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A Photo Shows a Boy Watching New Year’s Fireworks. Why Do Some Brazilians Assume He’s Sad and Poor? · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

The photograph that sparked a heated debate in Brazil. Screenshot from Lucas Landau's Facebook page.
It's New Year’s Eve at one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world. While 2.4 million people gather at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach to watch the fireworks, the lens of freelance photographer Lucas Landau turns to a young black boy. He is wet and shirtless, standing in the sea with the water reaching his knees. His hands crossed at his waist, he looks like he's shivering, but stays there, mesmerized by what he sees in the sky above. Behind him, out of focus of the camera, a crowd of people dressed in white cheer, take selfies and celebrate.
Landau published the shot on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and the photo was soon spread to WhatsApp with a fake story about the boy being homeless and abandoned. The narrative fit with what some saw in the image: a black boy who embodied the inequality of Brazilian society.
But those assumptions of poverty and sadness soon encountered pushback.
Stephanie Ribeiro, a vocal black activist in Brazil with 46,000 followers on Facebook, challenged the perspective:
Para mim não tem diferença quem vê um menino negro e já associa com ele a um “menor”, com a polícia que vê negros e já aborda para revistar e/ou agredir. Homens negros sempre contam essas histórias, suas vidas são marcadas pelos olhos racistas que procuram o esteriótipo reafirmando diariamente pelas mídias, e não a inúmeras verdades sobre eles. Fortalecemos isso ao incentivar olhares cheios de esteriótipos racistas sobre nossas múltiplas formas de existir/ser mesmo diante de crianças… o PERIGO DA HISTÓRIA ÚNICA também está no nosso olhar.
To me, there is no difference between those who see a young black boy and quickly associate him as being a “juvenile”, and police officers who see black people and jump to search and beat them. Black men are always telling these stories, their lives are marked by racist eyes searching for the stereotype that the media reaffirms every day instead of the numerous truths about them. We reinforce this when we encourage our multiple forms of existing/being to be viewed through racist stereotypes, even before children [sic]…the DANGER OF THE ONE STORY is also in our perspective.
Interviewed by the Brazilian version of the Spain-based newspaper El País, black writer Anderson França said:
O problema não é a foto, é a interpretação dela, do seu contexto. As pessoas que olham aquela foto estão pré-condicionadas a entender que a imagem de uma pessoa negra é associada a pobreza e abandono, quando na verdade é só uma criança negra na praia. Essa precondição é racismo estrutural, que vem da má educação do povo brasileiro sobre ele mesmo.
The problem is not the photo, it’s the interpretation of it, of its context. The people looking at the picture are pre-conditioned to understand that the image of a black person is associated with poverty and abandonment, while it is actually just a black child at the beach. This pre-condition is structural racism, which originates from the poor education of the Brazilian people about themselves.
The true story, however, remains unknown — not even the photographer knows who the boy is. After the image went viral, Landau added a caption explaining the context in which the photo was shot:
eu estava a trabalho fotografando as pessoas assistindo aos fogos em copacabana. ele estava lá, como outras pessoas, encantado. perguntei a idade (9) e o nome, mas não ouvi por causa do barulho. como ele estava dentro mar (que estava gelado), acabou ficando distante das pessoas. não sei se estava sozinho ou com família. essa fotografia abre margem para várias interpretações; todas legítimas, ao meu ver. existe uma verdade, mas nem eu sei qual é. me avisem se descobrirem quem é o menino, por favor.
I was working, photographing people watching the fireworks in Copacabana. He was there, as were other people, marveling. I asked him about his age (9) and his name, but I didn’t hear it because of the noise. Since he was in the water (which was cold), he ended up being apart from the rest of the people. I don’t know if he was by himself or with his family. This photograph opens space for several interpretations; all of them legit, from where I stand. There is a truth, but I don’t know which one it is. Let me know if you find out who the boy is, please.
copacabana beach, 2018
Una publicación compartida por  Lucas Landau (@landau) el
A screenshot of someone in the comments section of Landau's post looking to buy a print copy of the photo — to which he replied with his contact details — began to circulate. In response, people started digging into Landau's work.
Landau, who is white, has photographed black communities in South Africa and violent events taking place in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, where residents are overwhelmingly those of color.
As a result of this dynamic, an expression made the rounds in the debate: “white savior complex”. According to Wikipedia, it “refers to a white person who acts to help non-white people, with the help in some contexts perceived to be self-serving”.
Regarding the photographer and people's general response to the picture, blogger Marcelo Rocha, himself a black man, reminded of a character from the US TV show “Everybody Hates Chris”, which is popular in Brazil:
A personagem Srta. Morello (Jacqueline Mazzarela) retrata uma pessoa branca que reconhece seus privilégios, mas de forma tão soberba que realmente se acha superior em tudo e acredita que todos os negros dependem de sua ajuda e assistência. Vê se em vários episódios a professora do protagonista da série Chris Rock (Tyler James Williams) com suas “melhores intenções” tentando ajudar o personagem em sua história trágica que criou em sua mente. O fotógrafo humanitário de alma negra ainda é lucro pro mercado. (…) Só criaram ele pois existe um povo sedento por ser a Srta. Morello.
The character of Ms. Morello depicts a white person that acknowledges her privilege, but in such a presumptous way that she actually believes herself superior and that all black people depend on her aid and assistance. In several episodes, we see [her] with the “best intentions” as she tries to help the main character cope with some tragic story that only exists in her mind. The humanitarian photographer with a black soul still generates profit in the market. […] It only exists because there are people thirsty to be Miss Morello.
Meanwhile, some have argued that people couldn't help but see the image through a lens of inequality and sadness given the larger Brazilian context.
Copacabana, an affluent neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, is surrounded by favelas and low-income communities, whose majority of residents are brown or black-skinned. In Landau’s original post, one commenter remembered how bus lines coming from the suburbs stopped running that night, supposedly to prevent young black people from coming to the fireworks spectacle.
In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to formally abolish slavery (in 1889), only a small fraction (17 percent) of the country's richest 1 percent are black, even though black people make up 54 percent of the entire population. At the current rate, the wage gap that currently exists between black and white will only equalize in 2089.
There is also a representation issue. A study by the University of Brasilia revealed that among all the books published in Brazil between 1965 and 2014, only 10 percent were written by black authors. It also showed that around 80 percent of the main characters in fiction books were white. In films, only 4 percent of the productions employ black screenwriters and only 31 percent cast black actors — who almost always play characters associated with poverty and criminality.
Brazil is undeniably a country with a racism problem, even though it never had an official segregation law. As Brazilian photographer Fernando Costa Netto also pointed out, in an El Pais‘ quote:
Mesmo que a foto aponte outra coisa quando encontrarem o menino, o Brasil está muito bem espelhado pela foto em Copacabana”, avalia Netto. “Nós estamos aqui discutindo a força e o papel da fotografia, preconceito, o réveillon no Rio, a estética, a emoção, o documento, questionando… A fotografia está cumprindo o papel.
Even if the photo points to another direction once we see the boy, Brazil is mirrored pretty well in the Copacabana photograph(…) We are here debating the role and the power of photography, we are debating prejudice, Rio’s New Year’s eve, aesthetics, emotion, documentation, questioning ourselves…Photography is fulfilling its role.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Jamaican Police Under Pressure After New Year’s Party Delays International Flights · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Windswept palms at the start of the Palisadoes strip in Kingston, Jamaica, the only access road to the airport. Photo by Christina Xu, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Fun is one thing; disruption is another. When the only route to Jamaica's international airport in Kingston, the capital, was blocked for several hours on New Year's evening because of the traffic caused by a party, many citizens were hopping mad, and one government minister in particular, thoroughly embarrassed.
The incident raised several issues surrounding the operations of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), including its current wage claim and pay issues. There has been an apparent stalemate in negotiations between the police force and the government, and several officers staged a “sickout” from mid-December right through to the Christmas/New Year holiday.
The debacle also called into question the JCF's competence in traffic management and crowd control, as well as its ability to enforce the country's laws. Police Commissioner George Quallo is currently sitting uncomfortably in the hot seat, after just nine months in office.
On the evening of January 1, 2018, there was a heavy buildup of traffic along the narrow Palisadoes strip — the only route linking the city of Kingston to the Norman Manley International Airport. However, as the popular annual dance party Sandz got underway at a beach location on the strip, an extraordinary situation developed.
Vehicles and party patrons themselves blocked the road, creating traffic chaos and preventing drivers — including visitors to the island trying to catch a plane home after their holiday — from reaching the airport. This was not a temporary problem that was quickly resolved: the road was blocked for six hours. Some travellers walked the considerable distance to the airport, while others chartered motorbike riders to transport them and their baggage.
One Jamaican on his way back to Florida tweeted:
Just did my first 5k on the palisadoes strip…with my laptop bag, carry-on & checked bag in tow. At least I made my flight. Thanks #Sandz ?
— Marc Richards (@RandomReMarcs) January 2, 2018
He added:
It is easy enough for me to look back at this and laugh (It would be a lot less funny, if I had missed my flight).
But if somebody in Port Royal had a medical emergency last night they would have probably died, and that's no joke. We need to do better.
— Marc Richards (@RandomReMarcs) January 2, 2018
The blocked road was visible from afar:
Palisados road from my house in red hills.
All those lights are cars. pic.twitter.com/zi5HbZaGmf
— Brock Andahardplace (@ShifterKart) January 2, 2018
Jamaicans largely reacted with astonishment, disgust, a barrage of questions and, in some cases, a heavy dose of cynicism:
Billions of dollars spent to upgrade the Palisadoes road to prevent the airport becoming inaccessible due to a hurricane. But what a hurricane now can't do, poor governance can. #Sandz https://t.co/A7UwOFdWw6
— Damien King (@DamienWKing) January 2, 2018
A Jamaican entrepreneur tweeted:
#Sandz is a microcosm of what’s wrong with Jamaica at the moment. There is no plan, parking or otherwise, that can withstand the impact of collective indiscipline that is tolerated and allowed to escalate.
— L.A. West-Blackwood (@garveygirl) January 2, 2018
On Facebook, the disapproval was widespread. Terri-Ann Guyah was livid:
I am here at the airport from 8:45 pm after my flight has been delayed for over 4 hours in FL…only to see this! […] customs officers say it was worse last year..so how do they grant a permit for a party that has caused this problem before? How is it that there is no police directing traffic or parking patrons of the party?? Are we so corrupt and irresponsible that we can allow government to lose revenue because of a party?? Is this what we have come to??
To make matters worse, garbage left behind by the partygoers remained uncollected two days later.
In response to the incident, Minister of National Security Robert Montague demanded a report from the police commissioner almost immediately — and then rejected it as inadequate:
UPDATE: Security Minister #BobbyMontague has issued a stinging public rebuke of report submitted to him by Police Commissioner @GeorgeQuallo about incident which disrupted activity at Jamaica premier international report. Montague says he has rejected the “disappointing” report. pic.twitter.com/ViDwW2y51k
— Abka Fitz-Henley (@AbkaFitzHenley) January 3, 2018
Meanwhile, Commissioner Quallo issued an apology to the general public the following day.
Some gave the police commissioner the benefit of the doubt, but many were far less charitable. Besides accountability, the general issue of enforcement was a major concern. Economist and university lecturer, Dr. Damien King, aptly illustrated the enforcement issue:
Police Commissioner @GeorgeQuallo told @Nationwideradio radio this morning that we need signage to prevent another Palisadoes traffic blockade. Here's what we think of signage without ENFORCEMENT, Mr Commissioner. pic.twitter.com/DrN0XIKL4W
— Damien King (@DamienWKing) January 3, 2018
The (unnamed) party promoters also apologised, but blamed unruly patrons.
Commissioner Quallo requested more time from the minister to submit a more detailed report, which is now due on January 5, 2018. In a second statement, Minister Montague appeared to be holding the high command of the police force accountable, rather than the rank and file, who are currently seeking a substantial wage increase.
The desired wage increase became even more relevant when Commissioner Quallo confirmed in a radio interview that an unnamed policeman attached to the Major Investigation Division (MID) was one of the promoters of the event. Although this revelation raised eyebrows, it did not come as a great surprise to many Jamaicans, since it is well known that police officers often “moonlight” and have other businesses on the side, including operating taxis and buses, and providing security services.
One Jamaican blogger hinted at corruption as a hidden factor:
Sandz single-handedly held our country hostage…the security of our airport at seige, delaying flights, people frantically trying not to miss flights to subsequently become a nationally debated issue, as all involved [point] fingers […], only publicly avoiding the real issue of who had the most to gain.
Entertainment events are perhaps the most policed and regulated social activity, strangling the life out of an otherwise potentially striving economy, and one which we (Jamaica) have significant and under-explored foreign income generating possibilities that could touch literally all different types of local economies.
Corruption is real, and available at all levels if doing things the right way is made particularly and unnecessarily difficult and pervious to ‘spirit-tek’, where sabotage and manipulation is easy due to archaic systems and methodologies.
Trying to find a balance between Jamaicans enjoying themselves and following rules and regulations can be tricky. Junior minister Damion Crawford announced two years ago that the Palisadoes strip would become an “entertainment zone” in an attempt to find such a balance, and to minimise disruption while supporting music events. In October 2017, Culture Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange announced the first entertainment zone — an old fort in a fairly isolated spot outside Kingston.
However, this latest fiasco has cast something of a shadow over the government's efforts. Did the police simply let everyone down, or were there more complex factors involved?
It's the why of the situation that must be explored, even if it's not customary in Jamaica to do so, civil society advocate and environmentalist Diana McCaulay argued:
There will be calls for an inquiry. For accountability. Blame will be shifted and avoided. Promises and commitments will be made. Then – rinse and repeat.
There is one step, however, that we rarely take – and that is problem analysis. Questioning the ‘WHY?’. Why did the Police give a permit for an event at Seventh Harbour for a second year, despite problems last year and according to one source, a decision taken by the Police High Command not to grant such permits? Was this poor communication? Poor record keeping? Short memories? A decision taken at a high level to overrule this sensible decision? Because a policeman was reportedly one of the promoters? Answering the ‘why’ takes us to targeted fixes.
Without problem analysis, we will come up with the wrong solution, time and time again.
While many more questions remain to be answered, Jamaican netizens hope that their police commissioner can provide a clear explanation of what went wrong — and that such a calamity will never be repeated. This has been a surprising and unexpectedly shaky start to the New Year.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Emma Lewis


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Under Pressure From Cyberspace Administration, China’s Top News App Will Hire 2,000 More Content Reviewers · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Newsstand in Beijing. Photo by Ernie via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
This post was written by Catherine Lai and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on January 4, 2018. The version below is published on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
China's top news aggregation app, Jinri Toutiao, plans to hire 2,000 new employees to monitor content on its platform, after the country's internet regulator cracked down on its content.
In the hiring process, the company will give priority to members of the Communist Party.
Jinri Toutiao, which means Today’s Headlines, is a customized RSS feed reader that provides content to readers based on their interests, using data and recommendation algorithms. Founded in 2012, the company CEO Zhang Yiming boasted at the 2016 World Internet Forum that its news application had 600 million registered users and that 140 million active users spend 76 minutes on the application each day.
While the application uses artificial intelligence to customized news feeds for readers, the technology is still subject to state censorship. Last week, the country’s top internet regulator accused the news app of spreading pornographic content.
The Cyberspace Administration said in a notice that Toutiao had illegally distributed news content without having obtained qualifications to do so from the authorities. It added that it was also concerned about the issue of “clickbait” on the app.
The regulator’s order led to Toutiao suspending updates for six of its sections for 24 hours.
Mainland Chinese media outlet The Paper reported on 3 January that Toutiao was recruiting 2,000 content reviewers.
According to a job advertisement, Toutiao requires staff to examine around 1,000 items per day for illegal content and is seeking candidates who are passionate about news, care about current events, and have good “political sensitivity and judgement.” The position requires applicants to hold undergraduate degrees or above, and said Communist Party members would be given priority.
The company already employs over 4,000 staff members whose primary purpose is to review content. The number of content reviewers will reach 10,000 soon, said Jinri Toutiao's chief editors, making theirs the largest such team in the country.
Following the regulator’s order last week, the app also closed its “society” channel of the app and replaced it with one entitled “new era.” This has become one of the default sections in the app.
Why the name change? During the 19th National Chinese Communist Party Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping's thoughts were added to the party constitution under the section “Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” Since then, “new era” has become a common political term used to refer to Xi's leadership.
Current affairs commentator Lou Xiling told Voice of America that this is not the first time Jinri Toutiao shut down its news channel:
它关闭了社会频道，之前类似的频道也关闭了，推荐、热点等能够反映社会时事的这些频道全部关闭，这是让人感到非常可怕的。所以我觉得此后“今日头条”的前景在短时间里我是非常不看好的，除非社会有比较大的改变。之后可能会像我们想象的一样，越来越无法看到一个真正的新闻。
Prior to shuttering its society channel, similar channels such as “News recommendations”, “Hot topics” that reflected what was happening in the society had been shuttered. This is quite terrifying. I think in the near future, Jinri Toutiao will not have interesting content, unless there is a big change in society. In the future, as we have anticipated, it could be difficult for us to access real news.
As the shutter of the society section happened on the first day of 2018, Twitter user Uromayutori joked about the beginning of the “new era”:
今日头条原本的社会版面就是严格按照宣传口径来选择报道的典型，但是总有人永远嫌不够，毕竟审查是没有底的。自我审查、约谈、勒令取消、新设“新时代”版，呐喊没了，沉默也不许，最后早晚是站出来要表忠心，这一切从试图封锁呐喊的那一天就早已注定。真好，2018，新时代元年。
The society channel of Jinri Toutiao was already filtering news reports strictly according to official propaganda requirements. But censorship can never go too far for some. Self-censorship, face-to-face talk, shuttering channels, setting up a “new era” channel. There is no more screaming, and you can't even keep silent. It is only a matter of time before someone is forced to stand up to pledge loyalty. All this became inevitable, starting from the day when they blocked people who were speaking out. This is great, 2018, the beginning of new era.
An unnamed source from Jinri Toutiao told The Paper that the closure of the society section had a broad effect on the company: “But we will resolutely implement the guiding opinions from the relevant departments.”
Toutiao said it replaced the section in order to “better promote the main theme, disseminate the spirit of the 19th Party Congress, and report on the building of the new era.” It also said it was cleaning up independent media accounts with low-quality content, and had closed 1,101 channels.
The source added that the app had always worked to target clickbait and vulgar content, employing stricter methods than similar apps, but it appeared that they had not done enough.
Hong Kong political commentator Johnny Lau Yui-Siu told Apple Daily that, by giving party members priority, the company was trying to appease the authorities and protect itself, and surmised that the media outlet would soon revert to its old ways.
In the short term, [the changes] can indeed show the effect of the authorities’ intimidation, but the authorities cannot possibly monitor nearly a billion netizens.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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What Happens at Maekelawi? Tales of Torture from an Ethiopian Detention Center Slated for Closure · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

All members of Zone9 in Addis Ababa, 2012. From left to right: Natnael, Abel, Befeqadu, Mahlet, Zelalem and Atnaf. Photo courtesy of Endalk Chala.
This week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced that Maekelawi, one of the country's most famous detention centers, will soon close.
This brought a mix of emotions to the many Ethiopians who have survived the notoriously brutal interrogation practices used at Maekelawi. Among them is Global Voices author and human rights blogger Befeqadu Hailu.
In 2014, Befeqadu was arrested along with eight of his blogger and journalist colleagues, all due to their participation in a collective blog known as Zone9, where they wrote about their government's obligations to human rights and constitutional law.
The nine writers were detained and held in Maekelawi without charge for nearly twelve weeks in 2014, before being charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Proclamation.
Befeqadu later wrote a first-hand account of his experience in the detention center, which we share here in an effort to shed light on the harsh reality of Maekelawi under Ethiopia's current government.
In an August 2014 letter delivered to Global Voices by the bloggers’ lawyers, Befeqadu wrote:
The idea of setting a foot in the compound of the ill-famed Maekelawi detention center gives a cold shiver to anyone who knows its history. But my sheer optimism and trust that the brutal and inhumane treatment of people was a distant memory saved me from trembling as I was escorted into the compound. The same was true of my friends, I suppose. What is more, we had nothing to be scared of, because we are neither undercover agents nor members of armed forces. We are just writers.
But as soon as I arrived at Maekelawi, [other] detainees informed me that I had been placed in one of the notorious sections of the detention center, known as “Siberia”. In less than a week, I felt like I was living in the middle of an account from the 2013 Human Rights Watch report entitled “They Want a Confession”.
“They Want a Confession” documents serious human rights abuses, unlawful interrogation tactics, and poor detention conditions in Addis Ababa’s Maekelawi detention center, drawing from interviews with former Maekelawi detainees and their family members. Those detained in Maekelawi include scores of opposition politicians, journalists, protest organizers, and alleged supporters of ethnic insurgencies.
Befeqadu described the interrogation methods at Maekelawi as being “more about dominance and submission than confidence or creativity.”
“If they cannot successfully extract information from you in this way, they force confessions by punching, beating, extended physical exercise and flogging,” he wrote. “I spoke with some detainees who had undergone even more wicked procedures that were clear violations of their privacy. Some detainees were forced to strip naked and asked to stand or perform sit-ups until dawn.”
He continued, describing how he and his colleagues were forced to confess:
In our case, finally we were made to plead guilty. We confessed under duress. We could not bear the ceaseless brutal and psychologically degrading pressure. We could not carry on surviving the hell of Maeklawi. We ended up telling our interrogators what they wanted to hear. To their delight, we added as many self-incriminating phrases as possible. But phrases like “yes, we wanted to incite violence” never pleased them. So they rewrote our confessions to fit their frame. Some of us tried to explain. Others had to endure beatings. But at last we succumbed to the pressure and signed the carefully scripted confession pages, with the exception of our colleague Abel, who refused to sign at that time. He has survived the pain he has endured since, and his confession, when finally extracted, is completely untrue, to say nothing of ours.
Now we know that torture is the part of the Maekelawi ceremony that reveals the “truth” of a crime. I had long thought police interrogations were complex, involving sophisticated skills, knowledge and psychological tactics to establish facts. I now know that police interrogations in Maekelawi are not so elaborate. In fact they are simple. They are like machines that produce guilt in the detainees.
At Maekelawi, the driving principle of police interrogations is that you are guilty unless proven otherwise. Your pleas for innocence – or even for explanation – fall on deaf ears.
Befeqadu spent 18 months detained in Ethiopian prisons along his colleagues before they walked free in October 2015. He and his colleagues were acquitted without ever testifying in court.
Zone9 members rejoiced at the release of Befeqadu Hailu (second from left, in scarf) in October 2015. Photo shared on Twitter by Zelalem Kiberet.
Befeqadu also described accounts he had heard from fellow prisoners, who had been brought to Maekelawi after suffering through even worse ordeals at other detention centers in the country. “These detainees suffered from diabolical barbarity such as forcible extraction of their nails from their fingers, flogging, and hooding,” he wrote.
The information extracted from detainees in the unnamed detention center is then verified through more interrogation at the pre-trial detention center. Detainees never know where they were taken for this brutal investigation because they are hooded throughout. The unnamed detention centers are like black holes.
Referencing human rights violations under Derg regime, which Ethiopia's current government is now seeking to distance itself from, Befeqadu compared these experiences to those of the past.
“It turns out that the anguish of Ethiopian prisoners, something that appeared to be so distant in memory, is not that far off after all,” he said.
Responding to this week's news, Befeqadu wrote on Twitter:
PM Hailemariam said, “Maekelawi was a torture house in Derg regime”; it is disappointing. I'm a living victim of that torture chamber under his rule. Back then, I wished to commit sucide instead of seeing interrogators the next day. These guys make it difficult to forgive.
— BefeQadu Z. Hailu (@befeqe) January 3, 2018
Befeqadu and two of his colleagues Atnaf and Natnael are not really free, in the purest sense of the word. Although their terrorism charges were reversed, they are awaiting decisions on other charges, all of which have been triggered by their peaceful criticism of the ruling government.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


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Trinidadian Man Transforms Pothole Into a Hot Tub in Humorously Effective Protest · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screenshot from the “Massive Pothole” video that went viral in Trinidad and Tobago shows a fed-up citizen, Ken, using a pothole outside his home as a jacuzzi.
In Trinidad and Tobago, protest action can take many forms — online campaigns, hunger strikes, waste burning, even swims-cum-boat rides between the two islands — but never before has a man-sized pothole been turned into a jacuzzi:
The man, who was identified only as “Ken” by the social media user who shot and uploaded the video on January 4, 2018, had come to the end of his tether after 10 days of calling the Water and Sewerage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (WASA) to fix a leak that was so severe it had eroded part of the street in front of his house, with the ironic twist that he was no longer receiving a pipe-borne water supply to his home.
So he did the next best thing — he took a relaxing soak in the pothole.
Thanks to his creatively outrageous protest action, Ken immediately became a social media sensation, even gaining regional kudos for his tactics. The very next day, WASA dispatched a crew to fix the leak and repair the massive hole.
Facebook user Nyssa Pear posted photos of the WASA crew at work and joked:
WAYZ! As of 1:45am, Ken’s jacuzzi is no more! There goes my weekend plan! ? I kid. WASA wukkin!
WOW! As of 1:45am, Ken’s jacuzzi is no more! There goes my weekend plan! ? I kid. WASA is working!
Which is not to say that the organisation didn't get properly pummelled on social media. WASA already has a reputation for digging up roadways for maintenance purposes and then failing to restore the roads to their former condition. There is a standing joke in Trinidad and Tobago about “official potholes”, which have been left unattended for so long that the easiest thing to do is simply paint a white line around it to alert motorists to the danger.
Andrew James didn't find the situation in the least bit amusing:
Shameless in a so called devolving country bad administration bad people just collecting pay under false pretense at the expense of taxpayers
Anya C Legair was amazed that the pothole jacuzzi video going viral was what it took for the problem to be fixed; fellow Facebook user Kelly Marie agreed:
So thats how to get things done in this country…you have to get on social media..okay ..? ✔ for Mr.Ken… lesson learnt
Disgust with essential services aside, netizens were completely captivated by Ken:
#PotholeJacuzzi fuh d win https://t.co/uKVS7MPGkn
— Ansa Musa (@St_Ans) January 5, 2018
On Facebook, Chad Ramgattie said:
Give this man an award….
And some antibiotics too.
Shazard Bansraj replied:
Apparently embarrassment is the key to getting the government to act in this country ?. I'm opening some hot springs […] if anyone would like to patronize.
Denzil James concurred:
?????People really have to be extreme in this country to get results
Perhaps, but Ken's ingenuity did get results, which just goes to show that a little humour can go a long way — and he emerged as a hero into the bargain. To Ti-Jadanna La Jordan, it was a win/win situation:
Ken is a darling and Ken showed up WASA's incompetence
Finally, EmmyAwards Brown thought the country should properly acknowledge Ken's ingenuity:
The entire nation should do this
Well done papa you deserve a national award

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Corruption and Poverty Lead to Rage and Despair in Iran · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

Screenshot from video of protests in Tehran from January 4, 2018. Available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hNNVlONyNGs
This piece was cross-posted on the website of Arseh Sevom website, a non-governmental organization that promotes peace, democracy, and human rights for Persian-speaking communities.
“Where’s my money?” That’s what many in Iran have been asking over the past few years as they’ve watched inflation and corruption decimate their earnings.
Inflation has hit the poor and working class the hardest. The costs of food, utilities, and healthcare have risen dramatically over the past five years. In 2013, the cost of food increased by just over 57%; in 2017, it rose by a further 13.9%. Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate hovers at about 25%.
Simply put, there is plenty of economic despair to go around. But it doesn’t end there. Desperate people have invested in pyramid schemes that enriched a few at the cost of the many. Workers all over Iran have waited up to a year to be paid for completed work. This traps them in inescapable debt and many land up in prison for using bad checks, placing even more stress on already struggling households.
In the last half of 2017, there were near-daily protests in front of Iran’s parliament. Teachers, laborers, and bus drivers demonstrated to demand higher pay and better working conditions. This is not new: these protests are more than a decade old now.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been unable to deliver the freedoms and financial stability that its citizens long for. Some of this is the result of sanctions imposed by the United States; much of it, however, is due to corruption and bad governance.
US-imposed financial sanctions have actually provided excuses for bad planning and rampant corruption. As long as they are in place, the Iranian government can hide behind them, blaming everything from milk shortages to poor aircraft maintenance on sanctions.
Meanwhile, those who learned to game the system have raked in the big bucks. A perfect example is Iran’s Babak Zanjani who became a billionaire many times over thanks to international sanctions against Iran and his clever manipulation of his position as the Islamic Republic’s money launderer. In late 2013, he was arrested.
Paykans in Northern Tehran. Photo by Wikipaykan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
In 2003, Iran’s streets were filled with the boxy white Paykan sedans and the occasional foreign-made compact car. Cafes were rare; any public signs of wealth, subtle. Many people lived on salaries that wouldn’t pay even a month’s rent — $1,000 a month seemed like an extravagant amount of money.
By the time I left Tehran in 2007, consumerism was on the rise. International companies and luxury products were finding a market in Iran. Soon after, couples would be eating gold-flaked ice cream in tower-top restaurants and flaunting their wealth in Jaguars and Porsches. Soon, there would be a rise in evictions of long-term tenants in order to build apartment towers. Soon, all pretense of shared struggle would be gone.
Screenshot from Al Jazeera Earthrise documentary: Iran's Water Crisis by Gelareh Darabi
Tehran is being smothered in smog. Bad air days are increasing. People are suffering. In 2011, the Iranian government reported that nearly 3,000 people died every month because of complications resulting from pollution. That number may be higher, as research begins to show that many deaths from cardiovascular disease are actually the result of pollution, not lifestyle or diet.
Poor water management worsened during the Ahmadinejad administration from 2005 to 2013. During that time, newly constructed damns led to dry rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Once-fertile areas have been destroyed.
Private industry, with connections to the state, warned people against “exaggerating” the magnitude of the environmental crisis in Iran. An investigative report by environmental researchers found that scientific research on the crisis is often stifled.
Meanwhile, analysts predict millions of internal climate refugees. That's something to prepare for, not ignore.
Many people in Iran have looked at the conflict in the surrounding region and felt lucky to have been somewhat insulated from it. They feel threatened by Daesh (also known as ISIL or ISIS, the brutal militant group that has taken over areas of Iraq and Syria) and by Saudi Arabia. They are afraid of the possibility of national disintegration and the type of government violence seen in Syria. This fear has put a damper on public protest.
The director of non-governmental organization Arseh Sevom (and also my life partner) Kamran Ashtary stated:
Iranians again show us that they are unpredictable. Those who had claimed that people were so afraid of a Syria-type scenario that they would not come to the streets, were wrong. As we say again and again, Iranians are always full of surprises. Violence and suppression won’t work forever.
This current wave of protests was apparently sparked by hardliners who initiated demonstrations in the eastern city of Mashhad against the moderate administration of Hassan Rouhani. The hardliners soon lost control, though, and people took to the streets in anger and desperation.
Ashtary added:
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the administration of President Rouhani have seen this coming. Over the past few months, there have been many protests from all sides: from teachers, bus drivers, and the working class. People all over Iran have become frustrated with Rouhani’s government. They see that the lifting of sanctions has pumped money into the country, but regular people, people who have been working very hard in Iran, have not seen the benefits.The level of corruption is high. The national budget shows money flowing into religious organizations without any accountability. The moderates and reformists have been quiet and have not taken the side of people suffering in Iran. Iranians have been quite patient with the Islamic Republic. That won’t last. This may be the last chance for non-violent change.
For the first time in decades, many people on the streets of Iran have been openly calling for an end to clerical rule. Some chanted for reinstatement of the Shah, while others have railed against the president and supreme leader.
This is in stark contrast to demonstrations in the aftermath of the 2009 elections, which was the last time masses of people took to the streets in Iran. Those protests called for a recount of the vote, for “small changes”. People sang nursery rhymes, not political slogans. One of the most chanted was:
نترس, نترس, ما همه با هم هستیم
Don't fear, don't fear, we are all together here
The people of Iran have been struggling for just governance since their 1905 constitutional revolution. The country's democratic hopes have been dashed again and again. This is most notable in the case of the 1953 US- and British-led coup against Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh (see this Twitter essay by @_chloi for a good overview). In recent years many inside Iran have spoken of evolution, not revolution. These protesters are different though. Many feel that there is nothing left to lose.
The Iranian government is calling the protesters “counter-revolutionary.” Others are calling them revolutionary. In an unprecedented move, more than 40 students were preemptively arrested because of fears what they might do if they became involved in the protests. The Center for Human Rights in Iran has more information on this: Iranian Security Forces Have Arrested More Than 40 University Students.
Is this a revolution? Probably not. In a post on Facebook, Iran analyst Peyman Jafari noted:
De geschiedenis laat zien dat protesten een eigen dynamiek kunnen hebben. Ze kunnen groeien, radicaliseren en tot revoluties leiden. Maar diezelfde geschiedenis laat ook zien dat ze kunnen eindigen in repressie of concessie. De indicatoren van de Iraanse samenleving en staat wijzen eerder op de tweede ontwikkeling.
History shows that protests have their own dynamics. They can grow, radicalize, and lead to revolution. But the same history shows that they can end in repression and concessions. What we know of Iranian society and government point to the second outcome.
IranWire’s Maziar Bahari suggested some changes to US policy to better support demonstrators:
Three simple suggestions for the US government and others:
1- impose sanctions on Iranian state TV, IRIB 2- lift travel ban for Iranians 3- condemn violence from all sides, both violence by the  government and those who promote violence against mosques and banks in Iran.
— Maziar Bahari (@maziarbahari) January 5, 2018
Journalist Mostafa Khosravi told Global Voices:
This is a very critical time for reformists in Iran. If they don’t find a way to support those demonstrating in the streets, they will lose all of the backing they’ve gained over the past six years. By this I mean, the seats gained by Reformists in Parliament and on city councils. Protesters are asking them for support. So far, their only response has been to tell them to calm down. If that’s the best they can do, there is no hope for them as a party.
With reports of nearly 1,000 arrested, the crackdown seems more effective than the “calm down”.  Journalist Golnaz Esfandiari reported that hardline news outlets are using Twitter to crowdsource the identification of protesters:
Iranian hardline news outlets endanger anti-establishment protesters by calling for their identification #Iranprotests https://t.co/vhNwYJTVgg
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) January 4, 2018
In a letter from prison, the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights, Narges Mohammadi, published recommendations for supporting the demonstrations without violence. She asks that civil society put pressure on government to reevaluate the budget, and feels that this is the best way to support peaceful protests and bring about change:
دولت می بایست به جای سخن درمانی، اقدامات قاطع در حمایت از حقوق ملت واصلاحاتی بنیادی کند.
نمایندگان مجلس در این شرایط می بایست در صف مردم بایستند و نگذارند لایحه بودجه با کیفیت حال به تصویب برسد.
ما مردم هم باید با تدبیر و در پرهیز از خشونت بر سر مطالبات خود محکم بایستیم و عقب ننشینیم. حرکت اعتراضی در این سرزمین هزینه بر است، اما ما باید دستاورد هم داشته باشیم. اولین و ضروری ترین اقدام در رفع بی‌عدالتی و فساد، ممانعت از تصویب لایحه بودجه سال ۹۷ است که می توانیم با بهره گیری از تمام امکانات و راهکارهای مدنی و مسالمت‌آمیز اعتراضی مانع تصویب آن شویم.
اگر در زندان نبودم روزهای بررسی و تصویب لایحه اموال ملت، در مقابل خانه ملت می ایستادم تا نمایندگان بدانند که نماینده و پاسخگو به ملت‌اند و چشمان ملت نظاره گرند.
Instead of talking, the government needs to take concrete steps to support and protect the rights of the people by making fundamental reforms.
In this critical situation, the members of parliament need to listen to the concerns of the people. They need to ensure that the proposed budget is not ratified.
We, the people, with determination and without violence, must stand firm in demanding our rights. The protest will be costly but it must also pay off. For now, the most urgent matter in the struggle against corruption and poverty is the 2018 budget proposal. We need to engage in peaceful protest in order to prevent its passage.
If I were not in prison, I would be in front of Parliament every day that the budget bill was under discussion. The members of parliament need to know that they are accountable to the people, that they represent the people, and that the eyes of the people are upon them.

author: Tori Egherman


text:
In Sri Lanka, Families of the Disappeared Treasure the Everyday Items Left Behind (Part Two) · Global Voices
GroundViews

The relatives of the disappeared live surrounded by treasured possessions, each a reminder of their loved one’s absence. Image via Maatram. Used with permission.
This post by Selvaraja Rajasegar originally appeared on Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. A translated and edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices. (Read the first part here.)
More than 300 days ago, a group of Sri Lankan people began protesting across the north (in places like Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu) demanding the release of lists of secret detention camps, lists of the detained, or simply information on what had happened to their loved ones. Though the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena promised to release this information in June 2017, he has not done so to date.
Sri Lanka emerged from a 30-year-long civil war in May 2009 when the Sri Lankan military defeated the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers. They fought for almost three decades to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of Sri Lanka. In the midst of the conflict, many people have disappeared, not just in the north and east where much of the last stages of the war were fought, but in the Sinhala-majority south as well, during insurrections from as far back as the 1980s.
However, disturbingly, many also disappeared after the end of the war, when people handed over family members to the military (in some cases, these people were suspected members of the LTTE).
Image Via Maatram. Used with permission
The relatives of those who have been forcibly disappeared live on. They live surrounded by treasured possessions, each a reminder of their loved one’s absence. They pass by the places they once walked, and meet people their missing ones loved.
Recently, Maatram, a Sri Lankan citizen journalism site publishing content in the Tamil language, visited these families to ask them a difficult question: whether they would allow their loved ones’ possessions to be photographed. Upon hearing this question, they wept bitterly; their pain is difficult to describe in words.
Still, they came forward with these treasured belongings, wet with tears. They believe their loved ones will return. Their sadness is immeasurable.
The second part of their story follows. As with the first part, all names have been withheld to maintain the privacy of the people that were interviewed.
On April 28, 2009, we were in a bunker. The army came and took us away. One of our sons passed away, and it was our other son who made all the funeral arrangements. After the funeral, he put his brother’s wife and children onto the last ship, but he stayed behind. At that time, he was 23 years old. I still don’t know where he is. On April 12, 2009, he came and left his sarong and shirt at home. To this day, I keep them to remember him. When I look at his clothes, I feel that he is alive. No one can tell me he is not alive. I know that he is.
“Image Via Maatram. Used with permission”
My son disappeared during the last stage of the war in 2009. So far, we have not heard any information about his whereabouts. He was just 17 years old and was sitting for his Advanced Level examinations. We have lodged complaints everywhere — with the ICRC, numerous commissions, the police and CID. I want to know if he is alive or dead. We have all his possessions, his clothes in a box. When we look at them, we remember him.
During the last stage of the war, I was injured when we were crossing to the army side. They took the injured people separately, so I got separated from my son. I begged them to let me travel to the hospital with my son. Since that day, I don’t know where he is. Someone said he was in the detention camps. I went to eight camps and looked for him, but he wasn’t at any of them. He was sitting for his Advanced Level examinations at that time. My son isn’t a member of the LTTE, so he has to be alive, I believe that. Only God knows whether the government would give any information.
Image via Maatram. Used with permission
My son sat for his Advanced Level examinations in 2006. In 2008, he was forcibly recruited by the LTTE. That same year, in Manalaru, the LTTE sent him to dig for an underground bunker. That area was shelled and he lost a leg. After that, the LTTE released him, and he was with us. Our son went missing during the battle of Mullivaikkal. On that day, he went with a friend to the beach. He never came home after that.
Two of my granddaughters were in the Sencholai Children’s Home, which is in Puthukudiyiruppu. When the army surrounded the area, they were displaced. One of them went missing in the chaos. We have yet to find her as well.
My husband is a member of the LTTE. I handed him over to the army. My husband said, ‘If I go, I won’t return.’ I told him, ‘If everyone is surrendering to the army, why do you think only you won’t come back?’ I have guilt because I am the one who convinced him to surrender although he didn’t want to. Virakesari published a photo, and I recognized my husband, who was fourth in a row of people. I took the photo and lodged complaints everywhere, including the ICRC. I too am an LTTE member but was released from the camp because I have two young children. After being released, the CID continuously harassed me. I told them, ‘I have registered everywhere as a member of the LTTE. If you want to arrest me, then please find my husband and bring him so that he can look after the children. Then you can arrest me.’
Once you hand over someone to the army, they should give details about what happened to them. Though I am a member of the LTTE, I didn’t hide anywhere. I stayed in my house because my husband would know to find me there. If I leave, he wouldn’t be able to find me. So until the government releases him, I will stay here. When my daughter thinks of him, she uses his bedsheet to cover herself.
Image via Maatram. Used with permission
I have one son. The LTTE continually asked us to give him to them. The last time, instead of taking my son, they took my daughter. She was in Grade 9. During the final stages of the war, I saw her but once the fighting intensified, I lost track of her. I searched for her in many camps after the war, including the Ambepussa camp. I went to Colombo as well but did not find her there. I don’t know what happened to her.
I have four daughters. It was the eldest who disappeared. She used to support the family with her income. She went missing during one of the more intense battles near the end of the war when shellfire was heavy. Many people said that they saw her near Vattuvaagal. Since it was a border area between the LTTE and the army, I still believe she is alive and in a detention camp somewhere. My husband is now paralyzed, suffering from depression because of the loss of our daughter.
Image via Maatram. Used with permission
My son worked as a tailor for 15 years. This is a shirt he made himself. He used to make clothes for me and even my daughter’s children. May 17, 2009, we crossed to the army-controlled area and handed our son over to the army. We did so, believing that they would release my son. After that, we never saw him.
The fear of their stories being forgotten is what has driven the families to continue their protest. For many of the families, the pain is still as raw as the day they discovered their loved ones would not be returning home. They are willing to go to drastic lengths.
Human rights activist Ruki Fernando commented:
It’s the lack of progress on the part of the government that has led to a series of protests highlighting, among other issues, the plight of families of the disappeared, political prisoners, militarisation and land occupation.
The Sirisena government promised to create Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP), which was supposed to start its operations in September 2017 and probe into disappearances of thousands of people during the civil war — but the launch has been postponed to 2018 while the families of those who have been forcibly disappeared still await answers.
This video, uploaded by Center For Policy Alternatives (CPA), where Maatram is institutionally housed, showcases some of the above mentioned testimonies in the Tamil language:

author: GroundViews


text:
Angolans Left Snickering After Post-Launch Glitch in Country’s First Satellite · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

The launch of Angosat-1 was broadcast live by Televisão Pública de Angola. Image: screengrab, Clubk Clubk/YouTube.
On 25 December, Angola’s first satellite went into orbit, and the launch was celebrated with a large screen broadcasting it live at Marginal de Luanda, one of the city's main avenues, accompanied by fireworks.
Named Anglosat-1, the satellite is Russian-made, the fruit of a Russian-Angolan partnership started in 2009, and is intended to bring high-speed internet and radio and television transmission to various countries in Africa and parts of Europe.
However, hours after its launch from Kazakhstan the satellite lost communications with its Earth platform and remained silent for several hours.
Angolans treated the launch and the glitch with humor, but also took the opportunity to question the narratives of the world's media and the wisdom of spending money on a satellite when human development remains so poor in the country.
Social media was full of comic reactions when news of the satellite's temporary malfunction broke:
Os fazedores de memes estão cada vez mais rápidos e de humor apurado. “O satélite levou chip da Movicel por isso perdeu rede”; “Encontrou-se o satélite algures no Kwanza-Sul, destruiu as viaturas do soba e do administrador”? pic.twitter.com/cXVpanutQ8
— LUATY BEIRÃO (@LuatyBeirao) 27 décembre 2017
Meme makers are getting quicker and sharper in wit. “The satellite used a Movicel chip, that’s why it lost connection” [Movicel is a cellphone operator in Angola]; “The satellite was found somewhere in Kwanza-Sul [province in Angola], it destroyed the vehicles of the soba [community-leader] and the administrator”
Ontem os Angolanos lançaram fogo de artifício para comemorar o lançamento do primeiro satélite angolano.
Hoje a agência espacial russa perdeu contacto com o satélite.
— Bin Laden (@AqueleMortoVivo) December 27, 2017
Yesterday the Angolans launched fireworks to commemorate the launch of the first Angolan satellite.
Today the Russian space agency lost contact with the satellite.
“Moscovo perde sinal do satélite angolano” já não há porno pra ninguém ???
— Carlos Bendito (@CBNigga) December 27, 2017
“Moscow lost the signal of the Angolan satellite” now there is no porn for anybody
Deve estar sem sistema…
Afinal o Satélite é angolano ?
— Tuly Mong™ (@Tulymong) December 27, 2017
Must be without a system…
After all, the satellite is Angolan
Some, though, criticized so much attention being given to the fault in the satellite – which finally re-established contact two days later, according to the Russian maker RSC Energia.
Tanta midia internacional subitamente interessada apenas no fracasso do satélite angolano… hate e vontade de não ver um país africano sobressair é assim tão grande ?
— Cαмιℓσ Jєѕυѕ (@camilo__jesus) December 29, 2017
So much international media suddenly interested only in the Angolan satellite’s failure… the hate and will to not see an African country stand out is so great?
Angola has become the seventh African country, alongside Algeria, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia, to have a communications satellite in orbit.
The Angolan government reports that it has invested 320 million US dollars in the project, which it forecasts that it will recover in two years. According to Minister of State Carvalho da Rocha, the telecommunications operators of Angola spend, together, between 15 and 20 million US dollars each month in renting space on other satellites for the region.
Furthermore, the minister said that 40% of the satellite’s capacity has already been sold, to be used by national telecommunications operators, while the rest should be hired by other operators in Africa and parts of Europe. Angosat-1 should stay in orbit for 15 years.
Imagens exclusivas do Angosat.
Satélite angolano será lançado no próximo mês. Técnicos estão a dar os últimos retoques para a conclusão do angosat. pic.twitter.com/nRLydekx2m
— Portal Angola (@portalangola) November 16, 2017
Exclusive images of Angosat.
The Angolan satellite will be launched next month. Technicians are giving the finishing touches to Angosat’s preparation.
However, some raised concerns, such as activist Pedrowski Teca:
Pergunto:
1 – O que é que a bandeira russa ?? está a fazer no nosso satélite?
2 – Por que que a bandeira da Rússia ?? está em primeiro plano e a de Angola ?? em segundo lugar?
3 – Por que que as escritas no satélite ? estão em língua estranha (parecendo russo)?
I ask:
1 – What is the Russian flag doing on our satellite?
2 – Why is the Russian flag most prominent and Angola’s in second place?
3 – Why is the writing on the satellite in a foreign language (seemingly Russian)?
For Raúl Danda, the satellite is not his priority as an Angolan citizen:
[…] Se é um motivo de orgulho, porque não é qualquer país que leva um satélite próprio ao espaço, o episódio lembra-me o CAN 2010: muita banga para nada ou quase nada. Muitos dos estádios que custaram milhões e milhões de dólares (de custo “custado” e de custo roubado) andam aí com o capim a crescer para pasto de cabritos. Naquele momento, o Executivo do Presidente Eduardo dos Santos (agora “ex”) pretendia apenas mostrar que “nós também podemos”! Desta vez a coisa repete-se. Lançar um satélite é uma coisa boa, super boa até. Mas é preciso primeiro fazer outras realizações. Comprar um BMW quando, em casa, os filhos não têm pão, mais do que absurdo é irracional. Lançar satélite no espaço quando no chão não há medicamentos, comida, educação de qualidade, saúde digna desse nome, saneamento básico…. e outras coisas realmente básicas, parece-me ser de uma irracionalidade terrível…
[…] If it is a reason of pride, because it is not just any country that sends its own satellite into space, this episode reminds me of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations; a lot of show for nothing or almost nothing. Many of the stadiums that cost millions and millions of dollars (a “cost” cost and a stolen cost) remain there with grass growing for the goats to graze. At that time, the government of President Eduardo dos Santos (now “ex”) intended only to show that “we can too”! This time that repeats itself. Launching a satellite is a good thing, even really good. But it is first necessary to achieve other things. Buying a BMW while, at home, the children have no bread, is, more than absurd, irrational. Launching a satellite into space while on the ground there is no medicine, food, quality education, healthcare worthy of that name, basic sanitation … and other really basic things, seems to me a terrible irrationality…
Another Angolan activist questioned why the government had brought religious practitioners to attend the launch ceremony:
Aqueles “Lideres Religiosos” que foram levados à Moskovo- Rússia, no âmbito do lançamento do tal satelite que já anda desaparecido foram mesmo fazer o que ?
Este governo parece que ainda não deixou o habito de gastar dinheiro desnecessáriamente, ou estes custiaram a sua viajem?
— Simão Hossi (@simaohossi) 27 décembre 2017
Those “religious leaders” who were brought to Moscow-Russia, for the launch of the satellite which has already gone missing, were there to do what? It seems that this government has not stopped its habit of spending money unnecessarily, or did they pay for their own travel?

author: Dércio Tsandzana


text:
The Untimely Death of an Exiled Ethiopian Journalist · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Ibrahim Shafi. Photo shared on Twitter by Abiye Teklemariam Megenta.
In one of his last public comments, Ethiopian journalist Ibrahim Shafi wrote on his Facebook page: “Wake me up when I have a state.”
Not two weeks later, Shafi died in Nairobi, Kenya. His comment shed light on the deep personal toll of Ethiopia’s enduring political crisis that has swept the country over the last three years that sent Ibrahim into exile.
Ibrahim had worked as journalist covering sports and politics for nearly a decade, until he he no choice but to flee in 2014. Ibrahim, who was 40 at the time of his death, was not alone. He left for Nairobi, Kenya in June 2014, on a path taken by hundreds of Ethiopian journalists over the last twenty years.
According to data from Committee to Protect Journalists, Ethiopia's government has driven more journalists out of the country than any other nation in Africa.
Ethiopian journalists most often flee their country because they fear imprisonment and violence. In the lead-up to Ethiopia’s 2015 elections, the ruling party, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF) have arrested and charged journalists and bloggers with terrorism offenses, sometimes over their writing, or even their posts on Facebook or Twitter. They can also face extrajudicial threats and torture.
For Ibrahim, such threats were familiar. Nearly ten years before departing from his homeland, he was arrested and beaten by the police during the 2005 Ethiopian post-election violence. His friends say that the police tortured him so brutally that they left one of his legs permanently damaged.
Ibrahim Shafi. Photo of Addis Ababa University Political Science and International Relations departments graduates.
Before moving to Kenya, Ibrahim had lived several creative lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, where he was born in September 1977. After graduating from Addis Ababa University’s Department of Political Sciences in 2001, he taught civic education to high school students, and was revered by his students for his hard work and dedication.
He also earned a reputation as a respected and rising independent journalist. He was a deputy editor-in-chief in one of Ethiopia’s major sports newspapers that made him a critical voice in Ethiopian sports journalism. He was a star on the fast-growing sports talk radio shows in Addis Ababa. Alongside his successful career as a sports journalist, he was a columnist for Addis Guday, the now-defunct weekly news magazine. He later served there as deputy editor-in-chief.
In Nairobi, Ibrahim joined countless other Ethiopians who've been forced to leave their homelands, fleeing political persecution.
While exile can be a source of pain on its own, Ethiopian government is known to make things even more difficult by sending covert intelligence agents to silence members of Ethiopian exiled dissident groups.
Despite these difficulties, Ibrahim made it clear that he was incapable of staying quiet. He remained connected to a life in Ethiopia that at times must have seemed distant. He shared his frustrations and his joys on his Facebook page.
On January 3, 2018, two weeks after writing his prophetic remark on Facebook, Ibrahim Shafi passed away in Nairobi, Kenya. The cause of his death has not been made public, but his close friends in Kenya said that living in exile had taken a toll on his physical well-being. Some have suggested that the injuries he suffered at the hands of Ethiopian police may have contributed to his death.
At the time of his passing, Ibrahim had recently concluded the long and grueling vetting process to be resettled as a refugee in the United States, only to be cancelled by the Trump administration, and making his untimely death even more tragic.
A small corner of the Ethiopian internet has been buzzing over Ibrahim’s passing since last week, and he became a trending topic locally. Many across the country who knew Ibrahim reacted to the news of his passing and fellow exiled journalists offered their condolences.
It’s heart-wrenching to learn the death of my beloved friend, Ibrahim Shafi. I’ll miss his energy, love for disputation, wit, playful mischief making, warmth, & disdain for autocracy. His reward for having conscience in a country that criminalises it was torture & death in exile. pic.twitter.com/lfm2AZv86d
— Abiye Teklemariam Megenta (@abiyetk) January 4, 2018
Journalist and former Committee to Protect Journalists staff member Tom Rhoades wrote:
It is with a heavy heart that I learn my friend Ibrahim Shafi from Ethiopia has passed away. Last time I saw him was a couple years ago at my house…we had a small party…no clue what we were celebrating. My final memories of Ibrahim were jovial –but I knew he and many other Ethiopian journalists in exile were experiencing huge challenges. The lack of work / opportunities, the constant harassment from local police and fear of Ethiopian security –many colleagues that I knew via email whose projects and words suggested a vibrant, active life grew listless and disconsolate while in exile. The journalist I would meet from Addis, forced to flee a hypersensitive oligarchy, would appear very different from the correspondences we previously shared from their home. I daresay colleagues told me Shafi was struggling here and I kept telling myself that “I must catch up with this guy”. Now it's too late. If only I had done more. R.I.P. Ibrahim Shafi Ahmed. You are greatly missed..
Prominent sports journalist Mensur Abdulkeni wrote on his Facebook page:
Words fall short of expressing my sorrow for your loss! Those hard days we shared together will never be forgotten. Goodbye the humble one, my beloved colleague and friend! Rest in peace Ibro!
An online memorial fund created at GoFundMe raised more than USD $10,000 in a few days for Ibrahim’s mother, who remains in Addis Ababa.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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What’s In a (Nick) Name? Ask  the Caribbean! · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

One of Trinidad and Tobago's legendary stick-fighters, David Brown, whose nickname is “Acid”. He is also known as “King David” or “Master of Pretty Stick” and, according to his bio from the “No Bois Man No Fraid” film media page, he comes from a long line of famous stick-fighters, some of whom had the nicknames “Birthright”, “African King” and “Harold”. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
Call it a leftover from its colonial past, when indigenous people and the very lands they occupied were reassigned Eurocentric names, but Trinidad and Tobago (indeed, the Caribbean as a whole) tends to have a preoccupation with renaming things.
The region has rebranded airlines, airports, buildings and by-ways, perhaps in an effort to reclaim some portion of its identity from the erasure it suffered.
The lighter side of this, of course, is that practically everybody in the Caribbean has a nickname — and not just a shortened version of their given name. Calling William “Will” or Pamela “Pam” is for those uninitiated in the art of creative christening. No, Caribbean people prefer nicknames like “Clock”, so declared because one of the arms of the young man in question was longer than the other.
Recently, Trinidadian photographer Maria Nunes shared a few nicknames she'd come across while transcribing interviews for a project, and she asked other Facebook users to chime in with “any classic nicknames of people [they] know.”
It led to one of the most quintessentially Caribbean Facebook comment threads. Here are a few of the highlights:
Many nicknames came about as a result of good, old-fashioned teasing. Kristal Ettienne recalled how she came to refer to a cherished neighbour:
Ole shirt – I called a man in my neighbourhood that after he teased me a day when he was wearing an old shirt. 20+ plus years later it's what we call each other on sight. I forgot his real name until my mother said it.
Other stories, like the one Avery Ammon told, were a bit more peppery:
‘Wine on meh [my] nose'; a certain deceased police inspector who was repulsively christened by one unpaid lady of the night […] so any way his full name became ‘Wine on meh nose Not meh glasses’ […] if you wanted to hear a police cuss then call him out…
Some nicknames, like the ones Tameika Mungo shared, had numerical significance:
Twice – he was an apprentice in my grandfather's woodwork shop. One day he cut his hand on a machine and mom went to dress it for him. When she had put methylated spirit on it, he literally ran around workshop twice screaming. And the name was born. Also the next apprentice that came and joined him at the workshop, we just called him ‘Triple’.
Filmmaker Kim Johnson knew of quite a few original monikers, including “Tobacco Kid (smoking since he 10, they say if he kiss a girl he give her lung cancer)”, “Barrel (was kinda tubby)”, and “Akanah (I thought it was African but he was Jamaican and his name actually O'connor)”.
Many nicknames were inspired by their owners’ personalities, characteristics or physical attributes:
Goggy, whose glasses were so thick they resembled goggles; Whisper, cos his voice was so loud; Tuki, cos his lips were as thick as a toucan's. […] Leech (who sucked all the vitality out of the class).
Tillah Willah chimed in about “a boy so obese he was called ‘Allyuh'”. (“Allyuh” is a Trinbagonian term typically used when casually addressing a group of people.) Most of the nicknames were funny to those doing the naming, but it was different being on the receiving end. Responding to Tillah, Amohr Recneps said:
Oh I [was] called that for the entire first term I entered Tunapuna Government Secondary by the boys not the girls. I was called Allyuh and Them and they would literally run or clear the way for me to pass. I laughed with them about it tho it hurt but it was my way of overcoming the rejection. Nowadays they call it bullying but by the time I hit third form the heckling done and I was just another regular girl. […]
Quite ironically, one unfortunate nickname was bestowed upon its owner because of a heroic act:
Cacadiver – given to him after he jumped into a latrine to rescue an old woman that fell in.
Also giving the thread its flavour was the fact that many commenters were familiar with the nicknames — and their owners. Its own form of oral tradition, the knowledge was passed along from person to person and sometimes even from generation to generation.
When Sharon N Boodoosingh asked:
What was the nickname of the well endowed homeless guy who frequented downtown in the nineties most times with very little if no clothes on?
Franka Philip wasted no time in replying:
Rambo.
Popular culture definitely played a role in some of the names like “Planet”, who was “hairy like an Ape”, as was Trinbaonians’ bent for stating the obvious. “Sparkle Plenty”, for instance, was the nickname of a woman who “had a penchant for cheap jewellery”.
Some nicknames had such staying power that they were used more regularly than proper names. Nunes herself recalled:
One of my personal favorites is that Carlos Baynes from Tobago, one of TTs Best golfers ever, is known by one and all, child and elder, as SEXY. All up and down the Caribbean. Even in newspaper headlines.
This is not unusual; in fact, even a person's close friends may not know his or her given name — the nickname becomes the handle to go by. In a conversation that Nunes and jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles were having about this very topic, Charles remarked, “Sometimes, the only time you ever find out people's real names is when you go to their funeral.”
Carnival designer and wire bending artist, the late Narcenio Gomez, more popularly known as “Senor Gomez” or “By So, By So”. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
This was certainly the case for one of the nicknames mentioned on Nunes’ thread. The late Narcenio Gomez, a master wire bending artist who used to play traditional sailor masquerade in the country's annual Carnival and whose talents richly contributed to the national festival, was better known in Carnival circles as “Senor Gomez” — but his daughter had another story of a nickname that lives on after his death:
My late father when he was having a good time and his friends saw him, they would ask him where he was going and he said ‘By So By So’ that was only one of his many nick names ‘By So’
The nickname phenomenon also transcended language. There was a nod to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean with “NOSEotros” and Janine Mccollin-Lissandre shared:
Interestingly, in the little French village my husband's family is from, there was a fondness for hilarious nicknames too. There were names like ‘quequette téléguidée’ (loosely translated as ‘guided willy’), whose mother also became known as ‘la mère quequette”…
She also remembered hearing of a miserly shopkeeper “from whom getting anything on credit was as hard as getting water from stone. So the villagers called him ‘Stone’ and his children ‘pebbles'…”
Certain nicknames seemed to be wickedly appropriate, such as one teacher's nickname, “Totee Muff” (a “totee” is West Indian slang for a penis). Yao Ramesar explained:
He had a totee-shaped toupee with a Brillo Pad finish. We hooked it once with a fishing line lowered through the louvers in the infirmary. I remember gauging things from the reflection in their glass. He freaked out & started cussing, but we didn't get caught.
Che Rodriguez shared this hilarious tale:
There was my merry-making uncle who was a well-known reveller and party animal. His nickname was TANTANNAH! cuz he never entered a fete, party, blocko, jam session, carnival band or family celebration without announcing his own presence with his long arms outstretched before him and making a loud trumpet-like fanfare with his mouth ‘Tan tan naaaahhhh!!’
Then there was this gem:
A friend who had piece of his colon surgically removed was nicknamed ‘semi-colon’
In a region that is known for heckling or “picong” (finding clever, often acerbic things to say in any situation) one thing is for certain — when it comes to nicknames, Caribbean people don't do it halfway.


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Singapore Authorities Ban Documentary on Palestinian Teen Activists for ‘Skewed Narrative’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The documentary ‘‘Radiance of Resistance’ was released in 2016. Photo from the Facebook page of the documentary
A documentary focusing on the life of two teenager activists from Palestine was banned by the Singapore government for exploring the Palestinian-Israeli conflict “without a counterbalance.”
Released in 2016, “Radiance of Resistance” was directed by American filmmaker Jesse Roberts. It was supposed to be screened at the Singapore Palestinian Film Festival during the first week of January 2018, but was removed after the Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) classified it as “not allowed for all ratings”.
According to the synopsis of the documentary, it tells the story of Ahed al-Tamimi, then 14, and her 9-year-old friend Janna Ayyad:
This film will take an intimate look at their everyday lives and their importance as the new generation of Palestinian non-violent resistance.
Tamimi was featured in the news in December 2017 after she was charged for slapping an Israeli soldier. This act was caught on video and quickly went viral. Her case is still pending.
It is not clear if IMDA’s decision was partly in reaction to this high-profile case, but its statement explaining the decision to ban the documentary highlighted the “skewed narrative” of the film:
The skewed narrative of the film is inflammatory and has the potential to cause disharmony amongst the different races and religions in Singapore […]
In holding up the girls as role models to be emulated in an ongoing conflict, the film incites activists to continue their resistance against the alleged oppressors.
Singapore and Israel enjoy good bilateral relations. At the same time, Singapore maintains friendly ties with the Palestinian National Authority. In 2017, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the Israel-Palestine conflict is an “emotional issue” especially for Muslims. He noted that Singapore's neighbors in the Southeast Asian region have Muslim-majority populations and that the country itself has a significant number of Muslims. One of the founding principles of Singapore is the formation of a harmonious multi-racial society.
Screenshot of the website showing the cancelled screening of the documentary ‘‘Radiance of Resistance’
On its Facebook page, the makers of “Radiance of Resistance” described the decision of the government as censorship:
This is the kind of blatant censorship that we face in making films that lift the Palestinian voice and that Palestinian media faces in general.
Singaporean artist Alfian Sa'at rejected the arguments of IMDA:
There is no such thing as a purely objective documentary. They all come with a point of view, with a position, they are all subjective to various degrees. And actually I would rather have a documentary that is quite obviously subjective–polemical, or participatory–than one where its ideological slant is disguised under a veneer of objectivity.
And did you even consider that this documentary, ‘Radiance of Resistance’, exists to provide a balance, a corrective to the kinds of propaganda that Israel state television and the US-centric media produce about the Palestinians?
Organizers of the film festival said they were disappointed that IMDA has banned the public screening of the documentary, but they decided not to file an appeal for lack of time.

author: Mong Palatino


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The Draft Budget That Inflamed Protests in Iran · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

Protesters gather in Tehran on January 1 to protest the poor state of the economy. Image from IRNA news with the rights to republish.
This piece was originally published on January 8, 2018, on the website of Arseh Sevom, a non-governmental organization that promotes peace, democracy, and human rights for Persian-speaking communities.
A budget proposal that many workers and struggling households feel doesn't recognize their needs is at the heart of protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Protests against the budget bill began as soon as it was introduced on 10 December. Teachers, bus drivers, unions, and retired people were among the first to take to the streets in front of parliament.
It was the first time that an entire draft budget was published at once. “By publishing the entire budget at once,” journalist Mostafa Khosravi told Global Voices, “the corruption at the heart of the system was more apparent.”
There are questions about funds going to religious and cultural organizations that lack transparency and accountability. Many of those organizations are unknown to many in Iran.
It's widely believed the national protests began in the north-eastern city of Mashad. However, 10 days before the break out of the national protest movement, citizens were already publicly expressing their anger on the streets at the draft budget. On the message sharing app Telegram, member of parliament Mohammad Taghi Akbarnejad shared his experience walking anonymously among people demonstrating in front of the parliament building:
در این حین بود که خانم ۵۵-۶۰ ساله ای که از سر و وضعش پیدا بود که هنوز از خودش نا امید نیست، با تندی جلو آمد و پرسید: شما نماینده مجلسید؟ گفتم: نخیر. بنده هم مثل شما مراجعه کننده هستم! گفت: آقا شما را به خدا اگر دستتان می رسد به اینها بگویید: من غلط کردم رفتم آموزش و پرورش. من گداخانه رفتم! به آقای خامنه ای بگویید به رئیس جمهور بگویید به هر کسی که دستتان می رسد بگویید ما واقعا بریده ایم. ما این انقلاب را نمی خواهیم. ما از شما آخوندها متنفریم!… زن ۶۰ ساله ای در دو قدمی من با یک آرامش آکنده به غروری گفت: حاج آقا عبا قبایتان را بذارید توی صندوقچه، مردم به خونتان تشنه اند!!! من به روی خودم نیاوردم. با آرامش به حرف ها گوش می دادم و ابراز همدردی می کردم.
I was in the middle of the protests, and a woman in her late 50s came to me and asked, ‘Are you an MP?’ I answered, ‘I am here like you.’ She told me, ‘If you can go to parliament, tell them I made a mistake becoming a teacher. You’ve turned as all into beggars. Please tell Mr. Khamenei, tell the president, tell everyone, tell them we are desperate. We don’t need this revolution. We hate the clerics.’
Later a woman in her 60s approached me calmly to tell me to hide my clerical robe. ‘The people are thirsty for your blood!!!’
I didn’t take any of this personally, I tried to show solidarity.
For many, the draft budget promises to exacerbate already desperate economic conditions.
Iran’s foreign policy is a particular target of anger. Protesters are irate that money is being directed to support wars in Syria and Yemen, as well as proxy actors in other countries such as Lebanon. One of the chants that has been heard in past demonstrations and again in these is: “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I give my life only for Iran.”
If parliament passes an increase on gasoline prices, the Revolutionary Guards will also receive a significant increase in funding: a 120% increase. The budget of Iran's militia, the Basij, is nearly the same as that of the regular military. In addition, the budget of The Quds Force (the secret wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and active in Syria) is completely hidden from the public. While these grievances against this imbalanced national spending is not new, it seems it has come to a fever pitch after the high hopes expected for economic prosperity following the lifting of sanctions in January 2016.
“It’s corruption that people are railing against,” said analyst and journalist Pezhman Tavahori in an interview. “People feel that ending corruption will alleviate poverty.”
One objective of Iranian government is to spread Shia Islam in the region. That's an expensive mission, in terms of lives and finances. On Buzzfeed, journalist Borzou Daraghi wrote:
Ever since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran — a Shiite state — has had its eyes on its Shiite-majority neighbor, intent on taking over the levers of power, commerce, and the military. But this is just one part of Iran’s wider goal: to establish territorial dominance from the Gulf of Aden to the shores of the Mediterranean.
Can Iran’s Supreme Leader compromise on foreign policy goals in order to address some income inequality and financial suffering? Tavahori thinks not:
The current demonstrations may be suppressed, but the anger won’t end. I don’t think the Supreme Leader will give up this policy. Poverty and corruption will continue and before long people will be back on the streets


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After Facing Harassment from Authorities, Pakistani Journalist Narrowly Escapes Abduction · Global Voices
Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman

WION's Pakistan bureau chief Taha Siddiqui, Screenshot from YouTube via WION.
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui was on his way to the airport on January 10 when his taxi was stopped and several gunmen attacked and tried to abduct him.
“They were cordoning off the road, armed with rifles, and the men who pulled me out of the car, they had small weapons, pistols”, Siddiqui told Al Jazeera.
Siddiqui was traveling to the United Kingdom for a work-related tour. The attackers fled the scene and took with them his laptop, mobile phone, passport and other belongings.
Siddiqui has covered terrorism, persecution of minorities, economic instability, corruption, and civil-military affairs for multiple foreign publications including the Guardian, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and France24. He was awarded the Albert Londres Award — referred to as the French Pulitzer — in 2014 for his work on “La guerre de la polio” (“The Polio War”) for France 24. He currently serves as the bureau chief for World Is One News (WION).
Shortly after the incident, Siddiqui tweeted from Dawn correspondent Cyril Almeida’s Twitter account as his own phone had been taken by the attackers.
This is Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) using Cyrils a/c. I was on my way to airport today at 8:20am whn 10-12 armed men stopped my cab & forcibly tried to abduct me. I managed to escape. Safe and with police now. Looking for support in any way possible #StopEnforcedDisappearances
— cyril almeida (@cyalm) January 10, 2018
Asad Hashim, an independent journalist and AJ's web-correspondent tweeted:
Taha Siddiqui, a Pakistani journalist, was beaten and threatened, and only escaped by running through oncoming traffic. pic.twitter.com/odsasHDa85
— Asad Hashim (@AsadHashim) January 10, 2018
Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui describes the moment armed men tried to abduct him. Their car stopped in front of his – and they confronted him. He escaped by running through traffic and hiding in a ditch. He has been a vocal critic of the security establishment… pic.twitter.com/9B5MCtPnTJ
— Secunder Kermani (@SecKermani) January 10, 2018
In May last year, Siddiqui filed a formal complaint against the counter-terrorism wing of the civilian Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) after they summoned him and asked him to submit his laptop for forensic tests. On May 24, 2017, the Islamabad high court ordered the FIA to refrain from harassing Siddiqui, yet the summons to appear still stands.
In a December 2017 interview with BBC, Siddiqui said that he can “hardly do any serious journalism without talking about the military, which has an extensive footprint in the country beyond its mandate”. The report also quoted the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, which mentioned that in more than half a dozen cases, journalists have either been issued threats or physically assaulted with a view to warn rather than kill by state or non-state actors. Siddiqui also is an avid social media user and critic of the military.
Siddiqui's experience is not an isolated incident.
In 2017, journalists Rana Tanvir, Matiullah Jan and Ahmad Noorani all came under attack by unidentified assailants. Three years earlier, in April 2014, senior journalist Hamid Mir, a critic of the military and host of a popular TV show “Capital Talk” on Geo TV, was shot several times by unknown gunmen in Karachi. Mir blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the attack, and Geo TV repeatedly aired the picture of Zaheerul Islam, the now-former head of ISI. The same year, another prominent liberal journalist Raza Rumi, known for criticizing the Taliban, narrowly escaped death in Lahore. His young driver was killed in the attack.
Umar Cheema, an investigative journalist and vocal critic of government practice, was picked up by intelligence agencies in 2010. There was no case filed against him. Cheema informed the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was tortured, humiliated and videotaped nude in comprised positions. He is the only journalist in Pakistan ever to go on record about being tortured in custody.
Pakistan is ranked 139 out of 180 countries as per the World Press Freedom Index 2017 by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) and is one the world's most dangerous countries for reporters.
Journalists and journalists’ unions and civil society organizations have made statements in support of Siddiqui and pushing to end enforced disappearances in the country.
Saeed Shah, a Pakistani journalist with the The Wall Street Journal tweeted:
@TahaSSiddiqui is a brave journalist. His crime? Being critical of Pakistan's security establishment and working for an Indian news channel. This is an attack on journalism in Pakistan and in particular those working for the foreign media (Taha also works for France 24). https://t.co/YQya2JxNkb
— Saeed Shah (@SaeedShah) January 10, 2018
Jon Boone, former correspondent Afghanistan-Pakistan correspondent for The Guardian and The Economist tweeted:
Very shocked (but not entirely surprised) to hear @TahaSSiddiqui, a fearless critic of Pakistan's deep state and its self-destructive policies, was beaten up and narrowly escaped abduction by unknown men this morning. Tragic how Pakistan's best are targeted by its worst.
— Jonathan Boone (@Jon_Boone) January 10, 2018
The Rawalpindi Union of Journalists condemned the attack:
.@TahaSSiddiqui message of support from the RIUJ pic.twitter.com/uN5XgCtnXK
— Mighty (@mightyobvious) January 10, 2018
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party tweeted that the matter of enforced disappearances and attacks on journalists should be addressed in Parliament:
The attempted abduction of @TahaSSiddiqui in Islamabad once again underlines the dangers faced by Pakistan’s journalist community. For such brazen attacks to repeatedly take place in our capital is unacceptable. Will be asking PPPP to take this issue up in parliament.
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) January 10, 2018
Amnesty International condemned the attack on Siddiqui and other Pakistani journalists:
Pakistani journalists like Taha Siddiqui have a right to carry out their work freely and without fear. Journalism is not a crime, but attacking journalists is. These crimes must be immediately and effectively investigated. All journalists should be provided the protection they require. And there must be a clear and unequivocal commitment by the Pakistani authorities to end impunity for attacks on journalists.
Siddiqui later posted an update via his own Twitter account:
I m headed to Islamabad Press Club to do presser abt wht happened to me today morning. Pls cover. Registered case at Koral Police Station. Finally reconnected on social media & got new phone. Thank u all for support. I shall not b silenced. Pls reshare #StopEnforcedDisappearances
— Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) January 10, 2018

author: Qurratulain (Annie) Zaman