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Award-Winning Malian Blogger Boukary Konaté Was a Teacher, a Trailblazer and a Friend · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Boukary Konaté with the children of his village – photo: Eduardo Avila, with permission.
The Global Voices Summit 2017 is around the corner, where a celebration of the life and work of Global Voices collaborators like Boukary Konaté will take place.  Here we take a look back on the achievements of this Malian web pioneer.
The death of Boukary Konaté on 17 September 2017 after a short battle with cancer left a huge hole in the world. News of his illness was met with a slew of crowdfunded donations to help him meet his medical needs, and after his passing, tributes of appreciation and sympathy have streamed in from far and wide.
But how was Boukary exceptional? Here are just a few reasons.
Boukary was a prizewinning blogger who had been recognized by the Deutsche Welle Blog Awards, known as “the BOBs” in 2012:
Mardi après-midi (26 juin), la Deutsche Welle remet officiellement les prix de son concours de blogs, les BOBs. Le Malien Boukary Konaté se voit récompenser pour son blog baptisé “Fasokan”. Il gagne le prix du jury dans la catégorie “Éducation et Culture”. Cet enseignant de formation est attaché aux villages de son pays…
Une grappe d'enfants se masse autour d'un ordinateur équipé d'une batterie solaire et découvre le vaste monde à travers internet. C'est l'une des images que l'on peut voir sur le blog Fasokan de Boukary Konaté, un enseignant malien qui, depuis de nombreuses années, s'efforce de jeter des ponts entre les villages du Mali, avec leurs cultures et leurs traditions, et les nouvelles technologies. Son blog bilingue, en français et en bambara, a été récompensé par le jury des BOBs, le concours international de blogs de la Deutsche Welle, dans la catégorie spéciale Éducation et Culture.
This year's Deutsche Welle Blog Awards – “the BOBs” – were presented on Tuesday at the Global Media Forum 2012. The prize for the “Special Topic Award: Education and Culture” went to Boukary Konaté of Mali, who helps his compatriots use the full potential of the Internet. He has been blogging on “Fasokan,” both in French and the West African language of Bambara since 2008. His site is an educational tool, documenting how he gains access to the Internet with the help of portable solar panels and a car battery, and he travels around the country teaching people in rural areas how they can make best use of the Internet. Konaté said proudly that “people are always pleased to see me” when he arrives on his bike with his solar power module.
On the subject of Boukary's award-winning Fasokan blog, Claire Ulrich, Global Voices’ French translation editor and a French-language member of the jury, detailed their choice:
Boukary Konaté n'a jamais oublié le monde rural dont il est originaire, ni son métier de professeur, Il consacre beaucoup de son temps libre à des sessions de formation à l'internet mobile dans les villages, les cyber-cafés et les écoles rurales. »
Boukary Konaté has never forgotten the rural world which he comes from, or his calling as a teacher. He devotes much of his free time to mobile online training sessions in rural villages, cyber-cafés and schools.
In his blog, Boukary explained his approach this way:
« Le peu que je peux faire pour le développement et la promotion des langues africaines, je le fais pour que nos langues traversent les rivières et les fleuves et prennent place parmi les autres langues dans le vestibule de partage d'information et de savoir, qu'est Internet.
What little I can do for the development and promotion of African languages, I do, that they may ford the streams and rivers and take their place with other languages in the great information and knowledge sharing chamber which is the Internet.
The website of Radio France Internationale (RFI) noted that Boukary was one of the first African bloggers to be selected in 2010 for the first edition of the network Mondoblog which today unites 600 bloggers from 70 countries (The Mondoblog network was launched by RFI and is still supported by the Radio news station):
Boukary Konaté était un blogueur faisant partie de la première sélection de Mondoblog en 2010. Il avait été l’un des premiers Africains à donner du corps à l’expression « blogueur engagé ». Infatigable baroudeur, Boukary portait un amour infini pour la culture de son pays, le Mali. Il allait donc dans les villages les plus reculés recueillir la sagesse de ces contrées et se servait de son blog sur Mondoblog, mais aussi de ses différentes collaborations avec des médias internationaux (Global Voices, France 24) pour la faire connaître dans le monde. Ce professeur de bambara, de français et d’anglais, assurait aussi une mission d’éducation des populations des régions reculées du Mali, en leur permettant par exemple de découvrir l’Internet et ses multiples usages.
Boukary Konaté was a blogger who formed part of Mondoblog's first selection in 2010. He was one of the first Africans to embody the definition of the “committed blogger”. A tireless rambler, Boukary felt an infinite love for the culture of his country, Mali. Hence he went into the remotest villages to harvest the wisdom of each place, and used his blog on Mondoblog — but also his various collaborations with international media (Global Voices, France 24…) — to make it better known in the world. And so, the teacher of Bambara, French and English fulfilled his mission to educate the population of the remote regions of Mali, by enabling them, for example, to discover the Internet and its multiple uses.
Bloggers from within this network have been quick to pay tribute to Boukary. They include Faty, who defines herself as “a trained psychologist, who went into teaching, then into lots of other fields… committed to the hilt and a lifelong lover of her native city, Timbuktu”.
Having known him personally, she wrote:
Oui. Boukary était le seul blogueur qui avait peur de l’avion, à ma connaissance, ignorant sciemment le personal branding pour prêter la vedette à ceux qu’il rencontrait…
La culture malienne. Les traditions sont l’essence de ce héros qui su utiliser l’éducation et l’innovation pour connecter nos zones rurales au monde, mais aussi connecter le monde à cette richesse de notre patrimoine.
Boukary, repose en paix.
Tu resteras dans nos cœurs.
Yes! Boukary was the only blogger I know who was afraid to fly — quite blind to “personal branding”; instead, making those he met the stars…Malian culture. Traditions. These were the essence of a hero who know how to use education and innovation to connect our rural zones to the world, but also to connect the world to the wealth of our heritage. Boukary, rest in peace. You will remain in our hearts.
Journalist Georges Attino, a devotee of culture, music and African languages, said he regretted that he never knew Boukary and dedicated “Janjo”, the warrior anthem of traditional Bambara society, to him:
Boukary, j’aurais voulu te rencontrer autour d’un verre de thé. Pour autant même sans t’avoir vu je te connaissais. J’avais entendu parler de l’homme qui parcourait les villages à vélo et à moto. Tu voulais réveiller ces villages, les révéler à tous pour préserver le patrimoine culturel du Mali. Ce réveil passait par la valorisation des langues nationales. On avait parlé d’un projet de journal écrit en bambara (mandingue). On avait prévu de se voir pour en parler en profondeur. Comme tu l’avais dit « tout ce qui est debout se couchera un jour » et ton jour est malheureusement arrivé.
Boukary tu faisais partie des doyens du blogging au Mali. T’es le précurseur du blogging en bambara. Fasokan (« la langue de la patrie », en bambara) était même ton surnom sur les réseaux sociaux.  Quand le village se réveillera tu ne seras plus là. Ton parcours est semblable à ton nom de famille: Konaté (konatɛ) « kona tɛ » qui veut dire « qui n’est pas stérile » tu n’as pas été stérile Boukary. Tu as enfanté en moi cet amour du partage, de la culture des langues nationales.
Tu mérites le « janjo ». C’est la chanson la plus populaire de la culture mandingue. Cette culture que tu défendais tant. « Janjo » c’est l’hymne des guerriers, dédié à ceux qui se sont fait remarquer par des actions nobles. Ce chant c’est la victoire sur l’ennemi. Ton ennemi c’était l’oubli, l’oubli dans lequel les traditions maliennes pourraient tomber. Le jour s’est levé sur eux grâce à toi.
I ni ce, i ni baara (Merci pour ce travail).
Boukary, I'd have liked to have met you over a glass of tea. But, though I never saw you, I knew you just the same. I'd heard of the man who crisscrossed the villages on bicycle and motorbike. You wanted to wake those villages up, reveal them to everyone in order to preserve the cultural heritage of Mali. It was a waking-up which would give value to its national languages. We'd talked about a project to create a newspaper written in Bambara (Mandinka).  We'd planned to meet up to talk about it in more depth. As you said “all that stands will one day lie down” and your own day, sadly, has come. Boukary, you were one of the leading lights of blogging in Mali. The trailblazer of blogging in Bambara. Fasokan (“the language of our country” in Bambara) was even the name you used on social networks. When the village wakes up you will no longer be there. Your journey has been like your surname, Konaté (“kona tɛ”, which means “that which is not barren”). You have not been barren, Boukary. You have fathered in me this love of sharing, of growing, the national languages. You have earned the “janjo”. It's the most popular song in that Mandinka culture you defended so staunchly. “Janjo” is the warrior anthem, dedicated to those who have distinguished themselves by noble actions. It's the song of victory over the enemy. Your enemy was forgetfulness, the forgetfulness into which Malian traditions might fall. The day has risen on them thanks to you. I ni ce, i ni baara (thank you for your work).
Blogger and journalist Boubacar Sangaré, who had known him since their induction into the Mondoblog project, reminisced:
Passif ? Il refusait de parler de politique. Sur son blog Fasokan, Boukary écrivait en langue bambara, qu’il voulait valoriser, la sortir des emprunts et des amalgames. Ensuite est venu son projet culturel Quand le village se réveille. « Fasokan », comme on l’appelait, parcourait les villages pour collecter les traditions, la culture et les diffuser. Son surnom lui-même vient du bambara, de faso («patrie») et de  kan («langue»).
Les traditions, il aimait en parler comme le Christ aime l’Église. C’est grâce à lui que l’on pouvait découvrir pourquoi une grenouille n’a pas de queue. C’est grâce à lui que l’on pouvait découvrir ce qui se cachait derrière le masque dogon.
Boukary est un baobab qui est tombé. Un puits plein qui souffrait de voir à côté d’autres puits secs. Une outre pleine dont on a pu tirer beaucoup de choses. Une bibliothèque qui n’a pas brûlé, car ce qu’il savait, il l’a partagé avec nous dans les conditions que nous connaissions tous.
Passive? He refused to talk politics. On his Fasokan blog, Boukary wrote in the Bambara language, which he wanted to promote, and free of borrowed and mixed elements. Then came his cultural project “When the village wakes up”.  “Fasokan”, as we called him, crisscrossed the villages to collect traditions, culture, and diffuse them. That name itself comes from the Bambara faso (country) and kan (language). Traditions?  He loved talking about them as Christ loved the Church. It's thanks to him you could find out why a frog has no tail. It's thanks to him you could find out what was hidden behind the Dogon mask. Boukary is a fallen baobab tree. A full well which couldn't bear to see other, dry wells alongside it. A full gourd out of which we've drawn so many things. A library which has not burnt, because, what he knew, he shared with us, in terms all of us knew well.
Boukary had also been part of the Observers collaborative journalism project of France24 TV channel since 2010. There he was valued as “master of surprising subjects”. Observers paid its respects to him in these terms:
Boukary Konaté était quelqu’un qui donnait son temps aux autres. Le numérique le fascinait et il en avait fait une arme au service de la culture : en 2014, il a lancé le projet “Quand le village se réveille”, un blog puis une page Facebook et une application smartphone où il recensait chaque semaine, avec des articles, des photos et des vidéos tous les aspects du patrimoine culturel malien. On peut notamment y apprendre à quoi servait un curieux bonnet dogon ou encore à quoi jouent les habitants dans les coins reculés de son pays. Le projet a séduit le ministère de la Culture et de l’Education du Mali, ainsi que les internautes, qui l’avaient soutenu lors d’une opération de levées de fonds sur Internet.
La marque de fabrique de Boukary Konaté, c’était surtout son temps donné aux autres…
Ses projets servaient surtout à diffuser ses connaissances lors d’ateliers de formation. À plusieurs reprises, Boukary Konaté s’était rendu dans les régions maliennes éloignées de la capitale pour former les jeunes générations aux bases du blogging et les sensibiliser sur l’importance de sauvegarder leur culture.
Boukary Konaté was someone who gave his time to others. Digital technology fascinated him, and he even forged a weapon out of it in the service of culture: in 2014, he launched the project “When the village wakes up”, a blog, then a Facebook page and a smartphone app by which, each week, in articles, photos and videos, he would plot all aspects of Malian cultural heritage. Memorably, we can find there what use a strange looking Dogon headdress was put to, or, perhaps, what games are played by the inhabitants of the remote corners of his country. The project won over the Malian Ministry of Culture and Education, as it did the online community, who had supported it by a fundraising effort on the internet. Boukary Konaté's trademark was above all the time he gave to others. [..] His projects above all were used to disseminate his discoveries through workshops.  More than once, Boukary Konaté traveled to regions of Mali far away from the capital to train the younger generations on the basics of blogging, and to raise their awareness of the importance of safeguarding their culture.
The site revealed further:
En 2016, il avait lancé “Malebooks“, projet auquel il croyait dur comme fer et qui visait à apporter la connaissance et les livres dans des régions du Mali où les bibliothèques manquent cruellement. Le projet a déjà permis de distribuer 48 liseuses contenant en moyenne 4 000 livres libres de droit, dans des écoles des régions de Ségou, Gao et Bamako, et à des élèves de 13 à 19 ans. Boukary expliquait.
In 2016 he launched “Malebooks“, a project in which he had a cast-iron belief, and which he saw as bringing knowledge and books into regions of Mali where libraries are painfully lacking. The project has already allowed 48 e-readers to be distributed, holding around 4,000 non-copyright books, to schools in the regions of Ségou, Gao and Bamako, and to students of 13 to 19 years old. Boukary was an explainer.
Observers also aired a tribute to Boukary between 23 and 30 September.
Closer to home, Global Voices translator Diana Rhudick memorialized Boukary and his work on the Global Voices Community Blog, gathering testimony of several people who knew him.
Online, his words will live on, such as in a 2014 video by RTM, the Malian national broadcaster, below, in which Boukary explained just what his project “When the village wakes up” was all about.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


text:
China’s Twitter Community Is Polarized Over Corruption Allegations by Fugitive Billionaire Guo Wengui · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Guo Wengui's supporters organized themselves into Twitter Party with a party t-shirt and a flag (one of the designs).
Allegations of corruption and scandal within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have split China's Twitter community into two camps, thanks to corruption allegations made by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.
Guo is wanted by anti-graft authorities in Beijing. He left China in 2013 and moved to New York when authorities began investigating his involvement in a series of crimes, involving blackmail, bribes and multiple instances of sexual assault.
Three years later in December 2016, Beijing authorities officially pursued corruption charges against China’s former spy head Ma Jian, who had secretly helped Guo to get rid of his business rivals.
In early 2017, the billionaire began publishing allegations of misdeeds by CCP officials, primarily by way of Twitter, where he posts videos of talk shows that he conducts online.
Guo's main target has been Wang Qishan, who leads China's anti-graft campaign. Guo has accused Wang of stealing wealth from the country by turning the HNA Group, a giant corporation with an opaque ownership structure, into a family asset, but Guo has produced no conclusive evidence to support this claim.
Guo has promoted the idea that by exposing acts of corruption, he will bring radical changes to China's political system.
His regular talk shows on Twitter have attracted a large number of fans, and his slogan, “All of this is only the beginning,” become a meme on Chinese social media in May (it was subsequently censored). Many from mainland China have circumvented the “Great Firewall” just to follow him. Currently, his Twitter account has 463,000 followers.
A number of prominent Chinese political dissidents have expressed their support of Guo, regardless of his previous involvement in helping the Chinese secret police to develop overseas spy networks and Beijing's allegations of criminal activity.
Mainstream media outlets have given relatively little coverage to Guo’s allegations, given that he has not provided much hard evidence for his claims and many of them remain unverified. But his supporters believe that many journalists covering mainland Chinese news, even if they are working for foreign media, want to downplay his allegations.
Bao Tong, the former director of the office of political reform of the Central Committee of the CCP in the 1980s, has urged the public to support Guo’s exposés. And Guo Baosheng, a political dissident based in the US, has helped recruit volunteers to distribute and promote Guo’s talks on various social media platforms.
The billionaire's hardcore supporters have organized themselves into what they now refer to as the “China Twitter Party.”
As one of Guo's followers puts it:
與共產黨的鬥爭，是要爾虞我詐，充滿智慧，借力使力，非常人可想像也，吾等之輩，若屬後知後覺者，只管追隨先知先覺郭大俠腳步，一切自然水到渠成
When struggling with the CCP, one has to be cunning and wise — borrowing power from one authority to crack down on the other one. Ordinary people can't understand such a tactic. For us, we are all lagging behind and hence can only follow hero Guo's footsteps. Then we will be successful.
Cao Changqing, a columnist, expressed his support more vocally on Twitter:
古往今来，古今中外，你们谁见过任何一个人，豁出全家性命、亿万美元的财富，跟全世界最大、最邪恶的政权斗争，他一个人！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！
在如此如此缺乏英雄的全世界华人里，就这么一个真正有种的，谁想把他灭掉，谁就是我的敌人！！！
— 曹長青 (@CaoChangqing) November 1, 2017
Trace the history of the world, have you ever seen anyone who has risked the lives of his family, his billions of wealth to struggle with the world's biggest and evilest state power? He is the one. In the Chinese world where there are so many calling out for hero, one person stands alone. Whoever wants to destroy him, they are my enemy.
On the other side, a number of Chinese activists and opinion leaders have spoken out against Guo, calling him a liar. For example, Zhang Lifan, an independent commentator, pointed out that some of the evidence of so-called corruption presented by Guo has been proven to be fabricated. Hu Ping, another Chinese opinion leader, criticized Guo's fans for turning Guo — who has regularly pledged his loyalty to Chinese President Xi Jinping in his corruption allegations — into a hero. He also suggested that Guo’s allegations were intended to spark conflict at the CCP’s 19th National Congress.
Guo has responded by labeling his critics as spies who are working for a specific faction of the CCP. His supporters have helped to defend him by smearing his opponents.
Many of Guo's followers have acknowledged Guo's involvement in the secret police overseas operation, yet they still insist that Guo's tainted background had empowered him to subvert the system and bring political changes to China.
At the CCP’s 19th National Congress, Wang Qishan was in fact dismissed from his position as head of the anti-graft authority and left the Standing Committee of the CCP Political Bureau. But his departure has not brought any substantial change to China's political system, as Guo has promised. Xi Jinping has further consolidated his power within the party, moving a step toward dictatorship, many have argued.
This raises the question: Why would so many Chinese choose to believe that Guo’s so-called exposés would challenge China's authoritarian system? As Twitter user @idmaiman put it:
所以郭文贵事件最值得深思之处就在于粉丝们的现象：一群反共的人为什么会支持不反共不反习的郭文贵呢？他们为何只讲立场不讲原则不问真假？他们为何认为只要达到目的可以不择手段？郭文贵自己都做孙子开溜了，为什么郭粉们头脑还不清醒？为什么骗术并不高明的郭文贵也能被粉丝们推崇为千古不遇的英雄？ https://t.co/4IlDYcAoHE
— 麦芒 (@idmaiman) October 22, 2017
When it comes to the case of Guo Wengui, it is worthwhile to reflect upon the phenomena of his fans: Why would a group of anti-CCP people support his position of anti-CCP but not anti-Xi Jinping? How could they only choose a stand without talking about principle and verifying facts? Why do they believe that the outcome can justify the means? Guo vanished [during the 19th Congress], and yet his followers still refuse to wake up. Why is an ordinary liar like Guo Wengui being upheld by so many of his fans as an epic hero?
Teng Biao, a prominent citizen rights lawyer who is now living in the US, has been working since August to demonstrate fallacies in what Guo presents as evidence of corruption. In response, Guo and his followers accused Teng of being a spy for Beijing.
Recently Teng wrote a long piece looking into Guo’s fans by quoting some of the analyses from Twitter:
令狐补充认为，“为什么郭文贵在twitter上有如此多各色各样不管不顾一味死撑的脑残粉？直接真切的理由是’支国苦赵久矣’。”中共政权剥夺公民的选举权、言论自由、信仰自由，官商黑疯狂勾结，一切公权力腐败透顶，城管、警察滥用暴力，贫富悬殊，道德沦丧，生态环境被破坏，数十年野蛮专制，积累了太多的怨气乃至仇恨。突然间发现这样一个“战神”在挑战中共，在一厢情愿的心理投射之下，在人多势众的放大效应之下，成为郭粉，顺理成章。
郭像是一个高明的催眠师，利用强烈的心理暗示，把观众们带入事先拟定好的剧本，故事越离奇、细节越夸张、情绪越亢奋、目标越宏大，越能达到煽动效果；质疑者被打成特务、人渣、“伪类”、“蓝金黄”，再找一些所谓民运、公知、媒体人之类的“托儿”跪舔吹捧、奋力配合，就迅速造成了郭网红万众追随的景象。
@buchong said, “How could Guo Wengui attract so many brain-damaged fans on Twitter? The reason is ‘China has suffered from the regime of Zhao [CCP] for too long.'” The CCP has deprived citizens of the rights to election, free speech and religious belief. The collusion of officials, capitalists and the triad [organized crime] has brought corruption to authorities leading to the abusive use of power in city administration and law enforcement, serious income disparity, demoralization and environmental destruction. Resentment and hatred have accumulated for decades and now they find a warrior challenging the CCP, they project their wishful thinking onto Guo and become his followers.
Guo is like an expert hypnotist, he creates strong suggestions leading people into a story plot. His story incites people with its absurdity, exaggeration, sensation and grand plan. For those who question the plot, they are labelled as spies, scum, or targets controlled by the secret police. With praise and echoes coming from some of the so-called activists, public intellectuals, media outlets, more and more people are recruited as Guo’s followers.
Teng explained the phenomenon as being a “cult of personality”:
这次网络义和团，也反映出群民的“强人崇拜综合症”。对领袖、超人、英雄、圣人的膜拜，超过了一定的度，就会成为专制的沃土。…对超级富豪网红郭文贵，郭粉不关心他财富积累过程的罪恶、不关心他的道德、人格、政治立场；崇拜本身是一种需要。“[…]
Guo’s boxer riot online has reflected a syndrome of celebrity worship syndrome. The overt worshiping of a leader, super-man, hero or saint is a rich soil for despotism […] Guo’s fans do not care if the super rich Guo Wengui has accumulated his wealth with criminal acts, they do not care about his morality, personality and political stances; they just feel the urge to worship him […]
Guo Wengui’s Twitter allegations, for better or for worse, may have affected China’s anti-graft tsar Wang Qishan’s political career as Guo and his supporters claimed.
However, another and potentially more adverse effect is that the overseas Chinese Twitter community has been antagonized and thus split. When mainland Chinese netizens climb over the Great Firewall to see what lies beyond their country's censorship, instead of critical dialogue about Chinese politics all they find now is a ruin made up of smears, distasteful comments and offensive quarrels over Guo Wengui.
Even on the other side of the firewall, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Chinese people to find trustworthy news about the political reality in their own country.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Data and Democracy: What Role Did Cambridge Analytica Play in Kenya’s Elections? · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

Ballot boxes. Photo by Sheila Rouge, labeled for reuse.
The powerful reach of Cambridge Analytica — the data analysis company that helped Donald Trump's campaign claim victory in the US — has become a source of concern in Kenya's ongoing conflict over national elections.
This week, bloggers associated with the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition published a leaked page of what they said was an internal memo describing tactics used by Cambridge Analytica to pursue victory for incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta, of the Jubilee party.
A spokesperson for Cambridge Analytica told Global Voices that the document was “entirely fabricated.”
The UK-based company has been in the limelight since Donald Trump's election victory in the US. The company was hired to analyze data about undecided voters and target them with information intended to sway them in Trump's favor.
The false memo alleges that the company undertook “psychological measures” to make opposition supporters and members of the Luo ethnic group “appear violent” in an effort to discredit their political voices. It also urges them to “emotionally manipulate” supporters of the ruling party in order to guarantee their votes.
It remains unknown who fabricated the memo, but its contents seem intended to leverage the increasingly widespread mistrust of the ruling party and its supporters. It has added fuel to an already raging debate over national elections that took place earlier this year. Although incumbent president Uhuru Kenyatta technically secured a majority of votes in August elections, his victory was challenged by opposition leader Raila Odinga (of the NASA coalition) and then nullified by the Supreme Court, on grounds that the country's election systems were flawed.
Since that decision came down, a re-vote has taken place, and Kenyatta once again has prevailed. But critics and opposition leaders say the election systems used to count votes saw no improvement in the interim, and millions of Kenyans responded by boycotting the re-run on October 26, leaving even more uncertainty around the country's political future. Some opposition leaders say they will protest against the re-run results.
Violent clashes have erupted in various parts of the country, wherein a small minority of individuals appear to be instigating violence.
In this recent election cycle, online actors — presumably working in the interests of the ruling party — have endeavored to stereotype one community, the Luo, as violent, and building the assumption that the main opposition party only has supporters from that community. This has only deepened the rift between the Luo and the ruling Jubilee party.
“Big Data. Behavioral Micro-targeting. Political Campaign Support. Digital Support.” This is how Cambridge Analytica identifies its activities in its Twitter profile.
Although the memo in circulation this week is now confirmed to be false, it has still underlined a key question for many Kenyans: what exactly is Cambridge Analytica doing in Kenya?
Kenya's incumbent Jubilee party did in fact hire Cambridge Analytica to help run their campaign. In May 2017, local daily newspaper The Star reported that Uhuru Kenyatta had signed a contract with the UK-based company.
This is not the first contract between the company and the ruling party. Cambridge Analytica's involvement in Kenyan politics began in 2013, when the company worked for Uhuru Kenyatta and The National Alliance (TNA), the forerunner to the Jubilee Party.
During that year's campaign, the company conducted 47,000 on-the-ground surveys. According to the Cambridge Analytica website, this allowed the company to create a profile of the Kenyan electorate and come up with a campaign strategy “based on the electorate's needs (jobs) and fears (tribal violence).”
Case study on Kenya, by Cambridge Analytica. Screenshot from Cambridge Analytica website.
The case study also described how the company worked to mobilize potential youth supporters on social media:
Of the audiences identified, our work highlighted that the youth cohort were an underutilized party asset that could be highly influential if mobilized. To connect with this audience, CA’s communications and strategy team devised an online social media campaign to generate a hugely active online following.
Kenyatta won the 2013 election. In 2017, when the Jubilee party once again contracted their services, the BBC published an article on Cambridge Analytica and the company's ongoing ‘project’ in Kenya. A spokesperson for Cambridge Analytica told BBC Trending that the company is not involved in any negative advertising in Kenya, and that the company “has never advocated the exploitation of ethnic divisions in any country.”
This begs the question of what type of strategy the company might have proposed (as stated in their materials above) that would be based on the electorate's fears of tribal violence.
The BBC report was published just five days before Kenya’s general election, which was later nullified by the Supreme Court.
Cambridge Analytica's work on behalf of the Jubilee party should also raise questions about the implications of a governing political party acquiring and sharing the data of millions of Kenyans with a private company. Kenya does not have a data protection law that safeguards the privacy of its citizen against the potential consequences of using their personal data, nor does the country have legal limits on how such data is stored or accessed.
Regardless of the involvement of outside companies, portrayals of Luos as inherently violent have been widespread on Kenyan social media, and have had real consequences throughout the country. In towns such as Siaya, Homabay and Kisumu, where internet is still a luxury, residents have felt a direct impact of the profiling and depiction of the Luo community as violent people.
According to an Aljazeera report on Kenya, at least 37 people including three children have been killed in the protests that followed the announcement of election results. Almost all the victims of the violence were killed in opposition strongholds in the slums of the capital, Nairobi, or the western part of the country.
In June 2017, UK-based NGO Privacy International warned against using ethnicity as a political tool to manipulate citizens. The group described the pitfalls of collecting data about millions of Kenyans to profile, target, and persuade voters on behalf of the Kenyan president, pointing to Kenya’s 2007 general election, when tribal clashes and ethnic violence led to 1,500 deaths and left more than 600,000 people homeless.
There has been evidence that the incumbent president played a role in these clashes. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed charges against Uhuru Kenyatta and his now-deputy, William Ruto, on allegations that they instigated crimes against humanity, resulting in incidents of ethnic violence. However, the charges against them have been withdrawn, as evidence has been insufficient, due in part to the fact that key witnesses have died or disappeared.
Kenya is the first developing country known to have used the services of Cambridge Analytica to influence election outcomes through big data and behavioral micro-targeting. Although the specific tactics and measures carried out by the company are not entirely known, their contract with the ruling party may be a cautionary tale for other governments — and democracy advocates — in the developing world.

author: Njeri Wangari


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Indonesian Police Go After Social Media Users for Mocking House Speaker · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Indonesia's House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto was hospitalized for diabetes and vertigo. Photo widely circulated on social media.
The Indonesian police briefly detained an internet user for spreading memes that mocked House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto.
Dyann Kemala Arrizqi now could face up to six years in jail for sharing on social media a photo of Setya in a hospital bed, which Setya's lawyers say “defamed” the House Speaker. Police warned that nine other individuals will be charged for violating the anti-defamation provision of the Information Technology Law (ITE) for sharing the photo and associated memes on social media.
Setya has faced increased public scrutiny since late September 2017, when he failed to appear at two separate hearings of the Corruption Eradication Commission. He was summoned after it was alleged that he had diverted nearly US $200 million in public funds — intended to support the country's electronic ID system — to politicians as bribes.
When his critics shamed him for failing to appear at a public hearing concerning his possible involvement in a financial scandal, his supporters on WhatsApp shared a photo of him lying on a hospital bed, in order to prove that his absence was legitimate.
Seen above, the photo shows Setya in the hospital, where he was admitted for complications related to diabetes and severe vertigo. But the photo soon found its way into a series of memes and online comments that were not so flattering to Setya. The photo went viral after Internet users photoshopped it to mock the House Speaker.
Below are some of the memes which poked fun at the Speaker:
All Those Setya Novanto Memes Are More Powerful Than You Think https://t.co/uiRD3InR3g pic.twitter.com/QNiCuQve0m
— VICE Indonesia (@VICE_ID) October 4, 2017
Batman : ” Tak akan kubiarkan Setya Novanto pergi ke Gotham city ” pic.twitter.com/AC4msvjgzz
— YogiREV• (@yogipratama_id) September 28, 2017
Batman: I won’t let Setya Novanto go to Gotham City.
Public scrutiny is nothing new for Setya. 2015, Setya was forced to resign as House Speaker after being implicated in a corruption scandal involving a foreign mining firm. But he was never convicted, and thus later returned to his position in Congress.
Since his return to Congress, he has twice been summoned by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for his alleged role in the government’s electronic identity cards (e-KTP) program after it was exposed that half of the 375 million US dollars allocated for it were diverted to politicians as bribes.
In late September 2017, a local court removed Setya as a suspect in the e-KTP graft case on a technicality. That he was able to clear his name in the pretrial stage of the e-KTP case has only further boosted his reputation as a powerful politician.
His resilience and ability to maintain popularity despite allegations of corruption have made him a popular subject for online commentary and humor.  Using the hashtag #ThePowerOfSetnov, Indonesians often hold up Setya as an example of the country’s politics. Below are some of the posts that used the hashtag:
Setya Novanto makan di restoran, pas minta bill malah doi yang dikasih tip sama pelayan #ThePowerOfSetnov
— R.A.N (@susahbet) September 29, 2017
Setya Novanto eats at a restaurant, when he asks for the bill the server gives him a tip
Setya Novanto kena tilang, yang sidang polisinya#ThePowerofSetnov
— Kiki (@kekikian) September 29, 2017
If Setya Novanto gets ticketed, it’s the police that go to trial
My illustration on Setyo Novanto ?? #powerofsetnov #thepowerofsetnov #setyanovanto #dpr #ketuadpr #mkd #editorialcartoon #illustration #politicalcartoon #memeindonesia
A post shared by Ajie Mandiri (@bajims.illustrator) on
Metallica New Member! #thepowerofsetnov pic.twitter.com/WXP7vs2ktZ
— M. Afri Archfalafa (@A21Free) October 4, 2017
One day SetyaNovanto missed two days in a row in the school. Later on, these days were called Saturday and Sunday.#ThePowerOfSetnov
— Agung Pratama ?? (@46vnkzz) October 3, 2017
Coconuts news website also contributed to the meme:
To add our own riff on #ThePowerOfSetNov meme: The only person who could successfully prosecute Setya Novanto… is Setya Novanto.
When his photo first went viral and the hashtag #ThePowerOfSetNov trended on social media, Setya did not react.
It was only this week that Setya’s lawyers were reported to have filed a defamation case against Dyann and other individuals on October 10, 2017.
Dyann admitted that she shared a Setya meme but only for fun. She also said that she is a member of the Indonesian Solidarity Party, a political party whose platform is mainly to combat corruption. The police did not explain why they arrested Dyann first and not the other suspects, nor did they say anything about making further arrests related to the issue.
Dyann’s brief detention was denounced by activists and media freedom advocates. They pointed out that satire and the spreading of humorous memes should not be criminalized. They added that sharing Setya memes became popular because many ordinary Indonesians felt it was the only way they could exact accountability from public officials after the court rejected the corruption case against the House Speaker.
The issue also highlighted the campaign for the reform or scrapping of the ITE law, which many groups describe as repressive because of overly broad provisions on defamation that authorities often invoke to harass critics and silence the media.
This brief quote from Coconuts news website summed up the sentiment of many when Dyann was arrested by the police:
What does it say about the state of justice in Indonesia when a politician like Setya can continue to act the way he does with impunity, while somebody who spreads a meme about him gets arrested?

author: Mong Palatino


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Local Australian Council Votes to Demolish Lawn Bowls Club Despite Viral Video Campaign · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

‘No To the Stadium’ – Photo courtesy of ‘Residents Against the Stadium’ Facebook page
A Melbourne lawn bowls club has lost its struggle to save its home of 60 years. Despite a concerted social media campaign, the local Stonnington Council has voted 6 – 3 to replace the Chadstone Bowls Club with a new netball and basketball indoor stadium.
In Lawn Bowls, the aim is to roll bowls closest to a smaller yellow or white ball. It is played on grass or artificial surfaces, both indoors and outdoors. The national body Bowls Australia represents nearly 1900 clubs with over 600,000 participants.
Netball is predominantly played in British Commonwealth nations. Its old name was women's basketball. It is the number one team sport for women and girls in Australia.
A Stonnington Council press release explained some of their reasons:
A new indoor facility in Stonnington is required to meet the needs of netball and basketball, sports that are especially popular among females. Women and girls deserve modern, safe, welcoming and inclusive facilities and this new facility will provide that.
Stonnington covers a large suburban area in Melbourne with over 100,000 people residing there. It has a relatively young population with a median age of 35. The area has become increasingly gentrified in recent decades, with prosperous residents renovating or renewing local housing. It is culturally diverse and has extremes of wealth and income.
Chadstone Bowls Club has 600 members of all ages and is mixed gender. Many are elderly. The club's video, All the Bowling Ladies, had received over 1.3 million views on the Residents Against the Stadium (RATS) Facebook page, with 20,000 reactions and 8,500 comments. Two 82-year-olds and a 72-year-old danced to their adaptation of Beyonce's hit song Single Ladies. The YouTube version had nearly 140,000 views:
Jenny Webb commented on Facebook:
Take away oldies from our society & people really miss out on goodness, sweetness, & examples of how younger people should act. I remember when they took it away from St Kilda [Another inner suburb]. I still question the move.
The council offered downsized facilities such as a synthetic green, but the club rejected the offer as a “slow death” because it would remove the space needed to hold fundraising and competition events.
Others have cause for celebration. Facebook group Build Stonnington Stadium (BSS) described the decision as a “great outcome for an inclusive sporting community in Stonnington.” They posted their own Facebook video three months ago featuring school-age netballers. However, it did not achieve the viral impact of the seniors’ performance.
Though the dispute has a ‘young versus old’ quality, both sides have rejected the notion. Build Stonnington Stadium put its case in these terms:
We support equal access to council facilities for all sporting groups. There are 26 ovals & grounds for cricket, football & rugby across the City, but only 2 courts for netball & basketball!
They say that they asked Council not to remove the bowls club but only wished to share. They posted this factsheet in August:
Build Stonnington Stadium  fact sheet – courtesy BSS facebook page
Part of Keith Louie's response highlighted gender issues:
When is council going to do something about the obvious inequality here? There are football ovals and facilities around every corner for (mostly) boys.
Before the council meeting, RATS deplored the division created by the proposal:
Apparently Prahran Netball Association has urged its members to attend tonight's meeting decked out in their netball uniforms. Presumably there will be Chadstone Bowls Club members in attendance also, probably in their bowling uniforms. It's just wrong of Stonnington Council to have created this situation – pitting sport against sport, generation against generation. It's like The Hunger Games – survival of the fittest. Shame Stonnington City Council, shame.
After the decision, Facebook user Fabbysabby Doodah commented on a RATS post:
It's a disgrace. Where are the professionals around mental health, aged care, sport for elders?
The fight is apparently not over yet, with suggestions of another bowls video. A different kind of bowler, Victorian cricketer Michael Beer, tweeted:
To the 6 @StonningtonNews councillors who voted for the stadium to go ahead. You've got a fight on your hands! Good Luck #savechaddybowls
— Michael Beer (@Beery19) October 30, 2017
Supporters of the Chadstone Bowls Club vowed to continue the campaign:
This battle might be over but the war is just beginning. Residents Against the Stadium will re-group and re-commence our campaign against this ridiculous vote.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Macedonian Court Ruling Favors Formerly Jailed Journalist, Indicates Government Conspiracy · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Tomislav Kezarovski on Oct 23, 2015 at memorial of a 2013 protest for his release, which included police intervention against the protesters. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY.
Macedonian journalist Tomislav Kezarovski can finally expect to be formally exonerated of political charges against him, after nearly five years of struggle.
Kezarovski was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on trumped-up charges in October 2013, but a new court verdict from a related case has de facto exonerated him.
In May 2013, while investigating the death of a colleague, Kezarovski (sometimes also written as Kežarovski or Kezharovski) was arrested and prosecuted for an article he had written in 2008, about a high-profile murder that took place in 2005.
A Macedonian court convicted the journalist of disclosing the identity of a protected witness in his coverage of the murder of 75-year-old Lazar Milosevski and police activity surrounding the killing. Kezarovski had quoted a man who was later revealed to have been pressured by police to act as a false witness, indicating a conspiracy within the judiciary. This allegation was confirmed in a court verdict this week. Previously the key witness changed his initial statement in court, admitted to committing perjury, and was convicted of providing false testimony.
The trial in the Milosevski murder case that was the subject of Kezarovski's 2008 reporting lasted nearly a decade, with five retrials, as the Court of Appeals overturned the initial sentence four times. The latest sentence concluded that there was a lack of evidence to convict the initial suspects for the murder that took place in 2005. Milosevski's family demanded a new investigation and trial involving evidence related to other possible suspects, that was not taken into consideration due to the cover up.
Kezarovski spent the better part of the next three years as political prisoner, under conditions tantamount to torture.
In a 2015 account, he described his living conditions for most of the time he was imprisoned:
Полумрачни простории со димензии четири метри должина на два метра и нешто ширина. Во таа површина е и тоалетот. Во овие осум-девет квадрати главно бевме сместени четворица, а некогаш и петмина… Острата реа на мувла и ароматичниот мирис на моч ви се вовлекува во носот и грлото веднаш штом ќе влезете во која било ќелија.
Dimly lit cell of 4 by 2 and a half meters, including the toilet. Four, and sometimes five, persons had to live within these 8-9 square meters… As soon as you enter any of these cells, the sharp stench of mold and aroma of urine nest into your nose and throat.
He said the cells were infested with insects, including large centipedes, which crawled over the prisoners when they went to sleep. The toilet was disinfected with hydrochloric acid every Thursday, and prisoners had to suffer inhaling the vapors.
The question of why Kezarovski was prosecuted in 2013 for his work on a 2008 story — a mere five years after the fact — has also loomed large as these events have unfolded.
At the time of his arrest, Kezarovski was working on a story about the untimely death of fellow journalist Nikola Mladenov, who was killed in what authorities said was a “classic traffic accident.” Kezarovski's arrest and conviction effectively stymied public debate about Mladenov's death at the time.
Journalist and editor Nikola Mladenov (1964-2013) in 2012. Photo by Vančo Džambaski via Metamorphosis Foundation, CC BY-SA.
The government's case and campaign against the journalist was officially code-named “Liquidation,” and was condemned by professional journalists’ organizations, human rights organizations and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. The European Commission also addressed it within the context of wider decline of freedom of expression in Macedonia.
Kezarovski, who spent a year and nine months in detention and several months under house arrest of this case, issued a statement on his Facebook profile this week, following the verdict:
Kezarovski's Facebook post commenting the latest verdict on the court case named “Orese.”
Vo obrazlozenieto na presudata se naveduva deka “zastiteniot” svedok nitu bil zastiten, nitu zagrozen, tuku bil LAZEN koj svedocel po nalog na tajnata policija. Onaka kako sto napisav vo nedelnikot Reporter 92.
A, za sto bev osomnicen, obvinet i osuden na zatvorska kazna. Za sto skapuvav po zatvorskite kelii. Za sto go izgubiv zdravjeto…
I sega obvinitelke Lile Stefanova sto ke pravime?
I sega gospodo sudii Tanja Mihajlova, Goko Ristov i Dijana Gruevska Ilievska sto ke pravime?
Sto ke kazete vo svoja odbrana?
The explanation of the verdict states that the ‘protected’ witness was neither protected nor endangered, but was a false witness who was testifying after being instructed by the secret police just like I wrote about in the weekly magazine “Reporter 92” and for which I was a suspect, the accused and imprisoned.
Why was I rotting in prison? Why did I lose my health for?
And now, Ms. Public Prosecutor Lile Stefanova, what shall we do? And now, judges Ms. Ranja Mihajlova, Mr. Gjoko Ristov and Ms. Dijana Gruevska – Ilievska what shall we do now? What will you say in your defense?
After a series of protests and legal wrangling, Kezarovski was released from prison on probation due to health reasons in January 2015. Since then he had become an advocate for improvement of the basic living conditions in Macedonian prisons.
In 2015 the disclosure of wiretaps conducted illegally by Macedonia's secret police indicated wrongdoing in regard to the investigation of death of Nikola Mladenov. Then-opposition leader Zoran Zaev (who become prime minister of Macedonia May 31, 2017) called for renewal of the investigation.
It is likely that both the investigation into Mladenov's death will be renewed by a reformed judiciary, and that Kezarovski shall press charges against the officials involved in his imprisonment.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Mexican Attorney General’s Short Tenure Criticized for ‘Constant Impunity’ · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

“Files”. Photo from Pixabay used under the licence of Creative Commons CC0.
Raúl Cervantes Andrade‘s sudden resignation from his position as head of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), announced on 16 October 2017, caused a stir on social media. Not even a full year had passed since Cervantes’ appointment to lead the PGR was ratified by the Senate.
Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported:
Raúl Cervantes Andrade es el tercer procurador en el sexenio del presidente Enrique Peña Nieto y el que menos ha durado en el cargo. Apenas fue ratificado por el Senado en octubre del año pasado.
Llegó en lugar de Arely Gómez quien dejó la PGR un año y siete meses después de asumir ese encargo, donde sustituyó a Jesús Murillo Karam, cuya salida se consideró obligadas tras las críticas por su labor en las investigaciones de la desaparición de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa.
Raúl Cervantes Andrade was the third attorney during President Enrique Peña Nieto's six-year term, and the one who has spent the least time in his position. He was only ratified by the Senate in October of last year.
He took the place of Arely Gómez, who left the PGR a year and seven months after taking the position after Jesús Murillo Karam, whose stepping down was considered obligatory after facing criticism for his part in the investigations into the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa.
In previous weeks, Cervantes had been in the spotlight for his aspirations to lead the Federal Prosecutor General (FGR), which following legal reforms is meant to take the place of the Attorney General's Office (PGR). The head of the FGR can stay in that position for up to nine years.
This is how reporter Jesusa Cervantes summarised Cervantes’ work as attorney general:
Raúl Cervantes no resolvió ningún caso de corrupción, al contrario, mantuvo la impunidad, ahí está Ayotzinapa, Odebrecht-Lozoya y lavado
— jesusacervantes (@jesusaproceso) 16 de octubre de 2017
Raúl Cervantes didn't solve a single corruption case; on the contrary, he maintained impunity: there's Ayotzinapa, Odebrecht-Lozoya and laundering
The Odebrecht-Loyola case involves Emilio Lozoya, the former director of Mexican state-owned petroleum company Pemex, who is accused of of receiving 10 million dollars in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
News portal Sin Embargo MX used their Twitter account to draw attention to the number of former governors accused of corruption who had the time to evade legal action while being investigated by the PGR led by Cervantes:
Dejó ir a Borge, Duarte 1, Duarte 2, Yarrington, Eugenio… y ahora se va: Raúl Cervantes renuncia a PGR https://t.co/LIqPRLkSWQ pic.twitter.com/K2mat0TaJ6
— Sin Embargo MX (@SinEmbargoMX) 16 de octubre de 2017
He let Borge go, and Duarte 1, and Duarte 2, and Yarrington, and Eugenio… and now he's going: Raúl Cervantes is resigning from the PGR
Meanwhile, a group named Partido Libertario (Libertarian Party) shared the following comment, reminding us that, before his appointment to the PGR, Cervantes had links to the party in power, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Revolutionary Institutional Party), and even worked as a counsellor during Enrique Peña‘s campaign:
El inepto Raúl Cervantes como el inepto @MurilloKaram (¿no hay de otros @EPN?) dice: #YaMeCanse…
Sigue el “rosario” de fracasos del @PRI_Nacional en la #corrupta @PGR_mx #MismoPRIdeSiempre #PRImenOrganizado #Ratas #AtracoMucho pic.twitter.com/3f1IHONLXP
— Partido Libertario (@PLdeMex) 16 de octubre de 2017
The inept Raúl Cervantes, just like the inept [former attorney general] @MurilloKaram (no others @EPN?), says #I'mTiredNow…
The ‘rosary’ of failures by the @PRI_Nacional in the #corrupt @PGR_mx continues #SamePRIAsEver #Cheats
On the other hand, Twitter user Madame Déficit emphasised the crimes against journalists that went unpunished during the time Cervantes was in his position, and his role in the dismal outlook for freedom of speech in Mexico:
Importante destacar que durante la gestión de Cervantes fue una constante la impunidad en casos de ataques contra la #LibertadDeExpresión https://t.co/rD3vqGRtc6
— Madame Déficit (@Alessia_mx) 16 de octubre de 2017
It's important to remember that during Cervantes’ time in position, impunity in cases of attacks against #FreedomOfExpression was constant
Other people, such as lawyer Diego Valadés, distanced himself from the criticism and instead recognised Cervantes’ work during his short stint at the PGR:
@RaulCervantesA es un abogado brillante. Merece dejar la Procuraduría con un reconocimiento a su capacidad profesional y a su dedicación.
— Diego Valadés (@dvalades) 16 de octubre de 2017
@RaulCervantesA is a brilliant lawyer. He deserves to leave the Attorney General's Office with recognition for his professional ability and dedication.
In addition to the unsolved cases, Cervantes is also popularly known as Fiscal Ferrari (#FiscalFerrari), for being the owner of an ostentatious sports car, for which he allegedly avoided paying tax by using a false address when registering it, according to an investigation lead by the non-profit civil society group Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad (Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity).
Under Cervantes’ leadership, the PGR has not made any (publicly known) progress in investigating digital surveillance of government critics who were targeted with the spy software Pegasus.
Investigations by groups including Article 19, Citizen Lab, and the New York Times brought to light a trove of technical evidence indicating that from 2014 to 2015, social activists, human rights advocates (including the president of Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) and opposition party leaders were targeted with Pegasus spyware, which is exclusively used by governments. It is also documented that the Mexican government has purchased this specific spyware.
Mexican law states the government can intercept private communications for the purpose of investigating crimes — with previous approval from the federal judicial authority. But there is no indication that such procedures were carried out in these cases. And the fact that those targeted with Pegasus were, according to the evidence, people who challenged the government in some way raises more questions.
While looking into the issue, the Mexican Congress sent a 50-question questionnaire to the various heads of the national security apparatus in Mexico. All three replied, but Cervantes left his blank and sent it to the National Security Bicameral Commission at the end of June 2017.
For now, the Pegasus case and the others that Cervantes left pending will be the responsibility of Alberto Elías Beltrán, who will serve as interim attorney general.

author: J. Tadeo


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United Arab Emirates: Seven Months After Completing His Sentence, Blogger Osama Al-Najjar Remains in Prison · Global Voices
Gulf Center for Human Rights

Behind the UAE's glitzy skycrapers, there is a persistent trend of human rights violations. Photo by L Constantino via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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.
While the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeks to promote a bright image of a civil state that respects the civil and human rights of its citizens, the reality on the ground — for an increasing number of human rights defenders, activists and academics — is much darker.
One landmark example is a case now known as the UAE 94, a group of human rights defenders, political activists, businesspeople, students, bloggers and others, all of whom were arrested and ill-treated – and some of them tortured — for calling for democratic reforms in the Emirates. This peaceful and legitimate exercise of freedom of association and freedom of expression was not treated as such.
The trial of the UAE 94 detainees began on 4 March 2013 before the Special Security Chamber at the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, where they were charged with establishing an organization aimed at overthrowing the regime, a charge they all denied. Confessions extracted by force were accepted and considered satisfactory by the court despite the defendants’ objections and their declarations that torture was used to extract these confessions by the State Security Apparatus.
On 2 July 2013, the Federal Supreme Court issued its verdicts against the UAE 94, in which 56 people, including prominent human rights lawyers Mohammed Al-Roken and Mohammad Al-Mansouri, were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Eight others were sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison. This trial was characterized by frequent and serious violations of the accepted standards of fair trial and due process, according to the International Commission of Jurists and other human rights groups. The defendants were not given the right to appeal their sentences.
This case has evolved over time to affect not only the defendants, but also their supporters.
At the time of the verdicts, a young blogger named Osama Al-Najjar, who was 25 years old at the time, tweeted his defense of the UAE 94 detainees, among whom was his own father. Hussain Al-Najjar, who was a teacher, was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
When the Ruler of Sharjah addressed the families of the UAE 94 detainees through Sharjah radio warning them not to “fill your children with hate and malice against the country,” Osama Al-Najjar posted the following tweet in response:
نحن يا صاحب السمو الدكتور، لا نحقد على أوطاننا
ولا ننسى ظلم ظُلمناه ولو نسته أمهاتنا
لأبي في أعناق من ظلمه ٢٠ شهراً من السجن والتضييق
— أسامة بن حسين النجار (@O_Hussain_) March 16, 2014
Your Highness, we do not hate our country and do not forget the injustice of the oppressor even if our mothers forget it. The people responsible for imprisoning and harassing my father for the past 20 months owe him
The following day, 17 March 2014, Osama Al-Najjar was arrested by ten state security officers during a raid on his home. He was kept in solitary confinement at an undisclosed location for four days without access to his family or lawyer. While in detention, Osama was tortured and otherwise ill-treated: he was punched in the face and hit with a cable until a wound on his leg, caused by surgery he had received the day before his arrest, began bleeding.
Osama Al-Najjar remains in prison despite having served his full jail sentence
He was brought before the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi on 23 September 2014 and charged with “offending and instigating hatred against the State”, and “spreading lies” about his father, Hussain Al-Najjar. The charges related to tweets in which he expressed concern at the ill-treatment of his father in prison and called for him to be released.
On 25 November 2014, Osama Al-Najjar was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Emirati dirham (approximately US $136,100). He was denied the right to appeal the verdict. Under Article 44 of Federal Law No. 43 on the Regulation of Punitive Facilities, he was entitled to be released in August 2016, having served three quarters of his sentence, but only if his family paid the fine of 500,000 dirham. But his family was unable to make the payment.
In January 2017, Al-Najjar was transferred from Al-Wathba Prison to Al-Razeen Prison, a maximum-security jail in the middle of the Abu Dhabi desert where dozens of activists are held.
Osama Al-Najjar remains in prison, even though he was scheduled for release on 17 March 2017 after serving his full three-year prison sentence. Despite having completed his prison sentence, the State Security Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court decided to extend his detention at the request of the Public Prosecution on the pretext that he represents a “threat”. The authorities have failed to specify the term of this arbitrary and unlawful detention, which constitutes a flagrant breach of Al-Najjar’s human rights.
By keeping Osama Al-Najjar in prison after the completion of his sentence, UAE authorities are violating international law, as well as the UAE’s own laws, by keeping individuals who have served their sentences in prison beyond their release dates. It appears that the authorities are using the pretext of national security by labelling human rights defenders and Internet activists as a “threat” to the state in order keep them imprisoned.

author: Gulf Center for Human Rights


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Why Tajik Brides Live in Fear of Their In-Laws, Even Before They Get Married · Global Voices
Bactriana

A theatre performance devoted to activism against gender-based violence in Tajikistan. Photo by OSCE/Nozim Kalandarov (CC BY-ND 4.0)
A recent report by the Tajik-language service of Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) offered a brief summary of some of the many abuses that young women, in the Central Asian country of Tajikistan, face regularly living with the families of their husbands. The comments below the article, meanwhile, demonstrate that despite increases in reporting the problem is not being taken seriously enough.
There is an unwritten law in Tajik society: what goes in the household, stays in the household. That applies overwhelmingly, and even covers cases of the most egregious domestic violence. The abuse young women sometimes suffer, in the families they live in after marriage and the consequences of that abuse, has made international news in recent times. In a number of well-reported cases, suspected abuse has led to tragic ends.
With a push from international and local human rights organizations, a law on preventing domestic violence was adopted by the Tajik parliament in December 2012.
It appears to have made a difference. Some 300 brides complained of abuse by their mothers-in-law in the first nine months of 2017 in the southern Khatlon region of the country alone. These women, however, probably only represent the tip of the iceberg.
This article explained why domestic violence is so widespread in Tajikistan, focusing on the economic and financial difficulties faced by many families, which force men to go to Russia to earn money. In the absence of their husbands, wives are forced to live alone with their mothers-in-law, a situation that often leads to conflict.
But many comments under the article were critical, rather than supportive, of the young women that had come forward with claims of abuse regarding their mother-in-laws.
One commenter writing under the name Afsus said:
ин духтарои хозира телефон баромаду вайрон шуданд боварим хай ки аз ин шикояткунандагон 95% аз пушти телефон чунки хозира духтархо як соат кори хона кунанд 2 соат тарики интернет ба кихо гап мезанад худо медунад.
All these modern girls are spoiled by using mobile phones. And I’m sure that they complained using their mobile phones as well. They perform domestic chores for only one hour, and then they spend the next two hours talking to someone on the phone.
Another online commentator joked:
Тамоми чомеа хамин хел аст. Масалан декани мо яз ягон хушдоман мондани надорад.
All members of our society behave like that. For example, a dean of our faculty is no better than any mothers-in-law.
Yet another commenter, Shohin, proposed special training courses to teach women how to behave in marriage.
Кумитаи занон аз корхои бехуда дида, лоихахои махсус барои Ба шавхар баромадани духтархо тахия намояд. Чунки маблагхо бе маьни сарф нашаванд. Модарони бехунар бошад акалан Ба духтаронашон одоби муоширатро ёд диханд.
The committee on women's affairs ( which processes complaints from women among other functions) spends money in vain. There should be special courses to prepare young women for getting married…Their mothers should teach them how to behave properly.
The Tajik state must work harder to show that domestic violence is a government priority and that the laws protecting victims work in practice as well as on paper.

author: Bactriana


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How Does Your Name Look According to Kazakhstan’s New Latin Alphabet? · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

A table showing the new Kazakh alphabet, as published on the presidential website.
A website in Kazakhstan is showing users how their names will look in a new Latin alphabet expected to come into force by 2022. Many have reacted with dismay after finding their names laced with apostrophes.
My name in the new “improved” Kazakh alphabet: Qrystc'a'n Blo'yr. :((((( Check your name here: https://t.co/HHZL9ZpDvs
— Christian (@ChristianBleuer) October 30, 2017
Nine of the 32 letters in the new alphabet have apostrophes, leaving some that initially supported the switch to Latin from Cyrillic for the Turkic-family Kazakh language regretting the move.
Not that citizens of the authoritarian country were ever consulted: the move is the brainchild of self-styled moderniser President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 77.
After Nazarbayev announced the beginning of preparations for the switch that will see Kazakhstan eventually spelled Qazaqstan in Kazakh, the humble Kazakh carrot became a hotly-discussed topic on social networks.
As an article in the Economist explained, there were reasons for avoiding other, less punctuated versions of the Latin alphabet, such as the one initially floated:
Delighted critics pointed out that the rendering of the Kazakh word for carrot in that alphabet would have been saebiz, which looks a bit like a transliteration of the Russian for “f**k off”.
The Russian government-run outlet Sputnik noted that even in the latest iteration, there are plenty of words that might look rude to people with a knowledge of Russian.
Such quirks are perhaps inevitable, and Cyrillic will still be the alphabet of choice for millions of Russian-speakers across the country. But the issue of apostrophe proliferation in Kazakh remains pertinent.
So Nazarbayev said it’s time to accept latest version of Latin KZ alphabet. Which is a shitty one with apostrophes..https://t.co/uxcVm72OqS
— Aigerim Toleukhanova (@aygeryma) October 26, 2017
To get an idea of what is bothering Kazakhs, Global Voices ran ourselves through the Latin-Cyrillic-Kazakh Latin alphabet treadmill to see how we looked when we came out the other side.
The methodology is simple. First imagine how your current name would have appeared on a birth certificate if you had been born in Kazakhstan, which was part of the Soviet Union before 1991.
To do this, use a Latin to Cyrillic converter such as the one available on the Lexilogos “multilingual keyboard”. Then use the Cyrillic to Kazakh Latin converter in order to find out how many apostrophes your name collects.
Juan Tadeo, our authority on all things Mexico would be Хуан Тадео in Cyrillic. But in Kazakh Latin his name becomes Hy'an Tadeo, a single apostrophe effort with a somewhat Chinese flavour.
The apostrophes begin to really take over when Global Voices Managing Director Georgia Popplewell, or Djordji'i'a Poppely'ell gets involved. And they go through the roof for our Uganda hand Prudence Nyamishana (Pry'dence Ni'ami's'ana).
Curiously, however, our Global Voices Lingua director Mohamed ElGohary comes through the Alphabet Soup completely unscathed. It seems he is our translations chief for a reason…

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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Athletes, Politicians Back Georgian Soccer Player’s Support for LGBT Rights · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Ludovic Bertron from New York City, USA. CC BY 2.0.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Giorgi Lomsadze. Republished with permission.
Georgian soccer player Guram Kashia faces an outcry at home over his choice to express support for gay rights in the Netherlands, but support from Georgian fans, athletes and politicians, including Tbilisi Mayor-Elect Kakha Kaladze, Georgia’s most famous soccer player, suggest that local views on this prickliest of cultural issues may be changing.
After Kashia, a 30-year-old defender for the Dutch team Vitesse Arnhem, appeared with a rainbow armband at an October 15 match in the Netherlands, Georgian social media erupted in vitriol. The March of Georgians, a far-right group, held a rowdy gathering near the Georgian Football Federation on October 31. Holding torches and posters, they demanded Kashia’s expulsion from Georgia’s national soccer team.
Leading the battle was the large, flamboyant singer Gia Korkotashvili, aka Korkota, a self-proclaimed warrior for traditional values who appeared on TV screaming prophecies of an imminent gay apocalypse. “Just wait and you will see when homosexuals come bursting into your homes,” he told Georgian TV channels from the rally.
In a country where homosexuality has long been frowned upon, such outpourings are par for the course. But widespread, vocal expressions of support against discrimination are something new.
If advocacy for LGBT rights has been the preserve of a small circle of activists and progressives, now many, from President Giorgi Margvelashvili to prominent Georgian athletes and individual fans, have spoken up for Kashia and for universal respect for equality.
“Kashia stated that all human beings, regardless of their sexual persuasion, are regular members of our society and it is inadmissible to discriminate them based on whatever differences they may have,” said Zviad Sichinava, a retired longtime president of the Georgian Football Federation. The current president of the Federation, Levan Kobiashvili, an MP for the ruling Georgian Dream party, and other supporters posted on Facebook a photo of Kashia draped in the Georgian flag that went viral.
“We are a democratic country. Everyone has the right to express their views, regardless of their nationality, sexual orientation or religion,” said Tbilisi Mayor-Elect Kaladze, a former AC Milan star and captain of Georgia’s national soccer team.
The government also appears to have drawn a line for acceptable conduct at anti-LGBT protests. Police failed to prevent a mob attack on an LGBT-rights rally in 2013, but, this time, police confronted and arrested eight March of Georgians activists when their gathering got out of hand. The leaders of the rally, including Korkota, expressed disappointment at the turnout of supporters.
Korkota and his comrades long have claimed ownership of Georgian cultural identity, a collection of character traits and traditions often defined as kartveloba or “Georgianness.” Earlier this year, they rallied against immigrants from the Middle East. The Korkota group’s racist and misogynist statements antagonized many.
Georgia’s liberals have accused the ruling Georgian Dream of pandering to such right-wing views by outlawing foreign ownership of agricultural land and constitutionally defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The Kashia episode now appears to have placed the authorities and the ultra-conservatives in opposing camps.
The overall response to the athlete’s armband has left some in Georgia’s largely closeted LGBT community guardedly optimistic about their acceptance within Georgian society. “We are far from getting there, but I see change,” one Tbilisi resident commented to EurasiaNet.org.

author: Eurasianet


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Bangladeshi Auto-Rickshaw Driver Sues Actor Shakib Khan for Using His Phone Number in Movie · Global Voices
Rezwan

Actor Shakib Khan in the film Rajneeti. Screenshot from YouTube trailer video.
A Bangladeshi auto-rickshaw driver sued for damages after his phone number was used in a blockbuster movie which starred actor Shakib Khan.
Shakib Khan is one of the most successful actors in Bangladeshi film history with millions of supporters. His recent blockbuster film, “Rajneeti” (Politics), was released last July. In the movie, the character played by Shakib Khan gave his mobile phone number to actress Apu Biswas. Coincidentally, it's the same number of Ijajul Miah, an auto-rickshaw driver from Habiganj, located northeast of Bangladesh. The auto-rickshaw, a motorized three-wheeler running on gasoline, compressed natural gas (CNG) or batteries, is a common form of urban transport in Bangladesh.
Hundreds of Shakib Khan's loyal fans believed that the number in the movie is the personal number of their idol. Ijajul was surprised to receive many phone calls from Shakib fans who were trying to speak with the actor. In a span of five days starting July 10, 2017, Ijajul got a total of 432 phone calls. This gravely affected his livelihood as some of his clients could not reach him.
Bangladesh film star Shakib Khan gave "his" phone number to girlfriend in a movie. 100's of female fans called the # later. The problem is the # belonged to an actual person, a rick-shaw driver whose new wife thought he was having affair & threatened to leave him. pic.twitter.com/dUH4oT9Yw4
— fidy (@MrDearMyTeacher) November 4, 2017
One female fan even traveled 500 kilometers to Ijajul's home hoping to meet Shakib Khan. This created a domestic problem for Ijajul who is newly married and has a 17-month-old daughter. His wife accused him of having an affair and she threatened to leave him.
Ijajul decided to sue actor Shakib Khan, the director Bulbul Biswas and the producer Ashfaq Ahmed for using his number in the movie without his permission. The district judge was initially hesitant to accept the lawsuit but ordered an investigation after evidence was submitted. Ijajul is seeking Bangladeshi Taka 5 million ($60,000) as a compensation for the distress caused by the phone calls and for nearly ruining his marriage.
Ijajul's lawyer claimed that, if proven guilty, in addition to the compensation, the accused can be imprisoned up to three years. The actor termed the lawsuit as “laughable” and vowed to face the legal battle. The actor added that the phone number was not working when they used it in the movie.
Shakib Khan's fans were quick to point out that this is not the actor's fault:
This is not #shakibKhan fault ! He just followed director's orders & director is the main reasonable person for this mistake!
— Ak nosib (@ak_nosib) November 2, 2017
In a Facebook post, Zahid Newaz Khan noted how this news caught the attention of the world:
সকালে উঠেই দেখি বিবিসিতে শাকিব খান। নিউ ইয়র্কে হামলাকারী, ডোনাল্ড ট্রাম্প এবং ইউকে ডিফেন্স সেক্রেটারির খবরের পরই শাকিব। বুঝুন অবস্থা। বিবিসিতে নিউজ হওয়া অতো সোজা বিষয় না।
After waking up I was surprised to read the news on BBC. The news is beside the news of the terrorist attack in New York, Donald Trump, and the resignation of the Defence Secretary of UK. Being featured on the BBC (amidst all these breaking news) is not a mean feat.
Another Facebook user, Kawsarul Alam Sanjid, also has some pertinent questions:
সাকিব খানের মান মর্যাদা থাকতে না পারে অটো রিকশাচালক এর আছে তাই তার এই অবস্থার জন্য তিনি আইনের ব্যাবস্থা নিয়ে যা করেছেন সেটাকে আমি সাধুবাদ জানাই।
অনেকেই বলছেন যে এটা অটো রিকশাচালক এর ফেমাস হওয়া এবং টাকা পাওয়ার ধান্দা এমনকি এও বলেছেন যে একটা সিমের দাম মাত্র ৪০ টাকা তাই এতো কাহিনি না করে অটোচালক তার সিমটি ভেঙে আরেকটা সিম কিনে নিলেই পারতেন। অবাক হয়ে যাই এইসব মানুষের কথা শুনে…!! কেনো সাকিব খান পারতেন না ৪০ টাকা দিয়ে একটা সিম কিনে তার সিনেমায় ব্যাবহার করতে…!!??
I applaud the decision of the auto-rickshaw driver to seek compensation for this injustice.
Many have indicated that this is a ploy of the ‘petty’ auto-rickshaw driver seeking fame and profiting from this. They even said that the auto-rickshaw driver could change the number buying another SIM card for just Bangladeshi Taka 40 (US Fifty Cents). I am surprised with these talks!! Could not Shakib Khan use another number in the movie buying a new SIM card for Bangladeshi Taka 40 (US Fifty Cents)…?
The next hearing of the lawsuit is scheduled on December 18, 2017.

author: Rezwan


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What Happens when Montenegro Citizens Return Home After Fighting in Foreign Wars? · Global Voices
Milica Bogdanović

Screenshot from the online version of the documentary film “The Road of No Return?” by Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), from Montenegro.
Milica Bogdanović, the author of this post, is a member of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), the organization which produced the film mentioned.
The documentary film “The Road of No Return?” explores the topic of Montenegro and Balkan citizens who return home and face convictions after enlisting in foreign wars in countries like Syria or Ukraine.
The film, produced by the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), a non-governmental organization, was made available online this week, increasing its accessibility with added English subtitles. It presents the lives of returnee ISIS fighters in Montenegro and the role of state institutions in the process of radicalism prevention:
In Montenegro, a country with 623,000 citizens, over 20 people are known to have participated in conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq. There are no official estimates for returnees, but field research shows that several fighters have returned home. The European Union 2016 report on Montenegro noted:
Institutional awareness needs to be increased to monitor possible terrorist threats, including radicalised Montenegrin nationals returning from battlefields. There is evidence of approximately 20 nationals on the battlefield in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, of which five reportedly died. Preventive activities in this area need to be strengthened and anti-radicalisation measures implemented. A track record in the area of preventing terrorism financing needs to be developed.
Like other Balkan countries, Montenegro had adopted new laws that make “joining or participating” in foreign armies, police, paramilitary or para-police groups a criminal offense, punishable by jail terms of six months to 10 years. Only two people have been prosecuted in relation to radicalization, recruitment, supporting and funding terrorist activities or fighting in Syria and Ukraine.
The documentary provides insight into the motives of both Sunni Muslim and Orthodox Christian fighters claiming noble motives to defend “oppressed brethren” in faraway countries. Such claims are contrasted with statements by local religious authorities, who strongly condemn all crimes committed in the name of religion or “patriotic” affiliation.
The film presents interviews with civil society activists, analysts and psychologists also, pointing to various perceptions of fighters going to the battlefield according to their religion. They also stress that other factors such as family issues, mental health, and one's economic situation are driving forces behind their decision to join a cause they consider ‘heroic.’ Feelings of personal honor, courage, and chivalry define Montenegrin identity. Psychologists also note that joining a war might be appealing to persons prone to violence who may have been victims of trauma earlier in life.
The state's official documents show that returning foreign fighters are recognized as a danger to national security and society as a whole, but Montenegro's state institutions have not yet created a program of de-radicalization after serving time in prison.
Security agencies frequently collect data about foreign fighter returnees and follow their activities, but other institutions do not implement supported programs for taking care of their families and children, or for providing de-radicalization prevention:
Kakva je uloga zajednice u borbi protiv nasilnog ekstremizma? #politikaCG pic.twitter.com/0CdGSuwu3f
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 31, 2017
What is the role of the community in the struggle against violent extremism? #PoliticsMN
On 24 October, CTD premiered the film on national TV Vijesti and organized a screening in the capital Podgorica on 31 October to stir public debate, signaling attention to mainstream politics in Montenegro.
During the event, CDT live-tweeted remarks by the participants using the hashtag #PolitikaCG (#PoliticsMN), starting with the Minister of Interior of Montenegro, Melvudin Nuhodžić, as well as panelists from other civil society organizations who shared relevant research:
Nuhodžić: Nasilni ekstremizam je složeni fenomen i predstavlja izazov koji zahtijeva udružene napore svih nas #politikaCG
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 31, 2017
Nuhodžić: Violent extremism is a complicated phenomenon and represents a challenge requiring joint efforts by all of us. #PoliticsMN
Elvira Hadžibegović-Bubanja @ForumMNE: Mladi misle da se opravdava nasilje kada je u pitanju odbrana vjere
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 31, 2017
Elvira Hadžibegović-Bubanja from Forum MNE: Young people think it's justified to use violence to defend one's religion.
Zuković @Ainicijativa Internet igra ključnu ulogu u širenju radikalnih ideja. Koristi se za pridobijanje novih sljedbenika…
— CDT_CrnaGora (@CDT_CrnaGora) October 31, 2017
Aner Zuković from Atlantic Initiative [a Bosnian NGO]: The internet plays a key role in spreading radical ideas. It's being used for recruiting new followers…
While there is political will at the highest level to increase the role of community in the struggle against violent extremism, Montenegro has only begun to establish such a system. Except for incarceration and surveillance, former foreign fighters and their families are on their own in terms of re-integration in Montenegrin society.
Minister Nuhodžić announced the creation of the National Platform for Countering Violent Extremism, but many institutions are still unaware of their role within it. Civil society must pioneer an empathetic approach to preventing the spread of radical ideas online and through the media, and help former fighters reexamine their value systems.

author: Milica Bogdanović


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Watch a Short History of Japan’s Frighteningly Good Horror Films · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A still from the 1964 horror film Onibaba. Screencap from YouTube.
If you're interested in Japanese horror movies, YouTube channel One Hundred Years of Cinema‘s short 15-minute documentary-style overview of the genre is for you.
“A Short History of Japanese Horror” takes a look at horror in Japanese culture, from the genre's roots in folk stories and Kabuki plays throughout the ages.
The video covers many Japanese horror classics, including “Kaidan” and “Onibaba” from Japan's Golden Age of cinema in the 1950s and 1960s to more contemporary landmark horror films such as “Tetsuo: the Iron Man” and “Ringu”.
Other short documentaries on the YouTube channel include “How Metropolis Changed the Way We See the Future”, “The Invention of Cinema (1888 to 1914)” and “What do possessed hand movies tell us about fear?”
If you want to learn more,  “So You Want to Read Japanese Horror: Here’s Where to Start” by Feliza Casano for Unbound Worlds, a website focused on literary coverage of science fiction and fantasy, is also a good place to start.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Insulting the National Anthem Is Set to Become Illegal in Hong Kong · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

National anthem law set to pass in Hong Kong. Image from the Stand News, non-commercial use.
This post was written by Kris Cheng and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on November 4, 2017. An edited version is published below as part of a partnership with Global Voices.
A new law in China that criminalizes disrespect of the national anthem is now headed for Hong Kong.
China’s top legislature decided on November 4 to insert the regulation into Annex III of the Basic Law, the de facto constitution of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the mainland with a high degree of autonomy.
The National Anthem Law was passed in China in September and enacted in October 2017. The law specifies that people who maliciously modify the lyrics or play or sing the national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” in a distorted or disrespectful way in public, can be detained for up to 15 days, and even be held criminally liable.
Soon after the new law was enacted, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) amended the country's penal law to include criminal penalties for violating the law. Punishment ranges from removal of political rights and public surveillance to criminal detention and imprisonment of up to three years.
Hong Kong's government has said it will follow up the NPC's decision with local legislation. The government said it will take reference from the existing national flag and emblem law, which also has a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
The new rules come after Hong Kong football fans have been repeatedly booing the Chinese national anthem at matches since 2015 to express their discontent with Beijing for tightening control over Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's local government has been unclear over whether the local version of the law will have retroactive power.
Rita Fan, a member of NPC Standing Committee, suggested that Hong Kong enforce the law soon after it is presented in the legislature to prevent any “disrespectful” acts from happening during the public debate. In fact, Executive Councillor Ronny Tong warned that, legally, the authorities can enforce the law before local legislation is passed:
I advise Hong Kong people not to test the law themselves, because if it’s in Annex III, theoretically speaking – as I’ve said – these acts will already be considered illegal.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip said the government will consult the legislature and the public when enacting the new law locally.
The government echoed his words in a statement on November 4: “During the legislative process, the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] Government will carefully consider the views of the public and members of the Legislative Council.”
Last week, Chairman of the Basic Law Committee Li Fei said Hong Kongers will have to stand up when the anthem plays at the Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses. He added that it will become compulsory to play the national anthem in primary and secondary schools.
Public opinion is divided. The pro-Beijing sector supports the legislation, believing that the law ensures Chinese people being respected.
However, David Tang from the legal sector wrote on citizen news portal Stand News that respect should be earned:
英文那句 “earn someone's respect” 我真的喜歡得很。
立法禁止大眾侮辱國歌，難度不大，人家怕了，只好聽你的。但要別人打從心底尊重你？什麼國歌法也沒有用，迫不來的。你要别人尊重，就要先問問自己，做了什麼來贏得別人的尊重。…
以改善民生來換取大眾對政權的支持，是北京三十年來的國策，但在香港卻倒行逆施，只一味靠惡，迫人家尊重。Why？因為北京缺乏自信，只能依重無能但信得過的人？還是多少有種「抵佢死」的心態，覺得香港在英國底下威水了那麼久，現在老子當家了，就是不讓你有好日子過才高興？
I like the English expression of “earn someone's respect”.
It is easy to pass a law and prevent the public from insulting the national anthem. People will follow out of fear, but not out of respect. The anthem law can't force people to respect. If you want respect, ask yourself what have you done to earn others’ respect…
Beijing has adopted the policy of improving people's livelihood to earn respect for the past 30 years, but in the case of Hong Kong, it uses the tactic of threats and forces people to respect it. Why? Because Beijing lacks confidence and can only rely on people that it can trust? Or it just gets fed up with Hong Kong's excellent performance under British colonial rule and now glad to see Hong Kong suffer?
Political dissident Lau Shan Ching pointed out the motivation behind the national anthem law is not just about punishing what's considered disrespectful, but also about introducing patriotic education into primary and secondary schools. The law specifies that schools should teach the national anthem and build it into the patriotic education curriculum.
But many argue if schools are to teach the national anthem, they should also teach the biography of Tian Han, the anthem's lyricist. Tian Han was an anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist activist since the May Fourth Movement of 1919. His life has been an embarrassment for the Chinese Communist Party as the first generation revolutionist was tortured to death during the Cultural Revolution.
Opinion leader Ng Chi Sum recounted Tian's biography on citizen media outlet inmediahk.net to show that the most disrespectful acts done to the national anthem was performed by the CCP:
文化大革命期間，田漢被扣上「資產階級反動學術權威」的帽子，鬥倒批臭，受盡折磨侮辱，兒子更公開宣布與他劃清界線。田漢在囚室一樣的醫院病房中度過生命最後的歲月，死時身邊一個親人都沒有，更有記載說，為防泄露死者身分，用了假名。
田漢被打倒，反動學術權威的歌詞當然不能再唱，之後曾經出現民間改編版本：「起來！忠於毛主席的紅衛兵，把我們的血肉，築成中國的反修長城！」其後又有官方修改的版本：「高舉毛澤東旗幟前進！前進！前進！進！」直至1982，才恢復《義勇軍進行曲》的舊詞，並正式寫進憲法，成為中華人民共和國國歌。
During the Cultural Revolution, Tian Han was labelled as a “reactionary academic authority of the capitalist class”, insulted and tortured. His son had to openly defy him. He was jailed in a hospital room without any family members attending him when he died. Some unofficial record said that he was registered under a pseudonym to prevent the public from learning about his death.
Tian Han was turned over and of course people could not sing the reactionary lyrics of the March of the Volunteers. People changed the lyrics into: “Stand up! Red guards who are loyal to Chairman Mao. Use our blood and flesh to construct the Great Wall of China against Revisionism”. Later, the officially edited lyrics were released: “Uphold Mao Zedong's flag march on, march on, march on”. Only by 1982, the old lyrics of the March of the Volunteers was restored and written into the Constitution as the national anthem.
Tian Han's biography was deleted from the Hong Kong Education Bureau's website in September when the National Anthem Law was passed in Beijing as the national anthem lyrist's life is too sensitive to be included into the patriotic education curriculum.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


text:
To Divinity and Back: Nepal’s Living Goddess Returns to Normal Life After Nine-Year Stint as ‘Kumari’ · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Kumari, the ‘Living Goddess,’ Image via Green Peace Co-ed School. Used with permission.
After living as the Living Goddess ‘Kumari’ for nine years in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, Matina Shakya returned to the school which she attended prior to being throned and is now expected to live the life of a normal school girl.
Nepal's institution of Kumari Devi, is embedded in the culture of Kathmandu Valley. Even a glimpse of her is believed to bring good fortune. pic.twitter.com/diGAIqWkgE
— Asia Luxe Travel (@asialuxe_travel) November 7, 2017
In 2008, around the age of three, Matina was selected from the Buddhist Shakya clan to be the incarnation of Hindu Goddess Taleju through a rigorous process led by priests and astrologers for centuries. Accordingly, Matina was then worshipped as ‘Kumari’ or the Living Goddess until she experienced her first menstruation when it is believed that the goddess vacates a girl's body.
According to one Nepalese legend, King Jaya Prakash Malla, the last Malla king of Kathmandu (12th-17th century) used to play secret games of dice with the Goddess Taleju. One day while the king was playing dice, his wife followed him and saw the goddess who had refrained the king telling about their meeting to anyone. This angered the goddess and she warned that if the king ever wanted to see her again or secure protection for his kingdom, he would have to look for her among the Shakya clan incarnated as a little girl. Hoping to appease the goddess, he went out in search of a girl with Taleju's qualities and the practice continues until today.
Among the many Kumaris appointed in different Nepalese towns to protect them from evil, the three Kumaris of Kathmandu Valley (Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur cities) are considered to be the most revered and respected. The Kumari of Kathmandu, chosen from the Newar Shakya clan, is the most influential of all.
Former Kumari goes to school. Image via Green Peace Co-ed School. Used with permission.
To be anointed as a Royal Kumari, a young girl must have '32 attributes of perfection,’ wrote Pramod Bhattarai and Bijay Shrestha:
The list of requirements is elaborate: she must have perfect health without any history of serious illness, unblemished skin, black hair, gorgeous expressive eyes, a sonorous voice, long slender arms, delicate and soft hands and feet, straight hair curled toward the right side, no bad body smells, and must not have shed any blood. The most important requirement is that the girl has never menstruated… Her family’s reputation for piety is taken into consideration by the selection committee, which also looks for calmness and fearlessness in the girl. To ensure the girl’s compatibility with the King of Nepal, her horoscope is compared and must match with his, as the Kumari has an important role in relation to the King, including the traditional power to confirm the King’s rule.
The sudden transformation of a little girl into a revered goddess comes at a price. She must remain in isolation, away from family and friends, and is expected to remain calm at all times, refraining from expressing any emotion. A Living Goddess is carried so her sacred feet do not touch the ground and she always wears red with her hair in a bun and a ‘fire eye’ painted on her forehead to symbolize her powers of perception. Though she is not expected to take orders, she must perform ceremonial duties and her presence charges the air with awe and reverence to those who worship her.
The transition back to ‘normal’ social life is difficult. Society continues to fear or revere the little girl, despite her ‘return’ to a human form. She also must live with the superstition that anyone who marries a Kumari will die six months into the marriage.
Former Kumari Rashmila Shakya, who wrote the autobiography ‘From Goddess to Mortal: the True Life Story of a Former Royal Kumari has tried to change perceptions and raise awareness about the reality of living as a goddess. Rashmila underscores the lack of education received by Kumaris and describes the challenges of returning to school without the necessary knowledge needed to succeed.
Former Kumari in her classroom. Image via Green Peace Co-ed School. Used with permission.
Matina, the current outgoing Royal Kumari, received a private education inside Kumari Ghar, the abode of the Living Goddess, until returning to the Green Peace Co-Ed School as a ‘regular’ girl. Surendra Sthapit, Senior Section Head, explained:
Deu Mata (Kumari) used to get private tuition at Kumari Ghar. One of our teachers used to visit her abode and teach all the subjects.
Photojournalist Sunil Sharma writes:
मतिना अचेल गणबहालको ग्रिनपिस को–एड स्कुलमा कक्षा ७ पढ्न थालेकी छिन् । कुमारी हुंदा केवल खट (पालकी) र रथमा यात्रा गर्ने उनी आजकल आफनो बुबा प्रताप शाक्यसंग स्कुटरमा स्कुल जाने गर्छिन् । सामान्य जीवनमा फर्केपछि समाजमा घुलमिल गर्न गाह्रो हुन्छ कि भन्ने सबैको जिज्ञासालाई विद्यालय जान शुरु गरेको एक हप्ता वित्न नपाउदैं उनले गलत साबित गरिदिएकी छिन् ।
These days Matina has started studying in grade 7 at Green Peace Co-ed School in Ganabahal. While she used only palanquin and chariot during her stint as Kumari, she goes to school with her father Pratap Shakya on a scooter. All thought whether it would be difficult to adjust to the society after returning to normal life. However, she has proved them wrong within a week of her joining the school.
Kumari. The living goddess in Nepal, a little girl in 3-year-old, the newest chosen Kumari, is living here, the Kumari Ghar. She is a cute little girl and would show up through these windows in the afternoon, 4, 5 & 6pm, according to the guide said. Grab your chance to have a look of the living goddess, and her royal believer. #travelbyfoot #travelaroundtheworld #travelanimal #travelislife #travelholic #nepal #kathmandu #durbarsquare #kumarighar #kumari #livinggoddess #unesco #worldheritage #hindu #buddism #travelphotography #photography #travelphoto #architecture #sonyimages #sonya7 #sel28f20 #sel075uwc #sonyhongkong #lp #hongkonger #hongkongtraveller #backpacker #wanderlust #solotravel
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According to Sthapit, Matina is an intelligent girl who has adapted quite well, considering the circumstances.
Meanwhile, as Matina adjusts to life as a ‘regular’ school girl and adapting to her new home life, three-year-old Trishna Shakya has been appointed the new Kumari of Kathmandu.
Kathmandu's new living goddess #Kumari Trishna Shakya, 3, was taken to Kumari ghar today. She succeeds Matina Shakya, 12, Kumari since 2008. pic.twitter.com/xKWHLT7MCJ
— Kashish Das Shrestha (@kashishds) September 28, 2017

author: Sanjib Chaudhary