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Jailed Bahraini Rights Defender Nabeel Rajab Faces Additional Fifteen Years in Prison · Global Voices
Gulf Center for Human Rights

This post was written by Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights, an independent, non-profit organisation that promotes freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in the Gulf region and its neighbouring countries.
Nabeel Rajab (right) and Abdulhadi Alkhawaja at a pro democracy march in Bahrain in 2011. Photo by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights [CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons]
Prominent Bahraini human rights defender, Nabeel Rajab, has been in jail for his human rights work since 13 June 2016. He is currently serving a two-year prison term for speaking to the media about the human rights situation in Bahrain. He also faces additional prison time for expressing himself on Twitter.
Rajab is the President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), the founding director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), the Deputy Secretary-General of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), and a member of the Advisory Board of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In July 2002, he founded the BCHR with his colleague Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who is serving a life sentence for his human rights activities. The BCHR continues to operate to this day despite a decision to close it by authorities in November 2004, and the jailing of its two founders.
When the popular uprising started in Bahrain on 14 February 2011, Nabeel Rajab was at its heart as a human rights leader. When the authorities arrested most of the uprising leaders, he became the only remaining voice outside of prison, which was heard by tens of thousands of followers on Twitter and the rest of the world, attesting to the grave violations committed by the government that oppressed the entire population solely based on their demand for freedom, equality and social justice.
For his engagement with the Bahraini uprising and human rights activism, Rajab is paying a heavy price. He was arrested and imprisoned several times and subjected to various types of threats, judicial harassment, abusive media smear campaigns, torture, and travel bans.
On 10 July, he was sentenced to prison for two years after being found guilty of spreading “fake news”, over TV interviews in which he spoke about mounting human rights violations in the Gulf kingdom. In those interviews, Rajab talked about journalists and NGOs being prevented from entering Bahrain, and a lack of judicial independence. On 22 November, a Bahraini appeals court upheld the two-year prison sentence.
In another case, Rajab faces up to 15 years in jail for criticizing Bahrain's participation in the Saudi-led war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and for speaking out about torture in Bahrain's infamous “Jaw” prison on Twitter. Rajab was scheduled to appear again in court on 31 December 2017 for this case. However, the hearing was unexpectedly held on 5 December, four weeks earlier than the date originally scheduled by the court. On 3 December, Rajab's lawyers were informed by the court the hearing would take place on 5 December, under the pretext that a key witness in the case would be unable to attend the hearing on 31 December. Although, Rajab's lawyers protested this decision, the hearing took place on 5 December and was adjourned to 7 December. Rajab was unable to attend the hearing for health reasons.
- Due to health problems,Nabeel Rajab was not able to attend the hearing
- His lawyers were not given enough time for preparation, only 2 days informal notice
- Court rejected the lawyers request for postponement
- Rushing the case, raises fears of imminent sentence#Bahrain pic.twitter.com/eKVBMWSD3K
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) December 5, 2017
On 7 December, the hearing has once again been adjourned to 15 January.
Today, the 20th Court hearing against @NabeelRajab was adjourned to 15 January for the defence to submit their final argument.
• Charged for comments condemning the Saudi bombardment in #Yemen, & exposing torture in #Bahrain
• Facing 15 Years imprisonment pic.twitter.com/NnvntroljO
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) December 7, 2017
Rajab faces additional prison time for charges related to two letters he published in the New York Times and the French newspaper Le Monde, while in prison.
In the NYT letter, published in September 2016, Rajab described the conditions of his detention and called on the Obama administration to ”use its leverage” to end the conflict in Yemen, and work ”to secure the release of people who call for peace, and are trying to build democracy in the region”. For this piece, Rajab was charged with “undermining the prestige of the kingdom.”
In the letter published in Le Monde in December 2016, Rajab called on France and Germany to re-assess their support for the Arab Gulf monarchies. Following the publication of this piece, he was charged with “spreading false news and statements and malicious rumours that undermine the prestige of Bahrain and the brotherly countries of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council], and an attempt to endanger their relations.”
Several organizations and human rights groups have repeatedly called on Bahraini authorities to release Nabeel Rajab. In May, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) expressed particular concern over Rajab’s solitary confinement and called for his release. Numerous others have called for his release, including European Parliament officials. On 27 June 2017, the Chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights Pier Antonio Panzeri issued a statement calling for the rights defender's release:
Rajab’s detention violates his right to freedom of expression. I call on the Bahraini authorities to grant lawyers and family members access to Nabeel Rajab, to drop all charges against him and to free him immediately
Despite these calls, Rajab remains in prison. He is not the only one in Bahrain to be jailed for his human rights and political activism, or for peacefully expressing himself. In the small island kingdom of just 1.4 million people, there are more than 4,000 political prisoners, according to rights groups.

author: Gulf Center for Human Rights


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Kyrgyz Children’s Author Remakes Old Fables, Drives New Narratives · Global Voices
Eurasianet

An illustration from the ‘Square Country’ fairy tale drawn by Natalia Ni. Permission to use granted by Altyn Kapalova.
The following is a version of a partner post from EurasiaNet.org originally titled ‘Kyrgyzstan: Children’s Literature Taking Fresh Look at Old Fables’. Republished with permission.
Esal, a seven-year-old girl, was born in a country where everything is blue and square-shaped. One day, an alien object, pink and spherical, turns up close to her house. When it offers her the chance to leave behind the hard edges of her homeland and travel through a world of different forms and colors, she seizes it.
The journey takes Esal at first through a country full of people and buildings that resemble the strange pink ball. Then, she travels to another one inhabited by green triangular types. At the end of the book, she and her new friends unite to build a new multi-colored, multi-shaped space all of their own, dissolving the borders that once divided them.
“When my son first read the book, he said that it was all about shapes,” said Asel Abdyrakhmanova of her ten-year-old’s reaction to Kyrgyz author Altyn Kapalova’s “Square Country” fairytale.
“Then we read it again,” recalled Abdyrakhmanova, an education specialist, who works for an international development organization. “The third time we read it, he said: ‘Oh Mom, it’s about how people are different and how that is a good thing!”
Kapalova’s stories turn up in the most unexpected places, such as the in-flight magazines of Kyrgyz air carriers taking passengers from Bishkek to Moscow. There, sandwiched between advertisements for watches and Dubai resorts, one can read of a beautiful underwater creature, Suluusu, who lives at the bottom of Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul and dislikes the tourists who pollute her environment with their noise and rubbish.
Suluusu, whose tale is embellished by the eye-catching and identifiably Kyrgyz illustrations of artist Dinara Chokotayeva, is far from the goodie-two-shoes heroine typical of children’s literature.
She takes revenge on the holiday-goers by capturing the jewelry they lose when they are swimming, and hoarding it in a private corner of her deep blue kingdom.
“This is why jewelry lost in Lake Issyk-Kul is never found,” Kapalova’s tale concludes.
Kapalova, an anthropologist by training, writes books in both Kyrgyz and Russian under the pseudonym Altyn Aman. She might sense a kindred spirit in Suluusu.
The author admits to sourcing inspiration for her storytelling from her academic field trips into Kyrgyzstan’s regions, where books are scarce but oral tradition is rich.
“When I go to villages and meet people there, I take things from their speech, their thoughts and their mannerisms. I am a terrible thief!” she laughed.
Image from ‘Bugu Ene’, illustrated by Dzum Gunn. Permission provided by Altyn Kapalova.
But while her books have brought her recognition and no shortage of personal pleasure, she can scarcely afford to give up the day job.
The book market in Kyrgyzstan is weak and stories like “Square Country” vie for room on the shelves of Bishkek’s bookstores with Russian children’s stories, and Western translations of popular tales. Her competitors are supported by substantial publishing machines.
The fact that her stories are being read beyond the capital owes much to the international organizations that have distributed them as part of donor-funded projects.
During the Soviet era, favored writers received comprehensive support from the state. That enabled a few writers, including Kyrgyzstan’s most famous literary export, Chingiz Aitmatov, to raise their literary profile through the vigorous promotion of Communist authorities. After gaining prominence in Kyrgyzstan, and then across the Soviet Union as a whole, his books were translated into dozens of different languages and read across the world.
But nowadays Kyrgyz writers “lack opportunities to forge contacts with international publishers,” said Dalmira Tilepbergenova, president of the PEN center for Central Asia, which is seeking funding to train writers in basic English in order to help them reach international markets. “Some seek private sponsors, some donor organizations, while others put their own money towards publishing costs.”
Spreading internet use has enabled a fourth group of authors to reach a wider audience without having to source money for their hobby.
Polad Suleimanov, a veterinarian, has developed a loyal readership by publishing his short stories on Facebook, and has also been published by the website of a local newspaper.
Suleimanov said he writes in the tradition of popular British vet-turned-author James Herriot and his American equivalent John McCormack. But he admits he has never seriously considered writing a book. “I don’t keep count of how many short stories I have written. Maybe 100, or maybe 200,” he told EurasiaNet.org.
Suluusu, perhaps Kapalova's most famous tale has been translated into Korean, with new illustrations. (Altyn Kapalova)
Kapalova uses Facebook to promote her work, but sees the children’s book as an essential medium to encourage reading more generally.
“When I travel outside of Bishkek, what I find is there is a hunger to read that is not being satisfied,” she said. “In the capital, we are too saturated with information through the internet and struggle to find the time to read books. In villages, the problem is that reading material is not very available at all.”
As Kapalova hones a reputation as a national author, she has faced questions over her lack of traditionalism.
Some readers of her adaption of the famous Kyrgyz fairytale “Bugu Ene” (literally “Deer Mother”) queried why she did not set the story in the Siberian Yenisei region, which occupies a founding role in national mythology. Others asked why there was no wedding in the story.
“I took the things I liked in the original story and left out the things I didn’t need,” said Kapalova of “Bugu Ene,” which she describes as “essentially an eco-tale focused on humans’ relationship with the natural world.”
Moreover, the author, who identifies as a feminist, makes no apologies for departing from the “airy worlds” created by classical children’s authors such as Hans Christian Anderson, whose style of writing she still admires.
“It’s true that there are no fairytale weddings in my stories and there is no handsome prince,” she laughed. “None of my characters are especially waiting for him, either.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Eurasianet


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The Health of Thousands of Filipino Children Could Be at Risk, Thanks to Sanofi’s Dengue Vaccine · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A rural health clinic in the Philippines. Flickr photo by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia. (CC BY 2.0)
More than 700,000 Filipino children were given dengue vaccine shots in 2016. But on November 29, 2017, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, which developed the Dengvaxia vaccine, said it should not be given to children who have not been previously infected by dengue virus.
In 2014, the world welcomed the news about the research breakthrough in developing a dengue vaccine. One of the countries which bought the vaccine from Sanofi Pasteur was the Philippines at a cost of 3.5 billion pesos (70 million US dollars).
Dengue is a tropical virus carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito with no known cure. According to government statistics, an average of 200,000 cases of dengue are reported every year in the Philippines.
The Department of Health (DOH) began administering the vaccine to 733,000 public school children on April 2016. More than 200,000 children have been given three shots of the vaccine throughout 2016 and 2017.
But Sanofi Pasteur said its latest research found out that the vaccine could lead to “more cases of severe disease following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection” for persons who never had dengue in the past.
The analysis confirmed that Dengvaxia provides persistent protective benefit against dengue fever in those who had prior infection. For those not previously infected by dengue virus, however, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection.
For individuals who have not been previously infected by dengue virus, vaccination should not be recommended.
In a subsequent advisory, Sanofi Pasteur clarified that its vaccine does not cause dengue:
For those who did not have previous dengue infection before vaccination, the vaccine does not cause dengue.
The DOH immediately suspended its dengue immunization program. The government also stopped the sale, distribution, and marketing of Dengvaxia.
FDA suspends Dengvaxia. Great move. pic.twitter.com/2Q5nAREbd8
— Dr. Gia Sison (@giasison) December 4, 2017
The World Health Organization said it supports the decision of the Philippine government to suspend the use of Dengvaxia. It added that it never recommended the vaccine:
The WHO position paper did not include a recommendation to countries to introduce the dengue vaccine into their national immunization programs.
But in an earlier statement, the WHO admitted that it made a “conditional recommendation” to use the vaccine:
The position paper makes a conditional recommendation on the use of the vaccine for highly endemic areas.
A Philippine senator, Joel Villanueva, demanded justice against the company: “Sanofi should also be made accountable for their haphazard release of the drugs without complete and proper clinical studies.” Meanwhile, another senator, Richard Gordon, accused the previous government of “railroading the procurement process” and called for a probe to determine the culpability of officials in implementing the dengue vaccination program. The new government assumed office on June 30, 2016.
Other senators wanted to verify if some dengue deaths are related to the vaccine.
At Blue Ribbon investigation into Dengue vaccine I sat next to parents of boy from Bataan who was given n died. 8/9 years old Lang yung Bata
— Sonny Angara (@sonnyangara) December 4, 2017
At Blue Ribbon investigation into Dengue vaccine I sat next to parents of boy from Bataan who was given n died. The child is only 8/9 years.
Doctor and blogger Stef dela Cruz expressed her dismay that Filipino children were used as “guinea pigs” in developing the vaccine:
Checks and balances existed to ensure the safety of the people. Regrettably, these were set aside to ensure the vaccine was included in the formulary, approved for use, and procured with a multibillion price tag not even remotely proportionate to the disease burden it hoped to relieve.
What do we do as a people after we realize that our children have become deniable guinea pigs for an allegedly-corrupt experiment masquerading as a vaccine program?
Label changes are not enough. Adding salt to the wound, press statements that prioritized deniability over liability are a travesty of the apology we demand and deserve.
This tweet reflects the sentiment of many after Sanofi announced its latest findings about its vaccine:
Why just now… ? How about the thousands of children who were already given the vaccine? https://t.co/6v2tzz5GKS
— Jo-Ann Diosana (@JoDiosana) December 5, 2017

author: Mong Palatino


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Harsh Prison Terms for Video Journalist and Blogger as Vietnam Cracks Down on Free Expression · Global Voices
Don Le

Video journalist and digital security trainer Nguyen Van Hoa. Source: Facebook page of Nguyen Van Hoa
A court in central Vietnam sentenced video journalist Nguyen Van Hoa to seven years in prison on November 27, 2017, for reporting on environmental protests in central Vietnam as part of an ongoing crackdown on citizen journalism.
Only three days later, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, widely known as Me Nam or Mother Mushroom, saw a court uphold her 10-year prison sentence for Facebook posts about human rights and environmental issues involving the police and other state forces.
Hoa, 22, was accused of “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. The charge was related to his reporting on protests that followed an environmental disaster which led to tonnes of dead fish washing up across Vietnam’s central coast in April 2016.
Hoa was the first person in Vietnam to use a flycam drone to broadcast live footage of protests outside the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel plant which was revealed to be the cause behind the toxic spill. His footage of more than 10,000 people outside the Formosa gates went viral across social media.
A security trainer and regular contributor to Radio Free Asia, Hoa was detained in January 2017 and initially charged with “abusing democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the state”. The charges against him were changed in June without reason, according to his family.
Human rights and digital groups signed a statement calling on the Vietnamese government to release Hoa in time for the World Press Freedom Day in May. The joint statement said:
Repressing citizen journalists is not only a violation of human rights but also a major impediment to Vietnam’s aspirations to become a tech and innovation hub.
When local police originally arrested Hoa, they physically attacked him and confiscated his equipment while he was on assignment in November 2016, according to Radio Free Asia spokesman Rohit Mahajan.
Video journalist and digital security trainer Nguyen Van Hoa. Source: Facebook page of Nguyen Van Hoa
His family informed Loa, an alternative news podcast that reports about Vietnam, that they were only told of the trial a day before the public trial.
(Editor's note: Loa, a partner of Global Voices, is a project of a political organization called Viet Tan that promotes democracy in Vietnam. The author of this post is also a Viet Tan organizer.)
In a deal with the Vietnamese government, Formosa agreed to pay 500 million US dollars, which many have criticised to be insignificant relative to the damage caused. Thousands of affected fishermen have continued to protest the unfair compensation despite authorities trying to stop the demonstrations.
Citizen journalists and bloggers who reported on the Formosa disaster have also faced lengthy sentences. One of them is blogger Mother Mushroom, who was arrested in October 2016 and charged with “conducting propaganda against the state”.
In June 2017, she was ordered to spend 10 years in prison for her writings, a sentence that was confirmed on November 30 in an appeals trial that lasted only a few hours.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (center) attends her appeal trial at a court in Nha Trang, Nov. 30, 2017. Photo courtesy of Radio Free Asia.
One of her lawyers, Vo An Don, a prominent human rights lawyer, had his law license revoked by the Phu Yen Bar Association on November 26, four days before her trial. He was barred from representing her during the appeals trial.
Lawyer Vo An Don ̣(fourth from the right), with a group of people waiting outside the courtroom during Mother Mushroom’s appeal trial. Source: Facebook page of Vo An Don.
Vo An Don spoke out against the decision on his Facebook:
This decision is effective immediately, ends my dream of being a lawyer defending the poor and leaves many unjust cases open.
The two cases are part of the Vietnamese government’s wider crackdown on free expression. More than 25 activists have been arrested, issued arrest warrants or exiled since January 2017. The harsh prison terms handed down by the courts to activists like Hoa and Mother Mushroom are troubling signs for the state of human rights in Vietnam.

author: Don Le


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Painting a New Story: Sohrai Art in Jharkhand · Global Voices
VideoVolunteers

Examples of Sohrai Painting. Screenshot from the Tribal Art of Hazaribagh page via Bulu Imam
This post was written by Alankrita Anand, and originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organization based in India. An edited version is published below as part of a partnership with Global Voices.
Sohrai and Khovar, the traditional art forms from the Indian state of Jharkhand, are ritualistic art forms practiced by women. In recent years the art form has received a lot of attention as the state art and culture department is commissioning tribal artists and experts to paint the walls of government buildings, railway stations, and airports with colorful murals. This is instilling a sense of identity in the tribal artists and bringing their confidence back.
Sohrai art is the art of the Sohrai (harvest) festival. Created from mud on the mud walls of houses in Jharkhand https://t.co/yjrR4Peu8s pic.twitter.com/88rEU7Iu6m
— SADACC Trust (@SADACCTrust) October 4, 2017
Sohrai art form has been named after the namesake harvest festival that starts around Diwali. During harvest, the women of the house clean their houses and walls and paint murals of Sohrai arts. What is special about the ancient art form is that it is only created by women. Sohari depicts the crop cycle, and Khovar, or finger painting, depicts marriage and fertility and is traditionally made for weddings.
With her small pots of natural colors, extracted from different kinds of soils and rocks, well-known Sohrai artist Putli Devi makes deft strokes on the wall as Community Correspondent Basanti Soren talks to her about the art form.
In the video Putli Devi mentions:
What is special about the art form is that it is only made by women and passed on by women, and a handful of them at that. Most of them belong to the Kurmi community and live in Hazaribagh.
Putli Devi grew up in Chotanagpur, Hazaribagh and watched her mother paint murals with her fingers and learned the art form too.
I used to see wolves and wild cats run away with hens in the forest, so I started depicting them in my paintings.
The paintings are done using red, black, yellow and white colors and depictions of animals abound. Devi says:
I paint from memory, things I have seen growing up and things that I see around me.
But Putli and her co-artists were not always recognized for their work, neither did they do it commercially. However, Putli Devi is now thrilled at having showcased her work in countries like Australia and Germany.
One day, Bulu Imam came this way and really liked my paintings. I was reluctant to meet him but my sisters-in-law insisted. He encouraged me to paint on paper and took my paintings to a global audience
75-year old Bulu Imam is an environmentalist working on the preservation of indigenous art and culture in Jharkhand. He explains:
Indigenous peoples, the world over, have rights over the lands that they historically inhabit, but in India, there are limitations on these rights.
India has voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) but does not recognize the term ‘indigenous peoples’ itself, making the declaration inapplicable to India.
On the ground, this translates to a violation of the rights of indigenous communities. Imam, for instance, points out that while Indian indigenous people or Adivasis are dependent on their land for their livelihood, they have no rights to the “crops under the land”. “I am talking about mining”, he says, referring to the rich mineral resources that the Chotanagpur plateau is home to.
The question of indigenous art and culture is strongly linked to identity, and rights. Imam says:
I found proof of Jharkhand’s adivasis’ indigeneity in their art, the caves in the region bear similar art from thousands of years ago. For indigenous communities to claim their rights, we have to establish that they have been living on the land historically.
Basanti, who also belongs to a tribal community, feels that it is important to preserve one’s art and culture.
The newer generation does not know much about its history, which is why it is important to promote local cultures. We must be aware of our traditions, it is a matter of identity.
Devidas Gaonkar, a correspondent who documents indigenous cultures in Goa, feels the same way about art, culture, and identity.
Sohrai art is now known as the state art of Jharkhand. It has come to receive patronage from both the state government and corporates like Tata Steel based out of the state. Railway stations in towns like Hazaribagh and Jamshedpur now greet travellers with Khovar and Sohrai murals that only adorned village homes until recently.
sohrai paintings by tribal artists @hazaribagh railway station pic.twitter.com/tGdLdR0Ums
— Insaaf (@Insaaf1234) January 31, 2016
#SoMuchToDo #SMTDranchi Dont miss the ‘Sohrai Art’ Murals on d Walls on your left as you move from the Birsa Munda Airport towards the city pic.twitter.com/kFQ82398rN
— Abhishek (@__shek) September 15, 2017
More beautiful Sohrai art from Hazaribagh coming to Ranchi airport. Our talented artists are from Barkagaon and Katkamsandi. pic.twitter.com/C3AJdpnRE5
— Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) March 25, 2017
Has taking the art form from the villages to global and commercial spaces brought prosperity to its practitioners? Basanti says that there has definitely been an improvement in Devi’s financial situation but it’s not a lot and no one takes interest in learning the craft anymore. Imam, however, points out that the difference that it has brought in Devi’s life is a sense of identity and confidence. “It is priceless,” says Imam.

author: VideoVolunteers


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The Conviction of Another Dancehall Star Fails to Shock Crime-Weary Jamaicans · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Screenshot from the YouTube video “Ninja Mi Ninja” by Ninjaman.
When, on November 21, 2017, dancehall deejay Desmond “Ninja Man” Ballentyne was found guilty of murder and shooting with intent, Jamaicans’ response was somewhat similar to that of the man himself: “Ah suh it guh, man.” (Translated from Patois: “That's the way things go, man.”)
The self-styled “Don Gorgon” — a name generally given to “community leaders” with the greatest firepower and influence, both literally and figuratively — seemed nonplussed. (The term applies to any community in which a person has standing, but is often used in the dancehall context.) Leaving court with his son and accomplice Denis Clayton, who were also found guilty of the 2009 murder of Ricardo Johnson (“Ricky Trooper”) in Kingston's Olympic Gardens, he reportedly added:
“Don't worry yourself, Jamaica, I'll be back,” says Ninja Man as he boards police vehicle to be taken from court to prison – @rmakyn photo pic.twitter.com/Q2xVV6dmAj
— Jamaica Gleaner (@JamaicaGleaner) November 21, 2017
While much of the dancehall fraternity — at home and overseas — reacted with shock to the news, many Jamaicans, wearied by the relentlessly high murder rate on the island, seem to be hoping that the controversial artiste will not be back any time soon, suggesting that he had got what he deserved:
If u do the crime, then u must do the time.#NinjaMan
— lennon bowers (@LennonBowers) November 21, 2017
Fellow deejay Mr. Vegas observed that while Ballentyne is “one of the greatest on a musical level”, the kind of content he put out might have come back to haunt him. The artist was known for his controversial pro-gun lyrics.
Still, he had his supporters. Dancehall diva D'Angel posted on her Facebook page:
I Just visited with Ninja Man and I'm happy to share with his fans that he's doing great and holding on to faith? he's in high spirit as well? God is truly in control and he says he leaves everything in God hands… My prayers are with you my friend #stronger #Godadealwideverything
Ballentyne's case was hard fought, and not without drama. After seemingly endless delays (17 trial dates set and 23 mention dates in court) the judge denied yet another application for a postponement and ordered the trial to begin immediately.
However, mid-way through a witness’ testimony, Ballentyne complained suddenly of chest pains and was taken to hospital. The trial continued in his absence. It appeared that he had suffered a mild heart attack. The news caused panic, and rumours of his death circulated rapidly on social media, especially among dancehall fans in the diaspora:
#NinjaMan is not dead, despite rumors. His murder trial verdict is expected this week!
Full story: https://t.co/yl1l7VoOlg#Dancehall #Jamaica #HypeLifeMagazine pic.twitter.com/T9Gn9MDVs7
— Hype Life Magazine (@HYPELIFEmedia) November 16, 2017
Then his fate was put to a seven-person jury. Radio journalist Abka Fitz-Henley tweeted:
UPDATE: the future of one dancehall music's finest lyrical sons, Desmond Ballentine o/c #NinjaMan, has been languishing in the hands of a 7 member jury for approximately 2 1/2 hours. He's accused of murder.
— Abka Fitz-Henley (@AbkaFitzHenley) November 20, 2017
The wait was soon over, however. The jury returned the guilty verdict after approximately three and a half hours.
Ballentine does not enjoy the enormous popularity of another famous convicted murderer deejay, Vybz Kartel, who at 41 is 10 years younger and remains popular even though he is now behind bars.
However, like Kartel, Ballentine was known for his “bad man” image. With his sharp, violent lyrics delivered in a stuttering tone, he rose to fame during the height of dancehall's popularity in the 1980s. In particular, he was known for his flamboyant costumes and fierce musical “clashes” with other artists at the once annual Sting music festival (it took place each Boxing Day for about 30 years, but the event has now been discontinued), where he physically clashed with Vybz Kartel in 2003.
Jamaicans, however, will find humor in the darkest situations. One tweet suggested that Vybz Kartel had “filed for” Ballentine from prison (as in someone filing for an immigrant visa for a family member from the U.S.):
Father forgive me but this is funny as hell!! #NinjaMan pic.twitter.com/QdoLeielSZ
— princess bijous (@princess_bijous) November 21, 2017
Ballentine is a strange, quirky, and at times enigmatic character, and his curious and eventful career, including several brushes with the law, has taken many twists and turns. This included a brief sojourn as a Christian, after a highly publicised baptism, around the time of the murder. One Jamaican, recollecting this phase, commented:
The way of the transgressor is hard Ninja. You shouldah did stay inna church. #ninjaman Ninja Man – Bible Fullfillment https://t.co/He9GnowXkR via @YouTube
— Michael Dunn ??? (@MikeyD15) November 22, 2017
Ballentine did not keep a particularly low profile while he was out on bail. He was even invited by the Jamaica Constabulary Force to give a motivational speech to police officers in January 2017.
One tweeter commented gloomily:
When a Gov. can use a man on murder charge as a Motivational Speaker to the Security Force our corner dark. #NinjaMan #Guilt #DIntervention
— Lyndon Sheldon (@shaquiem) November 21, 2017
He was also a judge on a popular and long-running dancehall competition on television:
What is sad is that he was given so much publicity and promotion whilst he was out on bail, even appearing as a Judge on Magnum King & Queen TV show. This is why crime is so hard to curb, because murder and badness ah nuh nutten!
— Patrick A. Stern (@JColdboy1) November 21, 2017
What is sad is that he was given so much publicity and promotion whilst he was out on bail, even appearing as a Judge on the Magnum King & Queen TV show. This is why crime is so hard to curb, because murder and badness is nothing!
Some Jamaicans observed that, in hindsight, they should have taken Ballentine's lyrics literally:
Ninjaman was just found guilty of murder. I always took songs like “Murder Dem” and “My Weapon” to be metaphorical, but apparently not. Bummer. Still one of the all-time greats, though: https://t.co/nphIre0m58 #murderdem #ninjaman #dongorgon #gunpontooth
— Witchpolice Radio (@WitchpoliceFM) November 21, 2017
Some traditional media houses took the opportunity to discuss the troubling connections between dancehall and violence:
Dr. Dennis Howard, Musicologist and General Manager, RJR GLEANER Communications Group- Radio Services, joined #Althea on ‘Independent Talk.’ The connection between dancehall and the culture of violence was the main headline for the ‘Boardroom segment’. #Power #NinjaMan #Guilty pic.twitter.com/svu232zGiv
— Power106Fm (@Power106fmJa) November 22, 2017
Another media commentator tweeted:
#Badness was part of his #art and on-stage #performance, but he was also living his #brand off stage through his actions. His conviction for murder is a sort of “#poeticjustice“, isnt it?- sad though it is. #Ninjaman #Jamaica
— HumeReports (@DrHumeJohnson) November 21, 2017
Ballentine's defence lawyer said that he would file an appeal, complaining that there were only seven jurors. According to the Supreme Court website, “all serious offences are tried by a Circuit (Supreme) Court judge sitting with a jury comprised of twelve (12) persons in murder or treason, and seven for other criminal offences.” The country's Jury Act has similar guidelines. The sentencing hearing will take place on December 15, 2017.

author: Emma Lewis


text:
What Future for the ‘Wikipedia Seagull’ on Kazakhstan’s Brand New Banknotes? · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Photo by Marcel Burkhard (User:Cele4). CC 2.0.
When representatives of authoritarian Kazakhstan's central bank are batting away copyright infringement claims with ornithological explanations it is a sure sign something has gone awry.
Marcel Burkhard, a Swiss photographer, is arguing that a seagull that appears on the latest version of a 500 tenge ($1.50) Kazakh banknote is a carbon copy of one he photographed over a decade ago. That photograph appears on the Russian-language Wikipedia article for “gulls” and is labelled as “an ordinary gull”.
Officials in the land-locked Central Asian country where Russian is widely spoken have failed to acknowledge copyright infringement despite a social media-driven outcry. But tellingly they have belatedly suggested that “with time” the design of the banknote will be changed.
Mock-up of the gul photographed by Burkhard and the image that appears on the 500 tenge banknote. Image published on Zakon.kz and other Kazakh media.
On December 4, according to Kazakh media, Burkhard wrote on Facebook:
В пятницу я получил сообщение от казахстанского пользователя, что на новой казахстанской банкноте есть чайка, которая похожа на мою фотографию. Я посмотрел на банкноту и действительно, она выглядит так, как будто это была одна и та же чайка. Для сравнения, я вырезал чайку с моей фотографии и приложил её над банкнотой. Каждая деталь совпадает, поэтому я на 100% уверен, что это одна и та же картинка
On Friday I received a message from a Kazakh social media user, [who said] that on a new Kazakhstan banknote there is a seagull similar to my photograph. I examined the banknote and, truly, it seems to be one and the same gull. To compare, I cut out the seagull from my photograph and inserted it onto [a copy of] a banknote. Every detail matches and for that reason I am confident that the image is one and the same.
Burkhard has called on the Kazakh central bank to admit to lifting the image of the black-headed gull, or Larus Ridibundus, and provide him with some form of compensation.
Global Voices did find at least one image online of a gull in a similar pose, albeit facing in the opposite direction to the one photographed by Burkhard.
But none of the birds that appear as top responses to a Google image search for the Larus Ridibundus resemble the 500 tenge gull quite as closely as Burkhard's.
In the weeks since the 500 tenge banknote was first presented to the public, central bank officials have provided several responses to the allegations of copyright infringement.
Back in November spokesman Alexandr Terentyev called the clamour around the gull “absurd” and accused Facebook users of making something out of nothing.
He also promised journalists the opportunity to “disassemble this gull, its origins, wing span, the angle of its head” at a future meeting with experts and the central bank's team of designers.
Another official at the bank opined that “the position and pose of the birds depicted on the banknote are characteristic of all representatives of this species of birds.”
By December 5, with accusations of plagiarism still doing the rounds on social media, the bank said the design of the banknote would change “with time” and that symbols for the banknote would be exclusively hand-drawn to prevent possible falsification.
There was no immediate confirmation that the seagull would be removed from the note, however.
Although it was largely the troublesome bird that caught the eye of Kazakh social media users, many were even more bemused to find out that a business centre called Moskva (Moscow) in Kazakhstan's capital Astana had found its way onto the same 500 tenge banknote.
Murat Abenov, a former deputy education minister fumed:
Почему МОСКВА стала нашим национальным символом?
Как это изображение оказалась на новых купюрах 500 тенге?
Ведь национальная валюта это символ нашей государственности …
Как НацБанк РК допустил что частный бизнес-центр “Москва” принадлежащий гражданам РФ попал на купюру? pic.twitter.com/0fXnyxnA1t
— Мурат Абенов (@MuratAbenov) December 4, 2017
Since when is MOSCOW a national symbol of ours? How did this image end up on a 500 tenge banknote? National currency is a representative of our statehood…How did [Kazakhstan's central bank] allow this private business centre that belongs to citizens of the Russian Federation to end up on our currency?
The furore over the new banknote in some way recalls massive opposition to an unpopular land reform bill in 2016 and disagreements over the new Latin alphabet introduced to replace its Cyrillic counterpart earlier this year.
While these three separate scandals differed in terms of their causes and consequences, they all highlighted the pathological inability of authorities to conduct public consultations before steaming ahead with controversial actions.
With an aged leadership and an autocratic system that offers few mechanisms for citizen feedback, more of the same should be expected.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Palestinians Aren’t Surprised by US Jerusalem Move As World Already ‘Ignores Their Existence’ · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Palestinians watch Trump's speech on the news on December 6, 2017. Photo taken by Mariam Barghouti on Instagram and re-used with permission. Original caption reads: Watching Trumps speech. Face explains it: a little bit of mental cursing and a little bit of this is nothing new mixed with lament and meh.
US President Donald Trump's declaration that the country would move its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem was met with shock throughout the world. Among Palestinians, however, it was outrage mixed with a distinctive lack of surprise.
Jerusalem is a controversial site of contention in the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace process for the simple reason that both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine claim it as their capital. Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered to be occupied Palestinian territory — Israel captured the city, previously under Jordanian rule, during the 1967 Six-Day War — and all embassies to Israel, up until this recent development, were located in Tel Aviv.
Palestinians living in the city have long experienced discrimination under Israeli control. According to the series entitled “A City for All?” produced by the collective Visualizing Palestine, as of October 2017, 10,000 Palestinians born in Jerusalem “have no legal status because their parents hold different ID cards“. Despite being 37% of the current population of Jerusalem, Palestinians have received only 10% of the city's budget for their neighborhoods.
And between 2004 and 2016, “685 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem were demolished…leaving 2,513 people homeless. Home demolitions are part of a broader Israeli policy to alter the demographic and geospatial makeup of Jerusalem, privileging Jewish settlers over the indigenous Palestinian population”:
“685 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem were demolished between 2004 and 2016, leaving 2,513 people homeless. Home demolitions are part of a broader Israeli policy to alter the demographic and geospatial makeup of Jerusalem, privileging Jewish settlers over the indigenous Palestinian population.” Caption from Visualizing Palestine. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Jerusalem is a microcosm of the treatment that Palestinians face across the territories. Throughout Israel's 50-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, human rights groups, international organizations and governments have blasted Israel for human rights abuses, ranging from unlawful killings and forced displacement to discriminatory policies toward Palestinians.
With the US embassy decision, politicians across the world offered their rebukes. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, for example, declared that “Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims“. But over the years, condemnations haven't translated into any concrete change, especially when large sums of trade money with Israel have been on the line.
As for the US, Palestinians have long argued that the country's policies reflect an unmistakable pro-Israel bias. Despite the US claiming to be a neutral actor, its record at the United Nations, where it has used the veto in support of Israel several times (full list by the Jewish Virtual Library here), as well as the large amount in aid and weapons it sends to Israel every year (the most recent package in 2016 worth $38 billion over the course of a decade), speak for themselves.
In fact, so common was it to expect the US to use its veto in support of Israel that the Obama administration's 2016 decision to abstain from using it in a resolution condemning Israel's construction of settlements on Palestinian territory — declared illegal under international law — made headlines.
This perhaps explains why, while definitely outraged, Palestinians reacting on social media were not necessarily surprised by the US move.
At the time of writing, at least two Palestinians were killed and over 200 were injured during protests opposing the Jerusalem decision across East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel launched at least one airstrike on Gaza, injuring at least 25 civilians.
Linah Al Saafin, a Palestinian producer at Al Jazeera, shared this image of a 14-year-old Palestinian boy being arrested by Israeli soldiers in Hebron, West Bank:
How many Israeli soldiers does it take to arrest a 14 year old Palestinian boy?
Photo taken yesterday in Hebron h/t @shejae3a pic.twitter.com/1eNM3CmfG8
— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) December 8, 2017
Mariam Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and commentator who was herself arrested at the age of 20 by Israeli forces, wrote in an Al Jazeera op-ed that the US administration's announcement did not happen in a vacuum:
It's a culmination of international failure to address Israeli human rights violations, perpetual US support to Israel, the incompetency of Palestinian leadership to achieve any solutions through diplomatic efforts, and more recently the new friendship the US administration is building with some Arab states.
She also denounced the focus of much of the mainstream media on “reaction from Palestinian and Arab states” rather than the very rights of Palestinians continuously violated:
Ya'll the issue to Trump declaring #Jerusalem the capital of Israel should not be the fear of reaction from Palestinians & Arab states,rather the fact that an international administration is once again ignoring Palestinian existence and right to self determination. #Palestine
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) December 6, 2017
Barghouti finally pointed out that 2017 is the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, referring to a 1917 public statement issued by the British government during World War I announcing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine:
A Palestinian man tells me as I interview him: “Who is America to declare the capital of Israel when it's Palestinian land?”
We're marking 100 years of Balfour with another manifestation of it by @realDonaldTrump. #Palestine #Jerusalem
— مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) December 5, 2017
Photo taken by Mariam Barghouti on December 8, 2017. “Protest silhouettes. Youth confronting Israeli forces near Beit El settlement in Ramallah against Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” Used with permission. Source: Instagram
In a long status, Palestinian-Syrian journalist Eyad Hamid said that moving the embassy does not make much of a difference as it'd be akin to moving it from one occupied city, Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv-Yafo where the current embassy is, to another, Jerusalem. Here is a brief extract:
خلينا نكون صريحين مع حالنا: القدس محتلة متلها متل يافا ونقل السفارة الأمريكية من مدينة فلسطينية محتلة لمدينة فلسطينية تانية محتلة ما لي شايف أنه رح يغير كتير
Let us be honest with ourselves: Occupied Jerusalem is like Jaffa and moving the US embassy from one occupied Palestinian city to another occupied Palestinian city does not seem to me to be changing much.
Jerusalem-born and raised Leen Barghouti, who is currently a consultant to the Palestinian mission in Berlin, and previously a researcher at Georgetown University, viewed this as yet more proof of the Israeli government under President Benjamin Netanyahu isn't interested in peace:
There are not enough words to describe what on earth happened yesterday to my hometown Jerusalem, however it is clear the Israeli government is not interested in letting go of its domination, suppression and superiority. It is not interested in peace. Netanyahu's idea of peace is Palestinian servitude and submission. The US administration is basically rewarding theft, oppression, repression, violence and humiliation.
She then called on Palestinians to unite:
It's time now to unite and fight for our equal civil, cultural, religious and political rights. It's time to break our chains and retake our heritage that was stolen from us, it's time to fight for what is right rather than what is comfortable.
Palestinian analyst Yousef Munayyer said that it's a lose-lose situation for Palestinians:
If Palestinians respond to Trump's announcement with anger in the streets we will be told: see, who can make peace with those violent Arabs.
If they don't we will be told: See, the Jerusalem decision was the right move.
Both of these are wrong.
— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) December 7, 2017
Palestinian writer Budour Hassan said that it's only natural for “a nation like the U.S. that has been built on colonization…to support another colonizer state in Israel”:
Trump is the most honest personification of shared US/Israeli values. A nation built on ethnic cleansing, colonialism and white supremacy has always supported colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
— Budour Hassan (@Budour48) December 6, 2017
She added that official “anger” at the announcement is meaningless unless there's real action on the ground from Palestinians:
كل “غضب” لا يرافقه حل سلطة أوسلو وسحب الاعتراف بالاحتلال والقطيعة الكلية مع نهج التفاوض هو مجرد ردح فارغ لا معننى له، والسلطة الفلسطينية لن تفعل أيا من ذلك لأن أولويتها هي الحفاظ على امتيازاتها.
— Budour Hassan (@Budour48) December 7, 2017
All ‘anger’ that isn't accompanied by the dissolution to the Oslo regime [a reference to the Palestinian Authority established by the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation] and withdrawal from recognition of the occupation and the complete divestment from negotiations is just [an] empty act with no meaning, and the Palestinian Authority won't do any of this because its priority is to preserve its privileges
The Israeli government hasn't wasted much time since the announcement, with 14,000 new housing units planned for Jerusalem, including 4,000 across the “Green Line”, i.e. in the legal territory of the State of Palestine:
14,000 housing units planned for Jerusalem, 6,000 over Green line https://t.co/QdIMhC56xd pic.twitter.com/ohMonV5Fri
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) December 7, 2017

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
Syrian and Lebanese: On the Conflict of Identities · Global Voices
Sarah Hunaidi

On the Syrian-Lebanese border. Photo taken by the author.
I used to be among the people who write. Now, it seems as if the act of writing is like a country that wants me gone.
I wake up to an icy cold temperature outside. I say hello to the cleaning lady. She is surprised that someone would say hello to her in this fancy building. She does not know that I am a visitor, or that I am a refugee. The sky secretly throws little bits of snow on me, as if I am not supposed to notice.
I get a letter in the mail informing me that my health insurance coverage has ended. The opened letter sits on my bed for days.
What can I do with such news? If I were a smoker, I would have smoked, and I would have stared at this letter and cursed the world as I exhaled the smoke of my “carelessness” in the air. Yet, I do not smoke, so I sit next to the open letter like an idiot while I think of all the cities that export their chaos inside of me.
I think of Beirut. This is my habit, the habit of a Bedouin. For I am a nomadic traveler, but with the heart of a local farmer, which explains this ongoing—and despicable—torment.
I cannot stay in one place for too long. But every time I leave, I miss it as if I knew no other, as if I were born from the womb of their soil and developed from the fruits of their trees.
Beirut.
I was able to bear my sense of exile anywhere; it was not an easy feeling, but it was bearable. This is the strength of truth and logic. I am a true stranger.
Photo of Beirut. Taken by the author.
But I was not able to bear my sense of exile in Syria. I could not breathe knowing that I am refusing my mother’s womb while it refuses me.
Just like an unborn child needs her mother’s placenta, I wondered how I would be born a healthy citizen if I wasn’t nurtured by my motherland.
We left as weak and disabled children. I left when I was seventeen years old, a premature baby born in the seventh month of pregnancy. I needed a lot of political oxygen, human and gender freedom. I needed a lot of basic food for my intellectual growth.
Every time I felt my Lebanese side, the truth would pinch me.
I do not have any papers despite the fact that the womb that carried me belongs to a woman from the Lebanese mountains. But it is only a womb, a female part that does not count in this part of the world.
Every time I got angry with Lebanon, I would say, “I am grateful that my mother cannot give me her citizenship. I do not want a country that does not want me.”
I would feel sick to my stomach at the end of this sentence.
I used to ask with the innocence of a child: “Does Syria want me? I know that Assad’s Syria does not. Who is Syria?”
“Syrian dog! Syrian thief!” That is how my Lebanese uncle described the young Syrian man who drove me home after going out with him on a Beiruti date.
My Lebanese relatives did not care that I was in the room when they talked about the darker-skinned Syrian workers with vile prejudice, which was followed by dreadful and fake sympathy.
They used to praise my father for treating my mother like an equal, and they did not hide their jealousy of the fact that my father did not cheat on my mother. They used to envy my mother for her husband whenever they complained about the violence their husbands inflicted on them. My father, he who used to bring a glass of water, and listen with all his heart.
My father was not born with particularly dark skin. But he became darker, like everyone else in Syria.
My father was dark-skinned and Syrian. Were they aware of that?
“My wife is my crown.” “My wife has passed, and I swear there is no woman like her in all of Aleppo.” – These are some of the phrases that were said by dark-skinned Syrian men.
I used to ignore the fact that my lighter skin tone helped me in Lebanon. And for some time I used to purposefully speak in a Lebanese dialect, for two reasons:
First, I wanted to assess the level of hatred in a room, although me speaking in that dialect did not save me from all the hateful words directed at my Syrian identity.
Secondly, it was out of fear of being sexually harassed. I used to think that I would more likely to be abducted or raped if people knew I was a Syrian refugee.
But after unleashing my anger at one man who attempted to sexually harass me in a bus, I realized that the possibility of being sexually harassed was not affected by whether I was Lebanese or Syrian, as long as I was a woman.
Being half-Lebanese and half-Syrian is like being a child whose parents are separated, and both of them hate you, because each half of you is a reminder of the other and neither of them is fighting for your custody.
On the contrary, they want to get rid of you in every way they can, and they want you to grow up fast and to live abroad.
I grew up fast, but I still need so much oxygen so my lungs can complete their growth.
I learned one day that inhaling so much oxygen in order to scream freely during an anti-regime protest was mere coincidence.
But in reality I am still in a massive incubator called life, tired and not able to build this body that will carry me into the future, the future for which I was born early.
This post was originally published on Al Araby in Arabic under the title of ‘في اشتباك الهويّة‘, and was translated into English by Mary Hazboun (with some editing by Joey Ayoub). The English version was originally published on Hummus For Thought.

author: Sarah Hunaidi


text:
Transgender Woman’s Murder in Trinidad & Tobago Highlights Ostracism Faced by LGBTQ Community · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Screenshot of Sasha Fierce as she appeared in the Friends4LifeTT video, talking about some of the challenges transgender people face in Trinidad and Tobago.
On the night of December 5, 2017, a transgender woman was murdered at a park in Port of Spain, Trinidad, a country where the legal framework does not include any component through which a person can change his or her sexual identity. The victim's “legal” name was registered as Keon Patterson, but she was better known by the moniker Sasha Fierce (inspired by American singer Beyonce's stage persona), through which she was a staunch advocate of the local transgender community and an HIV spokesperson.
Fierce was featured in the Friends4LifeTT video, uploaded to YouTube in August 2017, which explored what it's like to be a transgender person in Trinidad and Tobago. Reports suggest that Fierce was shot and killed by two men, who police have since called in for questioning.
While Trinidad and Tobago is used to violent crime, Fierce's murder has raised the issue of the way in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people are treated in Caribbean societies. The twin island republic has not always shown tolerance for gender fluidity, as is the case with other island nations, such as Jamaica, which has routinely demonstrated a lack of understanding about the LGBTQ community.
Users of social media networks were vocal in their criticism. Lara Quentrall-Thomas lamented:
This wonderful human being, who cared so much for others, died for no reason .. other than perhaps, being different. Trinidad has reached a new low.
Comments on her public thread ranged from calling the country “third world” in attitude to criticising the government for “not putting laws in place to protect all citizens”, saying, it is “truly heartbreaking and unfortunate that members of the LGBT community cannot be themselves”.
Sodomy is listed in Trinidad and Tobago law as a criminal offence, but that has not translated into any pending cases for consensual homosexual sex. The law is therefore only one aspect of the issue; deeply embedded societal attitudes tend to have a much greater impact on the daily lives of LGBTQ people in the Caribbean space.
Such attitudes are often influenced by conservative religious pronouncements on sexual and gender minorities. The bias has filtered into both mainstream media reporting and social media comments on the murder, which the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) said has “added to the violence”.
This despite attempts a few years ago to discuss how the media should report equitably and responsibly on issues affecting the LGBTQ community. Commenting on one 2015 television series which tracked the everyday life of a transgender woman living in Trinidad and Tobago, Facebook user Daniel Khairi commented:
This makes me anxious and the preview questions are awful. Trans people are always subject to ‘why’ and ‘what's in between your legs.’ I have no faith that [the television station] will do right by this woman.
For years now, this has been a commonly expressed sentiment:
Lack of education about the #transgender community in #Trinidad sees comments like these. #illuminati #comment #lmao https://t.co/aRGwqZH3K4
— Nehe (@N_J_Edwards) July 22, 2015
CAISO, for one, was not having any more of the ignorance. In a series of posts on its Facebook page, the organisation criticised both the local and international media's handling of the story:
Three things NOT to do when a transwoman is murdered: 1) Don't send the media dehumanising pictures of her dead body to publish. 2) Don't make her death about you. 3) Don't fundraise for your hotel room.
The reference is a jab at Trinidad-born, UK-based activist Jason Jones, who is challenging the island's sodomy laws as unconstitutional in a case that will be heard on January 30, 2018 in the High Court in Port of Spain. Jones, who was interviewed in an article about Fierce's murder for Gay Star News, is trying to raise money to offset his costs for mounting the legal challenge.
In another post, CAISO commended one local daily for “correcting its old story (which had called Sasha a ‘transgender man’), and changing the pronouns in it to she and her. The updated story also omits a speculation about sex work.”
The same newspaper, Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, carried a follow-up story which said that Fierce's friends “are afraid to mourn her death publicly” for fear of being targeted, but Facebook user Andre Bagoo was resolute:
Sasha Fierce is dead bt hear this: freedom is not. We will not be afraid. We will not cower in our homes. We will marry the night.
A memorial in Fierce's honour was held on December 8, 2017.

author: Flora Thomas


text:
Victoria Becomes the First Australian State to Pass Voluntary Assisted Dying Legislation · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Euthanasia – Courtesy Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 http://nyphotographic.com/
The Australian state of Victoria is the first in the country to have passed voluntary assisted dying [VAD] legislation. This historic decision by the Victorian parliament has been very controversial, with people divided over the question of euthanasia on ethical and/or religious grounds.
This is just part of the reason it has been a slow journey getting to this point. As far back as 1995, the country's Northern Territory had adopted euthanasia laws, but a year later the federal parliament, which has responsibility for Australian territories, overturned the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act. Recently, the Upper House of the New South Wales parliament rejected a similar bill by the narrowest of margins — 20 votes to 19.
A common feature of these parliamentary debates has been that the political parties have given their representatives a free or conscience vote on the bills before parliament.
At the start of the parliamentary debate back in October 2017, Benjamin Silvester summarised the background to the Victorian bill — and the key people involved — in a piece he wrote for The Citizen, an online publication of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne:
The laws would allow terminally ill Victorians to access lethal medication within 10 days of asking to die, following a process which includes three voluntary requests and two independent medical assessments. They must be over the age of 18, of sound mind, expected to die within 12 months and suffering in a way that ‘cannot be relieved in a manner the person deems tolerable’. The patient must administer the lethal dose themselves, but a doctor could deliver it in cases where someone was physically unable to do it.
The timeframe was eventually amended, with access being reduced from 12 to six months’ life expectancy (with some exemptions). The Upper House Legislative Council sat for 28 consecutive hours before passing the bill, with amendments that included the altered timeframe. The vote was 22 to 18. One government minister tweeted a long series of animated GIFs and short video clips about the process:
3rd Reading, passed, 22 votes Yes, 18 votes No, history is made in Victoria & Australia!  It now gets sent back down to the lower house to accept the amendments we have inserted into the legislation #VAD #SpringSt #right2selfdetermination pic.twitter.com/E1A2JrgxFo
— Philip Dalidakis MP (@philipdalidakis) November 22, 2017
However, his humour was not appreciated by everyone:
Offensively disrespectful behaviour by @philipdalidakis tweeting jokes during VAD debate. Children should not be allowed to sit in parliament   #springst
— Name (@mickofbeacy) November 22, 2017
The Lower House Legislative Assembly went on to vote 46 to 37 in favour of the amended bill.
Her mother having died from symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis, Victorian Minister of Health Jill Hennessy has been one of the driving forces behind the legislation. Attorney General Martin Pakula paid tribute to his colleague on Twitter:
This woman. This star. Victorians will never forget what she has achieved in driving and delivering #VAD – so many others deserve credit, but none of it could have happened without @JillHennessyMP pic.twitter.com/kx8o2DzNn9
— Martin Pakula (@MartinPakulaMP) November 22, 2017
Another influencer has been veteran television personality Andrew Denton, who helped to found the organisation Go Gentle. Denton explained why he was advocating change at the Progress 2017 conference in Melbourne in June 2017, alongside fellow campaigner Jenny Barnes:
Vigorous opposition has come from organisations such as Right to Life, as well as religious groups that were keen to highlight stories counterbalancing Jill Hennessy's personal experience of caring for her dying mother:
Liz Spencer's husband would not be alive for an extra 18 years if #assisteddying had been legal https://t.co/7ED0xh1PHE #vad #springst #prolife #euthanasia #assistedsuicide #nswpol #wapol
— Right to Life Aust. (@RightToLifeAust) November 8, 2017
Some Twitter users were less than impressed with the agitating of people like Lyle Shelton of the Australian Christian Lobby:
Today is the day a Parliament voted not to improve palliative care but to allow killing as a form of medical treatment. This must not spread to other states. #SpringSt #Auspol
— Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) November 22, 2017
Just mind your own business, god botherer. #springst #vad https://t.co/TsPyY83yTx
— Miss Bailey Woof OAM (@MissBaileyWoof) November 22, 2017
Others tried to bring some light relief to the heated debate:
Just got a press release saying that the looming thunderstorms in Victoria are Gods retribution for legalising euthanasia #vad #springst ?
— Alex White (@alexwhitelive) November 30, 2017
One of the hot issues in the debate has been the role of palliative care. Some felt that this specialised medical care for the terminally ill was being forced by the “death culture” to take a back seat, while others maintained that palliative care was not capable of relieving suffering:
.@RobertClarkMP says that the #VAD law will leave 10,000 people to die in pain while catering to the approx 150 people that will access VAD. He also stated that Palliative Care is able to treat all pain. Which one is it? #Springst
— Dying With Dignity (@dwdvic) November 28, 2017
The likelihood of VAD becoming law in other parts of the country is uncertain. There have been a number of unsuccessful attempts in recent years in other states to introduce comparable legislation, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is going down a similar path to Victoria by establishing a multi-party parliamentary committee to look into end of life choices.
While any VAD laws that the ACT may pass could still be disallowed by the federal parliament, it seems that only one parliamentary member would be keen to do so: the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, is a conservative Catholic who campaigned vigorously against same sex marriage, and he has said that he hopes the Victorian laws will be overturned someday:
A future Victorian parliament should have the moral decency to repeal this euthanasia law.  No one should be told that their lives are not worth living or that they’re a burden.1/2
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) November 29, 2017
In contrast, many have rejoiced in the recent progressive trend in Australian politics, linking the VAD laws and the 62% YES vote in the national same sex marriage survey:
Wow. Euthanasia passes in Victoria. Gay marriage by Christmas. A new Australia.
— Pia Akerman (@pia_akerman) November 22, 2017
Progressive politics takes another huge step forward. https://t.co/DyJiflP1Uj
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) November 22, 2017

author: Kevin Rennie


text:
The Fall of Chinese Internet Czar Lu Wei · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Lu Wei, the former gatekeeper of the Chinese Internet, attended attend a signing ceremony in Seattle, the United States, on Sept. 23, 2015. Chinese state owned Xinhua photo.
According to an announcement released on November 21, 2017 and posted on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Lu Wei, the former head of the Chinese Internet regulator, has been placed under corruption investigation.
Lu Wei was the director of the Administration of Cyberspace between April 2013 and June 2016. With his iron fist control over the Internet, he established his image as a hardline leader. In addition to regular censorship measures, including keyword filtering and content deletion, Lu Wei was in charge of coercing Internet celebrities into accepting a set of self-censorship guidelines in August 2013, as well as a crackdown on online rumors, the blocking of circumvention tools and an anti-online pornography campaign.
In 2014, under Lu Wei’s leadership, the Cyberspace Administration started organizing the annual Wuzhen World Internet Forum to promote the idea of Internet sovereignty to the world. He was placed under the international media spotlight when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave him a warm welcome at the social networking site's Silicon valley office; a year later, in 2015, Lu Wei was later listed as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine.
Following the investigation announcement, the Cyberspace Administration held an internal meeting denouncing the former leader. According to the Communist Party of China (CCP)-affiliated media outlet, Global Times, the meeting concluded that:
鲁炜[…]严重背离了党性原则，严重违背了党中央对党员领导干部的纪律要求，严重污染了网信办的政治生态，严重败坏了中央网信办和网信干部队伍的形象，严重危害了党的网信事业健康发展，是一个典型的“两面人”。
Lu Wei […] has severely deviated from the Party Principle, violated the Party’s Central authority’s disciplinary requirement on party members, officials and leaders, severely polluted the political ecology of the CAC, severely damaged the image of the CAC and its team, and severely jeopardised the party's efforts for the healthy development of the internet and he is a typical two-faced man.
There are, however, no further details on the corruptive act Lu Wei is said to have committed.
Chinese netizens have expressed no sympathy for Lu Wei's downfall. Peking university professor, Zhang Lifang, wrote  two poems on Twitter to mark the incident:
弄權太過此能臣，雨露君恩降罪身。絞肉輪機親打造，投機碎了造機人。
This official enjoys playing with power, the emperor that once fed him now makes him a sinner. He creates his own mincing machine and the machine crushes its inventor.
秋官肅殺寂無聲，秋去冬來鼎釜烹。酷吏偏多今世報，群獠當戒魯先生。
People are silenced in front of the autumn executor. Autumn replaced by winter and the executor has ended up in the cooking pot. So many cruel officials have seen their own retribution, the beasts should take a lesson from [the fate of] Mr. Lu.
Fang zhouzi, a famous blogger was also happy to hear the news (via RFI):
无数人第一时间告知我“鲁总管”鲁炜落网了，呵呵。“恶有恶报”虽然基本上是一个欺骗老实人的谎言，但是能够目睹那么一两件现世报，就能让人觉得这个世界也并不是那么不完美的。
So many people rush to tell me that ‘Internet Tsar Lu’ has been detained. Haha. While the saying that ‘the evil will be punished’ is a lie to honest people, with the ability to witness such instances once or twice, comes the feeling that this world is not as imperfect as it seems.
Yet, the news doesn’t imply that censorship measures would be loosened. @lucy8919 pointed out on Twitter:
網信辦鲁炜被查，互聯網一片歡騰，想起杜甫的詩句”劍外忽傳收蓟北，初聞涕淚滿衣裳”，多少飽受刪帖封號的朋友吐出一口惡氣，然並卵，走了一個鲁炜，404濤聲依舊。 pic.twitter.com/AtfrpGXIES
— Lucy (@lucy8919) November 22, 2017
Lu Wei from Cyberspace Administration is under investigation. So much cheering online. The scene reminds me of a line written by Du Fu: ‘Tears had wet my clothes when hearing the news about the recovery of the northern part of Ji County’ [The poem is about the end of a seven-year civil war during the Tang Dynasty]. So many netizens whose user accounts were banned thought the news so soothing. Yet, nothing has changed. Lu Wei is gone, but the current of 404 [a code indicating the content is inaccessible because of a connection disruption] remains the same.
In fact, to use President Xi Jinping’s political lexicon, some netizens even anticipated that the ideological control over the Internet would be more stiff or “comprehensive”. The denunciation of Lu Wei represents a replacement of the technocratic approach by the ideological struggle approach when it comes to China Internet governance.
If we look at the Maoist comments regarding Lu's fall, online censorship will be geared up to serve an ideological battle. When Sima Nan, a famous Maoist political commentator, elaborated on the official criticism of Lu Wei as “a typical two-faced man”, he suggested that Lu had been protecting liberal celebrities, including Pan Shiyi and Ren Zhiqiang, and neglecting the ideological battle front:
我对这个人最大的意见是，网络上那么多恶言诋毁开国领袖毛泽东极其领导集体的言论，还有哪些不断设置议题攻击中国根本政治制度的言论行动，鲜有人管，管不得体，管不得法，乃至敷衍塞责，但是任何不利于他自己形象的哪怕是边边角角鸡零狗碎的内容，也删得白茫茫一片大地真干净。
My major criticism on this person is that there are so many online smears against our country’s founding leader Mao Zedong and his leadership collective, as well as agendas and speech acts that undermine China’s political system. Very few people have taken that seriously and when they handled the matter, they didn’t have tactics and did not take the responsibility seriously. However, if the online comments affected their own image, they cleaned the web thoroughly.
Indeed, Lu Wei had already been replaced by his deputy, Xu Lin, on June 29, 2016. Since then, Internet censorship measures have been extended to the crackdown on chat rooms by making administrators liable for the spread of unlawful messages, banning anonymous comments, shutting down entertainment sites that deviate from socialist core values, and restricting underage netizens’ access to online games.
If Lu Wei's censorship measures were viewed as selective, Chinese netizens will now find themselves facing a more “comprehensive” online content control system.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
A Local Newspaper’s Full-Page Feature on Nuclear Radiation Survival Stirs Panic in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jilin Daily's full page feature on nuclear radiation.
On December 6, 2017, Jilin Daily published a full-page feature on nuclear weapons and how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear radiation. This led many, in particular, residents from northern China to ask if the newspaper report is an anticipation of a United States military action against North Korea's missile test.
Jilin province is located in north China near North Korea. Jilin Daily is affiliated with the local government of the province.
On November 29, North Korea launched a test on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching all part of U.S. mainland. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump warned to bring a “rain” of “fire and fury” on North Korea if the country’s leader Kim Jong Un continued to threaten U.S. security. China, in particular the northern part of China, would be affected by the “rain”.
Meanwhile, another leaked document from Jilin’s China mobile company indicated that the Jilin government has established five refugee sites in Changbai province, which shares 260 kilometers of border with North Korea.
Public discussion regarding potential warfare in North Korea was deleted quickly from social media platforms. Even party-affiliated Global Times had to withdraw its editorial upon publishing online (retrieved via Voices of America):
目前半岛局势紧张，朝鲜已进行了六次核试验，被广泛认为已经拥有了核弹头。另外朝鲜的导弹技术今年以来快速突破，成功试射了射程可覆盖美国本土的洲际弹道导弹。美国发誓扼杀朝鲜经济，美韩对朝军事压力进一步升级，美朝发生军事冲突的风险在增加。而吉林省与朝鲜接壤，该省省报在这个时候刊出核武器常识及其防护的整版介绍，立刻让人想到这是该省对半岛战争风险的一种反应。
Currently, tension is mounting in the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has launched six nuclear tests and it is believed that the country is already equipped with a nuclear bomb. Moreover, its missile launching technology has reached a breakthrough this year and has successfully launched a missile that can reach all parts of the U.S. continent. The U.S has vowed that it would destroy North Korea economy and exercise military pressure. The risk of military conflict between the U.S and North Korea has escalated. Jilin shares border with North Korea, the whole page feature on nuclear radiation precaution is believed to be a reaction to the risk of warfare in the Korean peninsula.
Despite censorship, anxious posts about military conflicts keep popping up on popular Chinese social media platform Weibo. One Weibo user believes that the news feature published by Jilin Daily was approved by the central government:
今天这事吧确实不是开玩笑，你们要知道中国的新闻审核制度有多严，这种内容能发出来一定是经过高层授意，又层层批准的。上边要告诉你们点什么，但又不能说的太明显，东北老铁可以密切留意沈阳美国总领事馆的动向，一旦老美撤了，啥也别管赶紧走
This is not a joke. You all know that news censorship in China is very strict. Such kind of content has to be approved by senior officials before circulation. The leaders want to tell you something but can’t say that explicitly. Fellows in Dongbei (northern China), please observe the U.S consulate in Shenyang, if they retreat, run away.
Even though state-affiliated news outlets had tried to downplay the possibility of a war, many are still worried about radiation if military action was taken by the U.S. against North Korea's nuclear facilities:
核弹没升空炸了，东北也危险吧？
Even if the nuclear missile exploded in the sky, Dongbei area will still be endangered, right?
More critical comments blamed the government for the nuclear crisis:
防朝核，韩国日本有萨德，爱国者导弹，航母作战群；台湾有铺路爪，俄罗斯有沃罗涅日M系统全天候防御，唯一看不清挡不住朝鲜核弹的，只有中国。核弹当前，吉林人民只有一张介绍常识的廉价报纸！当初反对萨德走上街头怒砸韩国车的愤青们呢，该你们到朝核第一线了。
To prevent a North Korea nuclear missile attack, South Korea and Japan are equipped with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), MIM-104 Patriot and Aircraft Carriers; Taiwan has Phased Array Warning System, Russia has Voronezh-M radar system as precaution. China is the only country which cannot clearly detect and counter North Korea missiles. Now with the threat of H-bomb, people in Jilin can only rely on newspapers which educate people with radiation common sense. Where have all the patriotic youths who protested against the THAAD by crushing Korean vehicles gone? Shouldn’t you be standing in the front line?
由于中国特色政府长期暗中支持朝鲜，致使朝鲜从无核到有核，现在已经威胁到世界人民的生命财产安全，为此，中国特色政府应该对朝核问题造成的恶果负全部责任。
Since government with Chinese character [China government] has been supporting North Korea in secret, the country eventually got its nuclear weapon. Now it is threatening the security of all people in the world. Hence, the government with Chinese character should be responsible for all adverse effects of the North Korea nuclear crisis.


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Audrey Azoulay, the Second Woman at the Head of the UNESCO · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Audrey Azoulay, who succeeds to Irina Gueorguieva Bokova at the head of the UNESCO. Picture by Didier Plowly CC-BY-3.0
Mrs Audrey Azoulay, previously France's Minister of Culture, has been nominated by the 58 state members of the Organisation Executive Board to represent the 195 members of the UNESCO.
She has won the title after five voting rounds, with 30 votes in her favor against 28 votes for her opponent Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, from Qatar. Mrs Azoulay was only be officially elected on the 10th November 2017, with the approval of the 195 State members during the general conference.
The succession of a woman to another at the head of one of the biggest United Nations agencies is a first. This is exactly what happened at the United Nations for the Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), where Ms Audrey Azoulay, from France, replaced Ms Gueorguieva Bokova, from Bulgaria, who has just completed her second mandate as the Director-General. A fact that deserves to be acknowledged.
Out of the 8 candidates, the ex-French Minister of Culture was the youngest, and logically the candidate with the least amount of experience in working with international organisations or in diplomacy in her country. In addition to that, having a woman as her predecessor made her victory more challenging.
Amina Benlhasen traced back her academic and professional background for the Moroccan news site MAP. She presents it like below :
A son actif, Audrey Azoulay peut se prévaloir d’un pedigree “diversité” en or. Tout le monde n’a pas la chance d’avoir une grand-mère marocaine séfarade, un père conseiller du Roi du Maroc et une mère écrivaine qui, vivant entre Paris et Rabat, ont su créer un pont entre les deux rives de la Méditerranée, écrit également d’elle le “Journal du Dimanche”.
De par sa diversité, la richesse de son vécu et sa foi en les valeurs de dialogue et de multiculturalité dans lesquelles elle a puisée depuis sa tendre enfance, Audrey Azoulay réunit, à ne pas en douter, toutes les qualités qui lui permettront durant son mandat, comme elle s’y est engagée, de redonner toute sa place à l’UNESCO et de restaurer la confiance en cette institution et de placer l’éducation et la Culture au  coeur de la gouvernance mondiale.
Audrey Azoulay has a golden “diversity” pedigree for her assets. Not everyone is lucky to have a Sephardi Moroccan grandmother, a King of Morocco counselor as a father and a writer as a mother. All of whom, living between Paris and Rabat, managed to create a bridge between the two Mediterranean shores, writes the “Sunday News” about Azoulay.
By her diversity, rich background and her faith in values she has been immersed in since her childhood such as dialogue and multiculturalism, Audrey has with no doubt all the qualities that will allow her like has she promised to, reinstate the UNESCO, reestablish confidence in this institution and place education and Culture at the heart of the global governance during her mandate.
But getting there was not easy for Azoulay. First of all, as Anissa Hégly highlights it on oumma.com, by endorsing Azoulay's candidacy, the ex-French President François Hollande left a diplomatic faux pas as heritage to his successor, breaking a strict law ruling that a citizen originating from the location of one of the international organisation headquarters cannot be nominated at the highest level. She also reveals that:
L’annonce de la candidature d’Audrey Azoulay a fait l’effet d’une petite bombe dans les milieux feutrés de la Diplomatie et de la Culture. Une situation gênante pour le Quai d’Orsay, car il était à peu près entendu depuis de nombreuses années dans les différentes chancelleries que le prochain Secrétaire général de l’organisation devait être issu d’un pays arabe. En effet, durant ses 72 ans d’existence, l’UNESCO a vu à sa tête 10 présidents, dont 7 venaient d’Europe ou d’Amérique du Nord. Il faut savoir que les pays membres de l’UNESCO sont divisés en six groupes, chacun représentant une zone culturelle et géographique donnée. Le premier groupe auquel appartient la France a obtenu six fois le poste de Directeur général, et chaque autre groupe une fois, à l’exception… des pays arabes…
Un impair diplomatique d’autant plus grave qu’en voulant trouver un parachutage en or pour son ancienne ministre, François Hollande a aussi brisé une règle tacite des organisations internationales : un pays où siège l’une de ces institutions ne propose pas de candidat à sa tête. Une forme de courtoisie pour assurer une neutralité maximale et pour éviter qu’un Suisse siège à l’OMC, un Italien à la FAO… ou un Français à l’UNESCO. Les ennuis s’accumulent pour les fonctionnaires du Quai d’Orsay, contraints de devoir défendre une candidature qui horripile la plupart de nos partenaires.
The news of Audrey Azoulay's candidacy dropped a little bombshell in the hush world of Diplomacy and Culture. It was a bit of an embarrassment for the Quai d’Orsay, because all of the different chancelleries had more or less agreed since many years that the next general Secretary of the organisation should originate from an Arabic country. Indeed, during its 72 years of existence, the UNESCO has seen at its head 10 presidents, and 7 of them were from Europe or North America. It should be noted that the state members of the UNESCO are divided into 6 groups, each representing a specific cultural and geographical zone. The first group to which France belongs has been attributed the role of Director-General 6 times already, as well as once for every other group, at the exception of…Arabic countries…
A diplomatic faux pas, even more serious considering that by trying to bring a golden handshake to his ex-minister, François Hollande also broke a strict rule of the international organisations: a country where the headquarter of one of these institutions is based at does not nominate a head candidate. A courtesy policy to ensure maximum neutrality and to avoid a Swiss heading the OMC, an Italian heading the FAO… or a French heading the UNESCO. The troubles keep piling up for the Quai d’Orsay officials, obliged to defend a candidacy exasperating most of our partners.
This victory was surprising according to several witnesses, and was only possible because of the disagreement between the Arabic states group, due to the difficult diplomatic relationship of Qatar with its neighbors. Among the 58 members of the Executive Board of the organisation, there are seven representatives of Arabic countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Oman and Sudan. Khaled Elraz explains it for afrik.com:
Lors de l’ultime tour d’un scrutin très serré entamé lundi…Audrey Azoulay a reçu le soutien de l’Egypte, dont la candidate avait été éliminée sur la dernière ligne droite, contre le candidat du Qatar, qui faisait la course en tête depuis le début. Mais le Qatar était loin de faire l’unanimité du monde arabe, d’autant plus que l’Arabie saoudite, les Emirats arabes unis, Bahreïn et l’Egypte ont rompu leurs relations diplomatiques avec lui en juin dernier. La candidate française d’origine marocaine, fille d’Essaouira, était idéalement désignée pour battre un candidat qatari, en rupture de ban dans le monde arabe.
La bataille a cependant été âpre pour prendre le leadership d’une organisation déjà fragilisée par ses dissensions et ses difficultés économiques, et à laquelle les Etats-Unis et Israël avaient porté “un coup dur” avec l’annonce jeudi de leur départ, selon la  directrice générale sortante de l’organisation, la Bulgare Irina Bokova…
Un problème auquel Audrey Azoulay saura sans nul doute répondre : car elle est issue d’une famille marocaine, issue d’une terre dont le souverain musulman est commandeur des croyants, musulmans aussi bien que juifs.
During the very tight final round on Monday…Azoulay received Egypt's support, whose candidate had been eliminated during the final stretch by Qatar's one, leading the way since the start. But Qatar was far from getting the approval of the Arab world, considering that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt had broken their diplomatic relationships with it last June. The French candidate, originally Moroccan and children of Essaouira, was almost strategically positioned to beat a Qatari candidate, as if the Arab world was short of bans.
Nevertheless, taking leadership of a weakened organisation was a bitter fight. In addition to the announcement of the United States and Israel's departure on that week, which was “a real blow”, the organisation was already weakened by its dissensions and economic difficulties, according to the ex-Director-General, the Bulgarian Irina Bokova…
An issue to which Azoulay will surely know how to respond to: because of her Moroccan background, a land where the Muslim sovereign is the commander all the believers, Muslim or Jewish.
Furthermore, the Simon Wiesenthal Center had condemned the Qatari Ambassador Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari on the eve of the election for his behavior. On the online arts and culture website WUKALI, Pierre-Alain Lévy wonders :
Quelle est donc la stratégie du Quatar, et quelle mouche a piqué leurs dirigeants pour avoir désigné comme candidat au poste de directeur-général de l’Unesco monsieur al-Kawari ? Organisation des Nations-Unies pour l’éducation, la science et la culture, tout est dit, pourquoi alors un tel candidat, Le Centre Simon Wiesenthal avait pourtant à plusieurs reprises alerté l’opinion sur les propos inquiétants de l’Ambassadeur al-Kawari, notamment ses propos furieusement antisémites tenus lors du salon du Livre de Doha et sur ses écrits. On aurait pu souhaiter que pour une telle responsabilité à ce poste éminent Doha fût plus circonspect sur ses choix… Par ailleurs dans les semaines qui précédèrent le vote, le Quatar avait multiplié les pressions et les invitations généreuses auprès de délégués, ce qui n’avait pas manqué de susciter pour le moins l’irritation de certains. En outre la stratégie diplomatique du Quatar manque (en termes diplomatiques) de lisibilité.
What is really Qatar's strategy, and one wonders what got into their leaders for nominating al-Kawari as the director-general of the Unesco? United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the name is clear, so why this particular candidate? Yet, the Simon Wiesenthal Center had alerted the public about the worrying comments of the Ambassador al-Kawari, in particular during the Doha Book trade show, where he made some furious anti-Semitic statements, but also through his writings. One could have wished for a more conscious choice made by Doha in respect to the responsibility that the role requires… Furthermore, during the weeks preceding the vote, Qatar had reinforced its pressure and generous invitations among the representatives, much to the irritation of some. Basically, Qatar's diplomatic strategy is lacking (in a diplomatic way) transparency.
Despite of this controversial candidacy and election, we can only wish good luck to Mrs Audrey Azoulay, who succeeds to another woman at the head of one the United Nations specialised major institutions, and that she may regain the prestige of this important institution, which utility is undeniable.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
Indonesian President Jokowi Leads Citizens in Condemning Donald Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration · Global Voices
Juke Carolina

The West Bank seen from Jerusalem, Israel on March 31, 2014. Photo by D. Myles Cullen. Public Domain. Defense Imagery Management Operations Center, US government work
United States (US) president Donald Trump's recent statement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel surprised many across the world. While it was praised by Israeli President Netanyahu, some leaders from the Middle East region and other countries with Muslim-majority populations criticized Trump's decision for “violating the rights” of Palestinians.
Israel and Palestine both claim Jerusalem as their capital.
Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population in a country, counted itself among dissenters deploring Trump's announcement, with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) leading his people in expressing support for Palestine and condemning Trump's announcement.
Indonesia mengecam keras pengakuan sepihak Amerika Serikat terhadap Jerusalem sebagai ibu kota Israel. Pengakuan itu melanggar resolusi DK dan Majelis Umum PBB. Saya dan rakyat Indonesia tetap konsisten bersama rakyat Palestina dalam memperjuangkan kemerdekaan dan hak-haknya.
A post shared by Joko Widodo (@jokowi) on
Indonesia strongly condemns the United States’ unilateral acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Such move violates the Security Council resolution and UN General Assembly. I and the people of Indonesia are consistently supporting the people of Palestine in defending their freedom and rights.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, clarified that Trump's statement affirmed support for both Israel and Palestine:
Ketika Presiden Donald Trump kemarin mengumumkan bahwa Amerika Serikat mengakui Yerusalem sebagai ibu kota Israel dan kota pemerintahannya, Presiden Trump juga menegaskan kembali secara publik bahwa Amerika Serikat mendukung status quo tempat suci Bukit Kuil atau Haram al-Sharif. Seperti yang diungkapkan oleh Presiden Trump dalam pengumumannya, “Yerusalem kini, dan harus terus menjadi, tempat dimana warga Yahudi berdoa di Tembok Barat, umat Kristiani melintasi Jalan Salib, dan umat Muslim beribadah di Masjid Al-Aqsa.”
Presiden menekankan bahwa Amerika Serikat tetap berkomitmen untuk mencapai kesepakatan damai yang langgeng antara rakyat Palestina dan Israel. Termasuk mendukung solusi dua negara, bila disetujui oleh kedua belah pihak.
When President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the United States acknowledges Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and its center of government, President Trump also publicly affirmed that the United States supports the status quo at the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif. As stated by President Trump in his announcement, “Jerusalem is today and must remain a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the stations of the cross, and where Muslims worship at Al Aqsa Mosque.”
The President emphasized that the United States remains committed to reaching a lasting peace agreement between the Palestinian people and the Israelis; including support for a two-state solution, if agreed by both parties.
Protests erupted in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and nearby provinces in the aftermath of Trump's declaration to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Protesters burned US flags and an effigy of Trump in front of the US Embassy in Jakarta. A McDonald's branch was targeted by protesters in South Tangerang, a municipality adjacent to Jakarta, infamously known as the hometown of Islamic State Indonesian cell leader Bahrun Naim.
Nadhlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia accused Trump of exacerbating global conflict.
Political analyst and author Dr. Dina Sulaeman called Trump's move ‘sloppy’ and an act of desperation to gain validation from his Republican financiers.
Mereka ini (Evangelis) lebih peduli pada rezim Zionis dan mengabaikan nasib kaum Kristiani di Palestina. Sekedar info, Patriark dan Kepala Gereja-Gereja Lokal di Yerusalem sudah mengirimkan surat terbuka menolak keputusan Trump itu.
The evangelists care more about the Zionist regime and ignore the fate of the Palestinian Christians. For your information, the Patriarch and local church leaders in Jerusalem have written an open letter formally calling Trump to rescind his decision.
Sulaeman emphasized that defending the Palestinian people is in accordance with the Indonesian constitution (Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 or UUD '45).
UUD 45 memberi mandat agar bangsa Indonesia berperan serta dalam mewujudkan perdamaian dunia dan menghapuskan penjajahan di muka bumi. Tanggapan yang cepat dan tegas dari Presiden Jokowi yang menyatakan penolakan dan kecamannya atas tindakan Trump adalah langkah tepat yang perlu didukung.
UUD '45 mandated the Indonesian nation to actively take part in establishing world peace and eradicate colonialism. The swift and firm reaction from President Jokowi to reject and condemn Trump's move should be supported.
The Indonesian Twittersphere erupted with reactions:
Busy day for US ambassadors around the world. Indonesia has summoned ambassador to hear its condemnation of @realDonaldTrump Jerusalem statement.
— Adam Harvey (@adharves) December 7, 2017
Wearing a Palestinian scarf, foreign min Retno Marsudi tells #BDF10 that #Indonesia gov ‘condemns’ US recognition of #Jerusalem as capital of Israel pic.twitter.com/xCY6j0mHL1
— Simon Roughneen (@simonroughneen) December 7, 2017
Trump membuat kesalahan yang dengan keras dihindari oleh setiap Presiden Amerika Serikat pada 70 tahun terakhir: menyatakan Yerusalem sebagai ibu kota Israel.
Trump sedang menyeret Amerika dan dunia ke front terdepan ekstremisme beragama.
— Rachland Nashidik (@RachlanNashidik) December 7, 2017
Trump made an error sternly avoided by all US presidents for the past 70 years: declaring Jerusalem as capital of Israel. Trump is dragging USA and the world to the frontline of religious extremism.
Saya selalu percaya, bahwa sumber masalah di Timur-Tengah adalah Amerika Serikat. Hari ini Trump membuat kebijakan Jerusalem sebagai Ibu Kota Israel. Kebijakan ini membuat Timur-Tengah dan dunia Islam makin membara.
— zuhairi misrawi (@zuhairimisrawi) December 6, 2017
I always believe that the source of Middle East problem is the USA. Today, Trump made Jerusalem the capital of Israel. This policy will torch Middle East and the Islamic world (issue) even further.
Indonesia has consistently called for the recognition of the state of Palestine. Despite having business and tourism ties, Indonesia and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations.

author: Juke Carolina