text:
Saudi Women Vote in Historic Elections; Now They Want More Rights · Global Voices
Mohammed Al Nemer

Saudi Fawzia Al Rashid posts this photograph of herself on Twitter @fawziaalrashid after taking part in the municipal elections, which allowed Saudi women to nominate themselves and vote for the first time
Twenty-one women won seats in Saudi Arabia’s municipal elections, the country’s first-ever elections open to female voters and candidates. Around 900 women competed against 6,000 male candidates in the elections for 2,100 seats on 284 municipal councils, responsible for local affairs, including public gardens, sewerage and rubbish collection. Another 1,050 councillors will be appointed, with many expecting women among them.
The historic election took place on Saturday, December 12 with 130,000 women registered to vote, and 978 running as candidates. It is big news for Saudi women — a remarkable moment in a very conservative country where women are not allowed to drive and are subject to male guardianship laws. A total of 130,000 women were registered to vote, compared to 1.3 million men. The voter turn out was estimated at 47 per cent.
Two women activists were disqualified from running the race. They are Loujain Al-Hathloul, who has campaigned and been arrested for advocating for women to drive and Shia human rights activist Naseema Al-Sadah.
On Twitter, Al Hathloul demanded answers for why her candidacy was dropped. She went on saying:
ع كل السلبيات التي حصلت لي ولغيري في هذه الدورةالانتخابية إلا أني سعيدة بإنجازات نساءورجال بلدي. ألف مبروك لكل الفائزين وأتمنى لكم التوفيق.💛
— لجين هذلول الهذلول (@LoujainHathloul) December 13, 2015
Despite all the drawbacks that have happened to me and others in this election round, I am happy with the success of the men and women elected to the councils. Congratulations to all the winners and I wish you success
Banned from running the race, Al Sadah exercised her right to vote, encouraging other women to make their voices heard.
لحظة وضع ورقة التصويت بيد امرأة في صندوق الاقتراع لحظة تاريخية ، والمشاركة حق لا تتخلون عنه .#الانتخابات_البلدية pic.twitter.com/vMJLrmwmkc
— نسيمة السادة (@nasema33) December 12, 2015
That moment a woman casts her vote in a ballot box is an historic moment and don't ever give up on your right to vote and participate.
She also reminds Saudis:
#مفهوم_ديمقراطي الانتخابات قد لا تقدم الأفضل ولكنها تقدم من يحصل على الأصوات الأكثر . #الانتخابات_البلدية
— نسيمة السادة (@nasema33) December 12, 2015
Elections may not result in the best elected to office, but bring out those who get the most votes.
Despite the setbacks, women were ecstatic with the elections, with many sharing videos and photographs of themselves voting.
Activist Tamador Al-Yami shares this video after voting:
للتو انتهيت من التصويت لمرشحتي في #الانتخابات_البلدية وبالتوفيق لجميع المرشحات والمرشحين 😊 pic.twitter.com/NVcoV6Pd0q
— تماضر اليامي Tamador (@TamadorAlyami) December 12, 2015
In the video, she says:
“I have just completed voting and may the women candidates be successful and we see the biggest changes at their hands.”
Like many Saudi women, Al-Yami sees the landmark elections with a lot of hope, for improving the conditions of women in the Kingdom.
The October 26 campaign, which had launched nation-wide campaigns for women to drive, hoped to take the elections as an opportunity to remind people of their demand which calls upon Saudi Arabia to lift the driving ban on women:
نبارك لنساء الوطن فوزهن في #الانتخابات_البلدية 🎉 ونستغل هذه الفرصة للتذكير بمطالبتنا برفع حظر القيادة عن النساء. pic.twitter.com/jmGEkwERyg
— حملة 26 أكتوبر (@oct26driving) December 14, 2015
“We congratulate the female winners and take this opportunity to remind people of our call for lifting the driving ban on women.”
And Abdulla Al-Alami wishes for more freedom for women in his country:
تعديل نظـام الأحوال المدنية لضمان حقوق المرأة، ودخول المرأة المجالس البلديـة الخطوة التاليـة: حريـة التنقل والسفر والعلاج والابتعاث والعمل
— عبدالله العلَمي (@AbdullaAlami) December 12, 2015
Changing the civil status code to guarantee the rights of women and allowing women into the municipal councils. The next step is giving women the freedom to move, travel, seek medical treatment, study abroad and work.
Hind Al-Zahed explains why people should vote for Saudi women:
صوتي للمرأه،فالمرأةفي بلدي لم تحصل على فرص متساويةمع الرجل وعليه سأدعم هذةالفرص حتى تتساوى و ثم يكون الاختيار للأكفأ https://t.co/YIDWs3bbTg
— هند الزاهد (@hindkz) December 13, 2015
My vote goes to the women. Women in my country did not get equal opportunities and this is why I will continue to support them until they become equal and then we can choose the better
And in two tweets, Albara Al-Auhali describes how the mood shifted in the conservative kingdom, allowing women to finally vote:
انتخابات ٢٠٠٥: تصويت المرأة منكر ولا أحد يتجرأ بالمطالبة به! ٢٠١١: الأمر يقبل الجدل لكنه مرفوض لدى الأغلب. ٢٠١٥: الأمر عادي بل هو حق للمرأة!
— البراء العوهلي (@al_bara) December 12, 2015
Many Saudi women left their homes today to take part in municipal council elections and it all seemed very normal. Only four years ago, we had heated debates regarding this issue.
2005 Elections: Women voting is banned and no one has the courage to even demand it!
2011 Elections: The issue is debated but refused by the majority
2015 Elections: The issue is not only normal but a woman's right!
In 2013, 30 Saudi women were appointed to the 150-member Shura or Consultative Council, an advisory board for the government. Many have praised such “baby steps” taken by the absolute monarchy, hoping more reforms.

author: Mohammed Al Nemer


text:
The History of Royal Hunts in Nepal’s Southern Plains Is Simply Barbaric · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Tethered rhinoceros with caged deer in the background. Possibly part of the gift of a collection of animals indigenous to Nepal which the Maharaja had presented to King George V. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Nepal’s southern plains are famous not only for fertile agricultural land but also for the dense forests and a plethora of wild animals.
Now converted into national parks, the area was once a fertile ground for hunting. The current Chitwan National Park was used as a royal hunting reserve from 1846 to 1951 by the Nepali Rana rulers and their guests.
A set of historic photographs have become viral online showing shocking images of British and Nepali rulers engaging in a bloody hunt of many animals including tigers, bears and rhinoceroses.
The British royal hunts began in February 1876 AD and were hosted by then-Nepali Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana, writes Subodh Rana in his blog:
In February 1876 A.D. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VII), son of Queen Victoria came to hunt in Banbassa in west Nepal hosted by Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana and bagged 23 tigers in a two week shooting spree. He had presided over the Delhi Durbar in celebration of his mother Queen Victoria having been proclaimed the Empress of India on January 1, 1876 A.D. It is written that he was so bored with the formalities of state that coming to shoot in the Terai was the highlight of his India sojourn.
Later many British Royals followed the tradition invited by the Rana prime ministers. Even Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 triggered the World War I, came to hunt in Nepal invited by Maharajah Bir Shumsher in March 1893.
However, the most barbaric and horrific hunting trip was that of King George V who visited Nepal after being crowned Emperor of India in 1911.
Having been invited by Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher Rana, the hunting team shot dead 18 rhinos, 39 tigers and 4 sloth bears from December 18-28, 1911.
The king himself shot eight rhinos, 21 tigers and one bear.
The Royal Hunt of Tiger and Rhinoceroses in the Nepalese Terai in 1911 by Kees Rookmaaker, Barbara Nelson and Darrel Dorrington details the hunting spree.
Nepal's PM Chandra Shamsher greeting King George V during a hunting trip to the Nepal Terai in 1911 pic.twitter.com/swkboCV96H
— Eddie Du (@Edourdoo) December 12, 2015
King George V with the day's kill in Dec 1911. A total of 39 tigers, 18 rhinoceroses & 4 bears were killed. #Nepal pic.twitter.com/TcMTlC86N1
— Nepal History (@NepalInPix) November 24, 2015
1911 – Edward Henry, Former IG of Bengal Police, during a royal hunt with King George V at Narayani, Nepal pic.twitter.com/AO8pkduA2M
— British India (@BritishRajTimes) March 30, 2015
The royal hunt has been documented in 50 photographs from an album donated to The Australian National University. The ANU Library has supplied captions to the photos.
The article His Imperial Majesty’s Shoot in Nepalese Terai, December 1911 describes the hunt as:
[…] The Maharaja's entourage, who were in a separate camp further along the river, numbered 14,000 including 2000 elephant attendants. After Divine Service on Sunday 24 December 1911, the Maharaja presented the King with a collection of over seventy varieties of animals indigenous to Nepal. During the hunting that followed Divine Service on 25 December, nearly 600 elephants formed the “ring”. The King shot the largest tiger of the expedition on that day. […]
Below are select photos from the royal hunt.
Hunting party on elephants crossing a river. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
A tiger crossing a stream. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Mahouts (elephant handlers) and shikaris (hunters) on elephants forming a “ring”. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Elephant and mahout with tiger. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Hunting party with King George V and Maharaja of Nepal. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Hunters inspect four dead tigers and a deer. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
George V takes note of the number killed four tigers and a bear. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Slain tiger on the back of an elephant. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Hunters with slain rhinoceros. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
A group of men watch as a dead rhinoceros is skinned and dismembered. Image courtesy of The Australian National University Digital Collections Library. From Public domain.
Group photograph of the hunting party in front of George V’s bungalow. King George V with Chandra Shamsher Janga Bahadur Rana, Prime Minister and Maharaja of Nepal, stand in the centre. Image from Public domain.
Other than these photographs, there are few concrete reminders of the era. Shankarshan Thakur, Delhi-based editor of The Telegraph tweeted:
The hunting lodge built for King George V at Bhikhnathori on the India-Nepal border is now an abandoned gambling den pic.twitter.com/Zye85uoC21
— Sankarshan Thakur (@SankarshanT) July 21, 2015

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


text:
One Kanji Character Captures a Year of Uncertainty in Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The character 安, or an, has been named as the kanji that best symbolized Japan's national mood in 2015.
The unveiling of the official kanji of 2015. Bottom right caption reads: The official kanji for 2015 is ‘an’. Top left caption reads: New security legislation, fears of over terrorism [were main themes of 2015].  Image source: Kyodo YouTube channel.
Kanji are Chinese characters used to write Japanese and can be pronounced several ways. The character 安 is typically pronounced as an, a, or yasu, and typically means “peaceful” and “feeling at ease”, or “inexpensive.”
The character was selected by Kanken, a kanji promotion organization, based on a vote by members of the public and announced at the iconic Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto.
The character 安 (an) dominated the news in 2015, stemming from the contentious Legislation for Peace and Security, popularly known as 安保 (anpo), that the Abe government rammed through Japan's Diet in the summer and fall.
The legislation effectively spelled the end of Japan's Peace Constitution and 70 years of postwar pacifism, spreading a sense of unease in a country already rattled by the murder of two Japanese nationals by ISIS at the start of the year.
Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, whose name also happens to incorporate 安, the 2015 kanji character of the year, was quick to capitalize on the announcement by posting a bilingual message on Twitter:
Kanji of the year “安” (tranquil) was selected by popular vote. I will work hard so that everyone can live peacefully pic.twitter.com/UsuD3apiQJ
— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) December 17, 2015
One Twitter user gloomily pointed out:
今年の漢字が「安」っての、皮肉も含んでる感。知らんけど。
— ryomo (@ryomojp) December 16, 2015
As the “kanji character of 2015,” 安 can be interpreted ironically, I guess.
Another Twitter user managed to capture what must be the feelings of many Japanese people with a clever play on words that parodied the Japanese prime minister's last name, Abe (安倍):
「安倍」と「安保」に媚を売った今年の漢字に不安倍増。 →https://t.co/BayhoO3FoX pic.twitter.com/ks1KqDjeJT
— sig_yok (@yoksig) December 15, 2015
While the choice of this year's kanji would seem to flatter Abe (安倍) and his Security Legislation (安保, anpo), all I feel at the end of the year is a “doubling of uncertainty.” (不安倍増, fuanbaizo).
Spotlight, a Buzzfeed-esque site that curates Japanese memes, created a 11-point listicle about the many ways in which the character 安 represented the year 2015.
Besides the Peace and Security Legislation (安保法案, anpo hoan) and Prime Minister Abe (安倍総理, Abe Sori), Spotlight pointed out the character 安 symbolized 2015 in a variety of different ways, including cheap oil (原油安, genyu yasu) and a rapidly cheapening yen (円安, enyasu):
Japanese yen nominal effective exchange rate (2005 = 100). Source: Wikimedia.
Spotlight also noted that 2015 was a year when many Japanese realized that their salaries are very low (給料安い, kyuro yasui) and that 安 really represents uncertainty (不安, fuan) rather than peace:
給料安い、結婚しない人多すぎ、出生率上がらない、また税金上がった、将来年金もらえるの？、テロ起こったらどうしよう、将来の日本が「不安」！
Wages are low, and many people are choosing not to get married. The birthrate is not rising, while taxes are going to go up. Will we still be able to rely on old-age pensions in the future? And what if there is a terrorist attack? The future of Japan is ‘full of worry’ (不安, fuan)!
However, according to Spotlight, not all was doom and gloom.
At the top of the list was Japanese comedian Yasumura Akarui (安村あかるい), whose name not only features 安, the kanji character of the year, but whose catchphrase “Don't worry, I'm wearing [clothes]” (安心してください、穿いてますよ, anshin shite kudasai, haitemasu yo) became a pop-culture meme in 2015.
Tonikaku Akarui Yasumura. Image source: Yoshimoto R & Co Ltd. Official YouTube channel.
Other Japanese netizens had fun with the 2015 character of the year.
One Twitter use posted a three-panel comic (full-size image here) that poked fun at how little the stylized calligraphy used in the reveal resembled the actual character 安:
今年の漢字は「安」だそうですよ輝子さん。 pic.twitter.com/OqmG5NmYup
— 菅野孝典◆深海獣２巻発売中!! (@koutensugano) December 15, 2015
Panel 1 (right to left):
Heroko: So ”安” is the kanji of the year for 2015.
P-head: Oh, that's supposed to be “安”? It's too hard to read.
Panel 2:
Heroko: The part on the right looks weird.
P-head: Eh?
Panel 3:
Heroko: It looks just like an eringi mushroom!
P-head: Now you're going too far…
Twitter user @egoism_com posted a video of a more conventional way of writing 安:
そういえば今年の漢字決まりましたね。 pic.twitter.com/d0zGZWUOjb
— はるき (@egoism_com) December 20, 2015
Here is the kanji character of 2015.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Public Uproar in Cambodia After City Government ‘Whitewashes’ US Artist’s Mural · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Screenshot of the video showing how artists made the mural in Phnom Penh before it was erased by Cambodian authorities.
Cambodian netizens including the country’s information minister have strongly criticized the decision of the Phnom Penh municipality to erase a large mural painted over a housing tenement known as the White Building because it allegedly lacked permission from City Hall.
Street artists concerned following White Building mural debacle in #Cambodia #streetart #gr… https://t.co/f5AipNiVK1 pic.twitter.com/pAEIcp60FE
— The Phnom Penh Post (@phnompenhpost) December 20, 2015
The mural was made by American Miles MacGregor, known as El Mac, as part of the Igloo Hong Project which aims to support the work of artists around the world. For his part, El Mac wrote on his blog that he is dedicating his Cambodian project to artists who perished during the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s:
This mural honors Cambodia's artists, both contemporary and those lost during the Cambodian genocide of the mid to late 1970s, when nearly all of the country's creative population was targeted and murdered by the regime.
He felt privileged that the mural will be painted over a building where many artists and artisans are currently living:
Since I had the opportunity to paint such a large, visible wall in a place where there are seemingly no other large scale murals like it, I felt an extra sense of responsibility to paint something beautiful, meaningful, and uplifting.
I hope this mural can serve as a respectful tribute to the importance and perseverance of Cambodia's creative legacy, and possibly, in some small way, offer inspiration for younger Cambodian artists to sustain this legacy.
Handmade #diy gets rarer and rarer these days , one day in Cambodia while walking across the roof of this old apartment building looking for spots to paint , we came across this surreal scene of a woman who had a mat outside on the roof with broken tiles and black mold everywhere hand sewing the most intricate #shawl next to a pile of stacked tiles painted like #batman, we talked to her and she let us paint the outside of her apartment , I bought the shawl for my mom , I guess there's only 2 people left in #phnompenh that do this type of detailed sewing craft, everyone else just uses a hot glue gun , anyways the apartment building was old and hadn't been renovated since the 50's , so @mac_arte did this amazing portrait of the woman who made the shawl , on the side of her building so she and everyone can see it everyday , we pay respect to her craft and honor her hard work #workHarder #tryharder #igloohong @davidchoe2 @esao @jamesjeanart @mr_aryz @jaworskijason @d_maddux @mattrevelli @pacoraterta
A photo posted by DAVID CHOE (@davidchoe) on
One of the cultural workers living in the building is Moeun Thary, a seamstress who hand sews traditional Khmer clothing. El Mac chose Moeun Thary as the subject of his mural in honor of what she is doing to preserve and promote traditional Khmer culture.
Look how beautiful it is… #Cambodia #goneforever pic.twitter.com/kP45Lk3vtZ
— Bun Sengkong (@bunsengkong) December 18, 2015
Unfortunately, City Hall immediately ordered the removal of the mural since El Mac and his team allegedly proceeded to paint the mural while their application for the right to was still being processed. A spokesman of the local agency added that the application didn’t get the approval because the mural was not completed in the Khmer tradition while the subject (Moeun Thary) was not well-known. The official advised the artist to depict a Khmer hero, instead.
Municipality replaces mural by internationally famous artist with messy cover up. #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/UGo7OMTD31
— Will Jackson (@willjackson) December 17, 2015
And it seems City Hall is also ‘whitewashing’ other street art projects:
#Cambodia #streetart on Street 830 being whitewashed away by government-approved artists. @Poximity pic.twitter.com/MmLseXI0z5
— Luke Hunt (@lukeanthonyhunt) December 17, 2015
The whitewashing of the mural shocked many Cambodians who appreciated El Mac's work. Even Information Minister Khieu Kanharith urged the local government to praise the artist instead of removing his mural
Many Internet users commented that Phnom Penh is littered with large advertising billboards of alcohol drinks but these are not being removed by the local government. Some even suggested El Mac should have inserted an image of a beer into the mural so it would not be defaced by authorities.
On Facebook, Graffiti Cambodia described the action of the local government as an attack on public art:
The Cambodian government is sending a clear message that public art will not be tolerated. Either that or they just spat out their dummy in the most fastidious way possible.
Meanwhile, Cambodian Urban Art Festival organizer Theo Vallier has mixed thoughts about the issue:
…on one hand, I don’t approve of what City Hall did because it’s art and everything, but on the other hand, they didn’t have the authorizations. I’ve been in Cambodia long enough to understand the rules here, and we are really trying to play by the rules here.
Although the mural is gone it ‘survives’ on YouTube:

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Roscomnadzor Head Claims Google and Apple Are ‘Relocating Servers’ to Russia · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

While some Internet companies, like eBay and Viber, have confirmed they plan to comply with data localization demands, bigger players remain tight-lipped on the matter. Images mixed by Kevin Rothrock.
Western Internet and technology juggernauts Google and Apple may be working on moving some of their servers storing user data to Russia, according to head of Russian media watchdog Roscomnadzor. Aleksandr Zharov, who heads the RuNet regulator, spilled the news to journalists in the corridors of the “Internet Economy” forum, currently underway in Russia's capital, but said the information was “unofficial.”
“Facebook and Google haven't replied to us with anything yet,” Zharov was quoted as saying by TASS information agency. “According to information, as you would say, below the line, or unofficially, we know that both Google and Apple are working on localizing their databases on Russian territory.”
When prompted on whether Facebook and Twitter were also working to comply with data localization rules, Roscomnadzor head had nothing new to disclose. “I can't tell you anything. The time will come, we will inspect them and we will find out,” Zharov reportedly said.
Zharov's latest claims carry little weight, as they continue an already lengthy timeline of speculations, rumors, and denials swirling around the issue of data localization in Russia. While some companies, including Booking.com, eBay, and Viber, have confirmed they plan to comply with the user data storage demands, some of the biggest players have remained tight-lipped on the matter.
In April 2015, RBC news agency reported that Google had allegedly agreed to comply with data localization regulations, but Google later denied the claims and told Global Voices these reports were “inaccurate.”
In September 2015, Russian media reported that Apple had caved to Russia's demands and was renting out server space in a Russian data center belonging to a company called IXcellerate. At the time, both IXcellerate and Apple refused to comment.
The data localization law came into force on September 1, 2015, mandating Internet companies and services should store Russian users’ data on servers within Russia. Internet services that do not comply with the law will be added to a registry of violators and could be blocked at the behest of Russia's Internet watchdog, Roscomnadzor.

author: Tanya Lokot


text:
Russian Activist Gets Two-Year Sentence for ‘Calls to Extremism’ on Social Networks · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Darya Polyudova at a single-person picket. Image from her VKontakte page.
A Krasnodar district court has found activist Darya Polyudova guilty of “public calls to separatism and extremism” on social media and has sentenced her to two years in a penal colony.
Prosecution earlier asked that Polyudova receive a 3.5-year term, according to an Ovdinfo.org report.
Earlier, Polyudova was charged with public calls to activity aimed at disrupting the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (under a new article 280.1 of the Russian criminal code, added in 2014), as well as with calls to extremism (parts 1 and 1 of article 280 of the criminal code), including such calls on social networks.
On April 4, 2014 Polyudova went on a single-person picket with a banner that said “Not war with Ukraine, but revolution in Russia! Not war, but revolution!” and later posted a photo of herself with the banner on her VKontakte profile page. On July 16, Polyudova reposted a text on her VK page that contained the words “People, wake up!.. Why can't we remove Putin, and then create a socialist revolution?!!! Enough sleeping! Time to go out to the square and topple this regime!” Polyudova herself says she only reposted others’ words and provided no comments of her own.
On August 5, 2014 she posted another text on VKontakte calling “to fight Putin with his own weapons” and mentioning the Russian Kuban region as a historically ethnic Ukrainian territory.
A criminal case against Polyudova was launched in August 2014, after she took part in the “Kuban Federalization March” protest rally. But law enforcement, as it turns out, took issue with Polyudova's social media posts about the fate of ethnic Ukrainians in the Kuban region. The extremism charges were added on later, and Polyudova was formally charged in January 2015.
The Krasnodar activist spent six months in pre-trial detention starting in September 2014, and was released in February 2015 under a travel ban. She has also previously received administrative penalties for other social media posts.
Human rights advocate Pavel Chikov called Polyudova a political prisoner and said her verdict was part of a trend of harsher sentences against dissenters in Russia that began with Ildar Dadin, who was recently sentenced to three years behind bars for unsanctioned protests.
Дарью Полюдову суд отправил на 2 года в колонию-поселение. Еще один политзаключенный в России
— Pavel Chikov (@pchikov) December 21, 2015
The court sent Darya Polyudova to a penal colony for two years. Another political prisoner in Russia.
Новые статьи в УК обкатывают реальными сроками в первых приговорах. Дадин и Полюдова
— Pavel Chikov (@pchikov) December 21, 2015
The new articles in the criminal code are getting real prison sentences in the first verdicts. Dadin and Polyudova.
Before the verdict was announced, Polyudova herself told a Radio Liberty reporter that she did not expect to be acquitted and was not afraid of going to prison.


text:
Bangladesh Will Demand Biometric Data From All SIM Card Users · Global Voices
Zara Rahman

Close up of a SIM-card being inserted into its socket inside a mobile phone. The SIM (“Subscriber Identity Module”) card holds security keys to identify and authenticate mobile telephony data. Image by Erik Tham. Copyright Demotix (21/2/2015)
Over the past few weeks, the digital rights of Bangladeshi citizens have weathered multiple blows. Social media apps were blocked for over three weeks in November and December — and some continue to be inaccessible from inside the country. The administrator of a Facebook page was arrested last week by the country's brutal secret police force, the Rapid Action Battalion, and is now facing accusations of posting “anti-government propaganda”.
On December 16, another worrying development was introduced: mandatory biometric registration for all SIM card owners.
With this new system in place, every mobile phone SIM card will be associated with its user's identity as it appears in the national identity card database of the Election Commission. Every SIM card owner will be asked to verify their identity by providing their fingerprint, which will be checked against the fingerprint data associated with their national identification. Each person will be allowed to register a maximum of twenty mobile phone SIM cards to their national identity card.
As every SIM card will be able to be traced back to a single identity, it will no longer be possible to buy a SIM card from a licensed dealer without explicitly linking it to the identity of a registered Bangladeshi citizen. It is unclear what options will be available for those who don't have a national identification entry in the Election Commission's database, a shift that may leave marginalized populations without access to essential communications tools.
In broad terms, the scheme will connect communications data together with individual, government-assigned identities, potentially allowing the government to have unprecedented oversight on daily lives of Bangladeshi citizens. Exactly what laws will govern access to and usage of this data are unclear. Authorities are reportedl to be preparing updates to the Information and Communication Technology Act, which may affect the way SIM data is handled.
As part of the scheme, six mobile phone operators – Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Airtel, Citycell and state-owned Teletalk – have signed a deal with the Election Commission to match National Identity Cards data with information provided by mobile phone users at the time of SIM registration. The data is reportedly being stored in the government's “National Identity Registration Wing (NIDW) archive”.
The change is set to affect a huge proportion of the Bangladeshi population: the Daily Star reports that there are 130.19 million active SIM cards in the country. Prior owners of SIM cards will have until April 2016 to register their biometric information with their SIM card, and their SIM cards will be deactivated if users fail to provide this data before the deadline. For those unsure of the status of their SIM card, telecommunications companies are providing an SMS service that will help them verify whether their SIM card has been properly registered or not.
Reportedly, new SIM cards will now only be active 72 hours after purchase, once the identity of the person purchasing the card has been officially verified.
A month-long trial run for this scheme started in October of this year, and it highlighted a number of crucial glitches. According to BDnews24.com,
There were complaints of the system failing to match the fingerprints of many subscribers with the data in the national identity card databank. Tarana said in reply to a question on Sunday that the problem arose because of incorrect entry of NID numbers, rebutting allegations that the biometric system fingerprints were at variance with the NID data.
Tarana Halim, the Minister for Post and Communications, insists that all of these glitches have been “set right”. Justification for the scheme comes from the government's statement that “unregistered cards were being used for criminal activities,” but it is unclear what direct effects the policy change will have on criminal activity.
In Pakistan, where a similar scheme was recently adopted, a number of unforeseen consequences have come to light. In 2015, Pakistani telecom companies reported a decline in sales of 16%. As of November 2015, the Pakistani government had reportedly disabled 26 million SIM cards after their owners failed to register them with the necessary biometric data.
Bangladesh may see similar results. The policy will likely lead to a decrease in authorized mobile phone use, and could generate an increase in unofficial sales of SIM cards. This seems to cut against the government's plans for increased digital accessibility in the new so-called ‘Digital Bangladesh’.
Although some members of civil society have raised concern about the changes, there has been little mention of the effects it may have on the privacy rights of Bangladeshi citizens. Social media reactions have been largely congratulatory or matter-of-fact around the roll-out of the scheme:
SIM sales with Biometric verification live in Bangladesh. A step forward towards becoming a digital citizen pic.twitter.com/408RQIdGof
— Sajjad Hasib (@sajjadhasib) December 16, 2015
Maximum 20 SIMs can be registered under one #NationalID card, decides Telecom Ministry. #SIM #NID #Bangladesh
— Nurunnaby Chowdhury (@nhasive) December 15, 2015
But not everyone is happy. Diaspora blogger Kamrul Hasan Jony writes:
সাধুবাদ জানানোর মতো পদক্ষেপ। বিশ্বের অনেক দেশে এ পদ্ধতি সচল রয়েছে। যদিও অনেক বছর আগে একবার সিম নিবন্ধন করেছিলাম। কিন্তু কেন জানি জানিনা, বাংলাদেশে তথ্য সংরক্ষিত থাকে না! যাক, দ্বিতীয় দফায় তার উদ্যোগকে স্বাগত জানাতেই হলো, জানালাম। যদিও আমার মতো কয়েক লাখ প্রবাসীর হাতে থাকা ব্যক্তিগত সিম কার্ডটি তার দেয়া নির্ধারিত সময় সীমার মধ্যে নিবন্ধন করা সম্ভব হবে না বলেই বন্ধ করে দেয়া হবে।
This is a laudable step. Many countries of the world adopted this (bio-metric registration). I registered once earlier. But I don't know why they don't keep the records in Bangladesh! Whatever, we have to welcome the new registration system. The truth is that many hundreds of thousand son diaspora Bangladeshis like me may not be able to register their personal SIM(s) within the deadline and those will be cancelled.
Ironically, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the following statement last Saturday:
“We are living in a cosmopolitan and multi-centric world now. The ever-changing technology is strengthening bonds among people and helping resolve many problems, but it is also creating some difficulties…”
With Minister Halim writing last week that the social media block was an effort “to save lives”, it is becoming ever clearer that the government's vision for the digital sphere may not coincide with the vision of accessibility and free expression that characterizes the open Web. With a visible crackdown on those who speak out against the government, this erosion of Bangladeshi citizens’ digital rights does not bode well for the future development of ‘Digital Bangladesh’.

author: Zara Rahman


text:
Countries Declare States of Emergency in the Face of El Niño · Global Voices
350.org

This map shows the extent of regions in distress (December 2015).
© 350.org
This article is based on the ‘superpage‘ developed by Aaron Packard, Belinda Storey, Matthew Anderson and Jenny Zapata Lopez for 350.org, an organisation building a global climate movement, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Intensified by climate change, the natural phenomenon known as El Niño is exceeding previous records and is on track to unleash severe and destructive extreme weather in the coming months.
One city and five countries — Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and San Diego, California — have already declared a state of emergency due to the El Niño, while the United Nations has deployed emergency resources to a further 10 countries. The number of places facing a state of emergency is expected to increase considerably in coming months.
“This El Niño and human-induced climate change may interact and modify each other in ways which we have never before experienced,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud says. “El Niño is turning up the heat even further.”
This year’s El Niño is beginning to expose the dangerous extent of the global warming rapidly accumulating due to human greenhouse gas emissions. Since the last record-breaking El Niño of 1997, a staggering 93% of global warming has been absorbed deep into the oceans. But with masses of heat energy released from the oceans into the atmosphere, this El Niño event is now reversing that, effectively speeding up global warming by at least a decade. This has meant that we’ve now passed one degree of warming since the 1880s.
Continued climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of El Niño events. To find out what an El Niño is, click on this page and watch the following video:
Several countries are on the front lines of El Niño, including Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Ethiopia, India, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
Since July, more than 100,000 children have been turned away from schools as there’s just not enough water or food left to run them anymore. After a period of severe frosts in the highlands that killed-off staple food crops, the intense El Niño-driven drought has prevented new crops from growing. There have been reports of deaths from starvation and disease.
“I grew up in Kisii County, the western part of Kenya. A region that contributes largely to Kenya’s fruit basket, but we too have noticed the absence of rainfall. In the 1970’s my family built a dam within the land my grandfather owned. Though he has departed, that dam has always been there from since I can remember, but in the last two years weather patterns across the country have demanded that our family not take this reservoir for granted. As we experience the second round of drying up, the future remains uncertain. Will the dam refill with rain water as we approach the New Year? Our neighbourhood glares at the skies as if to question where the clouds went. All we can do is hope as we wait for the effects of El Nino to pass.”
-Unelker Maoga
Ethiopia has plunged into a worsening food crisis as two crop cycles have failed due to the El Niño-driven drought gripping the country. The Ethiopian government expects that 10.1 million people will face critical food shortages in the coming year, with 400,000 children at risk of developing acute malnutrition.
“The worst drought in Ethiopia for 50 years is happening right now, with the overall emergency response estimated to cost $1.4 billion,” says John Graham, Save the Children’s country director in Ethiopia.
Zahara Ali, 9, cooks breakfast in a rural village in the Dubti Woreda, Afar Region, Ethiopia, 9 January 2015. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2015/Bindra
The devastating and deadly floods that hit Chennai in early December after 5 weeks of intense deluges were made worse by the El Niño and climate change. In one 24-hour period, the most rain in Chennai’s recorded history fell, washing away airplanes at the airport, destroying homes and leaving much of the city without power.
Chennai floods. Photo by Destination8infinity via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 4.0
It is estimated that at least 1.5 million people are at risk from flooding in Ecuador alone in the coming months. During the 1997-98 El Niño, Ecuador and Peru experienced rainfall at 10 times the normal intensity, which caused severe flooding, mudslides and damage to infrastructure.
Analysis by the World Food Programme of their programs in Niger and Sudan found that responding before disasters hit lowers the cost of a future humanitarian response by a half. Many communities will remember the impacts of the 1997-98 El Niño and are already preparing themselves for the coming months. Different parts of the world are affected differently by the El Niño, as this map from USAID shows (the map shows the costs associated with the 1982-83 El Niño):
This map illustrates an average range of meteorological impacts caused by El Niño based on historical data. It also shows damages caused by the two most recent El Niño events. © USAID/OFDA


text:
Denmark’s Afghan Community Comes Together to Condemn Violence and Extremism · Global Voices
Masih Sadat

Photo by Jamil Ghafuri. Used with permission.
This story by Masih Sadat originally appeared in Danish on the website Opinionen. An edited version in English appears below with permission.
In light of deadly attacks in Afghanistan, France and other parts of the world, people of Afghan origin and descent in Denmark are voicing their solidarity with victims and frustration over the continued violence.
One example of this was when several Danish-Afghan associations joined together last month, in front of Christiansborg Palace in Denmark's capital city Copenhagen, to commemorate the many innocent people worldwide that in the past months had lost their lives to attacks orchestrated by ISIS, the brutal group that has taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The coordinated shootings and suicide bombings in Paris in November, which left 130 dead, “opens yet another wound in the already bleeding hearts of Danish Afghans,” read the central message of the demonstration. “For they are precisely the ones who are familiar with the murderous works of the extremists.”
Just four days prior to the Paris attacks, the province of Zabul in Afghanistan was also hit by bloody violence. There, seven Afghan civilians, mainly children and women, were executed by militants reportedly affiliated with ISIS.
Although it's certainly not the first spate of violence to erupt in war-torn Afghanistan, where extremist militant groups such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda and now ISIS have a presence, this latest incident caused Afghans around the world to speak up and mobilize, including in Denmark, home to several thousand people of Afghan origin or descent.
Afghans all over the world were using the hashtag #Shukria widely on social media:
Humanity has failed us thousand times, but Shukria's death marked us all. RIP. #shukria
— Arash Restami (@arashrestami) November 28, 2015
#Australia #Sydney: ‘We are all #Shukria‘ #ZabulBeheading #Hazaras in #Afghanistan| #auspol pic.twitter.com/nVv3EeN61P
— hazara.net (@hazaranet) November 18, 2015
All of the speakers at the November 22 demonstration in front of Christiansborg talked about an uprising among Afghans taking shape against the continued violence and insecurity in their country. They called it the “Tabassum uprising,” named after 9-year-old Shukria Tabassum, who was among the seven ethnic Hazara who were beheaded in Zabul.
The largest protests in Afghanistan's history reveal a major shift in the country's politics https://t.co/myhjwIp3in pic.twitter.com/UpHRoxxUkq
— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) November 27, 2015
Today, #London Protest for #shukria, the 9th years #afghan girl that beheaded in #zabul, last week. #zabulbeheading pic.twitter.com/aGCsXu1QTO
— MarYam MeHtar (@MaryamMehtar) November 16, 2015
After the rally had ended in front of the governmental building, where about a hundred people – children, elderly and women – had shown up on an otherwise cold winter Sunday, demonstrators began marching together in groups towards the French Embassy to show their sympathy with the victims of the Paris attacks.
Photo by Jamil Ghafuri. Used with permission.
A statement put out by all four Danish-Afghan associations that had hosted the event read:
We, on behalf of Afghans in Denmark, condemn the recent incidents in the strongest and thus send our deepest condolences to the victims’ families. Together, we express our deepest sympathy and condolences with the Parisians and their families in France, and in Afghanistan and many other affected places in the world.
Among the demonstrators, who were marching along the streets of Kongens Nytorv to deliver flowers and sympathy to the Paris victims, I met Joseph Saber, the president of the Afghan Youth Association in Denmark, one of the four associations behind the rally. After the event, I spoke with Joseph to hear more about the purpose of the demonstration.
Masih Sadat (MS): Why did you choose to end the demonstration in front of the French Embassy?
Joseph Saber (JS): Det gjorde vi af sympati og medfølelse for terrorofrene i Paris. Al-qaeda, Taliban og ISIS er grupper, der deler samme ideologi og samme forvrængede teologiske fortolkninger af religionen. Danske afghanere er mere end alle andre folk bekendte med terrorismens blodige værker, hvilke også var grunden til den udviste medfølelse og empati. De fleste afghanere har oplevet krigen og terroren på nært hold og kan hermed bedre forstå en anden nations smerter, som forårsages af samme.
Joseph Saber (JS): We did it out of sympathy and compassion for the victims of terrorism in Paris. Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS are all groups that share the same ideology and the same distorted theological interpretations of the religion. Danish Afghans are, more than most, familiar with the bloody works of terrorism. Most Afghans have experienced war and terror at close range and can thus better understand another nation's pain, which is caused by the same.
MS: What are you hoping to achieve with this demonstration?
Vi ville først og fremmest opnå muligheden for at mindes terrorofrene samt vise medfølelse med dem, der har mistet deres kære i terrorens vold. Udover det nævnte var meningen at fordømme de brutale handlinger, der blev begået i Islams navn, samtidig med at vi gjorde det klart, at ekstremismen og dens terror hører ikke til en bestem religion, race eller tankesæt. Det er en sygdom, der fordærver sindet og på samme måde samfundet.
JS: First and foremost our main goal was to commemorate the victims of terror and to express our sympathy with those who has lost their loved ones due to the terror violence. Secondly, we wanted to condemn the brutal acts that has been committed in the name of Islam, while in the same time making clear that extremism and its terror doesn’t belong to any specific religion, race or mindset. It is a disease that corrupts the mind and in the same way the community.
The four Danish-Afghan associations — Afghan Youth Association in Denmark, Katib, Khatemol-Anbiah and Shoraye Hambastagi — jointly prepared a letter in which they condemned the recent violence in Afghanistan, France and in the rest of the world, and in addition presented a number of calls to the Danish politicians in the Parliament.
Photo by Jamil Ghafuri. Used with permission.
The letter, which was read out loud during the demonstration by different speakers in Danish, English and Farsi, was subsequently given to politicians in Christiansborg. Among the calls to the Danish government, as well as to the European Parliament, was a “resumed focus on Afghanistan,” concrete actions against militant groups like the Taliban and ISIS, and a reconsideration of the repatriation of “innocent Afghan refugees.”
The latter has become one of the main worries of Afghan associations and Danish asylum activists, especially after the government's deportation of two young Afghan refugee brothers in June, which resulted in one of them being killed by the Taliban and the other disappearing.
“We hope that our politicians will increase focus on the problem of radicalisation in our society, and we hope as well that the global community does not forget the places around the world affected exactly by this epidemic,” Joseph Saber said.
“Afghanistan is exactly one of those places.”

author: Masih Sadat


text:
Massive LiveJournal Troll Network Pushes Pro-Kremlin Narratives · Global Voices
Lawrence Alexander

Multiple LiveJournal blogs linked to a Twitter bot network discovered earlier publish pro-Kremlin posts on a regular basis. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Since spring 2014, thousands of fake LiveJournal blogs have been mass-posting content promoting a pro-Kremlin stance on world events, attacking Western leaders and praising Russian president Vladimir Putin. Using custom Python code, Lawrence Alexander was able to isolate and analyze these accounts. Delving deeper into the metadata of the supporting Twitter bot network could provide further clues as to their origin.
After my previous article exposed and examined the hundreds of Russian Twitter bots marked out by their distinctive software client names, Pat O'Reilly—a Twitter developer and creator of the Relevancy app—drew my attention to another revealing detail in the metadata. He explained that besides client names, Twitter also records the URL associated with each app authorized to use the platform. O'Reilly set up a web page (archive) with the URL records, showing that the Twitter clients controlling the bots from our dataset, including rostislav, iziaslav and pourtwi, were all associated with the same subdomain: add1.ru.
The address has an interesting history. In his June 2015 investigation into pro-Russian “troll farms” for the New York Times, journalist Adrian Chen uncovered a number of suspicious Twitter accounts posting from a tool called “mass post.” This, he found, also pointed to add1.ru, a site originally registered to St. Petersburg IT specialist and coder Mikhail Burchik. He was also listed in documents leaked by Anonymous International as the executive director of the Internet Research Agency, the alleged “troll factory” based in the same city.
Open-source information reveals connections between Burchik and the pro-Kremlin web network covered in my previous articles for RuNet Echo. WHOIS records show his name associated with the now-defunct sites worldsochi (archive) and sochiworld (archive). Nikita Podgorny, the SEO expert linked to the pro-Kremlin sites and the Internet Research Agency, is still a member of the Facebook group associated with both sites.
Burchik's details also appear in the domain registration information (archive) of onlinepetitioninua.com, the URL of a website pretending to be a Ukrainian petition platform, now offline and unarchived. Its WHOIS records implausibly present the “owner” of the website to be the Ukrainian government, complete with an unlikely contact e-mail of gov.in.ua@gmail.com (username: “Ukr Gov”). Burchik's aptitude with social media automation (Chen found he was indeed a “a young tech entrepreneur”) is reinforced by his association with the time2post app: its VK page shows him answering technical queries and posting updates to users from his personal profile:
But what else might link the add1.ru-run Twitter bots to the work of the St. Petersburg “troll farms”?
A quick search of the Twitter bots’ timelines showed that a large amount of their activity has been devoted to mass-tweeting links to LiveJournal blogs. The tweets of one AlinaViatkova are a typical example:
Entering the found LiveJournal usernames into Twitter search revealed coordinated, collective activity of the part of the bots, which were repeatedly linking to the same blogs.
Multiple bots tweeting links to different posts by the same LiveJournal user.
The LiveJournal accounts looked immediately fake, with stock image avatars and thin or nonexistent profiles. Besides, we already know from previous leaks that the St. Petersburg “troll factory” indeed uses LiveJournal as one of its content distribution platforms. Cursory examination of this new data set suggested the posts consisted largely of pro-Russian, pro-Assad, and anti-Western sentiment.
The blogs focused, among other things, on denigrating the Ukrainian authorities (archive) and the European Union (archive) whilst portraying Putin (archive) as a noble defender of traditional Russian values. The content was typically crude (archive) in its portrayal of Ukrainian leaders.
Like the Twitter bots, the LiveJournal blogs enthusiastically promoted the Material Evidence photo exhibition (archive). Its alleged political bias and online connections with the Internet Research Agency have been previously documented by RuNet Echo.
The comments beneath each post came from similar fake accounts, and tended to either reinforce the post's political message (archive) or present a deliberately weak and simplistic “straw man” counterargument that other trolls could then knock down.
Comments under a LiveJournal blog post about the conflict in Ukraine either reinforce the post's political message or present a deliberately weak and simplistic “straw man” counterargument.
LiveJournal has a friendship system allowing users to connect with each other, and usefully, many of the pro-Kremlin troll accounts turned out to be linked in a closed network. Using Python, I gathered the metadata of just over 8,700 connected accounts based on a few starting users by gathering their friends-of-friends. Note that, for practicality, this was not an exhaustive search, so the actual figure may be much higher.
Because of the chance of outliers in the networks (accounts unrelated to the pro-Kremlin campaign) I didn't rely merely on friend connections, but also employed a chronological approach to isolate suspicious accounts.
Some of the 8,700 suspicious LiveJournal accounts and their account IDs shown in a spreadsheet.
Bot and troll accounts are often created en masse in a relatively short period of time. In this case, 89% of accounts in the 8,700-strong sample had been registered between early March and late May of 2014, shortly before the peak of domain registration in the previously reported pro-Kremlin website network in the summer of the same year.
A period of intensive mass account registration can be seen in the spring of 2014.
It appeared the LiveJournal accounts also had IDs that were numbered sequentially (so if Bob's account number was 12345678 and Alice registered immediately after him, Alice's would be 12345679.) This made it easy to modify the Python code to flag accounts created within this period. I then filtered out the irrelevant ones in an Excel spreadsheet.
Having acquired a “cleaned-up” sample, I wanted to establish the most popular posting topics across the thousands of “troll” accounts. Python came to the rescue once again: I wrote a second script to gather all the words from the titles of their recent posts. Would certain political themes characterize the entire sample?
Analysis of word frequency in post titles proved to be quite revealing. The top terms (excluding common particles of the Russian language, such as conjunctions) were “opinion,” “Russia,” “news,” “USA,” “Ukraine,” and “truth”. “EU,” “politics,” “Putin,” “Poroshenko,” and some conflict-related terms also made the list (click for a larger version of the interactive graphic).
These terms closely mirror the employee guidelines and posting topics revealed in leaked documents from the Internet Research Agency, which named Ukraine, EU, Russia, and the US among the top points of focus for the organisation.
The “talking points” guidelines for troll employees of the internet Research Agency: EU, Ukraine, and the US feature prominently.
Despite being backed by an aggressive and coordinated link-spreading strategy, it is unclear how successful these LiveJournal blogs have been in drawing in readers or influencing political opinion, either within or outside Russia.
At the time of writing, however, new posts are being produced regularly, suggesting that the 18-month-long campaign to push pro-Kremlin content on the RuNet is still underway.

author: Lawrence Alexander


text:
Meet the People Who Want to Repeal Russia’s Draconian Laws · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

A new Russian initiative is working to determine which Russian laws violate human rights principles and should be abolished. Image by Imagined Reality on Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
If you've been following RuNet Echo's coverage of Russian legislation adopted during the last year, you might have noticed how many laws are, in essence, aimed at limiting the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens. The law on extremism, regulations against unsanctioned protests, the blogger law—the list goes on and on. Under the guise of national security or patriotism, Russian lawmakers and government officials pass repressive regulations that increase censorship, limit the power of international human rights agreements, and undermine free speech and free expression, both online and offline.
But now a group of Russian intellectuals has created a public council whose main task is to analyze Russian legislation to determine which laws limit Russians’ rights and freedoms, and to recommend that such laws be repealed once the political climate in the country becomes more liberalized.
The initiative, Sanatsia Prava (best translated as Rehabilitation of Law), is the brain child of Vladimir Ashurkov, political activist and member of the central council of Party of Progress (an opposition party that has been unable to receive registration in Russia). Ashurkov currently resides in London, where he moved to avoid political persecution.
The idea is simple: instead of passing new and better laws, it's worth examining existing ones from the standpoint of human rights and individual freedoms and suggesting which of them should be rolled back. Although that's unlikely to happen while Vladimir Putin is in power, the council hopes their recommendations will be useful once Russia changes its political course.
Перед обществом стоит задача анализа законодательства с целью идентификации и выработки рекомендаций по отмене данных актов, что станет актуальным, когда произойдет либерализация политической системы, и новая власть возьмет курс на демонтаж авторитарного режима.
Society faces the task of analyzing the legislation to identify (legal acts) and develop recommendations to repeal said acts, which will become timely when a liberalization of the political system occurs and the new authorities begin to dismantle the authoritarian regime.
At the moment the public council includes Ashurkov, writer Grigory Chkhartishvili (nom de plume Boris Akunin), Pavel Chikov, head of human rights organization Agora, human rights advocate Irina Yasina, chair of the Center for Anti-corruption Research and Initiative Transparency International Elena Panfilova, entrepreneur Boris Zimin, and lawyer Vladimiar Pastukhov. Economist Sergey Guriev, who was previously part of the initiative, recently left after being appointed Chief economist of EBRD. Sanatsia Prava also gets assistance from a broader group of legal, social science, and economic experts.
The Sanatsia Prava public council team. Images from sanatsia.com.
“Our aim is to compile a registry of laws which should be abolished because they conflict with the (Russian) Constitution and the basic principles of human rights,” Ashurkov says. “So our council is mostly comprised of people who hold some authority with society, but are not directly connected to politics or a specific ideology.”
The initiative's website has already published a list of the first ten laws it considers objectionable, with a detailed analysis of each act. These include:
Ahurkov sees the initiative as a possible common ground for the various liberal political players in Russia, often accused of internal squabbles and a lack of clear political agenda. The abolition of repressive laws, as a civic and not an ideological goal, could, Ashurkov believes, become one of the key elements of cleansing the country of its authoritarian heritage on the way to robust development.
В идеале я вижу такую картину — происходят честные и свободные выборы в Государственную Думу, и те партии, которые туда попадут, будут иметь практический набор законов, которые они могли бы отменить первым решением.
Ideally, this is how I see it: we have fair and free elections to the State Duma, and the parties that make it to the Parliament will have a practical set of laws which could be abolished at first vote.
The Sanatsia Prava team also seeks to involve Russian citizens in its analytical work, so their website has a feedback form where any user can suggest the next law to be examined, and provide a short explanation for their suggestion. Through involving ordinary citizens, public reporting, and collective decision-making, the project hopes to gain the trust of a broad contingent of the Russian population and to create a model of influential civic initiatives that could be replicated in other areas of Russian political, social, and economic life.


text:
The Syrian Conflict Won’t Steal My Christmas · Global Voices
مرسيل شحوارو

Christmas in Syria. PHOTO: Charles Roffey, shared on Flickr under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
This post is part of a special series of articles by blogger and activist Marcell Shehwaro, describing the realities of life in Syria during the ongoing armed conflict between forces loyal to the current regime, and those seeking to oust it.
Christmas used to have a special meaning in my family, full of spiritual and familial rituals. As children, my sister Leila and I used to take turns throughout the night watching out for Santa Claus, waiting to catch him “in the act”. I cannot remember clearly when we realized it was a trick played by our parents, or when we found all our letters to him, written over the years, safely stashed away by our parents. Even after growing up and realizing that Santa did not exist, my mother insisted that exchanging the gifts under the tree remain an annual ritual. A ritual that stopped, obviously, after she was gone.
At the beginning of December, she used to ask each of us what we needed, what we wished for, and she made sure that each of us bought gifts for the others. We would spend Christmas morning exchanging gifts and letters, after which I would spend hours upon hours getting ready. The hairdo, the makeup, the new clothes. I kept on buying new clothes—“Christmas clothes”—every year until I was 28. I used to look very colorful at Christmas. My hair would be, contrary to the norm, well styled. I used to practice using different colors on my eyelids. I would even sometimes go all out and draw a butterfly tattoo on my shoulder—“It’s Christmas!” I would then go to mass, followed by a party where Santa would show up and give us balloons and hats, and we would dance to “Jingle Bells”.
When my father died many Christmas rituals disappeared from our household. The tree disappeared, for instance, but my mother retained the rituals of love and gift-giving, as well as her insistence every year that we go out to celebrate with our friends and leave her by herself. Today I regret every time I left her alone, as a teenager, to go out to celebrate with friends.
After my sister’s marriage and birth of her first child, Christmas regained its familial flair and my mother regained her smile. The ritual of decorating the tree was revived and she celebrated with the grandchildren. The number of letters to Santa increased and we all got creative in inventing new scenarios for Santa to show up and distribute the gifts.
Then the revolution started.
The first Christmas is as ordinary as possible. I try to ignore the imminent threat and have an ordinary family Christmas, trying to ease my mother’s fears and wishes for me to stay safe.
The following year it is impossible to ignore all that. My last day in our house is New Year’s. Security forces are already on my trail because of what I was writing, and what some people—people with whom I used to spend Christmas, singing, dancing and celebrating—were writing to the security forces about me.
That day was my last day on the western side of Aleppo which, to this day, remains under Assad’s control, making it impossible for me to go there. I crossed the border into Turkey and re-entered from the liberated side of the city. To make the crossing between the two territories I had to use a fake identity and disguise myself with a head scarf. And to evade the regime's snipers targeting crossers, we had to race between the crossing’s two points. Those were the most dangerous five minutes ever. Crossing, without any goal worthy of this sacrifice except the “memory of the New Year”. Christmas as an act of resistance—I wasn’t going to let them steal my Christmas.
The following year finds ISIS on my tail. It is very dangerous for me, as a Christian, to be in areas where they roam freely, kidnapping revolutionaries, first the Muslims among them. But despite the danger I insist on putting up a Christmas tree at my house. During wartime, there is no place you can easily buy a Christmas tree.
I crossed safely to the other side: a “Christmas miracle”, maybe. And I celebrated Christmas and New Year’s with the friends who loved me so much they took the risk of celebrating with me. I then returned to the liberated part of Aleppo, making that my last visit to my house, to those streets and to Christmas as I knew it.
At the same time that year another miracle happens in my city: my best friend survives a shelling at a new year’s party. I’m still grateful for that. The most beautiful miracle of my life.
The following year finds ISIS on my tail. It is very dangerous for me, as a Christian, to be in areas where they roam freely, kidnapping revolutionaries, first the Muslims among them. But despite the danger I insist on putting up a Christmas tree at my house. During wartime, there is no place you can easily buy a Christmas tree. I had to buy it in Turkey, at a price that I could ill afford then. I wrapped its various parts in clothing and smuggled it all the way to Aleppo. I hid the decorations inside boxes of tissues. Two hours on the road during which I feigned confidence at every checkpoint so that my clothes wouldn’t be not searched and my smuggled tree wouldn’t be exposed.
At an ISIS checkpoint at the city’s entrance a guard asks: “Who is this suitcase for?”
It’s mine. I make a move to open it but the driver answers: “It’s for the woman.”
The guard loses interest in searching it, and I pass safely into Aleppo. Another miracle? I don’t know.
I gather friends around me. Most of them are decorating a Christmas tree for the first time and even though the ritual has no religious meaning for them, they came and stayed around me to share my joy.
Jawad, the weirdest among them, says cheerfully: “Christian feasts are really nice.” And we all laugh.
Ali, my friend in the Free Syrian Army, approaches carrying a gift he wants me to put under the tree. I take it—I’m stunned with terror. A very small assassination pistol. He says: “It’s nothing. Is case they come for you,”—he means ISIS – “don’t let them get you alive.”
The thought is terrifying. It’s terrifying that someone’s love for you suggests your suicide. He realizes that I cannot kill, so he didn’t even try to convince me to defend myself. The pistol was eventually stolen, along with the laptop and other items in the house, and we never needed to use it. A miracle, again.
Today that tree lies in a house in the neighbourhood of Al Sukkari; a house its owner sealed up with bricks before fleeing to we don’t know where.
Maybe this is what Christmas is all about.
To be naïve among the people you love, defying death and loneliness.
To ignore the fact that Santa Claus is really your parents.
To brave the possibility of sniper fire so you can spend New Year’s Eve with friends.
To smuggle a Christmas tree through ISIS checkpoints.
To set goals for the New Year, knowing you cannot achieve them.
To pray from the heart that the doors do not close in the faces of the refugees from your country like they were closed in the faces of Mary and Joseph on Christmas Eve.
To try and find a miraculous way to penetrate an extremely painful memory and paint some love into it.
Maybe this is what Christmas is all about. To be naïve enough to write a letter wishing for “freedom”.

author: مرسيل شحوارو


text:
This Is What It Looks like When Thousands of Migratory Birds Descend on Peru · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Franklin's gulls. Image on Flickr by user Daniel Hernández P (CC BY-NC 2.0).
By mid December, as part of their migratory process, thousands of Franklin's gulls arrive to the Pantanos de Villa Wildlife Refuge, at Chorrillos district, in Peruvian capital Lima. Most of these birds fly along many kilometers from Canada, Mexico, California Gulf and Central America leaving behind Northern Hemisphere winter season on the journey they embrace during November and December:
Las especies avizoradas son la gaviota de Franklin (Leucophaeus pipixcan), el gaviotín elegante (Thalasseus elegans), el chorlo semipalmado (Charadrius semipalmatus), el falaropo de Wilson (Phalaropus tricolor), y el Gaviotín de patas negras (Thalasseus sandvicensis), entre otras migrantes del norte.
The species spotted are Franklin's gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan), elegant tern (Thalasseus elegans), semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatus), Wilson's phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) and sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis), among other migrant birds from up north.
This bird in named after the British Royal Navy officer and arctic explorer John Franklin.
On her Facebook page, ornithologist Irma Franke shared the spectacle offered by the birds as they went through Lima in late November:
It snowed in Lima today. At least, that's what I thought until I realized it was 30,000 Franklin's Gulls. This was just on one small section of beach south of Lima; all told we probably saw around 300,000 individuals today. Incredible movement, migration spectacle, it was an awesome event. No passports required.
The blog Animales y plantas del Perú (Animals and plants from Peru) shared more details about Franklin's gull:
La Gaviota de Franklin no es originaria de Perú, pero los peruanos la hemos adoptado como nuestra, porque nos visita desde hace siglos en los meses de primavera y verano.
[…]
Entre las gaviotas, las Franklin son las campeonas de la migración de largas distancias.
[…]
La gaviota de Franklin (Leucophaeus pipixcan) es una especie de ave de la familia de las gaviotas (Laridae), nombrada en honor al explorador ártico John Franklin. […] es una gaviota pequeña (35 cm) se caracteriza por su capucha de un color negro intenso con anteojeras blancas, patas y pico rojo oscuro con punta terminal negra. Tiene las alas grises, con las puntas con salpicado de blancos y negros.
Franklin's gull isn't native to Peru, but we Peruvians have adopted it as ours as it visits us for centuries during spring and summer.
[…]
Among the gulls, Franklin's are masters of long distance migration.
[…]
Franklin's gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan) is a bird species from the gull family (Laridae), named after Arctic explorer John Franklin. […] it's a small gull (35 cm) characterized by its dark black color with white spectacles, red dark legs and black-end beak. It has gray wings, with tips splashed in white and  black.
About their route, web Aves de Lima (Lima birds) explains this species the long journey, that lives in large colonies in lakes and wetlands, from southern Canada to South Dakota and Minnesota in the United States.
Entre las gaviotas, las Franklin son las campeonas de la migración de largas distancias. Después de anidar en las praderas norteamericanas, tienen una muda de plumaje completo. Luego vuelan hacia el sur a la costa de Texas y continúan hasta la costa del Caribe de México al istmo de Tehuantepec. De ahí vuelan sobre tierra a lo largo de la costa del Pacífico hasta el Perú y Chile. Durante el invierno acá pasan por una muda completa de plumas y siguen la misma ruta de regreso. Son la única especie de gaviota que pasan por dos mudas completas de plumas, que son necesarias para afrontar una migración de 8.000 kilómetros de vuelo.”
Among the gulls, Franklin's master long distance migration. After nesting in North American prairies, they completely molt [shed their feathers]. Then they fly south to Texas coastline and then they go on to Caribbean Mexico to Tehuantepec isthmus. From there, over land all along the Pacific coast to Peru and Chile. During winter here, they go through a complete molt and make the same way back. It's the only gull species that goes through two complete molts, which is necessary to face an 8.000-kilometer migration flight.
The website Descubriendo hojas (Uncovering leaves) posts several photos of the different species that can be seen at the Pantanos de Villa. And on Twitter, various users posted images and videos with the arrival of the migratory birds:
Pantanos de villa …hoy pic.twitter.com/6ien3oauMU
— Antonio Trelles (@AntonioTrelles1) diciembre 6, 2015
Pantanos de villa… today.
Hermoso espectáculo: gaviotas migratorias llegan a Los Pantanos de Villa https://t.co/TY3BdysuDU
— Fernando Gutiérrez (@Ecoperuko) diciembre 14, 2015
Beautiful spectacle: migratory gulls arrive to the Pantanos de Villa.
Gaviotas de Franklin llegaron a los Pantanos de Villa! pic.twitter.com/wEStUNwF1D
— Claby (@clamasortiz) diciembre 3, 2015
Franklin's gulls arrived to Pantanos de Villa!
Llegan un montón de aves migratorias a los Pantanos de Villa por estas épocas.
— Gisela Medina (@GiseLove120) noviembre 25, 2015
Lots of migratory birds arrived to Pantanos de Villa by this time of the year.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
25 Years After Officially Closing, Kyrgyzstan’s Biggest Dump Is Still Rancid and Expanding · Global Voices
Zhenya Tsoy

The dump with informal housing in the background. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
Kyrgyzstan’s biggest rubbish dump occupies a territory of about 120 soccer fields and is covered with garbage piled 10 metres high in most places.
The territory, defined by its strong stench, abundant rat population and circling birds of prey, reached its permitted waste capacity way back in 1990.
It has been a major public concern for over two decades since its official terms of service expired. Now it is a hazard to the environment and the residents that live in informal housing surrounding it, some of whom work there sorting rubbish for a living.
Part of the problem with the dump in the capital Bishkek is that it has had no competition since it first began amassing rubbish in the Soviet era. It is the city's only landfill.
Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
Lacking proper infrastructure and sufficient investment, the dump has become a toxic hub polluting the air above it, the ground below it and a local lake. Smouldering with foul fumes all year long, its effects on the human body are also beginning to tell.
The dump as a threat
The volume of garbage has risen with Bishkek's population which has grown by 25% to almost 1,000,000 since the turn of the millennium. Initially the dump was not designed to meet the needs of a city that size.
The dump releases methane, which is the most potent greenhouse gas that also happens to be flammable. There is no way of controlling the levels of this hazardous gas, making the dump quite literally a ticking bomb.
A young labourer working at the dump. Face blurred to prevent recognition. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
As the dump has grown, so has the dissatisfaction of communities living ever closer to its creeping boundaries.
Back in 2011, the residents of a local novostroika, or new settlement, gathered to demand the government hold a special session on relocating the dump. Otherwise, they said, they would block the roads.
Damir Kokozhanov, the leader of protesters, told the Russian-language news agency 24.kg then:
In the summertime burning garbage spreads the stench, ashes contain heavy metal oxides. They pose a deadly risk. It is a threat to the gene pool of the nation.
The talks took place, but no decision to relocate the dump was made. Today, it receives ever-increasing loads of solid waste.
The dump as a business
According to Aikokul Arzieva, who conducted ethnographic research at the dump in 2013, as many as 300 trash-sorters rely on it for their daily living.
In this way, it serves as a safety net for people — many of them internal migrants — in a country where high unemployment has triggered a labour exodus to Russia. What is more, the sorters perform a recycling service while risking respiratory illnesses and worse.
A teddy bear at the dump. Salvageable items are often washed and resold on Bishkek's markets. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
“Despite their contributions, waste pickers have a low social status, face social oppression, and earn much less than other participants in the informal garbage business,” Arzieva told the local News-Asia agency.
Attempts to turn the convert the dump into some kind of legal business, such as a waste incineration plant, have mostly proved unsuccessful.
Investors doubted the dump's recycling potential, expecting it to be unprofitable. It was not until the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed to come in as a partner in the project that any solution was in sight.
Informal housing in the backdrop at Kyrgyzstan's biggest dump. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
EBRD agreed to assist Bishkek in setting up a waste collection and disposal system on a mixed loan and grant basis. The total investment amounted to 22 million euros, half of which was a shared grant from EBRD and an unspecified international donor, the other part of which would be a loan to be paid off with the fees collected from citizens in later years.
The business model had a major flaw, however. According to the Mayor of Bishkek, Kubanychbek Kulmatov, the municipal government has historically been unable to collect hauling fees from city residents.
At the event Urban Talks organized by the local civic group Urban.kg, Kulmatov explained that of 1.5 million citizens living in and around Bishkek, only 560,000 pay the hauling fee of 15 Kyrgyz soms (around 20 US cents).
The prospects
Despite unpromising business forecasts, the EBRD investment went ahead, and by 2017, a new sorting plant should be completed on the site of the dump.
The positive outcomes are obvious: the pollution caused by the decaying garbage will be reduced and the dump will become more sustainable. The plant is expected to bring profits and contribute towards paying off the loan from the EBRD.
But what of the local residents and waste pickers?
Bottles. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.
Since the new plant and the adjacent facilities will be constructed near the current dump and require more space, up to 100 informally built houses in the immediate proximity to it will need to be demolished. Local residents, as well as waste-pickers, will be forced to leave the site, to make way for state workers.
As much as local residents disliked the presence of a dump, it provided a source of income and a place to live. If the promised plant is built, their prospects are rather unclear.
Birds have plenty to pick on at the dump. Photo by Azamat Imanaliev. Used with permission.

author: Zhenya Tsoy


text:
Award-Winning Citizen Journalist Ahmad Almossa Killed in Idlib, Syria · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Ahmad Mohamed Almossa, a member of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), was assassinated in Idlib, Syria, by unknown masked men, according to a tweet from RBSS.
Ahmad Mohamed Almossa, a member of Syrian citizen journalism collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) was assassinated by masked men in Idlib, in north western Syria, on December 16, 2015.
Almossa is part of a group of netizens reporting from Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of militant group ISIS, which has carved a so-called Islamic state for itself across parts of Syria and Iraq. RBSS is regularly quoted in media and offers a close perspective on atrocities committed by the ISIS, Syrian government forces and the coalition airstrikes targeting civilians. Two other journalists in the group were killed earlier this year. The group, founded in April 2014, has been threatened by ISIS for exposing their crimes and brutality to the rest of the world and for showcasing the resistance of the people of Raqqa to its rule.
No further information is available about Almossa, but his murder was condemned internationally, with fingers pointing at the ISIS for his death.
Many reacted to the tweet by RBSS announcing Almossa's death:
#Raqqa Ahmad Mohamed Almossa one of #RBSS Members got killed Assassinated in #Idlib #Syria by Unknown Masked group pic.twitter.com/p3A1YESjZD
— الرقة تذبح بصمت (@Raqqa_SL) December 16, 2015
@Raqqa_SL Murdered by savages. He died for a cause I would be too cowardly to embrace. I salute Ahmad Mohamed Almossa, and all RBSS.
— Robert (@Bobjacket) December 16, 2015
@Raqqa_SL How many of us if tested would have this man's bravery? I think paradise is reserved for people like him.
— DeidanW (@DPWWriter) December 21, 2015
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which just last month awarded RBSS with its 2015 International Press Freedom Award for its courage in covering news in Syria, condemned the murder, adding:
At least two other members of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently have been murdered since the group was founded in April 2014. In October 2015, Ibrahim Abd al-Qader was killed by Islamic State militants, along with fellow journalist Fares Hamadi, in Urfa, southeastern Turkey. In May 2014, Al-Moutaz Bellah Ibrahim was kidnapped by Islamic State and murdered. In a two-part video series released earlier this year, Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of al-Mousa's father and four other Syrians accused of being members of the group. Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently told CPJ none of the victims were members of its group.
Despite these painful losses, RBSS is continuing its work. Here's a tweet from December 22:
#Raqqa today daily life #ISIS #Syria 22-12-2015 #ISIL pic.twitter.com/dp00dI341Z
— الرقة تذبح بصمت (@Raqqa_SL) December 22, 2015
To follow RBSS, check out their work on Facebook, Twitter and blog, which have thousands of followers.
Reporters without Borders ranks Syria among the worst free speech offenders, at 176 out of 179 countries in its worldwide index on the freedom of press. Since March 2011, 50 journalists have been killed in Syria, eight journalists imprisoned, 17 netizens jailed and 141 netizens and citizen journalists killed.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
On Politics, Big Contracts and Parties in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Afra Raymond, former president of the Joint Consultative Council for Trinidad and Tobago's construction industry. Photo by Maria Nunes Photography, used with permission.
About a week ago, something important happened in Trinidad and Tobago.
Between the recession ambivalent Christmas rush and protests about gender identity, Afra Raymond, an avid anti-corruption blogger, resigned from a key position of an independent organisation that serves as a watchdog for Trinidad's multibillion dollar construction industry.
He stepped down as president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) allegedly because of an internal rift.
During the last five years in the position Raymond had ruffled some feathers, as president of a body that put a magnifying glass on the relationship between the construction industry and politicians.
The JCC is a collective of professionals linked to the construction industry. Since the most lucrative construction contracts come from the state, many contractors have good relationships with politicians, and vice versa.
Facebook user Dion Boucaud said of Raymond's resignation:
There are some very important voices in our society and Afra's is one of them. We should all be concerned about these developments.
Tensions apparently mounted after this letter, penned by Raymond in his capacity as JCC President, was published in the Express, one of the country's leading newspapers. The letter's beef was over the failure of Noel Garcia, now chairman of UDeCOTT, the “primary developer of choice” for state-sanctioned construction projects, to appear at a commission of enquiry surrounding the Las Alturas housing development, a project Garcia was in charge of during his tenure as general manager of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC):
The prospect of the chairman of a State enterprise declining to testify at a commission of enquiry is unacceptable and of course any continuing ambiguity can only feed suspicion.
At the time, Garcia demanded a formal apology for defamation, saying he was never called to testify at the commission; some members of the JCC reportedly agreed that Raymond should apologise, as there was a need for a “cordial” relationship between the JCC and UDeCOTT. No apology was ever issued.
Political blog The Eternal Pantomime further explained:
Noel Garcia had been appointed as the UDECOTT’s board chairperson. UDECOTT is that special purpose company that plays an important role in distributing construction contracts. UDECOTT and Calder Hart are what sank Patrick Manning [a former prime minister] under a mountain of corruption allegations brought to our attention by…drum roll…Dr Keith Rowley [the country's current prime minister]. Raymond, in his letter, noted media reports had raised questions about Garcia’s behaviour in public life and was bringing it to the public’s attention and calling Garcia to account for the public reports. Nothing uncommon for Raymond. It is what we have come to expect from the JCC as a civil society organisation.
The blogger, Rhoda Bharath, had more questions than answers:
Why was an apology necessary? Was the apology letter a ruse? To force a resignation? Is raymond’s presence as President a problem for the JCC? How so, if it is? And who does the JCC have in mind to replace Raymond?
As JCC President from 2010 to 2015 Raymond’s achievements were numerous. He is easily one of the sharpest minds we have. And his principled position has helped to shape public and political opinion […]
Wired868, though disappointed by the lack of media attention given to the issue, agreed:
There were precious few column inches dedicated to the disgraceful end suffered by former JCC president Afra Raymond, whose public pronouncements on transparency and good governance have been a breath of fresh air from the private sector.
The Eternal Pantomime's concerns about Raymond's resignation, however, are linked to a bigger issue. Earlier in her post, Bharath expressed her concern over a mainstream media story about contractor Rohan Sinanan, deputy political leader of the current People's National Movement government, hosting a party to celebrate his birthday — naturally, several government ministers and construction professionals were in attendance — but Bharath drew the line there:
Where it gets ridiculous is when you find out that the guest list at the party featured names like Ishwar Galbaransingh and Jack Warner. […]
Particularly Ishwar Galbaransingh. Yes. Of Piarco Airport Scandal fame. Of Section 34 fame. Of Extradition fame. And Jack Warner of Fifa corruption scandal fame. Of Extradition fame. Both partying with members of the same political party whose platform campaigned against the abuse that was Section 34.
The same government that has promised to root out and deal with corruption – especially white collar corruption – is at a private birthday party with these two gentlemen. […]
So how do we feel about this? How do we feel knowing that in the midst of weekly revelations about the abuse of the Treasury by a PNM government, two men that we know have had more access to our money than we are comfortable with are comfortably partying with members of our government? If this bothered us under the UNC’s recent term in office, it should bother us now.
The post then made the connection between the birthday party and Raymond's resignation from the JCC:
The construction industry has an intimate relationship with the government of the country because the most lucrative construction contracts come from the state. […]
The JCC as a body has made an effort to watchdog the relationship between the construction industry and politicians. To function as the condom between them when they are wrapped up in bed together. […]
For this country to move forward it needs a strong opposition to whoever is functioning as its sitting government. The UNC [the largest party in the previous People Partnership government, now on the opposition bench] is a spent force. Which leaves us with civil society groups like the JCC. […]
When in one weekend I hear that Rohan Sinanan invites Rowley, Faris [the attorney general], Jack, Ish and a slew of contractors to a private party; and then I pick up another newspaper and realise the JCC, the organisation that keeps an eye on the construction industry, has lost one of its strongest, most outspoken and most resourceful Presidents ever, I know that I am in the realm of the ridiculously sublime.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
On Taiwan, Facebook and the Politics of Trolling on the Chinese Internet · Global Voices
New Bloom

Tsai Ing-wen uploaded this image to welcome “new friends” from mainland China.
This article is written by New Bloom writer Brian Hioe, a M.A. student at Columbia University and freelance writer on politics and social activism. The original post, titled “Facebook Suddenly Unblocked In Chin, Tsai Ing-Wen's Facebook Page Flooded by ‘Fifty Cent Army'”, was published on News Bloom on November 11 and is republished on Global Voices in accordance with a content partnership agreement.
After the sudden, unexpected unblocking of Facebook in China for a day last November, Taiwan's oppositional Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-Wen’s Facebook page was flooded by posts, mostly from mainland China, with some users directly attacking Tsai and others claiming that Taiwan is part of China.
In response, Tsai Ing-Wen posted the above image on her Facebook page “welcoming” these commenters to democracy.
The image was widely shared by Taiwanese Facebook users, setting the stage for the Tsai campaign to use the incident as a campaign opportunity. The image was widely circulated and written about, and many observers believe that it did more to help Tsai's campaign than anything else.
But on all sides, the incident also raised the simple question: How did the unblocking happen?
Some believe that the unblocking of Facebook was caused by an error in China’s “Great Firewall” due to high volumes of online shopping traffic for the November 11th “Singles’ Day”, a holiday on which single people in China celebrate their status, and which has become one of the largest online shopping days in the world.
It appears that once Facebook was rendered accessible, China’s “Fifty Cent Army” of government-paid online commenters jumped at the opportunity to scale the Great Firewall. The “Fifty Cent Army” is a term used to refer to individuals hired by the Chinese government to influence public opinion, usually by trolling targets en masse with negative comments. “Fifty cent” refers to the purported amount that members are paid per post, fifty cents RMB. Individuals employed as part of the “Fifty Cent Army” may number in the tens of thousands.
Some theorized that the Chinese government deliberately unblocked Facebook in order to allow the onslaught of unkind commenters to attack Tsai and her campaign. This may have been part of a test to see what would happen if access to Facebook is allowed in China, with rumors that access to Facebook had been deliberately allowed in some locations, such as college campuses.
If it was not the “Fifty Cent Army,” it may have been overly nationalistic netizens behind the posts, but many of the user accounts from which these attacks came appeared to be bots. Tsai Ing-Wen’s Facebook page soon became the site of dramatic conflict between netizens from Taiwan’s PTT Internet forum defending Tsai, and mainland Chinese users attacking Tsai.
Mark Zuckerberg had been visibly bowing and scraping before Chinese President Xi Jinping shortly before the incident, presumably in the hopes of getting Facebook unblocked in China, in order to open the Chinese markets up to Facebook. This included everything from placing Xi Jinping’s book, The Governance of China, prominently on his desk and publicly advising Facebook employees to read it, to marking meeting Xi Jinping as a personal milestone on his Facebook wall, and asking Xi to give his then-unborn baby daughter a Chinese name. The latter request, Xi turned down.
Did Zuckerberg’s efforts finally pay off? This question crossed many peoples’ minds when Facebook suddenly became accessible from within China. But then it disappeared just as quickly. No subsequent user or media reports have indicated that Facebook has been unblocked in China and it appears that Facebook eventually returned to be being blocked.
As China has developed its own rich Internet ecology, centered around WeChat, Weibo, and other platforms in the absence of Facebook and Twitter, one might question whether Facebook would have as much traction in China as it does in other parts of the world. WeChat, for example, though a mobile-only messenger app and social network, has much more functionality than Facebook in regards to social integration, as it allowed users access to city services, store services, and other functionalities that are lacking in Facebook. It has also shown itself to strike an effective balance between allowing users to express political criticism in small, private user groups while enforcing the main government line on more public channels of the network.
WeChat’s many functionalities have also allowed it to become firmly integrated into daily life in China, something that it would be hard for Facebook to replicate. The trade-off, of course, is that WeChat parent company Tencent works closely with the Chinese state in order to track user activities. The integration of WeChat into society has allowed for expansive surveillance and could allow for social monitoring on an unprecedented scale. We can already glimpse this in a new credit system introduced by Tencent and Alibaba which is affected by political opinions and legal infractions, rewarding political compliance, and which some fear is a prelude to an official state-run system in the near future.
WeChat evidences the increasing sophistication of Chinese Internet censorship in that political criticism is tolerated in private circles on WeChat, with authorities only interfering when posts with political content become too widely circulated. Politically sensitive topics are less commonly deleted for being political criticism, but more often deleted as they are deemed to be dangerous or fast-spreading “rumors”. While Facebook is far from blameless in allowing for widespread surveillance of its users by the US government, there is agreement that it does not endeavor to control content on its networks as rigorously as WeChat.
The actions of China’s “Fifty Cent Army” may be overkill and it's clear that this strategy of mass trolling often backfires. In retrospect, many believe the attack on the Tsai campaign probably increased support for Tsai. Similarly, there are very few Chinese netizens lacking critical thinking skills to question the words and actions of the “Fifty Cent Army.” One suspects that, where the “Fifty Cent Army” aims to influence public opinion through brute force, more subtle strategies aimed at influencing public opinion would be more effective.
It may be that even outside of China, most major political parties today attempt to manipulate public opinion through social media networks, even in democratic countries. Within the US Democratic Party, for example, there have been recent accusations against the Hillary Clinton campaign, for example, for targeting the Bernie Sanders campaign through aggressive trolling. There have also been past accusations made against the Democratic Progressive Party by the Kuomintang in Taiwan for waging Internet warfare against them through conducting online smear campaigns.
China and Taiwan are both societies in which the Internet and social media have been very visible in recent years. Social media played a major role in mobilizing activists during the Sunflower Movement, mainly by way of Facebook and PTT. And if Internet censorship and authoritarian restrictions on protest in China have not allowed for social media to facilitate social movements as it has in other parts of the world, there are still phenomena in which netizens become a force to call for public justice, as in the case of the “human flesh search engine” (人肉搜索).
Taiwan is a bit of an outlier in the broader global milieu of online political campaign discourse, as it has the highest Facebook penetration in the world with 65% of the population on the platform. But in other ways, this story could help us glimpse the future.
Tsai’s campaign has generally been quite skilled in influencing public opinion, often through the creation of images that are then widely circulated on social media, not unlike the image she created in response to her hecklers from mainland China. Another recent example were her criticisms of Xi-Ma summit in Singapore later in November 2015, wherein she posted an image on Facebook that went viral. This was a subtle but effective way of influencing public opinion. In contrast, the onslaught of attacks on Tsai were ineffective because of their brute force nature.
What if, for example, Facebook did become permanently accessible in China and Tsai had to deal with continual attacks from the “Fifty Cent Army”? Tsai would have to find some way to mitigate this, perhaps through mobilizing her own Internet forces. Or Facebook itself would have to step in to somehow curb the actions of the “Fifty Cent Army”—something Zuckerberg might be hesitant to do. But this may just be further reflective of the nature of the Internet as a politicized space in the present.

author: New Bloom