text:
“We Cannot Do it Alone”, A Mayor’s Plea for US Intervention in Mali  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Lawless and godless men — who hide behind Shariah and demands for Tuareg independence — are now beating and raping women and conscripting children to fight their “holy” war. And the greatest tragedy is that people are starting to get used to it [..] President Obama must not allow northern Mali to become a hotbed of terrorists and drug traffickers that poses a danger to the entire world. The United States has intervened in less dire situations. I call upon its conscience. Please help us get our families out of their wretched distress.
Oumou Sall Seck, mayor of Goundam, in northern Mali wrote about the need for the United States to intervene in Mali in an op/ed for the NY Times. Dr Akory Ag Ikhnane disagrees and suggests that a “military operation would quickly make all these movements forget their differences.”

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
Why Media Shouldn’t Name Delhi Rape Victim · Global Voices
Rezwan

Rajeev Gowda, chairman of the centre for public policy at the Indian institute of management (IIM), Bangalore, argues at Sans Serif why it is best not to name the 23 year old Delhi gangrape victim.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


text:
Censorship Meets Rare Defiance as Journalists Strike in China · Global Voices
Gloria Wong

January 6, 2013 will be remembered in China's journalism history as the day Southern Weekend, a highly acclaimed newspaper that once lead the wave of media reform in China, fell from grace.
At around 9:30pm the newspaper’s official Sina Weibo microblog  [zh] account issued a statement addressed “To Readers”, which denied the provincial propaganda department's role in the recent censorship and rewriting of its New Year editorial.
One hour later, a legion from the current editorial staff announced a strike and distanced themselves from the “To Readers” statement by making a joint statement [zh] through a 163.com microblog account, declaring that the official microblog account had been forcefully taken over.
To show their support, many influential public intellectuals and journalists on Sina Weibo changed their profile pictures to a black and white version of the Southern Weekend logo.
A group of journalism students in China expressed their support for Southern Weekend. Image from inmediahk.net. Non-commercial use.
Inside the Incident
The following day, the editorial team of Southern Weekend published a long microblog on 163.com, specifying how the “To Readers” statement came about. Initially, the management of Southern Weekend and the staff were on the same page, and agreed to do a thorough investigation of the revision incident. However, under pressure from the Guangdong Province propaganda ministry, Wang Genghui, the deputy editor of Nanfang Media (which own Southern Weekend) and Huang Can, a member of the group’s editorial committee and acting editor-in-chief of Southern Weekend asked the editorial team to post the “To Readers” statement that distorted the facts. Wu Wei (@风端), the person responsible for Southern Weekend's official blog, disagreed with the move, but finally turned in the account and password and announced on his personal microblog that he will not assume responsibility for the content posted on the official blog thereafter (his announcement was subsequently deleted).
Rare Defiance
China is notorious for journalism censorship. Most journalists in China, have no choice but to smile and put up with censorship throughout their career. This incident has, however, enabled a rare open defiance against top-down censorship and even called for collective support from public intellectuals. The rare defiance not only reflects the credibility and visibility of Southern Weekend to the public but also highlights the new power dynamics between the government and the public under the influence of new media.
As a visible figure on Sina Microblog, @五岳散人 wrote:
@五岳散人:事件发展至今，明显可以看出已然犯了众怒，而且事情有越演越烈之势，不能釜底抽薪、只会扬汤止沸、最终引火烧身。这就是问题所在：所有狗屁倒灶的行为必须维护而不能切割，切割就证明错了，错了就会被追问，追问就会追到执政手法的根子上。
@五岳散人: Obviously, the incident infuriated the public and the whole incident is only going to intensify. If the government cannot solve the root problem, it will eventually set itself on fire. The government, instead of blocking the public voice, should let the voice go. If censorship takes place, it means the government does wrong things and then they will be faced with queries regarding their governing problems.
In fact, writers, playwrights and directors are all under hostage when it comes to censorship in China. Famous blogger and writer, Hanhan, depicts the real scenario artists face in China in his blog [zh] (he wrote the blog after two of his microblog accounts were deleted):
Unlike the editorial staff at Southern Weekend, many others do not want to compromise their position and join the defiance. The deputy editor-in-chief of People magazine wrote on his microblog:

author: Gloria Wong


text:
China Blames “Foreign Forces” for Press Freedom Protests   · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China's Central Propaganda Department has issued an urgent notice, blaming “foreign forces” for the rare protests in support of press freedom, that are taking place online and offline in the country.
The protests were triggered after the newspaper Southern Weekend's New Year’s editorial was censored and rewritten by a provincial propaganda department. The notice was leaked on Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo[zh] on the evening of Jan 7, 2013 although some of the reposts had been censored. The notice reads [zh]:
各级主管党委和媒体，对于此次事件，必须明确以下三点：一，党管媒体是不可动摇的基本原则；二，南方周末此次出版事故与广东省委宣传部长庹震同志无关；三，此事的发展有境外敌对势力介入。各主管单位必须严格要求其部门的编辑，记者和员工不得继续在网络上发 言支持南方周末。各地媒体、网站明天起以显著版面转发《环球时报》的社评《南方周末“致读者”实在令人深思》。
Party committees and media at all levels must be clear on three points related to this matter:
(1) Party control of the media is an unshakable basic principle;
(2) This incident has nothing to do with Guangdong Propaganda Department Head Tuo Zhen
(3) This incident’s development has something to do with the meddling of external hostile forces. Every work unit must demand that its department’s editors, reporters, and staff stop voicing their support for Southern Weekend online. Starting from tomorrow, all media outlets and websites must prominently republish the Global Times editorial: Southern Weekly’s ‘Message to Readers’ Is Thought-provoking Indeed.”
The Global Time's piece[zh], published on the moring of Jan 7, is in coherence with the notice from the Central Propaganda Department, the conclusion of the piece reads:
A screen shot of the ChinaForbiddenNews report on YouTube about the Propaganda Department's notice
不管这些人愿不愿意，有一个常识是：在中国今天的社会政治现实下，不可能存在这些人心中向往的那种“自由媒体”。中国所有媒体的发展只能是同中国大现实相对应的，媒体改革必须是中国整体改革的一部分，媒体决不会成为中国的“政治特区”… 即使在西方，主流媒体也不会选择同政府公开对抗。
Whether these people[journalists and protesters] are willing to accept it or not, this is common sense: given China’s social and political realities, the kind of “free media” that these people dream of simply cannot exist. All of China's media can develop only to the extent China does, and media reform is part of China's overall reform, and the media absolutely will not become a “political special zone” of China…Even in the West, the mainstream media does not choose to openly oppose the government.
The interesting part of the notice is that it attributed “meddling foreign forces” to the incidents that sparked the protests  a poor excuse that doesn't seem to stand for itself. The word “foreign forces” triggered a lot of discussion on Sina Weibo, it was among the top 10 most searched[zh] word on on  Jan 8.
Online personality and famous blogger Li Chengpeng's ironic comment[zh] found resonance online:
这些境外势力太可恶，他们住在美国富人区，却粗暴干涉中国内政问题，他们偷走中国人很多钱，却存在瑞士银行里。他们子女开着法拉利却从不关心中国校车的惨剧。最可恨:他们竟操纵某些中国媒体，凡见中国公民出谋划策，提倡毛泽东早就提倡过的宪政，就骂这些公民是汉奸，还送去劳教…快抓出这些境外势力!
These foreign forces are evil, they live in the affluent area of the United States but brutally interfere with China's internal affairs, they steal a lot of money from Chinese people and keep it in Swiss banks.Their children, driving Ferraris, never care about the school bus tragedy in China. The most detestable is that they actually manipulate Chinese media. Once they find out that Chinese citizens who advocate for a constitution, which was once advocated by Mao Zedong, they call these citizens traitors, and send them to labor camps … let's hunt these foreign forces down!
Professor Xie Youping[zh] at Fudan University echoed:
一方面，以＂境外势力＂的标签，将某些纯粹的国内矛盾政治化，刻意妖魔化西方政治制度，另一方面，又毫不掩饰地将自己的子女儿孙，派谴到＂境外势力＂所在国留学深造，接受其教育，定居其国度。。。这恐怕是一种全人类都难以论证和解释的二律背反现象。
On one hand, the label “foreign force” politicizes domestic conflicts and deliberately demonizes the Western political system. On the other hand, they make no secret of sending their children and grandchildren to study in the countries where “foreign forces” are from. This is perhaps the most inexplicable and contradictory phenomenon.
Writer Wei Ke wrote[zh]:
所谓“境外势力”， 就是想打棍子时给你扣上的万能帽子，就是想把人往死里整的借口。我们这些土老百姓连去国外的机会都没有，就是在微博上呼吁几句公平正义，为民众说几句话， 咋就成了境外势力了？难道中国不是中国而是境外？谁把我们驱赶出了中国？谁让我们在自己的祖国却被流放般无家可归、流离失所？
The so-called “foreign forces” is applicable everywhere, an excuse to control people. We common people don't even have chances to go abroad, we just say a few words online, appealing for justice, are we becoming the “foreign forces”? Is China not China, but actually overseas? Who kicked us out of China? Who made us homeless in our own country, as if we were exiled?
Lawyer Zhou Ze[zh] posed a question:
行事风格多年如一日。曾有领导对我谈话说：你的出发点和动机都是好的，但一定要注意。有些事很容易被境外敌对势力利用。…我实在理解不了，每个人都出于好的目的和动机去做事情，怎么就会有不利国家的后果。…..到底谁是敌对势力？困惑中
[Government's] style has been the same for many years. Once a leader said to me: Your point and motivation are good, but keep in mind that you can be easily used by hostile forces outside. I really don't understand, if everyone does things with a good purpose and motivation, how can it lead to unfavorable consequences for our country?….. Who are the hostile forces? I'm confused.
Veteran Journalist Peng Xiaoyu[zh] commented:
整天境外势力的思维，不觉得幼稚可笑心虚乏力么？中国的任何风吹草动，境外势力都虎视眈眈，这怎么了？谁叫你中国特色呢？！关键问题不在于境外不境外，而在于中国的问题拖延下去只是慢性自杀而已。我不认同一夜革命，但不倒退是底线要求，可这十年，倒退得太厉害了。
Don't you find these “foreign forces” childish, ridiculous and weak? Whenever there's a sign of trouble, foreign forces would stare at us, so what? Because you practise “Chinese characteristics”. The key question is not about foreign forces or not, but that the delay of the problem is slow suicide. I do not agree with an overnight revolution, but we cannot go backwards, which is the bottom line, but we have been going backwards for the past decade.

author: Abby Liu


text:
Cubans Defend Themselves Against Esperanza Aguirre’s Accusations · Global Voices
Elaine Díaz

Not long before the end of the year, the president of the People's Party (Partido Popular-PP) of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, told Spanish newspaper ABC [es] that she did not recognize “any justice on the island of Cuba.” She called the time that Ángel Carromero, Vice Secretary of the New Generations of the People's Party, spent in prison “torture,” after he was condemned to four years of imprisonment in Havana for “involuntary manslaughter,” in the in the car accident that cost the lives of Cuban dissidents Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero.
In an article [es] published on Spanish site Cubainformación [es], José Manzaneda states:
José María Viñals, de Lupicinio Abogados, entidad española que coordinó la defensa de Carromero junto a letrados cubanos, afirmó que el procesado “no se quejó del trato (en prisión)”, y que “los letrados cubanos y yo (…) pudimos trabajar de forma independiente”. El cónsul general de España en Cuba, Tomás Rodríguez Pantoja, semanas antes, calificó el juicio celebrado en la ciudad de Bayamo como “correcto”, “limpio” y “procesalmente impecable”.
José María Viñals, of Lupicinio Lawyers, a Spanish entity that coordinated Carromero's defense along with Cuban lawyers, affirmed [es] that the defendant “did not complain about the treatment (in prison),” and that “the Cuban lawyers and I (…) could work in an independent fashion.” The Consul General of Spain in Cuba, Tomás Rodríguez Pantoja, weeks earlier, described [es] the trial celebrated in the city of Bayamo as “correct,” “clean,” and “procedurally impeccable.”
Cuban blogger Iroel Sánchez, author of La Pupila Insomne [es] (The Insomniac Student) emphasized the following:
Aguirre publicó un furioso artículo contra el gobierno cubano en el diario madrileño ABC en el mismo estilo adjetivante con que ha llamado “camorristas y pendencieros” a los indignados españoles.
Aguirre published a furious article against the Cuban government in Madrid's ABC in the same descriptive style that she used to call indignant Spaniards “rowdy and argumentative.”
From La isla desconocida [es] (The unknown island), Cuban intellectual Enrique Ubieta considers [es] the notion that Carromero “will get parole or house arrest” and his sentence will be “reduced to a mere formality.” Nevertheless, he ponders the question of “the bet is more long term: will the PP ignore his criminal past to recycle it in Spain's political future?”
Some blogs created caricatures [es] of Aguirre (“My Angel! If only I kill two Cubans!”), while others criticize [es] her leadership of the Madrid community:
Esperanza Aguirre. Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons under the CC 2.0 License
Y reitero la pregunta: ¿Quién es esta Esperanza Aguirre? La misma que una vez electa Presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid dejó sin efecto la gratuidad de la vacunación del Neumococo, así como otros servicios sanitarios; bajo su mandato los madrileños presenciaron la privatización de gran parte del sistema de salud, y un deterioro progresivo de las prestaciones sanitarias públicas.
And I reiterate the question: Who is this Esperanza Aguirre? The same woman that, once elected President of the Community of Madrid, eliminated the free pneumococcal vaccines, as well as other healthcare services; under her leadership Madrid locals witnessed the privatization of much of the healthcare system and a progressive deterioration of public health benefits.
Carromero arrived in Madrid on Saturday, December 29, courtesy of an agreement signed in 1998 between both nations that allows the completion of criminal sentences in the country of origin.

author: Elaine Díaz


text:
Dueling Demonstrations Surround Same-Sex Marriage in France · Global Voices
Anna Gueye

For several months, the debate about ‘universal marriage’ (i.e. same-sex marriage) has been a raging in France. The proposal to legally recognize same-sex marriage constitutes Commitment 31 of the 60 Commitments for France [fr], made by the government as part of the campaign platform on which François Hollande was elected on May 6, 2012.
Those who oppose Commitment 31 want the whole nation to engage in the debate, not merely the parliamentarians, come January 29, 2013 [fr]. Many of those who voted to elect President François Hollande were simply voting against Nicolas Sarkozy, and not necessarily for all 60 of the Commitments [January 29, 2013 is when the proposed legislation is due for debate in the National Assembly].
In France, same-sex couples are legally allowed to enter into a civil union known as the Civil solidarity pact (colloquially referred to as the ‘Pacs’, which was instituted in 1999).
Le sujet est également un étendard des opposants au projet de loi, selon lesquels le droit à l'adoption pour les couples homosexuels ouvrira la voie aux mères porteuses.
This issue [homosexual adoption] is also a catchcry for those who oppose the proposed legislation, who believe that the right to adopt for homosexual couples will pave the way for surrogate mothers.
Several organisations [fr] joined the Catholic Church in marching through the streets of Paris and other French cities on November 17, 2012.
Faced with the magnitude of this mass mobilization, President François Hollande's Socialist Party decided to retaliate by calling on its members to also organize demonstrations for December 16, 2012 [fr].
Street march for universal marriage rights in France by Pierre Selim on FlickR. License CC-BY-2.0
For instance, Pierre Bergé (known for being one half of the legendary power couple he formed with designer Yves Saint Laurent), businessman, president of Sidaction and proprietor of the LGBT magazine Têtu [fr], was cited in Le Figaro on December 17. He declared, during a demonstration in Paris in favor of marriage for all [fr]:
« Nous ne pouvons pas faire de distinction dans les droits, que ce soit la PMA, la GPA ou l'adoption, souligne Pierre Bergé, président du Sidaction et fondateur de Têtu. Moi je suis pour toutes les libertés. Louer son ventre pour faire un enfant ou louer ses bras pour travailler à l'usine, quelle différence? C'est faire un distinguo qui est choquant. »
“We cannot draw any distinctions in terms of rights, whether they concern medically assisted procreation, surrogacy or adoption,” emphasizes Pierre Bergé, president of Sidaction and founder of Têtu. “I am for all of these kinds of liberty. Hire your womb out to make a child or rent your arms out to work in a factory- what's the difference? It is the drawing of distinctions that is shocking.”
A Twitter [fr] reply by a Catholic preacher seemed to fall on deaf ears:
@abbegrosjean : la phrase qui choque de P. Bergé a le mérite d'illustrer crûment la suite prévisible et attendue de ce #mariagepourtous
@abbegrosjean: the phrase that Mr Bergé finds shocking has the merit of roughly illustrating the foreseeable and expected end result of #mariagepourtous [fr] [‘#marriageforall’]
The debate has taken another twist on Les Nouvelles/News : l’autre genre d’info [fr]:
Les parlementaires d'opposition contre le mariage pour tous, rassemblés dans une ‘Entente parlementaire pour la famille’, ont d'ailleurs aussitôt rebondi sur les propos de Pierre Bergé. Selon eux, ces propos sont « inadmissibles et montrent bien l'état d'esprit des promoteurs de ce texte ainsi que la considération qu'ils ont de l'enfant et de la femme. »
Parliamentarians opposed to marriage for all, united in a ‘Parliamentary accord for the family’, immediately pounced on the remarks of Pierre Bergé. According to them, these remarks are “unacceptable and clearly show the true mindset of the sponsors of this legislation and also of their perception of children and women”.
Voices that one might brand ‘leftist feminist’ are also starting to make themselves heard. On her blog l’Arène nue [‘naked arena’], Coralie Delaume wrote (in her post on “Societal” reforms, the left and equality [fr]):
Il a toujours existé une gauche libérale. … Si l’on a coutume de considérer le libéralisme politique et culturel comme un tropisme « de gauche » et son versant économique comme l’apanage de « la droite » …  Alors qu’ils ne sont que les deux faces d’une même médaille, le développement du premier a créé les conditions de légitimation et l’environnement intellectuel propice au déploiement du second. …
Ainsi, cependant que les « libéraux économiques » abandonnent l'avenir aux bons soins du marché, le « libéraux culturels » – qui sont les mêmes – partent à l’assaut de droits individuels neufs. Mais – et c’est là qu’est le subterfuge – ils le font toujours « au nom de l’égalité ». …
Le mariage pour tous ? On le fera « au nom de l’égalité » … Mais de la seule égalité des droits, bien sûr. Car qui songe encore à lutter pour l’égalité des conditions ? …
Mais l’égalité des droits bénéficie surtout à ceux qui disposent des possibilités matérielles d’exercer lesdits droits.
There has always been a liberal left… We have been accustomed to considering political and cultural liberalism as a “left-wing” tropism and its economic counterpart as a “right-wing” prerogative… This is despite the fact that they are actually two sides of the same coin: the development of the former created the conditions for the legitimization and the intellectual environment favorable to the deployment of the latter. […]
So while the “economic liberals” [fr] abandon the future to the care of market forces, the “cultural liberals”– who are really just the same– go on the offensive for new individual liberties. But– and this is where the subterfuge lies– they always do so “in the name of equality”. […]
Marriage for all? It will be instituted “in the name of equality”… But only equality of rights- for who still dreams of struggling for equality of conditions? […]
But equality of rights benefits, first and foremost, those who have the material capacity to exercise those rights.
@HypathieBlog‘s [fr] tweet summarizes this point perfectly:
Quand les femmes riches accepteront de louer leur ventre pour faire des enfants aux femmes pauvres, je serai pour la GPA [Gestation pour autrui : le terme politiquement correct pour mère porteuse, il faut noter que les mères porteuses sont interdites en France depuis 1991).
When rich women will willingly hire their wombs out to make children for poor women, I will be for GPA (‘Gestation pour autrui’- this being the politically correct term [in French] for surrogacy; it must be noted that surrogacy has been forbidden in France since 1991) [note: the English language does not have an equivalent distinction, with the term ‘surrogacy’ being politically correct].
Twelve countries in the world, including eight European countries, recognize same-sex marriage (South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden- as well as 9 out of 50 states in the USA).

author: Anna Gueye


text:
Ecuador: “Children of the Jaguar” Documentary Wins National Geographic Prize · Global Voices
Gina Yauri

[All links are to Spanish-language pages unless otherwise noted.]
Eriberto Benedicto Gualinga Montalvo is the head of Selvas Productions and the director of the documentary “Children of the Jaguar“, winner of two film festival prizes: the National Geographic's award for best documentary and Columbia's Indigenous Festival prize for best depiction of a struggle by an indigenous people.
The documentary follows the lives of the inhabitants of Sarayaku in the southern Amazonic region of Ecuador and their fight against multinationals [En] seeking to exploit oil reserves beneath the Amazon forest floor. Eriberto filmed the documentary over a six-month period, from June to December 2011, in Sarayaku in the province of Pastaza [En]. The work has been screened in a number of venues such as the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival, Colombia's Indigenous Peoples’ Film and Video Festival, Ecuador's EDOC (Encounters of the Other Cinema) Festival, and the Brussels International Film Festival.
Eriberto Benedicto Gualinga, director of the documentary “Children of the Jaguar”. Photo: Redes indígenas.
Global Voices: Why is the film titled “Children of the Jaguar”?
Eriberto: Mi familia viene de una descendencia de un shamán, que podía convertirse en tigre; el jaguar lucha hasta la muerte por defender su espacio de vida, es por eso que Sarayaku dice que son los descendientes del jaguar.
Eriberto: My family are the descendants of a shaman who could transform himself into a jaguar–the jaguar fights until death to defend his living space–that is why the Sarayaku people consider themselves children of the jaguar.
GV: What stands out most in this film?
E. G: El viaje de la delegación de Sarayaku, hacia la sede de Costa Rica para hacer respetar sus derechos [humanos y los derechos de otras muchas comunidades] frente al estado de Ecuador.
E.G.: The trip by the Sarayaku delegation to the seat [of the court] in Costa Rica to have their rights [human rights and the rights of many other communities] respected by the Government of Ecuador.
GV: What caught your attention the most when it came time to film?
E. G: La preparación, los testimonios, el viaje que hizo Sarayaku, ya que algunos ni siquiera conocían la capital del Ecuador, menos un avión, y muchos menos se imaginaban lo que era un juicio en la sede de la corte en Costa Rica.
E.G.: The planning, the testimony, the trip by the Sarayaku people, some of whom had never even been to the capital of Ecuador, much less on an airplane; and even fewer of them could have imagined what a trial in the seat of the Court [of Human rights] in Costa Rica would be like.
GV: Who were the main and supporting actors?
E. G: Los miembros que viajaron hacia Costa Rica. Los narradores fuimos Eriberto Gualinga (realizador), Patricia Gualinga (dirigente de la mujer y familia) Ena Santi (testigo).
E.G.: The members [of the community] who travelled to Costa Rica. The narrators were myself, Eriberto Gualinga (director), Patricia Gualinga (in charge of women and family) and Ena Santi (witness).
GV: Did you have to overcome any hurdles?
E. G: [Sí], los gastos de financiamiento, son un obstáculo para cualquier producción que quiera realizar un pueblo originario.
E.G.: [Yes], the financing costs are a challenge for any production undertaken by indigenous people.
GV: From a cinematographic perspective, how was the experience of making this documentary?
E. G: A más de filmar en el pueblo, tuve que filmar en otros escenarios, [como] fuera del país [con] otras realidades, enriqueciendo así el conocimiento artístico y personal.
E.G.: In addition to filming in the village, I had to film in other settings, [like] outside the country [with] different realities, thereby enriching artistic and personal awareness.
GV: How do you feel about the recognition you received at National Geographics’ All Roads Film Project in the best documentary category?
E. G: Cada reconocimiento es un incentivo para seguir haciendo más obras a favor de los pueblos originarios. [Uno se] siente con más energía y en paz consigo mismo al saber que su trabajo es tomado en cuenta y reconocido.
E.G.: Any recognition is an incentive to keep working on behalf of indigenous peoples. [One] feels more energized and at peace with oneself knowing that one's work is taken into account and recognized.
GV: What projects to you have in mind now?
E.G.: Trabajar en el siguiente video KAWSAK SACHA selvas vivientes, y hacer entender a la sociedad a través del video en la selva [que] existen otros seres similares a nosotros (seres espirituales), que son los dueños de la Selva y están en constante comunicación con nosotros a través de los shamanes.
E.G.: Working on the next video KAWSAK SACHA living jungles; and to explain to society by means of the video in the jungle [that] there exist beings similar to ourselves (spiritual beings) who are the keepers of the Jungle, and that they are continuously communicating with us through the shamans.
Sarayaku, is located in the eastern province of Pastaza in the Amazon Region of Ecuador. “Children of the Jaguar”, a documentary that depicts the daily resistance of the inhabitants of this village, is a testament to a free community that stands firm in its defence of the Amazon forest. So far, the ruling by the international body has not yet been implemented.
On 18 December 2012, Eriberto Gualinga received the Award for International Recognition, conferred on him by Ecuador's Ministry of Culture for the film “Children of the Jaguar”.

author: Gina Yauri


text:
Ivorian Blogger Questions Government’s Response to Abidjan Stampede  · Global Voices
Julie Owono

Ivorian bloggers Mohamed Diaby and Cyriac Gbogou have been released from police custody. Both citizens, helped create a humanitarian platform to assist victims of the January 1, 2013 stampede in Abidjan. But on January 4, 2013, they were arrested after being accused of interfering with official disaster assistance efforts. Mohamed Diaby  wrote about the events that led to their arrests on his personal blog [fr]. Diaby's testimony highlights the deficiency [fr] of Côte d'Ivoire's public services:
Qui était censé mettre en oeuvre le dispositif sécuritaire pour cette soirée ? Qui a pris le temps de créer les couloirs de dégagement nécessaires ? Y a-t’il eu anticipation sur les flux naturels de circulation des populations après les feux d’artifice ? Si déploiement massif des forces de sécurité il y a eu, quels sont les éléments affectés à la tâche et quel a été leur rôle avant, pendant et après les évènements ? Pourquoi le dispositif mis en place la veille qui a garanti une sécurité maximale pour le concert pour la paix n’a-t’il pas été conservé pour cette soirée qui prévoyait attirer beaucoup plus de monde ?
Who was supposed to implement the safety measures for that night? Who took the time to create the necessary safety exit ways? Was there some planning done on the natural flow of movement of people after the fireworks? If there was massive deployment of security forces, who were the elements assigned to work that night and what was their role before, during and after the events? Why was the police presence set up the day before, which guaranted maximum security for the Peace Concert not maintained for the New Year's eve event, an event likely to attract many more people?
Here is a video of an interview of Mohamed Diaby with AJ Stream on what happened from his perspective:
Mohamed Diaby and Cyriac Gbogou are not detained anymore. Their effort to help the victims of the stampede continued even during their arrest.
Here is a poster with information on how to find relatives that went missing during the stampede:
Poster designed by ivorian activists to help with the recovery after the stampede in Abidjan. It says: ” To retrieve relatives missing since December 31 after the plateau (a borough in Abidjan) event , call +225 05346713  via @cyriacgbogou -public domain
While people gather to watch fireworks at a New Year celebration in Abidjan, a lethal stampede [fr] killed more than 60 and injured another 49 people.  This is the third disaster of this kind since 2009 [fr] in Côte d'Ivoire.
Update: The causes of the disaster are now clearer, as noted by the lead prosecutor. He cites [fr] the narrowing of the road due to the presence of a temporary metal fence, tree trunks on the sidewalk and the lack of lighting and law enforcement as main culprits for the disaster.

author: Julie Owono


text:
Should Prostitution be Abolished or Regulated? Part I · Global Voices
Emmanuelle Leroy Cerqueira

[All links forward to english articles unless otherwise stated]
Two hundred NGO's from across Europe gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels on December 4, 2012. They called for the abolition of prostitution and presented outlines for a European policy to abolish prostitution. This event presented the first opportunity for such a debate to take place within the European Parliament. In fact, the  European Parliament is currently developing a comprehensive evaluation report of European prostitution policies.
Various feminist groups marched against violence towards women in Paris, as part of an international event. Divergent opinions were expressed, some favorable, other adverse to the criminalisation of prostitutes and their clients. Photo Tom Craig copyright Demotix (25/11/2012)
For the abolitionists, prostitution criminalisation is the key to counter human trafficking for sexual exploitation. Grégoire Théry, general secretary of the Movement du Nid states on the Egalité website:
Regulation here means that it would make pimping legal. Regulating prostitution means in fact that we would allow someone to take advantage of other people prostituting themselves
In France, 90% of prostitutes are foreigners. The Minister for Women Rights Najat Vallaud-Belkacem introduced a bill to abolish prostitution and protect it's victims, following Sweden's lead on the matter. Its purpose is to “protect the vast majority of prostitutes who fell victims of violence from the networks of pimps.”
In the Netherlands, where prostitution is authorised and regulated, police estimates that 50% to 80% prostitutes are forced into the industry.
It is difficult to find reliable data on the number of prostitutes trafficked internationally. On one hand, accounting practices for these cases are different from one country to another; on the other hand the phenomenon is generally underground and victims avoid reporting crimes in fear of other reprisals. In Switzerland, according to the Federal Statistics Office, there were 147 complaints registered in the three years between 2009 and 2011 and only 66 people were convicted for human trafficking since 2000.
In France, 60 investigations have been open since 2004, and other cases have been prosecuted under different qualifications as slavery and procurement. Forty criminal networks were dismantled in 2011 in Paris, Caen, Bordeaux and Strasbourg and revealed victims were coming from Columbia, China, Ecuador, Nigeria, Romania and Brazil.
Transsexual Brazilian prostitutes manifested before the Chamber of Senate in Paris against the Anti-Prostitution Law, established by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2002. Photo de Tom Craig copyright Demotix (21/03/2012)
According to new information from the International Labour Office published in June 2012, 21 million people globally are victims of forced labour and human trafficking. Among them, 4.5 million are sexually exploited, mostly women and children, out of which 880,000 are recorded in the European Union. “Sometimes bought for only a few euros” it is reported they can lead to average annual earnings of €150,000in western states, the Scelles Foundation insists.
The Foundation highlights that human trafficking has a “worrying” evolution in Europe. The foundation's report published in December 2012 named, “Sexual Exploitation: prostitution and organised crime,” is an assessment of prostitution in 54 countries and its procurers that had set networks in an ” exemplary capitalist model”.  The turnover of the sex industry is estimated to be over €1.5 billion in Greece (about 0.70% of GDP) and up to €18 billion in Spain where prostitution is permitted and regulated like any other job.
Voices in favour of abolition spoke out in the press and on social media platforms.
On December 18, 2012, Christine Le Doaré, a lawyer on her blog  Total solidarity, feminism, and all that! commits herself to support abolition:
Aux clichés du libre choix et du moralisme abolitionniste, j’opposerais tout d’abord que de plus en plus de témoignages et d’études établissent qu’un grand nombre de personnes prostituées ont été victimes de violences sexuelles dans l’enfance. […] Se pourrait-il que les réglementaristes soient, à ce point, cyniques pour admettre que notre société n’a pas de proposition plus généreuse que la prostitution pour les aider à se reconstruire ? […] Les réglementaristes se sont-ils seulement posé la question de l’âge moyen d’espérance de vie d’une personne prostituée ? Une société ne doit-elle pas d’abord penser à protéger les personnes les plus vulnérables ? Les principes d’intégrité et de non marchandisation des corps humains ne constituent-ils pas des droits inaliénables qui doivent rester hors du commerce et des lois des marchés ? ».
To clichés of freedom of choice and abolitionist morale, I would oppose firstly the evidence from studies and testimonies that most prostitutes were victims of sexual abuse in their infancy. […] It might be possible that the pro-regulation are, at the moment, cynical to admit that our society has no other more generous proposal to help them rebuilt than prostitution? […] Did these regulationists even ask the question of the average life expectancy of a prostitute? Society shouldn't at first think about protecting the most vulnerable of its members?  Are the principles of integrity and non-commercialisation of the human body are not inalienable rights that need to stay out of business and market laws?
Campaign of irate masked prostitutes in Barcelona, against the announcement of the Municipal Chamber of a possible amendment of the prostitution law. Photo Pau Barrena copyright Demotix (26/04/2012)
However all across Europe and the world, sex workers may they be French or foreigners, express their disagreement vis-a-vis the criminalisation of prostitution actors. With the support of feminist movements, they claim the right to self-determination and respect for human rights and call for the establishment of a proper status for their profession.
A joint letter by French intellectuals and feminists published in August declared that:
Chaque adulte doit être libre de ce qu'il veut faire ou ne pas faire de son corps. Décréter illégal ce qu'on trouve immoral n'est pas un grand pas vers le Bien, c'est une dérive despotique. Le pouvoir politique n'a pas à intervenir dans les pratiques sexuelles des adultes consentants. La priorité, c'est de faire de la lutte contre les trafiquants d'êtres humains une cause nationale et d'y mettre les moyens.
Every adult should be free to do what he wants or does not want to do with his own body. To declare unlawful what is immoral is not a big step towards the Good, it is a despotic drift. Political power does not intervene in the sexual practices of consenting adults. The priority is to make the fight against human traffickers a national priority and offer the means for this clash.
Here's a link to the second part of this post: Brazil Debates Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation.

author: Emmanuelle Leroy Cerqueira


text:
Snowballs: Russia’s Phantom Menace · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

The term “flash-mob” was coined in 2003, to describe a group of people who perform a seemingly spontaneous, yet pre-planned public action. Since then, flash-mobs have become an integral part of internet culture, in part because internet is the simplest way to organize such an event.
The first Russian flash-mobs took place ten years ago, directly following ones in the US and Europe, and were organized over LiveJournal [ru]. Now, of course, it's easier for planners to use social media like Facebook and Twitter. This was the route taken by the organizers of the January 6, 2013 “Snow Battle” flash-mob in St. Petersburg, who set up a VKontakte group [ru] with the details of an upcoming snowball fight. Over a thousand people planned to attend the event. After assembling, two teams, the “Black Hats” and the “Colorful Hats”, would:
С места предварительной встречи команды идут на поле битвы (его расположение не будет опубликовано в интернете, узнаете лишь на точке сбора), ждут 14 часов 30 минут, встают стенка на стенку […] ну а дальше всё зависит от вас. Или кто-то ест снег из ваших рук, либо вы едите его сами. =)
From the place of assembly the teams walk to the field of battle (its location will not be announced on the internet, only at the assembly spot), wait until 2:30 PM, line up facing each other […] everything else depends on you. Either you make someone else eat snow, or you are the one who eats it. =)
Snow Battle VKontakte group. Screenshot. January 7, 2013.
The battlefield ended up being the Field of Mars [ru], a centrally located and historic square. However, when the participants got there, they ran afoul of a police patrol, who told them to disperse. According to a local news website [ru], the organizers had tried, but failed, to get a proper permit for the event. Now they were violating the law by holding an “unsanctioned” public assembly, said the police, and furthermore:
Никакой снежной битвы здесь не будет, по той простой причине, как я сказал, что это является правонарушением и мы, как сотрудники полиции, обязаны данное правонарушение пресекать.
There will be no snow battle here, for the simple reason that it is a administrative offence, and we, as police personnel, are required to prevent this offence.
As the crowd sullenly dispersed several people were detained. A video [ru] of a police officer lecturing a crowd of teenagers through a megaphone quickly made it to YouTube, and the news spread to Twitter and LiveJournal.
A police officer addressing a crowd of flashmobbers. YouTube screenshot. January 7, 2013
LiveJournal user axelus posted a quick write up [ru] of what happened to ru_marazm [ru] (ru_stupidity, a LiveJournal community dedicated to preposterous Russian news), where the post quickly sparked debate and so far has almost a thousand comments. Some bloggers have pointed out that the Field of Mars is not a proper place to have a snowball fight anyway, because [ru]:
на марсовом поле? где захоронения с войн? они что не из Питера эти флэшмобщики? кто же на кладбищах играется? разве только полные идиоты или провокаторы
on the field of mars? where there are war burials? are they not from St. Pete's these flashmobbers? who plays around on cemeteries? maybe complete idiots or provocateurs
Although there are indeed burials and memorials located in the square, calling it a cemetery is an overstatement.
Others joked [ru] about the reasons for the dispersal:
– а вдруг они слепят снежного Гитлера?
– Хуже. Вдруг они слепят снежного Путина, а потом, кто-нибудь, не дай боже, отломает ему голову.
– what if they make a Hitler snowman?
– Worse. What if they make a Putin snowman, and then someone, god forbid, breaks off his head.
Political public relations guru Gleb Pavlovsky, was exasperated [ru] on Facebook:
Арест за снежки – это даже не Сталин. Со времён придурка императора Павла такого не было! Что за мрачный кретин у нас правит северной столицей?
Arrests for snowballs – that's not even Stalin-level. We haven't seen something like this since the times of the imbecilic Emperor Paul! What kind of gloomy cretin is in charge of the northern capital?
On the other hand, Moscow city council and Coordinating Council of the Opposition member Max Katz was more upbeat [ru]:
Каждая такая история это шаг к десакрализации власти, к пониманию, что никаких там ужасов нет и что ты можешь и должен идти в политику чтобы всю эту шваль оттуда выкинуть.
Each story like this is another step to desacralizing the government, to an understanding that there is nothing scary there, and that you can and must go into politics to throw all this riffraff out.
There are definitely more stories like this to go around. Just last summer there was a similar incident [ru] in the same location — that time the flashmobbers who got dispersed and detained were aiming to have a pillow fight. It seems as though some bureaucrats are indeed threatened by spontaneous mobs. In the words of a topical Twitter joke [ru]:
сегодня ты играешь в снежки – а завтра свергнешь Путина и конституционный строй!
today you play with snowballs – tomorrow you will overthrow Putin and the constitutional order!
There could be a measure of truth behind the sarcasm. After all, if people can self-organize to pillow-fight, what's to stop them from organizing for something more serious?

author: Andrey Tselikov


text:
Social Media Buzz: The Crimes We Don’t See in Syria  · Global Voices
Syria Deeply

As part of our collaboration with Syria Deeply we are cross-posting a series of articles that capture civilian voices caught in the crossfire, along with perspectives on the conflict from writers around the world.
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media Buzz.
Apart from the relentless rounds of global diplomacy, recent headlines on Syria have focused on the rise of  extremist brigades calling for an Islamic state and fears about the fate of Syria’s minorities. They have overshadowed episodes of civilian suffering, like the estimated fiftieth air strike of a bakery in a Sunni neighborhood. That’s led to complaints across Syrian social media that some crimes are being amplified while others are ignored.
Some of those online voices are calling attention to one visual element often overlooked in the press: videos leaked from the Syrian military. Just as rebels record some of their worst behavior, Syrian soldiers and pro-Assad militias have documented their brutality. By some act of defiance or deliberate messaging, those images make their way  to the Syrian public. These leaked videos show how soldiers stomped on unarmed protesters  and lit unguided ”barrel” bombs with their cigarettesbefore tossing them out of a helicopter. One video that went viral was allegedly shot in Al Hiffa, a Sunni town in the Alawite mountains that was shelled by the Syrian military in June after rebels took control of the town. A Syrian soldier confronts civilians in the street.
It’s a short scene (above). A man is kicked and punched. Three women, including a teenage girl, were a few meters away. The soldier turns his attention to them, slaps the girl and rips off her veil, while hurling obscenities at the women. He tells the man that he plans to violate his sister. Another soldier mocks the women and calls them jihadis.
In the realm of high profile defections, conflicting stories have emerged about Jihad Makdissi, the deputy foreign minister and spokesman, in the weeks since he left Damascus. Did he defect, is he on a three-month vacation, did Hizbollah nab him in Beirut or is heproviding intelligence to the U.S. in Washington? As we wait for the man to speak for himself, here’s a purported private Twitter conversation Makdissi had with Rami Jarrah, a well-known activist, who blogs under the pseudonym Alexander Page.
Some of Jihad Makdissi's direct messages to Syrian activist Rami Jarrah on Twitter
Makdissi gives Jarrah a glimpse of his mindset, sympathetic to  the “heroic actions of the Syrian people.” Jarrah tells Makdissi how he was  detained by the security apparatus in Syria and slapped with a travel ban years before the revolution. He urges the diplomat to defect or take a real stand with the people. More of the interaction is posted at  @AlexanderPageSY. Global Voices Online covered the story here.
Our last snapshot of the week examines the now familiar tensions between Islamist and more secular opposition groups in rebel controlled territories in Aleppo. Protesters gathered on Friday at their usual spot in Bustan Al Qasr, a working class neighborhood in Aleppo that has been shelled repeatedly since July. They start singing songs of revolutionary defiance. But fans of the more extremist Islamist fighting groups refused to join the secular chants and tried to force the crowd to repeat their own calls for an Islamic state. An argument ensued.
Despite the reports of live fire used on the crowds, no serious injuries were reported. But activists condemned the violence and equated the Islamists’ behavior with the Assad regime’s crackdown on peaceful protests.
Continuing on the Islamist theme, pro-Assad outlets and anti-Islamists have been circulating videos of alleged protests in Aleppo that repeat the chant: “The Free Syria Army are thieves, we want the official army.” The first video was broadcast on state TV, though the audio seems to be looped and doesn’t match the video. Then the same audio seemed to be dubbed onto a protest in Aleppo from April 2011 and re-released as anti-rebel demonstration in December 2012. All is fair in the virtual war for Syria.
Islamic chants in Al Bustan

author: Syria Deeply


text:
South Korea: The Secret Agent’s Illegal Electioneering · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

The police launched another round of investigation on a secret agent for conducting illegal electioneering in a progressively-oriented humor site with using 16 different IDs. The Marmot's Hole blog, though dismissive of the claim that this is a part of an organized political effort, briefly summarized the incident and linked back to related articles.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


text:
Support Southern Weekend Against Censorship in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The slogan said: defend professional journalist practice; management of Southern Weekend, do not disappoint your readers. Screen capture from the video.
Around 1000 Guangzhou citizens gathered outside Southern Weekend office building to express their support for the newspaper against the Propaganda Department's brutal censorship of the New Year Greeting editorial. Below is a youtube video uploaded by Chen Ye showing the protest scene. (via acopy.net)

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
The Last Survivors of Aleppo’s Infantry School · Global Voices
Syria Deeply

As part of our collaboration with Syria Deeply we are cross-posting a series of articles that capture civilian voices caught in the crossfire, along with perspectives on the conflict from writers around the world.
Rural Idlib, Syria – Adel and Ahmad, two 24-year-old college graduates from Idlib, are survivors of a showdown between the rebels and the regime. When the battle began for a military school near Aleppo, they were inside, serving time in the Syrian Army.
They had been on both sides of the revolution, joining in peaceful protests against the Assad regime, but they had refused to join in the armed conflict against the government.
“It was impossible for me to shoot at the army,” said Ahmad, the more loquacious of the two. Syria Deeply is withholding their surnames and photographs at the request of their parents, who still live in the regime-controlled Idlib city.
In May 2012, they were nabbed at a military checkpoint and were forced to fulfill their mandatory military service, which both had been deferring. Syria’s army was in dire need of boosting its officer ranks, Ahmad said, and placed the two educated young men in the infantry school on the outskirts of Aleppo.
Idlib, Syria Revolution Memory Project
Roughly 500 cadets were in Adel and Ahmad’s class, 90 per cent of them from the Alawite sect, according to Ahmad. Adel and Ahmed, on the other hand, are Sunni. Training for the first two months involved fitness exercises and classroom instruction, but that was interrupted when rebels swept into Aleppo late in July and Syria’s largest city was plunged into brutal urban warfare.
Most of the cadets were dispatched to man checkpoints in the city. Adel and Ahmad, the lucky ones, were ordered to guard the three square kilometer campus. “The Alawites, even those who were our friends, seemed to be afraid of us,” Ahmad said. “When we went on patrol, especially when it was one Alawite and one Sunni, they used to watch us more than the fence ahead of us. You could sense that they didn’t trust us.”
Most of the supervising officers were Alawites, Adel said, and the commanders told cadets that the fight was against armed terrorists, many of them foreign, who were bent on destroying the country. Unable to call their parents or watch foreign news channels, the cadets had no way to verify this assessment. “They would insult Sheikh Arour,” Adel said, referring to the firebrand and sectarian Sunni cleric who has a TV show on a Saudi satellite station.
http://youtu.be/SHxq4VDw2lM
(A Syrian officer defects from the infantry school).
As war raged in Aleppo and news trickled into the infantry school of comrades who died or fled the battle, cadets from all sects quietly talked about plans to defect and speculated on when Assad would fall, Ahmad said. By November 1, the battle reached the infantry school.
Rebels implemented a siege of the campus and methodically forced Syrian soldiers and officers to contract into defensive positions, in what was known as the “Battle of the Trenches.” Colonel Ali Saeed, the school's commander, cancelled all training and classes to focus on breaking the siege. According to Ahmad, he explained the retreats as tactical and promised cadets that the military’s best tanks and Republican Guard units were just hours away from destroying the “terrorists.”
“They lied to us,” Ahmad said. “By November 18, the siege was tighter and we knew that we were done. Soldiers and officers began to defect every day.”
Food sources were depleted and cadets began to eat powdered mixes used to make Tang-like drinks. Water was short. Bread was flown in, but the commanding officers kept the bulk of the food for themselves, Ahmad said. “Even the Alawite students were hungry,” he said.
On December 15, rebels surged into the final stronghold left at the school. Ahmad and Adel used the confusion to flee, disobeying orders from the commanding officer, Major Ibrahim Haidar, to fight to the death. The rebels provided food and water to the survivors, Adel said, and took them to Aleppo for a week before sending them back to their families in Idlib.
http://youtu.be/KK8u6lEZmLU
(Rebels use a tank to shell the infantry school).
One rebel commander, Abu Furat, who died that day after gaining control of the school, had previously broadcast a public plea to the parents of the cadets, urging them to defect. But Ahmad’s mother said she never heard the message, which is unsurprising given the lack of power and unreliable Internet services in much of the country.
Ahmad and Adel’s friends in rural Idlib are now hardened fighters. One of the rebels said he was glad that his friends are alive and is certain that they weren’t criminals, but he doesn’t accept them as revolutionaries. He called them selfish, complaining that they stayed in the Syrian Army because Ahmad was scared of losing his job, while Adel wanted to be near his new fiancé.
Both men are thinking about leaving the country, but their families no longer have the resources to help them start a new life, and competition for jobs in neighboring countries is fierce. They are relatively safe for now, filling their nights by serving food and tea to rebels who were trying to kill them only a few weeks before.


text:
Madagascar’s Vanilla Beans Came from Mexico · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Vanilla bean in Madagscar by David Darricau on Flickr CC license NC-BY-2.0
Antoine Ganne tells the unique story of how Vanilla came to populate the island of Madagascar and Reunion island [fr] from the Gulf of Mexico. Ganne explains that European traders brought Vanilla from Mexico to Louis XIV who wanted to grow it on Reunion Island but failed. A young Reunionese slave, Edmond Albius, solved the issue by inventing the technique of hand pollination. Madagascar Vanilla is now the most produced vanilla in the world.


text:
Zambian Ex-President Banda on his 2011 Election Defeat · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

Former Zambian President Rupiah Banda whose MMD government lost to incumbent President Michael Sata's Patriotic Front (PF) in the 2011 elections has stated that he did not contest the results because he did not want the country to go to war which his opponents were seemingly ready for.
Zambian President Rupiah Banda. Photo released by Antonio Cruz/ABr under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)
A YouTube video recently surfaced of an interview with Afrik Production TV during his stint at the Boston University in the United States last year. In the interview Mr Banda said:
[…] From the very beginning, it was very clear that I preached acceptance of the results of the elections. Of course, I must say that perhaps I was almost sure that I would win […] It (the result) was very close I could have contested but, you know, the atmosphere was already very poisoned in the country. My opponent, the one who won the election, had already publicly stated that if they don't win, they are going to go to war and started sharpening knives in the streets, and things start that way. I did not want to be the one to be blamed for shedding the blood of the Zambian people.
One reaction to the video by katebebe1, reads:
Rupiah, had you been this focused and thoughtful in your public appearances, you would have been easily re-elected. But you allowed the sycophancy of your lieutenants define your public image. I blame your handlers as much as I blame you.
Mr Banda peacefully handed over office to the then newly elected President Sata a couple of days after the September 20, 2011 elections and has since been engaged in international assignments including a brief residency at Boston University in the United States where the above interview was conducted.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


text:
An Alawite Nurse in a Sunni Hospital in Syria  · Global Voices
Syria Deeply

As part of our collaboration with Syria Deeply we are cross-posting a series of articles that capture civilian voices caught in the crossfire, along with perspectives on the conflict from writers around the world.
Traveling through rebel-held parts of Latakia province, in the Jebel Turkman region, we met 34-year-old Umyara, an Alawite nurse working in a field hospital. In Latakia, a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad, Sunnis and Alawites have lived side by side for centuries. Now, with intense fighting in the Alawite-led regime and the mostly Sunni-led Free Syrian Army, many fear the animosity could spread to civilians across the religious divide.
The nurse, who asked us not print her full name or photograph, speaks on the stairwell outside the hospital’s new surgery room, built with donations from two American medical NGOs. She met us alongside Dr. Mohammed, the Sunni orthopedic surgeon, who serves as her boss and the chief of this hospital.
The hospital has only been open for 20 days; the surgical unit is located underground for safety, as the area is heavily bombed and rocketed by regime forces.
But the fact still stands that should Assad be removed from office, Alawite civilians like Umyara could face reprisals from angry Sunnis. “I am surely afraid for my safety after Assad falls,” the nurse says, despite assurances from local FSA leaders.
For now, within the hospital walls, Dr. Mohammed doesn’t see a distinction.
“Most of our patients are Sunni, but it’s no problem with us if someone who comes in is an Alawite…this is why she came to work with us.”
Every day, he says, his staff see 20 to 35 patients, most of them injured in the war. A few days ago, he treated a patient with cancer and has seen others with diabetes and hypertension. But the hospital doesn’t have the medicine or resources to properly treat those patients – part of what he describes as a crisis in specialized care, one that now affects nearly every Syrian city.
When we met, the doctor had just performed surgery on a young rebel fighter whose palms had practically been blown to pieces in an explosives accident.
The nurse says that as a Sunni fighter, his treatment would have been varied, at best, at her old regime-supported hospital. “I am working here now to help people, all people. Before, the treatment was specialized just for the Alawites.”
At the Assad Hospital, they might treat Sunnis, “but afterwards, the Assad forces come and get them and take them away. This has happened since the beginning of the revolution, since March of last year. I feel better now,” working here.


text:
Brazil Debates Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation – Part II · Global Voices
Emmanuelle Leroy Cerqueira

[All links lead to Portuguese language pages except when otherwise noted.]
In the first article [en] covering this series we wrote about how European politics has made a favorable move to abolish prostitution as a legalized profession in the old continent. The main focus of the discussion took France’s situation into account, which together with Brazil, does not clearly criminalize or regulate prostitution.
On December 6 2012, in the French city of Bordeaux, a couple who ran a prostitution business sending young Brazilians to hotels, were condemned to three years in prison [fr]. The 13 Brazilian women, had been coerced to become prostitutes due to their dire financial situation, later had their documents confiscated, and were taken in by co-nationals living in Spain. Clients who rented rooms for four prostitutes at hotels were considered as partners in the prostitution business and were also sentenced for 3 to 4 months.
In Brazil, although the news was largely ignored, the government and media are trying to generate awareness about the seriousness of human trafficking.
A study conducted by the Ministry of Justice at the beginning of October 2012 in conjunction with the National Secretariat of Justice in Brazil (SNJ), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and governments from various nations, discovered that between 2005 and 2011 at least 337 people, the majority of whom were women, were forced to leave Brazil and become prostitutes. The states of Pernambuco, Bahia and Mato Grosso do Sul registered the highest incidence of victims. The main destinations in Europe were Switzerland (127 victims), Spain (104) and Holland (71). In these countries prostitution is regulated and allowed as any other profession.
According to the study, the age of the victims ranged from 10 to 29 years of age, victims were single and had a low level of education and income. The recruitment process and trafficking were mainly run by women while men were responsible for monitoring the organizations’ activities.
A video produced by journalists Rafael Marcante, Julien Manfrin, Vagner Krazt, Margareth Andrade and Thiago Correia reports on the process:
This scene was chosen from the Brazilian soap opera “Salve Jorge” by writer and director Gloria Perez. The soap aims at generating awareness about international human trafficking by telling stories of the victims. Gloria Perez stated:
O tráfico de pessoas é um problema mundial e uma das formas mais rentáveis da criminalidade. Ainda assim, tem permanecido invisível e é tido como lenda urbana.
The trafficking of human beings is a global problem and one of the most lucrative means of criminality. Despite this, the problem has remained invisible and perceived as a urban legend.
In an article entitled “Hypocrisy foments the trafficking of women” journalist Bruno Astuto comments:
Existem duas realidades no tráfico de mulheres para fins de exploração sexual. Na primeira, são moças enganadas por uma esperta rede de traficantes, que lhes promete empregos de garçonete, balconista ou dançarina no exterior […]. A outra realidade é a das moças que partem para o exterior sabendo que vão se prostituir.[…] Com Salve Jorge, esse silêncio será rompido, expondo à sociedade brasileira um crime que acontece tão ordinariamente sob suas narinas, mas que, pela hipocrisia com que se abordam a prostituição e a exploração sexual no país, foi colocado para baixo do tapete como se ele não existisse ou como ele se fosse descaramento de mulher da vida.
There are two realities in the trafficking of women for purposes of sexual exploitation. The first is the reality of women tricked by an expert in the trafficking scheme who promises them jobs as waitresses, shop keepers or dancers abroad […]. The other reality is that of women who travel abroad with the intent of prostituting themselves […]. With Salve Jorge, this silence has been broken, exposing the Brazilian society to a crime that takes place under its own nose, but has been ignored due to the hypocritical manner in which society looks at prostitution and sexual exploitation, as if it did not exist or as if the women in question were blameworthy.
Laws to Fight Human Trafficking
The Second International Symposium to Fight Human Trafficking took place at the end of October in the Federal Regional Tribunal of the Third Region in São Paulo.
CNJ Campaign
The president of the Commission to Access Justice and Citizenship of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), Ney Freitas, emphasized the inefficiency of Brazilian institutions in fighting  human trafficking:
É necessário motivar a operação legislativa para que seja proposta uma norma mais severa que sancione com mais gravidade esse tipo de crime.
It is necessary to motivate the legislature to promote more severe norms that sanction this type of crime.
Brazilian legislation condemns the trafficking of women for  sexual exploitation but it does not include men and children in its legal definition nor does it include exploitation in other types of activities. Senator Lidice da Mata (PSB-BA) has formulated a law proposition to criminalize all kinds of human trafficking. A petition [pt] issued on October 18, aims at gathering popular support for the law so that it can be submitted for approval.
Journalist Priscila Siqueira fights against the sexual exploitation of women by stressing the importance of grasping the victims’ trauma:
A mulher escravizada é reduzida a uma mercadoria. Ela precisa de ajuda para se reestruturar e de alternativas para se profissionalizar, ter uma ocupação e não voltar para a malha do tráfico.
An enslaved woman is reduced to the status of merchandise. She needs help to recover from this, to create alternatives and to build a profession, an occupation that will free her from the grasp of traffickers.
In regards to the international day against sexual exploitation and the trafficking of women and children, on September 23, the blog Coletivo Rosas de Liberdade wrote:
Frente a uma tragédia exposta (digna de ser lembrada em calendário), com raízes tão profundas, devemos denunciar essa situação criminosa e altamente violadora de direitos e exigir dos órgãos responsáveis pela promoção e efetivação dos Direitos Humanos a maior seriedade no combate a esse tipo de crime. Mas, além disso, denunciar essa estrutura social que coisifica seres humanos e explora inclusive sua dignidade.
When faced by this deeply rooted tragedy (worthy of being remembered on the calendar), we must denounce this criminal situation that violates rights and must demand that the responsible bodies for the promotion and effectiveness of Human Rights seriously fight this kind of crime. Besides this, we must denounce the social structure that objectifies human beings and exploits their dignity.
In Brazil, the lack of distinction between the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, the trafficking of women and voluntary prostitution abroad are also criticized. Anthropology Professor Thaddeus Gregory Blanchette, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), criticizes the popular view of the “typical trafficked women” in the Bule Voador Blog: it is impossible to affirm that every prostitute in Europe is a victim of human trafficking.
Online prevention initiatives
The Ford Models Agency published a video called “Work Abroad Orientation” from the Ministry of External Relations:
Blogger Daniela Alves updates her site daily with data on the trafficking of humans as a means of reflecting and informing those who work on preventing the trafficking of human beings.
Brazilian NGO Repórter Brasil coordinates a program “Escravo, nem pensar!” with the mission of spreading knowledge about human trafficking. With the support of Mato Grosso’s Public Ministry, the NGO has edited material [pdf] that covers human trafficking to be discussed in classrooms.
CNJ campaign image on Facebook
The Bridge project has published on its facebook page information regarding a 180 national hotline in Brazil that gives advice against the abuse of women (just dial 180, it is free and confidential). The program deals with calls denouncing violence, including calls that denounce the trafficking of women, besides giving orientation about one’s rights:
Levantamento da Secretaria de Políticas para as Mulheres (SPM) indica que, de janeiro a outubro deste ano [2012], o Ligue 180 recebeu 62 ligações procedentes sobre [o tráfico internacional de mulheres], das quais 34% vindas da Espanha, 34% da Itália e 24% de Portugal.
A study conducted by the Secretariat for Women’s Policies (SPM) shows that from January to October [2012] the 180 Number received 62 calls connected to international trafficking of women, of which 34% originated from Spain, 34% from Italy and 24% from Portugal.


text:
China’s Propaganda Department Threatens to Dissolve Beijing News · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The publisher of Beijing News, Dai Zigeng, announced his resignation on January 8, 2013, after the propaganda department forced his newspaper to print the Global Times editorial, which blamed “foreign forces” for being behind the Southern Weekend's editorial controversy which has triggered press freedom protests in China.
The Beijing News is a sister publication of the Southern Weekend and is co-owned by the Southern Newspapers Media Group. It is widely acknowledged as a liberal paper in China. The publisher is also an official of the Communist Party. Apart from Beijing News, the Propaganda Department also sent officials to Xiaoxiang Morning Herald in Hunan Province to monitor the printing of their January 9 newspaper, making sure that the Global Times editorial is in place.
The newsroom of Beijing News last night. Public Domain Photo from Oiwan's Weibo photo album.
Word passed around the Chinese social media circle that the Beijing Propaganda Department has threatened to dissolve Beijing News if they refused to publish the Global Times editorial. The photos on the right shows the Bejing News’ newsroom last night, the caption said [zh]:
上頭有令：今晚，昨天所有抗命的媒體補登環球社論，否則封網封報。
新京報全員趕到總部拒絕轉載，但遭到解散恐嚇，最後眼睜睜看著文章上版。社長戴自更對督陣的北京市宣傳部長副部長冷言說：我現在口頭跟你提出辭職！
目前，新京報所有員工的新浪微博被封，你從微博上看不到任何關於新京報的消息。
Order from the top: Tonight all the media outlets which have refused to publish the Global Times Editorial has to make up and print the piece or else the newspaper and the website will be blocked. All workers from Beijing News went back to the headquarters to express their position against the re-publication of the editorial. But they were threatened that the newspaper would be dissolved if they insisted. Eventually the piece was put in the layout. The publisher Dai Zigeng told the deputy chief of the Beijing Propaganda Department coldly: now I hand in my verbal resignation! Now, the Sina Weibo account of most Beijing News workers have been suspended and you can't find any information regarding the news.
This morning the official Sina Weibo account of Beijing News’ morning greeting [zh] is:
如果你想要你从未拥有过的东西，那么你必须去做你从未做过的事。 早安。
If you want to possess something that you have never had before, you have to do something that you have never done before. Good morning.
When the number of retweets reached 1350, the subtly expressed micro-blog was suspended from retweeting because of a “system error”:
Screen capture of the Weibo system error message when pressing the retweet button of the Beijing News’ morning greeting on January 9, 2013.
Letscorp has back-up [zh] of some of the discussions late at night. @宇过天新 and @刘刚在路上 were in the newsroom last night:
@宇过天新 今晚，我记住大家的眼泪，记住那一致持反对声的民主表决，记住在组版房那转身的抽泣声，记住那叹息声，记住那开启酒罐的声音，记住大家呆呆地站在哪里，企盼的目光，记住大半夜一个电话就来的兄弟，记住，今晚的屈辱。我都记住。
@宇过天新 Tonight, I remember every one of our tears, remember the unanimous democratic vote against the re-printing [of the editorial], remember the sobbing sound in the layout room, remember every single sigh, remember the sound of the beer can being opened, remember everyone standing still, remember our colleagues expectations, remember all the brothers who appeared at the newsroom upon receiving the call. Please remember tonight's humiliation. Let's remember all of it.
@刘刚在路上：誓与新京报共存亡。老戴辞职。我也辞职。不干新闻了！！！
@刘刚在路上: I will live and die with Beijing News. Old Dai resigned, I will follow him, giving up journalism altogether.
@uponsnow explained what is the meaning of dissolving the newspaper:
这里的解散不是一般的关闭，而是停报整顿后再复刊。也就是说，凡是不服的都会被解职、解雇。也就是说新京报今后会变味。
The meaning of dissolving is not closing down. It means suspending, purging and reopening. In other words, all the staff who do not agree will be fired and the style of Beijing News will be totally different [when it reprints].
@GoneWater revealed that the order of the Beijing Propaganda Department came from the top and specifically targeting the Southern Media Group:
@GoneWater: 实际上这次并非所有报纸都被点名要求转发，北京晨报、东早等报纸就没被要求。但在前天被要求的媒体中，唯新京报、潇湘晨报两家未转。北京市宣本来默许，但昨日新任中宣部长刘奇葆强令：这两家必须发。事上至刘云山，批曰：必须发。市宣副部长乃亲至报社执行。
@GoneWater: Actually not all the newspapers were compelled to re-print the editorial. Beijing morning and Dongfang Daily [from Shanghai] did not receive the order. For those media outlets which had received the order the day before, only Beijing News and Xiaoxiang Morning Herald had not reprinted. At first the Beijing Propaganda Department wanted to keep an eye close on this, but the new Central Propaganda Department Chief Liu Qibao gave out the order: these two papers must reprint the editorial. The order has been endorsed by Liu Yunshan [the former head of Central Government Department and recently promoted to the position of First Secretary of the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China]. The city propaganda department's deputy head went to the Beijing News headquarter to execute the order.
Below are some immediate reactions selected by letscorp :
@MoralMachine 我觉得吧，被逼转载环球时报这个事情很痛苦。被禁言大不了就委屈一下不说了。现在是有人突然往你嘴里塞一砣屎，完后还逼你喷在你心爱的读者脸上。媒体像新浪这样无法抗拒，只能在后面加一句＂转载不代表意见＂，提示一下这屎不是我拉的，是别人塞我嘴里的。这是就中国式悲壮，心疼。
@MoralMachine It is extremely painful to be pressured to reprint the Global Times’ editorial. We may keep our mouths shut but now that someone is putting shit in your mouth and forces you to spill the shit on your beloved readers face. Media outlets such as Sina cannot resist [such brutal act] can only add a disclaimer: “reprint does not represent our position” to remind people that they are not the original source of the shit, someone else puts it in my mouth. This is a Chinese style tragedy and pain.
@胡淑芬 我原以为它们只是愚蠢，有种将小事化大，大事化到不可收拾的神奇本领。正确的路有千万条，它们总能穿过层层迷雾找到最愚蠢那一条。现在我才看明白，那不是愚蠢，而是罪恶。罪恶的癌细胞已经布满肌体，不管在哪个部位，它们都能精确模式复制，用一个罪恶掩盖另一个罪恶，它们已经罪恶滔天、病入膏肓。
@胡淑芬 At first I thought they are just stupid to turn a small incident big, to the extent that it can't be wrapped up. There are thousands of solutions and they make their way to the stupidest one. Now I understand, it is not stupidity, it is a sin. The cancer cells of the sin have spread throughout the muscle of the body. The sin duplicates itself to cover another sin and now it is incurable.
@Conilll 混推这几年，大大小小的操蛋事也见过不少了，随着年龄增长越来越有见怪不怪的感觉。。但这次南周的事情真是让我觉得特别、特别、特别愤怒和悲哀，今晚看新京报的种种让人想哭。。
@Conilll For so many years, I have seen shit happening around. As I grow older and older, I start to take strange things as normal…. but I feel specifically, specifically and specifically angry and sad regarding the Southern Weekend incident. Tonight, with this now happening at Beijing News, I want to cry…


text:
Day by Day Happiness for the Elderly · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

“Happiness is to find an old friend”. Illustration by Tiago Albuquerque on Felicidário
A collective of Portuguese artists has come together to illustrate practical daily definitions of happiness for the elderly. The online calendar can be found on Felicidário.

author: Sara Moreira


text:
Delhi Rape Case Sparks Death Penalty Debate in Singapore · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The young victim of gang rape in New Delhi, India was brought to Singapore for medical treatment but eventually died on December 28. Many Singaporeans expressed grief and anger over the death of the rape victim who came to be known as Amanat in the world. The tragic death of Amanat in a Singapore hospital also sparked a lively discussion on gender equality, violence against women, and the use of death penalty in rape cases.
Where Bears Roam Free supports the death penalty for heinous crimes like rape:
To anti-death penalty campaigners who think I am too harsh, are you willing to allow these hardcore rapists to walk around again to rape (and possibly kill) more women? If you do, remember that the next victim could be the one you love. Your mother. Your sister. Your wife. Your daughter. And if you are a female, what about yourself?
But Rachel Zeng believes that death penalty is not the solution:
“Teach Society Don't Rape.” Photo from Flickr of tamara.craiu
The death penalty only creates fear and instilling fear is not an effective way to deal with crimes. The society has to understand why they should not violate another human being through violence and sexual crimes, rather than through fear of punishment which is temporary and which will never help to improve women’s standing in society at all.
Oddznns reminds us to look inwards in eliminating hate in society
…we’ll continue to kill until we learn to turn the anger in our hearts into anguish and then to empathy. Until we see that the “other” is also ourself and that when we harm someone else, a part of us, too, dies.
Days after the death of Amanat in Singapore, Shrusti Tripathy and Vanessa Ho organized a candle lighting event in Hong Lim Park to stand up against rape and to promote awareness about the need to combat gender violence. More than 200 people attended the event.
We encourage people to step up and join us to honour the victim and her family, raise awareness for the tragedies that pervade our community and most of all, let's understand this; a victim feels the same regardless of the brutality of the assault, whether they were 6 perpetrators or 1. To the victim, the emotional abuse, the questions and the fear are all the same.
The organizers informed the crowd that Singapore must do more to promote education about ‘rape culture’ in society:
‘I Rise Against Rape Culture’
We  would  also  like  to  send  out  the  message  that  this  is  no  time  for  Singapore  to  feel  self-congratulatory. Rape and sexual assault happens here too, and some claim that the rate of rape in Singapore is higher than in India. Furthermore, our own rape laws are less than satisfactory.
We call for greater education about rape and rape culture. We call for a campaign to end victim blaming and an education that teaches “DON'T RAPE”. We call for a victim-centric rape trial. We call for the sensitisation of police officers, hospital staffs, counsellors and social workers. We call for the recognition of the different types of rape. We call for justice for the victims: the perpetrators need to be severely punished, shamed, and then rehabilitated and educated.
Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh notes that gender inequality is an important issue in Singapore
…although Singapore has over the years made great strides in terms of gender equality, there is still a long way to go.
…when it comes to rape—the most relevant topic in the discussions around Amanat—Singapore is hardly a paragon of virtue. It seems disingenuous for Singapore to beat its own drum now when just a few months ago close to 50 men, including some prominent business and community leaders, were charged with statutory rape of an under aged prostitute.
Amanat will always be in our hearts. Her legacy should serve to remind the world that wherever we are, whoever we are, we must continue the struggle to achieve gender equality in our own societies. Each country, including Singapore, has challenges that need to be addressed.
Last month, a Slutwalk rally was also organized in Singapore to highlight women’s issues, particularly the continuing violence against women in society.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Ecuador: National Assembly’s New Widget · Global Voices
Pablo Andrés Rivero

Ecuador's National Assembly has a new widget [es]. Boosted by political communication specialist Antonio Gutiérrez-Rubi, the initiative “is an online directory for political activism and digital communication, a simple tool to first-hand know who they are, what applications they used and what is the online activity of the representatives in the Assembly, as well as the regions they are representing and from which political party”. You can visit the widget of the National Assembly of Ecuador on http://www.gutierrez-rubi.es/asambleanacionalecuador [es].

author: Pablo Andrés Rivero


text:
Gay Man Lynched in Northern Cameroon · Global Voices
Julie Owono

Oscarine Mbozo’a reports [fr] on L'Actu that one gay man and his companion were lynched at a market on January 6, 2013 in Maroua, Northern Cameroon :
Goche Lamine, a medical merchant, was caught with a high school student named Sanda, aged 17. The crowd was alerted by a kid shouting “samaroka! Samaroka (homosexual in the Fulfulde language), they rushed towards both men and started throwing stones at them.


text:
Kyrgyzstan: Hostage Crisis in Uzbek Enclave · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

A hostage crisis developed over the past weekend in Sokh, a little Uzbekistani enclave inside Kyrgyzstan. All hostages have now been released. Central Eurasia Standard blog summarizes media coverage of the crisis.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


text:
Twitterer Called to Testify in Spain for Gramsci Quotes · Global Voices
Chris Moya

This article is part of our special news coverage Europe in Crisis.
*All links lead to texts in Spanish unless otherwise noted.
A Twitter user and activist with the 15M “indignant” movement, @almu_en_lucha, has been called to testify before the Spanish police's Technology Crime Squad regarding the content of some of her Tweets. She made the announcement shortly before being called in to testify:
Two hours later, as she was leaving, she wrote:
As almu, a well-known activist, explained in this Tweet, the police charged her with using the network to send violent messages, when some of those Tweets were quotes by notable early twentieth century Italian philosopher, journalist and Marxist theorist [en] Antonio Gramsci.
In 2010, Joaquín Estefanía, a journalist and director of the School of Journalism at Madrid's Autonomous University, wrote an article about the Italian philosopher:
Antonio Gramsci
En el prólogo de las Cartas desde la cárcel, Fernández Buey remata: “Pero se le puede leer como a un clásico. Y las cartas que escribió desde la cárcel, como un documento histórico de la tragedia del comunismo del siglo XX, como el testimonio de una resistencia que durante décadas hizo a muchos mejores. Como una página del libro blanco de un ideal”.
In the foreword to Gramsci's Letters From Prison, Fernández Buey concludes: “But it can be read as a classic. And the letters that he wrote from prison, as a historical document of the tragedy of twentieth century communism, as the testimony of a resistance that over decades made a difference for many. As a page in the blank book of an ideal.”
Moments later, the awesome effect of the Internet, the Streisand effect [en], turned the accusation on its head. The police threats against freedom of expression and their attempts to intimidate activists were denounced. The hashtag #Gramsci became a trending topic worldwide. It is not the first time that this has happened to Spanish law enforcement: the day that they appeared in the media announcing that they had seized the leaders of Anonymous España, the situation became just as comical:
@ElCheDisparaba: En España hoy es violento citar a #Gramsci.
@ElCheDisparaba: In Spain today it is violent to quote #Gramsci.
This article is part of our special news coverage Europe in Crisis.

author: Chris Moya