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Yoani Sánchez Divides Opinions on a Visit to Brazil · Global Voices
Pedro Henrique Tavares

[All the links lead to Portuguese language pages except when otherwise noted.]
She finally did it. After several attempts to leave Cuba, blogger Yoani Sánchez landed in Recife [es] on February 18. With a full schedule in Brazil, which includes visits to Bahia and São Paulo states, her trip will also take her to Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Canada, Peru, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Switzerland, where she lived between 2002 and 2004. She was received in Brazil by pro-Cuban government's protesters.
In one of the first tweets in Brazilian soil, Yoani (@yoanisanchez) highlighted [es] the good Internet connection quality:
#Cuba Mi primer tweet conectada a #Internet en #Brasil… waooo que conexión más rápida :-)
Yoani lived in Switzerland between 2002 and 2004. Photo: Cristian Eslava, on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Still on the microblog, she said she was impressed [es] to see, already at the airport, people openly talking about politics:
Me asombró ver a varios empleados aeropuertarios de #Brasil hablar en voz alta y francamente de política. En #Cuba hablan en un murmullo
The documentary Conexão Cuba-Honduras (Cuba-Honduras Connection), for which she was interviewed, was going to be screened on Monday night (02/18) in Feira de Santana, a town in Bahia state.
However, due to protests organized by militants from the Workers Party (PT) and the Brazil Communist Party (PC do B), the screening didn't take place.
http://youtu.be/HTcpoo1uqs4
On Twitter, journalist Marcos Rolim (@RolimMarcos) ranted against the act:
O que Yoani fez para merecer este ódio? Pensar diferente do partido único de Cuba? Exigir que todos os cubanos tenham acesso à internet?
Rolim also said:
A imbecilidade dos protestos é tamanha que só o que esses militontos irão conseguir é mais isolamento para suas ideias do séc. XIX.
The dissident became known in 2007, when Reuters correspondent in Cuba, Esteban Israel, published a story [en] about her blog, Generación Y (The Y Generation). She is also very active on Twitter [en], with more than 417,000 followers.
The Jornalismo B blog, by Alexandre Haubrich (@alexhaubrich) says, in an article published on January 27, that “Cuban blogger has been, for years, the international star of the imperialist fight against the Cuban Revolution”. The text goes on saying:
Yoani é uma peça interessante no tabuleiro que sedia a luta entre a Revolução Cubana e o imperialismo capitalista. Ela usa a mídia internacional para se promover e ganhar dinheiro – muito dinheiro, como indicam ao menos as premiações que recebe – ao mesmo tempo em que é usada como fonte principal de tudo o que se fala sobre Cuba, sempre com o direcionamento de ataques frontais ao governo cubano.
Yoani Sánchez got an authorization to leave Cuba Photo: Andre Deak, on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
According to Portal Imprensa, this trip is a chance for her to respond to accusations of “having received money from the United States’ government and of being a CIA agent”.
Critical of Yoani Sánchez’s activities, the French journalist Salim Lamrani condemns the financial prizes Yoani has received in the last years, a total of 250,000 euros. An Opera Mundi article, re-published on February 18 by Portal Vermelho says:
isto é, um montante equivalente a mais de 20 anos de salário mínimo em um país como a França, quinta potência mundial, e a 1.488 anos de salário mínimo em Cuba.
Other payments are presented in the text:
A isso se soma o salário mensal de seis mil dólares concedido pela Sociedade Interamericana de Imprensa, que agrupa os grandes conglomerados midiáticos privados do continente, e que decidiu nomeá-la vice-presidente regional por Cuba de sua Comissão de Liberdade de Imprensa e Informação5. O jornal espanhol El País também decidiu nomeá-la correspondente em Havana, e lhe paga um bom salário.
At a certain point, Yoani has said she was against the US embargo against Cuba:
É uma atrocidade impedir que os cidadãos norte-americanos viajem a Cuba, do mesmo modo que o governo cubano me impede de sair de meu país.
Those that support the dissident’s actions accuse the Brazilian government of collaborating with the Cuban government’s repression. A text published by Blog do Coronel, says that an espionage plan had logistic support from the Brazilian government, headed by the Workers Party (PT).
O que Yoani não sabe é que, apesar da distância que separa o Brasil de Cuba – 5 000 quilômetros -, ela não estará livre dos olhos e muito menos dos tentáculos do regime autoritário. Para os sete dias em que permanecerá no Brasil, o governo cubano escalou um grupo de agentes para vigiá-la e recrutou outro com a missão de desqualificá-la a partir de um patético dossiê. Uma conspirata oficial em território estrangeiro contra quem quer que seja é uma monumental afronta à soberania de qualquer nação.
According to website Brasil 247, the Brazilian Presidency's Secretary-General, Gilberto Carvalho, released a communiqué on February 17 in which he denies any contact with Havana.
A Secretaria-Geral ressalta que não tratou, nem autorizou nenhum servidor a tratar, da visita da cubana Yoani Sánchez ao Brasil. A Secretaria-Geral não foi informada de reunião na embaixada cubana nos termos relatados pela revista. A suposta participação do servidor Ricardo Augusto Poppi Martins será devidamente apurada quando de seu retorno ao Brasil.
Edson Sombra‘s blog says that Álvaro Dias (PSDB), opposition senator to Dilma Rouseff’s (PT) government, will call Foreign Minister Antônio Patriota and the Secretary-General Gilberto Carvalho for clarifications:
O senador Álvaro Dias (PSDB-PR) disse, neste sábado (16), que pretende convocar os ministros Antonio Patriota (Relações Exteriores) e Gilberto Carvalho (Secretaria Geral da Presidência), bem como fazer um convite ao embaixador de Cuba no Brasil, Carlos Zamora Rodríguez, para que compareçam ao Senado para falar sobre a suposta mobilização capitaneada pelo embaixador contra a blogueira cubana Yaoni Sánchez, conforme revelado pela revista “Veja”. Segundo a publicação, o embaixador de Cuba teria organizado uma reunião no dia 6 de fevereiro com militantes de partidos de esquerda brasileiros na tentativa de montar uma estratégia para denegrir a imagem da bloqueira cubana Yoani Sánchez.

author: Pedro Henrique Tavares


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God Exists and He Serves the Kremlin · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Though the Pussy Riot trial is over, the culture war it launched in Russia drags on unabated. Pope Benedict XVI's abdication sparked the latest conflagration, when political analyst and spin doctor Stanislav Belkovsky addressed the Catholic leader's decision, calling it a path the Orthodox Patriarch ought to follow. Belkovsky laid out this advice in his opinion column [ru], published by newspaper Moskovskii Komsomolets, on February 15, 2013. He also advocated the radical restructuring of the Church, which he claims is over-centralized and beholden to the state. In essence, he called for an Orthodox Reformation, replete with all the Christian fragmentation and democratization that followed Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses.
Within a week, more than forty members of Russia's federal legislature (mostly MPs, but also a few senators) appealed [ru] to the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutor's Office, requesting an investigation into Belkovsky's article for extremism and inciting religious hatred. Belkovsky responded with a follow-up op-ed [ru] titled “Putin or Belkovsky?” on February 22 and a storm of media interviews.
Stanislav Belkovsky, March 2008, photo by Damir Kleimenov, CC 3.0.
In Belkovsky's follow-up article, he criticized the Church for ignoring his reform proposals, joking that its silence amounts to the stubbornness of a “fish banging his head against the ice” (a joke he first used in an appearance [ru] on Dozhd television). He did, however, acknowledge that three figures with ties to the Church—Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, and media big shot Nikolai Uskov—did respond to his February 15 piece. Belkovsky thanked Kuraev for opposing [ru] the criminal charges raised by the Parliament. (In a statement [ru] to Gazeta.ru on February 20, however, he exaggerated Kuraev's position as one of “support.”) Finally, he answered Chaplin and Uskov, whose reactions were less charitable, with insinuations of closeted homosexuality—Belkovsky's favorite tack [ru] in debates.
Indeed, Vladimir Golyshev (Belkovsky's coauthor for a 2006 book [ru] about Vladimir Putin's alleged vast wealth abroad) says [ru] the “extremism” charges are the Kremlin's delayed punishment for remarks [ru] Belkovsky made on live radio last month, when he speculated about the “key role” played by “the gay community” in the inner circles of Putin's presidential administration. This, Golyshev argues, mirrors the religious extremism smokescreen Putin used to take revenge on Pussy Riot, whose real crime—he claims—was their Red Square concert a month before the infamous “punk prayer” inside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Golyshev's theory is a curious one. On the one hand, it's true that Belkovsky's February 15 article wasn't the first time he publicly advocated sweeping reforms for the Orthodox Church. In September last year, for example, Belkovsky's foundation co-organized an entire conference [ru] titled “Reformation: the Fate of the Russian Church in the 21st Century.” On the other hand, if we're to believe Golyshev that Belkovsky's recent gossip of gay enclaves explains his current trouble, it's a wonder that it's taken so long for this other shoe to drop. After all, it has been over a year since Belkovsky (incorrectly) predicted [ru] that Viacheslav Volodin would replace Boris Gryzlov as Speaker of the Duma, making Volodin “the first gay” to hold the office. (Volodin, who does not claim to be a homosexual, instead replaced Vladislav Surkov as First Deputy Chief of Dmitri Medvedev's presidential administration.)
And what of the Orthodox Community's supposed silence? Belkovsky likes to link the Church to United Russia, the nation's “political party of power,” arguing that both institutions have become a burden on Putin, whose international credibility suffers with every Pussy Riot trial and Duma deputy real estate scandal. Study the theological debates on the Internet forum Pravmir.ru, however, and it's difficult to embrace Belkovsky's theory about a religious-secular pact to oppress Orthodox reformists. In the last few days, Pravmir.ru has published Belkovsky-themed articles by four different authors—one by the aforementioned Andrei Kuraev, as well as texts by theologian Sergei Khudiev, Father Nektarii, and Archpriest Andrei Efanov. While Efanov does insist [ru] on the need to debunk Belkovsky's Reformation program, none of the men appear to endorse the Federal Assembly's interest in a criminal investigation. Father Nektarii even complains [ru] that the appeal to law enforcement is “more harmful [to the Church] than ten Belkovskys together.”
Khudiev's attitude deserves special attention. Highlighting the repetition of the word “interests” in the February 15 op-ed (as in, a Reformation would be in the “interests” of many Orthodox believers), Khudiev contends [ru] that Belkovsky's logic is fundamentally alien to the spirit of Lutheran and Calvinist reform. “A person with faith would never talk like that,” Khudiev concludes, arguing that Belkovsky seeks political ends by religious means.
Others, too, have wondered if Belkovsky's heart is really in it, when it comes to an Orthodox Reformation. That skepticism, however, is more often rooted in veiled (and sometimes overt) anti-Semitism. When Nikolai Uskov (mentioned above) responded [ru] to Belkovsky's proposal, he included the following suggestive question in a remark about Belkovsky's audacity:
Меня не удивляет и попытка политолога-мирянина (православный ли он вообще?) учить церковь, как ей следует жить.
It doesn't surprise me that this political-consultant-layman (is he even Orthodox?) is trying to teach the Church how it should live.
Elsewhere on the RuNet, bloggers were even less subtle. In a February 18 post, LiveJournal user Alexandra Ligamentia declared [ru] that Belkovsky “is not an Orthodox person, but a representative of an entirely different religious confession.” While she never uses the word “Jewish,” Ligamentia does include a photograph of Belkovsky embracing Boris Berezovsky, one of Russia's most notorious (and Jewish) oligarchs. And then there's Mikhail Matveev's LJ post [ru], titled “Belkovsky's Kyke Article About the Orthodox Church,” which is, well, exactly what you'd expect it to be.
For Belkovsky's part, he says that he's a practicing Orthodox Christian [ru]. And while his mother is indeed of Jewish descent, that hasn't stopped him from insisting that matters concerning the Orthodox Church are for him personal as much as political. “I'm a Christian,” Belkovsky told [ru] Polit.ru, “and I had the right to discuss this [on February 15] and I have the right to [continue to] discuss this.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Kazakhstan to ‘Work Closely’ with Bloggers · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Marat Tazhin, a senior government official in Kazakhstan ordered [ru] yesterday the creation of a database of the most popular bloggers and moderators of major social media networks in the country. He also ordered state-run media and press services of key ministries to “work closely” with the bloggers and use their expertise. Blogger Bravo Oscar suggests [ru] that the initiative amounts to a “recognition of Internet media, blogs, and social media as major players in the country's information space”. It also gives bloggers a chance to prove that they can work better than state-run media which they often criticize. Baglan Aidashov has collected [ru] the most interesting tweets, Facebook posts, and memes inspired by Tashin's initiative.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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MDG Consultations Held in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Musharraf

Blogger Teocrat calls [ru] on Tajikistan's young people to contribute to public consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The aim of the consultations is to review progress towards the MDGs and hear from people what they think should come after 2015, the deadline set for achieving the Goals. Many users suggest in comments that education should be a main focus of the post-2015 development framework for Tajikistan.

author: Musharraf


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Request Google to Look into Myanmar · Global Voices
Chan Myae Khine

Many Burmese netizens requested[my] the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information who met with Google's Southeast Asia Country lead for Public Policy and Government Affairs to convince the company not to block Google Play in Myanmar and to put Burmese (Myanmar) language in Google Translate.

author: Chan Myae Khine


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South Korea: Ex-Police Chief Jailed for Defaming Deceased President  · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

A former South Korean police chief was sentenced to a 10-month in jail for falsely accusing the deceased former president of maintaining slush fund bank accounts under assumed names. The court's decision was met with praise, but some net users complained that the ruling was made too late after plenty of damage had already been done.
Caricature of ex-police chief, Cho Hyun-oh. Image by Flickr user @okkokin (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Cho Hyun-oh has been unpopular among liberals and human rights groups for alleged monitoring of civilians and critics [ko] and directing violent clampdowns [ko] on protests that claimed dozens of lives. In what is believed to have been a politically motivated corruption probe against the beloved former president Roh Moo-hyun, Cho claimed the revelation of Roh's secret bank accounts drove him to commit suicide [ko].
Cho said he got the information on the secret accounts from anonymous source, a claim that he failed to verify until now and that many consider to be a groundless conjecture [ko]. The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho of posthumously defaming the ex-president and took him to court custody on February 20, 2013.
The legal community has applauded the ruling [ko], but the damage may be difficult to undo:
@histopian: “노무현이 자살한 건 거액의 차명계좌가 발각됐기 때문”이라고 했던 전 경찰청장 조현오씨가 법정구속됐군요. 하지만 아직도 그의 말을 믿는 사람 많을 겁니다. 사실 여부에 관계없이 그저 제가 믿고 싶은 대로 믿는 사람들.
The reformist Roh's death is remembered as one of the most tragic events in recent Korean history, and resulted in intense conflicts and divisions between right-wing groups and progressives.
@100hyeryun: 조현오를 법정구속한 이성호 판사의 양형이유 “피고인의 발언으로 국민은 뭔가 있겠지라는 의심을 갖게 됐고 그런 의심은 노전대통령을 지지하는 국민과 비판하는 국민 사이에 너무나 큰 국론분열을 일으켰다.”핵심을 찌른 판결 이유였습니다.
Many net users, while supporting such ruling, questioned why it took so long. Comparing it with the unprecedentedly quick arrest of pastor Jo [ko] under charges of spreading false rumors against then President-elect Park Geun-hye, journalist @welovehani wrote [ko]:
@welovehani: 박근혜 허위사실 유포 혐의 피고발 목사 하루만에 체포한 검찰. 노무현 허위사실 유포 혐의 피고발 조현오. 검찰 출석까지 1년9개월.
Although many cheered the news of Cho's arrest, a minority of Twitter users debated whether arresting someone for defamation was an appropriate form of punishment in the first place:
@sungsooh: 물론 조현오씨 사례는 고위직에 있는 사람의 무책임한 발언이었고 후속행위 등을 고려할 때 죄질도 나쁘다고 봅니다. 명예훼손죄가 존치하는 한 당연히 유죄라고 봅니다만, 그럼에도 명예훼손에 대해 인신구속을 하는 것은 찬성하기 어렵네요.
User @naticle acknowledges this concern, but added [ko]:
@naticle: […]그러나 조현오씨의 경우에는 적용되기 힘든 것이 죽은 사람은 반론할 기회가 없는데 주장을 거듭했어요

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Trinidad & Tobago’s Take on The Harlem Shake · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The latest Internet meme craze, the Harlem Shake, in which people dance to this song,   has now taken Trinidad and Tobago – the other side of the world from where the meme began, in Queensland, Australia – by storm.
Not to be confused with the original Harlem Shake dance, the meme's version basically involves a lead character dancing on his or her own for a bit, to be followed by the rest of the “cast” joining in with ebullient dance moves.  Of course, for a video meme, it is easily reproduced, as it involves just one camera angle and a jump cut – practically anyone can do it and they certainly have been – in all parts of the country.  The trend has become so popular that even local mainstream media are covering it.
The blog mekmilaugh, which put together a quick playlist of some of the videos, noted that:
Even with Carnival just concluding, Trinidadians have found time to get into the internet mania being generated by Baauer's Harlem Shake where people across the World have been making crazy short videos to the song.
Here is a look at some of the videos…a Trinbagonian take on the Harlem shake!
There is one from Synergy TV…
…another from social/entertainment website triniscene.com which goes all out, complete with confetti…
…and one from Macoya Gardens – the “street edition”:
Sandwich Media posted this one, which has a definite Carnival feel.  They dubbed it “the waterfront edition”, since it was filmed at the Hyatt Regency hotel, which has a view of the Gulf of Paria:
Even the vagrants who populate the streets of the capital, Port of Spain, seemed to be getting in on the act:
Finally, the most artistic approach came from jtography, whose stop motion version is both clever and entertaining:

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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As Japan’s Star Fades, Many Struggle for Hope · Global Voices
Mari Wakimoto

As Japan's economic growth continues to shrink each year, the Japanese, more and more disconnected from their families and friends thanks to grueling works days and the Internet's erosion of personal relationships, are finding it difficult to put on a happy face.
Many are pessimistic about Japan's future. With rising unemployment and a widening income gap shrinking the middle class, Japan was outpaced by neighboring China in economic growth in 2010, knocking the land of the rising sun into third place in global rankings.
General elections in December 2012 ushered Japan's conservative party back into power, but so far this has not done away with the country's economic uncertainty.
But at a time when most people would turn to their family and friends to help manage the stress, the Japanese find that their personal relationships at home, in the workplace, and within their local communities are weakening. According to a government survey on Japanese lifestyles, Japanese people today have less time with family and friends due in part to longer work hours. People have even coined two new terms in Japanese to describe this lonely condition – “Muen Shakai” [ja], meaning “isolation society,” and “Komyu-Shō” [ja], meaning “communication disorder” to describe a person's poor ability to communicate or foster relationships.
Image by Flickr user FireWaterSun. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
So how can people possibly chin up with such a depressing state of affairs? Dr. Kei offers a clue to readers in the following post [ja], reprinted with permission, to help them hold on to hope and regain a sense of happiness despite the times:
Life is Good As Long As You are Alive
-When Japan Flies in Low Altitude”
Where is Japan headed? Where or what will the Japanese people aim for in their lives?
I feel such questions were often asked last year. The general election at the year's end seemed to have reflected the tough situations people live Japan. In the election campaign, the most emphasized slogan was “Let us restore a strong Japan”. What is “a strong Japan” [ja]…
There was a time when Japan was strong, the days we used to be called “number one” [ja] in the world, and was caught up in a moment. It was a time when Japan was a technology-orientated nation and the world was excited by products “made in Japan”. “Walkman” dominated the world. A large number of nuclear plants were constructed to exploit the new “nuclear power” energy resource. Japan was once strong.
But originally, Japanese people also understand well the fact that “it's impossible to keep winning” and “anyone can't remain in power forever”. Although it is free for individuals to envision power, everything changes eventually and no one can prosper forever. Such common ideas are another side of Japanese culture.
[The following quote is from a the Tale of the Heike [en], a narrative story of two major clans in the late 12th century]
祇園精舎の鐘の声　諸行無常の響きあり　沙羅双樹の花の色
盛者必衰の理をあらわす　おごれる人も久しからず　ただ春の世の夢のごとし
たけき者も遂には滅びぬ　偏に風の前の塵に同じ
The knell of the bells at the Gion temple
Echoes the impermanence of all things.
The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree
Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
He who is proud is not so for long,
Like a passing dream on a night in spring.
He who is brave is finally destroyed,
To be no more than dust before the wind.
[ The translation by P.G.O'Neill sited from The Tale of the Heike]
Do we have to remain a “strong nation” in the world?
Do we have to aim higher?
Do we have to live as a developed nation exploiting nuclear power?
Do we have to “grow”?
Do we have to carry out public projects and build more roads?
Do we have to seek wealthier lives?
Certainly, the energy to “go higher” is important. I myself also live with the aim to “go higher” everyday, and I think the power of “higher” should never be denied. In addition, nobody can deprive anyone of the freedom to want to be stronger or richer. It is possible for anyone to be strong or rich and it's natural for a human being to pursue such desires.
But when I observe Japan as a whole, I increasingly see people who cannot be vocal about going “higher”, people who have given up on going “higher” or those don't even think about it from the beginning. Rather, they are “maintaining the status quo”, “flying low”, or “sinking”. People who don't have enough physical and emotional energy to aim higher. Instead of saying “even if I'm poor, I'll be rewarded someday so I'll make an effort”, there are people who say “I'm poor and I won't be rewarded so it's hopeless”.
It's free to aim for a “strong Japan” but when I see Japanese living in Japan, they seem to become weak long ago. Of course some people are strong, but in general, for me they appear weak, crying and tied down and unable to move.
[…]
“Joy”, by Flickr user ooberayhay.
Used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
I think Japan is taking a downturn… Everybody feels this. Even if we aim for a stronger Japan, it will only increase the “national debt” [ja] in reality and it's probably impossible for us to escape economic stagnation in this lifetime. This is because we're approaching the unprecedented “hyper aging society” [ja], which nobody has ever experienced before.
[…]
Under these circumstances, we need to pay closer attention to the basics of life. It is not a time for excessive luxury. It is even difficult in this era to have “small luxuries”. We need to put value on something other than material wealth. Ultimately, it is “the realization that we are alive”. As long as we are alive, it is fine. We are alive and we have something to eat for now. In which case, isn't it important to be able to have a sense of satisfaction for now?
You have family. You have someone close to you. You can listen to your favorite music. You have food. You have shelter for now. You have clothes to wear. You have the sense to feel satisfied with those. In other words, to feel satisfied with your daily life as it is and to feel happy that you can live life everyday. Perhaps happy people, rich or poor, may have this interpretation. Unhappy people cannot feel such happiness over being alive. What they feel is “insufficiency”, a “lack”, and an “inferiority complex”. We don't learn this at school. These are things that come from home or somewhere else you belong. We exist on this earth now. We can live. We're still alive. Can't we find hope in it?
translated with help of Isamu Yoneda, Keiko Tanaka and edited by L.Finch

author: Mari Wakimoto


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Cambodia: Barcamp Angkor 2013 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Themed ‘Empowering Youth through Technology’, Barcamp Angkor 2013 is scheduled on February 23-24, 2013 at the University of South-East Asia in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Barcamp Angkor 2013 in Cambodia

author: Mong Palatino


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Cuban Yoani Sánchez’s Arrival in Brazil Makes Noise · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

Acclaimed Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez left Cuba this past Sunday for the first time since 2004. Sánchez will visit and speak at universities, NGOs and government forums in Europe, Latin America and the United States until mid-May, when she will return to Cuba. The blogger has received countless invitations to visit other countries since her blog, Generación Y [es], became an international sensation in 2008. Until this January, she had applied for travel permission and been denied a permit by Cuban authorities over twenty times.
Upon receiving word that her passport had been renewed and permission to travel granted, Sánchez tweeted,
@yoanisanchez: #Cuba Increible!! Me llamaron a casa para decirme que ya estaba listo mi pasaporte! Acaban de entregarmelo! :-) #ReformaMigratoria
@yoanisanchez: Incredible!! They called my house to tell me that my passport is ready! They just gave it to me! :-)
Blogger Yoani Sánchez. Photo by Andre Deak (CC-BY-2.0)
Sánchez is among many beneficiaries of the country’s new, less stringent travel policy that allows Cubans to leave the country on a temporary basis. While the new regulations significantly reduce the number of administrative requirements for obtaining permission to travel, citizens can still be denied a passport. Various known dissidents who have applied for passports since the regulation went into effect on January 14, 2013, have had their requests denied.
While many voices around the world have expressed joy and excitement about Sánchez’s tour, responses have not all been positive. In Feira de Santana, Brazil, at her first public appearance outside of Cuba, Sánchez was met with protesters who called her a “mercenary” of the US government (a typical insult used by the Cuban government and its supporters) and heckled her as she spoke.
http://youtu.be/HTcpoo1uqs4
As seen in the video above, Sánchez began her speech, commenting on the lack of space for political criticism in Cuba:
Vivo en una sociedad donde la opinión es traición, donde [no se puede] decir una crítica sobre un gobierno que lleva 54 anos en el poder y que nunca ha permitido que exista otra fuerza politica, un gobierno que no podria competir en una sociedad plural…que ha utilizado la censura en la literatura, en la censura editorial, en la censura periodística.
I live in a society where opinion is treason, where [one cannot] criticize a government that has been in power for 54 years and has never allowed another political force to exist, a government that would not be able to compete in a pluralistic society…that has used literary censorship, editorial censorship, journalistic censorship…
The crowd grew louder, making her inaudible and forcing her to pause. Referring to the noise from the crowd, she said, “my government does this too.”
Diario de Cuba [es] reported that protesters asked for a debate with Sánchez, but that she was only able to say a few words before they interrupted her with insults.
Cuban blogger and government supporter Iroel Sánchez [es] wrote,
…para periódicos como El Nuevo Herald de Miami en el tal “debate” nunca hablaron los que lo propusieron. Es raro…que los partidarios de un régimen totalitario -así califican a Cuba los medios que difunden a Yoani Sánchez- propongan un debate y aún más raro es que cuando este se produce, la prensa partidaria de la libertad de expresión no nos pueda decir una sola palabra de lo que dijeron los que no[s] comparten sus ideas.
…according to newspapers like El Nuevo Herald of Miami those who proposed the “debate” never spoke. It is strange…that the supporters of a totalitarian regime — this is how the media that supports Sánchez describe Cuba — propose a debate and it is even more strange that when it takes place, the press that supports freedom of expression cannot tell us a single word spoken by those who shared their ideas.
Many outlets reported that the event was suspended early on due to the noise made by protesters and security concerns.
Global Voices will continue to cover the rest of Sánchez’s tour.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


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How Many Saudi Students Study in the US?  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

How many Saudi students study in the US? Check out Riyadh Bureau for an answer.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Macedonian Anti-Fascists Protest Against Harassment · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Vanco Dzambaski published a photo gallery from the gathering that took place on February 16 in the center of Skopje, commemorating the February Campaign of 1944, when Macedonian partisans marched through the snowy mountains to deal a decisive blow to the fascist forces in Macedonia and Northern Greece. World War II veterans and their supporters [mk] protested against the forced neglect of the Allied Forces’ achievements (which include the founding of the Macedonian state), and the continuous harassment of the veterans’ organization by the current government at all levels.
Anti-fascist protesters: “Proud of the past that actually happened.” Photo by V. Dzambaski (CC NC-SA)
In December 2012, the veterans’ organization [mk] was thrown out of their premises through a controversial court order, with the help from an out-of-town security agency [mk], after a local one failed [mk] to deal with the old fighters.
The city government tried to stop the February 16 protest [mk] by denying permission to use the public square. They claimed other events were scheduled in the area at the designated time, but refused to specify. The protesters decided to march anyway, continuing the tradition of the original February march, commenced against the will of the then-authorities.
Keeping the memories alive. Photo by V. Dzambaski (CC NC-SA)
On the day of the protest, it was the only event there. Instead of covering the protest, the major pro-government media, such as SITEL TV, propagated the government's communiqué [mk] that announced their respect for the heritage of the World War II.
Media expert Roberto Belicanec wrote [mk; Wikipedia links added]:
1. No news whatsoever about what happened on the square.
2. The image of the monument to Čento, instead of the images of the event. Čento, because he is selected by the ruling party to demonstrate some meager connection to National Liberation War. Čento – abused for ideological whitewash of NLW, because he was not a communist, but participated in the [communist-led] movement.
3. A government spokesman in fact explained that “we witness that we have invested in creation of cultural heritage, to mark this important period of our history, including building of monuments such as to Metodija Andonov Čento, to the participants of ASNOM, and others.” Besides the oxymoronic aspect of “creating cultural heritage,” this phrase also reveals ideological operation of reshaping history and erasing all that does not fit within their worldview. And again, Čento, of course. His murder was not enough, now every opportunity is used for his symbolical killings. Furthermore, the ASNOM monument in the memorial park dedicated to the Women Fighters, a place massacred with new monuments, its original function devastated, was erected only as a counterweight for the monument of the historical VMRO, in order to arrogantly present the current political party with the same name as a continuity of the Macedonian struggle. If they could, they would have circumvented ASNOM too.
4. In the end – “The Government of the Republic of Macedonia,” underscored Gjorgjiev, “has no participation nor contact within the framework of the court case led by the Veterans’ Association with another veterans’ association.” One more frame – rule of law in the form of “I act dumb, and you act as if you believe me.”
According to the latest U.S. State Department report on Human Rights Practices, the most important human rights problem in Macedonia “was the government’s failure to fully respect the rule of law, which was reflected in its interference in the judiciary and the media, selective prosecution of political opponents of the country’s leaders, and significant levels of government corruption and police impunity.”
A view of the protest from the stage, with aged veterans in the front row. Photo by V. Dzambaski (CC NC-SA)
Photo galleries of the February March 2013 were also published by Okno and A1on [mk].

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Myanmar Netizens Expose Traffic Law Violators · Global Voices
Chan Myae Khine

In an open Facebook group called “Law breakers on the road”, Myanmar Facebook users share photos of undisciplined drivers and traffic law violators. Some also post suggestions on how to solve traffic problems in Yangon, the country's capital.
An overloaded public transport in Yangon. Photo by Myint Kyaw Thu


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Panama: TV Nostalgia · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

With a nostalgic touch, the blog El Panameño reviews [es] some 70s and 80s TV series, and challenges readers to see if they can match the titles with the posters included in the post.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Police Torture Continues in Egypt  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

On Egyptian Chronicles, blogger Zeinobia talks about how the police continue to torture people. She shares the story of Ayman Mehana, who was attacked, arrested and allegedly sexually abused at the hands of police.
She reminds her readers about why Egyptians took to the streets on January 25, 2011:
This revolution began as a protest against police brutality claiming for human dignity , people tend to forget this especially the police and the current ruling regime.
Zeinobia shares this video of Mehana's ordeal:


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Syria: “Lens of a Young Homsi”, Photographs of a City under Siege · Global Voices
Leila Nachawati Rego

When demonstrations started in Syria in March 2011, a group of friends from Homs, all under 25, took their cameras to photograph these unprecedented protests in their city. Soon after, they were photographing the destruction of the city´s streets and neighborhoods as a result of the regime crackdown. Through their lenses, they aim to show the world what Homs was like, and what it has become, documenting memorial revolutionary moments from “the city of the revolution”. They receive daily requests from people who had to flee the city and want to know if their houses have been destroyed or not.
They insist that they are just a group of volunteers, with no professional training, but their work is outstanding. They are the “Lens of a Young Homsi”:
Photo by the “Lens of a Young Homsi”, taken from their Facebook page
This video shows some of their work and why Lens of a Young Homsi makes a difference to those who have been forced to flee their homes in Homs:
“Sandbags, barricades, soldiers armed to their teeth, bullets, bombs, checkpoints cutting out one district from the other…” This is the scenario these young Homsis show through their lenses:
You can follow their work on Facebook and Twitter.

author: Leila Nachawati Rego


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Bulgarian Government Quits, But Protests Continue · Global Voices
Ruslan Trad

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 tens of thousands of Bulgarians protested against corruption, high utility bills and poverty. The coastal city of Varna was declared the Protest Capital: over 40,000 people turned up for the Sunday's rally there. Some 15,000 people protested in Plovdiv. While it is difficult to determine the exact number of the February 24 protesters, activist sources say there were more than 200,000 of them nationwide.
In Sofia, the slogans included: “Let's Set the Monopolies on Fire!”; “Balkans, wake up! For a real democracy!”; “End to illusions, civil action every day!”; “We, Bulgarians, Turks, Roma, Armenians – we are all #Bulgaria-n citizens! We must stand up against political manipulation!”
The Feb. 24 protest in Sofia. Photo by Ruslan Trad.
Here's a video from the protest in Sofia, filmed by the author of this post:
The protest in Sofia coincided with the enthronement ceremony for Neofit, the newly-elected Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church; the city was paralyzed, no public transport, except for the metro, was running. Minutes after he was officially enthroned, Patriarch Neofit vowed to pray for peace and unity of the Bulgarian people. This gesture of support for the protesters was well-received by them, while President Rosen Pleveliev, who addressed the crowd in Sofia, was booed.
The protesters called political parties not to manipulate or get involved in the protests. At the rally in Veliko Tarnovo, they even chased some political representatives away [bg; video]. Stanislava Stefanova wrote [bg]:
Don't they understand that there is no place for them at the protest of the people???? Isn't it clear enough that we don't want them???
Following the surprise resignation of Boyko Borisov‘s government on February 20, which came after an earlier protest turned violent, activists of the protest movement held a meeting in the city of Sliven and agreed on a list of demands: not to adjourn the Parliament; the President should appoint experts to the new government, instead of making it a caretaker one; to draft a Civil Participation Bill providing a 50% civil quota in all institutions; to return 51% of the energy sector shares to the State; to close the Bulgarian Energy Holding, BEH, for draining the energy sector; to summon the Grand National Assembly, establishing a procedure to recall MPs.
Lada Dimitrova wrote [bg] in a comment at the February 24 protest photo gallery on the “Saprotiva” (“Resistance”) page:
I'm not concerned with who will be the leader, it is important for me to live in dignity!

author: Ruslan Trad


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Sexual, Holy and Disruptive: One Billion Rising in the Caribbean  · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

On February 14th, various groups throughout the Caribbean participated in the global “One Billion Rising”campaign. The campaign called for women across the world to dance together in protest of violence against women (the “one billion” is in reference to a statistic that one in three women will be assaulted or raped in their lifetime):
When One Billion bodies rise and dance on 14 February 2013, we will join in solidarity, purpose and energy and shake the world into a new consciousness. Dancing insists we take up space. It has no set direction but we go there together. It's dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive. It breaks the rules. It can happen anywhere at anytime with anyone and everyone. It's free. No corporation can control it. It joins us and pushes us to go further. It's contagious and it spreads quickly. It's of the body. It's transcendent.
The feminist collective Code Red highlighted some of the events on its blog and compiled a photoset from various events all over the region.
Barbados hosted two One Billion Rising events. One event was held at Heroes Square in Bridgetown and was organized by the One Billion Rising Barbados Planning Committee, and supported by the SAVE Foundation, the National Organisation of Women, Business and Professional Women's Club, YWCA and UN Women.
One Billion Rising, Heroes Square, Bridgetown, Barbados
One Billion Rising, Heroes Square, Bridgetown, Barbados
Another event was held at the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus, inside the Guild of Students Union. This event was organized by the Institute for Gender and Development Studies.
One Billion Rising, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados
Women of Antigua (WOA) organized the One Billion Rising event there; it took place at Lower Redcliffe Street, St. John's.
One Billion Rising in Lower Redcliffe Street, St. John's, Antigua.
The event in Grenada was organized by the students at St. George's University. There was also a spinoff yoga event hosted by Groundation Grenada at Camerhogne Park.
One Billion Rising, St. George's University, Grenada
In Guyana, Stella's Sisterhood of Support and Service Foundation (S4) organized the event, which took place at the Promenade Gardens in Georgetown. The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination also participated.
One Billion Rising, Promenade Gardens, Georgetown, Guyana
One Billion Rising, Promenade Gardens, Georgetown, Guyana
In Saint Lucia, the One Billion Rising event was organized by the victim's advocacy group PROSAF and was supported by the  They Often Cry Out (TOCO) Foundation, which continued its annual Clothesline Project.
One Billion Rising, Derek Walcott Square, Castries, Saint Lucia
There were also gatherings at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and in downtown Nassau in the Bahamas.
Code Red shared a comment which questioned the use of dance as a critical component of the One Billion Rising campaign:
I wish every Feminist initiative, everywhere around the globe, wholehearted success. But… I have a seeeerious problem with the ‘Let’s All Dance!’ focus for the
‘One Billion Rising’ event. Could someone tell me WHY – and in a way that makes pellucid sense to me, WHY Women, in their seemingly chronic male-designation as Abuse Fodder, would choose the carefree, spontaneous, *celebratory* act of …dance: to (somehow?!?) symbolize the One Billion Rising initiative?
Code Red continued:
The whole things seems miscued, somehow; it appears – at least to me, like some desperate psychological ‘buffer’ being enacted by Women globally, to try to distance themselves emotionally from what I have NO FEAR in stating as The Harsh REALITY: i.e., WOMEN’S RIGHTS IS ON A STEADILY DOWNWARD CURVE!
Patrice disagreed with this position instead arguing that “…not every action, event, initiative or strategy is designed to have the same impact or achieve the same goals”:
One Billion Rising is meant to raise awareness. In talking about One Billion Rising, I have had the opportunity to share information and statistics which have startled, alarmed and disgusted people. People are more aware and this awareness can impact the conversations they have and entertain, the political candidates they endorse, the demands they make of their leaders and the overarching climate of the country.
She added:
As for the dancing, I do not see the dance as a dance of ignorance and distraction. The dance is not to make mockery or to make light. Indeed, many of the dancers will be the women who are still burning. The originator of the movement herself burned physically and sexually at the hands of her father for years. I see dancing, especially as woman, as rebellious. So many political wars are fought on and around women’s bodies that, as a woman, taking control over your body and bucking tradition by moving it, wiggling it, shaking it, bouncing it and simply owning, embracing and enjoying its movements in that moment, can be a powerful experience.
Damali and Karen Robinson also discussed One Billion Rising on their podcast “Ennufff.”

author: Matthew Hunte


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China, Pollution and Cancer Villages · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China's top Internet entrepreneur Ma Yun has warned that no amount of money can protect the rich from China's cancer-causing pollution. His comments resonated with web users, many of whom are already alarmed by the country's toxic combination of air and water contamination and food safety issues.
During the 13th annual meeting of the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum, the founder and CEO of leading Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, bypassed business opportunities to address China's pollution-linked health problems in his speech. He predicted [zh] that cancer will trouble every Chinese family in 10 years.
He also stressed that citizens should be more environmentally aware and should not rely on the government only:
On Sina Weibo, Global Times shared a map of China’s “cancer villages”.
有多少人30年以前，有多少人知道我们边上谁谁谁有癌症，那个时候癌症是一个稀有的名词，今天癌症变成了一种常态。肝癌，可能是因为水；肺癌是因为我们的空气；胃癌，是我们的食物。特权阶级有特权的水，这次没有特供的空气了。我担心我们这么辛苦，最后所有挣的钱最后都是医药费。不管你挣多少钱，享受不到沐浴阳光，其实是很大的悲哀。
Thirty years ago, how many people knew somebody with cancer? Cancer was a rare word. Now it has become a common disease. Liver cancer may have something to do with [the polluted] water; lung cancer has something to do with our air; gastric cancer has something to do with our food. The privileged class has clean water, but they can’t order clean air. I worry that we work so hard, and finally all we earn goes toward medical expenses. No matter how much money you make, if you can’t enjoy the sunshine, it is really just a tragedy.
His speech, shared [zh] on popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo by Caijing News the day after, made waves among netizens, triggering over 99,136 reposts and 16,676 comments.
One Weibo user “绿色传承生命 commented [zh]:
不需要十年，目前各地癌症村屡见不鲜、雾霾使北京癌病增长率是同期的67%。污染的灾难比我们估计来得更汹涌澎湃！
We don’t need 10 years; at the moment, there are many “cancer villages”. The smog in Beijing is making cancer rates increase by 67 percent. Pollution is a far greater disaster than we predicted.
Another user “高歌一曲abc” wrote [zh]:
这就是我选择去探女的原因。希望每年都有机会换下食品质量、空气清新、阳光的普照，使自己健康点，长寿点。
That’s why we choose to go visit our daughter [abroad] every year. We hope every year we get the chance to eat quality food for a change, and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine, so that we can be a bit healthier and live longer.
Ma’s comment about China's cancer problem is no exaggeration. On Sina Weibo, even communist party mouthpiece Global Times shared [zh] a horrific map of China’s “cancer villages” on the same day as Ma Yun's speech:
据京华时报，不久前，环保部印发了《化学品环境风险防控“十二五”规划》，其中明确表示，因受有毒化学品污染，个别地区出现“癌症村”等严重的健康和社会问题。而据媒体人@邓飞 ，这些严重化学污染下所出现的”癌症村”，正在从中东部个别地区，向中西部转移。
According to the Beijing Times, the Ministry of Environmental Protection recently published the “12th Five-Year Plan for Prevention and Control of Environmental Risks from Chemicals”, which clearly stated that due to chemical poisoning, “cancer villages” and other serious health problems have begun to emerge in some areas. According to journalist Deng Fei, these “cancer villages” are spreading from central Eastern China to central Western China.
On February 23, Youth Times also shared [zh] a similar map, detailing the high frequency of different cancers in different areas of China.
According to the map, eastern Chinese cities like Shanghai have a high frequency of gastric cancer, while the southeast has a high frequency of liver cancer. Moreover, six people are diagnosed with cancer and five people die from cancer every five minutes in China. According to the news, the high frequency of cancer has a lot to do with an unhealthy lifestyle, with the environment being one of the biggest threats to health.

author: Abby Liu


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Defying the Government, Chinese Families Resurrect Graves  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Scores of families have fought back against a controversial campaign in China's central Henan province to raze millions of graves for farmland and resurrected their ancestors’ resting places during the Lunar New Year.
In the latest pushback against the government's plans to free up land, local residents throughout the province restored about half of the dug-up graves, or about one million [zh], throughout February 2013, according to a local news report.
The campaign, put forward by a communist party leader in Henan in the spring of 2012 and touted by supporters as a smart use of land, has touched a nerve in a country where respect for ancestors runs deep.
Especially in the city of Zhoukou, where authorities have reportedly demolished more than two million graves, the campaign sparked public outrage over what many consider as a slap in the face of tradition. Rich in history, Zhoukou is considered one of the oldest cities in China, and the grave-clearing program was suspended there in November 2012 after more than 100 scholars signed a petition in protest.
But the campaign continues in other parts of the province. During the Lunar New Year, local families openly defied the government's warnings that their efforts to restore the flattened plots were in vain, Zhou Keluo wrote [zh] on the popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo:
这二天不断接到周口网友发给我的关于平坟事情，在除夕和初一传统上坟祭祖日，去年被强行平坟的老百姓们陆续将祖坟重新拢起，现在当地政府在各村广播里讲必须马上再平掉，否则罚款500-1000元不等，强行掘出。
Some critics of the campaign have claimed that the land being reaped isn't even viable for agriculture. Weibo user Zhou Keluo (@赵克罗), who has been following the development of the grave-clearing campaign, called [zh] the endeavor a ploy to seize land not for farming, but for property development:
所谓＂平坟复耕＂仅是幌子，换取土地指标高价卖给开发商和搞所谓产业集聚区，进行真正的圈地运动，用老百姓的祖坟染红某些官员的顶子而已。周口市平坟运动若成功，河南其他地市必效之，河南平坟运动若成功，必波及全国。因背后巨大的经济和政治利益，地方官员必将前仆后继效之！百姓怎么办？
A group of young people from the Henan province channeled their frustration over the campaign into song. In a YouTube video below published on November 20, 2012, they parody the viral hit “Gangnam Style” dressed as zombies:
The altered lyrics explain that opposition to the campaign not only stems from folk belief, but also from the deep social divide in China that separates the powerful, who live in luxurious houses, from the powerless, who do not have a place to live while alive nor a place to rest when dead:
Photos showing how villagers in Henan province rebuild their ancestors’ graves. From Weibo user @记者崔永利
幾千年清明節上墳是咱傳統文化
拍拍屁股平墳祖宗全部失去了家
挪到公墓開始水泥占地永久化
平墳復耕，騙鬼去吧
伏羲傻了嘿
你拿著鐵鍁開著推土機快傻了嘿
自己平獎一百別人平你就傻了嘿
講未來講科學霸王硬上弓傻了嘿
伏羲 傻眼了嘿
我不是老子，我不是女媧，我沒宮殿，我有國家。
那平等太遠，那幸福太假，因為平墳，心如刀紮。
誰為了私欲拼命平平平平 挖挖挖挖挖挖挖挖挖挖挖挖
我怕平墳style 哦~~~
平墳style 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style 哦~~~
平墳style 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
哎~~~~活著蝸居 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
哎~~~~死了沒家 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
For thousands of year, we have visited our ancestors’ graves. This is our tradition.
You wipe your ass, dig up our ancestors’ graves, and they are homeless.
They are moved to the public cemetery. Then you cover the land with cement and take away the land forever.
Dig up the graves for agriculture, not a soul will believe this.
Fu Xi [the creator of humankind in Chinese legend] is stunned.
You use shovels to dig, move in the bulldozers, Fu Xi is stunned.
Dig up your own grave with 100 yuan reward, or else others will dig it up for you, Fu Xi is stunned.
Talk about the future and science, act like a tyrant, Fu Xi is stunned.
Fu Xi is stunned.
I am not Laozi, I am not Nuwa, I don't have palace, I have country.
Too far from equality, happiness is fake. Destroying the graves is destroying our hearts.
Who would dig up a grave for greed?
I am scared of dig-grave style.
op-op-op-op dig-grave style.
op-op-op-op dig-grave style.
Live in snail house when we are alive. I am scared of dig-grave style.
Homeless when we die. I am scared of dig-grave style.
太昊伏羲陵十三陵他們墳頭最大
你的祖宗我的祖宗都是螻蟻爬蚱
生也難養死也難孝做兒女愧對爹媽
我心破碎 淚如雨下
伏羲傻了嘿
你網上罵街網下裝孫子快撒了嘿
叫你平你就平不平可不成撒了嘿
不折騰怎麽能行閑的蛋疼撒了嘿
伏羲 傻眼了嘿
我沒有烏紗，我沒有綠卡，我沒權利，我有國家。
那公墓太多，那空間太狹，永失耕地，誰是傻瓜。
沒事找事才能混的更好我擦我擦我擦擦擦擦擦擦擦擦擦擦
我怕平墳style 哦~~~
平墳style 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style 哦~~~
平墳style 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
哎~~~~活著蝸居 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
哎~~~~死了沒家 我 我 我 我 我 我怕平墳style
Their [the officials] graves are even bigger than Fu Xi's tomb and Ming Dynasty tombs.
Their ancestors and our ancestors were the same kind.
When they are alive, we can't give them a good life. When they die, we can't pay our piety. We can't face our parents.
My heart is broken and tears keep falling down.
Fu Xi is stunned.
I am official, I don't have green card, I have no rights, I have a country.
So many souls in the public graveyard, so little space. Lost our land forever. Who became the fool?
Creating trouble out of nothing, that's the way to survive.
I am scared of dig-grave style.
op-op-op-op dig-grave style.
op-op-op-op dig-grave style.
Live in snail house when we are alive. I am scared of dig-grave style.
Homeless when we die. I am scared of dig-grave style.
Whether or not the campaign continues forward, the whole matter has become a public relations nightmare for the government, public affairs commentator Huang Quanwang pointed out:
周口市政府已经处于一个尴尬的境地，到底圆起的坟墓是否再次被推倒？如果继续推倒平掉，恐怕缺乏上头文件的支持，更不得民心，恐防激发早已对峙的民意，从而引发社会冲突；如果不推倒，保持原状，先前平坟的工夫白费，显然又是决策失误的典型案例。
Zhoukou city government is now in a very embarrassing situation. Should it dig up the erected graves again? If they insist to dig up the graves, they will probably need another set of approval documents and will definitely generate more confrontation and social conflict. If they give up on digging up the graves, all their efforts will be rendered useless and the whole campaign another typical policy mistake.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Chinese General Luo Yuan’s Battle on Weibo · Global Voices
Abby Liu

High-ranking Chinese military officer Luo Yuan opened a personal Weibo account on Feb 21. Since then, his pro-war comments on how to manage China's relationship with Japan and the recent nuclear test in North Korea have triggered sharp criticism from netizens. Offbeat recorded Luo Yuan's battle on Weibo.


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Defending Capital Punishment in Japan · Global Voices
Keiko Tanaka

Would you still be against it if someone you loved was killed by a psychotic murderer?
Human rights organization Amnesty International called for the death penalty to be abolished in Japan and criticized the Japanese Ministry of Justice for hanging three inmates. Beth at JapanCrush takes a look at reactions from netizens who are in favor of capital punishment in the country.

author: Keiko Tanaka


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Football Fireworks Claim Minor and Media Ethics in Bolivia · Global Voices
Pablo Andres Rivero

Fireworks at a football match [es] in Bolivia turned deadly after a flare hit and killed a 14-year-old boy. To cover the tragedy, media outlets used an image from the boy's Facebook page, sparking a debate on whether it is ethical, or even legal, to use photographs of minors from social networks.
The boy was supporting San Jose, a football club from Oruro city in Bolivia on February 20, 2013. San Jose was playing against Corinthians, a popular Brazilian squad and the defending champion of the 2012 Copa Libertadores, the most important football tournament for clubs in Latin America.
Five minutes after the kick-off Corinthians scored a goal. Although banned in football stadiums, some fans responded with celebratory fireworks, and a flare ended up hitting the 14 year-old Bolivian fan. Local media reported [es] that the boy received medical aid, but died of his injuries on the way to the hospital.
National and international media started to follow the events closely after several Corinthians’ fans were arrested; a few remain in police custody and could be prosecuted.
Tomislav Konestabo / Shutterstock.com
Netizen Mario Duran (@mrduranch) [es] pointed out that local media used the victim's Facebook profile image to cover the tragedy. Duran inquired on Twitter whether such publication is ethical, moral, or even legal:
@mrduranch: una duda, medios de prensa pueden publicar fotos de menores de edad? #bolivia
@mrduranch: Question, is the press entitled to publish photos of minors? #Bolivia
Netizens, and particularly journalists, reacted with different points of view. Mario Duran published a few responses on his blog Palabras Libres [es].
Fabiola Chambi (@fabiolachambi) [es], a journalist who is very active online, immediately reacted to Mario's question:
@fabiolachambi:@arquitecta @mrduranch No es ético, falta a la moral y habla mal del medio y de su proceder.
@fabiolachambi: @arquitecta @mrduranch It is unethical, it goes against morality and shows how badly the media acted.
Ruben Atahuichi (@RDAtahuichiL) [es], an editor at one of the largest national newspapers said:
@RDAtahuichiL: @mrduranch Dependiendo de la connotación: si afectan su integridad o los ponen en riesgo, no
@RDAtahuichiL: @mrduranch Depending on the connotations: if [the image] affects the integrity [of the minor] or threatens him, no.
Addressing the question from a legal angle, Mario Duran later commented:
@mrduranch: @gezn no es legal, no porque esta en internet puedes usar imagen de individuo sin consentimiento cc @sniferl4bs
@mrduranch: @gezn It is not legal, the fact that it's on the Internet does not give you the right to use an image without permission cc @sniferl4bs
Mauricio Quiroz (@MichoQuiroz) [es], another journalist, considers the issue from a different point of view:
@MichoQuiroz: @RDAtahuichiL @mrduranch Si la imagen no denigra al menor pueder ser empleada. La imagen en cuestión es de contexto.
@MichoQuiroz: @RDAtahuichiL @mrduranch If the image does not denigrate the child, it may be used. The image under scrutiny is giving context [to the news].
Cesar Galindo (@CesarGalindQNMP), a well known journalist and TV presenter, also joined the debate saying:
@CesarGalindQNMP: @mrduranch @jesus_alanoca Sin duda todos caemos en tentación sin importar las consecuencias pero la ética es un código q esta en la sangre
@CesarGalindQNMP: @mrduranch @jesus_alanoca Undoubtedly we all fall into temptation regardless of the consequences, but ethics is a code that is in the blood [of journalists]

author: Pablo Andres Rivero


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Get it Right: “It’s Colombia, NOT Columbia” · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

In an attempt to set the record straight and fix a common spelling error among English-language speakers, four young Colombian professionals from the digital innovation firm Zemoga launched the social media campaign “It's Colombia, NOT Columbia.”
As Richard Emblin explains in a post for The City Paper:
We are geographically far from British Columbia and a shuttle age that endured many missions after the ‘Columbia’ disintegrated over Texas in 2003. Yet many still get it wrong. There are no Rocky Mountains in Colombia. We are in the Andes.
But the campaign's mission goes beyond getting people to spell the name of the country correctly. Paul Giles explains in the Colombia Travel blog:
The “It’s Colombia, not Columbia” campaign is steadily building up steam in its crusade to demonstrate how the misspelling of a country just highlights how skewed the popular conception of this amazing country is.
Emilio Pombo, one of the campaign's founders, told Edgar Zúñiga from NBC Latino:
“We saw this common error and realized it was a platform to start updating the world’s vision of what is happening in our country […] We currently have great things happening. Colombia is becoming a destination and getting on the world stage. We want to spotlight that and it all starts with people spelling our country’s name right.”
A social media campaign wants you to say it right: “It's Colombia, not Columbia”. Image widely shared on Twitter and Facebook.
Supporters are encouraged to participate in the campaign by creating an image or a video to spread the message. Participants can then share their contribution on Twitter or Instagram under the hashtag #itsColombiaNOTColumbia, or upload their work to the campaign's fan page on Facebook.
Positive messages about Colombia and pictures with the message “It's Colombia, not Columbia” have been flooding the hashtag and Facebook page.
Image shared by the “It's Colombia, NOT Columbia” Facebook page.
Image shared by the “It's Colombia, NOT Columbia” Facebook page.
Widely shared Facebook image by Carlos G Jara
Industrial designer Juan Leon Machicado (@LordLeonMachi) shared the following image on Twitter:
It's Colombia, not Columbia, image shared on Twitter by @LordLeonMachi
@LordLeonMachi: We have a message. We all have something to say. #itsColombiaNotColumbia @OdeColombia #Colombia #Guajira #message pic.twitter.com/U1qCytAq
And @YatsarEl, from the city of Bucaramanga, invites netizens to visit her country:
@YatsarEl: A place where old dreams are coming true, where people work hard and smile lots. Lots has changed, dare you to come! #itsColombianotColumbia
But the campaign has not been free from criticism or jokes [es].
Nicolás Martínez (@diarionocturno) [es] and others [es] have been playing with the campaign's slogan:
@diarionocturno: It's pobre, not en vías de desarrollo #ItsColombiaNotColumbia
@diarionocturno: It's poor, not developing #ItsColombiaNotColumbia
In a more serious tone, Journalist Carolina Ruiz (@CaroRuizG) [es] argues:
@CaroRuizG: De qué sirve que digan Colombia y no Columbia si todo lo demás seguiría igual. Hay que cambiar el fondo más que la forma.
@CaroRuizG: What's the point of people saying Colombia and not Columbia if everything else stays the same. We have to change the substance more than the form.
While El gato (@elgatoninja) [es] tweets with irony:
@elgatoninja: Lo importante no es que paren los secuestros, matanzas o muertos de hambre. Que nos digan Colombia en vez de Columbia, eso es lo importante.
@elgatoninja: What's important is not that the kidnappings, killings, or deaths caused by famine stop. That they call us Colombia instead of Columbia, that's important.
And Paula Ricciulli (@RicciuP) [es] writes:
@RicciuP: Si le dice a todos los asiáticos “chinos” no tiene derecho a quejarse porque le digan “Columbia” a Colombia.
@RicciuP: If you call all Asians “Chinese” you don't have the right to complain that they call Colombia “Columbia”.
The “It's Colombia, NOT Columbia” Facebook page, launched on February 7, 2013, had over 10,000 users at the time this post was published. You can also find the campaign on Twitter at @OdeColombia.

author: Silvia Viñas


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How Would Africans Feel about A Black Pope ? · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Following the surprise resignation of Benedict XVI, the debate on his succession almost immediately took over public opinion platforms. In particular, Africans, on the basis of the fastest growing contingent of Catholics on their continent, began to put forward the names of their favorites among the 18 cardinal Africans who are part of the College of Cardinals and who will meet in conclave to elect the new pope.
His Eminence Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, among the favourites heading into the Conclave. Photo by Padre Mimmo Spatuzzi on commons.wikimedia.org
There are contrasting views of African opinion on the origin of the future Pope. On the lecongolais.cd website, Eugène Kaly introduces his favourite one [fr]— Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze:
Il a été ordonné cardinal par le pape Jean Paul II, lors du Consistoire du 25 mai 1985 avec le titre de cardinal-diacre de San Giovanni Pigna.
Il est ensuite élevé au rang de cardinal-prêtre le 29 janvier 1996, puis cardinal-évêque Velletri-Segni le 25 avril 2005, titre porté par Joseph Ratzinger avant son élection au siège pontifical…. plusieurs observateurs avait prononcé son nom comme successeur possible à Jean-Paul II, ce qui aurait fait de lui le premier pape noir.
Le cardinal allemand Joseph Ratzinger devenu Benoît XVI a pour sa part déclaré avant son élection que “l’élection d’un pape africain serait un signe positif pour toute la chrétienté”.
During the consistory of May 25, 1985, Pope John Paul II ordained him Cardinal-Deacon of San Giovanni della Pigna.
On January 29, 1996, he was then elevated to the rank of cardinal priest, then on April 25, 2005, to Cardinal-Bishop of Velletri-Segni—the title was carried by Joseph Ratzinger before he was elected pope…. a number of observers had named him as a possible successor to John Paul II, which would make him the first black pope.
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, declared before his election that “the election of a black pope would send a good sign to the entire Christian world.”
On the guinnetime.com blog, Amadou Touré feels very differently about this [fr]. In fact, he thinks that:
Le cardinal Robert Sarah (67 ans), ancien archevêque de Conakry en Guinée, est un pasteur dans l'âme, très orthodoxe. Benoît XVI l'a choisi en 2010 pour coordonner toute l'action humanitaire de l'Église.Quant au cardinal Ghanéen, [Peter Turkson, 64 ans] il est aussi un proche de Benoît XVI, qui lui a confié en 2009 le prestigieux conseil pontifical Justice et Paix, ainsi que le poste-clé de rapporteur général du synode africain.
On his blog on lemessagerdafrique.mondoblog.org, Beninese Boukari Ouédraogo believes [fr] that:
A peine le pape Benoit XVI a-t-il démissionné que de nombreuses personnes en particulier les médias se posent la question sur la couleur de la peau de son successeur. Sans être opposé à ce qu’un pape noir soit élu à ce poste au Vatican, nous pensons que le débat  ne doit pas se poser à ce niveau. Il faut plutôt chercher à savoir quel sera le profil ou les compétences du successeur de Benoit XVI.
On carrapide.com, Arona Gallo Diouf wrote [fr]:
Une fois retombées l’émotion et la surprise qui ont suivi l’annonce de l’abdication de Benoît XVI, beaucoup de fidèles et d’observateurs de la vie de l’Eglise catholique s’interrogent sur le nom du possible successeur du pape démissionnaire. Les spéculations vont bon train, plusieurs noms sont cités. L’Eglise catholique aura un nouveau pape au plus tard à Pâques, car un conclave sera organisé le mois prochain, entre deux et trois semaines après la démission de Benoît XVI qui prendra effet le 28 février.
Plusieurs fidèles catholiques souhaitent cependant que le nouveau pape soit originaire d’Afrique noire et d’Amérique du sud.
A reader commented on the Succession de Benoit XVI : Et si c’était un africain! [fr] article, which was published on the Senegalese website, as follows:
Il n'y a pas de “bataille pour la succession du Pape Benoît XVI” démissionnaire. Que le Pape soit africain, européen, asiatique, américain, etc, n'a pas d'importance: qu'il témoigne partout et toujours de la Parole, de la Bonne Nouvelle.
C'est l'Esprit Saint de Dieu qui guidera le choix du nouveau pontife: pas de candidature, pas de campagne électorale ni de programme.
Many readers have commented on the article, Vatican : l'heure a-t-elle sonné pour l'élection d'un pape noir ? [fr], published on February 13 in the Pan-African magazine, Jeune Afrique. Here are two sample comments.
Gabwè-kouamé thinks [fr] that:
la priorité pour les Africains c'est d'avoir des-Dirigeants(politiques et-réligieux:intègres et-modèles!!; pas d'un-Pape à Tout-prix!!.
As for Apa, he thinks [fr] that:
Le plus important n'est pas que le pape soit africain ou non occidental, mais c'est d'accepter et de mettre en oeuvre le caractere universel du catholicisme en commencant par la responsabilisation effective de nos ”hommes de Dieu”au vatican …. Pape africain ”not now”.
Odilejr commented [fr] on another column, Vatican : le conclave qui élira le successeur de Benoît XVI pourrait débuter avant le 15 mars [fr], from the same magazine published on February 16. He writes:
Oui pour un pape africain ou sud-américain; ces continents envoient des prêtres en Europe pour compenser le manque de vocations !… .
In an interview with Bruno Ben Moubamba, a journalist, political opponent and human rights activist working with the Catholic Church, shares his opinion [fr] on infosgabon.com:
Il ne s’agit pas d’avoir un Pape africain pour la vitrine. Jean Paul II a dit que l’Eglise est experte en humanité et sur quel continent se trouve l’humanité la plus blessée aujourd’hui ? En Afrique : guerres, manque de soins, taux de scolarisation extrêmement bas, absence d’infrastructures significatives, injustices envers les plus fragiles (femmes, enfants, personnes âgées …), faim, conflits de tous genres …etc. L’Eglise catholique peut réussir là où les décideurs ont du mal. C’est l’intérêt des Africains et du monde entier car, encore une fois, le berceau de l’humanité c’est l’Afrique. Il est temps que le monde prenne soin de son berceau et pas seulement en termes de profits, de guerres, de pouvoir ou de culture.
The seneweb.com blog is publishing a  long analysis [fr] of the aforementioned situation, among others:
Plusieurs candidats occidentaux proches du pape allemand, théologiens et intellectuels, ont quelques chances, selon les connaisseurs du Saint-Siège, même si le simple fait d'être occidental, européen ou encore plus italien, est un handicap aux yeux de certains cardinaux venus des Eglises du Sud, en plein essor.
On February 12, a day after Benedict XVI's resignation, Camille Belsœur revealed [fr] on slateafrique.com that:
Selon l'agence de presse italienne de jeux et de paris Agipro News, les bookmakers britanniques misent sur un affrontement entre Italie et Afrique, donnés respectivement à 2,75 et 3,00 par l'agence Paddy Power. Un tête-à-tête confirmé par la liste de noms qui circule: le cardinal nigérian Francis Arinze mène le jeu à 2,90. Son point fort? Il est archevêque du diocèse de Velletri-Segni en Italie, proche géographiquement de celle de Rome. Ce qui lui rallierait des voix au sein de la cohorte de cardinaux européens.
Même chose pour le Ghanéen Peter Tukson, dont la cote est également haute parmi les bookmakers (3,25) et qui est à la tête du diocèse de San Liborio, en Italie.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, who will deal with current business. He is considered to be the most powerful man in the Vatican. Photo by Blaž Jelen via commons.wikimedia.org
During the period from 8 p.m. on February 28 to the election date of the new Pope (Petrine sede vacante), the constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis” (“The Lord's whole flock”) that regulates the government of of the Holy See plays a major role for both cardinals. News.va presents [fr]:
Deux cardinaux auront un rôle-clé le 28 février à 20h :
- le cardinal camerlingue, en l’occurrence le secrétaire d’état Tarcisio Bertone. Son rôle sera d’expédier les affaires courantes.
– le doyen du sacré collège, le cardinal Angelo Sodano. C’est lui qui sera chargé de présider les congrégations générales préparatoires à l’élection du nouveau pape. Il devra convoquer le conclave à Rome pour élire le nouveau pape et il présidera le conclave.
The electoral body, called the College of Cardinals, consists of 117 cardinals who are under 80 years old—28 of whom are Italians. Would the fact that both of these cardinals are Italian have an influence on the choice of the future Pope?
The St. Esprit will make this known in a few weeks… However, according to an old Roman saying: “He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal”. In other terms, the St. Esprit could still be playing a joke by eliminating the favourites, for the benefit of another pope-able—someone unexpected.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
Nationwide Strike Delivers Blow to Malawi’s President · Global Voices
Victor Kaonga

Malawi's president is beating back calls for her to resign after hundreds of thousands of civil servants demanding a wage increase went on a two-week long strike, shuttering the country's international airport and paralyzing hospitals and schools.
Public sector workers had asked for a 65 percent wage increase to combat a rising cost of living sparked by President Joyce Banda‘s tough economic reforms, including a devaluation of the local kwacha currency. During the nationwide strike, schools were closed and health centers were left with bare-bones staff as doctors, nurses, teachers, and other civil servants walked off the job.
The country's finance minister had said earlier that the striking workers’ demand, which would nearly triple the government's wage bill from 97 billion kwacha [about 275 million US dollars] to 276 billion kwacha [about 785 million US dollars], was impossible. But officials bowed to workers’ demands and agreed on a 61 percent wage increase on February 21, 2013.
The ordeal has not helped Banda, who is up for re-election next year. The country's first female president, who inherited a crumbling economy from her late predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika, has increasingly drawn ire at home for implementing austerity budgets and other painful economic reforms in part to please the international community, whose aid accounts for about 40 percent of Malawi's budget.
A further blow to Banda's government were the remarks of Malawi's Minister of Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe, published on the eve of the strike, accusing his fellow countrymen of being lazy.
Joyce Banda speaking at the DFID conference in 2010. Photo shared on Flickr by DFID under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) .
Blogger Alick Ponje wrote that Banda has broken the public's trust:
The truth is we are being led by a president that isn't giving us enough opportunity to express ourselves. She must guess what we want and act on the guess even if she hasn't divined it. That’s pretty dangerous. We are being tried by our own president and our voices are subdued in the immense power that she all of a sudden wields.
At the beginning of her really glorious times, [Joyce Banda] hoodwinked us into believing she is a listening president who would always be at our beck and call. She had to in order to have a nice start, with all the deserved support.
But blogger Pearson Nkhoma argued that demanding Banda's resignation or impeachment wouldn't solve the problem because parliament would remain populated with members who supported former President Mutharika, who brought Malawi into its current economic mess:
We want to paint a picture that [Joyce Banda] has miserably failed. Indeed, she may have failed, but we are the people who clapped hands at the ‘achievements’ of Bingu wa Mutharika when others were wailing night and day, saying that Bingu, the autocrat was failing Malawi; that Bingu was taking the country into oblivion where it could be impossible to save. Now [Banda] is having problems in taking the country from the hades of destructions. We, who are calling for the head of [Banda], are to a larger extent to blame for this mess.
Pointing to the clear divide between the ruling class and everyone else, blogger Alick Nyasulu wrote in a post that appeared in The Nation newspaper that the government is not fulfilling the social contract that it holds with the Malawian people:
The spirit of entrepreneurism is vivid and well sunk in the average person that is not abusing the privilege of being in control of tax payers money. I don’t think anyone should preach success simply because they have had a privileged position of allocating themselves undue wealth at the expense of public trust. Unless we stop, doubtful in contemporary circumstances, elected public figures and their surrogates from stealing public funds, all talk about raising living standards is nothing but old colonial school colonial talk under the skin of the guy next door. We are not lazy but deserve more.
Blogger Watipaso Mkandawire, writing that every class in Malawian society from top to bottom fails to do what is expected of them, called on civil servants to increase their productivity now that they have won a wage increase. Maybe this will encourage Banda's administration to honour its promises to the people when it comes to the country's plan for economic recovery, but probably not, he wrote:
Of course the reality is that this is plain psychological. Malawi's economy is in bad shape and there is “organised chaos” among those that are trying to implement the Economic Recovery Plan. They have a contract with Malawians, but they don't intend to honour that contract because simply it is not in their nature and they don't care.

author: Victor Kaonga


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Russia’s New Media: Too Clique to Fail? · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

On February 8, 2013, the “socio-political” online publication OpenSpace.ru surprised its users with a succinct banner: “Dear readers, as they say.” For some of these readers it was the first, and only, news that the openly anti-Kremlin website was shutting down. Some were struck by the suddenness of the move and lack of explanation, suspecting foul play. Others were rightly confused — after all, didn't OpenSpace already shut down once? Whatever the initial reaction, the event precipitated some soul-searching on the part of Russian online media.
OpenSpace banner that appeared to announce the publication was closing. So far the website itself is still operational, just not updated. Screenshot. February 24, 2013.
After all, OpenSpace isn't unique — it's one of several projects that blur the line between blogging and traditional journalism on RuNet. Colta.ru, Slon.ru, Snob.ru, PublicPost.ru, OpenSpace.ru… Having sprung up over the last few years, these websites with eerily similar names also share a hip (if not to say hipster) sensibility of content and design, as well as protest-minded editorial direction. Despite attempts at differentiation (Snob, for example, positions itself as an international collaboration of Russian-speaking professionals), it's difficult to tell them apart. The ideological similarities are further exacerbated by the incestuousness of Moscow's Fourth Estate — for instance, Colta.ru is run by the former editorial team of the first iteration of OpenSpace.ru.
All this has led RuNet guru Anton Nosik to jokingly comment on the closure:
[…] из интервью теперь уже бывшего главреда Максима Ковальского ресурсу Colta.Ru стало известно, что ориентиром для покойного издания служил Slon.Ru. Это признание утешает, поскольку сам Slon.Ru жив и здоров, на радость своим поклонникам.
[…] from the interview of the (now former) editor-in-chief Maksim Kovalsky [formerly of Kommerstant-Vlast] to Colta.Ru we find out that the deceased publication aspired to be like Slon.Ru. This admission is comforting, since Slon.Ru itself is alive and well, to the delight of its fans.
Blogger and journalist Maksim Kononenko remarked [ru] in a similar vein:
никто уже не ориентируется во всех этих слонах, опенспейсах, кольтах и прочем. везде один и тот же унылый контент. везде один и тот же кашин. везде посещаемость меньше штата.
no one can make heads or tails of all these elephants [“slon” in Russian], openspaces, colts, etc. everywhere the same sad content. everywhere the same old kashin. everywhere there are fewer unique visitors than there are staff.
Kononenko was referring to popular opposition journalist Oleg Kashin, formerly of Kommersant, who in fact does publish on Slon, Snob, Colta, and, until recently, OpenSpace. Kashin had apparently left OpenSpace shortly prior to its closing, writing [ru] “I got the f*ck out of there just in time” on his Facebook. Later that day he spoke disparagingly about the various theories for the closure springing up online:
Вот сейчас, в эту минуту – в чатах, смсках, открытых тредах, где-то еще, – рождается консенсусная версия того, как на самом деле. Утром она сформируется окончательно. Решит молва, что политика, будет политика. Решит, что самодурство, будет самодурство. Ждем, волнуемся.
Right now, this very minute – in chats, SMSes, open threads, elsewhere – a consensus is being born about what actually happened. In the morning it will reach its final form. If the gossips decide it's politics, it will be politics. If they decide it's stubborn stupidity, it'll be stubborn stupidity. We're waiting, all aflutter.
Contrary to Kashin's prediction a consensus was never fully formed. Although the official line is that OpenSpace was closed at the behest of its investor, Vadim Belyaev, because it lacked financial viability, some think that the real reason was politics. OpenSpace former editor-in-chief Maksim Kovalsky, said so [ru] in an interview to Bolshoi Gorod:
Неважно, как мне это было сформулировано, но я делаю некоторые выводы. Я склонен считать, что за этим Кремль угадывается.
It doesn't matter how it was formulated to me — I am making certain conclusions. I tend to think that the Kremlin is visible behind all of this.
Katya Gerasicheva, Kovalsky's colleague editor at OpenSpace entertainment-oriented sister project w-o-s.ru [ru] (still operational), agreed [ru] that the financial reasoning has a political subtext. Roman Fedoseev, a former w-o-s.ru editor, explained [ru] why the financial version holds no water — both websites recently landed a lucrative ad contract which will now need to be canceled. Also speaking to this is the fact that the decision was made in the span of a single day, with no request to increase profitability or reduce costs. Fedoseev bleakly concluded:
аргумент «мы маленькие, поэтому нас не трогаю» больше не работает.
the position “we are small, so they won't touch us” doesn't work anymore.
And yet, there is no getting away from the “strictly business” explanation. After all, as previously mentioned, OpenSpace closed once before, during the summer of 2012 — a year after it was purchased by investor Vadim Belyaev, a deal that seemed to have saved the website from financial troubles. This previous version of OpenSpace was much less political in nature and was presumably shut down for financial reasons. It reopened a month later with a revamped website and a new team at the helm. Neither lasted as long as the old.
Perhaps now Belyaev has simply ran out of patience with what seems to have been a troublesome purchase from the start. Of course, there is a simpler, yet more piquant theory: rumor has it [ru] that he is married to w-o-s.ru editor, Gerasicheva, and, as they are currently getting a divorce, has decided to divest himself of their joint ventures.
There could be additional reasons. Slon.ru editor Andrei Goryanov, for example, thinks [ru] that while an interesting experiment, OpenSpace was simply not a very good website. Former NASHI press-secretary Kristina Potupchik, on the other hand thinks [ru] that the editorial team just wasn't productive enough:
6-7 материалов в день, каждый с посещаемостью в районе 2-3 тысяч просмотров – не та структура, которую должны обслуживать два десятка сотрудников в штате […]
6-7 articles per day, each with 2-3 thousand viewers isn't the type of structure that should be supported by twenty staff-members […]
Culture blogger Corpuscula chalks this up [ru] to a general malaise of new media on the RuNet. According to her, even though there are several completely empty content niches, such large groups are simply too inefficient to take advantage of them. Rather than hiring enthusiasts, RuNet investors do the following:
соберите 20 человек, которые не будут ничего писать, платите им деньги за то, что они найдут людей, которые будут переписывать за небольшие деньги то, что энтузиасты и графоманы у себя написали бесплатно, профит!
get together 20 people who won't write anything, pay them money to find people, who, for small amounts of money, will rewrite what enthusiasts have already written for free, profit!
According to Pavel Pryanikov [ru] at the standalone ttolk.ru [ru], this was the story of Colta. When Belyaev fired the old editorial team of OpenSpace, he gave them enough funds to run their own website for three months — thus, Colta was born. The money did not last long, even with an additional crowd-funding donation push, and the website had to briefly close. The reason was the size of the editorial team (11 contributing editors along with other staff), combined with with the low productivity of 17 articles per week, 6 of them written by the editorial team, the rest by outside authors. Pryanikov claims that such bloated online publications are only possible through subsidies:
Государство и олигархат на волне полуполитических […] требований «креативного класса» спешно создаёт фиктивные рабочие места для них.
On a wave of semi-political demands of the “creative class” the state and the oligarchy are hastily creating fictitious jobs for them.
Colta reopened, presumably having found a sponsor. Projects like it and OpenSpace keep getting funded. And so, no one will be particularly surprised if half a year down the road Kovalsky and team end up editing some other website, an abstract Snap or CivicScope. Oleg Kashin or Dmitry Bykov will be happy to write an opening column, and so the cycle will continue.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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African Nations Cup Anthem Celebrates Peace · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

On Afrik.com, Mansour Loum discusses “Sela Sela”, the song that was selected as the official anthem of the 29th edition of the 2013 African Nations Cup. The cup took place in South Africa, from January 19 to February 10, 2013. Loum explained that [fr]:
With lyrics in English and Bantu, “Sela Sela” is a song about the celebration and joy shared by all peoples, breaking the barriers that present an obstacle to peace and unity.


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A Futile Gagging Order for the ‘Prisoner X’ Scandal · Global Voices
Elizabeth Tsurkov

This post is part of our International Relations & Security coverage.
Graffiti of newspaper reader in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo by Helga Tawil Souri on flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
After Australia’s ABC aired an exposé on ‘Prisoner X’ on February 12, Israeli media was quick to follow up on the shocking claims that Ben Zygier, an Australian-born Israeli citizen who worked for Mossad, was secretly detained in a maximum-security prison for months before allegedly committing suicide in 2010. However, reports on the scandal were pulled soon after they emerged. The Prime Minister’s Office called an urgent meeting of the editors of all major Israeli news outlets to ask for their cooperation in silencing the story. For a whole day, Israeli media were forbidden from reporting on the story, even as it was making headlines worldwide and Israelis disseminated the news in social media and blogs. Only after three leftist members of the Knesset used their parliamentary immunity to speak on the issue did opaque headlines appear, and an Israeli court lifted the gag order.
The Israeli government used the possible threat to national security to justify its decision to censor the ‘Prisoner X’ scandal. However, many Israeli bloggers remain far from convinced that national security was the main reason behind the pulling of the story.
Noam Shiezaf argued on +972 Magazine:
It was pretty clear by the early morning yesterday that the Prime Minister’s Office (which is in charge of the Mossad) and the Defense Department (under which the military censor operates) are fighting a losing battle. Once a report was out there in the international media, it was impossible to stop it from circulating without taking Chinese-style Internet censorship measures. Plus, the whole rationale was flawed: there is nothing “secret” about something that the entire world knows, so why should Israelis be the only ones who are forbidden access to the information? If anything, such behavior reveals the deeper motive behind most acts of censorship: it is less about protecting state security and more about the protection of individuals and institutions from public scrutiny.
Gal Mor, the editor of Holes in the Net, also disputed the claim that censorship was used to protect national security:
Like in previous scandals (Motke Kedar, who was also dubbed ‘Prisoner X’; Marcus Klinberg; the Lavon Affair; Bus 300) we were told that exposing the affair endangers national security, to the point of endangering its existence…When each of these secret affairs were exposed, the world did not end, and we found out that in the worst case this is a diplomatic incident, and an embarrassment to an intelligence agency, and exposing it contributed greatly to Israel’s democracy and to internal inspections of the agencies. And even if there was a justification for this silencing, we live in a global alley, in which Facebook, Twitter and blogs are only a click away.
The attempts to prevent the dissemination of the ‘Prisoner X’ story after the airing of the exposé shows that Israeli authorities have not yet adjusted to the new media era. In a country where almost half of the population has a Facebook account, slapping a gag order on a report readily available online, only creates greater interest in the story.
This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

author: Elizabeth Tsurkov


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A Monologue of Blood and Bullets Precedes Yemen’s National Dialogue · Global Voices
Noon Arabia

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi finally payed a long overdue visit to Aden on Sunday evening, February 24, after four days of ongoing bloody clashes, which erupted between police and pro-independence demonstrators on Thursday [February 21] and which resulted in many deaths and injuries. It is worth noting that this is his first visit to any city in Yemen outside the capital Sanaa, since becoming president on February 27, 2012.
Journalist Adam Baron commented on Twitter:
@adammbaron: worth noting? hadi visited the US, saudi, other gulf states, etc, as president before visiting aden. still, key gesture. #yemen
Police arrests of southern separatists leaders came a day ahead of planned rival rallies to mark the first anniversary of the uncontested election of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi which ended Saleh’s 33-year autocratic rule, following a year-long deadly uprising.
A protester holding a sign that reads in Arabic “unity or death is a bloody slogan and a separatist speech.”
Supporters and opponents of Hadi, himself a southerner, have said they will hold rival rallies on Thursday, prompting fears of possible clashes in Aden. The Islamist Al Islah (reform) Party called for a pro-Hadi rally in Aden’s Khor Maksar district, where separatist calling for autonomy also had planned to hold an independence rally, on the same day and in the same square.
Alaa Isam tweeted:
@AlaaIsam:Cautious movement in the streets of #Aden…All expectant of something bad is about to happen. let us hope not, May Lord save it. #Yemen #yf
@AlaaIsam:
#Photo show the celebrating of Islah Party in #Aden #SouthYemen #Yemen #yf @hrw pic.twitter.com/gn7XddOV7Y
Pro-Hadi rally in Aden organized by Islah party and escorted by security forces
Atiaf Alwazir warned:
@WomanfromYemen
those who are calling for a pro-Hadi rally in #Aden are instigating & provoking an already tense situation! #Yemen
Nasser Arrabyee tweeted:
@narrabyee: Islah ignited a war n south by insisting on holding the rally of Feb 21, all southerners froze thier membership in dialogue, Dr Saleh Basura
He added:
@narrabyee: Deaths and injuries in unprecedented showdown between Islamists supported by army and angry and frustrated separatists in Aden south Yemen.
@narrabyee: 7 killed& more than 50 injured n today's clashes between Islamists,helped by army, & separatists n Crater& Khormakser of Aden south Yemen.
This video uploaded on Youtube by Kala'at al Shomookh (قلعة الشموخ) shows Yemeni CSF forces attacking southerners during the commemoration of Dignity day in Kraiter, Aden:
Will Picard tweeted:
@YemenPeaceNews: Official report from Southern Observatory for Human Rights says 9 killed and 53 wounded by security forces in #Aden on 2/21. #Yemen
Morooj Alwazir added:
@Rooj129: A bloody Thursday for #Aden #Yemen photos & summary http://www.adentribune.com/?p=676
“The Yemeni authorities must end the routine violent repression of freedom of assembly,” Amnesty International said in a warning statement issued late Wednesday. It added: “Yemeni security forces have acted in contravention of international human rights standards by opening fire on peaceful pro-secession protesters today in the south, resulting in four deaths and dozens of injured” on Thursday.
As a result dozens of separatists took to the streets on Saturday, blocking roads and burning tyres, in the districts of Khor Maksar, Mualla, Shaikh Osman and Dar Saad early on Saturday, amid calls for civil disobedience to protest against the February 21 massacre, which led to further clashes with the army.
Protesters also on Saturday reportedly attacked shops in Mukalla owned by northerners, and burnt down two offices belonging to the Islamist Al-Islah (Reform) Party. In the city of Sayun, in the eastern province of Hadramawt, protesters trying to enforce civil disobedience reportedly set a merchant from the northern Yemeni city of Dhamar on fire, leaving him in a critical condition.
The burning and destruction of Islah party office by separatists in Al-Mukalla.
Protesters also clashed on Sunday with security forces in the southeastern city of Mukalla after they blocked roads with burning tyres and rocks. In Aden itself, protesters were killed and wounded when army troops opened fire in a main road in the Mualla neighbourhood. Protesters also blocked roads in the neighbourhoods of Mansura, Sheikh Osman and Dar Saad. Graphic images of separatist protesters killed by government forces, including activist and journalist Wajdi AlShuaibi who was assassinated in his home in front of his family by masked gunmen have been widely shared on [Warning: GRAPHIC images] Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Jamal tweeted:
@Sarah_Sanaa: Shabwa joins Aden and Hadramout in their civil obedience demanding immediate replacement of Aden's governer #Yemen
@Sarah_Sanaa: All south is on fire.. Security shooting protesters in Aden, Hadramout and now Shabwa&govt. and president r silent #Yemen
Government forces parading tanks in Al-Mansoora in Aden to quel the civil disobedience
A protest in solidarity with Aden and condemning all kinds of violence is scheduled in Sanaa today [Feb 26].
Sarah Jamal tweeted:
@Sarah_Sanaa:
tmrw 10 am a march in Sanaa agnst security forces violence&all sorts of back-lashing violence in the south, supporting Southern cause #Yemen
A protester holding a placard that reads in Arabic “He who is killing in the south wants the geography and does not want the unity”
The first session for the National Dialogue, originally set for mid-November, has been repeatedly delayed, mainly due to differences between the southerners. It is now scheduled for March 18, yet after the last bloody events in Aden and the increasing death toll in the southern provinces, many suspect it will still take place as planned.
National Dialogue Technical committee head Ahmed bin Mubarak condemned using violence in the name of unity
CCYRC tweeted:
#NDC S Dr. AhmedBinMubarak: We can't avoid secession but we can boost unification by building confidence bridges not by slogans #Yemen #Aden
@CCYRC: NDC Secruitry & CCYRC member Dr. AhmedBinMubarak ,I don’ know wht r benefits of killing Yemeni of cool blood&by nam of revlotin #Yemen #Aden
Summer Nasser tweeted:
@SummerNasser: #Yemen: As we get closer to the date of the “National Dialogue” event on March 18th, there will be ongoing conflicts in Aden.
She urged:
@SummerNasser: Remain peaceful, southerners. Once you draw your weapon against those who are oppressing you, it will be the day you regret it! #Aden #Yemen
Mai Saleh tweeted:
@A4Mai: What's going on in Aden kills any chances for peaceful solution not to mention the southerners participation in the National Dialogue #Yemen
Mohammed Jarhum tweeted:
@moejarhum: A wise man said separation is not by force and neither is unity #Yemen #Aden
The monologue of bullets and blood which the government chose in Aden is surely jeopardizing the fate of the National Dialogue and unity in Yemen. Yet, what is more alarming besides the bloodshed and ongoing clashes is the hate speech from both sides of the conflict in Yemen, promoted by news outlets and posts on social media.

author: Noon Arabia