eu lieu les 13 et 14 octobre. « Au terme de la rencontre, les deux délégations ont (…) décidé de se revoir à Rome pour poursuivre leurs discussions », ajoute le bref communiqué.
Seneweb.com reiterated [fr] that:
La crise casamançaise est une des préoccupations de l’Etat du Sénégal. En 1982, le Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de la Casamance (Mfdc) a lancé une rébellion indépendantiste armée, dans cette région du sud du Sénégal aux fortes potentialités touristiques et agricoles. Plusieurs accords de paix ont été signés, mais pas appliqués; des combats et violences secouent toujours la région. Ce conflit de 30 ans a fait des milliers de victimes des dizaines de milliers de déplacés et réfugiés.
As Sabine Cessou of slateafrique.com recalls [fr], former president Abdoulaye Wade committed to resolve the crisis:
Le président Abdoulaye Wade avait promis de régler le problème en cent jours, après son arrivée au pouvoir en 2000. Onze ans plus tard, la Casamance reste une région minée, dans tous les sens du terme. Les champs sont truffés de mines anti-personnel et les touristes sont partis depuis longtemps, délaissant les plages de sable fin du Cap-Skirring. La production de riz a chuté et les rares usines de Ziguinchor ont fermé, laissant aux jeunes encore moins de perspectives qu’ailleurs au Sénégal.
Tout comme nous avons déjà pris des contacts, nous sommes ouverts, avec les hommes de César Atoute Badiate et les hommes de Ousmane Niantang Diatta, pour démarrer des négociations sérieuses avec les combattants du mouvement indépendantiste et tous les acteurs qui œuvrent pour une paix définitive et durable en Casamance », a annoncé M. Sall.
Up to now, suspicion has prevailed, explains Abdou Khadre Cissé [fr] in an article published on setal.net:
Après un blocage dû aux méthodes peu orthodoxes wadiennes, le dialogue entre le gouvernement du Sénégal et le mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC) a repris ses droits. … Ces rencontres qui ont lieu les 13 et 14 octobre derniers à ROME, devraient être répétées dans les jours à venir. Cependant, les initiateurs de dialogue entre les nouvelles autorités et l’aile politique du Mfdc suggèrent une implication de l’aile militaire pour une résolution de cette crise qui n’a fait que durer. Un appel au pied à Salif Sadio et Cie qui, depuis quelques temps semblent dans de bonnes dispositions pour renouer le dialogue avec l’Etat du Sénégal.
In her article, mentioned above, Sabine Cessou detailed the difficulties that have, up to now, hindered the process of bringing peace [fr] to the region:
Pour tout compliquer, la rébellion n’a fait que se diviser en une multitude de nouvelles branches, depuis la mort, en janvier 2007, de son chef historique, l’abbé Diamacoune Senghor, emporté à 78 ans par la maladie. Une première dissidence, encouragée par le gouvernement d’Abdou Diouf, avait déjà fait son apparition dès 1991, au moment de la signature des premiers accords de paix, avec une branche menée par Sidy Badji —mort à 83 ans en 2003.
Aucun accord de paix n’a été signé depuis 2004, malgré la reprise des violences en 2009. Dakar, après avoir semé la division, s’estime bien en peine d’identifier des interlocuteurs pour négocier la paix.
To make matters more complicated, the rebellion has splintered into a multitude of different factions, since the demise in January 2007 of the previous leader Father Diamacoune Senghor [fr], who died, at the age of 78 following, an illness. An initial rebellion, encouraged by the government of Abdou Diouf, was already starting to show in 1991, when the first peace agreements were being signed. This faction was lead by Sidy Badji, who died in 2003 aged 83. No peace accords have been signed since 2004, despite a return to violence in 2009. After having encouraged this factionalisation, Dakar now seems at a loss as to who they should be negotiating for peace with.
While the negotiations were taking place in Rome, those members of the movement not interested in engaging with the peace process resumed military action. In fact, in a piece that appeared on wmaker.net, POP Idrissa B. SANE reported [fr]:
Des individus fortement armés ont fait irruption dans la nuit du jeudi à vendredi vers 23h dans la localité de Diouloulou avant d’installer la panique et la psychose dans la ville. Ils ont eu des accrochages de 23h à 2h du matin, avec les soldats basés dans cette partie du département de Bignona. Il n'y a pas eu de pertes en vie humaine. Il faut souligner qu’auparavant, la caisse du crédit mutuel de Diouloulou a été attaquée avant que les assaillants n’emportent une importe somme d’argent estimée exactement à 30.683.000F Cfa.
Des boutiques ont été aussi visitées par ces mêmes individus armés qui ont dévalisé tous ces commerces. Des téléphones portables et autres, biens et de l’argent ont été aussi emportés…
However, Senegalese people want to give peace a chance. In an article for the website lesenegalais.net, YOUSSOUF B H SANE made it known [fr] that the third peace delegation will visit several different locations in the region between October 14 and 21. This has come about through the initiative of Senegalese wrestling champion Balla Gaye 2 who met with President Macky Sall before the delegation's departure:
Pour sa troisième édition, la caravane de la paix en Casamance initiée par Balla Gaye 2 va se tenir à partir du 14 Octobre 2012 prochain, avec comme thème principal, la paix et le développement en Casamance. Des rencontres avec les autorités administratives, religieuses et coutumières, sont prévues ainsi que des dons de sang et de dépistage volontaire du VIH /SIDA. La journée de clôture de la caravane est programmée pour le 21 Octobre avec le diner de gala “Sargal roi des arènes”.
It is in the hope for longlasting peace that the outcome of these negotiations is anticipated in West Africa, because it is only through peace that the struggle for development can be won.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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United States: Latin America Invisible in Third Presidential Debate  · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

To see our prior coverage of the U.S. presidential debates, click here and here [es].
Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida was the epicenter of the third and final debate between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney amidst a tight presidential race. As expected, the debate concentrated on foreign policy, specifically regarding China and the Middle East. Curiously enough, the debate took place on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most critical moments in the contemporary history of United States foreign policy.
Moderated by veteran CBS journalist Bob Schieffer, the debate started off with a Romney who, were he to become president, would aim to have the Islamic world reject the terrorist doctrine with the help of experts in the region. In the case of Syria, both Obama and Romney mentioned that President Bashar al-Assad “must go” with the support of Turkey and other allied countries in the region since “his days are numbered.”
Other topics that prevailed during the debate included China's role in the U.S. economy and security, the already historic alliance with Israel and Iran's nuclear program in addition to the war in Afghanistan as well as the role that Pakistan is playing given its geographic position and possession of nuclear weapons.
The highlight of the debate, according to experts, was the way in which Obama “ridiculed” Romney's stance on foreign policy, in particular with respect to military spending. The president criticized Romney for stating that Russia was the country's “number one” geopolitical enemy and reminded him that the Cold War ended 20 years ago.
In response to Romney's criticism on the reduction of navy ships in comparison to former administrations, Obama replied saying Romney does not spend enough time learning how the military works, and added that there are also “fewer horses and bayonets,” precisely due to the change in military tactics. This last comment made it to Twitter via hashtag #horsesandbayonets, which was the number 3 trending topic worldwide that night.
Although Romney briefly mentioned Latin America as a region that, as a whole, has an economy comparable to that of China, he did not go in depth about its importance during the debate. Many Twitter users took note of this, such as Nicolás López Correa (@NicolasLopezCo) who said:
From left to right: Romney, moderator Bob Schieffer, and Obama at the third presidential debate. Photo taken from a video of the debate on YouTube.
@NicolasLopezCo: Latinoamérica sólo fue mencionada sólo por un candidato en el debate presidencial de USA y fue @MittRomney. Atención inmigrantes latinos
@NicolasLopezCo: Latin America was only mentioned by one candidate during the U.S. presidential debate and it was @MittRomney. Attention Latino immigrants.
Pedro Aranguren (@PedroAranguren) was disappointed about the lack of attention given to U.S.-Latin American relations:
@PedroAranguren: Debate presidencial de EEUU demuestra que Latinoamérica no está en su agenda. Seguimos siendo “patio trasero”
@PedroAranguren: The U.S. presidential debate showed that Latin America is not on their agenda. We continue to be their “backyard”
Users like Jose Luis Pedauga (@jlpedauga) expressed the same sentiment:
@jlpedauga: Latinoamérica está ausente en los temas de debate presidencial de EEUU http://dlvr.it/2MKvqX
@jlpedauga: Latin America is absent from the topics of the U.S. presidential debate http://dlvr.it/2MKvqX
Similarly, Alejandro EC (@Alex_ec) noted Mexico's absence from the debate:
@Alex_ec: Ni una sola mención de México y Latinoamerica en el tercer y ultimo debate presidencial entre Obama y Romney, es… http://fb.me/xxChi7oQ
@Alex_ec: Not even a single mention of Mexico and Latin America in the third and final presidential debate between Obama and Romney, it's… http://fb.me/xxChi7oQ
Eugenio G. Martinez (@puzkas) noted that the region pushed aside when talking about the U.S. foreign policy:
@puzkas: El tercer debate presidencial estadounidense demuestra que latinoamerica (Venezuela-Chávez incluidas) no son prioridades para EEUU
@puzkas: The third presidential debate shows that Latin America (Venezuela-Chávez included) is not a priority for the United States
Others, like Juan Carlos Verdía (@VerdiaJ), affirmed that residents of Florida, where the debate took place, should pay close attention as the debate developed:
@VerdiaJ: Cubanos de #Miami atentos a debate presidencial http://goo.gl/Ju67D
@VerdiaJ: Cubans of #Miami, pay attention to the presidential debate http://goo.gl/Ju67D
Users like Martín (@fragmentario) pointed out that the debate had a somewhat belligerent tone:
@fragmentario: El debate presidencial yanqui es el único sitio en que la pretensión de matar personas va en el curriculum y no en la historia clínica.
@fragmentario: The American presidential debate is the only place where an intent to kill people goes on someone's resume and not their clinical history.
Manuel A. Merlo Mtz. (@ManuelMerloMtz) said that the debate did not give enough importance to the topic of military spending:
@ManuelMerloMtz: Escuchar en el Debate Presidencial de EU a los candidatos hablar de Presupuesto Militar como CUALQUIER COSA…
@ManuelMerloMtz: Listening to the candidates in the U.S. presidential debate talk about military spending like its ANY OLD THING…
Once again netizens debated between watching the debate versus sporting events, like the case of Jennifer Torres P (@JenniferTorres6)
@JenniferTorres6: Que lío este. Elegir entre el juego de St Luis y San Francisco y el debate presidencial por Estados Unidos
@JenniferTorres6: What a mess. Choosing between the St. Luis-San Francisco game and the United States presidential debate
Minutes after the debate ended, surveys like the one carried out by CNN affirmed that more than half of their viewers named Obama the winner. Likewise, other U.S. channels like CBS predicted that the current leader won the last debate in the face of the forthcoming elections where undecided voters awarded him the victory by 53% compared to the 23% that Mitt Romney received.

author: Robert Valencia


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Chile: Mapuche Prisoners End Hunger Strike After 60 Days · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Two young men, members of the indigenous Mapuche community from Southern Chile, were sentenced on August 13, 2012, to 541 days of prison for their responsibility in an attack against police officers during a clash on November 2, 2011, in the rural sector of the Ercilla commune.
Nineteen-year-old Paulino Levipán and eighteen-year-old Daniel Levinao started a hunger strike on August 27, 2012, along with Rodrigo Montoya Melinao and Eric Montoya Montoya to protest their detention. The latter were accused of attempted murder of a policeman that was guarding ranch Centenario, in the same Ercilla community, on August 2011. They were still being processed in an oral trial.
Yesterday, October 25, the four mapuche prisoners decided to abandon their protest after the Chilean Supreme Court decided to comply with some of their demands. They are already at the prison's nurse station receiving food.
Mapuche stencil, photo by Flickr user Paul Lowry (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The maximum Chilean court ruled to partially annul the trial that convicted them. In Daniel's case, a new trial was ordered because the first one lacked enough proof to reach a sentence. As for Paulino, the court changed his accusation to injuries based on “evident mistakes in the application of the law”, therefore his sentence changed from 10 years in prison to 3 years in parole.
The current government's stance
President Sebastián Piñera spoke about the hunger strike [es] during a visit to the Ercilla commune this October, echoing the government's long-standing policy towards the clashes with these communities:
¿Vamos a permitir que ese intento de homicidio quede impune? La justicia llegó a un fallo definitivo y por tanto pienso que si ellos cometieron un delito, la huelga de hambre no es legítima ni eficaz”
Are we going to allow this attempted murder to go unpunished? Justice decided a final ruling and therefore I think that if they committed a crime, the hunger strike is not legitimate or effective.
The conflict
The following video, uploaded by YouTube user PipeHenriquezO, summarizes the Mapuche conflict in Chile in 30 seconds. The conflict focuses on claiming the preservation and autonomy of the lands that they have inhabited for centuries and that are now being exploited for their natural resources:
Also, on The Ambivalent Abyss Tumblr blog you can find a photo gallery of the Mapuche movement throughout history.
Netizens have also commented on the various reports about the protests in favor of the Mapuche, the government's reactions, and the diverse television reports that have come out on the issue. Opinions are conflicting.
Journalist and golfer Alejandro Bascur (@AlejandroBascur) [es] was happy after a TV program aired on national television:
@AlejandroBascur: Notable informe especial TVN. Al fin se Muestra el terror q siembran los mapuches en el sur, sin ningún respeto por DDHH #InformeEspecial
@AlejandroBascur: Great special report by TVN (National Television of Chile). They are finally showing the terror that the Mapuche sow in the South, with no respect to human rights #InformeEspecial
Referring to the statements by President Piñera, journalist and blogger [es] Francisco Méndez (@Franmen) [es] pointed out:
@Franmen: El Presidente Piñera podría prestar el mismo respaldo que brinda a policías ,a los estudiantes y a los Mapuche cuando se los estigmatiza
@Franmen: President Piñera could give stigmatized students and Mapuche the same support he offers the police
Furthermore, Mapuche journalist, writer and blogger Pedro Cayuqueo (@pcayuqueo) [es] asserted:
@pcayuqueo: Cuesta hablar del trasfondo del tema mapuche cuando lo que gatilla los debates es la cronica policial. Aun asi, algunos lo intentamos.
@pcayuqueo: It's hard to talk about the background of the Mapuche issue when what triggers debates is police chronicles. Even so, some of us try.
Meanwhile, Mapuche blogger Punngey posted the following thoughts [es] on Tumblr regarding the end of the hunger strike:
HOY, 60 días de ayuno…se acabó el conteo, 60 días de sacrificio por que la verdad saliera a flote, 60 días de lucha de coraje, de orgullo, de ese orgullo que acompaña a cada uno de quienes SOMOS mapuche, aunque hayan algunos por ahí que digan que ya no existimos, esperemos que esta lucha acabe pronto […] a seguir luchando por que se vayan las forestales y represas de nuestras tierras, por la sanación de nuestra mapu, a seguir recuperando lo que se nos usurpó, y por fin caminar libres por nuestra mapu, que nuestros hijos no sigan creciendo con la represión en sus sueños…y que ellos si caminen por las tierras libres de nuestros abuelos…AMULEPE TAIÑ WEICHAN!!! WEWAIÑ. LA LUCHA CONTINÚA…
TODAY, 60 days of fasting…the counting has ended, 60 days of sacrifice to bring out the truth, a 60-day battle of courage, pride, that pride that accompanies each one of us who ARE Mapuche, although some say that we don't exist anymore. We hope this struggle ends soon […] Let's continue fighting for forest companies and dams to leave our land, for the healing of our mapu (land), to continue recovering what was taken from us, and to finally walk freely through our mapu, that our children may not continue growing up with repression filling their dreams…and that they may walk through the free lands of our grandparents…AMULEPE TAIÑ WEICHAN!!! WEWAIÑ. THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES…
Mapuche flag by Flickr user Diego Martin (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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China: Zero Donations to Government Education Development Fund · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Guizhou is one of the poorest provinces in China and more than 50% of the students in elementary education are living in poverty. The problem of children dropping out of the education system has been very serious.
Many private charities have projects that provide scholarships and sponsorship to poor students in Guizhou. Local government authorities also also make regular calls for donation to their governmental funds. Recently, however, the Guizhou Education Bureau's fundraising campaign for its Education Development Fund has received zero response.
According to a local report [zh] on 21 October 2012, the fund was established in June 2011 with aims of teacher training, curriculum development and overseas exchanges. The Education Bureau claims that all the donations will be transparent and won't be used for administrative costs. However, out of the 1000 plus letters sent out to local business leaders and celebrities, none has responded to the donation call.
The official blames the Guo Meimei and China Red Cross scandal for their failure. Indeed, the issue at stake concerns people's distrust in the government-led charity work which quite often takes donations as extra taxation. Lao Hai from my1510 explains how the “governmental charity practice” works out in China [zh]:
Zero donation to the Guizhou education development fund. Image from my1510.cn
贵州有多少希望工程？希望工程之外，有没有必要再开辟一条基金会支教的第二路线？教育慈善机构全国已有很多，贵州有没有必要再多此一举?有没有必要在自己的小省之内再创建一个必然跟全国性的教育慈善机构有所冲突的地域性基金会？这些事情没有周全考虑好，问题自然就随之而来。如果都是三思才后行的，就不会遭遇现在这般极其糟糕的“零捐助”。
邀捐到底是怎么回事？说穿了，就是有个性且想作为的领导，利用部门职权和个人魅力号召能够管辖和可以控制的财团和富豪捐助当地财政一时无法挪腾出来的短缺资金，以解决政府急欲解决的某些棘手的社会性问题。一般来讲，邀捐的动机无可厚非，就是手段略存非议。说它合法嘛，它却极具道德杀伤力，有点强人所难的东西在里边。不捐则担心今后到这邀捐部门去办事要吃卡掐拿要，利索不了。捐嘛还真是有点不太乐意，谁不疼惜自己的血汗钱？而且，一般邀捐的款额都不是小数目，动辄几十万起算。说它非法嘛，它却不受目前任何法律限制，天生就有御法之术。
How many Hope Projects are currently run in Guizhou? Do we really need extra funding to support education development there? There are so many education charities all over the country, do we need a local foundation that competes with the national charities? Without addressing the above questions, problems follow. If they had reviewed the existing charity work, they wouldn't face such an awful “zero donation” situation.
What is the nature of of the donation invitation? Some leaders are making use of their power in the government to squeeze money from the business sector and local celebrities, who are under their jurisdiction, to solve their temporary cash flow problem for tackling existing social problems. The intention is usually justified but the means is questionable. Right, it is legal, yet those who refuse to donate will receive moral pressure and they may also worry that their relation with local authorities could be ruined. Usually the donation amount requested is quite high, up to hundreds of thousand RMB (equivalent to tens of thousands of USD), people are unwilling to give their hard earned money. No existing law restricts such kind of governmental behavior, well, of course they know how the laws are written…
The role of the government has obviously stirred up a lot of distrust. Below is a selection of criticisms from micro-bloggers [zh]:
广东西关二少：没方法改变了，政府的慈善机构已经彻底伤了国人的心、寒了国人的心。以后捐助这事只能交给有第三方监控的民间慈善机构跟进，否则，遭遇零捐助的尴尬事将继续下去。
Guangdong Kuanxi Ershao People won't change their mind anymore. The governmental charity groups have broken and cooled down our hearts. In the future, fund raising has to be conducted and monitored by civil charity, or such kind of embarrassment will keep happening.
NNDSN：为什么？首先问自己是不是真的是为了教育发展。把贵州慈善事业做的好的宣传一下，把做过的事列举一下，你们资助了谁？？要资助的也是你们的亲戚！真正需要的人没有得到资助
NNDSN: Why? Ask yourself if this is really for the development of education. Who have you been sponsoring, can you give a summary of your charity work in the past? The fund is channelled to your extended family! Those in need get nothing.
Antonio_龍：对于贵州省教育发展基金会“零捐助”事件，我觉得根本没有必要广泛宣传，“零捐助”不代表群众无爱心，而是对这个社会的不放心，5.12捐款还不是被贪了，面对如此重大的灾难，相关领导都贪的面不改色，这让我们纷纷质疑，我们捐的钱都哪去了?捐钱也无法改变孩子的现状，只会让贪污者的腰包更鼓！
Antonio Lung The zero donation incident of the Guizhou education development fund is of no great significance. Zero donation does not mean that people don't care. They just can't trust this society anymore. The donation for May 12 [The Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008] had been misappropriated by corrupted officials. How could they take the disaster relief money without blushing? We have been questioning where all our money has gone? Donation can't help the children, the money will just fill the corrupted officials’ pockets.
Some also extend their distrust to the unjust and arbitrary allocation of government's resources:
蓝博一客：公众的不满还在于：一方面财政性教育投入不足，1993年承诺到上世纪末教育投入占GDP的比例4%，而到了2011年也只有3.83%左右；不及发达国家的5.1%
Blue blog guest: Public discontent comes from the government's education investment lagging behind. In 1993, the government promised that by the end of the 20th century, education investment would be up to 4%, but in 2011, the investment was just 3.83%, far below the 5.1% of the developed country
坐隐玄幽：贵州教育发展基金遭遇“零捐助”。都拿去支援非洲和欧债危机了，哪还管自己人！
Steadily seated in the dark: Guizhou education development fund received zero donation. All our money has been spent to aid African countries and helped the European debt crisis, no one care about our own people.
Legolas points out that charity work should be done in open platforms:
尼玛，我要是想为教育发展尽力，完全可以自己做，我只需要的是一个提供真实信息的平台而已，所谓的基金会完全不会被我信任
We can help the development of education by our own efforts. What we need is a platform where there is trustworthy information. I won't trust any foundation.


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Costa Rican Bloggers Speak Up for Freedom of Expression · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Ticoblogger summarizes [es] the participation of bloggers, journalists, and activists in the forum “Online Anonymity, Pseudonyms and Freedom of Expression” held on Wednesday, October 24, 2012. The post links to presentations by Gustavo Araya [es, pdf], Julio Córdoba [es], and José Medrano [es].


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Ghana: Meet Agnes Chigabatia – Ghanaian Female Politician · Global Voices
Kofi Yeboah

There have been considerable efforts by women to have chance in Ghanaian politics. Ghana Decides, a non-partisan project which aims to foster a better-informed electorate for free, fair and safe 2012 elections using social media tools took a personality profile look on parliamentary candidate Agnes Chigabatia.
She is a former member of parliament for the Builsa North Constituency in the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic from 7 January 2005 to 7 January 2009. She was also a deputy Minister of the Upper East region from 2005 to January 2009.
Ghana Decides is an initiative under Blogging Ghana, a Ghanaian blogging community.
Ghanaian politician Agness Chigabatia. Photo courtesy of ghanadecides.com
In the post by Ghana Decides she shares her story on why she took the step to participate in politics:
She says growing up in northern Ghana; she felt the plight of the people, especially the youth and rural women who needed a little push to make a difference in their homes and communities. With the resources at her disposal, she joined the Builsa Ladies Association in Accra and through hardwork, she was elected President of the association in 1995. In 2002, she established a division of the Builsa Ladies Association in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region. She also helped create the Top Ladies Association to bring together women from the Kasena/Nankana areas of northern Ghana.
She indicates in the post that:
In 1997 after floods destroyed a lot of homes in Builsa she organised a dinner party to help raise funds for the flood victims. She says the success of this project encouraged her to get into active party politics to help the people of the Upper West Region. In 2000, she joined the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and in 2004 she contested the Builsa North Constituency parliamentary seat and won. In 2005, she was appointed into the Gender and Children Committee in parliament and made deputy Minister of the Upper East region.
As a member of parliament and the Gender Committee, Agnes Chigabatia played an active role in getting the Domestic Violence Bill passed into law. She secured soft loans from the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs for women in her constituency to engage in trading activities to support their households.
She describes agriculture projects meant to empower women in her constituency:
After losing her seat in 2009, she has not stopped serving the people in her constituency. She is presently undertaking a project that is putting women in groups to engage in large scale farming in groundnuts, sorghum, millets, cowpea, rice, etc., as well as soap-making and other income generating skills.
Agnes Asangalisa Chigabatia is once again contesting the Builsa North parliamentary seat on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party. She strongly advocates a sheanut sector which is separate from the cocoa industry. With an ever growing cosmetics industry in Ghana, and the world, she believes that the creation of a separate sheanut sector, which is not overshadowed by cocoa, will generate a lot of income for the country and farmers.
She says her first project, when sworn into office, will be to use part of the MP’s Common Fund to expand the children’s ward of the district hospital in her constituency, which she says is too small to accommodate the growing population. According to her, if the mothers in every household in her constituency is empowered, the entire household benefits and the ripple effects is seen in the society as a whole.

author: Kofi Yeboah


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Haiti: Flooding in the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy    · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Hurricane Sandy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti by IOM Haiti CC license BY-NC-SA 2.0
Haiti Libre reported that the the General Hospital in Les Cayes was flooded when Hurricane Sandy hit Haiti on october 23. Haiti Libre added that a woman drowned trying to cross a river in Camp-Perrin.


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Israel: The Unification of Right-Wing Parties Gives Birth to Bibirman  · Global Voices
Elizabeth Tsurkov

Israelis took to Facebook and Twitter to react to the announcement that the two largest right-wing parties in Israel will run on a joint ballot in the upcoming January 2013 elections. The parties, Likud, headed by Prime Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, and Yisrael Beyetenu headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, are projected to form the next Israeli government, as all polls show that the right-wing blog will once against be dominant one in the Knesset. The platform of Yisrael Beyetenu is more right-wing than that of the Likud, and includes the call for exchanging territories between Israel and the future Palestinian state, so that Arab citizens of Israel will be forcibly deprived of Israeli citizenship and become Palestinian citizens.
Yoni Barak created this image of the union:
Bibirman: Yoni Barak's image of the union, shared on Facebook
The liberal social-democratic party Meretz tweeted:
ראש הממשלה נעתר לביברמניות והסכים להביא את ביברמן לישראל.
@MeretzParty: The Prime Minister has answered the calls of the BieberManiacs and brought Bibirman to Israel
Many reacted to the news with jokes about impending doom.
Referring to Lieberman's international unpopularity due to his extreme right-wing stance, meme artist Amir Schiby created this:
Prepare for the coming of the sanctions
Meme artist and internet humorist Avgad Yav'or created this image based on the iconic movie Thelma and Louise:
Lieberman: “Shall we go for this?”. Netanyahu: “Come on”
Leftist meme artist Amir Schiby also created this image, referring to the fact that Yisrael Beytenu is a highly centralized party, in which all major decisions are made by Lieberman himself. The party does not hold primaries and its list of contenders for the elections is determined by Lieberman as well.
Netanyahu: “… and on November 25 the primaries are held”
Lieberman: “Primaries? What is that?”
Lieberman, an immigrant from Moldova, is often compared by Israelis to Putin, also due to Lieberman's undemocratic views, which match those of Russia's authoritarian leader. Amir Schiby created this image
Lieberman and Putin
Displaying her dark sense of humor, Israeli anarchist activist Talkaholic tweeted:
הפיצוץ העז שנשמע הרגע מעזה: יריות שמחה לרגל החתונה המרגשת של ביבי וליברמן.
@Talkaholic: The loud explosion just heard from Gaza: celebratory gunfire marking the emotional wedding of Bibi and Lieberman

author: Elizabeth Tsurkov


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Kazakhstan: Misused National Symbols · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Blogger Bahytzhan Bukharbayev reports [ru] that Kazakhstan's national symbols – flag, coat of arms, and anthem – are frequently misused and misrepresented, causing the country a lot of embarrassment. The blogger proposes:
People should be punished for displaying the coat of arms on garbage trucks and for using the national flag as a construction tool or toy bag.


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Kyrgyz Music Fridays · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Kyrgyz Music Friday is a weekly feature in which I post a pop music video from an artist in Kyrgyzstan… [It] is not trying to appeal to your musical taste, but simply gives you a glimpse into how pop music is done on this side of the world.
Presented by Ivory Pomegranate.


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Malaysia: Penang’s Bicycle Lanes · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

anilnetto writes about the proposed 12.5km bicycle lane in Penang, Malaysia. The first phase of the project has already started and completion is targeted in the next two years.

author: Mong Palatino


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Mauritania: Authorities Hand Over Gaddafi’s chief intelligence to Libya · Global Voices
أحمد جدو

Mauritanian authorities handed over the Gaddafi regime  intelligence chief Abdallah Senoussi to Libyan authorities. Senoussi was flown on a private jet from the capital Nouakchott to the Libyan capital Tripoli. He was accompanied by both ministers of justice and finance: Ali Hamida Chaabane and Hassan Mokhtar Hamida  Zaklan, who presided the Libyan delegation. Senoussi's family came to Mauritania at an official invitation to bid Senoussi farewell, before being extradited. He has also been to the conference hall during his last days where he received his wife and children. In the same context, a Lebanese detective came to Mauritania along with Lebanese Foreign minister Adnan Mansour to investigate Senoussi on the case of Lebanese religious leader Musa Al-Sadr, who disappeared in 1978. Mauritania arrested Senoussi as he tried to enter the country from Morocco using a a fake Malian passport. Libya, France and the International Court Of Justice demanded the extradition of Senoussi to face trial.
@GihanTadreft: The photo of Senoussi's arrival to Libya published
Mauritanian blogger Aldah Oueld Cheik Ibrahim linked between Senoussi's extradition and the Lebanese Foreign Minister's visit saying:
Senoussi was handed over two days after Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour who visited Nouakchott for three days, where he expressed his hope for Mauritania to contribute in the investigation concerning  the disappearance of the  head of the Supreme  Islamic Shiite Council in Lebanon: Musa Al-Sadr  in 1978 in Libya.
The following video shows Senoussi's handover to Libyan authorities in Tripoli:
Mauritanian blogger and writer Abou Abbas Abraham considered Senoussi's handover as a financial deal:
@abbassbraham: General Aziz [Mauritania's president]  took Senoussi as his spoils of war, then  went to the ‘sheep’ market where he sold him to a Libyan man and then took the money returned home..
He also added:
@abbassbraham:  It's clear that general Aziz was bargaining on Senoussi to increase his selling price. Otherwise, he is still morally bound to keep him.
In turn, Libyan blogger Ghazi Al Gheblawi wrote:
@Gheblawi: The worst thing since the Senoussi's handover is seeing his ugly face more than once a day. He's jinxed. May he be damned.
And he added:
@Gheblawi: And now the existential question: Abdullah Senoussi has he ever been a beautiful child? Or more conveniently has he ever been a child ?
Libyan journalist Mahmud Shammam tweeted:
@MahmudShammam:  The thug Abdallah Senousi is on his way to prison and what comes  next ?..Let's make more pressure to bring back the rest of the  murderers from Egypt, Algeria and Niger
Mauritanian journalist Mohamed Amin Oueld Mustapha wondered about the reason behind the  minister of finance's presence during the handover:
@lemine2: What does the presence of Libya's finance minister during Senoussi's handover mean ?
Mauritanian blogger Sidi Taieb Oueld Al Moujtaba also raised the question related to the amount of money paid by the Libyan regime to the Mauritanian president:
@mojteba: I wonder how much General Abdel Aziz cashed for Senoussi's extradition.. Who was the highest bidder among the other countries that were part of the auction ?
Journalist Ahmed Oueld Bah followed the same pattern:
@ahmedouldbah: Libya got Gaddafi's mystery box… But what did Mauritania get in exchange ?
Tounsia Hourra, from Tunisia, wrote:
@tounsiahourra: Of course, the Libyan minister of finance's presence in Nouakchott to extradite Senoussi faces a lot of question marks. It's like an old Egyptian movie called “Give and Take”
Mauritanian journalist mocked the Mauritanian News Agency for not getting any new pictures featuring Senoussi:
@ouldhmedoumedna: Senoussi spent 5 months in Mauritania…When he was handed over, the Mauritanian News Agency published an old photo of him
Activist Mohamed Amin Oueld Achfagha also spoke about the Mauritanian president's broken promise to judge Senoussi in Mauritania before extraditing him:
@eddennine: The president promised many times to put Senoussi on trial before extraditing him and assured that he won't be extradited in exchange for money. Libya paid and the man has been handed over in the darkness #justice_is_a game

author: أحمد جدو


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Peru: Police and Protesters Clash in #LaParada Market in Lima · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

A police operative blocking streets in a wholesale market area in Lima ended in clashes between merchants and the police. Television newscasts broadcast violent scenes showing a policeman on the ground being stoned in the head by rioters. Juan Arellano posted [es] a summary on his blog. More under the hashtag #LaParada, which became a Trending Topic in Peru.

author: Juan Arellano


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Riots Erupt Anew in Western Myanmar · Global Voices
Chan Myae Khine

As of October 24, 2012, the government reported that 12 persons were killed, 50 were injured and 1,948 houses were destroyed in the riot clashes between Rakhine residents and Rohingyas in Kyaut Phyu, Min Pyar, Myay Pone and Myaut Oo towns of Rakhine state in western Myanmar. This was disclosed by the President's office. Many netizens condemned the violence and urged a review of the country's security policies.

author: Chan Myae Khine


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Thailand: Problems in Implementing Information Act · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Saksith Saiyasombut and Siam Voices translate an article written by ThaiPublica about Thailand's experience in implementing the Official Information Act of 1997:
Thai citizens were given more rights to request the disclosure of official government information…But even with such progress, it hasn’t resulted in simpler access to official information yet, which is in contrast to the intention of the bill.


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Ukraine: Crowdmapping Election Violations · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

ElectUA.org [uk] is a crowdsourcing tool used to report and map election violations in Ukraine. A project of Internews-Ukraine, its goal [en] is “to encourage citizens to have active social position and monitor the electoral process.” So far, 1,177 reports have been submitted; the parliamentary vote is to take place on Sunday, Oct. 28.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ukraine: Pre-Election Roundup · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

In the run-up to the October 28 general election in Ukraine, discover a selection of relevant blog posts.
OpenDemocracy.net:
Other sources: