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Protests, internet shutdowns and biryani: 2019 in South Asia · Global Voices
Rezwan

On March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day, women took to the streets in all four provinces of Pakistan to protest against patriarchy. Image by Shaheena Kausar via Aurat March Lahore. Used with permission.
Below are some of the stories produced by the Global Voices South Asia team in 2019. We thank all our contributors, editors, and translators for their efforts in sharing these stories.
The year of 2019 has been a turbulent one for South Asia.
India's election clinched another victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party. In Sri Lanka, former army leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidency.
In February, tensions rose between India and Pakistan after 46 soldiers were killed in a terrorist attack in Kashmir. Both countries were at the brink of war after each made retaliatory manoeuvres against the other.
A series of coordinated bomb explosions killed hundreds in Sri Lanka during the Easter Sunday mass on April 21, 2019. To make it worse, anti-Muslim attacks stoked tensions and incited fear among the local population.
In countries like India and Bangladesh, fluctuations in onion prices have disrupted local politics.
Overall, our coverage in the past 12 months highlighted stories of protests and internet shutdowns from across the region.
In India, a growing number of protesters are speaking out against the recently promulgated Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that offers citizenship rights to non-Muslim refugees and immigrants from neighbouring countries Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). Both acts are being criticized for fueling anti-Muslim prejudice.
Huge crowds at a polling booth in 2nd phase of Assam Assembly Election-2006 at Rupahi, Nowgaon, Assam on April 10, 2006. Image via Flickr by Public.Resource.Org CC BY 2.0.
Indian authorities ordered a crackdown on protesters, curfew regulations were strictly imposed, internet shutdowns were arbitrarily implemented, as the hateful politics behind the amendment measure continues to create more division.
Student Solidarity Marches were held across Pakistan on November 29 which called for the establishment of student unions in educational institutions.
Widely used poster by PRSF Islamabad-Rawalpindi
Meanwhile, the massive “Azadi March”, or “freedom march” by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal) and some opposition parties demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan's resignation and dissolution of the assemblies.
In Bangladesh, a successful online and offline protest was organized last July against a proposed tax on sanitary napkins.
A ban on rickshaws in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka to ease traffic congestion was met by protests from rickshaw pullers and some commuters. The rickshaw pullers stressed that without providing an alternate income or income rehabilitation program their livelihoods are at stake.
Rickshaw traffic in Dhaka. Image via Flickr by Sandro Lacarbona. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A car-free-day in Colombo sounds like a good idea from an environmental point of view, but it created a lot of debate online.
Evening traffic in Wellawatte, Colombo. Image via Flickr by Nazly. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Internet shutdowns were consistently used by authorities during crisis moments to quell protests or defuse political tensions.
India has intermittently imposed temporary shutdowns of all mobile internet services during emergency situations, political upheavals, and disasters. In 2018 alone, the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Centre documented 65 mobile internet shutdowns in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
India internet shutdown map, January 2010 – March 2017. Created by National Law University Delhi and the Centre for Communication Governance (CC BY)
However, in 2019, the largest democracy in the world has seen the highest number of internet blocks with close to a hundred monitored cases of shutdowns.
On August 5, India revoked Article 370 of the constitution that gave special status to the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, in the northwest corner of the country. Fearing unrest, the Indian authorities placed hundreds of political leaders and their aides under house arrest, aside from suspending access to mobile, landline, and internet networks.
An Indian paramilitary soldier stands alert in Srinagar after administration imposed curfew in parts of Kashmir valley. Image published on May 25, 2019. Via Instagram account of Ieshan Wani. Used with permission.
In October, authorities partially lifted access to communication networks in Kashmir. Access to the internet has been gradually restored but only in select locations. As of this writing, Kashmir is still disconnected from the internet making it the longest network restriction in a supposedly democratic country.
Internet shutdowns were also common in Pakistan, Bangladesh and even in Sri Lanka.
As the tragedy surrounding the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks unfolded last April, the Sri Lankan government took the unusual step of preemptively blocking a range of social media sites.
Also, the Bangladeshi government has cut down internet access to the Rohingya refugee camps several times in 2019.
Kids at Rohingya Camps in Cox's Bazar. Image Via Flickr by Mohammad Tauheed. CC BY-NC 2.0
In Pakistan, censorship and online threats against the press occurred throughout the year. Pakistani journalists faced tough challenges such as violent attacks, threats, layoffs, late salaries, censorship and bans on certain TV channels.
Screenshot from YouTube Video by Naya Daur.
In addition, online nationalist vigilantes targeted journalists critical of the government.
A study by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom Network also showed that the concentration of media ownership in a few hands in Pakistan has led to more censorship and lower journalism standards.
In February, the Bangladeshi government targeted the world's largest Bengali blogging platform by blocking 20,000 sites including Google Books in an anti-porn drive. The platform was unblocked after eight months.
In a knee-jerk reaction, the Bangladesh regulator blocked an engineering university webpage containing reports of student abuses.
Poet Henry Swaopon and Lawyer Imtiaz Mahmood. Collage from widely used photo from social media.
Meanwhile, Facebook posts triggered more arrests in Bangladesh during the year under the controversial Digital Security Act which criminalizes various types of online speech. Authorities often justified the cybercrime-related arrests as a measure to tackle “fake news” or statements “hurting religious sentiments.”
In October, security forces stormed the Karachi Biennale 2019 and ordered the closure of an art exhibit by Pakistani sculptor Adeela Suleman titled “Killing Fields of Karachi” which showcased the alleged 444 extrajudicial killings by the police officer Rao Anwar.
A father awaits justice. Screenshot from the documentary: “The Killing Fields of Karachi,” by Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman.
In April, the Indian government banned the Chinese app TikTok for “degrading culture and encouraging pornography”. But many users say the ban has negative implications on free speech.
The extrajudicial killing of four accused rapists in India has led to a heated debate between those who applaud bypassing the slow-moving wheels of justice and others who feel that it sets a bad precedent.
In a small coastal town of Cox's Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh, girls are defying social and cultural taboo by learning to surf.
Sakia Haque and her team travel on motorbikes as much more than tourists; they talk to local girls about reproductive health, the challenges that come with adolescence and women's empowerment. Image courtesy Sakia Haque, used with permission.
In Kolkata, India, Muslim girls are playing football to fight against patriarchy and domestic abuse and prevent child marriage.
In a historic effort, Bhutan’s national assembly, the country's lower house of parliament, took the first step toward decriminalizing what is described in their law books as “unnatural sex”, which includes homosexual acts. The LGBTQ+ community in Bhutan welcomed the decision.
In June, Nepali activists held a parade in time for the international Pride Month.
Participants at the Nepal Pride Parade 2019. Photo by the author.
Rapid urbanisation and global warming are affecting the environment in South Asia and the livelihoods of 1.5 billion people residing in this region, a chunk of them are still below the poverty line.
During water crisis, water pots lined up for filling in Chennai, India. Image from Flickr by McKay Savage. CC-By-2.0
With this year’s monsoon rains delayed, the heatwaves continued in many countries in South Asia longer than usual. Acute water shortage plagued Southern India, especially Chennai.
In the first week of November, several South Asian cities struggled with air pollution and smog. The smog is generally caused by smoke from brick kilns and factories, farmers burning crop stubble, vehicle exhaust, and waste burning.
Delhi, the capital of India, suffers from high air pollution levels every year. However, the smog problem in November grew out of control and citizens also had to contend with toxic foam covering the already badly-polluted Yamuna River.
Women taking a dip in the waters of Smog clad Yamuna river covered in foam. Image via Instagram by Nabina Chakraborty. Used with permission
India produces over 62 million tonnes of garbage every year and landfills rank third for greenhouse gas emissions. Environmentalist activists like Afroz Shah are fighting for waste clean-up and reduction of carbon footprint.
The authorities are not doing enough for the protection of the forests and trees.
However, there is a silver lining. Youth networks and startups in India are stepping up to increase awareness on climate change while offering greener solutions.
The effects of climate change, intermittent rain, unusual weather patterns, and lack of cleanliness have caused the spread of dengue in a number of South Asian countries including Bangladesh. As the government is accused of not doing enough to tackle the health crisis, people used social media to increase awareness and help the victims.
Traditional fishing in Bangladesh. Image via Wikipedia by Michael Foley, World Bank. CC BY 3.0
In Bangladesh, a two-month-long fishing ban aiming to boost fish stocks was met with protests by local fisher communities prompting a debate between conservation and community rights.
Biryani, one of the staples of Pakistani cuisine. Image by Faizan Ashraf. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
In a regional collaboration, we looked at how Biryani, the king of South Asian cuisine is perceived in different countries with all its variations. In a post, we dug deep into the origins of Biryani and found out that Biryani is considered a trademark dish from the Indian subcontinent.
Biryani is a very popular dish in Pakistan and the question often arises, “Is this the national dish of Pakistan”?
We look forward to more Biryani stories and other stories from South Asia in 2020.

author: Rezwan


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8 West African countries rename currency in historic break from France — but colonial-era debts persist · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire delivers remarks before signing a new compact to spur economic growth and private investment in the Francophone West African nation. November 7, 2017, Washington, DC. Photo via the United States State Department, public domain.
On December 21, 2019, President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire and Emmanuel Macron of France announced a major currency reform in several West African Francophone countries.
In 2020, eight  West African countries belonging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) will rename their CFA franc to Eco: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
As part of this agreement, French officials will no longer be represented on the governing bodies of these African central banks and member states will no longer keep half their foreign reserves in France, reported France 24.
But the currency reform struck a nerve with many netizens who feel that the change does little to address the harsh legacy of French colonialism in West Africa, where many nations are still indebted to France.
CFA franc banknote of 5,000. October 31, 2009, via Wikimedia/West African Economic and Monetary Union.
Originally called the franc of the French Colonies of Africa, the CFA franc currency morphed later into the franc of the African Financial Community in West Africa.
The Financial Cooperation in Central Africa was established in 14 former French colonies upon gaining independence.
The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), made up of Chad, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, is not currently part of the agreement, though it also uses a version of the CFA franc, also pegged to the euro.
The French franc became the benchmark for the CFA franc after World War II, according to financial analyst Frances Coppola. In 1999, when France took up the currency of the European Union, the euro was “hard-pegged” to the CFA:
Both versions of the CFA franc are hard-pegged to the euro. When the CFA franc was first created, it was pegged to the French franc at 50 CFA francs to 1 French franc. It was devalued in 1994 and then remained at 100 to 1 until France adopted the euro in 1999. At that point, the French franc was converted to the euro at 6.55957 to 1. The CFA franc’s currency exchange rate thus became 655.957 to 1 euro, where it remains pegged to this day.
Despite this largely symbolic break from a colonial history with France, 14 countries have remained indebted to France since their liberation from them in the 1960s: Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo-Brazaville, and Gabon.
Through “a colonial pact,” France forced these countries to “put 85 percent of their foreign reserve into France Central Bank,” under the control of the French minister of finance, journalist Mawuna Koutonin wrote in 2014.
Koutonin and other critics essentially called this foreign reserves deposit system a “colonial-era tax.” Others argue that this is an “exchange for the guarantee of a more stable currency and unlimited convertibility into any currency,” according to Africa Check.
Those who defend this “deposit system” argue that it has offered financial stability to these nations since independence. But critics see this enforced debt as part of a harsh legacy of dependence on France.
“African leaders who refuse are killed or victim of a coup. Those who obey are supported and rewarded by France with a lavish lifestyle while their people endure extreme poverty and desperation,” Koutonin wrote.
Many recognize that France would not hold the power it does without its dependence on the billions deposited through this system. Former French leader Jacque Chirac once stated that “without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [world] power.”
On Twitter, feminist scholar and writer Judicaelle Irakoze outlined all the ways in which the 14 former French colonies in West Africa have been indebted to France through this foreign reserves deposit system.
Since December 21, over 20,000 netizens have shared Irakoze's Twitter thread that schools readers on the history of French colonization and the ways in which former colonies are still locked into debt:
Since I can't sleep, A thread on France and the 14 african countries who still pay tax colonies up to now.
I know we cannot compare colonizers but France as a state continues to the most racist and white supremacist and thriving on colony taxes!
— Feminist in Chief (@Judicaelle_) December 21, 2019
Irakoze details how in 1958, when Guinea fought for independence, the French who lived in Guinea caused mass destruction. Ahmad Sékou Touré resisted and became the first president of Guinea and attempted to cut ties completely with France between 1965-1975.
When Burkina Faso became independent from France in 1960, Thomas Sankara attempted to cancel their agreement to hold at least 50 percent of their foreign reserves in France, and tried to cut ties, but was killed months later.
Subsequent leadership restored the foreign reserves deposit agreement.
Writer Rosebell Kagumire notes the irony of the currency change announcement on the same day as Sankara's birthday:
On this Holy Day that is Thomas Sankara’s birthday and coloniser announces half withdrawal from the economies of African countries!
France must end this nonsense, a their being a guarantor of new African currency in 2019 is shameful and shows how long we still have to go
— Rosebell Kagumire ♉ (@RosebellK) December 22, 2019
When Mali became independent from France in 1961, resistance fighter Modibo Keita, the first president of Mali, actively tried to sever ties with France. He was eventually overthrown and later died as a prisoner. For years, Mali agreed to hold at least 50 percent of their foreign reserves in France.
And in 1963, Togo also agreed to hold at least 50 percent of their foreign reserves in France.
Irakoze sees this as a kind of “colonial-era tax,” like Koutonin, and continued in her Twitter thread to explain the various ways in which leaders who resisted France paid with their lives with either assassinations or coups.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also plans to launch a regional currency called Eco by 2020 that is not pegged to the euro.
The New York Times described President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire's move to peg the new currency to the euro as a “hijacking” of the Eco that will likely disrupt ECOWAS plans. This is because the seven other ECOWAS countries all have separate currencies with heavy government restrictions on their exchange rates.
Established in 1975, ECOWAS is made up of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
To float a common currency, all 15 ECOWAS countries must meet the following criteria: “A deficit of less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, inflation of 10 percent or under and debts worth less than 70 percent of GDP [gross domestic product].” But none of these countries have achieved these criteria, reports the AFP.
In June 2019, Chihombori-Quao, former ambassador of the African Union (AU) to the United States, stated that France takes over $500 billion from Francophone African countries based on a pact they forced these countries to sign before they were granted independence. She made these remarks in a presentation, “The Pact for the Continuation of Colonization,” and is known to have strong views toward French colonization in Africa.
Chihombori-Quao was fired by the AU on November 1, 2019, for her criticism of France.
In January this year, Luigi di Maio, Italian deputy prime minister, accused the French of exploiting Africa and fueling migration. Maio said that France had “never stopped colonizing tens of African states,” the BBC reported. Maio further stated that were it not for Africa, France would rank 15th among world economies — not in the top six.
The currency name change is symbolic and historic, but it does not undo years of French colonization in West African Francophone countries.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this post referred to the foreign reserves deposit system as a “colonial-era tax.” On January 2, 2020, we updated the post to clarify what is meant by “colonial-era tax” and also clarify the terms of the foreign reserves deposit system between French and former colonies in West Africa.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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In Hong Kong, local entrepreneurs champion the pro-democracy cause · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Rice pig guide sticker via Twitter.
A new restaurant and shopping guide in Hong Kong is helping citizens identify shops that support the anti-government protests.
The guide is called the “Hong Kong’s Rice Pig Guide” (米豬蓮). Twitter user @Dystopia992 explained what it's about:
#米豬連 (the cute ?) pronoun as “MiChuLin” which sound similar to #Michelin, is a GOOD FOODIE Guide for ??er to identify #YellowShops (pro-protest) & to avoid Blue Shops (pro-#China)!
Just see how CUTE ? is#YellowEconomicCircle#黃色經濟圈 #黃店pic.twitter.com/KTpWHguPMX
— @Dystopia – #China_is_terrorist (@Dystopia992) December 5, 2019
Initiatives such as those have sprung up in the groundswell of the anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which many believe could not have lasted for so long without the support of the middle class and entrepreneurs.
On June 12, when the Hong Kong Legislative Council was scheduled to deliberate on the now-withdrawn extradition bill, more than a hundred small and medium-sized companies closed their businesses so that their employees could attend the protests. The first citywide general strike on August 5 was also backed by hundreds of small business owners, along with the trade unions, including airlines’ flight attendant unions. And private car owners have frequently helped protesters exit the demonstration sites.
The middle class and the business sectors are also helping protesters financially. Many have donated to, for example, the 612 Fund and the Spark Alliance to provide legal, medical and other aids to those injured or arrested. Both funds have raised over 10 million US dollars over a few months through crowdfunding and street donations.
Shop and restaurant owners, as well as wholesale buyers, have also joined forces to donate food coupons and import protection gear for protesters who aren't able to afford it.
Since August, a number of restaurants have openly supported demonstrators by offering free meals to students, and the online shop HKongs Mall was set up to provide employment for those who had been arrested and then released on bail.
Protesters began calling the supportive businesses “yellow shops” and are urging citizens to spend their money on them. Simultaneously, they have called for a boycott of pro-China establishments, such as the restaurants owned by the Maxim Caterers group.
The collection of the pro-democracy shops is now known as the “yellow economic circle”. Twitter user @Dystopia992 explains:
#HongKongProtests?? —
Yellow shops? Blue shops?!
Yes! This is the creative way we’re using to #StandWithHongKong!#YellowShops are our *Friends who support #HongKongProtesters*! Often lennon wall & protest art are seen!#YellowEconomicCircle #CashPower#黃色經濟圈 #米豬連 pic.twitter.com/2EwVKbbUTi
— @Dystopia – #China_is_terrorist (@Dystopia992) December 5, 2019
With the average individual monthly expense in Hong Kong totaling about HK$9,253 in 2018 (approximately US$1,187 dollars), many believe that the city's economic power is a potent weapon to bring about meaningful political change.
On Radio Free Asia, political analyst Kay Lam explained the potential effect of the yellow economic circle:
中共早就實行了「紅色經濟圈」，早就強制商家與藝人親中親共，對任何在中國有生意者，都要實行政治審查多年；紅色經濟圈以官方推動，其威力遠比起民間自發的強…反之所謂黃色經濟圈，是靠「反送中」運動令更多香港市民的政治醒覺，反杯葛這些親共的藝人與商家…透過黃色經濟圈反制，最起碼的即時效果，就是令不少原本親共的商家與藝人，都起碼回到「悶聲發大財」，減少或甚至拒絕參加，親政府的政治活動…
The CCP has already set up the “red economic circle” and compelled businessmen and entertainment artists to express their loyalty. Anyone who does not toe the line would be censored. The “red economic circle” is initiated by state power, it is more effective and powerful than other initiatives (…). The so-called yellow economic circle is the result of the people’s political awakening triggered by the anti-extradition protests. Now, people are actively boycotting the pro-Beijing businesses and artists. One immediate effect of the yellow economic circle is to generate counter political pressure that compels businessmen and artists to have a second thought before they choose to participate in pro-government propaganda (…).
However, others are hesitant that the circle could result in isolating the yellow businesses from the mainstream economy. Finance news columnist Chow Hin gave some strategic advice to pro-democracy firms:
黃色經濟圈要形成優勢，就要不排斥藍色的客人，更加要歡迎藍色的錢，愈多愈好。然而，在聘請員工方面，卻是專門請黃色的申請者，在消費方面，則是專門光顧黃店。如此一來，方能造成黃色經濟圈的優勢。
The yellow economic circle should not exclude blue (pro-establishment) customer, they should welcome blue money, the more the better. However, when they hire staff, they should favor the yellow ones. Also, buy from the yellow. This is the key to the success of the yellow economic circle.
One of the most well-known yellow shops in Hong Kong is Lung Mun Cafe, which has five branches across the city. Its owner Cheung Chun Kit started to provide assistance to protesters after the daughter of one of his employees was arrested. In the process, he became familiar with many young protesters. Some had strained relationships with their parents and had no place to go, others had lost their jobs, and many were struggling to support themselves.
To help them out, he set up an assistance center to collect donations, such as clothes or food coupons. He also helped protesters produce handmade items to be sold at the cafes. Currently, the center has 12 protesters hired as full-time staff. Others work as temporary staff and are paid at a rate of approximately 8 US dollars per hour. Cheung described his work as an initiative to build a “society of conscience”:
…有好多『良心老闆』、『良心導師』可以俾機會年輕人，好多『良心髮型屋』、『良心電工』俾黃絲居民光顧，然後佢哋又捐返某個百份比嘅營業額落嚟。如果我哋可以形成一個有足夠財力養活 200 萬人嘅社群，仲有咩走唔過去呢？
I want to see many businessmen or mentors with a conscience to help out these young people to set up hair salons or electronic shops that are run by conscience. These shops can then donate a percentage of their income to support one and others. If we have the capability and capacity to sustain the living of 2 million community members, we can overcome all kinds of difficulties.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Kenya now has a data protection law. What does this mean for netizens? · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

M-pesa mobile money stand in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo credit: Fiona Graham / WorldRemit CC BY-SA 2.0.
On November 8, 2019, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta ascended the 2019 Data Protection Bill into law. Kenya now joins 25 out of 54 African countries that have so far implemented laws on personal data protection with Zambia and Zimbabwe soon joining their ranks.
Kenya’s new data protection law, modeled around the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has been long overdue. Despite earning the title of Africa’s Silicon Savannah for its giant strides in the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and becoming a hotbed for startups from within the continent and Silicon Valley, Kenya has not had any data protection laws.
This lack of a legal framework on how private and government entities should handle customer and citizens’ data became the subject of one of the world’s first cases where citizens’ private data was used to sway a presidential election.
The 2013 and 2017 Kenyan presidential elections that saw the reelection of President Kenyatta were embroiled in a scam in which Cambridge Analytica illegally collected Facebook profile data from millions of Kenyans. These profiles were then correlated with over 47,000 surveys conducted in the run-up to the 2013 presidential election to determine Kenyan voters’ needs and concerns, which informed campaign messaging. In the 2017 presidential election, these insights were used in a data-driven micro-targeted digital campaign to help incumbent Kenyatta get re-elected.
The UK-based consulting company had been in the limelight since United States President Donald Trump's election victory in 2016 for harvesting data about millions of Facebook users and targeting them with information intended to sway them in Trump's favor.
This new data law will have a significant and far-reaching impact as Kenya continues to have one of the highest rates of internet penetration in Africa at 112% according to the latest statistics from the Communications Authority.
The mandate of this new law will essentially be to establish a legal and institutional mechanism to regulate the collection, storage and processing of personal data in order to protect the privacy of individuals. The law will enforce the right to privacy by providing remedies against any breach.
Implementation of #dataprotection Act in Kenya is expected to be a gradual process. Will require creation of Data Commissioner’s office, build confidence of data controllers, development of Implementation mechanisms, stakeholder engagement and awareness @KeCIRT @CADirectorGen
— CA (@CA_Kenya) November 27, 2019
Kenyan citizens now have the right to: know why and how their information is being recorded, stored and handled, and for what specific purpose it will be used. They will also have the right to access their personal data and object to its processing, and the right to correction and deletion of false or misleading data as well as to prohibit the disclosure or reuse of their personal data.
Organizations and government authorities that own, manage, store or control data will now be required to register their businesses with the office of a Data Protection Commissioner, as mandated by the new law. They will also be required to inform users of the personal data they are collecting, why they are using it and how long they are storing it.
The new law is a welcome relief for many Kenyans who have been subject to various forms of privacy violations, in particular, due to the country’s proliferation of mobile connectivity and adoption of mobile money services.
The collection of personal data from citizens has, for a long time now, been part of security requirements by private and government institutions for Kenyans to gain access to most buildings. Although the information is often collected as a safeguard measure, its effectiveness has been put into question as a stop-gap measure to acts of violence. The most recent Dusit terror attack and the September 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack drove the painful point home.
Whereas these data collection points have proved to have loopholes that terrorists have exploited by registering fake details, the majority of Kenyans do fill their actual personal details in these building registers.
Cases of mobile and online fraud have continued to increase, often targeting users of M-pesa mobile money service — the most popular way to pay for goods and services both online and offline in Kenya. M-pesa is a service by Safaricom, a public limited company and one of Kenya’s largest mobile network operators.
It has also become a common practice among Kenyan businesses that accept M-pesa payments that use the Paybill service to spam their customers with promotional messages from contacts collected with the sole purpose of facilitating a payment transaction.
#DataProtection It's wrong that every time I use a paybill, merchants swamp me with promos and unwanted campaigns. @mucheru Please protect citizen privacy.
— Pauline Warui (@PwaruiM) October 31, 2019
Today, 25th November 2019, something significant is happening.
The Kenyan Data Protection Act 2019 commences. It becomes effective. #dataprotection
— gatuyu (@Gatuyu) November 25, 2019
Some private financial institutions our here have access to your private communications, that is voice and text communication.
Some individuals working in those institutions are misusing those privileges for their personal gains. Something needs to be done. ASAP#dataprotection pic.twitter.com/7MdnKalVKr
— Road Alerts. || ?? (@RoadAlertsKE) November 26, 2019
Kenya’s ICT practitioners hailed the signed bill as a good regulatory framework for the industry and have urged the government to fast track the composition of guidelines and regulations around the data protection law in consultation with their industry.
The enforcement of this new law shall be carried out by the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, a body that shall be created and headed by the data commissioner who will be recruited and employed by the Public Service Commission upon appointment by the president and subject to the approval of the National Assembly. The DPC will run under the Ministry of Information Communications and Technology (ICT).  The commissioner will receive and investigate violations, with the power to file lawsuits and impose fines.
According to Kenyans online, this is only the beginning. A major hurdle will be the implementation and enforcement of this law against the biggest culprits — digital lending apps. These apps use predatory and unethical tactics that require access to users’ smartphone data in a bid to determine creditworthiness and recover loans from defaulters and retail businesses that spam their customers with promotional text messages.
Consumers Beware; A #fintech app-based lender without access to potential borrowers’ financial data may require permissions for the app to scrape data from the borrower’s phone, including reading messages with details of financial transactions. #ExploitiveMoneyLendingApps
— Consumer Grassroots (CGA) (@Consumers_Kenya) November 28, 2019
Critics have raised concerns on the timing of the signing which comes at the heels of an uproar by Kenyans regarding the massive implementation of the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) – better known as Huduma Namba — which was heavily criticized by privacy advocates.
NIIMs is a national program introduced by the Kenyan government in April 2019 for the establishment of a mass biometric registration system with the objective of creating, managing and storing Kenya’s population data and as the “single source of truth” of information about Kenyan citizens and foreigners residing in the country.
Kenyan freelance writer, Rasnah Warah recently opined an article on why the signing of the data bill is meant to fast track the implementation of Huduma Numba, which many were opposed to earlier due to a lack of a proper framework. She reads malice in the hurried manner with which the new data protection bill was passed into law. She believes it was created as a gateway for commercial interests of the Huduma Numba national exercise in which citizens will be driven into a debt trap.
Her sentiments have also been shared by renowned Kenyan economist David Ndii, whose article “Crony Capitalism and State Capture 2: Documents Reveal the Kenyatta Family’s Plans to Take over Lending to SMEs,” delves into the details of a proposed mobile phone lending platform in which the Kenyatta family-owned bank, NCBA, has vast interests.
The proposed initiative is a “collaborative initiative to bridge the access to credit by micro and small enterprises.”
Interestingly, on the day President Kenyatta signed the bill into law, he was flanked by executives from Amazon, who announced their plans to set up an Amazon Web Services Edge Location in Kenya. Amazon operates Amazon Web Services — the largest cloud-computing platform in the world.
It remains to be seen whether or not the new law will protect the rights of Kenyan citizens or merely serve as a conduit through which private data can legally be acquired, stored and used for commercial purposes by players higher up in the digital capitalism food chain.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Nigerian government orders release of Omoyele Sowore, journalist and human rights activist · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Omoyele Sowore. Screenshot from CNBCAfrica interview, December 13, 2018.
On December 24, 2019, Nigeria's attorney general and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami directed the State Security Service “to comply with the [court] order granting bail” to Omoyele Sowore, journalist and human rights activists, Nigerian newspaper Punch reports.
Sowore was arrested at his residence in Lagos, Nigeria, on August 3, 2019, and was charged with trumped-up charges of treason, cyberstalking and money laundering after calling for a #RevolutionNow protest.
Sowore's arrest and detention — despite two court orders to release him — has drawn national and global commendation for blatantly disregarding the rule of law in Nigeria and undermining human rights.
Sowore, the publisher of investigative online newspaper Sahara Reporters, ran against President Muhammadu Buhari in February 2019 elections. On December 6, a day after Sowore was granted bail, officials of the Department of State Services (DSS), rearrested him within the precincts of an Abuja High Court.
Malami also ordered the release of Sambo Dasuki, a former national security adviser, who was arrested on December 1, 2015, after being accused of allegedly stealing $2.1 billion USD by awarding phantom military contracts in the fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram. He was held in detention for the past two and a half years despite several court orders granting him bail.
Malami stated:
In line with the provisions of Section 150 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and in compliance with the bail granted to Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) (as recently varied by the Court of Appeal); and the bail granted to Omoyele Sowore, I have directed the State Security Services to comply with the order granting bail to the defendants and effect their release. The two defendants [Sowore and Dasuki] are enjoined to observe the terms of their bail and refrain from engaging in any act that is inimical to public peace and national security, as well as their ongoing trial which will run its course in accordance with the laws of the land.
Presidential aide Bashir Ahmad tweeted that the government ordered that both Dasuki and Sowore should be released.
FLASH: The Federal Government orders the release of former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki and Mr. Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN in a statement, today in Abuja.
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) December 24, 2019


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Anti-vax groups in the Balkans find support with the Russian Orthodox Church · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Sergeev Pasad, a Russian Orthodox monastery near Moscow. Photo by Flikr user mutatdjellyfish, CC BY-NC.
This story by journalist Ljubomir Kostovski originally appeared in Macedonian on Critical Thinking for Mediawise Citizens – CriThink, and was translated into English by Truthmeter, two projects of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In April 2019, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), through its Patriarchal Commission on Family Affairs, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, adopted a resolution on the right of parents to refuse vaccination of their children. The resolution reverberated with anti-vaccine groups in the Balkans.
The resolution says that parents “retain the right to make decisions about their children's health, including [in regards to] preventive vaccines, without being subject to pressure” and that “persecution of parents for exercising this right is unacceptable,” among other similar provisions.
Materials echoing the ROC's view on the subject can be found on the website Russian Faith, published in several languages and allegedly funded by two apparently non-Russian families.
Even though historically the highest formal authority in the Eastern Orthodox Christianity is held by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Russian Orthodox Church exerts huge political influence over some other national churches, especially in countries with large populations of Slavic origins.
The ROC's resolution has been picked up by Serbian media. News portal Intermagazin published an article titled “The storm in Serbia comes from Russia” on April 25, subheaded “Serbian Orthodox Christian believers can refer to the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church until their church makes a statement on this matter”.
In North Macedonia, anti-vaxxers have caused an uproar recently after they realized children can't enroll in public schools without proof of immunization. The country has been battling a measles epidemic for the past year, and the enrollment restrictions have been more strictly enforced recently.
ROC's views on immunization found a platform at a March 2019 conference in Verona, Italy, organized by the World Congress of Families, an evangelical conservative organization from the United States. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, chairman of the Patriarchal Commission for Family Affairs, held a speech at the event.
In May 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit that monitors extremist groups in the United States, warned that this organization is an “American-run platform that advances Russian political interests in Europe while offering Russian Orthodox oligarchs an entry point into U.S.-based Christian evangelical networks.”
In past years, the conference was held in former Soviet republics. This year's edition was attended by Italy's then-Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Researchers examining Kremlin propaganda campaigns have found that Russian troll armies frequently engage in anti-vax discourse. That kind of propaganda usually targets countries where Russia has geopolitical interests, research shows, with the objective of sowing division and undermining trust in local public institutions.
A team of scientists from George Washington University, the University of Maryland and Jones Hopkins University conducted a study on bots and trolls originating from Russia that promote health content on Twitter. The research classifies as bots “profiles run by software that automatically distributes certain content”, while trolls are defined as “user profiles managed by humans who use fake identities or are anonymous.”
The research analyzed tweets from July 2014 to September 2017. The conclusions were published at the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), a publication of the American Public Health Association.
Since Facebook and Instagram decided to ban hashtags that promote “verifiably false” information about vaccines in May 2019, anti-vaxxers have adopted new manipulation tactics, according to reporting by Coda Story.
Prior to Instagram’s announcement, anti-vaxxers used hashtags like #vaccineskill, whereas now, they are using disguised hashtags such as #learntherisk and #justasking, and “spelling [the word] ‘vaccines’ with a cedilla (vaççines), or using a bracket (va((ines) to try to avoid detection.”
Another way anti-vaxxers have tried to dupe Instagram’s controls is to co-opt the language used by abortion rights advocates, such as #righttochoose and #mybodymychoice
The analysis concluded that most bots have been found to spread malware and other unwanted content. They also operate primarily for commercial, rather than ideological, reasons — in summary, directing traffic to specific websites.
On the other hand, trolls’ messages were found to be mostly political and aimed at sowing divisions in the public of the United States. A common strategy, the AJPH research says, is to not directly support anti-vax discourse, but to present the idea of the anti-vaccination debate being a legitimate topic of public discourse, exploiting the logical fallacy of false equivalence.
The result is the disruption of public consensus on immunization and the decline in public trust in the state.
The authors suggest that more research is needed to determine how health policy can fight against content propagated by disinformation systems using bots and trolls.
The AJPH's findings are consistent with a 2015 research conducted by DARPA, the US Defense Agency in charge of new technology-related challenges, that identified bots spreading harmful influences on Twitter.
The Agency found that information spread through social media and messaging groups can create the illusion of healthy public discussion while its true aim is to “influence opinion” by making scientifically disproven claims acceptable, and in time normalizing them in mainstream discourse.
Vaccination against measles in North Macedonia has drastically dropped in recent years. Visualization by @reflektor_mk, used with permission.

author: Metamorphosis Foundation


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Rash of abductions and arrests signals ‘dramatic slide’ in human rights in Tanzania · Global Voices
GV Sub-Saharan Africa

Tito Magoti is a human rights activist from Tanzania. Photo courtesy of the Legal Human Rights Center.
A rash of abductions and arrests of human rights activists in Tanzania in December has sparked an international outcry over the “dramatic slide” in human rights protections in the East African nation.
Human rights activist Tito Magoti was charged with three offenses of economic crimes on December 24, 2019, under the Economic and Organized Crimes Act, case no 137 of 2019, according to the Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC), where Magoti works as a program officer. The alleged crimes include “leading organized crime” and “possession of a computer program designed for the purpose of committing an offense and money laundering,” according to Reuters.
Charges of economic crimes are not eligible for bail and can take years to resolve in court. In recent years, an uptick in abductions, arrests, detentions and trumped-up charges of economic crimes for activists and journalists have amounted to a disturbing trend toward silencing dissent in Tanzania.
“Leading organized crime” kwa tafsiri ya The Economic & Organized Crimes Act, [Cap 200 R.E 2002] ni kuongoza kundi/genge la uhalalifu kuhujumu uchumi. Erick Kabendera alitupiwa hii, Tito Magoti na Theodory Faustine pia. hawataweza kuthibitisha “magenge” na yanatenda uhalifu gani! pic.twitter.com/JnaWmLIztw
— Martin M. M (@IAMartin_) December 24, 2019
“Leading organized crime” as translated by The Economic & Organized Crime Act [Cap 200 R.E. 2002] is to lead a group or gang to undermine the economy. [Journalist] Erick Kabendera was given this [charge], Tito Magoti and Theodory Faustine, also. They won't be able to prove “gangs” and what kind of crimes they do!
The LHRC reported Magoti missing on Friday, December 20, when five unknown men abducted Magoti in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam. Police later confirmed that Magoti had been arrested on “various allegations” but would not reveal his whereabouts for nearly five days.
Tito Magoti was charged with economic crimes after an abduction ordeal and arrest. Photo courtesy of the Legal and Human Rights Center, Tanzania.
Magoti's colleague, tech specialist Theodory Giyan Faustine, 36, was also reportedly arrested on December 19, and later charged with the same three economic crimes as Magoti on December 24.
Giyan “was forced through his mobile phone to lure Tito [Magoti] to a location where he was abducted. They were both handcuffed and blindfolded,” according to testimony provided by Magoti through his lawyers, in a statement released by the LHRC.
The police transferred Magoti to various stations before his friends and family could confirm his whereabouts, while Giyan was detained at one station before he was taken to court alongside Magoti.
According to the LHRC, Magoti told his lawyers that the police questioned him about his online activism and his involvement with several leading online activists and opposition voices. He and Giyani will remain in detention until their hearing scheduled on January 7, 2020.
The LHRC filed a case at Tanzania's High Court against Dar es Salaam police chief Lazaro Mambosasa and attorney general Adelardus Kilagi, over the way Magoti was detained and arrested. LHRC executive director Anna Henga said that holding a citizen more than 24 hours without formal charges or the opportunity to post bail is a crime:
LHRC has on Dec 23, filed a case against the Dar es Salaam Special Zone Police Commander and the Attorney General demanding the bailout of @TitoMagoti after 4 days of unlawful detention. LHRC has lodged a petition at the HC under the certificate of urgency. #FreeTitoMagoti pic.twitter.com/8ydeQK8aev
— LHRC (@humanrightstz) December 23, 2019
Many netizens are comparing Magoti's situation to journalist Erick Kabendera, who was also abducted in Dar es Salaam in July 2019. Police later admitted they had arrested Kabendera and first attempted to charge him over his citizenship status before switching track. He was eventually charged with economic crimes including money laundering. Kabendera continues to languish behind bars as his hearing has been delayed 10 times.
Tanzanian journalist Erick Kabendera was in Court today-Case adjourned to 2 Jan as lawyers say he is in talks with DPP re:plea bargain.
Arrested 29 July,Police claimed they were investigating his citizenship,he was then charged with economic crimes (nature of which means no bail) pic.twitter.com/xeBCcgSByp
— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) December 18, 2019
On December 23, just days after Magoti and Giyani were abducted and arrested, netizens feared that activist and investigative journalist Bollen Ngetti was also abducted. Ngetti often posts political commentary on social media.
The next day, netizens were relieved to learn that Ngetti was found alive. In an interview with Watetezi TV, Ngetti explained his ordeal, saying he was taken by a group of men who described themselves as “security.” They interrogated him about his relationship with former foreign minister Bernard Membe. Ngetti said he denied any relationship with Membe but the abductors took his mobile phone and continued to interrogate him before eventually releasing him within 24 hours of his abduction:
Journalist Bollen Ngetti has been found — ditched by abductors who questioned him on his relationship with former foreign Minister Bernard Membe @BenMembe
This is #Tanzania – might as well have been the police ? #ChangeTanzania #FreeBollenNgetti is free! https://t.co/DRr4v37X4t
— Maria Sarungi Tsehai (@MariaSTsehai) December 24, 2019
While Ngetti was unscathed by the most recent ordeal, Magoti, Giyani and Kabendera join a growing list of journalists and activists detained and targeted by an increasingly repressive government under the John P. Magfuli administration.
Since 2015, when Magufuli took office, a series of restrictive laws, bills and policies have severely limited free expression in Tanzania. The recent Statistics Act criminalizes the publication of data not approved by the government and the Cybercrimes Act of 2015 grants excessive power to police to monitor content online deemed “fake news” or “hate speech.” These and other laws have made it easier for the government to crack down on anyone suspected of critique or dissent.

author: GV Sub-Saharan Africa


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From Kenya to Ethiopia, these men received divine dream ‘maps’ to carve caves · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Dunbar caves in southern Ethiopia were dug by Mohammed Yiso Banatah with his bare hands. He was instructed by Allah to create underground wedding chapels. Photo by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, used with permission.
On December 26, 2019, BBC Swahili released a video featuring Francisco Ouma, an elder from Busia, western Kenya, who received a message from God to carve a cave. The message came in the form of a map that he received through his dreams. Since February 1967, Ouma has followed the divine map delivered in his dream. Today, his cave has 24 rooms and counting.
Screenshot of Francis Ouma, who received a message from God to carve a cave with 24 rooms via BBC Swahili / Instagram.
Throughout history, many have questioned the veracity of divine intervention through dreams, even casting doubt on one's mental health and stability. But prophets from Islam, Judaism and Christianity have all testified to messages from God sent through dreams for millennia.
“God brought me something like a map,” Ouma told BBC Swahili. “Then, when I was digging, this map is what I followed. It wasn't just that when I was digging, better to keep digging, no.”
Using just a plow and his own two hands, Ouma faced trial and error as he hit on stones that prevented him from digging. He finally found the right spot to manifest God's cave map in his mind.
In one room, there's a stone with writing on it with the words of Jesus. “Jesus Christ was the one who brought me this news,” Ouma said, “and then he explained it to me as it was with Moses.” Ouma believes he is bringing back another covenant with God to the world.
“The second stage is coming. This is the first stage of the covenant. The second is coming. I can't say for sure what it is now because if I announce it, I may be cheating humanity. Therefore, I will wait for the report to be given at last,” Ouma told BBC Swahili.
Ni pango lenye vyumba 24.
A post shared by  BBC News Swahili (@bbcswahili) on
The BBC Swahili video has been viewed nearly 50,000 times with over 100 comments and counting. While some have raised questions about the mental stability of those who claim to receive messages from God through dreams, including a professor quoted in the video, many comments supported people of faith who tune into messages shared through dreams.
One Instagram user wrote:
Mimi watu kama hawa huwa nawaamini sana kuliko wanaotujaza Kwenye nyumba za Ibaada na Michango isiyoisha kwa Maneno ya Matumaini, Miaka 52 mtu anachimba tu kama angekuwa hana Akili ndugu zake na Serikali hawakumuona? Hajaomba hata msaada wa greda au pesa ya kuweka vibarua hupaswi kuihukukumu Nafsi yake.
For me, people like these, usually I believe them a lot, much more than those who fill us [up] from continuous contributions of words of hope from houses of worship, 52 years a person just digs — if he didn't have his mind, wouldn't his community or the government not recognize this? He hasn't even asked for the help of a tractor or money for his labor. We should not judge this person.
Mohammed Yiso Banatah in 2012 explains the ten dreams through which Allah instructed him to dig underground wedding chapels. Photo courtesy of Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein.
In southern Ethiopia, a similar testimony exists from an elder named Mohammed Yiso Banatah, who said back in 2012 that he was visited by Allah 33 years ago in a series of ten dreams. Through the dreams, he received explicit instructions from Allah to ultimately create underground wedding chapel caves.
Known as Dunbar Caves, these elaborate chapels exist on Banatah's roadside property halfway between Hawassa and Shashamene.
Banatah said it was in his third dream that the blueprint for these chapel caves was burned into his consciousness.
You can read my full narrative account of Banatah's dream sequence and what prompted him to start digging what would become his life's work here:
In his final dream, the tenth one in a series back in 1979, a man appeared in his dream who took Mohammed to a small tree on his property and pointed to its roots. The man showed him exactly where to start digging and told him that his life would depend on it. At midnight, he saw visions of gold. Surroundings up close appeared far away and objects farthest away were pulled up close to him. He was told where, when, and how to begin digging and the next day, when he woke up, he began to dig into the earth with his bare hands.
These sunlight-flooded caves have been somewhat of a tourist attraction where people stop, pay a modest fee, and tour the quiet stillness at least four meters underground. Some couples have even arranged wedding ceremonies there.
The architectural genius of these spaces reveals the finery and steadiness of Mohammed’s hand – he’s spent careful hours carving, smoothing, cutting, digging, and designing an intricate series of archways, cosy nooks and hidden rooms within rooms, some that have been furnished with soft mattresses and simple earth-slab shelves, while others are stark and cool with tiny, rounded windows flooding through with secret rays of sunlight appearing out of nowhere.
Caves have carried deep spiritual and metaphorical significance throughout history.
A whole chapter called “Al Kahf” or “The Cave” appears in the Quran. It features a Christian folktale known as the “People of the Cave,” in which youth, tortured for their beliefs, fled their city to find refuge in a cave and fell asleep.
When they awoke and returned, they realized the entire city had become believers.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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How China’s Belt and Road Initiative is affecting Shan communities in north Myanmar · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

A banner announcing the 1st Myanmar (Lashio) and China (Lancang) Industrial Zone and Trade Fair hangs in Lashio’s downtown area. Photo and caption by Zaw Zaw/The Irrawaddy, used with permission.
This edited article by Nan Lwin is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The Heartland Foundation was formed in Lashio, northern Shan State, in 2012 and has become a leading environmental conservation organization. Recently, it formed a watchdog team to monitor China-backed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects, together with nearly 20 local civil society organizations. In particular, their efforts will focus on transparency issues, and the environmental and social impacts of the projects.
The team is preparing to raise awareness among locals of China-backed projects that are soon to be implemented across northern Shan State. The Irrawaddy spoke with U Aung Myo Htun, project officer of the Heartland Foundation in Lashio, about locals’ major concerns regarding the China-backed Muse-Mandalay railway project and its potential environmental and social impacts, and growing Chinese influence in northern Shan State.
Nan Lwin: What do you think about the public consultations related to the Muse-Mandalay Railway?
U Aung Myo Htun: We have already collected a lot of data regarding the railway. Recently, the EIA [environmental impact assessment] company did so-called public consultations in some major cities. As far as we have observed, their techniques are not systematic. They have neglected the most important tasks of a standard EIA.
Moreover, those who were consulted do not broadly represent the affected local communities. They only invited a few elderly people and local government officials [from the General Administration Department] from each affected village tract.
Literally, they were supposed to visit the affected villages so they can hear the actual voices of locals. They should explain directly to the local people. Visiting the people on the ground would keep locals well informed about the projects’ challenges and benefits.
U Aung Myo Htun, project officer of the Heartland Foundation in Lashio. Photo by Nan Lwin/The Irrawaddy, used with permission.
Nan Lwin: What do you mean when you say the EIA company neglected the most important tasks of a standard EIA?
U Aung Myo Htun: Whenever we ask about the technical parts and the details of the EIA process, they cannot answer properly. We asked questions about the environmental impacts, such as how many protected forests will vanish, how many watersheds will disappear and how they will respond to locals’ concerns and address local grievances.
Nan Lwin: What are the locals’ major concerns regarding the Muse-Mandalay railway project?
U Aung Myo Htun: The majority of the people are worried about losing their homes, farmlands and water resources. Some people voiced concerns about losing natural resources and heritage places.
Moreover, armed conflicts are ongoing in northern Shan State. As a result, many people have been displaced from their homes in areas where the planned projects are to be implemented. They are scattered at the IDP [internally displaced person] camps in major cities. Those people worry that their homes and farmlands will be seized by the authorities in their absence. They fear they will lose their rights to discuss their concerns if the projects begin while they are living in IDP camps.
Moreover, the railway will be electric, which means the project will need a large supply of electricity. The most important question is, how will the electricity be supplied to the project? Will they build new dams? We already have many conflicts due to dam projects including China-backed projects in northern Shan State. We don’t want to lose more—including homes, farmlands and other natural resources—to dam projects. That outcome could once again fuel local negative sentiment toward Chinese projects in our state.
Nan Lwin: What are the possible environmental and social impacts of the Muse-Mandalay project?
U Aung Myo Htun: Locals in northern Shan State have already suffered the social and environmental impacts of the Sino-Myanmar China oil and gas pipelines. They have not had a chance to voice their will and [discuss their] ordeals in the past. We all understand that pipelines and railway projects are very different. The impact of the railway will be bigger than the pipeline. As far as we know, they will construct 60 tunnels through the mountains. So the project will definitely destroy protected forests, mountains and natural resources. Moreover, our traditional livelihoods and ecosystems will be also ruined.
Chinese investment will also bring social problems. We need to carefully learn the lessons from other BRI host countries, especially countries that suffered due to grand infrastructure projects. A massive wave of migration from China will flow into our state. One of the biggest problems is human trafficking to China. We have been experiencing thousands of Myanmar women trafficked as brides to China every year. If the railway is completed, the trafficking problem will be hard to control. Besides, we already have a higher rate of drug abuse here because of Chinese migrants. We are afraid that drug abuse will be another problem created by the railway.
Nan Lwin: Do you think locals will gain economic benefits from the project?
U Aung Myo Htun: It is hard to say whether we will benefit from the railway project. I believe that the project will have more benefits for Chinese investors than for locals. They will be able to transport their goods quickly, since they want to link with the Kyaukphyu SEZ, which is a gateway to the Indian Ocean.
Another important thing is natural resources; they are planning to drill the mountains and cut down protected forests. There is a lot of evidence that Chinese trucks carried all the natural resources—even soil—[that was unearthed by] the Myitsone [hydropower project in Kachin State] directly back to China. I am worried they will do the same with the railway project.
The government need to put rules and regulations in the contract stating that the Chinese are not allowed to take our natural resources to China.
Local shops in downtown Lashio. Photo and caption by Zaw Zaw/The Irrawaddy
Nan Lwin: How is Chinese influence growing here?
U Aung Myo Htun: Chinese migration has increased rapidly here since late 2010. They bought a massive amount of land under local names. Now, many downtown areas are all owned by Chinese families in Lashio. Local families have been moving to the outskirts of the town because of financial problems. The Chinese know we have a lot of natural resources that locals are not interested [in exploiting]. You see at least two languages—Chinese and Burmese—on all the signs and billboards in the town. Now, the Chinese language is more popular here. The restaurant culture has changed; now they are more focused on serving Chinese food than local Shan food.
Aside from the Sino-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipelines project, Chinese are investing more and more in plantations such as sugar cane, corn, rubber and tissue-culture bananas across northern Shan State. Those plantations are run by Chinese investors under local names. They are also invested in mining, coal and hydropower projects.
Nan Lwin: What are the environmental and social impacts of Chinese investment in northern Shan State?
U Aung Myo Htun: Rubber, corn, tissue-culture banana and watermelon plantations have been expanding gradually here. They are using insecticides, weed killers and fertilizers and disposing of them carelessly. This has led to the pollution of water supplies in these areas, in turn causing soil damage and killing livestock. The mining projects have destroyed ecosystems and water resources. A lot of forests have been cut down due to mining projects as well.
Moreover, farmers have to change their plantation culture, based on Chinese demand. In the past, they only grew seasonal crops. Now, they are mono-cropping as the Chinese have persuaded the farmers to grow corn and watermelons, which are in high demand in their country. They have also pushed them to boost the quality of their crops and sell the farmers insecticides, weed killers and fertilizers.
Young people are also looking for an opportunity to work either in China or Thailand. In every village in Shan State, a large majority of young people are now working in China. It is sad to see that a large number of Chinese are flowing into the state while the natives are leaving for China. They have replaced the local [population].

author: The Irrawaddy


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Macedonian government promises to retract misogynist school textbook · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Macedonian textbooks on a student's desk. Photo by Meta.mk, CC-BY.
This story originally appeared on Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of North Macedonia announced on December 16 that it will modify a high school sociology textbook following an avalanche of online criticism.
This is what the textbook, which has been used in Macedonian schools since 2002, says:
Причините за различното учество на жените во криминалитетот се објаснуваат со општествената положба на жената. Ако жената е затворена во домот и нема никакви јавни улоги, таа нема можност да прави кривични дела. Жената на тој начин е заштитена од многу комуникации, одговорности, ангажмани, натпревари, конфликти и е упатена да се грижи за семејството, а со тоа помалку е изложена на влијанието на објективните криминогени фактори. Во услови на поголема општествена активност можно е да дојде до поголема криминална активност особено кај некои видови кривични дела.
The reasons for different rate of participation of women in criminal activities are explained with women’s social standing. If the woman is closed in the home and has no public activities, then she will have no opportunities to conduct any crimes. This way, the woman is protected from many communications, responsibilities, contests, conflicts and is directed towards keeping the family. This will help her to be less exposed to criminal factors. Under conditions of increased activity [by females] in society, it is possible that an increased criminal activity would result, in particular in regard to certain criminal acts.
Excerpt from the controversial sociology textbook. Image widely shared on social networks.
On the same page, the text says:
Жените во помал обем ги извршуваат и следниве кривични дела: прељуба, недозволен абортус, уцени, кражби, кривоклетство.
To a lesser degree, women are perpetrators of the following criminal acts: adultery, illegal abortion, blackmail, theft, and perjury.
In fact, adultery is not a criminal act in North Macedonia.
The Ministry of Education (MES) said the textbook, which was written by university professors Nelko Stojanoski, Milena Gjuroska, and Zoran Matevski, will be reviewed and reprinted for the school year starting in 2020.
MES officials added they have been reviewing and updating textbook content with the help of teachers and students since 2017, and that the textbook in question had not received any feedback. An official statment said:
Во таа насока, уште во 2017 година Министерството, односно Педагошката служба спроведе анкета помеѓу наставниците во основните и средните училишта со цел да достават сугестии, да укажат на забелешки од сите можни аспекти во врска со содржината на учебниците кои се одобрени и се применуваат во наставата, заради пристапување кон нивна корекција и ажурирање. За учебниците за кои добивме забелешки беше спроведен процес на корекција и повторно печатење во 2018 година, но меѓу нив не беше и учебникот кој денес е предмет на повеќе медиумски текстови, односно за истиот не беа доставени забелешки.
In this regard, the Ministry i.e. the Pedagogical Service conducted a survey among the teachers in the primary and secondary school in 2017 asking them to provide suggestions, to give feedback on all possible aspects of the contents of the textbooks that had been approved and had been used for teaching, in order to correct or upgrade them. The process of correcting and reprinting textbooks commenced in 2018. However, the textbook generating controversy in the media today ha not been included in that process of revision, because no remarks were submitted about it during the previous consultations.
The note adds that MES has asked the Bureau for Development of Education (BDE), a state body in charge of curriculum development, to examine the content of all textbooks. BDE's evaluation will serve as a basis for an upcoming curriculum reform.
Irena Cvetkovic, Coalition Margins. Photo by Andrej Lembanov, used with permission.
Irena Cvetkovik, the executive director of Coalition Margins, a human rights advocacy organization, told Meta.mk that stereotypes and discriminatory stances hide behind the language of “scientific truth” in the Macedonian education system.
Фактот дека жените по статистика извршуваат помал број на кривични дела споредено со мажите не може да се објаснува, а уште помалку да се одобрува, со одржување на родовата нееднаквост и притискање жените да останат во приватната сфера на домот и семејството, оставајќи ја јавната сфера на мажите. Точно е дека жените се помалку подложни на криминално онесување, но тоа треба да биде претставено како пример, како добар пример и токму заради тоа да се инсистира жените што повеќе да ја окупираат јавната сфера носејќи поинакви вредности како чесност, посветеност.
The statistical fact that women commit less criminal acts in comparison to men must not be explained, or even worse affirmed, with the promotion of gender inequality or forcing women to remain in the private sphere of the home and family, leaving the public sphere to men only. It is true that women are less prone to criminal behavior, but this should be presented as a positive example in the context of insistence that women should become more involved in the public sphere, as they would bring with them values such as honesty and dedication.
Cvetkovik, who holds a Ph.D. in gender studies, appealed to the authorities and the members of the academic community to do a complete revision of all school books and educational material as the first step towards a comprehensive reform of the Macedonian educational system. She noted that Coalition Margins have been making this request continuously since 2011.
In 2012, University Sts. Cyril and Methodius refused her candidacy for teaching assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy. Previously, pedagogy professors from the same university sued her for libel after she wrote a newspaper op-ed accusing one of their textbooks of promoting homophobia. A court ruled in Cvetkovik's favor. Many suspected the professors in question pressured the university into refusing her the job.
Dijana Stojanovic Djordjevic. Photo by The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, used with permission.
Dijana Stojanovik Gjorgjevik, who holds a Ph.D. in political science with a focus on gender, and works as a program manager at The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, a women's rights organization, stated for Meta.mk that the amount of discriminatory, stereotypical and inappropriate information in the primary and secondary school textbooks is “frightening.”
Some of the examples include the uncritical reproduction of folk stories (such as “The Lazy Wife“), songs and proverbs that promote patriarchal values, without providing an appropriate context for contemporary society. She concluded:
Само детално прегледување на сите содржини со родови очила и низ родова призма може да ги елиминира оние информации кои што допринесуваат за одржување на родовата нееднаквост.
Only a detailed review of all textbooks from a gender perspective can eliminate the content contributing to gender inequality.
The low quality and ideological bias of Macedonian school materials were among key motivators of the protests against the right-wing government that ruled North Macedonia from 2006 to 2017.
Improving the quality of textbooks and reviewing gender-sensitive language was a major campaign promise of the center-left government elected in 2016.
So far, those promises haven't been completely fulfilled, and authorities’ perceived sluggishness contributed to the recent outrage on social media over the sociology book.


text:
What lies ahead for the RuNet in 2020? · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Russian keyboard layout. Photo by Polyrus / Flickr, 2013. CC BY-ND 2.0
The year 2019 has been fateful for the RuNet. The Russian government has further tightened the screws on cyberspace, culminating in the much discussed Sovereign Internet Bill, which entered into force at the end of November. That month, the government also passed a law forbidding the sale of digital devices without pre-installed (and state approved) Russian software, and expanded the legal definition of “foreign agents” to include any individual disseminating information online. In December, the government increased fines against digital companies which refuse to hold user data on Russian territory and provide it to law enforcement when requested. And that's only over the past three months.
You could be forgiven for thinking that it's over for freedom of expression online in Russia. There are plenty of grounds for concern — not least because the pace of new laws regulating cyberspace has markedly increased in recent years. Nevertheless, some digital rights defenders and commentators in Russia suspect that these plans are too ambitious to implement, and in some cases, such as the attempt to ban the popular Telegram messenger, possibly even politically counterproductive.
This view is shared by Alexander Isavnin, a researcher with the Internet Protection Society, a Russian NGO which is attempting to defend the RuNet against censorship and excessive regulation. As Isavnin put it during a December 3 panel discussion on digital rights in Russia organised by the Centre for Liberal Modernity, a German think tank: “[President Vladimir] Putin learned the lessons of his time in Germany. He knows the political risks of building a wall: the youth will tear it down.”
I met Isavnin on the sidelines of the 2019 Internet Governance Forum (IGF), also held in the German capital from November 25-29. He shared his views about what's in store for the Russian internet in the near future:
Maxim Edwards: How realistic are these grand plans to disconnect the RuNet from the global network? Can the authorities follow through?
Александр Исавнин: Краткое резюме закона о суверенном интернете таково: государство дало себе право регулировать некоторые аспекты технического функционирования интернета – маршрутизация, IP-адреса, работа системы DNS, межоператорские связи, связь за границей. То есть, государство хочет знать про это всё и иметь возможность включать, выключать, согласовывать, контролировать, и т.д. Закон написан очень поверхностно, необходимо принять ещё кучу подзаконных актов, при этом не все из них разработаны… Но конкретные детали того, каким образом это будет реализовываться, будет расписывать Министерство связи России и Роскомнадзор. Подзаконные акты проще писать, проще реализовать. То, что подготовлено сейчас — не даёт конкретного понимания того, что будет происходить… Государство обеспечило себе возможность фактически регулировать сферу применения закона с помощью подзаконных актов, которые принимаются по более простой схеме и не настолько публично, как крупные законы. Подзаконные акты можно менять быстро.
В теории, государство в состоянии отключить интернет, объявив при необходимости чрезвычайное положение, вмешаться в маршрутизацию, и вот всё отключено. Или, допустим, зная всё про трансграничную инфраструктуру и международное взаимодействие, перерубят кабелеи. Но Россия довольно большая страна. И хотя у нее более миллиона работников спецслужб, к сожалению я не в состоянии увидеть миллион топоров, которыми могут перерубить кабели. Миллион кабелей – даже если бы это был миллион кабелей, но их, конечно, меньше.
AIexander Isavnin: So here's the essence of the “sovereign internet” law: the state has given itself the right to regulate several of the internet's technical functions, such as routing, IP-addresses, the functioning of the DNS system, connectivity between [internet] operators, and international connectivity. That is to say, the state wants to know everything it can about [this infrastructure] and have the ability to turn it off or not, to coordinate and to control it. The law is written very superficially; a whole series of by-laws will have to be adopted, and not all of them have been developed yet. In any case, the concrete details of how all this will be implemented will be filled in by Russia's Ministry of Communications and [Russia's state communications watchdog] Roskomnadzor. Anyway, by-laws are easier to write and easier to implement. That means that what has already been prepared up until now does not give any concrete understanding of what will happen next… The state has guaranteed itself the right to regulate the implementation of the law with the aid of by-laws, which are passed with much more ease and not nearly as publicly important as new laws. By-laws can also be quickly amended.
So in theory, the state is already able to switch off the internet, declaring it a necessary step during an emergency situation; it can interfere in routing and there, everything's shut down. Or, for example, once it knows everything about transnational [digital] infrastructure and international cooperation, it can simply cut the cables. But even then, Russia is a pretty big country. And even though its secret services have over a million employees, I'm unable to see that they have a million axes with which to cut those cables. Even if there were a million such cables, and of course they are fewer in number.
ME: What's the political logic behind these moves?
АИ: Проект интернета во всём мире, собственно говоря, стал настолько успешным, потому что до этого никакого государственного регулирования не существовало… Работали чисто рыночные механизмы. И тут они в это вмешиваются. Во-первых, рынок рушится, во-вторых, закон даёт возможность построить полностью монопольный рынок, только через Ростелеком, допустим. Они могут это сделать. Но будут ли? Это другой вопрос.
Мы считаем, что нет, несмотря на то, что у них в рукаве останется такая возможность. Зато она может быть использована для того, чтобы шантажировать как местные компании, так крупные западные платформы угрозой отключения. У нас блокировано уже многое. Довольно быстро, довольно просто — заблокировали ресурсы, чтобы показать, что они могут… Тем более, выборы, которые проходили в течении последнего года, показали, что политическая оппозиция мобилизует сторонников через интернет. И несмотря на то, что оппозиционные кандидаты не были допущены до городских выборов в Москве, тот же Навальный мобилизует публику через интернет таким образом, что любой альтернативный кандидат, если он существует, получит свои голоса… вот так началось сейчас, эта осень демонстрации.
Прошлая осень уже показала, что любое противодействие официальным властям через интернет приводит к тому, что кандидаты властей проваливаются. И чиновники будут, конечно же, бороться с этим. Понятно, что этот закон — большая пугалка. Во власти полных идиотов нет, поэтому вряд ли нас ждут массовые блокировки.
AI: Across the world, the internet as a project has been so successful because [before its emergence] no government regulation for it really existed… Purely market mechanisms were at work. And that's where they're starting to interfere. Firstly, the market is collapsing, and secondly, the law allows for the creation of a nearly entirely monopolised [digital] market, for example, only through [state-owned digital services provider] Rostelekom. They can do that. But will they? That's another question.
We believe that they won't, despite the fact that the opportunity to do so is still up their sleeve. But it can be used as a threat, to blackmail both local and large western firms under threat of disconnection. They've already blocked a lot. It can be done quite easily and quite quickly. They've blocked some online resources simply to prove that they can… Furthermore, the elections which were held this year demonstrated that the political opposition is mobilising its supporters over the internet. And despite the fact that opposition candidates were not permitted to run for city elections in Moscow, [opposition politician Alexey] Navalny was still able to mobilise the public over the internet in such a way that any alternative candidate, if one exists, receives their votes… that's how it began, this autumn of demonstrations.
This autumn has already demonstrated that any resistance to the authorities enacted online leads to failure for the authorities’ candidates. And state officials will, of course, fight against that. So it's clear that this law is a scarecrow. But the government aren't complete idiots, so it's unlikely that there will be large-scale shutdowns.
ME: How do you assess the cases of internet blackouts in Russia this year? By my count there have been three.
АИ: Есть два кейса, которые мы определили — это Москва и Ингушетия. Про Бурятию окончательной уверенности нет. В Москве, давление привело к тому, что в первом случае интернет не работал, во втором, даже если это была не блокировка, то работа была прекращена. В Ингушетии известен случай, когда Роскомнадзор подал в жалобу на мобильных операторов. Соответственно, пришел документ о том, что это был запрос от ФСБ. Закон о связи позволяет спецслужбам по борьбе с терроризмом такое сделать. На самом деле, этот пункт закона сформулирован совсем не так, как его применяют, формулировка такова: если тот, кто перед нами, является террористом, то его можно отключить.
AI: We've established two cases: Moscow and Ingushetia. Nothing has been determined with any certainty about Buryatia. In Moscow, pressure [on internet service providers] led in the first instance to the internet not working, and in the second to a cease in connectivity (even if it was not formally a block). In Ingushetia, it is known that Roskomnadzor filed a complaint against mobile operators. A document then emerged which suggested that this was due to a request from the FSB. The Law on Communications allows anti-terrorism security services to do this. But in fact, the [text of the] law was not formulated quite as it is implemented. It is actually formulated to mean that if somebody before us is a terrorist, then he can individually be disconnected [from the internet.]
ME: How might the “sovereign internet” drive affect the big social media platforms?
АИ: Мы считаем, что не только не будет масштабных блокировок, но и не будет отключений больших платформ. То есть, никто не будет блокировать YouTube или Facebook. Но, конечно, благодаря этому закону (плюс закон об иностранных агентах и какие-нибудь ещё законы) появится возможность на законных основаниях требовать удаления конкретного контента от платформ. Очень прицельно. Чтобы Facebook и Google всегда могли сказать своим американским акционерам — «нет, мы просто соблюдаем местное законодательство». И удаления контента будут очень точечными. Не весь Навальный, но отдельные его посты, что-то другое, допустим, про нарушения авторских прав.
AI: We believe that not only will there not be wide-scale shutdowns, but there will also be no blocks of large digital platforms. That is, nobody is going to block YouTube or Facebook. But of course, thanks to this law (plus the law on foreign agents and some other laws), the possibility will appear, with legal grounds, to demand the deletion of particular content from these platforms. It will be targeted. It will allow Facebook and Google to still be able to tell their American shareholders, “no, we're simply respecting local laws.” So deletion of content will be very specific. Not all of [Alexey] Navalny's content, but a few of his posts specifically and on other grounds, for example, concerning copyright infringement.
ME: As I understand it, the Sovereign Internet law allows the state to take IXPs (Internet Exchange Points) which allow communication with the global network, under closer control. How many of them are there?
АИ: Их около 30. Семь — это, наверное, только московские. На самом деле, есть ряд коммерческих провайдеров, которые в том числе предоставляют такой функционал. То есть, вы можете использовать его как IXP в пределах своего города, или вы можете купить полный транзит. Они не называют себя IXP, но фактически такими являются. IXP — это бизнес модель оператора связей. Очень долго власти хотели поставить под контролю московские IXP. Как всегда появляются новые правила, согласны которым интернет IXP должны регистрироваться. Закон про это написали, но в нерабочем виде. Проблем в том, что операторы, российские операторы или владелей автономной может получаться только за регистированием интернет-ексчейнджа. Но крупные, или даже средные или, с использованием транзитных операторов, даже маленькие операторы могут включаться к западному интернет эксчейнджам.
Формально получается, что для того, чтобы российские операторы могут включиться к западному интернету экчейнджу, они должны регистироваться. И если западный IXP хочет сохранить своих российских клиентов, он вроде как должен зарегистрироваться в Роскомнадзоре, и соответственно он обязан выполнить требования ФСБ. Как бы получается такая Уловка-22. С одной стороны, надо регистрироваться, с другой стороны, нельзя регистрироваться.
Возможно, идея реальных авторов закона (о суверенном Рунете) была заставить всех московских IXP регистрироваться, отключить от западных, и следовательно заставить покупать больше каналов от Ростелекома. Вот такой экономический момент.
AI: There are around 30 IXPs in Russia. The number seven probably means just those in Moscow. Actually there is a whole series of commercial providers who also provide that function. That means that you can either use it as an IXP within the boundaries of your own city, or you can buy full transit. They don't call themselves IXPs, but that's basically what they are. IXP or internet exchange is also a business model for telecommunications operators… And as always, new rules are appearing according to which they have to register in order to preserve their right [to provide that service.] A law was even written about it, but it can't be properly implemented. So what's the problem? The problem is that IXP operators, whether Russian or owners of their own autonomous IXPs, can only formally maintain access by registering as an internet exchange point. Nevertheless, large, medium, and even small operators can simply join a western IXP instead.
But formally, it turns out that in order for Russian IXP operators to stay connected to the western internet, they have to register with the authorities. And if the owner of a western IXP wants to keep his Russian clients, seemingly he also has to register with Roskomnadzor, and therefore comply with the requirements of the FSB. It's a kind of Catch-22. On the one hand, they have to register. On the other hand, they simply can't.
It's possible that the real idea of the authors of the Sovereign Internet Bill was to force all the Moscow-based IXP providers to register, disconnect them from western ones, and then make them buy more channels (for international internet exchange) exclusively from Rostelekom. There's an economic factor.
ME: This brings me onto a law passed this year which, interestingly, demanded that foreign owners hold no more than 20% of shares in Russian digital companies. Once that happened, Yandex's shares fell massively. And there are big parallels between similar laws passed concerning foreign ownership of television stations and print media. Do you see a parallel between legislation to control cyberspace today and legislation to control the press in the 2010s?
АИ: Нет, я думаю, что мотивация была иной. Когда дело дошло до «национализации» независимых СМИ, правительство осознало разницу рынков. Власти хотели контролировать всё, поэтому законы были целенаправленно приняты, чтобы независимые СМИ можно было продать Ковальчуку, НТВ, Национальной Медиа Группе и так далее. Но есть понимание того, что если сделать то же самое с цифровыми компаниями, это определенно остановит инвестиции в Россию и изгонит все интеллектуальные компании с большим доходом и квалифицированными специалистами. Так что в этом случае министр экономики заявил, что правительство не может контролировать всё, иначе рынок полностью рухнет. Политическое намерение могло быть таким же, но правительство осознаёт разницу.
AI: No, I think there was a different motivation. When it came to “nationalising” independent media, the government understood the difference of the market. They wanted to control everything, so these laws were definitely done to independent media to allow them to be sold to [the Russian billionaire, Yuri] Kovalchuk, to NTV, to the National Media Group and so on. But there is an understanding that doing the same thing to digital companies would definitely stop investments into Russia and would exile all intellectual companies with deep revenue in capital and skilled professionals. So in this case, the Minister of Economic Affairs has said that the government cannot control everything, otherwise the market will completely collapse. The political intention could have been the same, but the government understands the difference.
ME: There have been many, many new laws passed in recent months, such as banning the sale of digital devices without pre-installed approved software, more than doubling the fines against digital companies who refuse to hold user data on Russian territory, and so on. It seems to be a constant attempt to increase pressure, which has started to accelerate. Can we expect further legislation on digital rights over the coming year?
АИ: «Суверенный интернет» и прочие законы может постичь судьба закона Яровой, который просто не работает. Но не заставляйте меня предсказывать глупости. А, как мы видим, самые глупые законы исполняются. Посмотрите последние сообщения о введении запрета на Telegram. Жаров [глава Роскомнадзора] может сказать, что Telegram ухудшился на 25%, 35%, 75%, но он всё ещё работает. Но власти добавляют законов, всё больше и больше.
AI: The Sovereign Internet and these other laws could end up like the Yarovaya Law [on counter-terrorism online], which simply isn't working. But don't make me predict stupidity. As we can see, the most stupid laws are being enforced. Look at the recent reports about the implementation of the ban on the Telegram [messaging service]. Mr. Zharov [head of Roskomnadzor], can say that Telegram has degraded 25%, 35%, 75%, but it's still working. Nevertheless, they're still adding legislation, more and more.
ME: The journalist Andrey Loshak recently remarked that corruption and stupidity will be the main obstacles to the state's full control over cyberspace…
АИ: Да, безусловно! На форуме я говорил, что мы надеемся на коррупцию, потому что тогда деньги на эти инициативы будут украдены из бюджета, и власти ничего не будут реализовывать.
AI: Yes, definitely! I've said during this forum that we hope for corruption, because then the money for these initiatives will be stolen from the budget and then they won't implement anything.

author: Maxim Edwards


text:
A look at the 2020 Taiwan presidential election through an online poster design challenge · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Vote for democracy by Fan Gang-Hsin
Taiwan’s presidential election will take place on January 11, 2020, and, in order to encourage participation, Taiwanese netizens have started a poster design challenge through the hashtag #GraphicDesignForDemocracy.
Through the posters, people can take a closer look into the country's political history and the significance of democracy for Taiwanese people who lived under martial law (1949-1987) and white terror (1947-1990) for more than 40 years under the Kuomingtang-led government of the Republic of China (ROC), which fled to the island of Taiwan after it was defeated in 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War.
The Taiwanese only gained their right to vote for Legislative Yuan in 1992 and for president in 1996 after decades of struggle under military dictatorship.
The 2020 presidential seat will be contested by incumbent president Tsai Ing-wen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who is running for a second term, and Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomingtang (KMT), who sees the controversial One-China Consensus favorably.
The organizers began releasing the submitted posters on 22 of December. Below are five posters that reflect the Taiwanese's aspirations for democracy.
Fan's poster is a collage of photos from 1989, a year marked by mass protests in favor of democracy. The designer was born in 1989.
Poster by Fan Gang-Hsin. Used with permission.
Fan attached an explainer to his poster:
1989年出生的你我，今年30歲。
那年，世界的民主自由浪潮開啟了新的一頁。
1989.04.07
我們的鄭南榕前輩，為了爭取百分之百的言論自由，遭到國民黨侯友宜警官圍困在雜誌社內，最後拒捕自焚明志。同年，義士詹益樺用同樣的方式，追隨了南榕前輩的身影。
1989.06.04
在中國，數以萬計的人民於天安門廣場和平集會，爭取與政府對話，期望能有更開放自由的社會。卻被步槍子彈坦克刺刀無情輾碎。
1989.11.09
阻擋人民投奔自由的柏林圍牆倒塌，東歐民主化浪潮席捲而來。冷戰結束，蘇聯解體。世界開始迎來新的一波民主改革。
時至今日，
我們的民主還不成熟，還很脆弱。
敵人不再是槍砲坦克，變成了謊言、欺騙、操弄分化一再傷害我們得來不易的今天。而我們手中的每一張選票，都是我們對抗反民主自由者最大的武器。
2020.01.11 — Go VOTE
You and I were born in 1989. And this year we turned 30.
The year marks a new page for the world's struggle for freedom and democracy.
April 7, 1989
Our forerunner Cheng Nan-jung set himself on fire as the police attempted to break in his newsroom office to arrest him. He sacrificed his life for freedom of speech. On the same year, Chan I-hua followed his footstep.
June 4, 1989
In China, thousands of people gathered at Tiananmen Square demanding a more open and free society. But they were repressed by tanks and guns.
November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall, which blocked people from seeking freedom, has fallen. A new wave of democratic movements started in Eastern Europe. The Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disintegrated. It opened up a new page of democratic reform in the world.
Today, our democracy is not yet mature, it is still very fragile.
The enemy is not using guns or tanks, but lies and manipulation to divide us, to hurt what we had struggled for. Our vote is the strongest weapon to resist against the enemy of freedom and democracy.
2020.01.11- go vote.
For Lin, the ballot is like the pole star that brings hope:
Poster by Lin Pin-Hsien. Used with permission.
Here is the designer's message:
希望，從來不應該是以歧視謾罵，低俗的話語為出發點，也不該被亂用淪為信口開河，滿口胡言的代名詞。希望是不論在怎樣艱難與不安的情況下，永遠指引我們方向的北極星。希望是儘管面臨強大的挑戰與壓力之下，確保我們依然能以良知來行動的指標。真正的希望，從來就不能輕易得到，但現在，我們能用一種簡單的方式去爭取。
Hope has nothing to do with smearing and should not be used as an empty political rhetoric. Hope is the pole star that guides us through difficulties and distress. It is the conscience that helps us to make difficult choices. Hope is precious, but now what we need to do is simple.
Shi Su's poster includes tens of thousands of words gathered from news reports on significant political incidents in Taiwan’s struggle for democracy since 1947.
Poster by Shi Su.
Among the news reports Shi Su picked are:
The “228 incident” which took place on February 28, 1947. A Tobacco Monopoly Bureau enforcement team in Taipei violently confiscated smuggled cigarettes from a 40-year-old widow. The incident triggered a protest and a brutal crackdown which led to the death of thousands of civilians and the beginning of the “white terror” era.
The “Zhongli incident” which took place on 26 of November 1977. Ten thousand people protested against local election fraud which resulted in police repression.
The Formosa Magazine crackdown or the Kaohsiung Incident of December 10, 1979, when the KMT's military troop charged protesters who rallied to commemorate the International Human Rights Day.
The “May 19 Green Action” in 1986, which was the beginning of a movement calling for an end to martial law in Taiwan.
The “Taoyuan airport incident“, when thousands of DDP supporters gathered at the airport to welcome the return of opposition political leader Hsu Hsin-liang to Taiwan after years of exile.
The “Wild Lily student movement” from March 16 to 22 in 1990, when tens of thousand students gathered at the Liberty Square in Taipei demanding universal suffrage of the country's president and vice president.
The first presidential election on March 23, 1996.
As many of the voters have to travel back to their hometown to vote, Anmy Shine used the high-speed train as the background of her poster.
Poster by Anmy Shine.
The designer further suggested that the voter's ballot is a choice between protection of their homeland or giving in to China's authoritarian model:
乘上回家投票的車
或送往集中營的列車
A train for you to return home to vote
Or a train to bring you to concentration camp
KMT signed the One-China Consensus with China in 1992 and Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that Hong Kong's One Country Two Systems model would be applied to Taiwan.
Poster by Yun Zon Zen.
“What's the use of freedom? It is not rice and can't be eaten!” This is a common saying among the elderly in Chinese society as they view stability and prosperity as more important than democracy and freedom. Yun Zon Zen asserts that freedom can't be eaten with a rice bowl and stresses that the bowl can protect people from the swine flu, organ harvesting, patriotic education, and re-education camps.