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Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s Absence and Other Curiosities Surrounding Argentina’s Presidential Inauguration · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

After taking office, the new president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, along with his family greet the public. Photo: Secretariat of Communications.
On 10 December, Mauricio Macri became the new president of Argentina, a position held for the last eight years by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. After the 25 October elections failed to deliver any of the candidates the majority required by the Argentinian Constitution, the two candidates who received the most votes, Daniel Scioli of then ruling party and Macri of the PRO party as part of the Cambiemos coalition, went to a second round of elections on 22 November.
The political transition had its fair share of controversy. This was due to the change of leadership protocol which, according to the Argentinian Constitution, says that the swearing-in ceremony of new presidents must be held in Congress. Tradition dictates that after being sworn in, the new leader then receives the presidential sash and baton in the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace), the seat of the government.
The only presidents who have not followed the tradition are Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner wanted both the swearing-in ceremony and the presidential sash and baton ceremony to happen in Congress, while Macri wanted to renew the custom of holding the latter at the Presidential Palace.
Due to the lack of agreement over how and where the baton and sash should be handed over, the situation quickly went viral on social media, with many Argentinians giving their opinion on what should be done:
Este es el #BastonPresidencial que Cfk le va a entregar a Mauri. Lo tenia guardado en las reservas del Central pic.twitter.com/XzXDbNWaht
— Martin C (@daydreamer_79) noviembre 30, 2015
This is the #BastonPresidencial (presidential baton) that Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is going to hand over to Macri. She kept it in the Central Bank reserves.
Macri asumí solo, dejala a ella con el bastón monárquco y que se ahorque con la banda presidencial. Basta de simbolos monarquicos.
— loderaulo (@loderaulo) noviembre 25, 2015
Macri, take over the leadership on your own. Let [Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner] keep that monarchic baton and she can hang herself with the presidential sash. Enough with these monarchistic symbols.
According to a blog post written by Matias Reggiardo, the controversy goes deepen than simply where the baton should be handed over — it has to do with the resignation of Kirchnerism:
El problema de fondo obviamente no es un aspecto tan menor como el lugar físico, sino que la gran expectativa esta dada por lo que al kirchnerismo siempre le ha costado resignar, la calle. La idea de CFK es despedirse de la militancia, pero no organizó un acto masivo a tales efectos, ni un último discurso en el patio de las palmeras el día 9, no, nada de eso, ella pretende que no haya una fiesta de bienvenida al nuevo presidente, sino una fiesta de despedida para ella, y eso incluye, todos los lugares de las gradas en el congreso para la Asamblea Legislativa y también las calles adyacentes al palacio del Congreso.
Clearly the underlying issue is not something as trivial as the actual place where the handover occurs, but instead the huge expectation over what Kirchnerism has never been able to give up, the public. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's idea is to leave the political party, but she did not organise any events to such effect, not even a final address from the patio of the palmeras (part of the Presidential Palace) on the 9th, no, none of that. She is pretending that there is no welcoming celebration for the new president, but instead a goodbye celebration for her, and this includes all the seats of congress for the legislative assembly as well as the streets surrounding the Palace of the Argentinian National Congress.
Over the weekend of 5 December, the now former president wrote about a call she received from the president elect, in which he informed her — shouting, according to the her — where the handover of the presidential sash and baton should take place:
En cuanto a imagen de autoridad acuérdense de Nestor Kirchner que asumió con el 22% de los votos, que le decían que iba a ser el chirolita del anterior presidente o que la que mandaba iba a ser yo… ¿Dónde tendría que haber jurado para generar “imagen de autoridad?”. ¿Parado arriba de la mesa del Salón Blanco? La autoridad, no la imagen, no se logra en una ceremonia de trasmisión de mando y mucho menos gritándole a una mujer por teléfono…
Regarding the image of authority, let's not forget about [the late ex-President and husband of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner] Nestor Kirchner who got into power with 22% of the votes, and they all told him that he was going to be merely a puppet of the former president or that even I would be in charge… Where would he have needed to have been sworn in to generate an “image of authority”? Standing atop the table in the White Room in the Presidential Palace? Authority, and not its image, isn't earned at a swearing-in ceremony, and certainly not by shouting at a women on the phone…
And she continued:
Una mujer que además de estar sola quiere entregar el mando a quien ha tenido el honor de ser elegido presidente de todos los argentinos y hacerlo en el marco constitucional que significa la Asamblea Legislativa, que sintetiza la soberanía popular y la representación federal de un estado democrático.
A women who, besides being alone, wants to hand over leadership to the person who had the honour of being elected the president of all Argentinians and do so within the
constitutional framework which means Congress, which encapsulates the popular sovereignty and the federal representation of a democratic state.
Finally, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made the decision not to attend the swearing-in ceremony in Congress due to a precautionary measure filed by the Cambiemos coalition, becoming the first Argentinian president not to attend the swearing-in ceremony of a democratically elected leader. The measure, upheld by a federal judge, meant that Fernandez de Kirchner's mandate ended on 10 December at midnight instead of 12 hours later at 12:59 pm, the argument being that if Macri was sworn in at noon, there could technically be two presidents for a moment.
This meant that for the 12 hours, President of the Senate Federico Pinedo was in charge of the country.
On 9 December, Fernandez de Kirchner gave her final address in front of millions of citizens who did not want to miss the moment:
Former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said goodbye to the people, addressing the crowd amassed in the Plaza de Mayo (May Square). She asked God that “those who succeed us by the will of the people, within the next four years, in front of a square filled with people, can tell all Argentinians that they too can look them in the eyes.”
She mentioned it is her hope that “every one of the 42 million people of Argentina have a leader within them, and when they feel that those who they trusted and voted for betray them, they can take out their flag and work together for the popular empowerment of all our rights and freedoms”
The new president, who will serve until 2019, was sworn in at the Palace of the Argentinian National Congress, before moving to the Casa Rosada to receive the presidential sash and baton from Pinedo.
Early in the morning, the tag #Empezamos (Let's Begin) went viral:
Que lindo volver a ver TODAS esas banderas Argentinas por las calles #Empezamos
— Alee (@Ale22_Centurion) diciembre 10, 2015
How nice to see ALL these Argentinian flags in the street again
#Empezamos me alegro q no este la ex presidenta…! Iba a opacarme la vista.
— Miss V. (@_Vivianita_) diciembre 10, 2015
I'm happy it's not the former president…! I was going to cover my eyes.
“Se viene el tiempo del diálogo” y presentaron una cautelar para sacarla a CFK de esta ceremonia. #Empezamos
— General Susvín (@GeneralSusvin) diciembre 10, 2015
“The time for dialogue is now” and they file a precautionary measure to stop Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner attending the ceremony.
#Empezamos a tener un presidente que encima que lee los discursos, los lee mal.
— Erica Rodriguez ✌ (@ericarodriguezn) diciembre 10, 2015
We are going to have a president that not only reads his speeches, but reads them badly.
#Empezamos una nueva etapa a nivel presidencial. Sr Presidente, espero que trabaje bien para nosotros..el pueblo argentino
— Vladimir Mamani (@soyvladimir_04) diciembre 10, 2015
We begin a new presidential era. Mr. President, I hope you work hard for us..the Argentinian people
#BuenJueves#Empezamos ¡QUE ASÍ SEA.! :’) pic.twitter.com/P8lCdSUoCK
— ❤I trust you, OK?✝☮ (@Mafia_A_N_R) diciembre 10, 2015
#GoodThursday #Let'sBegin! Hopefully like this! :’)
Even the Twitter official account of the Casa Rosada, the executive mansion and office of the president of Argentina, suffered during the transition. The previous account, @CasaRosadaAR, became the “unofficial” one after Cristina Kirchner refused to give it up. Macri's administration then opened a new one, @CasaRosada.

author: Laura Schneider


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Ecuador Government Seizes TV Channel’s Equipment, Leaving It Off the Air · Global Voices
Gina Yauri

Journalist Ramiro Cueva. Video screenshot from Ecotel TV's YouTube.
Accompanied by the police, Ecuador's Agency for Regulation and Control of Telecommunications (Arcotel) seized the equipment of Ecotel TV, one of the most watched television channels in the southern city of Loja, whose signal went off the air.
On its official Twitter account, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (@MinInteriorEc) published photographs of the event and assured that human rights were fully respected in the process.
(Ahora) La incautación de equipos #EcotelTv se desarrolló con total respeto a los #DerechosHumanos. @PoliciaEcuador. pic.twitter.com/lJ3BBrxrHm
— Min Interior Ecuador (@MinInteriorEc) diciembre 16, 2015
(Live) The seizure of #EcotelTv equipment occurred with full respect for #HumanRights.
According to Fundamedios, an Ecuadorian NGO that safeguards freedom of speech, Ecotel TV's owner Ramiro Cueva said that the seizure was motivated by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's words in his 454th weekly address (called “citizen links”) on December 12 branding Cueva a “bitter demagogue disguised as a journalist who only tells lies, he lies to try and harm the national government.”
Correa was referring to a news item that the channel had broadcast criticizing that furniture from the Gualaquiza San Juan Bosco Education Unit, which is situated in west Ecuador, had been moved to the city of Loja to the Bernardo Valdivieso Millennium College for the inauguration of that school by Correa on December 8.
Cueva said that while all that was true, he did acknowledge that the legal pretext for the seizure dates back to a case against the channel for failing to pay a fine that was filed in 2002 by the then National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL). According to newspaper El Comercio, the station was ordered to stop broadcasting last year, but the ruling was appealed.
The statement made by Fundamedios maintains that the channel is going through a legal procedure, which is the cornerstone of the legal justification for the seizure:
En esa fecha, el entonces Consejo Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), mediante resolución RTV-653-23-CONTAEL-2014 dispuso “iniciar el proceso de terminación anticipada y unilateral del contrato de concesión del canal 22 UHF” de Ecotel TV, celebrado en agosto de 1996 y renovado en julio de 2008, por una supuesta mora en el pago de las tarifas de uso de concesión ocurrida en el año 2002 y por un valor de USD 151,20 dólares.
On that date, the then National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL), through resolution RTV-653-23-CONTAEL-2014 decided to “initiate the process of early and unilateral termination of the concession contract of channel 22 UHF” of Ecotel TV, entered into in August 1996 and renewed in July 2008, for alleged arrears of the fees for the use of the concession occurred in 2002 for US$151.20.
El Comercio reports that Ecotel TV has been on air for 19 years in the province of Loja, employing 42 people and broadcasting 18 locally produced programs and four news bulletins.
The Fundamedios statement continued:
Esa entidad se basó en la Disposición Transitoria Décima y en el artículo 112, numeral 10 de la Ley Orgánica de Comunicación (LOC) para retirar la frecuencia al medio televisivo. Dicha Disposición se refiere a la potestad legal para revertir la frecuencia de los medios de comunicación que no hayan iniciado sus operaciones en el plazo señalado; los que no hayan pagado las tarifas de uso de concesión; los que hayan arrendado por más de dos años su frecuencia, entre otras, para lo cual tomará en cuenta un informe presentado por la Comisión para la Auditoría de las Concesiones de las Frecuencias de Radio y Televisión de mayo de 2009.
CONATEL based their decision on the Tenth Transitional Provision and Article 112, paragraph 10 of the Organic Law on Communication to stop the channel from broadcasting. This provision refers to the legal authority to revert the frequencies of media outlets that have not started operating within the prescribed period; those that have not paid the fees for use of concession; those who have leased their frequencies for longer than two years, among others, for which it will take into account a report presented by the Commission for the Audit of Television and Radio Frequency Concessions of May 2009.
This is the second seizure the station has undergone. On December 5, 2013, a police operation raided the premises in the early hours of the morning to confiscate equipment from Ecotel Radio stations.
In the meantime, the channel is broadcasting from its website Ecotel.TV.
Ecoteltv al aire por lo pronto en sistemas de cable y online en Loja y provincia al momento. Seguimos en pie pic.twitter.com/AYwcvJnQcs
— Ecotel (@EcotelRadio) diciembre 17, 2015
For now, Ecoteltv is airing through cable systems and online in Loja at the moment. Stay tuned
In the afternoon, dozens of people gathered outside the channel's premises in solidarity with Ecotel TV.
Primer Reporte (@primereporte) tweeted this image:
RESPALDAN | Sectores sociales respaldan y se solidarizan con el medio televisivo @EcotelRadio. pic.twitter.com/XcM6Tb84G5
— Primer Reporte (@primereporte) diciembre 16, 2015
Support | Social groups support and unite with the television station @EcotelRadio.
The past few years have not been kind to freedom of expression in Ecuador. Memes from Crudo Ecuador, which lampooned the president and his government, are still fresh in many Ecuadorians’ minds, nearly a year after the owner shut down the site following threats. Most recently, one citizen was imprisoned for allegedly clapping during a protest, as well as a political leader for revealing nepotism within the government.
Loja: Ecotel TV sale del aire… el sábado el que sabemos despotricó contra ese canal https://t.co/kIKF3WVFTT pic.twitter.com/sROsRlZzxC
— Jorge Imbaquingo (@jimbaquingo) December 16, 2015
Loja: Ecotel TV off air… the Saturday, you-know-who ranted against the channel
SOLIDARIDAD Nuevo golpe a la LIBERTAD DE EXPRESIÓN CORREISMO allana @ecoteltv e incauta equipos sacándolo del aire pic.twitter.com/ZmT16JT8X2 — socialismo (Ecuador) (@socialismoECU) December 16, 2015
Solidarity: New setback for freedom of expression. Correismo raids @ecoteltv and seizes equipment, removing it from the air
According to the blog Journalism in the Americas, Ecuador approved a vague and broad law that gives the government the authority to impose arbitrary sanctions and censor the press in 2013.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Gina Yauri


text:
Finding the Cultural Bridges of the Middle East in Literary Istanbul · Global Voices
Arash Azizi

Ortaköy Mosque and the Bosphorus Bridge, Istanbul. PHOTO: Wajahat Mahmood (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Istanbul is my favourite city. There is no other place quite like it. If you have a love for the history and an interest in the current affairs of the Islamicate world, it is not hard to see Istanbul as the center of your mental universe.
“Islamicate” was a term coined by the scholar Marshall Hodgson. He distinguished between phenomena that were “Islamic” (properly religious) and “Islamicate” which referred to the products of regions where Muslims were culturally dominant.
Istanbul was the capital of the grand, old and cosmopolitan Ottoman empire, and even today there is probably no single city in the world that rivals it in terms of accessibility to people of all nations. (There is, for instance, almost universal acceptance for the visa-on-arrival process at Turkish ports). People from all over the Muslim world come to Istanbul and are charmed by its diverse appeals, which range from medieval mosques to a lively bar and restaurant scene.
What better place, then, to probe a question that has occupied me for a long time: why is it that the literary universes of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world are not connected? Why do the literati of Tehran look ten times more toward Paris, New York or even Melbourne, than to Cairo, Istanbul or Casablanca?
“Istanbul was the capital of the grand, old and cosmopolitan Ottoman empire, and even today there is probably no single city in the world that rivals it in terms of accessibility to people of all nations.”
In addition to the perfect location, in Istanbul I had just the right interlocutors.
On one beautiful autumn Sunday, I met with Arslan Fasihi in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. Fasihi is one of Iran’s greatest wordsmiths, known primarily for his translations of the works of Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and bestselling writer Elif Shafak from Turkish into Persian. I came to know Fasihi as a young writer and translator when he was the chief editor of Qoqnoos, Iran’s premier publishing house (full disclosure: Qoqnoos has published five books of my own translations). I continue to consider him my Ostaad, Persian for literary master.
The author, Arash Azizi, in Istanbul with Turkish poet Enis Batur. Photo provided by Arash Azizi, used with permission.
While deep in conversation about everything from the impending Turkish elections to the latest news and rumors of the Persian literary scene, we headed to Nişantaşı, a neighbourhood immortalized in Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence. Fasihi intended to visit Pamuk, an old friend of his, but was visibly more excited about meeting Enis Batur for the first time. Fasihi’s Persian translation of Batur’s experimental novel, Bitter Knowledge, had been just been published, and I don’t remember the last time my ostaad was so excited about a book. “I have read it six times and enjoyed it every time,” he told me.
We were welcomed by the affable Enis Batur in his beautiful, book-lined apartment on the fourth floor of a Nişantaşı building. We sat outside in the balcony and the conversation flowed. The above-mentioned questions didn’t need to be mentioned, as they were already in the air. Here we were, writers from the Middle East, talking about the state of our craft (me a mere novice next to the two masters, of course!).
Fittingly, no European language was present in this discussion. Batur and Fasihi spoke in beautiful, elegant Turkish and I struggled to follow, with Mr Fasihi kindly and patiently translating into Persian for me. As the air became infused with the sounds of Turkish and Persian surrounded the air, I couldn’t help but notice many of the words we have in common.
Batur is an eminent poet and we questioned him about Turkish poetry, whose Ottoman past owes much to a Persianate heritage. Speaking of Yahya Kamal and Ahmad Hashem, the poets that heralded the arrival of modern Turkish poetry in the 1910s, Batur said: “They knew both Western modern poetry and traditional Ottoman poetry very well. That’s how they could create a synthesis out of the two.”
Arslan Fasihi and Enis Batur holding a signed copy of Batur's “Bitter Knowledge”, which Fasihi recently translated to Persian. PHOTO provided by Arash Azizi, used with permission.
As the modernizing continued and the Ottoman empire lost much of its Middle Eastern territory and was replaced with the Turkish Republic, Turkish poets, now writing in a Latinized alphabet, lost the connection with their past.
“The Divan poets of the Ottoman period could write poetry in three languages—Turkish, Arabic and Persian,” Batur said. “The Turkish poet today can’t even read poems in Arabic or Persian. This is naturally an important change. We even experienced a deep poetic rupture with the Turkic republics [of Central Asia].”
The conversation turns to the evident “rupture” between the literary universes of Iran, Turkey and the Arab world. In each of these regions, Western and even Latin American literature is much better known than the works of our own region. The common ignorance of Iranian and Turkish literati of the literary products of the Arab world is a case in point. Although Iran has been an “Islamic Republic” for almost 37 years, translations from Arabic, the language of Islam, constitute only 2 percent of the books published in Iran. Iran and Turkey, too, are mostly ignorant of each other’s literary products.
Batur laments this lack of connection. “Turkey and Iran are neighbours. Now, sometimes they have differences and sometimes they are friends. But there is no doubt as to the huge influence of the Persian culture on Ottoman culture,” he says. “But what do we know about modern Persian literature now? We have heard of Sadeq Hedayat and Foroogh Farokhzad and a couple other figures. But modern Persian literature is wholly alien to us”.
“The conversation turns to the evident “rupture” between the literary universes of Iran, Turkey and the Arab world. In each of these regions, Western and even Latin American literature is much better known than the works of our own region. The common ignorance of Iranian and Turkish literati of the literary products of the Arab world is a case in point.”
Even Hedayat, he continues, is only known in Turkish because he has been widely translated into French and German. “He is known more as a European writer than an Iranian one,” he explains.
Ironically, the same is true of Turkish novels by the likes of Elif Shafak, which have recently become recent best-sellers in Iran, though only after they first made their name in English.
People like Arslan Fasihi are helping to mend this rupture. Like millions of Iranians of Turkic descent, Fasihi’s mother tongue is not Persian but Azerbaijani, a Turkic language that is called “Turkish” in the Iranian context (the Turkish spoken in Turkey is distinguished as “Istanbulu Turkish”).
Fasihi did his undergraduate studies in Turkey and has many links with the Turkish literati. Right after our meeting, he was heading to Cesme in Aegean Turkey, to present a paper at a conference of Turkish studies. People like Fasihi follow Turkish literary trends and don’t need Western translations in order to render a work into Persian. This is why Batur’s “Bitter Knowledge” was released in Persian translation before becoming available in English. Fasihi also introduced Pamuk to Persian-speaking audiences before he won the Nobel and gained wide international fame.
Wordsmiths like Fasihi with deep connections across the region are rare, but they do exist. Another example is, Ghassan Hamdan. Born in Baghdad and raised in Iran, he currently lives in the Iraqi capital and publishes his Arabic translations of Persian novels in Cairo, the hub of Arab literature. Hamdan is an enthusiast of both Persian and Arabic cultures and works tirelessly to build bridges between the two. He has translated Arabic novels to Persian and vice versa.
When the discussion—inevitably—turned to politics and Turkey’s future, Batur was pessimistic. He voted for the leftist HDP in the recent Turkish elections but saw no possibility for a change in Erdogan’s Islamist government. He sees the turbulence in the region as so dangerous that he fears they could lead to a third world war. He laments the commercialization of literature, art and philosophy in the last few decades.
Yet in the abyss of hopelessness I believe there is still reason to be hopeful about the future of the Middle East. At the moment it is usually the catastrophes that remind us of our regional commonalities. In almost every conflict in the Middle East, the proxies of Tehran, Ankara, Riyadh and Doha face off against each other. The government of Assad’s Syrian Arab Republic has many Persian-speaking Iranian and Afghan militias on its side, while the same forces bolster Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen and government forces in Iraq. Turkey gives support to several unsavory jihadist groups in Syria and is also home to many exiled leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Turkic-speaking populations of Mesopotamia and Levant also look to Ankara for leadership.
Unlike the transnational links of the past that were coloured with cosmopolitanism and progressive and socialist politics, these are dark and reactionary connections based on sectarianism. But citizens of no country in the region can now claim indifference to their surrounding lands. If dictators and generals and terrorists organize themselves across borders and language barriers, why not we the people?
It is here that a historic task faces our literati and media workers: to build cosmopolitan bridges across the region. Far from being a simple matter of exchange of news and literature, this is also a huge epistemological challenge. Rising to it would be impossible without countering the twin evils of Islamist Salafism and fundamentalism and what the late Iranian author, Jalal Ale Ahmad, once called Gharbzadegi (or Westoxification), a naive imitation of everything Western.
We have to unearth and re-discover the history of the shared universe we once inhabited, from Sarajevo to Peshawar, from Samarkand to Khartoum. We have to develop scholarship and literature rooted in the realities of our region and built on the transnational exchanges between our lands.
Such a project seems formidably immense. But Istanbul is certainly a good place to start.

author: Arash Azizi


text:
In Spanish, Inclusive Language Can Be at Odds With Grammar Rules · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

Photo taken from the Flickr account of Santi Ochoa and republished under license of Creative Commons.
All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine, and according to the language's rules the masculine form trumps the feminine when describing a group of people containing members of both genders. For example, a group of female workers would be described as “trabajadoras” with the feminine plural ending of “-as”, but a group of 99 female workers and one male worker would be described as “trabajadores” with the masculine plural ending — just because of the presence of one man.
More and more Spanish speakers are moving away from this rule and toward what they consider to be more inclusive language. Instead of saying “todos” (the masculine plural form of “everyone”), they'll use “todos y todas” or even “tod@s” with the at sign symbolizing both the “a” and “o” ending in one character.
But the highest authority of the Spanish language, The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), isn't a fan. Its official stance has emphasized for years that the masculine version of the word should still reign over its female counterpart.
The website Clases de Periodismo (Journalism Classes) recently reminded readers of the institution's 2012 report, “Linguistic Sexism and the Visibility of Women”, which was written by Spanish linguist Ignacio Bosque:
El informe de la RAE critica las nuevas guías sobre lenguaje no sexista elaboradas en España por universidades, sindicatos o gobiernos regionales, que proponen, por ejemplo, usar palabras como “la ciudadanía” en lugar de “los ciudadanos” o “el profesorado” en lugar de “los profesores” para hablar de grupos compuestos por hombres y mujeres”.
Tras criticar y resaltar la nula practicidad del “desdoblamiento” genérico -como el citado “todos y todas”- para evitar la supuesta caída en el sexismo, así como el uso indebido del símbolo “@” para superponer el uso femenino de la “a” y el masculino de la “o”, el lingüista descartó la viabilidad de las recomendaciones de las guías”.
The RAE report criticizes the new guidelines on non-sexist language developed in Spain by universities, unions and regional governments that propose, for example, the use of words like “la ciudadanía” (“the citizenry”, which happens to be feminine) instead of “los ciudadanos” (masculine plural form of “the citizens”) or “el profesorado” (singular noun meaning “faculty”) instead of “los profesores” (masculine plural form of “the professors”) when speaking of groups made up of both men and women.
After criticizing and highlighting the complete impracticality of the generic “dividing” — like the aforementioned “todos y todas” — to avoid sexism, as well as the misuse of the @ symbol superimposed over the use of the “a” at the end of feminine words and over the “o” at the end of masculine words, the linguist dismissed the viability of these guidelines.
According to Bosque, “the generic use of the masculine when both sexes are present is firmly established in the grammatical system” of Spanish, and it does not make sense “to force linguistic structures”.
The RAE's years-old disapproval doesn't appear to have stopped Spanish speakers from changing their language. It is becoming more popular the use of both sexes in plural, especially in Latin America.
Argentinian newspaper La Nación, back in 2012, when the RAE published its stance, provided the context for the institution's decision:
A la Real Academia Española (RAE) le llamó la atención el uso creciente de un latiguillo lingüístico en América latina: un artículo de la Constitución de Venezuela habla de “venezolanos y venezolanas”, y la (ex) presidenta (de Argentina) Cristina Kirchner comienza siempre sus discursos dirigiéndose “a todos y a todas”.
La corriente “reformista” ya ha tenido varios ejemplos, además de los que brindan la Constitución venezolana y la presidenta Kirchner. El 15 de mayo del año pasado, la Puerta del Sol se vio desbordada por un movimiento de manifestantes que, para subrayar su conformación por mujeres indignadas y hombres indignados, se autodenominó “de l@s indignad@s”. Con el signo de arroba, para ser más inclusivos.
It has come to the attention of the Royal Spanish Academy the growing use of a linguistic trend in Latin America: an article on the Venezuelan Constitution speaks of “venezolanos y venezolanas” (masculine and feminine forms of “Venezuelans”), former Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner always starts her speeches addressing “a todos y a todas” (masculine and feminine forms of “to everyone”).
There are several examples of this “reformist” trend, in addition to those of the Venezuelan Constitution and President Kirchner. Last year on 15 May, the Puerta del Sol [in Madrid] was overwhelmed by a wave of protesters who called themselves “l@s indignad@s.” They used the @ sign to highlight that both outraged men and women made up the group, to be more inclusive.
While inclusive language is important, Marcela Zeledón writing on the website Enfoque Jurídico recommended avoiding the @ sign in a blog post from April 2015, as it is not linguistic and furthermore is not pronounceable.
In her article titled “The use of inclusive language. A social need?“, she defined what inclusive language means:
… el lenguaje incluyente, hace referencia a toda expresión verbal o escrita que utiliza preferentemente vocabulario neutro, o bien, hace evidente el masculino y el femenino. También evita generalizaciones del masculino para situaciones o actividades donde aparecen mujeres y hombres”.
…inclusive language refers to all types of verbal or written expressions that preferably make use of neutral vocabulary, or otherwise, makes the masculine and feminine evident. It also avoids the generalization of the use of the masculine in situations where women and men both appear.
Zeledón continued that it is not the point to simply add “os/as” to the end of all words to clarify the correct gender, but that in fact, one should utilize neutral terms and concepts that include and make every group within society visible.
According to the author, an example of this would be to “abandon the use of the term ‘man’, which has always been used universally.” For Zeledón, this practice makes the presence of children and women invisible. Therefore, the adequate way refer to both genders would be to use terms like “people”, “human beings”, “humanity” or “the human species”.
On the site Página 12, Sandra Russo pointed out in her piece Sobre todos y todas (On ‘todos’ and ‘todas’) that the RAE's report was signed by 23 academics, of whom only three were women:
La RAE salió, una vez más, al choque de una avanzada de género promovida desde hace años por muchos colectivos feministas, que elaboran guías sobre el sexismo en el lenguaje[…] Las feministas protestan porque el sustantivo masculino incluye al femenino, y eso ya no es un detalle, ni un modo decir lo correcto, ni es una enunciación justa. Las mujeres estamos gramaticalmente incluidas en los sustantivos masculinos (trabajadores, ciudadanos, amigos, invitados, etc.: todo eso, que es de género masculino, lleva al género femenino incorporado, justo como una costilla semántica). Pero no es la lengua la que determina la realidad, es al revés.
The RAE came out once again against the advancement of gender, promoted for many years by many feminist collectives that have published guidelines on sexism in language […] Feminists protest because the masculine noun includes the feminine, and this is no longer a detail, a correct way of speaking, or a even a fair statement. Women are grammatically included in masculine nouns such as workers (trabajadores), citizens (ciudaddanos), friends (amigos), guests (invitados), etc., all of which are of the masculine gender, but incorporating the feminine gender as well, as is the case with the semantic rib. But it is not language that determines reality. The reverse is true.
She added:
Las lingüistas feministas sostienen que esa inclusión forzada de lo femenino en lo masculino es una forma de exclusión en la lengua. El estar contenidas e invisibilizadas en los sustantivos masculinos obliga a las mujeres a una pregunta que deben hacerse miles de veces en sus vidas: “¿Me están hablando a mí?”, mientras los varones jamás pasan por esa experiencia.”
Feminist linguists maintain that this forced inclusion of the feminine within the masculine is a form of exclusion from the language. Being contained and invisible within masculine nouns forces women to ask themselves the same question thousands of times throughout their lives: “Are they speaking about me?”, whilst men never experience this.
In the same way, Russo pointed out that “those groups of people who feel uncomfortable with the language are the ones modifying it, in a natural movement toward precision and specificity.”
On Twitter, however, the trend has been to support the RAE's position:
La RAE opuesta al “todos y todas” de la constitución de #Venezuela, CFKirchner y Correa. @flarenasec @ConyLane @skueffner
— Robert Ramia (@titoramia) November 11, 2015
The RAE opposes “todos y todas” [masculine and feminine forms of “all”] of the constitution of #Venezuela, [former Argentinean President] Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and [Ecuador's President Rafael] Correa.
Hasta cuando el “todas y todos”? Es que no leen las normas de la RAE…? Ademas se oye ridículo.
— Nana Tejada Schmitz (@nanatejada) October 25, 2015
Since when was “todos y todas” [masculine and feminine forms of “all] used? Did they not read the rules of the RAE…? Furthermore it sounds ridiculous.
La #RAE carga contra el “todos y todas” “gramatical y patriarcal” @mujerpalabraNET http://t.co/R5rX8euaPt desde CM Browser)
— Meiga (@MeigaLobis) August 11, 2015
The RAE comes out against “todos y todas” [masculine and feminine form of “all”] “grammatical and patriarchal”

author: Mary Aviles


text:
Is It Not Democracy If Voters in Rwanda Want a ‘Life President’? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Rwandan President Paul Kagame at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo released under Creative Commons by the World Economic Forum.
98% of Rwandans voted  on December 18 to change their constitution to allow President Paul Kagama to run for a third term in 2017. Technically, the changes allow Kagame to stay in power until 2034. The constitution allows him to run for an additional seven-year term and then two-five year terms.
The referendum has been criticized by the opposition and human rights activists as well as international development partners such as the United States and the European Union.
There is an ongoing debate in many African countries about the third-term phenomenon, which has led to civil unrest and deaths in countries such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso. The Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in May 2015 in Accra, Ghana, dropped the idea of a two-term limit on the presidency across the region, after The Gambia and Togo, the only member states without term limits, opposed the move.
Research based on surveys in 34 African countries by Afrobarometer, a project that measures public attitudes in Sub Saharan Africa, shows that most Africans support two-term limits on the presidency. There are 18 African countries that do not have presidential term limits.
Rwandan lawmakers said in August 2015 that a nationwide consultation showed that only 10 Rwandans were against the third term idea.
Rwandans and other global netizens following Rwandan politics are sharply divided over the referendum. Kagame supporters argue that a referendum was a democratic process that allowed Rwandan citizens to determine their own future. The opponents, however, claim that the process was rigged and rushed. They also note that Kagame is not the only person with leadership skills in the country.
Reacting to condemnation from the West, Rwandan human rights lawyer Thierry Gatere said that western governments “rigged” their statements on the referendum. Addressing the criticism that voters were not given enough time to debate, he wrote:
As for the citizenry, the Rwandan people; they have been debating this question for the last four years or more. It is disingenuous, but unsurprising that all communiqués from western powers claimed that the electorate wasn’t given ample time to canvass a question that, by all measures and accounts was belabored, exhausted and ever-greened. I was disappointed to read statements from the United States government and the European Union, both alleging that Rwandans did not have ample time to debate their constitution.
He noted that the referendum was efficiently conducted and in record time:
Results were publicly counted and instantly shared on social media; so much so that we did the tallying ourselves, and called the results before they were officially announced.
This was an efficiently conducted election, zipped through in record time, with preliminary results announced the same night, and ended in celebrations all over the country:
African states are often criticised for rigging elections. However, what is less talked about is that Western statements on Africa, and on Rwanda in particular, are rigged even more
Youth activist Philemon Mbayisha tweeted:
1/1 When Will #US stop interfering in other countries affairs? In 1994 US brought planes to take the #America-ns out…#RwandansDecide
— Philemon MBAYISHA (@Mbayisha) December 21, 2015
The Rwandan genocide took place in 1994.
Information technology graduate student Alain Murara asked for respect from the US ambassador in Rwanda, Erica Barks-Ruggle, after she shared the White House statement about the referendum:
@USAmbRwanda Our Choice our dignity. Respect at least that. #RwandansDecide #RwandaReferendum
— Alain Murara (@mafredy2020) December 20, 2015
Twitter user Ali Naka showed that changing presidents does not result into development:
Zambia 6 Presidents, Zimbabwe 1 Executive President decades later all lagging behind Rwanda …..CONTEXT matters
— African (@ali_naka) December 19, 2015
Some Kagame supporters took issue with media coverage of the referendum. Brain Dogon said:
It is the Rwandanese people that experience Rwanda everyday, not the New York Times. Their opinion is void! #RwandaReferendum
— A$AP Muthi (@Brain_Dogon) December 19, 2015
Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Louise Mushikiwabo accused the New York Times of arrogance:
@TheNYTimesUM orders #Rwanda‘s president to step down. Really? Is this the year of arrogance&ignorance? #RwandansDecide!
— Louise Mushikiwabo (@LMushikiwabo) December 17, 2015
Elodie Shami called for a moment of silence for journalists who were waiting for bad news:
A moment of silence for those journalists who hoped for drama in Rwanda due to #referendum Sorry. No story for you. #RwandansDecide
— Elodie Shami (@ElodieShami) December 18, 2015
Rwandans can decide to change their constitution as they wish, journalist James A. Munyaneza tweeted:
They wonder: In 2003 we adopted a new constitution,2day we've chosen to revise it as we wish,why shd anyone stand in our way #RwandansDecide
— James A. Munyaneza (@JMunyaneza) December 22, 2015
What would have been the reaction of most people voted no?, one user asked:
If #Rwandans had voted “No” during #RwandaReferendum ,some would have said that #Rwanda is an example of democracy! #RwOT #RwandansDecide
— nyiramwiza solange (@nyiramwiza) December 20, 2015
Not everyone was on board with the results. Public relations professional Geoffrey Maumo wished African leaders learned from Nelson Mandela:
Congratulations #RwandansDecide #RwandaReferendum #Rwanda but I wish African Leaders could learn from @NelsonMandela @dailynation @kot
— GEOFFREY MAUMO (@GMAUMO) December 20, 2015
After spending 27 years in jail during South Africa's Apartheid era, Mandela only served for one presidential term.
The account NYC Philosophizer mocked the use of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in the Rwandan political context:
After all, in #Rwanda Yes and NO means the same. NO = NO one but Kagame = 99% win. #RwandansDecide #RwandaReferendum https://t.co/oJcwrOc70p
— NYCphilosopher (@NYCphilosopher) December 19, 2015
Christine Nyabare believed that the outcome of the referendum was a foregone conclusion:
Of course it had to be a yes, Kagame wanted it! #RwandaReferendum
— Christine Nayebare (@kristra21) December 19, 2015
The referendum, according to blogger Dikembe, presented a situation when a solution is itself a problem:
#RwandaReferendum is a typical “Africa solution” to an “African problem” only that the solution is the problem #RwandansDecide
— Dikembe (@Disembe) December 19, 2015
Smith Kennedy, who managed Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights projects for Sub Saharan Africa, explained why he wouldn't be surprised by the outcome:
Wouldn't surprise me if 98% of Rwandans voted to allow #Kagame to run again. Many of his critics fled, are in jail or dead. #RwandansDecide
— Jeffrey Smith (@Smith_RFKennedy) December 19, 2015
Finally, Australian voter Alexander Ellerston asked for the secret behind the 98% consensus:
Congratulations to the people of #Rwanda – 98% agreement! We find 55% difficult… what's your secret? #RwandaReferendum #RwandansDecide
— Alexander Ellerston (@alexellerston) December 19, 2015

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Latin American Journalism and Advocacy Groups Recognized by Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards · Global Voices
Periodismo en las Américas

Ganadores del premio en 2014: Shahzad Ahmad, Rahim Haciyev, Shu Choudhary, Mayam Mahmoud. Fotos por Alex Brenner para Index on Censorship.
This story by Lorenzo Holt was originally published by Journalism in the Americas Blog and republished it here with authorization.
Journalists, media organizations and freedom of expression advocates from El Salvador, Cuba, Argentina, Mexico and Ecuador were included on the long list of candidates for the Index on Censorship’s 2016 Freedom of Expression Awards announced on December 16.
“The individuals and organisations listed in the #Index100 demonstrate courage, creativity and determination in tackling threats to censorship in every corner of globe,” Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg said according to a press release from the organization. “They are a testament to the universal value of free expression. Without their efforts in the face of huge obstacles, often under violent harassment, the world would be a darker place.”
Index on Censorship, an international freedom of expression organization based in the United Kingdom, will announce the shortlist of candidates on January 19, 2016. Winners will be announced at an awards gala the following April in London and will also join a year-long fellowship program.
The #Index100 list includes 100 individuals and groups from 53 countries that were narrowed down from a list of more than 500 nominees and applicants, according to the Index site. Awards are given in the categories of arts, campaigning, digital activism and journalism.
Salvadoran journalists Roberto Valencia, Óscar Martinez and Daniel Valencia Caravantes were included on the #Index100 list, in the journalism category, for their investigative work for online news source El Faro.
On July 22, the journalists published a story about an incident in which police killed eight people. Their story contradicted official accounts of the event, according to The Nation. Immediately after the story was published, the three relocated, anticipating the threats that followed.
The #Index100’s journalism category also included Roberto de Jesus Guerra Pérez’s Hablemos Press, a Cuban news agency founded in 2009 as an alternative to official government censorship and propaganda.
Although its online site is blocked and its TV and radio programs are not available through official media sources, they still print about 400 weekly papers and offer training to journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders. Before founding the agency, Guerra Pérez had been a long time dissident and frequently faced incarceration at the hands of the Cuban government.
Fact-checking site Chequeado of Argentina made the list in the digital activism category. The Index on Censorship linked to the group’s extensive work to provide transparency throughout the 2015 presidential campaign. Méxicoleaks, a relatively new digital platform that accepts anonymous leaked information from the public, was also included in the category.
Ecuador’s Foundation for Media Observation and Study (or Fundamedios, as it's known in Spanish) was included for its efforts to monitor attacks against press freedom and for its support for the legal rights of newspapers and journalists in the face of government threats. In September, the Ecuadoran government started a process to shut down the organization, but that was ultimately shelved after national and international outcry.
Any organization or individual was able to apply or nominate for the Index for Censorship’s Freedom of Expression award. Candidates are judged according to courage, creativity, resilience and recognizable impact over the last 12 months. The Index on Censorship picks a new panel of judges every year from “leading world voices with expertise in advocacy, journalism, the arts and human rights.”
Among this year’s panel is Colombian award-winning journalist María Teresa Ronderos, who has been involved with various journalism organizations in Latin America.

author: Periodismo en las Américas


text:
32 Stories That Capture the Happiness, Heartache and Resilience of 2015 · Global Voices
L. Finch

Collage of photos from Global Voices coverage in 2015. Created by L. Finch.
A Honduran teenager shoots to YouTube stardom teaching viewers how to make the most of their humble means.
Social media users in Kyrgyzstan convince parliament to abandon a dubious plan to spend tens of thousands of dollars on new chairs.
And young citizen journalists in Nairobi, Kenya, document the lives of the residents of Africa's largest urban slum on their Humans of Kibera blog.
The Global Voices’ virtual, community-driven newsroom worked hard this year to build understanding across borders and language barriers through stories like these and more. Throughout 2015, we published accounts of sorrow, struggle, love and levity from around the globe that were often missed or misrepresented by mainstream media.
Before the clock strikes midnight on the year gone by, let's take a look at 32 of these stories from 2015 that highlight the strength and creativity of the human spirit.
In Bahrain, anti-regime protesters armed with teddy bears and other stuffed animals faced off with riot police on Valentine's Day, the fourth anniversary of when authorities there launched a brutal crackdown against a popular movement.
A giant Godzilla-like ape appears to guard a makeshift barricade put up by protesters in Bahrain today. Barricades made out of debris, construction material, plants and rubbish are erected by protesters on roads leading to protest spots to stall the riot police from attacking the protesters in full force. Source: Unknown
After Global Voices author Inji Pennu wrote about a feminist activist who briefly lost access to her Facebook account after facing misogynistic harassment, she experienced similar abuse, and her own Facebook account was suspended after a user falsely reported her for using a fake name. A campaign to convince Facebook to change its problematic “real name” policy followed. The social media site responded with a pledge to make a few small steps in the right direction, but more can be done.
In response to her country changing the constitution to include the legal possibility of going to war, an 81-year-old Japanese woman took to Twitter to recall her harrowing memories of the consequences of conflict.
Guatemalan theater group Las Poderosas (Powerful Women) promoted healing and raised awareness of violence against women through their work in a country where two women a day are killed on average, according to the UN.
Internet users drew parallels between China's current drift toward fanatical patriotism and the Cultural Revolution, the violent political movement in the 1960s and 70s that purged undesirables from the communist party. To mock just how ridiculous the trend could become, Chinese netizens peppered a mundane conversation about refrigerators with lofty declarations of how much they love their country.
Following a wave of racial stereotyping in Trinidad and Tobago, one woman found online support after she posted a photo of herself holding a sign that read, “I will not ‘Go back to China’. I am Trinidadian.” “To cultivate unity, harmony and love within our society,” she said in a later interview, “we must first begin to show love ourselves.”
Saber Hussaini, a 35-year-old author and storyteller, pedaled around Afghanistan on his mobile library, handing out children's books in villages where the government isn't satisfying the people's hunger for education.
#MyAfghanHero is Saber Hussaini, man who runs his own children's mobile library for 5 #Bamiyan villages pic.twitter.com/Vp5V7soZbt
— Ahmad Shuja احمدشجاع (@AhmadShuja) octubre 22, 2015
Ghanaians launched two hashtags during the course of the year to give the world a peek into their lives. #BeingGhanaianHasTaughtMe offered a tongue-and-cheek perspective on life in Ghana (“#BeingGhanaianHasTaughtMe that if you are not a zebra, don't expect cars to stop for you at a zebra crossing,” one Twitter user wrote), while #233moments asked participants to tweet what they are doing at exactly 2:33 p.m. GMT, no matter how mundane.
In Iran, people spilled out into the streets to celebrate the news of a nuclear deal that could lift the crippling sanctions against the country. Some observers hoped the agreement will open the door to more respect for human rights such as freedom of expression there. Global Voices, for example, remained partially blocked in Iran as of April.
Cuba and the US normalized their relations after decades of diplomatic bad blood, paving the way for American companies like Netflix to announce they would establish a presence on the island (despite the fact that in Netflix's case, even those Cubans who have Internet access do not have a strong enough connection to watch videos online).
Medical workers in Sierra Leone broke out into dance to celebrate the release of the country's last known Ebola patient from the hospital. Forty-two days later, the World Health Organization officially declared the West African country, where nearly 4,000 people died from the disease, was officially declared Ebola-free.
Myanmar made history by holding what was widely considered its first free and fair election. Popular sentiment deemed it was “time to change,” and the people overwhelmingly voted opposition National League for Democracy into power.
Citizens earnestly wait and watch the live ballot counting in front of the office of the opposition party. Photo by Irrawaddy shared on Facebook.
Following tragedy, people around the world questioned mainstream media narratives and popular priorities. After Al-Shabaab militants attacked Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 147 people, Kenyans wondered why that violence didn't inspire the same level of international solidarity as the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, France.
A combination of factors meant the Baga massacre in Nigeria — in which an estimated 150 to 2,000 people were slaughtered by Boko Haram militants — didn't make as many headlines as the Charlie Hebdo attacks, either.
Global Voices contributor Joey Ayoub observed with a heavy heart after the respective media coverage that followed deadly attacks in Beirut and Paris in November:
It…seems clear to me that to the world, my people’s deaths in Beirut do not matter as much as my other people’s deaths in Paris.
Meanwhile, Africans questioned why Facebook users didn't change their profile photo to that of a Nigerian flag after Boko Haram killed 200 people in July.
Pro-Kurdish Internet users in Turkey fought to keep the world's limited attention on the city of Silvan, which was under siege as government forces clashed with militants from the independence-seeking Kurdistan Workers Party.
The image was accompanied by a tweet quoting a Syrian refugee in Belgrade: “#Syrians are full of praise for #Serbian police. ‘They're fair. They're the first who didn't treat us like animals’.” Photo by Manveen Rana, used with permission.
Marcell Shehwaro's award-winning series for Global Voices about life in Aleppo, the heart of Syria's armed conflict, painted a nuanced portrait of the challenges that Syrians home and away must grapple with since their country was besieged by violence. “I try to sort the pieces of me back into place, hoping that in doing so I'll remember where my fingers were, so I can write again,” she confessed.
Everyday citizens stepped up in countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany and Greece to help Syrians and others fleeing war and insecurity for the perceived safety of Europe, their actions often in contrast to the less-than-welcoming rhetoric from political leaders.
A tender moment between a Serbian police officer and the Syrian toddler in his arms offered a brief respite from the disheartening reports of police brutality and unfair treatment of refugees in Europe.
Men in Tajikistan dared to walk out their doors with a beard at a time when reports are widespread of authorities forcibly shaving men with a face full of hair, allegedly to combat the growing influence of Islam there.
Nepalese began to rebuild after their country was rocked by three earthquakes that left more than 9,000 people dead and displaced millions. “Can an earthquake be so ruthless?” wrote Global Voices contributor Sanjib Chaudhary about his experience in the first terrifying tremor. “I still can’t imagine it was an earthquake: it was an Armageddon. But our never dying spirit hasn’t subsided. We will soon bounce back.”
A radio program and audio podcast that stars a fictional white cockatoo taught children in Australia's Northern Territory about the indigenous Warumungu language and culture, while in Colombia, a group of linguistics and anthropology students are using digital tools to resurrect the extinct indigenous Muisca language.
Two students at the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, invented a soap made from locally sourced herbs and natural ingredients that repels mosquitoes carrying deadly diseases such as malaria.
After 18 months in prison on baseless charges of terrorism, the Zone9 bloggers in Ethiopia, some of whom are Global Voices members, were acquitted. The case was a distressing example of the country's treatment of freedom of expression, but the response it inspired from the Global Voices community and beyond was a heartening antidote.
All members of Zone9 in Addis Ababa, 2012. Photo courtesy of Endalk Chala.
Similar efforts are now needed in Morocco, where seven civil society advocates, including longtime Global Voices contributor Hisham Almiraat, face trial for their advocacy.
Azerbaijan, where nearly one hundred human rights activists, journalists, bloggers and civil society representatives languishing in jails, deserves the world's attention, too. The crackdown on dissent was such that pro-government groups of people showed up at important hearings of those on trial, apparently to take away seats from other potential spectators.
Social justice, or the lack thereof, was thrust into the spotlight in the Philippines when Pope Francis made an official tour of the country. Authorities interfered with protesters and hid away street children and the urban poor to save face.
Human rights groups were blocked by the police from getting near the pope motorcade. Image from Facebook page of Kathy Yamzon
Russia and its supporters continued to push their influence over the Internet and media, while bloggers worked to expose their efforts. In the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, for example, Russian and Ukranian social media users quickly pointed out discrepancies in authorities’ reveal that they had discovered a cache of American-made weapons at the local airport. Turns out the image of the weapon came from video game “Battlefield 3.”
Colombian migrants in Chile, who often face discrimination, organized effective relief efforts when flooding hit the northern part of the country. “For those who think ALL immigrants are delinquents, the images of Colombians in #Copiapó are incredible silencers,” one Twitter user wrote.
When a deadly heatwave rolled through Pakistan during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, citizens of Karachi mobilized to collect resources for run-down government hospitals treating victims.
And ISIS militants executed freelance Japanese journalist Kenji Goto in Syria — one of the heinous group's many, many victims in 2015. Throughout his career reporting on conflict in the Middle East and Africa, Goto recorded his observations on his social media accounts, and they remain as poignant as ever:
Close your eyes. Bear it. If we become angry and yell, we are doomed. This is like prayer. Hate is not what humans should do. Judgment lies with God. That is what I learned from my Arab brothers.

author: L. Finch


text:
One of 2015’s Biggest Political Scandals Ends in the Indonesian House Speaker’s Resignation · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesian House Speaker Setya Novanto leaves after attending an ethics council hearing in Congress. Photo by Sutrisno Jambul, Copyright @Demotix (12/07/2015)
One of the biggest political scandals in Southeast Asia in 2015 was the allegation that Indonesian House Speaker Setya Novanto asked for a 20 percent stake, worth 4 billion US dollars, from mining giant Freeport in exchange for a contract allowing the company to continue operating in the country.
Unknown to Novanto, his conversation with Freeport Indonesia chief executive Maroef Sjamsoeddin was secretly recorded during their meeting last May. When the transcript of the audio recording of that meeting was released to the public, many expressed shock and disappointment with regard to the bold behavior of the house speaker. He even invoked the names of the country’s president and vice president during the meeting. The country’s president denounced Novanto's actions.
Novanto admitted that he made the demand during his negotiation with Freeport, but clarified that he was only joking. He rejected the presentation of the audio recording as illegal evidence against him. He was being probed for ethics violation when he announced his resignation as speaker of the House on December 16.
Aside from being the House speaker, Novanto is also the head of Golkar Party, which dominates the Indonesian Congress, although it fielded a losing presidential candidate in 2014. After his resignation as speaker, Novanto was retained as leader of the Golkar Party, a position which allows him to continue wielding influence inside Congress.
Freeport operates one of the largest gold deposits in the world through its base in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is Indonesia’s largest taxpayer, although many politicians and groups are insisting that the company should remit more to the country’s treasury.
Activists hold a rally urging the nationalization of Freeport minining operations in Indonesia. Photo by Dasril Roszandi, Copyright @Demotix (11/26/2015)
The Novanto scandal generated a lot of Internet memes mocking the politician. An online petition urging the removal of Novanto from Congress garnered more than 90,000 signatures. Some compared his extortion attempt to various phishing scams victimizing ordinary people. Some mockingly asked why the Novanto audio recording can be dismissed as illegal while a famous Indonesian musician was jailed after his sex video was illegally posted on the Internet.
One Twitter poll showed an overwhelming preference for a ‘sandal jepit’ (flip flops) to replace Novanto as leader of the House, reflecting the impact of the scandal on how the public regard politicians today in Indonesia.
Gustidha Budiartie, a Jakarta-based journalist, writes how the Novanto issue has affected Indonesian politics in 2015:
Setya was forced to resign as Speaker, and politicians may be a little more cautious next time they sit down to extort rents from a foreign company. And Indonesia’s public was able to witness, in fascinating and nauseating detail, the mechanics of rent seeking at the highest level.
In an editorial, the Tempo newspaper lambasted the House ethics council for failing to give a guilty verdict to Novanto after the latter resigned his post as speaker:
The way taken by the council in solving Setya’s case shows that they prefer to do a political acrobatic instead of seriously fixing the image of their institution that has been damaged by Setya’s actions.
Inayatullah Hasyim, a law student, urged the president to initiate a stronger penalty against Novanto:
A tough response from the President would send a message that he is committed to corruption eradication.
Rather than remaining silent, the President should take legal action and report the case to law enforcement agencies. Doing so would be simply a move to uphold the law and set an example in eradicating corruption.
Novanto is no stranger to controversy. He caused outcry when he appeared at a political rally of United States presidential candidate Donald Trump.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
South Australians Queue for the Pungent Corpse Flower · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Congrats to the team at Mount Lofty Botanic Garden for their success! Photo courtesy Tom Chladek
A corpse flower has bloomed in South Australia's Mount Lofty Botanic Garden. Known for its size, striking appearance and its stench, its botanic name is the Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum). The plant is native to Indonesia's Sumatra island, where its common name is bibunga bangkai, meaning carrion plant or corpse flower.
Despite the repulsive odour, thousands have waited patiently in line to experience its brief opening. It may not happen again for up to seven years. News had spread quickly:
Thousands Of People Are Lining Up To See A Flower That Smells Like Death https://t.co/qATOFxR435 @lanesainty pic.twitter.com/hS0k5mm59Q
— BuzzFeed Australia (@BuzzFeedOz) December 29, 2015
Even the police got in on the act:
Motorists are advised there is heavy traffic around #Piccadilly as people flock to see #stinkyflower @BotGardensSA https://t.co/bbrcuECAGq
— SA Police News (@SAPoliceNews) December 29, 2015
Natalie Whiting captured some of the curious crowd on video:
Hundreds line to see #corpseflower at @BotGardensSA in #adelaide. @amworldtodaypm @abcnewsAdelaide pic.twitter.com/tXIiGRXR9p
— Natalie Whiting (@Nat_Whiting) December 29, 2015
Even Britain's Telegraph joined the flower power, as did BBC News:
Thousands queue to smell flesh-odoured corpse flower which blooms every 1000 days https://t.co/1ORFXUuNeC pic.twitter.com/ZSt1tepXtM
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 29, 2015
No wonder Tom Chladek, the photographer @botgardenssa, was enjoying the attention:
Can't believe the attention this is getting. @botanicgardenssa #titanarum
A photo posted by Tom Chladek (@chladey) on
Unfortunately, any possibility of extending access into a second day was dashed by the summer bushfire season:
#MountLofty Botanic Garden will be closed Wed 30 December due to “Severe” fire danger rating. More info at https://t.co/HpC69AnODx. @SADEWNR
— Botanic Gardens SA (@BotGardensSA) December 29, 2015

author: Kevin Rennie


text:
Strangest Twitter Moment of 2015? Elijah Wood Wades into the Gollum-Erdogan Spat · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Smeagol/Gollum and Erdogan. Widely shared.
With a 47-year-old Turkish doctor facing jail time for comparing one of the most powerful political leaders on Middle Earth to the Lord of the Rings character Gollum, demand grew for Elijah Wood to intervene.
That Bilgin Ciftci faces jail time for comparing Erdogan to Gollum/Smeagol, regardless of wether he's good or bad, is horrifying.
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) December 3, 2015
But did Wood have any idea of the Twitter forces his response would release?
The fact that a social media meme comparing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Gollum could be an imprisonable offence says much about the descent of Turkish politics into the realm of insanity over the last two or so years.
That a misspelled Twitter condemnation of the charges by a Hollywood actor that just happened to have spent a lot of time on screen with Gollum would gather the attention it did shows the rising importance of the 140-character medium, and how — rightly or wrongly — celebrity tweets are now waited on in a way akin to embassy statements.
Doctor Bilgin Ciftci may or may not spend up to four years in jail for comparing Erdoğan to Gollum on social media as a panel of five ‘experts’ comes to a conclusion over the insult.
But his life has already been ruined after the country's national health authority fired him in October.
A medical doctor's job is terminated by the state for sharing this picture #BilginCiftci #AKP @RT_Erdogan pic.twitter.com/C7E87t1KQ7
— A.Kadir Yildirim (@akyildirim) October 15, 2015
According to Turkish rights experts, Article 299 of the Turkish penal code that Ciftci is being prosecuted under now plays the role Article 301 did under governments past.
But whereas Article 301 punished insulting the Turkish state in general terms, Article 299 punishes insulting its head — currently Erdoğan — and has been used as a premise to detain over 100 people this year according to opposition-minded media Today's Zaman.
Social media posts are an obvious target.
Writing for Al-Monitor columnist Pinar Tremblay noted Ciftci was not even the first Turkish social media user to draw the Erdogan-Gollum comparison, as “such videos and memes were widely circulated over Turkish social media” during a corruption scandal in late 2013 that pointed to money laundering by Erdogan, his family and his closest political allies.
Back then, Erdogan was fighting hard to restore his political pre-eminence and fend off what he deemed the attacks of a “parallel state” financed by his US-based ally-turned nemesis Fethullah Gülen.
But Ciftci had the misfortune of allegedly insulting Erdogan during a year in which his Justice and Development Party (AKP) has bluffed and bullied its way back to the apex of Turkish politics after a wobble following inconclusive elections earlier in June.
Satirical outlet the MideastBeast produced a fairly obvious response to the charges against the doctor:
“Lord of the Rings” character Gollum has filed a lawsuit against a Turkish doctor over a series of images comparing Gollum to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Being compared to Mr. Erdogan has personally and libelously defamed my character,” Gollum told The Mideast Beast. “We may both be hideous villains obsessed with attaining power at all cost, but at least I have some redeeming qualities.”
Gollum also noted that he was not nearly as ugly as the Turkish president.
With the expert group assessing the insult having until February next year to report back to the court on their findings, the people that know Gollum best spoke up.
Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson and screen writer Fran Walsh released a statement December 3 that the character depicted in the meme was actually Gollum's “joyful, sweet” alter-ego Smeagol:
If the images below are in fact the ones forming the basis of this Turkish lawsuit, we can state categorically: none of them feature the character known as Gollum. All of them are images of the character called Smeagol. Smeagol would never dream of wielding power over those weaker than himself. He is not a bully. In fact he’s very loveable. This is why audiences all over the world have warmed to this character.
But while the traditional print media eat up the pair's statement, social media went nuts for Elijah Wood's, including an army of Turkish tweeps who leapt on the hapless hobbit:
Are you parallel? @elijahwood
— Kutsal Bayraktar (@mortifera) December 3, 2015
“Parallel” here refers to the “parallel state” President Erdogan accused of being the driver of the Gezi protests which shook the country in 2013, and is based on Gulen's network of supporters.
Few citizens involved with the Gezi movement actively identified with Gulen, a reclusive, moderate Islamic scholar that controls a network of schools across the world. Elijah Wood probably does not know who he is.
A more relevant question emerged in the form of picture tweeted several times: Is Erdogan in control of the ring?
Ring was found years. @elijahwood pic.twitter.com/bguQaCcJqv
— Kaç Saat Oldu? (@kacsaatoldunet) December 3, 2015
And anyway, just shut up Frodo!
Sen sus lan. Senin olduğun sahneleri hep geçiyom zaten. Ne yürüme yürüyebiliyon ne yüzüğü atabiliyon… Edepsiz. @elijahwood
— Bay Anderson (@M_AYDIN54) December 3, 2015
You shut up. I skip all the scenes you are in anyway. You can't walk properly. You can't even throw the ring properly… indecent @elijawood
O Legolas'a söyle, onun da Elf gözlerini sikiyim. KİMSİNİZ LAN SİZ @elijahwood
— Cem Kartal (@IrencBiHerif) December 3, 2015
Go tell that Legolas, I will f*** his Elf eyes. Who the f*** you think you are?
Hüküm dağının ateşine attığın Gollum'a dön bir bak istedim @elijahwood
— Agente Increíble (@delininsopasi) December 3, 2015
Turn around and look at Gollum who you threw into the burning mountain.
smeagol was bitten your finger did you forget this ? shut up frodo @elijahwood — Yobazettin Beni (@fenomenyobaz) December 4, 2015
Some even suggested he was working to bring the state down:
@anarchyinturkey @Machiavelli473 @elijahwood we can see the big game!! you can not cheat us anymore — ersin özbükey (@ersinozbukey_) December 4, 2015
And others that he didn't know the half of it:
@elijahwood living in turkey is horrifying. — nar (@xejeri) December 3, 2015
@elijahwood This is nothing compared to @SevgiAkarcesme‘s case. She was handed jail time for a comment left by someone else under her tweet!
— Seyfi Efendi (@SeyfiEfendi) December 11, 2015
Ever since the bombardment, Wood has refrained from forays into Turkish politics and returned to his regular Twitter diet of retweets and merchandise promotion:
New @_spectrevision merch at https://t.co/LMbjBocA1i get yours now! FREE Cooties festival poster for the first 25! pic.twitter.com/agcrE5LY9F — Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) December 19, 2015
It seems safer that way…

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


text:
The Best Stories of 2015, Handpicked by the Global Voices Community · Global Voices
Global Voices

PHOTO: Public domain (CC0) from from Pixabay.com
This story was compiled and edited by L. Finch and the Global Voices community.
With the end of 2015 approaching, our social media news feeds are awash with lists counting down the best of the year gone by. But how do you measure what's “best”? By how many clicks a story received? By how many likes it got on Facebook?
As Global Voices is a community-driven newsroom, we thought we'd go to the source and ask our editors, authors and translators from around the world which stories published on our site in 2015 were their favorites. What follows is a year-end review of our best stories, as chosen by our hard-working contributors.
For Suzanne Lehn, co-editor of Global Voices’ Lingua project in French, the story Kabul Taxi Is Blocked on Facebook. Long Live Kabul Taxi! by Najiba Madadi was “by far my favorite.” It profiled the late great Kabul Taxi page on Facebook, run by an anonymous author who detailed his imaginary experiences ferrying high-profile passengers in his fictional cab. Their political discussions, while fanciful, touched on very real issues plaguing the country—that is, until Facebook blocked the page following a complaint from the president’s national security adviser.
Suzanne said about the story:
It sheds an unusual light on daily life in Afghanistan which is not only about war and encroaching extremism as we may imagine from what we read or watch in mainstream media. It has humor both in the facts described and the storytelling. The way those people react is universal, we can identify with them.
Contributor Elizabeth, who lives in Santiago, Chile, but is originally from Mexico City, was touched by Remembering Uruguay's Disappeared Through the Eyes of a Photographer by Fernanda Canofre. The story highlights photographer Juan Urruzola's series of portraits of individuals who disappeared during the country's dictatorship, photographed against the backdrop of the capital city's landscapes.
“I though it was a small but powerful piece,” Elizabeth said. “Very emotional.”
Fernando Miranda, the first one of the dictatorship's disappeared found in Uruguay | Photo: Juan Urruzola/Reproduced under authorization
It was Global Voices Francophone editor Lova Rakotomalala‘s personal experience that led him to choose Creating a Media of Empathy One Letter at a Time as his favorite story of 2015. The post features the back-and-forth correspondence between Lova and Nigeria author Nwachukwu Egbunike on the importance of inspiring empathy in readers through our reporting—especially in light of extremist violence around the world and the divisive rhetoric that follows—and the challenges inherent in doing so.
“Instead of emphasizing our shared humanity, media shone the lights on the extremes that would turn people against each other,” Lova said:
It is a difficult momentum to combat because it seems most of us love to watch the incoming train wreck. But I do believe that we are also responsible for making sure that we try to understand each other. This post tries to unpack that: empathy vs othering, etc., and it does so by having a conversation.
Author Arzu Geybullayeva, who lives in Istanbul, chose Five Top Tweets: Iranians Ridicule Censorship on the ‘Filternet’ by our partner Small Media, a brief piece curating Twitter commentary mocking Iran's sluggish and censored Internet.
“Because this is so close to home and rings a bell when it comes to both Azerbaijan and Turkey where I currently live,” she said.
As runners-up, Arzu also pointed to This City in Siberia Would Rather Elect a Cat Mayor (“I am a big fan of RuNetEcho project”) and Facebook Vows to Improve Real Name Policy. But How Far Will They Go? (“This is something I was part of drafting so I was thrilled to see this go live and picked up by outlets in the US as well as the Facebook”).
Caribbean editor Janine Mendes-Franco in Trinidad and Tobago loved the uplifting message behind The Enormous Mural That Made a Mexican Neighborhood ‘Magical’ by Giovanna Salazar. It told the story of the largest graffiti mural in all of Mexico, painted onto 200 homes in the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo. The project created jobs, reduced youth violence and instilled a sense of community spirit in the struggling municipality.
“It makes you realise the power communities have to be a force for good if they can only harness it,” Janine commented.
Las Palmitas and the “macro mural” in its final stage. Photo taken with permission from the Germen Crew collective's Facebook page.
Japan editor Nevin Thompson, who splits his time between Japan and the Vancouver area, said he was “really impressed” by Caoimhe Butterly‘s reporting on the harrowing journey of refugees on their way to Europe, including her story Precarity and Resilience in Calais.
Caoimhe's story on Calais impressed me the most as she is telling a story that is not getting told.
A post by our partner Hong Kong Free Press resonated with author Arpan Rachman in Indonesia. Hong Kong Investigative Journalism Start-Up ‘Factwire’ Crowdfunds HK $3 Million reported on the efforts of nascent Hong Kong news outlet Factwire to fund itself with the help of the crowd.
“This is new landscape for whole of media in Asia,” Arpan said:
In fact, many countries out there are still in the darkness era with unkind governments for investigative reporting. Hong Kong with Factwire can be a role model to lead others, moving faster to open up transparency and accountability for all of Asia's citizens.
A post by Global Voices partner Public Radio International touched contributor Abdoulaye Bah in Rome, Italy. How One Woman Fought One of the World’s Biggest Oil Companies—and Won introduced us to Margie Richard and her years-long mission documenting the health problems of people in her Louisiana neighborhood after the arrival of a Shell chemical plant. Her determination took her all the way to the United Nations, and Shell eventually offered to buy out the homes of people who lived near the plant.
“History has shown how difficult it is to win a case against industries which are responsible for ecological disasters, especially oil companies,” Abdoulaye commented:
In many parts of the world, Shell, in particular, has violated the rights of local populations to accumulate the most money possible.
I felt a deep satisfaction to see a 71-year-old woman fighting successfully to make this giant accept the responsibilities for the disaster it has caused to so many innocents.
Latin America editor Mary Aviles in the San Francisco Bay Area highlighted The Violent Life and Afterlife of Venezuela’s Slums by Yessika Gonzalez. The story offers a glimpse of criminals’ funerals in Venezuela, painting a nuanced portrait of the socio-economic and cultural forces at play.
After reading this story you will understand why people, like late Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar, are still remembered and “admired” by some.
View of General South Cemetery (Cementerio General del Sur) in Caracas, Venezuela. Image from the Facebook group “Comunidad de usuarios y amigos del Cementerio General del sur.”
Greek editor Veroniki Krikoni in Athens, Greece, Lingua Russian editor Anna Schetnikova in Russia, and executive director Ivan Sigal in the US chose pieces written by Marcell Shehwaro as part of her award-winning series “Dispatches From Syria.”
Veroniki said A Year Away From Syria, in which Marcell described the crippling depression that accompanied leaving her home in Syria, was a poignant reading experience:
It was a year long since last story of Marcell from Aleppo was published. We were translating older posts of hers, which showed a courageous brilliant person full of will at first and wrath subsequently. I read this article shortly after her winning the first prize with her series. I felt bad, because I saw before me the transformation of this young woman to something else, all because of the war at her homeland.
Ivan said A Year Away From Syria also stood out to him “because of the clarity of Marcell's ideas, her passion, and her willingness to look closely at how she represents herself both publicly and to herself. This kind of humility is all too rare, and vital both to understanding the Syrian conflict and activism more generally.”
While Anna selected My Birthday, in which Marcell recalled her birthdays throughout the years of revolution and war:
For me, all of Marcell Shehwaro's posts are dreadful and saddening yet beautiful and inspiring, but this one stands out. The chosen form of retrospective makes you to live through the described events along with the author, giving you haunting feelings of grief and hopelessness. The story impressed me incredibly.
The story Cova da Moura: “A violência policial é a face mais visível do racismo em Portugal” diz Flávio Almada (Cova da Moura: “Police violence is the most visual face of racism in Portugal” says Flávio Almada) by Rádio AfroLis stuck with Portuguese editor Manuel Ribeiro.
In the Portuguese-language piece, Flávio Almada, who is a member of the community project Moinho da Juventude, gives insight into the arrest of five young people in the Lisbon neighborhood of Cova da Moura. Manuel explained:
I have selected this one because it shows how deep racism prevails within the Portuguese society though the society itself claims not being racist.
The placard reads, “I don't want to be afraid of the police.” Protest against police violence in Lisbon. Photo by Fernanda Canofre/Global Voices
Iran editor Mahsa Alimardani said her favorite of the year was New Research: Iran Is Using ‘Intelligent’ Censorship on Instagram, a story she collaborated on with Frederic Jacobs with the help of Advox editor Ellery Roberts Biddle.
The piece detailed how Iranian authorities were experimenting with “intelligent” censorship on the photo-sharing site that left political pages accessible, but blocked the accounts of Justin Bieber and the Kardashians:
Hate to boast about my own work, but it made my year to have make a headline in AP that said “Iran's censors are struggling to keep Justin Bieber's abs off Instagram.” The most tabloid-tastic moment of my year, if not life!
Managing editor Sahar Habib Ghazi based in San Francisco admitted that she had a hard time choosing just one post, but said this particular episode of GV's hangout series “had a profound impact on me.” Following the Beirut and Paris attacks, Lebanese author Joey Ayoub, Francophone editor Lova Rakotomalala, and Latin America community manager Laura Vidal discussed race, the politics of death and the unequal reactions to tragedies around the world.
“Media attention inequities cut deep,” Sahar said. “We feel for all tragedies”:
Conversations like the one we had in this episode make me so proud of the wonderful community we are a part of, and hopeful for the news agenda that we set.
Managing director Georgia Popplewell, who's based in Trinidad and Tobago and also edits The Bridge, GV's original writing section, said that “choosing ‘favorite’ anything goes against the grain of the way my mind works,” but one of the stories she most enjoyed both editing and reading in 2015 was Laura Vidal's In Caracas I Found Tehran:
Laura's delightful essay traces the pathways and processes by which we engage with—and develop a passion for—other cultures. In her case the culture is Persian, and one route was literature, followed by encounters, friendships and romance with actual Iranians in Caracas, Venezuela, of all places, thanks to the controversial rapprochement between the governments of Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Bikinis vs Chadors in Venezuela and Iran: “After acclimatizing to Venezuela, even some of the Iranian women would adopt the more revealing dress style of their Venezuelan peers.” Shiraz street scene photo by Flickr user Gabriel White (CC BY-SA 2.0). Images remixed by Georgia Popplewell.

author: Global Voices


text:
The Tragic Rise of Child Abduction as a Business in Madagascar in 2015 · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

A gang of alleged child abductors arrested in Antananarivo, Madagascar via @radiomada
Endemic poverty and insecurity have many Malagasy citizens struggling to foresee a brighter outcome in the near future for the country. In the current economic settings, a few criminals have taken up a sordid way to make a living: child abduction.
Madagascar has seen a sharp rise in kidnapping followed by extortion during the past two years. Testimonies of gut-wrenching ordeals abound on Malagasy forums and blogs.
Here is the story of Annie and Arnaud, as told by B. Nguma, a resident of Toamasina, Madagascar, on the Housseina Writing blog:
Il y a quelques semaines, Annie et Arnaud, 2 enfants d’un opérateur dans le secteur du bois, ont été kidnappé à Tamatave. Les ravisseurs réclamaient une rançon de 3 millions d’euros en lançant plusieurs avertissements mais les parents des enfants n’ont pas les moyens de les payer. Les négociations étaient au point mort, mais un rebondissement macabre vient de transformer ce kidnapping en mise à mort. Annie, âgée de 14 ans, a été retrouvé morte à proximité de sa maison. Les premières analyses montrent qu’elle a été torturée pendant des heures avec un étranglement qui aurait provoqué sa mort. Les autorités tentent de retrouver Arnaud, mais la mort d’Annie laisse craindre le pire.
A few weeks ago [3 December], Annie and Arnaud, the two children of an operator in the timber industry, were kidnapped in Tamatave (aka Toamasina, Madagascar). The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 3 million euros and sent several warnings to the parents regarding the fate of their children, but the parents could not pay the ransom. The negotiations stalled, but a macabre twist turned the kidnapping into a killing. Annie, 14 years old, was found dead near her house. Initial analysis shows that she was tortured for hours then strangled to death. The authorities are still trying to find Arnaud, but Annie's death raises fear for the worst.
Young Malagasy girls by Hery Zo Rakotondramana on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0
Mbolatiana, a renown Malagasy blogger based in Antananarivo, was moved by the current plight of Arnaud, a teenager himself, who is still sequestered by gangsters. She wrote the following to him:
J’aurais bien voulu connaître le jeune homme que tu es dans d’autres circonstances. Petit frère, te voilà propulsé d’un coup dans un monde où la turpitude des grandes personnes règne sans limite. En quelques semaines, tu as été la victime de tous les maux de ce pays qu’est le nôtre : la corruption, le non-respect des droits humains, la violence à outrance, l’esclavagisme, l’état de non-droit. Certes, petit frère, trop malheureusement, tu es loin d’être le seul. Car ils sont des milliers à être quotidiennement traités comme des bêtes, sous nos yeux. Des enfants qui sont kidnappés et que l’on ne retrouve jamais, des enfants qu’on retient comme esclaves des familles en ville comme dans les campagnes, des enfants que l’on prostitue, des enfants que l’on vend et achète pour leurs organes. Et j’en passe.
Mais cela n’enlève en rien ma tristesse quand je pense à toi. Car comme tous les autres, tu es une proie. Du fond de mon cœur, j’espère vraiment qu’un jour très proche, tu puisses le lire ce texto, libre et en bonne santé. Mais où que tu sois, sache qu’il y a des choses que l’on ne peut nous enlever : l’espoir et la liberté. Des mots forts de sens. Je sais que c’est trop facile de le dire quand ce n’est pas soi-même qui est embrigadé, enfermé. Et je te comprendrais si tu ne partages pas mon point de vue face à ce que tu as vécu. Mais une chose est sûre petit frère, l’histoire a montré que les plus grands hommes et les plus grandes femmes qui avaient changé l’humanité, ces activistes endurcis, ces faiseurs de Nations sont « nés », se sont illuminés, dans les cages noires des prisons, sous la torture et les pressions des oppresseurs. J’espère vraiment que tu t’en sortiras, que tu en seras plus fort. Sache également que des gens qui ne te connaissent pas, comme moi, te soutiennent.
Petit frère, nous gardons espoir de te revoir.
I would have liked to have gotten to know your story of being a young teenager under different circumstances. Little brother, you are now suddenly propelled into the harshest of worlds where the grownups’ turpitude reigns limitless. Within weeks, you have become the victim of all the evils that this country of ours has to face: corruption, no respect for human rights, excessive violence, slavery, the state of lawlessness. Unfortunately, little brother, you are far from alone in your plight here because there are thousands of children who are treated like animals daily. Children who are kidnapped and never to be found again, held as slaves, send to prostitution, even bought and sold for their organs.
But that does not diminish my sadness when I think of you. For as for all the other children here, you have become prey. From the bottom of my heart, I really hope that one day soon, this message will find you free and healthy. But wherever you are, know that there are things the criminals cannot take away from us: hope and freedom. I know it's easy to say when I am not the one being locked in a cell. And I would understand if you do not share my view on what you have experienced. But one thing is certain, little brother, history has shown that the greatest men and women who have changed humankind, the strong-headed activists, the nation-builders, many of them found their ultimate drive in the black cages of prisons, following torture and other oppressive measures. I dearly hope you will make it out alright and that the ordeal will make you stronger. Please know that people like myself who don't know you yet keep you in their thoughts. Little brother, we all hope to see you soon.
The rise of child abduction in Madagascar has become an international incident. Former French ambassador François Goldblatt stated that he had submitted a list of people the French embassy suspected to be involved in child trafficking. Many reports state that former perpetrators of kidnapping were released weeks before the recent spike in child abduction, emphasizing the dysfunction of the justice system in Madagascar.
Two other children were abducted a few days after Annie and Arnaud. In related news, a general and three army officers were recently arrested for the rapt of the family of a store owner of Chinese descent.
Ariniaina, a Global Voices contributor, wrote about the fear she is trying to conceal when it comes to the safety of her own children:
Sortir avec le bébé même pour aller chez l’épicier d’en face est risqué. Je suis parent et j’ai actuellement peur pour la sécurité de mes enfants. Et je suis loin d’être la seule. Ces derniers jours, on a assisté dans les principales villes de Madagascar une vague d’enlèvements d’enfants.  Quelle est la suite de l’affaire sur l’enfant de 6 ans décapitée? Cette histoire m’a carrément glacé le sang. Je ne souhaite à aucun, même à mon pire ennemi, de vivre pareil cauchemar. La population malgache a le sentiment d’être complètement désarmée face à cette vague de kidnapping d’enfants. En effet, il semblerait que la police n’y accorde guère d’importance. Pire, selon certaine sources (en malgache), les autorités policières en viennent même à ignorer les plaintes déposées.
Going out with a baby just to go to the grocer across the street has become risky. I am a parent and I now fear for the safety of my children. And I am far from alone. In recent days, there has been a wave of child abductions in the major cities of Madagascar. What to think of the case of that 6-year-old child that was beheaded ? This story sent a frozen chill to my spine and blood. I would not wish such a nightmare on my worst enemy. The Malagasy population feels completely helpless in the face of this wave of children kidnapping. To boot, it seems that the police does not think it is that important. Worse, according to some Malagasy sources, some law enforcement agencies ignore some of the complaints altogether.
The case of beheading of a 6-year-old occurred in Amabatolampy, a suburb of the capital Antananarivo in June. The child was seen going into a taxi with a strangers that lured her with candies. The motives of the crime are still unknown.
Some regions, like the Sava region in the northeast of Madagascar, seem to be less protected against such crimes. The bandits often target the wealthy minorities of foreign origin. The asking price goes from 40,000 euros to more than a million, depending on the victim's family.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
A Look Back on the Stories We Told About Latin America in 2015 · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

Windows and balconies in Havana. Image taken from user Chris Goldberg on Flickr under Creative Commons licence.
2015 marked one year since the disappearance of the students of Ayotzinapa in Mexico. In the same year, elections were held in Argentina, Venezuela and Guatemala, among others. The United States and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations, and Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano left us.
We shared these and other stories on Global Voices throughout the past 12 months. As 2016 approaches, let's review the year gone by.
We'll start with the students from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, a year after their disappearance on September 26, 2014. Our contributor Elizabeth shared some reflections on the tragedy, so that obscurity and impunity may not prevail this time. The missing students have yet to be found — the case remains a night that hasn't yet ended.
A partir del 26 de septiembre de 2014 Ayotzinapa dejó de ser un lugar, para convertirse más bien en una idea, un símbolo. (…)
Desde hace trescientos sesenta y cinco días 26 de septiembre quiere decir desaparición forzada…”
On September 26, 2014, Ayotzinapa stopped being a place and became an idea, a symbol. […]
Since 375 days ago, September 26 came to mean forced disappearance. […]
Elaine Díaz told us how after 54 years, the flags of the US and Cuba fly once more over their respective embassies in each other's country. On August 14, US Secretary of State John Kerry chaired the event in Havana.
Con el restablecimiento de relaciones diplomáticas plenas, estamos presenciando una nueva era en Cuba. Aunque las diferencias políticas persisten, por primera vez en mi vida no hay un enemigo específico al que debemos combatir a toda costa.
With the restoration of full diplomatic relations, we are witnessing a new era in Cuba. Although political differences persist, for the first time in my life there isn’t a specific enemy against whom we're expected to fight at all costs.
Renata Avila kept us updated on the Guatemalan “spring”, when hundreds of citizens took to the streets peacefully to to demand (and eventually achieve) the resignation of President Otto Pérez Molina. This came after news broke of a massive corruption ring in the presidency called “La Linea,” in which top officials cut deals with importers to evade customs duties. The scandal had earlier led to Vice President Roxana Baldetti's ouster.
Estudiantes universitarios, campesinos, familias, grupos indígenas, artistas, ciudades, pueblos, hospitales y más se están uniendo rápidamente a los llamados exigiendo la renuncia del presidente Otto Pérez Molina.
La etiqueta #RenunciaYA le ha dado lugar a #YoNoTengoPresidente.”
University students, country people, families, indigenous groups, artists, cities, towns, hospitals, and more are rapidly joining calls for President Otto Pérez Molina to step down.
The trending hashtag #RenunciaYA (#ResignNow) has given way to #YoNoTengoPresidente (“I do not recognize the president”)
Jimmy Morales, a former TV comedian, was then elected as the new president of Guatemala.
Eduardo Galeano, author of “The Open Veins of Latin America” and the “Memory of Fire” trilogy, passed away on April 13, 2015, at age 74. Andrea Arzaba reminded us of his legacy:
In the 1970s, Galeano attained worldwide recognition for his 1971 book, “The Open Veins of Latin America” — the same book Hugo Chávez gave Barack Obama, when they first met in 2009. Later in life, Galeano criticized his own book, which is still used in classes on Latin American politics.
We chronicled the unusual handover of the presidency in Argentina, in which even the Twitter account of the presidential palace was threatened due to the differences between outgoing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the new president Mauricio Macri, and we profiled Tamara Adrián, the first transgender deputy ever elected in Venezuela.
On the topic of freedom of expression, we closely followed the situation in Ecuador, from stories about Crudo Ecuador, the now-shuttered social media phenomenon that published humorous memes that displeased President Rafael Correa, to reports on how two citizens were sentenced to prison terms, one for clapping at a protest and another one for denouncing alleged nepotism within government.
From Venezuela, we explained how one or two tweets was all it took for seven individuals without criminal records or active political affiliations to end up behind bars for expressing themselves on Twitter.
We reported on the developments of equal marriage in Mexico and Chile. We also highlighted the efforts of a young Mexican man fighting transphobia, one video at the time.
2015 was the year of the Copa América, the continent's most important football tournament, but Gabriela García Calderón brought us the story of the first edition of a different cup — the Copa América of Indigenous Communities. With voices for and against, the alternative tournament kicked off on July 16 in Arica in northern Chile, with the cry of afafán, used by the Mapuches for war or celebration.
On social networks, the hilarious reactions of Mexicans to threats from militant group ISIS as well as the story of a unique Muslim community in Colombia were the most viewed.
Not everything was breaking news or new developments, but they moved us nonetheless.
Laura Vidal brought us the lighthearted story of an Ecuadorian YouTube blogger who explains to his viewers the advantages of being Latino while abroad.
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez addressed the topic of historic memory in the era of Web 2.0. And Yessika Gonzalez took us through the complex socio-economic and cultural elements present in the funerary rituals for criminals in Venezuela.