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She Needs Justice: The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast · Global Voices
L. Finch

The Week That Was at Global Voices podcast takes a look at some of the stories that have recently come out of the Global Voices newsroom. This week, we introduce you to women seeking or achieving justice in Poland, Uruguay, Russia and Syria.
Many thanks to Kasia Odrozek, Fernanda Canofre, Isaac Webb, Marcell Shehwaro and Lara AlMalakeh and all our authors, translators and editors who helped make this episode possible.
In this episode, we featured Creative Commons licensed music from the Free Music Archive, including Please Listen Carefully by Jahzaar (CC BY-SA 4.0); Mario Bava Sleeps In a Little Later Than He Expected To by Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 4.0); City Night Line by Cobra (avec logo panthère) (CC BY-NC 4.0); Clover by Little Glass Men (CC BY 4.0); Vintage Frames by Kai Engel (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); and Am I The Devil (Instrumental) by YEYEY (CC BY-NC 3.0).
The feature photo in this story is of women and men wearing black as a sign of opposition in the #BlackProtest in Berlin. Photo by Kasia Odrozek, CC BY.
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author: L. Finch


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Some Japanese People Really Thought Haruki Murakami Would Finally Win the Nobel Prize This Time · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Caption: “Will Haruki Murakami win the Nobel Prize?” — Nobel Prize for Literature to be awarded this evening. Screencap from ANN News official YouTube channel.
On October 13, the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to American singer and musician Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
While many people celebrated Bob Dylan‘s achievement all over the world, some in Japan were left feeling disappointed by the news. Many thought this would finally be the year Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would win.
2016年のノーベル文学賞発表まで、あと12時間。さて、村上春樹の受賞はあるんだろうか？ https://t.co/ZS08XY5Nqj
— 村上春樹新聞 (@murakami_times) October 12, 2016
Just 12 hours until the 2016 Nobel Prize [in Literature] will be announced. Will Haruki Murakami receive the prize this year? — Murakami Haruki News [fan site]
Haruki Murakami is one of the most popular writers working in Japan today. Whenever Murakami releases a new book, it becomes a major cultural event in Japan:
村上春樹の新刊発売カウントダウン。行列凄くて、すごすご退散。 pic.twitter.com/suHtCkcZRT
— えこら (@eikoran) April 11, 2013
Countdown to the new Haruki Murakami book going on sale. The line is huge, so I guess I just have to give up [and go home].
Thanks to the fact his novels and short stories have been translated into at least 50 different languages, Murakami has developed a global following. Murakami has received numerous high-profile prizes in Japan and abroad, so a Nobel Prize in Literature would be the final achievement to cap off an extraordinary career.
In the lead-up to the announcement on October 13 by the Nobel Institute, Japanese TV network ANN reported that Murakami was the top-ranked favorite to receive the prize—and Bob Dylan wasn't even on the list of potential finalists:
Japanese television news report ranks likelihood of Haruki Murakami winning Nobel Prize. Screencap from ANN News official YouTube channel.
The Nobel Prize is held in high regard in Japan, which is home to the second-highest number of Nobel Prize winners after the United States.
Anticipation among Haruki Murakami fans ran high:
はい、どーも！ノーベル文学賞芸人の村上でーす！春樹でーす！
— HU N DO SHI (SSR) (@WoCrymore_) October 13, 2016
Why, thank you! The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Haruki Murakami! It's Haruki!
But it was not to be.
#ノーベル文学賞 発表の瞬間。会場には驚きと歓喜の声が。最初はスウェーデン語だったのですが「ボブ・ディラン」という名前だけは分かりました。 #NobelLiteraturePrize pic.twitter.com/Nc16c695V1
— 渡辺志帆　Shiho Watanabe (@shiho_watanabe) October 13, 2016
The moment the #NobelPrizeInLiterature was announced. The hall erupted in surprise and joy. The initial announcement was made in Swedish (sic), but I did make out the words”Bob Dylan”.
The anticipation of a Murakami win was so great that alumni from the Japanese author's old high school in Kobe were assembled to observe the Nobel Prize announcement over satellite link.
Tabloid Nikkan Sports reported that at least one attendee appeared to be confused about why Bob Dylan was awarded a prize for literature:
村上春樹氏母校ため息「ボブ・ディランは歌手やろ」 – 社会 @nikkansportsさんから https://t.co/xOIz6Qtz40 #ノーベル文学賞 #村上春樹 #ボブ・ディラン
— 日刊スポーツ (@nikkansports) October 13, 2016
A sigh passed through the audience at Murakami's old high school: “Isn't Bob Dylan a *singer*?”
Some Japanese Twitter users had a more cynical perspective on the annual hype surrounding a potential Haruki Murakami Nobel Prize:
ただ村上春樹が毎年今年は！ついに！ノーベル文学賞文学賞が！ついに！春樹に！ついに！！来ませんでしたーっていうゴチのピタリ賞みたいになってるのはなんか楽しいと思うからずっとやっててほしい（勿論いつか取れたらいいと思うが）
— えいな/ノル (@e_Li2CO3) October 13, 2016
“This is the year Haruki Murakami finally wins the Nobel Prize! He's finally going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature! It's going to be Haruki!”
But everybody seems to treat the Nobel Prize as if it were a game of musical chairs, with one lucky participant gets to claim a prize just for playing. (Of course, I think he should get the prize at some point).
For others, the pathos of what seems to be an annual exercise in disappointment has become darkly comical:
「今年こそ村上春樹がノーベル文学賞か!?」と一応煽ってからの落選という一連の様式美は、もはや伝統芸の域に達していると言ってもは過言ではあるまい。家に帰るまでが遠足ならぬ、持ち上げて落とすまでが春樹。すなわち、持上春樹。 #ノーベル文学賞
— Ga_Orio（学園さん@折尾） (@Gakuen_Orio) October 13, 2016
It's a beautiful, perfect arc that begins with, “Is this the year Haruki Murakami receives the Nobel Prize?” and invariably ends with him getting passed over.
The pattern [of hopeful expectation and crushing disappointment] is so predictable from year to year that it's not an exaggeration to say that “Murakami Nobel hype” become an art form in itself—it's an all-day excursion bookended by optimism and despair. […]
While some may be questioning the decision to award Bob Dylan, a songwriter, a Nobel Prize for literature, there is at least one Japanese Twitter who was happy with the result:
村上春樹の小説は全部読んでるし、本人が騒動にうんざりしてることも知っている。期待した人はみな自分のためなんだろう。ディランも全部聴いてるけど選考員はどうかな。春樹を母国語で読んだわけでもないだろう。賞は政治の一部じゃないか。歌が文学として評価されたのは素直に嬉しい。
— 佐藤龍一 (@RyuichiSato) October 13, 2016
I've read all of Haruki Murakami's novels, and I know the novelist himself really dislikes all of the hype [being made about his potentially winning the Nobel Prize]. The people who want Murakami to win are really just thinking about their own happiness.
I've listened to all of Bob Dylan's songs—I wonder if members of the Nobel committee have even listened to [everything Bob Dylan has done]. I know the Nobel judges likely have not read Haruki Murakami in the original Japanese.
So getting the Nobel Prize just seems like it's all about politics.
This year, I'm just happy that songwriting is being treated as literature.
Masae Okabayashi contributed to this piece.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nevin Thompson


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The U.S.’s Deportation of Haitians Shows That Asylum Applicants Are Far From Equal Under the Law · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Haitians in the commune of Port-de-Paix await the distribution of relief supplies following the earthquake that devastated the country in 2010. PHOTO: Daniel Barker (via Wikimedia Commons)
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” Yet many immigrants have found this statement to represent an unattainable ideal, rather than an actual policy.
Since September this year, the United States has been taking quiet steps to expedite the removal of Haitian immigrants entering the country.
According to Department of Homeland Security officials, newly arriving Haitian immigrants will be subject to “expedited removal” if they are unable to articulate a credible asylum claim. Expedited removal is a process through which individuals are detained, then ordered deported in a matter of days, often without access to legal counsel or an appearance before a judge.
Putting aside the United States’ longstanding and continual interference in Haiti, or the fact of the Caribbean nation’s astounding poverty, the treatment of Haitians seeking asylum is a case study in the failure of modern asylum law and practice. This includes rampant abuses at the border, the fast tracking of certain removal cases, and an overall lack of due process throughout the immigration system.
“The distinction between “migrants” and “refugees” is now at the heart of policy debates worldwide. As issues like climate change, regional violence and demographic challenges lead to global population shifts, the concept of exactly who deserves protection can and should be challenged.”
One simple example is the disparity between the treatment of Haitian asylum seekers and those from Cuba. As Ruth Ellen Wasem argued in a 2010 Congressional Research Report: “Both nations have a history of repressive governments with documented human rights violations. Both countries have a history of sending asylum seekers to the United States by boats.” Yet to this day Haitian immigrants are judged by very different standards compared to their Cuban counterparts.
For example, following the 1991 coup in Haiti the United States Coast Guard repatriated 538 Haitian immigrants. This was done without providing these individuals any opportunity to express their fear of returning to their country, as is required by international law. The repatriation occurred despite ongoing political repression inside the country, and in violation of the principle of non-refoulement under international law.
According to Wasem's report, during the period 1981-1990, 22,940 Haitians were intercepted at sea. Only 11 of them were considered eligible even to apply for asylum in the United States. The prevailing consensus at the time was that Haitians were simply economic migrants and did not qualify for asylum.
The distinction between “migrants” and “refugees” is now at the heart of policy debates worldwide. As issues like climate change, regional violence and demographic challenges lead to global population shifts, the concept of exactly who deserves protection can and should be challenged.
Asylum law in the United States is based primarily on the the 1951 Refugee Convention. Article 1 of the Convention, as amended by the 1967 Protocol, defines a refugee as:
“A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it…”
“Following the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the United States granted special temporary immigrant status to Haitians facing deportation, though never went so far as to grant them asylum.”
The connection to persecution on account of “race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” provide what is often referred to as the “nexus” between persecution and a protected ground. They have come to be known as foundational concepts in refugee law, but to what extent do they deny equal protection under the law?
The language and scope of the Refugee Convention were determined in the aftermath of World War II, and dealt primarily with the challenges faced by those left outside of their country of origin following the war. Yet these definitions have remained largely static over time, though over the last decades the concept of “particular social group” has expanded to include individuals who are victims of domestic violence or identify as LGBT.
What exactly constitutes a “particular social group” has largely been defined by various courts, and has been the subject of ongoing arguments and litigation. To identify those who qualify as “refugees”, however, varying criteria have been used.
For example, when the Organization of African Unity (OAU) adopted the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa in 1969, it provided the following criteria for identifying refugees:
“Any person compelled to leave his/her country owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality.”
Under this definition, individuals fleeing economic devastation, climate change, or regional war would be considered refugees, without having to identify with a particular social group or protected ground. This may prove crucial in the coming years, as environmental concerns emerge as a leading cause of displacement and migration.
A more inclusive definition for refugees would also safeguard against policies which accept or deny refugees based simply on their country of origin, without regard for their individual circumstances—a growing trend in parts of Europe.
Following the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the United States granted special temporary immigrant status to Haitians facing deportation, though never went so far as to grant them asylum. This all came to an end on September 22, 2016, ironically only weeks before Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc on Haiti, forcing another temporary suspension in deportations. Long-term relief, however, is nowhere in sight.
Events like the 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew should constitute a basis for humanitarian asylum, even if not recognized by the original refugee conventions. Does sending people back to a country that no longer has a working infrastructure and is facing famine and disease constitute justice? The law must evolve to reflect its true intent, which, in this case, is the protection of basic human rights and the cooperation among nations to protect those who are in need and in danger.
Those of us who are privileged enough to live in the wealthy countries of the world should continue to advocate for expansion of humanitarian policies. And we should dare to believe that there is room on this earth for cooperation, compassion and progress with regard to justice and asylum.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


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Trinidad & Tobago Opposition Member Slammed for Using Photos of Minors With Guns to Score Political Points · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Waterfront Complex in Port of Spain, Trinidad, where the country's parliament is currently located. Photo by DizzyNN (Own work), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On Tuesday October 11, as members of Trinidad and Tobago's parliament debated the national budget, opposition member Roodal Moonilal produced photographs of two teenagers holding machine guns and asked the country's attorney general, Faris Al Rawi, whether he “recognised these children”.
The inference, of course, was that the subjects of the photo were Al Rawi's children. The attorney general has not yet confirmed if this is the case, but did say that members of his family have done “threat assessment” training as part of security protocols for the families of state officials in high-risk positions.
Moonilal, however, has called for Al Rawi's dismissal, saying the situation depicted in the photo was a breach of the country's Firearms Act. As two other government ministers confirmed that the children in question were indeed Al Rawi's, Moonilal said, the attorney general “now has no moral authority to pronounce on criminal matters”.
Social media reacted immediately. Some Facebook users wanted Al Rawi to answer the question and confirm whether the children in the photos were in fact his. Others considered the matter a red herring that had no place in a budget debate. And yet others were incensed that a politician would use children as political pawns, and that the media found it acceptable to reproduce photos of minors, even with their faces obscured.
Attorney Justin Phelps commented:
A country is entitled to, and does, make its own values. We think it's ok to produce in parliament pictures of children? And the media republishing the photos? Obscuring the faces does nothing because you're identifying the children. You have to admire Al Rawi's restraint really.
As for the legality of the children having access to guns, Facebook user Dion Boucaud quipped:
So I've been listening to all the prattling going on about the laws of T&T being broken because two teenagers held weapons in an Army Camp whilst being supervised by trained Defence Force personnel. Well then I'm about to turn myself in. As a teenager and a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Cadet Force, I was trained in and used firearms on the range in La Seiva Maraval, in school at Trinity College, marched on the streets of Port of Spain on at least two Independence days whilst bearing arms, and even held one out to salute the Queen of England when she visited and drove past my position. Since many are adamant that there are no exceptions whatsoever to this law, I hereby apologize for violating the laws of T&T and I urge everyone who has ever served or currently serves as a Cadet to turn themselves in forthwith. Or …. is this all just bullshit?
There were also concerns about the source of the photo leak, with some convinced that it came from within the defence force. Phelps, in a later update, said:
It should worry you that there are state security people with political allegiances so influential that they would leak the pictures for political mileage. The implications of that might keep you awake at night.
Moonilal has insisted that the photos were found on Facebook.
Some social media users thought the affair highlighted the class divide in Trinidad and Tobago. On Facebook, Anderson Bridgelal remarked:
Al-Rawi ah want ah gun! Ah living in the ghetto!
Khemy Lalla added:
Have been saying for a long time that the SHEEP has [sic] been stumbling over themselves to position themselves amongst certain CLASS and ELITES in the society. Take a look at how that type of behaviour has resulted in the creation of the UNTOUCHABLES in the society, who believe that they and their children can do what […] they want and no one can do anything …
It's all a GAME …..
Others were simply saddened by the level at which politics is being played out in the country's parliament. Facebook user Jamilia Wallace explained:
I refused to mention the story on my timeline immediately because I wanted to hear both sides of the story. . .knowing that this is someone's children we're talking about and I have children of my own. I personally believe that though ppl have Parliamentary coverage they need to be more responsible and stop using the Parliament to score cheap political points. Yes it is a good sensational story and since bachannal [sic] is the order of the day it sells but things like these is [sic] wrong.
What made this most reprehensible he aimed to link this to ISIS.
Maria Rivas Mc put it this way:
A kinder man, with children of his own, would have had a quiet word with the parent, either directly or indirectly. It's more important to score political points. And, so it goes…

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Devastation of Hurricane Matthew Renews Talk of French Reparations to Haiti · Global Voices
Alex Abdelwahab

Service members from Joint Task Force Matthew and representatives from the United States Agency of International Development delivered relief supplies to areas affected by Hurricane Matthew to Jeremie, Haiti. Photo via the official U.S. Navy Page, from United States of America Capt. Tyler Hopkins/U.S. Navy [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
One week after Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti, many on social media are suggesting it's time for France to repay its debt to the country.
The Category-4 hurricane struck parts of the Caribbean nation on October 4, 2016, causing Haiti's largest humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake. The directorate of Civil Protection of Haiti have confirmed 473 deaths, 339 injuries and 75 people missing, while many international media reports have put the death toll at more than 1,000 people. A further 1.4 million people are in need of assistance and some bloggers have been sharing links for “organisations that are quietly doing good work in Haiti that does not line the pockets of multinational aid corporations,  or continue to fatten the Port au Prince elite.”
In the wake of the disaster, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has launched a flash appeal to raise US$119.8 million in emergency funding.
But the impact of the hurricane is also leading many people to ask whether France should provide financial assistance by finally repaying its colonial reparations to Haiti.
As Facebook user Mandy Dalton put it:
The Hurricane and the Earthquake were not the worst disasters to happen to Haiti. The worst disaster was manmade. Haiti is still dealing with the aftermath of a debt that it should have never had to pay.
Leondra Saintil added:
Hurricane hitting Haiti is heartbreaking. You know what would help? France paying the 21 billion $ it owes in reparations. Hmmmmm.
While Haiti is now known as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it was once the most profitable possession of the French Empire. Saint Domingue, as it was then known, traded extensively in coffee, cotton and sugar, among other exports.
Haiti declared independence in 1804, after leading a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection, and becoming the first country in modern times to officially abolish slavery. But it paid a heavy price for its freedom — 150 million gold francs, later reduced to 90 million gold francs — to compensate French settlers and slave-owners for their lost plantations.
This was a tremendous sum, and it crippled the country. In fact, it took until 1947 for Haiti to finish paying it off. In 2003, former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide estimated that the “independence debt”, as it has come to be known, was worth a modern equivalent of about US$21 billion, including interest. Other people have put the figure closer to US$17 billion. In fact, after the devastating hurricane in 2010, 100 artists and scholars signed a petition to try to force France to repay this amount “as reparations for a 200-year-old injustice.” At the time, France dismissed it.
Then in May 2015, the issue again drew international attention after French President Francois Hollande told an audience on the French island of Guadeloupe, “When I go to Haiti, I will, for my part, handle the debt that we have.” His aides later insisted he was referring to the moral debt, rather than a financial obligation. In his subsequent visit to Haiti, Hollande tried to side-step the issue by telling the country, “You’re not asking for aid, you want development.”
This exchange led to an outpouring of articles calling on France to finally compensate Haiti by paying back what it owed.
Since last week's hurricane, many netizens have been re-posting articles from that time, with many saying now is the time to revisit the issue.
Facebook user Sol DjVaselli Duverne put it even more simply, captioning his post with a simple “PAY UP.”

author: Alex Abdelwahab


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Iceland Is Trying to Elect Politicians Who “Know Who They Work For” · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

By Lawrence Lessig
Icelanders protest in January 2009 during the country's “Pots and Pans Revolution”. PHOTO: OddurBen (Own work) (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.
I’m in Iceland for the term—on sabbatical, with my family, giving my kids a sense of ~America, writing tons of law-geek stuff—and watching an amazing political battle brew in the upcoming parliamentary elections (October 29). Turns out, democracy has problems everywhere—except that here, an extraordinary citizens movement is doing something about it.
Some background: You’ll remember the financial crisis of 2008. That crisis hit Iceland hard. So hard that tens of thousands marched on the Parliament banging pots and pans (aka “The Pots & Pans Revolution”), and demanding change.
Some linked that crisis to a failure of Iceland’s constitution. And they responded to that failure by launching a process to crowdsource a new one. At first, the process was not connected to the government. But then the Parliament embraced the movement, and gave it form. A thousand people (randomly selected) would identify the values of the new constitution. Then a constitutional council would be elected to draft a constitution based on those values.
More than 500 ran. Twenty-five were elected. And for four months, they worked to draft a new constitution—in public, posting their version on Facebook, and taking comments from around the world. The Parliament then put the draft up for a vote (non-binding, asking whether there should be a new constitution “based on” the Council’s draft). Four years ago, more than two-thirds of those voting approved the draft. (Blueberry Soup is a wonderful documentary about the process.)
And then, amazingly, Parliament did nothing. The bill to adopt a constitution “based on” the draft stalled. Everyone (in Parliament at least) seemed to forget it.
But when the Panama Papers scandal broke, and the Prime Minister resigned, the people of Iceland were reminded that there was still a government to fix. And so an amazing citizens movement in Iceland started to develop, to press the issue to the center of these elections.
I’ve been able to watch this movement unfold. And as a “fix democracy first” sort of democrat, I’ve been watching with great admiration (and a bit of jealousy). The leaders of this movement are all non-politicians. There are politician heroes, too, like Birgitta Jónsdóttir of the Pirate Party, and Katrin Jakobsdóttir of the Left Greens, but the real activists here are not people running for anything. They are just citizens trying to get a government that knows for whom it works — because after four years of ignoring a referendum, that’s apparently an open question.
A few days ago they launched a social media campaign to frame this election around this issue. The message of the campaign is a clever remake of a familiar meme: “Can you [as in the Parliament] hear us [as in the people] now?” Four videos (two in English, two in Icelandic) set the terms of the debate, plus the first 2 of 10 (in Icelandic) discuss the top 10 problems the new constitution will solve. The English versions are below.
The campaign asks voters — “whether on the right or left”—to vote only for parties that commit “to making the ratification of a new constitution based on the draft of the constitutional council a priority in the next parliament.” So far, the four key opposition parties have made that commitment — the Pirate Party, Left-Green, Social Democrats, and the Bright Future party. There’s a great chance those four will constitute a majority in the new Parliament.
If this movement takes off, it has a powerful potential—in Iceland and internationally. The Icelandic Constitution Society (which is running the campaign) has promised to spend the money they raise on rallying Iceland to this cause. But anything raised beyond what’s necessary will go to democracy work internationally.
Imagine the frame of this campaign — Can You Hear Us—applied to democracies globally? (I’ve already reserved CanYouHearUs.US). My favorite line from the longer of their ads: “While we are local, democracy is global. Let’s show them what that means.”
This could be a rare victory for democracy reform this election cycle—and one that could inspire many elsewhere.
It’s already gotten me.
Lawrence Lessig is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. A version of this article was previously published on Medium. This edited version is published under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

author: Guest Contributor


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Meet a ‘Dreamer’ in the US Who Started His Own Company to Get Out the Vote · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Antonio Valdovinos, a “Dreamer” who started La Machine Field Operations, tries to get out the vote. Credit: Courtesy of Antonio Valdovinos
This report, written by Julia Franz and produced by Angilee Shah, originally appeared on PRI.org on October 7, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Of the approximately 27.3 million Latinos in the United States who are eligible to vote in the 2016 elections, it’s estimated that only about half of them — 13.65 million — will actually cast a ballot.
Speaking at a recent forum on the Latino vote in Arizona as part of Global Nation, PRI's project covering real-world stories of immigrants in the United States, Antonio Valdovinos said Latino voters in the area don’t feel engaged in the political system. And Valdovinos has spent a lot of time talking to voters, as he’s the founder of La Machine Field Operations, which works to get progressive candidates elected in Arizona and elsewhere.
Recently, Valdovinos spoke with an 18-year-old woman who told him she wasn’t planning to vote because she felt that the presidency was “predetermined.” That kind of apathy, he says, is heartbreaking. “It’s a very effective method of keeping young people from participating.”
At La Machine, an army of volunteers and organizers get the vote out by any means possible — registering voters, phoning eligible voters, and even, according to its website, collecting pledge-to-vote postcards at concerts.
But when Election Day rolls around in November, Valdovinos himself won’t be casting a ballot — his immigration status prevents it. Born in Colima, Mexico, and brought to the US when he was 4 years old, Valdovinos grew up undocumented in Phoenix, Arizona. After he graduated from high school, he wanted to join the Marines.
“My dream was being in the US Marines and serving this country,” he says. “I'd pledged allegiance ever since kindergarten.”
But at 18, when Valdovinos tried to enlist in the Marines, he was turned away; he was part of a generation of undocumented youth, or “Dreamers,” in the United States, whose hopes for legal residency and a path to citizenship were deferred when the Dream Act failed to pass the Senate in 2010.
Another option might have been college. But under Proposition 300, which passed in 2006, Arizona prohibited undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition. In an essay for Latino Giant, an organization that empowers Latinos in the US, Valdovinos writes that “as soon as I realized that I would not be able to afford attending college, I became politically involved here in my city with a city council campaign in district 5.” Democrat Daniel Valenzuela won big in that 2011 campaign, and outreach led to a five-fold increase in Latino voter turnout.
Valdovinos was hooked. He campaigned for more Democratic candidates, including Kate Gallego’s successful south Phoenix city council bid in 2013 and her husband Ruben Gallego's Arizona congressional campaign in 2014, for which Valdovinos served as field director.
In 2012, the Obama administration passed an executive action called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The policy allows some undocumented immigrants who entered the US as children, like Valdovinos, to work legally here.
“I'm a living embodiment of what action looks like,” Valdovinos says. “I received deferred action, DACA, from President Obama, which allowed me to get my first job, start paying taxes, and I started my own company, which now employs over 40 people.”
That company is La Machine. And in Arizona and across the US, there’s work to be done.
“The real work that's here at hand is to get more people to be part of the process, to elect better people into office,” Valdovinos says.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Upcoming Book Celebrates Citizen Journalism in the Deserted Syrian City of Daraya · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

YouTube
The news of Daraya's fall to the Assad regime on August 25, 2016, came as a blow to many Syrians and supporters of the revolution. Before the uprising began in 2011, and before it was besieged by the Assad regime, Daraya had up to 200,000 people, but since August 25, that number has fallen to nearly zero.
The reason why Daraya was such a powerful symbol is its legacy as the center of nonviolent activism against the Assad regime. This is why, when Daraya's residents arrived in rebel-held Idlib, they were greeted as heroes. One person reportedly told Mohammad Abou Faris, a refugee from Daraya, “You’re from Daraya, sir. You have everything. You’re our teachers.”
The Damascus suburb produced many well-known activists, such as Yahya Sherbaji and 26-year-old tailor Ghiyath Matar, nicknamed “Little Gandhi,” who said:
We chose nonviolence not from cowardice or weakness, but out of moral conviction; we don’t want to reach victory by having destroyed the country.
Both Sherbaji and Matar were arrested by the Assad regime on September 6, 2011. Sherbaji's fate is still unknown to this day, but Matar's was sealed only three days after his arrest. His body was returned to his family by the regime, with clear evidence of torture.
The fate of Daraya's activists, its suffering under the siege, and its eventual fall has turned it into a symbol of the war's horror and desperation. According to one group of journalists, however, it doesn't have to be this way.
Enab Baladi's issue Number 236, soon after Daraya fell. The title reads “Daraya Rests.” Source: Enab Baladi.
The group is called Enab Baladi, or “Grapes of my Country” in Arabic, and has been operating weekly since March 2011 with a single two-week interruption in late August 2012, when the Daraya massacre took place, resulting in more than 400 murders by Assad's forces, who also destroyed Enab Baladi's office.
Enab Baladi is among the most well-known free Syrian newspapers that were launched in the early months of the revolution, publishing mainly in Arabic but also in English. As such, it's a valuable resource to help the outside world understand the developments inside Syria since 2011.
Enter Sergio Perez. For the past nine years, he has been running Bósforo Libros, a tiny publishing house in Spain focused on the Palestinian struggle. Perez is now crowdfunding, via indiegogo and namlebee, to compile some of Enab Baladi's articles (and the group's story) in a book.
As he explains on indiegogo:
Syrian voices have been massively silenced in regard their own Revolution.
In Syria, they have been silenced by the brutality of a heinous regime which has resorted to the entire catalogue of human aberrations to uproot such voices.
Outside Syria, they have been silenced by the overwhelming indifference of the international community, and also by the permanent appeal to all those Western “experts” who explain Syria from their offices and laptops and who never allow Syrian voices, God forbid, to challenge the unblemished result of their analytical disputes.
With this crowdfunding campaign we aim to listen to Syrians. And we also want others to listen to Syrians. For this reason, we want to make a book telling the story of the Syrian uprising through the citizen chronicles published in Enab Baladi.
The book itself will be “directed” by Enab Baladi editors, who will select “the most significant pieces published by Enab Baladi’s citizen journalists.” The book will be freely available online—”totally free to read, download, upload, and distribute.” There will also be hardcopies for those who want to buy it on paper. As for how the money of the campaign will be used, the website says the operating costs are divided into three main areas:
- 1/3 of the funds raised will go directly to Enab Baladi. It is highly important that they keep publishing, and we want to contribute.
- 1/3 will be for paying translations. We want to publish the book in English and Spanish, the two most spoken languages of the world apart from Chinese. If we do not get enough money, the English edition will be prioritized.
- 1/3 will help to physically make the book (design, layout and printing), promote it as much as we can and sending paper copies to contributors. Promotion is essential for reaching a vast number of readers. We aim to organize speaking tours and presentations for Enab Baladi editors to share their first-hand accounts and experiences.
Enab Baladi released the following video explaining the book project:

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
A US City Recognizes Its Native American Past, Present, and Future · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Native Americans respond to “Christopher Columbus.” The video, produced by WatchCut Video, was originally published in November 2015, but circulated again on social media around Columbus Day 2016. Click the image to watch the video on YouTube.
This report by The World Staff originally appeared on PRI.org on October 10, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Denver, Colorado has joined the small but growing list of US cities that are done with Columbus Day.
Last week, the city council there voted unanimously to instead mark the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day.
Earlier this year, the City Council of Asheville, North Carolina voted to adopt Indigenous Peoples’ Day. So did Eugene, Oregon; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Boulder, Colorado; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Yakima, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; and the state of Vermont.
Native American activists have pushed for years to abolish the holiday because it celebrates the European explorer Christopher Columbus arriving in 1492 to “discover” a continent already populated by hundreds of indigenous peoples. The holiday and the man came to symbolize widespread colonization and the decimation of indigenous cultures in both North and South America.
Denver’s city councilors said their proclamation is part of this movement to honor Native Americans and recast the historic role that Columbus actually played some 500 years ago.
“Our city owes our very founding to the indigenous peoples in Denver,” City Councilman Paul Lopez said after the vote.
“We do this because our history books erase such history,” Lopez said. “You honor it by making it no longer invisible.”
Centuries ago, the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes used land and rivers around Denver for seasonal encampments. Today American Indians representing more than 100 tribes live in and around Denver.
“I'm very proud,” said Maymangwa Flying Earth, with the Denver American Indian Commission.
“I myself am Lakota, Ojibwe, and Akimel O'odham,” Maymangwa explained. “I feel proud that people are beginning to talk about what that means — to be an indigenous person. Residents of Denver probably remember that not so long ago there was a pretty forceful clash between those who support Columbus Day and those who didn’t.”
Maymangwa says the new holiday marks a victory and shows “that education and knowledge have taken hold in our city, and that we can change the narrative into something that honors and recognizes the contributions that indigenous people made.”
“I'm very proud that my daughter will have that as part of her experience growing up in a city that recognizes indigenous people.”
The new holiday in Denver is mostly symbolic. Most residents still have to go to work. Still, Maymangwa says the city’s decision shows attitudes are changing.
“History from his perspective is told by victor, and in our case the conqueror,” she said. “Colonial perspectives of our history do not work for us. They’re wrong.”


text:
Mobs, Memes, Meanings, and Minds: Meet Porto’s Medialab for Citizenship · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

futureplaces.org, ninth edition, October 18-22, Porto, Portugal. Free. Full program. Facebook page (and event). Twitter: @futureplacespt | #futureplaces
The city of Porto, Portugal, is nearly ready for the ninth installment of “futureplaces”—a convention that combines citizen labs, performances, presentations, and debate. The five-day event gets underway on October 18.
Culture, society, technology, and scientific research are the main components of this “medialab for citizenship,” which the University of Porto has organized in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin since 2008. This year, futureplaces returns to serve again as a workshop for engagement between citizens and the media.
The event, curated by Heitor Alvelos, invites attendees to think, talk and act, in the present, about ways to imagine the future, with a reconciliatory look to the past.
The program spans a wide variety of materials, ranging from a documentary exhibition about student movements from the 1960s and 70s at the University of Porto, to creative acts and collaborative potential today (addressed specifically by keynote speaker Patricia Aufderheide).
This year's futureplaces also features the usual doctoral symposium on digital media, as well as the launch of the University of Porto's digital museum and the screening of the film “147 Pianos” by Dolores Wilber.
Throughout the five days of the event, Radio Manobras Futuras will highlight the ongoing citizen labs and other activities such as a water-fountain project, concerts, and video games.
The theme of the convention embodies the event's spirit of curiosity: “mmmm,” or “mobs, memes, meanings, and minds.”
Activism is becoming difficult, enmeshed in its own simulation, confronted with what is often the opposite of its desired outcomes. Polarised models of intervention seem outdated: how can we now navigate?
Ephemera exhibition: Movimentos Estudantis na Universidade do Porto, 1968-1974. At UPTEC/PINC until Oct. 30
This year's futureplaces will look at the student revolts that took place a half a century ago under Portugal's dictatorship.
The exhibition “Student Movements in the University of Porto, 1968-1974” (curated by José Pacheco Pereira, in association with Ephemera, ID+, and Mira Forum), presents drawings, posters, pamphlets, and miscellaneous items documenting historical student movements and the ways in which clandestine information was disseminated in the last years of Estado Novo—the 40-year-long fascist regime that lasted until April 25, 1974.
The exhibition starts at Reitoria U.Porto (the original location of many student assemblies) on Tuesday afternoon, October 18, moving to the Creative Industries Center of the Science and Technology Park of University of Porto (UPTEC PINC), where the exhibition and most of the events take place.
At the same time as voices on the international political scene declare themselves ‘tired of experts’, science may well be an antidote to populism, the key to a healthier, more informed, more fulfilled daily existence.
Patricia Aufderheide, a communications professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and a founder of the Center for Media and Social Impact, will deliver a keynote speech, titled “Collaborative Creativity: How to Share the Challenge of Imagining the Future,” where she'll address issues that citizens are grappling with, like copyright and creativity.
Aufderheide's speech is part of the doctoral symposium, which is designed to bring together students and recent graduates of a joint doctoral program on digital media between the University of Texas at Austin and the universities of Porto, Nova de Lisboa, and Madeira. Participants will spend the whole day sharing presentations and having discussions about ongoing research.
Futureplaces will also welcome experts from a think tank who specialize in virtual reality, and feature some work developed by multimedia students at the University of Porto.
In the exercise of rescuing meaning among such a media-saturated environment, can the individual build a template that is of use to others, or is this exercise solitary, irreducible?
Throughout the event, “Citizenlabs” will bring together geeks, experts, artists, curious people, and ordinary citizens in a series of “do-it-together” practical workshops. These labs will experiment with areas of knowledge as diverse as “farm hacking,” copyright, and intellectual property (“copywrong”).
“An arcane technology of manual printing, originally used in student revolts at U.Porto in the sixties and seventies, is resurrected and put to use” in the lab Memórias do Copiógrafo, October 18, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. @PhDDesign studio / UPTEC PINC
Taking on the “Student Movements” exhibition, the “Mementos for a Better Future” lab will challenges participants to imagine the artifacts on display almost a century from now.
Futureplaces-goers can also “map their personal geographies” and go on “hunts for logos,” where they search for places the University of Porto's name has been inscribed on walls and surfaces around the city.
In the last day, right after “± Grande Comício MaisMenos ±,” the work developed throughout the labs will be presented at The Academy of Citizens.
How do we reconcile our age of instant random access to information, potentially amnesiac, with the very human call for wisdom? Is there a café somewhere where the Traditional Museum and Pokemon Go sit down for a chat?
The truly unusual scenes that have made past futureplaces events so memorable are on this year's program, as well.
Who doesn't recall 2015's “scientific-pop” concert or the lemon tree performance? Photo Luis Barbosa / futureplaces 2015 archive. Used with permission.
Imagine an old, dusty warehouse in Chicago, with 200 musicians—pros and amateurs of all ages—playing 147 pianos at the same time. The unique concert is featured in a documentary by Dolores Wilber that will be screened on Thursday night at Passos Manuel, followed by a talk with the director.
On Friday night, Arcade Room will occupy the basement with a gaming session whose audio will be routed live to the main auditorium as raw material for the Arcade Broom: a walk-in karaoke remix concert by Antifluffy.
A studio reconstruction of the sound recording of last year's closing concert, Gravitas, will also premiere on the last night of futureplaces. A note on the last piece of this year's edition sums up the motto of futureplaces: “an attempt to see and act further beyond the immediate digital allure,” an invitation to go “from rootedness to elevation.”

author: Sara Moreira


text:
Nigerian President Says First Lady ‘Belongs to My Kitchen’ and ‘The Other Room’ · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Nigerian First Lady Aisha Buhari. A Creative Commons image by Brendafash.
On a state visit to Germany last week, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari made a sexist comment about his wife, First Lady Aisha Buhari, saying, “I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.” The comments were made at a news conference attended by both Buhari and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Aisha Buhari criticized her husband's leadership and his appointments, saying she might not support his re-election.
“The president does not know 45 out of 50 of the people he appointed and I don't know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years,” she said. “He is yet to tell me but I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”
Garba Shehu, the president's spokesman, later tried to calm the waters, saying President Buhari was merely joking:
My friends, can't a leader get a sense humour anymore? Mr. President laughed before that statement was made.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) October 14, 2016
Many Nigerian Internet users remain skeptical, however.
Kola Tubosun, a linguist, was particularly unconvinced:
@GarShehu Hahahhaha-You're an idiot-hahahahaha.
— Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún (@baroka) October 14, 2016
Yomi said that the joke merely reinforced gender stereotypes:
Gender rights are still a huge issue in Nigeria. The president's comments were dangerous and reinforce many terrible stereotypes. What joke?
— Yomi Kazeem (@TheYomiKazeem) October 15, 2016
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's name came up because of recent revelations about his own past sexist comments.
If you're bored of Trump, here's a CURRENT world leader who says his wife's place is in the kitchen #sexism #nigeria https://t.co/EDDos3bdni
— Sophie Garratt (@SophGarratt) October 14, 2016
The online newspaper YNaija published an even more blistering commentary:
Beyond the hard bigotry of his comments lies something even more worrisome because it lies up there with the kind of unrestrained crassness as defined Donald Trump’s political philosophy of ‘grab ‘em by the pu__y’.
The president, in trying to silence, and ultimately humiliate his wife, said this: “belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room”.
While Nigerians, trying to cope with this tragedy by laughing rather than crying, have turned #TheOtherRoom into a trending hashtag, every adult of common sense knows exactly what room the Nigerian President was referring to, thinking he was sharing a ‘’locker-room’ joke: the bedroom. We always suspected our president was un-evolved, unsophisticated, and probably unable to absorb both complex emotion and information. But who would have thought that he was also, at the base of it – this man who positions himself as a paragon of virtue, introspection and personal discipline – crass?
Emeka said the comments are the views of the president and do not represent what all Nigerian men think:
Dear Angela Merkel, Buhari's view of his wife does not represent that of Nigerian men in anyway. He is on his own. Thank you.
— EMEKA (@EmekaEmezue) October 14, 2016
Other netizens disagreed, saying they consider Buhari's comments to be typical of most Nigerian men:
In this #Nigeria where old men marry 14-year-old girls and wives belong in the kitchen, wouldn't Trump win elections in a heart beat?
— Femke van Zeijl (@femkevanzeijl) October 14, 2016
Femke's view was echoed by Amara Nwankpa:
Do not forget that there are many important people in this country who still believe a 14 year old girl belongs in #TheOtherRoom.
— Amara Nwankpa (@Nwankpa_A) October 14, 2016
Recently, a traditional ruler in north-eastern Nigeria “married” a 14-year-old girl.
Rita expressed same sentiment about PMB (President Muhammadu Buhari):
Did PMB goof? Yup
Should one be vexing? Not sure.
What guy did was put an amplifier & magnifying glass on the thoughts of many Nigerian men.
— Rita C. Onwurah (@RitaOnwurah) October 15, 2016
Somi Ekhasomhi noted that the president should be held responsible for his comments, rather than using it as an excuse to chide others:
I'm seeing people that dont want to criticise Buhari. Instead they are using him as point of contact for “all Nigerian men.”
— Somi (@SomiEkhasomhi) October 14, 2016
There were also jokes galore, of course:
Mrs Osibanjo: Yemi,Where do I belong?
PYO: Right here, by my side,darling. pic.twitter.com/5Rl7mJJxVX
— S. (@smugdisguise) October 14, 2016
(PYO is Professor Yemi Osibanjo, the vice president of Nigeria.)
Another Twitter user referred to Atiku (Abubakar), a former Nigerian vice president:
Expect a tweet from Atiku tomorrow inside the Kitchen wearing Apron telling us how his hobbies include cooking Jollof Rice. 😭😭😭
— Óga (@BrownKaftan) October 14, 2016
Sam Hart said he regrets that the sexist comment will overshadow the real gains of the visit to Germany:
Sad thing is that this story will overshadow whatever he went there for. https://t.co/jUsZEAWM3n
— Sam Hart (@hartng) October 14, 2016
President Buhari, meanwhile, has refused to apologize:
VIDEO | Buhari Doubles Down, Insists His Wife Aisha Belongs to the Kitchen pic.twitter.com/20kj7FGUdf
— SIGNAL (@thesignalng) October 16, 2016
The newspaper YNaija calls the whole affair “truly frightening”:
A journalist from Germany’s Deutsche Welle gave him an opening, and just in case we didn’t hear him clearly on Friday, Buhari responded by saying that the kitchen and living room are a woman’s responsibility even if she has a job – capping it off by saying Aisha Buhari’s responsibility is to look after him.
He did not attempt to play down his comments by calling them a poor attempt at humour, even though that is probably what his media team advised given the backlash. He did not think he needed to. Because he believes he, the wisest of them all, is right.
By confirming his initial remarks, Muhammadu Buhari has shown that he is exactly like America’s openly misogynistic presidential candidate, Donald Trump. And that is truly frightening.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
A Hong Kong Lawmaker Raises Suspicions With His Surprisingly Swift Renunciation of UK Citizenship · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hong Kong law maker Chu Hoi Dick has flown to London to confront the British Home Office concerning its alleged favoritism in processing pro-Beijing lawmaker Andrew Leung's nationality renunciation. Photo from Standnews. Non-commercial use.
In Hong Kong, lawmakers from the city's pro-democracy and pro-Beijing camps have been competing over the last few weeks for the presidency of the Legislative Council following elections in September. The pro-Beijing camp has the majority in the Legislative Council, and pro-Beijing legislator Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen eventually won the position.
But it was a victory steeped in controversy because of Leung's British nationality, which he managed to renounce in a short amount of time, leading some opposition lawmakers to speculate that the UK government unfairly prioritized his case.
According to Hong Kong’s constitution, called the Basic Law, only 20% of the legislative councilors can hold foreign passports. The legislature is divided between seats directly elected by the people and seats elected by professional or special interest groups, called functional constituencies, and Legislative Council election law only grants 12 functional constituency seats the privilege to retain foreign nationality. All candidates who decide to contest a seat in the Legislative Council have to declare their nationalities, and those who are not in the 12 designated functional constituencies have to give up their foreign passports in order to run for the election.
Leung represents the industrial functional constituency, and his seat is one of those 12 functional constituencies. But the president of the Legislative Council isn't allowed to have a foreign passport, meaning Leung had to renounce his UK citizenship — and fast.
He remained a British national until September 30 as indicated in a copy of the Application to renounce British citizenship, or Form RN, presented to the Legislative Council during the presidential election on October 12. According to the copy, the application date was September 22 and the declaration was signed and stamped by the UK's Home Office on September 30.
Andrew Leung's copy of Form RN displayed to the press on October 12. Image from Jacky Lim's blog.
A blogger, Jacky Lim, raised a series of questions concerning Leung's Form RN:
經過多番考證，Form RN 嘅 Processing time 一般要12-14週，有記錄的最快最快都接近六星期，先會收到HOME OFFICE 寄回確認文件。那麼點解梁君彥可以前後9日 (9月22日-9月30日) 就可以完成手續?
I have checked with a number of sources, and the processing time for Form RN generally takes 12-14 weeks. The fastest record is nearly six weeks, before the applicant received confirmation from the Home Office. How come Andrew Leung can finish everything in nine days (September 22 to September 30)?
HOME OFFICE 要收申請表正本連同本護照，即係一定要寄過去。梁君彥响9月22日填表，假設用DHL或UPS或FedEx或特快專遞，都要最快9月23日中午先至去到HOME OFFICE，再經內部傳遞去到負責嘅職員手上。不過9月23日係星期五，即係職員最快响9月26日朝早返工先開始處理梁君彥個申請。[…] 四日時間就能完成 Form RN 審核，實在太匪夷所思!
According to requirements, the application form and the passport have to be sent to the Home Office together. Andrew Leung filled out his form on September 22. If he used express mail like DHL or FedEx, the set of documents could only be delivered to the Home Office around mid-day on the 23rd at the earliest. Then it had to go through internal mailing before it was delivered to the processing staff. But September 23 was a Friday, which means the staff could only handle the application on the morning of September 26 at the earliest…the processing of Form RN in four working days [in reality, it's five working days as the copy was stamped on September 30] is too incredible.
暫撇除「四日Processing time」嘅疑團。如果跟足程序，HOME OFFICE 應該是在9月30日pack 好晒啲文件然後寄DHL 嚟香港 […] 10月1 – 2日是星期六、日，10月3日就會派件去到梁君彥手上。而立法會主席提名期Deadline 是10月5日。即是話佢根本有足夠時間公開披露份Form RN，唔駛搞到依家咁大件事。點解當日唔Show 出嚟呢? 又或者，既然照計文件正本已經到手，點解要响10月12日先至突然間話收到呢封信，仲要只係「影印本」?
Putting aside the four days’ processing time issue. The Home Office should have had all the documents ready and shipped back to Hong Kong on September 30. […] Given that October 1 and 2 were a Saturday and Sunday, Andrew Leung should have received the package by October 3. The deadline for the nomination for Legislative Council president was on October 5, he should have been able to present the Form RN and save all the trouble. But he did not show the form? If he had the original on hand, why did he suddenly declare that he received a copied version of the Form RN?
英國內政部對於國籍申請從來都非常嚴謹。內政部基於乜嘢理據特事特辦到將梁君彥嘅退籍申請審核時間濃縮最少10倍?
梁君彥响提交Form RN 時有無夾附一份信件說明來由? 如果有而假設信件內容提到就係「因為要參選立法會主席」，HOME OFFICE 係咪可以視之為合理理據加快審批，我是非常懷疑。又假設HOME OFFICE 真係接納，即是變相英國政府介入香港政治?! 中共唔係成日話「不得外國干涉中國內政」嘅咩? 梁君彥「勾結外國勢力介入『中國內政』[…]
The British Home Office is rather careful in handling nationality matters. Under what circumstances did the Home Office decide to provide special treatment to Andrew Leung and speed up the processing time to 10 times faster than usual?
When Andrew Leung submitted his Form RN, did he also attach an explanation? If the explanation was just that he had to “run for the Legislative Council presidency” I doubt if the Home Office would consider that justifying the privileged express processing procedure. If we assume that the Home Office really accepted the explanation, does that mean the British government was directly intervening into Hong Kong political affairs? The Chinese Communist Party keeps saying that foreign powers should not intervene into China’s domestic affairs, Andrew Leung’s act can be viewed as hooking up with a foreign power to intervene into Chinese internal business…
Since Andrew Leung has refused to answer questions about the process, newly elected lawmaker Chu Hoi Dick departed to London on October 16 to follow up on the matter. He pointed out in a press statement that if the British government had indeed given Leung special treatment under pressure from Beijing, that would be a violation of the “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” principle in the Sino-British Joint Declaration between China and the UK, which handed control of former British colony Hong Kong back to China in 1997. That declaration stipulated that Hong Kong would retain its previous capitalist system and its way of life for the next 50 years:
我們認為，保守黨政府在北京的壓力下，以極端效率和不正常行政手段，以確保梁君彥能夠及時處理國籍放棄手續，實質上地介入香港立法機關的主席選舉，影響香港立法機關的自主，甚至違反關乎《中英聯合聲明》中港人治港的基本承諾
We believe that the British Government, under the Conservative Party, experienced pressure from Beijing when processing Andrew Leung's application to renounce his British nationality given its extremely efficient and extraordinary administration procedures in order to make sure that he managed to renounce his nationality on time. This is a substantial intervention in the Legislative Council president election in Hong Kong and will affect the autonomy of the law-making body. Such an act has violated the promise of “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” under the “Sino-British Joint Declaration”.
The question of his British nationality aside, the choice of Leung for Legislative Council president was controversial for other reasons. Leung's functional constituency only has 543 registered voters, whereas other pro-Beijing lawmakers have more of a popular mandate. Michael Tien Puk-sun and Paul Tse Wai-chun both were elected directly with tens of thousand votes from their districts and expressed interest in running for the legislative presidency, but Beijing’s representative in Hong Kong, the China Liaison Office, preferred Leung, who has the mainland government's blessing and has been a lawmaker representing the industrial sector since 2004.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
A Japanese Artist’s Highly Realistic Paper Sculptures Are Coming to the US · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screencap from Chie Hitotsuyama “Paper Trails” promotional video / aPR Creative Marketing Management YouTube channel.
“My animal sculptures, made from an accumulation of newspapers, might perhaps be portraying ourselves and our lives, on many levels,” says Chie Hitotsuyama. The Japanese artist is embarking on her first tour of the United States, with four exhibitions running concurrently in different parts of the country until January 2017. She will also be an artist-in-residence at the MOAH:CEDAR in Lancaster, California during that time.
Hitotsuyama creates objets d'art using paper mache techniques. Her subject are animals, and her paper creations are highly realistic, and often occupy an entire room.
When a piece of paper is rolled up, Hitotsuyama says, it increases its strength, and by gluing together one by one and side by side she can carefully form contours and curves with each single string.
In an artistic statement published JAI & JAI, a gallery in Los Angeles, Hitosuyama explains her approach to making artwork out of paper:
Newspapers come out everyday and at the same time, are thrown out everyday. This cycle repeats rebirth and death whilst carrying our memories. This, I felt, is so similar to humans who also repeat their own histories and experience the cycles of life and death.
#chiehitotsuyama exhibit opens Oct 2 at #moahcedar sponsored by #latimes @latimes lancastermoah.org
A photo posted by Museum of Art & History (@moahlancaster) on
Prior to her current American exhibition, Hitosuyama, who is based in Shizuoka, near Mount Fuji, had already earned recognition for her art in Japan.
全部、新聞紙で出来てるそう
造形作家の一ツ山チエさんの作品です pic.twitter.com/RN4DhhHtdS
— ももん (@ff_mon) October 25, 2015
All of her creations are made from newsprint. Here are a selection of Hitotsuyama's work.
Hitosuyama comes from a part of Japan that has long been associated with papermaking:
富士山紙フェアで、地元のアーティスト、一ツ山チエさんの作品
新聞紙のこよりで出来ています pic.twitter.com/hCY52gC4Sa
— mumin (@MuminTa623) October 25, 2015
At the Mount Fuji Paper Fair [note: there are many paper mills in northeastern Shizuoka, at the foot of Mount Fuji], local artist Chie Hitotsuyama is exhibiting creations made out of paper.
Her creations approach a level of realism that seems to capture the soul of her animal subjects.
一ツ山チエさんの個展へ(o^^o)
全部新聞紙で出来てます！とても好きな作家さんpic.twitter.com/6ObhPHEf6D
— Shinohara Namiko (@naichip) December 11, 2015
I'm at a Hitotsuyama solo exhibition (o^^o)
Everything is made from newsprint. I really love this artist.
Exhibitions of Hitotsuyama's art will be shown in concurrent installations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Lancaster and Miami until January 2017.
It begins!! #installation of 'Paper Trails' by @hitotsuyama.studio Chie Hitotsuyama!! Opening reception Saturday, September 3, 6-9pm! Come join us!!! #losangeles #asianjournal #latimes #jainjaigallery #stussywomen #papertrails
A photo posted by Jai & Jai Gallery (@jai_n_jai) on
For more information, see the Hitotsuyama Studio Facebook page. More examples of Hitotsuyama's paper mache artworks can be seen in this provincial video for her American tour:
As well as on the artist's website:
Screencap from Chie Hitotsuyama website.


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An Animated Video Explains the Powers of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A screenshot of the animated video.
The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation and British human rights organisation Article 19 have produced an animated YouTube video about the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is a continental court established by African countries to ensure the protection of rights in Africa. The Court complements the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. While the African Commission only gives recommendations, the Court's decisions are binding.
The Court was established under the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. According to the video, as of September 2016, only 30 countries have ratified the protocol.
The video points out that the Court has already made two major decisions relating to freedom of expression in Africa. In 2014, the Court ruled that imprisonment for defamation violates the right to freedom of expression. In the same year, the Court ordered a reopening of the investigation into the killing of Burkinabe investigative journalist and publisher Norbert Zongo.
The artist who worked on the animation is a Venezuelan named Juan Carlos Hernández Ramirez.
The video is also available in French and Arabic.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Did Hong Kong Just Reveal What It Really Values With Controversial Award? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Photo: Pixabay
This year's selections for the Ten Outstanding Young Persons program have been controversial in Hong Kong. The program, sponsored by Junior Chamber International, is designed to recognize young people who have contributed to society and performed as role models. Though there were more nominations this year than usual, just five people won the award—the fewest in 15 years. And one of the winners, Fonia Wong Leung-fong, is a 40-year-old billionaire.
Wong, an investment manager, said at the awards ceremony that her one dream in life was to become wealthy. She told the crowd that she bought her first apartment property in 2004 at the age of 27, and paid off her mortgage within two years. Today, she is a billionaire.
While in college, she says she earned HK$30,000 (about US$3860) a month through “multilevel direct selling” (a controversial marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople they recruit), boasting that she spent nothing on entertainment and recreation, except for a handful of visits to the theater and concert hall over an entire decade. In her speech, Wong urged young people to follow her example and work “four times harder than the average person.”
A local media outlet later revealed that Wong bought her first property in 2003 during Hong Kong's SARS outbreak, when the local economy collapsed. When the disease scare passed, the value of her real estate skyrocketed more than 350 percent, making her a millionaire.
During and after the SARS outbreak, the public in Hong Kong developed an acute dislike for profiteers.
Beyond SARS, the timing of Wong's success in real estate is generating bad blood for other reasons, as well. In the past decade, Hongkongers’ median income has risen about ten percent, but housing prices have jumped over 300 percent.
Reporters and social media users have also taken an interest in Wong's close relationship with Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, a chief jury member of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons program. Ting-yuk says he declared their relationship and abstained from the voting process, but public suspicions about his influence on this year's awards haven't abated.
For more than a week, social media has buzzed with criticisms of Wong's award and her victory speech. Search for her name on Facebook, and these are just some of the harsh comments you'll find:
當朋友都只係自己上位既工具，真係好想知佢個世界除左自己仲有冇其他人其他事係值得佢唔用錢黎衡量。
Seeing friends as her stepping stone, is there anything in this world that she won’t deduce it into monetary terms?
講咁多認屎認屁錢錢錢，攞傑青咪又係靠關係，我真係恭喜你呀屌
So much talk boasting about her success in making money, eventually it's all about relationships. I really congratulate you…WTF.
Some writers, however, argue that Wong's story embodies what society truly rewards. Robin Wilde, a writer from citizen media PolymerHK, wrote with sarcasm:
傑青獎的評選機構很誠實，終於將香港人心中對「傑出」的真正定義公然道出：「有樓就傑青，冇樓就廢青」。什麼「對社會有傑出貢獻」、「作社會之楷模」，都是聽起來悅耳的垃圾，不值一哂。
The jury of the TOYP is very honest and finally speaks the true definition of “outstanding” in the eyes of Hong Kong people: “If you have property, you are outstanding. If not, you are a loser.” All other criteria like “contributions to society,” or “being role model for society” are just euphemisms and not worth mentioning.
Lam Long Yin, a student activist, echoed in similar tone:
這位黃女士，不過比任何人更誠實、更無所顧忌地說出香港這個地方，最大最唯一的價值：錢。
理想中，從來不應以收入、地位高低來評斷一個人；但現實世界，特別在香港這個「國際商業社會」，一個人多有「才」難以估量，一個人多有「財」才是實質指標。
This Ms. Wong is just more honest than others. She speaks without reservation about the only value in Hong Kong: money.
Yin then elaborates:
首席評審胡定旭，當年唐營要人，特首選舉後華麗轉身表態效忠，會計師出身，卻曾被裁定專業失當停牌兩年，典型香港醒目仔也。
評審王英偉，建築商出身，現時任金沙中國ceo，對，賭場那個金沙，任藝術發展局主席(哈哈哈)，早年被指用公帑捧自己的「明星」兒子王梓軒。
評審黃玉山，公開大學教長，被指為深紅梁粉、地下黨員(本人否認)，人大代表；馮婉眉，銀行公會主席；雷添良，執業會計師；彭耀佳，總商會主席。
由這批人去判斷誰是「傑出」，那選出來一個黃仰芳，不是非常合理嗎？
The chief jury is Anthony Wu. He was a key person behind Henry Tang [before the Chief Executive selection in 2012], but after the election, he quickly expressed loyalty [to the winning Chief Executive CY Leung]. He was an accountant but his license had been suspended for two years due to misconduct, a typical smart guy in Hong Kong.
Jury Wong Ying Wai, originally from the construction business sector and currently the CEO of Sands China [a Casino developer in Macau] and the Chair of Hong Kong Arts Development Bureau (hahaha). A few years ago, he was criticized for using the public revenue for helping his “pop singer” son Jonathan Wong. Anita Fung, Chair of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.
Jury Wong Yuk-shan, principal of Hong Kong Open University. He was publicly known as CY Leung’s hardcore supporter, a CCP member (he denied) and a Hong Kong representative of the Nation People Congress of the PRC; Tim Lui, accountant [Lui is also Chairperson of Education Committee and Hong Kong representative of the National People Congress of the PRC]; Pang Yiu Kai, Chairperson of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
It is totally reasonable that Wong be elected with such a jury composition.
Last year, the program's judges panel selected local theater director Banky Yeung Ping Kei, who had actively participated in the pro-democracy protests in 2014. Yeung even criticized the current chief executive, CY Leung, in his award speech.
This year, the judges panel avoided such politically controversial figures. Aside from Wong, the juries also awarded four outstanding candidates without mainstream or pro-establishment credentials, including Edward Choi Man-lik, a laboratory scientist based in Sierra Leone and Britain.Man-lik worked on the front lines during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.


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How High Homicide Rates Affects Women from Low-Income Communities in Brazil · Global Voices
Giovane Batista

A group of women protest in Rio de Janeiro at the state government palace after five young black men were murdered in November by police officers in what became known as the Costa Barros massacre. The mother of one of them, Joselita de Souza, died in July — according to her family, of depression. Photo: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil, CC-BY 3.0
Doctors say Joselita de Sousa died of cardiorespiratory failure. But her family says she died of depression. Two weeks before her death, the police officers responsible for her unarmed black teenage son's death were released from prison on a court order.
The portrait of homicide victims in Brazil consists of men, young, black or part-black from low-income families. But Joselita's case illustrates another picture: women whose names do not appear in official homicide statistics, but are systematically victimized by the structural violence in their country.
Justice for Joselita, and women like her, is increasingly being fought by other women. For the last ten years, the Mothers of May have become a significant force in Brazil fighting against police violence and offering support to women directly affected by it.
Only days after her death, Joselita was remembered at Black July, a three-day gathering, organised by different Brazilian social movements including Mothers of May. A delegation from the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States also attended. Joselita was remembered during a discussion about mental health of black communities affected by violence. Waltrina Middleton, a Black Lives Matter activist, said:
The normalcy of gunshots, living with the gunshots, living with the brutality, is enslavement. It’s trauma. It’s suffering against our souls. It is important for you to break the chains of oppression and to fight back, to be conscious of the statistics that impact your community and to support each other
Seven months before Joselita's death, her 16-year-old son Roberto was out celebrating his first pay check with friends when four police officers fired over a hundred bullets at their car. All five black teenagers from a poor Rio de Janeiro suburb were killed. They were unarmed when the so-called Massacre of Costa Barros happened. The police later said they were after a group of cargo thieves. Court proceedings revealed that the police also tried to manipulate the crime scene to make it look like they acted in self-defense.
After her son's brutal murder, Joselita started attending psychological counselling sessions at the State Department of Social Welfare, but her family says she abandoned the treatment as she had no money for the bus fare. Her heart gave out on July 5, soon after she had also been diagnosed with pneumonia and anemia.
Meus pêsames aos familiares e amigos de Joselita de Souza, mais uma mãe negra suicidada pela violência estrutural deste país traumatizado.
— Jaqueline Jesus (@JaquelineJsus) 10 July 2016
My condolences to the relatives and friends of Joselita de Souza, another black mother killed by the structural violence of this traumatised country.
NEWS 8 months after son was killed in #CostaBarros slaughter, Joselita de Souza passes away https://t.co/JmGjzIBJ6W pic.twitter.com/W1mXrC6US7
— RioOnWatch Wire (@RioONWire) 10 July 2016
The latest version of the Brazilian Violence Atlas, an annual report published by the Applied Economic Research Institute (IPEA) and the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, reveals that 58,946 people were murdered in Brazil in 2014. Those nearly 60,000 deaths represent 10% of all homicides taken place in the world in 2014. With a national average of 29.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, the report puts Brazil among the 12 countries with the highest rates in the world. To compare, in the United States, the homicide rate in 2014 was of 4.5, according to statistics by the FBI.
Homicides in Brazil affect certain demographics more than others. For example, the homicide rate for men in the age range of 15-29 years old is 61 per 100,000 inhabitants — well above the national average. Stark differences arise when considering race: the rate among black individuals is 37.5 per 100,000 while for non-blacks (which includes both whites and indigenous peoples) is 15.6.
Researchers and violence experts such as Daniel Cerqueira (IPEA) and Atila Roque (Amnesty International) have studied why so many people die from murder in Brazil and how this affects so many black and low-income women.
For low-income households, the loss of a masculine figure between 25 and 35 years old also represents the loss of a significant part of the family income and an increase in psychological problems like depression and anxiety disorders. For women, this means early widowhood, the absence of partners in particular social groups. The loss of the male component frequently forces women to interrupt their studies and generates an enormous social disadvantage for them.
According to the World Bank, there are more women than men living in poverty. The prevalent form of economic globalisation accentuates social inequalities and consequently boost typical problems of a society in which women are very dependent on men, especially in a low-income population.
Many researchers also point out that there is an absence of effective public policies to support women who have lost fathers, husbands, and children for murder.
The destiny of thousands of Brazilian women shows how a country strongly guided by the market economy that meets the needs of higher-income sectors and ignores problems of the lower classes keeps its citizens in a disadvantaged competition.
In an article for the book Origens e Destinos (Origins and Destinations), which explores issues on social inequality in Brazil, sociologist Ignacio Cano projects the effects a high homicide rate of men might have in the future demographic composition of Brazil. For him, this will lead to a “gender imbalance in the population”, which in turn will have consequences to family structures — for example, an increase in households headed by women.
A drawing cartoonist Carlos Latuff made for the Movement Mothers of May. Illustration: Carlos Latuff, used with permission
Headed by women, Mothers of May, has been at the forefront of all high profile cases of police brutality in Brazil for the past 10 years. In early October, Mothers of May staged a major demonstration against the annulment of the trial of the Carandiru massacre, when military police stormed the Carandiru prison following a riot, killing 111 inmates. On September 27, São Paulo's state court decided to annulled the trial, which was to this day still ongoing, of the 74 law enforcement agents pointed as responsible for the massacre. The movement has embarked in many court battles to demand accountability by police's allegations of self defense that resulted in death.
The movement was born after a spike in police killings in May 2006 to unite family members of the victims of the police killings. That year, there was a confrontation between the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction and police officers. After the PCC conducted a series of attacks on police officers, paramilitary death squads — formed by off-duty police officers — paid back with blood. Curfews were put into place, buses, shops and whole universities shut down São Paulo. In the end, 564 people were killed in the span of a week, 505 of them civilians. Crime scenes were altered, many bodies never found. A majority of civilian deaths were perpetrated by state agents rather than the PCC.  And while justice for the victims of 2006 is still pending — to this day, nobody ever stood trial for the crimes — the Mothers of May keeps on giving names and faces to the cold homicide statistics in Brazil. In 2012, they self-published the book “From grief to fight: May Mothers”, telling the stories of the victims and families who have been killed by the police violence in 2006. Their organisation gives hope for justice to mothers like Joselita.

author: Giovane Batista


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WhatsApp and Viber Blocked on Election Day in Montenegro · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

“Believe it or not, this is an polling station Komarno in the city of Bar“, tweeted the Center for Democratic Transitions. Photo by CDT, used with permission.
Parliamentary elections in Montenegro on 16 October 2016 were marred with allegations of irregularities, reported via social networks, and a temporary ban on WhatsApp, Viber and similar messaging apps.
The regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services ordered telecom operators to prevent the use of messaging applications. The Agency reasoned that the ban was intended to keep users from receiving “unwanted communication,” an official designation for spam that could also apply to mass messages sent on behalf of specific candidates or political parties.
The agency's executive director Zoran Sekulić refused to respond to questions from Vijesti newspaper about the reasons for this decision. In a later report published by Vijesti, they described their phone call with Sekulić:
“Ko je vama dao pravo da me zovete. Zovite me sjutra u 8 sati. Ko vam je dao pravo da me uznemiravate”, poručio je Sekulić. Ni nakon ponovljenog poziva, Sekulić nije htio da objasni građanima odluku Agencije i kazao je da “ne daje izjave “Vijestima””.
“Who gave you the right to call me? Call me tomorrow at 8 am. Who gave you the right to harrass me,” Sekulić said. After a second call, he still refused to explain the decision of the Agency and said that “he doesn't give statements to Vijesti.”
The website of the Center for Democratic Transitions (CDT), the leading Montenegrin election observation NGO, was under attack during the election day, and inaccessible during the afternoon and evening.
Discussions about the elections took place on social media, where citizens shared information about the elections in local Slavic languages using the hashtag #IzboriCG (Elections Montenegro) and the country name #CrnaGora, as well as in English via the equivalent hashtags #ElectionsMNE and #Montenegro.
The blackout of messaging apps was a leading topic in social media conversations about the election. While the Agency had not published any information about its decision on its website, local operator Telenor sent a string of tweets (1, 2, 3) explaining the blocking order. In sum, they read:
EKIP je naložila svim telekomunikacionim operatorima da isključe mogućnost korišćenja aplikacija Viber, WhatsApp i sl. servisa, koji su danas upotrijebljeni za neželjenu komunikaciju sa korisnicima. Mogućnost korišćenja ovih servisa biće isključena dok Agencija posebnim nalogom ne odredi da se takva zabrana suspenduje.
The Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services ordered all telecommunication operators to turn off the option to use the applications Viber, WhatsApp and the like, which were used today for unwanted communication with the users. The possibility for use of these services will be turned off until the Agency determines an end of the ban with a special notice.
We condemn decision of the Agency to block Viber and WhatsApp and thus limit communication and share of information #electionsMNE
— CDT Montenegro (@CDT_Montenegro) October 16, 2016
We ask all our TW and FB followers to share published information and assist us to accurately and objectively inform citizens #electionsMNE
— CDT Montenegro (@CDT_Montenegro) October 16, 2016
Serbian Internet marketing specialist Nemanja Živkovic compared the Montenegro blackout with a Twitter blackout he experienced in Turkey.
What is the aim of blocking Social Media when it is so easy to overcome it? Those who deal with it in the Government think that by banning one Social Media they can prevent or silent the flow of information. Seriously!? Isn't there anyone who will tell them that this is nonsense and that it'll come back to them like a boomerang, multiplied? Apparently not. Obviously, they are [not] following examples from the past when other countries tried to do that.
Montenegrin media consultant Ana Bogavac pointed to the lack of protections for expression via digital media:
@tenaprelec recently adopted leg.doesn't say a word about newMedia,leaving this gray area open 4abuse by both opposition and those in power
— Ana Bogavac (@AnaBogavac) October 16, 2016
Access to Viber was reinstated at 7:30 pm, after the polling stations closed. CDT announced this via one of their Twitter accounts:
Naš Viber Chat je proradio! #izboriCG pic.twitter.com/ic9I5kXPXA
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 16, 2016
Our Viber chat started working again!
A number of problematic issues arose during the day, from “technical difficulties” such as providing accessibility to all, to the “atmosphere of a coup d'etat” which had a negative influence on citizens’ freedom, according to opposition candidate Neđeljko Rudović.
Nedostupno za #OSI, zgrada Elektrodistribucije u Herceg Novom #izboriCG pic.twitter.com/zqJgP314ue
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 16, 2016
The building of public company for Electricity Distribution in Herceg Novi is not accessible for people with disabilities
Election observation NGOs CDT and CeMI continued to provide information from the field based on their monitoring activities.
Voter turnout #electionsMNE pic.twitter.com/d4DNho6fnA
— CDT Montenegro (@CDT_Montenegro) October 16, 2016
#infographic #MandatesDistribution #Election2016 pic.twitter.com/IIsxfbFjVl
— CeMI (@CeMI_ME) October 16, 2016
Independent media group Balkan Insight maintained a live blog during election day. Based on the exit polls, they predicted that veteran Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, the leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists, has won 36 of the 81 seats in Montenegro’s parliament. This will allow him to form a majority government, if minority parties choose to join him.
Having alternated between the positions of Prime Minister and President, Đukanović has long been the president of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, which has governed Montenegro ever since the introduction of a multi-party political system in the early 1990s.
The party was formed in 1991 as the successor of the League of Communists of Montenegro, which had governed Montenegro within Yugoslavia since 1945.
Bio sam dječak kad je Milo preuzeo vlast, a vjerovatno ću biti i deda, ako pozivim, kad ode s nje. #izboricg
— Nebojsha Šatara (@FrankoBegbi) October 16, 2016
I was a kid when Milo came to power. If I live long enough, I will probably be a grandfather when he steps down.
Referring to upcoming elections in Macedonia, and the struggle of the ruling party chief to remain in power, journalist Rade Marojevic compared Đukanović's leadership to that of former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski:
Grujevski vata beleske #izbori #Montenegro
— Rade Maroevic (@Maroevic) October 16, 2016
Gruevski is taking notes.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Why Caribbean History Matters · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

A football game in session in Sans Souci Palace in Haiti, in the room where King Henri Christophe is supposed to have killed himself. Residents of the surrounding community of Milot enjoy unfettered access to the 209-year-old palace. PHOTO: Georgia Popplewell. Used with permission.
By Lillian Guerra
Over the years, I have had dozens of conversations on the question of whether Caribbean history “really matters” and for whom it matters. I’ve heard the region’s history dismissed due to the relative size of Caribbean societies, historians’ supposedly excessive preoccupation with slavery, and a questioning of what lessons can be learned from such allegedly dysfunctional societies.
One particularly memorable encounter took place at a fund-raising event for Haiti. Swirling his cocktail, a surgeon asked if I could explain the “erratic behavior” of the Haitians who greeted him when his US medical team arrived at a temporary field hospital after the 2010 earthquake. Much of the Haitian staff, he remarked, “suddenly disappeared,” leaving the American doctors to fend for themselves. When I suggested that the Haitian staff had probably departed because they had been on duty around the clock for days before his team’s arrival, the doctor seemed not to hear me: “I think they resented us because they believe we are somehow responsible for slavery. But slavery ended in Haiti two centuries ago. Is there really anyone in Haiti today who can remember slavery?” To his obvious amazement, I replied, “Yes, actually, you would be hard pressed to find someone in Haiti who doesn’t remember slavery.”
This otherwise liberal-leaning physician’s inability to grasp the reality of Haiti was matched only by his lack of reflection on how the Caribbean’s history shaped his own position in society. We who live in the United States—regardless of our class or our color—enjoy a wide array of historically accumulated advantages that Haitians and other people of the Caribbean do not. So while we have the luxury of forgetting, everyone in the Caribbean “remembers” slavery because they experience on a daily basis a wide array of historically accumulated disadvantages.
I was not surprised by this conversation. But I have been surprised by numerous colleagues who worried about what my focus on the Caribbean, and Cuba in particular, meant for my career. Many Latin Americanists suggested I choose a “bigger country” after my dissertation. Several department chairs have remarked that aside from slavery and the colonial origins of poverty, Caribbean history had little to offer in terms of “the weightier questions in the field.” In fact, just as I began the manuscript for a new book on 1960s Cuba, a particularly demoralizing colleague went as far as to say that even the study of the Cuban Revolution was “passé.”
Caribbean history matters for the same reason everyone in the Caribbean “remembers” slavery: the legacies of slavery, imperialism, and historical responses to it are, in the Caribbean, immediately evident in all the “weightier” concepts we associate with modernity: notions of citizenship, individual freedom, collective liberation, and nation. Caribbean history is not merely about the “colonial origins of poverty”; it addresses the most fundamental questions of who we are, what we believe, and how we got that way. Yet the uncomfortable facts of Caribbean history rarely make it into the consciousness of even the most educated of our society’s elite.
Take Haiti as an example. In 1804, Haiti was host to the first successful slave revolt in the history of the world and the first and only country to identify itself as “black.” Thanks to Haiti, blackness emerged as something other than a color marking inferiority; it became a banner for unity and mobilization around a common project of freedom and equality that defied racial and economic injustice worldwide. Haiti changed everything by questioning what nearly everyone in the European and European-dominated world took for granted. The history of freedom in America arguably began not with slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who called for a limited, racialized vision of anti-imperialist freedom, but in the Caribbean with the revolution in Haiti and with broader struggles for freedom from colonialism (which continued with the emergence of 20th-century US colonialism).
Residents of the surrounding community of Milot enjoy unfettered access to Haiti's 209-year old Palais Sans Souci. PHOTO: Georgia Popplewell. Used with permission.
While countries of the Caribbean may be geographically tiny, their impact on the development of global economies and political thought has been fundamental. Just as Haiti was the first country to embrace blackness as an ideological position promoting true freedom and the right of self-determination, the people of the British West Indies were the first in the 20th century to invite people of the African diaspora to unite in pan-ethnic liberation movements. These ultimately included Garveyism, Rastafarianism, and the US civil rights movement. Without José Martí, Antonio Maceo, Evaristo Estenoz, Marcus Garvey, Luisa Capetillo, Franz Fanon, Aimé Cesaire, Walter Rodney, José Peña Gómez, Sonia Pierre, Stokely Carmichael, Jamaica Kincaid, and Bob Marley, societies everywhere would likely have never challenged, let alone defeated, the values of inequality, exclusion, hierarchy, and Eurocentrism as successfully as they did.
The work of these individuals and the persistent protest of so many millions of anonymous Caribbeans have redefined global struggles and the way we think about them. While the reality of Caribbean societies’ efforts to subvert colonialism and its legacies has perhaps never completely fulfilled the dream of just, democratic change, even the most controversial of these efforts altered the course of world history. They shifted the balance of power between elites and the poor, and transformed the political landscape of what even the most marginalized people in the world can expect—not only from their own governments but from that of the United States.
There is no better example than Cuba. Whatever we may think of Fidel Castro, the dictatorship that the Revolution undoubtedly became, and its long-term results, in 1959, symbolically and practically, the Cuban Revolution attacked and subverted the fundamental “right” the United States had exerted over the Caribbean and Latin America for close to 100 years: the right to interrupt local political processes, define the limits of what states could do for their citizens, and control the economy in ways that put US business interests above the interests of the majority of Caribbean and Latin American citizens.
Cuba also made many Americans in the United States aware, for the first time, of the nature of 20th-century US interventions in Latin America—that is, of their own history. In history and other disciplines, Cuba catalyzed radical changes in how scholars conceived the fundamental building blocks of US power abroad, especially the role that myths of US exceptionalism and democracy played in justifying government policies and their results to the US public. The Cuban Revolution also forced scholars to unravel the central paradox that defined and united the political histories of large swaths of the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba to the United States.
This paradox can be found in the contradiction between what the United States says it believes versus what the United States has actually done historically to promote its values abroad: consecutive US administrations from McKinley to Obama have crafted foreign policies promising to promote the growth of political democracy and a fair capitalist system based on a “level playing field.” Yet we have mostly promoted this mission through the antitheses of democracy and fair capitalist competition: repeated US military occupations, violations of sovereignty, and training of surrogate armies to ensure US business interests. The study of the Caribbean today might be more relevant than ever as it reveals the limits of US power and the limits that liberation can take when crafted in opposition to US power.
Like Haiti, Cuba’s historic precedent forced a global reconsideration and questioning of everything that the world’s elites once took for granted. And like Haiti in the 19th century, Cuba became a hemispheric pariah.
Slavery is also a living memory in the Caribbean because its greatest legacy is still with us—a legacy that is mostly invisible and yet resides in the clothes we wear and probably much of the food we eat. Before the mass production by slaves of stimulants like sugar, coffee, tobacco, and chocolate, people had never had the experience of consuming a commodity on a daily basis whose production process was “invisible.” For hundreds of years, Europeans ate sugar every day, never stopping to think that the cost of producing the sugar was human life. Pleasure justified the enslavement of nine million human beings and the wholesale destruction of African cultures, political systems, and lives.
Today, the invisibility of the labor that goes into the production of consumer goods is probably one of the greatest legacies of slavery. We don’t think about the age of the person who made our tennis shoes in Nicaragua or the average hourly wage of the woman in the Dominican Republic who stitched our shirts together for the same reason that European and North American consumers never bothered to question the source of the labor that went into making their sugar—it was just easier not to.
Knowing about injustice often means doing something to change it, and so, more often than not, people decide they would rather not know. Ignorance continues to be the benefit and the bliss of privilege. History should continue to work against it.
This essay was originally published in the March 2014 edition of Perspectives on History. It is republished here under a Creative Commons ttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.