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Hundreds Join March in Cambodia a Few Hours After Government Critic Was Shot Dead · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This image of Kem Ley was widely shared by Twitter users. Source: @RPanh
A prominent political analyst and government critic was shot dead inside the store of a gas station in Cambodia on July 10. Hundreds of Cambodians spontaneously gathered near the crime scene and marched in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital, to condemn the killing.
Kem Ley, leader of the Grassroots Democracy Party, is a popular commentator and researcher known for his hard-hitting stance against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Hun Sen has been in power for more than three decades.
The killing of Kem Ley took place a few days after an independent investigative report was published exposing the questionable business transactions of Hun Sen’s family.
The gunman who shot Kem Ley was quickly arrested by police.
The suspect confessed his crime in a video and claimed that he killed Kem Ley because the latter owed him some money.
Many Cambodians refuse to believe this since they think Kem Ley's murder could be related to the worsening political climate in the country wherein several leading members of the political opposition and scores of activists have been charged, arrested, and intimidated by authorities in recent weeks.
Below are some of the scenes in Phnom Penh a few hours after the killing of Kem Ley:
#Cambodia: a large crowd has gathered at scene where political analyst Kem Ley was shot and killed this morning pic.twitter.com/ciT96nLjhE
— Kingsley Abbott (@AbbottKingsley) July 10, 2016
Angry mourners are gathering near where Kem Ley was killed this morning, covering his car with flowers and incense. pic.twitter.com/sgunoGKoO1
— Julia Wallace (@julia_wallace) July 10, 2016
A growing crowd has gathered outside the convenience store where Kem Ley was shot this morning. #cambodia pic.twitter.com/qZbekqKmpS
— Irwin Loy (@illied) July 10, 2016
People wrote that ” Kem Ley is Khmer's hero.” pic.twitter.com/VIqUv9SGfw
— Noan Sereiboth (@noansereiboth) July 10, 2016
One man shaved his hairs bc of an analyst Kem Ley died pic.twitter.com/0Hv9IEhCPT
— Noan Sereiboth (@noansereiboth) July 10, 2016
The march which accompanied the transportation of Kem Ley’s corpse attracted a large crowd in Phnom Penh:
Onlookers at Caltex Bokor that a prominent analyst Kem Ley shot dead in daylight this morning. pic.twitter.com/SD7PhiYgbZ
— Noan Sereiboth (@noansereiboth) July 10, 2016
Many hundreds in the streets at Russian Federation and Monivong, protesting killing of #KemLey #Cambodia pic.twitter.com/0ntj7BW9Cs
— James Reddick (@jredd66) July 10, 2016
Hundreds of people are taking the body of slain political analyst Kem Ley to Wat Chas in Chroy Changvar #cambodia pic.twitter.com/lxIb1i8jrH
— Ruom (@RuomCollective) July 10, 2016
The parade of body of Kem Ley, political analysis who were shot dead this morning #KemLey pic.twitter.com/bXw0cqQ0qV
— Mory Sar (@morysarss) July 10, 2016
The crowd continues to grow as people accompany the body of slain political commentator Kem Ley. pic.twitter.com/UdvqlI0x2U
— Ruom (@RuomCollective) July 10, 2016
Writer Kounila echoes the sentiment of many Internet users:
I don't buy the current joke that #KemLey was murdered due2 debt. Cambodians've seen what he posted on FB, & clearly know what happened. RIP
— Kounila (@Kounila) July 10, 2016
Kem Ley’s last radio interview could give some clue about his death:
Kem Ley on radio last week: “When regime wanted to kill, labels them [conspirators] not loyal to the regime. Then they kill them.’ #Cambodia
— Daniel Pye (@DannyPyez) July 10, 2016
The United States Embassy joined Cambodians in mourning the death of Kem Ley:
Shocking & sad news: the murder of #KemLey, one of #Cambodia‘s most prominent political analysts. Our deepest condolences go to his family.
— US Embassy Cambodia (@USEmbPhnomPenh) July 10, 2016
Even Prime Minister Hun Sen has denounced the killing and has ordered the police to solve the case and impose stricter gun controls.
There are reports that a bigger funeral is being readied in the next few days. The hashtag #KemLey can be used to track news related to the killing.


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She’ll Get US Citizenship 60 Years After Being Adopted, But Thousands More Must Still Wait · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Ella Purkiss as a child when she was brought to Dallas as an international adoptee from South Korea. Now she's 62 and will take her oath for US citizenship. Credit: Courtesy of Ella Purkiss
This article by Maura Ewing originally appeared on PRI.org on July 1, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In January, after 13 months in limbo, Ella Purkiss, was finally granted survivor benefits from her deceased husband. She says if it had taken even one month longer she would have been evicted from her trailer home in Pahrump in the US state of Nevada.
Next Friday, after 60 years of living in the US, she will finally be granted American citizenship.
Purkiss, 62, was adopted from South Korea in 1956 when she was two years old. She lived the first 60 years of her life thinking that she was an American citizen — because this is what her adoptive parents told her. She voted in elections, served on juries and worked as a licensed electrician and hairdresser.
So she was surprised when she learned, two months after her husband’s death in 2014, that she was ineligible for Social Security benefits because of her citizenship status. As she told PRI in December, her adoptive parents never properly filed the paperwork when they brought her over.
She cannot ask her parents what happened now because they are both deceased. It’s possible that they didn’t understand the process, or that they didn’t want to pay the associated fees, she speculates. Regardless of their reasoning, she was left in the dark.
“If you can't trust your parents, who are you supposed to trust?” she says. “I went from child who could be homeless to senior citizen who could be homeless. How does adoption help me?”
Children adopted from abroad today will never have this problem. Since the US Congress passed the Child Citizenship Act in 2001, all international adoptees have been automatically granted US citizenship.
The law retroactively applied to all international adoptees who were under 18 at the time, but not Purkiss, who was older. Adoptee advocates estimate about 15,000 people were effectively left stateless.
Purkiss spoke to lawyers without luck. She tried working with immigration and Social Security officials on her own but found herself in a Kafkaesque cycle of referrals from one government agency to another, and then back to the first.
Facing the loss of her home or possible deportation to a country where she was also not a citizen, knew no one and did not speak the language, she refused to sit quietly. She spoke to the media and wrote emails to a slew of senators asking for help. She suspects that because of media pressure, US Senator Dean Heller of Nevada helped get her application expedited. (Heller’s office was not immediately available for comment.)
She is nervous but excited to take her oath next Friday.
“I’m hoping I get there without freaking out,” she says with a southern drawl. “I feel like a baby in a sense, it’s like the beginning to a life that I thought I had been living, but that was all a lie.”
Not everyone feels free to be as bold with the press or legislators as Perkiss. Lisa, who works as a consultant for a Fortune 500 company in California and was adopted from Iran when she was two, is scared to make too much noise for fear of losing her job. She asked to be identified with a pseudonym, one that she's used for news reports before, in this story for the same reason.
When she applied for the job in 2007, she stated that she was a US citizen because that is what she believed. It wasn’t until a year later, when she applied for a US passport, that she learned that she wasn’t a naturalized citizen.
“The first sit down with an attorney was pretty traumatic,” says Lisa. “She said, ‘If they wanted to, they could deport you to Iran.’”
“What would I do? I don’t speak the language, and I don’t have the correct religion. At that point I was scared, I didn’t know what to do.”
The lawyer suggested that she either get married to a US citizen or keep quiet. She chose the latter.
In November 2015, US Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota introduced legislation to close the loophole and grant citizenship to adoptees such as Perkiss and Lisa.
“Because of their lack of citizenship, adoptees have been refused admission to college and turned down for jobs,” Klobuchar wrote in a statement provided to PRI. “This constant threat to the life they know is unjust, and why I am working to garner more support for my bill from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”
The bill is sitting in committee. Emily Kessel, advocacy director at the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, says many lawmakers are wary of working on anything related to immigration in an election year.
“I think there is a lot of confusion about what this bill is about and an automatic knee-jerk reaction against it,” Kessel says. “The population that is impacted are adults now. Maybe that’s why it’s not viewed as important. But we remind people that they were children [when they were adopted] and that all children become adults.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Ugandan Legislator Hatches a Not-Too-Subtle Plan to Make Museveni President-for-Life · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni is looking to extend his stay in power since he took over in 1986. Photo released under Creative Commons by Russell Watkins/Department for International Development UK).
Uganda's President Museveni now has a perfect excuse to run for office come 2021 and extend his rule to 40 years, thanks to Anne Maria Nakabirwa, the Kyankwanzi district National Resistance Movement party chairperson.
She was quoted saying that people in her district were asking her to persuade fellow legislators to push for the removal of age limits for presidential candidates in Uganda to allow capable leaders such as president Museveni to continue serving.
She says she would petition top party officials to remove the age limit for Museveni to stand again.
Not many Ugandans are shocked by the news because such bizarre proposals no longer surprise anyone anymore.
The proposal to amend the constitution is seen as an attempt to make Museveni a president-for-life.
Upset by the plan, Jackie Assiimwe Mwesigye, a Ugandan lawyer, asked her Facebook friends to resist the scheme:
MPs, while meeting in Kyankwanzi, have resolved to push for lifting of the age limit for the Presidency in the Constitution.
We must resist this evil scheme. It does not help anyone, not Uganda, and not even the person for whom it is intended. Let's not fall into this trap.
The constitution currently bars anyone above 75-years-old from standing for president.
Museveni, who is now 71, would thus not be able to seek re-election in the next presidential election in 2021 unless the constitution is amended.
Any amendments would face little resistance in parliament where the ruling National Resistance Movement has a solid majority.
Museveni has been in power for 30 years, and is currently serving his fifth term in office since 1996 when he won his first elected term. There were no established presidential term-limits from 1986 to 1996.
Seventy percent of Ugandans are under the age of 29 and have thus only known one president during their lives.
In 2005, Ugandan MPs amended the constitution to remove the presidential term-limit.
Former prime minister and 2016 presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has since expressed regret over his one-time support for the removal of presidential term-limit.
Reacting to the news about the potential age-limit amendment, Twitter user Bireete Sarah made a subtle reference to allegations that MPs had been paid off in order to vote to remove term limits back in 2005:
I will stand in 2021 – M7! Age limit will be sorted by Pay as You Go Parliament!!! There we we folks #Stuck pic.twitter.com/MVzEn7f2vo
— Bireete Sarah (@SarahBireete) June 24, 2016
In 2014, a local daily newspaper reported that there were a number of requests from individuals and civil society organisations asking the Uganda Law Reform Commission to amend the constitution to remove the presidential age limit.
During his visit to Germany in June, German newspaper Spiegel asked Museveni, “If you want to run for election again, the constitution will need to be changed to extend the age limit for presidents to 75 years. Will that happen?”
Museveni reportedly replied: “The Ugandans shall decide.”
Sarah Bireete, another lawyer from the country, is hoping that the young generation will stop the plan to remove the age limit:
78% of our population are young people 0-30yrs. Can they be that great generation that will stop lifting of agelimit pic.twitter.com/6ARHPqt0Pa
— Bireete Sarah (@SarahBireete) July 8, 2016
A Twitter user using the name ‘She Wolf’ joked the country should “lift the death limit” instead:
MPs proposing lifting of presidential age limit r enemies of progress. Why not lift death limit so their ruler can live forever?
— She Wolf (@Shewolfmo) July 5, 2016
Alexi Omondi meanwhile bemoaned the fact the country was following a pattern recognised across the continent:
@rugyendoquotes @sarahbireete How thoughtless. unimaginative and shortsighted. What's wrong with Africans ?
— alex omondi (@alexomondi3) 5 July 2016
Claire Ahabwe was not surprised:
@RugyendoQuotes its no surprise to me. However they should be reminded that even the best dancer leaves the stage
— Claire Ahabwe (@ahabwe08) 6 July 2016
Kiyingi Elly was less-light-hearted about the development, suggesting a national sadness day if the constitution is ultimately amended:
@DanOgalo @RugyendoQuotes @asiimwe4justice national sadness day shd be declared if this passes
— Kiyingi Elly (@Elimiya89) 6 July 2016

author: Prudence Nyamishana


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A New Species of Beetle Named After President Xi Is Blacklisted on Chinese Social Media · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image from Hong Kong non-profit independent media The Stand News. (Non-commercial use)
A Chinese scientist recently published an article on Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific journal for animal taxonomists, about the discovery of a new beetle species from Hainan Island called Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii. While the “xii” part of the name might just look like Roman numerals, it's actually a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The scientist, Wang Cheng Bin, who is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the department of ecology at the Czech University of Life Sciences, wrote in his article (via China Digital Times):
The specific epithet is dedicated to Dr. Xi Jin-Ping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, for his leadership making our motherland stronger and stronger
It is not uncommon for scientists to pay homage to state leaders in their naming of new species, such as Aptostichus barackobamai, a species of trapdoor spider named after the 44th president of the United States, and Mandelia mirocornata, a sea slug named after Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa.
But the naming of this new bug after Xi has been deemed a “sensitive” issue in China, and the Chinese translation of the name (習氏狼條脊甲) has been banned from search on social media site Weibo. The search notice from Weibo states:
Screen capture of the Weibo search result for “Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii.”
根據相關法律法規和政策，“習氏狼條脊甲”搜索結果未予顯示。
According to related law and policy, the search result of “Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii” cannot be shown.
The word “bug” has a negative connotation in Chinese culture. Furthermore, the scientific description of Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii says it resides underneath rotten trees and eats rotten things, imagery associated with corruption in Chinese literature.
The ban on the term quickly became a running joke online. A Weibo user sarcastically praised the effectiveness of web censors:
敏感词检查现在好高级，xxx冠名甲虫那条吐槽在微博、豆瓣和人人网都被瞬间删除了。可见xxx应该是不大高兴冠名昆虫的？这可真是马屁拍到马腿上了。。。
The check on sensitive terms is so advanced. The post about the new bug named after XXX on [major social media platforms] Weibo, Duban and Ren Ren was deleted instantly. Should we say that XXX is not happy about the bug being named after him? An act of ass kissing now turns into ass kicking…
The sensitive nature of the name is perhaps best captured in a poem titled after Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and circulated on social media. It was written by Zhang LIfan, a well-known writer and historian:
变形记
高黑悬疑马屁功，
命名想象力无穷。
天生一代真龙种，
驾梦凌空变甲虫。
The Metamorphosis
Confusion between ass kissing and advanced hacking [of meaning],
Name draws boundless imagination.
Natural-born dragon species,
Driving the dream in the air now turns into bug.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Chinese Censors Are Making Sure Social Media Only Shows Positive Flooding News · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Disaster relief soldiers carrying sand bags and eating buns. Screen capture from CCTV.
Social media has played a key role in the aftermath of disasters that have struck China. Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, China's Twitter-like Weibo was used for coordinating disaster relief work. And after last year's Tianjian explosion, as local media pushed superficial coverage or ignored the event altogether, Web users published and spread first-hand photos and updates.
Social media is a place for victims of a tragedy to express their sorrow and seek each other out for support. It's also a place for citizens to publish their own observations and reporting — even if China's strict censors end up deleting them.
That's what's happening at the moment with news related to widespread flooding, affecting 26 provinces. So far, around 1.5 million people are displaced and 180 have been killed. The Chinese Communist Party believes that disaster news should be positive and in alignment with their ideology, thus the lack of critical or hard-hitting information.
Many netizens have complained about the deletion of flooding news on Weibo. A Weibo user from Anhui province wrote:
皖人救国，无人救皖。都过去这么长时间了，打电话给家里人，放晴两三天，我们那块下面的村镇武警还是在救援，因为水位没有下去，哪怕我有时候评论暴雨说道安徽，竟然会被删评论，呵呵好好笑哦，安徽为了下游牺牲了多少次多少年，收到不公平的发展对待，现在被迫承载洪水内涝，还不能说了？
Anhui saves the country [the province, which is located midstream of the Yangtze River, is a flood discharge location], but no one is there to save Anhui. I called my family, even though the rain has stopped for three days, the water level remains high and local armed police officers are still performing rescue operations. Sometimes, when I make a comment about the terrain in Anhui, the comments got deleted. This is ridiculous, for many  years Anhui has sacrificed for downstream cities and the province does not have equal development opportunities. Now that we are flooded, we can't even comment about it?
His complaint received many echoes in the comment section:
- 都要积极向上乐观装傻，瞎讲什么大实话！小心人家让你话都没地方讲
– 我们这边也是 虽然晴天 但是水位不退 有时候还涨 不下雨 但是大家都开心不起来了 发消极的微博还被删评论冻我账号 真无语了
- We are required to be positive, optimistic and naive. Shut our eyes and talk about the Big Truth! Be careful, they might ban you from speaking.
– We are the same here. The rain has stopped but water level remains the same. Sometimes it even gets higher. People are unhappy. Whenever I say anything negative, my comments are deleted and my account suspended. I am speechless.
Banned news outlets outside China reported that the floods in Anhui have killed a few dozen people. Hundreds of flood victims demonstrated on July 8 against state-owned Chinese Central Television's (CCTV) interview with local disaster relief officials who claimed that the floods only affected two major streets.
Of course, news about the protest could not be found on Weibo. What did circulate widely was news about the People's Liberation Army's heroic and self-sacrificing contribution in disaster relief work. A CCTV reporter summarized the channel's video report on the subject in a Weibo post and added screenshot photos. It was then republished by major news outlets and “civilization volunteers” — Communist Youth League of China members who promote the party's message online:
【为这些最可爱的人致敬！】大雨滂沱里，他们不穿雨衣；为了运沙袋，他们浑身是泥，里外湿透；六十斤的沙袋，他们每个人扛三百个，来回跑六百趟；混着雨水的矿泉水和几个馒头，就是他们日常的伙食……哪里有危险，哪里就有抗洪抢险的战士们。致敬！
Salute to the most adorable people! In heavy terrain, they moved the sand bags without rain clothes and their bodies were covered with mud. Each sad bag weighs 60 catty [about 36 kilos] and they each carried 300 of them and had to move to and fro 600 times; the water and buns were mixed with rain and this is their daily diet… wherever there is danger, the disaster relief fighters show up. Salute!
Many netizens were not touched by the propaganda. Below is a sample of the skepticism found in the comment threads:
每次看见这样的事迹，我是真心怀疑，官方宣传用这种模式的所谓“感动”来置换事前的防灾准备不足，以及救灾组织工作不力，是真正在吃那些一线官兵的人血馒头。回回百年不遇，年年感动中国！ 宣传部门的人，最厉害的地方，就是能把一场灾难变成一件感人至深的好事，责任问题可以隐藏的悄无声息！
最可爱的人可敬，可是我就想问了，这么强大的国家，后勤部都吃屎去了吗？连暖水热饭都提供不了？？
连一根火腿肠都不给他们，还好意思上新闻，连保护国家人民的人都不照顾不好，真是国家自己打自己的脸
- Whenever I read these kinds of accounts, I feel doubt. The official propaganda turns the fact about lack of disaster relief equipment and coordination work into a “touching” story. Such an act is using the frontline soldiers’ sweat and blood [for political purposes]. Every time they frame the disaster as the most serious one in 100 years, every time they use the disaster to pull at China's heartstrings. The propaganda is good at turning a disaster into a positive story and making human errors invisible.
– The most adorable people are respectful. But how come in this strong country there is no back-up team giving them warm water and meals?
– You can't even give them a sausage? And you make this into news? You can't take care of the people who protect the country, this is self-shaming.
On Twitter, opinion leaders were more vocal in criticizing the censorship and propaganda on the floods. Wu Zuolai, a current affairs blogger, argued that the official spin on the news could make people stop donating to disaster relief work:
新浪网已经央视化了，无论国家发生多大灾难，第一条新闻稳稳的是关于老习的，然后是关于总理的，南方大洪水，死伤无数，也是次要新闻。现在情况有变是，无论怎样煽情，没有人捐款了，中共现在过生日， 八千万党员，一人捐一百，也有80亿，所以捐款之类的活儿，根本用不着百姓掺合。
— 吴祚来 (@wuzuolai) July 3, 2016
Sina's news portal has been turned into CCTV. However big the disaster, the first headline is about President Xi, followed by the premier. The floods in the south, which have caused countless deaths and injuries, becomes secondary news. But people also change, no matter how “sensational” the reports are, no one donates. Because it is not the people's matter [but the party's matter]. The Chinese Communist Party has 80 million members, if each of them donates 100, it would manage to collect 8 billion for a birthday party. People don't have to take part in it.
And Gao Yu, a prominent Chinese journalist who is under house arrest for leaking a party document, discussed the issue of government accountability:
当前武汉成泽国，3千万黎民水深火热，李鹏一家还能安心消暑，就因为，67年仍旧继续一种救灾模式：子弟兵啃馒头战洪水；领导人前线作秀；百姓生命财产损失真情被隐瞒；罪恶和责任在媒体上继续化为伟光正。 pic.twitter.com/YLbFxqEvPz
— 高瑜 (@gaoyu200812) July 7, 2016
Now Wuhan [in Hubei province] is all flooded and the number of people affected has reached 30 million. Yet [former Chinese Premier] Li Peng and his family can still enjoy their summer. The reason is that disaster relief work has followed the same pattern for 67 years [since the establishment off the People's Republic of China in 1949]: the people's army are fighting floods with buns as their meals; the leaders make a show appearance on the front lines; the truth about lives and property lost is covered up; sin and responsibility are transformed into glory in the media.
Former Chinese Premier Li Peng is a key person behind the construction of the controversial Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. The project was designed to be able to cope with once-in-a-millennium floods. However, in reality, the project changed the climate along the Yangtze, causing serious droughts in the summer of 2006 and the spring of 2010. And when water discharges from upstream dams, downstream provinces suffer from widespread flooding.
Moreover, the reclamation of inland lakes and wetlands for luxurious property development projects has further obstructed water discharge during floods. But under the current censorship system, criticism that associates development projects with the floods are labelled as spreading rumors, and the only “big truth” about the floods is the heroic People's Army under the leadership of the party.


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Dozens Killed After Indian Forces Crackdown on Protests in Kashmir · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Bereaved mourners carrying the dead body of Burhan Muzaffar Wani. Image from Facebook courtesy Zulkarnain Banday
Protests against the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the commander of Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen, turned violent in Indian-administered Kashmir in the north of the country when Indian forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who defied a curfew on Sunday, July 10. A total of 31 have been killed, with about 444 people injured.
This is the disputed region’s worst outbreak of civilian unrest since 2010, when more than 100 people died in anti-India protests, which were triggered after police shot dead a teenager.
Known as “the poster boy” of Kashmir’s new wave of armed struggle, 22-year-old Wani used social media platforms to rally supporters for an ‘Azaad’ (free) Kashmir. Unlike former rebel leaders, he never covered his face in his viral videos. He was killed extrajudicially on Friday by Indian military forces. His killing is viewed by many Kashmir citizens as an attempt by the Indian government to silence the resistance movement. There was a bounty of 1 million Indian rupees on Wani's head.
This led to protests with slogans like ‘Azaadi’ (freedom) and ‘India go back’. Independence supporters in Kashmir defied the curfew and took to the streets, chanting slogans for Wani and demanding that India give up control of the region.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is geographically divided between India and Pakistan and claimed in entirety by both. Twelve million live in the Indian portion of Kashmir. Separatist politicians, rebels, and alliances like the All Parties Hurriyat Conference reject India’s sovereignty over Kashmir and have been fighting for independence or a merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in sporadic uprisings and subsequent Indian military crackdown since then.
Security forces fired bullet and pellet guns at the demonstrations, leaving about 40 people with a very high risk of permanently losing their eyesight.
45 #Kashmiris have received shot in their eyes. Shots fired by Indian troops on unarmed pro-freedom protesters https://t.co/QyvQksE0fd
— Wasim Khalid (@WasemKhalid) July 11, 2016
A local hospital in Kashmir received more than 400 injured. There have been reports of security forces teargassing a hospital, even as patients and doctors were inside, leading to deaths.
Forces fired teargas inside SMHS Hospital, 4 chronic lung disease patients suffocated: Doctors Association https://t.co/cyjhaKVTtw #Kashmir
— Majid Pandit (@majidpandit) July 11, 2016
The Jammu & Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society accused authorities of trying to cover up their violence:
The government of India and Jammu and Kashmir lack the will to institute a crowd control policy, which can ensure no or minimized civilian casualties. On the one hand armed forces are preventing the injured to be ferried to hospitals, at the same time senior police officials without any credible investigations have begun to accuse the dead and the injured for their own bloodshed.
After Wani's killing, a curfew was imposed, bringing life in the valley state to a standstill. Mobile telephone networks have been suspended in the four districts of south Kashmir since Friday evening, when protests first sprang up. Even train services have come to a standstill.
Kashmiri journalist and former New York Times writer Basharat Peer posted on Facebook:
Internet has been banned. Curfew has been imposed. Phones can't be reached. The mighty Indian state might have killed him but they haven't won. A 21 year old in his death has shaken you.
Wani had gained prominence as the face of separatist sentiment in Kashmir valley, the epicenter of an independence movement that has waned since its peak in 1990s. The conflict remains active, however, and state forces and Kashmiris are at odds over the people's right to hold a referendum on independence.
Blogger and writer Sonia Faleiro sums it up:
“The hearts & minds of the people in Kashmir are not with India & that is a fact.” https://t.co/FYr31nCTyz
— Sonia Faleiro (@soniafaleiro) July 11, 2016
The conflict has lasted nearly six decades, with both India and Pakistan claiming the territory of Kashmir. Reports from the conflict zones of Kashmir point to widespread human rights abuses committed by the Indian state as it has tried to contain the insurgency.
The Indian state forces like the police and paramilitary can act with impunity, killing and raping citizens without fear of punitive measures, thanks partly to a law named the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), operational in India-controlled Kashmir and the country's northeastern states. This has resulted in a vicious cycle of killings and protests in Kashmir over the years.
Mir Suhail [@mirsuhail ] on how India controls Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/t99WHoWidr
— Mirza Waheed (@MirzaWaheed) July 11, 2016
Human rights activists have been vocal with their demands for AFSPA to be repealed and for an end to the impunity with which India's state forces operate. The discovery of mass graves containing the remains of the disappeared has also received widespread attention. The Supreme Court of India has recently remarked that the impunity for the armed forces should end.
Meanwhile, some lashed out on social media, accusing protesters and their supporters of sympathizing with the “terrorists”. “How can any Indian have sympathy for such people?” asked India's Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu.
Was #Burhan not a terrorist? Shouldn't he be treated like a terrorist? Why do u hv sympathy for a killer? Qs for white collared terrorists..
— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) July 10, 2016
For journalists in Delhi shedding tears for terrorist Burhan Wani, being an apologist for Islamist terror, just one thing. You are a coward!
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) July 9, 2016
But others like Sudipto Mondal warned that the media wasn't accurately reporting the situation, which favors the government. On Facebook, he sarcastically questioned social media users who said all the protesters — which according to some reports are in the hundreds of thousands — are all sponsored or paid for.
1) 300,000 people facing bullets on the street. All sponsored?
2) Many news outlets underreporting the magnitude of the protests and the death toll. Who is sponsoring them?
3) Kashmir Reader is the only news outlet from Kashmir that I trust. Unfortunately nobody is sponsoring them
On Twitter, @RichAutumns argued for withdrawal:
If Indians are so concerned about their armymen dying in #Kashmir, please take them away. Its not like we are especially fond of them.
— Rich Autumns (@RichAutumns) July 10, 2016
Some are questioning India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government's silence:
18 civilians lose their life in #Kashmir and PM saheb continues to be in vacation mode. And we insist that Kashmir is a part of us.Bull shit
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) July 10, 2016
Are the government's policies regarding Kashmir winning? Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Farooq opined that Burhan's killing would inspire other Kashmiri youths as he was a symbol of resistance to them. If the Indian state forces do not end the violence, it will have to face “more Burhan Wanis”.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


text:
How the Death of Arturo the Polar Bear Blew up Argentina’s Animal Captivity Debate · Global Voices
Laura Schneider

Arturo, known as the “saddest bear in the world”, passed away in Mendoza leaving behind indignation and reflections about holding animals in captivity.  Above, a screen shot from the video shared on YouTube channel “Noticias importantes y no tanto.”
After 23 years in captivity the 31-year-old polar bear Arturo died in a zoo in Mendoza, Argentina, and is now forever enshrined as an icon for animal rights activists in the region.
Since the Summer of 2014, there were intense protests at the zoo demanding proper care for Arturo, even if that meant taking him out of the country.
Regardless, a medical board of animal-care specialists determined that it wasn't possible to transport him to Canada, due to his condition.
Oikos Red Ambiental, headquartered in Mendoza, paid tribute to Arturo on their Facebook page, explaining how and why the bear arrived at the zoo in 1993, and noting everything the bear had to put up with over the years:
Arturo llegó a Mendoza como objeto de canje entre instituciones. Nunca conoció la tundra, ni las auroras boreales. No pudo correr, ni nadar, ni cazar, como hacen los osos de su especie. Durante su largo encierro, soportó con dignidad el calor, el Zonda, los barrotes y el cemento de un espacio reducido, soportó la soledad y la inmovilización a la que fue condenado desde su nacimiento.
Arturo arrived in Mendoza as a traded commodity between two institutions. He never knew the tundra, nor the aurora borealis. He couldn't run, swim, or hunt like the other bears of his species. During his long imprisonment, he endured the scorching hot northerly wind, the iron bars, and the cement of a confined space with dignity, along with the solitude and immobilization to which he was a prisoner since birth.
There is still a lot of controversy surrounding Arturo's case, with some irritated at the animal rights campaign that has made the bear famous across South America.
Facebook group Friends of Arturo criticizes how the bear's image was used for what it describes as the political and commercial gain of media and environmentalist groups:
Se preguntaron cuál es el motivo por el que ambientalistas truchos y medios amarillistas niegan las fotos reales en las que se ve a Arturo bien, conectado, jugando, tranquilo y continúan fogoneando con el asunto del “oso más triste del mundo”? Y publicando fotos que no tienen que ver con la situación actual? Que patéticos intereses hay detrás de tal negación y falsedad? Será que se les termina el negocio si la gente lo ve a Arturo cuidado y atendido? Será que el negocio es sembrar odio y bronca en contra del Zoo? Cuánta gente sufre innecesariamente con tales mentiras? Qué repudiable!
Have you wondered why do phoney, poser environmentalists and sensationalist media deny the real photos in which Arturo can be seen connected, playing, relaxed? And why do they continue throwing coals on the fire with this “saddest bear in the world” issue? And publishing photos that don't have anything to do with the current situation? What pathetic gains lie behind such denial and deceit? Could it be that they stop making money if people see Arturo is well cared for? Could it be that their business is to spread hate and provoke problems for the zoo? How many people suffer unnecessarily from such lies? This is loathsome!
The anti-captivity blog Opening Cages, in turn, not only stressed images of Arturo inhabiting a dirty and demolished environment, but also took the opportunity to question the very existence of zoos:
El zoológico de Mendoza se defiende diciendo que murió por su avanzada edad y que se le dio la mejor atención veterinaria, pero ese no es el punto. Claro que iba a morir tarde o temprano, el asunto relevante es . Estas prisiones llamadas zoológicos siguen existiendo porque hay visitantes que aplauden que los animales sean privados de su libertad para exhibirlos ante nuestros ojos egoístas, que sólo piensan pasar un buen rato, tomar un par de fotos y volver a su vida, olvidándose que los animales se quedan para siempre ahí, que su única función fue entretenernos.
The Mendoza zoo defends itself saying that [Arturo] died due to old age and that he was given the best possible veterinary service, but this is not the point. Of course he was going to die, young or old. The relevant point here is how he lived. These prisons they're calling zoos continue to exist because there are visitors who applaud the fact that animals are deprived of their liberty in order to be exhibited before the selfish eyes [of the people] who only think about having a good time, taking a few photos, and then going back to their lives, forgetting that the animals stay there forever and [thinking] that their only purpose was to entertain us.
The author of the blog also added reflections on displaying animals in captivity.
¿Qué puede aprender alguien cuando ve a uno oso polar solo y enjaulado a 40 grados en verano? Que tenemos el poder de someter y transformar las vidas de los animales a nuestro antojo y disfrazar este hecho de educación y conservación. Aprendemos que los animales están para ser observados cuando querramos y como querramos al precio que sea, que generalmente es su salud mental, su vida.
What can one learn when looking at a polar bear alone, caged, in 40 degrees in the Summer? That we have the power to subdue and transform the lives of the animals for our own fancy and disguise it as educational and as an act of conservation. We learn that animals are there to be observed whenever we want to and however we want to, whatever the price may be, and generally [that price] is their mental health, their life.
Beyond the debate over Arturo's life, however, was the sad acknowledgement of his death. Pained tweets rolled in under the tag #OsoArturo (BearArturo) soon after it was announced:
Hola, humanos, si alguna vez una especie extraterrestre os hace mirar así una pared. Recordad #OsoArturo pic.twitter.com/yjZkttTMEq
— Viernes (@soloviernes) July 4, 2016
Hi, humans, if an extraterrestrial being ever makes you look at a wall like this. Remember #OsoArturo pic.twitter.com/yjZkttTMEq
#OsoArturo in our hearts #MendozaZoo oso arturo pic.twitter.com/v41NSpsEVL
— siuL (@yousoWayfarer) July 5, 2016
#OsoArturo Perdón Arturo. Hoy sos libre querido ángel. Tu muerte no será en vano.Nunca dejaremos de luchar ☮ en tu ❤ pic.twitter.com/l878epoQUt
— Dana Mena (@dana_leprosa) July 4, 2016
#OsoArturo Sorry Arturo. Today you are free dear angel. Your death will not be in vain. We will never stop fighting ☮ for you ❤ pic.twitter.com/l878epoQUt
— Dana Mena (@dana_leprosa) July 4, 2016
On his website, “Oso Polar Arturo“ (Polar Bear Arturo and Zoo), Gabriel Flores has made available his book “Prisión perpetua” (Perpetual Prison), which tells the story of the activism that took place between 2012 and 2016 in order to save the polar bear.

author: Laura Schneider


text:
Learn Amazonian Languages With Apps Made in Iquitos · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

It is hoped that these applications can serve “as an instrument to be used in order to ensure that cultural identity is not lost and, above all, to teach and to strengthen the Amazonian languages.” Screenshot of the promotional video for the applications that can be watched below.
When we think about the Amazon, images of lush jungle and rivers as wide as seas usually come to mind. If we know something about the issues in the region, it is probably about deforestation, poverty, and the fact indigenous peoples there are facing a struggle to preserve their languages and cultures. But hardly ever do we think about the Amazon as a source of cutting-edge technology. However, this is precisely what is happening in the Peruvian Amazonian city of Iquitos.
On June 20, the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) launched five applications for mobile phones and tablets (with Android operating systems), so that “children aged three to five years can acquire, through images and sounds, basic knowledge (alphabet, numbers, animals, body parts, etc.) in the Amazonian languages Tikuna, Kandozi, Quechua de Lamas, Huitoto Murui Bue and Kukama-Kukamiria.”
As mentioned in the video, the apps are designed for children to learn the language, so that its preservation be ensured for at least one more generation.
It is important to note that several of the 43 identified Amazonian languages are severely endangered.
Moreover, in addition to boosting the Amazonian languages, ICT development can also help improve food security, access to health services, education, disaster prevention and environmental monitoring in the Peruvian Amazon region.
Nevertheless, progress in these areas will not be possible without strong support from the various institutions of the region and of the country.
Engineer Isaac Ocampo presenting the use of the ICT in the Peruvian Amazon. Screengrab of the video about the presentation of the apps in Amazonian languages.
The language-saving initiative is being spearheaded by the IIAP through the SITEC project of the Bioinfo program in collaboration with the Faculty of Computer Science at the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP), while Isaac Ocampo Yahuarcani (IOY), an engineer known for his blogging and activity on social networks as well as the development of information systems in the city of Iquitos, is the creative force standing behind it.
Global Voices contacted Ocampo to find out more about these apps for learning the Amazonian languages.
GV: Is this apps project for learning Amazonian languages part of a larger effort on the part of the IIAP or is it an initiative of the team that you lead?
(IOY) Es impulsada desde el IIAP y tenemos como meta llegar a todas las lenguas amazónicas de Perú (que oficialmente son 43) hasta julio 2021. He indagado y no existe material educativo digital en las lenguas amazónicas. Y existen como 10 facultades de sistemas en toda la selva y otras 70 a nivel de Perú.
Por ahora no tenemos ninguna fuente financiera, lo que queremos demostrar es que cuando hay ganas se pueden hacer muchas cosas.
Esta es una propuesta de modelo de desarrollo, que plantea que la verdadera inclusión social debería llevar decenas de servicios (salud, acceso a mercado, e-gobierno) hacia los peruanos de las comunidades amazónicas. Lo que nuestra civilización sólo les da es contaminación y envenenamiento de sus tierras. Aprovechemos las redes de telecomunicaciones y el crecimiento de la penetración de celulares. Por ejemplo en las comunidades de Manacamiri (Kukama), Padrecocha (Kukama) y Centro Arenal (Huitoto), seis de cada 10 familias tienen celulares (incluso más de uno). Tres de ellos tienen smartphones con conexión a Internet.
IOY: It is promoted by the IIAP and our goal is to include all the Amazonian languages of Peru  (43 official languages in total) by July 2021. I carried out research and found there is no digital educational material in the Amazonian languages. There are about 10 faculties of computer science in the Amazon area and another 70 throughout Peru.
For the time being, we do not have any financial resources, but what we want to show is that when there is commitment, many things can be achieved.
This is a proposed development model which raises the point that real social inclusion means bringing many kinds of services (health, market access, e-government) to the Peruvian Amazonian communities. What our civilisation has given them thus far is only pollution and the poisoning of their land. Let's use telecommunication networks and the increasing availability of mobile phones. For example, in the communities from Manacamiri (Kukama), Padrecocha (Kukama) and Centro Arenal (Huitoto), six out of 10 families have cellphones (even more than one). Three of them have smartphones with Internet access.
Ochoa (Huitoto Murui Bue) family from Centro Arenal, at the delivery of the software. Photo courtesy of Isaac Ocampo /IIAP.
GV: How long has it taken to develop these apps and how was the team in charge of them put together?
(IOY) La primera (Huitoto) nos tomó cuatro meses, las otras tres tomaron un mes cada una.
IOY: The first (Huitoto) took four months, the other three took one month each.
I am the creator of the forms, the structures and all the other aspects. That is, I am the director. Let's say I [am] the owner of the concept and its use. Then, there is Rodolfo Cardenas, a systems engineer and video game programmer. Also, a group of students: Franz Chuje, Lelis Saravia, Lina Vasquez who ensure digitization and sound arrangement, graphic design and coding. Then, there is the group of speakers: Zoila Ochoa (Huitoto), Maria Cuje and Toribio Amasifuen (Quechua). The information regarding the other speakers can be found in the video.
GV: Do you hope that the local population will also have a real interest in this, not only the scholars?
(IOY) Esperamos que surja ese interés, pero más que eso, es interés de mi grupo de trabajo: desarrollar métodos que permitan beneficiar a las poblaciones a través de las telecomunicaciones y contenidos. Queremos llevar las técnicas de reproducción de peces del IIAP a los pobladores indígenas, queremos aprovechar que el celular llegará primero a ellos. Las telecomunicaciones en el mundo han demostrado que incrementan la calidad de vida de la población, esa potencialidad queremos aplicarla en nuestros pueblos.
La labor del IIAP es hacer investigación, lo que resulte podrá servir posiblemente para modernizar el sistema educativo bilingue, para articular a estas poblaciones con el mercado, para que ellos incluso accedan en sus idiomas a servicios de justicia, e incluso comunicación con el gobierno. En resumen esta es una propuesta de desarrollo y sustentabilidad de los pueblos a través de las TIC.
(IOY): We hope this interest will arise, but this is important to my working group: to develop methods for the benefit of populations through telecommunications and content. We want to bring fish breeding techniques of the IIAP to the indigenous peoples, we want them to take advantage of the use of cellphones. Telecommunication development has been proven to increase the quality of life for populations, and we want our people to benefit from this potential.
The work of the IIAP is to research, and the result may possibly serve to modernize the bilingual education system, to link these populations to the market, so that they have access in their own languages to justice services and communication with the government. In summary, this is a proposal for the development and sustainability of peoples through ICT.
A Kukama teacher recording his voice to be used in the apps. Photo courtesy of Isaac Ocampo / IIAP.
The struggle for the preservation of the Amazonian languages as well as the development of ICT skills has thus taken an interesting turn in Iquitos, even if it still has a long way to go.
The apps can be downloaded via the following links:

author: Juan Arellano


text:
Myanmar Official Gets Online Support for Challenging Radical Buddhist Group · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Photo posted on the Facebook page of Myanmar Meme by Htet Myat Lynn. This is an example of memes reflecting the rivalry between the Yangon Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein (Kwee Phyo) and Wirathu, the leader of a radical Buddhist group.
Phyo Min Thei, the chief minister of Myanmar’s Yangon City, made a daring statement last week when he declared that the radical Buddhist nationalist group Ma-Ba-Tha (Association of Race and Religion Protection) is “no longer needed” since the Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee of the government is already overseeing the country's Buddhist affairs.
Wirathu, the influential leader of Ma-Ba-Tha, has threatened to hold a nationwide protest if the government will not take action against Phyo Min Thein.
But Internet users have launched a campaign in support of the minister.
Established in 2013, Ma-Ba-Tha is a civil-religious group composed of Buddhist monks and their supporters whose avowed aim is to protect Buddhism, Buddhists and Myanmar from the so-called “danger of Muslim expansion.” Myanmar has a Buddhist majority population, although it has more than 100 ethnic minority groups.
Ma-Ba-Tha has gained notoriety because of its anti-Muslim statements and activities. In particular, it has been a strong force behind the attacks against the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic group living in the western part of Myanmar. Supporters of the ideology of Ma-Ba-Tha and its leaders have been producing a hate-speech narrative that demands the government to expel the Rohingya, whom they are accusing of being illegal immigrants and terrorists. Many human rights groups consider the Rohingya to be one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
Phyo Min Thein, known by his supporters as Kwee Phyo, is part of the new ruling party National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD came to power in February 2016 after defeating the military-backed party during the general elections. The military had ruled Myanmar from 1962 until early this year.
As Yangon’s chief minister, Phyo Min Thein has made a name for himself instituting several contentious reforms, like a building regulation he imposed during the annual water festival in April. But he sparked an even bigger controversy last week by publicly speaking against the powerful Ma-Ba-Tha.
Fortunately, Phyo Min Thein received support from many Internet users. The hashtag #NoMaBaTha was endorsed on Facebook as part of the campaign to defend the chief minister against the online supporters of the radical Buddhist group.
Some Facebook users are adopting this image on their profile page in support of the chief minister:
Here are some reactions to the #NOMaBaTha hashtag. Htin Linn Aye distinguished the Ma-Ba-Tha from the rest of Buddhist monks in the country:
မြတ်စွာဘုရားရဲ့ တရားတော်တွေကို ကျင့်ကြံအားထုတ် နေထိုင်တဲ့ ဘုရားသားတော်တွေကို ကြည်ညိုတယ်…
ဒါပေမယ့်…
#NOMaBaTha
I revere the sons of Buddha who abide by his doctrine
but…
#NOMaBaTha
Below is a Facebook post which went viral:
မဘသ မရှိရင် မင်းခွေးဖြစ်သွားလိမ့်မယ် ပြောနေသူတွေက လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့ မဘသမရှိခင် နှစ်ပေါင်းများစွာက
ခွေးဖြစ်ခဲ့ကြလို့များလား မေးပီလေ အိုင်းစ် :p:p:p:p:p
credit
#NOMaBaTha
To those who are saying we will become dogs if Ma-Ba-Tha no longer exists, now let me ask have we always been dogs many years before Ma-Ba-Tha came? :p:p:p:p:p
credit
#NOMaBaTha
Moe Kaung San thinks Ma-Ba-Tha's actions are tainting the image of Buddhism:
မဘသဟူသော အဖွဲ့အစည်းသည်
အမျိုးဘာသာ သာသနာအား ဗန်းပြ၍
လူမျိုးရေးမုန်းတီးမှု ဘာသာရေးခွဲခြားမှုများဖြင့်
တိုင်းပြည်မငြိမ်သက်အောင် ပြုလုပ်ပြီး
နိုင်ငံရေးတွင်ခြေရှုပ်ကာ ဗုဒ္ဓဘာသာကို
ညိုးနွမ်းစေသောကြောင့်…………….
#မဘသအလိုမရှိ
#NoMaBaTha
Because the organization called Ma-Ba-Tha is
getting involved in politics and making the country unstable by
creating racial hatred and religious discrimination in the name of race and religion protection
and is putting a bad image of Buddhism
#nodesireforMaBaTha
#NoMaBaTha
A Google form was also created to gather more support for the statement issued by the Yangon chief minister about the Ma-Ba-Tha.

author: Juan Cebu


text:
You’ve Read Our Open-Source Research Guidebook. Now Let’s Use It. · Global Voices
Aric Toler

You can do it. Image by Kevin Rothrock.
This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page.
RuNet Echo has now published eight installments in a guidebook on conducting open-source research on the Russian Internet. This ninth and final entry takes the tools and instructions we've been studying and applies them to a single case study: the wildfires that caused significant damage to the Siberian city of Chita in 2015.
Contents
One of the first logical places to look for footage of last year's wildfires in Siberia is Russian national television. You can search Russia's national and local TV broadcasts by date (in this instance, April 12–16, 2015) on the various networks’ websites (as detailed in this guide).
Figure 1: Screen capture from a national news broadcast.
Figure 2: Screen capture from a local news broadcast.
But this is just a starting point; you shouldn't settle for the footage aired by the media. In these circumstances, it's possible to find more information uploaded to the Internet by ordinary people on the ground. You can do this by searching Instagram and YouTube, among many other websites and online services. (For conducting such searches on Russian social networks, see this RuNet Echo instruction guide.) By searching some of the hashtags used for this wildfire, such as #пожары2015 (“wildfires 2015”) and #чита (“Chita,” a large city where there were wildfires), you can find a wealth of materials documenting the disaster.
Figure 3: Photograph from Instagram user “koctac” of a wildfire near Chita, Russia.
Figure 4: Screen capture from a video posted by Instagram user “katya_greeg” of a wildfire, filmed from an apartment building in Chita, Russia.
Video from the Chita wildfire, showing a car driving through the heavy smoke.
Photographs and videos are great, but sometimes you need more detailed information from the witnesses and participants of an event from the ground. That’s where searching local communities and social networks comes in (see RuNet Echo's detailed guides on these respective topics). If you do not speak Russian and are struggling to find the right communities, check out our guide for non-Russian speakers on conducting such research.
Searching for local communities on the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) reveals numerous open groups, including “Overheard in Chita,” “Typical Chita,” “Chita.ru,” and “I’m Looking for You, Chita.” Of these, the first two are especially useful for searching public information.
Figure 5: Google search for VK (ВК) communities in Chita (Чита).
In Chita, one of the Vkontakte groups with excellent local information about Chita is the Zabaykalsky Kray volunteer firefighters’ community page, where you'll find photographs, videos, eyewitness accounts of the wildfires, and other bits of useful information regarding the rescue workers’ organizing efforts. If you are researching or reporting on this topic, you could find dozens of valuable contacts here, as many of the volunteer firefighters active in this group publicly share their phone numbers and email addresses.
Figure 6: Screenshot from the open Vk group “Volunteer Firefighters of the Zabaikalye.”
While we've reviewed several ways to find information produced on the ground, you might also want to examine the situation from above. As detailed in this guide, you can view territory chronologically using services like Google Earth. Looking at the Siberian areas affected by the wildfires, you can see the full extent of the damage. A comparison of a region outside of Chita from May 2014 and then April 2015, shortly after the end of the wildfires, shows some of the areas most affected by the blazes.
Figure 7: Screen capture from Google Earth of an area near Chita, May 2014.
Figure 8: Screen capture from Google Earth of an area near Chita, April 2015.
Discovering information is terrific, but it's worthless without proper verification. Often times, open-source research requires more time in verification than discovery. It's important to find all information sources available for each event you're examining (as described in our guide on research conducted during the conflict in Ukraine).
When vetting sources and potential witnesses, you can sometimes check information about their place of residence and business interests, as detailed in this guide. Lastly, when you find photographs and videos to use in a report, it's essential that you verify the location of the materials—otherwise, you might end up using phony data. This guide will walk you through the process of “geolocation” ªverificating a photograph or video’s location).
For example, this is how we would verify the photograph below, shared by “koctac,” posted during the 2015 Siberian wildfires:
Figure 9: “This is all that remains of Mira Street in the village of Shira in the Republic of Khakassia.
Using the location mentioned in the caption above (Mira Street, Shira, Khakassia, Russia), we can see on Google Earth between July 2013 and April 15, 2015 that the buildings were indeed destroyed after the April 2015 wildfires.
Figure 10: Screen capture from Google Earth of Mira Street in Shira, Khakassia, from July 15, 2013.
Figure 11: Screen capture from Google Earth of Mira Street in Shira, Khakassia, from April 15, 2015.
Upon closer inspection, other features in the photographs are also visible on Google Earth, including a white dormitory in the background, and the elevation of the hills. From all of this, we can confidently confirm the authenticity of the photograph.
* * *
Conducting open-source research on the Russian Internet is not all that different from carrying out such work online in other languages, but there are certainly aspects to the RuNet that it's vital to consider. We at RuNet Echo hope our guidebook can help you bridge some of these differences, and perhaps inspire you to do some digging on your own.

author: Aric Toler


text:
#ShutDownZim: Will Social Media Protests Drive Zimbabwe to Build a ‘Great Firewall’? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Photos of downtown Harare, empty on July 6. Shared on Twitter by @Lean3JvV.
Zimbabwe's nationwide “shutdown” last week — a boycott of work, shopping and public institutions — was one of the biggest and most successful in recent years. It left streets, shops, banks and malls deserted in the capital city of Harare.
Protesters are demanding government accountability in the face of unpaid wages, corruption and lack of jobs as Zimbabwe's economy sits on the brink of collapse. The country has been in a currency crisis since 2009 and unemployment is estimated at 80 or 90 percent. Recent cash shortages have forced citizens to queue for days to withdraw money from the banks. Civil servants in Zimbabwe have not been paid since June this year, but members of the security forces are always paid on time with the government living in fear of violent political overthrow.
Many are also calling for the resignation of 92-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, when the country gained full independence from the UK.
This isn't the first time Zimbabwe has staged a “shutdown” over government dysfunction, but it is the first time that political parties and civic organisations have mobilized protesters using social media.
On Twitter, Facebook and the social messaging platform WhatsApp, activists used various hashtags such as #ShutDownZim, #ZimbabweShutdown, #ThisFlag, #ShutDownZimbabwe2016 and #ZimShutDown to organise the shutdown.
Screenshot from a YouTube video of Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire, who started one of the key organising hashtags for protests against president Robert Mugabe, #ThisFlag.
The hashtag #ThisFlag became a particularly powerful tool in the fight against the Mugabe regime and his ruling ZANU-PF party after it was launched on April 19, a day after Zimbabwe's Independence Day, by patriotic anti-corruption pastor Evan Mawarire, pictured above.
Since April 2016, social media platforms increasingly have become the most potent tools for Internet-based, non-partisan political activism in the country. This in turn has triggered fears that the government will move to ban social media platforms in the near future. Last Wednesday's shutdown suggests that citizens are right to be concerned.
On the morning of the July 6 shutdown, WhatsApp was not accessible. This is not trivial — local sources report that WhatsApp accounts for 34% of Internet data in Zimbabwe. The government denies blocking it, but scores of users think otherwise.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) last week also issued a warning that underlined punishments for “subversive or offensive telecommunication messages”:
We are therefore warning members of the public that from the date of this notice, any person caught in possession of, generating, sharing or passing on abusive, threatening, subversive or offensive telecommunication messages, including WhatsApp or any other social media messages that may be deemed to cause despondency, incite violence, threaten citizens and cause unrest, will be arrested and dealt with accordingly in the national interest.
The warning came after Mugabe's announcement in April, wherein media quoted him saying Zimbabwe could learn from China as it seeks to stop the “abuse” of the Internet.
Despite the unavailability of WhatsApp over public networks, some netizens were still able to share information using virtual private networks (VPNs).
At the level of Internet infrastructure, it is rumored that the government is working on licensing an Internet gateway for the country, which would be operated by the government and would absorb the multiple Internet gateways operating in the country at the moment. A draft copy of the new National ICT Policy articulates a government goal of establishing a single infrastructure that all Internet service providers use and a national fibre backbone that would allow government authorities broad access to network traffic, and presumably to user communications data.
If the burgeoning protest movement is to continue, more citizens will need to become tech-savvy as the government looks to tighten legislation and technical mechanisms regulating online activity.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Ugandan President Appoints Wife, Opposition Leaders to Key Positions · Global Voices
James Propa

A screenshot of a YouTube video showing Janet Museveni (left) taking over the mantle of Ministry of Education and Sports.
Uganda's longest serving president Yoweri Museveni's fifth term in office got off to a controversial start after he unexpectedly appointed female opposition politicians (and his wife) to ministerial positions under his new government.
The appointed politicians include Beti Kamya, who was one of the most outspoken opposition leaders in the country as the president of Uganda Federal Alliance. She was appointed as minister in charge of Kampala, the capital city.
Other opposition leaders appointed include Betty Amongi (Minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development), Ruth Achieng (State Minister for Fisheries) and Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi (State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs) who all were once outspoken opposition leaders protesting against Museveni's reign of three decades.
Betty Kamya and Nakiwala Kiyingi both lost seats in the recently concluded parliamentary elections.
Radio France International quoted Uganda People's Congress opposition party leader Olara Otunnu stating that the politicians who have been given ministerial positions had been secretly working with the president for a very long time to destabilise the opposition:
What he's trying to do is rent support from compliant members of the opposition, for instance the Uganda People's Congress’ (…) Betty Amongi [has] been working with Museveni for several years to destabilize and undermine the UPC from within, [she's] now been rewarded by being given a cabinet position.
In a video report by NTV Uganda, academic Gerald Karyejja said that President Museveni brought in Betty Kaya and Nakiwala Kiyingi to calm down Kampala, where numerous protests against the president and his party have taken place and where his party has lost political ground.
Bernard Sabiiti a political analyst, meanwhile thinks the moves are intended to break up the opposition at a time when opposition leader Kizza Besigye is facing treason charges.
Another controversial Museveni decision was the one to make his wife Janet Kataha Museveni Minister of Education and Sports, which is considered one of the most important ministries.
Many have questioned the suitability of Janet Kataha — constantly surrounded like other members of the ruling family by masses of security — for the role.
The first day Mrs. Museveni reported to the ministry, all roads around the ministry headquarters were blocked and many visitors were denied access to the ministry and offices nearby.
This led Gofrey Mutegeki to joke that the day Janet Museveni took up office in the ministry should have been proclaimed a public holiday:
Janet Museveni things….roads closed… Hmmm, they should have made today a public holiday….
— Geoffrey Mutegeki (@AraaliAraali) June 27, 2016
Commenting on the appointment of the First Lady, ‘Kicking Lizard’, a reader of the Daily Monitor website, felt Janet Museveni would be unable to raise the standard of education in the country:
Just watch out for the total collapse of education in Uganda. This woman has no morals and the indicative of it is when she publicly said she was going to use state house recourse for her security. Now you can see how” accessible” she will be. She has been one of the strong voices in perpetuating her husbands dicatorship. Education has one of the highest budgets and just watch out for another Muhwezi-like robbery.
Suggesting that president Museveni appointed opposition politicians to bring them closer to him, Eshban Kwesiga tweeted:
Museveni's “Team of Rivals” (Betty Kamya, Amongin, Jimmy Akena) is really starting to fall into place
— Eshban Kwesiga (@EshbanKwesiga) June 16, 2016
Wilfred Busige pointed out President Museveni appoints ministers to either reward or silence them:
Museveni selects his ministers on 2 accounts; Either to reward or silence/tame individuals. For Betty Kamya, I think it's the former.
— Wilfred Businge (@IamWilfredB) June 11, 2016
Early this year, Museveni appointed his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to Major General, one of the highest military ranks in the country.

author: James Propa


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Can Fact-Checking Save Democracy—and Journalism as We Know It? · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Pinocchio, the fictional character whose nose grows larger when he lies, is often used as symbol in fact-checking. Art by Enrico Mazzanti (1852-1910). Public Domain.
The morning after the Brexit, the referendum on the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, one of the leaders of the “Leave” campaign shocked the public by admitting he had misled the public on a key issue. When asked whether the UK's alleged £350 million weekly contribution to the EU would be directed to the National Health Service instead, the former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said “that was a mistake.”
In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid, Farage said that he couldn't guarantee fulfillment of the campaign pledge, and tried to dodge the issue by claiming that it wasn't an official promise, though the campaign had run advertisements announcing it.
In response, outraged citizens, including journalists, tweeted photos of the ads— posted in conspicuous places like the sides of buses— debunking the lie.
“The £350m was an extrapolation. It was never total.” -Iain Duncan Smith pic.twitter.com/hqAQuXsuLn
— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) June 26, 2016
This incident illustrates the need for more political fact-checking as a public service, to enable the voters to make more informed and rational decisions about matters affecting their daily lives.
Fact-checking is supposed to be a part of the normal journalistic process. When gathering information, a journalist should verify its accuracy. The work is then vetted by an editor, a person with more professional experience who may correct or further amend some of the information.
Some big news organizations even have special departments devoted to double-checking the work of their journalists and editors. This form of fact-checking entered popular culture in the 1988 film “Bright Lights, Big City“, in which, Michael J. Fox plays a glamorous fact-checker employed in “a major New York magazine.”
In the 1988 film “Bright Lights, Big City”, Michael J. Fox played a fact-checker at “a major New York magazine”. Source: Wikipedia, fair use.
In the decades after the 1980s, most news outlets around the world could not afford—or simply did not consider it necessary—to have fact-checking department, or even a single fact-checker playing the role of devil's advocate in the newsroom.
But the need for fact-checking hasn't gone away. As new technologies have spawned new forms of media which lend themselves to the spread of various kinds of disinformation, this need has in fact grown. Much of the information that's spread online, even by news outlets, is not checked, as outlets simply copy-paste—or in some instances, plagiarize—”click-worthy” content generated by others. Politicians, especially populists prone to manipulative tactics, have embraced this new media environment by making alliances with tabloid tycoons or by becoming media owners themselves.
In recent years there has been a drive to fulfill the need for political fact-checking. It comes from two general directions. The first includes journalists who, after years in the trenches, also went into academia, in an effort to uphold the standards of their profession. The second includes civil society organizations that aim to utilize the new technologies to generate democratic reform by forcing their governments to become more transparent and accountable, thereby countering corruption. A number of such projects, combining civil activism and media development, have emerged around the world.
The green areas represent countries with fact-checking initiatives, based on Duke Reporters’ Lab database and integrated with more recently launched sites (June 2016). Map by Alexios Mantzarlis/Poynter, used with permission.
Over 100 fact-checkers from 40 different countries took part in the recent Global Fact-Checking Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina (#GlobalFact3, June 9-10). Organized by the US Poynter Institute, the gathering also served to strengthen Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network. (Disclosure: I attended the Summit as representative of Metamorphosis Foundation, which runs two such projects in Macedonia: TruthMeter and the Media Fact-Checking Service.)
Organizations involved in fact-checking start by developing a methodology that serves as a blueprint for their analytical products. One of the key discussions at the Global Fact-Checking Summit was about developing a shared code of principles that would push fact-checkers towards ever-greater transparency, and consolidate readers’ trust in the the fact-checking instrument.
The primary audience for fact-checking activities is online. Research done in Macedonia suggests that the target for such content is highly-educated younger people. Globally, however, this demographic category represents only a portion of the voting public. In order to reach wider audiences, fact-checking projects collaborate with other kinds of media.
Some fact-checking projects have made inroads into the medium that's still a dominant opinion-maker among older and less educated populations—television. There are several successful examples, such as the Spanish El Objetivo and the Italian Virus. When backed up by the support to enable high quality production, these examples show that fact-checking can be an engaging form of edutainment.
Most importantly, participants in such initiatives are ready to share their knowledge. In May 2016, producers of the most popular European TV shows involved in fact-checking the truthfulness of public speech, along with editors and journalists from regional fact-checking initiatives gathered in Sarajevo for a workshop as part of the annual POINT Conference. The NGO Why Not, the organizers of the conference (and also run the Bosnian version of Truthmeter), produced a short online documentary summarizing the various aspects of TV fact-checking.
In the video, Poynter's Alexios Mantzarlis explains that the goal is to help fact-checkers “translate what they do online into material that is interesting on TV. . . . So it is important to do something that doesn't just reach people who are anyway curious and are looking for this kind of verification, but who may not be getting this content otherwise.”
Patrick Worrall from Channel 4 Fact-Check explained that:
We need fact-checking for a number of reasons. One, politicians tell lies, unfortunately. They always have and they always will. And people sitting at home often want to check what politicians are telling them, and they don't have the time and resources to do all the hard work. So people like us are supposed to go out and check them. And we know, there's some evidence, that when people in the public life are fact-checked regularly, they become more honest, they become more careful about what they tell the public.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Global Voices Seeks Contributing Editor for RuNet Echo Project · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Global Voices is seeking a part-time Contributing Editor to support our coverage of Russian citizen media, as part of our RuNet Echo project.
The project provides comprehensive and deep reporting on and analyses of the Russian-language online community. The purpose of the initiative is to deepen our coverage and analysis of Russian-language blogospheres, online speech, and social networks.
The Contributing Editor has several primary duties:
The main focus of our coverage and analysis is Russian-language online writing from and about the Russian Federation. Secondary content may also include Russian-language content from the former Soviet Union and around the world.
The Contributing Editor will assist in producing and editing content for the project, including the regular output of stories, translations, and networking. The editor will produce and/or edit several in-depth stories per week, as well as shorter posts linking and pointing to important topics, events, and writing as it occurs. The work will involve extensive translation, analysis, and further original research and reporting when appropriate, in order to elucidate and identify trends, ideas, and social and political currents within the RuNet. Analysis will also examine how content in the Russian-language online space relates to other communities, languages, and cultures, and offline Russian conversations, journalism, and social and political movements.
The Contributing Editor will also:
Interested candidates, please send a résumé, writing sample, and cover letter explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: krothrock AT globalvoices DOT org
Global Voices will receive applications until Wednesday, July 27, 2016.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Imprisoned in Iran for Posting Jokes on Facebook, A Computer Engineer Awaits His Appeal Verdict · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Image of “Symbolic Prison Cell” in Iran from Babak Farroki. Image taken from Flickr under CC By 2.0.
A version of this article was originally published on the site of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Soheil Babadi has waited nearly a year for a ruling on his appeal against his prison sentence. Babadi was imprisoned in Iran in 2014 for posting jokes on a satirical Facebook page.
Authorities have meanwhile refused to release him on bail or allow him to receive medical treatment outside of Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj (west of Tehran) where he has been held in Ward 12—where political prisoners are kept—since October 1, 2014.
An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Babadi’s appeal was filed more than 10 months ago, and that the Appeals Court last looked into his case in April 2016, but “the case judge has neither issued a verdict nor agreed to release Babadi on bail.”
“Those in charge of this case have deliberately prolonged Babadi’s prosecution,” added the source. “Now he needs to go on medical furlough [temporary leave] to get treatment for his kidney problem, but the officials refuse to allow him until he gets a final verdict.”
Political prisoners in Iran are routinely singled out for harsh treatment, which often includes denial of medical care.
Banner image from Emam Naghi Facebook page.
The 39-year-old computer engineer was arrested on May 22, 2012 after allegedly posting jokes on the “Campaign to Remind Shiites about Imam Naghi” Facebook page (seen above), which satirizes political and religious issues while focusing on Ali al-Naghi—the tenth Imam according to Shia Islam. The page, which has nearly 33,000 fans, gained popularity after the song “Naghi” by musical artist Shahin Najafi went viral in early May 2012 and at least two senior theologians issued fatwas calling for Najafi’s death for insulting Naghi.
After his arrest, Babadi was held for more than 200 days in Ward 2-A of Tehran’s Evin Prison, which is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). During that time he was tortured and denied basic rights, according to an open letter he wrote from prison on September 7, 2013.
“In May 2011 I posted ten short pieces of satire on a Facebook page called the ‘Campaign to Remind Shiites about Imam Naghi’ without using any insulting words,” said the letter. “A year later I was arrested by the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization without a warrant and held in Ward 2-A, the IRGC’s exclusive detention center, and beaten and interrogated for 24 hours.”
Babadi continued: “Then someone named Ghena’atkar (from Branch 3 of the Security Court) formally read the charges against me, including ‘insulting the Prophet Mohammad,’ ‘insulting the sacred,’ ‘assembly and collusion,’ ‘insulting the supreme leader,’ ‘propaganda against the state,’ ‘membership in a group planning to overthrow the state’ ‘and acting against national security’—all for writing ten jokes on Facebook.”
“I was interrogated while blindfolded in the corner of a room,” he added. “The agent wanted me to confess to the charges against me, and when I refused he severely beat me. I was constantly under psychological pressure as the agents probed into my personal life and tried to accuse me of sexual relations with friends and relatives, even with my sister-in-law, and even of homosexual relations with one of my friends, Mostafa. But they didn’t succeed and kept me in solitary confinement for 225 days.”
The practice of forced “confessions” in Iran, including those elicited under torture or the threat of torture, has been well documented by international human rights organizations.
Soheil Babadi, the imprisoned Facebook users convicted for posting jokes. Photo taken from ICHRI and used with permission.
Babadi indicated in his letter that his basic rights were denied primarily because his jokes were turned into a security case. During his interrogation his back was injured after severe beatings, he was held incommunicado for months in solitary confinement, and he was detained for a year before his first trial.
Babadi was first charged with “insulting the sacred” and “insulting President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad],” and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, 74 lashes and two years in exile in the city of Beshagard near the southern port of Bandar Abbas.
In a second trial in September 2015 Judge Mohammad Moghisseh of Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Babadi to an additional seven years in prison for “assembly and collusion against national security” and “insulting the supreme leader.” Branch 26 of the Appeals Court has yet to issue a verdict on the appeal against Babadi’s sentence.
All of the charges against Babadi relate to his Facebook posts. If Article 134 of Iran’s New Islamic Penal Code is applied to his case, his combined sentence could be reduced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and he could be released on probation after four years.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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‘Our Strength as Women Lies in the Differences Among Us’: The Central American Feminist Symposium · Global Voices
Helena Closa

“Bodies that defy and construct new realities.” Participants from the 2016 Central American Feminist Symposium. Photograph by the author, used with permission.
More than 80 activists from Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala came together under the theme “Bodies that defy and construct new realities” at the Central American Feminist Symposium, which took place in mid-June in Nicaragua's capital city Managua.
The event was an opportunity for conversations about women's rights from a regional perspective and across generations. The Nicaraguan feminist group Programa Feminista La Corriente was the main organizer behind the symposium.
The debates, which were echoed on Facebook and Twitter, centered on how to frame the tough reality facing women in Central America and how to improve the activism trying to change it. With a heavy heart, participants explained that the number of murdered women continues to be alarming and, after many years of activism, it is important to remain united. They also pointed to the revival of religious fundamentalism, which promotes restrictions on women's freedom:
#JornadasFeministasCA2016 “It seems like Central American countries aren't ruled by the constitution, they are ruled by the Bible.”
Activists also spoke about the reversal of some women's rights, including a ban on therapeutic abortion and the rising rates of teen pregnancy caused by a lack of sexual and reproductive education. The situation is made worse by an increase in gender violence on social media and growing male chauvinism among young men who act with impunity:
La violencia en C.A. es una pandemia que va desde el acoso callejero hasta los femicidios #JornadasFeministasCA2016 @LaCorrienteNica
— María Martha (@Alborbola1) June 17, 2016
Violence in Central America is a pandemic and exists as harassment in the street all the way to murder. #JornadasFeministasCA2016
Esperanza White, a feminist activist from the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, emphasized on Facebook the importance of uniting the many different elements of the feminist movement as well as taking an intersectional approach to feminism in the region:
I'm moved and rejoiced by this thought: “Our strength as women lies in the differences among us…Lesbians, indigenous, disabled, Afro-descendants, trans, heterosexual…different bodies with the same soul and the same problems”…  #JornadasFeministasCA2016
Feminist activists from all over Central America in a plenary meeting. Photograph by the author. Used with permission.
At the symposium, Hondurans described the feeling of hopelessness that they are grappling with. Despite decades of struggle, long-lasting structural change has remained largely out of reach thanks to the lack of government support and a shortage of resources needed to support activism.
For this reason, the group emphasized the importance of developing strategies to deal with the emotional burden and psychological wear caused by this long-term battle. To this end, the activists recommend “self-care” (understood as emotional and social self-care) as an indispensable instrument to keep them afloat:
¨El autocuido tiene que ser parte de la estrategia de sostenibilidad política del movimiento.¨ #JornadasFeministasCA2016
— María Martha (@Alborbola1) June 17, 2016
“Self-care has to be a part of the political sustainability of the movement.”  #JornadasFeministasCA2016
The women from the movement concluded that generational differences must be overcome by creating new spaces for dialogue; the young can learn from the veterans and the older players can be influenced by the energy and fresh ideas of the newcomers. In addition, there is a need to document the movement, which has a rich history of work on the ground:
We need to take stock of the situation over the past 30 years…We're discussing today different tensions, like the ones created by generational differences as we did 30 years ago, but in new contexts…This is the moment when we should try to see what are the possible solutions to the situation that we are facing today, with the new players at hand. We have to work to manage feminist knowledge…to spread, socialize and share history. Patriarchy is huge, violent, predatory because we've done little to dismantle patriarchal myths. #JornadasFeministasCA2016
After participating in the symposium, Dolly Rebeca Mora, Nicaraguan feminist activist shared on Facebook:
What can I say? Happy with the #JornadasFeministasCA2016 my struggle is filled with energy from all of these marvelous and invigorating women, my commitment has new strength, today more than ever I'm grateful to the universe for leading me to feminism #AquiSeRespiraLucha [Here We Breathe the Struggle] [On the image: “hanging with feminists is learning to struggle”]
After the gathering, activists from the main organizer, Programa Feminista La Corriente, said they were optimistic, concluding that there is a lot of work to be done but the renewed energy from these days of intense debate made the struggle a lot less burdensome. For them, it's clear: maintaining links inside the movement will be decisive if they are to see changes in the future.

author: Helena Closa


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David Cameron’s Resignation as UK Prime Minister Has a Theme Song, and It Goes ‘Doo Doo Doo Doo’ · Global Voices
Anastasia Denisova

There can be many ways to express one's feelings after leaving the post of prime minister of the United Kingdom. David Cameron seems to have chosen song.
On July 11, Cameron announced his handover to Theresa May, who won the Conservative Party's internal leadership race. He had promised to step down following the results of the Brexit referendum, in which 51.9% of voters in the UK said they wanted to leave the European Union (Cameron had campaigned to remain).
He then walked towards Number 10, the prime minister's office, when a lapel mic that was still recording documented Cameron singing a short jingle.
Digital crowds were delighted by Cameron's tune and indulged in jokes and memes on the subject. As uncomplicated as it was, “Doo doo doo doo right” nonetheless provided a solid base for a dance remix, swiftly produced by @graemecoleman. Within less than 24 hours, it was shared by 2,600 Twitter users.
I spent yesterday evening remixing David Cameron. I'm very proud… #cameron #humming pic.twitter.com/WIMDU4zyjx
— Graeme Coleman (@graemecoleman) 12 July 2016
Another user suggested a Darth Vaderian turn and transformed the occasional humming in “Evil Tory Theme Tune” (the Conservative Party is colloquially referred to as the Tories):
After announcing #TheresaMay will be PM on Weds #Cameron leaks Evil Tory themetune. (Needs sound… Wait for it!) pic.twitter.com/otqYTd1QxG
— Chris Hollis (@chris_hollis) 11 July 2016
Taking the turbulent political context into account, a theatre-related user dragged in a comparison between Cameron's line and dramas by William Shakespeare:
Because every great speech gets better when you add the Cameron hum to it… pic.twitter.com/pxuj7jEWT7
— Samuel French UK (@SamuelFrenchLtd) 12 July 2016
Some commentators suggested that the ex-prime minister was contemplating a new career and could not have chosen a better day to release his track, with all the attention and cameras switched on.
https://t.co/SO1ETrLJ9w ‘Assuming ‘Doo Doo, Doo Doo’ isn't a track he's been “sitting on for years but finally felt right to release”‘
— Molly McGee (@mollymcgee92) 12 July 2016
“Doo Doo, Doo Doo” by @David_Cameron is probably going to be song of the year 2016
— Robbo Baggins (@RobHorrocks432) 12 July 2016
‘This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a DO DOO DOO DOO. Right.’ https://t.co/AcJwjpG9Ks
— Daniel Walker (@DanWalker0) 12 July 2016
Or was it actually a teaser of a decent musical?
“Tonight’s the night,
Doo doo doo doo, right!”#CamerontheMusical pic.twitter.com/eOpM4zq6VH
— Samuel French UK (@SamuelFrenchLtd) 11 July 2016
A tech-savvy user from Germany quickly turned the viral humming in a ringtone, suggesting that downloading the (now cult) song to one's mobile phone was worth paying for.
Doo, doo, doo, doo – RETWEETE dieses Video und du erhälst ein Jumba-Sparabo! (ohne versteckte Kosten) #Cameron pic.twitter.com/PYCHl5Kbz0
— Was mit Fabian (@WasmitFabian) 12 July 2016
Others stressed that this tune belonged to the people and offered a tutorial on playing it for free.
Haha! The Doo Doo Doo song! https://t.co/YbPqyCM5w2
— Wendy Kerfoot (@1965Wendy) 12 July 2016
I don't know who did this – but it's wonderful. Cameron's haunting, humming lament. #dear #DavidCameron pic.twitter.com/eZg5XUmlxn
— westendproducer (@westendproducer) 12 July 2016
Jokes aside, research on Internet memes suggests that viral content and memes often contain complex ideas and references to serious politics, or even point to the prevailing public opinion on the news or meaningful ideas.
Unsurprisingly then, many digital commentators seized the opportunity to criticize Cameron for leading the UK to the Brexit referendum. Though a majority of voters chose “leave,” 48.1% voted to stay in the European Union, and the results have bitterly divided the country.
“Doo doo doo”. The song of the gentleman amateur who has just led the country off a cliff https://t.co/RUGPu3mUCM
— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) 11 July 2016
Survey says: You're a dumb doo doo head.
— MarMar (@pinningnut) 12 July 2016
Among the doo doo jokes and stinging barbs, however, was a striking wave of compassion and understanding. At the end of the day, the politician had a couple of tough weeks.
David Cameron's resignation hum is ridiculously humanising (bearing in mind he's a shape shifting lizard etc). https://t.co/cCoYpm6oC9
— Sanderson Jones (@sandersonjones) 11 July 2016
Didn't think I could like David Cameron, but that bit of singing, and the unashamedly posh ‘right'… Nothing as humanising as a doo-de-doo
— Bethan Ruddock (@bethanar) 11 July 2016
Was this humming a sign of relief, or just a catchy tune that got in the ex-prime minister's head? We will probably never know. However, it certainly was a breath of fresh air for British Twitter users who could take a break from gloomy economic forecasts and heated political debates. Right.
A bit of light relief from all the political drama! Made me laugh @ClassicFM #cameronslament https://t.co/161FdJUhPw
— Chloe Bridgen (@chloebridgen) 12 July 2016

author: Anastasia Denisova