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Meet ‘Lock the Gate’ Alliance: Australia’s grassroots environmental campaigners · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

New South Wales 2020 – Photo courtesy Lock the Gate Flickr account (CC BY 2.0)
It is rare to encounter a nationwide environmental group as active and successful as Australia’s Lock the Gate Alliance (LTG).  The grassroots organisation brings together “farmers, traditional custodians, conservationists and urban residents”, working to defend the environment.
The movement campaigns against “risky coal mining and coal seam gas and fracking” and has taken on some of Australia's biggest polluters and environmental aggressors.
The name, “Lock the Gate”, comes from its launch in 2010:
…when farmers from south-east Queensland gathered in Brisbane around a farm gate, vowing to take a stand to protect their farms and communities from inappropriate mining.
LTG is one of the largest grassroots groups in Australia, with over 120,000 supporters and 450 local branches. Its annual budget is AUD 2 million (USD 1.4 million) and it has approximately 20 staff and contractors.
This is for all of you who need a bit of a pick-me-up in these troubled times.
In 2021, Australian communities worked together to get some great WINS in the ongoing battle to protect people, country, water and climate from coal and gas mining.
Thank you. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/jGwS0F2KlY
— Lock the Gate (@LockTheGate) January 28, 2022
No campaign seems too small, or adversary too large and powerful. The group has tackled issues of global significance such as a campaign to stop Adani’s huge coal mine in central Queensland and one to prevent fracking in Australia's Northern Territories.
At the same time LTG energetically supports local efforts to stop mining such as the Baralaba South coal project:
Their allies include the Knitting Nannas Against Gas who use their own unique tactics:
we get together at politicians’ offices, work sites, rallys and anywhere else we please to show a mild mannered yet stubborn front, where we get out our camp chairs, table (with lace tablecloth if possible), our knitting (of course!) and have a little tea party.
This was a recent example:
Special shout out this morning to Knitting Nanna Cherry outside Wollongong Coal AGM protest (organised by @Protect_Water). Cherry has knitted a ‘temperature graph scarf’ to remind Wollongong Coal that their GHG emissions are going to exacerbate climate change.@Stop_RVale_Mine pic.twitter.com/y8VpOar5xj
— Lock the Gate (@LockTheGate) October 28, 2021
Global Voices interviewed LTG spokesperson Georgina Woods about their work and learned about one of Australia's most successful local environmental efforts.
Global Voices: Lock the Gate has been campaigning since 2010. What was the initial catalyst for its formation?
Georgina Woods: Lock the Gate was formed in two places at once, southern Queensland to tackle coal seam gas, and the Hunter Valley to tackle coal mining. In both places, these resources industries were undergoing significant expansion and putting agricultural livelihoods and communities at risk. Farmers, landholders, and environmentalists teamed up to make common cause to protect land and water from degradation by those industries.
GV: What factors have contributed to the spread of the organisation?
GW: Lock the Gate is unique because it draws people together from very different walks of life, united by their common love of the land and the bush, their reliance on water and their commitment to community. As a grassroots network, Lock the Gate remains committed to supporting local communities and undertakes its work with creativity and heart.
GV: What are the main priorities for action?
GW: The gas industry is looming as a huge threat over three large, beautiful and remote parts of the country — the Channel Country in Queensland's Lake Eyre Basin, the Beetaloo Basin and Roper Gulf in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley in the far north of Western Australia. Opening these basins to sprawling industrial gasfields would severely deplete and compromise water resources, harm local communities and unleash huge volumes of greenhouse gas emissions. In New South Wales, the north west of the state still faces the threat of coal seam gas and large and expanding coal mining, as does central and southern Queensland.
GV: What are some of your proudest moments and successful campaigns, and your most frustrating setbacks?
GW: Lock the Gate's successes really belong to the local communities that we support. Rural communities across large swathes of New South Wales saw off the threat of unconventional gas from the Northern Rivers, Illawarra, Hunter Valley and Gloucester and the area available for coal seam gas in the north west of the state has been severely restricted. Together we have stopped several damaging coal mining developments from going ahead in Queensland and New South Wales and achieved significant new laws dealing with the social impacts of mining and mine rehabilitation.
Our most frustrating setbacks follow a pattern around the country: politicians prioritising the interests of big mining companies over the needs and desires of local communities. This has led to terrible harm being done to local communities, bushland and waterways in places like Maules Creek, Wollar and Bulga.
GV: What criteria do you use in deciding if LTG will support a particular issue or campaign?
GW: Lock the Gate works with local communities, fighting for the things that matter to them, so our work is always guided by the people that have the most to lose from mining developments.
GV: What tactics do you employ given your peaceful principles?
GW: We support local and regional communities to form groups and alliances to front up to the power and vested interests of the mining industry. We also use research, regulatory processes, films and photography, music and other creative avenues to amplify these local campaigns. We support local groups to survey their own community, road by road and block by block, to give the community a direct voice, to record every view and then to make a formal declaration about their stance on projects threatening their region.
GV: A final message of your readers?
GW: It's always worth fighting for what you love.
A couple of current campaigns highlight LTG’s approach. As mentioned in the interview, they are involved nationally in the fight to protect the Channel Country, Northern Territory and the Kimberley from gas development.
At a more local level, they are supporting the Hunter Jobs Alliance, which is bringing environmentalists and unions together to advocate for a positive future for the country's largest thermal coal-producing region.
The Hunter Valley of New South Wales is one of Australia’s major coal exporting regions, employing 14,000 people. It is the centre of intense political debate about the future of the industry.
No doubt Lock the Gate will continue to be at the centre of such debates.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Private abuse in Telegram’s ‘Public Rooms’: Can North Macedonia fight online sexual harassment? · Global Voices
Unbias The News

This article was originally written by Elena Gagovska, edited by Tina Lee and published in Unbias The News. An edited version is republished in two parts by Global Voices as part of a content sharing agreement.
Protesters holding signs in Macedonian reading “You are the rapist,” “The state that doesn't enforce the law is the state that rapes,” and “[Woman] you are not to blame.” Photo by Walker Gawande via Unbias the News. Used with permission.
When semi-private messengers like Telegram are used to spread revenge porn and other abusive material, existing laws seem to be inadequate. In North Macedonia, activists and survivors have taken to the streets to demand justice online. The high profile “Public Room” case shows how sexual harassment online is rarely addressed by authorities in North Macedonia and the Balkan region, resulting in the severe victimization of women and few (if any) legal implications for the perpetrators.
“I did not know what to do, I panicked, I was scared, I have never experienced anything like that. I went to the Department Against Cyber Crime [The Computer Crime and Forensics Unit] to report what happened. I showed them the picture, I showed the messages and the calls, that I have names and surnames of the people who wrote and called me. When they heard that I was an adult, they said that the law in our country cannot do anything, because it is only for minors,” said Ana Koleva, a 28 year-old woman from Kavadarci, North Macedonia.
In a viral Instagram video posted on her account on January 27, 2021, she spoke about the harassment she experienced after her Instagram profile and personal phone number were leaked to a Telegram group.
Protesters hold a sign that says “Failure to act makes you complicit” and is directed towards the government institutions that failed to resolve the Public Room Case. Photo by Elena Gagovska via Unbias the News. Used with permission.
Koleva was one of an unknown number of victims of online sexual harassment by members of a popular Telegram channel called Public Room. In the online messaging channel, men from North Macedonia (and possibly some from neighboring countries) shared images and videos of child pornography, private nudes, social media profiles, and private phone numbers of countless women and girls from across North Macedonia — without their consent.
Ana Koleva is one of the only victims of Public Room who have spoken about their experience without hiding their identities. Her Instagram video has almost 400,000 views and played a key role in the increased media coverage of the case in 2021.
The story of Public Room, however, began not in 2021, but rather in January, 2020 when the initial Telegram channel with 7,400 members was discovered. The non-profit medium Radio MOF first reported the group’s existence on January 25, 2020 after being alerted by concerned high school students.
It was discovered that pictures of open social media profiles — and private nudes — of underage teenage girls were shared in the channel, but the media reported that there were images of adult women as well. A1on journalist Meri Jordanovska also reported that there were known businessmen and politicians in the group. The authorities suspected that the creator of the initial Public Room was a teenager, but it is unclear if he was ever formally charged with anything.
While the age of sexual consent is 14 years in the country, Nataša Boškova, a lawyer for the human rights NGO Coalition Margins, explained to Unbias the News that, according to the Macedonian Criminal Code, a child victim of the crime of distributing child pornography is considered to be a minor up to 18 years of age.
Screenshots of Telegram group “Javna Soba” (Public Room) and related group “Hm….” from January 2020. Image by Meta.mk, used with permission.
However, distribution of child pornography is not the only crime that was allegedly committed in Public Room. There was also non-consensual sharing of private nudes of adult women and misuse of personal information, such as non-consensual sharing of social media profiles, private addresses and phone numbers, all of which resulted in large scale online sexual harassment.
Moreover, in 2020, after its discovery, the group was almost immediately shut down by Telegram upon request of the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVR), which also encouraged victims to report such crimes. Yet, even this swift action was insufficient since no perpetrator was actually punished for their involvement in Public Room.
Thus, it was hardly surprising that a similar group with an identical name sprung up in January 2021.
Similarly to the previous year, the group was shut down almost immediately upon discovery at MVR’s request to Telegram, and four people connected to the chat were taken in for questioning on January 28, 2021. On the same day, then-Prime-Minister Zoran Zaev controversially threatened to ban Telegram from Macedonia altogether.
Irena Cvetkovic, activist and executive director of the human rights organization Coalition Margins, told Unbias the News:
“The crime is not in the use of that application but what is done on that application, here is the crime. Zaev's statement is a subtle shift of the responsibility of Telegram, a private entity, from the actual responsibility of the police and the public prosecutor's office.”
The Telegram ban never came to fruition, but such a move could have set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression online in North Macedonia, an EU candidate state.
Since GDPR regulates misuse of private information, it is clear that Ana Koleva should have been able to file a complaint on those grounds at least with the Agency for Personal Data Protection, and that the Department Against Cyber Crime could have directed Koleva to this government body but failed to do so.
“According to the law on personal data protection, all persons who believe that their privacy has been violated through misuse of their photos from social media can seek protection before the Agency for Personal Data Protection,” Nataša Boškova told Unbias the News.
“The Criminal Code also provides protection for the misuse of personal data, and most “Public Room” victims can seek protection under this provision. The Computer Crime and Forensics Unit at the Ministry of Interior can assist the public prosecutor’s office in securing the identity and evidence of the perpetrators of the crime so that they can be prosecuted and punished more effectively.”
In both 2020 and 2021, sexist and moralizing narratives engulfed Macedonian social media feeds, with some people alleging that the girls and women were to blame since they were only seeking attention by taking revealing photos, while others tried to put the blame both on the men/boys and the women/girls.
Sex educator and feminist activist Natalija Krstevska spoke on the student podcast Justinijan Zbori about the victim blaming social media trend of posts that urged citizens to “Educate [their] children.” Krstevska said that the trend dispersed the blame away from the boys and men who are perpetuating sexual violence, and, instead, suggests that girls and women also have a responsibility to learn how to protect themselves from this kind of violence.
“Double victimization occurs from close social/family circles, to the level of institutions and a huge focus must be given to the unlearning of this phenomenon, because these types of comments represent the relativization of violence and taking the side of sexual predators,” Kalia Dimitrova, the editor-in-chief of the Macedonian feminist platform Meduza, told Unbias the News.
“The public always has some idea of what the girl or woman should or could have done to avoid becoming a victim, and very rarely has any idea what can or should be done with the one who harassed, hurt or humiliated her. After all, sexual violence is probably the only crime where the victim is blamed for something someone else has done.”
On February 3, 2021, hundreds of feminists and other supporters took to the streets in protest against the Macedonian institutions’ inaction and lack of punishment of the perpetrators. The protesters marched the streets of Skopje from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, deeming them responsible for the state of impunity.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Unbias The News


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Death of a Venezuelan infant during sea crossing exposes shortcomings in Trinidad and Tobago’s refugee policy · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Coast Guard vessel built in Portsmouth for Trinidad and Tobago, similar in appearance to the vessel that was on patrol in Trinidad and Tobago waters on February 5, 2022. Photo by navylookout on Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0.
Close to midnight on February 5, a Trinidad and Tobago coast guard vessel, the TTS Scarborough, was on a routine patrol along Trinidad's south coast. A Venezuelan boat had crossed the border — not unusual against the backdrop of the South American country's political and socioeconomic turmoil and resulting humanitarian crisis — but what happened next was anything but routine.
According to the coast guard's official statement, its crew sent a smaller boat to intercept the Venezuelan vessel, which reportedly tried to “ram” the launch, despite the “standard protocols” of loudspeakers, ship's horn, searchlights and flares being employed. Warning shots were fired, allegedly aimed at the vessel's engine. When it eventually stopped, coast guard officials discovered Venezuelan asylum seekers on board, including a mother, Darielvis Sarabia, and her nine-month-old son Yaelvis, who had been crouched in the rear of the boat, close to the engine. The infant had been shot in the head, and died in his injured mother's arms — a tragedy for which the coast guard extended condolences.
The incident has caused an outcry from human rights groups. In a joint statement, the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said they were “deeply saddened” by the news. Dr. Eduardo Stein, Joint Special Representative of UNHCR and IOM for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, added:
Nobody should have to lose their life in their search for safety, protection and new opportunities […] This incident highlights the plight faced by people on the move during desperate and dangerous journeys to safety.
With a mere 11-kilometre stretch of water separating the island of Trinidad from the Venezuelan coast, asylum seekers from the South American country often make the close but hazardous crossing in search of a better life. Millions have, thus far, fled the country over fears of economic hardship and violence, thousands of them to Trinidad. The large number of arrivals prompted the government of Trinidad and Tobago to move towards regularisation, registering asylum seekers in order to offer them documented status and legitimate job opportunities.
The policy, however, has come under criticism for being “incomplete.” The 2014 national policy to address refugee and asylum matters is not being implemented, thereby causing asylum seekers and people with UNHCR refugee status to be treated as undocumented migrants. Once the registration process ended on June 14, 2019, anyone wishing to enter Trinidad and Tobago from Venezuela required a visa.
Since then, the Trinidad and Tobago government has been holding fast to its position. In November 2020, then minister of national security, Stuart Young, defended the country's deportation of 16 Venezuelan minors and 11 adults prior to a habeas corpus hearing, saying it was part of his remit to protect the country, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a stance that the UNHCR joint statement addressed, saying:
In the absence of sufficient safe pathways, many Venezuelan refugees and migrants are forced to resort to risky sea and land crossings, that have become even more complex as travel and health restrictions limit formal paths of entry. Pathways for entry and stay should be consistent with international human rights law and humanitarian considerations and include access to due process and procedural safeguards.
The infant's death has reignited concerns about Trinidad and Tobago's approach to refugees and asylum seekers, with newspaper editorials, members of the local migrant community, and Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro himself, calling for proper investigations into the incident. National security minister Fitzgerald Hinds has since said this is being done, albeit by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the Coast Guard themselves. Prime Minister Keith Rowley has called the baby's death “an accident.”
Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, noted:
No migrant child should ever die, whether traveling with their parents or alone. No mother wants to put the lives of her children at risk on a small ship in the deep sea, unless she has no other option. Two in three Venezuelans on the move are women and children. This tragic event is a stark reminder that they are the most vulnerable among the vulnerable. They deserve special attention, protection and safety — anywhere and anytime.
On Facebook, The Caribbean Centre For Human Rights also weighed in:
This latest event once again underscores the gaps in our policies and legislation with respect to the protection of migrants and refugees and the failure by the state to adapt to the current migration context and effectively respond to the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Migrants and refugees are being forced to enter irregularly because no safe and legal pathways exist for them to seek protection. The militarization of the borders is not the solution and places vulnerable persons at further risk.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ) and the Archbishop's Ministry for Migrants and Refugees (AMMR) also called upon the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to “welcome, protect, promote and integrate the migrant and refugee populations that have come to our shores,” and said that they look forward to the outcome of the investigation.
However, some social media users felt that the coast guard had done their duty, with Facebook user Nandani Bhagwhansingh commenting:
Illegal entrance and failure to comply, what was done should not be condemned.
On another Facebook thread, Joanne Tenia expressed similar sentiments:
This is so sad that a life was lost however, when the parents decided to take a risk to illegally enter our waters, they must have anticipated that this could have been one of the results. […] Under no circumstances should the Coast Guard be blamed for doing their job.
Raymond Heerasingh responded:
The Guardia Nationales do the very same […]
Indeed, despite cordial relations between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, there have been maritime-related issues over the years. There appears to be some misunderstanding over borders, as Trinidadian fishermen, allegedly fishing within Trinidad and Tobago territory, have been shot at by the Venezuelan authorities, in some cases even being detained for long periods. Piracy and human trafficking are also on the rise, prompting another newspaper editorial to advocate for a “coherent policy” regarding migrants and refugees:
Centuries of historical ties between T&T and Venezuela have been shattered by this migrant crisis. Goodwill has been replaced by frightening levels of xenophobia and suspicion and the situation has been made worse by the elevated levels of criminal activity in the waters between the two countries. […]
Sunday’s tragedy exposes the deficiencies of the current policy of intercepting and deporting migrants who continue to arrive by the boatloads, not deterred by the risks.
A better system must be found to address this problem. With guidance from the UNHCR and other agencies working around the world with migrants and refugees, efforts must be made to tackle this crisis and reduce the risks in the turbulent waters of the Gulf of Paria.
Yet another ripple effect of the incident has been the separation of the injured mother from her two-year-old daughter, who was also on the boat but was not harmed. The child is currently being housed at a detention centre.
The UNHCR has emphasised that the organisation, as well as other stakeholders, have “productive relationships” with the state agencies in Trinidad and Tobago — the coast guard included — and reiterated their commitment to sharing expertise and offering technical assistance to help those agencies protect and assist “all those affected by human mobility.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Does the state’s failure to act enable online sexual violence in North Macedonia? · Global Voices
Unbias The News

Protester with sign reading “Beyond Pissed Off” in Skopje, North Macedonia. Photo by Elena Gagovska, via Unbias the News. Used with permission.
This article was originally written by Elena Gagovska, edited by Tina Lee and published in Unbias The News. An edited version is republished in two parts by Global Voices as part of a content sharing agreement. Read part 1 of this report here.
After a private Telegram channel called Public Room was again found to be sharing non-consensual images of and private information about women and girls, there was a call for action from the state. By threatening to ban the app, the then-Prime-Minister seemed to indicate that Telegram bore responsibility for policing this
After street protests demanding the end of impunity for sexual violence took place in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, in February 2020, essentially no action was taken by the state. Several guerilla actions and two press conferences by the Platform for Gender Equality — a broad coalition of civil society and non-governmental organizations — took place after the protest resulting in a hostile official reaction from the Macedonian Police Union (a labor or trade union of police employees). Part of the statement read:
“As a trade union, we will not allow individual cases to be generalized and — through those generalizations — for police officers to be insulted and belittled as being unprofessional, unethical, or not sensitized to gender issues, or that police officers are guided by prejudice and stereotypes when performing their duties.”
However, it is more than clear that the Macedonian police not only has a history of not taking gender-based violence seriously, but also that they did not properly conduct an investigation when it came to the victims of Public Room.
“Had the police been serious about pursuing an investigation, there would be no need to get Telegram involved,” Irena Cvetkovic told Unbias the News.
“A real investigation would have involved either police officers infiltrating the group or the police actually listening to the victims, since they are the ones who know best to whom they sent their pictures. In other words, by taking witness testimony from the victims, the police could have found their first suspects.”
The trial of the two accused creators and administrators of the Telegram chat began on July 22, 2021. They have only been charged with production and distribution of child pornography, and have not yet been convicted.
Meanwhile, groups similar to Public Room appeared regionally with even less of a reaction from authorities. Radio Free Europe reported that in March 2021 it was discovered that private photos, videos and contact information of an unknown number of women were shared in a Telegram channel called “Ex YU balkanska soba” (Ex-Yugoslavia Balkan Room) to over 35,000 members. It was reported that the group was shut down and that the administrator of the group was arrested, but it is unclear if the victims have received any further justice.
Balkan Insight also recently published a comprehensive article about the prevalence of revenge porn and online sexual harassment as a Balkans-wide problem that has been inadequately addressed by authorities.
Because activists saw this kind of online sexual violence as a Balkans-wide problem, on April 15, 2021, 138 civil society organizations issued a joint statement against online sexual violence demanding authorities prosecute the perpetrators.
Other than demanding a thorough investigation of the Public Room case, criminal prosecution of the perpetrators, and professional handling of cases for gender-based violence, the Platform for Gender Equality also demanded that a new law be added to the Criminal Code to specifically address sexual harassment online.
A day before the March 8 protest, then-Prime Minister Zaev wrote a Facebook post in support of the victims and announced that the government was starting a process to introduce two new laws relating to sexual harassment and stalking.
On July 27, 2021, then-Minister of Justice Bojan Marichic announced that a new criminal act called stalking, which will take into account sexual harassment online, has been added to the Criminal Code. While the criminal act still has to be voted on in the Parliament in order to officially enter the Criminal Code, it was largely seen as a positive first step, even though it came too late. He stated:
“A person who without authorization follows, persecutes or otherwise interferes in the personal life of another person, or establishes or tries to establish unwanted contact with them, by moving in the space where that person is, by abusing personal data, by using the media and other means of communication, or is otherwise psychologically abusing, harassing or intimidating them, will be punished with a fine or up to three years in prison.”
However, Nataša Boškova of Coalition Margins believes that Public Room could have been investigated by the responsible institutions even in the current legal framework.
“The absence of a separate crime in the Criminal Code is just an excuse for the authorities not to act effectively in the “Public Room” case. If there really is a will, there is a legal framework under which the current actions in the “Public Room” case can be included,” Boškova told Unbias the News.
“Amendments to the Criminal Code in accordance with the Istanbul Convention are currently in preparation. But, as a law practitioner, I think that not much can change in the protection of the victims of gender based violence solely by adopting the legal changes if work is not being done on changing the attitudes and transforming institutions in the direction of understanding the power relations and gender dynamics in our society,” she added.
February 3, 2022 protest against impunity for sexual predators in Skopje, North Macedonia. Photo by Vančo Džambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Another discourse that both feminists and other supporters have put forth is the need to not only punish the crimes that have already happened, but also work on prevention.
Many believe that the key to such prevention is to institute Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE). HERA (Health Education and Research Association), a local non-governmental organization which is a part of the International Planned Parenthood Organization (IPPF), has been spearheading the campaign for sex ed in Macedonian public schools and together with the Ministry of Education has launched the first pilot sex ed program in the country.
Starting in September 2021 a new year-long sexual education pilot program has been implemented for ninth-grade students in four schools in Tetovo and Skopje (both in urban and rural environments) where CSE is currently taught as an elective subject.
“The fact that “Public Room” happened, as well as the spike in domestic violence since the pandemic began, is just proof that we desperately need to implement CSE in schools as a prevention method,” Katerina Ivanova, an experienced sex educator with HERA and law student who helped train the public school teachers who are teaching CSE in the pilot program, told Unbias the News. She added:
“In order to become an emancipated society in a sexual, gendered, and health aspect, we must have equal access to all this information. That is why I believe that the start of this institutional implementation is so important.”
However, the CSE pilot program has been met with a lot of opposition from emerging reactionary forces. A far-right organization called Od Nas Za Nas (which translates to “From Us For Us”), which has spread anti-vaccination and anti-Planned Parenthood conspiracy theories in the recent past, has been undermining the CSE program for months through the spreading of fake news and moralistic, transphobic fear-mongering around the fact that the CSE program will teach students about the concept of gender.
The organization’s president Gordana Godjo is also a notorious QAnon believer and anti-vaccination activist who encouraged demonstrators at an anti-COVID-19 measures protest on August 15, 2021 to cut up their masks.
Godjo has become the de-facto leader of the anti-sex education movement and on August 29, 2021, she publicly expressed gratitude to a middle school in Kučevište, a village near Skopje, that invited her to speak to parents about sex education, presumably spreading misinformation about the actual program to parents. “The parents were in disbelief,” wrote Godjo.
With the authorities still moving too slowly and ignoring cases of gender-based violence, and a reactionary anti-sex education movement becoming more organized, it is unclear if another Public Room can be prevented in North Macedonia in the near future.


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India’s Mising tribe lives in traditional flood-resilient homes to adapt to climate change · Global Voices
Moushumi Basu

Sogunpara, a typical Mising village in the Jorhat district of Assam, featuring chang ghar or traditional houses on raised platforms. Image by the author.
(The interviews in this story were conducted in-person as a part of field research between October and December 2021)
India’s northeastern state of Assam is the most impacted by climate change in the country, due to flash floods and erosion. The second-largest tribe of the state, the Mising (who make up 17.8 percent of the state’s population) are amongst the worst affected as they live on the banks of the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries. However, they manage to survive in their unique and traditional flood-resilient houses called chang ghar in Assamese, perched above the ground on bamboo stilts.
The word “mising” means man (mi) of the water (asi), and those who live on the mainland call them “river people.” As they live in low lands near the river, the Mising's homes can easily be inundated during tides or swept away by floods.
Chang ghar are built on a raised platform supported by bamboo stilts, which can keep floodwaters at bay.
Sogunpara in Jorhat district is a typical Mising village, about 300–500 metres away from the Brahmaputra River. “Each time when its water level rises during floods, we become the most vulnerable,” says Nandi Mili, who owns a chang ghar in the village.
Chang ghar above wooden stilts with a jokhola or auspicious ladder for entering. Image by the author.
Flanked by similar houses around, it stands at about 8 feet above the ground. This height of the floor, according to Nandi, indicates the level the last flood reached in the locality. The villagers mark this height on the poles of their homes, based on which they raise their floors during the next repairs.
A wooden ladder locally called a jokhola leads to the raised entrance of the house. It is an important element of the community’s home on which rest some of their social beliefs. “A jokhola has either five or seven steps as these numbers are considered auspicious by us,” explains Nandi’s wife Lotika.
According to Mising traditions, the arrival of a new bride in their household calls for the setting up of a new jokhola. Rituals and ceremonies in the presence of village elders mark her climbing up this jokhola, to enter the house for the first time. “This is believed to make the marriage long and happy,” Lotika says.
Nandi Mili with his family in his chang ghar. Image by the author.
The jokhola outside Lotika’s chang ghar has five steps leading to the entrance through a rectangular porch or verandah. The room at the entrance is almost bare, with a few chairs laid out for visitors. The walls of the house are made of interwoven bamboo or cane.
“We use neither mud nor cement in our construction, to minimize damages to our houses due to recurrent floods. Further, cane and bamboo are easily available natural resources in patches of wilderness near our village; hence rebuilding our homes becomes easy and cost-effective with them,” says Nandi.
The floor of the house is lined with long and thick bamboo strips, and conveniently bears the weight of the household items and members. Its variable height is one of the unique highlights of a chang ghar’s flood resilient strategy. “Another important aspect of this coping strategy is whenever possible, we can undo these bamboo structures, load them on boats etc. and keep them on highlands or raised platforms, to fix them back, after the floods are over,” says Nandi.
Lotika Mili making tea in her chang ghar kitchen. Image by the author.
The centre of the house has a kitchen and fireplace — this is typically designed to endure floods. While lighting the hearth, Lotika says it is locally called “meram,” and it also keeps the house warm among the cold winds of the river banks. But most importantly, this part of the house has certain traditional food storage mechanisms both for daily and emergency use during floods. They are rectangular bamboo shelves (about 4 feet by 3 feet) suspended with ropes from the ceiling at optimum heights over the fireplace.
About 4 feet above the meram hangs the first shelf, called “perab,” over which there is another, known as rabbong. Since the perab is directly above the fireplace, it is also used to smoke raw fish and meat or to dry paddy during the rainy season. Daily household items such as utensils and firewood are also stacked there.
Rabbong is very special for the community as it stores pitchers of the traditional Mising rice beer apong, especially in winter to keep it warm and prevent it from getting sour. In summer, however, these pitchers are placed on the floor of the chang ghar to keep them cool.
There is another topmost shelf close to the kitchen’s ceiling called the “kumbang.” This is used to store vegetables like potatoes, pumpkins, gourds, onions, garlic, etc.
According to Nandi, since these layers are directly over the fireplace, the smoke and the heat keep  bacteria and fungi out of the stored items. Further, the thatched roof also keeps the items in the kumbang cool.
Additional storage space is often created with bamboo mats below the ceiling of their room at the entrance. Here, bags of paddy, vegetable seeds and other essentials are stored to protect them from floods and set aside to be used during emergencies. “Our community is perpetually ready to evacuate their homes since floods today are more sudden and recurrent,” says Lotika.
Livestock that forms an important part of Mising household is kept in the basement of a chang ghar. Image by the author.
In the space below the house or the open basement, flanked by the bamboo stilts, few pigs laze in the morning sun. This part of the house is occupied by the family’s livestock, which occupies an important place in the lives of the local communities. Certain homes in the village have also constructed a raised platform close to their homes where their cattle take refuge during floods.
A few houses away from Nandi’s, there is a chang ghar with an interesting variation. Its supporting bamboo stilts have been replaced by cemented pillars and the usual thatched roof substituted with asbestos sheets. “Though such modifications in building materials are expensive and very few in the village can afford, yet the basic flood resilient adaptations within the house remain the same,” points out Nandi.
This traditional concept of chang ghar is being replicated in flood-hit villages by local grass-root based non-profits such as North East Area Affected Development Society (NEADS) with the help of indigenous youth clubs and disaster management committees. “We particularly want to incorporate their traditional ideas and climate adaptation strategies adopted on shelter management, put together with our innovative practices under the organisation’s post-flood rehabilitation and reconstruction programme,” says Tirtha Prasad Saikia, Joint Director, NEADS. Nearly 250 homes have been constructed in 25 villages in the districts of Jorhat, Golaghat and Sibsagar, during the past 6–7 years.
A Mising community member flaunts the chang ghar design on his traditional attire. Image by the author.
The local villagers are paid for their labour during construction work. The former also provide bamboo, cane and other locally available materials required for construction in their villages. “These homes are distributed to beneficiaries free of cost, selected through community-based consultations with village groups including their heads and elders,” says Saikia.
Chang ghar, however, is a special survival strategy of the Mising community only. Other tribes that live away from the river banks do not use stilted homes; they live in ordinary huts.

author: Moushumi Basu


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Karate: A path to non-violence in Colombia · Global Voices
Johana Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo

Photo by Yadira Rocío Florez, used with permission.
The Shoowa Gymnasium, a martial arts school in Popayán, Colombia, celebrated its 35th anniversary on Feb. 4. It has transformed the bodies and minds of children, young people, and adults, both Colombians and foreigners, who have trained there. In southern Colombia, this department has been plagued for decades by the country's armed conflict. Yet here, communities are constantly sowing seeds of peace.
Cauca has historically been hit hard by Colombia's armed conflict. According to the Institute for Peace Studies (Indepaz), of the 13 massacres that occurred up to Jan. 29 of this year, three have taken place in this department. Five of the 14 social leaders assassinated in Colombia this year are from Cauca.
This is why it is so important that this department, where illegal armed actors have settled and are disputing the territory to establish illicit crops, such as coca, have the opportunity to focus their minds and bodies on a discipline that promotes respect, companionship, and non-violence.
Juan Carlos Escobar and Yadira Rocío Flórez, teachers and instructors of the school. Photo by the author.
The Gōjū-ryū style is practiced there, which means strength and flexibility, a Karate style that promotes non-violence. Juan Carlos Escobar Quirá, a black belt and fifth dan, who directs this school, explained to Global Voices that, in a country that experiences as much violence as Colombia, he opted for the formative martial arts, with an emphasis on values.
UNESCO highlights Karate's transformative role, pointing to specific programs, such as a peacebuilding program in Brazil, a program to train female victims of sexual abuse in Peru, and a youth empowerment program in the Philippines.
Such has been the success of this discipline in the region that Cauca obtained more than 14 medals in the national championship — inter-league and inter-club — held in October 2021 in the department of San Andres Islands, in the Colombian Caribbean.
With that goal in mind, Escobar recalls with nostalgia his work as a Karate teacher between 1999 and 2004 in Belalcázar, one of the many municipalities in this department hit by violence.
Escobar traveled to the reservations, where the Indigenous peoples live, far from the urban center of the municipality. In these towns, Escobar says, there are not as many job opportunities as in the city.
“Many people found a path in Karate, they got away from violence, alcoholism, smoking, and the guerrillas. In addition, they left behind the illicit coca crops, which were replaced by coffee crops,” Escobar points out.
This Colombian school's commitment to values and peace can also be seen on other continents. In October last year, the Great Lakes Region in Congo in Africa held a martial arts championship, betting on lasting peace among young people who have been victims or perpetrators of armed conflicts.
The practice of Karate is for pacification, Escobar insists, which is why this training in childhood is so important. The sensei (instructor), Yadira Rocío Flórez, told Global Voices that they instill physical and emotional self-control so that minors will be good students, citizens, and family members.
One way to instill values such as respect is to do so is through training with people of different ages.
David in his karate practice. Photo by Yadira Rocío Flórez, used with permission.
David González, 10, a student at the Champagnant School in Popayán, has been practicing for nine months with his father. “What I like the most is that it serves to channel emotions. There are schools where they say that if someone provokes you, you have to throw a fist, not here; here they teach me that this is to defend myself, not to be on the offensive,” said González.
In addition to highlighting personal health benefits, his father Victor González emphasizes:
“In a country like ours where there are so many freedoms, but also drug addiction, martial arts focus children and young people towards a goal. It disciplines them. In such an aggressive and violent environment, it releases tension and reduces the speed at which the world turns. It frees you from all those burdens and you acquire the knowledge to defend yourself from other people who go out to attack,” he explains.
UNESCO declared Karate as the best training for children between the ages of 4 and 21, and Karate in Okinawa as an intangible heritage of humanity. It also recommends its practice at any age.
De-stressing and being calm are two great benefits for David. His father believes that this discipline is ageless and can be practiced as a family.
Julieta García, the mother of Juan José, has seen how her five-year-old son has become a little calmer, thinks before he acts, and enjoys the time he spends three times a week with other children.
Victor performs one of the warm-up exercises with his son David. Photo by Yadira Rocío Flórez, used with permission.
At Shoowa School, integration is fundamental, which is why different generations are trained and treated with the same respect. The youngest student is three and the oldest is 70.
Jonas Rûger, a German who lived and worked for several years in Colombia testifies to this. “I would go with my daughter. It was a very familiar space; we would train in an environment of mutual respect and care and where we would start with an oath, saying it is to defend ourselves if necessary. We learn about trust and mutual care; that's why I liked to take my daughters there because it was more than just punching a good fist.”

author: Johana Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo


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Shaming and exorbitant costs stop Kuwaitis from reaching psychiatric help · Global Voices
Raseef22

This article was first published on January 26, 2022 on Raseef22. An edited version is published under a republishing agreement.
To this day, and despite the piling stresses of the everyday life exacerbated by a pandemic that has affected billions around the world, visiting a psychiatrist remains widely unacceptable in the Arab world, especially among people of the Arabian Gulf, where rigid customs, traditions and beliefs continue to shape the choices of many.
Sarah, a Kuwaiti woman in her forties, has been suffering from panic attacks before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed emotional, psychological and mental strain on millions around the world. When she ran out of solutions, she resorted to visiting a psychiatrist, but was unable to continue her treatment as the prices of psychological counseling and treatment became unaffordable for her.
In Kuwait, the cost of one consultation starts at KWD 100 (USD 330) per hour and reaches up to KWD 200 (USD 660), sometimes even more.
This in itself is a critical factor that causes those in need of a therapist to give up on the idea. But another factor also plays an equally important role: the societal shaming that accompanies such a step, which causes many to end up fighting their own battles without professional help.
As a result, acts of violence became part of the daily news, especially in the early days of the COVID-19 imposed lockdowns. These incidents of violence, including a wife who killed her husband by smashing his head with a hammer, and numerous instances among young people that led to death in many cases, continue to this day, albeit to a lesser extent.
Children and adolescents have also been greatly affected. At least one in seven children and young people across the world has lived under stay-at-home policies that were imposed or recommended by their government, which “put their mental health and well-being at risk,” according to a report by UNICEF. “Many children are left feeling afraid, lonely, anxious, and concerned for their future,” an effect that will last for years, according to UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
The recent string of racist statements, incidents of violence, and killings are clear evidence of the serious social crises that are a byproduct of the pandemic.
During the pandemic, writer Amal al-Harthy experienced bouts of anxiety. She tells Raseef22 she felt like she had symptoms similar to those of the virus, so she sought treatment and ended up getting behavioral therapy without drugs. However, she recounts how the problem persisted until she took the vaccine and her mentality began to improve, “as if the effect of the vaccine was also psychological, instead of just physical.” She also spoke of the importance that a person be aware that psychological conditions are normal and that any person may go through them and be okay, as long as they are recognized and treated.
Meanwhile, Lama (pseudonym), a university doctor, says that she fell into depression in the midst of the pandemic. She tells Raseef22 that, at first, the lockdown was an opportunity to learn new skills such as cooking and enjoy her time with the family. However, she soon started to feel like she was being deprived of the things she loves, such as work and travel, which triggered dark thoughts that greatly and negatively affected her mental state.
So Lama turned to a life coach. “It greatly helped me in changing the way I think. I also invested my time in writing, which helped me overcome my depression that had lasted for an entire year.”
Saad Ibrahim, a Kuwaiti middle school teacher in his mid-thirties and father of three, went through a similar experience. His mental health began to deteriorate with the start of the quarantine period, and worsened with the death of his father. “Being a man, I had to bear the responsibility of the family without showing any weakness, which increased the pain I was experiencing. I stayed in this spiral for months, suffering from unprovoked fits of rage, until I found an online advertisement for an organization that offers psychological counseling at reasonable prices, and indeed this experience has changed me for the better. After committing to the sessions for a year, my mental state has greatly improved,” he says.
Basma al-Saad, a specialist in rapid transformational therapy, notes that “during the Coronavirus pandemic, there was an increase in mental health problems, most notably depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders, as unprecedented conditions led to high levels of fear and tension in Kuwaiti society and the world.”
She tells Raseef22:
As humans, we have emotional needs, including the need to communicate with others and having a sense of safety. In light of the lockdown and having to isolate and stay at home, people felt lonely and the feeling of fear from this pandemic increased as well.
She indicates that “children have also suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the absence of their normal school routine and having to undergo remote learning, in addition to the isolation that led to anxiety and an addiction to video games. This leads to dangerous consequences for some that may reach self-harm.”
This increase in the demand for psychological treatment during the pandemic in Kuwait led to a surge in prices, especially since the price of the session is determined by the type of treatment and techniques used in psychotherapy, as al-Saad explained.
But at the same time, she considers psychotherapy “an investment in a person’s life.” In her opinion, “the most important of all is that a person is ready to begin change, and this requires courage and commitment, and the high prices increase commitment and responsibility for the individual.”
Al-Saad warns that neglecting treatment leads to the deterioration of both mental and physical health, “since suppressing thoughts and underlying psychological issues causes a person to resort to addiction to soothe, relieve, and numb emotional pain, through alcohol, drugs, overeating or even shopping, and here the problem becomes more complicated and controlling it becomes more difficult, because the body is harmed by these unhealthy behaviors, and the levels of stress and anxiety thrust upon the body and its immune system increase.”
Despite the awareness that many have of the importance of psychological treatment and therapy, the accompanying societal shaming still controls and dominates a large number of people.
But some people, including celebrities, are breaking their silence and sharing stories of the psychological disorders they’ve faced and suffered from. Sheikha Majda AlSabah, a pioneer in the cosmetic world, announced in 2018 that she suffered from severe depression, fought her battle bravely, and founded the ASAP initiative, a campaign promoting mental health awareness. Kuwaiti broadcaster Hashem Asad appeared in an interview with al-Qabas Online in December 2021 to talk about his story with mental illness. These have contributed, if only slightly, to spreading awareness and breaking the barriers standing in the way of psychological treatment and acknowledging any kind of mental disorder.
Saad Ibrahim advises anyone who feels ashamed to visit a doctor or psychiatrist to resort to online consultations because this lifts the societal shaming factor, “and makes you more comfortable to speak and vent to those who do not know you, which in turn makes you much more honest,” noting that when he relapses from time to time, he just books an appointment online.


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Will Taiwanese academics be targeted by the Hong Kong National Security Law? · Global Voices
New Bloom

A photo of Academia Sinica's main entrance. Image via Wikicommons, Lysimachi (CC BY-SA 4.0)
This post first appeared in the online magazine New Bloom on January 30, 2022. This edited version is being republished on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
Taiwanese academic Wu Rwei-Ren has been accused by pro-Beijing media in Hong Kong earlier this month of violating the Hong Kong national security law that was passed in June 2020. The law targets what it considers  as acts of separatism or sedition,  and was passed by China’s National People’s Congress, circumventing the Hong Kong legislative council. Wu is an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
Wu was targeted for publishing the article “For an Unfinished Revolution” which discussed activists’ work during the 2019 anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong. The article was published in The Reporter, one of Taiwan’s leading investigative media outlets, and won an award from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong. This subsequently led to a denunciation from the pro-Beijing newspaper, the Ta Kung Pao.
Wu, a political scientist by training, is something of an academic superstar in Taiwan and is frequently known for his participation in political events. To this extent, Wu is one of Taiwan’s leading radical thinkers, as an anarchist theorist of nationalism.
Wu Rwei-Ren. Photo via Wikicommons, Kokuyo (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Wu is portrayed of supporting Taiwanese independence, which is not incorrect. Yet targeting Wu for his outspoken political statements is symbolic, if anything. Wu has been blocked from travelling to Hong Kong in the past, meaning it is unlikely he would try to enter China or Hong Kong anytime soon. In this sense, though the Hong Kong national security law applies globally, there is little way for the Chinese government to enforce it overseas.
In comments, Wu downplayed his importance, while highlighting past incidents in which he had to receive security protection because of Chinese threats. Furthermore, Wu brought up the fact that the Hong Kong national security law was originally framed as not being retroactive, yet that the application of the law has been in fact been applied retroactively,  cracking down on activists who have sought to defend Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms.
Wu is not the only academic targeted in recent times regarding their stances on Hong Kong. In November 2020, Lee Ching-Kwan, the director of the Global China Center at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, came under scrutiny from pro-Beijing newspapers such as the Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po. This took place because of her comments in which she stated that “Hong Kong belongs to the world”, which were framed by the newspapers as pro-independence and in violation of the national security law.
Actions by pro-Beijing newspapers targeting academics are likely intended to halt academic and media discourse in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, for individuals who are not from Hong Kong, it is unlikely that they would be put in the direct line of fire the way that Hongkongers are.
The People's Liberation Army's Hong Kong garrison. Photo by ExploringLife via Wikicommons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A similar thing happened when the Chinese government declared measures against Taiwanese independence advocates last year, Given the impossibility of targeting all individuals supportive of Taiwanese independence, the Chinese government declared a ban on several prominent DPP (Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party) politicians such as Premier Su Tseng-chang, Legislative Yuan president Yu Shyi-kun, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu, as well as a ban for them and their relatives to conduct business in China.
It is currently unclear whether the Chinese government might target Taiwanese living in Hong Kong in order to make examples of them. There has been precedents of kidnapping of Taiwanese in China due to their political views or past activism, the most famous case being human rights NGO worker Lee Ming-che.
In the meantime, the human rights situation in Hong Kong seems set to further deteriorate with Major General Peng Jingtang named as the commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Hong Kong garrison. Peng served before as the chief of staff in Xinjiang province, and is the highest-ranking official named to the position.
The Chinese government frequently considers the issues of Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, as related because of the implicit call for independence. Clearly, Peng's appointment in Hong Kong is a sign that the message is intimidation, given that in Xinjiang, over a million Uyghurs are detained in camps because of their religion. The Chinese government claims that separatist forces in Xinjiang are working with foreign actors to try and undermine China, an accusation they extend to Hong Kong as well.
This transfer of personnel occurs shortly after unprecedented media crackdowns have resulted in the shutting down of online news platform Stand News, with current and former board members arrested. This goes to show that political crackdowns in Hong Kong are likely to continue.

author: New Bloom


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Does language policy in Tanzania discriminate against community languages? · Global Voices
Gastor Mapunda, Hannah Gibson

‘Students in Primary Seven at Zanaki Primary School in Tanzania’ by World Bank Photo Collection is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
There are approximately 150 languages in Tanzania. However, because the country's language policies prioritize Swahili, community languages have suffered — particularly in the area of primary education. The findings of an ongoing study by a team of researchers and linguists show this phenomenon isn't unique to Tanzania, but is occurring across the African continent.
Hannah Gibson (University of Essex), Gastor Mapunda (University of Dar es Salaam) and Colin Reilly (University of Essex), are involved in an ongoing research project examining language practices and language policy in Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana. Here they report on some of their emerging findings, focusing on Tanzania.
In this article, we share some of our views with Global Voices about how the country's language policies affect Swahili and other community languages. We also looked at multilingualism in Tanzania and the way in which the language policy deals with the multilingual reality of the country.
According to findings from our study, in some parts of Tanzania, children encounter Swahili for the first time when they begin primary school. There are a variety of different languages spoken in these regions, such as Sukuma, Ha and Iraqw. There are other areas in which Swahili is used to a limited extent, and there are areas where Swahili is not used at all, except for in specific contexts such as administrative matters, religious purposes or public meetings.
Statements relating to language policy in Tanzania are provided by the Education and Training Policy (1995, 2014), the Cultural Policy (1997) and a number of statements relating to the media. However, there is almost no explicit mention of community languages in any of these documents.
In fact, the Culture Policy is the only one that explicitly references community languages, saying:
Community languages will continue to be used as natural assets to grow Swahili.
But even this policy does not encourage the official use of community languages. In fact, many government bodies call for the total exclusion of community languages in official domains in order to, in their view, avoid ethnic divisions within the country.
For example, on October 30, 2003, the Majira newspaper quoted a representative of the Tanzania Broadcasting Commission who prohibited the use of community languages on the radio, claiming these languages could be dangerous.
We argue the language policy in Tanzania is discriminatory as it prioritises Swahili at the expense of the many other languages, and by doing so, negatively impacts communities in the country who don’t use Swahili as their main language.
Our research with community members shows that the use of Swahili in primary education in rural districts does not facilitate the learners’ comprehension in their studies. If you look at the results of the grade four and grade seven national exams, there are huge differences between regions. For example, in our research in Nzega, Tabora, where Sukuma and Nyamwezi are the main languages of the community, approximately half of the grade four students in one of the schools we visited in 2020 were forced to repeat a year. As a result of this, the grade four class had twice as many students in it as the other classes that year.
‘A student in Primary Seven at Zanaki Primary School’ by World Bank Photo Collection is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Our research appears to shows that forcing learners to speak Swahili exacerbates educational issues and causes poor results in these national exams. For example, numerous reports from the NGO Uwezo Tanzania show that the comprehension level of students in grade three in terms of reading, arithmetic and writing is very low. They have also shown that even in grade seven, there are still a large proportion of students who have comprehension levels equal or lower to grade two students. This includes a large number of students from rural areas where they are not exposed to Swahili.
What does this mean?
We believe that this situation means lots of people are simply wasting time in school. It is continuing to undermine progress in these areas. There are students who study for seven years and who are still unable to answer relatively basic questions. People might think that these children are not very clever, but this is simply not the case. They have sufficient knowledge and are capable of success, but they have not yet been able to acquire a level of Swahili that would enable them to learn through Swahili medium instruction.
Another issue that needs to be examined closely in relation to this policy is that in addition to the students who do poorly in their studies and exams, some of these parents don’t believe that their community languages can help their children in their education. This was observed in earlier research carried out by Gastor Mapunda (2013) titled “Ngoni People's Attitudes towards the Use of Kingoni in Beginner Classes.”
Similarly, in our research in Songea District, when a parent was asked whether she would like her second-grade child to be taught in Ngoni, she responded:
No, I don’t want that at all. I myself speak Ngoni. How has it helped me? Up until today, I’m poor because of the Ngoni language.
Is it really true that the language has caused her to suffer like this? Or is it the lack of support for speakers of community languages?
In our view, not valuing community languages is a real problem and this is the situation that we find in Tanzania and many other countries. It is the right of every citizen to be respected and given the opportunity to shape their identity, including their right to choose which language they want to use in their daily lives. This must be supported through policy.
A consequence of a policy that discriminates against community languages is that people who speak these community languages may end up looking down on their own languages and perceiving themselves and their languages as being worthless.
In addition to celebrating the announcement by UNESCO that will recognise Swahili as a global language via the announcement of a Swahili Day on July 7, it is important not to acknowledge that there are other languages that also need to be recognised. When children finish primary school without having their needs cared for, ultimately they will lose self-respect and feel devalued. In our view, this is not something that we can ignore.
This article was originally written in Swahili. Click here for the Swahili version.

author: Gastor Mapunda, Hannah Gibson


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Navalny documentary sweeps up awards at Sundance Film Festival · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Aleksey Navalny and director Daniel Roher. Screenshot from video by Sundance Institute on YouTube.
A documentary about the Russian opposition politician Aleksey Navalny and the aftermath of his recent poisoning and recovery, has won two top awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival, which showcases best independent filmmaking. Navalny is currently serving a lengthy prison term in Russia.
The documentary, titled simply “Navalny,” won both the documentary audience award and the festival favorite award at Sundance. The awards were announced during an online ceremony on January 28.
🏆 Festival Favorite Award goes to NAVALNY, directed by Daniel Roher (@DanielRoher). #sundance pic.twitter.com/uXmS0eTyro
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 28, 2022
The film, directed by Daniel Roher, was a last-minute surprise addition to the festival program. On January 24, four days before the award ceremony, the Sundance Institute announced that the festival would hold the world premiere of the film. Festival director Tabitha Jackson praised the film for offering “riveting cinema in the present tense, incredible access, intrepid investigative journalism, a compelling protagonist speaking truth to power.”
The documentary premiered to a limited audience of festival ticket holders on January 25, and was available to view on the festival online platform until January 30. Soon after, pirated copies of “Navalny” began circulating on torrent websites, sparking a discussion about whether making the documentary available to the wider public was “theft” or “samizdat.” The film has also been picked up for distribution by streaming service HBO Max, which also co-produced the film. However, HBO's distribution partner in Russia, Amedia, has said it does not plan to purchase “Navalny” for Russian audiences.
Director Daniel Roher collaborated with the open-source investigative group Bellingcat to tell the story of how Navalny survived the August 2020 poisoning and, while recovering in Berlin, worked with his allies and Bellingcat investigators to piece together who was behind the attack. Ultimately, the investigation concluded that a team of Russian state security agents was implicated in the near-fatal attempt on the anti-corruption campaigner's life. The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny's poisoning.
After recovering, Navalny returned to Russia in early 2021 year and was promptly arrested. A rushed trial handed him a 2.5-year prison sentence for violating the terms of an earlier parole. His supporters and rights advocates view his conviction as a trumped-up, politically motivated case.
On January 25, the day of the film’s world premiere, Russian authorities added Navalny and several of his allies to its list of “terrorists and extremists”, which also includes Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation. Many of the individuals added to the list have had to flee Russia, and some have been arrested.
More recently, pressure on opposition activists and anti-corruption investigators was ramped up further: at the start of February, Russian internet and media regulator Roskomnadzor threatened multiple media outlets with blocking and ordered them to remove archival coverage of Navalny team's investigations of government corruption, including prominent cases shedding light on lavish real-estate properties of Prime-Minister Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin.
Though Roskomnadzor cited the 2021 “extremist” designation of Navalny's networks as pretext for the retroactive removal, most of the articles covering the investigations were published well before the designation: some of the coverage goes back to 2017. Many of the media outlets have complied with the removal orders in order to avoid being banned in the country, though a few, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Current Time, said they would ignore the demands, calling them “political censorship.”

author: RuNet Echo


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Myanmar activists oppose sale of Telenor telecom to military-linked firm · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Telenor Myanmar SIM card package. Photo by Maung Sun, Wikipedia. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Activists and civil society groups in Myanmar have sent open letters and launched an online petition to the Norwegian government opposing the sale of Telenor Myanmar to a company with links to the country’s Tatmadaw (armed forces).
Telenor is a multinational telecom company based in Norway. It started operating in Myanmar in 2014 through its subsidiary, Telenor Myanmar.
After the military coup in February 2021, Telenor Myanmar faced pressure from the military government which gave several orders related to surveillance and content blocking. In July, Telenor announced its intent to leave Myanmar.
Further deterioration of the situation and recent developments in Myanmar form the basis for the decision to divest the company. In the present situation it has not been possible for Telenor to conduct an ordinary sales process.
Over the past year, Myanmar’s military government has imposed media restrictions and waged a brutal crackdown targeting activists, opposition leaders, and anti-junta groups.
According to news reports, Telenor will be sold to Lebanon-based M1 group and Shwe Bayin Phyu, a group of companies with ties to military-owned businesses. The sale is to be completed on February 15 and the partnership is expected to be named Investcom Myanmar.
Activists and civil society groups warned that the sale would allow the military regime to access more than 18 million Telenor customers’ data. Sensitive information of users including SIM card registration, call and internet logs, and location data could now fall into the hands of the military.
Launched on February 10, the online petition opposing the sale of Telenor has already garnered more than 170,000 signatures as of this writing. The petition cites the danger of this transaction for those opposing the junta:
There are high risks of unpredictable violence, including murder.
All Telenor users and their affiliates, including their family members, are at risk and could be arrested, or murdered based on the user data shared by Telenor to the new owner and the military, by proxy.
The petition offers these alternatives for Telenor to consider:
● Immediately stop the sale to military-linked Investcom.
● Consider all alternatives to the sale to Investcom, including re-licensing, permanently deleting all user data, and shutting down telecommunications infrastructure.
● Not transfer nor sell user data to anyone under any circumstances and for any reason.
Telenor’s sale to a military proxy is described as part of a “digital coup” which placed the country’s telecommunications providers under the control of the junta:
These targeted efforts will enable the military to bring all network services under its stranglehold and escalate abuses of privacy and security rights, through surveillance and related efforts. Yet, disturbingly, not a single telecommunications sector actor has implemented urgent data protection and privacy safeguards needed to protect their customers.
As early as last July, 464 civil society groups expressed their concern about Telenor’s decision to divest its operations in Myanmar without providing clear information about how it will protect the data of its customers.
Telenor has not consulted with civil society over the sale. They have not consulted with customers. They have not consulted with the people risking their lives to resist the military junta, whose lives are in Telenor's hands. We have not been presented with any human rights or corruption due diligence regarding the disposal of their Myanmar business.
In January, 168 groups sent a letter to the government of Norway, which has a controlling stake in Telenor, about the dire consequences of selling the telecom subsidiary in Myanmar to a company with a known record of doing business with repressive regimes.
It is our opinion that the sale of Telenor Myanmar to the M1 Group has significant geopolitical consequences. Therefore, we strongly believe that it ought to be brought directly to the Norwegian Government to be decided on, and not left to the Telenor Group ASA alone. It worries us deeply that Telenor so far has ignored the real government of Myanmar, but rather awaits acceptance of the sale from a violent and illegitimate extremist regime.
In an interview with Myanmar Now news website, Norwegian judge Hanne Sophie Greve stated that she believed Norwegian officials could be held liable if they allow Telenor to be sold to a junta proxy:
I do believe that anyone who assists the military in Myanmar in getting access to data related to perhaps 18 million customers of Telenor may actually be aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
I think that it would be advisable for Telenor to ask the chief public prosecutor in Norway to give an opinion about the possible consequences of the sale. Telenor should await that opinion. I cannot imagine that the answer will be that releasing 18 million customers’ information cannot be aiding and abetting, if the military’s behaviour in Myanmar already, or tomorrow, amounts to crimes against humanity.
Telenor Myanmar tweeted on February 11 its commitment to continuing its operations “as normal”:
We remain committed to keeping customers connected while safeguarding employees and partners. Our operations continue as normal. We regret the uncertainty and hope for clarity soon. https://t.co/0BBmJgFKGa pic.twitter.com/ipDqIzxG7O
— Telenor Myanmar (@Telenor_mm) February 11, 2022

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Hijab ban stirs protests in the Indian state of Karnataka · Global Voices
Ananya

Women in hijab on the streets of Pune, India. Image via Flickr by Eric Parker. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Protests have broken out in the southern state of Karnataka in India over the past months, after colleges in the state banned female students wearing hijabs from attending classes. The ban was backed by the state government led by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which maintains that “clothes which disturb equality, integrity, and public law and order should not be worn.” According to Human Rights Watch, the ban is the latest example of marginalizing the Muslim minority in India, “exposing them to heightened violence.”
The problem started in December 2021 when a college in Udupi, in Karnataka, stopped some women students from attending classes in their hijabs.
The issue only came to light when the students started protesting on December 31, claiming that the college authorities had not allowed them to attend classes for the past two weeks. The BJP MLA from Udupi, Raghupathi Bhat who also heads the development committee of the college, claimed that students need to follow the college's dress code. The students filed a petition with the Karnataka High Court and also approached the National Human Rights Commission.
In response to protests by Muslim students against the hijab ban, Hindu students, backed by Hindutva groups, stormed colleges in saffron scarves chanting “Jai Shri Ram” [Hail Lord Rama (a Hindu God)].
Journalist Karthik KK shared a video of a Muslim girl standing up to one such group. The video went viral. The girl in the video, Muskan, was hailed for her courage and came to be considered the face of the protests.
#HijabRow #saffronshawls
When a lone girl student arrives to college in #Mandya wearing Hijab, she gets heckled by students wearing Saffron Shawls who chanted #JaiSriRam.In reply she raises hand to say #AllahuAkbar@XpressBengaluru @santwana99 @NewIndianXpress @KannadaPrabha pic.twitter.com/gRt4hEseZI
— Karthik K K (@Karthiknayaka) February 8, 2022
Similar protests by Hindu groups took place in several colleges in Udupi where they demanded a ban on hijabs, as seen in the video shared on Twitter by a writer with the username Bala:
Hindu boys wearing saffron shawls after 🅱uslim girls demand Hijab in Karnataka college
Chad boys 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Qz9t3mfOlw
— BALA (@erbmjha) February 2, 2022
Following this incident, other colleges in the region also started barring students in hijabs from attending classes.
Contradicting claims made by BJP ministers that students had started wearing hijabs only recently, in an interview given to The Wire, students said that they had been coming to college in a hijab for a long time, and it had not been labeled as violating dress codes until recently. They claimed that there were no provisions in the college rule book that banned the hijab, and past students had faced no issues regarding it either.
Attacks on Muslim women have increased in India in recent times. It is important to note that the hijab ban issue has come to light less than a month after the Bulli Bai app case made national headlines. Denying women access to education because they dress according to their religious beliefs is a violation of their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
On February 7, one of the colleges allowed some Hijab wearing girls to enter the premises, but they were seated together in a different classroom and not permitted to take lessons. This has been seen as an act of segregation and apartheid based on religious identities. BJP leader Prathap Simha declared that, if girls want to wear hijabs, they can go to madrasas, which appears to be an effort to ghettoize Muslim women.
Opposition leaders, like Rahul Gandhi , former president of the Indian National Congress (INC), took to social media to condemn the hijab ban.
Several opposition parties including the INC, Communist Part of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament, after raising the subject of the hijab ban.
Right-wing groups on the internet seized the opportunity to further politicize the issue and hurl personal attacks against the protesting students, which included posting their phone numbers online, and sharing fake images and misinformation to paint the hijab ban protest as a politically motivated act.
Fact checker and journalist Mohammed Zubair warned:
Beware of RW propaganda. The girl in the pic isn't Muskan. pic.twitter.com/4chUZGCep0
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) February 10, 2022
There has also been a larger effort to discredit the movement and the cause by linking it to terror groups and political outfits.
On one hand, people sided with the saffron-scarves protests of right-wing Hindu groups against hijabs, upholding it as a sign of courage and Hindutva pride. On the other hand, some media houses and individuals posted in support of the pro-Hijab protests, emphasizing the students’ right to dress according to their beliefs.
One of the major arguments used to justify ban on hijabs is the need for educational institutions in India to be secular. Supporters of this perspective have used the example of France to substantiate their argument. But there is a marked difference between the secularism practiced in France and the secularism practiced in India. As opposed to the classical idea of secularism which calls for a complete separation of religion from all state institutions, the Indian interpretation of secularism is based on equal respect and consideration for all religions. Institutions like schools and college are thus not free from religious influence. With 78 percent of Indians being Hindu, it is the religion most present in civic spaces. As a result we see state educational institutions celebrate Hindu festivals like Saraswati puja, and Navaratri, and school curriculums find an overwhelming presence of Hindu religious texts whereas texts from other religious groups are absent.
However, these and similar practices have been going on for decades; so why is the hijab seen as an attack on the secularism of colleges?
Religious intolerance is not new to Karnataka. The BJP-ruled state has in recent times witnessed a rise in attacks on religious minorities and overall growing Hindutva fervor, fueled by communal speeches given by BJP leaders. Many churches were attacked by Hindutva activists in Karnataka in November and December of 2021. The state government passed the Anti-Conversion Bill during the same period. There has been an overall push to Hindufy all public spaces and institutions.
As evidenced by this remark made by Vijayapura BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, “This is India and our country is founded on the Indian culture. We have already given them Pakistan on the basis of religion for them to wear Hijab,” the Hijab controversy is not about secularism, but about Hindutva.
The Karnataka High Court ordered higher education institutions to remain closed till February 16 in view of ongoing protests. In an interim order, the court sided with the college authorities and dictated that students should refrain from wearing any religious clothes like saffron shawls or hijabs in college till the final verdict is declared. The court then referred the case to a larger bench. An appeal has been filed with the Supreme Court to challenge the interim order.
Meanwhile, last week, one of the colleges in Udupi leaked the personal information of the women students who have been protesting against the hijab ban. The leaked information included phone numbers and address. The students, who have since then been receiving threatening phone calls, fear for their safety.

author: Ananya


text:
South Asia mourns the demise of the nightingale of India · Global Voices
Anumeha Verma

Illustration of Lata Mangeshkar by Laxman8 via Pixabay. Remixed by Giovana Fleck. Used under a Pixabay Licence.
Singer Lata Mangeshkar was one of India's biggest cultural icons, and her journey in Bollywood, cannot be pegged as anything but legendary. Her death on February 6, 2022, in Mumbai, India at 92 years of age, is leaving fans across South Asia mourning her absence.
Mangeshkar was fondly known as “the nightingale of India” because she lent the melodious lilt of her voice to innumerable songs for over seven decades, looming taller than any other female singer in Bollywood.
News platform Editorji tweets:
#LataMangeshkar may have been knows as the ‘#NightingaleofIndia‘ but the magic of her golden voice spread beyond the borders to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. #RIPLataMangeshkar #LataDidi 🙏 pic.twitter.com/jIIen31bKS
— Editorji (@editorji) February 7, 2022
From the beautiful Madhubala in Mahal (1949) to the ravishing Madhuri Dixit in Dil to Pagal Hai (1997) and beyond, every prominent female lead of Bollywood has moved their lips to her iconic songs. Songs form an integral part of films in Bollywood. Actors lip-syncing to the voice of playback singers is a common practice in Bollywood musicals.
Mangeshkar was nothing if not versatile. Apart from Hindi and Marathi, she sang in 24 other languages, mostly for films. She had sung songs for several genres and different moods. Her music embodied the exuberance of youthful romance, deep sorrow, haunting nightscapes, spiritual bliss and patriotic fervour, all through her powerful, yet delicate voice. There’s seldom a dry eye when her poignant song, “Ae Mere watan ke logon, zara ankh mein bhar lo pain” (people of my nation, please shed some tears) echoes in a roomful of people. She worked alongside legends such as Kishore Kumar, RD Burman and Laxmikant Pyarelal, iconic pioneers who transformed the Indian music industry.
Lata Mangeshkar in 2008. Image via Wikipedia by Bollywood Hungama. CC BY 3.0.
Mangeshkar was born into a family of artists. Deenanath Mangeshkar, her father was a Marathi and Konkani musician. Her younger sister Asha Bhosle is a well known Indian singer as well. Unfortunately, Mangeshkar lost her father at the tender age of 13, leaving her to support the family. However, the vagaries of life did not prevent her from pursuing a career in music.
During her stellar seven decades of artistry, she won several awards including the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India. Bollywood, which still reverberates the many songs she sang, also bestowed a number of awards on her during award ceremonies, and she received much international acclaim. Lata Mangeshkar holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most recorded artist with a whopping 30,000 songs to her credit.
Here are a few tributes that poured from her fans across South Asia to honour Lata through social media.
The Indian cricket team wore black armbands on February 6, 2022, during the ODI match against the West Indies.
The Indian Cricket Team is wearing black armbands today to pay their respects to Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar ji who left for her heavenly abode on Sunday morning. The queen of melody, Lata didi loved cricket, always supported the game and backed Team India. pic.twitter.com/NRTyeKZUDc
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 6, 2022
Actor Randeep Hooda mentions on Twitter how she matters to India, since before its independence:
The relevance of the #LataMangeshkar to the history and self actualisation of India as a nation !! 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/VsRltFnsx6
— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) February 6, 2022
Indian student Indraneel Dharwadkar asserts:
Touching the lives of two billion people in the South Asian region is inconceivable. #LataMangeshkar did that through her songs in Hindi, Urdu, & Bengali. Celebrating Lata Mangeshkar's music is one of the very few things that the leaders of India, Pakistan, & Bangladesh agree on. pic.twitter.com/OnVDDIoONu
— Indraneel Dharwadkar (@NeelDharwadkar) February 6, 2022
Journalist Murtaza Solangi from Islamabad mentions that she was also popular in neighbouring Pakistan:
On the sad demise of #LataMangeshkar the outpouring of messages coming out of every section of Pakistanis proves; music has no boundaries, reiterates the reality of common heritage and the fact that the people of Pakistan want to have peaceful and cordial relations with India.
— Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) February 6, 2022
Former Chief Minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif recalls how his generation grew up with her songs:
In the passing of Lata Mangeshkar, the world of music has lost a singing legend who mesmerized generations with her melodious voice. The people of my generation grew up listening to her beautiful songs that will remain part of our memory. May she rest in peace!
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) February 6, 2022
Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information & Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain tweeted:
A legend is no more, #LataMangeshkar was a melodious queen who ruled the world of music for decades she was uncrowned queen of music her voice shall keep ruling the Hearts of people for all times to come #RIPLataMangeshker
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 6, 2022
Lata Mangeshkar also made a mark in the world of Bengali music as her songs captivated the people in Bangladesh over the decades.
Bangladeshis thankfully acknowledged how Mangeshkar took part in concerts to raise funds for the Bangladeshi refugees in Kolkata and Agartala during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Musician and activist Syeda Tanzeena Imam remembers on Facebook:
শিল্পী লতা মঙ্গেশকর ১৯৭১ সালে বাংলাদেশের শরণার্থীদের আর্থিক সহায়তা প্রদানের জন্য বোম্বেতে বিশেষ কনসার্টের আয়োজন করেছিলেন। সেই অর্থ শরণার্থী শিবিরে তিনি দান করেছিলেন। এছাড়াও শিল্পী, সাহিত্যিক, বুদ্ধিজীবীদের নিয়ে বোম্বাই শহরে মিছিল ও সমাবেশ করেছিলেন লতাজী।
Musician Lata Mangeshkar organized a fund-raising concert in Mumbai in 1971 for the Bangladeshi refugees who fled during the Liberation war. She also organized processions and rallies in Bombay with artists, writers and intellectuals to raise funds for the refugees.
Many Nepalis, including Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, acknowledged that Mangeshkar sang a number of songs in the Nepali language. According to news reports, she didn’t want other singers to cover her songs in Nepali.
Educator and blogger Bikash Chandra says:
One of the Nepali songs by Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar. ‘jun mato ma mero’ from Maitighar (1966). The lyrics were penned by the then King of Nepal, Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.#FilmTwitter #LataMangeshkar #Legend #BharatRatna https://t.co/LHxiDBceUy
— Bikash Chandra (@bikmusic) February 6, 2022
Journalist and writer Kanak Mani Dixit paid tribute to Mangeshkar:
Expression of grief at the passing of Lata Mangeshkar coming from current or former heads of state/government of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan alongside India makes clear that all of Southasia has thus bid farewell to a little bit of its collective past. pic.twitter.com/85YAhgsA2m
— Kanak Mani Dixit (@KanakManiDixit) February 7, 2022
To listen to some songs from Lata Mangeshkar's musical legacy, see Global Voices's Spotify playlist.
As we bid farewell to Lata Mangeshkar, the legacy of her music shall forever live with us. As will her infectious smile, simple saree and the red bindi that adorned her forehead. May she rest in peace.

author: Anumeha Verma


text:
Who are the African athletes competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics? · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

“Air” by ChrisMRichards is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
As the 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off in Beijing, China, on February 4, athletes poured in from all over the world for the event, with Africa as no exception. Though the majority of states on the African continent have little to no snow, creating a challenging environment for Winter Olympic training, African athletes are rising to the challenge. So far, no African athlete has ever won a medal at the Winter Olympics. Is this year Africa’s chance to change this?
Only five African countries will be in attendance in Beijing this year — a drop from the eight countries which participated in the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea in 2018. Unlike the 2018 lineup, South Africa, Togo, and Kenya will not be represented due to missing qualification times and lack of funds.
Here are the five African countries and athletes raising their flags at the games this year.
This island nation is sending Mathieu Neumuller while Mialitiana Clerc returns for her second Winter Olympics after her debut at the 2018 Games in Pyeonchang, Korea. Each of them will be participating in the Downhill skiing events. Clerc is the only female skier from the continent for this year’s Games following the withdrawal of Kenya’s Sabrina Samider. Clerc told Olympic organizers she hopes to “inspire Africans,” adding:
I’m trying to be the first [African] woman who will make a World Cup podium and bring back a gold medal from the Olympics. I want to be one of the best skiers in the alpine skiing world. And at the Olympics in Beijing, I want to be in the top 40.
Clerc was born in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo and grew up in France. She started skiing at the age of three in her home region of Haute-Savoie, along the French Alps. Through her love for the sport and sheer grit, she qualified for the 2018 PyeongChang Games at the young age of 16. She also participated in other skiing competitions in South America and Europe over the last four years. Her success served as motivation for her country-mate, Mathieu Neumuller. Neumuller was born in Madagascar but also grew up in France.
Shannon Abeda shall be competing in the Alpine Skiing event representing Eritrea. Shannon returns for his second Games after enduring racism, xenophobia, and a flurry of online abuse during the last games. He had quit and only sought to qualify late in 2021. He says he hopes to inspire the next generation of skiers from Eritrea. He also wants to move away from skiing and begin participating in bobsleighing competitions. He published a video titled “Dear Shannon” on Instagram about his journey finding the motivation to participate in the Games and overcoming the abuse he faced while growing up in Canada. The video is about moving out of his comfort zone and his choice to return to the Olympics one more time. He attributed his choice to his support system and those around him.
Morocco will be represented by Sami Lamhamedi, a skier for the men’s Alpine Skiing and slalom events. He is looking to improve on his previous performances at the world championships. His father is Moroccan, and his mother is Canadian, but he chose to compete for the former way back in 2010. He won gold at the 2012 Winter Youth Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and went on to represent Morocco in the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia. He’s hoping to improve on his senior Winter Games appearances.
Nigeria’s Samuel Ikpefan Uduigowme will be participating in the cross-country skiing event. He’s the first cross-country skier from Nigeria and the only African representative not competing in the alpine skiing competition. He activated his dual citizenship switch from French to Nigerian in 2016 and was forced to travel to Abuja, Nigeria, to convince the Nigerian Skiing Federation of his abilities. He’s already helping to bridge the gap with other Nigerian skiers abroad who wish to represent their home country. He hopes to secure more Nigerian skiers in the 2026 Olympics in Milano and Cortina.
He went through a rigorous process of qualifying for the Games in 2021, as the Nigerian authorities made him travel back to demonstrate his skills using roller skis. He has been training in the French Alps, where he grew up. He also participated in the World Cup in Sweden in 2021 to confirm his place, where he made his debut in cross-country skiing.
Ghanian Carlos Maeder is the oldest alpine skier at the Games and only the third skier from Ghana. Having been adopted and raised in Europe, he sought to represent his country of birth,
To set a good example and show young people in Switzerland and Ghana that you can do anything with the necessary will and effort — ain’t no mountain high enough!
A post shared by Carlos Mäder (@carlosmaederteamghana)
Using his blog, he explains that while he was given up for adoption by his mother, he maintained connected to his Ghanaian culture and roots. A former footballer, he rekindled his interest in skiing in 2017 and qualified for the 2018 Games though he did not compete. He decided to honor this by taking part in this year’s Games.
Kenya’s only representative Sabrina Samider, a woman skier who would have been competing in the Alpine Skiing for her second consecutive Olympics, was unable to secure funding from the National Olympic Committee Kenya(NOC-K). This is a sad turn of events, as in 2018 the NOC-K secured her funding and even accompanied her to the 2018 Games. No explanation was given as to why the NOC-K could not secure her funding this year.
Six decades ago, at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games in California, South Africa became the first African state to represent Africa at the Winter Games. One-quarter of the African athletes were figure skaters, including Marcelle Matthews, who was the youngest participant at the Games at 11 years old. She was joined by Patricia Eastwood, 12, Marion ‘Penny’ Sage, 16, and Gwyn Jones, 20.
This was the last time South Africa would attend the Winter Olympics for the next 34 years, after initially being barred from participating in 1964 over the National Olympic federation’s refusal to condemn apartheid. Eventually, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expelled the South African athletes to protest apartheid and the nation’s policies of racial discrimination. Since then, 15 countries have represented Africa at the Winter Olympic Games — about 28 percent of the continent’s 54 countries.
Unlike previous Olympics where there have been teams competing in the bobsleigh event, this year, all the African participants are competing in single participant events.
These participants face unique challenges with limited preparation opportunities. The majority of the skiers have strong ties with the snowbound countries in the Northern hemisphere, such as France, Switzerland, and Germany. Many of the Olympians were either born to parents with both African and European heritages or adopted by European families. Others left the continent to pursue educational or career opportunities and train.
These challenges represent a motivating factor for many of the skiers. For the athletes, these games are an opportunity to inspire and encourage future generations of African Olympians.

author: Richard Wanjohi