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Could Trump Solve Trinidad & Tobago’s US Tax Law Stalemate? The Opposition Leader Seems to Hope So. · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has the floor in this screengrab of a CNC3 news story about the FATCA legislation in Trinidad and Tobago being sent to a parliamentary Joint Select Committee for discussion.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which was enacted by the US Congress in 2010, seeks to ensure that US citizens and residents with financial assets outside of the country are paying taxes. Regarded as an invasive law, there has been some resistance to it; however, many countries have signed on — but Trinidad and Tobago is not yet one of them.
There was great online discontent when the country missed its September 30, 2016 deadline, thanks to the opposition stalling the legislation's passage in parliament. At the time, opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar explained that she and her colleagues were concerned about “the draconian provisions in the Bill”. The government maintained that they addressed these concerns, but since the opposition walked out of parliament — a move they deemed deliberate — the matter was never debated.
The public response was one of frustration, especially since the opposition were the ones that introduced the legislation to parliament when they were in government. In a country where corruption is endemic, FATCA, netizens believed, could help ensure transparency in financial transactions. Business owners wanted to be able to trade with the United States free of any impediments and the banking sector was heavily lobbying for the country's compliance.
December 31, 2016 — another critical date in the FATCA compliance process — also came and went. On January 20, 2017, a Joint Select Committee met to discuss the issue, causing bankers to express optimism that the country would meet its February 3 reporting deadline.
On January 25, however, it came to light that the leader of the opposition did a curious thing: she wrote to Donald Trump — while he was still president-elect — and asked whether his administration plans to do away with FATCA. The 2016 Republican platform included language calling for FATCA’s repeal, so it isn't so far-fetched to think Trump might support such a move if the Republican-controlled Congress pushes it through.
However, social media went ballistic, criticizing her for unilaterally reaching out to a foreign leader before he had even come to power. Facebook user Abeo Jackson, who posted images of the signed letter, ranted:
No this….no she did not. No. Nooooo. This wench did not. Listen to meeeeee
Edit: Pls note this letter was written to Trump while Obama was STILL in office!!! What the…..
What it is dey fraid so?! A bill THEY originally introduced to the parliment. #iswhatnameprotocol
The letter was widely circulated and commented on, although some netizens found themselves “speechless”. Facebook user Stefan De Gale questioned the opposition's motives:
So wait tanty real jump out here.
1. U as prime minister draft a bill
2. U lose the election
3. Same bill is brought by new government
4. You withhold support and ask for a JSC [Joint Select Committee]
5. You get JSC
…….and write dis?
Listen give me a break eh
There was much discussion on Facebook about the opposition leader overstepping the mark. Rhoda Bharath quipped:
Apparently Kamla is her own govt…in her own country…
#DeViceCyahDone
#FATCA
#WriteTrump
Peter E. Mitchell added:
If this letter is true, this is out of place by the Leader of the Opposition. Communication with a Head of (State and) Government and an incoming Head of (State and) Government is suppose[d] to be done by the Government of the day who in matters of foreign relations acts on behalf of the entire country (Opposition included).
A post on the website TriniTuner speculated — in full dialect — about Persad-Bissessar's reasons for writing the letter:
‘Trumpy Oye.. Yuh think yuh could geh we a bligh on dis FATCA ting? We party financiers cyar find no where else to hide money…’
‘Hey, Trump…do you think you could give us a break on this FATCA thing? Our party financiers can't find anywhere else to hide money…’
Two of the opposition's financiers are wanted for extradition by the United States in connection with corruption and money laundering charges. Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Perception Index saw Trinidad and Tobago fall from its position of #72 the year before to #101, pointing at citizens’ distrust of its politicians and systems. As it stands, the FATCA legislation gives US banks the power to withhold as much as 30% of payments made to foreign financial institutions that do not agree to release information on their customers who have US accounts. Non-compliance — assuming FATCA remains in place under the Trump administration — could therefore further compromise Trinidad and Tobago's already sluggish economy. As of this writing, there has been no formal response from The White House.


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Russian Political Prisoner Ildar Dadin Files Request to Move Prisons · Global Voices
Katherine Schroeder

Source: Aapo Haapanen, Flickr. CC 2.0
For 37 days, nobody knew what had happened to Ildar Dadin. On December 7, 2015, Dadin, a Russian opposition activist, had been sentenced to nearly three years in a prison colony for his involvement in a protest against the Russian government. But one year later, his whereabouts within the Russian prison system were unknown, and despite pleas from protesters and family members, officials refused to disclose his location. Finally, at the beginning of January, officials from Russia’s State Penitentiary Service (FSIN) told Dadin’s wife, Anastasia Zotova, that her husband was being held in the Altai Republic of Russia.
Now, less than a month later, Dadin has filed a request to the FSIN through Zotova, asking to be moved closer to his home in Moscow. “Are there really no colonies closer to Moscow?” Russian state wire service TASS quoted Zotova as saying on January 26.
Political prisoner Ildar Dadin in front of the Kremlin in Moscow. Source: Anastasia Zotova, VKontakte.
“Moving Dadin to a colony in the Altai Republic constitutes a violation of his right to keep connections with his wife, as guaranteed by the [European] Convention on Human Rights,” Dadin's lawyer, Nikokai Zboroshenko, announced.
Dadin’s supporters had celebrated the revelation of his whereabouts in posts on social media, with one woman describing it as the best news of 2017. This sentiment was echoed in a #FreeDadin Facebook group, which boasts over 2,000 members. Despite recent confirmation of Dadin’s whereabouts, the group continues to post encouragement for protesters, including pictures of women in St. Petersburg bearing posters featuring pictures of Dadin himself protesting. The support for Dadin has continued across the country, with nearly 40 people having been detained in Moscow on January 14 after staging a silent protest in support of the activist.
Dadin was no stranger to run-ins with the Russian government. Prior to his imprisonment, Dadin, a Moscow native, was a prominent critic of the Putin regime, including of its war in Ukraine and the meddling and lack of transparency that plagues its elections. Before his December arrest, he was fined more than four times for political offenses, and was even detained in May 2012 for his involvement in a peaceful protest against the government’s crackdown on protesters earlier in the month shortly before Putin took office for his third term.
When he was ultimately imprisoned in 2015, Dadin became the first—and remains the only—person to be sentenced under Article 212.1, which prohibits the “repeated violation of the order of organizing or holding meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches or picketing,” a law that first came into effect in the summer of 2014.
Dadin’s imprisonment has been the subject of international scrutiny, with media outlets and human rights organizations detailing the various abuses he has endured. This uproar was also fueled by a letter he penned his wife on October 31, 2016. The message, smuggled out of prison through his lawyer, publicized the miserable conditions Dadin faced in the Karelian penal colonies N7, ranging from rape threats to humiliation by correction officers—information that Dadin’s wife quickly released to the public.
Russia’s treatment of Dadin quickly produced a wave of reactions among political activists in Russia. Change.org is currently collecting signatures in an attempt to have all charges against him dropped, a petition that was launched in November 2016. After Dadin’s wife released the letter he wrote from prison detailing the abuses he faced, protesters arrived at the ministry of justice demanding that he be treated lawfully in prison. One woman held a banner that read, “They hang Dadin by his handcuffs and 12 men beat him for taking to the streets with a protest banner. Torture is banned under Article 21 of the Russian constitution.” However, the government has not responded to the outcry in any meaningful way, instead claiming that Dadin’s rights have never been violated. Still, though Dadin may have been found within the Russian prison system, his future remains unclear.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Katherine Schroeder


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The Day Bangkok and Other Thai Provinces Turned Green on Google Maps · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, became a green park on Google Map. Screenshot by this author
Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, has several green parks, but not as large as the green patch that can be seen on Google Maps today (January 27).
Many Internet users were surprised to see that the whole of Bangkok and nearby provinces of the country’s western region became a massive green park on Google Map.
Maybe some were hoping that the green areas of Bangkok reflect the easing of transportation congestion in the city which is notorious for its traffic jams, but a closer look at the map would reveal that Google Maps for some reason expanded the boundaries of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Khao Laem National Park, and Sai Yok National Park.
It was Khaosod English news website that first reported the ‘green’ glitch on Google Maps.
Many parts of Thailand became a large green park on Google Map. Screenshot of Google Map by the author.
Twitter users were also wondering why Bangkok, the country’s premier urban center, suddenly became a large green park:
Why google map is so green….. we ‘re in park or something? pic.twitter.com/S7Qe9tapa7
— NOPPADOL 404; (@iSudNop) January 27, 2017
@googlemaps What happened to Thailand? Wast parts of the country including BKK are “National park green”
— Ruth (@thai_republic) January 27, 2017
When did we get so many forests in Bangkok? According to @googlemaps even Bangkok is all green. #DaFuq ? pic.twitter.com/VGAZ1b8Jjl
— Raj Palsingh (@HipsterYogi) January 27, 2017
As of this writing, Bangkok and other parts of Thailand are still green on Google Maps:
‘Green’ Bangkok city center. Screenshot of Google Map by the author

author: Mong Palatino


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The Difficult Work of Building an Inclusive, Women-Led Coalition to Resist Trump · Global Voices
Nidia Bautista

Women's March Washington DC. Photo by Elly Clarke and taken from Flickr under CC License BY-NC 2.0.
The Women’s March on Washington brought together more than half a million women and allies to the United States capital on Jan. 21 in defense of women’s rights and in response to Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president. The movement inspired hundreds of “sister marches” all over the world, including one in Los Angeles that attracted at least 650,000 people.
The march’s unifying principles included ending violence and supporting reproductive rights, the rights of workers, people with disabilities, and sexual and gender minorities, civil rights, freedom of religion, immigration, and environmental justice. Its message was meant to challenge a presidential election marked by racism, Islamophobia, and sexism, as well as other hateful rhetoric.
Almost as soon as Trump won the U.S. Electoral College, the idea for the Women's March started taking shape. On Nov. 9, 2016, the day after the election, a woman named Teresa Shook created a Facebook event and invited people to march on Washington to protest Trump’s election. Other women created similar events, gradually deciding to consolidate their efforts for the Women’s March on Washington.
Eventually, the head of campaign operations brought on African-American civil rights leader Tamika D. Mallory, Mexican-American activist Carmen Perez, and Muslim Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour to serve as co-chairs. This effort was to ensure that the march included women of color—a U.S. term commonly used to represent non-white women in the context of resistance to systemic racism and exclusion—in its leadership.
National co-chair Carmen Perez is the executive director of The Gathering for Justice, a New-York-based organization that seeks to end child incarceration and racial inequalities in the local criminal justice system. Perez is a longtime activist and graduate from UC Santa Cruz who founded youth-of-color organizations like R.E.A.L. (Reforming Education, Advocating for Leadership) and The Girls Task Force.
We will always STAND TOGETHER because our liberation is bound in one anothers! #IMarchWithLinda #Sisterhood #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/BL6ptNY4Qh
— Carmen Perez (@msladyjustice1) January 23, 2017
A Chicana born in Oxnard, a small town in Southern California, Perez recently spoke with the Latinx website Mitu and explained her reasons for getting involved in the march:
I felt a responsibility to my community, particularly being Mexican-American, my mother being from Mexico and my father being from California and Chicano. This president used racist rhetoric targeting my community. I felt it important to be front and center of this march.
When speaking about her hopes for the march, Perez added:
I want it to reflect that when women come together in solidarity we can actually create opportunities for other women and also make sure that we are intentional and intersectional about the issues that we care about.
While many have recognized the women of color in the march's leadership, reactions to the march from women of color and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA) community reflect disagreements about what some perceive as a predominately white feminist movement.
Ahead of the march, writers and activists of color published articles criticizing the movement's lack of accountability for historic violence against women of color. Because of the initial absence of women of color in the march's leadership, concerns that the original name, “The Million Women March,” tried to coopt a protest organized by black women against racist and sexist oppression in 1997, and the perceived lack of anti-racist critiques coming from participants, many women of color skipped the Jan. 21 march on Washington.
The trans community also made important critiques. Many participants at the marches wore pink “pussy hats” and held up signs in defense of their vaginas and reproductive organs. Transwomen have argued that centering vaginas as symbols of womanhood is transphobic. They have called on heterosexual women to make their struggle for reproductive rights more inclusive. The use of ovaries and the uterus as symbols of protest harks back to the reproductive rights movement, and the use of the “pussy” in the women's marches was also a response to comments Trump made about his aggressive sexual tactics with women: “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” Trump was filmed when he made these derogatory remarks to a television personality in the US while on the set of a show, but they were publicly revealed in October 2016 when he was campaigning.
Nevertheless, a commitment to intersectional feminism — the concept that women are often members of other marginalized groups, creating experiences that also influence their lives — was evident among many of the people who joined the women's marches this month.
Under the #WhyIMarch hashtag, many women and members of the LGBTQIA community shared their reasons for participating. From reassuring their commitment to self-defense and protecting reproductive health rights to defending gay marriage, hundreds of women of color wrote on social media about why they demonstrated:
Can I live? #WhyIMarch #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/F3IVhPTeyI
— Blair Imani (@BlairImani) January 21, 2017
#whyIMarch because immigrants are here to stay and they are what make this country great. #WomansMarch pic.twitter.com/cdAZgM4kBB
— Wendy ? (@_wendayflowers) January 21, 2017
So my wife and I can stay married. #whyimarch #womensmarchwashington #equality #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/BPWNlZSJm5
— Schwa138 (@Schwa138) January 22, 2017
For many women of color, whether or not they marched on Jan. 21, the xenophobia and racism playing out on social media and in the Trump administration's early policies are a clarion call to activism.
Just hours after the Women’s March on Washington, Linda Sarsour, a national co-chair of the march, was accused online of having ties to Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union, Israel and several other countries. Before long, #IMarchWithLinda started trending on social media, as hundreds of women and organizations shared their support for the activist.
In her speech on the day of the march, aired on ABC News, Sarsour addressed the need to face the future with courage and commitment to broader solidarity among women:
Fear is a choice, we are the majority, we are the conscious of these United States of America, we are your moral compass. If you want to know if you are going the right way follow women of color, brothers and sisters. We know where we need to go and we know where justice is.
In just his first few days in office, President Trump demonstrated his commitment to promises he made about restricting access to abortions and other reproductive health services. On Jan. 23, like every Republican president since Ronald Reagan in 1984, Trump enacted the so-called Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule.
The Global Gag Rule bars international health organizations that receive U.S. funding from mentioning abortion as a family planning option. According to some experts, this policy actually raises the number of unsafe abortions performed, leaving women with less access to reproductive health resources.
Back at home in the United States, Planned Parenthood, a prominent non-profit reproductive health organization, could find itself in trouble if Republican politicians who oppose abortion have their way. Vice President Mike Pence promised to defund Planned Parenthood by pushing legislation that blocks low-income patients who receive public healthcare from accessing the organization’s health services. According to “I Stand With Planned Parenthood,” defunding these services and eventually shutting down the health centers would hurt poor people of color the most, depriving these groups of access to cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing, and other treatments, including HIV tests— some of the many services Planned Parenthood provides beyond abortion.
For the organizers of Women’s March on Washington, coalition building was just as important as staging a successful march. To manage the long aftermath, the march's organizers launched the 10 Actions/100 days campaign, which encourages participants to continue their activism.
The first thing members of the public are encouraged to do is write a postcard to their senators about the issues that matter most and how they plan to continue fighting under a Trump administration.
While there are still disagreements about the Women's March, many women of color and members of the LGBTQIA community seem to agree that it's essential to push back against the Trump administration's policies.
At the rally in Washington last Saturday, scholar and counter-culture icon Angela Davis echoed this call for feminist resistance against Trump:
The next 1,459 days of the Trump administration will be 1,459 days of resistance: Resistance on the ground, resistance in the classrooms, resistance on the job, resistance in our art and in our music. This is just the beginning and in the words of the inimitable Ella Baker, ‘We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.
*Thumbnail image by Micah Bazant. Reproduced with permission.

author: Nidia Bautista


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The Struggle to End Female Genital Mutilation in Africa · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Screenshot of the “STOP FGM” video by Josefine Ekman
On February 6, the United Nations will call on the world to fight together to reduce the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. It is estimated that 200 million women and girls in 30 countries, the majority of them being Africa, have been “cut.”
The practice is rooted in gender inequality as it attempts to control women's sexuality. It is usually initiated and carried out by women who fear that daughters who aren't cut will be exposed to social exclusion.
Many actions have been taken locally throughout the African continent to curb this dangerous practice that is threat to rights of women and their bodies, as well as their physical health. Some of these efforts are led by women who have undergone FGM — or even inflicted it on others.
Aja Babung Sidibeh, for example, was a female genital mutilator on her native island of Janjanbureh in the Gambia. Today, she is actively involved in the fight against the practice of genital mutilation. In April 2014, she told the Standard Newspaper:
If I had previously known what I know today, I would never have circumcised a single woman. We have caused much suffering to many daughters and wives. That's why I said if my grandparents had known what I know today, they never would have circumcised any women. Ignorance is the main issue.
FGM is strongly rooted in certain customs and traditions concentrated in Africa. It is also practiced elsewhere, such as the Middle East and Asia. In Mali and Senegal, the women of blacksmiths are generally those who practice this act. Elsewhere, they are traditional midwives.
Prevalence of FGM/C on the basis of the UNICEF report on Wikipedia license CC-GDFL
While the prevalence of FGM over the last 30 years has fallen, not all countries have made progress. Take the Republic of Guinea. Although prohibited by Guinean law, FGM is widespread: 97% of girls and women aged 15 to 49 have been subjected to the procedure, according to a UN report for 2016 examining the impact of female genital mutilation and circumcision. FGM is present on a large scale in each of the four natural regions of the country, and in all ethnic groups, religions and socio-professional circles. As the practice declines at an international level, a national demographic and health survey conducted in 2012 concluded a slight increase in the prevalence of FGM in Guinea since 2002. The country ranks second in the world in terms of the prevalence rate of this practice, behind Somalia.
The UN has denounced this practice since the 1970s. About 15 states have enacted laws, conferences have been held and many reports have been written, but significant change has been hard to come by. For example, Guinea passed a law in the 1960s condemning any circumciser to hard labour for life. If the woman who was subjected to FGM died within 40 days of the excision, the circumciser was sentenced to death. However, the law has never really been enforced.
In Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, the case of Edna Adan Ismail illustrates the harmful force of this tradition and the efforts needed to stop it. Edna, born into a family of doctors of the great bourgeoisie of the country, was eight years old when she was circumcised. The purpose of this operation, according to her relatives, was to reduce her sexual desire when she grew up, thus diminishing the probability of promiscuity and ensuring she was “worthy to be married”.
Edna recounts that her mother forced her to be circumcised despite the firm opposition of her father who was absent on the day of her mutilation. When he realised the act had been carried out in his absence, her father burst into tears, having failed to protect his daughter.
Since then, Edna has become a fierce activist in the fight against FGM. In spite of the unfair advantages in favour of males, Edna attended a British university and became the first nurse and midwife in her country, and later the first lady of Somaliland. Below is a video in which Edna explains her strategy for fighting this practice:
Edna subsequently succeeded in building a maternity hospital, the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital, with the support of many donors. Ninety-seven percent of the women being attended at the hospital suffer another form of atrocious mutilation: infibulation. Infibulation is the act of suturing most of the large or small lips of the vulva, leaving only a small opening so that urine and menstruation can flow out. It is usually performed on a pre-pubescent teenager in order to prevent sexual intercourse.
The consequences on the sexual health of these women are a crime against humanity both during menstruation and during sexual intercourse and childbirth. Often this act causes a haemorrhage which leads to either the death of the woman or complications, due to the tearing of the vaginal tissues during childbirth.
The NGO Tostan has managed to curb FGM in Senegal through an education campaign for villagers — men and women — that tries to fit within commonly-held traditions and beliefs. Through their work, the health risks of FGM were able to be discussed amicably amongst villagers’ elders and members of the Tostan's team, and in 1997, 35 women from the village of Malicounda Bambara announced for the first time that their daughters would not be circumcised. The work of Tostan through community education, the introduction of micro-credits, village management and peer education have had a knock-on effect in preventing the disastrous consequences of female genital mutilation.
This education campaign is certainly a long-term undertaking as the project has often been perceived as anti-African and was criticised by the surrounding villages just after its implementation. However, since the beginning of the campaign, more than 2,600 villages have announced that they will no longer practice FGM. The Senegalese government recognised Tostan's strategy as effective and adopted it as a national model. This strategy has since been spreading in the West African region and community organisations in Ghana.
Ethiopian NGO KMG Ethiopia has also succeeded in curtailing the practice in Ethiopia, demonstrating that the empowerment of women in the community is the most effective approach, well above the enactment of laws and the implementation of major international resolutions.

author: Rakotomalala


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Goodbye to Buchi Emecheta, Celebrated Nigerian Novelist Who Broke Gender Barriers · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

A compilation of covers of novels by Buchi Emecheta and printed by publishers George Braziller Inc. and Heinemann Educational Books.
Florence Onyebuchi (Buchi) Emecheta, who blazed a trail as a women novelist, died on January 25, 2016 in London, UK. She was born 72 years ago in Lagos, Nigeria.
Emecheta was a ground-breaking author because she was one of the first female writers to engage post-colonial Africa with literature. At the time of the publication of her first novel, In the Ditch (1972), the literary space in Nigeria and the rest of Africa was dominated by male authors. She also suffered an unhappy marriage. Her husband did not support her writings, and he burnt her first manuscript. Emecheta left him in 1966 and continued to work and write, all the while raising her children. She went on to study sociology at the University of London, and graduated in 1972 with a bachelor's degree.
Because Buchi Emecheta will never be forgotten ❤❤ pic.twitter.com/X5W73IeS0o
— ThatPortharcourtBoy (@ThatPHCBoy) January 26, 2017
Front cover art for “The Joys of Motherhood” written by Buchi Emecheta
Emecheta was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 2005 in recognition of her work. According to Benecia L. Williams at Emory University, Emecheta 20 novels dealt:
primarily with the portrayal of the African woman. The main characters of her novels show what it means to be a woman and a mother in Nigerian society. Emecheta looks at how sexuality and the ability to bear children can sometimes be the terms only used to define femininity and womanhood. She is interested in how gender intersects and engages with education, poverty and enslavement.
Since the news of Emecheta's death broke, tributes have been pouring in from all over the world. Bernardine Evaristo in a tribute published in the Guardian described her as one of those authors who “who drew on her own experience to write groundbreaking fiction”:
…[the] so-called ‘Renaissance generation,’ those Africans who came of age at the same time as their countries. She and other writers all over the continent had both the challenge and the joy that comes with being first, of writing Africa and Africans into literary existence. They embraced the task.
Dr Nnedi Okorafor, an award-winning Nigerian-American author, told the BBC that Emecheta “was the reason she started writing.”
And celebrated Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote this glowing epitaph about Emecheta:
Buchi Emecheta.
We are able to speak because you first spoke.
Thank you for your courage.
Thank you for your art.
Nodu na ndokwa [Igbo expression meaning: rest in peace]
~CNA
Buchi Emecheta's profile photo on Goodreads.
On Facebook, Ezeada Ezenwa couldn't believe that Emecheta is dead. “How can she die when I have not met her and told her all the things she means to me?”
How can she depart when I haven't told her how reading The Slave Girl at eight made me want to build worlds with stories, just like Buchi and fall in love with Ibuzo, just as she told me to. How can she join her ancestors when I haven't berated her for letting Akunna die, for the tears I shed for her, my heart breaking even though my head said she's just a product of ink and paper. Or how I struggled with a rage I couldn't have understood when Francis burnt Ada's manuscript, I was only eleven and had never written a book but I knew it had to be one of the most fucked up things a man can do. And when a certain brilliant, handsome man ‘jokingly” told me he'd break my laptop if I let my writing get in the way of giving him attention, I grabbed my bag and hailed a cab. His number is still blocked and he's given up trying to reach me
Buchi, I haven't told you how you and your stories have shaped the woman I have become and this writing that is more frustrated perspiration than flights of inspiration.
Perhaps you think I am selfish, thinking only of myself and the loss of a dream I have had since I was eight, but Buchi I do not care. Tomorrow I will wish you a safe voyage to the place where having a vagina does not make you a second class citizen, but tonight, I will revel in rage.
Rest in Peace Buchi Emecheta.
Oxford Tutorial College tweeted in memoriam:
It's sad to say goodbye to Nigeria's legendary writer, Buchi Emecheta.Your contribution to Africa's literature cannot be undervalued. Adieu.
— OxbridgeTutorialColl (@OxbridgeTC) January 27, 2017
Charles Onyango-Obbo, the publisher of Africapedia, was full of admiration for Emecheta, who did not allow her personal travails to deter her:
RIP Buchi Emecheta: Engaged at 11; hubby burnt her 1st manuscript; had 5 children in 6 yrs & still wrote 20 books!https://t.co/Syjgu5ltxy pic.twitter.com/XLTtW7UIVD
— Charles Onyango-Obbo (@cobbo3) January 26, 2017
Nigeria Book Hub described Emecheta's Joy of Motherhood as masterpiece:
The Joys of Motherhood was a masterpiece. Rest in peace Buchi Emecheta. pic.twitter.com/vE0iyoLj6L
— BookHub.ng (@BookHubNG) January 25, 2017
And David Adeleke summarized Emecheta's greatest legacy thus:
Perhaps Emecheta’s grandest legacy was making us realise that feminism isn’t alien to Africa. She clearly defined African feminism as one that is different from that of the West. “African feminism is free of the shackles of Western romantic illusions and tends to be much more pragmatic,” she once said. “Working and achieving to great heights is nothing new to the woman of Africa… An African woman has always been a woman who achieves.” This definition of feminism recurs in her books; it is evident in the lives of Nnu Ego and Adah Ofili. Through Emecheta’s works, we are challenged to think about gender inequality from within (and by ourselves as Africans) and not swallow the West’s idea of it, for every society is different in its own way.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Originally Sentenced to Death, a Blogger Goes Before Mauritania’s Supreme Court · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Photo by Hani Amir via Flickr (CC BY 3.0)
On 31 January, Mauritania's supreme court is scheduled to issue a decision in the case of blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir, who was sentenced to death in 2014 over an opinion article published on the website of the newspaper Aqlame.
In the article entitled “Religion, Religiosity and Craftsmen”, which has since been taken down by Aqlame but is still available online, Ould Mkhaitir criticized the use of religion to justify Mauritania's discriminatory caste system, while citing examples from the lifetime of prophet Muhammad.
Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir
Mauritanian authorities arrested Ould Mkhaitir on 2 January 2014, two days after his article was published, and in December 2014 the Nouadhibou primary court sentenced him to death for “apostasy” under article 306 of the Mauritanian Penal Code, for speaking “lightly” of the prophet. In April 2016, a court of appeal confirmed his sentence and referred his case to the Supreme Court, which has the power to reduce his death penalty to a jail sentence and a fine, if it rules that the defendant has “repented”.
Article 306 states that “any Muslim guilty of the crime of apostasy, either by word or by action of apparent or obvious nature, will be invited to repent within three days. If the accused does not repent within this time, he is to be sentenced to death, and all of his property shall be confiscated by the government.” The same article provides that if the convicted person “repents” before his/her execution, the Mauritanian Supreme Court can commute the death sentence to a jail sentence of between three months and two years, and a fine of UM5,000–60,000 (approximately USD $14 – $170).
Following his arrest, Ould Mkhaitir published a statement from prison in which he mentioned that he had no intention of insulting the prophet, and accused his critics of “stirring religious emotions” to target him. Ould Mkhaitir has repented, but it will be up to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not his repentance was sufficient.
UPDATE [February 1, 2016]: Mauritania’s Supreme Court has failed to commute Ould Mkahitir's death sentence. The court referred his case back to the appeal court for procedural irregularities. The appeal court had previously confirmed the primary death sentence and convicted him of “apostasy”. In the first instance ruling, Ould Mkahitir was convicted of “hypocrisy”, indicating that his repentance for apostasy was ruled to be insincere.
Criticism of the caste system remains a taboo in Mauritania, a country that has been described as “slavery's last stronghold.” Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery in 1981, and only criminalized the practice in 2007. Despite this, the United Nations estimates the number of people living in slavery in Mauritania to be somewhere between 340k and 680k, which accounts for 10-20% of the entire population. The number of prosecutions under the anti-slavery act is “very low” according to a 2014 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, while those campaigning against practices of slavery face criminal trials.
In 2014, several activists including Biram Dah Abeid who ran for Mauritania's 2014 presidential election on an anti-slavery and anti-discrimination platform, were arrested and put on trial  for campaigning against slavery. In 2012, Dah Abeid, like Ould Mkhaitir in 2014, was sentenced to death on “apostasy” charges for an anti-slavery protest in which he burned religious texts by an 8th century Islamic scholar justifying the practice, and gave a speech denouncing those using religion to justify slavery and discrimination:
There is a group of bad people who are guarding Islam and using it however they want, and that group is dividing society, putting some people on top and some people down—not because of what they are doing or who they are but because of the color of their skin
Dah Abeid was later acquitted. But in 2015, he was sentenced to two years in jail for his anti-slavery activism.
In several countries across the Arab region including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Yemen, “apostasy” is a crime subject to the death penalty. Apostasy and blasphemy accusations are often used “as a pretext for settling political scores or pursuing personal grudges”, as journalist Brian Whitaker, author of the book Arabs Without God, wrote on Ould Mkahitir's case back in 2014.

author: Afef Abrougui


text:
Passenger Says Anti-Arab Racism, Not ‘Fake Bomb Threat’ Led to Madrid-Berlin Flight’s Cancellation · Global Voices
Alejandro Salamanca Rodríguez

An Iberia Express airplane. Photo by Eric Salard via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0
On 10 January 2017, Iberia Express flight IBS 3674 from Madrid to Berlin was cancelled. The official reason was a “supposed bomb threat,” according to ENAIRE, Spain's air navigation manager. All the passengers were evacuated and a “suspect” was interrogated by security forces, which also searched the whole plane looking for explosives.
Cancelado vuelo Iberia Express, IBS 3674, origen Madrid/Barajas, destino Berlín, por supuesta amenaza de explosivo (1/2)
— ENAIRE (@ENAIRE) 10 janvier 2017
Iberia Express flight IBS 3674, flying from Madrid/Barajas to Berlin, was canceled due to a suspected bomb threat.
The threat was unfounded, ENAIRE later tweeted, and several Spanish media outlets ran news briefs by the wire agencies EFE and Europa Press that recounted the official version of the “false bomb threat.” Spanish News Today, an English-language online newspaper, tells a similar tale.
Those articles, however, are scant on details of what exactly happened. A fellow passenger who was on IBS 3674 told this Global Voices author what they saw, which differs from the “false bomb threat” explanation offered by authorities. According to the eyewitness, who prefers to stay anonymous, a German-speaking passenger interrupted the cabin crew when they were giving the safety presentation and cried out that he wanted to speak with the pilot because there was a “terrorist on board.”
The alleged “terrorist on board” was a Lebanese man who was using two telephones at the same time and sending text messages in Arabic. The Lebanese passenger, who was flying from Casablanca to Berlin, was upset about what was happening, the eyewitness said, and he showed what he carried in his handbag: a laptop and a reflex camera. However, given the insistence of the scared German-speaking passenger, the plane did not take off. And despite complaints by some of the other passengers, a “security procedure” had already started and could not be stopped. The Civil Guard, Spain's paramilitary national police force, entered the plane and started searching for a bomb, the eyewitness said. They also questioned the “suspect” in the cabin and later took him away.
Some of the passengers demanded that the German-speaking passenger be removed from the plane or the company could be sued for discriminatory conduct, the eyewitness said. A Moroccan woman stood up and said she should also be detained, since she was wearing a veil. According to the eyewitness, the accuser was very restless and was eventually taken away by the Civil Guard. The rest of the passengers, according to the eyewitness, were not scared by the alleged threat, but angry with what had happened.
Later on, the commander announced that the flight was suspended because there were “problems with a conflictive passenger,” the eyewitness said, and the German-speaking accuser and the Lebanese passenger were released by the Civil Guard with no formal charges. The rest of the passengers were offered a flight the following morning, and they spent the night in several hotels near the airport.
This is not the first time a flight has been cancelled due to terrorism paranoia. In April 2016, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, an Iraqi student, was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in the US when another passenger complained that he was having a phone conversation in Arabic. In fact, Southwest Airlines has been accused numerous times of singling out Middle Eastern and Muslim passengers.
And in May 2016, Guido Menzi, an Italian economics professor, was questioned by authorities when a passenger alerted them about some suspicious symbols he was writing on a paper — turns out he was solving an equation.

author: Alejandro Salamanca Rodríguez


text:
The Jallikattu Protests in the Indian State of Tamil Nadu Are Not Merely About a Bullfight · Global Voices
Rezwan

Man versus bull – the Jallikattu sport. Image from Flickr by Vinoth Chandar. CC BY 2.0
The South Indian state of Tamil Nadu was the center of protests hundreds of thousands of people strong after the Indian Supreme Court turned down a plea on January 12 to withdraw the ban on Jallikattu, a form of traditional bullfight. The decision came two days before the start of the Pongal Festival, a Hindu thanksgiving to nature, where Jallikattu would have taken place if allowed.
Soon, people who objected to the court's decision gathered in the state capital Chennai chanting slogans like “We want Jallikattu.” The movement spread to other parts of Tamil Nadu including Madurai, Erode, Salem and Coimbatore.
By January 18, young people from all walks of life, including many women, took to the streets in large numbers and occupied the Marina Beach in Chennai. After the Tamil Nadu government passed a resolution on January 23 that supposedly would allow Jallikattu once more, organizers called off further protests — but not before police cleared the site amid allegations of brutality.
To many protesters, who worked together across caste and religious divides, defending Jallikattu also meant defending local culture and community against standards dictated to them by cultural elites in Delhi or Mumbai. Some media even compared the protest to the 2011 Tahrir Square protests of Cairo.
.#jallikattu is part of TAMIL & Sanatan culture. It is a centuries-old tradition and NO court in WORLD can stop it
Got it @PetaIndia crooks pic.twitter.com/DWUFf252OP
— #GauravPradhan ?? (@DrGPradhan) January 18, 2017
Jallikattu is an ancient sport, and is known in Tamil as eru thazhuvuthal (bull embracing). It entails multiple people attempting to grab the large hump of a Bos indicus bull released into a crowd of people. The challenge is to hang on to the hump with both arms while the bull tries to escape. Participants hold the hump for as long as possible, attempting to bring the bull to a stop and remove flags on the bull's horns.
The sport dates back to the Tamil classical period (400-100 BC) and generally does not harm the bull, unlike bullfighting in other cultures which end with the animal being sacrificed. In fact, one of the rules of Jallikattu is that no contestant should hit or hurt the bull in any manner.
On May 17, 2014 a Supreme Court Bench banned the Jallikattu bull fights following a petition brought forth by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and the US animal rights organization PETA. The petitioners alleged that the bulls involved in Jallikattu are physically and mentally tortured for human pleasure and enjoyment.
By January 19, the Marina beach was swarming with people. Photo by Bala G. Used with permission.
Ahead of the court's refusal to reverse the ban, several groups, organized primarily via social media, came together for a candle-light protest on January 8 at the Marina beach in Chennai calling for the sport to be allowed again and for PETA to be banned from India. The event was a huge success.
After the court's decision, on January 16, villagers of Alanganallur in Madurai protested at the famous ‘Vaadi vaasal’ arena in favor of Jallikattu. At the end of the day, police briefly detained around 200 protesters.
The following day, as the news spread about the arrests, young people flocked in large numbers to Marina Beach in support of those arrested in Madurai. Protesters staying overnight lighted their mobile phones in the dark when the authorities switched off the street lights to pressure participants to disperse.
Eyewitnesses say that the protests were peaceful, involving a lot of dancing and singing. Significantly, women and kids reportedly felt safe in the midst of hundreds of people.
Moments like this are heart warming !! #TamilNadu #Jallikattu #love #Respect pic.twitter.com/SU0Xup9TGZ
— SS Music (@SSMusicTweet) January 21, 2017
The protests got a lot of public support and ordinary people packed and distributed food and offered mobile charging services for participants staying at the Marina beach of Chennai.
Volunteers cleaning. Image by Ashok Sundarrajan. Used with permission.
People also volunteered to clean the area to remove the stench of urine as there was not enough toilets for that many people.
Wonderful visuals from the #Marina #MarinaProtest #Jallikattu pic.twitter.com/w5pPxmcXfp
— Avinashpandian (@Avinashpandian) January 20, 2017
Celebrities like music director A. R. Rahman extended support to the protest:
I'm fasting tomorrow to support the spirit of
Tamilnadu!
— A.R.Rahman (@arrahman) January 19, 2017
My message on #jallikattu through a sand art, “Respect Culture; Love Animals” in #Puri beach, India. pic.twitter.com/m1FPm9NnhR
— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) January 20, 2017
One writer returned an award back to the government in protest.
The event created some wonderful moments:
Muslim perform Friday prayers, Hindus make a human chain behind, at #Jallikattu protest. Culture unites religions. The Tamil example. pic.twitter.com/4A606A9k40
— Shahid Choudhary (@listenshahid) January 21, 2017
The protest was reaching its peak by January 21:
#Jallikattu Protest is Historical Moment!! LOVE U ALL!! #JusticeForJallikattu #SaveJallikattu #SaveOurCultureJALLIKATTU #ModiWithJallikattu pic.twitter.com/zxKXJ5nUZY
— Vijay Sethupathi (@ActorSethupathy) January 21, 2017
Just 4 Sec Fully Goosebumps Moment #jallikattu @vp_offl @dhanyarajendran @ash_r_dhanush @VigneshShivN @sri50 @Actor_Kalai @Premgiamaren pic.twitter.com/pTgfkL352G
— Rajinikanth Fans (@Rajni_FC) January 21, 2017
I salute d democratic revol'tn by #TNyouthpower & promise 2 unite agnst evils of TN. Victory 4r world #tamils #Jallikattu #Begining #CHANGE pic.twitter.com/c174q1qDPX
— Dr ANBUMANI RAMADOSS (@draramadoss) January 23, 2017
Under pressure, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Paneerselvam met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and pushed for the central government's approval for an ordinance that will bypass the court order and allow Jallikattu. On January 20, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu announced that a law has been drafted and sent to the central government. On January 21, the protests still continued, demanding a permanent solution.
Thanks to @narendramodi ji for your support and assistance in enabling #Jallikattu to be held in TamilNadu. pic.twitter.com/CEAvU4zK5q
— திரு O.Panneerselvam (@CMOTamilNadu) January 21, 2017
Protests at Marina beach continued also at night. Image by Bala G. Used with permission.
Even after the commitment of the legislation, the protesters were refusing to budge. On January 23, police began forceful evictions of Marina Beach early in the morning. Protesters threatened to venture into the sea, but eventually most were removed and access to the protest site was cut off.
Social worker Vasuki Umanath  interviewed eyewitnesses who claimed that besides using force on the protesters, the police also hit people who helped the protesters or bystanders. Videos allegedly showing police setting fire on vehicles or being involved in arson also went viral on social media.
Watch completely!!
Cameraman attacked!!#Jallikattu pic.twitter.com/uOE4kyaDpR
— Jeya Suriya (@MSPMovieManiac) January 23, 2017
Another shocking video of police atrocity. #Chennai #Jallikattu pic.twitter.com/l3YaN7XMcE
— Surendhar MK (@SurendharMK) January 23, 2017
Disheartening to see these visuals!
Are they the same people who we praised during #Jayalalithaa‘s funeral?#Jallikattu #Police #Marina pic.twitter.com/ly8yB0VS2F
— Avinashpandian (@Avinashpandian) January 23, 2017
Citizen reports indicated that several people were injured. Bala G reported on Facebook:
While everything was going as well as possible, Police under directions of their political bosses, came off early in the morning to abruptly scuttle off the protesters. Denying any additional time to stay on, they used forced and lathi charge.
As the crowds of students, ladies and kids rushed to the side of waves for protection, fishermen folks rushed to the rescue as protective shield.
Police and ruling class apparently had a single agenda of turning the narrative against the protesters. From what we get to see, they went about their agenda with vengeance by initiating arson of autos, vandalism on vehicles which was done by police themselves as captured in cell phone videos of onlookers.
Continuing on the rampage, Police brutally attacked those who rushed to the rescue of the people struck in the beach, resulting in some of the provoked people pelting stones at the police, which makes government version of narrative across the mass media.
On January 23 in the evening, a resolution was finally passed by the Tamil Nadu government that supposedly would allow Jallikattu. The next day, the majority of the protesters in Chennai decided to call off their demonstration after a dialogue with police and a district court judge. However, they promised to restart it if there was no permanent solution for Jallikattu by February 1.
#jallikattu Support Over the World#SaveOurCultureJALLIKATTU#jan18th8pmfortamilsunity#JallikattuForSure@iam_str @selvaraghavan pic.twitter.com/iuXCfhb4WL
— Rajinikanth Fans (@Rajni_FC) January 18, 2017
The legal situation surrounding Jallikattu is still unclear to many. The Tamil Nadu government is claiming that the passed ordinance is a “permanent solution” but many Jallikattu supporters deem it as merely being a “stop gap measure”.
Poet and filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, who joined the protests, wrote on online portal The News Minute:
When I personally witnessed the protest that is now being described as #ThaiPuratchi and #TamilSpring, I realised that it is just not about bullfight or its ban. It is just a signifier. When someone says #IdoJallikkattu, it means she or he does resistance. […]
Jallikkattu is just the mascot for all the pent-up rage in people’s minds. […] People finally have become bulls to reaffirm their self-respect, determination and identity.
Blogger Garga Chatterjee explained:
The Jallikattu protests show that against the cosmo-liberal stereotype of “Indian young people”, there are young people, millions of them, to whom roots matter, identity matters, culture matters and they do not aspire to lose their Tamil-ness to make the cut in the Delhi-Mumbai idea of Indianness.
And former judge of the Supreme Court Markandey Katju wrote on Facebook:
The victory of the Jallikattu agitation shows that when hundreds of thousands of people rise unitedly like a typhoon or tornado it becomes a force so powerful and so swift that no power on earth can resist it. […]
The significance of the Jallikattu agitation is that it cut through caste and religious barriers. In fact it even cut through the the national border as Indians in many parts of the world supported it.
Thus the victory of the Tamil people is a victory for all Indians. It has shown that we Indians can unite, as we must, if we are to solve our massive problems.

author: Rezwan


text:
United Colors of Persecution: The Struggle of Patagonia’s Indigenous People against Benetton · Global Voices
Marta Music

Banners at the Lof en Resistencia community with slogans that read “Productive recovery of the Lof en Resistencia” and “Anti-terrorism law is terrorism”. Photo: Marta Music, used with permission.
On January 10, 2017 Argentine armed forces opened fire on a community of Mapuche indigenous people in the Chubut region fighting to reclaim ancestral lands currently in the hands of the multinational corporation Benetton. According to local news, close to 200 gendarme guards blocked Highway 40 and proceeded to attack the community of Lof en Resistencia del Departamento de Cushamen, which comprises fewer than two dozen adults and five children.
The attack left most of the community residents injured, two in a critical state. The armed forces ransacked the main house where the women and children were hiding, and detained them. At least ten members of the community were arrested and nothing has been heard from them since. Among the little news available about the events were reports of harassment and physical abuse of the women and children.
This brutal intervention constitutes a violation of Argentine law 26894 on the possession and property of land, which prohibits any eviction of indigenous people until November 2017. It has been severely condemned by Amnesty International, which called for “comprehensive and impartial investigations into the acts of violence” and published a list of actions which can be taken to pressure the Argentine government. A petition entitled “basta de repression al pueblo Mapuche” (enough repression of the Mapuche people) is currently in circulation.
Following is an investigation carried out in 2016 in Lof en Resistencia del Departamento de Cushamen. It recounts the community's struggle, their organization and their dreams. The people interviewed for this article will remain anonymous for reasons of security. At their request, the word “peñi” (brother) is used for male interlocutors and the word “lamgen” (sister) for females.
—
Somewhere along Route 40, in the middle of the desert-like Patagonian nowhere, stands an abandoned-looking wooden shack. All of a sudden, from this postcard-like scene emerges a hooded figure. He looks young. His clothes are ripped. His skin is dark. He comes up to the barbed wire fence at the roadside and stands guard. He takes a moment to rearrange a few sheets hanging over the fence, bearing slogans in red paint: “Land owners keep out”, “Territory in recovery”, “Anti-terrorism law  terrorism”.
The shack is a guard post where the Mapuche people from the community of Lof en Resistencia keep watch day and night to prevent the interventions of local police. Lof en Resistencia is one of many indigenous communities in the Chubut region trying to reclaim ancestral lands currently in the hands of multinational corporations such as Benetton, Lewis, CNN and The North Face. The story has received little local media coverage since the start of the occupation in March 2015. More alarming is the lack of international coverage, as these events occur in the context of a complex global struggle that pits indigenous people against multinational corporations and extractive industries throughout the world. Indeed, between indigenous land rights, private property law and international norms, these disputes over land ownership constitute an intractable legal puzzle that no one has yet been able to solve.
This particular David-and-Goliath battle features a handful of indigenous people on one side and the Benetton Group on the other. The Italian textile giant, better known for its marketing campaigns promoting human rights, peace and ethnic equality than its controversial possession of 900,000 hectares of Patagonian land, has been the subject of a few scandals in the past. In 2002, the company was responsible for the violent eviction of the Mapuche community of Santa Rosa Leleque, which sparked a wave of international indignation.
Today, a year and a half after beginning their occupation, Lof en Resistencia can accommodate more than 15 people, from toddlers to elders. They also receive numerous visits from other Mapuches in the region involved in the fight, who participate in the daily activities of the community. The layout of the community compound is ingeniously simple. The sloping area where they have set up camp is visible neither from the road nor the guard post. In case of emergencies, the person on guard duty blows a horn-like traditional instrument to raise the alarm.
From the guard post, you walk down through thorny Patagonian scrubland, cross some abandoned railroad tracks and climb a slope before the two big wooden houses erected by the community become visible. Roofs of rusty old steel plates sit on top of them, reflecting the sunlight. Each house has a chimney made of stones and mud for cooking and heating purposes, but despite efforts to insulate the houses on the inside living conditions are extremely harsh, particularly in winter when temperatures can drop to -10 degrees C. Slightly further downhill flows the river Leleque, and on the riverbank is a vegetable garden, a spot where the women do the laundry and fences have been built to keep lost sheep from the neighboring Benetton farms.
While Lof en Resistencia’s goal is to become completely self-sufficient and autonomous, the community still depends on a support network to bring them essential commodities from the nearest town, located 100km away.
Less than two centuries ago, the Mapuche people lived freely in Puelmapu, an independent indigenous region known today as Patagonia. Between 1878 and 1885, the Argentine government conducted a brutal military campaign known as La Conquista del Desierto (The Conquest of the Desert) to take over the region and incorporate it into the Republic of Argentina. In the aftermath of their victory, Argentina rewarded foreign enterprises for their financial help with parcels of Patagonian land. One of these, the Argentine Southern Land Company, was bought by Benetton in 1991, along with the property rights to nearly a million hectares the company owned in the Chubut region. Since then, the Italian multinational has been using the area for petrol and mining exploration, wool production and forest exploitation.
However, the last few years have witnessed a growing number of indigenous occupation movements all across Patagonia. The people of Lof en Resistencia claim the land they are currently occupying belongs to them ancestrally and is therefore rightfully theirs. “This region was considered free indigenous territory only 135 years ago. Our great-grandparents used to live on this land. And then one day, the military came and they slaughtered everybody,” explains the longko (chief) of the community. The Conquest of the Desert left thousands of indigenous people dead and around 14,000 were placed in servitude, forced to work on the very land that had been taken away from them. Shortly after, a merciless repression against the Mapuche ensued.
Adriana, who works for the community’s support network, has agreed to reveal her name. She talks about the oppression of the Mapuche as described to her by elders: “On the farms of the new latifundistas, they [the Mapuches] were forbidden to speak their own language. The huincas [white men] would cut off the tongues and ears of Mapuches they heard speaking Mapudungun. They would also cut men’s testicles and women’s breasts to prevent reproduction. It was a real campaign to annihilate our identity, to make people reject their heritage and their roots.”
Such testimonies have been passed down orally in Mapuche communities from generation to generation, as the Mapudungun language does not have a writing system. These stories of persecution, torture and massacre are thus deeply entrenched in their collective memory, and have now become an integral part of their identity.
Today, the Mapuche are faced with a new kind of oppression—social exclusion. The indigenous people who have settled in the scattered Patagonian towns live in extreme poverty. Most of them are unable to find jobs, and those who do are used as cheap labour. Adriana’s daughter remembers the constant bullying she experienced at school: “They would call me stupid, poor, filthy… just because I am Mapuche.” Adriana says she was falsely accused of sexually abusing her students at the dance school where she taught a few years ago. She was fired, despite her students’ protests, and has not found another job since.
For the people of Lof en Resistencia, social inequality and injustice was of one the main triggers for the exodus to their ancestral land. “The Conquest of the Desert didn’t really end in 1885; it just took on a different form. . . . We are much better off living out here in the end,” explains the longko, staring deeply at the immense surrounding plain. The charismatic leader describes how, growing up in a poor family, he used to spend all his time at the local library instead of in the streets like the other kids, who would eventually become delinquents. He believes books are what saved him from ending up in prison. Distrustful of the “neo-imperialist” Argentine educational system, he has taken it upon himself to supervise the education of the youngsters in the community.
But far beyond the conditions of their lives and the ancestral rights they defend, there is an even deeper wretchedness felt by these indigenous people, and it is this feeling that compelled them to initiate the occupation. The word Mapuche is a compound of the words “mapu” (the earth) and “che” (people). Nature lies at the very core of their belief system and spirituality—a way of life, which, according to them, the huincas are incapable of understanding.
Mapuche ceremonies are conducted by the machi (shaman) who represents the highest spiritual authority and is responsible for connecting the spirit world to the human one. The people of Lof en Resistencia have the utmost respect for the natural resources available to them. Special rituals are carried out, for instance, after killing an animal or taking water from the river, and fires are only ever made with deadwood. Life in industrialized cities is incompatible with Mapuche values, hence the need among some to return to their ancestral land. “If a mining company were to come here and destroy that hill over there to extract the resources inside, it would be like… amputating your leg or your arm. One becomes ill. It’s as simple as that. We have a strong spiritual connection with the Earth, that’s why we have to defend it at all costs,” declares a young lamgen.
Remoteness and isolation do not prevent people of Lof en Resistencia from having an extensive knowledge about the world. From the war in Algeria to the 2016 US elections, Max Weber, Islamist terrorism and the dissolution of Yugoslavia, debates are never-ending and ubiquitous. This knowledge of politics, history and philosophy allows them to articulate their ideas with caution and clarity. A peñi explains: “You could say that we’re anti-capitalists and anti-imperialists. But we don’t want labels. We don’t want to be associated with any movement. We are not Marxists, eco-activists, or indigenists. We are just Mapuches. We’re fighting because today’s extractivist economic system is destroying the Earth, which we need to live in balance with.”
As soon as they step out of the rukas (houses) the Mapuches put their hoods back on, or tie a t-shirt around their faces—a simple precaution to prevent the authorities from identifying them. They say there have been disappearances in the past, and as a result they fear for their loved ones. They laugh at the label the government has given them: “terrorists”. This label has, however, proven very useful in legitimizing the brutality of local police forces, which are justified as part of the “fight against terrorism”. This is a strategy known all too well in the United States and some Western European countries, where it’s used as a smokescreen to hide abuses of power and violations of human rights. In front of the main house, two little boys are role-playing, fighting over who gets to be the good guy. “I want to be the terrorist! You be the police this time!” says one. “No!” screams the other “I don’t want to be the police! I want to be the terrorist.”
Feelings of tension and insecurity are omnipresent in the community, with good reason. In the past, there have been many attempts at eviction as well as acts of intimidation, perpetrated not only by the authorities but also by civilians. However, the people from Lof en Resistencia are far from giving up. “If we didn’t believe it was possible to regain the land, we wouldn’t be fighting,” says one lamgen. “If it’s not us, it will be our children, but there’s no turning back now. We already know what torture is, what prison is, what death is. We are not afraid.”
Their strategy is simple: a slow, gradual occupation of the land. As the longko says, “We believe that each community should follow their own path to self-determination. . . . We want to rebuild our Nation. You could say that we are in a process of self-decolonization. We want to throw out the current ‘land owners’ and reconstruct the Puelmapu. We are not looking to overtake the huinca state. Frankly, we want nothing to do with the State. We don’t want to negotiate, because there is nothing to negotiate. This land is ours.”
Lof en Resistencia’s act of occupation might seem small, but its impact might not be. As one peñi puts it, “We are the annoying mosquito on Benetton’s arm. Actually. . . it goes much further than that. An occupation like ours puts in danger the very existence of other companies in the region, both national and transnational. This kind of occupation always generates replicas overtime in other communities. We are slowly planting the idea of regaining territorial control.”
Benetton declined to comment for this article, but in a position statement issued by the Benetton Group in December 2010 regarding the occupation of the Santa Rosa Leleque community, the company said it “found itself unwittingly involved” in a “historic problem relating to the creation of the Argentinean state in the 19th century and its relationship with the native populations who lived there before the birth of the state.”
Legally, the issue is a real jigsaw puzzle. While the company was probably aware of the historical circumstances under which the Argentinean Southern Land Company Ltd came to possess the land, can the Benetton Group really be held accountable? What about the property rights Benetton is brandishing in the courts? On the other hand, article 75 (subsection 17) of the Argentine National Constitution clearly recognizes the pre-existence of indigenous people in Argentina and guarantees their possession of lands they traditionally occupied. Argentina has also ratified the ILO Convention 169, as well as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, guaranteeing indigenous people essential constitutional rights. According to Human Rights Watch and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, however, Argentina hasn’t respected either piece of international legislation.
The issue also goes beyond mere legality. Benetton bought the 900,000-hectare parcel in 1991 for 80 million dollars. The value of that land has since increased tremendously. It is inconceivable to think the Italian company would easily give it back to the Mapuche, which means the land would have to be bought back by the Argentinean government with taxpayers’ money, something to the people in the region are firmly opposed.
This issue is neither narrow in its scope nor confined in its geography: it goes beyond the issue of indigenous rights and the region of Patagonia. The occupation of Lof en Resistencia takes place in the context of a global struggle carried out by indigenous people throughout the world, fighting for the sovereignty of their land and its natural resources, endangered today by well-known multinational corporations and the activities of extractive industries.
No agreement has yet been reached, and the clock is ticking. According to Argentine Law 26894 on the possession of land, all evictions are technically prohibited until November 2017, giving the government less than a year to find a solution. Meanwhile, Benetton is standing its ground, while indigenous occupation movements are spreading across the region. These struggles should serve as nothing less than an inspiration to those seeking alternatives to an unsustainable neoliberal economic system that favours corporations over people, profits over natural resources and individuals over communities.

author: Marta Music


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For Jordan’s LGBT Community, the Law Books and Reality Send Different Messages · Global Voices
Nora B

SNOW by Ibrahim Owais (Creative Commons)
Jordan’s stance on LGBT issues is considered one of the more advanced in the Middle East, as criminalization of same-sex relations was removed from country's the Penal Code in 1951. However, decriminalization alone has not ensured complete freedom for members of Jordan's LGBT community. Article Six of the Jordanian Constitution protects citizens from discrimination on the basis of race, language or religion, but these protections do not extend to people of variant sexual identity.
This gray area is where discrimination still manages to play out in the daily lives of LGBT persons. Nasser*, a 23-year-old who moved to Jordan about a year ago and identifies as a homosexual, has experienced being asked to leave an establishment for displaying affection publicly. “The manager of the bar approached us and told us that what we were doing is not allowed. I told him that that I know the laws, and that this is not illegal in Jordan,” he told Global Voices. “He told us, ‘it may be allowed in Jordan, but it’s not allowed in here,’ and then we felt uncomfortable and left.”
For transgender persons, the situation is even more complicated and dangerous. Article 307 of the Jordanian Penal Code states: “Any male who is disguised in a female's dress and enters a place reserved for women only or which cannot be entered by other than women at the time of committing the act; he shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not to exceed six months.” However, in practice, transgender persons have experienced harassment even while in public spaces.
One such example is the case of Farah*, a trans woman who was walking near a public marketplace when she was stalked and harassed by a group of men in a car. She ignored them and they got angry, got out of the car and approached her.
“They pulled my hair and shoved me around, trying to steal my purse,” she told Global Voices. “Eventually, one of them inserted his hand into my purse and stole a wad of cash from me before running away.” A bystander witnessing the altercation called the police, who, on arriving to the scene, asked to see Farah’s ID.
“I was dressed in a feminine manner and knew it would arouse suspicion,” she said. “So I made up a story about how I have a hormonal problem and that is why my appearance is more feminine than in my ID.”
Skeptical and confused, the police took her back to the station where the situation quickly escalated into an interrogation about her appearance and mode of dress, rather than about the fact that she had attacked and robbed.
“They asked me why I was dressed as a girl, and called me derogatory terms like mukhanath (a man who resembles a woman),” Farah said. “They accused me of public indecency and for disguising my identity—even though I explained the person in my ID is me.
After being detained for two days, she was sentenced to six months of house arrest for “her own protection.” House arrest entails her having to be home before 5 pm every day, and having to check in daily at the police station to prove that she is still in town.
“Every day I go is a struggle. Every day I face insults and humiliation, and get searched on my way in with them grabbing my body in way to deliberately make me feel uncomfortable. I’m the only one who gets searched from the people who have to check in.”
The experience has made Farah determined to leave Jordan for safety reasons. She is planning to move to Europe after the period of house arrest is over to complete her studies, something she has not been able to do since getting expelled from high school after it was discovered that she was transgender. According to a 2015 Human Rights Report on Jordan conducted by the US State Department, trans individuals face increasing difficulty accessing education and public services. Being transgender can also greatly affect job prospects, sometimes leaving sex work the only option available for them to earn some kind of income.
Efforts are being made to raise awareness of LGBT issues, especially in the last few years. In 2015, informal LGBT activists and the Jordan-based LGBT-inclusive magazine My.Kali organized a small event in central Amman for the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT), where members of several European embassies and the US embassy unofficially attended the event as a show of support, sparking condemnation of the US ambassador by Jordanian authorities. IDAHOT was nevertheless observed in Amman the following year, although in a confidential location.
Hasan, one of the very few outspoken activists on LGBT issues in Amman, works on raising awareness and providing space and support for LGBT youth in Jordan. He and some fellow activist friends have organized a monthly private support group to discuss issues such as safety and HIV, mental health, coming out, and religious matters.
“We started out with eight members only,” Hasan said, “but now we grew to a network of about a hundred. Members can invite others if they trust them and vouch for them, and safety is the priority. Not many can be outspoken about these issues as I am, and it’s important to note that I work in partnership with people who have contributed greatly to this community.”
It is not clear what the future holds for LGBT individuals in Jordan, but, as Hasan puts it, “the issue is finally out from under the table.” One interesting development is Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein's assumption of the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2014. Prince Zeid has put forth more than twenty proposals to protect LGBT persons, among them advocating for all countries to provide legal protection for same-sex partnerships and their children, giving them the same benefits awarded to heterosexual couples. Prince Zeid is acting on behalf of the international community rather than Jordan, of course, but it remains to be seen what effects, if any, his recommendations and policies on ending violence towards LGBT people will have in his home nation.
*Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals contributing to this story.

author: Nora B


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It’s Lunar New Year, and China’s Young People Are Sick and Tired of It · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Photo: Pixabay
The Chinese Lunar New Year is China's most important season for family reunions and it is conventional for people to return home to visit their parents and relatives in rural villages, where the air is filled with the sounds of greetings and chatter, as well as the smells of firecrackers and festive foods.
Every year, the festival triggers the largest human migration in the world, with more than 410 million Chinese people hitting the roads from big cities to hometowns for a family reunion. This year, New Year's Eve was on Jan. 26, and the annual migration started a week earlier. Twitter user @Love_Stony shared a collection of edited images on the impossible mission of the Lunar New Year journey home:
有钱没钱，回家过年 #chunyun pic.twitter.com/yWCZC5t4FA
— TEAM_MARVEL?? (@Love_Stony_) January 21, 2017
Rich or poor, go home for the Lunar New Year
However, the traveling trend has shifted slightly in recent years, as more and more people decide to travel abroad during the holiday, to avoid seeing relatives altogether. Among the younger generation, in particular, many find the Near Year's greetings and conversation among extended family members about their marriage and income status to be annoying.
Weibo user Seaya's comment is quite typical among young people in China:
说句实话，我真的非常非常讨厌过年…从小就讨厌…被打乱的生活、必须去面对的人际、还要因为去谁家过三十儿而吵架……用血缘为纽带，强行绑架我们，排除异己。365天哪天不能团？就今天风水好吗？我觉得zf号召我们：有钱没钱，回家过年！就是想趁此捞一笔……
Honestly, I hate celebrating lunar new year, ever since I was very young. [The festival] disrupts our daily life, and forces us to socialize and quarrel over where should the family spend their New Year's Eve [families often argue about going to the father's or the mother's grandparents]. …… we are hijacked by blood ties and exclude others. We could reunite with the family any time, all year round. Why do we need to stick it to the New Year? I think the government calling for people to go back celebrating the New Year is a tactic to [boost the economy].
While some find the festive atmosphere fading, thanks to China’s rapid urbanization, which has transformed many villages into thick high-rise residential districts and brought severe air pollution, others insist that the tradition is still a great annoyance.
Weibo user “Light Cloud and Wind” is among those who doesn't enjoy the tradition:
要过年了，我好难过，讨厌过年，从小就讨厌，从记事起父亲就告诉我们，大年三十不能摔破碗碟，不吉利，于是本来一顿丰盛的年夜饭，变得个个紧张兮兮地根本吃不下，讨厌初一早上起床那几句生硬的拜年词，讨厌过年处处的鞭炮声，讨厌过年空气夹杂着的酒肉味，讨厌听到那刺耳的麻将声，讨厌过年！特别讨厌
The New Year is approaching and I feel bad. I've hated the Lunar New Year since childhood. I still remember father told us to avoid breaking bowls and dishes on New Year's Eve, as it would bring ill fortune. We felt so nervous at dinner time and couldn't enjoy the food. I hate the early morning ritualistic greetings during New Year's. I hate the sound of firecrackers and mahjong and the smell of banquets. I hate the New Year! No kidding.
Instead of returning home, more and more are traveling overseas for the holidays.
This year, a record 6 million Chinese people — most of them affluent — said they plan to spend the Chinese New Year holiday overseas.
Thailand, Japan, and the U.S. are the most popular destinations, with South Korea falling to seventh place, after being third last year, according to China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip's report.
Some of these travel preferences are influenced by government policies.
For example, South Korea became less popular for Chinese tourists after the Chinese government instructed travel agencies to reduce the processing of visas to South Korea, as retaliation for South Korean government's agreement with the U.S. military in the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense.
Taiwan has also disappeared from China's top picks, as the relationship across the Taiwan Strait has grown tenser.
Just a few days ago, China’s National Tourism Administration public appealed to Chinese travelers to boycott against Japan’s APA hotel group, after some Chinese tourists claimed they had found some books disavowing the Nanjing massacre on the bookshelves of their hotel rooms.
Nevertheless, the volatile relationship between China and Japan has not dampened Chinese enthusiasm for flying to Japan, fueled in large part by Japan’s beautiful landscapes, modern facilities, exquisite goods, and premium services.
Weibo user “Kung Fu Tiger” mocked the state's failure to whip up anti-Japanese nationalism:
日本还是天朝出国的第二名，本质上应该第一的，因为泰国免签证，才成为第一的，天朝人口头上抵制日本，行动上喜欢去日本旅游购物[…]
Japan would have ranked number one in Chinese outbound travel, had Thailand not granted visa-free access. The Chinese oppose Japan in words, but they like going there for sightseeing and shopping…

author: Jack Hu


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Melania Trump Returns Gloriously to Her Homeland, Now as a Meme · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

An especially “Yugoslav” Melania Trump meme.
The bilingual meme above makes little sense to people outside the former Yugoslavia, part of which composed what is known today as Slovenia, the birthplace of Melania Trump, the current first lady of the United States. Show the meme above to anybody from what used to be Yugoslavia, however, and you're bound to get at least a chuckle.
Just ask Aleksej Demjanski, a scholar now living in Texas, originally from Skopje. On Jan. 24, he tweeted the image you see above, and raked in more than 170 retweets and 700 likes.
So what's so funny? The captions are a wildly translated mashup of lyrics from an old song, and the joke only makes sense if you have some fluency in English and Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian:
Oči su mi More Jadransko
Kose su mi klasje panonsko
My eyes are [like the] Adriatic Sea
My hair is [like the] wheat of Pannonia
[i.e. the plains of Vojvodina, often called the granary of Yugoslavia]
Hearing these lyrics, nearly anybody born in Yugoslavia before 1985 would be able to complete the chorus:
Srce mi je duša slovenska
Ja sam Jugoslovenka!
My heart is the Slavic soul
I am a Yugoslav girl!
The song “Jugoslovenka” (“Yugoslav Girl”) belongs to the country's most popular folk star, Lepa Brena. The song was released in 1989, two years before the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and remains a vital thread in Yugo-nostalgia.
Scenes from the 1989 music video “Jugoslovenka” (Yugoslav Girl) by Lepa Brena.
The song's big-budget music video, which includes aerial footage filmed above the Adriatic Sea and wavy “seas” of wheat, was recorded during the making of the musical comedy film series “Let's Fall in Love,” which were made in the tradition of the Elvis Presley movie “Viva Las Vegas.”
The original song symbolically featured three diverse heartthrobs of the era: Montenegrin Daniel Popović, Croatian Vlado Kalember, and Bosnian Alen Islamović. The song's structure is reminiscent of South Slavic epic poetry in a form of serial dialogue, with male singers asking the woman, “Where do you come from, oh beautiful girl…?”
Dropping Melania Trump into the lyrics of this song could indicate that some in the region are warming up to the woman now married to the 45th president of the United States.
Watching the inauguration ceremony footage from Washington, Macedonian journalist Ognen Janeski caught another link between Mrs. Trump and the “Yugoslav Girl” song:
Затоа и носеше светло сина боја, за да и’ оди со стихот:
“Очи су ми морее Јадранскоо!” #MelaniaTrump #FLOTUS #Balkan #USA ❤ #Slovenia – ??☝ pic.twitter.com/VcV2PRCMt6
— Огнен од Јаневци (@OgnenJaneski) January 22, 2017
[Image text: “When they play “I am a Yugoslaaaav Girl!” on your parade]
She wore a light blue to fit with the lyric “My eyes are Adriatic Sea”!
Janeski was not the only one. Humor portal Panika.be published a satirical video of Mr. and Mrs. Trump dancing to the song at the inaugural ball as part of a parody story.
In the former Yugoslavia, there's even an expression often used to describe the people who “make it” abroad (especially those to emigrate and find success in the West): “a leaf from our forest” (“naše gore list” in S/C/B).
Unlike people living in other Communist countries, Yugoslavs belonged to a non-aligned country not behind the Iron Curtain, and they could travel abroad for work. Yugoslavs who accomplished things in this manner were often celebrated as proof that Yugoslav society had something to offer the world.
However, some Slovenian Internet users refuse to accept associations with Yugoslavia. One of them posted an image featuring the U.S. first lady and the ski jumper Domen Prevc, another Slovenian who's successful abroad, and a rhyme dissing the whole concept of Yugo-nostalgia.
Drži, kot pribito @MELANIATRUMP @PrevcDomen pic.twitter.com/UljO2408SB
— Janez Poljanšek (@vztrajnik) December 5, 2016
[Image: Whoever dreams of Yugoslavia,
must have an empty skull.
It's a prestige to be a Slovenian,
as Melania and Prevc know.]
Hold on, for sure, @MelaniaTrump @PrevcDomen.
During the U.S. presidential campaign, the Slovenian media didn't show great interest in Mrs. Trump. That changed, however, after Donald Trump's surprising victory in the Electoral College, and since then some Slovenian business people have tried to capitalize on Melania Trump's name and brand — often without her permission.
At least Melania's hometown in Slovenia is making a good profit on her behalf. A bakery is selling these. #Slovenia #MelaniaFirstLady pic.twitter.com/RHqWgdQcwI
— Luka Fric (@LukaFric) January 23, 2017
The phrase on the flag “Prva dama” means “First Lady.”
Melania Trump's Slovenia: Small, Beautiful, Challenging via @forbes https://t.co/fatRqrsXfY
— Blaz Umek (@BlazUmek) January 17, 2017
Just as litigious as her husband, Mrs. Trump has already filed lawsuits through her Slovenian lawyers against groups using her image and name without permission. If you're thinking of slapping a photo of Melania Trump on your new honey, lingerie, or whatever — beware.

author: Marko Angelov


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Journalists of Closed Hungarian Newspaper Népszabadság Score ‘Symbolic Posthumous Victory’ in Court · Global Voices
Marietta Le

The staff of Népszabadság. Used with permission from “Népszabi” editorial team Facebook page.
A Hungarian court has ruled that the sudden closure of leading opposition daily Népszabadság last October was illegal, because its owners should have consulted with the employee committee in a bid to keep publishing and avoid laying off all its staff.
The owners, the Austrian-owned group Mediaworks, closed down the newspaper on October 9, 2016, without any warning, citing low sales as the reason. That morning, they denied their surprised employees entry to the premises.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) hailed the court's decision as a “symbolic posthumous victory for Népszabadság journalists”. According to Pauline Adès-Mével, the head of the RSF’s European Union-Balkans desk:
“This is a moral victory for the staff of Nepszabadsag, even if the ruling unfortunately has no criminal or financial consequences for the newspaper’s owner. The judge’s ruling made it clear that, if the procedures had been respected, the newspaper would not have had to close and fire its 90 employees.”
The announcement about the court's decision did not include any publicly available information as to whether the journalists would receive any kind of compensation for the wrongdoing.
Hungarian journalist Anita Kőműves. Photo used with permission.
Anita Kőműves was a journalist at Népszabadság’s foreign affairs section for 11 years, and for five years — until the closure of the paper — she covered U.S. politics. She was also part of the paper’s investigative team: one of her stories revealed how much Hungary spent on lobbying in Washington.
She told Global Voices that journalists from other media outlets — from left to right (except for far right) — showed solidarity with Népszabadság employees. Kőműves said the massive solidarity rose from the fact that the government has been working on completely changing Hungary’s media landscape since their first term started in 2010. The government, among other things, changed the Hungarian media law, dismissed more than a 1,000 employees from the public broadcasting company, and popular news site Origo.hu's editor-in-chief was sacked after a story was published about a state secretary's travel expenses.
We never considered the court ruling to change anything, it’s rather a moral victory which states that we should have had a legal representative with us and there should have been direct communication about what was going on. We knew this wasn’t going to change anything because the story had already ended the morning of October 9, 2016.
Many Hungarians keep asking former Népszabadság journalists about their future. Anita Kőműves recently started working for Vasárnapi Hírek news magazine, but many of her colleagues are still looking for jobs:
As soon as the paper was closed we started to think about starting up a new outlet, either print or online. But we knew that we would need a lot of money to run a newsroom of 80 people. However, we started talking to potential investors both in Hungary and internationally but very recently, around the beginning of January, we had to realize that [we] would not be able to raise the money to start up even a much smaller operation.
Népszabadság, which means Liberty of the People, was a major, left-leaning Hungarian newspaper founded during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It was privatized during the 1990s and changed owners several times, until Mediaworks acquired it in 2015.
The newspaper's closure sparked massive demonstrations in Budapest. Two and a half weeks later, Mediaworks’ owner sold Népszabadság to Opimus Press, a media group owned by an associate of Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban.
Reuters reported that this take over is part of a strategy implemented by Orban allies to secure domination within the country's media landscape by securing “a friendly media network.” The new owner had not held a media portfolio before.
Months after the shocking news, the newspaper’s digital archive has been switched back on. Now, at least, the publication's last articles are accessible to the public, along with the 2008 article that the author of this post wrote about the Global Voices Summit in Budapest.

author: Marietta Le


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More Than a Hundred Iranians, Many of Them Legal Residents, Face Challenges Entering the US · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

This image tweeted by the Women's March on Washington Twitter account says, “Ban Bannon… not my grandma”. Bannon is one of President Trump's top advisors, and is believed to be one of the masterminds behind the ban. He used to run the far-right Breitbart News, which he called “the platform for the alt-right” in 2016.
It is difficult to assess the scale of the impact of President Donald Trump's temporary ban targeting the nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries–Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. But a crowdsourced database started by an Iranian MIT professor offers a frightening snapshot of the impact on Iranian nationals.
In the four days since the executive order was signed, more than a 110 Iranian US green card holders, valid student and travel visa holders, and dual-nationals of countries such as Canada, faced challenges entering the US, according to the database of entries, detentions and deportations started by Iranian MIT engineering professor Hazhir Rahmandad.
Of the more than 286 reports voluntarily filed in the database, 213 are Iranian nationals. A hundred and twelve of them faced significant challenges entering the US. Seventy-six were turned back “at the port of departure before boarding” or “after arrival in the US,” while 36 were allowed through “after significant delay/negotiation.”
The situation remains fluid and unpredictable for many, including whether the ban affects US green card holders or Iranian-Canadian dual nationals. Trump's immigration ban initially applied to up to 500,000 green card holders, but then the Trump administration backtracked. They made numerous contradictory statements over the weekend.
In a statement to CNN, US Homeland Security officials clarified that nationals of the seven countries who have valid green cards should be allowed entry in the US:
This is our message to them: get on a plane. Come back to the US. You will be subject to secondary screening, but everything else will be normal.
Today, the Department of Homeland Security said it would no longer completely ‘bar’ green-card holders from the banned list countries from entering, but it would be a “dispositive factor” in allowing immigrants from those countries into the US during screening.
According to the American investigative site ProPublica, Iranian and Iraqi citizens make up 50% of the 500,000 green card holders impacted by the temporary ban and the extra screening measures that come with it.
Of the seven countries in the ban, Iranians are likely to be impacted significantly.
Unlike the other countries in the ban list, the US is a popular destination for Iranian students. More than 12,000 Iranians were in the US on student visas last year, according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report, which tracks the demographics of international students. Last year, Iranian students in U.S. colleges and universities contributed $386 million to the US economy.
In fact, the number of visas issued to Iranians is generally much higher than the number issued to nationals of the other countries in the ban.
@ali_noorani_teh @sarahparvini pic.twitter.com/1YVcez2SLg
— NIAC Action (@NIACAction) January 29, 2017
Nationwide protests and legal actions by the American Civil Liberties Union and volunteer immigration lawyers worked to help those detained.
Unverified reports circulated that immigration officials were boarding planes and seizing the phones and devices of visa holders to prevent them from notifying family and attorneys.
@davidakaye CBP detained me & my family for 4 hrs searched car & demanded we provide our passwords. Was later asked how much I loved America. US Citizen
— Oppression.org (@OppressionOrg) January 30, 2017
Four federal courts have weighed in on the matter, ordering a stay on deportations. One federal judge in Virginia also ruled that detainees must be given access to legal counsel, but this wasn't happening in Washington's Dulles Airport.
Attys at Dulles with a fed court order entitling them to see detainees told by CBP “it's not going to happen” Attys seeking contempt order
— Damon Silvers (@DamonSilvers) January 29, 2017
While uncertainty prevails, many lives and families are in a state of disarray. Countless graduate programs are being missed and jobs put in jeopardy, while families remain separated.
Relations between Iran and the US, which have been tense since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had recently started to warm up under the Obama administration. The successful negotiation and implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran, the US and the so-called P5+1 countries had lifted numerous economic sanctions that had hurt the lives of ordinary Iranians.
With the news of the ban on Iranian nationals entering the US, the Iranian government was quick to act with a policy of reciprocity towards American nationals, released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Javad Zarif.
Full statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the #MuslimBan. 6/7 pic.twitter.com/Y3gAxT0B8m
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 28, 2017
While respecting the American people and distinguishing between them and the hostile policies of the US government, Iran will implement the principle of reciprocity until the offensive US limitations against Iranian nationals are lifted. The restrictions against travel by Muslims to America… are an open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation in particular and will be known as a great gift to extremists.
The foreign minister did say Iran would continue to accept all valid visas, contrary to what played out over the weekend and continues to play out in some places in the US.
Unlike the U.S., our decision is not retroactive. All with valid Iranian visa will be gladly welcomed. #MuslimBan 7/7
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 28, 2017
Despite this, two Americans, Joseph Jones and J.P. Prince, who play professional basketball in Iran's Super Leagues at the Azad University of Tehran, are currently prevented from returning to Iran after a team-funded vacation in Dubai.

author: Mahsa Alimardani