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Warlords, Democrats and Extremists – Afghanistan’s Next Presidential Candidates · Global Voices
Samea Shanori

Twenty-seven candidates have registered for Afghanistan's presidential elections, which will take place on April 5, 2014. Along with the warlords who have dominated Afghanistan's political space for decades, there are also a few technocrats running in next year's ballot. As language and ethnicity play crucial roles in Afghan politics, candidates have tended to select their two vice-presidential picks from different ethnic groups in order to increase their electability. Fawzia Koofi, a famous female politician, has withdrawn from the ballot, leaving only one female presidential candidate.
October 6, 2013, was the last day of registration for the presidential nominees. The candidates were required to submit the names of their would-be-vice-presidents, 100,000 signatures of support for their nomination and $20,000. Candidates currently part of President Hamid Karzai's government have resigned from their posts. As soon a the list of the candidates became known, Afghans began to debate the candidates and their VP picks on Twitter:
Naseh tweeted:
#Afghanistan opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah will certainly be in the #election run-off if he can't win outright.
— Naseh (@Mann_Naseh) October 6, 2013
Hafiz Hamim took note of those who had resigned from their ministerial positions with the hope of claiming the presidency.
Wahidullah Shahrani is the among the three Afghan ministers who have resigned to run for 2014 presidential elections.
— Hafiz Hamim (@HJalalzai) October 6, 2013
Candidate added on Twitter:
Afghan Minister of Mines resigned today. He will be running as a Vice President for Qayom Karzai in the coming Presidential Elections.
— Candidate (@candidatepaw) October 6, 2013
While Ekram Shinwari flagged the participation of another Karzai regime heavyweight:
Gen.Abdul Rahim Wardak former Afghan defense minister also filled his nomination papers for running in upcoming presidential elections today
— Ekram Shinwari (@EkramShinwari) October 5, 2013
The candidates’ files will be reviewed and approved by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and a final list will be announced by November 2013. Farzad Lami, an Afghan journalist and blogger, confirmed the number of candidates, tweeting:
27 candidates file nomination papers for #Afghanistan presidential elections scheduled for April 5th, 2014.
— Farzad Lami (@FarzadLameh) October 6, 2013
Prominent candidates:
VP picks: Wahidullah Shahrani (former minister of mines from Uzbek ethnic group) and Ibrahim Qasemi (a lawmaker from the Hazara ethnic group).
VP picks: Mohammad Khan, Hezb-e Islami's deputy leader and Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, an MP, lawmaker and one of the recognized leaders of the Hazara ethnic group.
VP picks: Mohammad Ismail Khan, a former water and energy minister and Abdul Wahab Irfan, an Afghan senator.
VP picks: General Abdul Rashid Dostum (popular among ethnic Uzbeks) and Sarwar Danish, a former justice minister (supported by former ethnic Hazara warlord and vice president, Karim Khalili,).
Vice presidents: Ahmad Zia Massoud, brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud (ethnically Tajik) and Habiba Sarabi, Bamiyan's provincial governor (ethnically Hazara).
Karzai the elder, Sayyaf, Rassoul, Abdullah and Ghani are viewed as the strongest candidates in the 2014 vote. (Wiki commons photos remixed by author).
Razaq Mamoon, an Afghan journalist and blogger, blogged [Dari] about Dr. Abdullah's incorrect choice of vice presidents.
ائتلاف جمیعت اسلامی با بخش  حزب اسلامی، و یک بخش حزب وحدت اسلامی ( به رهبری آقای محقق) یک ائتلاف فوق العاده است وچانس پیروزی شان نیز کمتراز بیست وپنج درصد خواهد بود
Coalition of Hezb-e Islami and Hezb-e Wahdat (partially led by Mr. Muhaqiq) is an extremely weak alliance and its chance of winning might be less than 25%.
As Afghanistan's politics has long been associated with corruption and civil war, its politicians are commonly viewed as being either corrupt, war criminals or both. Samira Hamidi, disappointed with the lack of choices for 2014, posted on Twitter:
With the Presidential Candidates and all mixed faces of democrats and extremists, whom to trust and vote?? http://t.co/dhVrR3eYun
— Samira Hamidi (@HuriaSamira) October 5, 2013
Will the winner be an alleged war criminal?
Much netizen attention was focused on Abdul Rasul Sayyaf's controversial candidacy. Sayyaf, who has been blamed for the death of thousands and credited with training insurgents, may have trouble garnering sufficient support to win the vote, but will be able to fall back on his own constituency of hardcore conservatives.
Farzad Lami tweeted of Sayyaf's candidacy:
The person who invited Osama to #Afghanistan is now running for president – http://t.co/cTIkFFJMhF
— Farzad Lami (@FarzadLameh) October 4, 2013
A blogger, Shami Witness’ ironic tweet reads:
Some more hilarity in #Afghanistan. Abdur Rasul Sayyaf going to run for the presidential elections.
— Shami Witness (@ShamiWitness) October 5, 2013
Samira Hamidi echoed the ridicule:
What a joke! Sayyaf as a next #AFG President? We don't need Taliban, he is enough for making women's life miserable. http://t.co/WytqfC1J6C
— Samira Hamidi (@HuriaSamira) August 15, 2013
Subel Bhandari, a journalist covering Afghanistan and Pakistan, highlighted the fact that with candidates like Dr. Abdullah, who has the backing of highly-placed officials in the Karzai regime (Marshal Fahim and Ismael Khan), it will be difficult for Sayyaf to achieve victory:
Momentum grows for Dr Abdullah. Marshal Fahim & Ismael Khan to support him for presidency http://t.co/yedDXJqJp1 Puts Sayyaf out of picture.
— Subel (@svbel) September 28, 2013
NilofarMassoud, complaining about the process of candidate registration, tweeted:
What a crazy day in #Afghanistan with the presidential candidates registration for the #elections
— NilofarMassoud (@NilofarMassoud) October 6, 2013
Sayed Salahuddin, referring to the ethnic balancing tactic, tweeted:
afghan elections: sayaaf apparently wants to nominate for presidential bid & has picked up ismail khan & an uzbek as his two deputies
— sayed salahuddin (@sayedsalahuddin) October 2, 2013
Massoud Hossaini tweeted about the only woman candidate running in the presidential race:
Mrs. Khadija Azizi registered her name as the first #Afghanistan female presidential #elections candidate. 24 persons registered till now.
— Massoud Hossaini (@Massoud151) October 6, 2013
Fawzia Koofi, who was planning to run for presidency, changed her mind. In one of her tweets she stated:
and finally my team and I decided not to run in upcoming election due to many reasons,one the hectic political situation we prepare for 2018
— Fawzia Koofi (@FawziaKoofi77) October 6, 2013
Also expressing her concern regarding the decline of female presence in the presidential elections, she tweeted:
Glad some candidates included women in their tickets, but still decline of women presence as comparing to 2009 elections.
— Fawzia Koofi (@FawziaKoofi77) October 6, 2013
International correspondent, Lucy Kafanov was concerned about the possibility of delays to the vote, tweeting:
Nominations for #Afghanistan‘s presidential elections close today, though it's still a question whether vote will take place as planned — Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) October 6, 2013
Finally, disappointed by the lack of improvements in the country after the last presidential vote, Sayed Salahuddin tweeted:
afghan man says no enthusiasm to vote in coming presidential poll as “no voters expectations” were addressed in past elections
— sayed salahuddin (@sayedsalahuddin) October 9, 2013

author: Samea Shanori


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India’s Women Take on Fear and Sexual Violence in “Action Hero” · Global Voices
Rezwan

Blank Noise, a volunteer-run community project that seeks to confront public sexual harassment, or eve teasing as it is known in India, has launched a reality game called the Action Hero meant to tackle the fear that many Indian women have toward their cities.
According to the project blog, anyone and any number of people can participate in the game, which is played simultaneously across cities, countries, towns and time zones. The player will have to be equipped with a Twitter account and a basic mobile phone that allows him or her to receive text messages with instructions and tasks, and also has to start from a location that is unfamiliar to him or her.
The website explains why this game is necessary:
At Blank Noise we have largely used the web space to build dialogue on the issue of sexual violence. We announce events, build participation, work towards growing a community of men and women who take ownership and responsibility of sexual violence. We intervene across spaces with multiple forms of media (live street actions/ t shirts/ posters/ sound installations/ interviews) but rely largely on the web to build testimonials of sexual violence. There are spaces and communities this blog space hasn't accessed. That's also where we count on you.
Image courtesy Blank Noise. CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
Founder of Blank Noise Jasmeen Patheja explained the game further to the Indian Express:
The Action Hero Game is designed to deal with fear and to make the ‘action hero’ player acutely aware of his or her presence in his or her city. Through the ‘tasks and challenges’, it enables new behaviour, thus building new associations and memories with a public space.
She further explained to the Deccan Chronicles:
Jasmeen Patheja, the originator of Blank Noise explains that being defensive and hyper alert does not lead to “feeling safe” and that was when she conceptualised the idea. She says, “We keep ourselves safe by building defense rather than making it familiar.” The project hopes that each individual has the ability and power to influence change in one’s society.
On October 5, 2013, the game was played in these cities of India:
Anjali Manakkad from Bangalore described what tasks were she given and how she responded. Her fourth task was to sit and stare at the clouds:
I went to one of the benches down the road and I left my camera pack on the side and I stretched myself and bent my head backwards. This was actually very peaceful and no one seemed to be curious or mocking by my actions. I don't know if anyone really noticed me as I was looking up most of the times. But I knew for sure that no one was sniggering or talking about me as I heard a few footsteps pass me by with no reaction.
Laura Valencia, a participant, said in an article in The Alternative:
The first few instructions were straightforward. I walked with my arms swinging, sat in a place and got comfortable, and made small talk with strangers. As time went on, I found myself less obsessed with checking to see if a new instruction had come as I sank into playing the game. I found my temporary happy place about two hours in while standing on a street corner and giggling.
Action Hero Game 1. Image courtesy Blank Noise. CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
In the Blank Noise Action heroes blog, participants shared their reactions:
Action Hero Ash thought:
The funny thing about all this is our general attitude to it. It is something that we women expect to experience. We ‘modern’ women may have stopped taking it lying down, and take action when we can. Nevertheless, it’s a sad fact of life that eve-teasing is a normal part of life. We Bombayites even considered ourselves luckier, because at least we weren’t like our sisters in Delhi – who’d travel in busses with their arms crossed at their chest, pointed needles poking out of their fists at either side!
The next game is scheduled for October 19, 2013. To register for free, email blurtblanknoise@gmail.com.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rezwan


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French MP Heckles Female Colleague by Clucking in Parliament  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

French MP Philippe Le Ray came under fire with accusation of sexism because he was heckling a fellow colleague, Veronique Massonneau, during her speech at the national assembly. Below is the video of the incident [fr]:
http://youtu.be/-oNp4BTxYx0
Cackling is often used as a derogatory term for women chatter in France. This incident prompted a storm of reactions on twitter under the hashtag #pouletgate (translation: #chickengate). Furthermore, the profile of Philippe Le Ray on Nos députés [fr] (english: Our representatives), the citizen project monitoring the activity of the MPs got a sharp increase in visitors after the incident. His activity profile shows that Philippe Le Ray mostly participates in debates on assisted procreation and same sex marriages at the parliament.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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From Brazil to the World: the Marco Civil and Internet Governance  · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

Projections from the collective Marco Civil Já (Marco Civil Now) on the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), in favor of a #InternetLivre (Free Internet) and the #MarcoCivil. Shared on Facebook, October 2013.
[All links lead to Portuguese-language pages except when otherwise noted.]
The latest speech [en] given by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at the United Nations, with tough criticism of American spying and a proposal for the global development of a new digital policy, was met with great support on the part of international organizations that fight for the rights of citizens online. But in the midst of the euphoria, there were also those that did nto leave skepticism  and criticism of the policy unmentioned.
In her speech (PDF) [en], delivered during the 68th General Assembly of the United Nations on September 24, 2013, Rouseff proposed “the establishment of a multilateral ‘bill of rights’ for the governance of the use of the Internet and measures that guarantee the effective protection of information, according to five basic principles:
Liberdade de expressão, privacidade do individuo e respeito aos direitos humanos; Governança democrática, multilateral e aberta; Universalidade que assegura o desenvolvimento social e humano e a construção de sociedades inclusivas e não discriminatórias; Diversidade cultural, sem imposição de crenças, costumes e valores; e neutralidade da rede, ao respeitar apenas critérios técnicos e éticos, tornando inadmissível restrição por motivos políticos, comerciais e religiosos.
Freedom of expression, privacy of the individual, and respect for human rights; Open, multilateral and democratic governance; Universality that ensures the social and human development and the construction of inclusive and non-discriminatory societies; Cultural diversity, without the imposition of beliefs, customs and values; and neutrality of the network, guided only by technical and ethical criteria, rendering it inadmissible to restrict it for political, commercial, or religious purposes.
More than 170 individuals and civil society organizations have signed an open letter [en] in which they express “deep appreciation for [her] serious commitment to social justice and development, of which an open, stable, and reliable Internet is a fundamental pillar”.
The letter praises the “courage” of the speech and stresses the importance of the adoption of Marco Civil, a bill of rights for Internet users currently under debate in Brazil, and declares support for the participatory model in which the bill was drafted.
A brief timeline of the #MarcoCivil
The draft bill began to be developed four years ago, and “aims at consolidating rights, obligations and principles for the use and development of the Internet in Brazil” (Cgi.br, pdf). On September 11, 2013, the President requested urgency in its examination by the House of Representatives, a move that requires the House and Senate to analyze the bill in the next 45 days, so the Marco Civil is expected be finally voted on by the end of October.
In August 2012, Global Voices Advocacy published an article [en] contextualizing the Marco Civil’s implications, as well as its elaboration. Global Voices also reported back then on how the initiative has split opinions in Brazil [en], even though it promoted an innovative participatory process for the development of a bill of principles that has been looked at internationally with admiration.
By way of illustration of the broadly collaborative, democratic and transparent way how the Marco Civil was elaborated, it can be highlighted that it was open to public consultation between the end of 2009 and about mid-2010. During that period, any Internet user could give his or her opinion on its text, which, in the end, received more than 2,000 direct contributions from different NGOs, government entities, universities, and others. Thanks to this broad social debate, the Marco Civil was presented to the National Congress as a mature as well as technically reliable text, as expert Ronaldo Lemos highlighted in an interview with website A Rede.
Mutilated or perfected?
A total of 34 proposed amendments have been added to the text, now on its way to the plenary assembly.
A prominent figure in the democratization of communications in Brazil, Carlos “C.A.” Afonso [en], considers the ammendments a “mutilation” of the collaborative text of 2012.
According to Bruno Marinoni, writing for the Observatório do Direito à Comunicação (Observatory of the Right to Communication):
Image of the urban intervention by the collective Marco Civil Já denouncing links between the Minister of Telecommunications Paulo Bernardo and the large companies that provide Internet service in Brazil.
As polêmicas se concentram [agora] nas questões referentes à manutenção do princípio da “neutralidade de rede”, ao armazenamento dos registros de acesso pelos provedores e à forma de lidar com os direitos autorais.
The polemics are concentrated [now] on issues referring to the maintenance of the principle “net neutrality,” to the storage of access registries by providers and the way to deal with copyrights.
With regards to net neutrality, while some people have introduced amendment proposals that defend traffic shaping – which makes net neutrality more flexible -, others denounce actions of the government “in favor of the interests of large telecommunications conglomerates,” as reported by Renato Rovai and Sergio Amadeu of Revista Fórum.
Activist João Carlos Caribe, who comments on digital policies in Brazil, tweeted:
Uma coisa é certa: Em 2014 não voto em politico com campanha financiada pelas Teles! Faça o mesmo em repostas ao entreguismo
— João Carlos Caribé (@caribe) September 22, 2013
One thing is certain: In 2014 I won't vote for a politician with a campaign financed by the Teles [telecommunications providers]! Do the same in response to hand overs!
A collaborative documentary project on Net Neutrality, included in the campaign freenetfilm.org (@freenetfilm), explains the concept behind the guarantee of the free flow of information on the Internet, without the influence or alteration on the part of internet service providers. The video was directed by Naor Elimelech and Gabriel Ranzani with coordination of Joana Varón:
Is the cloud a territory?
The intentions behind Internet service providers storing – whether mandatory or optional – access registries of users have also worried those following the #MarcoCivil movement.
And this fear has doubled with a proposed amendment, supported by President Dilma, that mandates that the storage of data about Brazilians in businesses such as Google and Facebook should be kept physically within national territory [en]. The proposal comes “in the heat of the mass espionage scandal of the United States National Security Agency,” with Dilma's promise that Brazil “will redouble the efforts to adopt legislation, technology, and mechanisms that protect us from the illegal interception of communications and data.”
Mega Sim, a movement that strives to “put forth a positive agenda in Brazilian cultural politics,” reacted:
Entendam: Armazenar dados no pais é o sonho de Internet da China, Irã e outros Totalitarismo, mas é IMPOSSIVEL #MarcoCivil
— Mega Sim (@mega_sim) July 20, 2013
Understand this: storing data in-country is the Internet dream of China, Iran, and other totalitarian countries, but it is IMPOSSIBLE. #MarcoCivil
Emma Llansó, of the Center for Technology and Democracy, wrote [en]:
These kinds of data localization requirements can function as barriers to the free flow of information online, and would not necessarily keep Brazilians’ data out of the NSA’s hands.
In the works
A demonstration against Internet censorship has been planned through Marco Civil Já‘s Facebook for October 16 in front of Vivo-Telefónica, a major Brazilian telecommunications company in São Paulo. The same group, responsible for the site marcocivil.org.br, launched a demonstration in defense of the three fundamental principles expected from previous versions of the document: net neutrality, privacy, and freedom of expression.
Everything points toward the Marco Civil being voted on in a few weeks, and in the meantime an “international Marco Civil” is already in the works. The president announced on Twitter that after approval in Congress, she will take the new text to the United Nations, as Murilo Roncolato reported on the blog Estadão:
Pelo Twitter, a presidente Dilma Rousseff afirmou ter enviado um “novo” Marco Civil ao Congresso, sem detalhar se a novidade se refere a um novo texto ou emendas à proposta que corre no Congresso em caráter de urgência. Dilma anunciou ainda que o projeto será votado nas “próximas semanas” e garantiu que enviará o documento à ONU, tornando as diretrizes uma lista de princípios oficial do órgão internacional.
On Twitter, president Dilma Rousseff confirmed having sent a “new” Marco Civil to Congress, without giving details if “new” refers to a new text or amendments to the proposal that is being rushed through Congress urgently. Dilma announced that the project will be voted on in the “coming weeks” and guaranteed that she will send the document to the United Nations, turning the guidelines into an official list of principles of the international organization.

author: Sara Moreira


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GV Face: Fighting for an Open Internet in Brazil · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Do you care about free speech on the Internet? What about your privacy online? What if your government created a law that could protect these rights, rather than threatening them?
Brazilian digital rights advocates have been working for years to pass the Marco Civil da Internet, a one-of-a-kind law that would protect key rights and freedoms on the Internet.
US government surveillance programs have brought new momentum to the issue, galvanizing support from civil society and even Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff.
This week on GV Face, our Advocacy Editor Ellery Biddle (@ellerybiddle) talks with leading experts on the issue, including GV author Raphael Tsavkko @Tsavkko, Carolina Rossini (@carolinarossini) and Joana Varon (@joana_varon) an original author of the bill.
For some more links and comments on this issue, check out our Google + event page.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Hong Kong: 2010 Manila Hostage Incident and Banning Maid · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Tom Grundy from Hong Wrong comments on the local community call for banning Filipino domestic workers’ working visa to pressure the Philippine President Aquino III to apologize to the 2010 Manila hostage Incident's victims and their families.
The incident in 2010 was obviously awful and tragic and the authorities were ill-trained and ill-equipped to cope with the situation – the Philippines is, after all, a developing country. Nevertheless, to be pressuring the country’s president, years later, to personally apologise is unusual and misguided. These were not the actions of a political or militant group. The perpetrator did not have an ideology or agenda beyond his own deranged personal interests. It was a lone-wolf incident.

author: Oiwan Lam


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I Didn’t Visit Westgate Mall · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

Matt Hunte (2nd from right) and some Global Voices friends eating out in Nairobi in July 2012. Photo by Ayumi Nakajimi.
1. When I was in Nairobi last year, I didn’t visit Westgate Mall. I spent most of my extra day in Kenya moping around my hotel room alone, only stirring when I discovered late in the afternoon that the friend I had had presumptuously assumed would host me for a night in London on my way back home would be visiting Paris with her boyfriend. I’m not a good tourist.
2. I took note of the high, barbed-wired walls around the buildings in Westlands; armed guards at patted us down at hotel entrances. I took an afternoon walk with some friends on the campus of a nearby school. My friend asked a teacher if she could take some pictures. The teacher politely replied that it probably wasn’t a great idea.
3. I brought along Naipaul’s “A Bend In The River”. I’d planned to read it on the trip. I listened to rock music instead. I slept very little.
4. We were on the deck of a busy Nairobi bar, overlooking the city. I don’t drink and can’t dance. My roommate tells me about his parents’ life under Communism. His father was a photojournalist. I think he mentioned something about them trying to defect when he was a child. When the Berlin Wall fell he was only three. His sister lives in Florida now.
5. Her name is Aminah.
6. Someone told me to not bother getting any authentic Kenyan fabric from the market because most of that stuff is really from the West anyway, Ghana and so on.
7. At breakfast at the hotel I tried to make conversation with a girl. She was planning to visit “home” for the first time in since leaving as a child. My knowledge of Somalia is superficial: Black Hawk Down and, of course, Iman. She mentions Siad Barre, Puntland, Al-Shabaab. I make a quip about Grover Norquist and pirates.
8. In “White Noise”, DeLillo said that supermarkets are our new cathedrals. I never quite got that book.
9. I see on Twitter that a Ghanaian writer has been killed at Westgate Mall. He was attending a literary conference in Nairobi. I Google his name. See that I’ve read about him before. Can’t remember when or why.
10. I’d always wanted a Mac because they were beautiful, different and incompatible. I was almost the only one at the conference without one.
11. My roommate and I spent all night listening to music. He drank Coke. I drank water. Our tastes were disturbingly similar. How did the conference organiser know to pair us? We both like Britpop. But I don’t know any Hungarian music.
12. At Nairobi airport, we had to pass through a security scanner at the departures terminal entrance and two more to enter the boarding area. A guy asked if he could take a photo with his smart phone. His request was politely denied.
13. On checking out of the hotel, I gave one of the security guards a nearly full two-litre bottle of Coke. My roommate hadn’t managed to go through that one yet. I think he's in need of an intervention.
14. A few months ago I saw on Twitter that there’d been a fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. I've only just realised that I never followed up to find out what caused it.
15. Went to an Ethiopian restaurant with some friends. We planned to walk the short distance back to the hotel, but a member of the hotel staff insisted we shouldn’t. We didn’t. I was supposed to be the first drop-off but I missed my stop. Taxi turned around and made the two-minute trip back. Paid him two hundred shillings, about six Eastern Caribbean Dollars.
16. The group claiming responsibility for the attack on the mall had its Twitter account taken down.
17. Some guy tweets that some lefty academic would argue that the attack on the mall was anti-consumerist. Chuckle.
18. One night, my roommate and I played The Clash's “Somebody Got Murdered” over and over. It became a constant refrain while we were watching the UEFA championships. Good times.
19. “The sinking feeling when the Kenyan police announce they’ve taken over the mall and then go on to say that “most” of the hostages are free.” Still sinking.
20. My last day in Kenya I warmed some leftover injera and beef over the water heater in the bathroom. Hadn’t noticed that we didn’t have a microwave. The food was at best lukewarm. I didn’t spit it out.
Matt Hunte is from the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

author: Matthew Hunte


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Lima Will Host 2019 Pan American Games · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Peru's capital, Lima, was elected with 31 votes as the city that will host the 2019 Pan American Games, leaving Chile's Santiago, Argentina's La Punta and Venezuela's Ciudad Bolívar behind.
On Twitter, some were happy about the news, like Nelson Peñaherrera C:
¡Qué alegría que los #Panamericanos 2019 se realicen en Lima! ¡a prepararnos!
— Nelson Peñaherrera C (@nelsonsullana) October 11, 2013
So glad that the 2019 Pan American Games will be held in Lima! Let's get ready!
But there was also skepticism:
Tanto color que le ponen, como si alguien de verdad siguiera los juegos panamericanos
— Juan Marin MUñoz (@juanmarinmunoz) October 11, 2013
They are making such a big deal about it, as if someone actually follows the Pan American games.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Mexico City Gears Up for 2013 Corona Capital Music Festival · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

John Talabot cancelled his performance at the festival for security reasons. Photo from Rémy DUGOUA on Flick under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Corona Capital 2013 (#CC13) music festival that will take place in Mexico City on October 12 and 13 will have performances from post-BritPop musicians such as Travis, Stereophonics, Miles Kane, Jake Bugg and Arctic Monkeys, as well as acts more related to the Indie scene.
Last year the festival was involved in a controversy created by the members of the youth movement called #YoSoy132 (I am 132), since the event is organized by a corporation related to the giant media company Televisa, which the mentioned movement was opposed to.
This year has not been lacking in controversy either, since one of the musicians who was going to perform at #CC13 announced the cancellation of his participation for security reasons. This performer is Spaniard John Talabot:
Cancelamos nuesto tour en mexico por motivos de seguridad. Nos alegramos que nuestros amigos delorean esten bien. http://t.co/2JhJty8dPT
— John Talabot (@JohnTalabot) October 8, 2013
We are cancelling our tour in Mexico for security reasons. We are glad that our friends Delorean are well.
According to Verónica Chávez Aldaco [es], the reason for the cancellation is the kidnapping that the artist experienced along with his friends from Delorean in Mexico City after performing at the Mutek Festival:
El asunto estuvo así: después del Mutek, delincuentes haciéndose pasar por policías, les llamaron a su hotel para comunicarles que por cuestiones de seguridad debían cambiarse a otro. En ese inter y ya bajo su poder, los amenazaron y despojaron de sus teléfonos. Fue entonces que los extorsionadores llamaron a sus familias en España para pedir rescate.
It happened like this: after Mutek, delincuents pretending to be policemen came to their hotel to tell them that for security reasons they should change hotels. Then, already under their power, they were threatened and had their phones taken from them. It was then that the extortionists called their families in Spain to ask for ransom money.
The members of the band are safe, but this occurrence shows that the artistic and performing professions are not separate from the crisis of violence and insecurity that Mexico is going through. The user Alessia said this on the topic:
#SóloEnMéxico un músico (John Talabot) tiene que cancelar su aparición en un festival por haber sido secuestrado #CC13 pésima imagen de país
— Alessia (@Alessia_mx) October 8, 2013
Only in Mexico does a musician (John Talabot) have to cancel his appearance at a festival because he was kidnapped. Terrible image of the country
On the official site [es] of #CC13 you can read this description of Talabot's work:
John Talabot ha pasado ser un productor semidesconocido a convertirse en una de las grandes revelaciones de la electrónica y en un artista capaz de cautivar a Ewan Pearson, colarse en la lista de lo mejor del año de Pitchfork, colaborar con Delorean y sentar cátedra en lo que a house orgánico y envolvente se refiere. Siguiendo los pasos de Four Tet y cruzando el Northern soul con el sonido de Chicago.
John Talabot has gone from being a somewhat unknown music producer to being one of the great revelations of electronica and an artist capable of captivating Ewan Pearson, being on the best of the year list from Pitchfork, collaborating with Delorean and being at the top of everything related to organic house. Following in the footsteps of Four Tet and crossing Northern soul with the sound of Chicago.
In spite of John Talabot's cancellation, many people have expressed their enthusiasm for the festival on Twitter, including those who still don't have a ticket, such as Daniela Gutiérrez:
Vendo mi cuerpo a cambio de un boleto para el #CC13 y llorar con Stereophonics #AhNoVerdad
— Daniela Gutierrez (@Danni_Gutierrez) October 9, 2013
I'll sell my body in exchange for a ticket to #CC13 and cry with Stereophonics
Some such as ForeverOpioverde have even mentioned that they would change their look for the event:
Adivinen quien se corto el cabello como los 60´tas para estar a doc’ con el domingo :) retrooo!
— ForeverOpioverde (@opioverde) October 9, 2013
Guess who cut her hair 60's style to be ready for Sunday :) retro!
Andru Rdz simply expressed her feelings about #CC13 in this way:
Faltan pocos días para el #CC13 ahhhh que emoción!
— Andru Rdz (@andru270) October 9, 2013
Only a few days left until #CC13 ahhhh so exciting!
The user Cuervo Eterno shared the schedule he plans to follow on the second day of the event:
#CC13 Domingo: tempranito para Jake Bugg, descansar para Miles Kane, imperdibles The Breeders, correr a Arctic Monkeys y cerrar con Grimes
— cuervo eterno (@sircuervo) October 9, 2013
#CC13 Sunday: nice and early for Jake Bugg, rest for Miles Kane, can't miss The Breeders, run to Arctic Monkeys and close with Grimes
To see schedule changes as well as the latest information, go to the Corona Capital [es] website.

author: J. Tadeo


text:
Mexico, Panama, and Honduras Seeking a Spot for Brazil 2014 World Cup · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

Photo from Hefebreo on Flickr, under a Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0)
With Costa Rica and the United States qualified for the next World Cup, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Jamaica are playing for their last opportunities to take part in the Brazilian festivity in 2014.
The Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) awards three and a half spots to attend the World Cup: the first three places proceed directly and the fourth place would participate in a playoff game against New Zealand.
The picture is painted differently for each of the participants, who must play perfect games in order to maintain their chances intact.
Mexico vs Panama
Mexico is known as the Concacaf giant. It is the country with the most qualifications to the World Cup but is nonetheless about to be eliminated after a disastrous season in which it has barely won one (away) game and has failed to win at the legendary Estadio Azteca, formerly a headache for visiting teams.
Mexico will play its possibilities before Panama, a team that has never managed to qualify for a World Cup and is barely competing for the second time in hexagonal standings. Panama is tied with Mexico in points (8), but unlike the “Tri”, Panama can boast about having its best race to the World Cup (in the other hexagonal standings that Panama participated in, it could barely get two points).
Panama has an uphill battle ahead; on the two occasions it has visited the Estadio Azteca, it ended up destroyed (7-1 and 5-0). Nevertheless, it is enjoying a brief period of hope, based on Mexico being unable to beat Panama the last four times they came face to face (two ties and two victories [es] for the Panamanians).
Roberto Chen, a young, promising talent for Panamanian football, talks about the team's hopes in an interview with FIFA [es]:
“Se puede sacar un buen resultado si hacemos las cosas bien. Honduras ya demostró que se les puede ganar en su casa. Es un partido crucial, pero hay que estar tranquilos y pensar en positivo. Se puede lograr la clasificación en el Azteca”, remata. No sería matemático pero un buen resultado en la cancha del Tri daría un impulso tremendo a los canaleros en el camino a Brasil.
“We can get a good result if we do things right. Honduras already proved that we can beat them on their home field. It is a crucial game, but we have to be calm and think positively. We can qualify at the Azteca,” he concludes. It would not be mathematical, but a good result on the Tri field would give a tremendous boost to the Panamanians en route to Brazil.
On his Twitter account, Mexican journalist David Faitelson posted a stark analysis of the game, where Mexico, by tradition and hierarchy in the area, should impose itself on a growing Panama, being the only country of the six participants that has never qualified for a World Cup:
Si no eres capaz de ganarle a Panamá en un viernes por la noche en el Azteca, mejor haz planes para dedicarte a otra cosa. #fb
— David Faitelson (@Faitelson_ESPN) October 9, 2013
If you are not capable of beating Panama on a Friday night at the Azteca, you're better off dedicating yourself to something else.
Álvaro Martínez is confident that the optimism reflected in Panamanian fans could be a reflection of Friday's results:
Oficial: un 84.8% de los panameños cree que la selección nacional puede dar el #Aztecazo. Hay positivismo en los 3.5 millones. @duroalhueso
— Álvaro Martínez (@duroalhueso) October 9, 2013
Official: 84.8% of Panamanians believe that the national team can bring the #Aztecazo [beat Mexico at the Azteca stadium]. There is positivity in 3.5 million people.
Panama has sought all kinds of support to arrive at this game in the best way possible, including having “summoned” three great national figures to cheer on the players, as Univisión [es] states:
Rubén Blades, Roberto Durán y Mariano Rivera son las principales inspiraciones panameñas. De ellos, el recién retirado lanzador de los Yankees es esperado en la concentración del equipo canalero en cualquier momento del cierre del Hexagonal para incrementar los niveles de motivación.
[…]
“Hasta el momento el jugador convocado es Mariano Rivera, para cerrar el partido”, bromeó el entrenador Julio Dely la semana pasada, ante una pregunta sobre su lista de foráneos.
Rubén Blades, Roberto Durán, and Mariano Rivera are the main Panamanian inspirations. Of them, the recently retired Yankees pitcher is expected to visit the Panamanian team at any given moment during the Hexagonal closing to increase levels of motivation.
[…]
“As of now, the player we have summoned is Mariano Rivera,” trainer Julio Dely joked last week responding to a question about his list of players who play abroad.
Singer Rubén Blades accompanied the national team and sang “Patria”, which is considered by some a second Panamanian national anthem, with them.
Fanny Cardoze shares a photo of the singer with the footballers.
Rubén Blades Con la Sele!!!buena motivación para nuestros jugadores! #vamospanama pic.twitter.com/YJfL7t718p
— FANNY CARDOZE (@fannycardoze) October 7, 2013
Rubén Blades With the National Team!!! Great motivation for our players!
The truth is that on Friday, October 11, Panama and Mexico will take to the field and play for the possibility of making it to the World Cup. The team that loses the game is basically eliminated, while a tie favors Panamanians, who have a better goal difference.
Honduras vs Costa Rica
On Friday, Honduras is welcoming the already qualified Costa Rican national team in San Pedro Sula. The game has dramatic indications as Honduras needs a win to ensure third place, but games between “ticos” (Costa Ricans) and “catrachos” (Hondurans) are always high voltage and is considered a “classic match of Central American football”
Costa Rica, despite having qualified, has the odds of three other teams (Panama, Mexico, and Honduras) in its results, although according to the words of Luis Marín for El Universal [es], they aspire to occupy first place in the qualifications (they are now in second, after the United States):
‘En este momento no pensamos en lo que beneficia o no a Honduras, a Panamá o a México, estamos pensando en nosotros y en buscar la primera posición’, declaró en conferencia de prensa Luis Marín, asistente del seleccionador, el colombiano Jorge Luis Pinto.
‘At this time we are not thinking of what is beneficial or not for Honduras, Panama, or Mexico, we are thinking about ourselves and seeking first place’ Luis Marín, assistant coach to Colombian Jorge Luis Pinto, said at a press conference.
Nonetheless, Honduras is playing at home and only needs one win (and a tie between Panama and Mexico) to ensure its consecutive participation in the World Cup and the third in its history. ‘Pase al vacío’ remembers these possibilities:
Si el viernes, Honduras le gana a Costa Rica, y México y Panamá empatan, los hondureños estarán en #Brasil2014
— PaseAlVacio (@PaseAlVacio) October 9, 2013
If Honduras wins against Costa Rica on Friday, and Mexico and Panama tie, the Hondurans will be in Brazil 2014
After Friday's games, we will get a clearer glimpse into who will go to Brazil and if Central America will send three participants to the World Cup for the first time.

author: Ariel Moreno


text:
Only Six of 250 Student Lawyers in Zambia Passed the Bar This Year · Global Voices
Gershom Ndhlovu

First Liberia, now Zambia.
Recently in Liberia, all the students who wrote a university entry examination this year failed. Now comes the news that in Zambia, out of 250 students who sat for post-university law practice examinations at the Zambia Institute of Advanced Legal Education, better known by its acronym ZIALE, only six passed.
The news of the grim result was announced by lawyer Maureen Mwanawasa (@mwanachilembo), former first lady and widow of Zambia's third president, the late Levy Mwanawasa, in a tweet to her followers:
ZIALE results a scandal out of 251 students only 6 have qualified to the Bar#zambia
— Maureen K Mwanawasa (@mwanachilembo) October 4, 2013
A US-based Zambian Twitter user Miss Bwalya (@missbwalya) wondered why the majority of ZIALE students failed:
@mwanachilembo Around 90% of each new class at ZIALE fails the bar admissions. What's the cause here?
— MissBwalya (@missbwalya) October 4, 2013
A wooden mallet used in courtrooms. Photo release by Wikipedia user Jonathunder under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Mrs Mwanawasa (@mwanachilembo) proffered an explanation:
@missbwalya and class student population is too high,students missing out on tutor student relationship
— Maureen K Mwanawasa (@mwanachilembo) October 4, 2013
One user, Grieve Chelwa (@grievechelwa), a Zambian PhD student, had a different view about the high failure rate:
@mwanachilembo @missbwalya, that's LAZ's [Law Association of Zambia] way of keeping a tight lid on the supply of lawyers.Most Bar Associations across the world do this.
— Grieve Chelwa (@grievechelwa) October 4, 2013
The issue of ZIALE's high failure rate was investigated by a parliamentary sub-committee in 2012:
your Committee observes that the admission criteria into University of Zambia School of Law is different from that obtaining in most private universities, in the sense that at private universities students are admitted straight from grade 12 without passing through the Humanities as the case is at UNZA [University of Zambia]. As a result of this the general quality of law graduates from the private universities is poor hence their inability to perform at ZIALE. Your Committee recommends that enrollment into the various Schools of law should be done as per Universal Standards whereby students first go through the humanities or already have a first degree.
Speaking at a call day, when lawyers are formally admitted to the bar, in 2011, retired Chief Justice Ernest Sakala said then:
The immediate reaction of an independent observer of the situation at ZIALE must be that there is something seriously wrong with the system that fails all the trainees it purports to have trained […] Statistically, it is practically impossible that out of 145 students that ZIALE accepted for training only a handful were actually of a grade that ZIALE actually excepted.
In a letter to the Zambian Watchdog, one anonymous writer complained:
The failure rate at the Institution has reached alarming proportions hitting a 90+ percent high, as at the last sitting. The aspirations of many Law graduates to become legal practitioners have not come to fruition because of the high and deliberate failing of students at ZIALE.
The writer continued:
The “ Five Year” ban on students who fail to clear after three (3) attempts is no longer in the National interest and needs to be reviewed or better still abolished. This would entail amending Rule 23 of The Legal Practitioners Act Chapter 30 0f The Laws of Zambia.
A comment on the letter by some calling himself “Cheers” read [comments on the website do not have permalinks]:
ZIALE must undergo reforms, how do you allow the same person to lecture, set and mark the exams? and the same person is likely to compete against a student on the market who passes bar exams. Zambian Lawyers are selfish thats the reason why one man law firms die togather with the owner. No one among the Lawyers admitted to the bar is interested in reforming ZIALE and thats typical of us Zambians.

author: Gershom Ndhlovu


text:
Panama’s President Denies Son’s Involvement in Italian Scandal  · Global Voices
Ariel Moreno

President Ricardo Martinelli. Photo from the Presidential Office of the Republic of Ecuador on Flickr, under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
[Links are to Spanish-language pages, except where otherwise noted.]
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli has once again provoked the ire of netizens following comments he made on national television ostensibly to clarify certain recordings published in La Prensa newspaper which linked his son to the Italian corruption scandal surrounding Valter Lavitolla and involving Panama's government [en].
The scandal arose over allegations that Martinelli and various members of his goverment accepted bribes for the construction of prisons in Panama. The prisons were never actually built, and Lavitolla was arrested in Italy and charged with corruption.
On October 10, the President made it clear on his Twitter account that the ‘soap opera’ being written by La Prensa was about to end, as he had in his possession evidence to disprove any conspiracy.
Novela italiana del opositor La Prensa tendrá su último capitulo el jueves con nuestro comunicado que dejará en evidencia la conspiración
— Ricardo Martinelli (@rmartinelli) October 8, 2013
Thursday is the last chapter in the Italian soap opera of the adversarial La Prensa when our press release will lay bear the conspiracy
— Ricardo Martinelli (@rmartinelli) October 8, 2013
On the Telemetro network, President Martinelli, true to his controversial and aggressive style, did not offer up the anticipated proof, but he did clarify that it was all an ambush against him and his family:
“This is a fight between Italians stealing from one another; it is a fight at the highest echelons of Italian society,” declared the Panamanian head of state, adding that he was not surprised that they had implicated his son as a reprisal for not having been awarded a contract.
RPC Radio tweeted a few of the President's choice words. In one of them, he can be heard asserting in a vulgar manner that he did not need so much as a plugged nickel from them, a real, referring to a 5-cent coin.
“Yo no necesito un fucking real de esta vaina, lo digo con la frente en alto #CasoLavitola “- @rmartinelli — Rpc Radio (@rpc_radio) October 10, 2013
I don't need so much as a f***ing plugged nickel from them; I say it with my head held high
It was this way of speaking that seemed to outrage many Twitter users. Tito Herrera, for example, thinks this kind of interview is discouraging, but at the same time reveals people for who they are:
Estas entrevistas me deprimen y a la vez me gustan por q la gente pueden ver como se sale el cobre … #Emputado #FuckingReal #Panama
— Tito Herrera (@TitoHerrera) October 10, 2013
These interviews depress me and at the same time I like them because they show people for their true colours… #Emputado #FuckingReal #Panama
Aurelio Barria asks the president for more dignified language:
Los ciudadanos nos merecemos mas respeto en el lenguaje dl señor Presidente, elevese por favor, q es eso de q “no necesito un fu%&ing real”?
— Aurelio Barria Jr (@yeyobarria) October 10, 2013
As citizens we deserve more respect from the language used by our president, please raise the level, what is this “I don't need a fu%&ing real“?
Others, as is the case for Thais Llean, are more pragmatic and recall that Ricardo Martinelli became president because of a democratic majority—that he was the leader chosen by Panamanians even though part of his campaign slogan involved boasting about being “crazy”.
#Panamá ahora te quejas??? tú tienes la culpa! Votaste por él! Incluso cuando te dijo q estaba loco,lo celebraste! No era mentira! Vergüenza
— Thais Ilean (@thaisilean) October 10, 2013
#Panamá now you complain? You're the one responsible! You voted for him! Even when he told you he was crazy, you enjoyed it! It was not a lie! Embarrassing
Ursula Kiener concludes that Panama has a president of unprecedented vulgarity, and she complains of the poor role model for the people of Panama:
Es oficial tenemos al Presidente más chabacano de la historia. Dando los peores ejemplos con su comportamiento y vocabulario.
— Ursula Kiener (@UrsulaKiener) October 10, 2013
It's official, we have the crassest president in history. Giving the worst examples with his behaviour and his vocabulary.
Vivian Moreno asks whether the vulgarity is necessary:
..Y por que tiene que ser tan vulgar, en serio, sufren mis oidos de escucharlo y se me retuerce el corazón al recordar que es el PRESIDENTE!
— Vivian Moreno (@Vivimayari) October 10, 2013
…And why does he have to be so vulgar, seriously, my ears are ringing from listening to him and my stomach churns remembering that he is the PRESIDENT!
But there were also those who saw the humour; Abraham Bernalcorrea suggests that Martinelli's interviews should have a live audience:
Toda entrevista de Martinelli debería tener un público para que en el fondo se escuchen las carcajadas
— Abraham bernalcorrea (@totobernal) October 10, 2013
All Martinelli's interviews should have a live audience so we can hear the cackle in the background.
The satirical program Proyecto Criollo poked fun at the way the government responds to all scandals saying that they are lies and insulting, but without ever providing clarification:
Todo es mentira, estúpidos. Lavitola, Finmecanica, Cemis, PECC, Visas de Chinos, Van Dame, HP1430, etc. Todo es mentira, siempre. Punto
— Proyecto Criollo (@ProyectoCriollo) October 10, 2013
It's all lies, stupid. Lavitola, Finmecanica, Cemis, PECC, Chinese visas, HP1430, etc. Everything is a lie, always. Period
Edilberto Gonzalez, however, asks a valid question: despite the outrage provoked by the President's words, it is difficult to know what the rest of Panamanians think, those who don't participate in social media.
¿Y el grueso de la masa votante qué pensará, aquellos que no tienen tuiter?
— Edilberto González T (@egtrejos) October 10, 2013
And the bulk of voters, what do they think, those who don't have Twitter?


text:
‘Politics is a Men-Only Game’: Female Candidate Quits Presidential Race in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

Those who celebrated the nomination of the first ever female presidential candidate in Tajikistan woke up to a sad news on October 11. Oynikhol Bobonazarova who was described as “the only serious opposition candidate for the November [6] election” has failed to register. Despite the support from the country's two main opposition parties, Bobonazarova could not gather 210,000 signatures needed to enter the presidential race. Talking to media this morning, she blamed the government for this failure, claiming that the “whole state machine” had been mobilized against her.
‘Real tragedy’
Given all the buzz sparked by Bobonazarova's entry into the presidential contest this September, it is not surprising that her unexpected departure from the race has generated another buzz in social media. Many netizens are genuinely saddened by this turn of events. Tomiris, who had praised [ru] the female candidate's presidential bid, tweeted [ru]:
#Бобоназарова в выборах не участвует. Это настоящая трагедия для страны! #Таджикистан
— Томирис (@tomiristj) October 11, 2013
#Bobonazarova does not participate in the elections. This is a real tragedy for the country! #Tajikistan
Uguloy Mukhtorova suggested that without Bobonazarova, presidential elections are now “meaningless” [en, ru]:
Meaningless election! http://t.co/kvrHlwDEYN Ойнихол Бобоназарова выбывает из предвыборной борьбы
— Uguloy Mukhtorova (@Uguloy_MI) October 11, 2013
Meaningless election! http://t.co/kvrHlwDEYN Oinikhol Bobonazarova is out of the electoral competition.
Bachai Sako had a similar opinion [tj]:
Афсӯс. Бо рафтани Бобоназарова “интрига-и интихобот ҳам аз байн рафт
— Бачаи Сако (@BachaiSako) October 11, 2013
Unfortunately, as Bobonazarova leaves, the “intrigue” [puzzle] of the election also leaves.
Tomiris comes back, however, saying that Bobonazarova's attempt to run for president was important in itself [ru]:
С другой стороны, она хотя бы попыталась. Кто-то должен был попытаться. #Таджикистан — Томирис (@tomiristj) October 11, 2013
On the other hand, she made an attempt at least. Someone had to make an attempt. #Tajikistan
On her blog, Tomiris has [ru] more to say about the implications of the female candidate's departure from the contest:
Я очень хотела, чтобы Ойнихол Бобоназарова участвовала в выборах. Я знала, что у нее не было ни малейшего шанса на победу. Но иногда само участие это уже само по себе победа.
Таджикистан так и не отважился на первую женщину кандидата в президенты. Это поражение для всех женщин. Это еще одно подтверждение тому, что всем в нашей стране заправляют мужчины. Грустно. Мечта так и не осуществилась. Покойся в мире, мечта.
I was eager to see Oinikhol Bobonazarova participating in the election. I knew she did not have a slightest chance to win. But participation is sometimes a victory in itself.
Tajikistan has not had the courage to have its first ever female presidential hopeful. This is a defeat for all women. This re-emphasizes the fact that men are in charge of everything in our country. It is sad. The dream has not come true. Rest in peace dream.
Oinikhol Bobonazarova at a press conference where she announced that she failed to collect the required number of signatures. Screen capture from a YouTube video uploaded on October 11, 2013, by Kayumars Ato.
Bleak future?
On Platforma, the largest public group on Facebook dedicated to discussion of politics in Tajikistan, many participants warned of a bleak future for the country after the withdrawal of the only genuine challenger of the incumbent president.
Bejan Mahmud wrote [ru]:
“Поздравляю” гражданина Рахмона с победой на выборах. Если вы понимаете о чем я.
I would like to “congratulate” [Emomali] Rahmon [incumbent president] on his victory in elections. If you know what I mean.
During the forthcoming elections, Rahmon is expected to win another seven-year term in office by a landslide. Although he has recently been ridiculed by some Tajikistani Facebook users, he also appears to have support from some netizens in the country.
“Umniy Biznes” [Smart Business] announced [ru]:
Потеряна последняя надежда на мирные перемены в Таджикистане…
The last hope for peaceful change in Tajikistan is lost…
And “Moderator Platformy” [Platforma Moderator] posted [ru]:
Еще 7 лет разрухи, беззакония, стыда и спада всех отраслей жизни? За что нам такое наказание?
Another seven years of destruction, lawlessness, shame, and degradation in all spheres? What have we done to deserve this punishment?
In the comments section on the ASIA-Plus news website, many readers had similar opinions. For instance, “Klon” [Clone] wrote [ru]:
Жаль конечно, я подумал было и до конца верил, что она пробьется, ведь женщина, но увы, все палки в колеса. Так обиднь за народ свой, аж ком в горле, к сожалению, снова придется жить в нищите и беззаконности, за что? Когда же придет судный день, когда, для тех, кто грабит и унижает мой народ :-(
It is a pity. I thought for some time – and I believed till the end – that she [Bobonazarova] would make it, because she is a woman. Alas, [the authorities have prevented her from running]. I have so much pity for our people that I want to cry. Unfortunately, we will have to live in abysmal poverty and lawlessness again. Why? When will the judgement day finally arrive for those who rob and humiliate my people ? :-(
Boycott the elections?
Aware of the fact that the outcome of the November 6 vote is foretold, some netizens say they will boycott the election. A person writing under the alias “Izbiratel'” [Voter] on ASIA-Plus announced [ru]:
Очень плохие новости АП. Я гражданин РТ ОБЯВЛЯЮ БОЙКОТ этим выборам, я не пойду голосовать, так как за не кого. Я уговорю всех родственников и друзей не ходить на выборы. Я считаю эти выборы и их результат ( который мы уже все знаем) нелегитимными. Для меня и моих детей нет будущего в этой стране. Собираю чемоданы.
This is a very bad news. I, a citizen of [Tajikistan], announce my intention to BOYCOTT this election. I will not cast my vote, because there is nobody to vote for. I will convince all my relatives and friends not to cast their votes too. I consider this election and its outcome (which we all know already) illegitimate. There is no future in this country for myself and my children. I am packing up.
Daler Boy posted this image on Platforma. It reads, “I boycott these elections”. Image is used with permission.
Both on Facebook and on news forums, many Tajikistanis said they intended to boycott the vote. Yet some netizens suggest that boycotting the election will not make much difference. Zarrina wrote [ru], for example:
Мне кажется, что даже если не идти голосовать, то наши бюллетени все рано заполнят в пользу Рахмона. А если идти голосовать, то не за кого. Тупик. Остается одно, – уезжать самим и отправлять подальше своих детей отсюда.
I think that even if we do not cast our votes, the ballots will still be filled in in favor of Rahmon. And if we do decide to vote, there is nobody to vote for. [It is a] deadlock. Only one option is left – [which is] to leave the country and to send our children somewhere far from here.
And for some netizens, Bobonazarova's departure from the race signaled that politics remains a male domain in Tajikistan. Commenting on Tomiris's blog, Jakhongir wrote [en, ru]:
Welcome back to reality как у нас говорят. Политика это игра только для мужчин.
Welcome back to reality as they say here. Politics is a men-only game.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


text:
Re-Imagining Lusophony and Decolonizing the Mind · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The Fourth International Congress in Cultural Studies – Colonialisms, Post-colonialisms and Lusophonies has a call for paper submissions open until  November 15, 2013 [deadline has been extended]:
To demystify, to dehierarchize, to establish a policy of difference, to allow a multiplicity of voices, to constitute so many projects of possible modernities/rationalities within post-modernity, to mobilize, to re-politicize, to imagine other political, social and economical models, this is the task (utopian, of course) that is, for us, essential in the re-imagining of Lusophony.
(…)
A postcolonial reflection in a Lusophone context cannot avoid the exercise of criticism to the old dichotomies of periphery/center, cosmopolitanism/rurality, civilized/savage, black/white, north/south, in a context of cultural globalization, transformed by new and revolutionary communication phenomena, which have also globalized marginality.
The congress will take place from April 28 to 30, 2014, in the city of Aveiro, Portugal.


text:
Suicide Shines Light on Harsh Reality Faced by China’s Rural Teachers · Global Voices
Freya Wang

“I have evidence. Someone will prove it!”, Cheng Xinggui shouted not long before he jumped into a river amid torrential rain. He killed himself on July 17, 2013 at age 58 to protest against the bureaucratic process preventing him from getting his due wages in Yunnan Province.
Cheng's decision to end his life has thrown attention on the difficult situation facing many teachers in rural China. There, many teachers have spent their lifetime working in schools under the title of substitute teachers because local authorities from poor districts lack the resources to hire regular teachers. The substitute teachers do not belong to any DANWEI or work unit and thus do not have any social security protection. In addition, their income is as less as one-fifth of a regular teacher.
As most of the substitute teachers in rural areas do not have professional qualification, the Ministry of Education proposed in 2006 put forward a Qing Tui (清退) policy to lay off 448,000 substitute teachers from all over the country to improve the quality of rural education. The deadline of the systematic layoffs was set for 2010, but the education authorities did not find enough qualified teachers to replace the substitutes, and there were a lot of public criticism concerning the policy.
For example, the short video below features a rural substitute teacher from Sichuan province who had been teaching for 20 years in a primary school and was laid off once a few years ago and about to be laid-off again in 2010. As substitute teacher had not contract protection, she was totally passive in the layoff process. All these years, her family lived in poverty and her husband had to work downtown to support's the family basic living expenses:
http://youtu.be/vepU2fb34Ac
In order to address the grievances, the Ministry of Education issued a document in 2011 that demanded local authorities to compensate substitute teachers according to their years of service. When compared to others who was laid off before 2011, Cheng Xinggui was supposed to be lucky because the new document entitled him to receive 21,165 yuan (3,458 US dollars) in compensation, calculated at 830 yuan for 25.5 months (25.5 years of service).
However, eight years of his pay slips went missing. Local education authorities considered other evidence that he presented as invalid.
Feeling humiliated and unrecognized, Cheng protested with his life. One month after his suicide, local authorities finally recognized his 25 years of teaching experience.
On Sina Weibo, the most popular microblogging platform in China, many expressed their sorrow over Cheng's suicide and the woes of rural substitute teachers.
@LFGL1205 remembered one of his primary school teachers:
我的家乡广东省化州市合江镇沙垌岭小学也有一位代课老师叫刘付建英，是我幼时的老师，早几年退休了，只拿每月100多的退休金，现在年轻的代课老师都转正了，工资都有2000多，过年回家见到他，说起人事，感觉很凄凉，据说政府现在算他的工齡才几年，真的好无语，很理解这个程兴贵，太难接受这个落差了。
I remembered a substitute teacher named Liufu Jianying in Sha Tong Ling primary school located in Hejiang Town, Huazhou county of Guangdong province. He was my teacher when I was a kid. He retired a few years ago, getting 100 yuan [about 16 US dollars] as pension every month. Nowadays, the majority of young substitute teachers get their teacher's license and earn 2,000 yuan [about 325 US dollars] a month. Whenever I return to my hometown, we talk about the past and feel his sorrow. He said the government only counted a few years of his teaching experience when calculating his pension. I don't know how to react [to his miserable condition]. I truly understand Cheng Xinggui’s behavior, it is too hard to accept the unjust reality.
@melo believed that what mattered to Cheng was not money but the lack of recognition:
也许钱并不是最重要的，一生就这样被抹去，才会有程兴贵用生命去证明。
Perhaps, it is not money that mattered [to Cheng]. The value of his whole life was erased [by the authorities], that's why he used his life to prove [his value as a teacher].
“Plain water 3477375174″ (@小微的力量白开水3477375174) pointed out that society owes the substitute teachers and the government should pay the debt:
一个负责任的政府，应该努力解决他的欠帐，但我们丝毫看不到这种迹象。今天是代课教师、赤脚医生，明天又会是谁。呼吁国家彻底解决代课教师和赤脚医生的待遇和养老问题
A responsible government should make every effort to pay its debts, but we don't see such efforts. Today [the victims] are substitute teachers and barefoot doctors [non professional doctors who serve the rural community], who will be [the victims] tomorrow? I appeal to the country to completely solve the problems related with substitute teachers and barefoot doctors, [raise their] salary and [give them proper] pension.
Some bloggers were critical towards the Ministry of Education's policy in laying off all the substitute teachers, known as the so-called Qing Tui (清退) policy.
Blogger “A-solider” wrote on his blog:
从这个意义讲，代课教师程兴贵的自杀，应该引发对拷问’清退’质量的全面拷问，来催发相关部门在对待代课教师问题上及时纠偏，弥合相关制度断裂，体现更多的公共关怀，让代课教师在离开讲台后，都能获得一种既体面优有尊严的人生。
In this sense, the suicide of Cheng Xinggui should trigger introspection on the Qing Tui policy in order to help the government fix the unfair treatment given to the substitute teachers, to improve and to show humanistic care and make sure that substitute teachers can live a good and dignified life after they leave their teaching position.
Microblogger @ntheatre wrote:
尽管程兴贵自杀的背景涉及全国的数以十万计代课教师的补偿政策,但此前并无媒体报道。代课教师的利益诉求是什么,一刀切的政策是否恰当,也未能成为公共领域的话题.念及代课教师在特殊年代对乡村教育所付出的辛劳,以及他们受到损害的现状,这种忽视无疑是遗憾的.
Until now, none of the mainstream media has reported any issue related to the compensation policy for the substitute teachers across the country. So far, there is no discussion in the public sphere about the demands of substitute teachers and if they find the lay-off policy appropriate. Taking into the consideration their contribution to rural education and the long-term exploitation of their work, it is highly regretful that [their demands and views] have been neglected all along.
[The thumbnail photo is the portrait of Cheng Xinggui]

author: Freya Wang


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The Castor Project Causes Seismic Movements on the Spanish Coast · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

View of the Castor platform from the Vinaroz coast (Castellón province). Image from lanoticia.cat, used under the CC 3.0 license
Spain is not a country that has strong seismic activity. With the exception of a few limited cases, like the Lorca earthquake of 2011, the country's seismic activity is very low, and tremors don't usually cause any damage.
For that reason, when frequent seismic movements were registered a few weeks ago–more than 350 tremors in the last month– in the gulf of Valencia, opposite the coast of the Castellón province, alarms went off especially when, in the early morning hours of October 1, an earthquake registered a 4.2 on the Richter scale.
This unusual seismic activity may be caused by the injection of natural gas into the area that surrounds an old oil reservoir, now empty, which is 1750 meters deep and lies 22 kilometers from the Vinaroz area within the Castor project, which hopes to convert that reservoir into a gas storage facility [es]:
de acuerdo a la regulación europea, los comercializadores (…) tienen la obligación de mantener unas reservas equivalentes a 20 días de ventas en firme del ejercicio anterior.
According to European regulations, suppliers (…) are obligated to keep reserves equal to 20 days of stable sales from the previous year.
Even though other types of these deposits exist in Spain that have not caused problems until now, the Castor project appears to be located in an especially unstable area. The seismic activity may be caused by the injection of what is called “cushion gas,” which, according to the blog Sience, Information, and Emergencies [es], deals with:
600 millones de m3 [de gas] (…) cuyas funciones básicas son rellenar espacios “muertos” de difícil drenaje del yacimiento, servir como aislamiento entre el Gas de Trabajo y el acuífero subyacente (para evitar la posible producción de agua libre) y, en menor medida, contribuir al mantenimiento de la presión del yacimiento.
Six hundred million m3 [of gas] (…) whose basic functions are to refill “dead” spaces of difficult deposit drainage, to serve as insulation between the Gas de Trabajo and the underlying aquifer (in order to avoid the possible production of free water), and in small part to contribute to the maintenance of deposit pressure.
Structure of the Castor project of gas storage. Image from meteoweb.eu
Furthermore, the Castor project is located over the Amposta faultline, which runs through the eastern coast throughout 51 kilometers and acts as the reservoir's border [es]. José Luis Simón, Geology professor from Zaragoza University and an expert in the tectonic study of the area, told the daily Levante [es]:
se inyecta gas a una presión bastante alta en un subsuelo submarino del que se conocen pocas cosas, pero una de las que se conocen es que justamente bajo el emplazamiento del pozo pasa una falla que se considera activa. (…) Las tensiones hubieran tardado cientos o miles de años [en producir un terremoto], pero al inyectar gas hacemos que se produzca ahora.
Gas is injected into a below underground undersea area about which little is known, at rather high pressure, but one thing that is known is that a faultline passes just under the reservoir site and is considered active. (…) The tensions have taken hundreds or thousands of years [to produce an earthquake], but upon injecting gas we are causing it to produce one now.
The minister of industry ordered to stop work [es] on the platform this past September 26 and the experts from said ministry are considering completely stopping the project if a connection is shown between the project and the earthquakes. The autonomous governments of Cataluña and Valencia have activated their earthquake risk plans.
Area neighbors’ worries have been reflected on social networks, which have also served to bring together demonstrations and protests in the affected towns. It has to be pointed out that in a radius of 100 kilometers from the Castor platform, there are tourist areas like Salou and historic villas like Peniscola and the ruins of Tarraco, but also installations of the Tarragona petrochemical industry[es] and nuclear centers of Ascó I and II and Vandellós[es].
Economically, the project–which many emphasize is unnecessary–has overshot its budget. At the end of 2011, 1195.5 million euros were already invested, 89.54% over the initial foreseen cost. According to the Confidencial [es], the previously mentioned budget presently
se ha disparado hasta los 1.700 millones. Todo un ejemplo emblemático de los modificados que han hecho de oro a las constructoras al calor de las vacas gordas.
(…) Un dinero que será sufragado por los usuarios del gas a través de la tarifa. (…) [Castor recibirá] En total, 250 millones de euros por ejercicio. Unos fondos que, como costes del sistema, se incluyen en el recibo [al consumidor].
[Solo podría] evitarse el impacto de esa instalación en los recibos del gas si puede demostrarse que ha existido una negligencia grave en el proceso de puesta en marcha.
has skyrocketed to 1,700 million. A characteristic example of the changes that have benefited the construction companies.
(…) A cost which would be defrayed by gas users throughout the rate. (…) [Castor will receive ] In total, 250 million euros per year. Some funds which, as system costs, are included in the bill [to the consumer].
[The impact] of this installation could only be avoided in gas bills if it can be demonstrated that grave negligence existed in the start up process.
On Twitter, the topic has been commented on a lot. The Tarragona resident Andrea Lahoz shows her worry about the effect of the earthquakes in her area:
Vivo en una ciudad rodeada de fábricas y petroquímicas. Ahora gracias a #castor vivo acojonada esperando al próximo terremoto…
— Andrea Lahoz (@Andrea_Lahoz) October 2, 2013
I live in a city surrounded by factories and petrochemical plants. Now thanks to #castor I live freaked out, waiting for the next earthquake…
Location of the Castor project and the Vandellós nuclear centers and Ascó I and II. Image from Google Maps.
The construction of Castor is paid for by the ACS company, whose president is Florentino Pérez, also president of the soccer club Real Madrid [es] C.F. Trapichaire[es] underscores the double standard that Pérez shows at the time of approving certain expenses:
#sismicat Castor (de Florentino Pérez) no realizó un estudio sísmico para ahorrar, pero compró a Bale x 100 kilazos. #terremoto #RealMadrid
— Trapichaire (@Trapichaire) October 3, 2013
#sismicat Castor (Florentino Pérez) didn't do a seismic study to save money, but he bought Bale x 100 kilazos. #terremoto #RealMadrid
Blanca Civit paraphrased the speech from Madrid's mayor before the COI in order to defend the city's Olympic candidate, which caused an avalanche of scathing jokes[es] on the Internet:
There is nothing like a relaxing #terremoto in the gulf de Valencia . #castor is not fun. #terremoto #terratremol
— Blanca Civit (@blancacivit) October 3, 2013
El buen progre also doesn't take the humor seriously:
No se pq tanto escándalo en castellón. Si llenas la tierra de gases es normal que se tire pedos. #Castor
— El buen progre (@Elbuenprogre) October 3, 2013
Don't worry so much about the scandal in castellón. If you fill the ground with gas its normal for it to fart. #Castor
According to a report by El Periódico[es], “The District Attorney's Office for the Castellón Province has agreed to initiate proceedings for a criminal investigation” to clarify the origin of the earthquakes. On Friday, October 4,
Sobre las dos de la tarde, miembros del servicio aéreo de la Guardia Civil, junto a varios agentes del cuerpo en Castellón, llegaron a la planta, situada a unos 23 kilómetros de la costa de Vinaròs. Según las fuentes, los agentes se trasladaron para “comprobar cómo se encuentra la plataforma y su funcionamiento”.
At about 2:00 in the afternoon, members of the Civil Guard air service, together with several agents from the group in Castellón, arrived at the plant, located 23 kilometers from the coast of Vinaròs. According to sources, agents moved the platform in order to “check the platform and its functioning.”
Agents verified that the plant has stopped. Now its a matter of waiting to get the report from the experts to know the final destination for the Castor project.

author: Lourdes Sada


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VIDEO: Lend Your Voice to a Dead Poet · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

A project by Brazilian poetry magazine Modo de Usar & Co. [pt] invites poetry lovers from around the world to read out loud their favorite authors and submit the footage of their readings on YouTube. The project is called “Lend your voice to a dead poet”.
Most of the poems are in Portuguese and Spanish, but there are also other languages represented such as Hebrew – with Dan Pagis’ poem “Mistakes” – and Slovenian – “Above the madhouse” by Srečko Kosovel (both with the English translation in the video description).
In the video below [pt] Ricardo Domeneck, from São Paulo, lends his voice to one of the most famous Brazilian poets, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, and dedicates his reading to Minerva Reynosa [es], a poet and essayist from Monterrey, Mexico.


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Watch Mediastan – a WikiLeaks Road Movie · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Mediastan is being released on October 11, 2013 to challenge the UK opening of The Fifth Estate, a multi-million dollar Hollywood film about WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, produced by Dreamworks in collaboration with Disney.
UK audiences will be able to watch Mediastan online for free during The Fifth Estate’s opening weekend here. Globally, for rent and purchase, the film is available here and here.
In a press release the documentary's producer Julian Assange said:
This is journalism in extremis. This is how it is done. This weekend, instead of wasting your time and money on Hollywood propaganda, why not get all your friends around and spend your time watching MEDIASTAN instead?
Last month, Wikileaks leaked the script of The Fifth Estate, which was followed by a letter from Assange to the film's lead actor calling the film ‘toxic’ and based on a ‘distorted version of the truth.‘
WikiLeaks is an international, online, non-profit organisation which publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources and whistleblowers. Since last year, Julian Assange, has been holed up at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, under diplomatic asylum, after the UK dismissed his appeal against a European Arrest Warrant issued so the Swedish police could question Assange in a sexual assault investigation.


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Documentary Libido Challenges Egyptians to Talk About  Sex  · Global Voices
Ahmed Awadalla

A short documentary entitled Libido is stirring a discussion about sexuality in Egypt. Directed and written by Youssef Alimam, Libido employs various styles to discuss young people's dilemmas about sex. In addition to interviews with young people about their views on sex, the film follows the story of Mazen, a young Egyptian man and the barriers he meets as he tries to deal with his sexual desires.
Discussion around sexuality remains a challenge in Egypt. Sex education curricula provide limited information and are often skipped, according to a recent study  conducted in Egyptian schools. A 2010 survey points out that only a quarter of youth had a discussion with their parents regarding pubertal changes. A recent human rights report echoed the concern and condemned the government's violation of youth rights by impeding their accessing sexual health information and services necessary to empower them to lead healthy lives.
Reactions to Libido were diverse; some comments praised the film's courage in tackling a difficult topic, others expressed their reservation on the perceived message of promoting premarital sex. Some comments condemned premarital sex as sinful and immoral, but others argued it was part of a necessary process of exploration for partners and that nobody has the right to judge others based on what they do in their personal lives.
Global Voices Online talked to the filmmaker. Here's the interview.
Global Voices: Tell us more about the story behind Libido.
Youssef Alimam: Libido was my graduation project in the High Cinema Institute in Cairo. I was thinking I wanted to talk about the subject because I myself thought about this a lot as a kid. I did not receive proper sex education in my school, and my curiosity was just like any other kid, so I thought it would be very interesting to finally ask the questions myself for the first time when I was 20. Then, I started researching, until I finally came up with the whole concept of the movie, and how it shall be made.
GV: What were the major challenges while making the film?
YA: From the start it was being considered absolutely insane, and I was told “you can't do it”. I was not convinced, because the subject has to be opened, and kids all over Egypt might learn from sources that are not considered ethical. They are aware of everything, but they do get false information from each other, and they start making up myths. They believe that it's a sin to even know, of course specially girls, who can't talk to their parents, can't find guidance in schools, and just learn to ignore the subject completely, being left with the surprises of puberty, and dealing with them in pure terror.
As for making the movie on a low budget, I had a lot of help from my friends, who believed in me and in the topic and how I was portraying it. In my university, after they saw the movie, they gave me good recognition and believed in my cause. I had a lot of support from my professors.
GV: In less than one month, Libido was seen by thousands of viewers on YouTube. How have the reactions been like?
YA: I wasn't expecting it to spread like that, but as soon as I shared it, I saw the numbers go up by thousands within days. It was a shock, and people I don't know started sharing it. Lots of people gave me supportive feedback, and they said they were waiting for something like this to happen.
GV: Unlike many filmmakers, you readily shared Libido on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. How do you see the role of social media for creating discussions on such issues?
YA: Libido won several prizes, and it was released on the internet afterwards, so it received recognition in festivals and from youth all over. The feedback I got from there was outstanding. I was very happy that they were open to the subject and that it could touch someone from another country.
After it was released on the internet, it reached even more people across the world, and so on, so I think it helped a lot to spread through social networking of course.
Youssef Alimam, director (left) and Mazen, the protagonist (right), in one of film's scenes. Taken from Facebook page.
GV: There has been a critique that Libido focuses on male and class-privileged view on sexuality in Egypt. How do you respond to that?
YA: No, Libido discuses both male and female issues in Egypt, and the ending of the movie, (to those who have watched it) focuses mainly in a funny way, that we as a society ignore completely the female issues concerning sexuality. We act as if they aren't sexual beings, just like men, which is more of a crisis.
As for class, I believe the problem exists in society regardless of class, but mainly for middle class people as they cannot afford early marriage easily these days, because of economic issues. They have strict cultural boundaries that are relatively conservative, and they must live in certain standards when they are married otherwise the marriage will not be considered a proper one. They lack the liberation from materialistic essentials that exist only in a lower class.
GV: What are the next steps for Libido?
YA: It was a graduation project really, I was only trying to practice my skills as a director in making my first short documentary. I have no idea what can come next, but I wish that my voice will be heard, and that people would really try and think about solutions to the problems in our society. I think that we can solve the problems if we all can just cross the first step, and stop blushing when the word “sex” is uttered, and realize that this is biology.

author: Ahmed Awadalla


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Earthquake Spurs Tsunami of Tweets in Trinidad & Tobago  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Shortly after ten o'clock last night, Trinidad and Tobago got a scare that wasn't crime or politics-related: an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale shook the country for what some netizens are reporting to be 20-30 seconds, though in the words of one Facebook user, “it felt like forever.”
The tremor apparently originated off the coast of Guiria, Venezuela, and Caribbean territories as close to the epicenter as Guyana or as far away as St. Vincent and the Grenadines also felt its effects.
Blogosphere was seemingly the only Trinidad-based blog that posted anything about the event:
If you slept through this one, you’ll sleep through anything.
The quake was so strong that it was felt as far as parts of South America and several Eastern Caribbean islands.
A seismologist from the SRC confirmed to me by e-mail that the event was the strongest quake to hit T&T since the 6.1 magnitude tremor of 1997.
The event was located at 10.86°N 62.12°W at a depth of 60km.
Local media immediately reported power cuts in parts of Trinidad; subsequent social media reports indicated power had been restored to some places.
In a statement, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management said there were no reports of serious damage.
CNC3 weather reporter @seigoniemohammed said there was no widespread tsunami threat exists at this time, according to NOAA, the US federal agency that monitors ocean activity.
All other netizens were on Twitter and Facebook:
My body's still shaking from the strongest, longest earthquake I've ever felt in my life. #Trinidad
— Georgia Popplewell (@georgiap) October 12, 2013
Doesnt even make sense asking friends “did you feel that?” .. EVERYBODY felt that! #trinidad #earthquake
— TriniBerry.com (@TriniBerry) October 12, 2013
@TriniBerry went on to describe the experience:
And it was like you heard it coming up the road thinking it was a truck….then…wait….no thats an earthquake lol #trinidad
— TriniBerry.com (@TriniBerry) October 12, 2013
By then, @SeismicResearch had confirmed the strength of the tremor:
Mag 6.4 earthquake north of Paria Peninsula Trinidad. http://t.co/uckSHNK8qD
— UWISeismic Research (@SeismicResearch) October 12, 2013
Netizens’ attempts to find other reliable online reports were foiled – at least by the United States Geological Survey site:
Thanks for this, US government shutdown. #earthquake #trinidad #usgs pic.twitter.com/1YAPmQUQ7i
— Georgia Popplewell (@georgiap) October 12, 2013
The site finally updated its information.
Interestingly, many people's first thought was to get onto social media platforms – not get out of the house:
6.x Earthquake start Get under a door frame? No. I need to tweet/FB/BBM this? Yes. #trinidad
— TriniBerry.com (@TriniBerry) October 12, 2013
Facebook user Sharla Hudson [comment quoted with permission] could see the logic, saying:
Funny how internet works during n after earthquakes… but phone lines say ‘network busy’
Facebook user Elspeth Duncan [comment also quoted with permission] found it amusing, saying:
What's funny is people writing in all caps apparently while the quake is happening … as if screaming via FBook. As if it's more important to update a status than ensure personal safety.
On Instagram, marielbrown74 posted what she called “earthquake evidence”.
Once the shaking stopped and people began to calm down, they couldn't resist injecting some humour into the situation. One Twitter user's thoughts immediately ran to Redman, the title character in a comedic video that went viral locally. The plot centers around a group of friends fleeing from natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes) – and once they get a safe distance away, realise that Redman is not with them. The rest of the story hinges around the seemingly unending search for Redman:
I hope redman is okay #earthquake #trinidad
— ChrisTheDuckMan (@ChrisTheDuckMan) October 12, 2013
Several other netizens were making reference to this popular song by Maximus Dan, predicting that it would get a lot of airplay today:
On Facebook, the political quips began soon afterwards. Rhoda Bharath reposted a meme featuring a former ill-informed ambassador…
Meme created by Ranan Jerry.
…while David Makhan, tongue firmly in cheek, said:
Just confirmed: Earthquake caused by hindu cabal fleeing Rienzi complex heading to Venezuela with the treasury. The big thud felt in the middle of the episode was Suruj missing the boat when he jumped from the jetty.
Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar added:
I am predicting:
1. it will be determined to be a 6.5 or 6.6 quake tomorrow.
2. Roodal will blame Jack
3. Suruj will blame Jack.
4. Jack will offer to leap into the ocean and stop the shaking the next time – but he was feeding orphans when it happened this time.
5. Several churches will blame gays even though everyone knows gays only cause hurricanes.
6. Watson Duke of the PSA will blame it on OSH violations.
Patricia Worrell, whose status update is reproduced here with her permission, had a few predictions of her own:
Tomorrow:
Kamla will say that the quake was caused because pressure was building up for years under the PNM.
Keith will say the shaking occurred because corruption is causing the fabric of the society to unravel.
Prakash will say he ent worried – as long as the PP stays together, the land is strong.
And Jack will say he'll make sure we get as much aid as Haiti.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Nobel Peace Prize Fails to Pacify · Global Voices
Rayna St.

The prestigious Nobel Peace Prize 2013 was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The Committee declared:
[The OPCW and its relative conventions] have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.
Social networks were stunned by what followed as the Committee was unable to reach out to the winner:
@OPCW Please contact us @Nobelprize_org we are trying get through to your office.
— Nobelprize_org (@Nobelprize_org) October 11, 2013
This wacko situation, which emerged yesterday (October 11) was highlighted by The Next Web which greeted the OPCW:
That’s right, the folks behind the Nobel Prize turned to Twitter — which started out as a place to tell the world what you ate for lunch and other such frivolities – to let OPCW know it needed to get in touch.
Let that reality sink in for a moment.
The Washington Post wraps-up this year's missed calls by Nobel Prize winners.
Similarly to last year's winner, the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee drew huge attention and sparked dellusional comments as the list of nominees counted a series of high-profile individuals such as 16-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai.
Indeed, requiting the OPCW was a surprise even for some Nobel watchers. In the past days, Malala Yousafzai, the pupil who risked her life to campaign for female education, was considered a contender for this year's Peace Prize. Malala supporters were in dismay after the Committee broke the news, and disappointment innundated the social networks.
Ironically, yesterday was also the International Day of the Girl Child, created by the United Nations to promote education for girls. Prior to the Committee's announcement, Curt Rice, outspoken commentator promoting gender equality especially in science and technology among others, hoped:
I hope the @Nobel Peace Prize committee will prove these words about their problem with women wrong: http://t.co/HLbGZJ9Zw4
— Curt Rice (@curtrice) October 11, 2013
Indeed, out of 44 women having received a Nobel Prize since 1901, only 15 have been awarded for Peace, and often one prize has been shared between at least two female winners. Males thus clearly outnumber Nobel prizewinners. Despite the Committee's arguments that gender doesn't matter, Rice urged it to take gender into account and to do so in a respectful fashion:
We can’t have a disproportionate number of single male prizewinners, and then make up for it by dividing a depreciated award among several women one year. The committee should not improve gender balance by creating a fire sale on female activists.
Of course, Malala Yousafzai not getting the Nobel Peace Prize does not make everyone out there unhappy:
Pakistani Taliban ‘delighted’ Malala Yousafzai missed out on Nobel Peace Prize |via @NDTV http://t.co/mTHhzMZkV6
— Tinu Cherian Abraham (@tinucherian) October 11, 2013
Another edgy stumbling block is the identity of the winner. For a second successive year, the prestigious award goes to an organization rather than to individuals, succeeding to 2012 Peace Prize which went to the European Union leading many to question the rationale behind the Committee's decisions:
Nobel Peace Prize seems a bit self-serving these days. EU, Obama, now OPCW. Idealistic.”
— NSUK DropOut (@Abu_swag) October 11, 2013
Nobel Peace Prize and such prizes should preferably be given to individuals who make real change, not just organizations & heads of states.
— Tarek Amr (@gr33ndata) October 11, 2013
I really don't care who gets the Nobel Peace Prize this year. There's no way they can make it up to us for awarding Obama & austeritarian EU
— Asteris Masouras (@asteris) October 11, 2013
Nobel Peace Prize probably doesn't deserve Malala. Appears to remain intent on making empty political gestures
— Rob Crilly (@robcrilly) October 11, 2013
In fairness the Nobel Peace Prize kind of descended into irony after Kissinger won it.
— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) October 11, 2013
Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, takes however a firm stance in favour of the OPCW getting the reward:
What the world is desperately lacking, and the Nobel Committee, for once, rewarded, is the kind of boring, institutional work of peace that advances the lives of people. Everyday. Little by little. But without which lives are shattered and countries crumble (as they do now).
[…]
[T]he celebrity has moved on, the cameras have moved on, and those under-appreciated bureaucrats, technicians, the planners, the institutions that improve lives of millions of people, everyday, get dismissed, underfunded, even ridiculed. Hey, they are just bureaucrats and technocrats! Yes, one by one, they are just that. But as institutions they are what the world needs much, much more of.
Some find the Committee had missed the momentum for awarding the OPCW with the Peace Prize:
OPCW should have won #NobelPeacePrize in 2003, when it defied Bush by offering alternative to Iraq war. http://t.co/fvOOyLgXEO
— GeorgeMonbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) October 11, 2013
Clearly sarcastic comments about the Committee's decision also flourished, acknowledging that the OPCW won the Prize “because its director [Üzümcü] has three umlauts in his name,” or clarifying the “selection committee to chose India's official entry for Oscars and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee think the same way.”
Beyond sarcasm and the institutions-not-individuals decision is an important consideration: was the OPCW rewarded for its work behind the scenes since 1997 or was the Nobel Peace Prize an attempt of subtle political communication? Some think the OPCW did not seriously do its job. More importantly, a wide number of commentators both in social and mainstream media have made a link between the OPCW's prestigious reward and recent massacres in Syria proven to be caused by chemical weapons, arsenal whose destruction the OPCW is overseeing. The Nobel Prize Committee (unconvincingly) denied such allegations:
Nonsense RT @Nobelprize_org: OPCW has NOT been given the #NobelPeacePrize because of #Syria but because of its long standing work.
— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) October 11, 2013
As Jenan Moussa, a renowned journalist having extensively covered Syria, others also doubt the alleged missing link between the Peace prize and Syria's chemical disarmament process led by the OCPW:
@PTI_FATA the decision was purely political for whats going on in syria…no one even knows the meaning of that organization #OPCW
— Umar (@Umar___) October 11, 2013
Syrian protestors from Kafranbel, known for drawing witty cartoons and posing for photographs with them with uncovered faces, posted their opinion denouncing the Nobel Committee's decision:
#OPCW #UN Received #NobelPrize !! #USA #Syria #Death #Kafranbel #الامم_المتحدة #سوريا #كفرنبل #جائزة_نوبل pic.twitter.com/XuGQdt56lK
— RaMi (@ramihsh) October 11, 2013
Facing the backlash, OPCW director announced that Syria will join the OPCW as the 190th member state, a declaration that, surprisingly, has not drawn much attention. The OPCW did not, however, address opinions that hailed Russian President Vladimir Putin's role in letting the OPCW in Syria. While some consider requiting the OPCW with the Peace Prize is “in line of flawed discourse that Obama & Putin ‘avoided war’ in Syria,” netizens seriously highlighted Putin's involvement in the ongoing effort to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons:
If somebody deserved a Nobel peace prize for eradicating CWs in Syria, it was #Russian president Vladimir putin, not some alien #OPCW.
— Arslan Jabar (@Arslan_Jabar) October 11, 2013
#Vladmir_Putin shld have won the Nobel Peace Prize, and NOT the #OPCW without Putin's nod they wouldnt have done isht in Syria!
— Beyond tribe (@tribe46thkenyan) October 11, 2013
Such reactions follow up an initiative announced by Russian public figures nominating President Putin for Nobel Peace Prize 2014. Ladies and gents, make your games for who will get the (less and less prestigious, more and more divisive) award next year:
It will be Putin's time “@omarsyria: Assad for Nobel Peace Prize 2014”
— Kety Shapazian (@KetyDC) October 11, 2013
So don't be surprised if next year Nobel peace prize is awarded to Netanyahu or Lavrov. #NobelPeacePrize
— Ibrahim – ابراهيم (@imansour00) October 11, 2013

author: Rayna St.


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Protests in Iraq Crowdvoiced · Global Voices
Rayna St.

Crowdvoice is a platform that “works to provide first-hand reports, occasionally coupled with the top mainstream media coverage.” By curating and putting to the forefront the sound bytes of these working to change the world, Crowdvoice compiles a wide range of resources in a meaningful whole thus enabling access to the complexity of stories behind protests. The latest such compilation is on protests in Iraq, spanning 10 years of turmoil. The resource is extremely valuable for anyone trying to make sense of the recent dramatic surge of violence, having left almost 1,000 dead for only the month of September 2013.
Screenshot of ‘Protests in Iraq’ timeline on Crowdvoice.


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Taiwan: National Day in Protest Mood · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Protesters occupied the famous landmark at the Freedom Square. Photo taken by 鐘聖雄, PTS News Network. Non-commercial use.
More than 50,000 protesters are demonstrating outside the President Office in this year's National Day of Republic of China on October 10 in Taiwan. They were demonstrating against the 4th nuclear plant [zh], the protest [zh] against the present referendum law and against the top government officials, including the president, vice president and prime minister for the controversial service trade agreement with China and the recent wiretap scandal.
Protesters, barricades and the policemen outside the President Office. Photo taken by Island Nation Youth. Non-commercial use.

author: I-fan Lin


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The Great Gatsby Resonates with Urban Chinese Youth · Global Voices
Abby Liu

The film adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has found sympathizers among Chinese young men, who share Gatsby's frustration in love and in life in modern China. TeaLeafNation has more.

author: Abby Liu